An overwhelming majority of tech decision makers across Europe (88%) believe that outdated connectivity is restricting the potential benefits of technologies like AI, indicating that a new era is required.
This is according to research from Ericsson, which surveyed 2,500 technology decision makers across the UK, France, Germany, The Netherlands, and Italy, examining how the connectivity landscape has transformed over the last year and how enterprises’ attituded towards cellular connectivity have evolved.
According to the survey, many enterprises believe that 5G connectivity and next-generation technologies, such as AI, have a symbiotic relationship.
For instance, 85% of respondents state that AI helps improve network performance by automating analysis and reducing manual workload. Meanwhile, 87% believe that 5G is necessary to accelerate R&D initiatives within their organisations, and 54% strongly agree that more secure and high-performing networks would help position their nation as a world-class industrial and technology leader.
According to the research, businesses that want to see a full return on investments in advanced technology must ensure they are upgrading their connectivity infrastructure as well.
Poor Connectivity
According to Ericsson, Europe trails global leaders in the deployment and adoption of transformational 5G due to a regulatory environment that ‘impedes profitable investment in advanced connectivity.’
While in its latest report on OIR implementation, the European Commission made clear that the regulation should not be considered an obstacle to differentiated connectivity, the results of the survey reflect that negative perceptions have to be addressed as 35% of enterprises believe that net neutrality rules limit telecom providers’ ability to offer specialised connectivity services.
Likewise, 38% believe upgrading their network would be too complex, which is hindering the adoption of 5G solutions.
The result of this poor connectivity is not just holding businesses back; it is hurting their bottom line. Just over a quarter of respondents (28%) link unreliable connectivity directly to a loss of earnings, 31% believe it has led to an increase in waste, and 46% state it leads to higher operational costs.
It also affects enterprises’ sustainability initiatives, with 71% stating poor connectivity in remote areas restricts their ability to accurately gather emissions data, a crucial task if organisations want to achieve their net zero goals by 2030 and reduce their effect on the environment.
The survey showed that UK business leaders are aware of how critical 5G cellular connectivity has become to their long-term success, with 62% of executives stating it gives them more control when scaling their connectivity infrastructure up and down as needed and 61% stating it gives more control over critical operations when compared to fiber or even 4G networks.
As a result, 69% state it is the best investment they can make in the next 12 months, ahead of robotics and automation (45%) and even AI (42%).
The UK businesses that were surveyed also highlighted the utilities sector as one which could benefit the most from 5G. Du to its low latency and high bandwidth, 5G can support the demands of modern technology and IoT devices, leading to better management and energy infrastructure (86%) and water infrastructure (82%).
Finally, as the NHS continues to battle staff shortages and long wait times, 88% believe 5G is important to help the rollout of advanced technology within hospitals, which can help address the crisis.
“It is clear from this report business leaders are increasingly aware of the benefits and importance of having robust and future-proof connectivity infrastructure,” Paul McHugh, head of sales EMEA at Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions, said.
“However, numerous barriers persist, ranging from complex regulatory and telecom environments to a lack of skills within enterprises.
“Overcoming these challenges is crucial if businesses want to fully leverage the benefits of next-generation technology. I urge companies unsure where they should start their journey to work with channel and connectivity providers to help plug skills gaps and open the door to a new era of connectivity.”
Three quarters (75%) of new analytics content will be contextualised for intelligent applications through generative AI by 2027, enabling composable connection between insights and actions, according to Gartner, Inc.
“We’re moving from an era where analytic tools help business people make decisions, to a future where GenAI-powered analytics becomes perceptive and adaptive,” Georgia O’Callaghan, director, analyst at Gartner, said.
“This will enable dynamic and autonomous decisions that have the potential to transform enterprise and consumer software, business processes and models.”
A Gartner survey of 403 analytics or AI leaders, conducted between October and December 2024, revealed over 50% report their organisations use AI tools for automated insights and natural language queries (NLG) for analytics or AI development.
Even with these capabilities, the static nature of current analytics often falls short of delivering in a truly dynamic and automated fashion.
Gartner predicts augmented analytics capabilities will evolve into autonomous analytics platforms by 2027, which will fully manage and execute 20% of business processes. The perceptive future of analytics will deliver benefits by being proactive, collaborative, connected, contextual, and continuous.
“Perceptive analytics will use AI agents and other GenAI-fuelled technologies to continuously monitor evolving conditions and perceive the target environment, such as market shifts, customer behaviour changes or supply chain disruptions,” said O’Callaghan.
“Guidance and analysis can then be autonomously adjusted in response, creating a more resilient and responsive analytical infrastructure. As these capabilities emerge and be adopted by organisations, their potential to reshape business operations and drive growth will only continue to expand.”
According to Gartner research, the overarching risk that applies to perceptive analytics is the over reliance on autonomous actions without sufficient validation, which could result in unintended negative consequences, reputational damage and regulatory scrutiny.
The risk of ‘agent drift’ is a serious concern, where a system’s perceptions and actions gradually deviate from desired outcomes due to evolving data or unforeseen interactions.
Guardian agents are emerging to deal with this inherent issue in AI systems, according to Gartner. These agents are specifically tasked with monitoring and enforcing policies and rules to ensure the systems operate within a set of guardrails.
“Building guardian agents will need to be a key focal point of new governance initiatives for data and analytics leaders, as agentic and perceptive analytics become the standard way of insight delivery across platforms,” said O’Callaghan.
There appears to be a growing disconnect between the promise of engineering excellence and the day-to-day realities inside most software teams, new research from AI DevsOps company Harness found.
Despite widespread commitment to improve DevOps practices, most organisations are falling short, unable to deliver on the developer experience and best practices needed to compete in today’s digital landscape.
Harness’s The State of Software Engineering Excellence 2025, based on responses from more than 650 engineering leaders, exposes critical failures across the software delivery lifecycle, costing companies millions in lost productivity and stifled innovation.
The report offers a look at where many software teams are still struggling to scale core engineering capabilities.
For instance, two thirds (67%) of software teams cannot build and test their development environment within 15 minutes.
This time lag does make sense given wider context: 64% of infrastructure code deployments still rely on manual steps, and 61% of engineering leads say code reviews take over a day to complete.
Over half (55%) of build pipelines lack proper quality gates, and 52% of engineering teams lack the key tools needed to support incident management, leaving much to be desired in terms of cybersecurity.
Further, half of application deployments still rely on manual processes, creating more drag in basic task completion.
“What we’re seeing is an epidemic of engineering inefficiency that’s holding back innovation across the industry,” said Martin Reynolds, Field CTO at Harness and creator of the Engineering Excellence Maturity Assessment.
“Organisations are burning through millions of dollars in developer productivity while simultaneously exposing themselves to significant security and operational risks.”
Developer Experience Crisis
The study reveals that breakdowns in fundamental developer experience are creating massive productivity drains. Nearly one-third (29%) of engineering teams have no software catalogue at all, and just 21% have catalogues that automatically update with changes, forcing developers to waste time tracking down basic information about the systems they’re building.
These inefficiencies are compounded by a skills development gap, with just 19% of engineering leaders report having a structured curriculum for upskilling and reskilling engineers. This lack of systematic talent development leaves organisations vulnerable as technology landscapes rapidly evolve.
Planning processes are similarly strained. One in four engineering leaders report that more than 70% of requirements lack clearly defined acceptance criteria, while over half (54%) have experienced average scope creep above 20% in recent sprint cycles, resulting in costly rework, delivery delays, and widespread developer frustration.
The security picture is equally alarming, with security and quality breakdowns leaving organisations dangerously exposed to supply chain attacks and production incidents.
Most concerning: nearly one in ten organisations allow critical-severity bugs to reach production environments, and 38% of engineering leaders admit that most of their build pipelines lack security scan gates. Moreover, median resolution times remain extremely slow, with 45% of respondents saying it takes at least seven days or more to resolve high-severity security issues.
Training gaps only deepen the risk. While over half of developers (56%) receive training annually or semi-annually on security best practices, nearly a quarter (23%) are never trained on security measures – meaning nearly one in four developers are operating without proper security knowledge in a threat-rich environment.
“In an era where software supply chain attacks are making headlines weekly, these gaps represent existential threats to business continuity,” said Reynolds. “Organisations are essentially flying blind when it comes to understanding what’s actually in their software and how vulnerable they are to attack.”
A Solution?
The financial cost is staggering, with organisations facing millions in lost productivity annually due to inefficient onboarding processes and untapped savings opportunities from eliminating manual build processes and deployment toil.
When factoring in the cost of security incidents, production outages, and talent retention challenges, the true cost runs into tens of millions for enterprise organisations.
The report identifies a clear solution: a platform-centric approach that unifies developer experience, security, and operational efficiency.
By adopting a comprehensive software delivery platform – with automated pipeline creation, intelligent testing, and integrated security scanning – organisations can eliminate friction, reduce risk, and transform engineering inefficiency into competitive advantage.
Thousands of university students across the UK are cheating using AI, according to Freedom of Information requests from hundreds of UK universities accessed by The Guardian.
A report from the news outlet found that as AI tools, particularly ChatGPT, becomes more mainstream, more and more students are turning to them for academic misconduct.
The Guardian issued FOI requests to 155 universities to see data on proven cases of academic misconduct, ranging from plagiarism to AI misconduct, over the past five years.
Interestingly, cases of plagiarism have fallen over the past five years as AI takes hold. In 2019-2020, plagiarism made up almost two-thirds of all academic misconduct cases.
As AI became more widely available, plagiarism fell from 19 per 1,000 students to just 15.2 in 2023-24, and is expected to fall further in the coming year.
The research however found nearly 7,000 proven cases of academic misconduct using AI in 2023-24, which is about 5.1 per 1,000 students. In 2022-23, this figure sat at 1.6 per 1,000.
It is expected that these figures will rise this year, as plagiarism cases continue to decrease.
Though 155 universities were contacted, only 131 provided data, and out of these, 27% had yet to record AI misuse as a separate academic misconduct category in 2023-24.
AI cheating or misuse is becoming a more common issue, with many academic institutions ill-equipped to deal with the surge.
Research from the University of Reading found that despite systems in place for assessments, students were often able to submit AI-generated work without it being detected 94% of the time.
Resources are circulating on social media helping students to use AI for school assignments without getting caught, touting prompt suggestions or AI tools to create more ‘human’ outputs that can go undetected.
Further, AI misuse can be difficult to discern – the outright use of AI is not prohibited by most institutions, and can be used to brainstorm, generate structures, or provide suggestions. Crossing the line from use to misuse can be difficult for institutions to lay out in AI guidance, and can be even more difficult to police.
Digital collections of arts and archives are being threatened by the torrent of bots AI companies have deployed to harvest data, new research shows.
An report from GLAM-E Lab, which studies issues surrounding Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAMs), shows that these digital spaces are being swarmed by AI bots trawling their websites for data to train their AI models.
The proliferation of bots have gone so far that GLAM institutes claim AI companies do not understand the processing burden these bots have on their sites.
The surges of AI bot traffic can go so far that it kicks collections offline, according to GLAM-E Lab’s research.
An anonymous survey of 43 GLAM organisations revealed heightened alarm concerning the ‘aggressive’ harvesting of content by AI bots across digital collections.
Of the 43 organisations, 39 reported an increase in traffic, with 27 of these attributing this increase to AI training data bots.
“Respondents worry that swarms of AI training data bots will create an environment of unsustainably escalating costs for providing online access to collections,” the report said.
While some of the bots identify themselves and other do not, and while some trace the increase in bots back to 2021 while others only note the increase in bot traffic this year, respondents say that the robots.txt directives they publish to offer guidelines for web publishers are ineffective in stopping swarms of AI bots.
Other bot defence systems, like those offered by AWS and Cloudflare, however, are more effective, though GLAM-E Lab says the the problem is more complex.
Organisations that want their material available to the public may not want to hide materials behind logins, and some bot traffic may be useful, such as indexing bots.
The GLAM-E Lab report echoes other investigations and research made by the Confederation of Open Access Repositories, which found that bot traffic is leading to service outages or at least slowdowns of sites.
The Wikimedia Foundation and SourceHut issued similar complaints about the aggressive tactics of these bots in harvesting data to train AI, which is their assumed purpose.
GLAM-E Labs urged AI companies to consider the negative ramifications their swarms of bots can have on the platforms they target.
The research opens up a new avenue of concern as many GLAM institutions battle AI data harvesting over copyright concerns. Getty Images issued a lawsuit directed at Stability AI over their use of copyrighted material.
The UK government secretary of state for science, innovation, and technology Peter Kyle said that the government is working on addressing how UK copyright laws apply to AI, though this has left many questions unanswered. Copyright became a battleground for the new Data Use and Access Bill that was just passed through Parliament, with the UK government saying it will publish a report on AI and copyright instead of hammering the matter out in the new legislation.
More than £106 million was lost to romance fraud in the UK last year, and the number of victims continues to rise, according to new data from the City of London Police.
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau’s data reveals a disturbing 9% increase in romance fraud reports in the past year, with 9,449 reports made in the 2024/25 financial year. On average, victims lost £11,222 each – proof of the emotionally devastating and financially ruinous impact of these crimes.
The data also reveals that, for the second consecutive year, male victims slightly outnumber female victims. However, while more men reported cases, female victims tended to lose larger sums of money.
The 50-59 age group experienced the highest financial losses, totalling £22,108,334. This demographic is particularly vulnerable as they often have greater financial resources, are still in the workforce, and may be experiencing personal life changes such as divorce, separation, or the loss of a partner, making them prime targets for fraudsters.
One tactic the City of London Police pointed to is called ‘love bombing,’ where fraudsters overwhelm victims with excessive affection, manipulation, and emotional control to create dependency.
Intelligence gathered by the City of London Police suggests that nearly twice as many female victims engaged with suspects for a year or more compared to males, indicating a reluctance to believe they’ve been deceived.
“Romance fraud isn’t just a financial crime—it’s a deeply personal betrayal that can leave lasting emotional scars. For the second consecutive year, male victims have slightly outnumbered females, challenging outdated stereotypes about who is affected by these scams,” detective superintendent Oliver Little, from the lead force operations room at the City of London Police said.
“Despite this, stigma still surrounds romance fraud victims, often driven by misconceptions that they are foolish or lack judgment. In reality, criminals use sophisticated tactics to manipulate emotions and gain trust, making anyone vulnerable.
“We want to remind everyone that romance fraud can happen to anyone, regardless of gender or background. If something doesn’t feel right in an online relationship, take a step back, verify identities, and seek advice. Speaking up can not only protect yourself, but also help prevent others from falling victim and bring those responsible to justice.”
The UK government is backing aerospace tech with projects with more than £250 million in funding to drive greener air travel.
The combined funding from government and industry will drive forward the development of cutting-edge technologies that will help to secure the future of the UK’s aerospace sector. This includes advancements in gas turbines, hydrogen-powered flight and the use of laser technologies for large-scale aerostructure manufacturing
It aims to attract even more investment into the UK’s aerospace sector and support thousands of high-skilled jobs outside of London, delivering on the Government’s Plan for Change and helping grow the economy.
The announcement comes as new figures from the industry’s trade association ADS show the UK’s aerospace sector added £13.6 billion to the economy last year – an increase of almost 50 percent compared to 2014 – and supported 100,000 direct jobs.
“This government is backing aerospace. This investment will keep it at the forefront of innovation, not only delivering economic growth but boosting the charge to net zero 2030, two key pillars of our Plan for Change,” industry minister Sarah Jones said.
“This is the latest win for British aerospace in the run-up to the launch of our Industrial Strategy, which will turbocharge growth in our advanced manufacturing and defence sectors to take them to new heights, bringing new high-skilled jobs to every corner of the UK.”
During her visit to Paris Air Show – the world’s largest event for the civil aerospace sector – Minister Jones will tour the UK’s pavilion and meet with British companies exhibiting, before meeting with a wide range of leading aerospace companies, such as Airbus, Rolls-Royce and GKN.
The meetings will focus on encouraging even greater investment into British aerospace, promoting the UK’s world-class R&D offer on the global stage, and how government can support businesses to increase their manufacturing and operations in the UK.
Smaller and medium size businesses across the UK continue to benefit from the ATI Programme, with more than 302 receiving support since 2013, and another 19 investing over £22.8m in innovation in today’s announcement.
The UK aerospace sector had an annual turnover of £34 billion in 2024 and spent £1.9 billion on business R&D – a record level, driven by ongoing investment in both sustainable technology and market manufacturing technology to help ramp up UK production.
Industry giants like Amazon, Barclays, BT, Google, IBM, Intuit, Microsoft, Sage, and Salesforce, have joined a new government-industry partnership to foster AI skills.
A fifth of the UK workforce will be supported with the AI skills they may need to thrive in their jobs as a result of the partnership.
The partnership was unveiled by technology secretary Peter Kyle during London Tech Week, focusing on how industry and government can work together to upskill the UK workforce, including identifying future skills needs and making training more accessible.
During the meeting, the group worked towards agreeing terms of reference and a schedule of regular meetings helping to track its progress.
“Artificial Intelligence is the new economic frontier, and we want to get Brits ready for jobs of the future so we can spark the growth powering our Plan for Change,” science, innovation, and technology secretary Pete Kyle said.
“If we want to realise AI’s incredible potential though, we need to make sure people of all ages and from all parts of the UK have the skills they need for jobs both in and with the technology – especially given we expect around 10 million workers to be using AI in their day-to-day role by 2035.
“Within days of announcing that we’re partnering with some of the world’s biggest tech leaders to help us do exactly that, we’re getting them around the table – representing a vote of confidence not only in Britain’s workers, but in the potential we offer as a global AI powerhouse.”
Companies who have signed up to this partnership will all bring a different area of expertise to its work. Microsoft have already committed to upskilling one million workers in AI by the end of the year, while firms including SAS and Sage will provide high-quality AI training resources for workers, boosting their confidence in using and adopting the technology.
IBM are also set to tap into the power of its IBM SkillsBuild training programmes to roll out targeted training modules for workers, arming them with the tools they need to confidently adopt and use AI.
In the 12 months since the government took office, the UK has attracted more than £44 billion in AI investment, with 13,250 jobs being created since the Prime Minister launched the AI Opportunities Action Plan in January.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a consultation on releasing Google from commitments after the tech firm announced it was abandoning plans to prompt users to decide if they want to block third party cookies from Chrome, its web browser.
The CMA commitments were put in place to ensure that Google’s Privacy Sandbox was developed in a way that benefits consumers. Without the CMA’s oversight, Google’s original plan to deprecate third-party cookies could have weakened competition in the digital advertising sector – an industry worth billions to the UK economy – harming consumers who ultimately pay for the cost of online advertising.
The commitments protected competition by ensuring that Google designed and developed the Privacy Sandbox in a way that did not favour its own ad-tech services over those of its competitors.
Seeing as the privacy sandbox plans were halted and third party cookies are still allowed across Chrome, the CMA believes that these commitments are no longer necessary and is now consulting before it takes a decision on whether to release them later this year.
Google’s proposed Privacy Sandbox was conceptualised to target concerns over the data privacy and security of third party cookies, which are used by advertisers to target consumers. It aimed to replace cookies with broader, semi-anonymous user groups.
While this approach aimed to balance privacy with effective advertising, it faced criticism from privacy advocates, advertisers, and regulators alike. This ultimately drove Google to abandon these efforts and keep third party cookies.
However, Google has said that it still has plans to transform the data tracking that goes into targeted advertising, aiming to give users an “informed choice that applies across their web browsing,” Google Vice President Anthony Chavez said in a blog post when Google changed its plans back in Jul 2024.
The Scottish Government has announced that a new group – the Scottish Technology Council – will assist Ministers on how to maximise the economic benefits of Scotland’s multi-billion technology sector.
The new Council will help shape policy, provide a link between businesses and the Scottish Government, and promote Scottish tech companies on the international stage.
The tech sector is already a significant economic asset and employer. Latest figures show Scotland’s 6,800 information and communication technologies enterprises alone employed 67,800 staff in 2022 while the wider life sciences cluster supported 46,900 jobs in the same year.
Council membership includes industry leaders and academics with a range of experience in international markets, including health and life sciences, financial services, data and AI, advanced manufacturing and space.
“Innovation is part of Scotland’s DNA. It is embedded in our culture and our society – and it has the potential to turbocharge our economy. From leading the industrial revolution to television, ultrasound and pioneering renewable technology, Scotland’s inventions have helped shape the world around us and transformed industries and lives,” minister for business and employment Richard Lochhead said.
“Our goal is to help Scotland become a leading tech nation. To ensure the world recognises our pioneering spirit as not just a thing of the past, but as a vital part of our future and to create an environment where businesses and entrepreneurs can flourish, develop new technologies and drive meaningful change.
“Our world is increasingly fast-paced and the council will provide valuable insight from vastly experienced leaders in their fields, who have built their careers at the cutting edge, as we strive to support the sector to deliver high value jobs for generations of Scots, boost international trade and increase our tax revenue to deliver vital public services.”
The council, which will be chaired by the minister for business and employment, is comprised of:
Prof. Qammer Abbasi, CEng, SMIEEE, FRSA, FEAI, FIET, FRSE, Professor of Applied Electromagnetics & Sensing with the James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow.
Dr. Caroline Barelle MBA, CEO, Elasmogan which specialises in Biotechnology, Life Sciences, Medical technology, Regenerative medicine
Michael Boniface, CEO, Kythera AI.
Catriona Campbell MBE, AI Partner at Ernest Young and Chair of the Scottish AI Alliance.
Sherry Coutu CBE, Senior Independent Non-Executive Director, Raspberry Pi Trading
Gerard Cunningham, Board Member, Stem, Inc. 30 years’ experience in Silicon Valley.
Sheila Flavell CBE, President TechUK. 32 years operating within the international IT space.
Sheryl Newman, Founder and CEO, Appetite for Business – Board Member, ScotlandIS.
Prof. Peter Proud, CEO and Founder, Forrit.
Prof. Michael Rovatsos, Professor of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh
Jim Rowan, Former CEO of Volvo, Former CEO of the Dyson Group and Former COO of Blackberry.
Prof. Ifor Samuel, Professor of Physics, University of St Andrews.
Dr Graham Spittle CBE FBCS FRSA Dean of Innovation, University of Edinburgh.
Prof. Melissa Terras (MBE FREng), Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage, University of Edinburgh
Global spending on cloud infrastructure services rose 21% year-on-year, reaching $90.9 billion in the first quarter of 2025, analysis from Canalys says.
In Q1 2025, the ranking of the top three cloud providers (AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud) remained unchanged from the previous quarter, with their combined market share accounting for 65% of global cloud spending. Collectively, the three hyperscalers recorded a 24% year-on-year increase in cloud-related spending.
However, growth among the three top players in cloud diverged. While all three saw growth, AWS, currently the top player in the cloud game, only grew by 17%, a deceleration from 19% in the last quarter of 2024, and trailing behind the over 30% growth rates seen by both its competitors.
The deceleration was largely driven by supply-side constraints, which limited the ability to meet rapidly rising AI-related demand. In response, cloud hyperscalers have continued to invest aggressively in AI infrastructure to expand capacity and position themselves for long-term growth.
When it comes to overall cloud growth, however, enterprises have recognised that deploying AI applications requires renewed emphasis on cloud migration.
Large-scale investment in both cloud and AI infrastructure remains a defining theme of the market in 2025.
Meanwhile, to accelerate the enterprise adoption of AI at scale, leading cloud providers are intensifying efforts to optimise infrastructure – most notably through the development of propriety chips – aimed at lowering the cost of AI usage and improving inference efficiency.
Overall, the global cloud services market sustained steady growth in Q1 2025, as enterprises sharpened their focus on two strategic priorities: accelerating cloud migration – either by shifting additional workloads or reviving stalled on-premises transitions – and exploring the adoption of generative AI.
The rise of genAI, which relies heavily on cloud infrastructure, has in turn reinforced enterprise cloud strategies and hastened migration timelines.
“As AI transitions from research to large-scale deployment, enterprises are increasingly focused on the cost-efficiency of inference, comparing models, cloud platforms, and hardware architectures such as GPUs versus custom accelerators,” said Rachel Brindley, senior director at Canalys.
“Unlike training, which is a one-time investment, inference represents a recurring operational cost, making it a critical constraint on the path to AI commercialisation.”
“Many AI services today follow usage-based pricing models—typically charging by token or API call—which makes cost forecasting increasingly difficult as usage scales,” added Yi Zhang, analyst at Canalys.
“When inference costs are volatile or excessively high, enterprises are forced to restrict usage, reduce model complexity, or limit deployment to high-value scenarios. As a result, the broader potential of AI remains underutilised.”
To address these challenges, leading cloud providers are deepening their investments in AI-optimised infrastructure. Hyberscalers including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud have introduces proprietary chips such as Trainium and TPU, and purpose-built instance families, all aimed at improving inference efficiency and reducing total cost of AI.
By 2030, ‘guardian agent’ technologies will account for a least 10 to 15% of agentic AI markets, according to Gartner, Inc.
Guardian agents are AI-based technologies designed to support trustworthy and secure interactions with AI. They function as both AI assistants, supporting users with tasks like content review, monitoring and analysis, and as evolving semi-autonomous or fully autonomous agents, capable of formulating and executing action plans as well as redirecting or blocking actions to align with predefined agent goals.
According to a Gartner May 19, 2025 webinar poll of 147 CIOs and IT function leaders, 24% of respondents had already deployed a few AI agents (less than a dozen) and another 4% had deployed over a dozen.
The same poll question found that 50% of respondents said they were researching and experimenting with the technology, while another 17% of respondents said that they had not done so, but planned to deploy the technology by the end of 2026 at the latest. Automated trust, risk and security controls are needed to keep these agents aligned and safe, accelerating the need for and rise of Guardian Agents.
“Agentic AI will lead to unwanted outcomes if it is not controlled with the right guardrails,” said Avivah Litan, VP distinguished analyst at Gartner. “Guardian agents leverage a broad spectrum of agentic AI capabilities and AI-based, deterministic evaluations to oversee and manage the full range of agent capabilities, balancing runtime decision making with risk management.”
Risks Increase as Agent Power Expands
Fifty-two percent of 125 respondents from the same webinar poll identified that their AI agents are or will primarily focus on use cases related to internal administration functions such as IT, HR, and accounting, while 23% are focused on external customer facing functions.
As use cases for AI agents continue to grow, there are several threat categories impacting them, including input manipulation and data poisoning, where agents rely on manipulated or misinterpreted data. Examples include:
Credential hijacking and abuse leading to unauthorized control and data theft.
Agents interacting with fake or criminal websites and sources that can result in poisoned actions.
Agent deviation and unintended behaviour due to internal flaws or external triggers that can cause reputational damage and operational disruption.
“The rapid acceleration and increasing agency of AI agents necessitates a shift beyond traditional human oversight,” said Litan.
“As enterprises move towards complex multi-agent systems that communicate at breakneck speed, humans cannot keep up with the potential for errors and malicious activities. This escalating threat landscape underscores the urgent need for guardian agents, which provide automated oversight, control, and security for AI applications and agents.”
CIOs and security and AI leaders should focus on three primary usage types of guardian agents to contribute towards safeguarding and protecting AI interactions:
Reviewers: Identifying and reviewing AI-generated output and content for accuracy and acceptable use.
Monitors: Observing and tracking AI and agentic actions for human- or AI-based follow-up
Protectors: Adjusting or blocking AI and agentic actions and permissions using automated actions during operations.
Guardian agents will manage interactions and anomalies no matter the usage type. This is a key pillar of their integration, Gartner says, since analysts predict that 70% of AI apps will use multi-agent systems by 2028.
Millions of drivers without a driveway will be able to charge their electric vehicles (EVs) more easily as the government is set to roll out thousands more local chargepoints across England.
Future Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood confirmed that government and industry are expected to install over 100,000 local chargepoints in the coming years – ideal for charging overnight for drivers without access to off-street parking. These come on top of over 80,000 public chargepoints already available in the UK.
Over 100,000 new chargepoints are being delivered thanks to the existing government funding from the £381 million Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund, providing support to industry and local authorities across England.
The government is investing £4bn to support industry and consumers switch to EVs while securing global trade deals to back British carmakers.
“This government is powering up the EV revolution by rolling out a chargepoint every 29 minutes and our support to roll out over 100,000 local chargepoints in England shows we’re committed to making even more progress,” future roads minister Lilian Greenwood said.
“We’re delivering our Plan for Change by investing over £4 billion to support drivers make the switch, while backing British carmakers through international trade deals – creating jobs, boosting investment and securing our future.”
This comes as £300 million in private investment by Believ for 30,000 new chargepoints all over the UK has been announced – a powerful vote of confidence by industry in the EV transition.
All of this is alongside an expected £6bn in private investment to install tens of thousands of chargepoints by 2030 – as the government continues to drive investment and support jobs to deliver the Plan for Change.
“It’s fantastic to see government and private industry working together to accelerate the EV charging rollout. Collaboratively, we recognise the scale of investment required and the urgency of the need,” Guy Bartlett, Believ CEO, said.
“Confidence in EVs will continue to grow as drivers see more infrastructure going into the ground. At Believ, we are very proud to be at the heart of this journey.”
The government has been working closely with local councils to fast-track the delivery of chargepoints, with Suffolk County Council being the first local authority in England to enter into a contract with a chargepoint operator to kickstart their rollout. Many more local authorities will follow in the coming weeks and months.
Millions of families could see warmer homes and lower energy bills, as ministers back ten new AI innovations which will help make the UK a clean energy superpower through the government’s Plan for Change.
The ten finalists for the second round of the Manchester Prize include revolutionary technologies that could transform how Britain tackles climate change, while cutting costs for working families.
Among them is a system using AI to design bespoke panels, turning bricks into radiators to warm homes from the outside in, keeping a comfortable inside temperature all year round and simplifying the installation of heat pumps in older homes while reducing costs.
Another team uses AI-enabled drones to map heat loss across entire neighbourhoods, helping councils identify exactly which homes need urgent insulation upgrades – which could save households hundreds on their annual energy bill.
The Manchester Prize, funded by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology and delivered by Challenge Works (part of the Nesta group), is rewarding UK-led AI breakthroughs that support the public good, including growing the economy, improving public services and helping to create a just transition to Net Zero for everyone.
