Morning9 – Page 22 – Your Tech Learning Hub

6Feb, 2023

AI in the Enterprise: 3 Key Application Areas

Artificial intelligence (AI) is firmly in the enterprise mainstream these days, working mostly behind the scenes to streamline and automate business processes. In the coming year, however, we should start to see it take a more visible role as it learns to communicate directly with both the knowledge workforce and the public at large.

AI is an extremely sophisticated technology that, so far, has remained confined to the world of data science and high-end analytics. This tends to inhibit its use in typical production environments, however, because of the highly specialized skillsets needed to exploit its full value. Even in high-tech fields like finance and health care, AI has shown it can augment key functions, but only at the hands of those who know how to use it — a class of professionals that is still in short supply.

In order to truly propel the digital transformation of the enterprise, AI will need to be democratized across the knowledge workforce so that even those with little to no training can use it to increase their productivity.

This transition has only just begun, however, with Deloitte noting recently that only in the past year has the technology evolved from a “bothersome critic” in the workplace to a “copilot independently executing on insights and trends.” Based on extensive interviews with leading enterprise executives, the firm has concluded that AI is changing the way the enterprise functions on a number of key fronts, including strategy, operations, culture, change management and overall ecosystems.

Here are three areas in which AI is being applied in the enterprise today:

1. Application Development

Perhaps one of the most significant changes AI is making in the enterprise right now is the quiet revolution taking place in application development. Forrester estimates that within the next year, 10% of all code and tests will be conducted by TuringBots — a desktop-level software that uses symbolic regression to find mathematical formulas from data values. In addition, reinforcement learning and large language models (LLMs) are accelerating the development, accuracy and deployment of new tools, providing for the automatic generation of cleaner, more effective code.

Elsewhere, AI is quickly infiltrating key enterprise applications like analytics, augmented reality and condition-based maintenance of data and manufacturing infrastructure, according to database applications platform developer Teradata. This should revolutionize data-intensive industries like finance and health care, both of which are rapidly putting the technology into production environments.

2. Predictive Analytics

Another key enterprise AI application is the mimicry of human reasoning through neural networking. Using multi-layered deep learning algorithms, advanced AI projects are able to employ various feedback loop architectures to make informed decisions on things like stock performance, sales projections and other vital functions. More than anything, this will propel AI’s role from a simple tool to an active participant in the business model.

3. Customer Service

Neural networks and generative AI will drive a wide range of business and customer-facing applications to improve both the experience and outcomes of AI’s interactions with people — something that is still seen as the greatest inhibitor to wide-scale deployment.

At the moment, the top AI celebrity is ChatGPT, OpenAI’s newest chatbot trained under its large language model to interact in a natural, conversational manner. Rather than the stiff, rather limited performance of earlier chatbots, ChatGPT offers a more dialogue-driven approach that allows it to ask questions, challenge premises and even admit its own mistakes. This style of communication will likely accelerate the democratization of AI because it allows users to query databases and otherwise manage digital environments using everyday language rather than the complex jargon required of traditional interfaces.

While this is impressive, it is important to distinguish between what ChatGPT, and other similar models, can and cannot do. Ram Menon, CEO of conversational AI platform Avaamo, notes that ChatGPT relies on the use of LLMs, which cull data primarily from the public internet. This may work for the consumer, or maybe prosumer, ideation and creative purposes but it can be problematic when it comes to analyzing internal content — particularly for industries that deal with high volumes of proprietary or private information.

Menon also added that organizations should be wary of any form of AI that engages in what is known as “stochastic parroting,” the tendency to draw improper conclusions based on statistical analysis of text strings. This may prove effective for a large part of the problem-solving process, but the final 10% is often the most difficult to accomplish correctly — and the price of failure on the enterprise level is very high.

AI in Cybersecurity

Another key area in which AI is transforming the enterprise is cybersecurity. Because of its ability to sift through incomprehensibly large volumes of data, AI can detect patterns that could indicate a security breach — patterns humans would never be able to recognize.

Moreover, AI is finding its way into areas like identity and access management. When AI-powered cybersecurity systems detect potentially malicious activity, they can automatically and instantly block the user from file access.

Resource : https://www.techopedia.com/ai-today-who-is-using-it-right-now-and-how/2/33206

2Feb, 2023

Know All About Range in Python [Syntax, Parameters, Examples included]

A built-in function in Python using which a sequence of numbers is generated within a given range is called range in Python. To implement range in Python, you need to make use of a function called range() function.

Necessity to Use Range() Function in Python:

Whenever an action needs to be performed a certain number of times, then you must make use of range in Python to generate a sequence of numbers within a given range.
The range() function is used in loops like for loop, while loop etc. to iterate through the sequences.

Range() Function Is in Three Different Ways

Range() Function Is in Three Different Ways Based on the Parameters You Are Passing to the Function. They Are:

range(stop)
range(start, stop)
range(start, stop, step)

The syntax to define range() function in Python is as follows:

range(stop)

where,

Stop represents the integer till which the sequence of integers should be generated
The sequence of integers is generated using the range() function, by passing just one argument stop, begins from 0

Example 1:

Python program to show the range() function in Python by passing just one argument stop to the range() function, to generate a sequence of integers and display the output on the screen:

#defining a for loop to iterate through the generated sequence of numbers starting from 0 to 4 using range() function

for each_element in range(5):

print("The first value is = ", each_element)

print()

You can see the output of the above program in the snapshot below:

range(start, stop)

where,

Start represents the integer from which the sequence of integers must begin
Stop represents the integer till which the sequence of integers that must be generated
The sequence of integers generated using range() function by passing two arguments start and stop, begins from the integer specified as start till the integer specified as stop, but not including the integer stop

Example 2:

Python program to demonstrate the range() function in Python by passing two arguments start and stop to the range() function, to generate a sequence of integers and display the output on the screen:

#defining a for loop to iterate through the generated sequence of numbers starting from 1 to 5 using range() function

for each_element in range(1,6):

print(“The first value is = “, each_element)

print()

You can see the output of the above program in the snapshot below:

range(start, stop, step)

where,

Start represents the integer from which the sequence of integers must begin
Stop represents the integer till which the sequence of integers that must be generated
Step represents the difference between consecutive integers in the generated sequence
If the argument step is not specified in the range() function, then the value of the step is 1 by default for the sequence of integers generated
The sequence of integers generated using range() function by passing three arguments- start, stop and step begins from the integer specified as start till the integer specified as stop, but not including the integer stop

Example 3:

Python program to demonstrate the range() function in Python by passing three arguments start, stop and step, to the range() function to generate a sequence of integers and display the output on the screen:

#defining a for loop to iterate through the generated sequence of numbers starting from 1 till 6 with a difference of 2 between consecutive integers in the generated sequence using range() function

for each_element in range(1,6, 2):

print("The first value is = ", each_element)

print()

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below:

Incrementing With Range and Decrementing With Range

The step value passed as an argument to the range() function can be a positive value or negative value
If the step value passed as an argument to the range() function is positive, then the generated sequence using the range() function is an incrementing range with the step, as the difference between consecutive integers in the generated sequence
If the step value passed as an argument to the range() function is negative, then the generated sequence using the range() function is a decrementing range, with the step as the difference between consecutive integers in the generated sequence

Example 4:

Python program to demonstrate incrementing with range and decrementing with the range using range() function in Python to generate a sequence of integers and display the output on the screen:

#defining a for loop to iterate through the generated sequence of numbers starting from 1 to 10 with a difference of 3 between consecutive integers in the generated sequence using range() function

for each_element in range(1,10, 3):

print("The first value is = ", each_element)

print()

#defining a for loop to iterate through the generated sequence of numbers starting from 10 till 1 with a difference of -3 between consecutive integers in the generated sequence using range() function

for each_element in range(10,1, -3):

print("The first value is = ", each_element)

print()

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below:

Concatenation of the Result of Two Range() Functions:

The sequence of integers generated using two different range() functions can be concatenated using the chain() function
The chain() function iterates through the generated sequence of integers from each range() function passed as arguments to the chain() function one after the other

The syntax to define chain() function is as follows:

chain(range, range1)

where range represents the first range() function to generate a sequence of integers to be concatenated with the sequence of integers generated from the second range() function specified as range 1.

