Software

Fraud Reported on Deliveroo and Just Eat App

Posted on by Andy Miller

Some Deliveroo and Just Eat customers have reported that their accounts have been used to buy food that they didn’t order, but both companies deny a data breach.

What Happened?

Several Deliveroo customers are reported to have been sent an email from the company stating that the email address linked to their account had been changed, after which it was found that food had been ordered through their account by using credit which an unknown person had obtained by claiming refunds for previous orders.

In the case of Just Eat, some customers also reported having their card details used to purchase food that they had not ordered.

Another Source

Both companies are reported to have denied that their systems had been breached and have said that the customer details used to fraudulently order the food were obtained from another, third-party source.

Password Sharing

Deliveroo is reported as saying that cyber-criminals know that people re-use passwords for multiple online services and that they can obtain login credentials gained from other breaches on other sites to try to access Deliveroo accounts.  This clearly indicates that Deliveroo believes that password sharing may have been a key factor in this fraud.

Expect To Lose Money To Online Fraud

Online fraud is now so prevalent that it appears that many people are resigned to the fact that they will be directly affected, and the message about the dangers of password sharing is not getting through.

For example, the UK National Cyber Security Centre research from April shows that 42% of Brits expect to lose money to online fraud by 2021.

The UK Cyber Survey found also that 70% believe they will likely be a victim of at least one specific type of cyber-crime over the next two years, and that 37% of those surveyed agree that losing money or personal details over the internet is unavoidable these days. The survey also found that fewer than half of those questioned used a separate, hard-to-guess password for their main email account.

1234 Still Most Popular + Dark Net

It’s not just password sharing that’s the problem but also that many people still appear to be choosing obvious passwords.  For example, the NCSC’s recent study into breached passwords revealed that 123456 featured 23 million times, making it still the most widely used password on breached accounts.

Also, recent Surrey University research showed that cyber-criminals now have their own invisible Internet on the so-called ‘dark net’ to allow them to communicate and trade beyond the view of the authorities, and that login details obtained from previous breaches are relatively cheap and easy to buy there.

Not The First Time For Deliveroo

It should be noted that, even though Deliveroo appears to have put the burden of responsibility elsewhere for these recent attacks, some customers had their accounts hacked and unordered food purchases were made back in 2016.  At the time the company also blamed the problems on passwords that had been stolen from another service in a major data breach, although some security commentators have suggested that Deliveroo should now look at whether its security systems are secure enough.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

If Deliveroo and Just Eat’s claims are to be believed, users of these and many other services may be leaving themselves open to fraud by making bad password choices and/or may be unaware that they are using login credentials that have already been stolen or can be obtained by methods such as credential stuffing. Making good password choices is a simple but important way that we can protect ourselves, and Action Fraud suggests that we should all use strong, unique passwords for online accounts and enable two-factor authentication where it is available.

Ideally, passwords should never be shared between accounts because if one breach has taken place on one site, login details can very quickly be tried on other sites by cyber-criminals.  For example, in January a collection of credential stuffing lists (login details taken from other site breaches) containing around 2.7 billion records, including 773 million unique email address and password combinations was discovered being distributed on a hacking forum.

Websites such as https://haveibeenpwned.com/ enable you to check whether your email address and login details have already been stolen in data breaches from other websites and platforms.

Tech Tip – A Free Online HTML Editor

Posted on by Andy Miller

If you’d like to be able to quickly write or edit a piece of content so that it can be easily used online without having to download or purchase HTML editors, try using a free, online HTML editor.

For example, go to https://html5-editor.net/

Type or paste your text into the right-hand side window.  The HTML appears in the left-hand window.  Both are editable.

You can, for example, select all the text in the right-hand window (click in the window, CTRL + A), select ‘Format’ (top bar), and select ‘Clear Formatting’.  This will clean up the code so that you can add your own formatting, links, bold, etc.

If you’d like to save your work as an HTML page, click in the left hand window and use CTRL + A (to copy the HTML code), open Notepad by typing Notepad the Windows search bottom left, CTRL +V to paste into the notepad file, and save the notepad page as a HTML page.

UK National Surveillance Camera Day

Posted on by Andy Miller

In a world first, the UK played host to an awareness-raising National Surveillance Camera Day on 20 June as part of the National Surveillance Camera Strategy.