“AI is opening up transformative new ways to tackle climate change and support the UK’s ambition to become a clean energy superpower,” Peter Kyle, secretary of state for science, innovation, and technology, said.
“That includes using the technology to keep our homes warm, while also supporting projects which will use AI to slash carbon emissions in our cement and steel industries – sectors which account for 16% of global emissions.
“This is how we deliver our Plan for Change – harnessing innovation to solve major challenges, cut energy bills, and improve lives across Britain.”
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “Clean power is the economic opportunity of the 21st century and these projects will help households and businesses take advantage of lower bills, in a smarter and faster way than ever before.
“From specially designed radiator walls to a smart power grid that flicks on and off as we need, AI has the potential to help every home in Britain to feel the benefits of warmer homes and homegrown clean energy.”
Other finalists include AI technologies to help the logistics industry cut its emissions, and AI being used to ensure the energy grid remains balanced at all times – as more and more of our energy supplies comes from wind and solar.
“We are at a critical juncture in the journey to net zero, the next decade is make or break if the world is to keep global temperatures from exceeding 1.5C by 2050,” Julia King, baroness brown of Cambridge, chair of the Manchester Prize judging panel, said.
“Global emissions need to halve by 2030 compared to 1990 levels if we are to stay on track, while electricity production will need to double by 2050 to meet the demands of an electrified economy – clean energy innovation is essential.
“The rapid advancement of AI means we have tools like never before to achieve the goal of decarbonising the economy while supporting individuals, communities and businesses to thrive.”
The ten teams behind the advanced AI solutions have each received £100,000 in seed funding, plus £60,000 worth of compute credits to help train and scale their models.
They will also benefit from non-financial support including investor readiness guidance and access to a network of experts, positioning them for success in the pursuit of the £1 million grand prize in spring 2026. The winning solution will demonstrate not only technical innovation, but also an evidenced road map to near-term (2030) adoption, scale and impact.
These shortlisted finalists will now follow in the footsteps of Polaron – the inaugural winners of the Manchester Prize which speeds up the development of advanced materials used in all walks of life – from wind turbines to electric batteries.
The winning innovation will be announced early next year, taking home the grand prize of £1 million to bring their cutting-edge ideas to life.
Finalists include: Agent Net Zero, BiofuelAi, Carbon Re, Cavolo, Deep.Optimiser-PhyX, DRIVE, EnergyWall, Green Loops, Grid Stability, and Rapid Thermal Performance Assessment algorithms (RaTHPAs).
Research from Europol has revealed a booming black market for stolen data, with a sprawling digital underworld consisting of online fraud and ransomware, and even child exploitation and extortion.
The report – 2025 Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) – paints a stark picture of a cyber-crime economy built on access to people’s systems, identify, and sensitive information.
“You can’t defend what you don’t understand. Europol’s IOCTA 2025 report sheds light on the hidden economy of stolen data that powers today’s most dangerous cyber threat, giving law enforcement, policymakers, and industry the intelligence needed to act decisively,” the head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, Edvardas Šileris said.
From phishing to phone scams, and from malware to AI-generated deepfakes, cyber-criminals use a constantly evolving toolkit to compromise systems and steal personal information. These stolen credentials and data sets are then sold, resold, and repackaged by data and access brokers operating across dark web forums, encrypted channels, and subscription-based criminal marketplace.
Social Engineering
The report highlights a rise in the use of generative AI, including Large Language Models, to supercharge social engineering attacks. Criminals now tailor scam messages to victims’ cultural context and personal details with alarming precision.
Child sexual exploitation perpetrators are also using AI to scale up grooming attempts and make coercion attempts more effective.
Data As a Commodity
Cyber-criminals no longer need technical skills to succeed. Crime-as-a-service platforms now offer everything from stolen data to step-by-step fraud tutorials. Access credentials to remote services compromised corporate networks, and even personal logins are sold in bulk.
Stolen data is also weaponised for extortion, identity theft and abuse – including against children.
Initial access brokers and ransomware groups continue to exploit known system weaknesses and manipulate human behaviour.
Even popular error messages and CAPTCHA boxes are being mimicked in a tactic known as “ClickFix” to trick users into installing malware themselves.
While encryption protects users’ privacy, the criminal abuse of end-to-end encrypted apps is increasingly hampering investigations. Cyber-criminals hide behind anonymity while coordinating sales of stolen data, often with no visibility for investigators.
Recommendations
To counter these threats, the report calls for coordinated policy responses at EU level, including lawful access solutions for encryption, harmonised rules on data retention, and urgent efforts to boost digital literacy – especially among young people.
Healthcare organisations believe AI will be vital to their operations, but lack the data processes and systems to capitalise on the opportunity, global research released today by SS&C Blue Prism has revealed.
Surveying 297 senior professionals in the healthcare sector, the research found that 94% of organisations believe that AI is core to their entire operations. Executives believe improving care quality (42%), minimising repetitive and manual processes (36%) and enhancing patient experiences (34%) are the key areas in which AI can help in healthcare.
With burnout still prevalent in healthcare systems globally, 37% of executives said staff believe that AI will help improve work/life balance for healthcare practitioners.
Agentic AI, the emerging technology where AI can make decisions and conduct activities autonomously, is a priority for the healthcare sector. Two thirds (67%) of organisations plan to implement agentic AI within 12 months.
But the research shows that healthcare organisations need to get their data in order before making AI a reality. Only 54% of healthcare leaders said they have robust systems for moving data internally and only 56% say they have accurate and consistent data within their organisation. With data playing such an important role in delivering AI and personalising healthcare, the sector has work to do.
Importantly, the healthcare sector topped all industries surveyed when it comes to data governance, with 72% saying they have strong governance systems in place to ensure data is secure, private and managed with the appropriate consents.
“The promise for AI in the healthcare sector is significant. For patients it can transform the experience, leading to truly personalised healthcare, delivered at speed. For practitioners, it can help alleviate administrative burdens and stress – so they can spend more quality time with patients. But AI will not be able to live up to this promise without the right approach to data,” Emily Bristow, SVP, global head of professional services & customer success at SS&C Blue Prism, commented.
“The process of breaking down data silos, creating clean and consist for AI models to accurately learn from is significant. But it can be assisted by technology such as robotic process automation, machine learning, natural language processing as well as practices such as task mining and process orchestration. This enterprise AI approach helps organisations make the most of the AI opportunity. But it also helps provide guardrails, ensuring that the right processes are followed to ensure data, particularly sensitive patient information, remains protected and the results an AI model provides can be authenticated.”
UK businesses are reporting a greater number of data breaches than ever before, according to annual research from Apricorn.
The company’s 2025 survey reveals that 69% of organisations surveyed have self-disclosed a breach or potential breach in the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the past year, up significantly from 53% in 2024.
However, the shift could also be interpreted as evidence of a greater sense of awareness and accountability. Just eight per cent of businesses surveyed were reported by a third party, compared to 14% last year, indicating stronger internal reporting processes and a move away from reactive disclosure.
This change suggests that businesses are beginning to take greater ownership over their breach response strategies and are stepping up to take responsibility.
Yet self-reporting does not imply incidents are under control. Apricorn’s research found that 46% of organisations surveyed admit their report or mobile workers knowingly put corporate data at risk in the last year.
Additionally, 61% believe their mobile workforce is likely to expose them to a future breach. These persistent concerns highlight a lack of confidence in user behaviour and endpoint management, especially within decentralised and hybrid work environments.
Phishing remains the top cause of data breaches, cited by 37% of IT decision makers surveyed, closely followed by employee mistakes (33%). While external threats continue to pose a risk, the data confirms that human behaviour remains the leading cause of vulnerability whether through error, negligence or malicious intent.
The majority (99%) of organisations have a mobile/remote working security policy in place, and 9% believe their workers understand and follow it. But this confidence is undermined by a rising number of respondents, 58%, who say their employees lack the technology or skills needed to properly secure data, even when they are willing to comply.
Adding to the challenge is the continued reliance on employee-owned IT equipment. Over half (56%) of organisations now allow staff to use personal devices to access corporate systems and data, a 9% increase over last year and the highest level recorded by Apricorn since 2019.
Although most organisations use software to control access, these tools often lack the visibility and enforcement provided by corporate-issued devices.
Only 19% of respondents said their organisation mandates the use of company-provisioned equipment with endpoint controls. This cautious shift upward from 15% in 2024, reflects growing awareness but highlights how far most organisations still have to go in order to gain full control of the remote attack surface.
“Too many organisations are relying on assumptions that policies are followed, that devices are secure, that staff know what to do, but if organisations want to reduce breach risk, they must give staff the right tools to do the right thing,” Jon Fielding, managing director, EMEA, Apricorn, warned.
The research also revealed deeper technical and operational issues. Almost 37% of organisations say they cannot be certain that their data is adequately secured or they’ve lost visibility of where corporate data is stored, while 16% report that their current technology doesn’t support secure mobile or remote working.
Additionally, a further 11% said they don’t know which datasets within their organisation need to be encrypted, pointing to a lack of basic data classification and risk assessment.
The mounting complexity of managing remote technologies is another key concern with more organisations struggling with this than has ever been recorded in the survey. Nearly half (47%) of organisations reported that managing all of the technology that employees need and use for mobile/remote working is too complex.
Meanwhile, 35% say report working has made it harder to comply with GDPR, potentially due t rising concerns about cyber sovereignty and data localisation requirements.
“Self-reporting breaches is a positive step, but if organisations want to reduce how often they’re doing it, they must bridge the gap between written policy and operational readiness,” Fielding said.
“This includes clear provisioning of secure tools like hardware-encrypted drives, restricting data movement to known systems, and prioritising the secure handling of data at every endpoint.”
University of Strathclyde medtech spin-out, ScreenIn3D, has secured £750,000 seed investment for their cancer therapy testing technology.
The spin-out developed a ‘lab-on-a-chip’ technology that allows drug developers to test multiple cancer therapies on small tumour samples from patients. This offers an alternative to animal testing that is faster, easier, and more accurate.
The funding was lead by TRICAPITAL Angels Ltd, and included participation from existing investors Gabriel Investments, Scottish Enterprise, and the University of Strathclyde, plus German investor Nidobirds Ventures, and private individuals.
Founded by academic engineer Professor Michele Zagnoni and life science tools’ veteran Alex Sim, ScreenIn3D’s technology dramatically increases the number of drug tests that can be carried out on extremely small – and therefore precious – samples of human tissue.
This offers drug developers vastly more data from early testing phases, helping them to identify effective new drugs earlier, reduce failures in clinical trials, and bring therapies to market faster.
“This technology has the potential to transform how cancer drugs are developed,” Prof. Zagnoni, chief executive officer of ScreenIn3D, said.
“Patient-derived tumour tissue is one of the most valuable resources in drug development, yet its use is often limited by cost and scarcity.
“Our technology changes that, making it possible to run a high volume of tests on minimal samples. This opens the door to faster discovery of effective drug combinations, with fewer failures along the way.
“By enabling accurate, high-throughput testing on real human tissue, we can improve success rates, cut development times, and reduce reliance on animal testing – ultimately getting better treatments to patients faster.”
The technology builds on more than a decade of research at the University of Strathclyde and has already been validated in preclinical oncology.
“ScreenIn3D is a standout example of the high-impact, deep-tech innovation that’s putting Scotland on the map,” Moray Martin, chief executive officer at TRICAPITAL Angels, said.
“Their technology addresses a critical global issue – the need to reduce the gestation time and cost of drug development – and is backed by strong scientific credibility.”
Anne Henderson, head of investment at the University of Strathclyde, said: “ScreenIn3D is an excellent example of how academic research can translate into pioneering solutions with global reach and meaningful societal impact, and we are proud to support it through our Strathclyde Inspire Investment Fund.
“As a socially progressive and values-led institution, Strathclyde is committed to fostering an environment where transformative ideas can grow into successful ventures, reinforcing our position as a leader in innovation and entrepreneurial excellence.”
With this investment, the company will expand its applications beyond cancer to other disease areas including women’s health, immune therapies and fertility treatment – all areas where access to accurate, human-relevant testing models is critical.
ScreenIn3D is already generating revenue, with both bio-pharma companies and cancer centres using the platform. The company will grow its headcount from five to eight as it scales its operations and deepens industry partnerships.
The investment deal follows a record-breaking year for TRICAPITAL Angels, which completed 18 deals throughout 2024.
Its high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth members subscribed more than £3.5million of their own money into some of the country’s most innovative companies over the past 12 months.
That investment has leveraged close to £30million of investment overall helping to create more than 500 jobs in sectors ranging from artificial intelligence and biotech to renewable energy.
Just under a quarter (23%) of supply chain leaders report having a formal supply chain AI strategy in lace with their organisations, according to a survey from Gartner, Inc.
Driven by pressures to demonstrate return-on-investment (ROI) in the near-term, chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) may be jeopardising the full potential for long-term AI transformation within their functions.
“CSCOs feel pressure to achieve short-term ROI from their AI investments, but they must ensure these quick wins don’t create future constraints,” said Benjamin Jury, senior principal, research in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice. “Without a structured approach, organisations risk creating inefficient systems that struggle to scale and adapt to evolving business demands.”
Gartner surveyed 120 supply chain leaders who had deployed AI in their organizations within the past 12 months between December 2024 and January 2025. An analysis of the survey data revealed multiple disconnects between AI expectations and reality within the supply chain function.
Prominent among these disconnects was supply chain AI investment strategy, with most CSCOs focused on “project-by-project” short-term wins, rather than a defined AI investment strategy that ensures adequate funding to long-term, transformational investments.
This unstructured approach to AI investment poses a significant risk, as CSCOs may focus excessively on short-term returns, potentially undermining the long-term transformative potential of AI and resulting in misalignment with their CEO’s focus on using AI to drive growth.
Jury noted that the prevalent project-by-project AI investment approach often results in inefficient “franken-systems,” or complex, layered architectures that hinder scalability and extend the payback period for AI transformations. While the immediate gratification of short-term ROI may seem appealing, it frequently leads to marginal long-term gains and a fragile technical infrastructure.
Additional survey data revealed that supply chain leaders overwhelmingly use bottom-line metrics—such as efficiency, decision-making speed, and cost—to gauge the success of their AI investments, ranking these factors far ahead of measures such as increasing revenue and innovation. This suggests that CSCOs currently see AI primarily as an efficiency and cost-savings tool, rather than a truly transformative technology that can drive innovation and new business models.
Balance Supply Chain AI Investments
Without making principled bets on calculated, high-risk projects with longer payback periods, supply chain leaders miss opportunities to truly transform their organisation’s capabilities.
Gartner advices CSCOs to develop an AI investment portfolio that balances short- and long-term priorities, ensuring that investments realise value quickly without neglecting transformational initiatives that will power the future supply chain organisation.
To effectively balance AI investments among short-term wins and long-term transformational benefits, Gartner recommends three strategies for CSCOs.
Develop a formal supply chain AI strategy: Establish a defined and documented AI strategy that outlines both short- and long-term objectives, what success looks like, and what needs to be done (and by when) to achieve that success.
Adopt the run-grow-transform framework: Built an AI investment portfolio that includes “run,” “grow,” and “transform” projects to strategically allocate resources and deliver immediate operational efficiencies as well as mid-to long-term benefits
Run Phase – Focus on enhancing operational efficiency and cost optimisation through AI-driven automation and predictive maintenance.
Grow Phase – Foster cross-functional alignment and enhance decision-making capabilities by integrating AI into key processes, such as sales and operations planning.
Transform Phase – Make principles bets on AI initiatives that position the supply chain as a strategic partner in business growth, leveraging AI for consumer insights and proactive demand shaping
Invest in AI-ready infrastructure: Ensure scalability and adaptability to meet evolving business demands, in collaboration with the CIO and other executive leaders.
NatWest has appointed its first Chief AI Research Officer, announcing that Dr Maja Pantic will take on the role to advance the bank’s AI capabilities.
Dr Pantic will aim to use AI to meet customer needs, drive cutting-edge research and innovation across the bank, as well as support NatWest’s strategic focus on bank-wide simplification.
Dr Pantic’s AI research expertise is routed in her previous positions as an AI Scientific Research Director at Meta London, and Founding Research Director of Samsung AI Research Centre in Cambridge. She is currently serving as Professor of Affective and Behavioural Computing at Imperial College London.
As the bank continues to build on differentiating AI capabilities to anticipate customer expectations and deliver bank-wide simplification, the new chief AI research officer will have a range of focuses.
This includes accelerating state-of-the-art AI use cases, such as the use of multimodal AI (including voice or video) to combat deepfakes and generative AI to advance responsible AI controls.
Further, the new position lead research and innovation to provide a forward-looking view on Ai advancements, as well as how they impact the banking industry, with anticipations of future shifts in behaviour and technology.
Dr Pantic will also be responsible for progressing the use of AI for bank-wide simplification by accelerating the use of AI tools and automation to enable colleagues to be more productive, efficient, and focus on activities that matter.
“It’s not the first time I’ve said that AI is helping us to be a simpler NatWest and to transform our customers’ experiences as we become even more of a trusted partner in the moments that matter most,” Scott Marcar CIO of NatWest Group said.
“Maja’s appointment is another important and exciting milestone; her unique skills and experience will help us adapt and meet customers’ changing needs faster, and more effectively, whilst complementing our team’s existing capabilities.”
Dr Maja Pantic commented: “My career decisions have always been guided by two things: the opportunity to make an impact and the chance to learn. Joining a business like NatWest – given the vital role it plays in the lives of the customers and communities it serves – will not only give me the opportunity to work at the forefront of technological shifts in the banking industry at an immense scale, but to learn from leaders who instil a culture of learning and innovation throughout the bank.”
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has firmly stated that her Spending Review and government budget plans will not see the UK return to austerity, as workers and businesses are squeezed by rising costs and turbulent global trade wars threaten to disrupt any sense of economic stability.
The Chancellor’s overall rhetoric was pro-business, with many plans deeply entrenched in technology investment and energy sovereignty.
For devolved nations, the UK administration says that these governments will receive their largest real terms settlements since devolution began.
The Scottish government is therefore set to receive an average extra £2.9 billion across the duration of this current spending review.
Overall, Reeves said that government spending will increase by 2.3% a year, with a £600bn budget.
But what will this look like when it comes to tech?
Emphasising Energy Security
Key to the Labour party’s goals is increasing the UK’s energy security amid global turbulence, as well as a push toward renewable sources.
“I am determined to make sure that the energy technologies of the future are built here and owned here and that those jobs come to Britain,” Rachel Reeves said.
To bolster this, Reeves announced £30bn would be put toward the “biggest rollout of nuclear power for half a century”, with the addition of £2.5bn toward nuclear fusion research. This includes the investment in the Sizewell C reactor announced yesterday, as well as the small modular nuclear reactor partnership with Rolls-Royce already announced.
Reeves also confirmed that a carbon capture project – Acorn – in Aberdeenshire would benefit from government funding.
“While increasing pressures on defence and public services could have signalled a risk of short-term trade-offs, we’re glad to see the government back investment in the transition to clean energy,” David Watson, principal consultant at energy consultancy BFY Group said.
“Striking the right balance between short-term budget constraints and long-term benefits, like future-proof jobs, lower energy bills and reduced emissions, has never been more crucial.
“The real challenge now is delivery – turning ambition into impact through clear timelines, private investment, and local action. The government’s announcement today will focus minds on the question of how quickly the UK can now accelerate towards delivering a net zero.”
Record Funding for R£D
Reeves has also confirmed record levels of funding for research and development in the UK, which it set to climb above £22bn by the end of the Spending Review.
“The £22.5 billion investment into innovation and research will elevate the UK’s global status in clinical trials and R&D,” David Harris, CEO and founder fo Cambridge Healthcare Innovations said.
“There are many treatment areas that haven’t seen equal levels of innovation to date. We now have a unique opportunity to change this, and bringing together the charity, public and private sectors in this initiative can be a turning point for greater levels of domestic innovation.”
Further, while this investment is “promising,” Natalie Knight-Wickens, partner at Spencer West LLP, warns that researchers and business heed regulations before jumping into data-heavy research and AI.
“As a lawyer I see real promise here: funding for faster drug treatments and longer‑lasting batteries across regions is bold,” Knight-Wickens said.
“But success hinges on accessible intellectual property protections, adaptive regulatory pathways, and clear public-private co-investment terms. Regional authorities with £500 million each are empowered, but only those legal-ready SMEs can compete.
“Startups need to know how to protect what they’re building, from ownership of code and data to navigating funding agreements with regional authorities. The opportunity is real, but it’ll favour those who are legally ready.
“Remember, innovation doesn’t just need funding, it needs foundations.”
AI Boost
Further, £2bn was announced to support the government’s AI Action Plan, with aims to upskill and train young people in the UK to better prepare them for the future.
Government spending will reach £1.2bn a year on supporting training, upskilling, and apprenticeships for young people in the UK.
“The £2 billion investment in the AI Action Plan has great potential to drive growth in the UK economy, transform the public sector and propel the country to a leading position in the global AI race,” Greg Hanson, group vice president and head of EMEA North at Informatica, said.
“But the real challenge lies ahead. Getting ahead in AI isn’t solely about acquiring and deploying technology. It’s about cultivating a workforce with deep AI knowledge and skills.
“If the UK doesn’t have the right skillset, valuable insights will be left undiscovered and productivity gains remain elusive.
“Many organisations are in the early stages of building AI readiness and preparing their data for AI. Moving too quickly, without establishing the right foundations, skills, and culture, could result in long-term setbacks rather than sustainable success.”
Daniel Pell, VP and country manager for UKI, Workday, said: “Harnessing the benefits of Artificial Intelligence can help government departments operate within their financial settlements and deliver the improved business performance needed to fund investments in public services in the future.
“The successful implementation and adoption of AI hinges on workers and citizens feeling confident in using the technology. We particularly welcome the new investment in training and apprenticeships, and in the development of AI skills through measures such as the “TechFirst” initiative that the Prime Minister launched earlier this week, which will bring digital skills and AI learning into classrooms and communities.”
The NHS will see a 3% boost in its yearly funding, Reeves said, in a determined move against austerity measures toward what she described as “our most treasured public service.”
More specifically, the NHS technology budget will also rise by 50%, reaching £10bn in investment, aiming to update and digitise the NHS’s analogue system.
Tom Whicher, CEO and co-founder of DrDoctor, says the £29bn funding boost for the NHS is “a welcome step” in improving the NHS.
“But,” he added, “for the government to effectively change the public’s relationship with the NHS, it’s critical that some of this investment is allocated to improving interoperability within the system – a lot of tools are already in place, now it’s about ensuring that all platforms managing patient data speak to core functions – like the NHS App – for scaled, consistent access to care across the country, improving both patient outcomes and clinician efficiency”.
Similarly, Ram Rajaraman, healthcare and life sciences industry lead at Quantexa pushed for the government to work on a ‘single patient record’ to improve NHS wait times.
“A single patient record will also enable wider innovation that will help improve outcomes and reduce waiting lists,” Rajaraman said.
“Once patient data is unified, and includes wider determinants of health such as environment and family socioeconomic history, the NHS can implement a full 360-degree view on which to build AI solutions to track population health, identify service gaps and allocate resources more effectively”.
Boom for Business
To support overall business and bolster startups in the UK, Reeves announced Labour would be “increasing the financial firepower of the British Business Bank,” which is already one of the largest investors in the UK.
The Bank’s funding capital is set to increase by two-thirds, amassing to £25.6bn in an effort to embolden the bank to fund more startups and scaleups throughout Britain.
“The UK has a great incubator for AI with its world class universities and research institutions. However, businesses often find it difficult to access the capital required to scale successfully,” James Clark, data protection, AI, and digital regulation partner at law firm Spencer West LLP said.
The increased funding into the British Business Bank “could be helpful here,” Clark said.
Reflecting on the spending review, ScotlandIS CEO, Karen Meechan, said: “It was reassuring to see a clear recognition of science, technology and innovation in the spending review. The £750 million investment in the University of Edinburgh’s supercomputer is a welcome step forward. We are proud to have been part of efforts to get this project back on the Government’s agenda after their disappointing decision last Autumn to pull its funding.
“The increased budget for security and intelligence is positive. It complements the work already underway here through our cyber cluster and CyberScotland partnership to improve security across Scotland. It’s equally encouraging to see the NHS technology budget increase by almost 50% by 2028-2029. While the budget is UK-wide, it presents real opportunities for Scottish tech firms to deliver solutions that support the digital transformation of the NHS.
“The additional funding for the Government’s AI Action plan is certainly a plus for Scotland and whilst the devil will be in the detail, we do look forward to seeing how this translates into tangible opportunities for our members. Looking ahead to the upcoming budget, we must continue to focus on the broader drivers that enable growth – including easing tax burdens on businesses and focusing on long-term investment in digital skills to ensure we have the homegrown talent our industry needs to thrive.”
Scams have become a daily threat for nearly half of all mobile users, new data from Malwarebytes reveals.
Their research from 1,300 mobile users across the globe details a world where mobile scams are no longer the exception, they are the rule.
Nearly half of all users (44%) encounter mobile scams daily, with exposure reaching its highest levels in the US (51%), and UK (49%), being notably lower in central Europe (38%).
Yet the majority (66%) say its hard to tell apart a scam from the real thing. Only 15% of people strongly agree they could detect a scam.
And the impact is real, with over half of victims suffering financial loss or fraud (52%), and more than a quarter (27%) losing access to critical digital assets like accounts, devices, or irreplaceable files.
Yet one in four users say they’ve stopped caring – accepting scams as an inevitable cost of being online.
Scams are prevalent and even impacting younger generations. Over a third (36%) of users have fallen victim to a mobile scam, and three in four have encountered social engineering attempts like phishing and impersonation scams.
Gen Z was actually hit the hardest: 58% have encountered, and 28% have fallen victim to extortion scams, including deepfakes and sextortion. This is far higher than Gen X (35% encountered, 15% fell victim), and Boomers (23% encountered, 7% fell victim).
AI tools are now accessible to everyone, including cyber-criminals, making scams harder to spot than ever before. Two-thirds of people are worried about the future of AI and how realistic scams are going to become.
Emotional fallout appears to be widespread, as 75% of victims report serious emotional consequences, and 46% struggle with mental health effects like anxiety, depression, and lost trust.
Despite this, scams are going widely unreported. The UK lost around £722 million in 2024, according to UK Finance, with 3.13 million confirmed cases of unauthorised fraud.
Yet, only 17% of victims report scams to authorities, and the number is even lower for younger generations (14%).
“It’s clear that mobile threats aren’t just technical, they’re deeply personal,” said David Ruiz, senior privacy advocate, Malwarebytes. “Our report reveals not only the scale of the issue, but also its psychological impact.
“As cyber threats grow more sophisticated and cyber-criminals truly adopt deepfake and AI technologies, we must go beyond raising awareness and empower users with the right tools and knowledge. No one should accept scams as the cost of digital life. There is no shame, we want people to feel confident spotting, stopping and reporting scams, no matter how intimate.”
Although AI investment in the UK continues to grow, the average AI maturity score across the region has dropped.
This is according to the ServiceNow’s latest Enterprise AI Maturity Index, which found that AI maturity across the UK fell by 9 points.
As enterprises struggle to keep pace with rapid innovation, many are finding it difficult to translate AI ambition into scalable, effective execution.
AI is Outpacing Maturity
There is a clear appetite for innovation, with over half (47%) of organisations in Europe and the Middle East launching more than 100 AI use cases in the past year.
More than half (56%) of UK-based organisations are showing this type of AI activity, reflecting growing interest in large-scale experimentation.
The majority of UK organisations are focused on experimentation and expansion, with only 9% reaching the augmentation stage, which is the most advanced stage identified in the survey.
“Whilst we’re still in the early days of AI implementation, there is a clear ambition in the UK to not just invest in AI but become a European leader with this technology,” Damian Stirret, group vice president and general manager UK and Ireland at ServiceNow, said.
“The UK government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan is just one recent example of the UK’s commitment to turn this ambition into action. The focus now must be on scalable and effective execution.”
Rising adoption brings rising risk. AI at scale introduces serious challenges around cybersecurity, privacy, and regulatory compliance. However, progress on governance has improved steadily in the UK.
The number of organisations making significant strides in AI data governance has jumped by 5% year-on-year. Similarly those succeeding in breaking down data and operational silos increased slightly from 40% to 41%.
Yet there remains a need for greater focus on managing AI risk effectively, with just 47% of organisations in the UK say they’ve made strong progress on AI governance.
The slow progress on AI governance indicates organisations must place greater emphasis on this, given that data security is cited as the number one barrier to realising AI value. Data security is also the top concern in the UK.
To scale AI safely and effectively, governance must be foundational – not an afterthought. That means embedding policy, oversight, and accountability into platforms from the outset and approaching new technologies like agentic AI with a clear strategy in place.
Firms will soon have the opportunity to experiment with AI thanks to a new partnership between the Financial Conduct Authority and NVIDIA.
The FCA has described the programme as a ‘Supercharged Sandbox’, aiming to give firms access to better data, technical expertise, and regulatory support to speed up innovation.
It is open to any financial services firm looking to innovate and experiment with AI.
According to the FCA, the sandbox will help firms who are in the discovery and experiment phase with AI.
An existing AI Live Testing service helps those further along in development and ready to use AI. In its new strategy, the FCA has committed to supporting economic growth by enabling innovation and harnessing technological advances like AI.
The Supercharged Sandbox is part of the FCA’s AI Lab, which was first announced in October last year, which aims to provide a pathway for firms, the FCA, and wider stakeholders to engage with AI.
“This collaboration will help those that want to test AI ideas but who lack the capabilities to do so. We’ll help firms harness AI to benefit our markets and consumers, while supporting economic growth,” Jessica Rusu, the FCA’s chief data, intelligence, and information officer, said.
Dr Jochen Papenbrock, EMEA head of financial technology, NVIDIA added: “AI is fundamentally reshaping the financial sector by automating processes, enhancing data analysis, and improving decision-making, which leads to greater efficiency, accuracy, and risk management across a wide range of financial activities.
“The FCA’s Supercharged Sandbox provides firms with a secure environment to explore AI innovations using NVIDIA’s full stack accelerated computing platform, supporting industry-wide growth and efficiency.”
