WEATHER FORECAST ANALYSIS

What is an AI-based Dictionary Attack

Cyberattacks , known as "dictionary attacks", attempt to crack passwords by using a list of terms from a dictionary. Every word in a dictionary is tested in a traditional dictionary attack until the correct password is discovered. However, using AI algorithms, attackers can now create custom dictionaries based on information about the victim, such as their name, birthdate, and social media activity. These algorithms can analyse large amounts of data and identify patterns to create more accurate and effective dictionaries. As a result, these attacks are becoming more sophisticated and challenging to defend against.

How Do AI-based Dictionary Attacks Operate

AI-based dictionary attacks are far more successful than conventional techniques because they use machine learning algorithms to recognise and forecast patterns in the data. These algorithms look for patterns and correlations in the data and build models that can predict passwords using methods like deep learning, neural networks, and natural language processing.

Attackers can compile customised dictionaries more likely to contain the victim's password by gathering information about their targets from social media platforms and other internet sources. They also have access to reinforcement learning algorithms, which allow them to learn from their errors and gradually increase their success rate. As a result, these attacks may be pretty successful and challenging to identify.

How to Defend Against AI-based Dictionary Attacks

Employ Secure Passwords: One of the most excellent strategies to fend off dictionary attacks is to use secure passwords that are difficult to guess. Long passwords with a mix of capital and lowercase letters, digits, and special characters are recommended. An example is cited below:

Regular Password: Akh!l@5991
Secure Password: VS654a!4@s6d546

Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): By demanding users to enter two or more forms of identity when logging in, MFA adds an extra layer of security. This might require a user's phone to receive a one-time passcode or a fingerprint scan.

Limit Login Attempts: Organisations can restrict how many times a user can try to log in before being locked out. This stops an attacker from trying numerous passwords and guessing the right one.

Monitor User Behaviour: By monitoring user behaviour, businesses can spot suspicious behaviour, such as recurrent login failures or odd login locations. Security personnel should be aware of a potential attack, enabling them to take precautions.

Implement AI-Based Security Measures: Businesses can also put their own AI-based security measures in place to fend off dictionary attacks. AI algorithms can spot and stop suspicious activities or look for trends in user behaviour to spot future attacks.

Summing Up

Dictionary attacks based on AI are growing more complex, making it harder to defend against them. Yet, organisations can significantly lower their chance of being a cyber-attack target by implementing the techniques mentioned above. To protect the security of the business, it is also crucial to keep aware and informed on the most recent cybersecurity trends and dangers.

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Beinex AI & Automation Services puts you at ease, literally. From NLP-NLG Chatbots to Syntax Migrators to Predictive Modelling to Web Scraping to Social Media Analytics, we offer a range of AI and Automation services that can streamline and automate many of your redundant workflows within a short turnaround time.

• • Learn more about Tableau and its infinite visualization possibilities
• • Get some exposure and want to showcase your work to the world and get some valuable skill-enhancing feedback
• • Network with like-minded peers

Be assured, you are in the right place!

Learn, grow and network: that is what Tableau User Groups are all about. You may be a novice, a beginner, an intermediate or an expert in Tableau. TUG, as they are known in an abbreviated form, provide you with spaces to support connection, growth, and inspiration.

Be a part of an excellent ecosystem of ideas! Get the inspiration you need! Showcase your work, get useful feedback and flourish!

TUG UAE Launch

• Date: 14 December 2022; Wednesday
• Venue:The First Collection Business Bay Hotel, Dubai
• Time: 5.00 PM to 8.00 PM GST
• Speakers: Kush Goel and Sanchit Katiyar of Beinex Consulting
• Sponsor: Beinex

Be there, and you will be joined by Kush Goel and Sanchit Katiyar of Beinex Consulting to provide you with more insights to Tableau.

You can secure tons and tons of motivation from your peers across geographies and industries and further your analytics skills. You will have a community cheer you and guide you along the way! All in Dubai!

TUG! The pull of it is incredible.

