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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Meta shareholders are becoming frustrated with Mark Zuckerberg's plans, Financial Times reported.</li><li>Investors expressed their anger in meetings with Meta executives over the past week, per FT.</li></ul>Many Meta investors aren't happy with Mark Zuckerberg's plans for the metaverse as the social media company's stock continues to plunge, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0f4c676c-56a6-4b5e-850f-ddb78f9feb40">Financial Times reported.</a>The company has <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meta-stock-down-earnings-700-billion-in-lost-value/">shed</a> over 70% of its value since the Facebook cofounder <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-new-name-meta-rebrand-metaverse-zuckerberg-apps-2021-10">first announced</a> its parent company was changing its name to Meta in a pivot toward focusing on building a metaverse. Last week, Meta shares <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/facebook-meta-platforms-stock-price-earnings-miss-mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-2022-10">plummeted</a> 24% after the company missed earnings targets and Zuckerberg <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-doubles-down-on-metaverse-spending-despite-calls-cut-costs-2022-10">said</a> he intents to spend billions more on the metaverse project in the coming year. The CEO has already dumped $15 billion into the project this year alone."If any other company had done this you'd have activist investors writing letters, proposing alternative slates of directors, demanding change," Jim Tierney, chief funding officer for US development at Meta shareholder AllianceBernstein, told FT. "I think Mark heard crystal clear what investors wanted. He's made his decision."Investors have expressed their ire and frustration in meetings with Meta executives, including some with Zuckerberg over the past week, FT reported.But, Tierney told the publication the follow-up meetings made people "more disgusted, not less disgusted.""They're spending $15 billion a year on the metaverse and they can't give us any mile-markers," he said. "It's just a big hope."A Meta spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from Insider, but told FT the company is "focused on executing on the company's key priorities with an eye toward creating long-term shareholder value.""We value the opinions of our investors and regularly engage with them to ensure we're aware of their respective perspectives," the spokesperson told the publication.It's standard for public companies to hold meetings with major shareholders after quarterly earnings reports, but Zuckerberg's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-control-facebook-whistleblower-key-man-risk-2021-10#:~:text=Mark%20Zuckerberg%2C%20Facebook's%20CEO%2C%20has,a%20behemoth%20such%20as%20Facebook.">ironclad control</a> over the company means he essentially has complete veto power over other shareholders when it comes to the company's future. The Facebook founder holds 55% of the company's voting shares. Meta has a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/betsyatkins/2019/06/07/facebook-strong-arms-investors-who-want-zuckerberg-out/">dual-class stock structure</a> that provides Zuckerberg, select executive managers, and directors with super-voting power inasmuch as one of their shares is equivalent to 10 votes, while other shareholders are limited to one vote per share.<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0f4c676c-56a6-4b5e-850f-ddb78f9feb40">Financial Times' recent report</a> came after another investor <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-losses-facebook-brad-gerstner-open-letter-2022-10">published an open letter</a> ahead of the company's quarterly earnings report, saying Meta has "lost the confidence of investors." Brad Gerstner, whose fund Altimeter Capital owns hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Meta shares, suggested in the letter that Meta limit its investment in its metaverse project, Reality Labs, to no more than $5 billion a year.