Nearly ever major financial institution across Europe has been impacted by third-party and fourth-party cyber breaches in the past year, according to research from SecurityScorecard.
The firm’s analysis of Europe’s top 100 financial firms by assets under management (AUM) over the past 12 months highlights a troubling 25% spike in third-party breaches in the last year, placing a spotlight on deep systemic vulnerabilities within digital supply chains.
The findings come following the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) having come into force in January 2025, which increased regulatory pressure on financial institutions to bolster third-party risk management and cyber resilience frameworks.
The vast majority – 96% – of Europe’s top 100 financial institutions experiences at least one third-party breach in the past year, a dramatic rise from 78% in the previous report from last year.
Similarly, 97% had a breached entity within their fourth-party ecosystem, up from 84%.
Just 7% suffered a direct breach, down from 8%, with malware and insider threats remaining key culprits.
The research also found that 94% of institutions with an ‘A’ cybersecurity rating had no known breaches.
However, 13% of firms were ‘C’ rated or lower, an improvement from 18%, and outperforming the European sector average of 31%.
The UK reported the highest number of third-party breaches, followed by Germany and Switzerland, while Malta, Luxembourg, and Portugal had the lowest exposure and highest average cybersecurity grades.
“A 25% surge in third-party breaches among Europe’s top financial institutions is more than a warning, it is a call to action,” said Corian Kennedy, senior manager of threat insights and attribution at SecurityScorecard.
“Cyber threats are no longer confined to the perimeter. They are embedded deep within supply chains. Institutions must evolve from reactive to proactive defence strategies to meet the escalating challenge.”
According to SecurityScorecard’s data, just ten threat actor groups were responsible for 44% of global cyber incidents, with C10p, APT28, and Cobalt Group leading in third-party exploitation. Meanwhile, dependence on a small group of vendors continues to amplify risk, as 15 companies now represent 62% of the global tech market.
Events like the MOVEit vulnerability, which caused over $65 billion USD in damages, reveal how a single weak link can disrupt operations across thousands of downstream entities.
As the UK’s healthcare sector looks to modernise with AI, outdated and legacy technologies continue to cause issues, research from SOTI found.
The firm’s report also highlights an increase in data breaches yet a decline in IT teams seeing data security as a concern.
The survey 1,750 healthcare IT professionals across the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Australia, uncovered the evolving landscape of healthcare technology adoption, the expansion of AI in healthcare into patient care, the broadening use of devices deployed, and the impacts and security risks of legacy technology in place.
AI’s Surge in Patient Care
UK healthcare organisations’ use of AI jumped from 47% in 2024 to 94% in 2025, signalling a dramatic shift in budget prioritisation. Notably, AI has become more than just an admin support tool with 52% of those using it to diagnose medical conditions and 57% to personalise treatments.
“AI is changing the healthcare industry by enabling more accurate diagnoses, personalised treatment plans and streamlined operations,” said Stefan Spendrup, VP of sales, Northern and Western Europe at SOTI. “It’s clear that leveraging AI-driven insights will empower healthcare organisations to improve patient outcomes and the way care is delivered.”
Legacy Systems Linger Causing Security Issues
Almost all UK health IT leaders (99%) reported challenges with legacy systems, IoT and telehealth. The same amount (99%) say their organisations utilise some form of connected devices or telehealth solutions for supporting patients remotely, increasing accessibility, saving time and enhancing communication.
However, close to three-quarters (73%) are using unintegrated, outdated systems for IoT and telehealth medical devices. This is higher than the global average of 65% and impacts interoperability, such as accessing real-time patient data all in one place and increasing security vulnerabilities.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) frequently face downtime and tech issues and 43% say legacy systems make networks vulnerable to attack.
Due to reliance on legacy technology, several challenges emerge, particularly around device management. IT staff report being unable to deploy and manage new devices or printers (47%), support devices remotely or access detailed diagnostics (53%), and spending excessive time troubleshooting issues (41%). These challenges are especially pronounced in the UK compared to global averages.
Although data security remains the top IT concern for the UK’s healthcare sector (24%), it has declined in importance from the previous year, when 33% cited it as their primary concern.
This could indicate positive progress in keeping systems safe, however, 84% reported experiencing a breach (up from 71%).
This shows an urgent need for robust data protection measures and substantial investment in securing sensitive healthcare information.
“It’s encouraging to see the UK’s healthcare sector embracing AI, but our latest report highlights a critical imbalance in broader IT priorities,” said Spendrup.
“Legacy systems continue to hinder tech integration, and while data breaches are on the rise, IT teams are increasingly deprioritising data security. Addressing this disconnect is essential to ensure that innovation doesn’t come at the cost of resilience and security.
“Healthcare organisations are heading in the right direction, but to fully capitalise on emerging technology, they need to refocus and reallocate time and resources to upgrade their underlying IT infrastructures.”
4chan, an online messaging board, is being investigated by Ofcom over alleged failures to comply with the Online Safety Act.
According to the internet regulator, complaints have been levied against the platform for allegedly illegal content.
Ofcom is also investigating the adult website First Time Videos over its age verification methods, as well as a number of file sharing services over alleged child sexual abuse material.
The file sharing platforms include Im.ge, Krakenfiles, Nippybox, Nippydrive, Nippyshare, Nippyspace, and Yolobit, which have all failed to respond to Ofcom’s statutory information requests, as required by law.
Ofcom has already contacted 4chan attempting to acquire its risk assessment, which it has not received.
Under the Online Safety Act, large online platforms must present a risk assessment to Ofcom, analysing the risk UK users have of coming across illegal content on their platforms. Websites must also protect users from accessing or viewing any illegal content.
Ofcom has yet to disclose what type of illegal activity it is looking for in its investigation into 4cahn, just that it seeks clarity on if the platform “has failed, or is failing, to comply with its duties to protect its users from illegal content.”
Under the Online Safety Act, companies can be fined up to 10% of their global revenue or £18m – whatever is greater – by Ofcom if they are found in breach of their duties under the Act.
4chan itself has had a complicated history in the public eye, as users can remain anonymous, allowing users to share harmful or extreme views and content often without consequences.
Private cloud adoption is resurging, driven by rising privacy, security, and compliance requirements with AI workloads emerging as a fast-growing contributor to this shift.
This is according to a report from GTT Communications Inc, with a survey conducted by Hanover Research, which shows that in an era of advanced AI, concerns around data, privacy, security, and regulatory compliance are naturally tip of mind for enterprise leaders.
These priorities, alongside a growing need to safely test and deploy AI models, are driving a resurgence in private cloud adoption as organisations seek greater control over where and how sensitive data is handled.
“We know many companies are now shifting their sensitive workloads to private clouds as part of broader multi-cloud and hybrid strategies designed to support agentic AI and other complex AI initiatives at scale,” said Bastien Aerni, VP of strategy and technology adoption, GTT.
“This distributed approach allows enterprises to balance performance, security and compliance requirements while optimizing costs to advance their AI ambitions.”
According to survey respondents, private cloud spending reaching over $10m per year will increase from 43% in 2024 to 53.6% in 2025, reflecting a 24% growth rate, compared to just 12% growth in public cloud spending for these same cohorts.
More than half of all AI workloads already reside in a combination of private cloud and on-premises environments, driven primarily by enhanced security (56%), compliance and regulatory demands (51%), and the specific needs of AI workloads (50%). Cost remains a factor but ranks much lower at 35%.
As enterprises adopt hybrid strategies to support more complex AI workloads, many encounter challenges spanning both public and private cloud environments. For public cloud deployments, challenges around migration of apps and data and technical skills or feasibility are the highest ranking at 4%.
When migrating workloads to private clouds, the top challenges – each cited by 38% of respondents – are managing apps post-migration, securing hybrid environments and, once again, a lack of technical skills or feasibility.
“Enterprise infrastructure strategies are evolving fast as AI workloads surpass the limits of traditional architectures,” Aerni continued.
“Organisations are refining their cloud environments, whether public, private or hybrid, to support their AI initiatives at scale. But many still underestimate the complexity involved. In our experience, without reengineering connectivity and security architectures, even the most ambitious private cloud strategies can fall short.”
The UK government has selected Rolls-Royce SMR as the preferred bidder to partner with Great British Energy – Nuclear to develop small modular reactors, subject to final government approvals and contract signature.
Great British Energy – Nuclear is also rebranding as Great British Nuclear, reflecting its joint mission with Great British Energy to rollout clean homegrown power as two publicly-owned energy companies.
The government is pledging over £2.5 billion for the overall small modular reactor programme in this Spending Review period – with this project potentially supporting up to 3,000 new skilled jobs and powering the equivalent of around three million homes with clean, secure homegrown energy.
The UK government is calling this ‘the biggest nuclear rollout for a generation” which will support the clean power mission, boosting energy security and protecting families’ finances. Great British Nuclear is aiming to sign contracts with Rolls-Royce SMR later this year and will form a development company.
Great British Nuclear will also aim to allocate a site later this year and connect projects to the grid in the mid-2030s. Once small modular reactors and Sizewell C come online in the 2030s, combined with the new station at Hinkley Point C, this will deliver more nuclear to the grid than over the previous half century.
‘SMRs’ are smaller and quicker to build than traditional nuclear plants, with costs likely to come down as units are rolled out.
The outcome of this competition is the first step towards reducing costs and unlocking private finance, enabling the UK to realise its long-term ambition of delivering one of Europe’s first small modular reactor fleets. It comes after the government announced plans to shake up the planning rules to make it easier to build nuclear, including small modular reactors across the country.
“We are ending the no-nuclear status quo as part of our Plan for Change and are entering a golden age of nuclear with the biggest building programme in a generation,” energy secretary Ed Miliband said.
“Great British Energy – Nuclear has run a rigorous competition and will now work with the preferred bidder Rolls-Royce SMR to build the country’s first ever small modular reactors – creating thousands of jobs and growing our regional economies while strengthening our energy security.”
The global SMR market is, according to the International Energy Agency, projected to reach up to nearly £500 billion by 2050.
The selection follows a rigorous and transparent procurement process over 2 years, with the competition having launched in July 2023. Subject to final approvals and contract signature, Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd will enter a strategic technology development partnership with Great British Energy – Nuclear – a fully publicly-owned company.
Rolls-Royce SMR is progressing through the final stage of the assessment by the UK nuclear industry’s independent regulators.
A third of Scottish workers say that the negative impact of work on their mental health as well as poor outcomes will drive them to likely quit their jobs in the next 12 months.
This is according to research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which analysed the everyday experience of over 1,000 Scottish workers, highlighting where employers need to make change to improve working conditions for everyday Scots.
About a quarter (26%) of Scottish employees say work has a negative impact on their mental health, with another quarter (24%) saying it negatively impacts their physical health.
These employees are more likely to quit, report worse job satisfaction, and are less likely to recommend their employer or go above and beyond at work.
High workloads, stress, exhaustion as well as poor workplace relationships and work-life balance are associated with negative impacts on health.
Work-life Balance
Work-life balance continues to suffer, as workloads are compounded by long commuting times and caring responsibilities.
Over a fifth (22%) of Scottish employees find it hard to relax in their personal time due to their job.
The report found a linear relationship between the length of commute and negative outcomes, with impacts on job satisfaction, likelihood to quit, and employee health.
Impact of Automation
More than one in ten (12%) Scottish employees had some tasks automated by AI, the report found. Most of these were described as repetitive tasks.
A significant majority (72%) of these said AI automation has improved their performance at work.
Overall, 30% of all employees think that there is a great deal/fair amount of potential to automate their tasks in the future.
Hybrid and Flexible Working
Home and hybrid working patterns are unchanged from last year, but a gap remains between ways of working and preferences – a higher proportion of employees would like to work hybrid.
Rates of flexible working remain higher than pre-pandemic, with 76% saying this has a positive impact on their quality of life.
There is significant unmet demand for some flexible working options, primarily the four-day week, compressed hours and flexi-time.
Employee voice scores have improved for the first time in two years, as have manager ratings overall.
Consistently, nearly a fifth (19%) of Scottish employees report no access to any voice channels, including one-to-one meetings with managers and team meetings.
Almost a quarter (24%) of Scottish employees are members of a trade union or staff association. A fifth (20%) say management is in favour of trade union membership, with the same proportion saying the opposite.
“Fair work offers all individuals an effective voice, opportunity, security, fulfilment and respect and is increasingly recognised as a key driver for business success and broader economic prosperity. Improving fair work balances the rights and responsibilities of employers and workers and generates benefits for individuals, organisations and society,” Patricia Findlay and Mary Alexander, co-chairs of the Fair Work Convention, wrote in the report’s foreword.
Only 6% of software security companies are providing cybersecurity for AI systems, new findings from OnSecurity revealed.
The most popular products and services offered by these cybersecurity AI providers are AI model security and protections (56%), LLM and generative AI security (52%), AI infrastructure security (47%), AI-enhanced security operations (45%), and AI threat detection and response (34%).
Among software security providers, the most popular products and services offered are security integration (62%), followed by cloud security (38%), security testing tolls (22%), AI/ML testing (21%), and threat intelligence (18%).
According to the report, 50% of AI cybersecurity firms have raised external investments of up to £82 million with £68 million raised since Q1 2022.
Software security providers have raised upwards of £828 million across 42 deals. These figures reflect both expectations and future demand for these solutions, as well as an indication of how companies are able to secure external finance for product development and growth. These figures are reflective of the last five years.
For specialist software security providers, 64 firms mentioned at least one customer or partnership within web data.
Providers typically work across a range of sectors; however, the findings showed that 66% of providers mentioned at least one customer within the broader tech sector, followed by financial services (31%), healthcare (25%), and government (23%).
“As AI technologies continue to evolve, the need for sophisticated cybersecurity solutions is important,” Conor O’Neill, co-founder and CEO at OnSecurity said.
“The findings from the Government report highlight a gap in cybersecurity offerings for AI systems. Whilst it is a comparatively new space, it’s clear that businesses looking to remain competitive must embrace AI-powered security solutions in one way or another.
“Solutions should not only protect AI systems but also enhance their ability to detect and respond to threats in real time. OnSecurity is already using AI to automate routine tasks, freeing up our security professionals to focus on more strategic and complex challenges. While AI will undoubtedly enhance our capabilities, it’s essential to remember that it’s a tool, not a replacement for human expertise. The future of cybersecurity will be defined by a symbiotic relationship between AI and humans.
“With investment in AI cybersecurity on the rise, companies can no longer afford to overlook this emerging area. As AI becomes more integrated into business operations, the demand for specialised cybersecurity services will only increase, and businesses will most likely need to incorporate AI-driven solutions to stay up to date with the direction of the industry.”
Young women in the UK want to pursue STEM subjects and careers, so what’s holding so many of them back?
This is what Walbrook Institute of London investigated in a recent survey of 1,000 female students aged 16-19 across the UK to better understand how they feel about STEM.
The results were – at a glance – encouraging, as 70% of respondents said they were personally interested in STEM subjects.
But despite this enthusiasm, many still hesitate to pursue STEM further – and the reasons why are both relatable and solvable.
From teaching that doesn’t spark curiosity, to the absence of visible female role models, the report pointed to an urgent need to do things differently.
When asked what the top barriers holding them back from pursuing STEM subjects, women rated the effort it takes to study these subjects as the number one barrier (61%), followed by feeling overly challenged in STEM topics (50%).
Following this, 43% said that STEM is too expensive to study as they could not take on a side job due to the high workload, 42% saying the subjects are too difficult, and 38% saying that other people do not believe that they are capable of completing these studies.
The survey also found that school experience plays a huge role in how students perceive STEM. Many describe the content as dry, complicated, or simply not engaging enough to inspire confidence.
About half (51%) of respondents said that teachers teach STEM subjects in a boring or unappealing way.
Further, the study found that two thirds of students could identify someone working in STEM, but most of those role models were male. The report said that a lack of visible, relatable role models makes it harder for young women to imagine themselves in STEM roles.
The young women surveyed did make many of their career ambitions clear, with 90% saying they wanted to go to university, and 85% rating career success as important to them.
Still, how they measure this success may look different, as 84% want to support their family and be present in their lives, while 81% want to be financially well-off.
Tech sector carbon emissions continue to rise in recent years, fuelled by rapid advances in AI and associated data infrastructure.
This is according to a report produced by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) of the UN, which found that ten tech companies are responsible for half of all data centre energy consumption.
According to the research, electricity consumption by data centres increased by 12% each year from 2017 to 2023, four times faster than global electricity growth.
“Advances in digital innovation — especially AI — are driving up energy consumption and global emissions,” said ITU secretary-general Doreen Bogdan-Martin.
“While more must be done to shrink the tech sector’s footprint, the latest Greening Digital Companies report shows that industry understands the challenge — and that continued progress depends on sustaining momentum together.”
Four leading AI-focused companies alone saw their operational emissions increase in the reporting period by 150% on average since 2020. This rise in energy that is either produced or purchased underscores the urgent need to manage AI’s environmental impact.
In total, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions reported by the 166 digital companies covered by the report contributed 0.8% of all global energy-related emissions in 2023. This is equivalent to the combined emissions of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile, which have a combined population of over 77 million.
The 164 digital companies that reported electricity consumption accounted for 2.1 per cent of global electricity use, at 581 terawatt-hours (TWh), with 10 companies responsible for half of this total.
These ten companies are: China Mobile, Amazon, Samsung Electronics, China Telecom, Alphabet, Microsoft, TSMC, China Unicom, SK Hynix, and Meta.
“Digital companies have the tools and influence to lead the global climate transition, but progress must be measured not only by ambition, but by credible action,” said Lourdes O. Montenegro, director of Research and Digitisation at WBA.
“This report provides a clear signal to the international community: more companies are stepping up, but emissions and electricity use continues to rise.”
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has launched a new AI and biometrics strategy to ensure organisations are developing and deploying new technologies lawfully.
The ICO is stepping up its supervision of AI and biometric technologies to strengthen public trust that even the most innovative products and services are using their personal information responsibly.
New research on automated decision making and biometric technologies reveals that the public expect to understand exactly when and how AI powered systems affect them, and they are concerned about the consequences when these technologies go wrong.
This would include, for example, if facial recognition technology (FRT) is used inaccurately, or a flawed automated decision impacts their job application.
Over half (54%) of people surveyed shared concerns that the use of FRT by police would infringe on their right to privacy.
The ICO is focusing on uses of AI and biometrics that are prevalent today and may benefit people’s everyday lives yet cause the most concern and potential for harm if misused.
The strategy aims to provide organisations with certainty and the public with reassurance across a range of use cases.
This includes reviewing the use of automated decision making systems in the recruitment industry and government adopters such as the Department for Work and Pensions.
Further, the ICO will be conducting audits and producing guidance on the lawful, fair, and proportionate use of facial recognition technology by police forces.
The ICO will also set clear expectations to protect people’s personal information when used to train generative AI foundation models, as well as developing a statutory code of practice for organisations developing or deploying AI responsibly to support innovation while safeguarding privacy.
Finally, the ICO will be scrutinising emerging AI risks and trends, such as the rise of agentic AI as systems become increasingly capable of acting autonomously.
“The same data protection principles apply now as they always have – trust matters and it can only be built by organisations using people’s personal information responsibly,” the information commissioner, John Edwards said.
“Public trust is not threatened by new technologies themselves, but by reckless applications of these technologies outside of the necessary guardrails. We are here, as we were 40 years ago, to make compliance easier and ensure those guardrails are in place.”
The UK government is launching a new skills programme to support pupils across the country with the skills and tools needed to attain AI-powered jobs in the future.
Part of this skills drive is a new £187 million government “TechFirst” programme to bring digital skills and AI learning into classrooms and communities and train up people of all ages and backgrounds for tech careers in the future.
The announcement comes as research commissioned by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) shows that by 2035, around 10 million workers will be in roles where AI will be part of their role or responsibilities in some form, with a further 3.9 million in roles directly in AI.
The flagship strand of this programme “TechYouth” – backed by £24 million of government funding – will give one million students over three years across every secondary school in the UK the chance to learn about technology and gain access to new skills training and career opportunities.
There will also be an online platform to inspire and educate students about the potential and computing and tech careers – building on CyberFirst’s Explorers which has access to most secondary schools in the UK with 100,000 students registered already. This will bring together learning tools and training opportunities in a streamlined accessible space.
In each of the UK’s regions and nations, a local delivery partner will be selected by DSIT to run the programme and deliver activities to schools and colleges in local areas.
The AI sector alone is valued at £72.3 billion and is projected to exceed £800 billion by 2035. It is growing 30 times faster than the rest of the economy, employing over 64,000 people across more than 3,700 companies.
But despite these strengths, access to AI skills in the UK remains one of the biggest barriers to growth – especially for startups, scaleups, and regions outside London.
According to a newly released TechNation report, one in three UK tech founders say the availability of top talent is their biggest barrier to growth.
“We are putting the power of AI into the hands of the next generation – so they can shape the future, not be shaped by it,” prime minister Keir Starmer claimed.
“This training programme will unlock opportunity in every classroom – and lays the foundations for a new era of growth.
“Too many children from working families like the one I grew up in are written off. I am determined to end that.
“This programme is the Plan for Change in action – breaking down barriers, driving innovation, and giving every young person the chance of a good, well paid job and a bright future.”
TechFirst is also set to support over 4,000 graduates, researchers, and innovators through three additional strands.
TechGrad, which will receive £96.8m in funding, will support 1,000 domestic students with undergraduate scholarships in areas like AI, security, and computer sciences, as well as 100 Research MSc places in key tech sectors, and 100 elite AI scholarships.
TechExpert, which will get £48.4m in funding, will provide up to £10,000 in additional funding to 500 domestic PhD students conducting research in tech, and TechLocal will get £18m to offer seed funding to help regional innovators and small businesses develop new tech products and adopt AI.
Industry players like IBM, BAE Systems, QinetiQ, BT, Microsoft, and the Careers & Enterprise Company, have backed the initiative.
“We are getting Brits ready for jobs of the future by helping millions across the country gain vital digital skills in AI and beyond,” science, innovation, and technology secretary Peter Kyle said.
“Embedding these skills into our education system and local communities will help people of all backgrounds and ensure tech talent flourishes in every corner of our nation.
“These partnerships with industry will translate skills into real jobs and economic growth, putting more money in people’s pockets and breaking down barriers to opportunity. This is our Plan for Change in action – investing in the skills that will power our economy and deliver prosperity for working people across the country.”
Alongside TechFirst, the Prime Minister also announced a new government-industry partnership to train 7.5 million UK workers in essential skills to use AI by 2030, equivalent to around 20% of the UK workforce.
The training, supporting my leading technology companies, will focus on enabling workers to use and interact with AI systems such as chatbots and large language models to boost productivity across a wide range of roles.
Further, the UK government and NVIDIA have signed two Memorandums of Understanding to support the development of a nationwide AI talent pipeline and accelerating critical university-led research into the role of AI in advances connectivity technologies.
Scotland was able to retain its position as the top UK destination outside of London for financial services investment.
In 2024, Scotland attracted 11 financial services foreign direct investment projects, beating out the nine it attracted in 2023, reaching a 10-year high.
While London continues to lead the UK in terms of investment with 39 projects, Scotland is the top location outside of this sphere, with Edinburgh tied for second place along with Manchester, with six projects each.
Both Edinburgh and Glasgow are climbing the ranks in terms of global financial investment, according to the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI). Edinburgh’s six financial service projects landed them in 29th place globally, while Glasgow’s four projects placed them at 32, up five places from the year before.
While the UK has maintained its spot as the top European country for financial services foreign direct investment, there were just 73 deals in the UK this year, down from 108 the year before.
Total deals in Europe, however, fell 11% year-on-year, from 329 projects in 2023 to just 293 projects in 2024.
Still, the UK’s 73 financial services projects amounted to more than double Germany’s 32 projects, which was in second place.
“In 2024, we saw almost as many projects expanding existing operations as we did brand new projects – which is a great indication that these companies view Scotland as a viable proposition to continue investing in,” EY Scotland managing partner for financial services Sue Dawe said.
“While the UK continues to be Europe’s top financial service FDI location, the fall in overall investment that was recorded at both those levels tell us that we cannot take the foot off the peddle.
“If Scotland is to remain an attractive place for companies within an increasingly competitive market then we need to dial-up what we do well – working together across sector, government and education – and not shy away from challenges on the horizon.”
Scotland is massively disproportionately affected by digital exclusion when it comes to connectivity, with many rural communities left without usable internet access.
This is according to research from Broadband Savvy, which mapped every single residential premises stuck with slow broadband to visualise digital exclusion across the UK.
The research found that Scottish premises were more likely to suffer from poor broadband, especially in more remote and rural communities.
Compared to England, Scottish residents are four times more likely to have unusable broadband in Scotland.
In Scotland, one in 278 premises cannot get decent broadband, compared to 1 in 244 in Wales, 1 in 476 in Northern Ireland, and just 1 in 111 in England.
The Orkney Islands have the worst broadband of any UK local authority, while the Shetland Islands are second-worst, with Shetland West having the worst broadband of any UK Electoral Ward.
There are numerous census output areas – the lowest level of geographical area for census statistics – in Scotland that are almost completely cut off from broadband. For example, Broadband Savvy found that an ear in Forres, Morray with 96.2% of homes having less than 10 Mbps.
“The government’s Project Gigabit programme is failing rural communities in Scotland and Wales, and the Universal Service Obligation is not fit for purpose,” said Tom Paton, founder of Broadband Savvy.
In 2018, when launching the USO, Ofcom stated that the scheme was “intended to act as a safety net to prevent social and digital exclusion, regardless of where people live or work.” Seven years later, the programme has failed to achieve this.
“While 86% of homes can now get ultrafast gigabit internet, we estimate around 100,000 people have been left behind, with no idea when they will get usable broadband at their address,” Paton continued.
“Under the USO, households have the legal right to request decent broadband speeds of at least 10 Mbps. But in our experience, when you make a USO claim, it’s common for BT to turn around and issue a £50,000–£100,000 quote to deploy fibre, for infrastructure you’ll still have to pay full price to rent once it’s rolled out.”
“The USO process is so difficult, and the quotes are so expensive that the programme is not doing what it’s meant to do – helping those who have been left behind during the national fibre rollout.”
“The data shows that this is not a final mile infrastructure deployment problem, where it’s difficult to deploy broadband to a handful of very remote households. We found numerous census areas of 50 premises or more that are almost completely cut off from broadband.”
“The government needs to do more to help people in areas where it’s not commercially viable to deploy full fibre broadband, rather than focusing on delivering gigabit or higher speeds in areas that already have ultrafast internet. There should be a greater focus on alternate technologies in areas where fibre deployments are difficult, such as fixed-wireless access (FWA).”
The DataKirk has announced that deputy fist minister and cabinet secretary for the economy and Gaelic, Kate Forbes, will deliver the keynote address at the upcoming Scottish Ethnic Minority Talent Summit and Festival, taking place 9 October 2025 in Edinburgh.
This landmark event celebrates diversity, talent, and innovation within Scotland’s ethnic minority communities.
With the theme ‘Wellbeing and Resilience – Thriving in a Changing World’ the 2025 Summit and Festival will convene entrepreneurs, educators, policy leaders, and young people. The event will consider how to co-create a more inclusive economy.
“We know that more action is needed to tackle racial inequalities and unlock the economic potential of everyone who calls Scotland home,” Forbes said.
“That’s why the Scottish Government is improving recruitment guidelines to help employers to create and sustain a more diverse workforce and supporting initiatives which encourage more people from underrepresented groups to apply for jobs and training opportunities.
“We are also investing up to £90 million in the delivery of local employability support services in 2025/26 to support people who face barriers into employment towards and into sustainable fair work.”.
The 2025 Summit and Festival will include fringe events between 6 to 8 October across cities in Scotland, a dynamic mix of roundtable discussions on 9 October and awards and festival on 0 October evening.
The DataKirk is hosting a special fringe event on 7-8 October tagged African Scottish Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Pipeline Programme (ASEEP 2025), designed to bridge digital ecosystems between Africa and Scotland.
“Having the Deputy First Minister open the 2025 Scottish Ethnic Minority Talent Summit is a tremendous honour,” Fash Fasoro, CEO of DataKirk and organiser of the summit and festival said.
“The Summit embodies a vision of Scotland where everyone, no matter where they come from, can thrive, contribute, and lead. This event is about visibility, opportunity, and action. It’s about building a Scotland where the talents of ethnic minority communities are seen, celebrated, and fully integrated into our nation’s economic future.”
Welcome to the May 2025 edition of DIGIT’s Movers and Shakers!
Each month, our Movers and Shakers feature gives you the low-down on recent news in the Scottish tech ecosystem.
Esteemed appointments, major partnerships, and important awards all took place throughout the month.
Read on to find out what exactly has been happening!
Appointments
Edinburgh Innovations Appoints New Director of Venture Creation
Edinburgh Innovations has announced the appointment of Lizzie Withington in the newly created role of director of venture creation.
The role, within the University of Edinburgh’s commercialisation service, includes building new spin-out companies around emerging technologies and growing and maintaining a network of investors and experienced CEOs to ensure spinouts have effective management and funds to launch, succeed, and scale.
In November, Edinburgh Innovations (EI) announced record research translation figures for the financial year 2023/24, including the launch of 127 companies, five of which were spinouts (staff companies where the University retains intellectual property rights); 140 patents filed and £141 million invested into University-associated companies.
Cyacomb Appoints New Chair and Secures £2.25M Investment
Digital forensics company, Cyacomb, has appointed a new Chair and secured an additional £2.25m from the Scottish National Investment Bank to further scale the company and expand the international application of its technology.
Cyacomb’s technology quickly and thoroughly scans digital devices for known harmful content and enables law enforcement agencies worldwide to detect evidence of child sexual abuse and terrorist activity faster than ever before.
Its ability to triage suspicious devices on scene in seconds has helped reduce digital forensics lab backlogs, improve overall efficiency and helped safeguard children by enabling law enforcement to bring more perpetrators to justice.
Dr Ian Archer appointed as Commercial Director of James Hutton Ltd
The James Hutton Institute is delighted to announce that Dr Ian Archer has been appointed Commercial Director of James Hutton Ltd, as from 28th April.