The Tableau User Group Experience

You need not be an expert to join TUG! This idea comes from a Tableau User Group leader from Oklahoma City.

“A mistake I made early on was thinking I had to be the expert. At the end of the day, it’s about the community and how you can get the community involved and talking. Remember (as a leader) your job is…not to know everything about Tableau,” Amber Smart noted. The purpose of TUG is to share knowledge, engage in networking and give back to the community.

“Here, everything about Tableau is discussed, from basics to advanced. Thus, you get to learn best practices, tips, shortcuts, little tricks that help you save time, ramp up efficiency and a lot of other things,” said Abdelaziz Mahjoub, Lead Consultant, Analytics at Beinex Consulting. He was instrumental in setting up Cairo TUG.

“If there is one aspect that marks TUG, then it is the eagerness with which the participants imbibe knowledge. Everyone was curious to know what they could know more, and all of them were kind enough to share with others what they already knew,” Mahjoub noted.

So, be there and make the TUG, UAE launch a grand success.

Here is the link to the TUG UAE LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14118611/

What could be the Cloud computing trends to look forward to in 2023? Let’s have a look

1. Utilising Edge Computing
2. AI and ML Services
3. Disaster Recovery
4. Multi and Hybrid Cloud Solution
5. Cloud Security and Resilience
6. Cloud Gaming
7. Kubernetes and Docker
8. Serverless Computing
9. Blockchain
10. Metaverse
11. IoT

Let’s deep-dive:

1. Utilising Edge Computing

In the world of cloud computing, edge computing is one of the most popular trends. Here, data is evaluated geographically nearer to its source and stored and processed at the network's edge. As modern internet technologies emerged, the internet speed has helped in reducing latency, technologies such as 5G is used more frequently, and processing can be done swiftly. Greater privacy, quicker data transmission, security, and improved efficiency are just a few of the primary advantages of edge computing. Edge computing is expected to be at the core of every cloud strategy in 2023, making it the most important development in this area.

2. AI and ML Services

Two technologies that are closely related to cloud computing are artificial intelligence and machine learning. Due to the volume of data processed for the machine to learn patterns, this area demands faster processing and abundant storage requirements for training algorithms and data collection respectively. Due to the availability of virtually infinite computational capability, on-cloud AI and ML services are more cost-effective on the cloud. Cloud computing is used for handling enormous amounts of data to raise productivity at tech firms. Increased self-learning and automation capabilities, improved data security, and more individualised cloud experiences are the main trends that are most likely to arise in this fiel

3. Disaster Recovery

The ability to have a DR site in a geographically remote area helps to quickly restore vital services in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. It describes the process of employing cloud-based resources to recover from a disaster in the event such as power outages, data loss, or device failure/problems.

4. Multi and Hybrid Cloud Solution

Many businesses have embraced a multi-cloud and hybrid IT approach that mixes legacy platforms, on-premises, dedicated private clouds, and several public clouds. They provide a mix of public and private clouds tailored to the requirements of particular firms where several business drivers matter for instance like those of insurance, banks, etc. Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud solutions will thus be among the most popular cloud computing trends in 2023 and the years to come.

5. Cloud Security and Resilience

When companies shift to the cloud, there are still several security vulnerabilities. Investment in cyber security and building resilience against everything from data theft to the consequences of a pandemic to global trade will become more crucial and major variables in the coming years. The use of managed "security-as-a-service" providers, AI, and predictive technologies will increase in 2023 as a result of this trend to identify risks before they result in problems. Studies say that leading vendors of cloud computing invest over a billion dollars every year to protect their customers’ data.

6. Cloud Gaming

Cloud gaming platforms operate similarly to remote desktops and video-on-demand services; games are stored and executed remotely on a provider's dedicated hardware and streamed as video to a player's device via client software. It can be advantageous as it eliminates the need to purchase expensive computer hardware or install games directly onto a local game system. Cloud gaming can be made available on a wide range of computing devices, including mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, digital media players, or proprietary thin client-like devices. Microsoft, Sony, Nvidia, and Amazon all offer video game services. But video game streaming requires more data and is only doable with fast internet. With the launch of 5G in 2023, the cloud gaming sector will grow significantly.