Meta investors reportedly 'got more disgusted' with Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse plans after he doubled down in the company's earnings

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Meta laid off 10,000 staff on Wednesday, adding to its November job cuts.</li><li>CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it was economic changes that led to over 21,000 in total being laid off.</li></ul>Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent a letter to staff announcing a second round of layoffs on Tuesday, just months after its last round of big job cuts.The memo <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-meta-layoffs-second-round-job-cuts-2023-3">said that 10,000 more workers would be let go</a>, in addition to the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-layoffs-employees-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-bet-2022-11">11,000 that were handed a pink slip starting in November</a>. What's more, 5,000 open roles would be closed, showing just how serious the company is about slimming down their workforce and reducing operating costs overall. In the note, also <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/pfbid0382gobPjUPCEGVWwrJJvuNCEhoZHgxT1q9mm3BMm9hMYKKqSxj2zaqaPeYBw3GFFel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared on Facebook</a>, Zuckerberg blamed the most recent state of the economy: "Last year was a humbling wake-up call. The world economy changed, competitive pressures grew, and our growth slowed considerably." He continued: "Higher interest rates lead to the economy running leaner, more geopolitical instability leads to more volatility, and increased regulation leads to slower growth and increased costs of innovation."But investors had been asking Meta to have that "humbling wake-up call" for a while — as early as the second quarter of 2022, when Wall Street noticed the social networking giant's revenue was shrinking even as its employee headcount continued to rise. Last October, two weeks before reports surfaced that Meta was cutting jobs, shareholder Altimeter Capital's CEO <a href="https://medium.com/@alt.cap/time-to-get-fit-an-open-letter-from-altimeter-to-mark-zuckerberg-and-the-meta-board-of-392d94e80a18" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brad Gerstner penned an open letter</a> to the social network giant requesting that it reduce headcount by 20% and cut back on overall spending, including its multi-billion dollar investments in the metaverse.Zuckerberg has bet his company's future on the metaverse, including its expensive bets on virtual reality goggles via its Reality Labs unit. But those efforts have yet to materialize into actual revenue for the company, even as it spends billions on research and development. Investors have begun calling for Zuckerberg to hedge those bets."Like many other companies in a zero rate world — Meta has drifted into the land of excess — too many people, too many ideas, too little urgency," wrote Gerstner last year.Meta's stock has moved up after every layoff announcement, a sign that investors liked the announcements. Last November, after suffering a price <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/meta-stock-job-cuts-zuckerberg-51668019942" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drop following its disappointing third quarter earnings</a> where <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-meta-q3-earnings-confident-good-direction-metaverse-facebook-2022-10">profits slid 52% year-over-year</a> on declining revenue and metaverse expenses, causing Meta's stock to fall more than 20%, news of layoffs put a pep back in investors' step as the stock price <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/meta-stock-job-cuts-zuckerberg-51668019942" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rose</a> 6%. Evercore head of internet research Mark Mahaney said in a note to investors that Meta and Zuckerberg seemed to have heard the "negative investor reaction to perceived lack of cost discipline" during its third-quarter earnings results because they are pivoting in a less costly direction. Investors had a positive response on Wednesday as Meta's stock rose 6% again off the news of more layoffs. And the fact that Meta's Reality Labs are included in this most recent round of layoffs is apparently music to some investors' ears, according to an AllianceBernstein investor note by tech specialist Mark Schilsky."That's very important for a lot of reluctant shareholders who have shied away from Meta's stock because they didn't feel comfortable underwriting the risk that Zuckerberg was going to spend an ever increasing amount of money on the Metaverse," he wrote.

Meta's big job cuts aren't about the tricky economy or rising inflation. They're about Mark Zuckerberg's mistakes.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Iconic boy band BTS's agency has offered to buy a majority stake in a key K-pop rival.</li><li>Hybe Co. purchased a 14.8% stake in SM Entertainment and has offered to buy a further 25% share.</li></ul>The agency behind iconic K-pop band BTS is seeking to snap up a controlling stake in a key rival as it aims to come out on top in an increasingly ugly battle for South Korea's music industry.A <a href="https://dart.fss.or.kr/dsaf001/main.do?rcpNo=20230210800091" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filing</a> shared ahead of the opening of the South Korean stock market shows Hybe Co., which manages boy band BTS, bought a 14.8% stake in SM Entertainment, which oversees acts including Super Junior and Girls' Generation. That was followed by <a href="https://dart.fss.or.kr/dsaf001/main.do?rcpNo=20230210000015" target="_blank" rel="noopener">another filing</a> where the company offered to buy a further 25% stake in the group, for a total of 1.14 trillion won ($900 million). Should this transaction go through, it would make Hybe the controlling shareholder in the group.In its initial filing, Hybe said the purchase of shares was a means of "strengthening competitiveness and creating synergy in the K-pop market."But the hostile acquisition attempt also represents the latest in a fraught battle between Hybe, SM Entertainment, and streaming company Kakao for control of the K-pop market. SM Entertainment's founder, Lee Soo-man, who is regarded as the "godfather of K-pop" for his work in the early 2000s, is fighting against shareholders and activist investors over his governance of the company.Kakao offered to buy a 9% stake in a deal backed by SM shareholders. Lee, however, opposed the takeover with an injunction, <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bts-agency-jumps-battle-between-234740043.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">per Bloomberg</a> and <a href="https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20230208000637" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Korea Herald</a>.SM's shareholders issued a statement opposing Hybe's 25% offer, while activist investor Align said it was too low.Hybe, which also manages Billboard-charting NewJeans, voiced its support Friday for Lee's own strategic initiatives including "metaverse, a multi-label system, and the sustainable vision campaign," <a href="https://www.koreaboo.com/news/lee-soo-man-bang-si-hyuk-release-joint-statement-announcing-future-sm-entertainment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">it said in a joint statement with Lee</a>, signalling an alliance against SM's board in the fight for the heart of K-pop.The news of Hybe's approach was greeted with overwhelming approval by investors. SM Entertainment's share price jumped by more than 16% on the KOSDAQ stock exchange on Friday. The challenge against Hybe by SM and Align helped the K-Pop giant pare back its own 10% gains, closing down 1.5%.