Example 5:

Python program to demonstrate chain() function in Python to concatenate two sequences of integers generated from two range() functions and display the output on the screen:

#importing the module chain
from itertools import chain
#using chain() function to concatenate the sequence of integers generated from two range() functions
con_seq = chain(range(3), range(5,3,-1))
#defining a for loop to iterate through the sequence of numbers generated using chain() function
for each_element in con_seq:
print("The first value is = ", each_element)
print()

The output of the above program is shown in the snapshot below:

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Resource : https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/python-tutorial/range-in-python

2Feb, 2023

What is a Full Stack Developer: Required Skills and More in 2023

What is a Full Stack Developer?

Full-stack technology refers to the entire depth of a computer system application, and full stack web developers are those who are capable of developing both the front end and the back end of web development. All of the features that are visible to the client, or the viewer of the site, are included in the front end.

Programming a browser (By using JavaScript, jQuery, Angular, or Vue)
Programming a server (By using PHP, ASP, Python, or Node)

Let’s say you’re using your Instagram application. Every time you refresh, new content is loaded on your screen. You can like a picture, add new ones, search for profiles and do so much more. Although it provides a seamless user experience, there’s a lot that goes on in the backend. HTTP requests are made to the Instagram servers to retrieve and load information. This is facilitated with the help of backend frameworks.

Typically every application consists of the front-end, the backend, and the database.

A Full Stack Developer is associated with the creation of an application from its start to finish. He designs the front-end and the backend of an application while ensuring its efficiency, reliability, and other crucial features.

Client Software (Front End) vs. Server Software (Back End)

Client Software (Front End)

Front-end development is programming done on the front end of a website – the part that people view and interact with. Front-end developers are in charge of the complete user interface as well as the application’s aesthetic design. Front-end developers are critical in ensuring that users have a good experience every time they browse a site since websites are more effective when they appear professional and work efficiently. Front-end developers typically employ CSS3, JavaScript, and HTML because these languages are essential for website design. Some of the languages used are mentioned below.

Server Software (Back End)

If the front end of a website is the user interface and navigation, the back end is the nuts and bolts. It makes no difference how well a website looks or functions if it lacks content. PHP, Python, and CSS are some of the most popular languages for back-end programming.

PHP is frequently used in conjunction with SQL to build online databases. The front-end HTML files use information obtained from this database. Every time you update your social media profiles or read the news, you are probably engaging with these languages without even realizing it. A database becomes more important as the amount of information saved on a website grows.

Skills of a Full Stack Developer

Now that you know what a full stack developer does, let’s look at the skills required to become one.

Front-end Languages and Frameworks

HTML and CSS

HTML short of Hypertext markup language governs the appearance of text/images on the screen. It formats the text as headings, paragraphs, pop-ups and so on. It typically consists of tags that give a different meaning to the text in a document structure.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a style sheet that allows to alter and style different web components for font, size, spacing, etc. It makes the content on the webpage more decorative.

JavaScript

It is a powerful client-side programming language mainly used for enhancing user interaction with the application. It offers several libraries and frameworks like React, Angular, Vue, and JQuery. A full stack developer needs to be proficient in one or more of these tools.

Backend Technologies and Frameworks

JavaScript and its environments like NodeJS and ExpressJS. Node is an open-source, cross-platform runtime environment that allows developers to create server-side tools and JavaScript applications. Knowledge of the basic command line like npm (Node Package Manager) is essential.
Java, in particular, was built from the ground up to be run on the server-side. Popular Java frameworks include Spring and Java Server faces.
Python is the most popularly used language. It is flexible and easy to use. We use Python frameworks like Django and Flask for backend development. Django is a high-level Python web framework that enables rapid development of websites. It is free and open-source, has a huge and active community of users.
C# language is for many the most preferred architecture when it comes to backend programming in Windows environments.
Other languages include PHP, Perl, and Ruby.

Database Management Systems

A full-stack developer writes code that is used to perform Relational mapping to fetch data from the database. Some popularly used DBMS are MySQL, SQL SERVER and PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and Oracle Database. A good understanding of their workings is critical.

Version Control

Version control systems help manage the project files and keep track of the entire history of the user’s things. Popular ones are Git, Github, and Subversion.

Git helps manage the project files. It keeps track of the entire history of things that the user is working on. GitHub is a web-based service for version control using Git. The user can look at other people’s code, identify issues or errors, and even propose changes.

Web Hosting Platforms

Web hosting platforms allow you to deploy your product on a cloud service provider so we can access it from the WWW. Popular ones are Amazon web services, Google cloud platform, Heroku, and Microsoft Azure.

Soft Skills

A full-stack developer needs to possess some basic soft skills as well.

Creativity – The developer must understand the project’s objectives and create a product that engages the target audience.
Strategic planning – Planning is a critical phase in any development life-cycle. The developer should possess the aptitude to plan the design, development, and implementation phases strategically. This helps streamline the process.
Analytical skills – As the name suggests, these skills help analyze information accurately and make logical, data-driven decisions that help in maximizing efficiency. Now, these are skills that one develops when they’re exposed to it. But a good sense of understanding is required.
Problem-solving skills are again crucial to predict any errors and develop a bug-free application. From a business perspective, problem-solving skills play a significant role in ensuring the smooth conduction of tasks.
Time management skills – The developer must meet the deadlines while ensuring proper execution of his tasks.

Now that you are familiar with the skills, let’s look at the key responsibilities.

Responsibilities of a Full Stack Developer

Development of front-end – With the help of HTML/CSS and JavaScript frameworks and libraries, the developer must be able to build interactive user interfaces.
Design the backend of the application – He must be able to build a robust backend architecture to fetch data from the servers.
Creating databases and servers – These systems must be resilient to outages and must function endlessly.
Ensuring Cross Platform compatibility – Applications must run smoothly on all operating systems like Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
API development – Depending on the application architecture, the developer is responsible for API creation. These APIs perform crucial tasks like fetching data from the server.
Meet all technical and consumer requirements – The developer must be able to build responsive applications that meet customer requirements and keep them engaged.

Programming Languages and Tools of Full Stack

HTML – HTML or Hypertext Markup language is used by developers for making web pages. To build user interfaces that are both efficient and simple to use, a full-stack developer needs a solid grasp of HTML.
CSS – HTML markup is styled using CSS, a style sheet language. For the purpose of developing aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly websites and applications, a full-stack developer must have a solid understanding of CSS.
Bootstrap – The most widely used CSS framework for creating adaptive and mobile-first websites is Bootstrap.
W3.CSS – W3.CSS is a modern framework with built-in responsiveness that is simple to learn and use.
JavaScript – A programming language called JavaScript is used to make interactive web pages. To construct dynamic and user-friendly websites and applications, a full-stack developer has to have a solid grasp of JavaScript.
HTML DOM – When you load a web page, the browser produces a Document Object Model of the page. The HTML DOM is an HTML Object Model. can components in the form of objects

All HTML components have properties.
All HTML elements have methods.
All HTML elements have events.

Python – Python is the most widely used server-side programming language. This versatile language has a plethora of applications in various industries such as machine learning, data analysis, and back-end web development.
Tools – Below mentioned are the most commonly used tools by full-stack developers to enhance development and its efficiency.

