Friday, November 16, 2018 DECCAN

AN HERA
RALD11

Panorama US could lose in war with China

or Russia, panel warns. P12

ty v
IoT: Oh, here come cybersecurity vu
ulnerabilities
S S Iyengar and Jerry Miller security
ty,whileautomatingthosemundane signs monitoring, patient tracking, work- care,yourpersonaldataislikelystillatrisk. all of us. Yet, many of us take it lightly. In
tasks, such as keeping track of whether fl
flow integration and a host of other uses. Anything connected to the internet is a 2017, the most popular password was still,

W
ow! A toaster is connected to
the Internet and a robotic arm
actuallyinsertrtsthebread!Isthisa
newheadline?Thiseventactuallyoccurred
in 1991, when John Romkey and Simon
Hackett connected a ‘Sunbeam Deluxe
Automatic Radiant Control Toaster’ and
demonstrated the device at the 1991 Inter-
Op. They had demonstrated the toaster
controltheyearpriorbutaddedtherobotic
crane(arm)tofurtherautomatethedevice
thefollowingyear.
Today, the Internet-of-Things (IoT),
which connects cyber-physical systems
throughtheinternet,isbecomingahouse-
hold word as more and more devices are
connected each day. Smart meters are
used to regulate heating and energy use,
electrical billing; we are developing smart
cities, smart vehicles, smart refrigerators,
smartwashersanddryers,smartdoorbells
and a plethora of other smart devices that
can connect through the internet to allow
us to automatically view and regulate the
worldaroundus.
Many of these devices have been touted
as providing better personal and home
you need milk, or whether it has passed its
expiration date. But are you really more
secure than you were 30 years ago before
weconnectedthetoastertotheinternet?
Theanswerdependsuponhowyouview
security. From a physical security stand-
point, the new automated doorbells and
household security systems which allow
you to view your home from anyw ywhere
through the internet and notifyfy you when
someone is at the door or inside the home,
may be providing you with an important
security
ty feature.Buteachnewsystemcon-
nected to the internet may be opening a
Pandora’sboxofnewsecurity ty risks.
Cisco Connection Counter estimates
that more than 50 billion devices will be
connected to the IoT by 2020, accounting
for only 2.7% of the world’s total objects.
That’s just the beginning. What are these
‘things’ being connected? In addition to
those ‘smart’ devices already mentioned,
the major fields of transportation, agricul-
ture and healthcare are leading the way in
connecting new devices, as are consumer
products.Weareconnectingvehicles,traf-
ficlightsandtrafficsigns.
Commercial fl fleets are connecting their
vehicles to monitor traffic miles, mainte-
nance services, and to provide real-time
monitoring of oil pressures, engine hours,
battery status, and vibration on critical
components, as well as monitoring a wide
variety
ty of road and operating conditions.
Connectedparkingspotsarenowallowing
motorists to see when parking is available
and reduce carbon emissions through
reducedidleandoperationtimes.
In healthcare, internet connectivity
ty has
enabled monitoring of drug supplies, hos-
pital inventory, patient status and vital
All of this monitoring and tracking also
adds a cornucopia of data that must be an-
alysed and, more importantly, protected.
Unfortunately, as data accumulates, more
peoplehaveaccesstoitandeachofthecon-
nected devices generating the data must
have secure connections to transmit and
storetheinformation.Often,theydonot.
In2016,theEuropeanUnionparliament
instituted the General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR) and provided a two-
year transition for implementation. May
2018 marked the beginning of non-com-
plianceandimplementationofstrictpenal-
tiesandfines.TheUKfollowedwithitsown
version,theDataProtectionBill,in2018.
Yet, a 2018 comprehensive research
study by Cybersecurityty Insiders indicated
that only 7% of the surveyed organisations
were in full compliance. Nearly 60% were
inviolationofthestandardsasofthesurv rvey
date and further indicated they lacked ex-
pert staff or the budget to implement the
requiredchanges.
While most connected IoT devices are
not in your home, but in industries such as
manufacturing,transport rtationandhealth-
potentialsecurityty threat. “123456.” Is it any wonder then that Face-
book, Yahoo, Google and other accounts
Software updates are routinely hacked? Use a strong and
Most devices will connect by bluetooth, secure password, always! Secure your ac-
suchasFitbits,andavariety ty ofothermed- counts,devicesandsystems.
ical,health,andhomemonitorsandoften If you own a business, make sure to in-
receive software updates the same way. stall the best internet protections you can
Before you install new software on your afford,andmostimportantlyeducateyour
devices,orupdateexistingsoftw tware,make employees on cybersecurity issues and
sureitisavalidupdatebythemanufactur- actions to protect themselves, your clients
er/supplier and not an infected version andthecompany’svitalinformation.Rein-
supplied by hackers. Known software forcethistrainingeverysix ix months.
can be accessed by criminals, changed If your company uses IoT-connected
to meet their monitoring or access plans, devices,suchassmartphones,tablets,PoS
then pushed to you for installation on terminals,security ty camerasordrones,use
your device. Make sure your version of anti-malware softw tware and limit access to
the software is indeed provided by the these devices. As a business owner, also
manufacturer. makesureyoursupplychainissecure.Talk
If you routinely download apps on your to your vendors and suppliers and make
smartphone, be aware that nearly 95% of suretheyaretakingthesamecybersecurity ty
all apps available for download have not precautionsasyoutoprotectyourdata.
been securityty-tested and could be vu
vulner- (Iyengar is Distinguished Ryder Professor
able to hackers. Be aware of the personal and Director, School of Computing and In-
datayouareprovidinganddonotautomat- formation Sciences, Florida International
ically allow an application to have access University; Miller is Associate Director,
toyourphoneanditsstoredinformation. RoboticsandWirelessSystemsatDiscovery ry
Cybersecurity is a huge problem for Lab,FIU)