Superstar boy band BTS's agency moves in on top K-pop rival by offering to snap up a leading stake

Welcome to <keyword id="11937554" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="10-things" source="Orion">10 Things</keyword> Before the Opening Bell.If this was forwarded to you, <a href="https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/10-things-opening-bell">sign up here.</a> Plus, download Insider's app for news on the go – <a href="https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id554260576?pt=385758&amp;ct=06292021_newsletters&amp;mt=8">click here for iOS</a> and<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.freerange360.mpp.businessinsider"> here for Android</a>.Let's jump in. 1. The money powering the NFT market to new heights. OpenSea, the first and largest NFT marketplace, just achieved a $13.3 billion valuation after its latest funding round — <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/opensea-nft-marketplace-valuation-13-billion-crypto-tech-2022-1">an 800% jump from six months ago.</a> The sky-high valuation is impressive but shouldn't necessarily come as a surprise. The market in 2021 boomed, and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/nft-collins-dictionary-word-of-the-year-2021-crypto-metaverse-2021-11">"NFT" was recognized as 2021's word of the year</a>. OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer said the platform's transaction volume increased "over 600x" last year. That is astonishing growth from March 2020, when the platform was making <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/nft-exchange-opensea-founders-billionaires-sales-transaction-surge-2021-11?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">less than $30,000 in commission revenue per month</a>. Now, venture capitalist Semil Shah has declared the online marketplace the breakout tech startup of 2021, likening it to "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nft-marketplace-opensea-became-breakout-tech-startup">eBay at the beginning of the modern internet.</a>"Over the past week, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/best-selling-nft-collections-last-week-crypto-bayc-doodles-sandbox-2022-1">NFT sales hit $512 million</a>, and total sales volume in 2021 topped $14 billion as artists like <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/eminem-bored-ape-yacht-club-nft-opensea-celebrity-music-grammy-2022-1?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">Eminem</a> and athletes like <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/steph-curry-nft-bored-ape-yacht-club-180000-ethereum-nba-2021-8?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets&amp;utm_source=markets&amp;utm_source=markets">Steph Curry</a> poured into the space. Even "Pulp Fiction" director <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/quentin-tarantino-to-sell-pulp-fiction-nft-despite-miramax-lawsuit-2022-1">Quentin Tarantino is planning to get in on the action this month (despite a lawsuit from Miramax).</a>The moral of the OpenSea success story? Watch this space. 2. US stocks face a struggle to recover from the Fed-inspired selloff. Officials are eyeing a reduction in the Fed's balance sheet, beyond pulling back on pandemic-era support. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-today-fed-minutes-spark-sell-off-bitcoin-price-2022-1">Here are the latest moves on the market</a>.3. The chief strategist at a $1.5 billion firm shared his three best ideas for gaining exposure to the metaverse. Clocktower Group's Marko Papic sees a huge potential in the digital world for investors — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-invest-in-the-metaverse-gain-exposure-make-money-2022-1">and he broke down which opportunities have sound fundamentals. </a>4. Earnings on deck: Constellation Brands, Walgreens Boots Alliance, and ConAgra Foods, all <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/earnings-calendar">reporting.</a>5. Warren Buffett's go-to market gauge is signaling a crash may be coming. The "Buffett indicator" hit 211% this week, signaling stocks are too expensive and could plummet soon. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/warren-buffett-indicator-211-percent-stock-market-bubble-asset-crash-2022-1">The billionaire said buying stocks when the gauge approaches 200% is "playing with fire."</a>6. Nancy Pelosi's husband bought call options in certain stocks as 2021 ended. Paul Pelosi placed bullish bets of up to $3.5 million on various companies including Roblox and Disney. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/nancy-pelosi-husband-buys-stocks-call-options-salesforce-alphabet-roblox-2022-1">See the full list here.</a>7. A short-seller who took on Wirecard is betting against Tesla. Investor Fraser Perring said the electric-car maker's valuation seems out of kilter with those for Toyota and Volkswagen. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tesla-stock-short-sell-wirecard-elon-musk-toyota-volkswagen-2022-1">His comments come after Tesla soared earlier this week.</a>8. The CEO of Airbnb said the top feature users are requesting for 2022 is crypto payments. The exec shared that, according to a Twitter poll, Airbnb customers are most keen on getting the company to allow crypto transactions. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/airbnb-cryptcurrency-payment-top-request-twitter-chesky-abnb-crypto-2022-1">Other suggestions included clear pricing displays, guest loyalty programs, and more.</a>9. An investor explained how to get in on the thousands of dollars' worth of crypto being distributed in airdrops. Crypto airdrops are token giveaways to reward early adopters of projects. Lucas Dimos has received a few already — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-airdrops-how-to-receive-thousands-of-dollars-avoid-scams-2022-1">and he shared how you can maximize your chances for free crypto.</a>10. Apple just became the first member of the $3-trillion club, but Wall Street analysts can't agree on a fair price for Apple stock. Some believe it is overvalued, while others speculate it could still rise — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-3-trillion-stock-market-analysis-investing-outlook-bulls-bears-2022-1">here are the bull and bear cases for the mega-cap stock.</a>Compiled by Phil Rosen. Feedback? Email <a href="mailto:prosen@insider.com">prosen@insider.com</a> or tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/philrosenn">@philrosenn</a>.Sign up for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter">more Insider newsletters here</a>.