Backbone
Visual Studio Code
WebStorm
Slack
Electron
TypeScript
CodePen
GitHub

Advantages and Disadvantages of Full Stack

Advantages

You can master all of the approaches required in a development project.
A prototype can be created quickly.
You can cut the project’s costs.
Depending on your needs, you can swap between front and back-end development.
You can have a better understanding of all elements of new and emerging technology.

Disadvantages

Sometimes the solution selected may not be suitable for the project.
The solution used may be determined by the developer’s abilities.
The solution may pose a key person risk.
Being a full-stack developer is becoming more difficult.

How to Become a Full Stack Developer

There are a few things you need to know if you want to become a Full Stack developer. First, you need to have a solid understanding of the different types of technologies that are used to create web applications. These include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX, and PHP. Second, you need to be able to use these technologies to create a functioning web application. And third, you need to be able to deploy and maintain your web applications.

If you have these three things down, then you’re well on your way to becoming a full stack developer. Let’s take a closer look at each of these components so you can start building your skills.

Experience Required to Become a Full Stack Developer

It takes a lot of experience to become a Full Stack developer. Some people might argue that you need a college degree in computer science or a related field. However, there are many developers who have become extremely successful without a four-year college education. So, while a degree may give you a leg up, it’s not necessary to become a Full Stack developer. In fact, earning your certification in an accredited online program can be a more cost-efficient way to learn the skills necessary to succeed in this field. It can also be completed in a fraction of the time compared to completing a college education.

In order to become a Full Stack developer, you need to have a strong understanding of both back-end and front-end development. This means that you need to be able to not only build websites and applications, but also understand how they work behind the scenes. You need to be comfortable working with different programming languages, databases, and frameworks. And, you need to be able to quickly learn new technologies as they emerge.

Of course, becoming a Full Stack developer doesn’t happen overnight. It takes years of experience and continuous learning to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to be successful in this field. But if you’re passionate about web development and are willing to put in the hard work, it’s definitely achievable.

Personality Traits of a Full Stack Developer

When it comes to being a Full Stack developer, there are certain personality traits that can help you succeed. Here are some of the most important ones:

1. You’re a Problem Solver.

You enjoy finding solutions to problems, both big and small. You’re always looking for ways to improve things and make them work better.

2. You’re a Good Communicator.

You know how to communicate clearly and effectively, both in writing and in person. You’re able to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical people.

3. You’re Resourceful.

You’re good at finding the resources you need, whether it’s information, people, or tools. You’re not afraid to ask for help when you need it.

4. You’re Organized.

You’re able to keep track of multiple projects and deadlines. You have a system for organizing your work so that you can always find what you need when you need it.

5. You’re Flexible.

You’re willing to change your plans when necessary. You know that sometimes the best solution is the one that wasn’t originally planned.

6. You’re a Lifelong Learner.

You’re always learning new things, whether it’s a new programming language or a new way to solve a problem. You’re not afraid of change, and you’re always looking for ways to improve your skills.

7. You’re a Team Player.

You know that there’s strength in numbers. You’re able to work well with others, and you’re always looking for ways to help the team succeed.

8. You’re Positive.

You have a positive attitude, even when things are tough. You believe that anything is possible with enough hard work and determination.

These are just some of the personality traits that can help you succeed as a Full Stack developer. If you have these qualities, then you’re well on your way to becoming a successful developer.

Glossary of Full-stack Developer Terms

API – API stands for “Application Program Interface.” How computers and programmes connect.
Application – These applications, often known as apps, are designed to do certain tasks. This includes mobile applications.
Bug – An issue or fault in the website or software that prevents it from functioning properly.
Framework – A collection of applications used in the building of a website or software.
FTP – FTP stands for “File Transfer Protocol.” File transfer method from one computer to another.
Widgets – Applications that allow particular interactive operations on a website to be done.

Interview Questions and Answers

1. What is Full Stack development?

Full Stack development includes the process of developing the front end and back end of a web application/website simultaneously.

2. What is CORS?

CORS is a mechanism that uses additional HTTP headers to instruct browsers to deliver a web application running at a single origin.

3. Define Inversion of Control (IoC)?

Inversion of Control (IoC) is a general term used by software developers to define a methodology for decoupling system components and levels.

4. In JavaScript, what is a callback?

In JavaScript, a callback is a function that is supplied as an argument into another function and then requested to perform some kind of action or procedure inside the outer function.

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Next Steps

We hope that this article on ‘Who is a Full Stack developer’ helped you. If you are looking to get advanced practical learning of Full Stack technologies and perhaps make a career out of it, certification will come in handy.

Simplilearn’s Full Stack Java Developer Master’s Program gives you an in-depth understanding of full-stack development. This course on full stack Java development is packaged to give you a comprehensive and collective understanding of front-end, middleware, and back-end Java web developer technologies. Through this program, you will learn to build an application from end to end, test and deploy code, store data using MongoDB, and much more.

If you have feedback or questions on the topic, please drop us a comment in the comments section of this article. Our experts will get back to you ASAP!

Resource : https://www.simplilearn.com/skills-required-to-become-a-full-stack-developer-article#salary_of_a_full_stack_developer

1Feb, 2023

Types Of Software Testing: Different Testing Types With Details

Are You Ready to Explore the Different Types of Software Testing?

We, as testers, are aware of the various types of Software Testing like Functional Testing, Non-Functional Testing, Automation Testing, Agile Testing, and their sub-types, etc.

Each of us would have come across several types of testing on our testing journey. We might have heard some and we might have worked on some, but not everyone has knowledge about all the testing types.

Each type of testing has its own features, advantages, and disadvantages as well. However, in this tutorial, we have covered mostly each and every type of software testing which we usually use in our day-to-day testing life.

Different Types Of Software Testing

Functional Testing

There are four main types of functional testing.

#1) Unit Testing

Unit testing is a type of software testing which is done on an individual unit or component to test its corrections. Typically, Unit testing is done by the developer at the application development phase. Each unit in unit testing can be viewed as a method, function, procedure, or object. Developers often use test automation tools such as NUnit, Xunit, JUnit for the test execution.

Unit testing is important because we can find more defects at the unit test level.

For example, there is a simple calculator application. The developer can write the unit test to check if the user can enter two numbers and get the correct sum for addition functionality.

a) White Box Testing

White box testing is a test technique in which the internal structure or code of an application is visible and accessible to the tester. In this technique, it is easy to find loopholes in the design of an application or fault in business logic. Statement coverage and decision coverage/branch coverage are examples of white box test techniques.

b) Gorilla Testing

Gorilla testing is a test technique in which the tester and/or developer test the module of the application thoroughly in all aspects. Gorilla testing is done to check how robust your application is.

For example, the tester is testing the pet insurance company’s website, which provides the service of buying an insurance policy, tag for the pet, Lifetime membership. The tester can focus on any one module, let’s say, the insurance policy module, and test it thoroughly with positive and negative test scenarios.

#2) Integration Testing

Integration testing is a type of software testing where two or more modules of an application are logically grouped together and tested as a whole. The focus of this type of testing is to find the defect on interface, communication, and data flow among modules. Top-down or Bottom-up approach is used while integrating modules into the whole system.

This type of testing is done on integrating modules of a system or between systems. For example, a user is buying a flight ticket from any airline website. Users can see flight details and payment information while buying a ticket, but flight details and payment processing are two different systems. Integration testing should be done while integrating of airline website and payment processing system.

a) Gray box testing

As the name suggests, gray box testing is a combination of white-box testing and black-box testing. Testers have partial knowledge of the internal structure or code of an application.

