By 2028, more than 20% of digital workplace applications will use AI-driven personalisation algorithms to generate adaptive experiences for the worker, according to Gartner, Inc.
Digital workers satisfied with work applications are nearly three times more likely to report being much more productive compared with those who are not satisfied.
Yet, a Gartner survey of 5,141 employees conducted from April through July 2024 found that only 23% of digital workers are completely satisfied with their work applications in 2024, down from 30% in 2022.
“The apps used for work should feel as intuitive and empowering as the most popular consumer apps,” said Tori Paulman, VP analyst at Gartner.
“That’s exactly what employees are craving—a seamless, personalized, and omnichannel digital experience that mirrors the ease and consistency of mainstream consumer applications.
“Yet, over the past ten years, the gap between consumer and enterprise app experiences has widened. Many work applications remain isolated, inconsistent, and rigid, leaving much to be desired in terms of user experience.”
Gartner has provided five direct actions for workplace applications and bridge the gap with consumer-like experiences.
Implementing Best Practices
Focusing on AI-driven personalisation within workplace applications is essential. These tools should analyse workstyles to provide personalised insights, prioritise tasks, and automate workflows, all tailored to enhance each employee’s productivity.
Ensuring Transparency
This means clearly communicating how digital workplace algorithms function, as well as adhering to ethical guidelines. Detailing the decision-making processes and implementing strong data privacy and security measures to protect employee information and building trust is also essential.
Leaders should identify critical business goals, such as improving customer service first-call resolution. This also includes determining which employee roles will benefit most from AI-driven personalisation and explore how adaptive user experiences can reduce friction and boost productivity.
Define Clear Requirements
During vendor selection, leaders should prioritise applications that feature AI-driven adaptive user interfaces, personalised task management, and designs centred around the employee experience to ensure intuitive and effective tools.
Monitor and Adapt
Leaders should also regularly assess the effectiveness of AI-driven personalisation. This can look like collecting employee feedback and making continuous improvements to ensure these tools align with evolving employee needs and organisational objectives.
“In the realm of digital workplace applications, these algorithms can be game-changers for productivity by understanding and observing workers’ behavior, preferences, and past interactions to provide crafted recommendations,” said Paulman. “The power of these algorithms brings valuable insights to the surface, streamlines information, prioritizes tasks for workers, and even automates workflows to save time and make core work easier.”
According to new data from the UK government, the cybersecurity industry saw a 12% increase in total revenue in 2024, reaching £13.2 billion.
The UK government described this as an “exceptional performance” ratified by data from Companies House and a telephone survey.
The cybersecurity industry also saw other forms of growth, as a about 74 new firms cropped up in the last financial year, bringing the estimated total number of firms to 2165.
With these new firms, the sector also saw the creation of 6,600 new full-time positions to the sector, an increase of 11% year on year. The total workforce in the cyber industry is now at 67,300.
The majority (59%) offer services, where as about a quarter (26%) are product-focused vendors. 12% act as manages security service providers (MSSPs), while the 3% are resellers.
Most registered businesses are micro-businesses (56%), while medium (16%) and large (10%) make up a smaller proportion of cybersecurity firms.
Further, only a quarter (26%) of firms have an international presence – out of these, 52% have operations in the EU, whole 43% have some US operations.
The UK cybersecurity sector also saw a 21% increase in gross value added (GVA), which measures the net contribution of the sector to the economy, amounting to £7.8bn.
The report also found that the sector attracted solid investments across 2024, with a total £206 million raised across 59 deals.
However, the report did reveal the consistent challenges that persist in the sector.
Skilled talent is still hard to come by, and was cited by 47% of those surveyed as a hurdle to improvement. Coupling this with the 46% who said that high salary demands prevented them from making key hires, and the sector appears stuck at an impasse.
Competition with rival businesses, which could be home-grown or international, was also cited (39%) by a challenge in the industry.
Overall, the yearly review appears positive for the sector’s growth, but also points to the growing burnout among workers in the industry.
Four in 10 IT leaders are too afraid to acknowledge their mistakes due to a culture of ‘blame’ and ‘fear’ across their organisations, according to new research from Adaptavist, the digital transformation technology and solutions provider.
This is having a significant impact on innovation, quality of output, performance, and psychological safety, and risks undermining IT resilience, the study of 400 IT leaders in the UK, US, and Germany revealed.
In fact, Adaptavist’s research, conducted by Censuswide, showed that 44% believe that lack of psychological safety is hindering innovation in their organisation, while 42% said that a fear of acknowledging mistakes compromises their company’s cyber security.
Worryingly, it’s not just a ‘blame’ culture that’s leading to concerning challenges. 44% of IT leaders revealed that their organisation still prioritises speed over quality in software development.
Urgency to complete tasks often leads to mistakes, especially when paired with the heavy workloads often facing IT teams; in fact, 39% of leaders admitted that they are concerned their team’s excessive workloads could lead to a major incident.
In the UK, tech cultural challenges are in an even worse situation, as UK IT leaders consistently reported greater concerns in comparison to their US and German counterparts.
For example, 54% of UK IT leaders said that lack of psychological safety is hindering innovation, compared to 42% of US and 37% of German respondents. Likewise, 47% of UK IT leaders fear acknowledging mistakes, compared to 39% of US and 36% of German.
Male IT leaders also showed significantly higher rates of fear around acknowledging mistakes (45%) compared to their female counterparts (29%), suggesting gendered differences in how leaders experience psychological safety in the workplace.
“The technology industry’s culture of excessive workloads, fear, and blame has been allowed to develop over the last few decades due to the high-stakes nature of IT,” Jon Mort, CTO of Adaptavist commented.
“This is, and has always been, an extremely damaging mindset that risks security, innovation, and workplace wellbeing.”
Mort goes on to argue that ‘radical candour’ – a communication framework for specific and sincere praise and kind and clear criticism – is key to improving tech culture.
“Adopting a ‘radical candour’ approach is key to creating an effective feedback loop that prioritises efficiency and learning, without ever inducing ‘blame’,” he added.
Interestingly, Adaptavist’s research found that 41% of IT leaders said their organisation already supports a radical candour approach to addressing feedback, whereas 55% admit this is not necessarily in place.
On the other hand, one in four IT leaders indicated that their organisation still advocates for a culture of ‘blame’ over ‘learning’, suggesting that there is still a misalignment between expectations and reality when it comes to tech culture.
Apple is set to appeal against a Home Office order to create a ‘backdoor’ to its encrypted data at a secret tribunal to be held at the High Court in London at the end of the week.
The Investogatory Power Tribunal has published a notification of the hearing, which will be closed-door, on the 14th of March. Typically, the IPT does not make these announcements publicly, but it was revealed days ago that Appel was looking to appeal the secret order.
Now, it is anticipated the civil society groups, as well as the press, will petition for the hearing to be open court, as the case has garnered public interest, will affect the public, and especially since the governmnet’s order was leaked.
The order from the Home Office has sparked tensions between the UK and the US. While Apple has not complied with the order and has instead chosen to remove some of its encryption tools from the UK, US officials have warned the UK that any potential infringements on the US public’s privacy would be “egregious.”
The IPT rules on national sercurity cases typically in closed, secure courts.
Typically, in the case of secret orders, the Home Office maintains a stance of neither confirming nor denying any such orders, though this has been made difficult given the number of leaks since the alleged orders were issued.
But since the leaks, Apple’s removal of its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) from the UK, and the rise of international tensions, the news has gone mainstream.
Since the orders, over 100 cybersecurity experts and civil societies signed a letter urging Home Secreaty Yvette Cooper to withdraw the orders for Apple to create a backdoor to its encryption for law enforcement.
Since Apple’s withdrawl of ADP from the UK, many types of data will still be end-to-end encrypted by default, but key services, lke iCloud Drive, Photos, Notes, Voice Memos, and Reminsers will not be able to be end-to-end encrypted.
The UK government has introduced a new Planning and Infrastructure Bill to Parliament, which could see a restructing to energy distribution of the grid and a push towards renewables.
The Labour government already updated the UK’s ambition to decarbonise the energy grid by 2035 to 2030, and the new infrastructure bill is set to aid them in their goal.
New changes will be introduced to help achieve the UK’s clean power goals, including wind and solar power being prioritised for grid connections.
Come clean energy projects are currently facing waits of over 10 years, creating significant delays to realising climate goals.
The bill plans on replacing a “first come, first served” approach with a “first ready, first connected” system that will prioritise projects needed to deliver clean power.
This, the bill says will unlock growth with £200 billion of investment and protecting households from the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets, while reforming the grid queue will accelerate connections for industrial sutes and data centres.
To meed demand, around twice as much new transmission network infrastructure will be needed by 2030 as has been built in the past decade.
“Time and again blockers have been allowed to halt progress at every turn, which has weakened our energy security and left our country exposed to soaring energy bills for working people, families and businesses,” deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said. “This cannot and will not continue under my watch.
“Through our landmark Planning and Infrastructure Bill we’re taking bold action to fix the broken planning system, paving the way for us to get Britain building more vital infrastructure so our children and grandchildren can grow up in a more energy secure world.”
Energy secretary Ed Miliband said: “The only way to get Britain off dependency on fossil fuel markets controlled by dictators is with clean homegrown power that we control.
“Every turbine, every solar panel, every cable we connect helps protect families and paves the way for a new era of clean energy for our country.”
A record number of school girls from across the UK took part in the 2024/25 CyberFirst Girls Competition, which is run by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
Schoolgirls from across the UK received awards for their exceptional cybersecurity skills at a ceremony on International Women’s Day.
With the competition in its eight year, the girls competed in 12 regional finals and a catergory for independent schools. They tackled a series of cybersecurity challenges, including decrypting messages, cracking code, and solving coding puzzles.
A record 4,159 teams from more than 800 schools, comprising a total of 14,500 girls, signed up for the NCSC competition, which aims to encourage girls aged 12 and 13 to consider pursuing an interest in technology and a career in cyber.
The 13 regional winners and special award winners were recognised at a celebration day and gala prize-winning dinner at the iconic Jodrell Bank astronomical research centre in Cheshire.
Hillcrest School and Sixth Form Centre in Birmingham won £4,000 as they were crowned ‘Top scoring state newcomer’. Other special competition awards included The Henrietta Barnett School who were recognised as the ‘Top scoring team’.
The Competition, which concluded in December, aims to encourage girls to explore the world of cyber and technology, helping to address the lack of diversity in the UK cyber workforce, where women currently make up just 17% of employees.
NCSC deputy director for cyber growth, Chris Ensor, said: “A huge congratulations to all the 13 teams for winning their respective regional finals in this year’s CyberFirst Girls Competition and to all the award winners.
“I’d like to extend my gratitude to the teachers who’ve encouraged and inspired their students to take part in the Competition, to our sponsors whose support makes this event possible, and to the girls who demonstrated admirable skills, determination, and teamwork.
“It seems apt on International Women’s Day to point out the UK’s cyber security industry needs more female representation, and I hope for many of the girls this marks the beginning of their interest in technology.”
The CyberFirst Girls Competition is the NCSC’s flagship cyber security contest for schools, which opens annually to girls in Year 8 in England and Wales, S2 in Scotland, and Year 9 in Northern Ireland.
Since the Competition’s launch in 2017, around 85,000 girls have taken part.
The NCSC’s CyberFirst programme offers a range of free challenges aimed at offering young people the skills, opportunities and exposure they need to thrive in cyber security.
This includes free courses for boys and girls, which aim to introduce pupils aged 14 to 17 to the cyber threat landscape and to develop their digital and problem-solving skills.
Human error was the top contributor to data breaches in 2024, with 95%, according to a new study by Mimecast.
Insider threats are driving these figures, the study found, as just 8% of staff account fro 80% of these incidents.
The Mimecast report found that almost half (43%) of respondents saw an increased in internal threats or data leaks that were routed in compromised, negligent or careless staff in the past year.
Two thirds (66%) are expecting data loss from insiders as a result of this trend over the next year. A third (33%) still fear human error in the handling of email threats.
An insider-driven data exposure, loss, leak, and theft event would cost respondents’ organizations an average of $13.9 million, the report found.
Further, while 87% of respondents say that security awareness training has helped employees spot cyber-attacks, but two in three (66%) are still concerned that data loss from insiders will increase in 2025, and a third (33%) still fear human error in the handling of email threats.
Over half of organisations are also saying that they need an increased budget for cybersecurity staffing (57%), third-party services (57%), and collaboration tool security (52%).
While most organisations (96%) say formal security strategy has improved their cybersecurity risk level, but 61% say that it is inevitable or likely that their organisation will suffer a negative business impact from an attack linked to a collaboration tool in 2025.
In relation to this, 79% of respondents agree the use of collaboration tools poses new threats, and 95% expect to see email security challenges in 2025, demonstrating the need for strong email and collaboratiol tool security.
When it comes to AI, about four in five (81%) are concerned about GenAI leading to sensitive data leaks, and just over half (55%) are not fully prepared with specific strategies for AI-driven threats, demonstrating the continued need for organisations to implement their own AI-based platforms.
Techscaler, the Scottish Government’s startup support programme run by CodeBase, will be showcasing some of Scotland’s early stage startups at a London investor event this week.
The ‘Techscaler London Investor Showcase’ takes place at Scotland House London on Wednesday 12th March, via a partnership between CodeBase, The Scottish Government, and Scotland House London.
The pre-seed and seed stage startups that will feature on the day are:
nuuri – a digital platform connecting parents and nurseries.
UnityflowAI – an automatic speech recognition transcription service for business.
&munch – a marketplace for mobile food and drink suppliers.
eCERTO – streamlining capital project management across industries.
Optab – construction cost and environmental management tool.
cleanifiq – marketplace for domestic and commercial cleaning services.
Practest – reshaping the landscape of patient care.
Curated startup pitches by founders who are all actively seeking investment will be followed by an expert panel focusing on early-stage investing – hosted by Hattie Willis from GuessWorks, Jasmin Thomas from Ada Ventures, Sam Simpson from FounderCatalyst, and CodeBase’s Andrew McGinley.
Andrew McGinley, CodeBase’s entrepreneur in residence, said: “The opportunity to engage with investors in London this week will open doors to global capital for our startups, while enabling them to make valuable connections and plug into networks that will help to underpin their growth plans. And we’ll be planning more of these kinds of events outside of Scotland to shine a spotlight on our high potential founders and startups.”
Hattie Willis, founder of GuessWorks, said: “It’s not just about introducing founders to investors- it’s about giving investors a taste of the incredible opportunity in growing startup ecosystems like Scotland – my hope is it’s just the beginning of more investment there.”
Jasmin Thomas, venture partner at Ada Ventures, said: “Scotland is home to world-class innovation, and events like this are crucial in spotlighting the exceptional talent beyond the traditional investment hubs.
“At Ada Ventures, we invest in the best, not just the best connected, and we are committed to backing visionary founders in regional ecosystems like Scotland, where groundbreaking ideas deserve greater attention. We’re excited to engage with these high-potential startups and support the next wave of transformative companies.”
The Scottish Government’s deputy first minister Kate Forbes said: “The Scottish Government’s Techscaler programme launched just two years ago, but is rapidly helping build Scotland’s reputation as one of the best places in Europe to launch a tech start-up as we develop an end-to-end support network for business founders and start-up companies.”
She added: “Early investment is of course vital to help start-ups grow and scale. Scottish businesses have already benefited from on-the-ground exposure to American and Asian markets through Techscaler .
“Helping our start-up community access the vibrant London-based investment market is the next step in ensuring the next generation of Scottish businesses is set up to succeed.”
Now in its third year, Techscaler is aimed at creating, developing, and scaling tech startups. The programme now supports nearly 1,000 startups, with member companies having raised almost £120 million during its first two years of operation.
Following outages reported across the UK and US on 10 March, Elon Musk, owner of X, has said that the social media platform suffered a cyber-attack.
Tens of thousands of users flocked to Downdetector to report outages which appeared to come in waves across the day, with most (58%) using the mobile app.
X owner Musk first took to the site to say that the platform suffered a massive cyber-attack, which “was done with a lot of resources.”
The Tesla owner then told Fox News, an American media outlet, that “There was a massive cyber-attack to try and bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.”
These claims have yet to be substantiated, and even if true, attackers could have used compromised systems located in Ukraine in order to obsefucate their real location.
Cybersecurity researches have, however, found a different potential source for the attacks. Dark Storm, a hacktivist group that is allegedly affiliated with the Pro-Palestine movement, shared screenshots on their Telegram channel that they were conducting a distrubuted denial of service (DDoS) attack on X.
The screenshots were of Check-host.net, we website often used to prove a DDoS attack is taking place as it checks the availability of a website from different servers.
Dark Storm has previously taken credit for attacks against Europe, the US, and Israel. The group’s true affiliation remains unclear, as it could be a front for other more active cyber rings.
Currently, it seems the DDoS attack has subsided, and X is not being protected by Cloudflare’s DDoS protection service, which employs a captach to suspicious IP addresses attempting to connect with the site.
DDoS attacks spiked 82% in 2024, driven by advancements in AI and IoT adoption.
In the case of X, Musk’s increased affiliation with the US president and his inflamed regards towards the Ukraine war, may have contrinbuted to the site being targeted.
February showed the third consecutive monthly decline in private sector output in Scotland, according to the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Growth Tracker.
The monthly index showed only a marginal decrease, from 49.6 to 49, as the month also saw a small rise in services business activity.
The index is seasonally adjusted and measures the changes in the combined output from Scotland’s manufacturing and service sectors each month.
Companies in Scotland continue to face obstacles in obtaining new business, and new work inflows falling for the fifth month in a row, now at the steepest rate since November 2023.
Despite less new work, there appears to be growing optimism amongst Scottish businesses, the latest survey revealed.
Firms are predicting that the current economic downturn will end in the coming months, as the 12 month outlook saw an improvement, turning into a three-month high.
“Scotland experienced another month of decline in February, however, there are encouraging signs in the latest Royal Bank Scotland Growth Tracker,” Judith Cruickshank, chair, Scotland Board, Royal Bank of Scotland, said.
“Panellists anticipate activity to rise in the coming 12 months. In fact, the degree of confidence strengthened further from December’s low, with underlying data showing that firms were expectant of new contract wins and improved demand trends.
“Looking ahead, still-elevated price pressures may pose headwinds to performance. Nonetheless, businesses recorded greater confidence for the year-ahead outlook and price pressures in Scotland continue to be milder than the rest of the UK.”
In Context with the UK
Scottish private sector firms recorded another decline in new business during February.
The rate of contraction was the most marked in 15 months and outpaced the UK-wide average.
Reduced demand and increased uncertainty were reasons cited for the
latest downtick. Nonetheless, firms anticipate activity to rise in the coming 12 months.
In fact, the degree of confidence strengthened further from December’s low, with underlying data showing that firms were expectant of new contract wins and improved demand trends.
That said, the level of optimism across Scotland was less upbeat than the UK-wide average and historically subdued.
Job losses were recorded for a third straight month across Scotland’s private sector in February. Employment was reduced at the fastest rate in four years, although the decline was still modest overall and much slower than that observed at the UK level.
Anecdotal evidence attributed the latest round of job shedding to redundancies and non-replacement of voluntary leavers.
Despite falling workforce numbers, firms were able to keep on top of their backlogs in February. The rate of depletion was sharp and the most pronounced in seven months. Scottish companies noted that less incoming work allowed them to manage their existing tasks more effectively.
Average input prices rose strongly in February with the respective seasonally adjusted index remaining above its long-run trend level. Despite easing slightly, the rate of inflation held close to January’s recent high. The uptick in costs was heavily linked to wage pressures and tax increases. Economic instability also contributed to rising costs.
Deviating from the trend seen for input prices, the latest survey data signalled a stronger rise in average fees charged from the provision for Scottish goods and services. The pace of charge inflation was rapid and at a ten-month high. Charges were raised to cover cost burdens.
Nevertheless, price pressures in Scotland continued to be milder than the UK averages.
Work stress, the pressure to improve user experience, and a lack of AI strategy are preventing IT professionals from upskilling and learning new technology, research shows.
A new report from Auvik has revealed several trends that are contributing to a new age of IT generalists as tech professionals are stalled from developing specialist skills, despite the rampant push for AI.
II professionals suffer from a range of stressors, with nearly half (47%) citing reactive work due to a lack of tool purchase involvement, followed by workload (43%), management expectations (38%), and lack of resources (31%).
About 78% of respondents to the Auvik’s survey said that these work stressors were preventing them from upskilling.
One of the top contributors listed has to do with a lack of involvement of IT workers in the purchasing of new tools and technologies they then have to work on. Nearly half (47%) of IT pros are asking to be consulted earlier on new tools so they can be better prepared to adopt them, or guide their company’s buyers on making better vendor selections.
IT professionals are still being judged rather narrowly, with around half (48%) judged primarly by the quality of the end user expeirence rather than their own performance.
While this can provide IT professionals with a good frame of reference for how they will be critiqued, it leaves little room for their won development or improvement as being beneficial to their performance reviews.
Further, despite the pressure to adopt AI, about a third (34%) of IT teams report not knowing or not having an AI strategy in place.
In addition, while AI may be improving productivity, a lack of a strategy often means that IT professionals are still depended on by their end-users.
As emerging technplogy is adopted, tool sprawl is reaching new heights – one in two managed service providers noted using more than ten tools for a single business role.
The demands of the job are are also stopping 44% of IT professionals from researching advancements in the field, leaving room for the AI skills gap to widen.
All of these various demands and challenges are contributing to burnout, with three in five (60%) reporting feeling burnt out.
Despite this, 84% reported confidence in management, meaning that most IT workers feel supported. However, when it came to AI, this figure fell by 20%.
Goolge has updated its Responsible AI and Human Centred Technology (RAI-HCT) team webpage, quitely removing any reference to diversity or equity.
The RAI-HCT team is tasked with researching AI safety, bias, and explainability, and previously mentioned “marginalized communities,” “diverse,” “underrepresented groups,” and even “equity” on its webpage.
Now, these words have been scrubbed from the team’s page, though some phrases have been swapped for more vague laugnage, like “varied”.
The change was discoverd by The Midas Project – a nonprofit AI watchdog – and comes after similar changes to Google’s Startups Founders Fund grant website.
The changes follow Google’s announcement that it would scrap its diversity hiring initatives and review its DEI targets following the new US regime against these programmes.
“We’re committed to creating a workplace where all our employees can succeed and have equal opportunities,” a Google spokesperson said at the time.
“We’ve updated our [annual investor report] language to reflect this, and as a federal contractor our teams are also evaluating changes required following recent court decisions and executive orders on this topic.”
Amazon and Meta have followed suits, and OpenAI similarly removed mentions of diversity from its hiring practices page.
Date: Feb 26 – March 6, 2025 Company: @Google Change: Scrubbed mentions of diversity and equity from the mission description of their Responsible AI team. pic.twitter.com/i9VvBcHMQ6
— The Midas Project Watchtower (@SafetyChanges) March 8, 2025
Apple has stood out from its peers, however, and has yet to scrap its DEI initiatives, despite pressure from shareholders.
The Innovation Cluster Development Fund was launched in the New Year to feed a pipeline of new and innovative ventures coming out of the campus that have potential to grow and establish themselves as new businesses.
Interest was so strong in the new funding stream that the initiative was many times oversubscribed and is indicative of the high volume of innovation activity under way across the institution.
The projects selected for funding all fit broadly into emerging strategic clusters for the University, with four projects from the life sciences, three in critical technology (including net zero) and one each in the creative arts and social innovation.
The early-stage fund enables staff and projects to focus on the development of innovative ideas that may have potential for a spin-out venture or worthy of exploration through other commercialisation routes.
The hope now is that the projects will deliver at pace and progress to the next stage of the journey towards realising their business potential.
One of the successful projects is looking at using advanced medicinal chemistry and cellular biology techniques to develop a new type of drug candidate for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
Project lead Pat Gunning, Professor of Molecular Therapeutics (Molecular Biosciences) at the University, said: “We are very excited to have been awarded funds to advance our translational medicinal chemistry programme. The funds will fast-track our collaborative programme and identify a safer, more selective, preclinical candidate for rheumatoid arthritis.”
Another project is developing semiconductor microchips capable of operating at extremely low temperatures to enable scalable quantum computers, fostering rapid advancements in emerging fields.
These include drug development, cybersecurity, manufacturing and to help mitigate the immense energy used in datacentres as AI tools demand ever-greater capacity.
Project lead Robert Graham, a research associate at the University, said: “The team and I are very excited to have received support from the Innovation Cluster Development Fund. This will allow our technology to pass through the final step of development, turning it from prototype into a product, enabling its commercial use by Quantum system manufacturers and making it the bedrock of a spinout company.”
In Arts & Humanities, the recently incorporated spin-out Design Otherwise is working to improve inclusion and social justice in the cultural economy, translating leading academic expertise into practical solutions for industry and policy.
Professor Doris Ruth Eikhof, CEO & creative director of Design Otherwise, said: “The ICDF award will allow us to develop our Everyday Diversity app, which provides an ‘inclusion solution in your pocket’ for busy screen professionals. The award is a much-welcome support for us to design for impact, one project at a time.”
Uzma Khan, vice principal for Economic Development & Innovation at the University of Glasgow, said: “It’s hugely encouraging to see such a strong cohort of proposals coming forward from a wide range of disciplines and clusters, that demonstrate commercialisation potential.
“The overwhelming number of applications received is testament to both the breadth and depth of our research strengths at the University of Glasgow, and our appetite to support translation research and innovative activity.
“We look forward to supporting these projects through the fund in the coming months and working with the teams to help progress their businesses to the next stage of their development and ambition – delivering growth in the City region economy.”
The Innovation Cluster Development Fund is supported by the UK Government and Glasgow City Council through Shared Prosperity Funding, and the Scottish Funding Council’s Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Funding.
The University of Glasgow is a world top 100 University (THE, QS) and the Times and Sunday Times Good University of the Year 2022, and a member of the prestigious Russell Group of leading UK Universities with an average annual research income since 2020-21 of £203m.
In 2024, the University’s top six spin-out companies raised investment of more than £60 million, creating 250 jobs across a range of commercial and spin-out activity, and awarded more than £600,000 to 23 projects with commercial or spin-out potential as part of major funding drives in Medtech and the Arts and Humanities.
A ‘golf bag’ of robotics and autonomy could soon be protecting lives by replacing people in dangerous situations where there are chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear threats.
The concepts, designed and developed by Oxford Dynamics, Createc, Autonomous Devices and the University of Bristol have received more than £2 million in funding via the Defence, Science, and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Defra will use these tools for enviornment remediation and recovery work.
The unique capabilities of these tools could also offer solutions to challenges across UK defence and beyond as well as supporting more than 100 specialist jobs.
Oxford Dynamics have fused AI and advanced robotics to develop a prototype tracked machine called Strider.
The robot will work out the best way to pick up, collect, and store samples, which involves capabilities in object detection, assessing surface quality, and estimating weight.
Mult-directional Drone
Autonomous Devices, a robotics defence and manufacturing firm, have created a multi-directional drone with a swabbing system to test for contamination in hard to reach places, such as entering upstairs windows.
This device also includes the potential to apply decontamination spray.
Robot Control Software
Createc, an emerging sensor technology firm, has developed robot control software to enable their fleet of robots to gather information and samples to deal with an incident including a drone, a robot dog, and four-wheeled vehicles.
These vehicles are autonomous but can be switched over to remote control is requried, with the ability to climbe stairs, open car doors, and use tools.
The University of Bristol is pioneering an uncrewed ground vehicle with a robotic arm that would work with a tethered drone to carry out decontamination with a spray system at a range of heights.
“Science and technology are vital in preparing for the future and whatever challenges and opportunities that brings,” chief scientific adviser at Defra, Professor Gideon Henderson, said.
“These innovative solutions could help remove people from hazardous situations and ultimately save lives.
“We are delighted to work with our partners at Dstl and harness this expertise along with some of the top minds in universities and industry.”
This work is part of a wider partnership established by Dstl and Defra.
The UK is set to overhaul how AI experiments and digital projects are funded in the public sector in an effort to simplify the process, cut down waste in taxpayer funding, and boost efficinecies.
According to the UK government, the overhaul will be centred around a ‘startup’ mindset, the change will offer a route to simplify how Government funds small AI projects and the replacement of outdated technology, after a review found that many digital projects face overly complex spending approval processes that can slow them down or prevent them from getting off the ground entirely.
The new review follows research revealing that one-in-four of the systems used by central government are outdated. For the worst affected organisations, this figure is almost triple that (70%).
This outdated technology can rack up huge maintenance costs, ultimately resulting in the taxpayer paying out three-to-four times more than if the technology was kept up to date.
A growing number of these outdate systems are ‘red-rated’ for reliability and security risk.
Four new approaches to putting money behind innovation will be tested in April. This includes building on the rollout of GOV.UK Chat, the government’s experimental generative AI chatbot, to provide staged funding for innovation.
Products will be supported through stages, with larger and larger tests if early trials show the potential to save money and improve public services.
There will also be a focus on developing new outcome metrics and evaluation plans for major digital projects, to ensure that these deliver value for money for the taxpayer.
The review aims to stop chunks of the public sector’s technology bill not delivering on intended outcomes for the public. It follows the publication of a ‘blueprint for a modern digital government‘, which set out how technology will be used to improve public services, drive growth and deliver the Plan for Change.
“Technology has immense potential to build public services that work for citizens,” technology secretary Pete Kyle said.
“But a decades old process has encouraged short-sighted thinking and outdated tech, while stopping crucial innovation before it even gets going.
“These changes we’re making ensure innovation is the default. We will help give AI innovators in Government the freedom they need to chase an exciting idea and build prototypes almost immediately.
“This review will help us build technology that will mean businesses can skip the admin and get on with driving growth, digital systems supporting the police are more reliable so they can keep our streets safe, and it will mean we can build new tools to speed up wait times for doctors’ appointments and get the NHS back on its feet are built.”
International Women’s Day feels different this year – with one of the most powerful countries in the world pushing to scrap Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives, women appear to be on the battleground for basic rights and respect, in and outside the business world.
It feels women have globally lost a sort of moment built up by the MeToo and TimesUp movements, as social media takes a different kind of hold over the collective consciousness, heroin chic aesthetics rear their skeletal heads, and one of the world’s most powerful countries elected a man facing several rape allegations, again.
