Almost every day, it seems, there's news of another ransomware attack on a prominent organization. In fact, according to one study, almost 40 percent of all businesses experienced an attack from the summer of 2015 to the summer of 2016. To protect our companies against ransomware and its potentially disastrous technological and financial consequences, we have to understand what's needed to shield information technology systems from the initial infection and how to recover as quickly as possible.

The internet of things (IoT) may present the biggest opportunity to enterprises since the dawn of the internet age, and perhaps it will be bigger. Research firm Gartner predicts there will be nearly 20 billion devices on the IoT by 2020, and IoT product and service suppliers will generate more than $300bn in revenue.

China's textile industry is a world beater, accounting for over 60 percent of world chemical and synthetic fiber production. Cotton production is lower, but still large, at over 20 percent of the global total, ranking only behind India in 2016. The trend, however, is downwards as China is caught between rising domestic costs, persistent technical and distribution advantages elsewhere.