#3) System Testing

System testing is types of testing where tester evaluates the whole system against the specified requirements.

a) End to End Testing

It involves testing a complete application environment in a situation that mimics real-world use, such as interacting with a database, using network communications, or interacting with other hardware, applications, or systems if appropriate.

For example, a tester is testing a pet insurance website. End to End testing involves testing of buying an insurance policy, LPM, tag, adding another pet, updating credit card information on users’ accounts, updating user address information, receiving order confirmation emails and policy documents.

b) Black Box Testing

Blackbox testing is a software testing technique in which testing is performed without knowing the internal structure, design, or code of a system under test. Testers should focus only on the input and output of test objects.

Detailed information about the advantages, disadvantages, and types of Black Box testing can be found here.

c) Smoke Testing

Smoke testing is performed to verify that basic and critical functionality of the system under test is working fine at a very high level.

Whenever a new build is provided by the development team, then the Software Testing team validates the build and ensures that no major issue exists. The testing team will ensure that the build is stable, and a detailed level of testing will be carried out further.

For example, tester is testing pet insurance website. Buying an insurance policy, adding another pet, providing quotes are all basic and critical functionality of the application. Smoke testing for this website verifies that all these functionalities are working fine before doing any in-depth testing.

d) Sanity Testing

Sanity testing is performed on a system to verify that newly added functionality or bug fixes are working fine. Sanity testing is done on stable build. It is a subset of the regression test.

For example, a tester is testing a pet insurance website. There is a change in the discount for buying a policy for second pet. Then sanity testing is only performed on buying insurance policy module.

e) Happy path Testing

The objective of Happy Path Testing is to test an application successfully on a positive flow. It does not look for negative or error conditions. The focus is only on valid and positive inputs through which the application generates the expected output.

f) Monkey Testing

Monkey Testing is carried out by a tester, assuming that if the monkey uses the application, then how random input and values will be entered by the Monkey without any knowledge or understanding of the application.

The objective of Monkey Testing is to check if an application or system gets crashed by providing random input values/data. Monkey Testing is performed randomly, no test cases are scripted, and it is not necessary to be aware
of the full functionality of the system.

#4) Acceptance Testing

Acceptance testing is a type of testing where client/business/customer test the software with real time business scenarios.

The client accepts the software only when all the features and functionalities work as expected. This is the last phase of testing, after which the software goes into production. This is also called User Acceptance Testing (UAT).

a) Alpha Testing

Alpha testing is a type of acceptance testing performed by the team in an organization to find as many defects as possible before releasing software to customers.

For example, the pet insurance website is under UAT. UAT team will run real-time scenarios like buying an insurance policy, buying annual membership, changing the address, ownership transfer of the pet in a same way the user uses the real website. The team can use test credit card information to process payment-related scenarios.

b) Beta Testing

Beta Testing is a type of software testing which is carried out by the clients/customers. It is performed in the Real Environment before releasing the product to the market for the actual end-users.

Beta Testing is carried out to ensure that there are no major failures in the software or product, and it satisfies the business requirements from an end-user perspective. Beta Testing is successful when the customer accepts the software.

Usually, this testing is typically done by the end-users. This is the final testing done before releasing the application for commercial purposes. Usually, the Beta version of the software or product released is limited to a certain number of users in a specific area.

So, the end-user uses the software and shares the feedback with the company. The company then takes necessary action before releasing the software worldwide.

c) Operational acceptance testing (OAT)

Operational acceptance testing of the system is performed by operations or system administration staff in the production environment. The purpose of operational acceptance testing is to make sure that the system administrators can keep the system working properly for the users in a real-time environment.

The focus of the OAT is on the following points:

Testing of backup and restore.
Installing, uninstalling, upgrading software.
The recovery process in case of natural disaster.
User management.
Maintenance of the software.

Non-Functional Testing

There are four main types of functional testing.

#1) Security Testing

It is a type of testing performed by a special team. Any hacking method can penetrate the system.

Security Testing is done to check how the software, application, or website is secure from internal and/or external threats. This testing includes how much software is secure from malicious programs, viruses and how secure & strong the authorization and authentication processes are.

It also checks how software behaves for any hacker’s attack & malicious programs and how software is maintained for data security after such a hacker attack.

a) Penetration Testing

Penetration Testing or Pen testing is the type of security testing performed as an authorized cyberattack on the system to find out the weak points of the system in terms of security.

Pen testing is performed by outside contractors, generally known as ethical hackers. That is why it is also known as ethical hacking. Contractors perform different operations like SQL injection, URL manipulation, Privilege Elevation, session expiry, and provide reports to the organization.

Notes: Do not perform the Pen testing on your laptop/computer. Always take written permission to do pen tests.

#2) Performance Testing

Performance testing is testing of an application’s stability and response time by applying load.

The word stability means the ability of the application to withstand in the presence of load. Response time is how quickly an application is available to users. Performance testing is done with the help of tools. Loader.IO, JMeter, LoadRunner, etc. are good tools available in the market.

a) Load testing

Load testing is testing of an application’s stability and response time by applying load, which is equal to or less than the designed number of users for an application.

For example, your application handles 100 users at a time with a response time of 3 seconds, then load testing can be done by applying a load of the maximum of 100 or less than 100 users. The goal is to verify that the application is responding within 3 seconds for all the users.

b) Stress Testing

Stress testing is testing an application’s stability and response time by applying load, which is more than the designed number of users for an application.

For example, your application handles 1000 users at a time with a response time of 4 seconds, then stress testing can be done by applying a load of more than 1000 users. Test the application with 1100,1200,1300 users and notice the response time. The goal is to verify the stability of an application under stress.

c) Scalability Testing

Scalability testing is testing an application’s stability and response time by applying load, which is more than the designed number of users for an application.

For example, your application handles 1000 users at a time with a response time of 2 seconds, then scalability testing can be done by applying a load of more than 1000 users and gradually increasing the number of users to find out where exactly my application is crashing.

Let’s say my application is giving response time as follows:

1000 users -2 sec
1400 users -2 sec
4000 users -3 sec
5000 users -45 sec
5150 users- crash – This is the point that needs to identify in scalability testing

d) Volume testing (flood testing)

Volume testing is testing an application’s stability and response time by transferring a large volume of data to the database. Basically, it tests the capacity of the database to handle the data.

e) Endurance Testing (Soak Testing)

Endurance testing is testing an application’s stability and response time by applying load continuously for a longer period to verify that the application is working fine.

For example, car companies soak testing to verify that users can drive cars continuously for hours without any problem.

#3) Usability Testing

Usability testing is testing an application from the user’s perspective to check the look and feel and user-friendliness.

For example, there is a mobile app for stock trading, and a tester is performing usability testing. Testers can check the scenario like if the mobile app is easy to operate with one hand or not, scroll bar should be vertical, background color of the app should be black and price of and stock is displayed in red or green color.

The main idea of usability testing of this kind of app is that as soon as the user opens the app, the user should get a glance at the market.

a) Exploratory testing

Exploratory Testing is informal testing performed by the testing team. The objective of this testing is to explore the application and look for defects that exist in the application. Testers use the knowledge of the business domain to test the application. Test charters are used to guide the exploratory testing.

b) Cross browser testing

Cross browser testing is testing an application on different browsers, operating systems, mobile devices to see look and feel and performance.

Why do we need cross-browser testing? The answer is different users use different operating systems, different browsers, and different mobile devices. The goal of the company is to get a good user experience regardless of those devices.

Browser stack provides all the versions of all the browsers and all mobile devices to test the application. For learning purposes, it is good to take the free trial given by browser stack for a few days.

c) Accessibility Testing

The aim of Accessibility Testing is to determine whether the software or application is accessible for disabled people or not.

