Author Archives: elizabeth

  1. Big Tech Urges UK Energy Reform for AI Data Centres

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    Major tech companies are urging the government to restructure UK energy prices in order for the nation to benefit from data centre infrastructure and not miss out on the AI boom.

    Amazon and OpenAI have commissioned a study from the Social Market Foundation (SMF), which found that the high cost of industrial electricity, planning restrictions, and long delays in grid connection are slamming the breaks on data centre development, potentially risking the UK’s position in the AI and digital innovations market.

    The SMF detailed some of the issues surrounding the UK’s energy supply and data centre infrastructure, and urged for zonal pricing of energy resources.

    This would mean that energy pricing would vary regionally, and depend on supply and demand in each zone – places where green energy is more readily available, and population pressures are at a minimual, would see cheaper energy prices.

    According to Tortoise Media, the UK is ranked fourth for their overall AI capacity, falling to 17th worldwide for its AI infrastructure.

    The UK is behind the US, China, and Singapore in terms of overall AI capacity, and its top competitors hold the highest rankings in terms of AI infrastructure. Data centres are vital to unlocking the power of AI and running their energy hungry systems.

    While the study acknowledged the importance of the UK government’s AI Action Plan in helping the UK reach its AI ambitions, SMF also pointed out the bottlenecks in the UK energy supply which it says are incentivising data centres to operate outside the UK.

    Analysis by the foundation found that the UK’s industrial energy prices typically cost four times more than what they are in the US. Further, the UK’s electricity supply is also limited compared to peer economies, and varies sharply by region, with slow grid connections often coinciding with regions where data centres are concentrated.

    The SMF also found that European competitors can also supply greener electricity at lower prices compared to the UK as a whole.

    Zonal pricing would attempt to mitigate some of these issues, and would drive data centre infrastructure development to more energy independent regions, like Scotland, which has a greater degree of renewable energy and a less dense population.

    To compliment this, the SMF said that the locational pricing would need reforms in planning rules that would allow users and generators to change location on the basis of the price signals they face. Certain areas would be designated ‘AI Growth Zones’ in line with the AI Action Plan’s objectives by using Special Development Orders to bypass regular planning procedures, allowing for rapid development.

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    The SMF also pushed for developing an abundance of clean energy, saying that the UK government should opt for a ‘fleet-based approach’ to building nuclear reactors while encouraging the development of small modular reactors.

    “Data centres are the critical infrastructure that underpins the digital economy and emerging technologies like AI,” Sam Robinson, senior researcher at SMF, said.

    “Without urgent action to address skyrocketing energy costs and planning delays, the UK risks losing its position as a global leader in tech innovation and adoption. A forward-thinking strategy that makes energy affordable accelerates planning, and boosts green energy investment is essential to securing our future as an AI superpower.”

    Data centres are also guzzling electricity, and water, at alarming rates, research shows. The World Economic Forum estimated that AI’s requirement for power is just about doubling every 100 days. By 2023, data centres were already consuming about 4% of the US’s total electricity.

    Expanding AI use has seen strains on electricity grids in the US as tech companies and governments scramble to find new sources of energy.

    Further, the water needed to cool these data centres continually expands: asking ChatGPT to write an 100 word email uses 519 millilitres of water – just over your average bottle. Ten to 50 queries from the chatbot uses about two litres of water, analysis says.

  2. Is Digital Transforming Driving Up HMRC Tax Collecting Costs?

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    An increasingly complex tax system, more people paying tax and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) investing in staff and IT contributed to HMRC’s costs of collecting tax rising by 15% (£563 million) in real terms between 2019-20 and 2023-24, according to a new National Audit Office (NAO) report.

    During this period, government’s tax yield rose by 16% (£113 billion) in real terms.

    The report from the NAO comes shortly after the auditing office critiqued the UK government’s technology procurement strategy, which it said lacked cohesion, driving up overall prices.

    The increase in administrative costs can be attributed to several factors. First, the tax system is becoming increasingly complex, and HMRC has estimated that the combined effect of changes announced between 2022 and 2024 will increase its costs cumulatively by around £875 million over the next few years.

    None of these changes are expected to reduce costs, although it is anticipated that some of them will increase revenue in the longer term.

    Second, the number of people liable to pay Income Tax has increased from 31.7 million in 2020-21 to 36.2 million in 2023-24, due to income tax thresholds remaining at the same level since April 2022, and population and employment growth.

    Third, the cost of compliance work – which helps to reduce fraud and error in the tax system – has increased due to higher spending on digital tools and staff.

    These costs reflect a broader trend across HMRC, whereby it has invested heavily in recruiting higher-skilled staff and in digitalising its systems. A greater number of senior staff in HMRC’s workforce added over £100 million to salary costs between 2019-20 and 2023-24, while the cost of running HMRC’s digital tax systems amounted to £785 million in 2023-24 – a 18% increase in real terms from 2019-20.

    HMRC also spent £482 million on new digital systems and upgrading legacy systems in 2023-24, a process that has taken longer and has cost more than expected. The tax authority has one of the largest and most complex IT estates in the UK and it faces a significant challenge to modernise its IT infrastructure to keep pace with changing technology.

    There is also a significant cost burden on businesses to comply with tax rules, but HMRC’s estimate of £15.4 billion annually is likely to be an understatement. Moreover, published assessments of the impact of tax policy changes rarely estimate the costs for businesses and individuals.

    Although HMRC’s customer service costs have been broadly stable – accounting for 29% of total tax collection costs in 2023-24 – the cost to serve each taxpayer has risen for some large taxes amid poor levels of service.

    HMRC faces other challenges. It is under pressure to improve efficiency and productivity, with compliance productivity remaining below pre-pandemic levels. It is also finding it difficult to achieve efficiencies through its customer service provision.

    Progress on its strategy to build a modern, trusted tax system by 2030 has been mixed, and people with complex tax affairs may not reap the benefits of its new digital systems.

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    Consequently, some taxpayers and their representatives are finding it more difficult to deal with their tax matters, leading to some loss of trust in HMRC, according to the report.

    The NAO recommends that HMRC takes a holistic view of the cost effectiveness of the tax system, clarifying estimated costs and benefits when placing increased requirements on taxpayers and, where appropriate, spending more when this reduces the overall cost of the system.

    It should also commit to reducing administrative cost burdens on customers; develop better efficiency and productivity measures; and gain a clearer understanding of the costs and benefits of activities that stop non-compliance from occurring in the first place.

    Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: “Businesses and individuals deserve a modern, resilient and effective tax system to help them get their tax right first time.

