SAP Appoints Claus Andresen as President and Managing Director of Southeast Asia

Wazzup Pilipinas!

SAP announced the appointment of Claus Andresen as President and Managing Director of SAP Southeast Asia, promoted from Chief Operating Officer of SAP Indian Subcontinent. Andresen will report directly to Scott Russell, President of SAP Asia Pacific Japan (APJ). Building on the 28-year establishment and growth of SAP in the region, Andresen will be responsible for driving SAP Southeast Asia’s sustainable growth strategy and operations. Based in Singapore, he will oversee SAP’s business across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Indochina and other emerging markets in Southeast Asia.

“Connectivity in Southeast Asia is growing at an impressive rate and we foresee a lot more customers accelerating their digital transformation and journey to the cloud in the next few years. While the level of digital maturity in Southeast Asia varies across the region, SAP has the extensive capability to help our customers scale and succeed in this new digital economy,” said Scott Russell, President, SAP Asia Pacific Japan. “Claus brings with him the experience and vision to help our customers translate their strategy into action. I am confident that SAP Southeast Asia will continue to shine under his leadership.”

Andresen was most recently the Chief Operating Officer of SAP Indian Subcontinent, where he provided leadership to the market unit’s multi-functional sales and operations organizations, and was instrumental in making India amongst one of the fastest growing market units in SAP. Prior to that, he was responsible for Business Operations across SAP APJ, where he led a high-performing team to improve Sales and Operational Excellence. Andresen has over a decade of experience in various global and regional senior leadership roles in the Global Services & Support organization (now Digital Business Services), all with focus on helping customers run better leveraging technology.

“Southeast Asia plays an important role for SAP’s business. There are plenty of opportunities for us in this part of the world as more organisations understand the value that digital innovations can deliver to their business and how they operate. Across the region, we are seeing the trajectory and we are committed to helping our customers and partners build a solid foundation for their digital future,” said Claus Andresen, President, SAP Southeast Asia.

He continued, “SAP has more than 45 years of industry and enterprise business software experience and an unmatched global ecosystem that empowers customers to scale and thrive in this time of constant change. I am honored to lead the Southeast Asia’s business and bring innovations to our customers that unlock their potential. I look forward to working with my Southeast Asia team to take SAP to the next level in this growth region, as we help the region’s governments and businesses achieve their vision of a digitally-enabled ASEAN.”

Petya, Wanna Cry, and Mirai—Is This the New Normal?

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This past year, cybercriminals have upped the stakes once again with the high profile, global attacks of Mirai, Wannacry, and Petya, launched one after the other.

Of course, large-scale attacks aren’t new. Attacks like the ILOVEYOU worm and Code Red and Nimda were massive attacks, some of which affected exponentially more devices and organizations that this latest round of attacks. The spread of WannaCry − which reportedly hit a couple of dozen companies in the Philippines − and Petya were quickly curbed unlike these worms of the past. But this isn’t just about scale.

Unlike in years past, the new digital economy means organizations rely on data as both a critical resource and an essential source of revenue. And these new attacks are more sophisticated than ever.

Attacks like Mirai managed to hijack tens of thousands of IoT devices, such as DVRs and digital CCTV cameras using known device passwords installed by their manufacturers. These devices were then aggregated and used as a weapon to take out a massive chunk of the Internet. More recently, Mirai’s lesser known malware cousin, known as Hajime, upped the ante by adding cross-platform functionality (it currently supports five different platforms), a toolkit with automated tasks, updatable password lists, and the use of thresholds to mimic human behavior in order to stay under the radar.

Wannacry pioneered a new sort of ransomware/worm hybrid, something Fortinet calls a ransomworm, in order to use a Microsoft exploit created by the NSA and publicly released by a hacker group known as the Shadow Brokers. Rather than the usual ransomware method of selecting a specific target, Wannacry’s worm functionality allowed it to spread rapidly across the globe, attacking thousands of devices and organization. While the potential was there, the damage was quickly curbed due to an embedded kill switch.

And just this past month we saw the emergence of a new ransomworm called Petya. This new malware uses the same worm-based approach of Wannacry, even targeting the exact same vulnerability, but this time with a much more potent payload that can wipe data off a system and even modify a device’s Master Boot Record, rendering the device unusable. Since very little money was made during this attack, we can say that this attack was certainly more focused on taking machines offline than monetization through ransom. Machine availability ransom like Petya may become a much larger problem in the future when spreading through a rapid Ransomworm.

I believe that the Wannacry and Petya attacks were simply shots across the bow. They are part of an insidious new opportunistic strategy of targeting newly discovered vulnerabilities with massive, global attacks and increasingly malicious payloads. This is just being the tip of the iceberg and potentially the start of a new wave of attacks we are in for in the future in the form of Ransomworms.

GEM Dazzles This August with Exciting Shows from Japan!

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Catch the most entertaining dramas and variety programs from Japan this August on GEM. 

Overprotected Kahoko

A naïve university student, Kahoko (Takahata Mitsuki), is about to start her first job. The world is a scary place as she has been sheltered by her parents all her life. Their close-knit family begins to fall apart as they cope with this inevitable change in the only child’s life. Will Kahoko finally muster enough strength to emerge from her cocoon?

Overprotected Kahoko premieres 28 August, every Monday and Tuesday at 9pm, first and exclusively on GEM.



49

Dan (Sato Shori) is an average student who is not good at sports or his studies. Tragically, his father dies in an accident and his spirit possesses Dan. As his father excelled at everything he did, Dan begins to exhibit the same behavior. He starts to play basketball well and even gains popularity amongst his classmates. Will his classmates discover the reason behind his sudden change?

49 premieres 17 August, every Wednesday and Thursday at 9pm, first and exclusively on GEM.

BOMB BEE MEN

Kazumi (Oguri Shun) is a poor university student who has some unique priorities in life. He desires to make everyone happy and never rejects people when they seek his help. As he secures his first real job, he finds out that his debt could cost his job offer! A host club owner and money-lender, OmuOmu, and his cronies had conned a huge amount of money from him. Desperate to get his money back, Kazumi decides to play OmuOmu’s money game. Will Kazumi’s endless optimism help him overcome the odds?

BOMB BEE MEN premieres 13 August, every Sunday at 10.30pm.



GOCHI: Dinner is on YOU Tonight Season 2 Special

In this two-episode special, our celebrity guests get to indulge in a wide array of delicious treats prepared specially by world-renowned chefs. While the guests can order as many courses as they want, they must ensure that the total price of their dishes should not exceed their given budget. The guest who has the biggest price difference will be the one to pay for everyone’s meal! Who would be the ‘lucky’ one?

GOCHI: Dinner is on YOU Tonight Season 2 Special premieres 12 August and 19 August, Saturday at 7pm, first and exclusively on GEM.

TOKUSON: Life Hacks!

Follow the hosts as they show us simple tricks using everyday items to help save time and make life more interesting. Be amazed by the things you can do to spruce up your mundane daily routine. From cooking, cleaning, and organizing, to everything else in between, TOKUSON: Life Hacks! has all the answers! Life will never be the same again!

TOKUSON: Life Hacks! premieres 30 August, every Wednesday at 10:10pm, first and exclusively on GEM.



GEM is available on SKYCable Channel 116 in Metro Manila and on Channel 222 in Cebu, Davao, Bacolod, Iloilo, and Baguio.