Here, disability means deafness, color blindness, mentally disabled, blind, old age, and other disabled groups. Various checks are performed, such as font size for visually disabled, color and contrast for color blindness, etc.

#4) Compatibility testing

This is a testing type in which it validates how software behaves and runs in a different environment, web servers, hardware, and network environment.

Compatibility testing ensures that software can run on different configuration, different databases, different browsers, and their versions. The testing team performs compatibility testing.

Other Types of Testing

Ad-hoc Testing

The name itself suggests that this testing is performed on an ad-hoc basis, i.e., with no reference to the test case and also without any plan or documentation in place for this type of testing.

The objective of this testing is to find the defects and break the application by executing any flow of the application or any random functionality.

Ad-hoc testing is an informal way of finding defects and can be performed by anyone in the project. It is difficult to identify defects without a test case, but sometimes it is possible that defects found during ad-hoc testing might not have been identified using the existing test cases.

Back-end Testing

Whenever an input or data is entered on the front-end application, it is stored in the database and the testing of such database is known as Database Testing or Backend Testing.

There are different databases like SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, etc. Database Testing involves testing of table structure, schema, stored procedure, data structure, and so on. In Back-end Testing, GUI is not involved, the testers are directly connected to the database with proper access and testers can easily verify data by running a few queries on the database.

There can be issues identified like data loss, deadlock, data corruption, etc during this back-end testing and these issues are critical to fixing before the system goes live into the production environment.

Browser Compatibility Testing

This is a sub-type of Compatibility Testing (which is explained below) and is performed by the testing team.

Browser Compatibility Testing is performed for web applications and ensures that the software can run with a combination of different browsers and operating systems. This type of testing also validates whether a web application runs on all versions of all browsers or not.

Backward Compatibility Testing

It is a type of testing that validates whether the newly developed software or updated software works well with the older version of the environment or not.

Backward Compatibility Testing checks whether the new version of the software works properly with the file format created by an older version of the software. It also works well with data tables, data files, and data structures created by the older version of that software. If any of the software is updated, then it should work well on top of the previous version of that software.

Black Box Testing

Internal system design is not considered in this type of testing. Tests are based on the requirements and functionality.

Detailed information about the advantages, disadvantages, and types of Black Box testing can be found here.

Boundary Value Testing

This type of testing checks the behavior of the application at the boundary level.

Boundary Value Testing is performed to check if defects exist at boundary values. Boundary Value Testing is used for testing a different range of numbers. There is an upper and lower boundary for each range and testing is performed on these boundary values.

If testing requires a test range of numbers from 1 to 500, then Boundary Value Testing is performed on values at 0, 1, 2, 499, 500, and 501.

Branch Testing

This is also known as Branch coverage or decision coverage testing. It is a type of white box testing performed at the unit test level. It is done to make sure that each possible path from the decision point is executed at least once for 100% of test coverage.

Example:

Read number A, B
If (A>B) then
Print(“A is greater”)
Else
Print(“B is greater”)

Here, there are two branches, one for if and the other for else. For 100% coverage, we need 2 test cases with different values of A and B.

Test case 1: A=10, B=5 It will cover the if branch.

Test case 2: A=7, B=15 It will cover the else branch.

Comparison Testing

Comparison of a product’s strengths and weaknesses with its previous versions or other similar products is termed Comparison Testing.

Equivalence Partitioning

It is a testing technique and a type of Black Box Testing. During this Equivalence Partitioning, a set of groups are selected and a few values or numbers are picked up for testing. It is understood that all values from that group generate the same output.

The aim of this testing is to remove redundant test cases within a specific group that generate the same output but not any defect.

Suppose the application accepts values between -10 and +10, then using equivalence partitioning, the values picked for testing are zero, one positive value, and one negative value. So the Equivalence Partitioning for this testing is -10 to -1, 0, and 1 to 10.

Example Testing

Example testing is real-time testing. It includes real-time scenarios and scenarios are based on the experience of the testers.

This type of testing is also known as experience-based testing because it uses the tester’s knowledge of how the application has worked in the past, how to break the application, what kind of errors are common in this type of application.

Graphical User Interface (GUI) Testing

The objective of this GUI Testing is to validate the GUI as per the business requirement. The expected GUI of the application is mentioned in the Detailed Design Document and GUI mockup screens.

GUI Testing includes the size of the buttons and input fields present on the screen, alignment of all text, tables, and content in the tables.

It also validates the menu of the application. After selecting different menu and menu items, it validates that the page does not fluctuate, and the alignment remains the same after hovering the mouse on the menu or sub-menu.

Incremental Integration Testing

Incremental Integration Testing is a Bottom-up approach for testing, i.e continuous testing of an application when new functionality is added.

Application functionality and modules should be independent enough to test separately. This is done by programmers or by testers.

Install/Uninstall Testing

Installation testing is performed to check that the software application is installed properly and working as per expectation. Installation testing is a phase of testing before users interact with the actual application for the first time. Installation testing is also called “Implementation Testing”.

Uninstallation Testing is performed to confirm if all the components or elements of the software are removed from the system or not.

Installation and Uninstallation Testing is done on full, partial, or upgraded install/uninstall processes on different operating systems under different hardware or software environments.

Mutation Testing

Mutation Testing is a type of white box testing in which the source code of one program is changed and verifies whether the existing test cases can identify these defects in the system.

The change in the program source code is very minimal, so it does not impact the entire application, only the specific area having the impact and the related test cases should be able to identify those errors in the system.

Negative Testing

The mindset of the tester is to “Break the System/Application” and it is achieved through Negative Testing.

Negative Testing technique is performed using incorrect data, invalid data, or input. It validates if the system throws an error of invalid input and behaves as expected.

It should not take much time to load any page or system and should be sustained during peak load. Different performance and load tools are used to do this testing.

Recovery Testing

It is a type of testing that validates how well the application or system recovers from crashes or disasters.

Recovery Testing determines if the system can continue its operation after a disaster. Assume that the application is receiving data through a network cable and suddenly that network cable has been unplugged.

Sometime later, plug in the network cable; then the system should start receiving data from where it lost the connection due to the network cable being unplugged.

Regression Testing

Regression testing is testing of unchanged features of the application to make sure that any bug fixes, adding new features, deleting, or updating existing features, are not impacting the working application.

To find out regression scope is an important part in Regression Testing. To find out regression scope, Tester needs to find out the area of application where changes happened and the Impact of those changes on the entire application. It is difficult to cover the whole regression test suite in every release, so Automation Testing Tools are used in regression testing.

Risk-Based Testing (RBT)

For Risk-Based Testing, the functionalities or requirements are tested based on their priority. Risk-Based Testing includes testing of highly critical functionality, which has the highest impact on business and in which the probability of failure is very high.

Priority decisions are based on business needs, so once priority is set for all functionalities, then high priority functionality or test cases are executed first, followed by medium and then low priority functionalities.

Low priority functionality may be tested or not tested based on the available time. Risk-Based Testing is carried out if there is insufficient time available to test the entire software and the software needs to be implemented on time without any delay.

This approach is followed only by the discussion and approval of the client and senior management of the organization.

Static Testing

Static Testing is a type of testing which is done without the execution of any code. Reviews, walkthroughs, and inspections are different methods of performing static testing. Activities like reviewing of requirement documents, customer requirement specification, high level, and low-level design, code syntax, naming standards, etc. come under static testing.

Static Testing also applies to test cases, test plans, test scenarios. Static testing is done to prevent the defect rather than catching the defect at a later stage. That is why static testing is cost-effective.

