Commsrisk Top Ten for August 2021

Commsrisk traffic slowed down as readers took well-earned holidays but the figures for the year remain extraordinary, with a 28% year-on-year increase in the total number of visitors from the beginning of January to the end of August. Growth has been especially driven by a 126% rise in the number of readers from the USA. This more than offset a 30% fall in visitors from India, which may be blamed on the disruption caused by the pandemic. Other big movers are Canada (up 124%), Singapore (up 116%), Australia (up 103%), Malaysia (up 92%) and Brazil (up 78%).

The number of British visitors rose by 28%, in line with the global average. Trends across Europe and Africa are largely consistent, with most countries on these continents exhibiting a 20-30% rise in visitor numbers. Traffic from China is up 288% year-on-year, though this dramatic increase was built upon a low base that saw the world’s most populous country only rank as the 55th-highest source of traffic for Commsrisk in 2020. China has now leapt up to 23rd in the global ranking tables.

The overall pattern of growth may be best understood by imagining a country’s time zone relative to Europe and Africa. The further a country lies to the East or West, the more rapid the rise in visitors to Commsrisk since 2020. This makes some sense when considering social dynamics. Although the internet is global, personal recommendations have been key to amassing Commsrisk’s audience. Audience growth is slowest in countries that have the fewest readers, but then accelerates as more professionals share the content with their peers.

The following rundown lists the ten most popular Commsrisk articles during August, ordered by unique page views.

  1. £888mn GDPR Fine for Amazon May Kill Behavioral Advertising in the EU
  2. Mobile Money Fraudsters to Be Blocked by All Ghana’s Networks
  3. New LATRO CEO Says Enhanced Analytics Is Key to the Future of RAFM
  4. US Regulator Finds New Robocall Bogeymen: Foreign Owners
  5. Why Using Words to Discuss Probability Is Dangerous
  6. Fears of Enormous Data Breach at T-Mobile US
  7. Russian Submarine Cable Spy Ship Loitering Off Ireland
  8. Why a $600mn Crypto Heist Is Bad News for Telcos and Banks
  9. Six Weeks to RAG London 2021
  10. Ghanaian High Court Stops Regulator and GVG from Violating Mobile Phone Privacy
Eric Priezkalns
Eric Priezkalns
Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), a global association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press. He is a qualified chartered accountant, with degrees in information systems, and in mathematics and philosophy.