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Virtual reality (VR) offers immersive experiences in which users can hear, see, and interact with 360-degree digital environments using head-mounted displays (HMDs) and handheld motion devices. The technology has been historically associated with consumer-facing gaming, but it’s been gaining traction in the enterprise over the past year.

In fact, companies such as Macy’s, Lowe’s, Walmart, and UPS, among others, have all launched new VR programs since 2017. And as more businesses look to tap the technology, this will drive enterprise VR hardware and software revenue to jump 587% to $5.5 billion in 2023, up from an estimated $800 million in 2018, according to Business Insider Intelligence estimates.

This shows that retailers and brands should look into implementing VR as early as possible to better compete with other industry players who’ve started to use the tech, especially in three key areas: sales, employee training, and product development. All of the companies mentioned above are using VR to in at least one of these areas, enabling them to increase product sales, reduce product design costs, or speed up employee training processes, for instance.

In the VR In The Enterprise report, Business Insider Intelligence explores how VR can provide value to retailers and brands in three areas: sales, employee training, and product development.

The report begins by discussing potential pain points the technology addresses for each use case, examining in-depth case studies to illustrate how companies have implemented the technology, and outlining the broader takeaways each use case presents for brands and retailers.

Finally, it looks at some of the potential barriers to further enterprise adoption and how both companies and VR incumbents are actively addressing those obstacles.

The companies mentioned in the report are: Audi, Lowe's, Macy's, McLaren Automotive, Walmart, and UPS, among others.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• VR enables consumers in brick-and-mortar stores to make more informed purchases, which could increase sales conversion rates.
• Brands and retailers looking to ramp up their employees quicker should consider bringing VR into their training processes.
• The tech can shorten brands' and retailers' product development life cycles by cutting down on the time associated with building expensive physical prototypes.

In full, the report:

• Identifies key VR vendors and device form factors for businesses to consider.
• Discusses key benefits the tech brings businesses for their sales, training, and product development processes.
• Illustrates those key benefits by discussing real-world case studies from companies and the takeaways from those implementations.

SEE ALSO: When it comes to VR hardware, consumers are balancing price point and experience

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• Digital trust is the confidence people have in a platform to protect their information and provide a safe environment for them to create and engage with content.
• Business Insider Intelligence surveyed over 1,300 global consumers to evaluate their perception of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
• Consumers’ Digital Trust rankings differ across security, legitimacy, community, user experience, shareability, and relevance for the six major social networks.

If you feel like “fake news” and spammy social media feeds dominate your Internet experience, you’re not alone. Digital trust, the confidence people have in platforms to protect their information and provide a safe environment to create and engage with content, is in jeopardy.

In fact, in a new Business Insider Intelligence survey of more than 1,300 global consumers, over half (54%) said that fake news and scams were "extremely impactful” or “very impactful” on their decision to engage with ads and sponsored content.

For businesses, this distrust has financial ramifications. It’s no longer enough to craft a strong message; brands, marketers, and social platforms need to focus their energy on getting it to consumers in an environment where they are most receptive. When brands reach consumers on platforms that they trust, they enhance their credibility and increase the likelihood of receiving positive audience engagement.

The Digital Trust Report 2018, the latest Enterprise Edge Report from Business Insider Intelligence, compiles this exclusive survey data to analyze consumer perceptions of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

The survey breaks down consumers’ perceptions of social media across six pillars of trust: security, legitimacy, community, user experience, shareability, and relevance. The results? LinkedIn ran away with it.

As the most trusted platform for the second year in a row – and an outlier in the overall survey results – LinkedIn took the top spot for nearly every pillar of trust — and there are a few reasons why:

• LinkedIn continues to benefit from the professional nature of its community — users on the platform tend to be well behaved and have less personal information at risk, which makes for a more trusting environment.
• LinkedIn users are likely more selective and mindful about engagement when interacting within their professional network, which may increase trust in its content.
• Content on LinkedIn is typically published by career-minded individuals and organizations seeking to promote professional interests, and is therefore seen as higher quality than other platforms’. This bodes well for advertisers and publishers to be viewed as forthright, honest, persuasive, and trustworthy.

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The Digital Trust Report 2018 illustrates how social platforms have been on a roller coaster ride of data, user privacy, and brand safety scandals since our first installment of the report in 2017.

In full, the report analyzes key changes in rankings from 2017, identifies trends in millennials' behavior on social media, and highlights where these platforms (as well as advertisers) have opportunities to capture their attention.

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• The government shutdown is now in its 15th day.
• This is the 21st time the federal government has had a funding lapse since the modern budgeting process began.
• Most of those times the shutdown has been short and not involved employees being sent home, but that has changed in recent years.

After aides for both Democratic leaders and President Donald Trump met on Saturday, the partial shutdown of the federal government remained ongoing.

Trump's sudden reversal on a bipartisan funding extension before the Christmas holiday forced a sizeable portion — but not all — of the government into a partial shutdown.

Read more:Here's what the government shutdown means for federal agencies and employees»

This is 21st time since the modern budget process began with the Budget Act of 1974 that the federal government has entered a shutdown or had a funding lapse.