National Surveillance Camera Day

The National Surveillance Camera Day, which is part of the UK government’s National Surveillance Camera Strategy for England and Wales consisted of events around the country that were designed to raise awareness, inform and lead to a debate about the many different aspects of CCTV camera use (and facial recognition use) in the UK. The Surveillance Camera Commissioner (SCC) wanted the public to take the day as an opportunity to have their say about the future of surveillance cameras with the regulators and service providers listening.

It is hoped that points raised in the debates triggered by the day could help inform policymakers and service providers about how the public feels about surveillance practices and how surveillance camera system use fits with society’s needs and expectations.

One of the key events to mark the day was the “doors open” initiative to allow the public to see first-hand how surveillance camera control centres are operated at the premises of signatories to the initiative e.g. local authorities, police forces, hospitals, and universities.

What / Who Is The SCC?

The Surveillance Camera Commissioner (SCC) for England and Wales is appointed by the Home Secretary as set out in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (PoFA) and it is the Commissioner’s role to ensure surveillance camera systems in public places keep people safe and protect and support them. The current SCC is Tony Porter.

What Is The National Surveillance Camera Strategy?

The National Surveillance Camera Strategy is the government document, presented by the SCC that outlines the plans for surveillance camera use going forward.  The 27-page document is available online here:  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-surveillance-camera-strategy-for-england-and-wales

Two Related World Firsts

Another related world first that took place on the same day as National Surveillance Camera Day was the launch by the SCC of a “secure by default” list of minimum requirements for manufacturers of video surveillance systems, designed for manufacturers by manufacturers.  The hope is that where manufacturers meet the new “secure by default” minimum requirements, this should ensure that the default settings of a product are as secure as possible, and therefore less likely to be vulnerable to cyber-attacks that could lead to data breaches.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Most of us are used to (and often no longer notice) CCTV cameras in use in business premises and public spaces, and we accept that they have a value in protecting us and our businesses in terms of deterring criminals and playing an important role in identifying them, and in providing valuable evidence of crime.

Holding a National Surveillance Camera day highlights the fact that new and emerging technologies e.g. facial recognition and AI are currently causing concern in terms of possible infringements to civil liberties, privacy and security, and an ‘open-day’ style approach could have benefits both ways.  For example, it could serve to reassure the public and at least let them feel that their views and concerns will be listened to, while at the same time giving policy-makers an opportunity to gauge public opinion and gather information that could help guide their strategy and communications.

It is good news that manufacturers are setting themselves minimum security standards for their CCTV systems as part of “secure by default”, as this could have knock-on positive effects in protecting our personal data.

Criminal Secrets Of The Dark Net Revealed

Posted on by Andy Miller

Recent Surrey University research, ‘Web Of Profit’ commissioned by virtualisation-based security firm Bromium has shown that cyber-criminals are moving to their own invisible Internet on the so-called ‘dark net’ to allow them to communicate and trade beyond the view of the authorities.

What Is The Dark Net?

The dark net describes parts of the Internet which are closed to public view or hidden networks and are associated with the encrypted part of the Internet called the ‘Tor’ network where illicit trading takes place.  The dark net is not accessible to search engines and requires special software installed or network configurations made to access it e.g. Tor, which can be accessed via a customised browser from Vidalia.

Deeper

Infiltration and closing down of some of the dark net marketplaces by the authorities are now believed to have led to cyber-criminals moving to a more secure, invisible part of the dark net in order to continue communicating and trading.

How?

Much of the communication about possible targets and tactics between cyber-criminals now takes place on secure apps, forums and chatrooms.  For example, cyber-criminals communicate using the encrypted app ‘Telegram’ because it offers security, anonymity, and encrypted channels for the sale of prohibited goods.

Diverse Dark Net Marketplace

Posing as customers and getting first-hand information from hackers about the costs a range of cyber-attacks, the researchers were able to obtain shocking details such as:

  • Access to corporate networks is being sold openly, with 60% of the sellers offering access to more than 10 business networks at a time. Prices for remote logins for corporate networks ranged from only £1.50-£24, and targeted attacks on companies were offered at a price of £3,500.
  • Phishing kits are available for as little as $40, as are fake Amazon receipts and invoices for $52.
  • Targeted attacks on individuals can be purchased for $2,000, and even Espionage and insider trading are up for sale from $1,000 to $15,000.

