This paper presents some aspects of the Internet of Things (IoT) and attacks to which IoT may be exposed, above all, the man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack. After a short introduction, which describes the essence of the IoT and the MITM attack, used scientific methods and hypotheses are presented. The next chapters show the technology of MITM attacks and benefits that a successful attack provides to attackers. Here are presented also some of the most important examples of such attacks, which had a wider scope or significant impact on the Internet community. This part of the article ends by analyzing the possibilities of protection of IoT against MITM attacks. In the continuation, based on data available, an analysis of MITM attacks is given from an economic point of view. The conclusions show a summary of the entire analysis with assumptions of the future development of these issues.

No abstract

Bitcoin, digital money got into focus after the Mt Gox crash. It uses P2P interaction where an owner transfers the electronic coin to the next owner signing and adding a hash of the previous transaction and the public key of the next owner. Payment verification is accomplished by notifying the entire network about the transaction. This prevents double-spending and generation of non-existent money. Among the users, there is uncertainty about the safety on the theft and fraud. Among the authorities, there are dilemmas about present and future risks related to the Bitcoin implementation. The article deals with the benefits and risks of Bitcoin use.

The article considers peculiarities of the activities of the main participants in the financial market, in particular banking in the context of digitalization and the introduction of artificial intelligence tools. At present, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have a significant impact on human life, both in the process of instant transfers and in conversational interfaces. This affects the financial services sector, and its members are the most active in introducing disruptive AI innovations. Therefore, in order to increase the level of competitiveness, modern banks should act as locomotives in addressing issues of implementation, use of digital technologies and acceleration of methods of remote work. The COVID-19 pandemic has made its own adjustments to the concept of interaction of financial institutions with customers, for most of whom remote services have become an integral part of everyday life. The increasing demand for telecommuting services of financial institutions stimulates the creation of digital platforms that take into account both the processes of global digitalization and the changed demands of consumers in the context of a pandemic. This article provides an analytical overview of trends, obstacles and prospects for the integration of financial ecosystems and marketplaces in the Russian market. The necessity of using an integrated approach in developing the rules for the functioning of financial ecosystems in the formation of an adequate development strategy, which will ensure the creation of a fair competitive environment in the financial market, has been substantiated. The aim of the research is to identify the main trends and patterns in the financial services market, as well as to determine the vector for further development of financial ecosystems formed using artificial intelligence tools. To achieve this goal such general scientific methods as theoretical generalization, analysis and synthesis, comparative analysis, systems approach, etc. have been used.

This article deals with the challenges that are faced by micro and small enterprises using data. After naming main hypotheses of the research, the attention is paid to definitions of big and small data and to their comparison. In the paper, analyses of the connections between big data and Internet are given. The main attention is paid to the use of big data in micro and small enterprises through the analyses of needed skills, organizational changes and big data management including possible pros and cons. As a special item, the analysis of risks and implementation is given. The analyses are supported with a lot of research results and numerous literature sources. At the end of the article there are conclusions about directions how micro and small enterprises should use big data and how to invest rationally in big data.