Commenting on his appointment, Dr Archer said, “I’m thrilled to be joining the James Hutton Group (James Hutton Scientific Services) at such an exciting time. Throughout my career, I’ve been passionate about the application and commercialisation of scientific research – transforming research science and technology into tangible outputs that create value and impact.
“This role gives me a unique opportunity to apply my experience in industrial chemistry and biotechnology, analysis, process development, techno-economics, and skills development in new ways.
“I’m particularly motivated to support sustainable innovation that drives growth but also minimises environmental impact and safeguards our natural resources. I look forward to working with the team to expand our services and help our partners turn great science into real-world value.”
Skyscanner Appoints New Chief Executive Officer
Edinburgh-headquartered Skyscanner has announced the appointment of Bryan Batista as CEO, taking over the role from John Mangelaars. Batista is currently the chief operating officer and will become CEO on the June 1, 2025.
Departing CEO John Mangelaars shares: “After four and a half incredible years, I am stepping down as CEO and passing the baton to Bryan. The company is in a great position, and I feel that now is the right time for me personally to make this change and pursue new ventures. I have enormous confidence in Bryan’s leadership and determination to take Skyscanner forward in the next stage of its ambitious growth.”
In the last year, Skyscanner experienced, according to the firm, ‘record performances across its travel products, with double digit growth in flights, car hire and accommodation.’
Scotland’s Cyber and Fraud Hub Appoints Alex Dowall as CEO
The Cyber and Fraud Hub, a Scottish charity that supports individuals affected by cyber-crime and fraud, has announced the appointment of Alex Dowall as chief executive officer ahead of its first anniversary.
Dowall brings over thirty years of policing experience to his new role, which includes time as a Detective Superintendent with Police Scotland and an extensive background in cybercrime.
This, combined with his experience and achievements in his first year in the Cyber and Fraud Centre, makes him well placed to steer the Hub through its next phase of growth.
BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, has appointed Sharron Gunn as its new group chief executive.
Gunn takes over leadership of the professional body for information technology, from interim CEO Rob Deri. She has been working for BCS since February to transform its learning and development and membership divisions.
Previously Gunn held leadership roles at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), including Executive Director for Membership, Commercial and Shared Services and most recently, Chief Operating Officer.
iomart CEO Steps Down as Chair Takes Executive Role
Glasgow-based cloud services provider iomart has announced that chief executive Lucy Dimes is stepping down and leaving the company.
Dimes joined the board as independent non-executive chair in August 2022 before taking on the CEO role in September 2023. Her departure comes as the company continues its strategic shift toward opportunities in the public and private cloud and cybersecurity sectors.
In a statement given to the London Stock Exchange, the board thanked Dimes for “her work in helping to reposition iomart’s business to more fully address the opportunities in the public and private cloud and security markets.”
Mavenir, the cloud-native network infrastructure provider, working in collaboration with operator Three UK and the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, Red Hat, has successfully demonstrated the performance benefits of 5G non-standalone O-RAN compliant small cells in Glasgow City Centre – doubling 5G speeds at peak times.
This milestone UK-first trial of Open RAN in a dense urban environment also marks the first live deployment of O-RAN compliant small cells working alongside legacy macro cells from traditional vendors in this environment – driving a significant reduction in traffic congestion by delivering high-quality coverage and additional capacity.
During the initial phase of the trial, both 4G and 5G speeds doubled during the busiest times of the day, with Three UK’s 5G speeds reaching an impressive 520Mbps across the trial area. The capacity boost also cascaded into further performance and user experience improvements in surrounding sites.
Expansions
Heriot-Watt Unveils £2.5M Quantum-enabled Optical Ground Station
A cutting-edge £2.5 million facility that will help secure next-generation communications against cyber threats officially opened today at Heriot-Watt University’s Research Park in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Quantum Communications Hub Optical Ground Station (named HOGS) represents a significant leap forward in the UK’s space and quantum capabilities. Using advanced laser technology to communicate with satellites in ways that could make data breaches a thing of the past, HOGS marks a transition from traditional radio frequency communications to optical links that offer significantly higher data rates and improved security.
The Irish government’s business development agency, Enterprise Ireland, has launched a trade mission to Scotland with the official opening of a new Glasgow hub.
Enterprise Ireland said the Glasgow office will act as a strategic touchpoint for Irish businesses hoping to scale in Scotland, and marks the agency’s third office in the UK after establishing operations in London and Manchester.
Along with opening the Glasgow site, ten Irish firms have also announced new contracts and expansions in Scotland, plans that are predicted to create hundreds of jobs and see millions in investment.
A small piece of outer space recreated in a basement in Glasgow could help ensure that a key enabling technology for future space missions won’t lead to deadly ‘rifle bullets’ of space junk circling the Earth.
Researchers at the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering have built the NextSpace Testrig – the world’s first dedicated facility for testing the structural integrity of materials that will be 3D printed in space.
The NextSpace Testrig was developed by the University’s Dr Gilles Bailet in partnership with The Manufacturing Technology Centre, supported by £253,000 in funding from the UK Space Agency (UKSA).
£2.3M Technology and Innovation Centre Opens in Stornoway
A new Technology and Innovation Centre has been officially opened at UHI North, West and Hebrides’ Stornoway campus following a £2.3 million investment.
As well as increasing the college’s capacity for on-campus learners, the new Centre will allow for an expansion of the curriculum in areas like renewable energy, engineering, construction and the built environment, sustainability and net zero.
The modernised facility includes a Future Energy Lab, which will support research into renewable energy technologies, a Newton Room, designed to offer primary and secondary school pupils hands-on experience in STEM subjects, and virtual welding simulators for engineering students and apprentices.
Edinburgh-based Scale-up Tomoro AI Launches Singapore HQ
AI consulting and engineering firm Tomoro, has announced the opening of its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore.
The new office will serve as Tomoro’s regional command centre for designing, building and scaling production grade AI solutions for large enterprises across finance, healthcare, consumer goods, media and beyond.
The firm whose leadership is split across Edinburgh and London, previously announced in May 2024 a £4m investment in building a ‘world class AI team in Edinburgh’. In the 12 months since that announcement, the firm has stated that it has quadrupled employees across the firm and increased monthly revenue by more than 10x.
FarrPoint’s strong start to 2025 continues, with exciting developments across the business. Over the last month, the consultancy welcomed three new team members and settled into a new head office in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh — milestones that reflect its ongoing growth and ambitions for the future.
With 24 core staff members and four offices internationally – in Scotland, England, the US and Canada, FarrPoint continues to lead in its specialism of connectivity, and continues to expand into new areas as technology and the markets develop.
As the FarrPoint team expanded, so has its need for space. Its move into a new headquarters at Lochrin Square in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, reflects not only the growth of the business but also its commitment to creating an environment that supports collaboration, wellbeing, and innovation. With FarrPoint’s BCORP certification and net-zero commitments, it was important that the new office is more environmentally friendly than the previous space.
“The move to our new office represents a milestone in FarrPoint’s journey,” said Andrew Muir. “As our client base and staff numbers grow, it’s a space that’s not only better suited to our current team but also supports our ambitions for further growth in the years ahead.”
Awards and Recognition
Scots Firms Celebrated in King’s Awards for Enterprise
Eleven Scottish businesses across the country, from South Lanarkshire to the Highlands, have been celebrated in the third year of The King’s Awards for Enterprise.
Spanning three categories – innovation, international trade, and promoting opportunity – this year’s award winners represent a diverse range of sectors, from the spirits industry to biotech and tourism.
Among the three Scottish firms recognised for their innovative practices are South Lanarkshire’s Glencairn Crystal Studio, known for its handcrafted premium whisky glassware; Aberdeenshire-based Gray & Adams, specialists in temperature-controlled refrigerated trailers; and Ross-shire Engineering,(RSE) a Highland firm pioneering in water treatment solutions.
Scottish EDGE Awards £1.5m to High-Growth Startups
Scottish EDGE returned for its 25th round as 35 winners with high-growth potential took home £1.5 million in prize money.
The awards ceremony was hosted by Royal Bank of Scotland at Citation in Glasgow city centre and united entrepreneurs who made it through the competitive pitching process to secure funding.
The biggest winner at the awards was Vanilla Farms, who cures and supplies premium-quality vanilla using sustainable, high-tech agriculture. The business received a total of £150,000 from the newest addition, Missions EDGE, supported by Scottish Enterprise.
TSB and FinTech Scotland Reveal Innovation Labs Winners
Three UK fintech innovators have been named winners of the 2024 TSB Innovation Labs programme, a partnership between TSB and FinTech Scotland aiming to shape the future of financial services through the responsible use of data and technology.
This year’s winners, Sikoia, Credit Canary and Aperidata, are focused on the use of Open Banking technology to simplify and accelerate customer support, with the firms gaining the chance to work with TSB on developing their proof of concepts for future banking tech.
Sikoia is set to make finance applications simpler for new customers through the automation of manual, document-heavy verification processes that currently depend on unstructured or disconnected data buried in customer documents.
Smart Data Challenge Prize Reveals Finalists Vying for £50K Funding
Ten breakthrough teams have been named finalists in the Smart Data Challenge Prize, bringing new technologies and platforms designed to fast-track net zero, help gig workers manage their money, and take on life-admin tasks.
Each of the finalist teams will receive £50,000 and gain access to a bespoke Smart Data sandbox, built specifically for the prize by NayaOne. This sandbox will give teams a chance to test their products using secure, synthetic data, representing 5,000 individuals and 100 small businesses over a one-year timeline.
Later this year, an overall winner with the most promising smart data solution will be awarded £50,000, while two runners-up will receive prizes of £25,000.
CGI named ‘Best Very Big Company to Work for in theTechnology Industry’ in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2025
CGI, one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, is proud to be recognised in the prestigious Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2025 list for the third consecutive year. The company has been acknowledged for its outstanding commitment to employee wellbeing, inclusion and workplace culture.
These achievements reflect CGI’s culture and its continued commitment to creating a workplace where employees are supported, valued, and empowered.
“This recognition highlights the work we are doing to build an inclusive and supportive culture where our people can thrive. We are particularly proud to have been named the Best Very Big Company to Work for in the Technology Industry,” said Tara McGeehan, President of CGI in the UK. “To be recognised for three years running is a testament to the dedication of our employees and the positive, people-first environment we continue to cultivate at CGI.”
Personalised marketing, while valuable for some, generates negative experiences for 53% of customers, who were 3.2x more likely to regret a purchase and 44% less likely to purchase again in the future, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc.
A Gartner survey of 1,464 B2B buyers and consumers across North America, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand in November and December 2024 found that customers who experienced personalisation in a recent purchase journey were 1.8x more likely to pay a premium but were simultaneously 2x more likely to feel overwhelmed by the volume of information they received. Moreover, they were 2.8x more likely to feel time pressure to move forward.
The paradox of personalisation arises when customers switch tasks in their buying journey, such as transitioning from searching to selecting a product. This shift can be challenging for most consumers and B2B buyers.
During these moments, personalised offers and product recommendations may fall short, as they appear irrelevant to buyers who are grappling with challenges more complex than the offer itself.
“While personalisation has proven to be commercially valuable for some customers, it’s crucial to recognise that it doesn’t resonate with most,” said Audrey Brosnan, senior director analyst in the Gartner Marketing Practice.
“More than half of customers feel overwhelmed or rushed by traditional personalisation tactics at least once in a purchase journey, when cognitive, emotional and social challenges are difficult to resolve.
“Personalised offers at these moments can harm customers, highlighting the need for marketers to adopt more nuanced and adaptive strategies that cater to diverse customer needs, like escaping the pitfalls of task switching.”
“CMOs face an urgent strategic imperative to redesign personalisation for the coming era of two-way, AI-enabled, conversational experiences,” said Brosnan.
“Passive personalisation tactics alone no longer suffice; they can inadvertently intensify the negative emotions that customers experience when trapped in decision-making pitfalls.
“CMOs must pivot toward active, course-changing personalisation that reveals customers’ hidden needs, validates their decisions and pulls them from pitfall to purchase.”
Active Personalisation
According to the research, course-changing personalisation significantly outperforms traditional ‘next best action’ recommendations for customers in pitfalls.
Active personalisation empowers individuals to reflect, build confidence, and take decisive actions aligned with their authentic goals.
Customers engaged via active personalisation are 2.3x more likely to confidently complete critical purchase decisions, generating substantial improvement in customer satisfaction and marketing ROI.
By allowing customers to take control of their journey, organisations can create more meaningful interactions that challenge perspectives and build confidence.
This approach is particularly effective in addressing the complex emotions customers experience in journey pitfalls, such as feelings of being rushed into, overwhelmed by, or dubious of passive personalisation.
“Active personalisation is a powerful new strategy for transforming customer engagement into strategic value,” said Brosnan.
“By engaging customers directly, marketing leaders can use personalized experiences to not only improve satisfaction but also drive substantial improvements in ROI and future purchase potential.
“Even better, active personalization reduces customers’ apprehension over the creepiness of passive personalization. They understand why brands need the requested data, and they value the utility that active personalization supplies in exchange.”
CMOs looking to optimising their marketing budgets and enhance the impact of personalisation should focus on this strategic shift, Gartner recommends.
It recommends these three immediate steps:
Actively Counter Journey Pitfalls: Pinpoint and target active personalisation strategies at crucial moments where customers transition between task and frequently encounter obstacles, as passive tactics can be more detrimental than beneficial in these situations.
Catalyse Emotional Change: Employ interactive experiences like quizzes, gamified assessments, and guided digital interactions that both reveal unique customer attributes and motivate customers to clarify their goals and confidently advance through complex decisions.
Embrace Customer Co-creation: Shift from passive inference to active customer involvement, encouraging customers to directly share personal preferences and content that co-create personalised paths to purchase and loyalty.
“CMOs who leverage active personalisation strategies at key customer journey transition points will achieve deeper customer engagement, enhanced brand loyalty, and superior commercial outcomes,” emphasizes Brosnan.
“This approach allows marketing leaders to embed a growth loop in customer engagement. Active personalisation acts as a flywheel, motivating customers in the moment and revealing unique insights (also called zero-party data) that sustains and accelerates the flywheel with each successive engagement.”
The North Face and Cartier are the latest brands to suffer from cyber-attacks, with both companies reporting stolen customer data as a result of breaches.
The North Face, a popular mountaineering fashion brand, alerted some of its customers in an email saying that it had become aware of a “small scale” attack that occurred back in April this year.
Cartier said that an “unauthorised party gained temporary access to our system.”
According to each brand, customer data such as names and email addresses were stolen, but financial information like credit cards were not.
In The North Face attack, the company told customers that hackers used credential stuffing to steal the data, and may have been able to access some users information such as purchase histories and shipping addresses.
As credential stuffing relies on customers using the same login information across different accounts, The North Face customers are advised to change their passwords.
In Cartier’s case, the hackers targeted the company’s system, and did not access customer passwords or card details, but did access “limited client information.”
Cartier said they have contained the issue, and contacted relevant authorities regarding the incident.
News of the attacks is the latest in a string of high-profile incidents aimed at the retail industry, with Adidas, Victoria’s Secret, and Harrods facing cyber-attacks, recently.
Customers who contacted the Adidas help desk had their personal data compromised, and Victoria Secret temporarity took down its U.S. website following a security incident.
Marks and Spenders and Co-op also faced major interruptions due to cyber-attacks that took place in April, resulting in empty shelves and a revenue losses. M&S expects to face online service disruptions until July.
The National Crime Agency has been working to catch the criminal groups responsible, confirming that it is looking to infamous ransomware group Scattered Spider.
Pat McFadden, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, called the onslaught of retail attacks a “wake-up call” to the sector, which seems to be at continued risk.
FinTech Scotland unveiled its latest innovation programme in collaboration with TSB Labs with a special focus on fraud prevention.
TSB Labs, a fintech accelerator, is once again partnering with FinTech Scotland to identify, support, and scale innovative solutions tackling some of the most urgent challenges in banking. This year, the focus is on preventing one of the nation’s most prevalent crimes – fraud, while delivering a seamless customer journey.
The programme builds on the success of previous cohorts, which resulted in several pilot projects as well as being recognised at the Scottish Financial Technology Awards for Best Financial Services Innovation.
“We are delighted to be partnering once more with TSB and announce this innovation programme at Money20/20. TSB Labs is a powerful example of how established financial institutions can partner with fintechs to deliver real impact for customers,” Nicola Anderson, chief executive of FinTech Scotland, commented.
“Thanks to our work on the topic of fraud as part of the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab, we’ll be bringing a significant amount of knowledge, expertise and connections to this programme from across the Scottish Fintech Cluster.”
The Labs three challenge statements invite creative, practical solutions:
Smart messaging and education: improving fraud detection through timely, trusted, and effective customer communication.
Empowered customer controls: making faster decisions about authorised payments by giving customers more control and clarity.
Seamless resolution: transforming fraud reporting and resolution into a streamlined, customer-centric journey.
“Fraud is constantly evolving, and so must we,” Richard Daniels, fraud and financial crime operations director at TSB, said.
“The TSB Labs programme is a brilliant opportunity for us to work shoulder-to-shoulder with innovative fintechs to find smarter, faster and more effective ways to continue protecting our customers.”
The programme offers two phases of structured engagement, culminating in a final pitch to TSB decision-makers and the opportunity to progress to pilot deployment.
Full details and the short application form can be found on FinTech Scotland’s website. Applications close on 25 June 2025.
With two-thirds of UKI CEOs firmly believing their organisations’ competitive edge will hinge on a robust generative AI strategy, businesses are shifting gears and rapidly adopting and scaling AI agents with success defined by tangible business results.
Agentic AI is revolutionising decision-making, delivering predictive insights that allow businesses to anticipate change before they lift a finger. Helping functions like HR, finance, IT and customer service automate complex tasks, gain insights and drive productivity. In a world of market fluctuations, geopolitical shifts, and evolving customer demands, AI-driven productivity is the competitive edge CEOs cannot afford to ignore.
The IBV CEO study, which surveyed 2,000 CEOS globally, revealed that 64% of UKI leaders see automation’s productivity gains as worth the significant risk to remain competitive, while 66% feel they must take more risks than rivals to stay ahead.
Additionally, 62% of leaders surveyed said they invest in technologies before fully understanding their value to avoid falling behind.
However, smart leaders are taking smart risks that involve strategic experimentation, learning, and incremental innovation to pave the way for larger bets in the future.
“As expectations around AI shift towards competitive advantage and quantifiable ROI, CEOs are embracing risk as an opportunity to drive business performance”, explained Rahul Kalia, managing partner, UK and Ireland, IBM Consulting. “AI-first mindset has gained traction as CEOs navigate disruption while driving growth.”
As AI investment is set to more than double in the next two years, businesses in the UK and Ireland are faced with the pressure of rapid transformation.
To rise to the challenge 82% of UKI executives are committed to sustaining or accelerating their efforts—yet challenges persist, with 45% encountering disconnected technology due to swift investments and 77% facing growth barriers from inconsistent standards.
However, only a quarter (25%) of AI initiatives have delivered expected ROI over the last few years and only 16% have scaled enterprise wide.
Still, just over half (52%) of CEO respondents say their organisation is realising value from generative AI investments beyond cost reduction.
Nearly a quarter of children aged 8 to 12 have used generative AI, as experts urge for regulations to take the needs of children into account.
The research and call to action comes from the Alan Turing Institute, which set out to determine how children are interacting with and being affected by AI.
The research, which was supported by the Lego Group, points out that children are most likely to be majorly affected by AI’s continued development when it comes to learning, future job prospects, and transforming technology. Yet, their needs and experiences are often not largely considered in terms of regulation outside of general online safety concerns.
The Alan Turing Institute found that 22% of children used generative AI, with the most popularly used AI tool being ChatGPT.
Teachers are aware of the issue, with teachers at private schools reporting more use of generative AI than teachers at state schools, exposing a class divide in the use of the key technology.
Parents, carers, and teachers all reported concern over the impact genAI will have on children’s critical thinking skills. While teachers tended to see a positive use case of AI for themselves as a workload aid, they are more concerned to see AI in their students’ work, unless it is used as a supporting tool for students with additional needs.
Children had concerns around how generative AI is developed and used; in particular, children had strong concerns about AI’s environmental impacts, with children wanting the environmental effects of AI to be addressed in the future.
School children also seemed concerned about AI-generated misinformation and disinformation.
Children wanted AI to be used in ways to generally benefit society while keeping children safe, and had particular enthusiasm for how the technology could benefit children with additional learning needs.
“Children’s experiences with this technology are significantly different from those of adults, so it is crucial that we listen to their perspectives to understand their particular needs and interests,” said Dr Mhairi Aitken, senior ethics fellow at the Alan Turing Institute.
“In doing so, we can mitigate the risks and enable age-appropriate generative AI tools to be developed safely to provide benefits to the young people who use it.”
The report joins a number of advocacy groups in urging the government to take children into account when making laws regulating the use and development of AI.
It also recommended AI literacy as a key part of curriculums to address issues noted by teachers such as plagiarism and bias, as well as the class divide seen in its use levels between private and public schools.
“We are determined to break down the barriers to opportunity to ensure every child growing up in our country gets a cutting-edge education – and that includes access to the best tech innovations for all,” said Early Education Minister Stephen Morgan.
“Child-centred policy making is at the heart of our mission to give every child the best start in life. This includes harnessing the power of technology to support our hard-working teachers and unlock more face time with pupils, driving high and rising education standards that set young people up to achieve and thrive.”
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The University of Glasgow is to launch a programme of support for women entrepreneurs as part of a roll-out of the UK’s first university network for female business founders.
Five universities, including Glasgow, will join the WE Innovate National network with the aim of supporting 150 women-led teams across the participating institutions each year.
The network will be based on Imperial College London’s flagship competition for women entrepreneurs, WE Innovate – a six-month programme for 25 teams led by students, recent alumni and Early Career Researchers that has successfully established dozens of new women-led startups over recent years.
The programme supports women founders through masterclasses, business coaching, one-to-one expert support, and peer mentoring, with the top five teams competing for a chance to win a share of a £30,000 prize fund.
Imperial invited the University of Glasgow to join – the only Scottish institution taking part – along with Queen’s University Belfast, Swansea University and Durham University.
The universities will work together to support the development of WE Innovate National and to adapt the programme to the specific contexts and communities in each region.
Alongside each university’s regional grand final, the WE Innovate National programme will also hold a national ‘Demo Day’ at a different university each year. This will see the winning teams from each university present to an audience of peers, investors, and industry representatives.
WE Innovate was first set up at Imperial in 2014 to address the challenges that women-led businesses often face at the earliest stages of their development, such as limited access to finance, networks, and business support.
Over the past ten years, the programme has supported over 500 women, 250 teams, and seen more than 60 startups incorporate at Imperial. These startups have collectively raised more than £40m for their ventures as a direct result of the programme.
For its part, the University of Glasgow has been working to increase its support for women entrepreneurs.
Earlier this year, a FemTech Hackathon was organised and run to encourage more women into entrepreneurship under the Scottish Government’s Pathways Forward Pledge initiative. This resulted in five new business propositions being taken forward with female founders leading the way.
Professor Mary Ryan, Imperial’s vice-provost (research and enterprise), said: “We’ve seen through WE Innovate how targeted support can accelerate the development of women-led ventures – building confidence, strengthening capability, and enabling founders to translate their ideas into real-world impact. That’s why we’re so pleased to be launching this national network.
“By collaborating with leading universities across the UK, we’re extending access to critical support structures – including mentoring, funding, and peer networks – that are proven to enhance early-stage innovation. Expanding opportunities for women in entrepreneurship is not only a matter of equity – it is essential to diversifying the innovation pipeline and driving inclusive, sustainable growth.”
Commenting on WE Innovate National, Dame Alison Rose, who led the UK Government’s Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship, said: “The significant benefits that female entrepreneurs can contribute to the UK economy from the research conducted in the Rose Review underpins the high potential of female entrepreneurship.
“Providing the right support and access to networks and financing to drive growth at all stages of their journey can unlock and accelerate progress. The WE Innovate initiative is a great example of the collaboration and support that is so vital for developing successful entrepreneurs.”
Uzma Khan, vice-principal for Economic Development and Innovation, and deputy chief operating officer at the University of Glasgow, said: “The University is passionate about supporting all students and graduates who have aspirations of starting their own ventures. We equally recognise the importance of ensuring that women founders are given every opportunity to develop successful businesses.
“We are therefore delighted to be asked to participate in the WE Innovate National rollout as a way of supporting women entrepreneurs to establish, grow and scale their ideas into successful businesses.”
Organisations are embracing technology solutions to mitigate growing third-party risks, research from Gartner says.
The increase in trade volatility, persistent cyber-attacks, new regulatory requirements, and supply chain disruptions, are rapidly advancing the adoption of third-party risk management (TPRM) technology solutions, the business and technology analysis firm said.
“Regulators and stakeholders are certainly paying attention; they are interested in how organizations are effectively managing their third-party risk activities,” said Antonia Donaldson, director analyst in Gartner’s Assurance Practice.
“Many organisations, particularly multinationals, are experiencing an exponential increase in the number of third parties they rely on in order to conduct their business around the world.”
The intersection creates a perfect storm and heightens third-party risk. Organisations seek to surface, escalate, and mitigate third-party risk by leveraging the latest TPRM technology solutions.
“Deploying TPRM technology is not a magic solution, but in an increasingly complex business landscape TPRM platforms allow organisations to better mitigate the inherent risks while continuously monitoring their third and fourth parties,” said Donaldson.
“With a large number of vendors in the TPRM technology market and the lack of a one-size-fits-all solution, the market is in the early stages of maturity with future consolidation quite possible,” said Donaldson.
“Many large enterprises use two or more technology solutions with distinct TPRM capabilities, which multiple business functions then leverage.”
Organisations are finding that a siloed approach to third-party management across disparate functions doesn’t tend to work well. Many multinationals are formalising third-party oversight and governance, then leverage TPRM technology solutions to surface risks more rapidly.
To address this need, many TPRM technology providers continue to invest in integrated cross-functional risk-management capabilities, allowing clients and customers to manage their third-party risk domains across multiple business functions and numerous stakeholders.
“Many vendors are incorporating machine learning and AI to support automated assessment and analysis; this allows companies to better evaluate and respond to third-party risks,” said Donaldson.
“With appropriate disclosures and human review, embedded AI will be a competitive differentiator – managing and making sense out of large volumes of TPRM data is resource intensive.”
A robust TPRM platform should enable seamless flow of risk information across all relevant functions and users, thereby enhancing the organisation’s visibility into potential these risks. When selecting a TPRM solutions, adaptability and scalability are key.
Organisations should ensure that the chosen platform can meet both immediate and future programme needs. It is crucial to establish a ‘must-have’ list of capabilities before engaging with vendors to streamline the selection process.
“When evaluating licensing options, companies should look beyond cost considerations,” said Donaldson.
“It is important to assess both short-term and long-term implementation and integration requirements, including APIs, to ensure the chosen TPRM solution aligns with the organisation’s risk priorities and strategic objectives.
“By taking these essential steps, organisations can effectively manage third-party risks.”
With the switch from analogue to digital landlines being rolled out across the country, the UK government has urged users of telecare alarms to contact their providers for assistance during the switchover.
Users of telecare alarms, typically the disabled and elderly, can contact telecoms companies for additional free support as the UK continues to switch from copper to digital landlines.
The campaign, funded by BT and Virgin Media and backed by the UK government, has launched, urging millions of telecare users and their support networks to identify themselves so nobody gets overlooked.
Landline companies will send an engineer to carry out the switchover and personally test the telecare alarm, ensuring it continues to work once a household has moved onto the digital network.
Providers will also offer vulnerable customers a free battery back-up device so their landline can continue working in an outage.
Many local authorities and private telecare operators have already signed data sharing agreements with landline providers to ensure that as many telecare users have been identified as possible.
With over two thirds of landlines already migrated, the campaign is the final layer of protection to identify any additional users.
“We cannot afford to leave anyone behind during the vital transition to digital landlines,” telecoms minister Sir Christ Bryant said.
“I have personally set a strict checklist of safeguards for industry to comply with before they migrate any telecare user.
“This industry-led campaign marks a further step towards keeping people safe as we boost the resilience of our networks for the digital age.
“I urge anyone with a telecare alarm – or anyone close to a user of a telecare alarm – to pick up the phone and contact their provider to access the help that’s available.”
Elizabeth Anderson, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance, commented: “The move to digital landlines is a critical moment that risks widening the digital divide if the right support isn’t in place.
“Millions of vulnerable people rely on telecare alarms connected to their landlines, many of whom already face barriers to digital access, affordability or confidence.
“Without proactive action, this transition could leave those most in need disconnected from lifesaving services. This includes family members and frontline workers in public and charity services who require more detailed information to help them support vulnerable people.
“It is vital that telecoms providers, government and wider support networks work together to ensure everyone has the support they need and that no one is left behind in the UK’s shift to digital.”
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In partnership with the University of Stirling, Jisc has launched the Innovation Hub – a facility to support the advancement of digital technologies across Scotland’s post-16 education sector.
The innovation hub aims to provide a dedicated space for educators, researchers, and technology specialists to explore emerging tools and practices that are reshaping teaching, learning, and institutional operations.
The University of Stirling, selected for its central location and strong existing partnership with Jisc, a not-for-profit organisation providing digital technology and assistance for UK higher education, has provided space for the hub.
“Technology is transforming the way we teach, learn and collaborate – and the Jisc Innovation Hub ensures that Scotland’s tertiary education institutions are equipped to lead that transformation,” Jason Miles-Campbell, director for Scotland and Northern Ireland at Jisc, said.
“The partnership with the University of Stirling represents a shared vision to drive innovation, build digital capability, and connect institutions across the country with the latest in educational technology.”
Since its soft launch in October 2024, the hub has hosted a series of events, including meetings with the Scottish Moodle Users Group and HEIDS (Higher Education IT Directors Scotland).
The facility has been supported through SFC funding and the plan is for it to evolve with new technologies. In the coming year, Jisc aims to host 12 institutional visits and 12 sector wide group visits, each offering tailored sessions on best practice, innovation priorities, and practical integration of digital tools.