Corporations Targeted

One thing that was very clear from the research is that cyber-criminals are very much focusing on corporations as targets with listings for attacks on enterprises having grown by 20% since 2016. The kinds of things being sold include credentials for accessing business email accounts.

Specific Industries

The research also showed that cyber-criminals are moving away from commodity malware and now prefer to tailor tools such as bespoke versions of malware as a way of targeting specific industries or organisations.  For example, the researchers found that 40% of their attempts to request dark net hacking services targeting companies in the Fortune 500 or FTSE 100 received positive responses from sellers, and that the services on offer even come with service plans for conducting the hack, and price tags ranging from $150 to $10,000, depending on the company to be targeted.

The industries that are most frequently targeted using malware tools that are being traded on the dark net include banking (34%), e-commerce (20%), healthcare (15%) and even education (12%).

Researchers also uncovered evidence that vendors are now acting on behalf of clients to hack organisations, obtain IP and trade secrets and disrupt operations.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The dark net is not new, but some commentators believe that the heavy-handed nature of some of the police work to catch criminals on the dark net is responsible for pushing criminal communication and trading activity further underground into their own invisible areas.  End-to-end encrypted communications tools such as Telegram mean that cyber-criminals can carry on communicating beyond the reach of the authorities.

The research should show businesses that there is now real cause for concern about the sensitive, informed and finely tuned approach that cyber-criminals are taking in their targeting of organisations, right from the biggest companies down to SME’s.  This should be a reminder that cyber-security should be given priority, especially when it comes to defending against phishing campaigns, which are one of the most successful ways that criminals gain access to company networks.

Law enforcement agencies also need to do more now to infiltrate, gather intelligence, and try to deter and stop the use of different forums, channels and other areas of the dark net in order to at least prevent some of the more open trading of hacking services and tools.

Mastercard’s AI-Based Digital Wellness Could Make Online Purchasing Easier and Safer

Posted on by Andy Miller

Mastercard has announced the introduction of its Digital Wellness program which utilises AI-based click-to-pay technology and new standards in order to provide an easier and safer online shopping experience.

The Program

The Mastercard Digital Wellness program provides tips and resources that are designed to help businesses (especially small and independent businesses) protect themselves from cyber-attacks and data breaches. The program includes Secure Remote Commerce, Mastercard’s Cyber Readiness Institute (a collective of business leaders), and The Global Cyber Alliance which provides SMBs with free cyber-security tools.

New Click-To-Pay Checkout System

Coming out of the Digital Wellness Program is Mastercard’s new click-to-pay checkout system which is enabled by Mastercard’s deployment of EMVCo’s (Europay, Mastercard, Visa) specification. The standards that make up EMVCO’s specification provide a foundation that enables the processing of e-commerce transactions in a consistent, streamlined fashion over a variety of digital channels and devices, including smartphones, tablets, PCs and other connected devices.

This means that the click-to-pay checkout system can be used for all kinds of online shopping, across multiple devices, and across cards, and can replace old key-entry checkout systems.

Tokenization and NuData

The click-to-pay checkout system incorporates tokenization and NuData, which represent Mastercard’s AI and machine learning tech. NuData can prevent fraud by (for example) monitoring website traffic changes, analysing changes in browsers and web surfing speeds, and verifying all the user data that makes a user unique (such as an individual’s scroll speed on their device).

The inclusion of AI technology means greater security and no need for customers to enter passwords when they pay.

The Advantages

The key advantages of the click-to-pay checkout system from the Digital Wellness Program are that:

  • It tackles the problem that customers feel unease when it comes to paying for things online because of the added security.
  • It’s fast and easy – the instant click-to-pay with no need for passwords tackles the reluctance of online shoppers to create a new user account.
  • Merchants who adopt the system have a system from a known and trusted provider that could give them a better chance of preventing fraud.

These factors mean that the system could make customers more likely to feel comfortable shopping for things on smaller websites or with unknown retailers.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For Mastercard, this is a way of selling its services to the huge market of smaller and independent businesses.

For merchants, it’s a way for them to leverage the latest AI tech to protect themselves and their customers from fraud, and tackle popular known barriers to purchases from smaller retailers online i.e. worries about security and the unwillingness to take the time to set up a new user account when they want to buy something.