For example, Tester is testing a pet insurance website. The logic for premium calculation is described in requirement documentation. As a part of static testing, testers can review the developer code for premium calculation and compare it with the requirement document to prevent the defect related to premium calculation.

Vulnerability Testing

The testing, which involves identifying weaknesses in the software, hardware, and network, is known as Vulnerability Testing. In malicious programs, the hacker can take control of the system, if it is vulnerable to such kinds of attacks, viruses, and worms.

We need to check if those systems undergo Vulnerability Testing before production. It may identify critical defects and flaws in security.

Resource : https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/types-of-software-testing/

1Feb, 2023

The Different Types of Cybersecurity

Cyber security is a wide field covering several disciplines. It can be divided into seven main pillars:

1. Network Security

Most attacks occur over the network, and network security solutions are designed to identify and block these attacks. These solutions include data and access controls such as Data Loss Prevention (DLP), IAM (Identity Access Management), NAC (Network Access Control), and NGFW (Next-Generation Firewall) application controls to enforce safe web use policies.

Advanced and multi-layered network threat prevention technologies include IPS (Intrusion Prevention System), NGAV (Next-Gen Antivirus), Sandboxing, and CDR (Content Disarm and Reconstruction). Also important are network analytics, threat hunting, and automated SOAR (Security Orchestration and Response) technologies.

2. Cloud Security

As organizations increasingly adopt cloud computing, securing the cloud becomes a major priority. A cloud security strategy includes cyber security solutions, controls, policies, and services that help to protect an organization’s entire cloud deployment (applications, data, infrastructure, etc.) against attack.

While many cloud providers offer security solutions, these are often inadequate to the task of achieving enterprise-grade security in the cloud. Supplementary third-party solutions are necessary to protect against data breaches and targeted attacks in cloud environments.

3. Endpoint Security

The zero-trust security model prescribes creating micro-segments around data wherever it may be. One way to do that with a mobile workforce is using endpoint security. With endpoint security, companies can secure end-user devices such as desktops and laptops with data and network security controls, advanced threat prevention such as anti-phishing and anti-ransomware, and technologies that provide forensics such as endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions.

4. Mobile Security

Often overlooked, mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones have access to corporate data, exposing businesses to threats from malicious apps, zero-day, phishing, and IM (Instant Messaging) attacks. Mobile security prevents these attacks and secures the operating systems and devices from rooting and jailbreaking. When included with an MDM (Mobile Device Management) solution, this enables enterprises to ensure only compliant mobile devices have access to corporate assets.

5. IoT Security

While using Internet of Things (IoT) devices certainly delivers productivity benefits, it also exposes organizations to new cyber threats. Threat actors seek out vulnerable devices inadvertently connected to the Internet for nefarious uses such as a pathway into a corporate network or for another bot in a global bot network.

IoT security protects these devices with discovery and classification of the connected devices, auto-segmentation to control network activities, and using IPS as a virtual patch to prevent exploits against vulnerable IoT devices. In some cases, the firmware of the device can also be augmented with small agents to prevent exploits and runtime attacks.

6. Application Security

Web applications, like anything else directly connected to the Internet, are targets for threat actors. Since 2007, OWASP has tracked the top 10 threats to critical web application security flaws such as injection, broken authentication, misconfiguration, and cross-site scripting to name a few.

With application security, the OWASP Top 10 attacks can be stopped. Application security also prevents bot attacks and stops any malicious interaction with applications and APIs. With continuous learning, apps will remain protected even as DevOps releases new content.

7. Zero Trust

The traditional security model is perimeter-focused, building walls around an organization’s valuable assets like a castle. However, this approach has several issues, such as the potential for insider threats and the rapid dissolution of the network perimeter.

As corporate assets move off-premises as part of cloud adoption and remote work, a new approach to security is needed. Zero trust takes a more granular approach to security, protecting individual resources through a combination of micro-segmentation, monitoring, and enforcement of role-based access controls.

Resource : https://www.checkpoint.com/cyber-hub/cyber-security/what-is-cybersecurity/

31Jan, 2023

Artificial Intelligence May Actually Help Humanize Financial Services

The financial services sector has long been criticized as being insulated, elitist, and discriminatory. Will artificial intelligence finally open up and “democratize” this industry? It’s likely, and will happen a number of ways – by empowering customers, by opening up services to underserved communities, and by increasing the breadth of capabilities companies can offer.

While still in the minority, a growing number of financial services executives are bringing in AI as a part of their customer experiences and operations. About half of 500 executives (48%) responding to a survey conducted by Economist Impact and SAS in March 2022 identified advanced data analytics as among the most important technologies to harness, and 34% specifically cited AI and machine learning as their paths to the future.

Similarly, a study from Deloitte AI Institute confirms that 32% of financial services executives indicate their organizations use AI. “It’s undeniable that AI is the future of financial services,” the study’s authors state, adding that while “many FinTechs have embraced AI, the financial services industry is largely in the early stages of AI adoption.”

AI and machine learning introduce great complexities, and many financial services companies are still assessing where and how to invest in these approaches. “There are a lot of moving parts with AI and machine learning,” says Michael Upton, chief digital officer at First Tech Federal Credit Union, which exclusively services Microsoft, Amazon, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, and employees of other technology firms. Once put in place, however, these technologies have a critical role to play in the emerging digital enterprise. “Covid really accelerated digital, and the industry did a good job in customers’ needs from a tactical and transactional perspective. But I think industrywide, we lacked some engagement, we lacked some warmth, we lacked some relevance, particularly through digital channel. We need to re-instate humanization into digital, and AI is a tool that’s going to help us get there. Combined with in-person contact, AI can help deliver more personalized, more relevant, services in tune with what customers need at a particular moment.”

First Tech Federal sees greatly personalized interactions and services to customers as the main goal of its own expanding AI efforts. “Using AI and ML, we believe we will put ourselves in the best position to help each individual member meet their needs at any point in time,” says Upton. “We’re looking to be relevant when the member needs us to be relevant, no matter which touchpoint they so choose. We’re looking to leverage this into personalization and relevant engagement, whether it be a sales engagement, a servicing engagement, or a retention engagement.”

While AI promises to open up the levels of services financial institutions can deliver, there are challenges that need to be overcome, including skewed expectations, skills issues, and implementation issues. “Talent scarcity is a key gating factor,’ says Bjorn Austraat, senior vice president and head of AI acceleration at Truist. “This is true for specialized data science resources but – importantly – also for all-important resources and leaders that can speak to both technical and business stakeholders,’ he explains. This includes those “that are fluent in data science and executive-speak. An over-reliance on purely technical skills can lead to disjointed science experiments without a clear business return and an excessive focus on business outcomes — especially early on in sometimes lengthy data science and model ops lifecycles — can squelch disruptive innovation.”

Barriers to achieving success with AI are common across all sectors, says Charlene Coleman, senior managing partner and head of the modern finance sector of Launch Consulting Group. But financial services brings in its own sets of issues. “Deploying AI to democratize the financial system requires bold, human-centered leadership willing to invest in technology and talent. Next, institutions lacking an AI strategy will not move beyond the experimental phase. Most do not have a centralized data backbone that supports analysis and intelligent recommendations. Finally, they must adopt a new operating model that moves away from functional silos to enable speed and agility.”

Artificial intelligence “can help redefine and restore personalized experiences that build trust for consumers and small business owners,” says Coleman. “Assuming informed consent, an example is AI-powered personalized conversational interfaces and biometric profiles that have shown promise in helping vulnerable consumers avoid debt traps fueled by late fees and inflexible payment schedules.”

