We are creating some awesome events for you. Kindly bear with us.

Supercomputer to the rescue!

Supercomputer to the rescue!

According to a recent report, a new supercomputer helped customs officials in Hong Kong seize over HK$400,000 worth of fake goods sold online in the first half of the year. This seizure has boosted the total haul to more than 5,200 counterfeit items worth HK$1.94 million.

The analytics system scoured websites 24 hours a day and was responsible for uncovering over a third of all goods seized by the Customs & Excise Department. It was noted that the department would not rule out expanding the capacity of the computer, which gathers important information during investigations, but stressed the system could not replace the manual enforcement work done by customs officers.

The analytics tools saved customs officials a lot of time screening online platforms manually. The supercomputer screens multiple platforms at the same time and around the clock. This is much more efficient than having officers taking time to monitor a few sites or fish targets by search engines.

The system helps gather useful information from the vast sea of it, but it still needs manual work to take follow up action. Those responsible for maintaining and programming the supercomputer review the parameters set in the system from time to time and add new ones according to trends and seasons. After singling out questionable sites or shops, they still need people to conduct test buys, check with copyright and trademark owners, further investigate and take enforcement action.

The department launched its Big Data Analytics System in December to help analyse the huge amount of information found on different social platforms and shopping sites. It also enabled officers to identify counterfeit goods sellers and copyright pirates.

Official figures obtained by the Post showed that customs officers seized more than 5,200 suspected fake items in 94 cases of internet piracy in the first six months of this year. A total of 113 people were arrested. Around 38 per cent of the goods, valued at HK$419,000, was detected by the computer, leading to the arrests of 17 people.

In the single largest case cracked by the system this year, six shop owners and sales staff were arrested in citywide raids in April. More than 820 items of fake clothes, bags, and watches, with an estimated market value of HK$160,000 were seized from five retail shops, which promoted their businesses on the internet.

The operation began after the system detected the five shops using multiple accounts on several social media sites for promotion and sales purposes. The shops also provided face-to-face transactions and delivery. Customs officers later found some of the shops mixed counterfeit and authentic goods.

A department spokesman said the system was equipped with analytic learning tools, enabling it to collect and analyse new trends, including popular terms, phrases, and clauses. This helped officers master the latest internet jargon, hot topics, popular gimmicks and trendy gadgets. The spokesperson stated that both the computation capacity and memory can be scaled up for expansion to cope with increasing demands when necessary.

In the first half of 2017, officers detected 92 cases of internet piracy and netted 11,800 pieces of counterfeit goods worth HK$1.47 million. The department attributed this year’s rise to an increase in enforcement work.

Separately, the number of suspected sports-related counterfeits goods netted by local customs officers during this year’s FIFA World Cup in Russia climbed by 28 per cent to 230,000, compared to the operations mounted during the 2014 edition in Brazil. Officers arrested 27 people believed to be responsible for the HK$13.8 million haul that ranged from jerseys to sports shoes.

The source believed the goods seized were not intended for the local market as more than 90 per cent of the items were found in shipments destined for nearby Asian countries, Central America and Europe.

PARTNER

Qlik’s vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private company, Qlik offers real-time data integration and analytics solutions, powered by Qlik Cloud, to close the gaps between data, insights and action. By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships. Qlik serves more than 38,000 active customers in over 100 countries.

PARTNER

CTC Global Singapore, a premier end-to-end IT solutions provider, is a fully owned subsidiary of ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (CTC) and ITOCHU Corporation.

Since 1972, CTC has established itself as one of the country’s top IT solutions providers. With 50 years of experience, headed by an experienced management team and staffed by over 200 qualified IT professionals, we support organizations with integrated IT solutions expertise in Autonomous IT, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation, Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure, Workplace Modernization and Professional Services.

Well-known for our strengths in system integration and consultation, CTC Global proves to be the preferred IT outsourcing destination for organizations all over Singapore today.

PARTNER

Planview has one mission: to build the future of connected work. Our solutions enable organizations to connect the business from ideas to impact, empowering companies to accelerate the achievement of what matters most. Planview’s full spectrum of Portfolio Management and Work Management solutions creates an organizational focus on the strategic outcomes that matter and empowers teams to deliver their best work, no matter how they work. The comprehensive Planview platform and enterprise success model enables customers to deliver innovative, competitive products, services, and customer experiences. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with locations around the world, Planview has more than 1,300 employees supporting 4,500 customers and 2.6 million users worldwide. For more information, visit www.planview.com.

SUPPORTING ORGANISATION

SIRIM is a premier industrial research and technology organisation in Malaysia, wholly-owned by the Minister​ of Finance Incorporated. With over forty years of experience and expertise, SIRIM is mandated as the machinery for research and technology development, and the national champion of quality. SIRIM has always played a major role in the development of the country’s private sector. By tapping into our expertise and knowledge base, we focus on developing new technologies and improvements in the manufacturing, technology and services sectors. We nurture Small Medium Enterprises (SME) growth with solutions for technology penetration and upgrading, making it an ideal technology partner for SMEs.

PARTNER

HashiCorp provides infrastructure automation software for multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to unlock a common cloud operating model to provision, secure, connect, and run any application on any infrastructure. HashiCorp tools allow organizations to deliver applications faster by helping enterprises transition from manual processes and ITIL practices to self-service automation and DevOps practices. 

PARTNER

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Send this to a friend