Who rules YouTube? Vigi

gilaan
goin
nce awar
areness:
ing beyond idea

Swi
wifftt? Bieber? It’s T-Series
Bhamy V Shenoy interest. Even if a small num-
ber of people were to take the

V
i gilance Awareness
Week (VAW) from Oc-
tober 29 to November 3
has ended. Now is the time to
post audit to find out what we
accomplished. We have often
In 2016, hundreds of millions of people got internet access through Reliance Jio. experi
riencedhowobserv
such import
rvationof
rtant events become
They helped make T-Series the most watched YouTube channel in the world. ritualexercisesandproduceno
discernibleresults.
Though the Central Vigi-
Andrew R Chow lance Commission (CVC) had
sentacircularonSeptember24
pledge seriously we would see
the dawn of a new India. But
corruption from top to bottom
isonlyworsening.
How can we explain the cor-
ruptionchargesagainstthetop
officers of India’s premier in-
vestigative agency, the Central
A
Bureau of Investigation (CBI)?
Arreweconcerned?
Has even one employee of
the almost bankrupt Gujarat
State Petroleum Corporation

T
aylor Swift and Ed Sheeran have each
racked up more than 15 billion views
on YouTube. Justin Bieber beats them
both, with 18 billion views. But none of those
megastars comes close to T-Series.
Although not widely known outside India,
T-Series, the music label and film production
company, has the most watched YouTube
channel in the world. Its videos have been
seen 53 billion times. The channel gains more
than100,000subscribersadayandisaboutto
pass the controversial personality ty PewDiePie
to become the most subscribed to channel on
YouTube.
AndthankstoarapidlygrowingonlineIndi-
anviewerbaseandincreasinginternationalin-
terest,itsriseisnotlikelytoslowanyt ytimesoon.
While T-Series may be thriving in the in-
ternet age, it began far before the internet
becamepopular.Thecompanywasfoundedin
the early 1980s by Gulshan Kumar, previously
a fruit-juice seller, as a cassette tapes opera-
tion. It rosefrom issuing pirated recordings to
producingfilmmusicforBollyw ywoodblockbust-
ers like the 1990’s Aashiqui.
By the mid 1990s, the company was a large
conglomerate and a central part of the coun-
try’s media landscape, with subdivisions in
film,television,realestateandeventoothpaste
and detergent.
T-Series started posting trailers and mu-
sic videos from its catalogue on YouTube in
earnest in late 2010. Those videos performed
modestly,withviewsinthefiveandsixfigures.
But most of India was still offlfline — and You-
Tube was dominated by idiosyncratic individ-
uals like Smosh and Fred.
The country’s internet access got a ma-
jor boost in September 2016 when Reliance
Industries shelled out $35 billion to launch
India’s first 4G netw
twork, Reliance Jio, offering
free calls and data at minuscule costs.
The move, combined with the affordabil-
ity of smartphones, brought internet to the
fingertips of more than 200 million people —
eveninvillageswithoutelectricity ty.Partnership
deals between YouTube and the country’s
major media companies, including T-Series,
ensured that the biggest Indian pop stars, tel-
evision shows and movies were waiting online
for an eager audience.
“As more and more of India came along,
video became the way that they were inter-
acting with the internet,” Gautam Anand, the
managingdirectorofYouTube’sAsianbranch,
YouTube APAC, said in a phone interview; he
said that 85% of the country’s internet users
use YouTube. “Even if you’re not literate, you
still enjoy watching video.”
T-Series was the foremost beneficiary. At
thetimeofJio’slaunch,T-Serieswasregularly
producing dozens of videos each month for its
12millionsubscribers.Ayearlater,thenumber