7. Kubernetes and Docker

The main trend is the growing use of container orchestration tools like Kubernetes and Docker. Large-scale deployments that are extremely scalable and effective are made possible by this technology. These are expandable, open-source platforms that manage services and workloads from a central location while running applications from a single source. Both platforms offer high scalability and efficiency. Over the following several years, Kubernetes and Docker will continue to play a significant role in cloud computing trends as they are developing quickly.

8. Serverless Computing

Because of the advent of the sharing economy, serverless computing entered the computing sector. Instead of being deployed on physical servers in this case, compute resources are offered as a service. This indicates that instead of needing to maintain its servers, the company only pays for the resources it uses. Additionally, serverless cloud solutions are growing in popularity because of how simple they are to use and how rapidly one can design, deploy, and expand a cloud solution. Overall, this technology is a trend that is just starting and is becoming more and more popular.

9. Blockchain

Blockchain, which users continue to follow more and more, is a connected list of blocks containing records. Blocks of data are stored using cryptography. It has outstanding decentralisation, security, and transparency. In conjunction with the cloud, it is currently utilised more frequently. It can securely and affordably process enormous volumes of data and regulate documents. For many industrial applications, the new technology is beginning to hold out a great deal of promise.

10. Metaverse

The days are not long for the Metaverse and cloud computing to become inextricably linked to each other. The metaverse will compel businesses to migrate to cloud infrastructures to host their virtual worlds. Massive amounts of workloads will be migrated, paving the path for even more innovations to model their virtual worlds. Considering the difficulties of building a metaverse without highly available and scalable premises and hosting grounds, the adoption of cloud computing will be inevitable. As more layers of complexity will be added to the metaverse as it matures, the need for a strong foundation to support the whole thing and to deliver a flawless user experience with no backend issues will arise. Consequently, cloud providers engaged in the metaverse will create metaverse-compatible solutions to assist businesses in quickly establishing their virtual space.

11. IoT

In the realm of cloud computing, IoT is a well-known trend. Connectivity between computers, servers, and networks is maintained by this technology. It performs the role of a middleman, guarantees effective communication, and helps gather data from distant devices. Due to the enormous data produced by IoT devices, it requires many terabytes of storage. Since the cloud, the storage of data has become cheaper. In recent years storing and processing machine-generated data has become relatively easier. In the coming years, businesses would be able to efficiently analyse data from IoT devices and make informed decisions.

Summing Up

Even though cloud computing has been present for more than a decade, its popularity has skyrocketed in recent years. Given this growth trajectory, cloud computing is on track to become the most discussed technology in 2023. Recent studies show that by 2028, the cloud computing market is anticipated to be worth more than $1 trillion. Being the game changer, its impact will grow along with the adoption in the coming years too.

Beinex Offerings

Beinex is all about transforming the way organizations work with data to bring out the best in Business, Technology and People. Our association with Snowflake, a leading cloud-first data warehouse service, is a partnership that we leverage to support the data analytics solutions that we offer our clients.

For instance, the dashboard given below mirrors a project undertaken for a client seeking insights into the pandemic's impact on their business across specific areas. They wanted to determine the number of stores stocking their product within a defined radius, highlighting the local business impact amid the pandemic.
To craft the map showcased in this dashboard, we leverage Tableau's map layers feature introduced in version 2020.4. For further insights into this functionality, additional details can be found here.
Prior to initiating the map creation process, frequently refer to the Profit Margin field. Here's the calculation for this field: it computes the percentage of Sales that translates into Profit. This calculation enables us to gauge the profitability derived from our sales figures.
For the States map layer, the State field is utilized and placed on the 'Detail' shelf. Each state is color-coded based on its Profit Margin.
Moving to the Cities layer, the City field is added onto the top left area labeled "Add a Marks Layer." To ensure the visibility of every city, the State level of detail is included as well. This accounts for cities existing in multiple states, displaying every city/state combination. Cities are color-coded using the Profit Margin field, with additional color based on the absolute value of the Profit Margin. This helps visualize the range and direction of profitability for each city.