On average, the 20 previous shutdowns lasted eight days, though they have been longer in recent decades. The six shutdowns since 1990 have lasted nine days on average, and removing the short, nine-hour funding lapse caused by Sen. Rand Paul in February, recent shutdowns have averaged 11 days. The longest shutdown in history, lasting 21 days, came in 1995-1996.

Most of these shutdowns weren't severe, with 11 of the 20 lasting five days or fewer, and seven lasting three days or fewer. By making it to the third week, the current 15-day shutdown is now the 4th longest of the modern era passing the first of three shutdowns in 1977.

The current shutdown also bears some major differences from the past because federal employees aren't working. Around 380,000 federal employees are now on furlough, meaning they do not report to work or get paid. In 11 of the previous shutdowns, employees were not placed on furlough.

Sending employees home has become more frequent in recent shutdowns, with furloughs occurring during five of the last six funding lapses (the only exception being the short Rand Paul lapse).

Another newer wrinkle is the fact that this is just the second shutdown during which employees were placed on furlough while one party controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House, which was the case for the beginning of the shutdown. The other instance was the three-day shutdown in January 2018.

Additionally with the changeover to the 116th Congress with its Democrat-controlled House, this is the first shutdown in which control of a chamber of Congress changed parties.

The current shutdown also means the president has set some historic firsts as well.

Trump is the only president to furlough employees while his party controlled both chambers of Congress, the only one to achieve that dubious feat multiple times, and is second in total shutdowns for a president whose party controls chambers of Congress. Jimmy Carter presided over five shutdowns while Democrats controlled both the House and Senate, none of which resulted in furloughs.

The latest shutdown also moved Trump into third place with three total funding lapses during his presidency, behind Carter's five and Ronald Reagan's eight. Trump also ranks fourth in totals shutdown days for modern presidents behind Carter's 67 days and the 28 day mark shared by Clinton and Reagan. 

2018 also became just the second year of the modern era to have three funding lapses, tying with 1977.

Here's a breakdown of all the previous shutdowns:

SEE ALSO: Here's what happens to Social Security and disability benefits during a government shutdown

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Rising smartphone penetration, regulations pushing users away from cash, and globalization demanding faster and new ways to transact are leading to a swell in noncash payments, which Business Insider Intelligence expects to grow to 841 billion transactions by 2023.

This shift has created a greenfield opportunity in the space. Legacy providers are working to leverage their scale as they update their infrastructure and adapt their business models. But at the same time, upstarts are using their strengths in user experience to try to disintermediate or beat out those at the forefront of the space — a dichotomy that’s creating crowding and competition.

Digitization and crowding in the payments space will force companies that want to emerge atop the ecosystem to undergo four critical digital transformations: diversification, consolidation and collaboration, data protection, and automation. Those that do this effectively, and use these shifts as a means of achieving scale without eroding the user experience, will be in the best position to use ongoing digitization in their payments space to their advantage.

In The Future Of Payments 2018, Business Insider Intelligence takes a look at some of the biggest problems digitization and crowding are causing for payments firms, outlines the key transformations players can make going forward to resolve them, and explores areas where firms have already begun to use these transformations to their advantage.

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The smartphone is an essential part of our everyday lives.

But as with all technology, things change. So the question becomes: What will be the next smartphone?

Will it be the connected car? Or the smart speaker? What about the smartwatch?

Find out which device, if any, will take over the smartphone's role with this brand new slide deck from Business Insider Intelligence called The Next Smartphone.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Smartphones are the fastest adopted tech in the U.S.
• Whichever device becomes the next smartphone needs to go everywhere
• Consumer expectations around the smartphone are changing
• And much more

To get your copy of this FREE slide deck, simply click here.

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• Cowboys wide receiver Allen Hurns suffered a gruesome ankle injury in the first quarter of Saturday night's Wild Card game against the Seattle Seahawks.

• Hurns' awkwardly rolled his ankle after it got caught under the body of his tackler.
• The injury leaves the Cowboys shorthanded at wide receiver moving forward in the postseason.

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Allen Hurns suffered a gruesome ankle injury in the first quarter of Saturday night's Wild Card game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Holding an early 3-0 lead, the Cowboys were facing third-and-seven in their own territory. Quarterback Dak Prescott found Hurns on a quick throw, who spun away from his defender and secure a first down.

Unfortunately, Hurns would take an brutal fall after being brought down by Bradley McDougald and Akeem King, with his ankle getting caught, and awkwardly turned in the collision.

Warning: Graphic video

Replays of the injury showed how gruesome Hurns' ankle turn was.

After the injury, players on both teams looked stunned and devastated. Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett stood by Hurns and held his hand as he was helped into a stretcher to be taken off of the field.

As he was carted out of the stadium, the Dallas crowd offered Hurns a cheer of best wishes.

Hurns' injury leaves the Cowboys a bit shorthanded moving forward, with fellow receiver Cole Beasley is already dealing with an ankle injury of his own.

SEE ALSO: ESPN played the controversial southern anthem 'Dixie' during the NFL Wild Card game while depicting Andrew Luck as a Civil War officer

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• Zion Williamson once again sent shock waves through the college basketball world.
• On Saturday night, Williamson stole a ball at midcourt against Clemson and turned it into a nasty 360 dunk.
• The dunk sent the Cameron Crazies and Dick Vitale into a frenzy. 
• Williamson is widely expected to be the first pick in the NBA Draft and appears to be ready for the NBA Dunk Contest.