10 things before the opening bell

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11893898" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto" source="Orion">Crypto</keyword> exchange FTX has hired Lauren Remington Platt to work on partnerships with luxury and fashion brands.</li><li>Luxury is a $300 billion market, and crypto wealth has created a new generation of high-end consumers. </li></ul>Crypto exchange FTX is widening its ambitions to target the luxury market, and it has hired former model-turned-beauty entrepreneur Lauren Remington Platt to head the push.Platt will hunt out major luxury brands — a market estimated to be worth <a href="https://www.statista.com/study/61582/in-depth-luxury/">$300 billion</a> — that have not yet gotten into <keyword id="11892695" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cryptocurrency" source="Orion">cryptocurrency</keyword>, the company said Wednesday.Three-year-old FTX has waged an aggressive marketing campaign to help it make up ground on legacy exchanges such as Kraken and Coinbase, helping it <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-crypto-exchange-valuation-billionaire-bitcoin-ethereum-2022-2">grow to a $32 billion company</a>.It has focused its efforts on sports, including a <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-giveaway-ftx-super-bowl-crypto-promo-time-second-half-2022-2">Super Bowl ad and giveaway</a>, and paying $135 million for the naming rights to NBA team the Miami Heat's stadium. But FTX has also signed up supermodel <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tom-brady-gisele-bundchen-ftx-equity-investment-crypto-bankman-fried-2021-6?amp">Gisele Bündchen</a> and her husband football star Tom Brady as long-term partners, and the new hire marks a deeper move into fashion and beauty.Platt is the founder of high-end beauty company Vensette, where she developed brand alliances with the likes of Vogue, Chopard, and Michael Kors, according to FTX."We are thrilled to have Lauren join FTX and lead our next marketing foray into luxury partnerships. Her wealth of experience in the fashion and luxury space will be essential for the next phase of growth of our team's partnership and branding focus," the exchange's CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said in a statement.Last year's jump in cryptocurrency prices helped create a new crop luxury buyers — young Americans with profit to spend, according to a December <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/cryptocurrency-wealth-us-luxury-consumers-nfts-retail-bitcoin-spending-consumption-2021-12">report</a> from Jefferies. People under 35 are using that crypto cash to buy art, expensive jewelry, apparel, and accessories, it found."Our conversations would indicate as much as 20%-25% of [last 12-month] sales may have been generated by this phenomenon," Jeffries analysts said in the report.Recent examples of luxury brands getting into crypto include Prada teaming up with Adidas to launch an NFT, Ralph Lauren opening 24/7 digital stores in the Roblox metaverse, and Gucci joining forces with Superplastic to offer limited-edition NFTs.Platt told Insider women are underrepresented in crypto, and she hopes to bring some change to this in new role."Only 9% of women feel they understand crypto, and this means that the majority of women are being left behind from one of the most important opportunities for wealth creation of our generation," she said.FTX is also targeting the gaming sector, also popular with crypto-friendly millennials and Generation Z. On Monday, it <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/ftx-gaming-division-help-companies-integrate-blockchain-nft-crypto-games-2022-2">launched a division to offer its platform to games publishers</a> wanting to bring <keyword id="11902216" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="blockchain" source="Orion">blockchain</keyword> and NFTs to their titles.Separately, FTX said it had a funding round of $400 million at the end of January, which valued the exchange at $32 billion and attracted investment firms such as SoftBank, Tiger Global and Temasek.This funding round will support its growth plans through 2022, the company said.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/investing-strategy-portfolio-tips-to-deal-with-ukraine-crisis-ubs-2022-2?r=US&amp;IR=T" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UBS lays out the most likely scenario for how the Ukraine-Russia crisis will play out and reveals the 3 key things investors should do to protect their portfolio and deal with the turmoil</a>

FTX takes aim at the $300 billion luxury goods market and hires a beauty entrepreneur to head the push

<ul><li>Over 90% of respondents of an O’Reilly study are using cloud computing offerings such as <keyword id="753967" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="software-as-a-service" source="Orion">Software-as-a-Service</keyword> (<keyword id="6395918" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="saas" source="Orion">SaaS</keyword>). </li><li>A report from Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) revealed that over 63% of the respondents admit that <keyword id="14371558" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="saas-misconfiguration" source="Orion">SaaS misconfiguration</keyword> is to blame for the surge in security incidents. </li><li>By opting for SSPM solutions, organizations can significantly reduce the time to detect and remediate SaaS misconfigurations.