In Scotland, the mood feels different, though. Women in entrepreneurship seem empowered despite the statistics showing otherwise – UK female founders earn just 2% of all equity funding according to a report from Charles Stanley.
As of October 2024, only 13.7% of the entire UK population of high-growth businesses had at least one female founder, despite the number of businesses led by women more than doubling over the past ten years.
While there’s plenty to feel optimistic about, we shouldn’t be under illusion as to the scale of the problem: Women only make up around a quarter of tech roles (and just over a quarter of cybersecurity roles). Beyond this, a recent PwC Women in Work Index saw the UK record its worst gender pay disparity in a decade.
Despite this, we’re seeing clear intention in Scotland to attempt to address not only the imbalance in tech, but also the broader macro-entrepreneurial ecosystem that’s been so heavily weighted against women.
There are now specific government initiatives to support women in business, such as the Pathways Forward initiative, galvanised by the Pathways Report authored by Ana Stewart and Mark Logan.
To speak about the important work being done in Scotland to prop up women in entrepreneurship, DIGIT spoke with Ana Stewart, chair of Pathways Forward, author of the seminal Pathways Report, and partner at Eos Advisory, to highlight what IWD means to her.
IWD: Just Another Day?
With all the noise from Washington, Stewart sees her organisation as an opportunity to bring stability and focus to entrepreneurial issues.
“I think we need to just focus on what we think the right thing to do is, and be quite steadfast in continuing on our strategy.”
Stewart also sees her work as important outside the sphere of women’s issues. She says: “It’s not just women that are challenged – men are also affected, anyone in underrepresented groups are affected by the noise and the geopolitical instability.
“All we can do is try to help and keep some stability and focus on making sure that entrepreneurship stays on top of the agenda because it’s absolutely integral to the economy.”
As for International Women’s Day, Stewart’s plans remain largely steadfast.
“There’s two sides to it,” Stewart said.
“On the one hand, for many of the people we are supporting – the founders – it means a lot because it provides an opportunity to amplify the challenges they face or amplify the great things they are doing. There’s a lot of events highlighting women in entrepreneurship.
“But everybody is working hard all year round, and we don’t just offer lip service on one day, when in fact, we need to take action and we need to be doing things.
“As an organisation, this is one of 365 days a year that we’re working on projects and trying to accelerate change in action through our pledge work.”
And as Stewart said, that action has been non-stop since the Pathways Report was published back in 2023. The report, commissioned by the Scottish Government, delved into the barriers and challenges women face in entering entrepreneurship, from education as young people all the way through to funding rounds, the burden of care, and societal sexism.
When Stewart was first approached to write the Report by Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, who was then a cabinet secretary for finance, she said she felt obliged.
“I just wanted to do the right thing,” she explained. “I wanted to contribute, and feel useful, having experienced many of these things first hand.”
Having founded her own company back in the 1990s, moving through funding rounds, navigating the VC landscape, to eventually becoming an investor herself, Stewart felt her experience ticked all the proverbial boxes to write a report on women in entrepreneurship.
In the 18 months since the report was published, £4.6m has been invested in Pathways related recommendations – of which there are 31 – with a further £4 million pledged this year by the Scottish government.
The Pathways report evolved into Pathways Forward, an advocacy group which works with the public and private sectors to boost investment and support for entrepreneurs, working to enact all 31 recommendations set out in the report.
From there, around 27 companies – and counting – have taken the Pathways Pledge to enact these recommendations, to support women founders and gender parity in their organisations.
Since writing the report, Stewart says the reception has been encouraging.
“It’s gone way beyond what I could ever have imagined,” she said.
“I’m absolutely humbled by the massive engagement and the actions and the initiatives that are going on out there in Scotland. It’s affecting thousands of women in a really positive way, and that’s thanks to all of the organisations and industry leaders taking part.”
Direct Impact
The thing that separated Pathways from previous reports on gender in entrepreneurship was its holistic approach to the matter. Entrepreneurship does not exist in a vacuum, outside of societal influences. It is determined by a country’s mindset, educational attitude, and access to the business world.
What might demonstrate this best through two events Stewart attended the week before IWD, one hosted by the South of Scotland Enterprise and one hosted by Scottish Enterprise, both were supported by the Scottish government.
The South of Scotland Enterprise, aimed at prospective or would-be founders from various backgrounds, provided a platform for “making entrepreneurship visible as an opportunity, as an option, to people who may not have access to the idea of being an entrepreneur,” Stewart explained.
The programme also incorporated microgrants, a recommendation from the Pathways Report.
“Giving small grants to women that are going to start a business that may have otherwise been prohibited from doing so, is fantastic.”
But the programme was also available to men in the South of Scotland, which Stewart sees as the entire point of Pathways – to support everyone, holistically, to create a better system for entrepreneurship.
Women in rural regions can be “geographically constrained,” so opportunities directed locally “are reaching really talented people that maybe don’t know they have this talent or haven’t had the opportunity before.”
Similarly, the microgrants recommended by the Pathways Report provide those thinking of embarking on a startup journey with greater flexibility, without the amplified financial risk of starting a business women often face due to things like the burden of care.
“These microgrants are really helpful because it just gives them the ability to take that step and not fear that they’ll be on the street the next day because they haven’t got the funding to try and take their idea forward,” she explained.
“It’s really empowering for them to be able to embrace whatever idea and vision they have, and to turn that into something real without exposing them to a huge amount of risk.”
The Scottish Enterprise initative, Pathways to Scale, was aimed at women further along their entreprenrual journeys as they begin to scale their business ideas.
It provided an opportunity for founders to scale and get connected with investors, as well as with eachother, to build a wider network and community of female founders. The event was a culmination of the programme, celebrating the cohorts which had progressed through the mentorship and trianing programme.
Looking to The Future
As Stewart said, the 8th of March is another day for her organisation to continue working on improving the state of entrepreneurship in Scotland.
One of Pathways Forward’s key focuses for the coming year will be expanding the Pathways Pledge cohort.
“We all want to see change and I’m trying to make sure that everyone has a role to play in changing the system, having an impact, and taking all these small steps.
“Individually, they may not have the impact, but when you do them collaboratively, these small steps combined can have a much bigger collective impact.”
Stewart says that the hope is to build on that momentum t to drive the programme forward.
Equally, though, she clarifies the importance of enacting all 31 recommendations detailed in the pathways report – “one or two won’t shift the dial.”
This includes not only finance and support for founders, but starting to make change at the “seed stage” – “And I don’t mean in investment, I mean at a very young age and in all groups that are not immediately connected to becoming an entrepreneur.”
Interventions in early education, ingraining an entrepreneurial mindset, “are foundational, they’re absolutely pivotal to help get more entrepreneurs coming into the system to start with.”
While Stewart remarked on the surge of progress and support her initiatives have received after her report was published, she sees several avenues of improvements, a myriad of pathways to progress still yet to be tread
Ranging from changes in government policy, more funding, better education, getting VC boardrooms more involved, pushing toward more gender parity in funding boards, Stewart sees all as vital steps to be taken.
“But I really think we need a system that works for all. Not ‘here’s a system for women, here’s a system for men. It should be: ‘Here’s a brilliant system that actually works for everyone.’”
For Stewart, this looks like a system where “we’re capturing all the talent and the opportunity that’s there to help people thrive and build businesses in Scotland, a cohesive system which can be customised from within, to ensure that we’re capturing everyone to achieve better outcomes.”
Stewart points out that everyone wants, and can benefit, from a high growth economy.
“That does require a much more significant investment from Scotland, from the government as well as engagement and investment from the private sector.”
Stewart further hopes to see more alignment between the public and private sector to improve the coordination of solving the persistent societal challenge.
But equally, Stewart wants more men to be involved in the movement.
“A vibrant entreprenurial economy will benefit everyone, not just women. Men have a real important role to play,” Stewart insists.
Stewart wants more good people involved.
“It’s really not about blame here, it’s about the system being outdated. Society has evolved – we need to keep up in order to tap into our population.
While 51% of the population in Scotland is made up of women, Stewart posits that there’s “a significant amount of men that are also not tapping into the system because it’s not right for them.
“Counter to the noise of some economies in North America, Scotland has the opportunity to buck the trend and fully leverage the talent that is untapped in this country that will drive our future economy.”
More than £100 million funding to support Modern and Foundation Apprenticeships in 2025-26 has been confirmed by education secretary Jenny Gilruth.
Contracts will now be issued by Skills Development Scotland to employers, training providers and colleges for Modern Apprenticeship starts and learning providers for Foundation Apprenticeship starts.
“Around 400,000 apprenticeship opportunities have been provided to young people across the country since 2008 and our latest funding commitment makes clear they will continue to be a key feature of Scotland’s education and skills system going forward,” Guthrie said.
“Apprenticeships provide vital opportunities for young people to acquire key skills and a route into high quality careers, helping the economy and creating sustainable jobs.
“Feedback from employers indicates that there are key skills gaps and we are aiming to focus investment on apprenticeships in sectors facing labour market shortages. I would encourage businesses to consider opportunities available to them, to help them adapt and sustain their operations.
“Supporting apprenticeships is just one part of the £2 billion we are investing each year in colleges, universities and the wider skills system, recognising the vital role they play in education and the economy.”
Chair of Skills Development Scotland Frank Mitchell said: “Created by employers, for employers, apprenticeships are crucial to unlocking economic opportunity in growth sectors.
“With demand from employers and young people remaining strong, SDS will continue working to maximise apprenticeship starts aligned to industry need within its available budget.
“Apprenticeships foster innovation, economic growth, and new opportunities whilst providing great social return, generating opportunities for many young people from Scotland’s most deprived communities.”
Women make up just 31% of enrollments in generative AI (GenAI) courses in the UK, despite a remarkable 227% surge in course enrollments over the past year, according to a new report from Coursera.
While UK enrollments in GenAI courses have soared, female participation remain just under the global average of 32%.
This highlights a persistent gender divide in one of the fastest-growing sectors in tech.
The trend also mirrors the broader gender imbalance in STEM and AI fields.
Despite a 50% increase in women entering full-time STEM degrees in the UK between 2011 and 2020, women still make up only 26% of the UK tech workforce.
The pattern is consistent in GenAI, despite its increasing influence across industries.
Dr. Alexandra Urban, learning science research lead at Coursera, emphasised that the gender gap in AI goes beyond workforce representation.
“Studies show that 44 per cent of AI systems exhibit gender bias when female perspectives are missing from development,” she said.
“Expanding women’s access to GenAI skills is critical to reducing bias and ensuring more inclusive AI innovation.”
The report also highlights several barriers preventing women from fully engaging in GenAI.
Women are six times more likely to enroll in beginner-level GenAI courses compared to intermediate ones, pointing to a confidence gap.
Additionally, balancing work and home responsibilities remains a major challenge, with many women citing a lack of time as the primary reason for discontinuing courses.
“This research shows a clear sign that more needs to be done to bring women into AI and STEM,” Gangotri Bhatt, director of Skills Lab at FDM Group, said.
“While demand for AI skills is soaring, women remain underrepresented.
“Businesses must take the lead in closing this gap by prioritising upskilling and providing the right training and career progression opportunities for women.
“As AI becomes more integral to business operations, empowering women with the right skills and support is crucial.
“In order to build a stronger, more competitive tech sector, organisations must ensure women are at the forefront of the industry’s future.”
Zoe Kelleher, club executive, London, for AND Digital, commented: “Fast moving technologies such as generative AI offer a chance to level the playing field when it comes to female representation in tech roles, and it’s on education institutions and businesses to encourage women and lay the groundwork for a more diverse tech sector.”
“The gender balance is still off, but it’s moving in the right direction. When I started in tech, coding was mainly done by men, but there’s a much better split now with female coders and they have helped developers to become more rounded.
“The same can be true with generative AI, as organisations promote a people AND innovation approach, placing training and development in high value skills at the heart of people’s journey within the industry.”
“On the whole, AND Digital’s research of female tech leaders shows that 84% believe the industry has ‘changed for the better,’ which isn’t to say there isn’t still a way to go, but women must believe in themselves and their values to continue driving positive change.”
87% of security professionals report that their organisation has encountered an AI-driven cyber-attack in the last year, according to a new study by SoSafe, Europe’s largest security awareness and human risk management solution.
The finding comes from SoSafe’s 2025 Cybercrime Trends, a survey of 500 global security professionals as well as 100 SoSafe customers across 10 countries. It examines social engineering tactics and the escalating risk facing organisations.
The report also highlights a growing global tension between the widespred adoption of AI and the inherent security risks that it can pose.
Notably, 91% of all security experts anticipate a significant surge in AI-driven threats over the next three years.
However, only 26% express high confidence in their ability to detect these attacks – showing how dangerously exposed organisations are today.
“AI is dramatically scaling the sophistication and personalisation of cyber-attacks,” Andrew Rose, CSO, SoSafe said. “While organisations seem to be aware of the threat, our data shows businesses are not confident in their ability to detect and react to these attacks.”
Multichannel Attacks
Advancements in AI are enabling multichannel cyber-attacks, blending tactics across email, SMS, social media and collaboration platforms.
95% of cybersecurity professionals agree they’ve noticed an increase in this style of attack in the past 2 years.
A clear example is the attack on WWP’s CEO, where the attackers combined WhatsApp to build trust, Microsoft Teams for further interaction, and an AI-generated deepfake voice call to extract sensitive information and money.
“Targeting victims across a combination of communications platforms allows them to mimic normal communication patterns, appearing more legitimate,” said Rose. “Simplistic email attacks are evolving into 3D phishing, seamlessly integrating voice, videos or text-based elements to create AI-powered, advanced scams.”
Beyond AI-based attacks, in-house adoption of AI is inadvertently expanding organisations’ attack surfaces, subjecting themselves to new innovative attacks such as data poisoning and AI hallucinations.
“Even the benevolent AI that organisations adopt for their own benefit can be abused by attackers to locate valuable information, key assets or bypass other controls,” Rose said.
“Many firms create AI chatbots to provide their staff with assistance, but few have thought through the scenario of their chatbot becoming an accomplice in an attack by aiding the attacker to collect sensitive data, identify key individuals and identify useful corporate insight.”
SoSafe’s survey found that 55% of businesses have not fully implemented controls to manage the risks associated with their in-house AI solutions.
“It is imperative that businesses couple their own AI adoption with a rigorous approach to security that protects against both technological and human vulnerabilities,” Rose said.
Top Concerns
SoSafe’s report reveals a range of concerns among security professionals regarding AI-powered attacks.
Obfuscation techniques, such as AI-generated methods to mask the origins and intent of attacks, were cited as the top concern by over 51% of security leaders.
Additionally, 45% reported that the creation of entirely new attack methods was their biggest worry, while two fifths (38%) cited the scale and speed of automated attacks.
“While AI undoubtedly presents new challenges, it also remains one of our greatest allies in protecting organisations against ever-evolving threats,” Niklas Hellemann, CEO of SoSafe, said.
“However, AI-driven security is only as strong as the people who use it. Cybersecurity awareness is critical. Without informed employees who can recognise and respond to AI-driven threats, even the best technology falls short.
“By combining human expertise, security awareness and the careful application of AI, we can stay ahead of the curve and build stronger, more resilient organisations.”
Santander is facing a major outage affecting its mobile and telephone banking servies, as well as its branch network and card payments systems.
Customers have further reported being unable to access online banking services, as well as having difficulty making transactions.
Santander appears to be aware of the problem, as it posted on X: “We’re aware that customers are currently unable to access some of our services. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience this is causing, and we are working hard to fix the problem as soon as possible.”
The story has developed since users first reported issues this Thursday at around midday on DownDetector. Santandar said it was aware of those issues, but that online banking and cash machines were still working.
Later updates indicate that online banking is now facing similar technical issues, with users unable to access associated services.
The bank even advised users struggling with other systems to turn to online banking services, though now this solution appears obsolete.
In a message on the Santander website, the bank said: “We are currently facing intermittent issues making payments that we are working hard to resolve.
“If you face issues please try again, and in case of continuing failures please use Online Banking in the meantime.”
This latest outage from a major bank follows a troubling trend of IT failures disrupting millions of customers across the UK.
Between January 2023 and February 2025, at least 158 banking IT outages left customers unable to access essential services, according to data revealed by the UK Treasury Committee.
These incidents, excluding recent high-profile outages at Barclays and Lloyds, highlight growing concerns over the reliability of banking systems, particularly during critical times like payday.
Common causes include third-party supplier issues, system changes, and software malfunctions. One notable outage occurred at Barclays in early 2025, when a mainframe failure left 56% of online payments unresolved, prompting the bank to anticipate £5-7.5 million in compensation. Similar payday disruptions at Lloyds exacerbated the impact, leaving families unable to access wages or pay bills.
Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Treasury Committee, stressed the need for swift responses and better communication during crises. While some banks have compensated affected customers, the recurring nature of these outages underscores the need for improved infrastructure, oversight, and regulatory frameworks to restore customer trust and ensure reliability.
PlayStations’ studio Visual Arts has facing a fresh round of layoffs as owner Sony undergoes a period of continued restructuring.
While some of the staff which faced cuts were working on cancelled projects, layoffs were reportedly more widespread than initually thought, according to Kotaku.
A number of staff at the Visual Arts studio were told that their last day would be 7 March. The studio, based in San Diego, California, provides art and technical support to PlayStation’s studios, and has worked on a number of projects, including the Last of Us video game franchise.
The latest round of layoffs follows a reorganisation a the top of Sony, with Hiroki Totoki becoming the company’s new CEO in January, with Hideaki Nishino serving as the CEO of Playstation, while previous co-CEO Hermen Hulst moving to be the head of PlayStation Studios.
Sony has faced pressure to cut costs, Hulst said last year, as budgets for game developments spiraled.
2024 saw a number of job cuts across large game developers, inclduing cuts at EA, and cuts at Microsoft’s games department.
“It was tough waking up to messages that many friends and former coworkers from PSVA were laid off this morning,” former PSVA project manager Abby LeMaster, now at Riot Games, posted on LinkedIn on Monday.
“The layoffs today hit hard. PSVA let go of developers with decades of subject matter expertise; talent that will be extraordinarily difficult to recoup. This industry can be unpredictable, but the skill, experience, and passion of the people I worked with at PSVA are undeniable.”
The gaming industry has faced many setbacks in the past years, with layoffs, project cancellation, and shrinking budgets leading to a pause in sector growth.
Work from home orders and isolation brought on by the pandemic saw the gaming industry leap in popularity, but as students and workers return to the office, the games industry has struggled to keep demand for their entertianment offerings as high.
The UK’s National Cyber Security Council (NCSC) has – without any public notice or statement released at time of writing – removed guidance around encryption, following the removal of Apple’s encryption technology from the country after a controversal government request.
The Home Office allegedly issued a request to Apple to create a backdoor to its encrypted data for government access for national security reasons, which Apple has now appealed in a tribunal.
Before the appeal, however, Apple refused to comply with the request, instead opting to remove its encryption technology, Advanced Data Protection, from the UK rather than create a backdoor for the UK government.
Now, it has been revealed in a blog post that the NCSC has removed previously available guidance on using encryption to protect sensitive messages.
In the blog post, security expert Alex Muffet wrote that the NCSC has removed recommendations for using encryption to protect data for high-risk individuals.
Old guidance, which can be found archived on the WayBackMachine, provided information on encryption tools, incluidng Apple’s ADP technology.
ADP is Apple’s encryption tool for iCloud backups, which would encrypt any data stored on an indivuals’ iCloud, blocking anyone – from cyber-criminals, to Apple, law enforcement, and governments – from viewing stored data.
The same URL now leads to a completely different document produced by the NCSC, which makes no mention of encryption at all, including ADP.
The new guidance advices high-risk individuals to secure their accounts and devices with multi-factor authentication, and even promotes Apple’s strict ‘Lockdown Mode’, yet neglects to mention encryption.
Prior to the Home Office’s request for backdoor to Apple’s ADP, the NCSC actually advised high-risk individuals to use the encryption tool to protect themsevles, their communication, and their data.
It remains unclear when exactly the NCSC made the change to the document, but Moffet’s screenshot of the previous, encryption-inclusive, guidance was dated to February 21, after the Home Office issued its secret request to Apple.
DIGIT has reached out to NCSC for comment, but has yet to recieve a response.
By 2029, agentic AI will autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues without human intervention, leading to a 30% reduction in operational costs, according to Gartner, Inc.
Agentic AI is poised to revolutionize the way service interactions are conducted.
While previous AI models were limited to generating text or summarising interactions, agentic AI introduces a new paradigm where AI systems possess the capability to act autonomously to complete tasks.
Both customers and organizations will leverage this technology to automate interactions through the use of AI agents and bots, fundamentally reshaping the relationship between service teams and their customers.
“Agentic AI has emerged as a game-changer for customer service, paving the way for autonomous and low-effort customer experiences,” said Daniel O’Sullivan, senior director analyst in the Gartner Customer Service & Support Practice.
“Unlike traditional GenAI tools that simply assist users with information, agentic AI will proactively resolve service requests on behalf of customers, marking a new era in customer engagement.”
This shift requires service teams to adapt to supporting both human customers and an increasing number of machine customers powered by these advanced AI tools.
For customer service teams accustomed to handling reactive demand from human customers, this transition presents a potential challenge.
“Organisations will need to rethink their approach to managing inbound service interactions, preparing for a future where AI-driven requests become the norm. In this future, automation will need to become the dominant strategy for all service teams,” O’Sullivan said.
For customers leveraging agentic AI, the service experience will undergo a significant transformation.
AI agents will not only provide information but will also take action, such as navigating websites to cancel memberships or negotiating optimal shipping rates on behalf of business customers.
Beyond these delegated tasks, agentic AI holds the potential for proactive issue identification and resolution.
Service organizations must brace for changes in the nature and volume of interactions, which will redefine the relationship between service teams and their customers, open new avenues for value delivery, and alter the landscape of customer data collection.
Gartner advices that customer and support leaders prepare for this transfomation by anticiapting more automation from AI agents by investing in scalable infrastrucutre, revising service models, set AI interatction policies and collaborate with product teams on product integration.
“As customers increasingly leverage agentic AI-powered agents to initiate, manage, and negotiate service requests on their behalf, service teams must adapt to this transformative shift, embracing new roles and skills to effectively collaborate with these intelligent systems,” said O’Sullivan.
The UK’s competition watchdog has decided to cease its investigation into the partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI following a conclusion of its proceedings.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) probed the deal to see if it would have adverse affects on competition in the AI market following the tumultuous period when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was fired and then rehired.
The CMA was concerned that this apparent 360 in leadership may change the affects of the deal with Microsoft.
However, despite Microsoft’s investment – which gained it many exlusive rights to OpenAI’s products – the CMA concluded that the partnership had not changed and is therefore already approved by the UK’s merger regulations.
When the CMA first opened the case in December 2023, it was concerned that Microsoft had pressured OpenAI to reinstate Altman as its chief just days after he had been fired by the company’s board.
The watchdog was concerned that Microsoft had “increased its control over OpenAI’s commercial polciy,” embolded by the billions it had invested in the company.
Following an investigation, however, the watchdog concluded that Microsoft does not fully control OpenAI’s commercial policy, though it “exerts a high level of material influence” over it.
“Looking at the evidence in the round (including the recent changes), we have found that there has not been a change of control by Microsoft from material influence to de facto control over OpenAI,” Joel Bamford, CMA execurive director, said in a post on LinkedIn.
“Because this change of control has not happened, the partnership in its current form does not qualify for review under the UK’s merger control regime.”
However, he stipulated that the new ruling should not be interpreted as a “clean bill of health” for any other potential competition concerns.
Bamford’s post also noted the time it took for the watchdog to reach its decision – it has been over a year since the CMA first opened the case, but following a dramatic change in leadership, it concluded the case in a matter of months.
The competition watchdog recently faced a change in their lead chair after calls from government to stimulate growth. Marcus Bokkerink was replaced with Doug Gurr, the former boss of Amazon UK.
The move was controversal, and met with outrage across consumer protection groups.
“The CMA has sat on this decision for over a year, yet within just a few weeks of a former Amazon boss being installed as chair, it has decided everything was absolutely fine all along, nothing to see here,” said Rosa Curling, co-executive director of Foxglove, a digital rights campaign group, as reported by the BBC.
The response is not without merit – Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA said that the watchdog had concerns about an web of interconnected AI partnerships among big tech firms, back in 2024.
However, calls from the government to prioristise growth protention and high-growth investments, particularly in AI, were distributed to the CMA.
As AI continues to revolutionise the UK economy, a worrying new disconnect is emerging in the workplace, with leaders and employees having very different views of how AI-ready their organisation is.
Corndel’s2025 Workplace Training Report reveals a growing disconnect between leaders and employees in their perceptions of their AI preparedness and points towards a significant opportunity for employers to address the shortage of data and AI skills across industries.
The latest report found that HR leaders are confident about their organisation’s AI readiness, with 88% confident in leadership’s ability to guide AI adoption and 60% very confident that training programs are equipping employees with the necessary skills for digital transformation.
However, the view from the organisation’s front lines is less optimistic. While 71% of middle managers actively leverage AI in their daily tasks, 52% of employees said they have never used AI tools.
Alarmingly, although 97% of HR leaders claim their organisations offer AI training – and 50% believed it to have been comprehensive – only 39% of employees report having received it.
Among younger employees, 74% use AI tools regularly, but just 52% have received formal training — and only 14% rate this training as highly effective. As a result, one-third of UK employees feel unprepared to adopt AI in the next 1–3 years.
Only 55% of employees trust their managers to lead digital transformation effectively, and just 4 in 10 believe they can adopt AI tools themselves.
This lack of knowledge and access to AI tools threatens to undermine the potential gains that businesses expect from AI adoption.
48% of senior leaders admit they haven’t yet used an AI tool, compared to 29% of middle managers.
While it’s not uncommon for leaders to be less involved with day-to-day tooling, this becomes problematic when they’re expected to set direction, identify opportunities, and support their teams, yet without sight of how these tools actually work.
This knowledge gap may explain why CEOs overestimated the potential gains from AI adoption last year.
According toPwC’s 28th Annual Global CEO Survey, 34% of CEOs reported profitability improvements, significantly below the 46% who had anticipated these outcomes.
“Many senior leaders are being asked to set AI strategies without hands-on experience of the tools themselves,” explains Sean Cosgrove, chief commercial officer at Corndel.
“The National Data Strategy has already flagged the gap in leadership-level data skills, which extends to AI.
“Leaders don’t just need a vision for AI adoption—they need a real understanding of the skills their workforce requires. For many, even foundational AI skills like crafting effective prompts for generative AI are missing. That’s a gap we need to close.”
According to Corndel, many organisations are focusing their training efforts on narrow groups, such as technical teams or senior leadership, rather than an offering across the broader workforce.
Yet, Corndel found that 88% of employees using generative AI are in non-technical roles, meaning that the people most likely to use AI day-to-day—managers, customer service reps, and analysts—are often receiving the least by way of training.
Without proper training, AI adoption is likely to remain low, stalling the promised impact of AI.
“Our research shows that leadership teams are confident in their AI strategies, but many employees don’t feel prepared to keep up.
“Without the right training, AI adoption stalls before it even starts. Organisations must take a more strategic approach to AI skills development—reaching beyond technical teams to the workforce.” said Cosgrove.
Organisations that understand the need for cross-departmental AI literacy and embrace AI across all functions are 2.5 times more likely to prioritise reskilling and upskilling, capturing substantial cost efficiencies and revenue gains.
An opportunity to boost the UK’s economy and improve its public services in the coming age of agentic AI could be at risk if too many organisations remain ‘stuck in neutral’ on AI, according to new research commissioned by Microsoft.
The study, led by Dr Chris Brauer at Goldsmiths, University of London, reveals that the highest performing businesses and most productive public sector organisations have a clear AI strategy in place and are preparing for the next wave of the technology – agentic AI.
However, the report describes an ‘AI divide’ emerging within the UK economy. Whilst half of organisations have a clear AI strategy and the skills to implement it, a similar proportion do not, which is a lost opportunity to boost economic growth and improve public services across the UK.
The research, which is based on surveys with 1,480 UK senior leaders across public and private sectors, as well as 1,440 UK employees, found that more than half (54%) of leaders report that their organisation still lacks any formal AI strategy.
Just 45% say their organisation understands the AI skills their workforce needs to be successful today, and half (50%) describe a gap between AI ambition and action within their organisations.
The AI divide extends to the UK workforce, with more than half (57%) of leaders reporting a widening gap in efficiency and productivity between workers who use AI and those that do not.
More than a third (36%) of leaders go further to say that frequent AI users are more likely to be recognised or promoted in their organisation today.
These findings comes at a pivotal time, as severe workload pressure facing the UK’s workforce comes to a boiling point.
More than half of UK employees (52%) and leaders (60%) say they are currently expected to do more work than a single person’s job.
For a considerable proprotions, the challenge is even more extreme, with 36% of leaders and 25% of employees stating that their workloads are the equivalent to doing at least two people’s jobs at the same time.
With leaders and employees facing substantial workload strains, respondents identified an urgent demand for agentic AI technologies to be deployed across the private and public sectors to take on some of the workload, overcome barriers to productivity and unlock growth.
Despite this technology being relatively new, almost three quarters (72%) of leaders expect AI agents to be fully integrated across their operations, delivering significant value, with 21% anticipating this to be within the next 12 months, and 39% within two years.
“The scope and scale of the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan is an important foundation to drive growth, create jobs and improve living standards for all,” Darren Hardman, CEO, Microsoft UK.
“Agentic AI can play a key role in removing digital drudgery, giving workers the opportunity to spend more time on creative and value adding tasks.
“At Microsoft, we’re helping to build an AI economy, investing in digital skills and tackling the AI divide, all pre-requisites to driving AI fuelled economic growth for the UK.”
Agentic AI covers a range of virtual tools – or ‘agents’ – from simple chatbots that retrieve information and answer questions; tools which automate tasks and workflows; through to fully autonomous systems that learn, plan, and act with minimal human input.