    “To get the most out of the money it spends on collecting taxes, HMRC must better understand how changes to the system affect the costs it incurs in administering taxes, as well as the financial burden on individuals and businesses.

    “HMRC must also ensure the end-to-end system is working well for each tax.”

  3. 65% of Leaders Don’t Fully Understand Their Data

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    Sixty-five of business leaders believe no one at their organisation understands all the data collected by their firm and how to access it, a new survey reveals.

    SoftServe, an IT consulting and digital services provider, released the survey results on the state of data management in 2025, unveiling significant benefits of strong data foundations while exposing the widespread deficits in data maturity affecting most businesses.

    The majority of the 750 business leaders surveyed barely grasps the value of their data, and 58% say key business decisions are based on inaccurate or inconsistent data – most of the time, if not always – raising concerns for companies across industries and borders.

    The survey assesses data readiness in enterprises by the degree of data quality, strategy, organisation, investment, and governance implemented.

    Responses indicate a lack of knowledge in data management is coupled with an internal disconnect and noticeable divide between the C-suite, VPs, and senior management, putting entire organizations at odds when it comes to how data is used, acquired, and funded.

    Many respondents acknowledge that it might be tie to hit refresh on their data strategy as 73% report major updates or a complete overhaul is needed, and nearly all (98%) believe an updated data strategy would be required for strategic initiatives like GenAI.

    While less visibility among leaders can lead to skewed perceptions of data comprehension, the division grows with 78% of VPs and 61% of directors – but just 44% of those at C-level – claim their organisation’s investment priorities are negatively impacted by leaders not fully understanding how data can generate value.

    For 60%, decision-makers getting access to data when they need it is a challenge – and one that may not be an easy fix, as the majority (51%) of the 58% whose organisation makes most or all decisions using inaccurate or inconsistent data now believe a significant increase in data management investment is needed to meet their goals.

    Nearly three-fourths (73%) believe poor prioritisation has diverted needed funds and talents away from valuable data projects to broad genAI initiatives with weaker return on investment.

    All deficits aside, the survey results include a silver lining: strong data management has allowed organizations to open new revenue streams (44%) or monetize their data (38%) with the right infrastructure and governance to transform information into a vital source of income.

    Organisations also attributed increases in productivity and efficiency (54%), as well as improved decision-making and forecasting abilities (49%), to having strong data foundations.

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    Most respondents hope to follow suit this year as the bulk (85%) prepare to slightly or significantly increase their data budget and nearly half (42%) of those with a fully mature data strategy expect to significantly increase their overall data investments.

    “An impactful data strategy is not about perfection, but prioritisation,” said Rodion Myronov, AVP of Technology at SoftServe.

    “It’s about gaining maturity where it matters most for your business by prioritizing the missing piece of the whole data puzzle, not tossing it aside for the next shiny new toy.

    “Establishing a mature data strategy helps reinforce organisational foundations, so you can pursue bigger and better puzzles and projects in the future.”

  4. UK Allegedly Demands ‘Backdoor’ to All Apple Encrypted Data

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    The UK Home Office has issued a demand for “backdoor” access to encrypted data on Apple devices, it has been reported.

    According to the Washington Post, which first ran the story, UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper issued the order last month to Apple for a capability to access the encrypted data of any user of an Apple device.

    Reportedly, the order was issued to help the UK in its efforts to combat online crimes and harms, such as terrorism and child abuse. Law enforcement officials have a longstanding grudge against encryption technologies which allow criminals to hide their data from investigations, though technology companies like Apple and Google typically comply with authorities when issued with warrants for encrypted data.

    The Home Office has yet to confirm or deny the allegations: “We do not comment on operational matters, including, for example, confirming or denying the existence of any such notices,” a spokesperson said.

    The move to ask for an overriding, all-encompassing “backdoor” to encrypted data on everyday devices is a dramatic shift in the UK’s battle to access the encrypted content – it echos recent debates surrounding the Online Safety Act which proposed a similar stipulation surrounding pre-emptive scanning of encrypted data.

    Apple has also yet to formally respond to the alleged request, which consisted of a technical capability notice issued under the UK Investigatory Powers Act of 2016.

    The Act typically allows UK law enforcement to gain assistance from companies to collect evidence for an investigation. According to the law, it is illegal to reveal if the Government has made a request for evidence via the Act.

    The Act also stipulates that Apple can appeal the ruling in a secret panel, but cannot delay its compliance during the appeals process.

    Back in March, Apple said it was informed that it may be issued a notice from the Home Office, telling Parliament: “There is no reason why the UK [Government] should have the authority to decide for citizens of the world whether they can avail themselves of the proven security benefits that flow from end-to-end encryption,” as reported by The Telegraph.

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    Similarly, last year the UK government issued new surveillance laws that would require all tech companies to issue notices and even get permission from the Home Office before launching new security features to their devices worldwide.

    On the other side of the argument, of course, is the criminals and heinous crimes that often go under the radar partially due to end-to-end encryption.

    The National Crime Agency has come down hard on encryption, warning that Facebook’s move last year to introduce end-to-end encryption would allow increasing instances of child abuse and crime to go rampant and reduce the efficacy of intervention efforts.

    If the order from the Home Office is upheld, and Apple complies fully, it may be legally compelled to not tell its user base that their messages are no longer fully protected by end-to-end encryption.

  5. New UK Cyber Monitoring Centre Launches

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    The UK’s new Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC) has officially launched and will now begin to categorise cyber events impacting UK organisations.

    The CMC, an independent, non-profit organisation, says it will deliver a consistent and objective framework to the severity of major cyber events as they occur, categorising incidents on an easy-to-understand scale from one (least severe) to five (most severe).

    The CMC’s Technical Committee, made up pf leading cyber experts and chairs by the former CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre Ciaran Martin, uses a wide range of data and analysis to assess and categorise incidents against the framework.

    “Measuring the severity of incidents has proved very challenging,” Martin commented.

    “This could be a huge leap forward. I have no doubt the CMC will improve the way we tackle, learn from, and recover from cyber incidents. If we crack this, and I’m confident that we will, ultimately it could be a huge boost to cyber security efforts not just here but internationally too.”

    The CMC will categorise cyber events that have a potential financial impact greater than £100M, affect multiple organisations and where there is data or information available to enable assessment.

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    Once the Technical Committee has categorised an event, the CMC will publish the event category from one to five through multiple channels. Each categorisation will be supported by an event report, which will provide an explanation of the analysis, including additional insights from the analysis work. All this information will be made available free of charge.