Buffer Calculation

The Buffer calculation generates a radius, known as a "buffer," around a specific map point, defined within the syntax parameters. Here's the syntax breakdown for the Buffer: The initial part determines the center location, followed by the distance around the point, and finally, the chosen unit of measurement.
To establish the desired centroid point, we employ the Makepoint function. This function simply utilizes latitude and longitude coordinates to generate a point on the map. Below is the calculation illustrating its usage.

To achieve the interactivity you desire, you'll begin by creating three parameters: [Location Lat], [Location Long], and [Radius]. These parameters offer flexibility, allowing you to adjust them within the dashboard interface.
As you click on different cities, the [Location Lat] and [Location Long] fields dynamically change, altering the central point. Meanwhile, the [Radius] field, functioning as an input parameter, enables you to modify the radius distance according to your preferences. This setup grants you personalized control over these parameters directly within the dashboard.

With the creation of the final map layer field, you can now drag this field to the top left of the map and add it to the existing layers. Once done, you'll have all the map layers integrated into the map, allowing you to recreate the dashboard as depicted below. This comprehensive setup will mirror the dashboard layout and functionality.

Parameter Actions

Parameter Actions are essential at this stage to ensure dynamic interaction within the map layers. By implementing parameter actions, we enable the Location Lat and Location Long fields to adjust dynamically when clicking on a city. This action directly affects the MAKEPOINT() field within the Buffer calculation, effectively altering the radius location. Below, you can observe the setup of the parameter action and how it facilitates this dynamic transformation.
Finally, we aim for these parameters to influence the available metrics showcased at the top of the dashboard. These metrics offer insights into the concentration of profit and profit margin within the selected radius. Below, you'll find the supporting calculations and the formulae for the metrics displayed on the dashboard. These metrics serve as indicators of profitability and profit margin concentration within the chosen radius.

Wrapping up, creating interactive data visualizations opens doors to explore and comprehend information, fostering informed decision-making and exploration of new analytical paths.

1. Snowflake Iceberg Tables Now Generally Available

Snowflake Iceberg Tables have moved to general availability, offering full storage interoperability with the Apache Iceberg open table format. This feature facilitates easier governance and collaboration on Iceberg data stored externally, enhancing the flexibility of data lakehouses, data lakes, and data meshes. Over 300 customers have already adopted Iceberg in its public preview, highlighting its potential to broaden Snowflake's data footprint.

2. Advancements in Snowflake Cortex AI

Snowflake introduced several enhancements to Cortex AI, including:

• • Cortex Analyst: Built with Meta's Llama 3 and Mistral Large models, this tool allows businesses to build applications securely on top of Snowflake's analytical data.
• • Cortex Search: Leveraging Neeva's retrieval and ranking technology, it facilitates the development of apps against documents and text-based datasets.
• • Cortex Guard: Aiming to ensure model safety, it filters and flags harmful content, including violence and hate speech.
• • Document AI: This feature, powered by Snowflake Arctic-TILT multimodal LLM, will soon allow users to extract data from documents such as invoices and contracts.

3. Introduction of Polaris Catalog

The Polaris Catalog is a vendor-neutral, open catalog implementation for Apache Iceberg, providing cross-engine interoperability and greater flexibility. It will become open-sourced within 90 days, supporting a variety of engines, including Apache Flink, Apache Spark, and Trino.

4. Private Preview of Snowflake Horizon Updates

Snowflake launched a private preview of an internal model marketplace within Snowflake Horizon. This marketplace enables users to publish and curate models, applications, and data products for internal use ensuring controlled access and preventing unintended external sharing. Other upcoming features include AI model sharing and AI-powered object descriptions.