Here is the video, via ESPN. Turn on the sound for Dick Vitale's call:

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The mobile augmented reality (AR) market is quickly becoming primed for the retail space. By blending the online and in-store shopping journeys, mobile AR promises to provide an immersive digital shopping experience unlike anything shoppers have seen before.

Mobile AR is one of the most coveted technologies for improving the digital shopping experience among consumers. That’s because mobile AR can be used to bring the in-store experience to consumers’ homes by recreating the try-on experience. It allows online shoppers to test out multiple sizes and variations of products, or just see what a product looks like overlaid into their home — without making a true commitment to the purchase or a trip to the store. It can also be used in-store to quickly provide product information or guide users to the right item using location-based services.

Retailers that meet this need for mobile AR stand to pull ahead of the competition. Mobile AR can help build brand loyalty, heighten engagement, increase geographical customer reach, shorten conversion times, boost purchases of larger items, and cut down on returns.

In a new report, Business Insider Intelligence examines the importance of mobile AR to businesses in the retail space, explores the various ways brands are utilizing mobile AR to enhance the customer experience as well as their own, and determines the factors retailers should consider when devising a mobile AR strategy.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Nearly 75% of consumers already expect retailers to offer an AR experience. Mobile AR retail experiences are more likely to come to fruition as Apple and Google continue to build out their AR developer platforms, ARKit and ARCore, respectively, which will expand the addressable market exponentially.
• Retailers in certain segments, including furniture and home improvement, as well as beauty and fashion, have been the first to jump on the mobile AR bandwagon through their own apps. These sectors appear to have the most immediate need for mobile AR strategies, as trying out furniture and clothes are two of the most coveted AR use cases by consumers.
• Social media is emerging as a prominent channel for retailers to reach consumers through mobile AR experiences. Platforms like Facebook and Snapchat continue to build out tools that businesses and developers can utilize to enhance their advertising strategies with immersive experiences.
• But retailers will have to consider several factors before implementing their mobile AR strategies. These include the cost of building AR experiences, the availability of AR-compatible smartphones, consumer awareness of mobile AR apps, and the quality of mobile AR content.

In full, the report:

• Explores the ways mobile AR brings value to the customer shopping experience. 
• Highlights how the consumer benefits of mobile AR can be transformed into valuable outcomes for retailers.
• Discusses how major retail brands are leveraging mobile AR to enhance the customer journey, and what goals they are striving to achieve.
• Outlines the several factors retailers and brands will have to consider before implementing their mobile AR strategies.

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• Chance the Rapper apologized Saturday evening for previously collaborating and performing with the R&B singer R. Kelly.
• "I apologize to all of his survivors for working with him and for taking this long to speak out," he said in a statement posted on Twitter.
• His comments come on the heels of the Lifetime documentary series "Surviving R. Kelly," which features interviews with women who allege Kelly preyed upon them when they were underage and abused them.
• Kelly has denied all allegations against him.

Chance the Rapper apologized Saturday evening for working with the R&B singer R. Kelly, the subject of the six-part Lifetime documentary series "Surviving R. Kelly," which details numerous allegations that Kelly preyed upon underage girls and abused them.

Chance, whose real name is Chancelor Bennett, has faced criticism for collaborating with Kelly on the 2015 song "Somewhere in Paradise" and performing with him at the Lollapalooza festival in 2014.

The final two episodes of "Surviving R. Kelly" aired Saturday evening and featured a previously unreleased interview with Chance, in which he told the columnist Jamilah Lemieux that making a song with Kelly was "a mistake."

He also reflected on why he felt comfortable working with Kelly at the time, despite knowing of the allegations against him.

"We're programmed to really be hypersensitive to black male oppression. It's just prevalent in all media," he said. "But black women are, you know, exponentially a higher oppressed and violated group of people, like just in comparison to the whole world. Maybe I didn't care because I didn't value the accusers' stories, because they were black women."

Some critics seized on Chance's remarks about black women, which were partially quoted by Rolling Stone earlier on Saturday, before the news outlet updated the piece to include his full quotes.

Chance tweeted an explanation on Saturday evening:

"The quote was taken out of context, but the truth is any of us who ever ignored the R Kelly stories, or ever believed he was being setup/attacked by the system (as black men often are) were doing so at the detriment of black women and girls. I apologize to all of his survivors for working with him and for taking this long to speak out."

Lemieux also weighed in on Chance's comments, tweeting that "he spoke clearly and unequivocally in support of BW and the victims."

Here's a clip of his remarks:

Read more: Watch the chilling trailer for 'Surviving R. Kelly,' a new documentary about the women accusing the singer of running a 'sex cult'

"Surviving R. Kelly" features interviews with multiple women who allege that Kelly had sex with them when they were underage, physically and emotionally abused them, and sought to control women by regulating when they ate, used the restroom, and contacted their families.

Kelly has continued to deny all allegations against him, and he is not currently charged with any crimes. His lawyer has threatened to sue Lifetime over the series, TMZ reported.

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Over the past five years, the world has seen a seemingly unending series of high-profile data breaches, defined as incidents in which unauthorized parties access and retrieve sensitive, secure, or private data.