    CEO of the CMC, Will Mayes, adds: “The risk of major cyber events is greater now than at any time in the past as UK organisations have become increasingly reliant on technology. The CMC has the potential to help businesses and individuals better understand the implications of cyber events, mitigate their impact on people’s lives, and improve cyber resilience and response plans.”

    “I would also like to acknowledge the support from a wide range of world-leading experts who have contributed so much time and expertise to help establish the CMC, and continue to provide data and insights during events. Their ongoing support will be vital and we look forward to add further expertise to our growing cohort of partners in the months and years ahead.”

  6. Private Equity Interest in Scotland Up a Third in 2024

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    Total private equity investment in Scotland increased in 2024, according to the latest UK Private Equity Review from KPMG UK.

    The annual study into private equity deal activity found that investment in the country grew by more than a third (35.6%) in 2024, totalling £9.4 billion.

    The findings reflect a period in which the UK experienced a more stable economic climate, with interest rates and inflation falling; greater political certainty following elections; and a surge in transactions ahead of anticipated changes to Capital Gains Tax.

    The volume of private equity deals in Scotland increased from 92 to 111 year-on-year.

    Investment in Scotland accounted for 5.9% of total new PE backing in the UK. London continued to deliver the greatest interest from PE funds, attracting £78.1 billion of investment, ahead of the North West (£20.0 billion) and the South East (£15.8 billion).

    Graeme Williams, head of corporate finance in Scotland at KPMG UK, said: “Scotland’s 35.6% growth in private equity investment last year shows just how resilient and attractive the country has become for investors. With greater economic stability and strong deal activity, cities like Edinburgh and Glasgow are leading the charge, securing billion-pound deals that highlight Scotland’s ability to draw major investment across a range of sectors.

    “It’s clear that Scotland remains as a dynamic and competitive market within the UK, and we would hope to see increased activity again this year as interest rates continue to ease.”

    The national outlook

    Total private equity investment activity in the UK increased through 2024. 1,699 transactions, with a total value of £158.9 billion were completed during 2024, which represents an almost 12% increase in deal values from 2023. The majority of deal activity took place in the second half of the year, with values increasing to their highest level since the first half of 2022.

    Commenting on the findings, Alex Hartley, head of corporate finance at KPMG UK, said: “There are encouraging signs from the 2024 data that deal activity may have bottomed out in the UK in 2023, as we saw activity, both in volume and value, pick up last year. In particular, we saw significant activity in the second half of the year as many business owners tried to get ahead of expected changes to Capital Gains Tax.

    “Given the current signals in the market around increased activity levels – alongside reducing inflation and interest rates and greater political certainty – there is cautious optimism that UK private equity deal activity will see further growth through 2025 and 2026.”

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    TMT sees greatest growth, while others punch above their weight

    Business services dominated the private equity deal market, representing 43% of the total deals made in 2024, up more than 10% over the previous year. However, it was TMT which emerged as the hottest sector. Deal volumes were up nearly 19% year-on-year and cumulative values were up nearly 58% over the same period, capturing more than £40 billion in total deal value.

    While deal volumes were both down in Financial Services and the Energy sectors, the value of those deals was greater than their sum. Financial services represented 11% of the deals, but 14.6% of the value, while energy represented 3% of the deals, but 4.7% of the overall value, indicating that they were both punching above their weight.

    Another sector that saw a resurgence was Consumer Goods and Retail, with volumes up 5.3% to 138 and values up 21% to £10.7 billion, reflecting improving consumer confidence through the year.

  7. Deputy First Minister Delves into Techscaler Two Years On

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    Techscaler released its second annual report, presented as a marked celebration of its bid to support tech startups and scale-ups in the Scottish landscape. 

    Deputy first minister Kate Forbes said she was “proud” to present their findings, which claimed that Techscaler now supports nearly 1,000 startups, close to double the number from last year. Further, companies which participated in the Techscaler programme raised £118 million in two years, £105m in equity based investments, and £12.86m in grant funding, according to the report. 

    This is a more than double the amount raised in Techscaler’s first year, with £54.1m raised by the end of 2024, from 502 participating companies.

    Forbes called this a “pretty big return” on investment considering the initial £42m the Scottish government put behind the initiative back in 2022. 

    The programme also grew in numbers, more than doubling its membership to 1,411 from the 610 members it counted at the end of 2023. 

    In this interview with DIGIT, we speak to deputy first minister Kate Forbes taking a closer look at the Techscaler programme two years on. 

    By the Numbers 

    The majority of Techscaler companies are still at the early stages of their startup journey, with 14% still in the ideation phase. While this is positive in terms of membership, it brings into question how many of these companies will get the opportunity to progress from this stage into funded startups and then later, the scale-ups Scotland has stoked its ambitions on. 

    According to the Scottish National Investment Bank, scaleups only accounted for 0.52% of the Scottish SMEs in 2021, but generated one third of the total SME turnover. Scaleups are more productive than their peers, on average, they generate 61% more turnover per employee than other Scottish enterprises.

    Figures from ScaleUp Britain show that of the 2,140 scaleups in Scotland, each had an average turnover of £19.2m in 2024, with the majority growing over 30% year on year in either employment or turnover, and a quarter growing by more than 50%. 

    Regionally, Techscaler has seen notable growth as it expanded to have 14 hubs, with new pop up innovation hubs operated by some of its partners, reaching companies outside of the central belt. 

    While major cities like Edinburgh and Glasgow continue to attract upward investment, startups outside of the central belt do not feel deterred, and in fact invigorated due to Scotland’s close knit network and community, according to Forbes. 

    “Scotland is the perfect size,” the deputy first minister  told DIGIT, “with diverse geographies, diverse communities, while being small enough to be accessible. 

    “It’s a huge benefit and interestingly, some of the businesses who have started companies in the Highlands have said they feel it’s no disadvantage even though they may not be in the central belt,” she added, noting the work Techscaler has done in expanding their reach into the more remote areas of Scotland. 

    Still, part of Techscaler’s highlighted changes in the past year has been its emphasis on international expansion. 

    Turning outwards has been important not just for growing international trade and investment connections, but for broadening entrepreneurial horizons as well. 

    “Scotland has a lower tolerance for failure compared with the most successfully entrepreneurial countries, particularly the United States,” Forbes explained. “To just take an idea, think about it, run with it, and be willing to fail, feels usual in Scotland.

    “That’s what [founders] are overcoming through Techscaler.” 

    The Techscaler report, and Forbes herself, detailed some of the lessons learned from the two years the Scottish Government and its partner, CodeBase, spent working with founders in Scotland. 

    While funding and investment is often the common scourge of startup founders looking to get their foot in the door, Techscaler is looking to expand their role in international partnerships, improving education, and mentorship. 