For customers, the system should provide a safe and fast purchasing experience which can only reflect well on the merchant.  It remains to be seen, however, how many merchants take up the new system and what the cost versus benefit implications will be.

Accounting Systems Too Complex (And Lack Investment)

Posted on by Andy Miller

A recent Barclaycard survey shows that 48 per cent of Chief financial officers (CFOs) think that current accounting systems are too complex.

Complex Systems

According to the survey, some of the main reasons that CFO’s find their accounting systems to be too complex are that they are not digitised enough and too are labour intensive.  This is the reason why 44% of CFOs say that they would want more automation when they upgrade.

Not Investing Could Be Affecting Bottom Line

The Barclaycard survey also found that a Chief Financial Officer’s (CFO’s) leadership style and willingness to invest in their financial and accounting software has a real impact on their businesses’ bottom line.  For example, over a fifth (22%) of finance heads believe their accounting software is out of date, which, according to Barclaycard, could mean that UK CFOs are missing out on £6.7 billion each year by not taking advantage of early payment discounts.

Complex And Out Of Date

According to Barclaycard’s survey results, even though 85% of the CFOs surveyed said they recognise the need to continuously invest in their accounting systems, this is clearly not happening and this may be because more than three-quarters (77%) admit to not having time and resources to find the right one.

This lack of investment and time, coupled with apparent resistance to change in many businesses appears to have led to a situation whereby 22% of businesses are using out-of-date accounting software, with 40% of businesses not having upgraded their accounting software for five years!

Missing Out

Barclaycard’s survey indicates that because many accounting software systems are outdated, companies can’t automate payments to meet supplier conditions for an early settlement discount, and this could mean that UK corporates are missing out on of £14.4bn of saving per year (the equivalent of £75,389 per business).

The Survey

This survey, conducted on behalf of Barclaycard conducted by Opinium Research in February 2019, was carried out among 500 senior financial decision makers in companies with turnover of £6.5 million or more and who do not outsource their accounts payable.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Even though the research was conducted by Barclaycard, which has an interest in accounting systems, it does highlight some of the challenges and barriers to upgrading that many businesses face, such as not having the time, money, and other resources to help them invest in a new system, thereby making them miss out on possible savings from early settlement discount.

It is not just with accounting systems that businesses would like to reduce complexity and increase automation where possible but struggling with accounting technology and systems is certainly not uncommon.  For many small businesses, it’s often a case of using desktop accounting software with related third-party apps and integration without much software training and asking the accountant for technology advice.  For example, a recent Zoho and AccountingWeb report showed that small businesses ask their accountants for technology advice 83% of the time, and 40% of those accountants say they are asked technology questions up to 20 times a month.

Premium, Paid For Version Of Mozilla’s Firefox Planned

Posted on by Andy Miller

It has been reported that Mozilla will be introducing a (paid for) premium subscription-based Firefox service this October to run alongside the free, open-source Firefox browser.

Why?

Mozilla’s share of the (free) browser market has been squeezed by some heavy competition from Google’s Chrome browser and although the Firefox browser is present on many computers and is used to sell people services, it isn’t actually making Mozilla any money.  Also, Mozilla relies heavily on revenue that it receives from search companies that pay to be featured in the Firefox browser, with much of that money coming from its competitor Google. Mozilla, therefore, is looking to diversify and find a way to build its own additional independent revenue stream from the bundling of value-adding services that it already has.

What?

Reports indicate that the new paid for bundled service could include:

  • VPN bandwidth that exceeds what’s available (free) via Mozilla’s ProtonMail VPN partnership i.e. giving paying customers for its new service access to a premium level VPN bandwidth.
  • An as yet, unspecified allotment of secure cloud storage.

Other possible parts of the bundled subscription service could include (although this has not been confirmed):

  • Mozilla’s free file transfer service “Firefox Send”.
  • Mozilla’s password manager “Lockwise”.
  • Firefox Monitor, Mozilla’s service, similar to HaveIBeenPwned.com, which allows you to check whether your personal information has been compromised by any of the numerous data breaches.
  • The “Pocket” application, also known as “Read It Later” which helps with managing a reading list of articles from the Internet by letting you save web pages and videos to Pocket in just one click. Mozilla acquired this service in 2017, and it already has a Premium version available for $45 per year.
  • Tools from ‘Scroll’ (a start-up working with Mozilla) that could result in users of the new premium service getting access to certain news sites.

