Have you ever come across advertisements which showcase a product that resembles some of your past searches while browsing online shopping sites? This occurs when you enable cookies on sites that you visit. The cookie is a piece of data from a website which is stored within a web browser that the website can retrieve later (according to MicroTrend).  The Internet of Behavior (IoB) adheres to a similar concept.  

You may be familiar with Internet of Things (IoT) – especially if you’re a smartwatch user.  Wearables such as this help connect you to the IoT through direct contact with your body. These may include nodal devices such as a fitness tracker, VR headset, smart glasses or necklaces which can be adjusted to meet your specific needs. IoB is very much the same.  

To put it into perspective, IoB analyses user behavior to provide a better personalized customer experience. The IoB concept merges the best of data analysis, behavioral analysis, and technology along with human psychology. Knowing how to customize products or services which provide a more personalized experience based on a particular user’s buying behavior (mainly identifying their preferences and interactions) is something many organizations wish to aggrandize.  

How IoB can improve customer service  

IoB and IoT go together. When you’re able to predict or modify your service or products to meet a specific customer’s needs, the probability of you closing a sale is higher. Remember, customers are not going to buy your product on enlist your service because it is useful from your perspective (a seller’s perspective), but rather how usable your product or service is to the customer.  

IoB makes effective use of behavioral data analysis gathered from IoT and other sources, according to Tech Funnel. The data is gathered from wearable items, online activities of users’ behavior, including sales transactions, and social media behaviors.  

Businesses make more informed decisions and can improve their service quality and value chain in the best possible way.  

IoB links marketing and psychology to provide a more personalized customer experience. This way, businesses can develop insights based on the data collected by IoT.  

 

Pros of IoB  

As mentioned previously, businesses that utilize IoB and customize their products or services to meet the preferences and suitability of a customer are more likely to convert more leads and thus, generate more sales and help sales personnel of an organization boost their performance.  

Moreover, IoB helps organizations or brands comprehend certain purchasing patterns, which can optimize their marketing initiatives and enhance their customer experience. 

They may also improve user experiences based on the purchasing behavior and transactions of customers. Hence, to aggrandize one’s products or services to provide the optimum customer experience, organizations can create settings in which everything adjusts to user behavior and preferences in real-time.  

 

Drawbacks of IoB 

Being that IoB utilizes data and analytics of a customer’s behavioral and purchasing patterns, this may open up debate that IoB invades a customer’s privacy as it accesses a user’s sensitive information to customize the products and services to fulfill their needs.  

According to Aalpha, data breach is a major concern as malicious hackers and cyber-attackers could always infiltrate a network where customer transactions and data are exchanged. Hence, IoB devices and systems need to be compliant with the data privacy regulations of a particular country. In some places where data collection is restricted, the IoB system turns off some features.  

Moreover, as IoB starts to become popular, standards are expected to be raised to provide excellent customer experience and satisfaction comes with absorbing their personal data which contains sensitive information, so businesses can tailor their products and services to meet their needs. In other words, the value given to customers must justify the associated risk of utilizing their personal information.  

With IoB technology, the potential for cyber-attacks to happen is increased, as IoB data contains personal information, which can be tracked and used with malicious intent by cybercriminals. They may access information via behavioral data, which may expose individuals to potential digital threats.  

 

Importance of cyber security in countering the progression a cyber-attack 

One might assume that technology plays a crucial role in countering a cyber-attack life cycle, but truth be told, the people and measures taken to prevent the cyber-attack from progressing is just as imperative.  

To successfully defend a cyber-attack from progressing, individuals must receive ongoing security awareness training and be educated in best practices to minimize the likelihood of an attack progressing past the first stage. Substantial policies and processes must be in place for remediation should an attacker be successful in executing the entire attack lifecycle.  

Here’s the good news – a cyber attacker, even a seasoned one, will face a lot of hassles and needs top-notch hacking skills to surpass every stage of the attack lifecycle to succeed in retrieving an organization’s information or to breach their data. A cybersecurity specialist or the person who is in the first line of defense against the cyber-attack (a network defender) needs to do one thing to stop the attack, and they are given multiple opportunities to do it.  

 

What does the future of IoB hold for us?  

According to the management consulting company Gartner, more than half of the world’s population will be enrolled in at least one IoB program by the end of 2025. To embrace the next phase of the Industrial Revolution, organizations will have to customize solutions by putting customers’ needs first – hence, creating customer centric solutioning. This is critical for businesses to survive and thrive in the future.  

IoB apps are expected to help improve people’s lives, despite data privacy concerns. An example of an IoB app which will help people is Health2Sync, an app which helps to manage diabetes through blood glucose and activity monitoring.  

 

People will become more comfortable with supplying behavioral data with time as the social networking sites, e-commerce, digital assistants, and other technologies which absorb personal information will take off.  

More organizations and enterprises will reimagine the way they communicate and influence individuals via technology methods.  

If you are a cybersecurity specialist, or a business owner whose serious serious about upskilling or reskilling your or your employees’ skills in ethical hacking or cybersecurity training, the CEH V12 certification is a great program and certification for you to enrol and gain qualifications to strengthen the necessary cybersecurity skills to safeguard your or your employees’ digital welfare and assets.  

 

To learn more about the CEH V12 program and certification, click here: https://newhorizons.my/easy-steps-to-become-an-ethical-hacker-in-malaysia/