    From talking to different founders, Forbes found that “a lot of the benefit they have derived is from the softer support. 

    “Perhaps the government is too quick to think that grants and financial support are what founders, startups, entrepreneurs need, but actually its mentoring, its networking, its education. It’s learning about what others have done and not done that has made the biggest impact,” Forbes explained to DIGIT. 

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    On the Ground Impact 

    While the impact of funding and investment cannot and was not understated in the report, the importance of this ‘softer’ side of Techscaler was expounded in some of the future hopes for the programme. 

    Expanding on their international trips, which included Silicon Valley and Singapore last year, Techscaler is soon to visit Japan, which is set to provide companies with access and connections to a global market. 

    Their education platforms are set to be reinvigorated with AI to offer more direct and consistent support to founders looking to bolster their business skills. 

    Since the programme began, 543 members have benefited from mentorship, but Forbes is looking to improve this number as well as start mentorship and educational programmes even earlier. 

    Teaching students in Scottish schools and universities about Techscaler, to get them excited about and interested in the tech sector, as well as founding a business, is where Forbes see CodeBase and the government working more closely to introduce the entrepreneurial spirit into the Scottish ecosystem at its roots. 

    Further expanding on this, Forbes told DIGIT about her hopes to get more young female entrepreneurs to visit schools to provide needed role models and mentors to young girls who may not realise the tech industry or entrepreneurship is a viable option. 

    “A lot of the issues with education and entrepreneurship is that it’s cultural, which is harder to change quickly, but a lot can be done by getting founders into our schools, and there’s been more of that happening,” she told DIGIT. 

    Increasing the amount of mentors in schools can inspire more people in Scotland from diverse backgrounds to pursue tech and entrepreneurship, bolstering the number of women-led businesses in the nation. 

    The report states that 37% of Techscaler founders identify as female, a marked improvement upon the national average of 20%. 

    “Our aim should be to drive this further and higher, to at least 50%,” Forbes said when she presented the report. “We can and will do better, and that’s a responsibility for all of us.”

    Looking to the future, Forbes reflected on if the Scottish government would appoint a new chief entrepreneur after Mark Logan, who, before departing from the role last year, had a strong influence on Techscaler’s initial development and deployment.

    Currently, the minister is not thinking of replacing Logan: “He was the role, as it were. That’s not to say we completely discount future opportunities.”

    While the Techscaler report was overwhelmingly positive – with an argument to be made that its plaudits exist somewhat in vacuum – the economic realities facing Scottish businesses and the overall Scottish economy cannot be forgotten. 

    “There’s a lot of challenges facing our economy in the form of high inflation, difficulties in recruiting because of a tight labour market, higher cost in fuel,” Forbes said. 

    “But it’s never been more exciting to be in Scotland right now, and when I engage with industry, they will say that the opportunity that is currently unfolding, it’s not in the distant future. The opportunity that is currently unfolding exceeds any opportunity that Scotland has ever faced.”

    Forbes pushed back against when asked about Scottish Labour leader Anas Sawar’s recently published technology report, which detailed issues around digital exclusion and remote communities still left behind in the 4G rollout. 

    “We don’t need a technology report,” Forbes said to the press, “Look at what’s happening right now.” 

    Right now, based on an early glance at the Techscaler report, Scotland’s tech entrepreneurial environment continues to appear promising. 

  8. Scotland One of the “Best Places in the World” for Startups

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    Startup tech companies participating in the Scottish Government’s Techscaler business accelerator programme have raised more than £118 million of capital investment in the past two years.

    It comes from both private and public sources and is supporting businesses in sectors such as medical technology, artificial intelligence and space.

    Deputy first minister Kate Forbes described Scotland as one of the best places in the world to launch a start-up tech company during a speech marking the publication of Techscaler’s Annual Report.

    It also reveals that the number of companies involved in the programme almost doubled last year from 502 to 978, while the number of individual entrepreneurs more than doubled from 610 to 1,411. They were able to access benefits including mentoring, training and introductions to potential investors and customers.

    Further activity included two international pop-up hubs in Singapore and San Francisco to help companies penetrate global markets.

    Konversable, a Glasgow AI chatbot and messaging technology company which helps companies convert enquiries into sales, was introduced to potential investors and customers at Techscaler’s Singapore pop-up in October. The company secured £300,000 investment over the year.

    Rethink Carbon, led by co-founders Mark Caulfield and Dr Zoë Russell and based in Aviemore , is rethinking the way land is managed across the UK.. Caulfield participated in the Silicon Valley programme in 2024 and Russell has just completed the Techscaler Funding Accelerator programme.

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    “The Techscaler programme – which I am deeply proud to have launched just two years ago – is contributing to Scotland’s reputation as one of the best places in the world to launch a tech start-up,” deputy first minister and economy secretary Kate Forbes said

    “While this is a relatively young programme, what this report makes clear is that it is delivering results and helping entrepreneurs to unleash their ability to innovate, spearheading Scotland’s presence in expanding new markets.

    CEO and co-founder of CodeBase, which runs the Techscaler programme, Stephen Coleman said: “We’re proud of our collective achievements over the first two years of Techscaler, delivering strong support for our ambitious founders and startups both here in Scotland and increasingly as they target global markets, building on our position as a catalyst driving innovation, partnerships, and collaboration across the Scottish tech ecosystem.”

  9. Third-party Attack Vectors Plague Insurance Companies

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    Fifty-nine percent of breaches among the top 150 insurance companies involved third-party attack vectors, exposing critical vulnerabilities in the sector’s supply chain.

    These findings, from research released by SecurityScorecard, underscore the systemic risks posed by cyber threats to an industry responsible for safeguarding sensitive financial and personal information.

    The insurance industry’s interconnected network of carriers and reinsurers to brokers, claims processors, and specialised IT providers is essential for delivering services to hundreds of millions but also introduces significant cyber risks.

    “Insurance companies’ reliance on technology to manage daily operations has outpaced their ability to secure it,” Andrew Correll, senior director of cyber insurability, said. “Cyber risks don’t stop at the first layer of defense — they extend deep into the supply chain, where vulnerabilities are harder to detect and even harder to mitigate. Addressing these risks requires a shift in how the industry prioritizes third-party security.”

    Over a fourth (28%) of insurance companies reported breaches – this figure is higher than S&P 500 (21%) and double the breaches reported by the US energy industry (14%).

    Of the breaches tracked, 59% involved third-party attack vectors, the highest rate observed so far and more than double the global cross-industry average of 29%. Third-party software and IT caused half of these breaches.