Secretary of state Peter Kyle said: “AI is transforming how we work. Through our AI Opportunities Action Plan, this government is backing businesses and workers to harness AI’s full potential – helping us unleash AI to improve public services and grow the economy as part of our Plan for Change.
“Agents will play a key role in this transformation, enabling organisations to work smarter, not harder.
“With over half of business leaders seeing a growing productivity gap between AI users and those yet to harness the technology, accelerating adoption is crucial. This report offers valuable insights for businesses ready to seize the moment.”
A vast majority of Scottish SMEs expect artificial intelligence (AI) to boost productivity, with 88% of businesses surveyed by tech group ClearSky Logic saying productivity gains are their main priority for implementing AI.
The survey of 50 SME leaders across Scotland revealed that 57% of companies have already invested in AI, with approximatelu 90% planning to invest in AI.
IT systems (36%), admin (29%) and sales and marketing (21%) are the main areas being targeted with AI by SMEs in order to achieve these sought-after productivity gains.
Other findings from the survey included that 70% of SMEs don’t believe AI will lead to layoffs, while only 20% of companies had trialled AI before implementing it.
“Some may be surprised that just over half of Scottish SMEs have invested in AI, but there is also an overwhelming appetite for investing in AI borne out from the survey,” Darren Auld, ClearSky Logic’s CEO, said.
“We know AI is rapidly becoming the great enabler for businesses who have the ambition to innovate, scale, and outpace their competition, and that it has never been more accessible than it is today. As we say at ClearSky, the question is no longer ‘if’ AI should be part of your corporate strategy, but ‘how’.”
Ed Vickers, co-founder of Edinburgh-headquartered marketing firm LOOP Agencies, with a client base that includes Standard Life, Aberdeen, and Royal London, said: “The fear that AI will replace jobs is changing to ‘AI won’t take my job, but someone who knows how to will’.
“In marketing we’re seeing a shift towards it being an integral tool to enable people to do their jobs better. The fear of being replaced has changed to the worry of being left behind.”
Aakanksha Sadekar, CEO and founder of Aberdeen-headquartered digital health technology startup Tracker.Health, which specialises in elderly care, commented: “AI is being rapidly adopted into digital health solutions worldwide, we have been spending time out in Asia and are now working with commercial partners in Singapore, China, and Japan, so we’re seeing firsthand how Scotland must keep pace with the fast-moving evolution of AI.”
Auld added: “When we engage with clients and peers, we talk about a four pillar approach that helps to make the AI journey as effective as possible, while de-risking the investment as much as possible. Essentially, companies need to identify their core challenge, utilise high quality data, test AI via pilot projects, and then continually evolve AI within the business.”
Only 22% of European deep tech companies are women-led, new research from the GENDEX project and funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC) found.
GENDEX creaded an index assessing the state of play for the European deep tech scene, intended to identify gender diversity and inclusion gaps across the ecosystem and to offer actionable insights and recommendations for stakeholders to consider moving forward.
The report found that women-led companies account for other 11% of the value raised at non-IPO exits in the past decade, despite accounting for only 0.6% of total non-IPO exits completed in that time.
Further, it takes women-fronted companies on average six months longer than teams led by men to sign their first term sheet.
Companies led by men secured 1.8 times the funding women-led companies did between 2014 and 2024. Once funding is secured, the index showed that women-led companies often receive less favourable terms than teams led only by men.
One women founder interviewed as part of the index, explained: “I think men, when they see young women, especially in the mould of their daughters, who are so much younger than them… I think there’s a bias towards women being less capable or that they just see their daughters basically. A little bit of paternalism on their part.”
The research indicated that the gender imbalance is most evident in companies led by men.
Nearly a third (29%) of women foudners say they have over 50% women in technical positions, compared to just 1% of companies led only by men.
“If investors and policymakers don’t act now, Europe will continue losing billions in untapped talent. This data proves we need structural change,” Tanya Suarez, chair at GENDEX, said.
“Not only is it needed to fairly represent women, but evidence shows a gender-balanced ecosystem delivers the best results. Our inaugural index has been a huge undertaking by our team and partners, we’re today very grateful to all involved and look forward to helping companies benefit from the actionable learnings the index has generated.”
42% of STEM graduates in Europe are women, however, this level of representation isn’t maintained beyond the educational stage.
The GENDEX research shows that only 24% of patent applications in Europe included women as inventors.
Meanwhile, only about a third (31%) of the total researchers and scientists employed are women. This research is evidence of the narrowing funnel, where women talent is lost along the way, to the detriment of the tech industry as a whole.
Indeed, the research suggests that closing the gap between women and men-led companies could prove to be extremely lucrative for the industry. A more even representation of women-led companies at the exit stage (both IPO and non-IPO) in the past decade would have unlocked a potential €198.8 billion of value.
“Tapping into Europe’s diverse talent pool in the tech and investment sectors in the broadest and most effective way possible is vital if we are to capitalise fully on our many strengths in innovation,” Stéphane Ouaki, head of department, European Innovation Council, said.
“To address the persistent gender and diversity disparities within Europe’s innovation ecosystem, it is crucial to assess these issues in a coherent way using unified data. This is where the GENDEX project comes in.”
The Gendex report is intended to empower startups, scaleups, corporates, investors and policymakers to be able to take action and make decisions based on accurate, recent data and analysis, to improve the diversity among their businesses and investments.
The index provides four actionable recommendations to mitigate the apparent issues.
Closing the data gap by increasing and ensuring gender diversity reporting, following returns by allocating funding accordingly, securing IP rights for women by providing better legal support, and government co-investment to mandate gender-balanced portfolios is essential.
The entire team behind the index implores business leaders, investment professionals and decision-makers across the board in the European deep tech scene to keep gender diversity and representation at front of mind, both to address disparities in representation and for the financial betterment of the industry as a whole.
“Gender diversity in tech is a problem we’ve never been more conscious of, but we’re nowhere near where we should be,” Raphael Crouan, managing director of Tech Clients in Europe for global law firm Orrick and President of French Tech London said.
“As a matter of fact, if you look at the numbers, we had a more diverse approach immediately post-pandemic than we do today. We are drastically lacking in consistency when it comes to this topic, across the board.
“However, you don’t change a generation of habits in one swoop, it’ll take another generation or so to put things right. This is why using an index as a point of reference is vital. By repeatedly assessing specific data points over prolonged periods, we’ll get a true understanding of the direction in which things are moving.”
Over three quarters (78%) of cheif information security officers (CISOs) surveyed by Darktrace say that AI-powered threats are having a significant impact on their organisations, a 5% increase from 2024.
While an increasing number of CISOs report feeling a significant impact from AI threats, more than 60% now say that they are adequately prepared to defend against these threats, an increase of nearly 15% year-over-year.
However, insufficient AI knowledge and skills and a shortage of personnel and talent continue to be listed as the two top inhibitors to a successful defence.
“The impact of AI on cybersecurity is clear and increasing. There are more employees and enterprise applications using AI that must be protected. Adversaries are using it to make their attacks more targeted, scalable, and successful. All of this is unfolding in a highly volatile geopolitical environment that is creating more uncertainty,” said Jill Popelka, CEO, Darktrace.
“There has never been a more urgent need for AI in the SOC to augment teams and pre-empt threats so organizations can build their cyber resilience. That’s why Darktrace continues to invest in new innovations to help customers manage risk and thrive in this new era of AI threats.”
The second annual report surveyed over 1,500 cybersecurity professionals holding roles ranging from CISO to IT security managers, IT security analysts and incident responders across 14 different countries.
The report also found that there is a gap between confidence in AI and comprehension of how it can be best deployed.
95% of all cybersecurity professionals surveyed believe AI can imporve the speed and efficiency of their ability to prevent, detect, respond and recover from threats, but significant knowledge gaps persist.
Only 42% reported that they fully understand the types of AI in their current security stack. The gap increases across different roles, with 60% of CISOs reporting they know exactly what AI types are used versus 10% of IT security analysts/operat0rs and 14% of IT security administrators.
Moreover, two of the top three inhibitors reported to defending against AI-powered threats include insufficient knowledge or use of AI-driven countermeasures and insufficient knowledge/skills pertaining to AI technology.
Despite respondents citing insufficient personnel to manage tools and alerts as the greatest inhibitor to defending against AI-powered threats, only 11% reported that they plan to increase cybersecurity staff in 2025, down from last year.
AI is seen by this group as essential to augment human team members, with 64% reporting that they plan to add AI-powered solutions to their security stack in the next year and 88% reporting that the use of AI is critical to free up time for security teams to become more proactive.
Further, while managing risk is a priority, more action is needed. 95% of all respondents report that their organisation is either currently discussing (50%) or has already implemented (45%) a formal policy for safe and secure use of AI.
This, however, varies by region and industry. 52% of organisations in North American and 43% of organisations in EMEA report having a formal policy in place.
Organisations in the financial services, retail and technology sectors globally report the highest level of policities currently in place. At the same time, only 45% of respondents report that they have a formal AI oversight and governance function and only 37% report that they regularly monitor or audit AI usage and outputs.
When asked about their cybersecurity technology preferences, respondents highlighted the importance of data privacy and a platform approach. Notably, 84% reported that they prefer solutions that don’t require external data sharing and 87% indicated they prefer a platform approach over implementing a collection of point solutions.
When asked to look ahead at the future impact of AI in cyber defence, cloud security (66%) and network security (55%) are identified as two domains where cybersecurity professionals expect defensive AI to have the biggest impact. impact expected to see the greatest AI impact.
“The integrity and reliability of IT systems are under increasing pressure as adversaries harness Generative AI to amplify their attacks. The rapid evolution of AI-powered threats is forcing security teams to rethink their defensive strategies, as traditional cybersecurity measures can no longer match the speed, scale, and sophistication of modern attacks,” said Jon Mendoza, CISO of Technologent, a global provider of IT solutions and services for Fortune 1000 companies.
“To stay ahead, organizations must integrate AI-driven security solutions that not only detect and respond to threats but proactively anticipate them. True resilience comes not just from deploying AI but from empowering security teams with the knowledge and tools to wield it effectively.
“A security platform built on actionable-intelligence and hyper-automation is essential to containing threats and minimizing the blast radius of attacks. In today’s ever-evolving threat landscape, AI isn’t just an advantage—it’s a fundamental necessity.”
The UK’s communications regulator has issued a warning to both the Glasgow City and City of Edinburgh Councils for failing to respond to personal information requests on time.
Under data protection law, people have the right to ask an organisation if it holds their personal information and receive a copy of any personal information held within a month, unless an extension is applied. These are known as subject access requests (SARs).
People who have issued a SAR to the Glasgow City and City of Edinburgh Councils have faced significant dealys, resulting in a reprimand from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
The repeated offence has lead to a significant backlog of requests, just as Scotland faces a surge in SARs in rleation to the Redress Scotland scheme where people who suffered abuse in care can apply for redress using supporting documents which may be held by their Councils.
The repirmands follow the ICO’s proactive enagement with all 32 local authorities in Scotland after it because aware of delays in responses to SARs, amounting to years in some cases.
“Those who were let down in the past are being let down again, this time by poor SAR compliance,” Jenny Brotchie, acting head of Scottish Affiars, said.
“We have heard how undue delays and lack of communication from local authorities can cause further distress for people, including those with care experience and those trying to claim redress in Scotland.
“Local authorities must get this right despite the rising numbers of requests, which is why we have been offering support and monitoring those with poor compliance until we are satisfied that improvements have been made.”
Following the ICO’s scrutiny and support to put actions in place, many local authorities have significantly reduced their backlog of requests and improved their response times.
Despite approximately a 68% overall increase in the total number of SARs to local authorities in Scotland between 2021 and 2024, 75% of local authorities improved their SAR compliance with 13 local authorities reporting a compliance rate of at least 90% in 2023/24.
However, the ICO has launched investigations into both Glasgow’s and Edinburgh’s city councils, and did not see any tangible improvements over 12 months.
Its recent compulsory audit of Glasgow City Council found that the council has good policies and procedures in place to handle SARs.
Yet, a lack of resources and budget constraints remains an issue, with the council still unable to respond to many SARs within the legal timeframe.
The City of Edinburgh Council has now reported some improvement in its response times following its reprimand.
“While I’m pleased to see significant improvements from most of the local authorities that we engaged with, SAR compliance in Scotland remains a concern and we must ensure people can exercise their information rights effectively and without further harm,” Brotchie added.
“We expect all local authorities to have sufficient resources in place to handle the volume and complexity of SARs, and to keep people updated on the progress of their request.
“We are taking a proportionate approach to monitoring local authorities, but these reprimands show that we will not hesitate to take enforcement action where necessary.”
University of Glasgow researchers will lead a £1.3m new partnership which aims to develop a network of underwater sensors to monitor the vital signs of the planet’s warming oceans.
The new project, led by Professor Martin Lavery of the James Watt School of Engineering, is one of 27 which will share in £81m in funding from ARIA’s Forecasting Tipping Points programme. This funding is subject to final contract negotiation.
The Tipping Points programme aims to enhance climate change response by developing an early warning system for tipping points.
Major parts of the Earth system are at risk of crossing climate tipping points within the next century, with severe consequences for biodiversity, food security, agriculture, and humanity.
The programme’s funding will help build early warning systems for climate tipping points, equipping leaders with the information they need to adapt to and mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.
The team is developing a novel hybrid communication and sensing platform called the Optical Reconnaissance and Communication Antenna (ORCA) that leverages structured light to sense the underwater environment and provide cable-free communications between autonomous networks of underwater sensors.
Through coordination with satellite imaging, the “pod” of ORCAs will travel the oceans, mapping hydrography in space and time.
This high-resolution underwater mapping of oceanic currents, depth-resolved temperature, particulate content, and salinity will be critical for monitoring emerging geophysical and biogeochemical reactions of our oceans to climate change.
Professor Lavery said: “We are excited to be selected to contribute to the ambitious Forecasting Tipping Points programme, that has the potential to drive a step change in our understanding of the environmental changes that are expected to occur over the coming years and decades.
“Through engaging with the diverse array of creators, we hope our new sensing technology can play a significant role in improving our early warning systems for major disruptions to the ocean currents and can help the UK and world prepare for an uncertain future.”
Professor Lavery will lead the Optical Geophysical Sensors Networks for Ocean Monitoring project in partnership with Dr David McKee of the University of Strathclyde and Professor Mark Inall of the Scottish Association for Marine Science.
The project is the latest development in the University of Glasgow’s relationship with ARIA.
In September 2023, Professor Mark Symes of the School of Chemistry was appointed as one of ARIA’s founding Programme Directors.
In January this year, the £4m NEUROBOT project, led by Professor Hadi Heidari of the James Watt School of Engineering, was unveiled as part of ARIA’s £69m Precision Neurotechnologies programme.
Co-led by Programme Directors Gemma Bale and Sarah Bohndiek, ARIA’s Forecasting Tipping Points programme looks to create an early warning system capable of equipping us with the information, understanding and time we need to accelerate proactive climate adaptation and mitigation.
Backed by £81m over five years, the programme will unite 27 international teams in a collaborative effort to detect the earliest signs of climate tipping points.
ARIA’s programme includes experts from fields like optics, nuclear physics, and photonics – many pivoting their expertise to this critical challenge – and two brand new non-profit organisations in the UK.
Gen Z is dealing with tech regret, as the digitally native generation urgers for stricter government regulations on online safety and devices, to protect the next generation from the same.
Half of Gen Z (49%) would support legislation preventing children from owning a smart device, according to new research from global insights agency Opinium, as the generation that was raised on smartphones reflects on its long-term impact.
Gen Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 – received their first smart device at an average age of 13, but for many, it was even earlier. One in five (19%) had a smart device by age 10, and nearly 1 in 10 (9%) were just eight years old or younger.
In contrast, Millennials first accessed smart technology in adulthood (18 years old on average).
While most Gen Z (68%) believe they got their first device at the right time, 15% now think they were too young.
This concern is backed by their experiences – as three in four (75%) regret something they’ve done with their smartphone.
What Do Gen Z Regret?
According to the research, Gen Z are riddled with tech regret when it comes to their online practices and habits.
Much of the regret revolves around personal information they shared – 39% regret messaging strangers, while 30% regret sending images or videos to people they didn’t know.
About two in five (39%) regret posting personal images or videos in public places as well.
43% say they regret viewing what they deem as age-inappropriate content, while 37% say they regret starting an online relationship.
Only a fifth say they regret engaging in cyberbullying, hopefully reflecting less instances of the act occurring rather than a lack of regret.
With the Digital Safety and Data Protection Bill next being discussed in the House of Commons on 7 March, Opinium’s research reveals that Gen Z is not just reflecting on their experiences but advocating for change. Half (49%) would support legal restrictions preventing children from owning internet-enabled smart devices, while 39% would oppose such a move.
“The fact that half of Gen Z would back a legal ban on smart devices for children is remarkable – this is the first generation to grow up fully online, and now they’re questioning whether it was too much, too soon,” Matt Howlett, senior research executive at Opinium, commented.
“Our research shows a clear tension: while smart devices bring connectivity and convenience, there’s a real cost in terms of regret and exposure to harmful content. As policymakers debate new regulations, these findings highlight the voices of those who experienced the digital shift first-hand, many of whom clearly don’t want future generations to have the same experiences they did.”
The UK has a 44% gender gap in funding for UK tech grant enquries, new research from Grantify found.
These figures suggest that men are more than twice as likely to apply for tech funding in the UK compared to women.
Based on over 50,000 UK tech grant enquiries received in 2024, this disparity highligths ongoing funding challenges for women in tech, although there are encourage signs of progress.
For one, the enquiry data highlights that while male-led businesses are 1.3 times more likely to request large grants (£500,000+), his difference largely reflects industry trends rather than a gap in ambition.
Femlae-led businesses are more likely to operate in sectors where smaller grants (£1,000 to £9,000) are common, such as community initatives, education, and healthcare, whereas male-led businesses tend to be in industries that require larger capital investments, like energy transportaion, and finance.
Once industry differences are factored in, the difference in large grant requests is minimal – women were just 3.1% less likely than men to apply fro £500K+ funding, while they were 4.6% more likely to seek smaller grants.
The latest figures from Innovate UK show that one in three successful applications were led by women – a dramatic improvement from just one in seven in 2016.
This shift is also reflected in the rise of women-led businesses. In 2023, female founders accounted for 18% of new UK company formations, a 4% increase from 2022, according to Companies House.
Initiatives like the Women in Innovation Awards are crucial in facilitating this movement, providing funding, mentorship, and support to help female entrepreneurs scale their businesses and drive innovation.
Grantify is also pioneering change to bridge the gender funding gap by helping underrepresented entrepreneurs access funding opportunities through expert guidance, data-driven insights, and tailored support.
As gender diversity in tech funding continues to evolve, these efforts could be vital in levelling the playing field.
“The data in this report highlights both the progress and the challenges that still exist for women in tech funding,” Stephanie Ward, senior funding consultant at Grantify, said.
“While we’re seeing more female founders come to us with groundbreaking ideas — and securing significant funding — the fact that men still dominate large grant applications shows there’s more work to be done.”
The Scottish AI Alliance has announced the re-launch of its free online course, Living with AI, designed to get the people of Scotland engaged, interested and informed about what AI is and its impact on our daily lives.
As AI continues to shape industries and society, it is essential that people have the knowledge and confidence to understand this technology and its implications.
“The re-launch of Living with AI marks a crucial juncture in Scotland’s ambition to be a world leader in trustworthy, ethical and inclusive AI” said Dawn McAra-Hunter, programme manager at the Scottish AI Alliance.
“AI literacy will play a crucial role in ensuring people understand how this group of technologies may impact their lives – from the algorithms in our media to its uses in medicine.
“By focusing on the ethics of artificial intelligence, Living with AI will give its users a comprehensive overview of AI in our society and the ethical considerations they should keep in mind when interacting with AI.”
To support the promotion and adoption of Living with AI, the Scottish AI alliance is collaborating with Skills Development Scotland (SDS).
“All of us are interacting with AI on a day-to-day basis even when we don’t realise it, whether that’s using apps on our phones, buying things online, or scrolling through social media,” Claire Gillespie, digital economy skills manager, said.
“The role AI plays in our lives is certain to increase further, and for this reason SDS welcomes the opportunity to work with the Scottish AI Alliance to help our colleagues, our customers and our partner organisations develop the essential skills for a digital world of work.”
Designed to be accessible to all, Living with AI requires no prior knowledge or experience with AI, making it ideal for learners from all backgrounds.
The course combines expert insights with interactive learning, with topics covering what AI is, if AI can be trustworthy, ethical and inclusive, AI and society, AI and work, as well as the future of AI.
Ofcom will require online service providers, from large platforms to smaller sites, to submit their illegal harms risks assesstments by the end of March or face enforcement action.
Under the UK regulator’s new powers under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom is launchig an enforcement programme to assess industry compliance with its first set of duties under the act.
Ofcom first published its illegal harms codes of practice and guidance on 16 December, giving providers three months to carry out a risk assessment.
Providers must determine how likely it is that users could encounter illegal content on their service, or, in the case of user-to-user services, how they could be used to commit or facilitate certain criminal offenses.
They must also make and keep a written record of their risk assessment, including details about how it was carried out and its findings.
The launching of Ofcom’s enforcement programme will aim to scrutinise the compliance of sites and apps that may present particular risks of harm for illegal content due to their size or nature.
A number of providers of services have been issued with requests from Ofcom today, which they must reply to by 31 March with their completed records of their illegal harms risk assessments.
Once these are recieved, Ofcom will assess any gaps in these assessments, using this data to drive improvements, as well as develop new measures for its codes of practice.
Ofcom reminded providers of their legal requirement to report to Ofcom in a complete and timely manner – the regulator is empowered to issue fines for up to 10% of a company’s turnover or £18m, whichever figure is higher. In serious cases, Ofcom can petition a court to block UK access to a site in the most severe of cases.
“Regardless of size or location, all services in scope of the Online Safety Act must carry out a proper illegal harms risk assessment – a vital first step in protecting their users and making their platforms safer by design,” Suzanne Cater, enforcement director at Ofcom, said.
“We’ve identified a number of online services that may present particular risks of harm to UK users from illegal content – including large platforms as well as smaller sites – and are requiring them to provide their illegal harms risk assessment to us this month. We’re ready to take swift action against any provider who fails to comply.”
The UK has dropped to 18th place in PwC’s Women in Work Index, marking its worst ranking for workplace gender equality in ten years.
A ‘sluggish’ pace in closing the gender pay gap and declining female workforce participation have pushed the UK further behind its peers, now ranking second-worst among G7 nations, behind Canada.
Despite marginal improvements in closing the gap between men’s and women’s average earnings, the UK has been outpaced by other nations making faster progress. At the current rate of change, it could take more than 30 years to close the gender pay gap entirely.
The UK’s female full-time employment rate was found to be particularly low at 68.9%, placing it 27th out of 33 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) economies and well below the OECF average of 78.1%.
This decline in female workforce participation has significantly contributed to the UK’s slide in rankings.
Iceland, New Zealand, and Luxembourg continue to lead the index, performing strongly on gender pay parity and employment rates.
Meanwhile, countries such as Ireland and Canada have made notable post-pandemic improvements, demonstrating that progress is possible with the right policies and investment.
“The UK is improving its gender pay disparity, but at a slower pace than other countries,” Alia Qamar, an economist at PwC UK said.
“The sluggish progress compared to peers means long term the UK’s performance is consistently only just ahead of the OECD average, whereas other similar countries such as Ireland and Canada have shown impressive improvements in the post-pandemic era.”
PwC’s research suggested it was vital that the UK improve women’s earnings as it found a correlation between increased female participation and productivity and GDP growth across OECD countries from 2011 to 2023.
Phillippa O’Connor, chief people officer at PwC UK, said: “The positive link between gender equality in the workplace and economic growth shows that investing in gender equality isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.”
“The benefits of a larger and more diverse workforce are translating directly into GDP gains, as well as enriching economic diversity, reducing income inequality, and providing a stronger overall skills base.”
Speaking to what this news means for the tech sector, Zoe Kelleher, club executive, London, for AND Digital, commented: “Research shows that 90 per cent of women love working in tech, finding their careers rewarding, however, 90 per cent have also been subject to gender bias, amplified by unequal pay.
“Coding, for example, is an area that has progressed for the better, seeing a rise in the number of female coders which has helped developers in general to be more rounded. While the gender balance is still off, it’s moving in the right direction in a field with so much potential.”
Third-party risks are emerging as key drivers of cyber insurance claims across 2024, a new star in the line up of cybersecurity threats.
This is accordning to a 2024 review from cyber risk management company Resilience, which found that third-party risks account for 31% of clinet insurance claims, and nearly a quarter (23%) of material losses over the year.
“Third-party risk isn’t only making headlines—it’s driving unprecedented losses. While this risk is often invisible until it’s too late, it’s now clear that the industry has reached a tipping point,” says Vishaal “V8” Hariprasad, co-founder and CEO of Resilience.
“Businesses can no longer afford to consider their partners’ vulnerabilities as siloed from their own. By understanding this new reality of shared risk, enterprises can make smarter business decisions and meaningfully mitigate material loss.”
Third-party risks lead to material losses for the first time in 2024, Resilience found, underscroding the emerging vulnerabiliutes created by interconnected systems and the increased relience on outside vendors.
Ransomware attacks on vendors was the most significant form of loss within third-party risks, with 42% of all claims and 100% of all incurred losses from third-party claims.
However, while ransomware attacks create known losses, some losses from 2024 have yet to be fully realised – for instance, the Crowdstrike outage is anticipated to result in financial losses from businss disruption.
While companies enahnce their vendor selection processes in response, insurance companies are also adjusting their practices to deal with the emerging threats.
Ranking as the top contributor to third-party risk, ransomware held its position as the top loss cause in 2024 of first-party ransomware incidents, with 43% in 2024.
However, ransomware’s targeting of third-party vendors created a significant porportion (18%) of total incurred claims, showing the move can be a lucractive tactic for ransomware gangs.
All in all, 62% of all incurred claims with losses were related to ransomware, wither third- or first- party.
Resilience found that supply chain attacks, critical infrastructure vulnerbailities, and legacy systems were contribhutors to these ransomware incidents.
High-pressure industries, like healthcare and manufacturing, were especially vulnberable due to outdated technology and the devastating implications of down time.
Over 80% of women in Scotland over 45 have not negotiated their salary in the last five years, new research from Florence Rolland says.
84% of women in Scotland aged between 45-54 and 83% of women aged 55 to 64 have not negotiated their salary in that time, the research shows.
The results display that while significant strides have been made toward workplace equality, the gender pay gap remains a persistent challenge.
Women, on average, still earn less than men for the same work, even when accounting for factors such as education, experience, and industry.
The study posits that one of the driving factors for this continuing inequality is that women are less likely than men to negotiate their salaries.
Research has consistently shown that men initiate salary negotiations more frequently, while women are more likely to accept initial offers without questioning them.
This reluctance to negotiate can stem from multiple factors, including social conditioning, fear of being perceived as aggressive, or concern over potential backlash from employers.
Negotiation expert Florence Rolland’s survey, which questioned 2000 women across the UK, confirmed this by revealing that in Wales, 68% of women aged 35 – 44 have not negotiated their pay because they didn’t want to be perceived as difficult.
One of the biggest reasons women do not negotiate at work—whether it’s for salary, promotions, or better opportunities—is a lack of confidence. Confidence plays a crucial role in self-advocacy, and the survey results show a stark lack of confidence to negotiate in women across the UK.
Women from the East Midlands are least likely to have the confidence to negotiate, with 76% of them responding to say they were not confident. 64% of women from Wales, 66% from Northern Ireland and 62% from Scotland don’t believe they have confidence to negotiate.
Unfortunately, failing to negotiate not only leads to immediate financial disparities but also compounds over time, affecting long-term earnings, retirement savings, and overall financial stability.
Compounding these issues, returning from maternity leave is a significant transition for working mothers.
While adjusting to new personal and professional responsibilities, many women face an unexpected challenge—returning to work wanting to negotiate their salary but without having the confidence or skills to do so.
Shockingly, the survey found that in Wales 54% of women aged between 35 – 44 would not be likely to negotiate their salary when returning to work from maternity leave.
Interestingly, from those surveyed, 47% of mothers returning to work after maternity leave from London would be more likely to negotiate their salary compared to 75% from Northern Ireland and 64% from Scotland who would not.
While systemic changes are necessary to close this gap, one of the most immediate and impactful strategies women can adopt is strengthening their negotiation skills.
Being able to effectively negotiate salary and benefits is a crucial tool that empowers women to advocate for their worth, challenge biases, and secure fair compensation.
In the survey, 94% of UK women say that they would feel much more confident about negotiating if they took part in formal negotiation training.
Florence said: “By improving negotiation skills, women can take control of their financial futures. Negotiation is not just about asking for a higher salary—it is about communicating one’s value effectively, setting professional expectations, and ensuring that compensation reflects skills, experience, and contributions. Employers expect candidates to negotiate, and those who do are often rewarded with better pay and benefits.
“By embracing negotiation as a necessary skill, women can break barriers, challenge outdated norms, and ensure they receive the compensation they deserve. 94% of women would feel more confident about negotiating if they took part in training.
“Learning to negotiate is not just about individual gain—it is a step toward a more equitable workforce where talent and contributions are valued equally, regardless of gender.”
Of course, there are other options employers can do to not put the onus entirely on women to negotiate their salaries blindly. Transparent pay scales, publishing the amount each person and each position earns, supporting the work of unions and unionisation of work, can go a long way. Further, these interventions reflect that the pay gap is a systemic, rather than an individual, issue.
While nearly all (94%) of NHS staff understand their role in protecting the organisation from cyber-attacks, only 36% believe current measures are sufficient, new online research from BT has found.
Meanwhile, most UK citizens (60%) are concerned that cyber-attacks could disrupt or disable critical NHS systems.
BIT surveyed both staff and the public from around 200 NHS trusts the company works with, exploring sentiment around digital healthcare in the UK, underscoring the pivotal role cybersecurity plays in safeguarding patients and helping protect service delivery.
The research revealed a stark reality around anxiety over NHS cybersecurity, as well as the need for updated equipment and training to keep pace with emerging and advancing attacks.
Over half (57%) of UK citizens BT polled say they worry about cyber-attacks on the NHS, and 56% are concerned about patient data exposure.