Major incidents, like the 2013 Yahoo breach, which impacted all 3 million of the tech giant’s customers, and the more recent Equifax breach, which exposed the information of at least 143 million US adults, has kept this risk, and these threats, at the forefront for both businesses and consumers. And businesses have good reason to be concerned — of organizations breached, 22% lost customers, 29% lost revenue, and 23% lost business opportunities.

This threat isn’t going anywhere. Each of the past five years has seen, on average, 1,704 security incidents, impacting nearly 2 billion records. And hackers could be getting more efficient, using new technological tools to extract more data in fewer breach attempts. That’s making the security threat an industry-agnostic for any business holding sensitive data — at this point, virtually all companies — and therefore a necessity for firms to address proactively and prepare to react to.

The majority of breaches come from the outside, when a malicious actor is usually seeking access to records for financial gain, and tend to leverage malware or other software and hardware-related tools to access records. But they can come internally, as well as from accidents perpetrated by employees, like lost or stolen records or devices.

That means that firms need to have a broad-ranging plan in place, focusing on preventing breaches, detecting them quickly, and resolving and responding to them in the best possible way. That involves understanding protectable assets, ensuring compliance, and training employees, but also protecting data, investing in software to understand what normal and abnormal performance looks like, training employees, and building a response plan to mitigate as much damage as possible when the inevitable does occur.

Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has put together a detailed report on the data breach threat, who and what companies need to protect themselves from, and how they can most effectively do so from a technological and organizational perspective.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• The breach threat isn’t going anywhere. The number of overall breaches isn’t consistent — it soared from 2013 to 2016, but ticked down slightly last year — but hackers might be becoming better at obtaining more records with less work, which magnifies risk.
• The majority of breaches come from the outside, and leverage software and hardware attacks, like malware, web app attacks, point-of-service (POS) intrusion, and card skimmers.
• Firms need to build a strong front door to prevent as many breaches as possible, but they also need to develop institutional knowledge to detect a breach quickly, and plan for how to resolve and respond to it in order to limit damage — both financial and subjective — as effectively as possible.

In full, the report:

• Explains the scope of the breach threat, by industry and year, and identifies the top attacks.
• Identifies leading perpetrators and causes of breaches.
• Addresses strategies to cope with the threat in three key areas: prevention, detection, and resolution and response.
• Issues recommendations from both a technological and organizational perspective in each of these categories so that companies can avoid the fallout that a data breach can bring.

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• The NFL playoff bracket and TV schedule for the first two rounds are now set.
• The Indianapolis Colts defeated the Houston Texans in the first AFC Wild Card game and the Dallas Cowboys held off the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC.
• The Colts will face the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round, while the Cowboys' opponent is still up in the air.

The NFL regular season is now over, the playoff bracket is set, and the first two Wild Card games are in the books.

The Dallas Cowboys held off the Seattle Seahawks in the first NFC Wild Card game. Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Colts easily defeated the Houston Texans in the AFC.

The Colts are the sixth seed and will face the Kansas City Chiefs in the first game of the divisional round. The Cowboys' second-round opponent is still up in the air. If the Chicago Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles, the Cowboys will face the New Orleans Saints. If the Eagles win, the Cowboys will travel to Los Angeles to face the Rams. 

Here is the TV schedule for the first two rounds.

Here is the TV schedule for Wild Card Weekend:

• Saturday
  • 4:35 ET — Indianapolis Colts at Houston Texans (ESPN)
  • 8:15 ET — Seattle Seahawks at Dallas Cowboys (Fox)
• Sunday
  • 1:05 ET — Los Angeles Chargers at Baltimore Ravens (CBS)
  • 4:40 ET — Philadelphia Eagles at Chicago Bears (NBC)

Here is the TV schedule for Divisional Weekend:

• Saturday
  • 4:35 ET — Indianapolis Colts at Kansas City Chiefs (NBC)
  • 8:15 ET — Highest NFC seed remaining at Los Angeles Rams (Fox)
• Sunday
  • 1:05 ET — Highest AFC seed remaining at New England Patriots (CBS)
  • 4:40 ET — Lowest NFC seed remaining at New Orleans Saints (Fox)

SEE ALSO: The 40 most dominant athletes of 2018

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If we're living through a “retail apocalypse” that spells doom for brick-and-mortar retail, as many have suggested, why are e-commerce leaders like Amazon, Alibaba, and JD.com so focused on building their own brick-and-mortar networks?

It's because they want to revitalize physical stores by introducing features associated with online shopping like personalization — and a whopping 65% of consumers said personalization and promotions are most important to their shopping experiences, according to a report from Oracle cited by Chain Store Age.