The Innovation Hub is open to Scottish tertiary institutions and sector agencies looking to explore new technologies, improve digital strategies, and collaborate on the future of education.
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British businesses fear hackers could completely wipe them out following the devastating cyber-attack on Marks & Spencer, a survey has found.
Two thirds of security leaders at medium and large sized companies in the UK admit an assault on a similar scale could ‘cripple’ their organisation.
Experts have warned the financial damage from ransom demands and clean up costs can often cost millions of pounds – enough to jeopardise some firms’ futures.
The poll by Absolute Security was carried out just weeks after M&S was hit over the Easter holidays, costing the retailer £300m and shaving £1bn off its market value. The company polled 250 UK security chiefs through a survey conducted by Censuswide.
M&S boss Stuart Machin recently admitted the attack – caused by ‘human error’ – had been “the most challenging situation we’ve encountered.”
Security leaders revealed staff still working from home remained a major problem, with 62% revealing remote devices were the ‘biggest weakness’ in their digital defences.
Over half – 51% – of the businesses polled had been hit by a ransomware attack in the past year, with 59% citing it as their biggest concern.
The consequences of such an attack are profound, with 63% of the 250 security leaders polled in May revealing the financial loss from ransomware could cripple their organisation.
In response to these growing risks, over a third (34%) have implemented full bans on AI due to cybersecurity concerns, while 30% of CISOs say they’ve already pulled the plug on AI tools within their organisation.
“Recent high-profile cyber attacks have highlighted just how vulnerable major British retailers-and indeed many UK businesses-have become,” Andy Ward, SVP international of Absolute Security said.
“Cyber-criminals now have the capacity to severely disrupt, or even dismantle, organisations at scale.
“Our research reveals that many large and medium-sized UK businesses believe that a serious cyber incident could cripple their operations or threaten their very survival.”
Vodafone and Three UK have completed their mega merger, amounting to £15 billion, creating a new telecoms force in the UK.
The merger was completed on 31 May, with the nearly two-year process resulting in the creation of the UK’s biggest mobile phone network.
With 27 million customers, VodafoneThree got approval from the Competition and Markets Authority in December last year, following close scrutiny from the regulatory watchdog.
The CMA was concerned that the merger would reduce consumer options in the mobile ecosystem, potentially leading to higher costs.
In the merger, Vodafone will take a 51% stake in the company, with the remainder going to Three UK. Following three years of the merger, Vodafone will have the option to buy the business outright.
As part of its ambitions, the group is aiming to reduce costs by £700m annually within its first five years.
As part of its conditional approval from the CMA, VodafoneThree had pledged to invest £11bn to help boost 5G capabilities across the nation over the next three years, with £1.3bn of this to be spent in the business’s first financial year.
The CMA also ensured that VodafoneThree will offer some short-term consumer protections, such as capping mobile tariffs, for three years.
“The merger will create a new force in UK mobile, transform the country’s digital infrastructure and propel the UK to the forefront of European connectivity,” Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group CEO, said.
“We are now eager to kick-off our network build and rapidly bring customers greater coverage and superior network quality. The transaction completes the reshaping of Vodafone in Europe, and following this period of transition we are now well-positioned for growth ahead.”
Canning Fok, deputy chairman of CK Hutchison, Three UK’s parent company, said: “As we have demonstrated in other European markets, scale enables the significant investment needed to deliver the world-beating mobile networks our customers expect, and the Vodafone and Three merger provides that scale.
“In addition, this transaction unlocks significant shareholder value, returning approximately £1.3 billion in net cash to the Group.”
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Cybersecurity leaders are turning to AI and automation to reduce costs as a top priority, new research from Wipo shows.
The technology services consulting company released its State of Cybersecurity Report 2025, which surveyed over 100 global cybersecurity leaders and consultants and found that AI-driven automation and cost optimisation were among the main cybersecurity priorities for organisations.
In fact, nearly a third (30%) of respondents state that investing in AI automation to bolster cybersecurity operations and reduce costs is a key priority in 2025.
Other strategies used by CISOs to optimise costs include tools rationalisation (26%), security and risk management process optimisation (23%), and operating model simplification (20%).
The report also highlights the growing role of AI in managing cyber threats and how investing in advanced AI-driven security solutions, continuously monitoring AI developments, and fostering a culture of innovation and adaptation within cybersecurity teams can play a significant role in risk management.
Many CISOs are leveraging AI to improve threats is only topped by implementing Zero Trust security frameworks, which is a top investment priority for 97% of survey respondents.
“Cybersecurity budgets are struggling to keep pace with the growing sophistication of cyber threats,” said Tony Buffomante, SVP & global head of Cybersecurity & Risk Services, Wipro Limited.
“AI offers a solution by helping organisations strengthen defences while optimising costs. This allows CISOs to adopt a more outcome-driven focus by prioritizing risk-adjusted returns on investments.”
The report also suggests that CISOs must work with their peers to implement the necessary data governance to leverage AI for cyber resilience across the organisation, as well as setting up a comprehensive cybersecurity training programme for all employees.
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Interest in data sovereignty among UK IT leaders has surged since the implementation of the US’s raft of tariffs in April, research from Civo shows.
More than 60% now feel that the UK government’s use of US cloud services exposes the country’s digital economy to significant risks, damages its domestic industry, and threatens data security.
The survey received responses from over 1000 UK-based IT leaders, and painted a picture of an industry seriously rethinking fundamental business priorities, particularly with regard to reliance on US providers.
Three in five (60%) of those surveyed now feel that data sovereignty is a strategic priority for their organisations. Nearly half of those surveyed (45%) are already actively considering repatriating from the cloud, and 40% say that transparency and greater compliance with EU and UK data protection regulations would make them more likely to move away from US providers.
This trend isn’t limited to the cloud either, the research found. After a period of rapid AI adoption, many organisations are assessing how this is impacting their data strategy.
Over two-thirds of respondents said they’d only agree to use AI if they had absolute certainty that they owned all inputs and outputs – a level of visibility and control not offered by the majority of the largest providers.
This tallies with what appears to be a broader erosion of trust in the largest providers, with only 36.6% saying they trust Big Tech AI providers to handle their data.
The research revealed that after market reputation, data sovereignty now ranks as the second most prominent factor encouraging businesses to move away from Big Tech AI services, ahead of price, breadth of services, and team experience. Data sovereignty is shifting from an additional selling point to a business-critical necessity.
“These results will be no surprise to anyone with their ear to the ground in the industry. People are more alert than ever to just how valuable their data is, and it’s been astonishing how quickly cloud repatriation and sovereignty have become leading strategic considerations for IT leaders,” said Mark Boost, CEO of Civo. “The market is crying out for greater visibility over where data is stored, used, and transferred, and at present, U.S. providers are failing to meet that demand.
“For our public institutions, the message couldn’t be clearer. Legislation like the CLOUD Act means that at any time, providers based in the U.S. may have to share users’ data, regardless of where in the world that user is based or where their data is stored.
“This prevents U.S providers from offering users full control, and when it comes to government data, anything less than full sovereignty represents a significant risk. It’s time for the UK to match the energy of European sovereignty initiatives like EuroStack to help reduce reliance on hyperscale providers whilst still encouraging transatlantic collaboration.”
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The first quarter of 2025 saw major surges in data breaches, phishing attempts, and browser scams, as well as the rise of financial fraud and crypto scams, new reports from Gen found.
Gen, the owner behind Norton, Avast, LifeLock, MoneyLion, and more, released its Gen Threat Report, highlighting the most significant shifts shaping the global Cyber Safety landscape observed between January and March 2025.
Key report findings include a 186% surge in breached personal information, a 466% increase in phishing reports, growth in fake browser update scams by 17 times the previous quarter’s levels, and more than four million people protected from Scan-Yourself attacks. The report also documented the rise of mobile financial fraud and crypto-related US presidential inauguration scams.
“Online threats are evolving at a startling pace,” said Siggi Stefnisson, Cyber Safety CTO at Gen. “Attackers are moving away from broad, indiscriminate campaigns to highly personalised, AI-enhanced deception.
“Breached data and AI tools are giving cyber-criminals just enough personal information and design sophistication to more easily manipulate people. That’s why we constantly evolve our cybersecurity solutions to be an interactive partner in fighting scams and to be one step ahead of cyber-criminals.”
Data Breaches Escalate
Data breaches are on the rise, with a 36% increase in the number of breaches faced by companies compared to the last quarter. Individual breached records surged by more than 186%, revealing sensitive information such as passwords, emails, and credit card details.
Attackers employed more advanced infostealers like Lumma Stealer, making data compromised faster and harder to detect.
Phishing Scams
Reports of phishing scams rose by a staggering 466% compared to the previous quarter, now making up nearly 32% of all scam submissions to the Norton Genie scam detector.
According to the Norton Genie scam detector platform, phishing is the fastest-growing threat, second only to generic scams, which accounted for 51% of reports.
The good news, Gen noted, is that people are becoming more wary of potential phishing scams and reporting these messages.
Telemetry data reveals a growing number of phishing campaigns that abuse dynamic DNS services and subdomain providers, as well as free website builders to create deceptive login pages.
This means, that by mimicking legitimate login portals and leveraging trusted domains – like recent scams targeting login portals and leveraging trusted domains like recent scams targeting AT&T, Telstra and Xfinity customers—attackers make phishing attempts harder to detect and more likely to succeed.
Many of these campaigns create a sense of urgency for potential victims through emails claiming account issues or prompting people to review sensitive documents. Despite sometimes being poorly written, the use of familiar platforms and subdomain tricks allows these scams to bypass security filters and remain highly effective.
Gen said it helped protect over 4 million users from Scam-Yourself attacks in which individuals, through sophisticated deception, are manipulated into infecting their own devices. In one of the most striking evolutions of this type of scam that Gen observed this quarter, attackers are using AI-generated personas, deepfake influencers and hired actors.
They use these personas to deliver their malicious campaigns. This is primarily done through compromised YouTube accounts, leveraging interactive FakeCAPTCHAs and asking people to verify they are human but instead guiding them to give device permissions or download malware.
Fake Update Scams grew to over 17 times last quarter’s level. This type of Scam-Yourself Attack tricks people into installing malware under the guise of browser updates.
Financial Threats on Mobile and Crypto
Mobile financial threats continued to rise, fueled by increasingly sophisticated tactics that target people directly through their smartphones. Malware, like banking trojans, now exploit accessibility features to overlay fake login pages, stealing sensitive data such as crypto wallet credentials. Combined with an uptick in credit and transaction fraud alerts, there’s a growing trend of attackers focusing on mobile devices as gateways to people’s financial lives.
Digital currencies continue to be a target for financial threats. CryptoCore executed one of its most successful campaigns in early 2025, hinging on the US presidential inauguration. Attackers leveraged deepfake videos of public figures spread through compromised YouTube accounts to steal close to $4 million spread through more than 2,000 transactions.
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Google is facing a fresh UK lawsuit claiming £25 billon in damages over alleged abuse of its market dominance in online search advertising.
The lawsuit follows other legal challenges the tech giant faced when it comes to online search advertising, including in the UK, EU, and US.
The lawsuit alleges that Google is abusing its market dominance through its deals with mobile device manufacturers, such as Apple, to make it the default search engine.
This, the lawsuit claims, has lead to inflated prices for UK advertisers, affecting around 500,000 to 1.5 million advertisers based in the UK.
Lead by Roger Kaye KC, a former deputy High Court judge, the claim aims to win compensation for those who paid the tech giant for search advertising from 2011, which could reach £25 billion.
The lawsuit hinges on the fact that Google has agreements with device manufacturers ensuring that it is the default search engine on devices and networks, enabling it to dominate the search engine market and therefore, charge higher prices on adverts.
In the US, Google is facing similar allegations over its search engine advertisement dominance, with a US judge ruling that it held a monopoly in the search market.
Currently, Google is facing pressure and even a potential order from the Department of Justice to break up its digital offerings and sell its browser, Chrome.
A Google spokesperson called the UK lawsuit “meritless,” saying that “Consumers and advertisers use Google because it’s helpful, not because there are no alternatives.”
Mr Kaye, the leading lawyer of the lawsuit, however, said: “This case marks a significant step in re-establishing a fair and competitive landscape for all advertisers.
“Monopolising the advertising space to the point of abuse cannot continue.”
A similar lawsuit using the same basis as a claim has been launched as a class action in the UK, representing consumers that may have suffered from increase prices in advertising.
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A Special Interest Group (SIG) aimed at positioning Scotland to the fore in wearable ultrasound was launched this week, bringing industrial and academic partners together to explore advancement in wearable ultrasound technology.
This singular segment of a global wearables technology has a market valued in the region of £150 billion.
With a remit to foster innovation, influence policy, and drive commercialisation, the collaboration will encompass ultrasonic sensors and systems, product design, software, electronics, medical devices, and regulatory frameworks.
Spearheaded by ultrasound sensor tech firm novosound and chaired by the company’s CEO Dr Dave Hughes, the working group includes Technology Scotland and the University of Glasgow, and leading figures in the sector including Dr Helen Mulvana, VP of Medical Ultrasonics at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and Stuart Corr, Director of Innovation Engineering at Houston Methodist, one of the USA’s leading health systems and academic medical centres.
The Scottish Government’s Business Minister Richard Lochhead attended yesterday’s inaugural meeting at novosound’s Glasgow headquarters.
Dave Hughes, novosound CEO and founder, said: “We want to help build on Scotland’s tradition as an ultrasound pioneer and our own growing reputation in wearable ultrasound.
“The market opportunity for innovative companies like ours is massive and we don’t want to see Scotland miss the boat. When you factor in the research and postgraduate talent coming out of our universities, we think Scotland can become a hotbed for innovation and commercialisation in the sector.”
Business Minister Richard Lochhead said:“Scottish businesses have many unique strengths, skills and expertise to be pioneers in innovative industries and technologies such as wearable tech – estimated to be worth an incredible £150 billion globally. As set out in Scotland’s Innovation Strategy, the Scottish Government is committed to helping harness and capitalise on this enormous economic opportunity.”
“Novosound is an excellent example of how Scotland can be at the forefront of the wearable ultrasound revolution and I was delighted to visit its headquarters to take part in the launch of the first Special Interest Group on the topic. I look forward to hearing how this group develops and trust that it will help to encourage yet more Scottish manufacturing excellence.”
Novosound’s Slanj platform is undertaking trials with partners at a number of tech groups in Europe and North America this year, with a view to the company’s ultrasound blood pressure monitoring technology being miniaturised for the smartwatch market.
Hypertension, better known as high blood pressure, is a leading cause of death estimated to be responsible for more than 1 in every 10 deaths worldwide every year, more than any other risk factor, and novosound’s wearable ultrasound technology could provide a breakthrough when installed in smartwatches.
As novosound continues to scale, the company is actively recruiting for several key positions, including a Chief Medical Officer and a Corporate Development & Licensing Executive, as it advances clinical trials and deepens its presence in the digital health and medical device sectors.
Novosound is also a sponsor at Fusion Fest, the headline event at Glasgow Tech Week this week, where the company will be demonstrating its Slanj blood pressure monitoring technology.
The UK government is upgrading over 50 existing masts across Scotland, England, and Wales including in the UK’s most renowned natural parks.
The mast sites, initially only used to connect EE customers and those calling 999, have now been upgraded to provide coverage from all mobile network operators.
In Scotland, 13 mobile masts will be upgraded in some of the nation’s most rural regions, including Argyll and Bute, Ayrshire, and the South of Scotland – including parts of the Southern Upland Way.
The UK-wide mast upgrades will cover a footprint equivalent to the size of 66,470 football pitches, and over half of them are providing new coverage to areas of outstanding natural beauty or national parks.
The upgrades will benefit thousands of local residents and many more visiting the surrounding areas, bringing fast and reliable 4G networks to remote communities previously plagued by poor signal.
The rollout is part of the Shared Rural Network programme led by the UK Government and mobile network operators to improve connectivity in rural communities across Britain.
“The growth potential of our areas of outstanding natural beauty must not be stunted by patchy internet,” telecoms minister Sir Chris Bryant said.
“This milestone is a major step forward for better connectivity for all corners of the UK meaning everyone can reap the benefits of the digital age. From boosting tourism and business opportunities to providing safer outdoors experiences for visitors to our treasured countryside.”
The enhanced connectivity will bring numerous benefits to Scottish communities, from supporting local tourism and business opportunities to enabling more flexible working arrangements and improving access to essential online services.
“This significant mobile connectivity boost, funded by the UK Government, will help people in some of Scotland’s most rural communities,” Scottish secretary Ian Murray said.
“It will support local businesses, and improve access and safety for residents and visitors alike. Improving digital connectivity – including in our most remote communities – is a key part of the UK Government’s Plan for Change – it is vital to delivering jobs and economic growth.
“And upgrading existing masts rather than building new ones, there will be minimal environmental impact in what are some of Scotland’s most scenic areas.”
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The European Commission has launched an investigation into four adult websites over their alleged failings in prohibiting children from seeing pornographic content.
The EU regulatory body is investigating Pornhub, Stripchat, XnXX and XVideos over alleged failures in their age verification and restriction measures.
The commission alleges that these sites’ age verification measures are ineffective and employ a simple ‘click away’ method that minors can easily bypass, without proper age verification.
The investigation will be open under the Digital Services Act, an EU law that has specific stipulations to protect children from harmful or inappropriate content, calling on large platforms to introduce age verification checks.
The Commission’s initial investigations found that the four platforms failed to establish “appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security for minors.”
The porn platforms are employing an ineffective method of turning minors away by simply asking if users are over 18 without introducing tools or methods to verify this information, the investigation found.
The platforms also failed to issue any risk assessments and ways to mitigate “any negative effects on the rights of the child, the mental and physical well-being of users,” the EU Commission said.
“Today is a good day for minor protection online in the EU, because with the enforcement actions that we are launching … against four very large online platforms with pornographic, adult content, we are clearly showing that we mean it when it comes to the effective protection of minors under the DSA,” an EU official said to reporters.
The investigation has no fixed timetable for completion. The UK is also ramping up investigations into porn sites, with Ofcom investigating two different sites over allegations that they are not protecting children.
Pornhub, the largest porn platform in the world, and the 19th most visited site on the internet, according to Similarweb, is facing increasing scrutiny over its age verification and potential harm to consumers.
The site opted to block access in 16 US states after refusing to comply with laws requiring porn sites to verify user ages.
Adidas has confirmed that it has been targeted by a cyber-attack, with some customer data stolen as part of the incident.
The sportswear giant said that “an unauthorised external party obtained certain consumer data through a third-party customer service provider,” in a statement on its website.
According to the company, compromised data does not include passwords, credit card or other payment details.
It does, however, include contact information relating to customers that have previously contacted the Adidas customer service help desk.
The firm says they are in the process of informing customers that have been potentially affected by the cyber-attack, as well as “appropriate data protection and law enforcement authorities consistent with applicable law.”
It is currently uncertain how much data or how many consumers may have been potentially affected by the data theft.
“We immediately took steps to contain the incident and launched a comprehensive investigation, collaborating with leading information security experts,” Adidas said.
The attack follows a torrent of cyber-attacks aimed at the UK retail sector, with M&S, Co-op, and Harrods suffering impact in their operations.
Earlier in May, Adidas shared that data breaches impacted customers who contacted their customer service centre in South Korea and Turkey in 2024. This attack resulted in the theft of data ranging from names, emails, phone numbers, addresses, and dates of birth.
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The UK Border Force is aiming to expand its use of AI to enhance the searching and screening of freight at UK seaports.
The agency is seeking to automate the detection of anomalies in x-ray images, as manual analysis is both time-consuming and prone to error. AI systems could be employed to better balance security with the smooth movement of legitimate goods, the Border Post hopes.
AI-driven automation may not only speed up screening times but also increase the volume of goods processed. Additionally, it could free up officers to focus on critical tasks, reduce false alarms and minimise unnecessary secondary inspections.
For these ambitions, Border Force turning to the Accelerated Capability Environment (ACE) for support in organising and analysing its extensive x-ray image database, which had previously been stored inconsistently across multiple data structures.
ACE was initially tasked with creating a fully indexed and standardised repository of x-ray images and associated data – making it easily accessible to analysts and suitable for AI algorithm development.
Six ACE suppliers – Faculty, Leonardo, Ploygeist, Roke, Symetrica, and Zaizi – collaborated to explore AI and machine-learning methodologies for anomaly detection. Using the newly indexed data, they developed three use cases: vector integrity, pattern recognition and high-density material detection.
These were presented to Border Force at a demonstration day, where the solutions were then taken forward for trials in a controlled operational environment.
Following an analysis of Border Force’s data, systems and applications, which saw their date consolidated into a unified structured format, trials were conducted with Border Force staff across multiple ports to evaluate the AI anomaly detection system.
The success of these commissions has led to a request for further development, forming the foundation of a business case for wider AI implementation across Border Force operations.
Financial services organisations see AI as the key to increase competitiveness and improve customer experience, but face barriers around data management and skills, research released by SS&C Blue Prism has revealed.
Surveying 377 business leaders in the financial services sector, the research found that 94% of organisations believe that innovative AI is core to their entire business operations. The adoption of AI has been rapid in the financial services sector, with 87% actively deploying new AI technologies.
Agentic AI, the emerging technology where AI can make decisions and conduct activities autonomously, is a high priority for the financial services sector. Three quarters (76%) of organizations surveyed plan to implement agentic AI within 12 months, but challenges remain.
Despite rapid adoption of AI throughout financial services, 38% said they do not have accurate and consistent data in their organisation and 37% do not have robust and efficient ways of moving data within their organisation.
Breaking down data silos within an organization and creating consistent and accurate data is a major barrier to successfully deploy next generation AI. Additionally, 31% of organisations admitted they don’t have strong governance in place to make sure data is secure, private, and managed with the appropriate consents.
Data is not the only barrier to next generation AI success for financial organizations, finding the right skills and adopting to a more dynamic approach to innovation represent significant challenges.
More than a third (36%) of financial services organisations say they lack the appropriate skills or technical expertise, 35% are concerned about extensive changes around employee training and management, and 33% are facing hurdles with technical integrations.
“AI has such high potential for financial services and the race is clearly on. But it’s absolutely vital that organisations have the right foundations in place, rather than rushing in to deploy AI technologies,” Rob Paisley, senior director at SS&C Blue Prism, commented.
“Organisations will need a development team and tech stack they can trust to keep up with the pace of innovation in AI. It’s a big mindset shift for financial organisations, going from cycles of upgrading their software once a year, to potentially twice daily. This team is also vital to ensuring there are processes and systems for ensuring data is consistent, reliable and can be moved securely throughout the organization to eliminate data silos.
“Technology can be part of the solution to this challenge, especially when it comes to testing new tech rollouts. An enterprise AI approach, combining technologies including robotic process automation, machine learning, natural language processing and Generative AI, with practices such as task mining and process orchestration, to help organisations become truly AI ready.”
With the potential to speed up processing times, create new experiences and 24.7 support capabilities, customer experience is the area most (53%) business leaders believe AI will have the biggest impact.
Compliance also ranked highly, with 49% saying the greatest potential for AI is to streamline know your customer and anti-money laundering checks, sanctions screening and regulatory reporting. Increasing business efficiency (46%) and productivity (45%) were listed as the other top uses for AI.
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Running a small business in 2024 wasn’t easy as rising costs, hiring struggles, and a squeeze on consumer spending compounding difficulties. However, the rise of AI and the increasing threat of cyber-attacks have complicated the already turbulent headwinds of navigating a small business.
Bionic, a provider of comparison services for SMEs, surveyed 500 UK-based SMEs to understand the impacts of cybersecurity threats and AI technologies are having on small firms across industries in 2025.
More than half of businesses have increased spending on their cybersecurity and protection in the past year, 45.5% only slightly, with 8% saying they increased investment significantly.
Still, nearly half (42.4%) have not increased investment in their cyber posture in the past year.
This is despite 80% of the businesses said they weren’t targeted by a cyber-attack in 2024.
“In contrast to our research, the UK government statistics show 50% of businesses reported some kind of cyber-attack in 2024, with the most common being basic phishing attacks,” Laura Court-Jones, small business editor for Bionic, said.
“This could indicate there is a lack of awareness around the types of cyberattacks small businesses could face. Something as simple as a malicious link in a phishing email could easily go missed by many. And with cyber-attacks becoming increasingly common, and SMEs as easy targets, business owners should educate themselves and their employees on what to look out for to keep their business safe.”
When it comes to sectors, the IT and communications industry said they increased their cybersecurity the most (10% significantly, 52% slightly).
Health and social care and the transport and logistics industries also reported high amounts of increased cybersecurity spending, the survey found.
When it comes to AI integration, 74% of SMEs said they would incorporate AI into their business function to some extent during 2025. Only about a fifth (19.2%) said they were “not at all likely” to incorporate AI.
SMEs did share a range of concerns when it came to integrating AI, however, with about a quarter (24.8%) saying they were worried about inaccuracy, over a fifth (22.8%) showing concerns about knowledge gaps in the workforce, and a fifth (19.8%) worried about a lack of regulation.
Others were worried about AI being too expensive (10.8%), not finding the space for AI in their business (8.8%), job replacement (8.6%), and damaging relationships with customers (4.4%).
“Privacy and security could also be an issue, as handling customer data through AI could increase the risk of breaches or misuse. Some business owners may fear that AI could reduce the personal touch that sets their business apart, especially in customer service,” Les Roberts, Senior Content Manager, Bionic
“There may even be a simple resistance to change – adopting new technologies can be intimidating, particularly if the current processes are working well enough. These factors combined can make small business owners hesitant to embrace AI despite its potential benefits.”
From hyper-scalers to startups, third-party suppliers are now integral to the global business ecosystem – but as they multiply and entrench, the inevitable software sprawl expands the attack surface organisations must defend.
Third party risk management is of growing importance to cyber leaders and organisational boards as supply chain complexity expands.
With the vast majority (93%)of firms relying on third-party services to deliver their core value propositions, ensuring these vendors are secure is of increasing importance.
Companies no longer work with just third parties, but fourth, fifth, and sixth, all bringing their own cyber vulnerabilities and risks.
Beyond this, a recent cybersecurity report from EY shows that risk management programmes are managing more and more third parties. The research claims that programs under three years old manage a median of 275 third parties, while older ones manage a median of 80.
The report found that these numbers are expanding: in just the past year, the number of third parties being leveraged increased by an average of 20% across all types of organisations.
High-profile third-party risk cases, namely the Crowdstrike outage that interrupted Microsoft systems relied upon by major airlines and other industries, brought these risks to the forefront.
As businesses continue to scramble to integrate the latest tech and scale their operations, the problem isn’t going to go away any time soon.
So what can be done?
To answer that, DIGIT spoke with Kapish Vanvaria, EY’s Global and Americas Risk Consulting Leader, to get a better understanding of third party vulnerabilities and how to manage them.
A Sign of the Times
The supply chain is getting more complicated, but this is just a symptom of a transforming world, Vanvaria said.
“Technology is moving so fast and organisations are always under pressure to grow and provide shareholder value,” Vanvaria said.
“There’s a natural reliance on others, a strength in numbers to be successful.”
But as the number of vendors and supply chain partners increase, this strength can turn into risky business if the proper protocols are not taken into account.
Third parties are not just valuable assets, but are often unavoidable as organisations pivot their digital transformation priorities, create new products or expand into new markets.
These suppliers are not necessarily worse at cybersecurity.
“All those organisations are likely fantastic on their own,” Vanvaria said of third party suppliers. “In silos, they’re all excellent.”
This is where operational resilience comes into play, as managing this complex ecosystem, which increases risk by default, is where true resilience can be built.
“Its not just monitoring third parties, but understanding your concentration of risk when they’re all combined,” Vanvaria said.
Understanding the underlying supply chain associated with each third party, their relationship with each other, and how wider influences – geopolitical tensions, economic turbulence – may affect them, is vital in making education risk decisions.
But this complexity does make third party auditing more complicated – what once was a “manual exercise” is now a complicated balancing act of various data points, a deep understanding of global supply chain stability, and the financial stability of the company.
“To do that level of depth of assessment on a human basis using legacy technology is very difficult, because not only are you dealing with that volume of information, but it is very hard to decipher.”
The Five Resiliencies
Adding onto this complexity for organisations to manage themselves and audit others, are the five types of resiliency Vanvaria categorised.
First is technology resiliency, which would include having the right tech and tools to maintain a high level of security to prevent attacks.
Operational resiliency is where things collide – security silos can be deadly, communication between departments becomes key, and an indepth understanding of the interplay between different third-parties is vital.
Human capital resilience is related to the skills gap and talent crisis, being able to attract and retain the right people, a growing issue as the cyber skills gap only grows as attacks increase in sophistication.
Supply chain resiliency can be tied into economic stresses, economic strain and global recessions.
This ties in closely with geopolitical resiliency as tensions rise, but also as regulations change in different markets.
Juggling all of these is vital in assessing an organisation’s overall resilience, as well as its cybersecurity posture.
With all of these compounding factors, what can risk managers do differently to not succumb to these third party vulnerabilities?
Designing Your Operational Resilience
Get Managers Involved Early
First of all, risk managers should be brought into the process earlier.
Most organisations are very familiar with the second and third lines of defence – compliance risks and exhaust functions – but few industries employ a first line of defence unless mandated to.
Relegating a risk manager to the second or third lines of defence – after a third-party is signed on or after a new technology is adopted – can lead to a disconnect or a function of “pumping the brakes” on vital innovation.
“Right now, the risk manager should be the first line of defence in line with business stakeholders. They shouldn’t be brakes to slow the car down, but brakes to allow organisations to go faster, and help them turn corners safely,” Vanvaria said.
Once risk managers are brought in earlier, then they can take the reigns.
Unconstrained Thinking
Vanvaria encourages “unconstrainted thinking” to design an ideal third party valuation programme.
“If you could design that third party valuation programme of that vendor or your organisation with no limitations, no politics, no system limitations, no technology limitations, what would that be?”
Thinking ideally and without limitations can allow organisations to reevaluate existing systems to align them with company values, and can then be worked with with limitations.
“Do not shy away from redesigning your third party risk programme to account for the dynamic nature of risks changing,” Vanvaria said, harkening back to the five resilience categories he mentioned.