The high figure shows that cybersecurity has entered the public consciousness, with people now seeing a direct link between secure systems and healthcare delivery.
NHS staff are also taking notice, and are calling for action, as just 42% trust that existing systems are robust enough to safeguard sensitive patient data, revealing the importance of connecting staff with the tools and infrastructure needed to work effectively.
Currently, the NHS faces a critical challenge with legacy technology systems, which lack the level of inbuilt cybersecurity found in more modern systems, hindering care delivery and collaboration.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of NHS staff report that patient data is isolated and inoperable due to outdated systems. These technological constraints threaten the ability of staff to deliver care safely and efficiently.
Investing in future-proofed networks and prioritising smart communications solutions will help reduce wait times and improve healthcare outcomes.
While awareness of cyber security is growing, gaps in training remain a significant barrier to preparedness.
Despite a modest rise in training on new technologies (from 5% in BT’s 2022 survey to 15% in 2024), training on both new and existing systems has fallen from 47% to 39%.
Frontline staff report a lack of regular training, with 60% calling for more. This data suggests that training is mostly a one-off initiative, rather than an ongoing effort, which exacerbates risks and vulnerabilities.
Encouragingly, 55% of the UK public rank training NHS staff in new technologies as a priority – showing that people recognise there are ways to strengthen the NHS beyond cutting-edge medical equipment.
There’s a growing public understanding that equipping staff with the right cyber knowledge is fundamental to improving healthcare delivery.
Commenting on this research, Professor Sultan Mahmud, director of healthcare, BT, said: “The NHS is rightly focused on saving lives, so it can be hard to stay ahead of cybersecurity threats with the landscape shifting so quickly.
“Threats targeting healthcare have grown in frequency and sophistication, endangering patient care and compromising vital services. BT logs 2,000 signals of potential cyber-attacks every second, totalling 200 million per day across sectors. With over 1.7 million employees, the NHS is the UK’s biggest employer, so empowering this workforce is vital.”
“Across the NHS, high awareness of cyber risk is overshadowed by a lack of preparedness. Moreover, significant frustrations with legacy systems are affecting care, exacerbating training gaps.
“Having worked in the NHS before joining BT, I understand many of these challenges and the importance of bringing together leading minds. Through initiatives like our Clinical Advisory Board and Vanguard Programme, BT Health is enabling collaboration between healthcare, policy, and business to drive meaningful change. A cyber-resilient NHS will be a better NHS for everyone.”
Banking app customers across the UK are reporting issues and outages from some of the UK’s largest banks.
Downdetector saw more than 4,000 reports of technical issues from the Lloyds Bank app this Friday morning, with Halifax, Bank of Scotland (which are both part of Llyods Banking Group), and TSB customers also facing issues through the banks’ respective apps.
“We know some customers are having issues with internet banking and our apps,” a Lloyds Banking Group spokesperson said, as reported by the BBC.
“We’re sorry about this and we’re working to have it back to normal soon.”
As this Friday marks the last day of the month of February, many UK banking app users are facing the outage on payday.
A similar outage affected the Barclays mobile banking app in January, also on a Friday payday.
Abrdn, the Scottish financial investment company, has appointed Siobhan Boylan as its new chief financial officer (CFO) and as an executive director of the company.
Following regulatory approval, Boylan is anticipated to start her new position in the summer.
With 30 years of experience from across the financial services sector, Boylan is primed to bring her expertise from her current position as chief financial officer at Coutts & Co, NatWest’s private banking arm. She also currently serves as an independent non-executive at Jupiter Fund Management.
Prior to Coutts & Co, Boylan was finance chief of Brewin Dolphin, and before this she served in the same role at Legal & General Investment Management. At Aviva, Boylan held various senior finance roles.
“This is an exciting time to join the business, and I am looking forward to working with talented colleagues, to continue to strengthen the business and set it up for future success,” Boylan said.
Jason Windsor, group chief executive at Abrdn said: “Siobhan was the outstanding candidate, with her impressive skillset and experience that is highly relevant, and complementary to the rest of the leadership team.
“I want to take this opportunity to thank Ian Jenkins for his commitment during the interim period, and I am delighted he will step into a new role as CFO of our investments business when Siobhan joins the company.”
Ian Jenkins will continue to serve as interim group chief financial officer until Boylan starts in the summer. Jenkins assumed this position when Windsor was appointed group chief executive after former chief Stephen Bird stepped down in May 2024.
Following Boylan’s start, Jenkins will take up a new role as the CFO of Abrdn Investments when Boylan takes up the mantle.
A new centre designed to support process manufacturing industries with next-generation technologies is officially opening in North Ayrshire as part of the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS).
The Digital Process Manufacturing Centre (DPMC) is set to give process manufacturing businesses access to digital and data driven manufacturing expertise, enabling them to innovate and adopt new technology in a low-risk environment.
AI, robotics, digital data management and virtual and augmented reality are among the tools that will be available to trial at the centre.
The DPMC facility is funded in part through the £251 million Ayrshire Growth Deal, which includes £103 million from UK government, a further £103m from Scottish government and £45.5 million from Council partners, as well as Scottish Enterprise, the University of Strathclyde as the operator of NMIS, and CPI, and will be supported by ongoing membership income.
It serves as a pilot initiative for a larger, permanent facility in the region.
“The DPMC will be a valuable hub for process manufacturing businesses to explore digital technologies and access the wider capabilities of the NMIS group and our partners,” Chris Courtney, CEO of NMIS said.
“Development and implementation of digital technologies can lead to increased productivity, reduced energy costs, an overall lower carbon footprint and improved competitiveness for manufacturers.
“At NMIS, as the innovation and skills partner of choice for many manufacturing businesses across multiple sectors, we support smaller businesses in the adoption of new data-driven processes and tools by providing a set of leading-edge test beds, access to expertise and support to upskill their teams.
Located within the Booth Welsh manufacturing space at i3 in Irvine, the DPMC aims to accelerate the adoption of digital technology for process industry manufacturers to help cut energy costs and achieve net zero by becoming more aware, predictive, and productive.
The facility will offer access to safe testing areas, collaboration zones, and flexible manufacturing space for prototyping new techniques and processes.
5G connectivity will also be a core focus at the centre, supported by the Ayrshire 5G Innovation Region programme, with Vodafone recently named as the site’s 5G provider.
Underpinned by the Ayrshire 5G vision, the telecoms firm plans to create a Mobile Private Network at the DPMC to provide secure, fast, and efficient network coverage to showcase capabilities, provide testing, and support local companies with 5G connectivity in advanced manufacturing to accelerate the adoption of 5G and advanced wireless technologies.
Funding for the 5G connectivity initiative comes from the UK government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) with Ayrshire named one of 10 innovation regions for advanced wireless technologies.
Training will also be on offer through the NMIS manufacturing skills academy to upskill the current workforce and support the next generation of talent, as well as digital demonstrators to show businesses how different types of technology could be applied to their manufacturing activities.
The DPMC is looking to engage with a range of sectors including pharmaceuticals manufacturing, oil and gas, chemicals, food and drink, water treatment and supply, and fast moving commercial goods (FMCG).
“The new facility, with its range of demonstrators and 5G network, makes advanced digital manufacturing technologies accessible to all in the process sectors,” Courtney said. “It further underpins our mission to harness Scotland’s advanced manufacturing potential, and to support those working in the sector to become more sustainable and efficient.
“We look forward to working with a wide range of businesses to boost digital transformation and enable them to continue to thrive.”
According to the UK government’s Made Smarter Review, the adoption of industrial digital technology in existing and new production facilities could improve productivity by up to 30%.
“It was fantastic to see the first phase of the Digital Process Manufacturing Centre in action,” UK government Scotland Office minister Kirsty McNeill said. “The next stage of the Ayrshire Growth Deal project will see local partners use £5 million UK Government investment to build a permanent facility in the area.
“The UK Government is focused on delivering our Plan for Change to turbo-charge economic growth and bring a decade of national renewal and opportunity for all.
“Pioneering facilities like this are testament to what we can achieve when we work together towards a common goal. I encourage stakeholders, business leaders, educators, and policymakers to seize this opportunity, engage with the resources available here, and contribute to shaping a vibrant, sustainable future for manufacturing in Scotland and the UK.”
The University of Glasgow is set to become one of the UK’s leading centres for cutting-edge medical magnetics research with the establishment of a new laboratory facility.
The University’s new magnetism lab, equipped with a bespoke magnetically shielded room known as MuRoom, was officially opened on Monday, 24 February with an event at the James Watt School of Engineering.
Built with a £250,000 investment from the School, the lab was custom-engineered to eliminate magnetic interference from external sources, such as nearby electronics and the Earth’s magnetic field. This magnetism lab will enhance the University’s research and development capabilities, supporting spinouts like Neuranics, which is focusing on pioneering magnetic solutions.
The MuRoom within the lab will enable researchers to develop new prototypes of devices capable of detecting the extremely weak biomagnetic signals produced by human muscles (magnetomyography or MMG) and organs such as the heart (magnetocardiography or MCG) and brain (magnetoencephalography or MEG).
In the future, these advanced devices could replace the current standard method for monitoring muscle, heart and brain activity based on electrical recording. Unlike electrical measurements, which require direct skin contact and are susceptible to interference, magnetic signals offer significant advantages.
Since biological tissues such as skin and subcutaneous fat are transparent to magnetic fields, these signals experience minimal distortion. This results in a higher spatialresolution compared to electrical methods.
Moreover, while electrical signals are restricted to the plane of skin and do not yield any vectorial information, magnetic signals are vector sensitive. This allows 3D visualisations of signal source which could enhance the control of advanced prosthetic limbs and pave the way for new forms of human-computer interaction through wearable devices.
Designed to foster collaboration, the magnetism lab will be accessible to both academic researchers and industry partners to advance their own research. One key project currently utilising the facility is SUPREMISE, an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council-funded initiative led by researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, exploring MMG’s multiple potential applications.
The lab will also support Neuranics, a spinout company bringing together researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh to develop spintronics-based sensor solutions for health, fitness, and extended reality (XR) applications.
Neuranics, home to more than 10 alumni from the James Watt School of Engineering, is at the forefront of transforming magnetic sensor solutions for medical and XR applications.
By leveraging cutting-edge research and innovation, the company is redefining how magnetic sensors are used in healthcare and immersive technologies. Their advancements enable more precise, energy-efficient, and compact sensing solutions, paving the way for breakthroughs in medical diagnostics, neurotechnology, and next-generation XR experiences.
Professor Muhammad Imran, head of the James Watt School of Engineering, said: “We’re delighted to officially open the magnetism lab, which is the first facility in Scotland to offer this level of sophisticated shielding to enable advances in biomedical and sensing research.
“The lab helps to drive forward the University’s approach to innovation, enabling new developments in medical technology. The lab will foster new partnerships between academia and industry in next-generation medical sensors and transformative technologies, offering new solutions for healthcare, prosthetics, and human-computer interaction.”
Professor Hadi Heidari, from the James Watt School of Engineering and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Neuranics, led the installation of the magnetism lab. He said: “The potential applications are incredibly exciting, especially in medical diagnostics. Three-dimensional measurements of magnetic signals could help identify conditions that traditional methods might overlook, such as certain types of ‘silent’ strokes.
“The magnetism lab will help us make MMG sensors sensitive enough for sophisticated measurements of the human body, which could be integrated into everyday life. That might mean a credit card-sized device that monitors your heart for 24 hours or a wristband that allows precise control of prosthetic limbs.”
The magnetism lab opening ceremony was attended by Professor Muhammad Imran, Uzma Khan, Vice-Principal for Economic Development and Innovation; Professor Chris Pearce, Vice-Principal for Research and Knowledge Exchange; and Eric Yeatman, Head of the College of Science & Engineering.
Ten government-funded mast upgrades have now been activated in Scotland as part of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) – a programme brokered by the UK government and joint-funded with mobile network operators to improve mobile coverage in rural areas.
Across the whole of the UK, 39 masts are now live as part of the SRN.
Rural towns and villages throughout Scotland are benefiting from faster, more reliable mobile coverage as one of the latest government-funded 4G network upgrades were switched on. It means residents, local businesses and community organisations in areas including Tobermory and Aros on the Isle of Mull can now take advantage of better connectivity.
The latest EAS mast activation benefitting the Isle of Mull, adds to the coverage enhancements already made to parts of Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway, the Borders and Argyll and Bute. The activations bring coverage from all 4 mobile network operators to nearly 200,000m of roads across Scotland.
The boost has been carried out by upgrading existing mobile masts which previously only connected EE customers and anyone making 999 calls, meaning communities can benefit from improved connectivity without the visual impact involved when building new masts.
It will enable residents, tourists and businesses to access reliable 4G coverage from all four mobile network operators – EE, Three, VMO2 and Vodafone – closing the digital divide between urban and rural communities and boosting economic growth across the nations.
“Powered by UK Government investment, 10 mast upgrades are now providing fast and reliable mobile internet access in rural areas in Scotland,” Scottish secretary Ian Murray said.
“This is a crucial upgrade that will help to improve connectivity – from business to tourism, and particularly to ensure that emergency services can be contacted quickly when they are needed. This is an important step and a key part of our Plan for Change for economic growth right across Scotland.”
Since the Shared Rural Network programme began in 2020, an additional 34,000 square kilometres – an area equivalent to roughly double the size of Northern Ireland or 4.6 million football pitches – are receiving coverage from all four operators, EE, Three, VMO2 and Vodafone across the UK.
“Since March 2020, when the Shared Rural Network was announced, 4G coverage from all four operators in Scotland has expanded by over 18,000 square kilometres, more than an area the size of Perth and Kinross, Argyll and Bute and the Scottish Borders combined,” Ben Roome, CEO of Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited (DMSL) said.
“This programme will continue to improve 4G service for people in rural areas as more shared mobile sites go live.”
Through the SRN programme, the UK government and the UK’s four mobile network operators aim to provide 4G coverage to an additional 280,000 premises and 16,000km of the UK’s roads.
The UK government is investing £184 million to upgrade Extended Area Service (EAS) masts to provide coverage from all four mobile operators. Currently, commercial coverage from EAS masts is only available from EE – the operator responsible for the Emergency Services Network.
Mobile operators have also invested over £500 million to target ‘partial not spots’ across the UK, where customers can only access 4G if they are signed up with a mobile network operator that is active in the area. This part of the programme has already delivered significant coverage improvements across Scotland, including in the areas of Shetland, Stirling and Uist.
More than £850 million has been injected into Scottish projects over the past four months as investors are drawn to the country’s energy transition.
The total is boosted today by the Scottish National Investment Bank’s (SNIB) announcement of £6.7 million for Subsea Micropiles, which is developing a marine anchor system for large offshore construction projects.
The company has also secured £2.5 million from Japanese investor Marubeni and is committed to building a manufacturing facility in Scotland, supporting about 100 jobs.
SNIB’s investment is part of the up to £500 million committed by the Scottish Government over five years to grow offshore wind supply industries and infrastructure.
Other funding rounds include the £20 million investment by SNIB into subsea cable manufacturer XLCC’s planned new facility in Hunterston Ayrshire, and £50m by Forth Ports for new infrastructure at the Port of Leith to support a major offshore wind contract.
A further £800m from Copenhagen Investment Partners has been invested in new battery storage projects in South Lanarkshire and Fife, as well as £5m from Highlands and Islands Enterprise to support the development of a new harbour facility for the assembly of offshore wind turbines at Scapa Flow.
“The increasing pace of investment announcements will create jobs across the country and is further evidence of growing private sector and investor confidence in Scotland’s economic potential,” deputy first minister Kate Forbes said ahead of a Scottish Parliament debate on Increasing Investment in Scotland.
“Scotland has the talent, skills and resources to become a major player in the global energy transition and the Scottish Government is determined to ensure that this happens. This includes investing up to half a billion pounds to unlock the additional private investment we need to realise this enormous opportunity.
“Work is gathering pace. The backing for Subsea Micropiles demonstrates the strategic approach the Scottish Government is taking alongside SNIB and our enterprise agencies, focusing on bringing new investment and green jobs to Scotland while supporting the delivery of our burgeoning offshore wind capabilities.
“And next month we will host the Global Offshore Wind Supply Chain Forum in Edinburgh, bringing together international investors to discuss opportunities and further highlight what Scotland has to offer.”
Businesses behind Scotland’s most emblematic exports have been able to grow thanks to £42 million in UK Export Finance deals brokered so far since the summer.
Enabling companies such as Ferguson Whisky and manufacturing of fire and rescue vehicles Emergency One, which the government of Iraq has contracted to replace some of its fleet of fire engines, to expand to markets abroad helps to grow the economy and create jobs, delivering on the Plan for Change.
The latest Scottish business to benefit from support is Aberdeen-based First Tech – one of many offshore services firms in Scotland driving the energy transition and making the country a world-renowned centre of engineering skills.
Scotland’s marine economy generated around £4.9 billion in 2022.
UKEF is renewing a £12m support package delivered with Virgin Money for First Tech subsidiary First Subsea, allowing it to continue its growth into the offshore wind market and provide UK-made products like cable protections systems, bend restrictor products or heavy lift connectors, across the globe.
Minister Douglas Alexander will join UKEF representatives today at the ‘Made in Scotland’ roadshow, where he will encourage Scottish businesses to take advantage of the opportunities to sell abroad and hear first-hand about the support UKEF has provided.
“Growing the economy is a key part of this UK Government’s Plan for Change, and we recognise the importance of boosting Scottish exports in achieving this,” minister for trade policy Douglas Alexander said.
“We’re working hard to ensure that Scottish businesses have the support they need to sell to the world and grow, and the help that UK Export Finance provides is a crucial part of this.”
UKEF is the UK government’s export credit agency, providing credit guarantees and insurance helping smaller businesses to overcome financial barriers to exporting. Export credit is an integral part of the government trade support being promoted at the first ‘Made in Scotland, Sold to the World’ trade fair of 2025.
In 2021, Scotland’s exports were worth £50.1 billion, of which the majority – £33.5 billion – were goods.
UKEF’s specialised trade finance offer sits alongside other sources of support from public organisations like the Export Support Service, UK Export Academy and British Business Bank, which can offer more general access to finance.
“First Tech is very proud to be at the forefront of the energy transition story with our continued expertise in oil and gas being a launchpad to make meaningful developments in both the fixed and floating offshore wind market through First Subsea and also First Marine Solutions,” Martin Suttie, First Tech Ltd chairman said.
“Floating wind technology enables almost every country in the world to integrate floating wind renewable energy into their energy mix. It is therefore vitally important that the industry continues to develop and prove large scale commercial developments if we are going to genuinely change the energy mix around the globe. The First Tech Group is excited to play an important part in making this transition happen.”
DIGIT’s ITSX Summit returns to Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh this week!
Taking place on February 27, the conference will contextualise the evolution of the service desk and the future of customer experience and IT support.
The packed programme will consider how the service function has advanced in the age of digital transformation, omni-channel engagement, and personalisation, viewed through a lens that examines the increasing role of automation, analytics and AI, and the rise of Chatbots and self-service systems.
The conference will explore how tech leaders can maximise the business impact of their service function, with presentations looking at actionable ways to improve process, operations, observability, and customer experience.
Speakers at this year’s summit include:
Christopher Wroath, Director: NES Technology Services, NHS Scotland
Ofcom has finalised its industry guidance on how it will exercise its wide-ranging powers to demand information from regulated tech firms as it seeks to make life online safer.
Under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom has legal powers to access information held by regulated companies and third parties, which Ofcom says is fundamental to its role as a regulator.
The regulator will also be able to remotely inspect how a platform’s algorithm works in real time as it holds organisations to account for example, about what they recommend to users particularly children.
Ofcom intends to use the information it collects to help it scrutinise how effective tech firms’ safety measures are, as well as demand data where the regulator has found specific concerns that its rules are not being followed.
Now, the regulator has introduced new guidance for online services about the factors Ofcom may take into account when deciding how to exercise these new information gathering powers.
The guidance also explains the legal duties imposed on regulated services and other third parties, setting out the expectations on how these companies should respond to a statutory request from Ofcom.
The regulator said it had received broad support for its draft guidance from respondents of its consultation, but are making some clarificatory changes in the final version.
This includes providing more information about the protections the Online Safety Act provides in relation to Ofcom’s disclosure to overseas regulators.
The regulator will also provide further detail about when and how it may use its powers to require tests or demonstrations and other general mechanics around some of the powers, including remote viewing.
Failure to comply with a request for information (known as an ‘information notice’) from Ofcom in an accurate, complete, and timely way will have consequences for firms, the regulator warned.
It could result in tech companies facing fines of up to £18m or 10% of their worldwide revenue – whichever is higher. Or, in the most extreme cases, there could be criminal liability.
In 2024, Ofcom fined TikTok, under the separate rules governing video-sharing platforms, for failing to respond to a request for information about its parental controls.
The regulator’s investigation into OnlyFans compliance with a request for information remains ongoing.
The guidance released today will be effective immediately, Ofcom clarified.
Global enterprises could be set to waste billions on their cloud infrastructure spend this year, due to their failure to create a culture of cost awareness amongst developers, new research shows.
A study of 700 engineering leaders and developers across the UK and the US, released by Harness, found a major disconnect between developers and financial operators when it comes to cloud costs, which could cost companies billions.
Over half (52%) of engineering leaders say the disconnect between FinOps and development teams is leading to wasted spend on cloud infrastructure costs.
Developers have limited insights into cloud waste, the report says, with less than half saying they have access to real time data on idle cloud resources (43%). About two in five (39%) say they have unused or orphaned resources, and a third say they have over or under-provisioned workloads. All of this contributes to a picture of imbalance.
Without a clear and balanced picture of cloud resource requirements, 55% of developers say purchasing commitments are ultimately based on guesswork.
As a result, enterprises estimate that 21% of their cloud infrastructure spend is wasted on underutilised resources, equating to an estimated $44.5bn (£35.25bn) in 2025 alone.
“Cloud infrastructure spend is one of the biggest line items for modern enterprises, right behind salary. Leadership teams should ask themselves if they are comfortable relying on guesswork to manage and optimize this spend,” said John Bonney, CFO at Harness.
“With a lack of visibility into cloud costs and constantly shifting requirements for workloads, needless inefficiencies and over-commitments are eating up resources and holding firms back when they are under pressure to do more with less.”
By automating cloud cost management, organisations can dynamically manage spend, eliminating waste and realising instant savings. This intelligent approach also removes the burden of managing resource scheduling for engineers while avoiding unnecessary resource usage.
The study also found a lack of transparency across organisations when sharing cloud spend data. Developers are often involved in cost optimisation too late in the process, and are not given the right insights they need to optimise cloud spend.
Most organisations are failing to set up fundamental cloud cost optimisation best practices, with nearly three quarters (71%) of developers not carrying out spot orchestration, and just under two thirds (61%) not rightsizing instances.
Further, over half (58%) do not use reserved instances or saving plans, and 48% do not track and shut down idle resources.
Despite these fault margins, 62% of developers want more control over, and responsibility for, managing cloud infrastructure costs.
Only a third (32%) of developers have fully automated practices to enforce cost-savings, the study also found, despite it taking enterprises on average 31 days to spot cloud waste such as idle or unused cloud resources.
It takes a similar amount of time to spot overprovisioned cloud resources and flag that they need to be right-sized (25 days).
Developers do see change on the horizon, however, as 86% of respondents feel like AI can impact their ability to optimise costs in the next year.
“The reality is developers don’t often view cost optimization as a priority. This disconnect leads to overprovisioned resources, idle instances, and inefficient architectures that quietly drain budgets,” explains Ravi Yadalam, senior director of product management at Harness.
“Cloud efficiency isn’t just a numbers game—it’s about creating a culture of cost awareness where enterprises shift their FinOps practices left, so engineers understand how their architectural choices directly impact both performance and financial outcomes.
“Developers must become equal partners in their cloud cost management strategy, gaining full visibility into spend so they can identify cloud waste and automatically eliminate it.”
While 79% of executives express confidence in meeting their AI transformation goals, only 28% of employees feel adequately trained and only 25% report being able to use AI to work more efficiently, according to research from WalkMe.
The digital adoption platform uncovered a staggering cost of digital inefficiencies, with enterprises losing over $104 million in 2024 alone due to underutilised technology and poor productivity practices.
With AI spending expected to increase 64% in 2025 from $14M to $23M at large enterprises, companies must take proactive steps to ensure maximum ROI.
According to the report, enterprises that implement even a single digital adoption best practice can nearly triple their digital transformation ROI from 22% to 64%. This gap reveals that without effective digital adoption, AI investments often fail.
These insights are drawn from a survey of 3,700 senior executives and employees, as well as proprietary data from a subset of WalkMe’s user base, 1.5 million users across 2,400 enterprise applications.
The report revealed that employees are still dealing with technology frustrations, wasting an average of 36 working days a year.
This is despite the average digital adoption investment rising from $2.8m in 2023 to $5.1 million in 2025.
Further, digital adoption teams have also grown, with 73% of large organisations having six or more people responsible for driving software adoption, compared to 63% in 2024.
“As we release the fourth annual State of Digital Adoption report, it’s clear that while AI is transforming enterprise ambitions, its success hinges on people,” said Dan Adika, co-founder & CEO of WalkMe.
“Over a decade of innovation in digital adoption has shown us one truth: technology alone doesn’t deliver results – people do. This year’s findings outline actionable steps leaders can take to close the readiness gap and turn their AI investments into impact.”
The report also revealed an alarming visibility gap in how employees are using software in their roles. Executives believe an average of 37 applications are in use at their organizations, but WalkMe’s data shows the average number is actually 625, a 17x discrepancy.
This gap is hindering organizations’ ability to manage their software investments and properly support digital transformation.
“WalkMe’s research highlights a clear need for organizations to bridge the AI adoption gap, and digital adoption platforms play a vital role in enabling organizations to maximize their AI transformation efforts,” said Andrea Lippin, managing director, talent & organization at Accenture.
“The report showed that AI has sparked 93% of enterprises to reevaluate key parts of their digital organization, including IT infrastructure, software applications, and talent to unlock the benefits of AI. We are entering a new chapter of business innovation that will have lasting implications across industries. And that is why we recommend a WalkMe first approach—ensuring that AI adoption is not only strategic but also seamless, intuitive, and scalable.”
“The success of AI in the enterprise is all about execution and, as this research shows, much of that is in the hands of employees,” said Alexa Cordell, Sr. Learning Technology Manager, EDF Renewables. “It’s about ensuring employees can seamlessly adopt and integrate it into their workflows to drive both individual and organizational success.”
Ransomware remains the biggest driver of cybersecurity incident responses, according to the newest Threat Report from Arctic Wolf.
Further, three cyber incident types account for 95% of all IR cases, despite the ransomware landscape becoming ever-more democratised as the barrier to entry is continually lowered by advancing technologies like AI, and the proliferation of IoT devices opening up new vulnerable avenues for attack.
Arctic Wolf’s 2025 Threat Report draws on first-hand experience of the firm’s security experts, as well as research from the team into the overall cyber threat landscape.
The report details the ever-expanding realm of ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) offerings, as well as the important of prioritisation when it comes to patch strategies.
Ransomware (44%), business email compromise (27%) and intrusions (24%) are the three leading case incidences the cyber team found.
While this level is fairly consistent, there is a slight increase in the level of intrusions, balanced by a relative decrease in ransomware attacks. Arctic Wolf found that most ransomware attacks were stopped prior to detonation, as organisations are improving their detection capabilities.
Ransomware
Ransomware attacks are however, attempting to increase their severity as potential victims implement more reliable backup and restoration processes. In retaliation, ransomware groups are introducing data exfiltration as a means to apply additional pressure and protect their revenue streams.
This is becoming the norm, the research found, as 96% of ransomware incidents investigated included data exfiltration. Despite its prevalence, backups are still vital: in 68% of ransomware incidents, backups aided the recovery process.
Ransomware is only growing, as the RaaS model becomes mainstream and more and more gangs vie for a piece of the lucrative action. Arctic Wolf identified over 50 unique ransomware threat actors in victim environments in their research.
Email Compromise and Intrusions
Business email compromise is on the rise for businesses that deal with money – organisations that regularly exchange money and process payment details over email are consistently in the crosshairs of these attacks.
The finance and insurance industry therefore account for 26.5% of BEC cases, which accounted for over half (53%) of incident response cases for these industries.
Phishing and compromised credentials are behind the vast majority of BEC cases; multi-factor authentication however, can help mitigate the effectiveness of these methods.
For intrusion, low tech methods are consistently employed by cyber-criminals who target unsecured remote desktop protocol (RDP) and compromised VPN credentials to gain access to systems and data.
In 76% of intrusion cases, threat actors employed at least one of 10 specific vulnerabilities, none of which were zero-days.
Patch management can be incredibly important, and while the task can seem never-ending, prioritisation can ensure attacker’s favourite means of infiltration are blocked.
Patching critical infrastructure, specially VPN services and edge devices are vital facets of building a robust cyber defence.
“The 2025 Arctic Wolf Threat Report highlights a critical shift in cybercriminal behavior: data exfiltration has become the norm, not the exception,” said Kerri Shafer-Page, vice president of incident response, Arctic Wolf.
“Threat actors are no longer just locking up data with ransomware; they’re stealing it first to maximize pressure on victims.
“The insights help organizations understand the risks they face today and shape the advanced detection and response strategies embedded within the Arctic Wolf Aurora Platform to keep our customers secure.”
As organisations grapple with rising cloud costs, many are shifting toward a more balanced and hybrid approach when it comes to storage.
Findings from the third annual Wasabi Global Cloud Storage Index show that 44% of organisations in the UK, are pursuing a hybrid approach by deploying a mix of on premises and cloud solutions/services.
Conducted by Vanson Bourne, the Index surveyed 1,600 C-level leadership and managers involved in their organisation’s cloud storage purchasing process.
This year’s data explores themes around cloud storage purchase decisions, budgets and billing, data security challenges, and utilisation of services for use cases like backup and active archiving.
Unpredictable fees push organisations beyond their budgets
Among European respondents, cloud storage fees account for nearly half of all cloud billing expenses (47%), with the cost of actual stored capacity making up the remainder (approx. 53%).