Brick-and-mortar retailers have the opportunity to reap the same benefits of personalization that e-tailers do, like repeat visits and impulse purchases, but they need to invest in the right technologies and techniques to do so because they currently don’t meet shoppers’ expectations. For example, 41% of consumers expect sales associates to know about their previous purchases, but just 19% have experienced this, according to a report from Segment.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence analyzes how physical retail’s personalization is being outperformed by e-commerce’s, and examines the value personalization holds for brick-and-mortar in particular. We also look at what techniques and technologies are available to help retailers identify and track consumers in-store, and how they can be used to bolster their personalization capabilities. Finally, we examine the different channels through which retailers can reach consumers with their personalized offerings in-store.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Amazon, Alibaba, JD.com, Intel, Mastercard, Target, Velocity Worldwide, RetailMeNot, b8ta, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sitecore, Oak Labs, Calabrio, and Alegion.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Consumers say that a personalized shopping experience can inspire loyalty and increases in spending.
• But brick-and-mortar retailers aren't meeting consumers’ in-store personalization expectations.
• The nature of online shopping gives e-commerce the upper hand when it comes to personalization.
• Physical retailers can close the gap in personalization by identifying consumers when they enter, tracking them throughout their journey, and then using that information to inform individualized offerings.
• To make the most of personalized offerings, retailers must consider how content is being presented to consumers in-store, and what the strengths of each channel are.
• If physical retailers fail to improve their in-store personalization, they risk losing sales and market share to e-commerce companies, both online and in-store.

In full, the report:

• Identifies the values of personalization to physical retailers.
• Details the reasons e-tailers currently offer better personalization than brick-and-mortar stores.
• Outlines the technologies and processes that can bolster in-store personalization.
• Discusses how retailers can best present personalized offerings in-store.

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• The Seahawks came up with a miraculous backdoor cover as 2.5-point underdogs against the Cowboys.
• The cover came on a last second two-point conversion, which left the Seahawks down 24-22 — not enough to win the game, but enough for bettors to cash their tickets on Seattle.
• Seattle's cover came due to an injury to kicker Sebastian Janikowski, whose absence forced the Seahawks to go for two rather than an extra-point attempt.

The Seattle Seahawks came up just short on Saturday, ending their postseason campaign with a 24-22 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

But while the Seahawks lost on the field, those who bet on them in Las Vegas wound up winners in miraculous fashion, all thanks to an injury to kicker Sebastian Janikowski.

The Seahawks entered the game as 2.5-point underdogs, meaning that bettors backing Seattle needed Russell Wilson and company to win the game, or lose by two points or less in order to cash their tickets.

At the end of the first half, Seattle lined up for a long kick in the final seconds before halftime. After his 57-yard attempt went wide right, Janikowski immediately grabbed at his leg, nursing what looked like a hamstring injury.

While an injured kicker would, in most cases, be a bad turn of events for bettors, on Saturday, it wound up being a blessing for Seattle backers.

With the Seahawks down 24-14 late in the fourth quarter, Seattle had two minutes left to drive the field and steal a quick score to stay alive.

After Wilson found receiver Tyler Lockett for a huge reception to get into the red zone, they did just that, with Wilson connecting with J.D. McKissic for the touchdown.

In most cases, the Seahawks would line up to kick the extra point in this situation, then hope that they could recover an onside kick and set up a game-tying field goal.

But with Janikowski sidelined, Seattle figured their best chance to put points on the board was by going for two.

Thanks to Janikowski's injury and the Seahawks' two-point attempt and conversion that it led to, Seattle wound up down 24-22 as they readied for the onside attempt.

For bettors that backed the Seahawks +2.5, it was a miraculous win.

Twitter was quick to take notice.

As Darren Rovell noted on Twitter, the ending was particularly interesting for one bold bettor.

Jay Kornegay, VP of Race and Sports Operations at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook, told Business Insider said in the end, it was an "average day" for the book, adding that the late swing was mitigated by a large amount of moneyline bettors.

"Great day in the sports gaming world," he concluded.

According to the Action Network, 58% of the money bet on the game was backing the Cowboys, meaning that the last-minute cover provided Las Vegas bookmakers with a solid win on the game.

But even if Vegas wound up winners on the day, for those bettors that backed the Seahawks, the ending was nothing short of a miracle.

SEE ALSO: Cowboys receiver Allen Hurns suffered a gruesome ankle injury just minutes into Wild Card game

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Digital disruption is affecting every aspect of the fintech industry.

Over the past five years, fintech has established itself as a fundamental part of the global financial services ecosystem.

Fintech startups have raised, and continue to raise, billions of dollars annually, pushing incumbent financial institutions to get in on the action. Legacy players have begun using fintech to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving financial services landscape.

So what's next?

Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, explores recent innovations in the fintech space as well as what might be coming in the future in our brand new exclusive slide deck, The Future of Fintech: How Fintech Is Taking Over The World and What Comes Next.

To get your copy of this free slide deck, click here.

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Telehealth — the use of mobile technology to deliver health-related services, such as remote doctor consultations and patient monitoring — is enabling healthcare providers and payers to address the US healthcare industry’s growing list of problems.

The proliferation and rapid advancement of mobile technology are spurring telehealth adoption, and many believe that 2018 could be the tipping point for the telehealth market.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence defines the opaque US telehealth market, forecasts the market growth potential and value, outlines the key drivers behind usage and adoption, and evaluates the opportunity telehealth solutions will afford all stakeholders. We also identify key barriers to continued telehealth adoption, and discuss how providers, payers, and telehealth companies are working to overcome these hurdles.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Telehealth is enabling healthcare providers and payers to address the US healthcare industry’s growing list of problems, including rising healthcare costs, an aging population, and the transformation of healthcare from service-centric to consumer-centric, which is straining healthcare system resources and threatening to drive up payer costs.
• Although telehealth solutions aren't suitable for all patients, right now, about 45% of the US population, or 147 million consumers, falls within the addressable market.
• Despite low usage rates, most consumers are open to using telehealth solutions, according to the 2018 Business Insider Intelligence Insurance Technology Study. 
• A range of companies are well-positioned to generate savings in terms of revenue and avoid potential pitfalls by deploying telehealth solutions.