had doubled. Currently, the channel has 70
million subscribers, with its videos averaging
DRAWING CROWDS: A still from the music video for ‘Bom Diggy Diggy’ by Zack Knight and Jasmin Walia, from the movie ‘Sonu ke Titu ki
Sweety’. The video, released by T-Series in February, has 343 million views. T-SERIES VIA NYT
6.5 million views each, according to Tubular
Labs, a digital video analytics company. Last
December,therisingpopstarGuruRandhawa
scored T-Series’biggest hit yet, Lahore, which
has more than 615 million views.
While T-Series also earns money through
more traditional revenue streams, its You-
Tube channel alone earns millions of dollars
a year, according to Socialblade, a YouTube
data-analysis site.
“The recent growth in internet usage in
Indiahasreallyhelpedusgrowexponentially,”
Neeraj Kalyan, the president of T-Series, said
in an email interview. “The last ttw
wo years have
been really action-packed.”
Buoyed by a strong back catalogue and a
sterling artist roster, T-Series has worked
closely with YouTube on programming and
promotional strategies to increase viewer-
ship. Its strategy has been ttw
wofold: to provide
a home to the upper echelon of stars — like
Randhawa, Salman Khan and Deepika Padu-
kone — and to ffllood the market with diverse
contentthatincludesregionallanguagemusic
and devotional songs.
In addition to the main Bollyw
ywood channel,
requestinggovernmentinstitu-
tionstoobserv rveVAW,theactu tual
planning started only a week
before.TheCVChadrequested
the institutions to administer
integrity pledges, hold work-
shops, debates, and competi-
tion on “Eradicate Corruption
-BuildaNewIndia”.
On paper, all these outreach
activities look admirable. How-
ever, because of poor planning
andexecution,theyremainritu tu-
al exercises. Just about every-
thing is done in the last minute
togothroughthemotions.
This year I was the resource
personfortw twoeventstoobserv rve
VAW — one by Indian Oil Cor-
poration (IOC) and the other
by Bharath Petroleum Com-
pany Limited (BPCL). While
IOC started to work one week
in advance, it was just one day
prior to the event in the case of
BPCL. IOC selected Regional
Institute of Education (RIE) in
Mysuru while BPCL requested
aprivateengineeringcollege.
The event organised by IOC
was some success in that stu-
dents took active part rt in asking
questions on the root cause of
corruption, what role they and
their parents could play in re-
ducing corruption, why Indian
citizens, despite all the civilisa-
tional values of contributing to
societal well-being, were con-
T-Serieshas28otherchannels,whichareeach Inaphoneinterview,AllisonStern,Tubular cernedinmax aximisingtheirself-
geared toward a different slice of a country Labs’ co-founder and chief strategy officer, ishgoalsbybribinggovernment
that speaks dozens of dialects. “We have no compared T-Series’ success to that of Vevo officials, why there were very
choice other than to release all that content,” during YouTube’s growth period in the early fewwhistleblowers,etc.
Kalyan said. “Each content piece has its own 2010s. In the case of BPCL, the
audience and thus it’s hardly cannibalised “As these waves of audiences come online, college had to coerce a few
ever.” it feels like music is the first thing that brings first-year students who were
As T-Series leads the way, other Indian me- peoplethere—andthenholdsthemandtrains least interested to participate.
dia companies have also built up major pres- them to come to YouTube for content,” Stern Students were seen waiting for
ences on YouTube. Three Indian channels said. “After that you get kids content, gaming their after-event refreshments.