</li></ul>The popularity of Software as-a-Service (SaaS) applications has grown immensely in recent years. COVID-19 spurred the acceleration of SaaS adoption among industries that were traditionally reluctant to embrace SaaS models. However, the increasing adoption of SaaS apps have left many organizations vulnerable to security incidents. To make matters worse, even a slight misconfiguration or inability to secure user permission can open gateways for hackers and fraudsters. Even though Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and security teams are working round the clock to secure organizations’ apps and data, these measures are proving inadequate. <keyword id="11295388" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="saas-security" source="Orion">SaaS Security</keyword>: A rising cause of concern In a recent Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) <a href="https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/artifacts/saas-security-and-misconfigurations-report/">report</a>, 63% of the respondents stated that SaaS misconfiguration can be blamed for the surge in security incidents. According to a 2021 <a href="https://get.oreilly.com/ind_the-cloud-in-2021-adoption-continues.html">study</a> by O’Reilly, 90% of the respondents are using cloud computing offerings such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). This is resulting in hundreds of global settings and thousands of customer roles, as well as permissions in configuring, monitoring, and consistent updating. With so many applications running constantly and getting frequent updates, the probability of exploitable misconfigurations has risen significantly. Therefore, organizations must take adequate measures to understand and tackle the complex threat landscape surrounding the SaaS security of the company. Preventing the SaaS misconfiguration A few basic steps that organizations can take to prevent SaaS misconfiguration include: <ul><li>Ensure file sharing configurations in each SaaS application so that sensitive data is not publicly accessible.</li><li>Organizations should ensure that they activate MFA (multi-factor authentication) for all customer applications.</li><li>Organizations should further execute a security protocol for onboarding new applications while limiting user permission in all applications.</li></ul>There are, however, more strategic and advanced methods that organizations currently prefer to secure customers from deceptive apps, misconfiguration and misappropriated user permissions. Some of the comprehensive measures that can be employed by organizations to combat misconfigurations in SaaS applications include: Opting for SSPM Organizations can opt for SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) which takes an automated approach to tracking and remediating the exploitable misconfiguration in SaaS applications of the organization. According to the CSA report mentioned earlier, SSPM solutions can significantly reduce the time taken to detect and remediate SaaS misconfigurations. Additionally, it can also help CISOs and security professionals handle the profound transformation to an extensive SaaS environment. Moreover, it helps them to contain misconfiguration exposures from leading to a leak or breach. Identify loose ends It is paramount for SaaS security that no individual has access to business data without the knowledge and consent of the security team. The task of maintaining control over evolving corporate data has been taking a toll on security professionals. With the incorporation of SaaS applications and hundreds of configurations, the challenges will be exacerbated. Therefore, organizations should locate all publicly accessible resources such as discussions, forms, dashboards and other data components. If the security teams find any flaws, they should quickly address them to avoid a data breach and take the required precautionary measures to keep control over the data of the organization. Addressing the configuration drift With SaaS having multiple settings and configurations at a given time, it is easy to understand that configuration drift can take place. Configuration drift occurs when the SaaS application configuration is not aligned with the initial, defined configuration. While it is not an uncommon thing, when kept unresolved, configuration drift can give rise to security vulnerabilities. Configuration drift often occurs when hardware or software modifications are pushed to the enterprise infrastructure but not aligned in the configuration setting of an app. Although this phenomenon is unavoidable, regular configuration review can minimize the impact of drift and ensure the configuration settings align with the initially defined configuration. Creating a Disaster recovery plan All of the SaaS platforms or applications have built-in security features and configurations that should be correctly configured to provide adequate security for their data and networks. At the same time, organizations should also have a disaster recovery plan to imitate services and data that could get lost if disaster strikes. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/enterprise/in-the-battle-between-ai-metaverse-ceos-choose-ai/articleshow/92674686.cms">In the battle between AI &amp; Metaverse, CEOs choose AI</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/spicejet-flight-makes-an-emergency-landing-again-sixth-incident-in-3-months/articleshow/92673272.cms">SpiceJet flight makes an emergency landing again – sixth incident in 3 months</a>

SaaS adoption rises, so do the security risks. Here are ways to counter them