 In full, the report:

• Offers an overview of different types of telehealth services and their applications in the US healthcare ecosystem. 
• Highlights the growth drivers and opportunities of these applications.
• Includes exclusive data and insights from the 2018 Business Insider Intelligence Insurance Technology Study. 
• Provides examples of key players in the telehealth market, including insurers, medical device makers, and health networks. 
• Gives recommendations on how health networks and payers should approach using and deploying telehealth solutions.

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• After a shaky start, wearables like smartwatches and fitness trackers have gained traction in healthcare, with US consumer use jumping from 9% in 2014 to 33% in 2018.
• More than 80% of consumers are willing to wear tech that measures health data — and penetration should continue to climb.
• The maturation of the wearable market will put more wearables in the hands of consumers and US businesses.

The US healthcare industry as it exists today is not sustainable. An aging patient population and rising burden of chronic disease have caused healthcare costs to skyrocket and left providers struggling to keep up with demand for care. 

Meanwhile, digital technologies in nearly every consumer experience outside of healthcare have raised patients’ expectations for good service to be higher than ever.

One of the key mechanisms through which healthcare providers can finally evolve their outdated practices and exceed these expectations is wearable technology.

Presently, 33% of US consumers have adopted wearables, such as smartwatches and fitness trackers, to play a more active role in managing their health. In turn, insurers, providers, and employers are poised to become just as active leveraging these devices – and the data they capture – to abandon the traditional reimbursement model and improve patient outcomes with personalized, value-based care.

Adoption is going to keep climbing, as more than 80% of consumers are willing to wear tech that measures health data, according to Accenture — though they have reservations about who exactly should access it.

A new report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, follows the growing adoption of wearables and breadth of functions they offer to outline how healthcare organizations and stakeholders can overcome this challenge and add greater value with wearable technology.

For insurers, providers, and employers, wearables present three distinct opportunities:

• Insurers can use wearable data to enhance risk assessments and drive customer lifetime value. One study shows that wearables can incentivize healthier behavior associated with a 30% reduction in risk of cardiovascular events and death.
• Providers can use the remote patient monitoring capabilities of wearable technology to improve chronic disease management, lessen the burden of staff shortages, and navigate a changing reimbursement model. And since 90% of patients no longer feel obligated to stay with providers that don't deliver a satisfactory digital experience, wearables could help to attract and retain them.
• Employers can combine wearables with cash incentives to lower insurance costs and improve employee productivity. For example, The Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority yielded $5 million in healthcare cost savings through a wearable-based employee wellness program.

Want to Learn More?

The Wearables in US Healthcare Report details the current and future market landscape of wearables in the US healthcare sector. It explores the key drivers behind wearable usage by insurers, healthcare providers, and employers, and the opportunities wearables afford to each of these stakeholders. 

By outlining a successful case study from each stakeholder, the report highlights best practices in implementing wearables to reduce healthcare claims, improve patient outcomes, and drive insurance cost savings, as well as how the evolution of the market will create new, untapped opportunities for businesses.

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• Western companies routinely sell their old tech hardware to private companies in foreign countries, without wiping the sensitive data on them first.
• A Business Insider source found a large database of the Dutch public health insurance system on old equipment abandoned after a hardware upgrade.
• He also found the codes for controlling the traffic lights in multiple Spanish cities. 
• It's pointless worrying about hackers breaking into our systems if we're giving away data to anyone with a credit card in the hardware refurbishing business, the source says.

Western companies routinely abandon confidential, sensitive, and personally identifying information to private companies in foreign countries when they upgrade their servers, workstations, and networking gear for new hardware, a source tells Business Insider.

The unprotected data is a goldmine for hackers.

The source, based in Romania, approached us after reading our December 22 article on whether hackers had the ability to take entire countries offline. The source runs an IT hardware refurbishment company that buys up old equipment from countries such as Spain, the Benelux area, and the UK, and sells it to customers who don't need top-spec equipment. Typically he is buying truckloads of old servers, "stuff that is past its prime or out of warranty, but it is still perfectly usable. The procedure is simple: hardware comes in, gets evaluated, fixed, wiped, sold," the source says.

The problem, our source says, is that even when the incoming hardware has been marked as being already wiped clean it often is not. 

A "mostly complete" directory of "passwords for a major European aerospace manufacturer"

"Over the last 3 years I have found a lot of crazy things," the source says, including:

• A mostly complete database of the Dutch public health insurance system, with social security data, billing, addresses, medical histories. "Imagine the social engineering scams you could do with this data," the source says.
• Codes, software and procedures for the traffic lights and railway signalling "for a few major Spanish cities.""Imagine the potentially deadly effects of this getting where it shouldn’t," he adds.
• Customer credit card data including addresses and shopping habits for a major UK supermarket chain.
• And, alarmingly, "a mostly complete (and as far as I could tell, still up to date and functional) employee directory with access codes / badges / smartcards / passwords for a major European aerospace manufacturer."