“Traditional third-party risk frameworks were built for a static world, but today’s threat landscape shifts with unprecedented velocity — from overnight regulatory changes to geopolitical tensions that can instantly transform a trusted vendor into a compliance liability.
“Organisations must move beyond annual risk assessments in favour of continuous, quarterly evaluations that capture emerging risks such as supply chain nationalism, regulatory arbitrage, and cascading cyber threats. The most resilient companies build agility into their risk architecture, treating third-party management as a dynamic capability rather than a compliance checkbox.”
Part of this redesign should be to leverage new technologies, particularly AI, as part of the third party auditing process.
“You can leverage AI technology to do these evaluations and come back with a much stronger point of view,” Vanvaria said.
Using advanced technologies and AI systems to help audit third parties across not just their security posture, but their financial reports and other signs of company health, can help organisations make a more calculated risk decision.
“The future of third-party risk management lies in shifting from reactive compliance to predictive intelligence — where AI doesn’t just automate processes but reimagines how risk is identified and assessed,” Vanvaria said.
“Organisations should use machine learning to synthesize vast datasets — from financial performance and cyber ratings to ESG metrics and geopolitical indicators — creating a real-time intelligence layer that surfaces threats before they materialize.
“The competitive edge belongs to firms that can transform their third-party ecosystems from cost centers into strategic intelligence networks.”
AI tools can help organisations make educated decisions around organisational risks ranging across the five resilience types Vanvaria mentioned.
While it is impossible to take no risk, this can give organisations a better overall understanding when forming relationships with third parties.
These technologies can also allow risk managers to focus on another key part of mitigating vulnerabilities, which is building stronger relationships with partners.
Strengthen Relationships Through Communication
Vanaria said the companies that weathered Covid most effectively were those with strong vertical integration – either owning their entire supply chain or maintaining tightly controlled relationships with third parties and partners.
While this is not necessarily possible for many organisations, there’s insights to be extrapolated.
Having closer relationships with third-parties can be vital in reducing risk, understanding their inherent vulnerabilities, and mitigating these threats from the start.
As Gartner pointed out, communication is now a major factor in third-party relationship management.
Vanvaira wants organisations to take this a step further, however, and talk to each other.
Plugging into a peer network to discuss current events, geopolitical tensions, and different organisational structures can be key in nurturing a more unconstrained viewpoint in operational resiliency.
“In today’s evolving third-party risk landscape, isolation is a strategic vulnerability,” Vanvaria said.
“The most effective risk leaders actively participate in industry roundtables and peer networks to stay ahead of emerging trends and proven response strategies.
“These forums offer invaluable insight into how leading organizations are adapting their frameworks for new challenges like AI governance, ESG compliance, and supply chain resilience — while also sharing real-world case studies of what works (and what doesn’t).
“The collective intelligence gained often reveals blind spots and accelerates the adoption of next-generation risk management practices that would take years to build independently.”
Communication appears to be key throughout an organisation and its wider supply chain. While risks cannot be avoided completely, these tools can be key in managing risks, making educated vendor selection, and ultimately protecting organisations more fully in an increasingly dangerous cyber landscape.
Healthcare treatments, clean energy technologies and advanced breakthroughs that could transform lives across the UK are within reach, as the UK Government backs plans for a new AI collaboration with Europe.
Public research organisations can now apply to host the UK’s AI Factory Antenna – a facility that, if aproved, would link British resesarch expertise to its advances supercomputers across Europe.
Access to cutting-edge compute power – the high-performance processing capability needed to handle vast data and complex models – is the engine of progress in AI.
Greater collaboration in this field could help address global challenges, support the development of advanced AI systems used in healthcare and energy, and drive economic growth.
The announcement follows the new UK-EU agreement which aims to boost British jobs, help businesses, as well as the public.
“Supercomputers are the turbo-chargers of discovery,” minister for AI, Feryal Clark, said.
“By strengthening our partnership with Europe, we’re giving British innovators the compute power to solve climate and health challenges, grow the economy, and deliver our Plan for Change.
“This is about more than faster processing – it’s about putting the UK at the forefront of global AI.
“With access to some of Europe’s most advanced systems, our researchers and startups will be equipped to lead on cutting-edge breakthroughs and strengthen Britain’s role as a trusted partner in international AI development.”
This expression of interest, open to individual public research organisations or consortia, will identify the UK’s government-backed bid to apply to EuroHPC’s call – with up to €5 million available.
If successful, the chosen organisation will become the UK’s AI Factory Antenna, acting as the gateway to top European supercomputers through a partnership with an AI Factory on the continent – a site combining EuroHPC compute with access to data, training and software support.
This will enable UK scientists, startups and public institutions to build larger, more complex AI models – shortening development cycles, accelerating innovation, and creating high-skilled jobs across the country.
The UK continues to invest in compute infrastructure, with £44bn invested in data centres since July last year.
The government is set to confirm the next sites for its AI Growth Zones this summer.
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The Children’s Parliament, a children’s rights group in Scotland, has launched a new learning tool, Why Children’s Rights Matter: A Resource for Professionals, aimed at adults working in AI, digital, and data spaces to understand how children’s rights intersect with AI system design and decision-making.
“Children’s Parliament is excited to launch our eLearning resource together with our partners from the SAIA and The Alan Turing Institute,” Sandra Rabbow, AI project officer at Childrens’ Parliament said.
“The resource was developed as part of our work with children aged 8-12 years from across Scotland. The children had a direct call to action that adults who develop AI systems and make decisions about its use need to know about children’s human rights.
“The eLearning modules raise awareness about children’s human rights and the importance of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in Scotland. The resource will provide a platform for sharing children’s voices—highlighting what matters to them when it comes to AI and how adults can ensure that new technologies support children’s safety and wellbeing.”
Children’s Parliament, The Scottish AI Alliance, and The Alan Turing Institute have been exploring how children interact with AI, from its associated possibilities and risks, and how they themselves can be meaningfully invovled in AI development and policy.
Taking a children’s human rights approach, the project team worked with Members of Childrens’ Parliament (MCPs) to identify what needs to happen for AI to play a role in keeping all children healthy, and safe. To capture as broad a range of views as possible and to reflect the diversity of experiences of children in Scotland, classes ranging from P4 to P7 in four schools across Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirlingshire and Shetland participated.
As part of this project, the MCPs developed a series of calls to action for adults working with and developing AI to consider. Once key gap identified through this project is that adults tend not to think about the impact of decisions made about AI on children.
This eLearning course is a short, reflective learning tool designed for adults working in AI, digital and data spaces to do just that.
These resources are now available on the Scottish AI Playbook, which will help readers gain a rights-based competitive edge in the world of AI, helping them to understand and think through how important children’s rights are in relation to AI.
The resources will help adults explore how to centre children’s rights in AI design and deployment decisions, and making accountability a core part of the process of innovation.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to levy a new tarriff on Apple while also calling out the EU’s treatment of US tech companies.
Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday, threatening the tariff if Apple does not base its manufacturing in the US.
“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” he posted. “If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank your for your attention to this matter!”
Further, Trump targeted the EU for its lawsuits against US tech companies, calling them “unfair and unjustified.” This is likely in reference to recent anitrust suits brought against Apple, Google, Amazon, and Meta, as well as several GDPR cases and fines, including under the new Digital Serives and Digital Markets Acts.
Trump initialy threatened the EU with a 50% tariff on all goods sarting on 1 June. However, a call with Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission president, pushed this deadline back to 9 July, offering wiggle room for some discussions, though terms have yet to be disclosed.
The proposed tariff on Apple comes after the tech giant committed to a $500 billion investment plan in the US as part of the government’s policy of relocating manufacturing ot the US. Apple has alos relocated some of its manufacturing from China to India, which currently faces less harsh tariffs compared to China.
If Trump does stick to his word and issues the tariffs on Apple, it will be the first time he has directed such measures at a specific company.
Tech companies are already concerned about the realities of setting up shop in the US, as it lacks much of the raw materials, infrasturcutre, and workforce necessary to manufacturing these goods and devices. The tariff coud add on to Apple’s already premium prices, which could hurt its standings in the US.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have developed a soft robot that is able to walk straight out of the manchines that make them.
The flexible, four-legged devices were developed using a new 3D printing system, which could pave the way for the use of intelligent soft robotic systems with no electronic parts.
Soft machines – made from compliant materials such as soft plastics – have huge potential for use in areas such as nuclear deommissioning, the biomedical sector and in space, researchers said.
A lack of standardised design and manufacturing processes, expense and the need for specialist expertise has so far limited real-world use of the devices, experts said.
A university team sought to overcome these challenges by developing a low-cost, desktop 3D printing system for creating soft robot.
Their user-friendly setup can be assembled for less than £400 using off-the-shelf parts.
The team demonstrated the capabilities of their new system by creating robots made solely from a soft plastic material and powered by air pressure.
Once printed, the palm-sized devices are connected to a compressed air supply before walking out of the machines on which they were made.
Building and operating the new system – known as the Flex Printer – requires little prior knowledge, with first-time users able to assemble it and begin making robots in just a few days, the team said.
They have made their designs publicly available to broaden access to soft robotic technologies and to help foster collaboration and improvements to the system.
The lead engineer on the project was Maks Gepner, with support from Jonah Mack, both PhD students in the Centre for Doctoral Training in Robotics and Autonomous Systems. The lead academic was Professor Adam A. Stokes, Head of the Institute for Bioengineering at The University of Edinburgh.
“It used to take years to figure out how to print using these materials,” Gepner siad.
“Using our new platform, anyone can now easily print things which were previously thought to be impossible. This is a game-changer for engineers and artists alike. Our hope is that this technology will help drive the next wave of research breakthroughs.
“Without the long-standing manufacturing and design bottlenecks holding it back, we believe soft robotics is ready to make a major real-world impact.”
BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, has appointed Sharron Gunn as its new group chief executive.
Gunn takes over leadership of the professional body for information technology, from interim CEO Rob Deri. She has been working for BCS since February to transform its learning and development and membership divisions.
Previously Gunn held leadership roles at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), including Executive Director for Membership, Commercial and Shared Services and most recently, Chief Operating Officer.
During her time at ICAEW, Gunn created the Academy of Professional Development and championed several EDI initiatives, including the Women in Leadership programme.
Gunn also led the Institute’s involvement in Rise, an initiative aimed at enhancing social mobility by equipping young people with essential business skills.
Earlier, she spent seven years at Sainsbury’s in strategic financial management roles.
“It is a huge privilege to be asked to lead the professional body for IT, at a time when emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing are transforming society and the economy,” Gunn said.
“That’s why focussing on the value of professional qualifications, certifications and Chartered status, as a way of demonstrating trust in our vital profession, is more important than ever before.
“We are already developing our five-year strategy to ensure BCS is in the best position to respond to dynamic policy and market changes, for example the creation of Skills England.
“Even in the age of AI, technology is about the people leading and creating it. I want to make sure anyone working in a technology role can consider BCS their professional home. Joining our incredible membership community, including Fellowship, should be within reach of the broadest possible range of people, united by an aspiration to prove not just competence, but commitment to ethical practice and accountability.”
BCS President Daljit Rehal said: “Sharron brings unrivalled experience in maximising the impact and influence of professional bodies. She has a clear vision for developing the breadth of BCS’ membership and for ensuring the tech profession is seen as a trusted partner across industry and government.
“My thanks on behalf of our entire community go to Rob as interim CEO for his commitment to the cause of Making IT Good for Society.”
Outgoing interim CEO Rob Deri said: “I want to thank our members, staff and the range of organisations who work with BCS for the support they have shown me and the leadership team.
“Sharron will be an outstanding CEO with the dedication to ensure BCS brings together professionals in diverse areas from cyber-security to government, to academia, who all share the ambition to make the voice of our profession heard where it matters.”
Rob will remain as part of BCS’ governance structure, as Chair of the Executive Board, a non-executive role, supporting the President and CEO.
A global law enforcement operation involving the UK, Europol, and the US has struck a major blow to the criminal underground, with 270 arrests of dark web vendors and buyers across ten countries.
Known as Operation RapTor, this international sweep has dismantled networks trafficking in drugs, weapons, and counterfeit goods, sending a clear signal to criminals hiding behind the illusion of anonymity.
The suspects were identified through coordinated investigations based on intelligence from the takedowns of the dark web marketplaces Nemesis, Tor2Door, Bohemia, and Kingdom Markets.
Many had conducted thousands of sales on illicit marketplaces, using encryption tools and cryptocurrencies to cover their tracks – but law enforcement closed in.
According to the Essex Police, four people in the UK were arrested and a number of weapons were seized as part of Operation Raptor as officers built their investigation against suspected county lines drug supply network running in Southend since the start of the year.
Europol supported the action by compiling and analysing intelligence packages based on data from the three seized marketplaces.
These packages were then shared with national authorities in the framework of the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce, hosted at Europol’s headquarters, to enable targeted investigations.
“Operation RapTor shows that the dark web is not beyond the reach of law enforcement,” Edvardas Šileris, head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre.
“Through close cooperation and intelligence sharing, officers across four continents identified and arrested suspects, sending a clear message to those who think they can hide in the shadows. Europol will continue working with our partners to make the internet safer for everyone.”
Recent operations are reshaping the dark web landscape, with traditional marketplaces under increasing pressure, criminal actors are shifting to smaller, single-vendor shops – sites run by individual sellers to avoid marketplace fees and minimise exposure.
Illegal drugs remain the top commodity sold on the dark web, but 2023 also saw a surge in prescription drug trafficking and a rise in fraudulent services, including fake hitmen and bogus listings designed to scam buyers.
Authorities from the UK, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, South Korea, Switzerland, and the US coordinate the sweep.
A new UK defence trial is set to provide valuable data to develop and validate AI alogrithms for use acrossed the UK military.
For the Royal Navy, AI technologies developed through these tirals will enhance maritime surveillance, improve threat detection in complex sea environments, while enabling faster decision-making during naval operations.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) will benefit from advanced target recognition systems that can process information from multiple airborne sensors simultaneously, reducing pilot cognitive load and enabling more effective air operations in challenging conditions.
Building on previous trials – knwn as WINTERMUTE – this third iteration involved around 200 scientsts from the Defence Science Technology Laboratory (Dstl), military personnel from the Royal Navy and RAF, industry representatives and international partners collaborating at Portland Harbour to develop critical AI systems for automatic target detection and recognition.
Over a five-day period, visual infrared and band radar data was recorded from Royal Navy vessels, ground vvehicles, and both manned and unmanned aircraft, operating in mission-based scenarios.
“We can all see how AI has the potential to impact our lives and enhance our war fighting ability, and UK defence is embracing this leap forward in technology to better support our personnel on the frontline,” minister for defence procurement and industry, RT Hon Maria Eagle MP said.
“Significant trials like this, working with international and industry partners, demonstrate the rapid progress we’re making to utilise new technology for keeping Britain secure at home and strong abroad.”
The programme included participation from the US and Australia.
“This innovative trial represents a significant advancement in how we develop and test defence technologies,” Dr Paul Hollinshead, Dstl chief executive, said.
“By bringing together multiple domains and partners, we’re not just collecting data – we’re creating the foundation for mission success and operational advantage that will protect our forces for decades to come.
“The use of these AI systems is designed to support, not replace, human decision-making in defence operations. The technology aims to reduce cognitive burden on military personnel by filtering information and providing clearer battlefield intelligence.”
Marks & Spencer, one of the UK’s most iconic retailers, is still reeling from a ransomware attack that has crippled parts of its operations for the last month. While the company’s official communication frames it as a “cyber incident,” this was a complex ransomware attack perpetrated by a sophisticated adversary.
The cyber-attack on M&S marks one of the most high-profile security breaches in the UK retail sector to date, with expectations that the disruption could last until July, taking an estimated £300m hit to profits. For all businesses, this attack should act as a real-time case study in both the anatomy of a modern cyber-attack and the immense challenges of recovery.
With this in hand, the attackers could crack hashed credentials offline and perform lateral movement across M&S’s internal systems undetected for weeks.
This sort of early-stage credential theft aligns with tactics employed by the Scattered Spider threat group, a collective known for leveraging social engineering, SIM swapping, and credential harvesting to infiltrate major enterprises. Once deep within the M&S infrastructure, the attackers deployed the DragonForce ransomware payload, encrypting virtual machines hosted on VMware ESXi servers. This step effectively shut down critical systems across M&S’s logistics, customer-facing apps, and internal operations.
The impact was immediate and visible to both customers and stakeholders. Click-and-collect services were disrupted, online orders were suspended, and in-store point-of-sale systems experienced intermittent failures.
The incident triggered a drop in M&S’s share price, wiping out more than £700 million in market capitalisation. The financial impact is compounded by the suspension of e-commerce operations, which typically account for £3.8 million in daily revenue.
M&S responded by activating its internal incident response mechanisms and enlisting third-party cybersecurity firms, including CrowdStrike and Microsoft, to contain and investigate the breach. Meanwhile, the company reported the incident to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), ensuring regulatory transparency.
Who is Scattered Spider?
Scattered Spider is one of the most active and dangerous cyber-criminal groups operating today. Unlike traditional ransomware gangs that are often based in Eastern Europe or Russia, Scattered Spider has been reported to operate largely out of the US and the UK.
The group is unusual in its composition, reportedly consisting of young, highly tech-savvy individuals who are fluent in both security toolsets and social engineering techniques.
Scattered Spider’s tactics are characterised by a combination of low-tech human manipulation and high-impact technical capability. They commonly start their attacks using SMS phishing or phone-based impersonation to gain initial access.
Once inside, they prioritise harvesting authentication data, mapping internal systems, and identifying crown jewels such as identity providers and virtual environments. Their campaigns are known to be persistent, with dwell times stretching into weeks or months, a characteristic evident in the M&S breach timeline.
The realities of ransomware recovery
Recovering from a ransomware attack of this scale is not simply a matter of restoring from backups or decrypting files. The nature of the compromise, particularly the exfiltration of password hashes and deep lateral movement, means that M&S must assume much of its identity infrastructure is compromised. Every domain controller, user account, and service credential must be re-evaluated and, in many cases, recreated.
Recovery cannot begin in earnest until the organisation has confidence that the attacker no longer has persistence or backdoors into the network.
Adding to the difficulty is the use of VMware ESXi as a virtualisation platform. Many ransomware strains now include specific modules designed to target ESXi hosts, encrypting entire virtual machines rather than just files. This not only increases the blast radius but also complicates recovery since backups of individual VMs may also be locked or affected.
Furthermore, the organisation is likely navigating complex regulatory and legal landscapes. Notification requirements under GDPR, coordination with law enforcement, and potential legal action mean that every communication, whether to the public, to partners, or internally, must be carefully crafted. In this high-pressure environment, speed often takes a backseat to certainty and control.
The M&S incident offers a powerful learning opportunity for organisations across industries. These are the key lessons that other organisations should consider:
Adopt a zero trust approach to identity and access management: Many attacks by Scattered Spider begin with impersonation or manipulation of identity infrastructure. Organisations must implement robust multi-factor authentication (MFA), but also ensure that MFA reset workflows are themselves secure.
Segment your networks: Once an attacker gains access to one part of a flat network, they can quickly move laterally. Segmenting sensitive systems and restricting access through firewalls or zero-trust network access (ZTNA) can significantly slow down or even halt an intruder’s progress.
Test your incident response plan: Detection isn’t enough. A solid plan should include technical steps, legal and communication procedures, and business continuity strategies – ready to access to a moment’s notice.
Ensure operational resilience: To keep vital services like payment or customer service running during a crisis, defined fallback methods are needed such as manual workarounds or third-party services.
Cyber incident response needs training like a muscle: Incident response is a skill. Regular simulations, red-blue team exercises and cyber labs build real-worrld decision-making skills and coordination under pressure.
Cybersecurity is a board-level priority: The financial and reputational damage inflicted on M&S demonstrates that security is not just an IT concern but a core business risk. Boards should receive regular briefings on threat trends, audit findings, and the readiness of their organisations to respond to a cyber crisis.
Final words
The ransomware attack on Marks & Spencer is a stark reminder of the vulnerabilities that persist even in well-resourced, well-regarded organisations.
From the breach’s technical details to its broader implications for business continuity and reputation, the incident reveals how multifaceted cyber resilience must be. It also exposes the evolution of adversaries like Scattered Spider, who blend social engineering, identity compromise, and extortion into one formidable threat model.
For organisations watching from the sidelines, the lessons are clear: invest in identity protection, practice incident response, harden infrastructure, and communicate clearly and quickly. Above all, treat cybersecurity not as an operational necessity but as a strategic imperative.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued new guidance to organisations in how to decommission digital assets securely.
Outdated or unsupported assets can pose an unacceptable risk to the organisation and can expose vulnerabilities, becoming liabilities.
The NCSC says that while decommissioning occurs at the end of an asset’s lifecycle, it is crucial to consider decommissioning at the start of the procurement process of the asset.
A decommissioning plan should begin with asset discovery and valuation – the NCSC also warned about being aware of the risks posed by shadow IT. This includes unknown assets that are used within an organisation for business purposes.
Validating the accuracy of records, including their asset’s purpose and what data it processes stores, or transmits, is a vital part of this step.
Next, decommissioning plans must include backup, archiving, and recovery plans to ensure that if any part of the process does not go to plan, recovery is possible and no data is lost.
Recovery plans should include a description of software or data that may need to be reinstalled on assets, ways to notify both the individuals and teams most likely to be making the rollback changes, ways to protect critical functions, and checks in place to confirm the rollback was successful.
Another common requirement in decommissioning is the sanitisation of storage media, which can be done to re-use, sell, or repair decommissioned assets.
According to the NCSC, communication throughout the decommissioning activities is vital to ensure coordination across the organisation and with third parties, as well as ensuring replacement assets are working and appropriate tracking is in place.
After decommissioning is complete, organisations should take steps to ensure the effectiveness of devices works, coordinate with third party firms to ensure decommissioning tasks were carried out properly, and that asset inventories are updated.
“Even after completing the decommissioning process, it is important to continue monitoring for any unforeseen impacts that may not have been immediately apparent. In such cases, your backup, archiving, and recovery plans will be critical,” the NCSC said.
A new Scottish green finance initiative is underway, aiming to activate £40bn a year in investment for green energy projects across the nation.
Transition Finance Scotland (TFS) in partnership with Green Finance Institute (GFI) is set to move private capital funding into decarbonisation industries.
Forty Scottish organisations across the private and public sector have already joined together under the partnership aiming to expand the level of investment going towards net zero projects.
Together, these stakeholders aim to galvanise investment into opportunity across Scotland’s infrastructure and energy sectors, ranging from floating offshore wind and carbon capture, to the built environment.
TFS aims to take advantage and build on GFI’s experience in structured finance, project development, and policy design, aiming to unlock barriers to capital whilst creating innovative financial solutions in the market.
The partnership will be particularly focused on ensuring that public sector funding is best positioned and used to encourage private investment, driving further growth with increased capital.
The initiative will therefore centre its efforts on forming sector coalitions and partnerships, scoping investible projects, and finding funding gaps to usher in more investment into Scotland’s net zero transition.
TFS also plans on working closely with the UK and Scottish governments, including GB Energy and the Scottish National Investment Bank, to help firms and energy projects gain investment.
Transition Finance Scotland will be officially launched in 19 June in Edinburgh, lead by its chair Graeme Jones, the former chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise.
“Transition Finance Scotland brings together two of Scotland’s most valuable sectors – energy and finance – to help deliver significant new investment in net zero projects,“ Jones said. “The scale of the challenge is significant, but so is the opportunity – not only to help accelerate the energy transition, but also to create jobs and economic growth across Scotland.”
Edinburgh management consultancy Alba Partners and law firm Pinsent Masons helped drive the creation on TFS on a pro bono basis.
“Scotland is uniquely positioned as a key player in the transition, with world class financial services alongside legacy energy infrastructure and renewables,” Green Finance Institute chief executive Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE said.
“We look forward to deploying our expertise and approach, partnering with key Scottish and global investors to unlock private capital at scale.”
An investigation from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and international allies has exposed a a malicious cyber campaign from the Russian military intelligence service targeting logistics entities and technology companies in Ukraine and its allies
The NCSC and partners from ten countries have revealed details about how military unit 26265 of Russia’s GRY have conducted an ongoing cyber campaign against both public and private organisations since 2022.
This has included targeting of organisations involved in the co-ordination, transport, and delivery of support to Ukraine, and across the defence, IT services, maritime, airports, ports, and air traffic management systems sectors in multiple NATO members.
Unit 26165 – also known as APT 28 or Fancy Bear – was able to gain initial access to victim networks using a mix of previously disclosed techniques, including credential guessing, spear-phishing and exploitation of Microsoft Exchange mailbox permissions.
They also targeted internet-connected cameras at Ukrainian border crossings and near military installations to monitor and track aid shipments to Ukraine.
The Russian hacking unit is known to have played a role in the cyber-attack on the US Democratic National Committee in 2016, as well as a date leak from the World Anti-Doping Agency.
“This malicious campaign by Russia’s military intelligence service presents a serious risk to targeted organisations, including those involved in the delivery of assistance to Ukraine,” Paul Chichester, NCSC director of operations said.
“The UK and partners are committed to raising awareness of the tactics being deployed.
“We strongly encourage organisations to familiarise themselves with the threat and mitigation advice included in the advisory to help defend their networks.”
The NCSC is urging executives and network defenders at technology and logistics companies should recognise the elevated threat of targeting and take immediate protective action.
This would include increasing monitoring, using multi-factor authentication with strong factors – such as passkeys – and ensuring security updates are applied promptly to manage vulnerabilities.
The NCSC has co-sealed this advisory alongside agencies from the United States, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France and the Netherlands.
The recent cyber-attack on M&S has hit the UK retailer hard, costing it £300M from its 2025/26 expected profit, the retail giant has confirmed in a trade update.
The attack impacted food sales due to the reduced availability of products, as well as an increase in waste and logistical costs associated with more manual labour in operation processes.
M&S has said previously that it’s working “around the clock” with its suppliers to stabilise its operations and contain the incident.
Online sales, however, across the retail giant’s home and fashion departments continue to be “heavily impacted.”
The retailer says that it expects online disruptions to continued “throughout June and into July as we restart, then ramp up operations.
“This will also mean increased stock management costs in the second quarter,” M&S said.
M&S says it aims to reduce the £300m impact to its profit by cost management, insurance and “other trading actions.”
“We are seeking to make the most of the opportunity to accelerate the pace of improvement of our technology transformation and have found new and innovative ways of working.
“We are focused on recovery, restoring our systems, operations and customer proposition over the rest of the first half, with the aim of exiting this period a much stronger business.”
While the impact on M&S continues, the National Crime Agency confirmed to the BBC that they are investigating Scattered Spider in relation to the cyber-attack on M&S as well as Co-op.
While it had long been reported and speculated that Scattered Spider was behind the attack, this is the first confirmation that law enforcement is investigation the loosely connected cyber gang.
Scattered Spider is most intriguing for its unusual attributes – its network of cyber-criminals are mainly native English speakers, and are young, with some members just in their teens. Unlike many cyber gang networks, confirmed associates have been residents in the US and UK.
The cyber-attacks against the UK retail world were carried out using Dragonforce, a ransomware platform, but currently, those behind the attacks have yet to be confirmed.
The NCA has not confirmed that Scattered Spider was behind the attack, and told the BCC that the organisation had “a range of different hypotheses.”
NHS Scotland is planning a major cloud integration procurement, seeking a cloud-based software-as-a-service solution for finance, HR, payroll, and procurement functions across all its boards.
A tender has revealed that NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) is seeking a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, along with a systems integrator to support the design, delivery, and rollout of the solution.
The notice was published on May 19, with an estimated total value of £206M, excluding VAT for a 15 year contract.
Interested parties can request to participate in the contract by 18 June. SaaS and System Integrator suppliers must enter ‘bidding partnerships’ to apply and offer a cohesive solution and delivery approach.
The competitive procedure will result in two national contracts: one between NSS and the technology vendor, and another between NSS and the systems integrator. Suppliers must form bidding partnerships from the outset to deliver a cohesive solution and implementation approach.
The proposed budget will be split, with £120m given directly to the cloud-based SaaS solution, and the rest spent on implementation costs.
The Scottish Government’s health digitisation plans says that it plans to complete the full roll out of a new National GP IT system, moving to a single cloud hosted solution by 2026.
The Scottish Government’s launch of a Cloud First health and care strategy – which was due by March 2024 – was delayed as the Technical Design Authority took over following a budget review.
Back in May 2024, the NSS contracted OneAdvanced Health and Care’s cloud-based software as a document workflow solution across GP practices in Scotland.
NHS England is also pushing for more cloud integration, as the health service confirmed in January 2024 that physical data centres were decommissioned to favour cloud as the host of the NHS Spine, a secure data information sharing service used across various NHS services.
The NSS says that other cloud-oriented plans are on track, such as bringing together cloud-based digital components together to ease sharing across different systems, and issuing a cloud-based document management system for GPs.
US green aircraft engine developer ZeorAvia’s Hydrogen Centre of Excellence will be established as a major manufacturing base in Scotland, creating around 350 jobs.
The centre will be based in the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland (AMIDS) in Renfrewshire and produce advanced fuel cell systems for its hydrogen-electric aero engines. The facility is expected to begin operating by 2028.
Scottish Enterprise has awarded a grant of £9 million to the project, building on an earlier £20m investment in the company from the Scottish National Investment Bank.
The grant will unlock significant multiple investments from ZeroAvia as it develops the facility and operations, with the company targeting a multi-billion pound global export market.
ZeroAvia’s engines can reduce operating costs for airlines and would cut aviation’s contribution to global warming by emitting only water. The company hopes an engine for up to 20 seat planes will enter service in 2026 and it is working on a powertrain for 40 to 80 seat aircraft.
First Minister John Swinney visited Glasgow Airport to meet with ZeroAvia and partners supporting the project and Scotland’s green aviation agenda.
“Scotland has the skills, the talent and the innovation to be at the forefront of efforts to tackle the climate emergency while developing significant new opportunities to grow the economy,” Swinney said.
“ZeroAvia’s decision to establish a base in Scotland – creating 350 highly-skilled jobs in the process – is the perfect illustration of Scotland’s growing reputation in the global transition to net zero.