In large part due to this unfavourable mix, organisations end up exceeding their cloud budgets – in the UK, 37% have exceeded it slightly and 14% massively over the past year. Germany has indicated the highest level of budget excess at 66%, followed by the Netherlands (64%), France (53%) and the UK (51%).
The main reason for budget excess are misalignment and difficulty forecasting planned and actual usage, combined with fees from various data operations like replication and object tagging.
44% of UK respondents stated that their actual data storage usage and growth was higher than forecasted, but in 91% of these cases it’s because of fee-related reasons.
For more than half of the European organisations (55%), egress or other data access fees associated with moving their data out of a public cloud environment have delayed IT or business initiatives.
“Organisations are being unfairly penalised for using and moving their data by anti-competitive practices like high egress fees and complex pricing models.
“This is consequently stifling innovation, as data is the lifeblood for unlocking full growth potential.
“This also shows in our data with organisations being prompted to rethink their approach, leading many to strike a more balanced mix between cloud and on-premise solutions”, says Kevin Dunn, VP & GM EMEA, Wasabi.
The UK leads regional peers in “cloud-first” approach to IT services adoption
This year, UK organisations are leading the global race for cloud adoption, in equal place with the Netherlands – with 41% of businesses following a “cloud-first” strategy compared to the global average of 29% and European average of 34%.
“Cloud-first” is defined as prioritising cloud IT services adoption over any alternative requiring owned or on premises IT infrastructure.
“We believe the higher rates of ‘cloud-first’ organisations across Europe are a positive indication of the regions continued embrace of cloud IT services and cloud storage, and the growing preference among regional organisations to adopt cloud services, despite the complexity of data sovereignty, residency, and locality requirements”, comments Dunn.
When choosing a cloud storage provider, UK respondents’ top consideration is performance and scalability (41%), followed by sustainability (32%) and ease of use (30%).
For EMEA respondents across the board, native data protection, security and compliance was also brought up as the second highest priority (34%), preceded by performance and scalability (35%), and followed by sustainability (31%).
Across the UK’s 6.12 million public sector workforce, manual process inefficiency is adding up to 30.6 million hours of extra work every week.
This is according to new research from Appain, in partnership with Coforge, which found that on average, manual process inefficiency is costing public sector workers five hours per week.
Of the 1,000 UK public sector workers surveyed in the 2025 UK Public Sector Efficiency Survey, 94% say they face process inefficiencies in delivering citizen services.
Manual and repetitive tasks, a need to access multiple legacy systems to view or enter the same information, and a lack of training and support were the top three challenges cited by public servants.
Process change is also a common obstacle, as 91% of public sector workers say that their organisation finds adapting its processes challenges, specifically when trying to maintain productivity amidst changing service demands, citizen needs, and government policies.
AI and automation: The keys to efficiency
Despite process challenges, the public sector is optimistic about the opportunities AI and process automation offer.
Nearly two thirds (62%) of survey respondents have some or even high confidence in AI’s potential to improve their organisation’s efficiency. Those in back-office IT roles (71%) were most likely to report confidence in AI, followed by those in citizen-facing services (65%) and back-office business roles (57%).
About three in four (72%) respondents believe that automating repetitive tasks would simplify their jobs and improve efficiency.
The vast majority (95%) of respondents that use workflow or process automation tools have already reported experiencing benefits.
“Every public service organisation is built on processes. When those processes improve, so do the services delivered to citizens,” said Peter Corpe, industry leader, UK Public Sector at Appian.
“With millions of hours at stake, automating low-value admin tasks and resolving process inefficiencies offers the public sector a chance to work more efficiently. This means more time for the strategic and value-driven activities that directly impact citizen outcomes.”
Pressure on the public sector to improve productivity
In its latest budget, the UK government has set all departments a 2% target to improve productivity, efficiencies and savings for next year. Using technology more effectively is one way to achieve this goal.
According to a 2025 review by the UK Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) “Over £45 billion per year of unrealised savings and productivity benefits, 4–7% of public sector spend, could be achieved through digitisation of public sector services”.
The review goes on to say, “This makes digitisation the most powerful lever available to drive public sector and service reform”. It lists process simplification and AI-driven automation of manual tasks as two predominant opportunities to drive savings.
Ministers are set to tackle the scourge of digital exclusion plaguing the UK public, as millions of people in Britain are set to gain greater digital skills to boost their employability and access vital services.
With daily tasks like speaking to a GP, applying for jobs, or renting and buying a house becoming increasingly digitalised, improved digital skills and access to technology hold the key to many of the government’s commitments in the Plan for Change.
Businesses are also set to gain from greater skills, with too many employers currently struggling to recruit candidates with the digital skills required to help them grow their business and ultimately boost economic growth.
Research shows that people who are digitally excluded can face higher costs for things like home insurance, train travel and food – with people paying up to 25% more than consumers who are online.
The Technology Secretary Peter Kyle has now set out urgent actions to begin fixing digital exclusion, publishing a new Digital Inclusion Action Plan that will help people in Britain reap the benefits of the online world.
This includes funding for local initiatives targeted to the most digitally-excluded groups, including the elderly and low-income households and partnering with inclusion charity Digital Poverty Alliance to provide laptops to people who are digitally excluded.
“The technological revolution we are living in is not only transforming everyone’s lives, but is advancing at breakneck speed, and will not slow down any time soon,” secretary Kyle said.
“Leaving people behind in the process could threaten our mission to maximise technology for economic growth and better public services, which is central to our Plan for Change.
“Only by making technology a widely accessible force for good can we make it a positive catalyst for societal change – whether that means helping a sick patient speak to a GP remotely or giving a young person the devices they need to apply for online jobs or renting a flat.”
Charities, local and combined authorities will have access to funding for digital inclusion programmes, boosting communities’ digital access, skills and confidence in the online world. This new funding will empower Mayors and other local leaders to develop local solutions for the most digitally excluded groups in their areas, recognising the challenges they face will be different across the country.
It also includes pledges by key technology companies to help the government achieve its mission of breaking down the digital divide. Google and BT have pledged to deliver digital skills training to thousands in the UK while Vodafone has committed to help one million people by donating connectivity and technology, affordable services, and upskilling communities.
“Leadership from government, combined with tangible support for charities and local authorities and firm commitments from industry, sets a firm basis towards tackling an issue that prevents millions of people from accessing key services online and achieving their potential,” Elizabeth Anderson, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance said.
The news comes after several years of a lacklustre approach from government to tackle the issue of digital skills. A Lords Committee had “no confidence” in the previous government’s ability or efforts to tackle the dire issue.
There are fundamental weaknesses in UK public sector cyber defences, according to new findings from Trend Micro, as 64% IT leaders say they don’t have a concrete view of what best practice looks like because there are too many governing bodies and procedures to follow.
The research, which surveyed 250 IT public sector leaders with cybersecurity responsibilities, finds that consequently, 31% admit their cyber defences are weakened by unclear internal policies, while 24% say they’re concerned this lack of best practice could directly lead to a cyber incident or data breach.
Despite several cyber initiatives existing in the UK such as, they fall short of the expectations and needs of IT leaders.
Two-thirds (68%) warn that current government policies still don’t go far enough in setting minimum security standards for delivering public services or their suppliers. Half also call out that the G-Cloud Framework “isn’t fit for purpose” in helping them choose vendors with robust cyber credentials.
IT leaders are optimistic about the emergence of the new Cyber Assessment Framework in driving best practice and plugging some of the current weaknesses.
An overwhelming 80% see it as a critical vehicle for ensuring resilience, such as by benchmarking cyber risk and helping them work with the right partners.
However, although 38% are racing to meet these standards within the next two years, there are hurdles in the way that may make the journey harder.
Half of IT leaders say they are too focused on managing immediate cyber threats to develop a comprehensive strategic cyber plan (49%), while 48% lack the funds to invest in essential security awareness and training procedures needed to build a cyber-resilient workforce.
Perhaps most troubling is the revelation that cybersecurity still hasn’t earned its place at the top table.
More than half (52%) of respondents report their boards still treat cybersecurity as a mere “tick-box exercise” rather than a business-critical operational concern. In response, 39% of IT decision-makers are calling for cybersecurity to be recognised as a business-critical risk with corresponding funding allocation.
“Recent cyber-attacks have exposed the vulnerability of our public services – from compromised streetlight systems in local councils to ransomware attacks on NHS suppliers resulting in stolen patient data and potential clinical harm to patients,” Jonathan Lee, UK cybersecurity director, Trend Micro, said.
“The Synnovis ransomware attack, which led to thousands of cancelled and delayed blood tests, is a stark reminder that cyber incidents aren’t just about data, they have real-world, life-altering consequences.
“When 68% of UK IT leaders tell us Government policies fall short and over half report cybersecurity is treated as a tick-box exercise, we’re looking at a systemic problem that demands urgent attention.”
New space facilities will be constructed at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) to facilitate a major European Space Agency (ESA) mission in Scotland
The laboratory, funded by the UK Government’s investments in ESA, will be used to assemble the optical benches for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission.
To meet mission deadlines ESA is supporting the construction of the new lab and clean rooms at the Science and Technology Facility Council’s UK ATC site in Edinburgh. This £10 million ESA contract will double UK ATC’s construction capabilities, and build on existing support from the UK Space Agency (UKSA) and its membership of ESA.
LISA is ESA’s next flagship project and will be the first ever gravitational wave observatory in space. The optical benches are a crucial component of this complex mission.
The optical benches send and receive laser beams over a 2.5 million kilometre distance between LISA’s three spacecraft, enabling measurement of distance changes between them with an accuracy of a few picometres (trillionths of a metre).
Robotically Assisted Bonding
Work has already begun on the optical benches at UK ATC. The assembly process utilises Robotically Assisted Bonding (RAB), developed by UK ATC and the University of Glasgow and funded by UKSA.
The RAB system was developed as the highly accurate positioning and bonding of components in the construction of the optical benches would be impossible by hand or any previously used technique.
RAB can achieve positional accuracy of just a few microns (one millionth of a metre).
Considering the exactitude required, assembling the optical benches is an incredibly complex and meticulous job. Constructing the 10 required, including prototypes and spares, will take approximately 8 years.
Precision engineering
Ewan Fitzsimons, UK principal investigator for LISA at UK ATC, said: “This investment in labs and staff will enable us to meet the exacting standards required for this groundbreaking project. It not only enhances our technical capabilities but also underscores the critical role of precision engineering in complex space missions such as LISA.”
Filippo Marliani, ESA’s LISA project manager, said: “LISA, an ESA-led mission with contributions from ESA Member States and NASA, will be the first space observatory for gravitational waves, revolutionising astrophysics and space exploration. The UK Astronomy Technology Centre, in collaboration with the University of Glasgow, contribute to this unique mission with ultra-precision optical benches that sit at the heart of the three LISA spacecraft. A new integration facility will boost production, ensuring timely completion of the spacecraft. I very much look forward to working with the UK team.”
Professor Christophe Dumas, director at UK ATC, said: “This £10 million investment by the European Space Agency is a testament to the ability of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre to carry out cutting-edge work of the highest standards. These new facilities will enable our team to deliver LISA’s optical benches on time for a mission launch around 2035, enabling gigantic steps forward in the field of gravitational research.”
LISA will be the first gravitational wave observatory in space. Each of the three spacecraft will include two optical benches built in the labs at UK ATC in Edinburgh.
All three satellites will launch on the same rocket. During their 18-month voyage to their new home 60-70 million kilometres from Earth, the spacecraft will diverge until they reach their final positions forming an equilateral triangle 2.5 million kilometres from each other.
Using these Scottish-built optical benches, the three LISA spacecraft will relay laser beams back and forth between each other to detect the distortions of spacetime created by gravitational wave sources such as merging black holes or supernovae, providing insights on the formation of the early Universe, shortly after the Big Bang.
Innovative space science
Paul Bate, CEO of UKSA said: “With major contributions to the James Webb Space Telescope and this new investment in LISA, Scotland is at the heart of two of humanity’s most important and innovative space science missions.
“The scale of the engineering challenge associated with LISA is staggering – it is a flagship mission for Europe and it will be made possible by expertise in Edinburgh and Glasgow. This is a great example of how our leading role in ESA is delivering jobs and discovery for UK science.”
Wider UK involvement in the mission’s development includes researchers at Queen’s University Belfast working on several key technologies, including the development of high-precision laser interferometry systems. These systems are crucial for measuring the incredibly tiny changes in distance between the spacecraft caused by passing gravitational waves.
Another Government investment, through UKSA, is supporting the development of the ground-based data processing pipeline for LISA, via a consortium led by Birmingham University.
The technology innovations from investing in space science missions like LISA translate into breakthroughs that impact people’s lives every day. For instance, the advancements in robotic assistance and accuracy developed for optical benches are now being explored for delicate surgical procedures, where micron-level precision can significantly enhance patient outcomes.
Nearly nine in ten (86%) of commercial codebases evaluated by Black Duck contained open source software vulnerabilities, with eight in ten (81%) containing high- or critical-risk vulnerabilities, research from the firm showed.
The new 2025 Open Source Security and Risk Analysis report is based on the Black Duck Audit team’s evaluation of the anonymised findings from 1,658 analyses of 965 commercial codebases across 16 industries during 2024.
Black Duck’s data shows that the number of open source files in an average application has tripled, from more than 5,300 in 2020 to more than 16,000 in 2024.
“The 2025 OSSRA report underscores a critical and ongoing challenge for organisations: managing the security and compliance risks inherent in open source software,” said Jason Schmitt, CEO of Black Duck.
“As open source adoption continues to grow at an incredible velocity, businesses need to implement robust software composition analysis and risk management strategies to build trust into their applications, data and intellectual property.”
The Black Duck Audit team also found that the vast majority (90%) of audited codebases were found to have open source components more than four years out-of-date.
Outdated components magnify security risks, provide attackers with an expanded attack surface and create compliance and compatibility issues.
The presence of older open source also suggests that developers need to take advantage of software improvements.
jQuery, a Javascript library, was found to be the most frequent source of vulnerabilities. Each of the top ten high-risk vulnerabilities were found in jQuery. In fact, 43% of the applications Black Duck scanned contained some version of jQuery, frequently an outdated version.
The most frequently found high-risk vulnerability was CVE-2020-11023, an XSS vulnerability affecting outdated versions of jQuery, but still present in a third of scanned codebases.
Over half (56%) of the audited codebases contain license conflicts, the audit team found. Transitive dependencies – open source libraries that other software components rely on to function – caused nearly 30% of the license conflicts found in the audits.
Additionally, a third (33%) of codebases contained open source with no license or a customised license.
Only about three in four (77%) of dependencies could be identified via package manager scanning, suggesting that the remainder were introduced to applications by other means, including AI coding assistants.
These blind spots are what lead to lingering unpatched vulnerabilities, outdated components, and license conflicts.
The tirade of tech layoffs shows no signs of slowing down in 2025, as 11,299 tech workers have lost their job since the beginning of the year, according to research from Rationalfx.
The company tracked company announcements, rounds ups from TrueUp, TechCruch, and Layoffs.fyi to reveal the staggering degree of tech layoffs carried out in 2024. While 2025 is at a slower start, according to the research, the trend of tech layoffs appears to be going no where, despite mega profit margins for global tech companies.
2024 was a turbulent year for the tech sector, to put it mildly – 280,991 people lost their jobs in the sector as economic headwinds whipped the tech industry, and undulating market demands shook the sector’s sense of stability.
The research found that over half of 2024’s layoffs – 157,950 – were from US companies, highlighting the country’s pivotal role in the tech industry and its global grasp on the sector.
In comparison, 4,321 UK tech workers lost their jobs.
In 2024, Dell cut the most workers, with 18,500 layoffs, followed by Intel and Amazon, which each cut about 15,000 jobs.
Downsizing appears to be the overarching trend in the sector since the pandemic’s hiring boom faded and the rise of AI urges for more automation and reallocation of resources.
However, many companies that have restructured have actually reported revenue increases in 2023 and 2024, with record-high earnings for shareholders, the research found.
Even as layoffs surge, many companies have not ceased in their hiring efforts, and instead are focused on temporary workers, or even gig-like contracts.
The 2025 layoffs are still largely driven by the same factors cited in 2024, though CEOs like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg saying he was cutting about 3,600 “low performers” was not directly in reference to AI, inflation, or economic headwinds.
Performance-based layoffs appear to be on trend, as Microsoft also announced the same when it cut 2,280 workers.
Amazon was less transparent in its announced layoffs, which it at first deemed as “small,” though they are now expected to reach 2,000 workers.
The Glasgow City Region Cabinet has green lit a new £64.5 million City Deal project which will provide funding for all eight of the Region’s councils to refurbish existing or to create new commercial or industrial premises.
The Region’s £1.13 billion city deal is funded by the UK and Scottish governments.
The new project is designed to tackle a key problem identified within the Region’s economic strategy around a lack of available modern, high-quality commercial and industrial premises – due to the declining availability of stock and a lack of investment into new or existing spaces.
“This is a really significant investment that will increase the amount of modern, high quality commercial and industrial properties available across the city region,” Susan Aitken, chair of the Glasgow City Region Cabinet and leader of Glasgow City Council said.
“It’s vital that we address the shortage of suitable accommodation which both local businesses and inward investors tell us they often face if we’re to deliver on our economic potential. I’m looking forward to seeing how this project will contribute to growth across the city region and help create jobs in our communities.”
In terms of the projects which are being considered for the funding, each council has submitted a longlist of potential locations.
With Cabinet approval granted, the last of the current City Deal business cases to be considered by Cabinet, the longlist of projects will now be further assessed. And in the coming months the councils will progress towards a final shortlist of projects, with a business case developed for each to evidence the funding requirement for inclusion in the final programme.
It is anticipated that the new funding will support a mixture of new build construction; refurbishment of existing buildings to improve the quality, energy efficiency and lifespan of existing premises; and enabling activity such as investment in infrastructure or sites to allow the private sector to build a commercial floorspace project through follow on investment.
The £64.5 million project aims to contribute to addressing some key economic issues faced by the Region which impact on local businesses, employers, investment into the Region and the public sector.
A research report commissioned by Glasgow City Region last year, evidences the scale of the challenge in ensuring there is sufficient commercial and industrial premises to meet the need of local businesses and businesses investing into the Region.
It recognised that the problem is due to a wide range of factors, all of which are affecting the wider UK, including not enough new floorspace being built by the private sector; available quality space in the Region at a historically low level and exacerbated by a growing amount of out-of-date property – with local SMEs and inward investors struggling to find suitable accommodation to grow and expand within the Region.
The demand for modern, high-quality commercial and industrial spaces for existing and new business to move into is not being met. In some instances, the cost of developing new commercial space is not a viable commercial proposition for the private sector and may require public sector stimulus.
Top UK companies seem to be leading the way for gender equality in boardrooms, with women occupying nearly 43% of roles on company boards according to new government research.
The FTSE Women Leaders Review report for 2025, backed by the government and sponsored by sector giants Lloyds Banking Group and KPMG LLP, shows that women now occupy 1,275 or 43% of roles on company boards and 6,743 (35%) of leadership roles at the 350 FTSE companies.
This marks a year-on-year increase and means the target of 40% women’s representation by the end of this year continues to be achieved by FTSE350 businesses.
The results of this review show the progress being made to break down barriers to opportunity at the highest levels, within some of the most innovative and important companies in the UK.
Delivering equal opportunities for women is at the heart of the government’s growth mission as part of the Plan for Change, by ensuring they have fair access to a stable, well-paid jobs which will also help drive up living standards.
But the government recognises there is still more to do to bring more women into roles such as company Chairs and CEOs and to increase the number of women on boards and in leadership who hold executive roles.
The government will work with FTSE companies and other organisations to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve their full potential based on their talent.
“The UK is leading the charge for gender equality in boardrooms, but we cannot rest on our laurels,” chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves said.
“We must break down the barriers that stop many women being represented in decision-making roles, so that top talent reaches the highest levels of leadership in businesses driving economic growth across Britain.”
The UK comes second only to France in the G7 in terms of boardroom gender equality, with 43.4% compared to 45.4% in France.
Whilst France and other countries use quotas, the level of gender parity reached in the UK was done so voluntarily.
“In an increasingly disruptive world in which companies are faced with a combination of economic, geo-political and technological change British businesses are setting an international standard for balanced and inclusive leadership,” Vivienne Artz, CEO of the FTSE Women Leaders Review, said.
“With its unique Government-backed and business-led voluntary approach, the UK has spearheaded a world-leading transformation in the highest ranks of industry. Whilst FTSE 350 company boards are now gender-balanced, sustained effort and determination is required to achieve the 40% target for women in leadership by the end of this year.
“We look forward to working with businesses to deliver on this ambition.”
Ofcom, the media and online regulator, has proposed new concrete measures that tech firms should take to tackle online harms against women and girls, setting out a new and ambitious standard for their online safety.
With insights from victims, survivors, women’s advocacy groups and safety experts the draft guidance sets out practical, ambitious but achievable measures that providers can implement to improve women’s and girls’ safety.
The guidance has four central issues of focus, including online misogyny, pile ones and online harassment, online domestic abuse, and intimate image abuse.
The research from Ofcom also revealed the stark scale of online harms against women and girls in the UK, a problem that may only grow without intervention.
Women are five more times likely to be victims of intimate image abuse than men, and 2023 saw a rise in deepfake image abuse, with more posts online than all previous years combined.
Almost a quarter (23%) of teenage girls regularly see content that objectifies or demeans women online, with nearly 70% of boys aged 11 to 14 exposed to online content that promotes misogyny and other harmful views, leading to a new generation of children and teens developing the same toxic mindset around gender.
The online world also contributes to real danger, with online domestic abuse going under reported, and nearly three in four (73%) of women journalists experiencing online threats and abuse.
Calling On Big Tech
Ofcom is calling on big tech organisations to promote safety-by design in their platforms, with key examples of good industry practice.
The regulator identified nine such actions to take to better protect the safety of women and girls online:
Abusability testing – this identifies how a service or feature could be exploited by a malicious user
Technology to prevent intimate image abuse, such as identifying and removing non-consensual images based on databases
User prompts asking them to reconsider before posting harmful material – including detected misogyny, nudity or content depicting illegal gendered abuse and violence
Easier account controls, such as bundling default settings to make it easier for women experiencing pile-ons to protect their accounts
Visibility settings, allowing users to delete or change the visibility of their content, including material they uploaded in the past
Strengthening account security, for example using more authentication steps, making it harder for perpetrators to monitor accounts without the owner’s consent
Removing geolocation by default, because this information leaking can lead to serious harms, stalking, or threats to life
Training moderation teams to deal with online domestic abuse
Reporting tools that are accessible and support users who experience harm
User surveys to better understand people’s preferences and experiences of risk, and how best to support them
More transparency, including publishing information about the prevalence of different forms of harms, user reporting and outcomes
Ofcom is now inviting feedback on its draft guidance, as well as any further evidence on any additional measures that could be included to address harms that disproportionately affect women and girls.
“No woman should have to think twice before expressing herself online, worry about an abuser tracking her location, or face the trauma of a deepfake intimate image of herself being shared without her consent,” Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom chief executive, said.
“Yet these are some of the very real online risks that women and girls face today – and many tech companies are failing to act.
“Our practical guidance is a call to action for online services – setting a new and ambitious standard for women and girls’ online safety. There’s not only a moral imperative for tech firms to protect the interests of female users, but it also makes sound commercial sense – fostering greater trust and engagement with a significant proportion of their customer base.”
Professor Sir Ian Chapman, the head of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), will become the next CEO of the UK’s research and development organisation, with a focus on fulfilling the government’s growth plans.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is the country’s largest public research funder, with a budget of £9bn per year, giving it a central role in ensuring public funding is invested in ambitious, pioneering research that will benefit the whole of the UK and provide a clear return on investment for hardworking taxpayers.
Sir Ian is set to lead its team in supporting thousands of researchers and innovators in developing solutions from life-saving medicines to protecting our environment – ultimately making a visible, positive difference to people’s lives and supporting the missions at the heart of the Government’s Plan for Change.
During his time as CEO of the UKAEA, Chapman has led the transition from an organisation rooted in R&D to one that is now also delivering a major infrastructure project to design and build a prototype powerplant; driving inward investment and economic growth; and enabling development of a skilled workforce and supply chain.
“Growing the economy is this government’s number one mission and taking full advantage of the innovative ideas, talent and facilities across our country is key to reaching that goal and improving lives across the UK,” science minister Lord Vallance said.
“Sir Ian’s leadership experience, scientific expertise and academic achievements make him an exceptionally strong candidate to lead UKRI in pursuing ambitious, curiosity-driven research, as well as innovations that will unlock new benefits for the UK’s people and drive our Plan for Change.
“We also thank Dame Ottoline Leyser ahead of her stepping down this summer, recognising her pivotal work in guiding UKRI through challenging times, notably during the Covid pandemic and through the UK’s return to participation in Horizon Europe.”
Chapman is anticipated to take his role in the summer, replacing Professor Dame Ottoline Lyser, who was in charge of UKRI since May 2020.
“I am excited to be joining an excellent team at UKRI focussed on improving the lives and livelihoods of UK citizens,” Chapman said.
“Research and innovation must be central to the prosperity of our society and our economy, so UKRI can shape the future of the country.
“I was tremendously fortunate to represent UKAEA, an organisation at the forefront of global research and innovation of fusion energy, and I look forward to building on those experiences to enable the wider UK research and innovation sector.”
The battle surrounding encryption is reaching new heights after Apple’s decision to withdraw its Advanced Data Protections from the UK rather than compromise its end-to-end encryption services following a request from the UK government.
In an unprecedented move late last week, Apple decided to pull its highest-level data protection tool from customers in the UK following a request from the UK Government – supposedly from the Home Office, according to sources close to the BBC and the Washington Post – to see encrypted data about Apple users.
Just days after this announcement, the Open Rights Group released a blog describing efforts to dismantle or create backdoors to encryption as ‘misguided’ and potentially jeopardising privacy whilst enhancing surveillance.
The issues surrounding encryption, its arguments for and against, are becoming ever more opaque as we try to navigate a space in which one end lies over-encroachment from government where accusations of fascism aren’t so hyperbolic. On the other hand, as the Open Rights Group Warns, there’s legitimate threats of continued terrorism, child abuse material, and crime that thrives on the protections offered by encryption.
The erosion of privacy rights has been a slow-moving but ongoing effort from law enforcement, which scorns end-to-end encryption as a shield for heinous criminal activity, the camouflage of terrorists, the purveyor of a parent’s worst nightmares.
Encryption laws came to a head in the UK as the Online Safety Act stumbled its way through the parliamentary process, eventually without stipulations to enable the use of client-side scanning or the creation of encryption backdoors.
Tech experts long warned of the impracticality of backdoors, client side scanning, and any interference with full end-to-end encryption. The creation of a backdoor for law enforcement to scan messages or access private data would also allow cyber-criminals to exploit the same backdoor, essentially negating the point of encryption in the first place.
“You can’t have encryption that has a back door for only the so-called “good guys” that isn’t then exploited in some ways by the bad guys,” Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal, an encrypted messaging platform, said to the Open Rights Group.
The argument seems to be stuck in a stalemate, with tech companies often unwilling to bend the knee even further to encroaching law enforcement requests to disable encryption.
What Happened with Apple?
The UK Home Office supposedly issued a notice to Apple, requesting it to create a backdoor to its end-to-end encryption for law enforcement, enabling the Home Office to scan messages that are meant to be private.
When asked by the BBC, the Home Office would neither confirm nor deny the existence of the request, stating: “We do not comment on operational matters, including for example confirming or denying the existence of any such notices.”
Apple, instead of creating such a backdoor, withdrew its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) offering from the UK, meaning that UK users will not have some of their stored data protected by end-to-end encryption.
“As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products, and we never will,” Apple said in a statement.
Users in the UK will now no longer be able to access this service, and existing users will have their service disabled.
Rather than have its encryption offering be dismantled or tampered with, Apple has chosen to withdraw the service.
However, the story does not stop there.
The UK is looking to enforce a monitoring protocol for encrypted messaging services as part of its Online Safety Act, which is currently undergoing a consultation.
Parliament is looking at potentially enabling client-side scanning, which it says will not infringe on people’s privacy. Client-side scanning typically entails that each message be pre-emptively scanned for illegal or criminal material prior to it being sent to its intended recipient, and then encrypted following this scan.
Eighty civil society organisations, academics, and cyber-experts have refuted the idea that client-side scanning or monitoring does not break with encryption and its intended assurances. It would not only invade privacy, increase the surveillance powers of the state, but it would also make people more vulnerable to hacking.
Offering partial encryption, or monitored encryption, seemingly presents the perfect solution to ensure privacy whilst allowing for the monitoring of criminal activity and the prevention of the spread illegal content.
However, allowing for scanning would enable surveillance and the production of false positives, the Open Rights Group warned
The Council of Europe said that message scanning is a disproportionate response to address the spread of child sexual abuse material, despite this being the main argument for its use in the UK.
The current proposal in the UK would “apply without distinction to all the persons using that specific service, without those persons being, even indirectly, in a situation liable to give rise to criminal prosecution,” the Council warned.
Essentially, the monitoring has similar parallels to the increased use of CCTV across the UK – those who are not committing a crime or offence have little to fear. However, the monitoring of private messages is different from public acts, the requirements for continuous and labours monitoring, the targeting of certain groups, and the amount of false positives, are exacerbated in the cyber space.
The sheer amount of text messages sent, the requirement for monitoring from machines and people, and the amount of false positives flagged, can make the task seem insurmountable.
The Open Rights Group also pointed out the hypocrisy of the UK government’s moves to remove true end-to-end encryption, as politicians, journalists, and those with high-risk jobs typically use some of the most protected messaging platforms to ensure their security.
“End-to-end encryption exists, it works, and it makes sense. Tech companies know it and privacy campaigners know it. But so too do citizens. And, frankly, so too do policymakers,” Ciaran Martin, former head of the National Cyber Security Centre told the Open Rights Group.
Further, cyber-experts continue to warn that the happy medium the UK government claims is achievable to reach with encryption is simply impossible to achieve when faced with the technological reality.