are on Socialblade’s list of the top 10 most content—alltheseotherverticalsthatunfold.” They forced me to cut short rt the
infl
fluentialYouTubechannels:T-Series,ZeeTV T-Series is finding a growing audience not interaction to less than half an
and YRF. Western companies are investing justinIndiabutalsooutsideofit.Justlessthan hour. There was no time or in-
in the country as well, with Sony Music India half of T-Series’traffic comes from India, with terest to even take pledges — a
averaging 474 million views a month. 12% coming from the United States. In 2016, minimumresultexpectedfrom
the company signed a licensing deal with Am- aVAWevent.
Content boom azon for film releases. Itmaybeusefultostudywhat
Their collective success could be just the be- Kalyan hopes to court Indian populations has been happening despite
ginningofanIndiancontentboom.Indiaisthe aroundtheworldandproducecrossoverBolly- taking integrityty pledges. Those
second-most populous country in the world, wood artists who can match the global appeal taking pledges are expected
with more than 1.35 billion people — and ac- of South Korea’s BTS or Puerto Rico’s Bad to follow the rule of life in all
cording to Bain & Co., only 34% of the country Bunny — and in the process, make T-Series a walks of life, neither to take nor
is online, compared with 89% of Americans. household international name. “Bollyw ywood is offer bribe, perform all tasks
That number will continue to grow as infra- nolongerrestrictedtoIndiaonly,”Kalyansaid. in an honest and transparent
structure improves and consumers look to “The world is becoming ffllat.” manner, to report incidents of
diversify
fy their viewing habits beyond music. International New York Times corruption and act in public
become a whistleblower to
prevent the shocking level of
corruption there? There must
be several who had taken a
pledge to report incidents of
corruption. The GSPC had in-
vested Rs 20,000 crore in the
Krishna-Godavari basin but
produced very little gas. All
over the world, the oil sector is
‘cursed’ with corruption and
Indiaisnoexception.
Beforethefallinoilprices,be-
cause of diversion of PDS kero-
seneandresidentialLPG,every
year about Rs 50,000 crore of
black money was generated.
Only after the introduction of
digital technology based on the
Aadhaar scheme to distribute
LPG subsidy directly to banks,
corruption has been almost
eliminated.Thesamemayhap-
penwithPDSkerosene.Howev-
er, despite scores of employees
ofoilcompaniestaki kingintegrity
ty
pledges, why has corruption
been rampant in the oil sector
andwhyisitstillcontinuing?
Notthatcorru ruptionisanyless
in other sectors of the econo-
my or government agencies.
Some government institutions
with a dubious distinction of
high-levelcorru ruptionareRTOs,
Registrar’s office, depart rtments
issuing building permits and
completioncert rtificates,etc.The
Centre has taken several initia-
tives like Sakal, RTI, etc besides
having the A An nti-corruption Bu-
reau, Lokayu yukta etc. Yet, even
those who want to follow the
rru
uleoflawcannotgettheirwork
donewithoutpayingabribe.
It is easy to conclude that it is
impossibletoeliminatecorrup-
tionsinceitisprevalentinevery
part of the world. However,
there are countries like Singa-
pore, Rwanda, etc, besides the
Nordiccountrieswherecorru rup-
tion has been controlled. What
we in India need to do is bring
about revolutionary transfor-
mations in our education sys-
tem to instill proper values in
thefuturegeneration.
Unless citizens wake up and
fight against the corrupt sys-
tem, any number of laws (and
we have plenty of them) and
even tinkering with the system
by adopting the latest digital
technologywillbeofnouse.