    While this is a problem for all sectors, insurance carriers were disproportionately affected by third-party breaches. Although carriers made up about 27% of the total sample, they represented 50% of the companies hit by third-party incidents.

    Besides third-party liabilities, more than half (56%) of companies had at least one compromised credential in the past two years, and malware infections and device compromises affected 17% of companies last year.

    The lowest-scoring cyber risk factors for the sector are application security, DNS health and network security. DNS health rarely ranks among these factors.

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    Recommendations

    Based on this analysis, the SecurityScorecard STRIKE team offers actionable insights for the insurance sector to strengthen its supply chain.

    Strengthening third-party risk management for insurance carriers is crucial, as carriers face elevated third-party risks due to dependencies on low-scoring industry segments, including IT vendors and brokers.

    Paramount to this is ensuring that vendors have their own effective third party risks management programme, as fourth-party risks from vendors’ suppliers are critical but often missed. Ensuring vendors have this in place to close supply chain gaps and prevent breaches is essential.

    Avoiding paying any ransomware demands is also vital, as payment often encourages attacks, risks legal issues, and does not ensure recovery.

  10. Google Changes AI Policy to Work on Weapons and Surveillance

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    In an alarming shift, Google’s parent company has changed longstanding guidelines for its own use of artificial intelligence, saying that it will now allow AI to be used for developing weapons and surveillance tools.

    Alphabet’s AI ethics principles were redrawn this week, and now lack the clause that said AI would not be used on applications that were “likely to cause harm.”

    The company defended the move, saying that AI applications and principles should be developed to protect “national security” in an evolving global landscape.

    “We believe democracies should lead in AI development, guided by core values like freedom, equality, and respect for human rights,” Google said, defending the move in a blogpost.

    “And we believe that companies, governments, and organisations sharing these values should work together to create AI that protects people, promotes global growth, and supports national security.”

    The post claimed that since AI has evolved so rapidly from a niche laboratory research topic to a mainstream everyday application, its ethics principles should also be updated to reflect its varied applications.

    AI has already been used in warfare and for surveillance – facial recognition tools have been used by law enforcement to identify individuals in crowds and for investigations, and the war in Ukraine has opened much of the world’s eyes to the potential for AI’s use in war, with autonomous drones and targeting of militants.

    Reports also revealed that the Israeli army was using an AI systems to classify Gazans and determine targets for airstrikes, with little human oversight.

    The potential for AI in warfare is no longer an eventuality, it is a current modern reality. Google’s policy change reflects more than just the changing scope of AI, but is a prudent move for any AI company that would like to see the financial benefits of military contracts as nations are already in the midst of an arms race reminiscent of the Cold War.

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    Google’s most recent move brings into question the company’s founding motto of ‘Don’t be evil,’ created by Sergei Brin and Larry Page. Since the company restructured under the name Alphabet in 2015, the motto changed to ‘Do the right thing.’

    Notably, Google did not renew a contract in 2018 to support the US Pentagon with their AI work, following petitions and resignations by the tech giant’s workers.

    More recently, however, Google was accused for firing more than 50 workers allegedly in retaliation for protests against their involvement with the Israeli government’s Project Nimbus, which would use some of Google’s cloud capabilities, condemned by workers for increasing Israel’s ability to surveil Palestinians.

    Last year, an international meeting in Austria which featured over a thousand participants urged for the regulation of AI’s use in weapons and warfare, which was characterised as the modern era’s ‘Oppenheimer Moment’ akin the atomic bomb.

  11. DSIT Releases Guidance for Public Sector Overseas Data Storage

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    The UK Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) has released new guidance to public sector organisations looking to host their cloud data in multiple regions.

    This comes at a time when many nations seek capabilities to increase their data sovereignty – the maintenance of their data in their home nation, with their native data regulations.

    The new guidance recommends public sector bodies to adopt a “multi-region approach” for their data storage, with full acknowledgement that this may well mean public body and government data is housed in data centres outside of the UK.

    “We recommend that organisations adopt a multi-region approach in which they make controlled, considered use of regions in a way which is compatible with UK law,” the guidance document, which was seen by Computer Weekly, said.

    The new guidance also says that this is not a change of policy – even ‘official’ government data can be stored and processed in foreign data centres and cloud storage facilities, as long as “satisfactory” data protection and security measures are taken.

    The document noted that, in many instances, this is already the case as more and more organisations take advantage of software as a service (SaaS) products which are not solely hosted or operated in the UK.

    Public bodies could risk losing out on cost-effective, more advanced SaaS options if they were limited to those that operated exclusively in the UK.

    “It can be prohibitive for smaller vendors to provide an entire capability within every geography worldwide because of the level of expense and complexity,” DSIT‘s guidance said.

    Further, to improve resilience outcomes, DSIT acknowledges that some organisations disaster response requirements may be too broad for UK public cloud regions to handle, making overseas cloud storage options even more vital.

    DSIT says its goals with the new guidance is to provide legal clarification to public bodies looking to move some of their data services to overseas bodies, which it encourages as an option to keep public services up to date as technologies emerge and data capabilities and reliance transforms.

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    However, the guidance does come at a crucial time for data sovereignty in Europe as a whole as nations grapple with changing data demands sparked by the rapid expansion of AI and its data requirements.

    About half of UK organisations say that data sovereignty is crucial – this means having full access to one’s data, as well as a full understanding and control over how and where that data is transferred.

    As laws continue to change, the guidance should provide vital information to public organisations with expanding data needs as they legally manage their data overseas, which often means contending with varied data laws and regulations.

  12. School Smart Phone Bans Make Little Difference, Study Shows

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    School phone bans appear to be making little difference to pupils’ overall wellbeing, mental health, and test scores, a new study suggests.

    Claimed to be first of its kind, the study, conducted by researchers at the University of Birmingham, investigated the affects of smart phone bans at UK secondary schools, which usually pertain to children aged 11 to 18.

    Thirty different secondary schools took part, and the study investigated the effects of their various rules for the use of smart phones on breaks and lunches on 1,227 students.

    Overall, the study found that full on bans of smart phone usage during school ours had little to no significant effect on students’ mental wellbeing or school grades.

    Further, the study found that there was almost no significant difference between students on the amount of time students spent on their phone outside of school, no matter if their school restricted it or not.

    Students who went to what the study calls ‘permissive’ schools – institutions where smart phones were allowed to be used – did spend more time on their phones, and on social media, than their peers at ‘restrictive’ schools, where smart phone usage was banned.

    This, however, was described as a “weak correlation” in the study.