“The consensus among cybersecurity experts could not be clearer: there is no way to provide government access to end-to-end encrypted data without breaking end-to-end encryption, thus putting every user’s security and privacy at risk,” a joint letter from the Global Encryption Coalition said.
As nations that once championed ideas of freedom and democracy continually fall to populist, fascist rhetoric, endangering more and more groups of people and increasingly relying on fear and hatred to secure power, vigilance against moves for increased surveillance is more paramount that ever before.
Policy will always come behind advancing technology, and those in control of the state are often not experts in the technology they rely on to stay secure, maintain privacy, or mitigate crime.
As companies continue to work with increasingly right-wing governments, it is vital privacy protections of individuals are protected as states attempt to increase their surveillance powers.
A new study is calling for tighter regulation due to the psychological, health, and security risks of… social media influencers.
The same group profiteering off of dance moves and fashion trends on sites like Instagram and TikTok are also revolutionising marketing, shaping customer behaviour, brand strategies, and even societal norms.
However, new research from the University of Portsmouth has exposed the lesser-known side of social media influencer culture, one that raises ethical, psychological and regulatory concerns.
The study systematically examines the negative impacts of SMIs, highlighting issues such as misinformation, the endorsement of dangerous products, unrealistic beauty standards, the fostering of a comparison culture, deceptive consumption, and privacy risks.
With influencer marketing projected to reach an estimated $480 billion by 2027, companies increasingly rely on social media influencers to promote products and foster consumer trust.
A Digital Marketing Institute survey from 2024 found that 60% of consumers trust influencer recommendations, with nearly half of all purchasing decisions being influenced by these endorsements.
However, as influencer culture grows, so do concerns about its unintended consequences.
The paper, published in Psychology and Marketing, warns the power of social media influencers is creating a worrying consumer landscape.
Unlike traditional celebrities, whose fame is typically rooted in institutional settings – such as acting, music, or sports – influencers gain recognition through social media platforms, often relying on personal branding and consistent engagement with their audiences.
“Many SMIs [social media influencers] act as opinion leaders or experts within their respective areas, frequently reviewing products and leveraging their authority, expertise, or relationships with followers to influence purchasing decisions. Some inspire and entertain; others deceive and upset,” Yuksel Ekinci, professor of marketing and sales at the University of Portsmouth said.
“The deception and damage, and their impact on consumption, need to be carefully regulated.”
The study categorised the negative aspects of influencer marketing into six key themes:
1. Promotion of Harmful Products – Influencers often endorse unhealthy or dangerous products such as diet pills, detox teas, and alcohol without full disclosure, influencing consumption habits, particularly among younger audiences.
2. Dissemination of misinformation – Many influencers, despite lacking expertise, spread false information about health, politics, and social issues, leading to potentially widespread disinformation.
3. Reinforcement of unrealistic beauty standards – By presenting filtered and curated images, influencers contribute to body dissatisfaction, low self-esteem, and harmful beauty practices.
4. Fostering of comparison culture – Influencer-driven content fuels lifestyle envy and social anxiety, leading to negative self-comparison and diminished wellbeing.
5. Deceptive consumption practices – Some influencers engage in unethical behaviours such as undisclosed sponsorships, promotion of counterfeit goods, and misleading advertisements, undermining consumer trust.
6. Privacy concerns – The extensive data and sharing by influences raise significant security and regulatory issues, posing risks for both influencers and followers.
The study therefore calls for more stringent oversight, increasing transparency, and ethical marketing strategies to mitigate these risks.
Researchers are calling on brands to enforce clear disclosure policies to ensure their partnerships with influencers are transparent and responsible.
Companies and influencers should also ensure their they prioritise authentic content that promotes well-being rather than unattainable ideals.
Governments should also strengthen their policies on influencer marketing to prevent deceptive practices and misinformation, as well as ensuring that stronger safeguards and awareness campaigns are in place to protect users from privacy breaches and data exploitation.
“Social media influencers hold immense power over consumer decisions and cultural norms,” Dr Georgia Buckle, research fellow in the School of accounting, economics, and finance at the University of Portsmouth, said. “While they provide entertainment, inspiration, and brand engagement, the unchecked influence of some SMIs can lead to serious ethical and psychological consequences. Our study highlights the urgency for both academic and industry stakeholders to address these challenges proactively.”
The research offers a critical framework for analysing influencer culture beyond its commercial benefits, emphasising the need for ethical marketing practices and a healthier digital ecosystem.
Bybit, the Dubai-based crytocurrency exchange platform, is calling on cybersecurity’s best and brightest to help it recover a whopping £1.2bn worth of assets stolen in what is considered to be the largest single theft in the digital landscape ever.
Hackers apparently infiltrated and gained control over an Ethereum wallet, a popular digital currency, which was then transferred to a different, yet-unknown address.
Bybit is the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of volume of trade, with 60 million global users.
News of the hack, which broke over the weekend, has driven an escalation of withdrawal requests from users, reaching over 350,000 requests.
The crypto exchange has said that all funds will be refunded, even if the stolen crypto money cannot be recovered.
“Bybit is solvent even if this hack loss is not recovered, all of clients assets are 1 to 1 backed, we can cover the loss,” Bybit’s chief executive and co-founder Ben Zhou said in a social media post, reassuring customers.
Ethereum itself has also been affected by the potentially record-breaking theft, as its price fell nearly 4% since the news, though it has nearly fully recovered.
The hack occurred when Bybit was making a routine transfer of the cryptocurrency from a ‘cold’ wallet – one that is kept offline – to a ‘warm’ wallet – one that is internet enabled, as part of the company’s daily trading.
During this process, a hacker was able to exploit certain security controls and transfer the assets into a different, currently unknown wallet, the company said.
All other wallets, Bybit assured, were unaffected by the breach.
While the company has said it will cover the lost assets regardless, it is calling on “the brightest minds in cybersecurity and crypto analytics” to aid its recovery efforts, offering a steep reward of 10% of the recovered amount, which could be up to £120m if all the lost assets are restored.
Organisations taking the gamble on IT optimisation are seeing major payoffs, new research from SoftwareOne found.
Their new research shows that companies leading the way in IT cost optimisation and innovation are twice as likely as others to see an improved return on investment (50% vs 26%), report higher profitability (35% vs 23%), and faster time to market (43% vs 26%).
The new SoftwareOne study, conducted by an independent global research firm, investigates IT costs management and innovation best practices for mid-market companies.
The research surveyed organisations in 12 countries across six industry sectors across the global.
While 48% of executives at mid-sized companies lack the budget or are unsure they have the budget to fund the next round of innovation, those at the forefront of optimised innovation apply seven best practices to achieve results.
Building a modern IT platform is essential, in installing a modern IT foundation for driving ongoing cost optimisation and innovation.
Investing in key digital initiatives, especially over the next two years, can help put companies ahead. Those at the forefront plan to significantly outspend other companies on critical technologies. The gaps were most evident for spending in network security, automation, and cloud and SaaS management.
Those at the forefront of optimised innovation use nearly every cybersecurity solution more often than others.
More than two-thirds have made significant progress in building a cloud0based infrastructure, and more than half have moved their apps to the cloud and migrated core processes. A similar percentage of optimised innovators have established governance, compliance, and security policies.
Over the next two years, those at the forefront plan to have 70% of their software applications and workloads in the cloud, as well as 56% of their customer application.
Closing the AI gap and moving head with adoption strategies is also paramount, as 84% of those at the forefront of innovation are at mid- or advanced levels of using AI for internal processes and 71% for customer engagement.
“Aligning the business benefits of innovation investments with opportunities to strategically optimise IT estates is critical to success. Our study suggests that there is a clear opportunity for companies to optimise to innovate,” said Oliver Berchtold, president of Software and Cloud at SoftwareOne.
“Having defined innovation priorities that drive business outcomes, companies can have a more informed understanding of their IT landscape with an end-goal in mind. This includes analysing software licenses, cloud environments and custom applications to identify areas for optimisation.
“This process will free up resources to invest where it matters most to the business, whether it be GenAI adoption, security solutions, or accelerated cloud transformation. Bringing these opportunities into reach serves as a catalyst for growth.”
About one in three public sector IT professions have serious concerns about the impact of AI on security, new research from SolarWinds says.
Professionals in the public sector are especially concerned about data privacy and regulatory compliance.
Despite these concerns, about one in four are leveraging AI for automation, either for IT operational tasks or for IT observability, with this number only expected to increase.
Grievances about security risk and regulatory compliance, however, is hampering AI adoption across the public sector, the research said, which risks leaving the industry behind its private sector competitors.
Coupling this hesitancy with AI skills shortages and the difficulty of attracting AI talent to often lower-paid roles, the public sector could risk falling even further behind as AI advances.
The issue compounded the fact that only 6% described their digital transformation journey as fully complete, meaning that most public sector organisations still have a long way to go.
Less than half (40%) said they were beginning their implementation journeys, while the same amount said they were progressing in their efforts.
IT professionals noted budget constraints as one of the biggest barriers to improving their cybersecurity strategies, cited by a quarter of those in the survey.
Internal environment complexity, competing priorities, and too few technical solutions were also cited as major struggles in the sector.
Common themes of concern and constraint were privacy and security, as well as systems integration complexity.
When it comes to security, about half (56%) of IT professionals were most concerned about untrained insiders, aka their fellow workers, while 55% were more concerned about external threats and cyber-criminals. About the same amount were more concerned about nation state threats.
This shows a lack of confidence in the sector’s own skills set, and the need for better security awareness.
New research has revealed an 82% surge in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack frequency between 2023 and 2024.
This is according to an insights report from the Zayo Group, which found that attack volume almost doubled from 90,000 incidents in 2023 to 165,000 in 2024.
This was driven by cyber-criminals leveraging AI and expanding adoption of IoT devices to launch faster, more persistent, and more complex attacks.
“We’re seeing attackers use larger botnets of compromised IoT devices and AI to drastically increase the scale of attacks,” said Max Clauson, senior vice president of Network Connectivity at Zayo.
“As the sophistication of DDoS attacks continues to grow, cyber-criminals are finding ways to exploit cloud services, higher bandwidth availability, and new vulnerabilities in software and network protocols.
“Both the public and private sector need to invest heavily in DDoS mitigation to continue to protect critical infrastructure and ensure long-term data security.”
In terms of sectors, finance say the largest year-on-year growth in attack volume of all sectors, surging from 3.5% in 2023 to representing 7% of all attacks in 2024.
Telecommunications, however, is still the most targeted sector, but other industries are catching up. In 2024, telecommunications represented 42% of all observed incidents, down from 48% of all attacks in 2023.
Healthcare saw a 223% growth in the total number of attacks year-on-year, and manufacturing continues to explode as a large-scale target, with the average attack size growing 257% from 2023 to 2024.
Cloud and software as a service (SaaS) firms experienced a rise in attacks as well, accounting for 11% of all attacks with more than 19,000 throughout the year – 15,740 of which occurred in the second half of 2024 alone.
As DDoS attacks proliferate, the financial toll remains significant.
At $6,000 (£4,743) per minute, and an average attack lasting 39 minutes, businesses lose nearly $234,000 (£185,000) per incident.
Cyber-criminals remain opportunistic in strategically timing their attacks to maximise disruption, with the majority occurring during business hours.
There is also an expected rise in DDoS-as-a-Service, enabling individuals with limited technical skills to conduct attacks, which could result in a greater number of attacks and a wider variety of attack methods.
DDoS attacks are an inescapable reality for organisations, regardless of industry or size.
The financial, operational, and reputational damages caused by these attacks can be devastating, forcing businesses to divert critical resources to mitigation and recovery.
As AI and automation continue to shape the threat landscape, proactive and scalable DDoS protection is more essential than ever.
British Gas has begun a trail using the excess heat from data centres to provide free hot water to people’s homes.
In a deal with sustainable cloud business heata, British Gas will harvest the heat from private data processing to directly heat hot water cylinders in the homes of ten employees.
Using a small compute unit attached to a hot water cylinder, heata’s system employs the small ‘virtual data centre,’ processing customer’s cloud computing data while providing free hot water to residents.
The tiny server will generate heat that is then used to heat the water in the cylinder, replacing the need for a gas boiler. The company also pays for the electricity the heata server uses in an effort to further drive down energy bills for residents.
“We’ve created a solution that enables us to reuse the waste heat from cloud compute to provide free hot water for families in our communities,” Chris Jordan, co-founder of heata, said.
“Our reliance on data centres is only going to grow, as they are fundamental to training and running artificial intelligence.”
The trial will run for three months, and will take feedback from participating British Gas employees.
“This trial with British Gas is an exciting step and we hope other businesses will follow suit.
“With a small change to where they place their data processing, businesses throughout the UK could be supporting their communities as a byproduct of their cloud computing.”
While the trail project may be small in scale, it shows a growing trend in solutions to the waste heat problem of data centres.
The concept of using data centre heat waste has great promise, a report from techUK predicted, though this would be impacted with problems like shifting energy demands and seasonal weather.
The team behind the University of Aberdeen’s GEMINI, an AI breast cancer screening project, scooped the ‘Data Driven Innovation Award’ at this year’s Digital Health and Care Awards.
The GEMINI (Grampian’s Evaluation of Mia in an Innovative National breast screening Initiative) project was devised to understand the impact of introducing AI into the breast screening programme at NHS Grampian.
The multidisciplinary team, including experts from NHS Grampian and Kheiron Medical Technologies Ltd. – which is now part of DeepHealth – was awarded the accolade at a ceremony in Edinburgh on Tuesday night (18 February).
Hosted by Holyrood Events, the awards are an opportunity to highlight ‘the achievements of the individuals and teams working in the health, social care, and housing sectors, whose innovation and creativity continue to put Scotland at the forefront of the digital revolution’.
The GEMINI trial, led and hosted by NHS Grampian, helped doctors find 10.4% more cancers than in routine practice by using the AI tool to assist radiologists. Together, health, academic and industry professionals demonstrated that integrating AI into breast screening could improve cancer detection, maintain recall rates, and reduce workload by up to 36%.
In the GEMINI study, software named ‘Mia’, created by Kheiron, was independently evaluated by the University of Aberdeen. The winning team assert that their ‘outstanding partnership of academic, clinical and operational experts has set new standards in assessing such technologies’.
Professor Lesley Anderson, chair in Health Data Science who led the evaluation of the software said: “We are thrilled to win the Digital Health Care Award for Data Driven Innovation. It recognizes the tireless efforts of our dedicated teams and the transformative potential of data innovation in improving healthcare outcomes. This award inspires us to continue pushing the boundaries of what data can achieve in the health sector.”
Gerald Lip, cinical director, North East of Scotland Breast Screening Programme and Consultant Radiologist at NHS Grampian added: “It is fantastic to see the GEMINI project recognised by this award.
“This demonstrates the value of a partnership approach to getting the best possible care by harnessing NHS data at scale in a safe patient focused manner and highlights the whole team’s pursuit of excellence in developing AI-driven solutions that enhance patient outcomes and streamline medical processes.”
The team was nominated for two awards: the ‘Industry Collaboration Award’ and the ‘Data Driven Innovation Award’.
Authorities in the US have issued novel details about the Chinese-based Ghost ransomware group, saying that it has targeted organisations in over 70 countries.
The ransomware group is also known as Cring, Phantom, Crypt3r, Strike, Wickrme, Hello, Rapture, and HsHarada, and is typically financially motivated.
The Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA), FBI, and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (MS-ISAC) issued to the new advisory, which detailed new tactics employed by the ransomware group.
Ghost typically exploits known vulnerabilities across public-facing systems, often employing Cobalt Strike for privilege escalation and credential access, lateral movement, and domain account discovery.
“Ghost actors have been observed uploading a web shell to a compromised server and leveraging Windows Command Prompt and/or PowerShell to download and execute Cobalt Strike Beacon malware that is then implanted on victim systems,” the US authorities reported.
“Persistence is not a major focus for Ghost actors, as they typically only spend a few days on victim networks. In multiple instances, they have been observed proceeding from initial compromise to the deployment of ransomware within the same day.”
While the ransomware typically threatens to sell data if a ransom is not paid, the report noted that Ghost typically do not extract a significant amount of data that would cause significant harm to victims if a leak were to progress.
Ghost typically goes after easy targets, and will even abandon attacks when met with security barriers and obstacles to lateral movement, the report said.
This coincides with most of the group’s targets being small and medium sized businesses, giving emphasis to the need of solid cyber hygiene and a sturdy security posture, even for smaller companies.
CISA therefore issued guidance along with the advisory, urging companies to regularly back up their systems and store backups separately from their typical sources, patch known vulnerabilities as soon as possible, and segment networks to prevent lateral movement of cyber-criminals.
CyberScotland Week 2025 is about to kick off, packed full of conferences, workshops, and panel discussions focusing on cybersecurity across Scotland.
The week-long event offers in-person and online events focused on a central theme of “Can’t hack it?!?”, emphasising everyday actions that can enhance cyber resilience for individuals and organisations alike.
Organised by a coalition of organisations brought together by the Scottish Government’s Cyber Resilience Unit, the initiative aims to raise awareness of cybersecurity and better prepare Scottish organisations and people with the necessary tools to stay safe against growing and evolving cyber threats.
The importance of cybersecurity cannot be underestimated, yet routinely, smaller businesses, the public sector, and the third sector are left behind in terms of resources and skills to mitigate against common and emerging threats in the cyber landscape.
Ransomware costs surge, data breaches and data leaks abound, and advancing technologies like AI tend to offer as many potential harms as they do solutions.
“It’s an exciting time for Scotland with the acceleration of the energy transition and the advancement of AI technologies, and we need to ensure we’re protected from the risks so we can leverage those opportunities,”Clare El Azebbi, chair of CyberScotland Partnership and head of the Scottish Government’s Cyber Resilience Unit said.
“That applies to our national infrastructure and the digital systems supporting it, all the way down to our personal and work devices and data.
“No event is too small for CyberScotland Week – every conversation can have a positive impact on our cyber resilience as a nation.”
With all that in mind, what does this week have in store? DIGIT has combed through the week’s itinerary to highlight some of the top in-person and online events held across the Scottish nation.
Third Sector Safety
The Abertay cyberQuarter will be hosting a Cyber Drop-in Clinic for the Third Sector on the 24th, providing a space for organisations and workers to ask a cybersecurity expert any questions they may have about cybersecurity and cyber-related concerns.
The clinic will include help from Abertay University students, providing an avenue for knowledge exchange between young cyber talent and experienced third sector professionals.
Other third sector organisations can head to Codebase’s Stirling location for a ScotlandIS interactive workshop on the 24th that can provide them with the tools, knowledge, and connections to boost their cyber resilience.
Held in collaboration with SCVO, the event includes talks, a workshop, as well as a ‘meet the experts’ sessions where third sector organisations can ask about personalised steps they can take to improve their organisation’s cybersecurity.
“As the average digital footprint of a business grows ever larger, cyber security has never been more important,” Karen Meechan, CEO ScotlandIS, said. “Access to the digital world has become indispensable to nearly every organisation and, while the benefits that can bring are huge, it’s vital we are all aware of the risks that come, hand in glove, with that access.”
The Scottish government is hosting an online session on the opening day (24th) of the week’s events, offering top tips on how to be more safe online.
While the basics may be well understood, many smaller organisations still falter when it comes to basic cyber hygiene, and these missteps can be disastrous against burgeoning cyber threats.
Later on the same day, organisations can test their knowledge in a live quiz hosted by the Scottish government, that will ask questions surrounding basic cybersecurity concepts.
“To improve Scotland’s cyber resilience we need organisations in every sector, and people in every community, to have ongoing conversations with their staff, members, networks, family, and friends about cyber security, the risks, and what everyone can do to stay safe online,” El Azebbi said.
“CyberScotland Week is designed to provide both an impetus, and an outlet for those conversations.”
Fighting Sextortion
Police Scotland has teamed up with fearless, an anonymous reporting service part of Crimestoppers, to deliver an online seminar on the 24th on combating sextortion, aimed at parents and children to keep them safe online.
Sextortion is a rising problem across the UK, reflected in the number of events focused on the topic in CyberScotland Week.
Basil Manoussos will be delivering an online talk on the 28th detailing the fallout of doxxing and sextortion, allowing participants to better understand the disturbing phenomenon.
While cyber professionals and experts can benefit from participating in a range of events, those selected below are specially tailored to benefit cyber leaders and the many issues they face in their roles, as well as the ever-changing cyber landscape they face.
ScotlandIS is hosting a CISO Safe Space on the 24thaimed at cyber leaders, who often face mental health issues due to the stress of their roles. The potential for a cyber-attack, the high-stakes of sensitive data protection, and the need to be consistently on alert has driven burnout and a mental health crisis within the industry, with many cyber leaders losing sleep over their roles.
The Safe Space, held in partnership with CyberNorth, is meant to provide a respite to cyber leaders to discuss their struggled amongst their peers, raise awareness of the issue, reduce stigma around the struggle of mental health, and promote self care.
“ScotlandIS has been involved in CyberScotland Week since its inception, championing cyber resilience across all sectors, encouraging organisations to treat it as a board level issue,” Karen Meechan, CEO, ScotlandIS, said.
“This year, we’re doing more than ever by hosting the ‘CISO Safe Space,’ a dedicated session focused on mental health in the cyber security industry, providing a confidential forum for senior leaders to share challenges and support one another, partnering with SCVO to help the third sector stay safe online and speaking at schools to highlight the importance of online safety for young people.”
Register for the Glasgow-based, in-person event on the 24thhere.
Those in Aberdeen can attend a panel discussion featuring cybersecurity leaders from TechForce, Arctic Wolf, Arnold Clark, and Enquest, hosted by Robert Gorden University.
The panel will discuss evolving cyber threats and how businesses can stay ahead of the curve, detailing recent cyber breaches, emerging threats, and practical cyber solutions.
There’s no better way to learn than from experience, and participants in Dundee can experience a simulated cyber-attack without any real life consequences.
At You’ve been hacked, Now What?, participants can experience a cyber-attack in a trial run to put their cyber resilience skills to the test.
With the simulated cyber-attack, attendees can see how their skills and solutions would play out in the real world, providing a platform to test their defenses before a real attack occurs.
While cybersecurity may mostly take place on machines and over code, most security breaches involve a human element.
Designing cybersecurity systems and solutions with humans in mind can be vital to ensuring these are robust against cyber-criminals and human error – cyber leaders can learn about this strategy at CeeD’s workshop focusing on building cyber solutions with a human element in mind.
Find out more about the National Manufacturing Institute of Scotland hosted workshop on the 4th of March here.
Looking for more cybersecurity events in Scotland? Join us at Scot-Secure 2025 in Edinburgh on 27 March, or Scot-Secure West in Glasgow on 10 September.
Addressing anticipated skills shortages in AI, robotics, and automation is essential to the future of the shipbuilding sector, according to a new report by the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS), operated by the University of Strathclyde and based at the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland (AMIDS) in Renfrewshire.
Developed with industry partners and innovate UK’s Workforce Foresight Hub, the report highlights the need to equip the workforce with the right skills as the industry evolves and adopt advancing technology.
Further, it looks ahead to the next five years and beyond, emphasising the importance of adapting both traditional roles and emerging ones.
While automation and robotics are already used in a variety of tasks by shipbuilding companies, the team behind the foresighting work found that demand for technology to assist with welding, joining, and inspections in confined or hazardous spaces is only likely to increase.
For example, the roles of some welders will evolve to combine traditional skills with expertise in new technologies and materials, as advanced technologies such as robotics and additive manufacturing are integrated into operations.
This transition underscores the need for a collaborative approach between industry and training providers to design programmes that prepare workers for these hybrid roles.
To ensure that employees are ready to work with technology of this kind, updated training modules, short courses, and continuous professional development (CPD) programmes are among the recommended actions to bridge gaps in current knowledge and skills within the workforce.
Leveraging its industry experience and expert knowledge and as part of the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult, NMIS collaborated with Innovate UK’s Workforce Foresighting Hub to complete the foresighting cycle, which culminated in the report. The cycle employs a combination of workshops, surveys, and advanced AI tools to capture and analyse data.
The report includes several future occupational profiles or job descriptions – from quality and compliance roles to engineering and systems design – which can be used by manufacturing to evaluate any gaps between existing roles and future requirements, allowing training and apprenticeship standards to be adjusted accordingly.
Key suggestions also include a need for enhanced technical and safety training, as well as increased collaborations between the industry and education providers.
Over the longer term, insights from the report could also help to shape requirements for new qualifications and standards.
“Scotland has a deep-rooted history of shipbuilding, particularly on the Clyde, next to where NMIS is based, but the challenges of a skills shortage apply to the whole of the UK,” Greg Cranstoun, industry and skills engagement lead at NMIS, said.
“The sector has been recognised for its strategic economic importance, but to ensure shipbuilding and its supply chains can thrive, we need to ensure we have the right people with the right skills lined up to meet demand.
“Technology is only going to become more prevalent as the adoption of AI and robotics increases in all sectors, and there are significant gains that could come from using advanced equipment to improve both health and safety and productivity in shipyards.
“Manufacturers need to think ahead to the types of roles this will create, and how to equip the current workforce and future employees with the skills to take this forward.”
The Scottish shipbuilding sector today employs over 7,000 people and provides more than 1,000 apprenticeships.
Across the UK, the sector contributed an estimated £3.1bn to the economy in 2022 and supported more than 44,600 jobs.
The UK’s National Shipbuilding Strategy, published in 2022, outlined a series of targets to help increase the productivity of shipyards, boost international competitiveness, increase technological and environmental innovation, and strengthen local manufacturers in the supply chain.
The aims include ensuring UK civil shipyards achieve productivity levels equivalent to Northern European shipyards by 2030, as well as cutting the skills gap by 35% by 2027 and halving it by 2050.
In addition to the focus on shipbuilding, findings from the report may be relevant to employers in other sectors where similar technology can be applied, including offshore wind, oil and gas, construction, and transport.
“The speed at which we can leverage innovative technologies impacts the global competitiveness of UK organisations. Often, new technologies are available, but a lack of skilled workforce prevents their full utilisation,” Debbie Johnson, head of innovation talent and skills at Innovate UK.
“By accelerating the adoption of new technologies by having the right skills at the right time, UK businesses can better position themselves as market leaders.
“Enabled by the Innovate UK Catapult Network, our Workforce Foresighting Hub enables the adoption of a long-term perspective and provides the ability to respond more swiftly to emerging skill demands, to better capitalise on new technologies and lead future industries.”
Using generative AI may be impacting critical thinking skills, new research out of Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University say.
The pair surveyed 319 knowledge workers in a bid to assess the impact of using generative AI at work, which has now sparked further concerns about how the emerging technology is impacting our ability to think.
Researchers have said qualms and concerns are generally valid, saying that the use of AI contributed to the “deterioration of cognitive faculties that ought to be preserved.”
The study did find that the use of genAI can improve efficiency, at the cost, however, of inhibiting “critical engagement with work and can potentially lead to long-term overreliance on the tool and diminished skill for independent problem-solving.”
For many employees, work has shifted from problem solving to solution checking, and workers focus on checking the accuracy of AI answers to queries rather than solving them themselves.
The more workers relied on AI, and were confident in its abilities, the less likely they were to have confidence in their own critical thinking skills.
“However, workers who are confident in their own skills tend to perceive greater effort in these tasks, particularly when evaluating and applying AI responses,” the research found. Those that used AI less had more confidence in their critical thinking skills.
Further, the study also found that those who employed AI more, or were more involved in AI solution checking than problem solving, were less likely to come up with diverse solutions to different problems than those who used AI sparingly.
This transformation of work has got employees thinking that they may be losing their critical thinking faculties, though this is just a perception.
The study only delved so far as to see how employees perceived their changing thinking abilities, rather than running any neurological or quantitative tests.
However, this perception can raise alarm bells over how AI is making workers, and employers, feel.
If employees feel like they are simply AI fact checkers than making meaningful, impactful decisions or solving complex problems, this can lead to a decrease in job satisfaction, and also diminish their importance to their employers.
While it remains controversial if technology such as AI is making us dumber, the study does provide important emphasis on the need for further research into the technology’s actual affects on our brains.
If anything, AI is making employees less confident, which can be just as damaging if we rely on humans to check the work of an AI model they trust more than their own judgement.
Supply chain organisations are leaving themselves vulnerable to the uncertain future as many struggle to achieve AI readiness and break down new trade policy barriers, according to Gartner, Inc.
Less than a third (29%) of supply chain organisations have developed at least three of the key five competitive characteristics needed for future readiness, according to a survey from the analysis firm.
These characteristics will be needed for chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) to manage the future drivers of influence on the function, including proving their achievement capability of AI and navigating new trade policies.
Gartner surveyed 579 supply chain practitioners across industry and geography in 2024, indentifying the competitive characteristics as: agility; resilience; regionalisation; integrated ecosystems; integrated enterprise strategy.
The survey analysis identified ‘leaders’ among the respondents as supply chain organisations that have already developed at least three of the five competitive characteristics necessary to address the top five drivers of supply chain’s future.
“Leaders shared a commitment to preparation through long-term, deliberate strategies, while non-leaders were more often focused on short-term priorities,” said Pierfrancesco Manenti, VP analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice.
“Most leaders have yet to invest in the most advanced technologies (e.g. real-time visibility, digital supply chain twin), but plan to do so in the next three-to-five years,” Manenti said. “Leaders see technology as an enabler to their overall business strategies, while non-leaders more often invest in technology first, without having fully established their foundational capabilities.”
The Gartner survey focused on how organisations are preparing for future challenges and to keep their supply chains competitive. As part of the survey, respondents were asked to identify the future drivers of influence on supply chain performance over the next three-to-five years.
Achieving AI capability came out on top (74%), followed by the amount of new ESG regulations and trade policies (67%) and geopolitical conflicts and transitions of power (65%).
Data control (62%) and talent scarcity (59%) were also cited as top influences over the next three to five years.
Gartner’s analysis identified four unique profiles of supply chain organisations, determined by what their leaders deem the most crucial capabilities for empowering their organisations over the next three to five years.
Each profile places an emphasis on key capabilities such as business model innovation, sustainability, talent, and technology to deliver on future readiness.
Design: Emphasises business model innovation to reduce complexity, focusing on product designs that can be shared across variations. Organisations prioritise simplification, standardisation, and differentiation based on customer and product segmentation to streamline operations and enhance future success.
