IT industry welcomes govt’s decision on work from home at SEZs

NASSCOM welcomes govt’s decision of WFH at SEZs

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has welcomed the decision of the government to allow the complete work from home (WFH) option to employees of technology industry in a special economic zone till December 2023.

Effective immediately, there will be no need to file an application to seek approval for WFH and there is no restriction on the extent of WFH that can be enabled by a unit in the SEZ. If required, units may even operate all of their employees in a hybrid/ remote manner. The only requirement is that the units shall intimate the local Development Commissioner through an email that they are implementing a WFH model.

According to NASSCOM, this is a major step towards enabling ease of doing business and will provide much-needed flexibility for companies operating in SEZs to develop a strong hybrid work model for the future.

This has been one of the major asks from NASSCOM and will help the industry to get sufficient time to organically come up with a hybrid model which is sustainable for a longer duration without the burden of compliance.

Malicious content on the internet continues to rise, says report

The number of malicious files on the internet continues to rise posing a threat to individuals and enterprises. According to cybersecurity firm - Kaspersky, on an average 400,000 malicious files are distributed every day, indicating a 5% growth compared to 2021.

The Kaspersky detection systems discovered an average of 400,000 new malicious files daily over the past 10 months. In total, Kaspersky’s systems detected approximately 122 million malicious files in 2022, 6 million more than last year. There has also been a 181 percent increase in the proportion of ransomware detected daily.

Windows continued to be the prime target of attacks among all platforms where threat families were spread. In 2022, Kaspersky experts discovered an average of nearly 320,000 malicious files attacking Windows devices. Out of all malicious files spread, 85% of them targeted Windows. However, Windows is not the only popular platform for attackers. This year, Kaspersky's detection systems also discovered that the share of malicious files in Microsoft Office formats distributed daily doubled (236% of growth).

Sharp fall in share price of HCL Technologies

The share price of HCL Technologies declined by 6.68% on Friday on the National Stock Exchange as the company’s management indicated that its revenue for the current financial year would be at the lower end of its guidance band.

The management of HCL Technologies at an investor meeting in New York held on December 8 said its revenue growth for FY23 is most likely to come in at the lower end of its 13.5%-14.5% guidance due to higher than expected furloughs in the BFSI and hi-tech segments.

The sharp fall in the share price of HCL Technologies is a reflection on the economic situation in North America and Western Europe. These geographies are experiencing an economic slowdown and this will directly impact the business prospects of not only HCL Technologies but also the entire Indian IT industry, as these are its major markets.

The expectation is that there would be lower IT budgets in the coming year from companies in these developed markets and this would have a bearing on the Indian technology companies.