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Much of Silicon Valley really runs on money from online ads.</li><li>Google search dominated, but Microsoft's AI-powered Bing is emerging as a credible challenger.</li></ul>For all the talk of driverless cars, internet drones, and the metaverse, Silicon Valley's biggest players rely heavily on one source of cash: online ads.Companies spent about $400 billion dollars on online ads in 2022, <a href="https://www.dentsu.com/news-releases/dentsu-ad-spend-forecast-july-2022-release" target="_blank" rel="noopener">per Dentsu</a>, with Google <a href="https://digiday.com/media/the-rundown-here-are-the-2022-global-media-rankings-by-ad-spend-google-facebook-remain-dominate-alibaba-bytedance-in-the-mix/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taking about a quarter</a> of that — outstripping competitors like Meta. Google has dominated search and the search ad market for the almost 25 years since its inception. And curiously, its most serious challenger in that sector may not be Apple, Amazon, or Meta but Microsoft, whose <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chatgpt-gpt-3-5-powering-new-microsoft-bing-search-engine-2023-2">new alliance with ChatGPT creator OpenAI</a> is injecting new life into its Bing search engine. Google's continued search monopoly looked inevitable. The company has around 90% of the search market, <a href="https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to data firm Stat Counter</a>. Google is so strongly correlated with how you navigate the web that it's been a verb for years, a byword for looking stuff up online. But nothing is inevitable in tech, and a competing product equipped with next-gen AI is a problem if it gives users more informed responses to their questions. If Bing looks like the better option for users, this could reset the market for search ad dollars."The risk for Google is that Bing catches up as a product, and siphons usage away," Joseph Teasdale, Enders Analysis' head of tech told Insider.As Insider's Lara O'Reilly writes, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-chat-gpt-2-billion-revenue-search-steals-google-2023-2?r=US&amp;IR=T">advertisers usually follow the eyeballs</a>.Anticipating battle, Nadella told The Verge this week that he hoped Google <a href="https://www.theverge.com/23589994/microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-bing-chatgpt-google-search-ai" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"will definitely want to come out and show they can dance."</a> <h2>Microsoft accounts for a tiny fraction of search ads</h2>Around 40% of last year's digital ad revenue was generated from ads linked to search queries, analysts at Jefferies estimated in a note sent Tuesday.Microsoft's share of the search ad market is small: it made nearly $18 billion in ad revenue last year, far smaller than the $224 billion Google made in gross ad revenue last year, the analysts wrote.It means Microsoft has room to grow if it can truly make Bing compelling enough.In a <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/02/07/reinventing-search-with-a-new-ai-powered-microsoft-bing-and-edge-your-copilot-for-the-web/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blogpost announcing the new Bing</a>, Microsoft estimated about half of the 10 billion search queries made daily go unanswered as "people are using search to do things it wasn't originally designed to do." CEO Satya Nadella expects a ChatGPT-driven Bing to improve the fidelity of answers by giving users more insights and context to their queries, driving up gross margins in turn a little more each day. Microsoft's chief vice president, Philippe Ockenden, said on a call announcing the upgrade that "the new Bing will have the context into what the user is trying to accomplish." That could help make ads more personalized and effective — enticing spend.Still, success isn't guaranteed.Microsoft will need to contend with what Jefferies analysts say is the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-openai-investment-the-smartest-1-billion-ever-spent-2023-1">higher computing cost of serving a GPT-powered answer. </a>And Enders' Teasdale notes that Google "delivers better results for advertisers, with higher click-through rates, particularly on mobile, and it commands higher prices, suggesting a higher proportion of clicks lead to conversion, or that conversions are more measurable." Google doesn't just offer dominance in search, it has a sophisticated suite of ad products to serve customers. Finally, the firm is also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/googles-bard-reveal-shows-fear-of-how-people-use-ai-2023-2?r=US&amp;IR=T">keen to show it can deal with conversational searches</a>, taking the wraps off its own version of ChatGPT called Bard.<h2>Declining ads market will spark fiercer competition</h2>The fight coincides with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-ad-industry-is-preparing-for-an-economic-disaster-2022-10">a slump in ad sales</a>, upping the pressure on Google is the dominant player.Across the board, earnings reports from the major tech firms reflected a slowdown in revenue for all companies dependent on ads as advertisers slowed spending to adjust to the economic downturn.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-could-be-cutting-more-costs-its-cfo-just-said-2023-2">Google's ad revenue</a> in its fourth quarter came to $59 billion, marking a 3.6% year-on-year drop. The downward trend will be a significant concern for Google at a time when advertisers are being more frugal. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-chat-gpt-2-billion-revenue-search-steals-google-2023-2">Microsoft's Ockenden said on a call with analysts</a> on Tuesday that "for every one point of share gain in the search advertising market, it's a $2 billion revenue opportunity for our advertising business." Google will need to be battle ready.