Durability: Highlights sustainability and risk management as essential for long-term viability, focusing on sustainable sourcing and transparency in initiatives. By minimising environmental impacts, these organisations build resilient supply chains that withstand uncertainties and contribute positively to their ecosystem.
Deferment: Adopts a cautious approach with strategic pauses in investments, focusing on operational excellence and cost containment. Organisations are fast followers, observing others before investing, common in industries where regulatory pressures and lower risk appetites influence strategies.
Decision: Leverages technology and talent to manage complexity, emphasising AI, machine learning, and real-time data analytics. Organisations prioritise scenario planning and real-time visibility, fostering a culture where employees thrive in dynamic environments and support growth through innovation.
“While CSCOs can be successful aligning to any of the four profiles, the data suggests following the Design profile. Its emphasis on business model innovation capabilities could be the most fruitful, as there are more leaders aligned with the Design profile compared to the others,” said Manenti. “Critically important is a commitment to making very focused investments aligned to their profile, something the leading organisations share.”
Venture Capitalist funding is so often seen as a milestone for startups and scaleups. It can be intimidating and oft-impenetrable, which is why so many vaunt it – not only does it provide essential resources for your business, it’s validation that your operation is going in the right direction.
Insights and narratives on the health of VC funding often conflict, as stories of shrinking inflation match tales of diminishing cash flow, as business confidence flips on the monthly.
Emerging technology like AI continues to gain traction in funding rounds, and global uncertainty, emerging technology, and cybersecurity woes have created opportunities for regulation tech, med tech, and cyber firms.
Still, when we take in the much more thorny and complex global VC climate, how are Scottish companies supposed to gain a foothold in international tech ecosystems? As the UK continually tops VC funding in Europe for AI and FinTech, and Edinburgh climbs in the rankings for funding across the UK, emerging Scottish firms are hungry to feel the effects of this surge for themselves.
Still, the stars of the Scottish tech ecosystem seem almost to be exceptions to the rule due to their oft-spoken about exceptional potential and prolific rises – Skyscanner, FanDuel, and now Quorum Cyber, have taken their potential, either based around excellent proven track records or inspirational leadership, and grown into the global companies they are today.
While funding seems available, Scottish companies struggle to scale, and are often confronted with difficult choices in talent acquisition, international expansion, let alone finding the funding to support these growth ventures.
So, how are venture capitalists making the decisions that will eventually contribute to the creation of the next generation of Scottish unicorns?
To find out, DIGIT spoke to Alan Robertson, partner at Maven Capital Partners, one of the premier venture capital and private equity firms operating outfits in Scotland, to discuss what drives VC decision making, the upcoming economic headwinds, and what the Scottish ecosystem can expect in the coming year.
What Are VCs Looking For?
There are three key things Robertson says VCs look for when companies approach them looking to scale – a proven product with traction, a stellar management team, and a large enough market to take advantage of.
“It’s ideally about finding a proven management team who understands their market, and who has traction in that market,” Robertson said.
Breaking this down, having the right people in the right place, at the right time, is vital to progress. Countless leaders will tell you the same thing – making leadership transitions during scaling is crucial, and difficult.
“As a business scales, it is important to understand the need to have the right people and experience in critical roles, and having the support of an investor who can help you bring in people at the right time, is important,” Robertson said.
Finding the right place for people who were key to the startup journey can be difficult once a company needs to scale, and their priorities shift. Having a management team with resilience, as well as being willing and able to make these decisions and shifts in directions, is key to gaining the support of funders.
Finally, ensuring that a company’s offering has a wide enough market is key – entering into a realm with no competitors is not a sure fire win, as there simply may not be a large enough customer base to ensure long-term success.
What Does Scotland Bring to the Table?
With Scotland having a comparatively diminutive population of under five and a half million people – are scaleups and startups feeling constrained by the market?
Robertson contests this – according to him, Scotland has the funding, the network, and the startup drive to push forward.
“There’s a lot of support here (Scotland), and ultimately this is a fantastic base upon which to grow out from,” Robertson explained.
Scotland’s small size is a positive, according to Robertson, as its close knit networking opportunities, as well as the giving nature of its successful entrepreneurs, can provide scaleups solid footing to launch from.
Still, firms will end up looking to the horizon, and hopping the pond to look for funding from US investors, and breaking into its much larger market.
This is where technology continues to see its benefit – while software is continually changing, it is global by nature.
US investors are increasingly looking at Scotland and Scottish startups due to the quality of the businesses coming out of the nation: 2023 saw 115 Scottish startups share £359m in funding rounds, with top investments in food technology, medtech, and fintech.
Scottish companies are already successfully expanding their offerings into America, from TalkingMedicines, a medtech offering, to Lupovis, an innovative cyber company.
International expansion seems inevitable, but doing this is an expensive risk. Going directly for the big bucks promised in the states can be foolhardy without first establishing a basis in Scotland and the UK.
“Entrepreneurs and management teams can often appear frustrated at the apparent availability, size of funding rounds and support that is available locally,” Robertson said. “When actually, there is significant levels of funding available.
Scotland is very fortunate to have a thriving eco-system inclusive of venture, private equity and angel investors, in addition to former executives who are constantly giving back to the ecosystem.
As far as scaling, Robertson thinks the main hurdles entrepreneurs face have little to do with supply, but execution and the pace at which business plans and forecast revenue can realistically be delivered, a delay which can increase the total level of funding a business requires.
“You might have to go through more than one investment round to get the right amount of funding to scale at the level you want,” he said. “Even if you get that capital, time can move quickly, and the cash runway and the progress of the business might not match up,” he expanded.
“Nothing is straightforward, because if it was easy, you’d have more people do it.”
Businesses often need to adapt quickly, innovate on the fly, and stay up to date with emerging trends as they scale – the key to this is again, having the right talent, but also having the right mentors in place to help guide startups to scale.
For Robertson, Scotland’s size is an advantage – the close knit network means that when someone asks for support, it is often answered.
“Its rare that I come out of a meeting where someone doesn’t mention a name to go to for help, or someone doesn’t offer an introduction. I’d like to think that we have a very supportive ecosystem in this country.”
This sentiment has been echoed many a time by startup founders and successful scaleups in Scotland who spoke about the importance of mentorships and networking.
When faced with a lack of support, Robertson says that “being bold enough to ask” for help cannot be underestimated as a key factor in growing a business.
But once in the VC room, it comes down to forming a partnership with investors and VC to help a business scale – it becomes about more than winning a pot of capital, but about forming a genuine connection over a business proposal, product, and leadership team.
“Everybody looks for different things when they’re a VC, but ultimately, the partnership has got to click, and people have to want to work together, because whether its a management team or a group of investors, it’s ultimately about a group of people coming together to deliver a common goal in what can be quite a difficult environment.”
What Trends Are VCs Keeping Their Eye On?
Robertson discussed how VCs are constantly looking for disruptive technologies, and how these can be applied across various sectors.
But what this looks like is more to do with the market interplays and the ability to evolve than anything.
“Take cyber for instance,” Robertson said. “There is a huge global market to go after, so having something innovative in that will make a startup a strong contender.”
It is almost impossible to get through a VC meeting without some mention of AI – but Robertson says that companies should also look at how AI will impact them.
“A company needs to have an understanding of how AI is going to impact a business model,” Robertson said.
For instance, talent acquisition is one of the more expensive costs of scaling up – hiring the right talent, especially in specialist subjects like medical and biotechnology, can be a major drain for company finances. If a company can, however, use AI to streamline their teams and improve overall efficiency, VC may have more confidence in a company’s ability to use their cash runway effectively.
Economic headwinds, tariffs, and changing global policy will continue to be challenges to the stability of the Scottish business ecosystem, but for Robertson, who has been with Maven Capital since 2012, this is nothing new.
“We’ve had the independence referendum, Brexit, Covid, energy crisis,” he said, just naming a few tumultuous times for Scotland and the world.
“We’ve always faced these challenges, it’s never been entirely stable,” Robertson said, “But we have businesses and management teams who have proved resilient and have come through, which is really inspiring.”
In particular sectors, changing regulations and technologies can be seen as an opportunity or a hurdle.
“If you’re in risk and compliance, then these shifts in global and international regulation can be a major benefit to your growth and business,” Robertson said, “Whereas for others it might hinder their growth. There’s a risk and an opportunity, depending on each case by case.”
But overall, Robertson advises firms to use what makes the Scottish ecosystem special to their advantage.
“Network, and don’t be afraid to ask the question,” he advised. “Whether you get funded this year, or in two or three years’ time; it’s never too early to have that conversation and build a relationship.”
Having conversations, multiple in fact, is key to gaining the right level of traction to take a startup to scale up in Scotland.
“There’s no shortage of ambition through the entrepreneurs, and having those conversations, casting their net wide so they can be certain of the partner they’ll have alongside them for the journey is equally as important as securing money.”
Around the world, the number of people deterred from starting a business because of fear it might fail is increasing, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2024/2025 Global Report.
Those who take the leap are uncertain about the expected role of artificial intelligence in their businesses, the report, titled Entrepreneurship Reality Check, said.
Twelve GEM researchers across nine countries collectively agree that it is important to develop robust support systems, including financial assistance, accessible training, mentorship programmes, and simplified regulations to reduce the risks of starting a business and address fear of failure, enabling more entrepreneurs to thrives.
More than 150,000 people participated in the GEM Adult Population Survey (APS) in both 2019 (pre-pandemic) and 2024, across 50 and 51 economies respectively. In 2019, 44% of those surveyed agreed that they would not start a business for fear it might fail; by 2024 this proportion had increased to 49%.
In both years, a significant percentage of the 150,000 plus people agreed they saw good opportunities to start a business. Amongst these individuals, those that stated they would not actually start a business to leverage those same opportunities for fear it might fail increased from 42% in 2019 to 47% in 2024.
Between 2019 to 2024, the number of economies in which at least two in five people seeing good opportunities, yet would not start a business for fear it might fail increased markedly from 34 out of 50 (68%) to 43 out of 51 (84%).
Worldwide, there is considerable lack of awareness and uncertainty about how important artificial intelligence (AI) will become to new businesses in the next three years. Survey responses include high rates of “don’t know”.
Of those who did answer, in 36 of 49 economies (73%), fewer than three in 10 of those starting new businesses see AI as “very important” in the next three years.
“It is real cause for concern to see this inequality in the awareness of AI impact on entrepreneurs across economies, which is skewed unfavourably towards the Global South entrepreneurs,” Professor Sreevas Sahasranamam, said.
“It is important that we launch awareness campaigns and training programmes to educate entrepreneurs about the importance and potential of AI.”
GEM Executive Director Aileen Ionescu-Somers added: “Entrepreneurship is a key driver of prosperity and innovation, and GEM’s long-standing research has been instrumental in tracking its impact.
“By gathering first-hand insights directly from the entrepreneurs themselves, GEM offers a unique perspective on how new businesses shape economies, tackle global challenges and invest in a sustainable future.”
Google is one of the most well-known websites in the history of the internet. For many users, “googling” is synonymous with internet search. However, some take issue precisely with this exceptional status, alleging that it is retained by illegitimate means.
While litigation concerning big corporations is nothing new or rare, a couple of antitrust cases currently faced by Google stand among the most significant since antitrust laws were introduced.
These two cases, concerning general internet search and digital ad services, reveal something fundamental about the world we live in today. Namely, the importance of web data in today’s markets is even bigger than we might have thought.
Google antitrust cases in brief
US antitrust laws are a collection of acts made toprotect the process of fair competition that benefits the consumer.
As such, they ban any company from monopolising the market or using unreasonably anti-competitive business practices. This is what the suits led by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged Google had done in the search engine and ad tech industries.
Search engine monopoly
In the first complaint, the DOJclaimed that Google had used anti-competitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in general search, search advertising, and general search text advertising services. The mentioned tactics include, for example, striking multibillion-dollar deals with other tech giants, such as Apple, to make Google the default search engine on its products.
In a landmark decision, the court upheld the complaint, ruling Google to be an illegal monopoly in the aforementioned areas.
Now, both sides, the plaintiffs and Google, can discuss the potential remedies for the situation. The remedies proposed by the DOJ include forcing Google to sell Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser. After the final decision by the court, Google will still have the chance to appeal, which mightstretch the procedures into 2027 or even later.
Ad tech antitrust lawsuit
In the second antitrust case, the DOJ blames Google for intentionally creating anti-competitive conditions in digital advertising.
According tothe complaint, Google has neutralised all competition in ad tech either by acquiring competing solutions or using its market dominance to disrupt the ability of advertisers to use competing products effectively.
Inclosing arguments, the lawyer for the DOJ claimed that Google linked its main products in such a way that it is hard, if not impossible, for advertisers to use competing technologies.
Meanwhile, Google’s lawyers state, similarly to the other antitrust case, that Google’s success comes from innovation and superior products. Unlike in the search engine case, the plaintiffs have pre-emptively asked to break up Google’s ad tech business if it is judged to be a monopoly.
A tightening grip on Google?
The two cases in the US are not the only antitrust-related trouble for Google. Regulators in the UK and EU have also been interested in the competitive conditions in the cyberspace lately.
In the latter jurisdiction, Google has, in fact, recently won a legal battle to overturn an antitrust fine of€1.49 billion imposed by the European Commission targeting Google’s online advertising business.
This victory for Google, however, does not tell us much about what to expect from the US court’s decision since, although both cases relate to Google’s digital advertising practices, their scope and subject matter are quite different.
Instead, these cases suggest that regulators around the world are intensifying their watch on big tech’s perceived monopolistic practices. They are imposing huge fines, demanding them to cease activities deemed anti-competitive, and even suggesting that the only remedy might be to break up companies like Google.
In Google’s case, the most talked about potential outcome of the cases is the possibility of forcing it to sell Chrome. However, another potential remedy — making Google syndicate the data it has accumulated — is both more likely and more impactful.
The history of major antitrust cases in the US supports the common sentiment that data is the new oil. The biggest current case under antitrust law is in many ways about access to data, without which competing in the digital markets is nearly impossible.
Specifically, web data, whether publicly available or collected by big companies internally, has become the most valuable resource.
Theremedies framework proposed by the DOJ after the decision in the search engine case states that “Virtually every component and process of a general search engine benefits from data.”
It is argued that Google’s dominance allows it to accumulate much more data on search queries than its rivals, putting it in a position to perpetuate this dominance. Thus, the suggestion is that to restore competitive conditions in the market, Google should be made to share its data for a price with the competitors.
Exclusive access to data is also mentioned repeatedly in the digital advertising case’s complaint as one of the main factors making competition against Google impracticable.
Thus, if Google were to lose this trial, the breaking up of its digital advertising business, already requested in the suit, would actually serve to unbundle the data streams, dividing them among different owners.
Google’s side is supported by legitimate privacy concerns raised by the prospect of sharing data with more organisations. Yet, regulators might see the exclusive access to web data as an even bigger issue, threatening the very functioning of free markets.
The alleged privileged access to data is especially critical in the unfolding age of AI. Web data fuels AI development and functioning.
If one company has all the data while others struggle to get it, that company is in a much better position tocreate and control AI products of the future. Thus, having a monopoly or near monopoly on web data today could effectively mean monopolising large areas of tomorrow’s tech.
This seems to be one of the major concerns of the DOJ and other regulatory agencies. Whether and how this concern should be addressed in the discussed cases is for the courts to decide. However, one thing is certain.
While the prospect of Google having to sell Chrome or Android might be the one making headlines, the most important question investigated by the courts is that of access to web data.
Lesson for the future — protecting public data access
As the Google antitrust trials exemplified, access to web data has become the backbone of effective competition. Such data can be external and publicly available to all capable of gathering it, or it can be internally collected by companies like Google, owning and administering various tools and platforms.
In both cases, privacy concerns need to be balanced with fair access to resources for businesses of various sizes to effectively compete and innovate. Thus, one of the main aims of digital regulation should be to protect free, fair, and secure access to web data. This might help prevent another series of lengthy antitrust litigation.
Chase Bank has overtaken challenger banks Monzo and Starling as the UK’s favourite bank, according a customer satisfaction survey from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
This is only the second time Chase, a digital bank owned by JP Morgan Chase, has taken part in the CMA’s twice-yearly league table ranking of customer satisfaction – it ranked third place in the first one it participated in back in 2024.
Monzo, which came in second, and Starling Bank, which came in third, have both vied for the top position in previous years, with one of the two coming in first and the other in second for the past five years.
Dubbed ‘neobanks’, these digital offerings often outperform traditional high street banks in terms of customer satisfaction, despite only accounting for 6% of the UK population’s main banking choice.
According to the survey, carried out by Ipsos and reaching 23,000 people across the UK, 81% of customers said they would recommend Chase to friends or family, while 80% said the same for Monzo this year.
“Our focus at Chase is on providing our customers with an exceptional experience at every opportunity, so we’re delighted to be recognised by our customers for the quality of our service,” Chase UK’s chief executive, Kuba Fast, said.
“These results are a testament to the fantastic people we have at Chase, and our commitment to putting customers at the heart of everything we do.”
Chase launched in the UK just in 2021, and now has about 2.5 million customers.
The combination of the digital-first offering with a banking company which dates its history back to the 19th century is proving to be successful for the neobank.
Royal Bank of Scotland ranked at the bottom of the list, with only 46% of customers saying they would recommend the bank’s services to friends or family.
First Direct, a subsidiary of HSBC, and Nationwide, rounded out the top five list.
While Monzo did not come out on top in this issue’s overall ranking, it did rank first in its online and mobile banking offerings, as well as its overdraft services, which Chase does not currently offer.
Elon Musk has announced the release of X’s newest AI model, Grok 3, which he claims far surpasses the abilities of its previous models as well as his rivals’ most recent efforts in the genAI space.
He based these claims on internal early testing the company did on its newest Grok model, which included tests on maths, science, and coding.
Musk also announced that X would be releasing a new “Deep Search” product which would act as a search engine, scanning the internet and X to deliver more detailed answers to a queries.
Grok 3 will be available to premium X subscribers first, though the model will also be available via a separate subscription.
The model was originally meant to be released in 2024, but the company missed the initial deadline.
Training on its Colossus supercomputer, which was powered by 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, and 200 million GPU-hours for training, Musk claims Grok 3 was trained on ten times more computing power than the company’s previous Grok 2 model, and was training on a vast data set which included synthetic data.
Grok 3 consists of various Grok models, it should be noted. Grok 3 mini is a small version of Grok 3, which has faster responses, despite some loss of accuracy. Some of the models are still in Beta, and will not be included in the current release.
According to xAI, not only did Grok 3 perform well on PhD level sciences and a range of math queries, but also scored well in the crowdsourced tests on Chatbot Arena compared to its main rivals.
Musk’s company claims that two of its models, Grok 3 mini Reasoning and Grok 3 Reasoning, can ‘reason’ similar to DeepSeek’s R1 model and OpenAI’s smaller o3-mini, and even surpasses o3-mini-high, across several benchmarks, including maths.
He did explain that the ‘thought’s behind these reasoning models would be obscured as to protect it from distillation, a term used to describe how AI developers take knowledge and processes from other models. DeepSeek was recently accused of doing this to OpenAI’s models.
Musk says that ‘voice mode’ will be available with the model in as soon as a week, and that Grok 3 models will be made available in xAI’s enterprise API some weeks after that, as well as DeepSearch.
Following this, Musk says he will make Grok 2 open-source in the next few months, once Grok 3 is “mature and stable.”
“Grok 3 is an order of magnitude more capable than Grok 2,” Musk said in a live-streamed presentation of the model. He called the new system “maximally truth-seeking Ai, even if that truth is sometimes at odds with that is politically correct.”
This has been a longstanding aim of Musk – to create a chatbot series that is anti-woke, not politically correct and adheres to his views of what free speech should be. The Grok series, in practice, however, was found to steer away politically-charged queries and even leaned left in one study.
Musk largely blamed this on training data, and aims to make Grok more “politically neutral,” despite Musk’s own personal forays into the political landscape appear anything but.
The controversial CEO recently made a bid to buy OpenAI, which was ultimately rejected by the company’s board.
Security issues – leaks, breaches, hacks – involving third-party vendors continue to terrorise enterprises, research from cybersecurity firm Resilience shows.
The firm found that nearly half (47%) of organisations suffered an disruptive outage over the last year from a breach related to a vendor.
While most (85%) firms claim they are familiar with their third-party vendors, not enough (35%) are confident in their reliance on these external forms, creating a major fault in their overall cybersecurity posture.
This is even more apparent for smaller companies: nearly half (43%) of businesses with annual turnovers over £750m view their vendors precautions and security measures to be sufficient, compared to just a quarter (24%) of firms with an annual turnover of £250m and under.
Despite more confidence in their vendors, larger organisations appeared to show a more consistent level of concern over vendor outages, at 44% compared to the average of 40% across all businesses.
Mid-sized, growing companies seem to be at the greatest risk, according to the report, as more cyber-criminals opt for ‘big-game hunting’ of affluent but potentially under-resourced firms.
Much larger firms – those with a yearly turnover over £1bn – were largely untouched by vendor struggles.
According to CheckPoint’s 2025 report, supply chain attacks surged in 2024, with a year-on-year increase in weekly cyber-attack of 179%.
“Cyber risk has become an undeniable reality for businesses of all sizes, yet our findings highlight a concerning gap in understanding and preparedness, particularly in how leaders assess and manage these risks as financial risks,” Resilience CEO Vishaal Hariprasad said.
A Scottish chip company is in the middle of a government intervention focused on national security due to its current Chinese owners.
FTDI – a Glasgow-based fabless semiconductor company focused on USB devices – has found itself at the centre of the court order, which targets FTDI Holding Ltd.
While FTDI Holding is registered as a British company, it is owned by five Chinese partners tied with Jiayin Investment Ltd, an investment company owned by the Chinese state.
After rejecting a plea from the company for an interim relief, the UK government has ordered that the firm sell its 80.2% stake in FTDI, citing national security concerns.
The decision followed a “detailed national security assessment,” the government said, saying that the acquisition of more than 75% of FTDI holdings triggered concerns under the National Security and Investment Act back in 2021.
Specifically, the potential for a transfer of UK-developed semiconductor design, technology, and intellectual property to China, and the FTDI’s ownership could be used to risk critical national infrastructure, was cited as national security concerns.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, which issued the decision “considered that the Final Order is necessary and proportionate to mitigate the risk to national security.”
The chip company, founded in 1992, has headquarters and research and development facilities in Glasgow, as well as Singapore. It also hosts regional sales and tech support in Glasgow, the US, and China.
The move is the UK government’s latest effort to protect the country’s semiconductor infrastructure from foreign entities and potential adversaries.
The National Security and Infrastructure Act was previously used by the government to separate the Newport Wafer Fab, the UK’s largest semiconductor manufacturing facility, from its Chinese owner. Following this, the company was later sold to US-based Vishay Intertechnology.
Another semiconductor factory was recently acquired by the Ministry of Defence after it faced closure following Apple’s decision to drop business with the firm.
Businesses are racing to adopt AI, yet a responsibility gap threatens to undermine this progress, according to a new survey of IT service and digital business leaders from NTT DATA.
More than 80% of executives surveyed in the global report acknowledge that leadership, governance, and workforce readiness are failing to keep pace with AI advancements – putting investment, security, and public trust at risk.
“The enthusiasm for AI is undeniable, but our findings show that innovation without responsibility is a risk multiplier,” said Abhijit Dubey, chief executive officer, NTT DATA, Inc. “Organizations need leadership-driven AI governance strategies to close this gap—before progress stalls and trust erodes.”
The Widening AI Responsibility Gap
When it comes to innovation versus responsibility, the C-suite is divided. One-third of executives believe responsibility matters more than innovation, while another third prioritises innovation over safety. The last third rates innovation and responsibility equally.
More than 80% of leaders say that unclear government regulations hinder AI investment and implementation, leading to delayed adoption, often stifling growth.
Security and ethics are also lagging behind AI ambitions. While the majority (89%) of C-suite leaders worry about AI security risks, only a quarter (24%) of CISOs believe their organisations have a strong framework to balance AI risk and value creation.
Compounding these issues is a lack of skills across the workforce. Around two thirds (67%) of executives say their workforce do not have the skills to work effectively with AI, while 72% admit they do not have an AI policy in place to guide responsible use.
Speaking to wider ethics concerns, three in four leaders say that AI ambitions are conflicting with their corporate sustainability goals, forcing organisations to rethink energy-intensive AI solutions.
NTT DATA made a number of suggestions for leaders to bring to their organisations to address this AI responsibility gap.
This includes introducing responsible design principles, and as well as going beyond the legal requirements of AI governance to ensure AI is introduced in an ethical and systematic approach.
Organisations are also advised to upskill employees to work alongside AI and understand the tech’s risks, as well as work globally and collaboratively to action clear AI frameworks and standards.
“AI’s trajectory is clear—its impact will only grow. But without decisive leadership, we risk a future where innovation outpaces responsibility, creating security gaps, ethical blind spots, and missed opportunities,” Dubey said.
“The business community must act now. By embedding responsibility into AI’s foundation—through design, governance, workforce readiness, and ethical frameworks—we unlock AI’s full potential while ensuring it serves businesses, employees, and society at large equally.”
A project involving students as co-creators to upgrade the University of Strathclyde’s real-time, on-the-go mobile ‘app’ has been shortlisted in the UCISA Awards 2025.
The StrathApp Student Co-creation Development Model is a finalist in the Transformation category of the awards, organised by the member-led professional body for digital practitioners in education.
StrathApp enables students to access their timetables and assessment results, enter the library with a digital student card, navigate the campus and receive support services from their mobile devices.
“We recognise that our students have a clearer understanding of their day-to-day information needs than anyone, so we have consciously put them at the heart of an iterative approach to developing our award-winning StrathApp,” Donna Brawley, collaboration services manager in the Information Services Directorate, said.
“By embedding student placements within the development process, we enable direct collaboration and co-creation with our student users. This approach is both innovative and inspiring for staff and students alike, ensuring we deliver a service that is genuinely ‘For Students, By Students.’
“Being shortlisted for the UCISA Transformation Award is fantastic recognition of our commitment to student-led digital innovation at Strathclyde.”
The UCISA Transformation Award celebrates digital initiatives that have delivered significant benefits across higher education institutions.
Strathclyde is nominated alongside Bath Spa University, Heriot-Watt University, Nottingham Trent University, and the University of Chester, with the winners to be announced at the UCISA 25 Leadership Conference Awards Dinner on 19 March 2025.
Scotland’s small businesses are having a confidence crisis, as the Federation of Small Businesses record the lowest confidence levels in the nation since the pandemic.
The latest Small Business Index found that confidence fell t0 -67.2 in the last quarter of 2024, the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2020, when it was just -69.
This is the third consecutive quarterly slide for small business confidence in Scotland, which started at -41.2 in the third quarter of 2024.
Uncertainty about the economy as a whole is driving this negativity, with the UK figure reflecting the same lack of business confidence at -64.5.
“These worrying results underline that we need urgent, concrete government action on the issues that keep small business owners awake at night,” Andrew McRae, FSB Scotland‘s policy chair, said.
“So many of the pressing issues come down to cost and cashflow, that is why – for example – the government’s plans to tackle late payments, the scourge of many small businesses in Scotland, cannot come soon enough.
“It must also be acknowledged that the upcoming Employment Rights Bill is a serious concern for small firms, with nine out of 10 owners saying they are worried about its introduction.”
About three quarters of Scottish respondents (74%) cited rising costs, largely in utility bills, as well as labour and tax costs as their biggest barrier to growth, while about six in ten (59%) cited their performance in the domestic economy was holding back their growth.
The net balance of Scottish small businesses reporting a growth in revenue fell to -36.7 from -13.1 in the previous quarter. Less than one in five (17.9%) reported revenue growth, the lowest amount since 2021’s first quarter.
However, there is a positive net balance of Scottish firms looking to grow in the next year, at 5.4%. This does, however, represent a major drop from the previous quarter (30.4%) and is much less than the UK average of 19.2% this quarter.
Taxing fears have gripped the nation, as businesses reel from the UK government’s decision to raise the national insurance contributions of employers by 15% from April. This will cost £850 per employee on average, the Scottish Government estimated.
Ahead of a debate in Scottish parliament, Employment and Investment minister Tom Arthur said that the move would likely drive higher prices, which would be placed on consumers, and called the new policy a “tax on jobs.”
“This decision is hitting Scottish businesses hard, reducing their ability to contribute to Scotland’s economy, all while hurting employees’ pay packets,“ he said.
“Businesses now face the impossible choice of cutting jobs, reducing hours, cutting wages, absorbing the costs themselves or passing some of the burden to consumers in the form of higher prices.
“The First Minister set out a clear plan for growth in his Programme for Government, using the levers at our disposal to support businesses and to attract investment in critical areas like the offshore wind supply chain.
“Yet, our efforts to support businesses, entrepreneurs and investment are being undermined by this tax on jobs.
“If the UK Government is serious about economic growth, they must reconsider this decision before they cause lasting damage to Scotland’s economy.”
A UK government spokesperson explained: “We delivered a once-in-a-parliament Budget in October to wipe the slate clean.
“That provided the stability needed across the UK, to kickstart economic growth through our Plan for Change.
“It also included more money than ever before for Scottish public services, with the Scottish Government receiving 20% more funding per person than equivalent UK government spending.”
The UK government has entered a partnership with Anthropic, the US-based AI firm, to explore the potential of advanced AI tools in improving how UK citizens access government information and services online.
The deal follows the establishment of the UK’s Soveriegn AI unit, which was formed after the release of the AI Opportunities Action Plan by the Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology.
Anthropic is set to help the UK discover ways to implement AI across the public sector, as well as in scientific applications.
“AI has the potential to transform how governments serve their citizens. We look forward to exploring how Anthropic’s AI assistant Claude could help UK government agencies enhance public services, with the goal of discovering new ways to make vital information and services more efficient and accessible to UK residents,” said Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei.
The voluntary memorandum of understanding will aim to advance best practices for the responsible deployment of frontier AI capabilities by the public sector, while fostering close cooperation between government and leading AI innovators.