    While mental health and focus did not see an improvement with school bans, smart phone usage was found to be an important factor in improving overall student wellbeing. The more time a student spent on their phone correlated with their level of anxiety and depression – more screen time did lead to worse mental health.

    The study concluded that restrictive bans on smart phone usage at schools “in their current form do not significantly influence phone and social media use or result in better outcomes for adolescents across a range of mental, physical, and cognitive domains.”

    However, the study does stipulate that it is not against smart phone bans – it merely points out that these need to be developed within the wider context of smart phone usage, and that overall smart phone usage needs to be lowered.

    The study, published in the Lancet, is not the first to find a linear correlation between smart phone usage and worsening mental health.

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    The strong correlation found here could have to do with the massive increase in the amount of time children spend on their phones, around four to six hours a day. This is much higher than the previously reported cut offs for enjoying any benefits from screen time, which maxes out at two hours a day, the study said.

    In 2024, the UK government under the Conservative party,  intended to ban smart phones across schools in England in a move to improve learning outcomes and decrease reliance on the technology.

    The study said that, while it is the first of its kind to analyse the ban’s affects, says more can be done to see how the ban affects students. For instance, researchers suggested looking into the effect of bans on behavioural addictions, as well as its influence on gaming addictions and other mental health problems.

    According to government stats, nine in ten children in the UK will own a smart phone by the time they are 11, meaning they will already be familiar with the technology before they reach secondary school. The statistics for teenagers are even higher, with around 98% of 16 and 17 year olds owning a smart phone. Social media use among children, even those under 13, is also up.

    The problem has grown so pervasive that even EE, a mobile carrier, has warned parents against giving young children smart phones, or even too much access to smart devices, to combat their worrying effects on mental health and focus.

    If outright bans in schools appear to be making little difference, child advocates, school ministers, and government officials may be heading back to the drawing board to find more effective solutions.

  13. Scot Gov: Supporting Women-led Businesses an “Economic Imperative”

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    Supporting women-led businesses to reach their full potential is key for the economy, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes will set out today.

    Ms Forbes will reaffirm the Scottish Government’s support while addressing a Pathways Pledge event in Edinburgh, the first annual gathering of organisations signed up to tech entrepreneur Ana Stewart’s initiative to help remove barriers facing women in enterprise.

    The initiative – Pathways Forward – was launched after Ana Stewart authored the paper Pathways, which delved into the issues women faced in breaking into entrepreneurship in Scotland, from economic obstacles to everyday sexism.

    The Scottish Government invested a record £2.6 million in 2024-25 to widen female participation in entrepreneurship. This will increase to at least £4 million in 2025-26 as part of an enhanced enterprise package commitment of £15 million.

    Ms Forbes said: “Supporting women-led businesses to realise their full potential is an economic imperative. Businesses drive our economy. For Scotland to be a high growth, start-up nation and create the jobs of the future, we need to fully unlock our entrepreneurial potential. We need more women starting and growing businesses to drive inclusive growth.

    “Ana’s work identified the clear need to address educational barriers and societal attitudes to truly close the gender gap in entrepreneurship. By supporting women to achieve their ambitions, we can unlock substantial economic benefit and provide the next generation with positive role models.

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    “This is a long term undertaking and cannot be delivered by government in isolation, which is why Pathways Forward is an excellent example of what can be done through partnership – sectors coming together to pledge their support and to hold each other accountable.”

    According to the 2024 Gender Index, only 20% of established companies in Scotland are female-led, while 12.9% of the fastest growing companies in the nation are female-led.

    Pathways Forward has already hosted its first event in partnership with Female Founders Rise, complete with panel discussions and the ability for women entrepreneurs to network with potential investors and other women in business.

    Cohorts in Scotland continue to sign onto Stewart’s Pledge to improve the gender diversity of businesses and support women-led entrepreneurship in Scotland.

  14. ICO Appoints Key Tech Partner for Its Data Strategy

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    The UK’s privacy and data protection regulator has just signed a four year contract worth just shy of £5m to help deliver its planned data strategy.

    The contract, which was delivered on 17 January and published on the 31st, went to Capgemini, a IT and digital transformation firm headquartered in France.

    Last year, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published a new data strategy, with intentions to make the ICO “an exemplar of responsible innovation using data.”

    The ICO’s two overarching goals set out in the strategy including growing its data maturity, as well as delivering “tangible value” from its data and analytics for its own pursuits as well as those of its customers.

    “Having a data strategy is crucial in setting out how we develop, manage, govern and use our data assets in pursuit of our purpose: to empower you through information,” John Edwards, the Information Commissioner, said when the ICO launched their data strategy last year.

    The deal is set to aid the ICO in these ambitions, as the firm aims to provide the UK watchdog with “technical consultancy, strategic planning and transformation delivery support to drive the ICO’s data transformation and achieve our vision,” the filing read.

    The £4.87m is set to go to Capgemini Financial Services with a UK basis in Woking, England, and will last until January 2029.

    Recommended reading

    The contract follows another deal set by the ICO with Kainos to help the organisation with their “CRM information, case management, and digital workflows.” That deal is set to last two years, with an expected worth of £1.2m.

    The ICO’s move reflects one of their novel data strategy’s key points, which is to “show, not tell,” how do practice proper data protection.

    “As a regulator, we’re shifting our guidance away from ‘don’t do’ to ‘how to’. In a similar way, our data strategy is setting an ambitious vision to ‘show, not tell’.”

  15. Europe Launches an AI Alliance to Compete

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    A new European consortium has launched with a budget of €37.4 million to aid the continent in competing with AI models leading the charge from the US and China.

    The group, called OpenEuroLLM, involves 20 leading research institutions, companies and Europe HPC centres in Europe, and aims to create a range of Large Language Models (LLMs) to rival those on the market.

    The aim is to create high-performance, multilingual foundation models for a range of applications trained on European data.

    Further, the consortium says their open-source models will be transparent and compliant, and “is aligned with the imperative to improve Europe’s competitiveness and digital sovereignty.”

    “Cooperating with open-source and open science communities like LAION, open-sci and OpenML, and additional experts in the field assembled in the project’s Open Strategic Partnership Board, OpenEuroLLM will ensure that the models, software, data and evaluation will be fully open and can be fine-tuned and instruction-tuned for specific industry and public sector needs,” the consortium further explained.

    The group has a particular focus on the importance of using European data to preserve “both linguistic and cultural diversity.”

    The consortium, which began work on the 1st of February, has already been awarded the STEP (Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform) seal, and leverages support from other European projects and partners.

    Recommended reading

    It will be coordinated by Jan Hajič of Charles University in Czechia, and Peter Sarlin, of AMD Silo AI, in Finland.

