Singapore talent continues to be in demand: Robert Walters

Robert Walters, the recruitment consultancy, has released its Asia Job Index for Q1 2015, revealing that domestic talent acquisition remains a key priority in Singapore. The Asia Job Index tracks job advertising volumes for professional positions across the leading job boards and national newspapers in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.

Toby Fowlston, Managing Director, Robert Walters Southeast Asia said, “Recruitment in Singapore is largely driven by competition in the candidate-short market, hence key challenges generally lie in attracting the best talent for the right positions. To address this, the employment market has evolved to focus heavily on talent development and retention. 

Click on the image to view a larger version.

"Companies prioritise Singaporean professionals when hiring and that emphasis will continue throughout the year. Only when all channels of recruiting domestic talent have been exhausted do hiring managers expand their search to foreign candidates. Despite offshoring within the foreign investment banking industry in the last six months, financial services still remain a major part of the Singapore economy and we look forward to a more buoyant sector in the year ahead.”

The key findings are:

· The legal and compliance space saw the largest jump in job advertising volumes, up 30% from 2014. Positions in anti-money laundering and financial crime are particularly in demand.

· IT job advertising rose by 18% from 2014 as companies strengthened their presence on social media and digital platforms.

· Increasing operating costs drove the offshoring of manufacturing plants to other more cost-efficient countries in Asia, leading to an annual 14% drop in advertisements for product and logistics operations jobs.

· The rising importance of the HR function to include business partnering and talent acquisition fuelled the demand for these positions, with advertising for HR roles increasing by 10% annually.

Download the complete Robert Walters Asia Job Index Q1 2015 here. 

Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit says B106 topped the cyber threat list in ASEAN for Q1 2015

The Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit has released its Malware Infection Index* for ASEAN for the first quarter of 2015.

Source: Microsoft. India remains the most infected country, while Indonesia is no. 5 globally, and China is 8th. 

Source: Microsoft.

The top threat in ASEAN, Bladabindi/Jenxcus (B106), is a malware family that can steal sensitive information and send it to a malicious hacker. It can also download other malware and give unauthorised access to your PC. This malware family can also be used to take control of your PC and steal your sensitive information. 

Some variants can use your PC camera to record you or send information about what keys you press to a malicious hacker. They can spread via infected removable drives, such as USB flash drives. They can also be downloaded by other malware, or spread though malicious links and hacked or compromised websites. Jenxcusthreat can get onto your PC from a drive-by download attack, that is as a by-product of a download that the user is tricked into starting, or through a download that occurs behind the scenes without the user knowing about it.

Ranked no. 2, Conficker is a family of worms that can disable several important OS services and security products. They can also download files and run malicious code on your PC if you have file sharing enabled. Some worms can also spread via removable drives and by using common passwords.

Ramnit, in no. 3 place, is a malware family that steals sensitive information, such as your bank user names and passwords. It can also give a malicious hacker access and control of your PC, and stop your security software from running. These threats can be installed on your PC through an infected removable drive, such as a USB flash drive.

Singapore shares the same no. 1 and no. 2 threats as ASEAN but has Sirefef (ZeroAccess) in no. 3 place. This trojan belongs to a family of malware that uses stealth to hide its presence on a computer. Trojans in this family can do all manner of unauthorised things, including downloading and running other files, contacting other computers, and disabling security features. Members of the family can also change search results, which can generate money for the attackers who use Sirefef.

Malaysia has the same malware profile as Singapore. Kuala Lumpur sees the most cyber threats, and then Ipoh.

Vietnam also shares the same no. 1 and no. 2 threats. In no. 3 place for Vietnam is Ramnit, a malware family that steals sensitive information such as bank user names and passwords. It can also give a malicious hacker access and control of a PC and stop your security software from running. These threats can be installed on your PC through an infected removable drive, such as a USB flash drive. The most dangerous cities for malware in Vietnam are Hanoi, followed by Ho Chi Minh City. Thailand has a very similar malware profile; its most dangerous cities for malware are Bangkok, and then Chiang Mai. 

The Philippines also has the same malware profile, but its top city for malware is not Manila as might be expected, but Quezon City. Manila faces the second-most number of threats.

Indonesia's most dangerous threat is Ramnit in no. 1 place, followed by B106 and then Conficker. Jakarta sees the most malware, followed by Bandung and then Medan.

Microsoft further offers three cyber security tips for organisations:

1. Exercise safe computing practices, such as running current, up-to-date and legitimate software products, plus always have antivirus/anti-malware protection.

2. Be comprehensive in reviewing due-diligence practices, which would include robust and regular inspection of business processes, suppliers, and organisational practices, not just the use of technology.

3. Consider cloud as one of the safest ways forward to protect data and privacy in future, but choose your cloud provider wisely on the basis of trust, commitment and credibility. For Microsoft, the principles of trust are cybersecurity, data protection, privacy, regulatory compliance and transparency.

*Source: Microsoft DCU Malware Operations Report 

Make advertisements mobile to capture a growing opportunity

Source: Criteo.

Criteo, the performance marketing technology company, has released its Q1 2015 State of Mobile Commerce Report, highlighting that mobile devices are now responsible for more than one third of all e-commerce transactions globally. Smartphones are becoming the dominant mobile device replacing tablets. As a result, advertisers’ future success now depends on their ability to offer a compelling mobile site.

“Mobile commerce is growing like a weed,” said Jonathan Wolf, Chief Product Officer, Criteo. “Smartphones are now (accounting for) the majority of mobile transactions, and the growth of larger screen sizes and better mobile sites is only going to accelerate this trend.”

These trends are the result of Criteo’s analysis of individual transaction-level data from more than US$160 billion of sales globally. Key takeaways include:

• By the end of 2015, mobile share of e-commerce transactions will reach 40% globally.

• Asia leads the way in smartphone purchases with close to 50% of e-commerce transactions happening on smartphones. Mobile conversion rates in Japan are more than 3.5x higher than the US.

• Increased comfort level with purchasing and larger screen sizes are credited for the increase.

• The mobile conversion funnel has arrived. Consumers now view the same number of products on both desktops and smartphones, but with lower add-to-basket and purchase rates on smartphones.

“The huge growth in mobile transactions over the past quarter shows that consumers are now very comfortable purchasing on smartphones across all categories,” said Wolf. “There really is no limit to this growth – mobile is now more than half of all e-commerce transactions in advanced markets like Japan and South Korea.”

Download Criteo’s Q1 2015 State Of Mobile Commerce report here.