Anthropic will be partnering with DSIT through the AI Security Institute, which was formerly known as the AI Safety Institute and renamed by technology secretary Peter Kyle.
“We will continue to work closely with the UK AI Security Institute to research and evaluate AI capabilities in order to ensure secure deployment,” Amodei said.
The rebranding from safety to security was announced on the same day as the Anthropic partnership, ushering in a new focus for the UK government when it comes to AI.
The institute will not focus on bias or freedom of speech, the UK government said, but instead focus on advancing an understanding of the most serious risks posed by AI to build up a scientific basis of evidence that aims to help policymakers keep the country safe as AI develops.
“The changes I’m announcing today represent the logical next step in how we approach responsible AI development – helping us to unleash AI and grow the economy as part of our Plan for Change,” secretary Kyle said.
“The work of the AI Security Institute won’t change, but this renewed focus will ensure our citizens – and those of our allies – are protected from those who would look to use AI against our institutions, democratic values, and way of life.
“The main job of any government is ensuring its citizens are safe and protected, and I’m confident the expertise our Institute will be able to bring to bear will ensure the UK is in a stronger position than ever to tackle the threat of those who would look to use this technology against us.”
The UK competition watchdog is looking for ways it can approve more business deals under review as pressure mounts from the UK government’s ambitions to promote economic growth.
To fall in line with these goals, the Competition and Markets Authority is delivering a set of reforms that will address the pace, predictability, proportionality, and process it undertakes in its reviews of business deals.
“To be successful, they rely not only on the CMA’s commitment to change, but also the willingness of businesses and advisors to engage constructively and co-operatively with what we are proposing,” Sarah Cardell of the CMA said in a blog post.
Pace
The CMA aims to improve the pace of its investigations and decision making, the speed of which it says is vital to reduce business costs and uncertainty.
By June 2025, the CMA aims to have established a new routine that would mean that pre-notification phase of their remit to be completed within 40 days. This is the investigation phase prior to a company being notified they are due to an investigation.
Further, the CMA aims to reduce their current target average for a Phase 1 case from 35 to 25 working days.
Predictability
The CMA intends to clarify their remit so businesses can better predict if any of their dealings or mergers may attract the CMA’s scrutiny.
Relevant tests the CMA applies to determine if they will investigate a deal, including the material influence of the deal and its share of supply, will still stand, but how the CMA interprets and applies these tests will be updated.
Proportionality
Next month, the CMA will launch a review of its approach to remedies for business deals, in an effort to offer more effective remedies to business deals it has competition concerns over, rather than prohibit them.
It also aims to sharpen the competition watchdog’s focus on UK impact, looking to more clearly distinguish between deals with a direct UK impact and those that have a more international scope or can be watched more closely by other authorities.
In an effort to improve its fairness and consistent treatment across its investigations, the CMA will publish a Mergers Charter to lay out its new commitments and ensure the success of its new approach.
The Charter is set to be underpinned by a number of actions to create more direct engagement for investigations and beyond, a targeted outreach programme, and more meetings in the early phases of the review process.
“We are already working at pace to bring about a step change in the operation of the mergers regime over the coming months,” Cardell said.
“But we will not stop there. I am committed to applying the 4Ps framework across all areas of the CMA’s work to deliver robust, independent competition and consumer protection regimes that have the confidence of businesses and investors, and help to support the government’s growth mission.”
The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) has appointed Dr Peter Williams, group technology director and head of investor relations at INEOS, to lead its governing board and support the centre’s continued impact on the growing bioeconomy.
Williams has more than four decades of experience in the chemicals industry and currently sits on the UK’s Building a Green Future Advisory Board, having previously been a council member of the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
His career at the multinational chemicals producer began in 2006 as CEO of INEOS Technologies and before that, he spent over 20 years with BP.
Williams is also a member of the Supervisory Board for Avantium NV, a Netherlands-based business which is in the process of commercialising a bio-based polyester.
Williams will oversee IBioIC’s strategic efforts to strengthen the bioeconomy in Scotland and the UK, helping companies and startups in a range of sectors to translate research into large-scale innovation, using more sustainable bio-based processes and materials.
Since 2014, the innovation centre has played a significant role in the growth of the industrial biotechnology sector in Scotland and beyond, helping to attract £35 million in additional funding for research and development.
“IBioIC is already making an important contribution to the development of a bioeconomy by guiding companies towards funding and investment opportunities, helping with skills development and offering expertise and specialist facilities for scale up,” Williams said.
“The centre’s network has grown significantly over recent years and further geographical spread will be a key part of its continued success.
“Bioindustries in Scotland are gaining momentum, and the redevelopment of the central belt will create even more opportunities. At IBioIC we have a pivotal role to play in developing these industries by helping small companies to navigate the difficult path towards scale up and commercialisation of new materials from sustainable feedstocks.
“The UK has an excellent research technology base, but needs greater success in translating new ideas into commercial realities for the benefit of the UK economy. This is where the IBioIC can make a real difference, and I look forward to working with the team to try to achieve this.”
Mark Bustard, CEO of IBioIC, added: “Peter is a fantastic addition to the board and has a wealth of experience from a career in the chemicals industry that will be incredibly valuable in shaping the future direction of IBioIC.
“His work supporting startups and entrepreneurs is well aligned with our mission and we look forward to having Peter join us at our annual conference next month, where he will have the chance to meet with some of our member organisations and partners from across the biotechnology community.”
A cohort of young ventures has hailed Scotland’s Infinity G deeptech accelerator a success after concluding a 13-week intensive skills programme.
The Infinity G programme kicked off in October with 15 companies – in sectors from AI and quantum computing to biotechnology – embarking on a series of workshops and training sessions, where participants underwent company-building mentorship, refined their pitches, and honed their business strategies.
One of the final events was a Final Demo Day & Product Showcase, where the ventures presented their businesses to active investors and successfully demonstrated their transformation over the course of the programme.
Feedback on Infinity G – delivered in collaboration with the University of Glasgow and the Smart Things Accelerator Centre based at Skypark within Glasgow Riverside Innovation District – has been positive.
Adam Foulis, founder at Scotia Biotech, said: “The Infinity G programme for us has been transformative – not just from the financial resources, but from the corporate training, learning how to set up a company with the seven pillars, and the mentorship from STAC has been amazing. The network and connections available have been great – it’s hard to find a fault.”
Veronica Bridgman and Alexandra Oti, co-founders at Unravel Health, said: “The team has been really brilliant. I think they are an incredibly experienced group of non-theoretical mentors, which has been extremely valuable as they have been able to talk about their own experiences. I have also appreciated their flexibility, and they have really taken the time to give us targeted support, which is greatly appreciated.”
Jose Fajardo, founder at Alessia, said: “The Infinity G programme has been perfect. It was a great way to start working on this project. It created the structure and the deadlines that I needed to develop.”
Designed to accelerate excellence, Infinity G aims to create the optimal conditions for research-driven ventures to achieve global societal impact and become investment-ready. The programme supports deeptech innovators across fields such as AI & Machine Learning, Health and Biotech, Quantum Computing, Sensing and Communications, Advanced Materials, Robotics, Space, and more.
Hosted entirely at thebeyond suite within Skypark, the space provides founders a hub to collaborate, learn, and grow.
Throughout the programme, founders immersed themselves in weekly interactive workshops covering the fundamentals of building a business. Led by expert mentors across Marketing, Sales, IP and Technology, Talent and HR, Finance, Legal, and Investment, they gained industry knowledge to bring their ideas to life.
Sessions included a Brand Clinic that encouraged companies to dig deep into how their brand aesthetics could stand out and resonate with their audiences; a Website Workshop, focused on building a strong digital presence; and an Effective Demo workshop where ventures were shown how to create impactful demos, emphasising the importance of instilling confidence in investors, customers, and internal teams.
Paul Wilson, CEO and co-founder of STAC, said: “We partnered with the University of Glasgow to help founders validate their ventures, get ready to raise investment, win customers, and build great teams. Mission accomplished.
“Several ventures are now ready to take the next steps towards global impact and we are excited to support their ongoing journey.”
Uzma Khan, vice principal, economic development and innovation, University of Glasgow, said: “Our collaboration with the Smart Things Accelerator Centre, through the Infinity G programme, has been of tremendous value to this first cohort of founders in our deep-tech accelerator programme.
“The Infinity G programme was launched to help new ventures succeed by supporting founders to learn and navigate their way through the different facets of a startup/spin-out journey. We hope that this will put them on a firmer footing for success as they seek to become investor-ready and scale-up.
“The programme is a significant step towards establishing Scotland as a leading hub for deeptech innovation, creating job opportunities and solutions for positive change on a global scale.”
Alessia, Glanadair, AevaSpec, Flora Wind, ForceBiology, Diabetes Companion, Hoofsmart, Orthovis, Quantcore, Quantrologee, RX Watt, Scotia Biotech, SepSense, and Unravel Health were part of the first cohort. The Infinity G accelerator has been partly funded by the Glasgow City Council-UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The UK is issuing a series of fresh sections against key players in the Russian cyber-crime supply chain.
The new sanctions target ZSERVERS and six of its members, as well as its UK front company, XHOST Internet Solutions LP. ZSERVERS provide vital infrastructure for cyber-criminals as they plan and execute attacks against the UK.
The illicit supply chain protects, supports, and conceals the operations of some of the world’s most ruthless ransomware gangs. Ransomware actors rely on these services to launch attacks, extort victims and store stolen data.
In the modern digital-first economy, cybersecurity is a non-negotiable cornerstone of business success, the government says. A secure digital economy would be a less attractive target for cyber-criminals and a more attractive home for investment, generating jobs and putting more money into hardworking people’s pockets, which the UK hopes will deliver on its government’s Plan for Change.
“Putin has built a corrupt mafia state driven by greed and ruthlessness,” foreign secretary David Lammy said. “It is no surprise that the most unscrupulous extortionists and cyber-criminals run rampant from within his borders.
“This government will continue to work with partners to constrain the Kremlin and the impact of Russia’s lawless cyber underworld. We must counter their actions at every opportunity to safeguard the UK’s national security and deliver on our Plan for Change.”
Predatory ransomware groups pose a clear and persistent threat to national security, public services and privacy.
These attacks threaten critical national infrastructure, disrupt essential services, compromise sensitive data and generated $1 billion from their victims globally in 2023 alone.
“Ransomware attacks by Russian affiliated cybercrime gangs are some of the most harmful cyber threats we face today and the government is tackling them head on,” minister of state for security, Dan Jarvis said.
“Denying cyber-criminals the tools of their trade weakens their capacity to do serious harm to the UK.
“We have already announced new world-first proposals to deter ransomware attacks and destroy their business model.
“With these targeted sanctions and the full weight of our law enforcement, we are countering the threats we face to protect our national security, a foundation of our Plan for Change, and our economy.”
ZSERVERS explicitly advertise themselves to illicit actors as a Bulletproof Hosting (BPH) Provider.
Some BPH are known to host hackers, misinformation, child exploitation material, spam and hate speech. BPH providers like ZSERVERS, protect and enable cyber-criminals, offering a range of purchasable tools which mask their locations, identities, and activities. Targeting these providers can disrupt hundreds or thousands of criminals simultaneously.
The new sanctions are the latest in a series of coordinated steps alongside US and Australian partners, and comes off the back of recent sanctions against notorious ransomware groups LockBit and Evil Corp.
LockBit affiliates are known to have used ZSERVERS as a launch pad for targeting the UK, enabling ransomware attacks against various targets, including the non-profit sector.
Digital immaturity – in skills, data, and infrastructure readiness – is holding the UK back from its AI adoption ambitions and growth goals, according to research from SAP.
As many as eight in ten businesses are prioritising growth over improving customer experiences, and over a third (37%) suggesting they will be turning to technology to help them manage their spending and increase automation across their business.
However, legacy technology, talent gaps, and insufficient datasets continue to delay these AI plans from coming to fruition.
AI Ambitions
The vast majority (92%) of UK businesses surveyed by SAP rank the adoption of standard AI applications as a high or medium priority in the next 12 months, with a similar amount (91%) actively exploring the use of emerging applications like generative AI.
About two in five (39%) are prioritising AI-led business automation this year, while one in two are actively investing in advanced analytics to refine their decision-making capabilities.
The UK’s high-growth organisations have also highlighted AI’s role in addressing macro-barriers to growth, like supply chain issues. As many as 91% see closing supply chain gaps as a pressing priority and 39% rank supply chain disruptions as one of the top three business challenges in 2025.
To that end, more than one in three (37%) are turning to AI and automation to help them weather economic uncertainty and build supply chain resilience.
“AI is revolutionising the renewable energy sector, driving smarter decisions and operational efficiency to support growth and resilience,” said Simon Duckett, chief digital officer at Sonnedix, a global renewable energy producer and SAP customer.
“In a rapidly evolving market, AI’s predictive models and advanced analytics help us strengthen our supply chain, adapt to economic uncertainty, and seize new opportunities.
“By combining cutting-edge technology with human innovation, AI ensures we remain agile and prepared to scale and adapt to change sustainably.”
Despite these grand ambitions and budget allocations, digital immaturity continues to stand in the way of AI adoption and progress.
The research found that legacy technology was cited by 27% of UK high-growth organisations as a key barrier to scale, underscoring the difficulty of integrating cutting-edge solutions into outdated systems.
Talent gaps further amplify the problem, with more than one third (34%) struggling to attract and retain professionals with the expertise needed to harness AI effectively. That’s why 40% now prioritise skills development as a cornerstone of their growth strategy.
Data continues to be highlighted as a key growth obstacle. As many as one in three indicate that insufficient datasets are hindering AI model training, while 34% point to poor data and limited planning tools as significant barriers to progress.
“Addressing barriers to growth, like digital immaturity, must be a priority for the UK’s high-growth organisations if they wish to reach their potential,” said Wesley Doyle, head of new business, corporate, SAP UKI.
“As our report shows, many have identified AI as the key that unlocks business agility, resilience and efficiency, and enables innovation at scale. As we look ahead to 2025 and beyond, organisations that make bold moves in AI will position themselves to flourish in today’s data-driven economy and lead the way in shaping the UK’s growth agenda.”
The UK has reportedly chosen to not sign an international AI agreement proposed at the global AI Summit currently taking place in Paris, joining the US in its refusal.
The statement focused on open, ethical approaches to AI development, and was signed by France, China, and India, among a total of 6o countries participating in the summit.
As of yet, the UK and the US have not disclosed why they chose to forgo signing the agreement.
The UK prime minister’s official spokesperson did explain that France remains one of the UK’s closest AI partners, but that the UK would “only ever sign up to initiatives that are in UK national interests,” as reported by the Guardian.
However, US Vice President JD Vance has said to delegates at the Paris summit that too much regulation of AI may “kill a transformative industry just as its taking off.”
The Paris Summit has showcased Europe’s regulatory approach to AI innovation, though it also aims to champion innovation and the potential for collaboration.
However, the EU did face backlash from big tech companies for its AI rules and regulations, namely for its proposed voluntary “code of practice.”
While the US may be warning about the negative effects of regulation, lawmakers in the country are toying with the idea of censoring or banning DeepSeek, a Chinese AI company that came out with a AI chatbot that quickly rivaled top AI firms like OpenAI, but with an alleged fraction of the development cost.
JD Vance said at the Paris summit that the Trump administration would “not squander” the opportunities that AI offers, and that “pro-growth AI polices” should come before safety.
The AI Safety Summit did have others defending the need for regulation, with French president Emmanuel Macron saying that “We need rules for AI to move forward.”
The Summit comes at a pivotal time for global relations as the US threatens several countries with discriminatory tariffs, even its allies just as Canada.
Proposed US import tariffs on steel and aluminum is set to affect the UK and EU, though the UK has yet to retaliate.
AI chatbots are misrepresenting the news to users on a mass scale, new research from the BBC found.
The news corporation investigated four publicly available AI chatbots – OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, and Perplexity.
To conduct its research, the BBC asked each chatbot 100 queries having to do with the news, prompting the AI systems to use BBC News sources where possible, with full access to the BBC’s news and all other news sources.
Alarmingly, the research found that just over half (51%) of all AI responses were flagged as having ‘significant issues’ by expert journalists recruited to review the responses for inaccuracies and false claims.
Almost all (91%) of responses contained at least ‘some issues’ according to the reviewers.
Gemini saw the largest percentage of significant issues (46%), followed by Copilot, Perplexity, and ChatGPT.
About one in five answers had factual errors, such as on numbers, dates, or statements, and 13% of quotes sources directly to the BBC contained alternations or did not exist in the cited BBC article.
Other inaccuracies included that Nicola Sturgeon is still the first minister of Scotland, and that Rishi Sunak still serves as the UK prime minister, which were both produced by ChatGPT.
Gemini was found to have misrepresented NHS guidance on smoking and vaping; Perplexity misquoted a statement from One Direction singer Liam Paynes family after his death
Copilot provided false information on how Gisèle Pelicot – who took 50 men to court for raping her while unconscious last year – realised she had been the victim of rape. Microsoft’s chatbot was also found to have referenced out of date articles for news about Scottish independence.
The report from the BBC also found that chatbots often failed to discern between fact and opinion, and often added their own editorialisation to responses.
Reviewers found editorialisation in over 10% of Copilot and Gemini responses, 7% from Perplexity and 3% from ChatGPT.
According to the review, missing context was one of the most common issues identified with AI responses, especially when a response requires multiple perspectives or facets.
The review showed a startling lack of factual accuracy across chatbots, even on the most basic of principles, with one in five responses which used a BBC article as a source having factual inaccuracies.
These errors have real-world consequences, especially if they concern natural disasters, weather, current global conflicts, health advice, or politics.
Only 14% of security & risk management (SRM) leaders can effectively secure organisational data assets while also enabling the use of data to achieve business objectives, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc.
While 35% of survey respondents secure data assets and 21% use data to achieve business goals, only one in seven can effectively do both.
The survey was conducted from June through August 2024 among 318 senior security leaders across organisations of different industries and sizes worldwide.
“With only 14% of SRM leaders able to secure their data while supporting business goals, many organizations can face increased vulnerability to cyber threats, regulatory penalties, and operational inefficiencies, ultimately risking their competitive edge and stakeholder trust,” said Nathan Parks, senior specialist, research at Gartner.
Gartner recommends that SRM leaders take five actions to align business needs to data security and successfully achieve both data protection and business enablement goals.
Reduce governance-related friction for business by using a well-established process to co-create data security policies and standards with end users and by inviting their feedback.
Align data-security-related governance efforts by partnering with other internal functions to identify overlaps and synergies.
Delineate non-negotiable security requirements that must be met by the business when handling previously unknown data security risks.
Define high-level guardrails around GenAI-related decisions, such as when to pause or stop a GenAi tool or feature, that allow for business experimentation within set parameters.
Work jointly with data and analytics teams to secure top-down buy-in on data security initiatives.
The Scottish business sector saw growth in January, as Scotland moved from 11th to sixth place in in terms of economic performance across all UK regions.
This is according to the Royal Bank of Scotland Growth Tracker, a seasonally adjusted index that measures the month-on-month change in the combined output of the region’s manufacturing and service sectors.
The Tracker found that Scottish business performance rose from 46.9 in December to 49.6 in January, offering some signs of optimism for Scotland’s business sector in 2025.
The softer contraction in private sector output was driven by a renewed uplift in services activity but partly offset a further decline in manufacturing production.
Scottish firms continued to shed jobs at the start of 2025, after December data signalled a drop in employment for the first time in almost two years. Services joined manufacturing in registering lower staffing.
Scottish private sector companies once again reported a decrease in new work intakes in January, with companies signalling lower client demand relating this to greater uncertainty about domestic economic conditions.
The upcoming NI rise was also stated to have led customers to clamp down on spending.
Overall input prices rose at their sharpest pace since August 2023, with both services and manufacturing recording a steeper rate of inflation than in December.
“Scottish firms reported a leap in costs and prices at the start of 2025, just as the Bank of England raised its inflation forecast to 3.7%,” Judith Cruickshank, chair, Scotland board, Royal Bank of Scotland, said.
“Pricing pressure shot back up to levels last seen in the summer of 2023, according to respondents, with energy costs and rising employment costs all playing a role. Nevertheless, businesses said it wasn’t a worsening situation for output, with Scotland’s activity score recovering.
“But uncertainty over the state of demand in future is clearly playing a role, even though firms in Scotland appear to have stronger expectations for the labour market than many other parts of the UK.”
Positively, Scotland’s rank out of the 12 monitored nations and regions rose from eleventh to sixth in January.
While the contraction in order book levels was consistent with the UK trend, it was comparatively stronger in Scotland. Total sales across the UK feel mildly for the second month running.
The outlook for activity remained subdued in January, picking up only slightly from December’s two-year low.
Firms highlighted greater inflation risks due to wage cost increases, which many feared would lead to a drop-off in sales and a weaker economic climate.
Again, business confidence was much lower than the UK trend, despite the latter slipping ot the lowest level since December 2022.
Anecdotal reports suggested a reduction in new orders and increased cost pressures where the main factors leading firms to streamline their workforces. However, there were some respondents that replaces staff or added extra working hours to support growth prospects.
Spare capacity across the private sector remained evident in January. Backlogs of work feel at the strongest pace for six months, albeit less marked than seen nationwide. Companies mostly linked a drop in work-in-hand to lower sales.
Services companies associated higher costs with an increase in wages, as well as heightened prices for energy, fuel, and technology. Goods producers typically cited an uplift in supplier chargers, which in turn was often due to a markup in payroll costs.
These upticks underscored an increase in average prices charges, as many firms commented that they had raised their prices in January. Overall, charges rose sharply, with the rate of inflation quickening to a nine-month high.
For both input and output prices, inflationary pressures were slightly less marked in Scotland compared to the UK average.
One in three UK workers are looking to leave their jobs for greener pastures this year, as dissatisfaction around wages and job security runs rampant.
New research by Global Payroll Association has gained insights into the amount of UK workers looking for a career change, showing widespread discontentment among workers.
About a fifth (18%) of workers said they were dissatisfied with their current role, with about one in five (18%) blaming a lack of job security, fearing they could be let go by their employee at an instant.
This contrasts the quarter of UK workers who feel ‘very secure’ in their current positions.
Wages were also a contentious issue, as about two in five (37%) of workers believe they are underpaid.
As the cost of living crisis transforms into an everyday norm, stagnating wages can drive workers to feel disaffected from their employers, forcing them to seek greener pastures to maintain quality of life.
Many report feeling stuck in their current positions as well, giving even more motivation to jump ship completely. Nearly half (46%) believe they have no opportunities to progress in their current company, while less than one in ten (9%) believe they opportunities within their company for job progression is plentiful.
Still, workers are looking for more than just a better salary and job security – a good work life balance was the most important factor for 60% of respondents, with salary at 19%.
With all these factors, it makes sense that a third of workers are set to seek a new job in 2025, with a quarter (24%) aiming to look int he recruitment space, and nearly one in ten (9%) aiming to moving on within the year.
“It’s alarming to see such a large proportion of people expressing dissatisfaction at work,” Melanie Pizzey, CEO and founder of Global Payroll Association, said. “And they’re not just talking about small aggravations that everyone feels one time or another, they’re unhappy with the core elements of their career such as job security, suitable remuneration and opportunities to progress up the ladder.
“And while increasing people’s pay is difficult, not least since UK companies have come under significant pressure from recent increases in the living wage and NI contributions, they can still be doing things to maximise employee retention. To start with, listen carefully when workers say that achieving a good work/life balance is of utmost importance, and take care to clearly explain to employees what opportunities lay in their future should they perform well.
“These simple considerations can supercharge job satisfaction, increase loyalty, and improve retention; ultimately improving bottom lines.”
A new form of energy-efficient artificial vision system inspired by the human brain and made in part using honey could help reduce the impact of electronic waste.
Engineers from the University of Glasgow partnered with researchers from São Paulo State University (UNESP) and Hong Kong Metropolitan University to develop the system, which uses organic, biodegradable and recyclable parts to ‘see’ and ‘remember’ colours while drawing a tiny amount of power.
The team’s system, known as an Electrolyte-Gated Organic Field-Effect Transistor (EGOFET), combines three crucial functions – sensing light, processing the information, and storing it in memory – all in a single unit capable of mimicking the human visual system. Even when powered off, it can retain stored information, a property known as non-volatility.
In the future, this could make it particularly efficient for real-world applications where fast processing of visual information is required, like autonomous aerial vehicles or smart security systems.
The team’s EGOFET improves on some aspects of the performance of previous attempts to build artificial vision systems using silicon-based CMOS sensors, which require significant computing and energy resources.
Theodoros Serghiou of the University of Glasgow’s James Watt School of Engineering led the development of the EGOFET. He said: “In conventional computing, there’s an inherent latency from having to fetch and transfer data in CMOS-based systems due to the physical separation between the processing and memory units.
“Our new memory-based device, however, performs these functions simultaneously in-memory, similar to how synapses in the human brain work, helping to overcome the bottlenecks of conventional systems.
“Our device’s ultra-low power consumption and sustainable materials could pave the way for eco-friendly, scalable artificial vision systems in the years to come.”
In a paper published in Advanced Functional Materials, the team describe how they built their prototype EGOFET on a glass substrate using gold electrodes, a layer of organic, photosensitive perylene, and a layer of honey to act as an electrolyte.
The system acts as a photodetector, producing ‘spikes’ of current which vary in response to different wavelengths and intensities of light, allowing the programming of memory states which can be remembered by the system even when it is switched off.
The EGOFET achieves some of the highest performances measured to date, requiring only 2.4 picojoules of energy per spiking event – making it one of the most energy-efficient devices of its kind. Conventional CMOS imaging systems often require millions of times more power due to their clock-driven response.
The James Watt School of Engineering’s Professor Jeff Kettle is the paper’s corresponding author. He said: “Our device is able to emulate key synaptic behaviours such as short-term and long-term plasticity, spike-time dependent plasticity and paired-pulse facilitation with high fidelity.
“The implications of this research, which brings together experts from around the globe, extend beyond artificial vision to broader applications in sustainable neuromorphic computing, image processing and energy-efficient bio-inspired electronics.
“We plan to scale this single-device prototype into arrays for enhanced image recognition capabilities, which could provide enhanced performance for artificial vision systems before being more sustainably disposed of at the end of their lifecycle.”
Once the device’s useful lifespan is complete, the team expect that the glass and gold elements could be recycled and reused, while the organic elements could be simply left to biodegrade naturally.
The research was supported by funding from the UKRI Responsible Electronics and Circular Technology Centre (REACT) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in the UK, and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) in Brazil.
The Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) has released a new AI playbook on implementing AI into the public sector.
It includes ten guiding principles for public servants and institutions to follow to understand how AI can be used across government services and how to mitigate any risks associated with AI technology.
“The AI Playbook will support the public sector in better understanding what AI can and cannot do, and how to mitigate the risks it brings,” Feyal Clark MP, secretary of state for AI and digital government, said. “It will help ensure that AI technologies are deployed in responsible and beneficial ways, safeguarding the security, wellbeing, and trust of the public we serve.”
The ten principles focus on guidance for the safe, responsible, and effective use of AI in government organisations:
● Principle 1: You know what AI is and what its limitations are
● Principle 2: You use AI lawfully, ethically and responsibly
● Principle 3: You know how to use AI securely
● Principle 4: You have meaningful human control at the right stage
● Principle 5: You understand how to manage the AI life cycle
● Principle 6: You use the right tool for the job
● Principle 7: You are open and collaborative
● Principle 8: You work with commercial colleagues from the start
● Principle 9: You have the skills and expertise needed to implement and use AI
● Principle 10: You use these principles alongside your organisation’s policies
and have the right assurance in place
The Playbook includes in-depth explanations for what AI is and how it works to ensure that public servants are informed about the technology they adopt. It also features several warnings about AI’s many shortfalls, such as its biases and generative AI’s penchant for hallucinations.
It further explains the importance of good data quality in informing better AI systems, and the fact that AI and the answers it generates cannot be guaranteed to be 100% accurate.
The Playbook also expands on the data protection issues that arise with using AI systems, as well as the governance and regulation complexity that comes with using the technology.
Assembling a team with the appropriate skills is also vital to developing AI in government services, which can be especially challenging with the overall gap in AI skills across the UK.
IT leaders in the public sector were about a third more likely to say their team struggles with a lack of AI skills compared to their private sector counterparts.
While the government pushes for more AI across its systems, it may struggle find the appropriate talent as private sector competitors offer premium salaries for AI skills, which can squeeze out public sector budgets.
The public sector outperformed the private sector, in terms of raking up more UK GDPR reprimands, new analysis has found.
URM Consulting analysed the top GDPR fines and repirmands issued by the UK’s data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, over 2024.
The findings also highlighted the UK’s different approach to GDPR violations, as the ICO typically opts for more reprimands, in contrast to the EU’s penchant for hefty fines.
Overall in 2024, the public sector faced 16 reprimands compared to just two issued to the private sector. 27 total UK public sector firms faced some type of action by the ICO for GDPR violations.
The public sector was also issued the highest GDPR fines from the ICO, with three GDPR fines in 2024. While private sector organisations also faced fines from the ICO in 2024, these were in violation of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) rather than GDPR.
Total GDPR violations in the UK reached around £1.1m, while PECR violations reached roughly £1.6m across more overall fines.
The three GDPR fines in 2024 include:
£750,000 to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) for the leak of a spreadsheet containing personal information of nearly 1,000 officers and staff.
£350,000 to the Ministry of Defence for exposing the identities of Afghan citizens via email who worked with the UK government during the war in Afghanistan.
£7,500 to the Central YMCA for exposing via email personally identifiable details of people who have HIV.
All of these leaks were accidental, and involved personal sensitive information, which may have put people’s lives at risk if the details were exposed.
The egregious nature of the violations explains why the ICO parted with their normal temperament to issue reprimands to public bodies as opposed to fines.
The Information Commissioner John Edwards has previously explained that he believes fines to be counterintuitive to progress and were not effective in keeping tech firms in line with data protection.
Other GDPR enforcement actions taken against the public sector include 18 reprimands and 11 enforcement notices.
While a reprimand is a formal warning to a firm about non-compliance, an enforcement notice is more severe, and requires organisations to take specific actions to fix any data protection issues the ICO found.