Microsoft and Google will duke it out over Silicon Valley's true financial driver: ads

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<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/master-your-crypto"></a><div type="image" title="Andrew Steinwold, founder of NFT investment firm Sfermion" height="878" width="1170" msid="92706753" hostid="261" sizebytes="50358"></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>As <keyword id="11893898" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto" source="Orion">crypto</keyword> <keyword id="11893875" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="markets" source="Orion">markets</keyword> tumble, many <keyword id="11919795" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nft" source="Orion">NFT</keyword> collections have seen their values plunge as well.</li><li>The managing partner of an NFT investment firm explains why <keyword id="6357332" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="gaming" source="Orion">gaming</keyword> will onboard more users.</li></ul>NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, felt like all the rage last year, with celebrities from Snoop Dogg to Reese Witherspoon sporting six-figure JPEGs as their profile pictures. Meanwhile, Beeple's "Everydays: The First 5,000 Days" NFT sold for more than <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/art-auction-nft-beeple-top-selling-most-expensive-sale-millions-2021-3" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">$69 million</a> at Sotheby's auction house. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/04/style/dolce-gabbana-nft.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">Dolce &amp; Gabbana</a> and the NBA jumped on board with collections of their own.As broader crypto markets tumble, however, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-29/nfts-have-fallen-off-the-cliff-as-sales-sink-to-lowest-in-year?utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&amp;utm_content=crypto&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social#xj4y7vzkg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">so have NFTs</a>. Ethereum, which is commonly used to buy and mint the digital assets, has declined 78.7% since its all-time high in November, according to dashboard <a href="https://messari.io/asset/ethereum" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">Messari</a>, Top-tier collections have seen their values plunge as well, per a <a href="https://dappradar.com/blog/dappradar-industry-report-may-2022/#NFT" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">DappRadar industry report</a>, with <keyword id="12881347" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bored-ape" source="Orion">Bored Ape</keyword> Yacht Club floor prices falling 38% last month. OpenSea, one of the largest NFT marketplaces, declined 65% in trading volumes and had a 14% decrease in number of users in the same time frame. Hopeful <keyword id="12461337" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="web3" source="Orion">Web3</keyword> VCs and founders, however, told Insider that although prices are declining, the tokenized assets will stick around and eventually hit the mainstream by 2032. <h2>10-year outlook for NFTs</h2>Benjamin Cohen, founder of crypto <keyword id="14385207" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="venture" source="Orion">venture</keyword> firm Web 3 Equities, says the majority of NFTs won't be featured on social media accounts as a way to flex a collector's wealth. Instead, they will have a wide variety of use cases, which includes <keyword id="11898471" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="music" source="Orion">music</keyword>, gaming, ticketing, virtual real estate, deeds for houses, medical records, and even collateral for loans. Virtual real estate developer Republic Realm <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fmetaverse-real-estate-piles-up-record-sales-in-sandbox-and-other-virtual-realms-11638268380" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">announced</a> it had purchased a piece of property in metaverse game The Sandbox for $4.3 million. In March, an anonymous borrower <a href="https://blockworks.co/in-largest-ever-nft-backed-loan-101-cryptopunks-put-up-as-collateral/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">took out</a> an $8 million loan backed by a collection of 101 CryptoPunk NFTs. "Over time entrepreneurs will find creative ways to use NFTs and smart contracts in ways that we haven't conceived yet, far beyond the scope of status symbols," Cohen said. Although they founded different firms, CEO of blockchain ticketing platform YellowHeart Josh Katz and Cohen both agree that NFTs will move towards more utility use cases. People will cut out the "middlemen," Katz said, with ticket NFTs, weeding out third parties like Ticketmaster. YellowHeart, which has worked with musicians like Kings of Leon and Maroon 5, <a href="https://www.nftculture.com/nft-news/tao-group-hospitality-partners-with-yellowheart-to-introduce-nft-ticketing/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">announced</a> a partnership with Tao Group Hospitality, to sell tickets to its venues as NFTs. "Businesses are