How Much?

Current reports indicate that the premium Firefox service could cost users around the $10 per month mark.

Still Free Firefox

Mozilla has announced that it won’t charge for existing Firefox features as part of its shift to offering subscription services and that the free Firefox browser will continue to run as normal.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For Mozilla, this offers a way to diversify and generate a stream of revenue that isn’t connected to Google and monetises the synergies that it can get from a bundle of some of the products and services that it already owns. It’s also another way to compete in a tough browser market where there is one very strong and dominant market leader that already monetises popular advertising services that display across other browsers and platforms.

For users, access to a premium level VPN bandwidth and secure cloud storage from a known and trusted brand may justify a monthly subscription, particularly with some of the other value-adding services that could be bundled in and may not have been tried businesses to date.

Tech Tip – Night Light For Windows

Posted on by Andy Miller

If you leave your computer on and/or need to work late into the evenings, for example, the Windows 10 ‘night light’ feature enables the gradual limitation of the colour spectrum from your computer so that your body’s Melatonin (the bedtime-indicating chemical) isn’t impeded.

When a screen is left on it emits blue light which can keep you overly awake.  With the night light setting on, warmer colours are displayed which can help you sleep.  Windows knows what time zone your computer is in so scheduling it for your sunset and sunrise should be easy.

To activate night light:

Go to ‘Settings’, click on ‘System’.

Put night light ‘On’ and click on ‘night light settings’ to select ‘colour temperature’.  You will also see a ‘Turn on Now’ button to help you get the right colour temperature.

Under ‘Schedule’, toggle ‘Schedule night light’ to ‘On’.

Either select ‘Sunset to sunrise’ or select ‘Set hours’ and enter custom times for the night light to turn on and off.

Salesforce Adding Blockchain Platform To CRM

Posted on by Andy Miller

The Salesforce cloud-based CRM platform is adding a low code, blockchain-powered service that will allow users to share data with third parties in a secure, transparent, and auditable way.

Blockchain

Blockchain, the technology that was famously behind the bitcoin cryptocurrency, has been described by its Co-Founder Nic Carey as being like “a big spreadsheet in the cloud that anyone can use, but no one can erase or modify”.  Blockchain is an open-source, free technology that acts as an incorruptible peer-to-peer network / a kind of ledger that allows multiple parties to transfer value in a secure and transparent way.

Salesforce Blockchain Platform

Salesforce is positioning its Blockchain platform as a low-code system that has been customised to fit with Salesforce’s flagship Lightning CRM product.  The Blockchain platform has been built on the open source technology developed by Hyperledger Sawtooth. Salesforce Blockchain is currently only available to select design partners but will have its general release in 2020.

Why Blockchain?

Many businesses and organisations are now finding that they need to harness and share large amounts of data with a growing network of partners and third parties.  This sharing needs to be accomplished, however, in a way that is secure and incorruptible, and transparent and with a clear audit trail.  There is, of course, also the need to save costs, reduce inefficiencies, and make the process of sharing data as fast and easy as possible.

Also, in terms of the broader function of a CRM system, companies and organisations need the most up-to-date and effective way to verify and maintain contracts, send transactions, and essentially “automate trust”. Blockchain offers all these benefits.

Blockchain-as-a-Service

Salesforce is one of a growing number of tech brands getting in the rapidly growing BaaS market which offers enterprises the chance to deploy distributed ledgers without the cost or risk of deploying it in-house, and without needing to find in-house developers.

Tech commentators have noted, for example, that Microsoft and many other big tech companies, including Amazon and Oracle, are now looking to make the most of the growing blockchain as a service (BaaS) market. Microsoft was one of the first software vendors to offer BaaS on its Azure cloud platform as far back as 2015, but the predictions are that from the end of this year onwards, the market (estimated to be worth $7billion) will start to grow rapidly.

Real World Examples

Salesforce is already reporting ways that its new Blockchain platform is making a positive difference, such as at S&P Global Ratings which is using the service to reduce the time it takes to review and approve new business bank accounts.