    The AI race thus far has been largely dominated by US tech firms, though China’s DeepSeek AI has shaken the landscape up, giving renewed hope to competitors.

    Among those involved in the consortium are Germany’s leading AI company, Aleph Aleph, and CSC in Finland, which houses one of the world’s top supercomputers.

    “The project is a prime example of the type of technology infrastructure needed to lower thresholds for European AI product development and refinement, demonstrating the strength of transparency, openness and community involvement, values largely recognized across the European tech ecosystem,” the consortium said.

  16. UK Small Businesses Feel the Pressure to Adopt AI

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    The vast majority (82%) of small businesses in the UK are feeling the pressure to adopt emerging technologies such as AI. 

    This is according to a recent survey of 531 UK business leaders conducted by Startups.co.uk, which identified the pressure small businesses in the UK are feeling across various sectors as the UK government urges for more AI adoption. 

    The recent announcement from prime minister Keir Starmer has drawn focus on leveraging AI in new ways in the UK under the AI Action Plan. 

    While technology and software firms (23%) were unsurprisingly feeling the heat to adopt AI, hospitality and tourism (22%) and finance and fintech firms (20%) also reported feeling a high degree of pressure to adopt emerging technologies. Education (17%) and ecommerce and retail (16%) also noted a high degree of pressure to adopt AI. 

    Despite feeling the pinch now, more UK businesses said that they expect AI to disrupt their industry in the long term rather than in the short term, indicating that the impact of artificial intelligence on UK businesses could be a slow burner.

    The survey findings show that while 67% of UK business leaders expect artificial intelligence to impact their industry in 2025, a considerable 72% of business leaders anticipate AI to disrupt their industry over the next 3 years. 

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    This suggests that the impact of artificial intelligence on UK businesses could actually be greater in coming years rather than in the immediate future.

    “Kudos to Keir and Kyle for the AI ambition and if action follows, it can only be of benefit to UK productivity and business growth,” editor of Startups.co.uk, Zohra Huda, said. 

    “However, our data reveals a surprising side effect of new and emerging tech – the anxiety it induces in businesses to keep up at a time when they are already under huge amounts of pressure to stay afloat. As the Startups 100 Index for 2025 highlights, enterprises that don’t fear longterm disruption are those who have AI embedded into their business models.”

  17. Data Vital to the Future of AI in FinTech

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    Industry leaders road-mapped the future of AI in financial services, hailing data as a ‘vital’ component in the future of the technology at the inaugural Financial Conduct Authority’s AI Sprint.

    The event underscored the importance of good and fit for purpose data as the foundation for the effective and responsible use of AI technologies, warning that without robust data, consumer confidence in financial markets risked being significantly undermined.”

    During the event, industry leaders, academics, regulators, technologists, and consumer advocates came together to shape the regulatory framework for the safe, ethical and effective adoption of AI in financial services.

    The FCA’s newly launched AI Lab hosted the Sprint as part of its commitment to foster collaboration and innovation in FinTech.

    Throughout the event, the significance of high-quality, well-governed data was a central theme. Good quality data is essential for AI because it ensures that models are accurate and unbiased, enabling them to make informed decisions and deliver meaningful insights.

    As AI applications in financial services grow, participants stressed the need for accurate, good quality data to ensure systems operate effectively while adhering to ethical guidelines.

    The event comes at a pivotal moment, following the UK government’s AI Opportunities Plan, which aims to inject £14 billion into AI investment and create 13,250 jobs in the sector.

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    Speaking from the event, Matt Flenley, head of marketing, from Datactics commented: “Putting AI front and centre of the digital agenda is a key step forward for driving economic growth. 

    “However, those embracing AI will also face much greater responsibilities, particularly around ethical usage and maintaining high standards of data quality and accuracy.”

    “Data is vital for the future of AI and it’s important to remember that AI is only as good as the data it relies upon. 

    “With many organisations grappling with information overload, including duplication and outdated or erroneous files, the risks of poorly managed data can be significant.”

    “The FCA AI Sprint reinforced how vital a long-term data strategy is for organisations looking to invest in AI and by ensuring data readiness and quality, businesses can maximise the opportunities AI offers while avoiding the pitfalls associated with unreliable or unmanaged data sets. We are proud to contribute our expertise and look forward to seeing how these insights influence the FCA’s regulatory approach.”

    As AI is poised to revolutionise the financial services industry; leaders at the Sprint discussed its potential to streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve customer experiences. The event also highlighted the need for a comprehensive regulatory framework to guide AI development and ensure systems remain compliant, transparent, and ethical.

  18. AI Hype Yet to be Backed By AI Strategy

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    Confidence among UK business leaders’ readiness for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and their actual plans for effective implementation is mismatched, according to a new report by Forvis Mazars, a global professional services network.

    Forvis Mazars’ survey of over 300 UK C-suite executives from businesses with a turnover of at least £500 million found that AI adoption is primarily driven by short-term experimentation rather than long-term strategic planning.

    While an overwhelming 97% of business leaders feel prepared for AI, almost half (47%) have experimented with AI pilot solutions, and only 34% have set clear objectives for using AI.

    In addition, 53% say their AI strategy is in the early stages, and just 46% describe their AI strategy as ‘mature’. The findings suggest that, although the majority of businesses believe they are ready for AI, many have not established the critical systems and strategies needed for successful and sustainable integration.

    Stronger foundations required to implement AI effectively

    According to the report, many businesses are also prioritising technology over strategic planning, allowing it to dictate outcomes before a solid foundation is in place. As many as two in five (41%) business leaders admitted to diving straight into implementing operational models, rather than testing solutions first.

    This rush to adopt technology often hinders businesses’ ability to build the necessary foundations for successful AI adoption. For instance, only 33% of business leaders are actively investing in data improvements, despite 49% ranking data quality as a top risk to AI adoption.

    Foyaz Uddin, head of data and digital advisory at Forvis Mazars in the UK, commented: “Most businesses feel prepared for AI implementation, however, their confidence often stems from short-term wins rather than long-term planning. While it’s understandable that companies are still testing the waters, adopting AI should be a strategic business decision, not just a technological one.

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    “Effective AI adoption requires a clear, top-down strategy to ensure lasting success, as well as sound governance to manage investments and risks—whether related to data, cybersecurity, ethics, or sustainability. It can also prevent companies from falling foul of the increasing legislation surrounding AI.

    Companies that integrate AI into their long-term strategic business plans will be best positioned to unlock its full potential and gain a competitive edge”.