“Attracting inward investment is critical to economic growth and we will continue to work with Scottish Development International and other partners bring more high quality jobs to Scotland.
“By setting out a strategic vision in priority areas such as the hydrogen we are sending a clear statement to investors and businesses that Scotland is at the heart of the green energy revolution. The Hydrogen Centre of Excellence will be at the forefront of fuel cell technology and offers a hugely promising and exciting proposition for sustainable aviation.”
Val Miftakhov, founder and chief executive, ZeroAvia said: “Scotland has some unique advantages for ZeroAvia with strong aerospace and engineering skills, a burgeoning hydrogen sector and a clear aviation strategy with potential for early adoption of zero-emission flights.
The aviation industry is on the cusp of the biggest transformation since the advent of the jet age, with entirely new propulsion systems set to power the next era of aviation – cleaner flights, better economics and better experiences for all.”
“With this new facility, Scotland has a big role to play in driving this transformation. We welcome the grant award from Scottish Enterprise and the support of our equity investors that has enabled us to move into another phase of manufacturing readiness as we progress towards certification of our first engines.”
Senior managers are outpacing employees and leading the charge when it comes to AI adoption and integration across the UK.
This is according to a study from Indeed and YouGov, which polled more than 3,400 senior managers, employees, and HR decision makers across the UK.
The survey found that 57% of senior managers are using AI at work, compared to just half (50%) of HR decision makers, and less than half (45%) of employees.
Senior managers are also using AI most frequently, with nearly a quarter (22%) using AI daily and three in four (77%) using it at least weekly. This is compared to under two thirds (63%) of employees, and just over half (56%) of HR decision makers using AI weekly.
Even with their higher rate of adoption, less than half (48%) of senior managers, just 41% of HR leaders and 35% of employees think AI will create more solutions than problems in their companies.
When it comes to quality of work, there is a larger divide, with 45% saying that AI will lead to better outputs, with 18% disagreeing. Employees are more split, with 29% thinking AI will lead to better outputs, 26% disagreeing, and 45% saying they are unsure.
Employees are more likely to believe that AI will lead to deskilling (47%) than upskilling (24%), while senior leaders are more divided (38% vs 37%).
When it comes to hiring, the Indeed and YouGov survey found some interesting results: only 18% of HR decision makers and 39% of senior managers reported using AI in the hiring process.
Among those HR leaders who do, AI is used mainly for decision making using data (54%), candidate screening via chatbots (47%), job description optimisation (45%) and CV screening (42%).
While AI has not been wholly integrated into the hiring process, about half (52%) of senior managers and 50% of HR leaders believe AI will have a beneficial impact on the efficiency of recruitment. Almost all (96%) of HR leaders already using AI say it has made a positive impact on their hiring work.
AI is also impacting how workers feel about their roles, with 71% of senior managers feeling the most positive, compared to 64% of HR decision makers and just 54% of employees.
Only 42% of employees feel positive about their future job prospects compared to the 60% of senior managers who do.
Employees also have less trust in their company when it comes to acting in their best interest: while 55% trust their organisation for support, only 42% think their company will make decisions benefiting their employees.
A third of employees also say they do not feel prepared to support their mental wellbeing at work, as work-life balance and burnout plague various sectors.
“As businesses move quickly to adopt AI and boost productivity, our findings are a timely reminder: progress should be matched by meaningful investment in trust, transparency, and employee wellbeing,” Matt Burney, senior strategic advisor at Indeed said.
“At a time when trust is faltering and wellbeing concerns are rising, it’s essential that AI adoption doesn’t widen the gap between leaders and teams. With more UK businesses integrating AI into hiring and broader workflows, leaders have a responsibility to build people-first strategies that prioritise clear communication and long-term support. The goal isn’t just efficiency, it’s empowerment.”
Nearly 70% of organisations view the rapid pace of AI development – particularly in generative AI – as the leading security concern related to its adoption, followed by lack of integrity (64%) and trustworthiness (57%).
This is according to the 2025 Thales Data Threat Report which reveals a major focus on the transformative impact of AI, especially genAI, which relies heavily on high-quality, sensitive data for functions like training, inference, and content generation.
As agentic AI emerges, ensuring data quality becomes even more critical for enabling sound decision-making and actions by AI systems. Many organisations are already adopting GenAI, with a third of respondents indicating it is either being integrated or is actively transforming their operations.
Increasing Risks with Increasing Adoption
As genAI introduces complex data security challenges and offers strategic opportunities to strengthen defenses, its growing integration marks a shift among organisations from experimentation to more mature, operational deployment.
While most respondents said rapid adoption of genAI is their top security concern, respondents in the more advanced stage of AI adoption aren’t waiting to fully secure their systems or optimise their tech stacks before forging ahead.
Because the drive to achieve rapid transformation often outweighs efforts to strengthen organisational readiness, these organisations may be inadvertently creating their own biggest security vulnerabilities.
“The fast-evolving GenAI landscape is pressuring enterprises to move quickly, sometimes at the cost of caution, as they race to stay ahead of the adoption curve,” Eric Hanselman, chief analyst at S&P global market intelligence 451 research, said.
“Many enterprises are deploying GenAI faster than they can fully understand their application architectures, compounded by the rapid spread of SaaS tools embedding GenAI capabilities, adding layers of complexity and risk.”
Seventy-three percent of respondents report investing in AI-specific security tools, either through new budgets or by reallocating existing resources. Those prioritising AI security are diversifying their approaches: over two-thirds have acquired tools from their cloud providers, three in five are leveraging established security vendors, and nearly half are turning to new or emerging startups.
Notably, security for generative AI has quickly risen as a top spending priority, securing the second spot in ranked-choice voting, just behind cloud security. This shift underscores the growing recognition of AI-driven risks and the need for specialised defenses to mitigate them.
Threats Remain Elevated Despite Decline in Breaches
While data breaches remain a significant concern, their frequency has slightly decreased over the past few years. In 2021, 56% of surveyed enterprises reported experiencing a breach, but that figure has dropped to 45% in 2025. Additionally, the percentage of respondents reporting a breach within the last 12 months has fallen from 23% in 2021 to just 14% in 2025.
Malware continues to lead as the most prevalent threat, maintaining its top position since 2021. Phishing climbed to second place, overtaking ransomware, which now ranks third. When it comes to the most concerning threat actors, external sources dominate—hacktivists hold the top spot, followed by nation-state actors. Human error, while still significant, has dropped to third, down one position from the previous year.
The threat report reveals that most organisations are increasingly concerned about quantum-related security risks.
The top threat, cited by 63% of respondents, is future encryption compromise—the risk that quantum computers could eventually break current or future encryption algorithms, exposing data once considered secure.
Close behind, 61% identified key distribution vulnerabilities, where quantum advancements could undermine the secure exchange of encryption keys. Additionally, 58% highlighted the “harvest now, decrypt later” (HNDL) threat, where encrypted data intercepted today could be decrypted in the future.
In response, half of organisations are assessing their encryption strategies, and 60% are actively prototyping or evaluating post-quantum cryptography (PQC) solutions. Only one-third, however, are placing their trust in telecom or cloud providers to manage the transition.
“The clock is ticking on post-quantum readiness. It’s encouraging that three out of five organisations are already prototyping new ciphers, but deployment timelines are tight and falling behind could leave critical data exposed,” Todd Moore, global vice president, Data Security Products at Thales, said.
“Even with clear timelines for transitioning to PQC algorithms, the pace of encryption change has been slower than expected due to a mix of legacy systems, complexity, and the challenge of balancing innovation with security.”
While this year’s survey results indicate improvements in security posture, much more is needed to elevate operational data security to fully support the capabilities of emerging technologies such as GenAI and to pave the way for future innovations.
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Fraud is becoming increasingly normalised as techniques vary and “fraud-as-a-service” platforms plague the retail sector.
A new report from Netacea found that nearly half of respondents in the UK and the US have seen advertisements on social media promoting “refund hacks” to take advantage of retail companies.
The survey polled 2000 consumers in the UK and US, finding a trend that fraud as a service forums are creeping from the digital underground into the mainstream and populating social media sites.
Their migration to mainstream social media is not only a sign that organized fraud operations are expanding, but the target audience on these channels is also a virtually unlimited source of ‘clean’ user accounts. Such accounts haven’t yet been flagged for suspicious activity on industry fraud and risk tools,” the report said.
Nearly half (45%) of respondents were targeted by ads for retail fraud guides or services on social platforms, while even more (58%) have been exposed to refund hack advice that was pretending to be normal content from influencers.
The methods appear successful so far, with just under a fifth (16%) saying they see retail fraud as a victimless crime, with most (58%) thinking retail businesses can absorb the costs of fraud.
Nearly a quarter (23%) said they had been tempted to commit fraud, with 15% saying they would even consider more serious forms of retail fraud given the right circumstances. This does have a limit though, with a third (34%) saying that fraud up to £100 is okay.
Consumers seem more aware of retail fraud techniques than ever before. 81% were familiar with the concept of did not arrive fraud, with 44% aware about returning empty or junk-filled packages to trick the refund process.
The research also found that 16% of respondents were aware of the availability of third parties, known as ‘boxer’s that can be used as-a-service to commit fraud on a consumers behalf.
While social media has definitely contributed to the spread of fraud awareness, about one in three (34%) respondents have had their refund hacks recommended from friends rather than online.
Further, it seems that more and more consumers are unwittingly participating in retail fraud, with 80% thinking they may have been involved in a fraud initiative, either as a digital mule or even as a victim.
A new report from GoStudent shows that 74% of teachers in the UK aren’t being trained to use AI in the classroom, which could see the education system missing out on AI benefits and skills training.
The survey provides insights from over 5,000 parents and students across Europe, alongside 300 teachers, has revealed a growing AI knowledge gap between the education students need and want to thrive in a technologically advanced world and what schools can currently provide.
From traditional exams, rigid curricula, and outdated teaching models, teachers, students, and parents all share an appetite for change.
The importance of AI knowledge is becoming harder to ignore, and yet UK schools are struggling to keep up with the demand.
Seventy percent of teachers feel that AI will be intrinsic to a student’s professional life, but only half (53%) of students feel they’re being taught the skills necessary for their dream job.
Over half of students (58%) believe their future job to be directly related to technology.
And yet, when asked if they feel confident about living in a world surrounded by new technologies, confidence has dropped in European students to a three-year low. From 64% in 2023, rising briefly to 77% in 2024, before falling to just 51% in 2025.
AI Sparks Concerns for Teachers
Teachers believe that cybersecurity (48%), coding and programming (48%), and AI and machine learning (38%) will be some of the most important subjects to be integrated into the curriculum, yet only 34% of students have tried AI learning techniques.
The drive is there, as 76% feel confident in their ability to teach students the AI skills they’ll need, but they just don’t have the tools to set their students up for success.
Teachers aren’t asking to be replaced by new technology, they simply want to be empowered by it. But without funding, curriculum support, or training frameworks, most teachers are being left to figure it out themselves.
Over half (56%) of UK teachers now warn that children without access to AI will fall behind, creating a dangerous educational divide.
At the same time, 70% of parents feel that UK schools are responsible for teaching children how to responsibly use AI tools, and 58% of parents say upskilling teachers on AI is essential.
74% of teachers agree that schools should play a central role in teaching students how to use AI safely, but the current system is failing to meet the demand. With a fifth of teachers (20%) nervous about a lack of funding for AI tools, educators are eager to learn but are unsupported.
Worryingly, the training gap is already creating inequalities. While 67% of teachers in private schools are not receiving AI training, this jumps by 10% for state schools. This disparity threatens to widen the educational gap and leave some students fundamentally more unprepared for the new world they’re entering.
How do Students Feel?
In the UK it seems that students are not waiting around for the education system to catch up.
With 59% of children expecting AI and smart robots to be standard by 2030, it’s clear the next generation is already imagining a future schools haven’t prepared for.
The majority (84%) of school children are already using AI tools and 90% want to learn how to use them better. However, only 30% of UK children have access to AI-powered tools in the classroom, and just 35% say teachers are showing them how to use them.
Nearly six in ten (59%) wish their teachers knew more about AI, so they are turning to other sources, with 28% using social media, and a fifth of children (20%) learning amongst friends.
Without proper guidance, students not only miss out on opportunities but are also exposed to the potential risks of AI.
“When students are left to teach themselves AI, they’re left to navigate its potential dangers alone,” Charbel Chraim, GoStudent’s 2025 UK tutor of the year said. “One in five UK students don’t understand that AI can manipulate what they see online, and 22% admit to not even knowing what deepfake videos are. It’s crucial that the system doesn’t let these children down by allowing ignorance to put children at risk.”
This disconnect is being felt at home, too. While just under a quarter of children are learning AI skills from mum or data (24%), 38% of parents don’t feel like they’d be confident teaching their child how to develop AI skills needed for the future.
Half of UK teachers (50%) believe students will need access to generative AI tools like ChatGPT and writing assistants like Grammarly within the next two years. Yet meaningful integration is still lagging behind, despite 70% of teachers agreeing that access to AI in education should be a basic human right – the highest score across all surveyed countries.
Personalised AI learning can deliver real-time feedback to struggling students, adapt future lessons, and support a more tailored path to learning. This is especially powerful for students with special educational needs (SEN), and 44% of European parents of SEN children believe AI can offer vital support. Notably, the UK stands out as a frontrunner in terms of parents believing AI teachers will enhance learning, as 58% of UK parents believe this to be true, the highest level of support across all surveyed countries.
But it’s not just about the students. Nearly half of European parents (46%) hope that AI will help teachers reduce time doing admin tasks, allowing them to focus on what truly matters: teaching, mentoring and inspiring students. “Ensuring that teaching remains adaptable, equitable, and centered on human connection is crucial for maintaining the quality of education in the future,” says a UK English language and literature teacher.
Teachers remain the heart of learning. Despite the rise of AI, only 11% of UK parents believe it will ever replace teachers. “The creativity of teachers helps children thrive,” says Felix Ohswald, Co-Founder and CEO of GoStudent, “and their understanding and ideas can help shape how students succeed with AI.”
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Women workers are more likely to be impacted by generative AI than male workers, a UN report tracking the rate of automation across different industries found.
In high-income countries, jobs at the highest risk of automation make 9.6% of female employment, much higher than the 3.5% of such jobs among men.
The research, from the UN International Labour Organisation, found that clerical jobs were facing the highest exposure of all, due to GenAI’s potential to automate many of their tasks.
However, these expanding AI capabilities could result in increased exposure of some highly digitised cognitive jobs in media, software, and finance occupations.
The report, however, found that full job automation remains limited, since many tasks, though done more efficiently, continue to require human involvement.
The study also highlighted the divergent paths of occupations that are accustomed to fast-paced digital transformation – like software engineers – and jobs that have less baseline digital skills, which are more likely to deal with negative effects of AI’s rise.
Overall, 25% of global employment falls within occupations potentially exposed to GenAI, which higher shares in high-income countries (34%).
“This index helps identify where GenAI is likely to have the biggest impact, so countries can better prepare and protect workers. Our next step is to apply this new index to detailed labour force data from Poland” said Marek Troszyński, senior expert at NASK – Poland’s National Research Institute – and one of co-authors of the new paper.
The research paper does emphasise that the figures reflect potential exposure, not actual job losses. GenAI, the report argues, is more likely to transform jobs than eliminate them altogether.
“It’s easy to get lost in the AI hype. What we need is clarity and context. This tool helps countries across the world assess potential exposure and prepare their labour markets for a fairer digital future,” explained Janine Berg, Senior Economist at the ILO.
The report therefore calls on governments, firms, and workers’ organisations to shape proactive inclusive strategies that can enhance productivity and job quality.
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Nearly half of young people in the UK would rather live in a world where the internet does not exist – a reality they have never experienced – according to a new survey.
The research revealed growing awareness among young people when it comes to the effect of the internet on their mental wellbeing.
Seven in ten (70%) 16 to 21 year olds reported that they feel worse about themselves after using social media.
Half (50%) of young people even supported a digital curfew which would restrict their access to sites and apps after 10pm, the report from the British Standards Institute said.
Almost half (46%) said they would rather exist as a young person in a world without the internet at all.
The survey also revealed alarming trends in the extent of internet and social media use among young people. One in four respondents spent at least four hours a day on social media, while 42% admitted to lying to their caretakers about their online practices. Over a quarter (27%) also shared their location online with strangers.
More concerning is that 42% admitted they had lied about their age online, while 40% said they had a decoy account, with over a quarter (27%) said they pretended to be a completely different person online.
These online practices from young people are especially problematic as age restrictions and identity authentication are some of the staple datapoints social media giants use to keep children safe online and restrict certain features or content.
The Online Safety Act requires social media giants to verify ages to restrict content – if children evade these measures, it could expose them to harmful material or interactions.
The research also comes as Peter Kyle, technology secretary, claimed that the UK government was debating the prospect of mandatory cut off times for some social media apps.
Australia has also trialed a ban on social media altogether for under 16s, which was met with relief and controversy among teens and the public.
The survey, of 1,293 young people in the UK revealed that the youth is well aware of the negative impacts of the internet and social media.
Empty store shelves, bricked online shopping platforms and stolen customer data – cyber-attacks are bringing a reckoning to some of the UK’s largest retail firms.
In what was described as a “wake-up call” by Pat McFadden, the cyber-attacks have left the retail world squirming in discomfort, as Google warns US retail titans to “take note” and stay on their toes.
The tech giant has stated that it’s likely that Scattered Spider – the loosely connected consortium of hackers reportedly responsible for the attacks – will hit again, seeking not only to further compound the misery of the UK’s retail sector, but casting its net wider to other nations.
But why did the UK see such a succession of cyber-attacks against some of the most well-known retail brands operating in the country?
If these top brands are in danger of such disastrous breaches, what does that mean for the rest of the sector?
To shed light on these recent attacks and what they can teach us about the overall threat landscape, DIGIT spoke to Cody Barrow, chief executive officer of EclecticIQ and former senior intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency in the U.S., to delve into the targeting of the retail sector, AI’s perhaps unsurprising role in helping to accommodate this, and how governments, companies – and the public – can get used to this new normal in cyber.
Why Retail?
When Barrow explains the reasons for targeting retail, it becomes obvious that the sector could be a goldmine for cyber-criminals.
“Retail platforms have online order systems that have no tolerance for outages,” Barrow explained. A simple lag time in ordering can push consumers to competitors – outages equal huge financial loss. This means they will do anything to keep their systems on – which could mean continued exposure to breaches, or paying off a ransom speedily.
We’ve seen this play out in the recent attacks – M&S did not shut down all their systems and faced a customer data breach. Co-op, on the other hand, was praised for shutting down their own systems, taking a more long-term mitigation approach despite being aware of the short-term damage.
Both stores, however, faced empty shelves and ongoing issues, though Co-op’s online services were able to bounce back faster than those of M&S.
“Retail giants have huge, messy attack surfaces,” Barrow further explained. Juggling multiple vendors, thousands if not millions of logins, backend and front end services to manage the live availability of products and services, is a demanding front to master.
“I think that the attackers also consider that a retailer may have a slimmer security budget,” Barrow said as well.
“So when you factor in the need to have maximum service availability, the wide attack service with a lot of complexity and a range of tools, and that their security budgets may not be as sophisticated or as large as a big financial institution, retailers become a very juicy target.”
Further, with these potentially less sophisticated, less expensive security postures, cyber-criminals are able to target retailers without going to their most specialist tools.
“For the ransomware that they have deployed,” in the case of Scattered Spider, “they didn’t have to go through the same sophisticated tool building for their attack procedures. They employed, what I would say are, low skill, high impact techniques.”
This is what makes retail truly so appealing to bad actors, especially as traditional cyber-crime tactics become more accessible and attack vectors expand.
The UK: A Cyber Leader In An Industry Falling Behind
The UK could be considered a global cyber leader, with pioneering efforts by the National Cyber Security Centre and other institutions being parts of major stings against cyber gangs and in fighting fraud.
Global leader or not, the UK still has a “need to adapt,” according to Barrow.
Given the UK’s levels of supposed prestige within the global cybersecurity lexicon and relative ease in which these devastating attacks were conducted, what does that say about the overall threat landscape?
“If the UK is a leader, then probably no one is really ready for the acceleration in the cyber threat landscape,” Barrow said.
AI is a major culprit in this “acceleration”, lowering the barrier to entry for prospective threat actors, but also the increasing complexity of the attack surface all along the supply chain, as well as the added nation state interest in exploiting these factors.
Global uncertainty, on top of all of this, adds political and financial tension, leading more to turn to cyber-crime and cyber espionage.
Further, the nature of cyber defence is ‘defence’, which will always be trailing offense in terms of innovation. While there are proactive measures, at the forefront of cyber, it is largely reactionary.
“We’re not looking at what might evolve, which means that all we have is a historical record,” Barrow said, “So that means we’re always going to be behind.”
And with AI, we are already seeing these threats evolve, and defences flounder. As deepfakes become more advanced and prevalent, social engineering techniques will only improve. Face scanning, voice recognition, and biometric identification may not be enough in the wake of AI that can effectively mimic these.
Besides basic cyber hygiene, Barrow thinks the government, the public, and organisations need to change their perception.
“It’s been accelerating for years, if not decades,” Barrow said about the threat. “It is becoming the new normal.”
For the public, this means understanding that cybersecurity breaches of major companies happen, so taking steps to be resilient – protecting your identity, your assets, your personal data – is vital.
For organisations, going beyond cyber hygiene is now more important. Barrow suggests an “assume breach” approach.
This is evermore important as organisations are more and more reliant on third-party vendors which, alongside supply chain risks, continue to contribute to major cyber breaches and incidents.
“I think third parties are the core part of your attack surface,” Barrow said.
Other features of ensuring an “assume breach” model is successful include a lot of basic cyber hygiene, as well as consistent auditing and testing, attacking your own systems and ensuring advanced identity authentication checks.
However, as mentioned, AI is complicating a lot of these features. AI’s deepfake capabilities makes certain identification methods less secure – even Co-Op’s protocol of making people keep their cameras on to ensure their identity may not work in a world of accurate deepfake technology.
“AI in some ways is going to make the friction even worse,” when it comes to account access for customers and employees.
But this can be mitigated to ensure safety.
Similarly, CISOs are consistently facing backlash when they approach boards asking for increased security budgets in a landscape that keeps shovelling funds to AI initiatives.
“Security leaders need to frame security as revenue protection,” Barrow suggested, rather than the “expense centre.”
“Security is an essential part of protecting their operations and their revenue – it can be kind of an irritation like a fire alarm, but it’s something that’s necessary to prevent your building from burning down.”
Why Do These Retail Attacks Matter?
In the grand scheme of things, these attacks on the UK retail sector were concentrated and seemed to revolve around one adversary group. What do they mean for the wider cybersecurity landscape when global conflict has led to a rise in nation-state adversaries and cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure?
“This is a fundamental national security challenge,” Barrow explained.
“This is not only because these attackers can go after your economic levers,” he said. “It’s also because these attacks are proving grounds, and are places where nation states can observe what’s happening.”
Adversaries can learn from these attacks, they can find vulnerabilities and see which exploitation tactics work.
“Its a very good proving ground for observers,” Barrow said.
While the economic impact of these attacks are more obvious, Barrow wants governments to consider these cases a national security threat.
The case also does show that AI is manifesting in cyber differently than often projected. Scattered Spider appeared to not have relied on AI for its social engineering tactics.
“People are talking about AI, but what we still don’t see enough is that it’s the human level that is primarily exploitable,” Barrow noted.
“It’s chipping away at what we think is the safety of the ‘human in the loop.’
“AI is primed to exploit human psychology and not just technical vulnerabilities,” he said, pointing that these AI phishing emails, phone calls, and other tactics are still aiming at a human target to penetrate a system.
Understanding how AI can be integrated into systems to protect humans from malicious AI can be key in negating these advancing threats.
The number of women startup founders has risen by nearly half over the past decade, new research has revealed.
This is according to analysis from Fuel Ventures, which analysed the thousands of startup pitches the VC firm received each year. Pitches now average around 6,000 a year.
The number of women founders since 2014 rose by 45%, with an increase of 30% just in the past five years.
The firm’s analysis also found that co-founded startups were more likely to receive funding, as 76% of successful pitches have come from startups with co-founders rather than a single founder.
Further, while London still remains the most popular location of startups in the UK, other cities are closing in. Birmingham (120%) and Manchester (95%) have both seen large increases in the number of startups over the past decade, ushering in more regional diversity in the UK startup landscape.
The VC firm also found that the age demographics of founders has transformed as well. Entrepreneurs aged over 40 have increased by 35% over the past decade, showing that experience may be paving the way for new ventures. It could also reflect growing instability for young people to take such a high risk chance in starting their own business compared to those with a longer established career.
While female founders may be increasing in number, other analysis contextualises this increase. Female founders consistently get less funding than their male counterparts.
Funding for female-founded businesses actually went down from 2% in the first half of 2023 to 1.8% in the first half of 2024, according to Forbes.
While VC funding across the UK saw a year-on-year increase of 12.5%, reaching £9 billion in 2024, it is clear that this funding was not evenly distributed across firms.
Cyber-criminals are increasingly targeting vulnerabilities outside traditional corporate networks, focusing on third-party vendors and employee’s personal devices to bypass organisational defences.
This is according to SoSafe’s 2025 Cybercrime Trends Report, which surveyed 500 security professionals across nine countries to reveal trends in how attackers are expanding their focus beyond direct corporate targets.
“Organisations can no longer rely solely on internal network security,” said Andrew Rose, CSO at SoSafe. “Even with robust measures in place, the risk from external partners remains significant if they don’t uphold the same level of protection. The same applies to employees – when they act without security in mind outside the workplace, it creates vulnerabilities that can compromise the organisation’s overall security posture.”
Third Party Vulnerability
The report reveals that 93% of organisations now depend on third-party services to deliver their core value proposition. Each additional provider introduces new dependencies, data exchanges, and potential entry points for cybercriminals.
“Attackers are increasingly targeting software and service supply chains to amplify the scale and impact of their attacks – knowing these often lack the robust defences and resources of larger organisations,” noted Rose. “This concentration strategy creates more opportunities for criminals, more leverage against victims, and more frequent breaches and service outages for customers.”
The challenge is further compounded by fourth-party risks – the vendors of an organisation’s vendors – creating an extended web of exposure that many security teams find difficult to monitor effectively.
Personal Device Breaches
SoSafe’s study reveals that cyber-criminals are moving outside the traditional corporate domain, with 83% of organisations reporting their employees have fallen victim to cyber-attacks on personal devices that caused security issues for the organisation.
“Cyber-criminals are blurring the lines between personal and professional spheres,” said Niklas Hellemann, CEO of SoSafe. “While employees may be protected by their organisation’s technical controls, their personal devices and accounts are often left vulnerable. They have become prime targets for attackers looking to gain access to corporate information.”
The message is clear: if it’s connected, it’s a threat vector. And personal is now professional.
As a related trend, the report highlights that 95% of organisations report an increase in multi-channel attacks over the past year. These sophisticated approaches can combine email, messaging apps, social media, and voice calls to create more convincing and harder-to-detect attacks.
With the aid of AI technologies, these attacks have evolved into “3D phishing attacks” that seamlessly integrate multiple communication channels to manipulate trust and exploit every possible entry point.
A notable incident occurred in 2024 involving the CEO of WWP, who was targeted in a sophisticated cyberattack. Attackers used AI-driven voice cloning to impersonate the executive and deceive employees into disclosing sensitive information and transferring funds.
This case illustrates how cybercriminals are using multi-channel tactics: Leveraging WhatsApp to build trust, Microsoft Teams for ongoing interaction, and an AI-generated deepfake voice call to execute the final stage of the fraud.
With the aid of AI technologies, these attacks have evolved into “3D phishing attacks” that seamlessly integrate multiple communication channels to manipulate trust and exploit every possible entry point.
“Multi-channel attacks are sophisticated tactics to trick users into becoming unwitting accomplices to criminal activities. To protect against these threats, organisations must provide regular, scenario-based training to their staff. The training not only helps employees identify potential threats but also reinforces positive security behaviours, fostering a security-first culture and empowering them to service as the first line of defence for the business,” said Hellemann.
Job vacancies in UK cybersecurity are growing at a rate of 10-12% per year, with recruitment professionals struggling to find skilled candidate to fill roles.
At any one time on the current job market there are around 17,000 live cybersecurity roles, according to analysis by Robert Walters.
The recruitment firm also predicted that UK vacancies will continue to grow at the same rate in the coming years, only increasing the strain on the cybersecurity workforce gap.
The analysis revealed that the most in-demand roles within cybersecurity were cloud security engineers, security operations centre analysts, penetration testers and ethical hackers, cyber risk and compliance specialists, and AI and threat intelligence analysts.
Robert Walters noted that as cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated and increase in scale, the need for cyber experts has intensified across industries.
Professionals often struggle to keep pace with the need for new skills, making it even harder to hire appropriate talent.
Unsurprisingly, the recruitment firm predicted that the retail industry would make more efforts in cybersecurity recruitment considering the high-impact attacks against major UK retailers like M&S, Co-op, and Harrods.
Retail currently makes up about 10% of all cybersecurity vacancies, the fifth highest sector in the UK.
Finance and banking took the top spot, with 3400 vacancies making up a fifth of all open roles.
This was followed by the public sector and defence (18%), technology and digital services (16%), and healthcare and life sciences (12%).
“Many retailers rank among the top employers of cybersecurity talent and consistently allocate substantial resources towards enhancing their security systems. However, following these high-profile attacks, we anticipate that budgets will be stretched even further this year,” Phill Brown, global head of market intelligence at Robert Walters said.
“This latest situation serves as a cautionary tale for all businesses. By hiring the right professionals and consistently investing in their upskilling from the beginning, companies can better protect themselves against ever-evolving cyber threats.”
Only a quarter of Scots would support the rollout of zonal power pricing in the UK’s energy system, a new poll from True North reveals.
The UK government will soon decide on the introduction of zonal power pricing, sparking concerns across the renewables industry, especially when it comes to investment in offshore wind.
The Scotland-wide poll surveyed 1,020 people in May, showing that 41% of Scots oppose the introduction of zonal power pricing, with just 25% in favour, and a third undecided.