There are now plenty of other examples of how Blockchain technology is being used (and is about to be used) in the real business world to add value, increase efficiencies, create opportunities and provide innovative ways of meeting old business challenges.  These include:

  • Using the data on a blockchain ledger to record the temperature of sensitive medicines being transported from manufacturer to hospital in hot climates. The ‘incorruptible’ aspect of the blockchain data gives a clear record of care and responsibility along the whole supply chain.
  • Using an IBM-based blockchain ledger to record data about wine certification, ownership and storage history. This has helped to combat fraud in the industry and has provided provenance and re-assurance to buyers.
  • Shipping Company Maersk using a blockchain-based system for tracking consignments thereby offering visibility and efficiency i.e. digitising a formerly paper-based process that involved multiple interactions.
  • Start-up company ‘Electron’ building a blockchain-based system for sharing information between those involved in supplying energy which could speed up and simplify the supplier switching process. It may also be used for smart grid processes, such as local load-balancing of supply and demand.
  • Data storage solutions company Seagate Technology (Seagate), and IBM working together and using Blockchain and advanced cryptographic product identification technology to reduce disk-drive product counterfeiting.
  • Facebook is reported to be developing its own blockchain-based cryptocurrency that will enable its users to have a PayPal-like experience when purchasing advertised products, as well as providing authentication and an audit trail.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For Salesforce customers, particularly the smaller customers, having Blockchain-as-a-Service as part of their CRM should enable them to solve some of their biggest data-sharing challenges (security, trust, and transparency) in a way that doesn’t require lots of code, and in a way that doesn’t require the considerable cost or risk of trying to develop and deploy it in-house.

The benefits of blockchain technology are just starting to be realised and exploited by many different companies around the world, and the BaaS market looks set to grow rapidly with the big tech companies and brands all looking to compete by offering different Blockchain-based services to businesses and organisations of all sizes.

Blockchain has already proven itself to be a technology that can save time and costs, provide fast and secure traceability, visibility and efficiency, and provide a real competitive advantage for companies that are willing to investigate how it could be used to add value to their particular business.

Even governments and cities around the world have realised the benefits and are committing considerable resources to Blockchain. For example, Dubai has committed to putting all of its documents on blockchain in the next few years and has founded a public-private initiative called the Global Blockchain Council to foster the development and use of blockchain technology in and between local government teams, local businesses and international start-ups.

SurveyMonkey Goes to Ireland

Posted on by Andy Miller

California-based online survey software company SurveyMonkey has opened a datacentre in Dublin with a view to attracting enterprise customers in the EMEA region.

SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey, which was established in Portland by Ryan and Chris Finley, has more than 750 employees globally and is estimated to have more than 600,000 paying users across more than 300,000 organisational domains.  190 countries and territories use the SurveyMonkey platform which is a cloud-based, online survey tool that is offered for free, or SaaS.

The company now has offices in San Mateo, Portland, Seattle, Dublin, Ottawa, and Sydney.  The Irish office was opened in 2014 and currently has around 50 employees.  SurveyMonkey went public in 2018.

Why A Datacentre In Dublin?

There are several good reasons for the move to Dublin coupled with a focus on wooing EMEA enterprise customers, such as:

  • 16% of SurveyMonkey’s revenue during the first quarter of 2019 came from sales to the enterprise sector.
  • More than one-third of SurveyMonkey’s business revenue comes from outside the US, with the majority in Europe.
  • There is a huge opportunity for growth that’s offered by companies where SurveyMonkey has been adopted (as the free version) through back-door ‘shadow IT’, and where those enterprises can be encouraged to legitimately adopt the use of the software as company-wide deployments by being reassured that the data they collect is stored in a European data centre (Dublin). This has been termed a ‘land and expand’ strategy.
  • Dublin is ranked as one of the best places to work in Ireland and offers many benefits to tech companies and start-ups.

Phased Approach

SurveyMonkey’s strategy, of which the Dublin datacentre is a part, is a phased one with the first phase being to acquire new customers, and phase two focusing on migrating customers who already have a lot of data stored in their SurveyMonkey accounts.

In addition to expanding across Europe, SurveyMonkey will also be looking at making customers aware of the other services that it offers.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

SurveyMonkey knows that the Europe /  EMEA region already delivers plenty of revenue and that there’s a great opportunity to expand further. Placing a datacentre in Europe may be very attractive to (and reduce risk for) enterprise customers who must be very careful about where their data is stored (refer GDPR) and who always want to reduce complexity about data storage.

This story also shows how the ‘shadow IT’ use of software has provided a way in and can be part of a successful strategy for growth and expansion.