This means more than building models to support algorithms, no matter how well designed. “People often assume ‘we just need a great model to solve our problem,’” says Austraat. “However, the model is only five percent of the solution. The integration, instrumentation, validation, ongoing monitoring and ultimately dollarization are the other 95%.” The key is to “think of the model as the race car engine,” he adds. “You’ll need a lot of other things to win the race: gas, shocks, tires, a pit crew, and a driver.”

The key to AI success in financial services is to sell or promote AI adoption to the business. “I use a simple phrase to accelerate this alignment: ‘Whose life is going to get better, by how much and how do we know that?’” says Austraat. “If you can truly answer that question, you have covered all the bases from framing, to deployment, to value proposition and value perception and realization, to political air cover. Explainability trumps model performance in financial services. In particularly sensitive areas such as credit underwriting, banks and other institutions must balance the desire to innovate and use cutting-edge AI with the reasonable regulatory expectations around explainability, robustness and fairness. The hottest solution doesn’t always win, especially if it’s too much of a black box.”

This requires a much more holistic view of AI, beyond the lab or data science team. “You can’t just let the data scientists do their thing,” Austraat says. “A holistic teaming approach centered around cross-functional pods is critical to engage legal, risk, data engineering, implementation engineering, operations, support and business leaders early and often to create sustainable success.”

In the end, technologies such as AI and ML “are simply tools,” says Upton. ‘You need to have a very clear business strategy, a very good go-to-market strategy, and a very good operational plan to leverage those tools to create the experiences and drive business value. People tend to get enamored with the tool or the tech, but they’re not really clear on their use case for the value of the investment. You can buy all the coolest tools in the world, but if you don’t account for the change management, the adoption, the helping the organization leading into the why and how to use these tools to drive out the things that matter, you’re just going to have a lot of expensive tools by themselves.”

Resource : https://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2023/01/28/artificial-intelligence-may-actually-help-humanize-financial-services/?sh=4d0cc4c1d9f5

30Jan, 2023

Top 5 technology trends to watch out in 2023

With technology being a great leveler, the world has become flat and offers equal opportunities to all. Whether you are someone born in the Bay area or a remote village in Africa, your opportunity to create an impact and to make a difference in the world is the same.

In India, for instance, the government is adopting technology readily with initiatives like JAM (Jan Dhan-Adhaar-Mobile) trinity and offering a level playing field to all its citizens. Close to 47% of India’s GDP gets transacted on this platform and my recent interaction with a local tea seller showcases how this tech adoption is making a difference at the grassroots.

I curiously asked this young man from Kerala who operates his tea shop single-handedly, the reason to adopt UPI payments. He explained how it saves his time in giving change to customers after each transaction and that now he doesn’t need to go to the bank to deposit cash.

On the other hand, the bank to which his UPI transactions are linked now knows that this young man is generating INR 30,000/- per working day. Therefore, their risk profiling AI software is now able to analyze this data and recommend him a loan for his business expansion with better certainty of loan repayment. This was not possible 3 years ago. This is the beauty of what is happening around us!

In the past few years, India has undergone significant economic expansion, with the adoption of new technology such as AI, Robotics, IoT, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, and Big data. In this article, I would like to discuss few technology trends that are gaining significant mindshare and will continue to do so in 2023.

Web 3.0: Web 1.0 was “Read-Only”, Web 2.0 is “Read-Write”, and you can imagine Web 3.0 as “Read-Write and Execute”. This is the next level of internet where the internet will be more interactive and immersive and will be led by user generated content and interaction. For example, to imagine next level of AI in Web 3.0 – AI would be used for natural language processing, to recognize your emotions and facial expressions to render relevant content. This means, when you frown while watching an Instagram reel, it automatically moves to the next genre when you swipe up. This space would therefore be great for enterprises to present relevant content to their users.

The way we consume gaming and financial instruments, “DeFi” (Decentralized Finance) will also change big time. Several Web 3.0 apps are gaining popularity and are worth mentioning. For example, “Brave” browser that allows one to block all ads and evade trackers while rewarding good content through “BAT” (Basic Attention Token), it could change the way people look at digital ads. Also, the widespread use of “NFT” (Non-Fungible Token) will help the content creators’ music, video and photo content get better recognition and revenue for their work by ensuring traceable ownership and minimizing the middlemen in between.

Cybersecurity: The travel and tourism industry is embracing emerging technologies to redefine products, services, and consumer experiences, but doing so makes their cyber ecosystems more exposed to security risks as these technologies handle massive volume of financial transactions and priceless customer data. Travel firms are, therefore, a prime target for cyber-crime. Ransomware and phishing attacks are two of the major concerns in this sector. Due to the current dependence on data, organizations are also at risk from human mistakes brought on by their own staff. To keep the data secure, organizations must invest in cybersecurity as well as a variety of hardware and software solutions. It is evident that a step change is needed, and a more comprehensive, business-driven, and risk-based approach to building cybersecurity capability is going to be the norm in the coming years.

Metaverse: Metaverse travel has the potential to dramatically revolutionize how people engage with the travel industry, imagine digitally touring a hotel from the comfort of your home on the other side of the world. By creating three-dimensional replicas of real locations, metaverse travel will create new experiences and new possibilities for people to choose hotels and activities. In 2023, metaverse will emerge as a grand concept, that will be based on a single interconnected ecosystem, like the internet. Soon, autonomous metaverse platforms with different economies and the capacity to transport assets and things between worlds may become possible. There has been a lot of conversations around the governance, so things are going to get tricky, as there would be no single controller. There will be a shift in viewpoint, and it will inevitably give rise to new travel patterns and an increasing demand for virtual reality and metaverse travel services. As several companies continue to compete for this space, the future is surely going to look very different, especially with the possibility of creating multiple identities in the metaverse.

Cloud: In recent years, the travel sector has seen an increasing interest in cloud computing investments. However, there are still several issues that are delaying the rate of cloud adoption. But as client expectations rise and the travel sector’s technological environment becomes more dynamic, a lot of travel organizations have come to understand the benefits of cloud computing. In the travel tech industry, we deal with a lot of personal data. Through growing computational power and capacity of the cloud, data storage becomes simpler thereby enabling us to provide personalized travel experiences.

Wearables and IoT: The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the most significant and potent emerging technology topics that must be understood and explored by individuals and businesses. According to me, this is merely the tip of the iceberg, as we will see additional wearables with cutting-edge capabilities soon. For instance, non-intrusive wearables for HbA1C monitoring are very close to reality, which would benefit diabetic patients around the globe to monitor and act in real-time. IoT devices are also bringing transformation in many industries, including agriculture. Now there are devices that can tell a farmer the exact amount of water needed per square inch of the farming land. These devices make it possible to identify the crops infested by pests and then, separately treat only the affected yield, instead of the entire crop. Such devices are not only feature-rich but are also the primary driving force behind the Internet of Things.

Many of the bigger cross-industry breakthroughs were anticipated in the upcoming year and beyond are likely to be built on the patterns indicated above. Furthermore, it is gaining ground and is probably going to be precursors to the technology that will define the overall course of human technology.

Resource : https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/top-5-technology-trends-to-watch-out-in-2023/

30Jan, 2023

Security Technologies

The following article, Security Technologies, provides you with an outline of the most common technologies used in security. We all aware of the pace with which the internet is growing. For everything that we had to travel or to stay in long queues for longer, the Internet had made them easy for us, and now almost all of the things are available at our fingertips. In simple words, we can say that it is not easy to imagine a single day without the internet. It is known to everyone that everything had two sides: pros and cons, and the same applies to the Internet as well. With the fast increase in Internet usage, the attacks happening in organizations have also been increased. For contemporary business or organizations, a new challenge has been evolved that protects their body from cyber attacks. Here we will be discussing the technologies that are available to protect the organizations from cyber attacks so that the flow of their operations remains smooth.