going to figure out cool ways to incorporate NFTs into something that we're doing everyday right now," Katz said, adding that most projects will have fiat on-ramps. "For ticketing, you could cut the line, get to the venue early, or get a free beer."In 2032, NFTs will also be more accessible than they are now so that "most internet users" can afford them, says Stephen Young, the founder and CEO of NFT lending marketplace NFTfi. "At the moment, many NFTs are expensive because blockchains are expensive and slow, so the use cases that make sense require high value NFTs," he said. To mint or purchase an NFT on Ethereum, investors and creators have to pay gas fees. These costs occur when performing any sort of function on Ethereum's network. At times, these fees can be <a href="https://mashable.com/article/ethereum-gas-fees-skyrocket-bored-ape-yacht-club-otherside-nft-launch" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">more expensive than the NFT itself.</a> Other blockchains and Layer-2s like Solana or Polygon, however, have quicker transaction times with lower costs.<h2>Mainstream adoption and hurdles </h2>Andrew Steinwold, the managing partner of NFT investment firm <keyword id="14385208" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sfermion" source="Orion">Sfermion</keyword>, says gaming will be the use case that onboards the most users. (Sfermion <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211101005038/en/Sfermion-Raises-100M-NFT-Fund-Aimed-at-Accelerating-the-Emergence-of-the-Metaverse" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">announced a $100 million fund</a> last year and has previously invested in AI enabled NFT platform Alethea AI, Web3 developer platform Mojito, and virtual real estate marketplace Parcel.)"I think NFTs in gaming have a really simple selling point to the user, 'Hey you spent $20 on this digital good in this video game, but you don't actually own it. Wouldn't you like to own it?'" Steinwold said. Blockchain gaming, unlike broader crypto markets, has <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/22/blockchain-gaming-unfazed-by-crypto-volatility-as-gamers-seek-out-entertainment/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">remained stable</a> in recent months. Around 1.15 million daily active wallets interacted with Web3 games in May, per a DappRadar <a href="https://dappradar.com/blog/dappradar-crypto-games-report-5-blockchain-games-continue-to-defy-the-bear-market" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">report</a>, declining 5% from the month before. Popular games include Splinterlands and Illuvium. Video games are also "fun and easy" to understand for people of all ages, Steinwold says, which lowers the barrier of entry to enter its ecosystem. Blockchain-based gaming, or games that integrated tokenized assets on-chain, grew 2,000% last year, per a Q1 2022 DappRadar and Blockchain Gaming Alliance <a href="https://dappradar.com/blog/dappradar-x-bga-games-report-q1-2022" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">report</a>. With massive growth in NFTs comes bad actors, which present plenty of obstacles to mainstream adoption.Critics are wary of the ecosystem due to security concerns, scams, and money laundering allegations. Earlier this month, Yuga Labs, creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/06/04/yuga-labs-confirms-discord-server-hack-200-eth-worth-of-nfts-stolen/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">said</a> its Discord server had been compromised, with a hacker draining $360,000 worth of ether-based NFTs at the time. In January, anonymous founders of an NFT collection called <a href="https://blockworks.co/nft-creators-stole-1-3m-from-investors-then-vanished-sources-say/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Frosties vanished</a> after siphoning $1.3 million worth of funds from its investors."Money laundering, and in particular, transfers from sanctioned cryptocurrency businesses, represents a large risk to building trust in NFTs, and should be monitored more closely by marketplaces, regulators, and law enforcement," blockchain research firm Chainalysis said in a <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/ethereum/more-people-are-falling-prey-to-scams-and-wash-trading-in-the-nft-space" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">recent report.</a>Whether you love them or hate them, NFTs don't seem to be going away anytime soon. Investment bank Jeffries <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/01/20/jefferies-sees-the-nft-market-reaching-more-than-80-billion-in-value-by-2025/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener sponsored">forecasts</a> a massive percentage growth in the next five years, along with a market cap of over $80 billion by 2025.This article is intended to provide generalized information designed to educate a broad segment of the public; it does not give personalized investment, legal, or other business and professional advice. Before taking any action, you should always consult with your own financial, legal, tax, investment, or other professional for advice on matters that affect you and/or your business.

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