Our source asked for anonymity because his company and its clients would be angered if their identities appeared in an article about lax security.

But two independent sources with industrial cybersecurity expertise — Nir Giller, the CTO of CyberX and Darktrace Director of Technology Andrew Tonschev — both confirmed to Business Insider that the Romanian source's scenario was both common and plausible.

"Right now, I’m looking at the sensor listing, their IP’s and access data"

"Even now, I am processing the remains of a server farm that until a month or so ago, was part of a power company in France," our source says. The buyer noted the ability of hackers to burn down factories simply by accessing unprotected systems which control things like temperature sensors that prevent equipment from burning out. "Guess what, data [from the French company] is still there," the source claims. "Right now, I’m looking at the sensor listing, their IP’s and access data. Obviously, I’m sanitizing everything before passing it on, but it never should have gotten into my hands in the first place."

The source says that sometimes the data he finds is so critical that he contacts the originating company to alert them to that they have a problem with security. "In most cases the reaction was one of disbelief, 'no, it cannot happen to us, we’re well protected!'"

As more companies lease server space, fewer of them know what happens when those leases end

The problem exists because of the way server space is discarded by large corporations. Few companies want the bother of maintaining their own server farms. So they lease space from specialists. At the end of a lease, companies can walk away from their contracts — leaving the servers with the vendor, which is supposed to carefully destroy the data. Alternatively, when older servers reach the end of their warranty they are replaced in "forklift" upgrades, en masse. In both cases, the disused servers are supposed to be wiped by certified experts using special software and approved processes. In reality, it's quicker to skip steps, or not do it properly, or let mistakes go. The result is that the original data is often accessible even when an old server has been certified clean. 

"The West is failing at an institutional level to keep their critical data safe," the source says "No need for CSI-worthy hacking stories, just a credit card to buy up your used hardware – odds are the data will be still there, even if someone marked them as already wiped."

• Read more:
• Someone is trying to take entire countries offline and cybersecurity experts say 'it's a matter of time because it's really easy'
• The internet's worst-case scenario finally happened in real life: An entire country was taken offline, and no one knows why
• Putin might already have your Wi-Fi password

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: USB-C was supposed to be a universal connector — but it still has a lot of problems

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence. Current subscribers can read the report here.

Blockchain technology promises to transform how nearly all industries manage data. Since roaring onto the scene as the engine behind Bitcoin in 2009, it's become applicable to a diverse array of industries beyond financial services, including industrial manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics.

The common thread between these industries is that they all feature complex supply chains, large numbers of interconnected players, and vast amounts of data. The digital advertising industry shares those characteristics as well. These characteristics, combined with the industry's transparency issues, make advertising a prime candidate for blockchain solutions.

Blockchain can help solve one of the advertising industry’s biggest challenges: opaque advertising practices.  Publishers, advertisers, and ad tech vendors are exploring blockchain as a tool to boost transparency around ad practices, with the end goal of reducing fraud. Ad fraud is expected to cost the industry $44 billion by 2022, up from $19 billion this year, according to Juniper Research estimates. Through its function as a public database, blockchain can store information about a digital advertisement, like who has created it, while sharing it with everyone else on the network in a verifiable and immutable way. For digital advertising, that means ad impressions can be tracked along the supply chain, and advertisers can record where an ad is delivered. 

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence will explain what blockchain technology is and how it can inject transparency into the advertising supply chain. We will then highlight the significant hurdles to adoption, and propose different ways the industry could navigate those challenges. Finally, the report will profile companies that are at the forefront of the blockchain advertising space to give advertisers an idea of what blockchain looks like in practice today.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Basic Attention Token (BAT), IBM, Kochava, and MetaX. 

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report: 

• Blockchain promises to mitigate ad fraud through its function as an immutable public database, which allows it to store and validate previously murky information about digital ads.
• Despite this promise, just 11% of advertisers and agency executives have completed an ad buy using blockchain technology, according to an Advertiser Perceptions survey.
• Limited adoption is the result of several significant hurdles — like ad executives' skepticism around the technology's usefulness — which must be overcome before blockchain is widely accepted.
• Blockchain is heralded as a transformative technology, and while it has that potential, it's not quite there yet for advertisers.
• Still, it shouldn't be dismissed as "pie in the sky"— blockchain presents several short-term use cases for advertisers, and those who take advantage will be set up for long-term success as the technology matures.

In full, the report: 

• Highlights how blockchain technology works, and how it can be integrated into the advertising supply chain to improve transparency. 
• Outlines practical, low-risk ways marketers can prepare themselves to benefit from blockchain including using smart contracts, registering domain names, and exploring tokens that reward consumers for use of their data. 
• Profiles several companies at the forefront of the blockchain advertising space, gaining industry-wide recognition as thought leaders.

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• Aer Lingus is Ireland's national airline.
• Since 2015, Aer Lingus has been part of International Airlines Group or IAG and is a sister company of British Airways and Iberia. 
• We recently had the chance to fly Aer Lingus between New York and the airline's home base in Dublin on board a new Airbus A330. 
• We were impressed with the airline's service, cabin amenities, and entertainment options.