Taiwanese puppet master small glove dolls on ornate wooden stages to present historical
and martial arts stories accompanied by live folk music.
young people did, even if they hadn’t watched Budaixi before.
They told me they liked it and that puppetry is awesome.” - AFP
the history of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the character Disney
created in the 1920s. While Disney created the character, com-

fights to save dying art Chen said he values the traditional puppetry because it is
characterised by subtle movements, with the puppeteer taking
on all roles, from a young woman to an old man.
At 87 years old, Taiwanese He first set up his own troupe at 23 years old but as busi-
glove puppeteer Chen
Hsi-huang is the star of a
ness declined he was forced to shut shop at 40. He went on to
teach the craft and continued to perform with other groups in
new documentary which Taiwan and overseas. At the age of 79, motivated by his desire
reflects his determination to stop the art form fading completely in the face of modern
to revive the dying tradi- entertainment, he set up a new troupe and teaches puppetry at
tional craft and a late-life weekend classes as well as taking on apprentices.
renaissance as a high-pro- “There were only two or three traditional troupes left,” he
file promoter of the art form. The film, entitled Father, tells the said. “I used my name to open a new troupe because I didn’t
story of how Chen pursued the craft in the shadow of his father, want the traditional craft to disappear.”
the legendary puppeteer Li Tian-lu, who drew huge audiences Chen acknowledges the challenges facing the ancient craft,
to his shows in the 1950-1970s and appeared in several movies. saying people have less time to spare to watch the shows. But
Also known as “Budaixi”, glove puppetry spread to Taiwan he has taken heart from the positive response to the documen-
in the 19th century from the southeastern Chinese province tary which premiered in Taiwan last month, directed by local
of Fujian and was performed at religious and festive occasions filmmaker Yang Li-chou over a period of 10 years.
as a popular form of entertainment. Puppeteers manoeuvre “I was worried that people might not understand the film, but
Lost Disney film showing
plete with oversized ears and a button nose, he lost the rights
to another company, prompting him to develop a new cartoon
figure: Mickey Mouse. The book said seven of the 26 short films
featuring Oswald that Walt Disney produced were missing,
Mickey’s predecessor found and Watanabe remembered his childhood reel.
It was labelled in Japanese “Mickey Manga Spide” — Mickey
When Yasushi Watanabe Cartoon Speedy in English — and featured a dog policeman on
bought a cartoon film a motorbike chasing Oswald and his girlfriend in a car. As the
decades ago as a high school trio speed around valleys and along roads, the characters and
student in the Japanese city the vehicles stretched and shrank, the Asahi reported, using
of Osaka, he had no idea he a technique that later featured commonly in Disney works.
was purchasing animation “We’re absolutely delighted to learn that a copy of the lost film
history. But the modest exists,” said Becky Cline, director of the Walt Disney Archives.
reel he bought for just 500 “As I’ve been a Disney fan for many years, I’m happy I was
yen ($4.40 in today’s money) has been revealed as a rare lost able to play a role (in the discovery),” added Watanabe, an ani-
cartoon produced by Walt Disney featuring a character that me history researcher who is now 84. His childhood purchase
led to the creation of Mickey Mouse. is now housed at the Kobe Planet Film Archive, and another
The discovery was reported by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun film showing 50 seconds of the same cartoon has also been
daily, which Watanabe contacted after reading a book about unearthed at the Toy Film Museum in Kyoto. - AFP