Cyber-attacks using the VoIP protocol Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) have been growing this year accounting for over 51% of the security event activity analyzed in the last 12 months, according to a report from IBM’s Security Intelligence group this week.
“SIP is one of the most commonly used application layer protocols in VoIP technology… we found that there has been an upward trend in attacks targeting the SIP protocol, with the most notable uptick occurring in the second half of 2016,” IBM wrote. “In actual attacks on VoIP communications, we note various types of disruption. Spikes in July and September were mostly the result of specially crafted SIP messages that were terminated incorrectly. Persistent, invalid messages are known to cause vulnerable servers and equipment to fail. The spike in October 2016 was largely influenced by SIP messages with invalid characters in the SIP “To” field. These could be reflective of suspicious activity, necessitating further investigation.”
IoT Botnets Are Growing—and Up for Hire
When anyone can make use of a burgeoning army of rogue connected devices for a fee, the threat of a crippled Internet is more real than ever.
IoT Botnets Are Growing—and Up for Hire
The new Mirai strain has gone far beyond Deutsche Telekom
The latest strain of Mirai, the malware that’s been infecting internet routers from Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, has spread to devices in at least 10 other countries, according to security firm Flashpoint.
The company has detected the new Mirai strain infecting internet routers and modems across the globe, including in the U.K., Brazil, Iran and Thailand.
It’s still unclear how many devices have been infected, but Flashpoint estimates that as many as five million devices are vulnerable. “If even a fraction of these vulnerable devices were compromised, they would add considerable power to an existing botnet,” Flashpoint said in a Tuesday blog post.
Congress Is About to Expand Government Hacking Powers
Privacy advocates and legal scholars are worried about the consequences of making it easier for investigators to obtain warrants for devices they don’t have in custody.
Congress Is About to Expand Government Hacking Powers
An email marketing message usually has a call to action linking to some kind of landing page. But it doesn’t have to be that way if there’s a better way. In fact, it could be offering a different way to “respond” to your email marketing message might deliver better results. Below are six possible destinations your CTA can take your customers too, one tried-and-true and five outside-the-box…
Send them to a landing page Don’t ditch the landing page! It’s still a viable option for your call to action destination, and I’m not suggesting otherwise. I’m only saying don’t use that as your default time and time again until you’ve tried alternative CTAs to see if another option works better. So I kept it on the list, just to be on the safe side.
Ask them to call a phone number As old school as it sounds, people do still make phone calls, perhaps more so when viewing your email on a mobile phone that lends itself more to clicking on a phone number than clicking through to a website. Besides, Google claims phone calls have a higher value, stating calls to businesses are worth 3X more than clicks to websites. That’s something to consider when planning out your CTA! If you’re thinking people don’t make calls any more, the opposite is true. Consumers still like to make calls, especially when searching on their smartphones. One statistic says smartphone users are 9X more likely to place a call from the search engine results page on their mobile devices than when on a desktop computer.
Promise a Pinterest board If you’re a B2C business, Pinterest needs to be in your marketing toolbox, and especially now as the holidays approach: 67% of Pinners say Pinterest is important for planning holiday purchases. And if they’re using Pinterest when shopping for the holidays, whether for gifts, entertaining or décor, they are using Pinterest the rest of the year too. How about a call to action that takes your customer to a Pinterest board? A Pinterest board can function like an interactive online catalog, and each pin can link to a webpage.
Drive traffic to a brick-and-mortar location Yes, even in this digital age, online marketing can drive offline traffic. Think email coupons—and how many people sign up to get email coupons they use offline. In fact, they might have subscribed to your emails in the first place just to get coupons they can use in your physical stores. The call to action might link to a store finder or to coupons they can redeem in person, or perhaps the call to action is to attend an exclusive at the store.
Speaking of coupons… A coupon is a viable call to action destination. And coupons are still extremely popular in this digital age! Check out this ultimate list of coupon statistics for proof. Even Millennials are using coupons. Coupons can be used in a brick-and-mortar store or when shopping online. They can be printed on paper or used on a mobile device. In fact, the redemption rate for mobile coupons is sometimes 10X that of a paper coupon.
Suggest they engage in dialog A call to action doesn’t have to lead directly to a sale. It can lead to deeper engagement instead—which ultimately increases the likelihood of a sale. You can do this by using your call to action to drive people to Facebook, Twitter or another popular social media platform to join in a dialog or at least follow it. Asking subscribers to share photos on Instagram or Flickr is another way to engage.
Which Alt-CTA might work for your business? Only testing will tell. It could be it’s a mix that generates the highest level of response (and ROI). Be careful with including too many calls to action in one email, however, as there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. One resource says emails with only one call to action performed better with increased clicks 371% and sales 1671%. But maybe a link to a landing page combined with a phone number works, or perhaps your email messages alternate their alternative CTAs. Testing will tell you what works and then you’ll have no alternative but to increase your ROI!
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