Zonal power pricing would transform the current energy pricing system in the UK; instead of a single system of payment, the zones will be introduced with their own supply and demand forces influencing prices depending on the cost of producing and transferring energy in each zone.
Proponents of this change say the change could be beneficial for Scottish consumers and introduce some of the cheapest energy tariffs to the nation.
Critics however, say that the system would result in the cancellation or delay of billions in investment, stalling any reduction in bills and creating a barrier to green jobs.
Still, zonal pricing could reduce constraint payments, which are made to generators to switch off their power when they exceed grid capacity, and lowering bills for certain regions, particularly in Scotland.
The system has yet to be decided, and analysts at Cornwall Insight saying that a zonal system will likely not be introduced until the 2030s, which could delay the government from reaching its clean power ambitions past 2030.
Regions that would likely be most directly impacted appear to be unconvinced by the zonal pricing plan, with only 22% of those in the Highlands and Islands supporting the system, and 23% of those in the north east favouring the system.
Around six in ten polled said they did not consider the Scottish government’s clean power by 2030 goal achievable, while over half (54%) said they support the ambition. The government said this goal would cost £40bn annually in investment over the next six years.
It still remains to be seen how the zonal power pricing system will look, however, so it remains to be seen if this system would be detrimental to planned infrastructure investment.
While Scottish Power chief executive Keith Anderson warned against zonal pricing, Octopus Energy called the proposed change a “solution” to current energy woes.
Digital and cyber leaders at the NHS are calling on its suppliers to sign up to a voluntary cybersecurity charter as it aims to build its resilience against cyber threats along its supply chain.
In the wake of several retail cyber-attacks and with a long history of breaches across different health boards and various vendors, the NHS is urging its suppliers to take cybersecurity more seriously by signing the voluntary charter.
In an open letter to vendors stated: “As valued partners to the NHS, it is important to us that we work together and defend as one.”
As the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill aims to reform the cyber regulation in the UK, the NHS is calling on suppliers to ensure that their systems are secure to protect patient data and operations.
The open letter has a list of requirements for vendors, such as supporting systems with the latest patches to address vulnerabilities, achieving at minimum a ‘Standards Met’ as part of the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT), and applying multi-factor authentication to networks and systems.
The NHS is also asking suppliers to deploy effective 24/7 cyber monitoring and logging of critical IT structures, as well as ensuring they have immutable backups of critical data and products.
It also requires suppliers to have undertaken board level exercising to ensure confidence in incident response, and that any incidents are reported according to all regulatory requirements promptly.
Further, it states that vendors suppling software to the NHS must ensure that this has been produced in adherence to the National Cyber Security Centre’s software code of practice.
Suppliers must commit to being a partner to the NHS by signing the charter for cybersecurity good practice, join the NHS in future supplier summits and engagement opportunities to continually keep the NHS resilient to attack, and work with local NHS customer to provide mutual understanding of incident preparation.
The charter also includes a series of legal obligations to maintain cybersecurity in agreements with NHS organisations.
The NHS also says that it has acknowledged the tumultuous cyber landscape, and is working to develop tools to ensure suppliers can carry out appropriate assurance.
The NHS is also working to define requirements for a national supplier management platform, as well as reviewing the contractual frameworks that NHS organisations use to enter contracts.
Cyber leaders at the NHS will be launched a series of webinars over the next coming months as well as building a supplier forum for cybersecurity in the autumn to help vendors close the cybersecurity gap.
The UK public sector is facing a barrage of demands to increase use of AI, improve remote working options, and toughen security while dealing with challenging budgets and desires for improved stakeholder and citizen experiences.
That’s the findings of a new report from analysts Cavell Group and 8×8, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT), the industry’s most integrated platform provider for CX that combines Contact Center, Unified Communication, and Communication APIs.
The 2025 UK Public Sector CX Report lays bare the glaring gaps in digital maturity, strategy, and frontline service capabilities across local government, housing, healthcare, and education.
Highlighting the fragmented state of citizen engagement, the report shows common pain points but also the capabilities needed to define who thrives and who fails in the next wave of public sector transformation.
“More than 80% of respondents are currently changing or intending to change their contact center provider in the next two years,” said Jamie Snaddon, EMEA managing director at 8×8, Inc. “That means there’s a chance to deliver a better future for public engagement for the majority – but the clock is ticking.”
The research uncovered several trends that consistently affect all four sectors surveyed.
Despite digital advances, email (74%), phone (68%), and face-to-face (66%) remain the top contact channels. Social media (52%) and live chat portals (45%) are gaining traction.
Three in ten (31%) of all organisations said their biggest internal communication challenge is that staff are using multiple, disconnected platforms. Integrated, all-in-one solutions remain the exception rather than the norm.
About half (47%) of companies surveyed expect policies to encourage more AI usage within three years. Meanwhile, three quarters (74%) have been tasked with increasing integration with other government bodies by 2030.
A third (33%) said AI has forced an increased focus on data protection, with a renewed focus on security and compliance.
Metrics have also evolved, with organisations rethinking success, moving beyond traditional metrics to more outcome-based, real-time analytics by 2030.
Public sector leaders also highlighted core operational issues with external communication, including long customer wait times, customers having to repeat themselves, call quality issues, and insufficient data reporting and training tools.
“Public sector organisations are telling us they’re at a critical turning point,” said Joe McStravick, vice president, EMEA Sales at 8×8, Inc. “There’s a clear appetite to improve citizen services as expectations around AI, data, and omnichannel engagement delivery increase. But for many, delivery of the tools, and training on their use, is not keeping pace – and that’s often down to budgets.”
Challenges by Sector
In healthcare, top concerns revolve around data security, increased patient expectations, and evolving regulations. The sector is also under growing pressure to improve integration with other government IT systems and increase the move to cloud.
For education, challenges include outdated collaboration tools, lack of shared knowledge systems, concersn over student data security, and bans on AI usage. Legacy communication channels such as emails and phone are still heavily in use as well.
In local government, digital transformation costs, poor network quality, and resistance to automation were cited as kye issues. The priority for many is transitioning to cloud-based contact centres.
Housing associations noted pain points in fragmented communication channels, lack of integration with other relevant services, a dispersed frontline workforce, and concerns around platform and system migrations. Security of customer data also remains a major focus, with many associations still relying on consumer messaging apps to maintain contact.
“While there is no shortage of ambition, the reality is that fragmentation, outdated technology, and security concerns are still widespread,” said Finbarr Begley, senior analyst at Cavell.
“The issue is budget, which means the path forward will demand strategic focus, better vendor partnerships, and a renewed investment in people and training. With the right platforms and policies, public sector organisations can not only meet rising expectations – they can exceed them, creating smarter, faster, and fairer services.”
With 59% of public sector leaders saying AI will be the most transformational factor in contact centers by 2030, the research shows that most organisations are still early in their AI journey.
While there is a focus on improving call routing, training, proactive citizen engagement, and self-service, many lack the infrastructure or insights to scale effectively.
Equally, concerns over security, cloud transition risks, and regulatory obligations influence buying decisions.
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TikTok has been issued a fine by EU tech regulators for failing to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act following an investigation into its advertisements.
The Digital Services Act introduced a range of stringent rules and regulations for some of the largest platforms operating online and in the EU. The law required these bigger sites to publish a repository of their advertisements for researchers and the public to monitor and detect scams or fraudulent ads.
TikTok, the prolific social media giant owned by Chinese company ByteDance, was found to fail to comply with the DSA’s ad repository rule, and will now face a fine.
The EU Commission said that TikTok failed to provide the required information about the advertisements it hosts, the users these ads target, and the organisations that pay for these ads.
Under the DSA, big tech companies must prevent the proliferation of illicit and harmful content, including:
Illegal content.
Fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression, media freedom and pluralism, discrimination, consumer protection and children’s rights.
Public security and electoral processes.
Gender-based violence, public health, protection of minors, and mental and physical wellbeing.
Further, the DSA also requires companies to audit and provide transparency reports on their recommender systems and algorithms, as well as their advertisement models.
The DSA works in conjunctions with other EU laws aiming to curb the powers of big tech companies, including the Digital Markets Act and, more generally, their data protection framework, GDPR.
The fine TikTok will face has yet to be determined or published, but if the findings are confirmed, then TikTok can face a fine of up to 6% its annual revenue. TikTok can also agree to reach a remedy with the EU Commission to avoid or lessen such a fine.
TikTok is not the first tech giant to be targeted under the DSA: X, formally known as Twitter, was found to be in breach of the law last year.
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The same hacking group responsible for targeting M&S and other UK retailers could now be targeting US companies, Google warns.
The tech giant warned in a statement on Wednesday that the Scattered Spider hacking group reportedly behind the M&S hack as well as the Co-op and Harrods attacks, may now target US retailers.
“US retailers should take note. These actors are aggressive, creative, and particularly effective at circumventing mature security programmes,” said Google cybersecurity analyse John Hultquist.
Hultquist warned that Scattered Spider typically focuses on a specific sector at a time, and will likely to continue targeting the retail sector.
“The actor, which has reportedly targeted retail in the UK following a long hiatus, has a history of focusing their efforts on a single sector at a time, and we anticipate they will continue to target the sector in the near term,” he warned.
The loosely interconnected network Scattered Spider involves hackers with a range of sophistication skills – their attack on M&S has left a lasting impact on the retailer, which still has their online operations interrupted.
The major UK retailer recently revealed that customer data was accessed in the cyber-attack, but this data did not include payment or password details. Still, the company is requiring users to reset their passwords.
Scattered Spider was reportedly also behind the major ransomware attacks on MGM and Caesars Entertainment, casino titans based in the US, two years ago, which prompted warnings from US officials about the group’s social engineering tactics.
It appears that the group may have an international base, as the UK arrested a teenager for his potential role in the attack on MGM. Other arrestees for the attack and potential involvement in the group were US citizens.
Following this, Scattered Spider was also credited with high-profile attacks against several digital platforms, including Reddit, Riot Games, Mailchimp, Coinbase, Twilio, and LastPass.
While the warning is pertinent, and echoes the ‘wakeup call’ voiced by cybersecurity officials in the UK, it remains to be seen how retailers across the globe will react.
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A new report from the Open Rights Group outlines how the Online Safety Act (OSA) favours big tech, harming small websites and the general public in the process.
The report, How to fix the Online Safety Act: A Rights First Approach, identifies how the Act is allowing big tech to make bigger gains, and provides key insights and recommendations to mitigate the Act’s potential for harm.
As Ofcom continues to roll out guidance to organisations for OSA compliance, a formal review on how effective the powers are in mitigating harm fairly across the scale of platforms operating online has raised concerns on how this will affect competition.
“The Online Safety Act is a sprawling and broken piece of legislation,” Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group said.
“This complicated legislation favours Big Tech who have the means and capacity to comply with the Act’s onerous provisions. Meanwhile, small sites and not-for-profits such as Wikipedia are put in an impossible position.
“In trying to tackle the worst of the web we are harming the best of it. Instead of tackling online harms, the Act concentrates the market power of Big Tech companies, exacerbating the underlying reasons that harmful content circulates.”
The Effect on Small Sites
The digital rights charity found that the OSA tends to disproportionately impact small sites. Provisions to prevent children from accessing certain content will disproportionately impact small and medium-sized businesses who may be required to conduct a risk analysis even if they are a sole trader or run a site on a voluntary basis.
These sites will have to check if they have UK users, perform a risk assessment and put themselves at the risk of fines or personal liability for prison sentences should they fail to comply with Ofcom’s directives.
Millions of sites could be impacted, and the Open Rights group reports that small sites and services are already closing, ranging from a local residents group, a video game platform, and a hamster forum.
While smaller sites may lack the technical or financial ability to comply with the OSA, this does not necessarily mean that the rules need to be changed. Smaller sites already have a different classification from major platforms, and will still be required to keep users safe online, and prevent children from accessing harmful content. This is the crux of the issue of a free and fair internet – regulation, security, and moderation all requires significant capital.
The Right to Information
The Open Rights Group also pointed out that the OSA could impact the ability of children to access information. Wikipedia, a not-for-profit online encyclopedia with content created and moderated by a fleet of volunteers, has taken legal action against how the OSA will impact its operations.
Wikipedia will be classified on the same scale as social media titans, and will be subjected to onerous provisions such as annual risk assessments and potentially having to introduce age verification to prevent children from encountering certain content.
The platform also pointed out that misinformation could run rampant on the site as moderators could be blocked by malicious posters, and their personal data may be tracked, putting it at risk of cyber threats.
The Open Rights Group highlights that in a worst-case scenario is that Wikimedia is blocked in the UK and the foundation’s representatives are made legally liable for non-compliance, which in turn would impact the UK public’s right to access information.
Report author Dia J Kayyali said: “As the UK follows in Trump’s footsteps by becoming ever more hostile to the rights of transgender people and less welcoming to immigrants, free expression online- including for LGBTQIA+ kids- is more important than ever. This important report lays out the ways the Online Safety Act could harm expression, at a time when it is more crucial than ever.”
Big Tech Dominance
The OSA and Ofcom’s guidance do not tackle the centralisation of market power and dominance of a few platforms, no do they attempt to empower users systemically. While Ofcom is not a market regulatory, the Open Rights Group says that this online harms approach risks failure on its own terms.
OSA interventions could potentially further concentrate market power, as it is Big Tech that will have the means to comply with its provisions. This could exacerbate the underlying reasons for unwanted content to circulate.
The Open Rights Group says that the OSA’s policies to tackle the most extreme content online are unlikely to succeed, and calls on the government to concentrate on other measures designed to introduce market forces for users to choose platform experiences that favour trust and positive interactions over misdirection and provocation.
Ofcom’s consultation discusses a number of methods of age verification that might be ‘highly effective’ when providing guidance to online platforms, noting that any selected method must be technically accurate, robust, reliable and fair. Leaving this choice to platform providers can create a supply chain relying on third-party vendors to provide age assurance.
This can create a new, large market for largely untested services to handle sensitive date, opening up a quagmire of privacy concerns.
While the Open Rights Group has suggested that providers should allow users to choose a method for identity confirmation that they already trust, this can also create technical issues with interoperability, and does not quell concerns on how age verification can potentially push young online users to darker corners of the internet.
“The Online Safety Act imposes extensive duties on online services regarding content moderation, amplification, and age verification, while putting a raft of new administrative powers and criminal offences on the statute books,” report author Dr Bernard Keenan said.
“While recognising that the current market in social media and search can and does cause harm to users, we are concerned that the Act’s approach to solving them creates other risks to freedom of expression, privacy, and market structure.
“If the Act encourages platforms to over-moderate legal content, it may result in chilling effects, disproportionate impact on marginalised or persecuted groups, and disproportionate risks on smaller services. The technical risks to privacy created by age verification tools are also highlighted. Successful implementation will depend on ensuring alignment with human rights standards.”
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Workers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and with lower educational attainment, are receiving fewer opportunities to access genAI and upskill on the technology than their peers, new Accenture research reveal.
The data, based on a poll of over 1,000 executives and nearly 4,000 employees in the UK, found that just 35% of workers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have access to gen AI tools, compared to 45% of their peers from more affluent backgrounds.
Additionally, even when workers from a lower socioeconomic background did have equal access to the tools, they reported they still used them less frequently.
The research also highlighted disparities between training when looking at workers with different qualifications, with around a third of workers (29%) with low educational attainment having not received any digital training in the past 24 months, relative to more than half (52%) of higher-education employees who have received such training at least every six months.
This is also reflected when examining the appetite for learning new digital skills at work. Just 6% of those with low educational attainment plan to gain new skills around using AI in the next 12 months, with that figure nearly six times higher among their high-education peers (29%).
Currently, 8.5 million adults in the UK still lack basic digital skills, putting them at risk of missing out on the educational, social and economic changes brought on by AI.
Daljish Channa, Accenture’s corporate citizenship lead in the UK, said: “Gen AI poses a unique opportunity to improve people’s access to technology and new skills.
“As the technology is accessible through natural language, and being rolled out at pace across workforces, we are seeing people already benefiting directly from its output.
“However, there looks to be unbalanced access to the technology, and training to utilise it properly, which could end up widening the digital divide rather than closing it.
“To combat this, schools, governments, and businesses must seize the moment to work together to ensure everyone has fundamental digital skills, as well as the confidence in using new and established technologies across the board.”
Aberdeen-based charity, TechFest, is hosting its Schools Science Festival from May 26-30th to enhance STEM knowledge among Northeast youth and inspire the next generation of engineers, scientists, and technologists.
Held at Robert Gordon University campus, the festival offers hands-on STEM activities for Nursery to Primary 7 pupils, from meeting exotic animals to exploring genetics and renewable energy, starting at just £2.
The programme, led by TechFest and partners like Glasgow Science Centre, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and Dynamic Earth, will showcase an engaging array of STEM workshops.
This initiative aligns with TechFest’s mission to enhance accessibility by fostering collaboration between industry and education while making STEM fun for all.
Jenny Taylor, festival manager, TechFest, said: “We believe every child deserves the chance to follow their dreams and have the confidence and passion to do so.
“Our Schools Science Festival makes that possible by connecting schools with our incredible sponsors and partners, inspiring the next generation to grow and thrive.
“We encourage every school to take full advantage of this opportunity. I believe that together, we can empower students, spark their curiosity, and build brighter futures for all!”
TechFest’s schools program supports participating institutions in integrating the ‘Developing Young Workforce’ agenda into their curriculum, offering students valuable insights into diverse career pathways.
The workshop hosts and lecturers, including environmental experts, university professors, and industry professionals, will provide valuable insights into the industry, foster relationships, and inspire young learners.
TechFest is dedicated to developing initiatives rooted in STEM, making the subjects fun and engaging while establishing meaningful connections with industry and education, to help young people pursue a future in STEM.
TechFest’s Schools Science Festival is jointly sponsored by Shell and bp and is tailored to support classroom learning through the Curriculum for Excellence.
Doris Reiter, senior vice president, bp North Sea, said: “The schools festival is a key feature of TechFest’s annual programme. We’re pleased to be supporting it again and helping young people to explore the boundless possibilities of STEM.”
Simon Roddy, SVP of Shell UK Upstream, said: “We are delighted to continue our sponsorship of TechFest. We hope that the variety of activities and experiences on offer will encourage people to engage with STEM and learn about the skills needed to help shape and develop our energy system.”
Following the Schools Science Festival, TechFest will be hosting Family Activity Weekend, which is one of the most popular events in the TechFest calendar.
Taking place Sat, 31st May – 1st June, this weekend gives the opportunity for thousands of visitors to explore the world of STEM in an inspiring, fun and relaxed fashion.
The weekend is made up of two days of workshops, shows and activities for families to get involved with.
Communities in Scotland can now apply for new funding from a £4 million Great British Energy Scheme.
The funding targets local clean energy projects – from community-led onshore wind, to solar on rooftops and hydropower in rivers – with the potential to generate profits that could be reinvested into community projects, or take money off of people’s bills.
Great British Energy, the UK government’s publicly-owned clean power company, is attempting to give communities a larger stake in generating their own energy so people can reinvest profits to other projects and issues.
Great British Energy’s £4 million funding is part of the £8 million Community Energy Generation Growth Fund, with the remaining funding coming from the Scottish Government.
“This is our clean energy superpower mission in action – putting communities in the driving seat of energy generation and making sure people profit,” minister for energy Michael Shanks said.
“Great British Energy wants to kickstart a community energy revolution, empowering our towns and villages to become mini energy producers and reinvest profits back into the local community.”
Project investment and development are two of Great British Energy’s five key functions, with also includes a local power plan, building supply chain partnerships, and exploring nuclear energy.
The announcement of Great British Energy was met with some controversy in Scotland, particularly in Aberdeen with its strong oil and gas industry.
While the publicly-owned energy company is set to be headquartered in Scotland, with reports that it would be headquartered in Aberdeen, perhaps to quell any misgivings.
The UK government is making wider moves to transition the UK energy supply away from oil and foreign supplies, as it introduced a bill in March that would accelerate funding for green energy projects throughout the country.
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A new AI tool, called ‘Consult’, was used on a live consultation by the Scottish Government for the first time.
Consult is part of the suite of AI tools created by the UK government under the umbrella name ‘Humphrey’ designed to speed up the work of civil servants and cut back time spend on admin and money spent on contractors.
The tool was used on a Scottish Government consultation seeking views on how to regulate non-surgical cosmetic procedures – like lip fillers and laser hair removal – as use of the treatments has risen.
Reviewing comments from over 2,000 consultation responses using generative AI, Consult identified key themes across six qualitative questions.
As this was the first time Consult was used on a live consultation, experts at the Scottish Government manually reviewed every response too. Identifying what an individual response is saying, and putting it in a ‘theme’ is subjective, as humans don’t always agree.
Consult was found to agree with the human reviewer over the majority of the themes, and any differences in their results were found to be negligible.
Consult and the Humphrey AI tool bundle forms part of the UK government’s plan to make better use of technology across public services, in a bid to target the £45 billion in productivity savings that it offers.
“Using the tool was very beneficial in helping the Scottish Government understand more quickly what people wanted us to hear and our respondents’ range of views,” the Scottish Government’s public health minister Jenni Minto said.
“Officials were reassured through the process that the AI was doing a good job, supporting us to undertake the analysis that will inform our next steps.
“Using this tool has allowed the Scottish Government to move more quickly to a focus on the policy questions and dive into the detail of the evidence we’ve been presented with, while remaining confident that we have heard the strong views expressed by respondents.”
While these early results were promising, Consult is still currently in trial, and is due for more evaluation covering the accuracy and efficiency of the tool to ensure it is working properly ahead of final rollout decisions.
Across the 500 consultations the government runs annually, the tool could help save officials from around 75,000 days of analysis every year, which costs the government £20 million in staffing costs.
Officials who worked with Consult from the Scottish Government on this first live test commented that they were “pleasantly surprised” that AI analysis provided a “useful starting point” in its initial analysis, with others noting that it ultimately “saved [them] a heck of a lot of time” and allowed them to “get to the analysis and draw out what’s needed next”.
They also added that the use of Consult “takes away the bias and makes it more consistent”, by removing opportunities for individual analysts to “project their own preconceived ideas”.
“No one should be wasting time on something AI can do quicker and better, let alone wasting millions of taxpayer pounds on outsourcing such work to contractors,” technology secretary Peter Kyle said.
“After demonstrating such promising results, Humphrey will help us cut the costs of governing and make it easier to collect and comprehensively review what experts and the public are telling us on a range of crucial issues.
“The Scottish Government has taken a bold first step. Very soon, I’ll be using Consult, within Humphrey, in my own department and others in Whitehall will be using it too – speeding up our work to deliver the Plan for Change.”
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Digital forensics company, Cyacomb, has appointed a new Chair and secured an additional £2.25m from the Scottish National Investment Bank to further scale the company and expand the international application of its technology.
Cyacomb’s technology quickly and thoroughly scans digital devices for known harmful content and enables law enforcement agencies worldwide to detect evidence of child sexual abuse and terrorist activity faster than ever before.
Its ability to triage suspicious devices on scene in seconds has helped reduce digital forensics lab backlogs, improve overall efficiency and helped safeguard children by enabling law enforcement to bring more perpetrators to justice.
The company’s tools were recently used in successful Border Force pilots at two major UK airports, which took place after the UK government announced new powers for the Border Force as part of the Crime and Policing Bill.
These powers will enable Border Force to compel people entering the UK, who are suspected of possessing harmful and illegal content, to unlock their devices for scans or face arrest.
To support the next stage of Cyacomb’s growth, it has appointed Maggie Titmuss MBE as Chair.
She has served the company as a non-executive director since 2021 and brings a wealth of expertise and experience, having spent more than 30 years in international law enforcement, including holding key positions at the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the National Crime Agency.
At the latter, she served as the Regional Head for North America and the Caribbean, based in Washington, DC.
Titmuss has also held key private sector positions at HSBC and Lloyds Banking Group, where she served as the Director of Intelligence & Incident Response.
In addition to her role at Cyacomb, she holds several non-executive roles, including serving as Chair of the Scottish Government’s National Cyber Resilience Advisory Board. She is a strong advocate for new and emerging sectors and skills.
Maggie Titmuss, chair of Cyacomb, said: “I am delighted to take on the position of Chair at Cyacomb. Through my time working with the company, I’ve seen the impact its technology makes and its growth opportunities. As Chair, I’m looking forward to building on the momentum within the company and supporting its mission to enable the swift and thorough identification of harmful digital content.”
The £2.25m investment from the Bank follows its initial investment of £4.8m in 2023.
Rebecca Currie, senior associate of investment at the Bank, said: “Cyacomb’s technology is delivering real impact by detecting known harmful content and supporting law enforcement in a battle against child sexual abuse and terrorist material. The efficiencies it is bringing to law enforcement agencies is impressive and we are excited to support the company in its next phase of growth.”
The Bank is an impact investor, meaning it is focused on securing long-term, commercial returns as well as social impact.
A small piece of outer space recreated in a basement in Glasgow could help ensure that a key enabling technology for future space missions won’t lead to deadly ‘rifle bullets’ of space junk circling the Earth.
Researchers at the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering have built the NextSpace Testrig – the world’s first dedicated facility for testing the structural integrity of materials that will be 3D printed in space.
The NextSpace Testrig was developed by the University’s Dr Gilles Bailet in partnership with The Manufacturing Technology Centre, supported by £253,000 in funding from the UK Space Agency (UKSA).
The facility, which uses a specially-constructed vacuum chamber capable of generating temperatures between -150°C and +250°C to create space-like conditions on Earth, is designed to help support the developing field of space manufacturing.
Space manufacturing aims to radically change how objects and materials are sent into orbit. Instead of carrying complete devices like solar reflectors into space on rockets, specially-designed 3D printers could create structures more cheaply directly in orbit instead.
Several experiments have already sent prototype 3D printers into orbit and metal parts have been 3D-printed by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Until now, no research facility has been dedicated to ensuring that polymers, ceramics and metals printed in orbit will be able to withstand the extreme physical strains they will face in space.
Objects in space are subjected to a hard vacuum that cycles rapidly between extremes of temperature – conditions that can wreak havoc on the structure of 3D-printed materials which aren’t rigorously constructed.
Imperfections such as tiny bubbles or poorly melted sections that might be inconsequential on Earth can behave differently in space.
Those flaws could cause 3D-printed objects to shatter, scattering dangerous fragments into orbit which would contribute to the growing problem of ‘space junk’ – pieces of debris from defunct satellites, previous space missions, or collisions between human-made objects in orbit.
Dr Bailet said: “3D printing is a very promising technology for allowing us to build very complex structures directly in orbit instead of taking them into space on rockets. It could enable us to create a wide variety of devices, from lightweight communications antennas to solar reflectors to structural parts of spacecraft or even human habitats for missions to the Moon and beyond.
“However, the potential also comes with significant risk, which will be magnified if efforts to start 3D printing in space are rushed out instead of being properly tested. Objects move very fast in orbit, and if a piece of a poorly-made structure breaks off it will end up circling the Earth with the velocity of a rifle bullet. If it hits another object like a satellite or a spacecraft, it could cause catastrophic damage, as well as increase the potential of cascading problems as debris from any collisions cause further damage to other objects.
“The NextSpace TestRig is open to academic colleagues, researchers and commercial clients from around the world to help them ensure that any materials they plan to 3D print in space will work safely. We also expect that the data we’ll be gathering in the years to come, which can’t be replicated anywhere else in the world at the moment, will help regulatory authorities to make safety standards for in-space manufacturing, informed by real-world testing.”
The testing facility features a unique magazine system that can autonomously test multiple samples in a single cycle, making it significantly more efficient than traditional testing methods. The system can apply up to 20 kilonewtons of force (equivalent to 2,000 kilograms) to break samples and analyse their properties in vacuum conditions matching those of space. It can also subject samples to cycles of extreme temperatures mimicking those they would face in orbit.
The facility is the latest development in Dr Bailet’s research in spaceborne additive manufacturing. He has also patented a prototype 3D printer which is designed for use in orbit and has been tested during a series of trips on a research aeroplane known as the ‘vomit comet’.
He added: “We expect that the NextSpace TestRig will be of real use to the UK space industry in the years to come. Glasgow is already a centre of excellence for space technology – companies here manufacture the most satellites in the world outside the west coast of the USA. Our facility will help augment the capabilities of future spacecraft assembled in orbit, ensuring that the UK space sector can be more competitive internationally.”
The development of the NextSpace TestRig was supported by funding from the UK Space Agency’s Enabling Technology Programme.
Iain Hughes, head of the National Space Innovation Programme at the UK Space Agency said: “We are proud to have supported the University of Glasgow in developing the world’s first facility for testing 3D-printed materials in space-like conditions. This innovation will help to drive UK advancements in space manufacturing, unlocking numerous benefits and meeting the government’s growth ambitions while ensuring safe and sustainable space use.”
Microsoft is set to lay off 3% of its workforce across all teams, regions, and levels, the company announced on Tuesday, according to CNBC.
“We continue to implement organisational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a spokesperson from the company said in a statement to the US news outlet.
In its end of June reporting last year, Microsoft had 228,000 employees in its global operations, with a 3% layoff rate set to affect thousands of workers.
Microsoft joined a scourge of tech firms cutting workers in an effort to cut costs in 2023, eliminating 10,00 roles. The company also announced a smaller round of cuts in January which the company said were based around performance, amounting to 2,280 workers cut from the company.
The new round of Microsoft layoffs, however, were not performance-related, but rather motivated partially to reduce management layers, a spokesperson said, as reported by CNBC.
While performance in AI cloud did outdo internal projections, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in January that the company would make changes in their sales execution strategy that would lead to lower-than-projected growth in the firm’s cloud revenue outside of AI.
“How do you really tweak the incentives, go-to-market?” the CEO said at the time to analysts. “At a time of platform shifts, you kind of want to make sure you lean into even the new design wins, and you just don’t keep doing the stuff that you did in the previous generation.”
Microsoft’s shares this week closed on Monday at the highest price of the year so far, at $449.26, a bit shy of their record $467.56.
2025 tech layoff show no sign of slowing down from 2023 and 2024 trends, as economic undulation and the global trade debacle create new drivers for companies attempting to cut costs.