Security Technologies

In order to protect organizations from cyber attacks, several technologies are available to fight against them.

Below are some of the common technologies that are used very often in organizations.

1. Data Loss Prevention

Data Loss Prevention may be defined as the technology concerned with validating if the data sent out from the organization is sensitive enough to hinder the business. Usually, the data are sent through emails and under this technology, the mails have been monitored to ensure that it is not carrying the confidential data out from the organization. By virtue of this technology, all the emails and their attachments are monitored closely to ensure that all the data sent outside the organization are appropriate and not something confidential.

2. Intrusion Detection System

An intrusion Detection System(IDS) can be defined as the technology which monitors all the traffic that enters the organization to ensure that those are not malicious. It can also be considered a tool responsible for checking the traffic and raising the alert if the traffic is found malicious or appears to be originated from the untrusted source. This technology is mainly concerned with giving a close view of the traffic to ensure that it is something that the organization should allow to get in.

3. Intrusion Prevention System

Intrusion Prevention System(IPS) may be defined as the technology or tool that takes action against the traffic that is labelled malicious by the IDS. Usually, the IPS drops the packet entering into the system once it is considered untrusted. It is the main protection point that makes sure that malicious traffic should not enter into the organization’s network. It is IPS that makes sure that all the traffic that enters the system should comply with the policies that are defined by the organizations so that it should not affect the working of the systems in any way.

4. Security Incident and Event Management

It is also known as SIEM. It is mainly concerned with invoking the alert once anything unusual is found on the organization’s network. Several tools can be integrated into SIEM to make sure that anything that is malicious must generate the alert so that the security team could take action against it and keep the internal environment protected. It also keeps track of the logs that are generated while ensuring the security of the network. It can also be considered as the central system that has other tools attached to it. All the tools work as peers that protect the network in their own way.

5. Firewall

The firewall works as the first layer of protection of any system or network. There are various types of Firewalls based on their role. In order to protect the internet, network firewalls are used, while in order to protect the web application, there are web application firewalls. This technology has been developed to ensure that the internal network is protected from unusual traffic, and nothing malicious could make it to the internal network. The technology ensures that the ports should be open only for the appropriate communication, and the untrusted data should not hit the system anyhow. The firewall could either allow the traffic to enter or could configure the port filtration to make sure that all the traffic passes through it must be useful for the service running on any particular port,

6. Antivirus

Antivirus is another technology used in cybersecurity. As its name states, it protects the system from the virus. The virus is nothing but the malicious code that makes the host or network to take unexpected actions. It is deployed in the network and can also be used as endpoint protection. All the devices connected to the network can have an antivirus installed in them to protect themselves from virus attacks. In order to detect whether the particular file is a virus, the antivirus used the signatures present in the repository of that antivirus. The latest antivirus has the capability to leverage the anomalies to detect the virus and take action against it.

Conclusion

The risk associated with the internet has been grown parallelly to its usage. The architecture of the web application or the network these days is supposed to be complex in order to satisfy the business needs, and with the high complexity, it also increases the chance of the system being breached. In order to ensure that the system is protected from any of the security mishappenings, the organization is expected to take all the measures seriously and use the technologies to defend their systems. On the other hand, the complex or high level of security breaches has also given birth to efficient cybersecurity technologies or tools that are ample power to ensure the system’s safety. Those tools could be leveraged to protect the system, keep the business flow smoothly and help the business focus on its operations rather than remaining concerned about its security.

Resource : https://www.educba.com/security-technologies/

27Jan, 2023

What are the Common Pain Points of Python Programming?

The common pain points of Python programming language can be overwhelming at times

Both desktop and web-based apps may be created using the programming language Python. It is a general-purpose, high-level, open-source programming language that is mostly used for data analysis, artificial intelligence, and backend web development. Although it is one of the most approachable and simple languages to learn, those studying it for the first time may encounter certain difficulties.

Beginners sometimes run across minor obstacles when using Python, which gives them the impression that the language is difficult. The typical problems with Python that new users typically run across are:

Setting up

It’s challenging to decide between pip and pipenv were given the abundance of package managers. Understanding the benefits of using virtualenv.

Indentation

You could find it completely absurd to have stringent indentation restrictions in a language’s grammar if you’re coming from C/C++ or Java. But with time, you’ll begin to value it in a long term.

Pythonic Way

If you’re used to writing code in C/C++, particularly loops, you can encounter a lot of resistance from Python programmers.

Difficult to Master

Don’t be deceived by Python’s easy syntax; you will always learn something new. Easy to learn, difficult to master.

Python is one of the most solid and powerful programming languages, yet it is also quite “simple to learn.” The majority of developers and companies now use Python as their main language. We intend to assist developers like you in resolving all the significant Python issues that they encounter.

Resource: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/what-are-the-common-pain-points-of-python-programming/

27Jan, 2023

Top 10 Cybersecurity Trends That Will Dominate in 2023

Top 10 Cybersecurity Trends for 2023: Stay Ahead of the Curve and Protect Your Business

To stay protected, businesses and individuals must stay current on the latest developments in the rapidly evolving field of cybersecurity. As a result of the widespread adoption of computerized systems by corporations, organizations, and even governments to manage their daily operations as a result of the Digital Revolution, cybersecurity has become a top priority to protect data from various online attacks and unauthorized access. As news of data breaches, ransomware, and hacks becomes the norm, it is implied that there will be a parallel shift in cybersecurity trends.

Here are the top 10 cybersecurity trends that will dominate in 2023:

Data Breaches: Organizations all over the world will continue to prioritize data. Protecting digital data is the main objective right today, whether it’s for an individual or a business. Any tiny defect or weakness in your computer’s software or browser could allow hackers access to your sensitive data.
Rise of Automotive Hacking: Today’s vehicles are loaded with automated software that enables smooth connectivity for drivers in areas like airbags, cruise control, door locks, and advanced driver aid systems. These vehicles use Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to connect, which exposes them to several security flaws or hacker threats. With more automated vehicles on the road in 2023, it’s anticipated that attempts to take control of them or listen in on conversations will increase.
Cloud security: The need to secure these assets grows as more businesses move their data and applications to the cloud. This entails making sure that data is safeguarded both during transit and while it is stored, as well as that cloud infrastructure is properly configured to restrict access.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning: Through the use of these technologies, cybersecurity tools and systems like intrusion detection and response, threat hunting, and incident response are being made more effective.
Internet of Things: Securing those devices becomes more crucial as more of them are connected to the internet. This covers everything from industrial control systems to home security cameras.
Cyber insurance: Organizations are turning to cyber insurance as a way to guard themselves against monetary losses as the frequency and severity of cyber-attacks continue to rise.
Email security: Email is still one of the most popular methods for cyberattacks, so businesses must put in place strong email security protocols to guard against phishing, malware, and other dangers.
Identity and access management: Protecting against cyber-attacks requires making sure that only authorized users have access to sensitive data and systems. This entails putting in place multi-factor authentication and stringent access controls.
Remote work: Organizations must make sure that their networks and data are properly secured as more employees work remotely. This includes implementing efficient endpoint security and granting secure access to corporate resources.
Compliance and regulations: Organizations must make sure they adhere to several laws and standards, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Conclusion: These are a few of the most important cybersecurity trends that 2023 is predicted to bring about. Organizations will undoubtedly be more hesitant to increase their security measures as a result of these cybersecurity trends. This year, it’s anticipated that businesses will spend over $100 billion on asset protection alone. It would be a wise decision to begin their learning curve in cybersecurity today so that they can become authorities for tomorrow, as infrastructure security is now a significant component of almost every organization.

Resource : https://www.analyticsinsight.net/top-10-cybersecurity-trends-that-will-dominate-in-2023/