Ireland is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe. In 2017, nearly 9 million people visited the island nation, 1.7 million of which hailed from North America. 

Aer Lingus was founded in 1936 and is Ireland's national airline despite the fact that it's actually the country's second-largest carrier behind ultra-low-cost giant Ryanair.

In case you're wondering, its name is an anglicization of the Irish words for "air fleet."

In the late 2000s, Aer Lingus suffered greatly from the fallout of the financial crisis. This led to a succession of failed takeover attempts by Ryanair. 

International Airlines Group or IAG completed a €1.5 billion or $1.7 million takeover of Aer Lingus in late 2015, making the airline a sister company of legacy brands like British Airways and Iberia. 

Read more: I flew Virgin Atlantic from London to New York to see if Richard Branson's airline is still one of the world's best — here's the verdict.

These days, Aer Lingus is a four-star airline according to the reviewers at consumer aviation website Skytrax and operates a fleet of around 50 Airbus and Boeing jets. 

Recently, I had the chance to visit the Emerald Isle with my fiance and as part of the experience, we chose to fly Aer Lingus between Newark Liberty International Airport just outside of New York and the airline's home base in Dublin Airport. 

Aer Lingus operates flights to 13 US cities including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, and Seattle. The airline also flies to two destinations in Canada; Toronto and Montreal. 

We took Aer Lingus Flight EI100 to Dublin and returned home on Flight EI101. 

Here's a look at our experience in economy class on board Aer Lingus Flight EI101 from Dublin to Newark. 

SEE ALSO: The 21 safest airlines in the world

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After a weekend of fun in Ireland, it was time to return home. We arrived at Dublin Airport Terminal 2 nearly three hours early for our flight. We'll explain why in a bit.

I had trouble checking in to the flight using the Aer Lingus website and app.

And... the kiosk didn't work either.

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence,  Business Insider's premium research service. Current subscribers can read the report here.

Until now, healthcare was the only remaining industry that had yet to feel the rapid impact of digitization endured by retail, banking, and media. But consumer adoption of digital tech, regulatory overhauls, and a shifting reimbursement model are forcing healthcare players' hands.

Digital health innovation offers market incumbents new opportunities to combat constricting margins, labor shortages, and rising costs.

But it also poses a threat to slow movers, as new entrants lean on their digital prowess and lack of legacy infrastructure to cut costs and remain nimble. As such, incumbents are turning to acquisitions, partnerships, and new investments to strengthen their digital health services.

The first Digital Health Ecosystem Report from Business Insider Intelligence explores the current healthcare ecosystem, industry trends that are driving digital transformation, and where the industry is headed.

We outline the role of each of the industry's major players — including payers, providers, and manufacturers — and how they're affected by healthcare's digital disruption. 

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Digital health is at the forefront of transformation in the healthcare industry — both as a driver of and an answer to the challenges industry players are grappling with.
• All of the industry's major players — including payers, providers, and manufacturers — are affected by healthcare's digital disruption.
• A confluence of forces induced healthcare's embrace of digital health, including changing consumer expectations, a new and disruptive reimbursement model, and rising healthcare costs
• Tech-focused entrants are also breaking into healthcare, acting as catalysts for change and threatening legacy players' bottom lines.
• Key digital health solutions like EHRs, digital therapeutics, telehealth, AI, wearables, and blockchain are the foundation of the industry's digital awakening.
• Early evidence that digital health can address many of the industry's myriad challenges has fueled a vibrant US digital health funding market in 2018, with overall funding hitting $6.8 billion at the end of Q3. 

 In full, the report:

• Details the US healthcare landscape by the role that payers, providers, manufacturers, and distributors play in the healthcare ecosystem.
• Gives an overview of how digital health is enabling incumbents to overcome industry challenges.
• Outlines how tech-focused healthcare entrants are pressuring incumbents and accelerating healthcare's digital transformation
• Identifies promising digital health funding areas to illustrate what the future of digital health will look like.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >>Purchase & Download Now
2. Subscribe to a Premium pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >>Learn More Now

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you've given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of the Digital Health.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Aetna, Alphabet, Amazon, American Well, AmerisourceBergen, Anthem, Apple, Arizona Care Network, Arterys, Babylon Health, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Bay Labs, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, Blue Mesa Health, Bright Health, Cardinal Health, Cedars-Sinai, Cleveland Clinic, Clover Health, CVS, DePuy Synthes, Devoted Health, Dexcom, Doctor on Demand, Express Scripts, Fitbit, Fresenius Medical Care, GE Healthcare, Geisinger, Glooko, GSK, healthfinch, IBM, IDx, Johnson & Johnson, Mass General, McKesson, Medtronic, Merck & Co., Merck KGaA, Microsoft, NewYork-Presbyterian, Northwell Health, Novartis, Olive, Omada Health, Optum Rx, Oscar Health, Pear Therapeutics, Pfizer, Philips, PillPack, ResMed, Rite Aid, Roche, Samsung, Sanofi, Senseonics, Suki, Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, T-Mobile, UnitedHealth Group, Verily, Viant, Walgreens, Walmart, Wellpepper, Zocdoc

SEE ALSO: Patients are transforming from passive recipients of healthcare services to active participants in their own health

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