5. AI & ML Improvements

• • Snowflake AI & ML Studio: A no-code interactive interface for AI development, now in private preview.
• • Cortex Fine-Tuning: In public preview, allowing customization of pre-trained models for specialized tasks.
• • ML Lineage: In private preview, offering traceability across ML life cycles.
• • Feature Store: Now in public preview, for creating, managing, and serving ML features.

6. Snowflake Native Apps with Snowpark Container Services — Preview

Snowflake introduced the integration of the Native App Framework with Snowpark Container Services on AWS. This integration provides developers with configurable GPU and CPU instances for various applications, from computer vision to geospatial data analysis. Over 160 Snowflake Native Apps are now available in the marketplace.

7. Developer Tool Enhancements

Several updates aimed at developers include:

• • Snowflake Notebooks: Snowflake Notebooks is now in preview, offering an interactive, cell-based programming environment for Python and SQL within Snowsight. It enables exploratory data analysis, machine learning model development, and other data science tasks all in one place.
• • Snowpark pandas API: Allows the use of pandas syntax for AI and pipeline development within Snowflake. The Snowpark pandas API is now in preview, allowing you to run pandas code directly on Snowflake data. This API offers a pandas-native experience with Snowflake's scalability and security, handling larger datasets without rewriting pandas pipelines.
• • Database Change Management: A public preview feature for DevOps, including Git integration.
• • Python API and CLI: Soon to be generally available, facilitating CI/CD practices.

8. Expanded Cloud Footprint and Governance

Snowflake announced a new data boundary for the EU, ensuring regional data residency and compliance. Additionally, a Department of Defense (DoD) environment meeting IL4 security controls will be available, highlighting Snowflake's commitment to robust data governance and security.

9. Snowflake Trail

The new Trail set of observability capabilities was unveiled, providing developers with tools to monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize workflows. Trail integrates with platforms like Grafana, Metaplane, and Slack, adhering to OpenTelemetry standards.

10. Snowflake Cortex Fine-Tuning — Preview

Cortex Fine-Tuning, now in preview, lets users adapt pre-trained models for specialized tasks. This managed service fine-tunes popular large language models using your data within Snowflake, enhancing model performance for specific use cases.

The preview of Snowpark Native Apps with Snowpark Container Services enables running containerized services within Snowflake Native Apps. This feature supports provider IP protection, security, data sharing, monetization, and integration with compute resources.

11. Snowpark Python Local Testing Framework — General Availability

The Snowpark Python local testing framework is now generally available. This emulator allows you to test Python code locally with Snowpark Python DataFrames, facilitating development and CI pipeline integration without needing a Snowflake account connection.

12. Universal Search and Snowsight Updates

Universal Search, now generally available, allows users to search for content across Snowflake storage, external Iceberg storage, and third-party providers. Snowsight also received a dark mode feature, enhancing user experience in low-light conditions.

13. New Geospatial Functions in Preview

Four new functions for GEOGRAPHY objects are now available in preview:

• • H3_TRY_COVERAGE: A special version of H3_COVERAGE that returns NULL if an error occurs when attempting to return an array of IDs (INTEGER values) identifying the minimal set of H3 cells that completely cover a shape.
• • H3_TRY_COVERAGE_STRINGS: Similar to H3_TRY_COVERAGE but returns hexadecimal IDs (VARCHAR values).
• • H3_TRY_POLYGON_TO_CELLS: Returns an array of INTEGER values of the IDs of H3 cells with centroids contained by a Polygon, returning NULL if an error occurs.
• • H3_TRY_POLYGON_TO_CELLS_STRINGS: Similar to H3_TRY_POLYGON_TO_CELLS but returns VARCHAR values.
With innovations in AI, data governance, and developer tools, Snowflake continues to drive forward the capabilities of its platform, ensuring customers can leverage data more effectively and securely. The future looks promising as Snowflake expands its offerings and strengthens its ecosystem, providing powerful solutions.