  19. Clyde Hydrogen Enters Partnership to Debut New Tech

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    Clyde Hydrogen Systems (Clyde Hydrogen) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hebrides-based green hydrogen producer and distributor, PlusZero, to demonstrate its decoupled electrolyser technology for the first time outside of the laboratory.

    Glasgow-headquartered Clyde Hydrogen’s breakthrough technology aims to reliably deliver high pressure green hydrogen safely at scale and at low cost.

    This has the potential to match renewable energy with hydrogen production in a more productive way than currently possible – solving one of the industry’s biggest challenges to date.

    Last December, Clyde Hydrogen launched a new funding round aimed at attracting up to £5m of new investment designed to speed up the commercialisation of its innovative technology.

    PlusZero has secured funding support from the Scottish Government’s Emerging Energies Technology Fund (EETF) to develop its first green hydrogen production facility at the Creed Hydrogen Skills and Innovation Centre in Stornoway.

    Launching in October 2025, this collaborative project with the Western Isles Council and the University of the Highlands and Islands, North, West & Hebrides uniquely integrates commercial production of green hydrogen and oxygen, hydrogen technology training, and cutting-edge research and field testing of next-generation electrolyser technology.

    As part of the terms of the agreement, PlusZero will support Clyde Hydrogen by deploying one of Clyde Hydrogen’s commercial demonstrator electrolysers and will support the operation and testing of the demonstrator for a period of at least 6 months.

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    The MoU also gives PlusZero an option to purchase an initial order of 10 MW electrolyser capacity from Clyde Hydrogen.

    James Peck, Clyde Hydrogen’s CEO, commented: “I’m delighted to sign this agreement with PlusZero who we believe are an ideal partner to deliver our commercial demo.

    “Last month, we achieved a milestone technical breakthrough in our technology and to already sign our first commercial agreement is testament to the game-changing potential of our pioneering technology and commercial traction we are already receiving.”

    David Amos, PlusZero founder and managing director commented: “At PlusZero, our mission is to accelerate the availability of affordable green hydrogen, empowering our customers to achieve their decarbonization goals.

    “Clyde Hydrogen’s ground-breaking electrolyser technology offers a transformative leap in cost efficiency and production flexibility. We are thrilled to support their efforts in bringing this cutting-edge Scottish produced solution to market.”

  20. Europol: Law Enforcement Hampered by Data Challenges

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    The sheer volume of data has been cited as a major hurdle for law enforcement fighting cyber-crime, according to a new report from Europol.

    Problems around data were highlighted in the organisation’s Common Challenges in Cybercrime report, which was produced with input from Eurojust.

    Challenges largely centre around data – its volume, and its potential to be deleted, anonymised, and accessed.

    The report found that the amount of data related to investigations – which can amount to terabytes or even petabytes of data, can make it difficult to store, manage, or analyse without specialist knowledge and tools.

    The way these masses of data are stored and packaged can also add further complexity and requires in-depth technical skills.

    Further, agencies often lack a common data model, making it more complex to share data access and collaborate on cases.

    This often results in significant delays in processing data due to a lack of interoperability.

    Improved methodology in how cyber-criminals obfuscate data can make matters more complicated, enabling criminals to hide their identity, including their IP address which can be vital in location tracking.

    These issues bring into the foray other challenges cited by law enforcement when relying on data for their investigations into cyber-crime.

    A lack of interoperability is connected to a lack of overall data protocol surrounding the models of data made, and how it is retained.

    One of the major challenges cited was the deletion of data – there is currently no standardised legal framework for data retention of law enforcement in the EU. In some cases, data access requests reach organisations long after data has been deleted, often stalling or disrupting investigations.

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    The report also highlighted an oft-cited conundrum in the data regulation and crime prevention debate: access to encrypted data is continually complex legislatively and technically.

    The ability of law enforcement to access and de-crypt encrypted data is varied across EU member states, as privacy advocates fear overreach by authorities and online safety advocates warn of encryption’s use by criminals.

    The report also had gripes about the use of cryptocurrencies by cyber-criminals, as well as the anonymisation of criminals and data points online.

    Overall, interoperability and the ability for international collaboration continue to be a challenges even for a confederation, as data regulations and protocols vary between law enforcement organisations.

    Europol’s report also called for improvements in private-public cooperation to aid in data sharing needs for investigations.

    “In conclusion, while significant strides have been made, the road ahead remains steep and fraught with challenges that will demand a dynamic and adaptive approach,” the report said.

  21. Half of UK Orgs Say Data Sovereignty Is Crucial

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    Half (51%) of UK organisations now see data sovereignty as a crucial aspect of their data management approach, according to new research from OVHcloud.

    The study of 500 IT decision makers in large organisations showed that organisational understanding of data sovereignty is rapidly maturing, with more businesses admitting that data sovereignty is important because of its implications for customer trust, rather than simply being a compliance challenge.

    “Forty one percent of UK organisations told us that data sovereignty is simply something to be complied with,” said Matt Tebay, multi-cloud evangelist at OVHcloud.

    “However, forty two percent said that it was important to customers, and therefore an asset to them and their businesses. This shows a change in how companies have traditionally seen data sovereignty, and an evolution of how they’re approaching it more broadly.”

    Over three quarters (77%) of IT decision makers mentioned that data sovereignty is now more important to their organisation than it was three years ago, with only four per cent saying that it was less important.

    However, how organisations understood data sovereignty varied considerably: 40% did see it primarily as a compliance issue, while 36% saw it as a question of data access, handling or storage, and 28% saw it as relating to data portability.

    This trends makes sense as compliance continues to be a top issue for IT decision makers as new laws around AI and data use continue to mount.

    “Having a robust data sovereignty strategy means that you know who controls your data, where it is, who has access to it, and which regulations it’s subject to,” continued Tebay.

    “Organisations are increasingly realizing that it’s not simply a cost and regulatory burden, but can build better customer trust, enhance governance and provide a layer of security and transparency to customers.”

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    The study also revealed that businesses are willing to put their money where their mouth is, with almost two thirds (53%) of organisations happy to pay between 11% and 30% more for a sovereign technology product that would meet all of their regulatory and sovereignty needs.

    In fact, only 6.5% were not willing to pay ‘more than normal’ for a sovereign product.

    “Data sovereignty is gaining maturity, but it’s not an easy matter,” concluded Tebay.

    “23% of IT decision makers told us that they viewed data sovereignty as ‘complex and full of drama’, and 27% said that they thought it was comparable to the hit TV show The Office – and if they didn’t laugh, they’d cry.

    “Clearly, the intersection of customer trust, technology, regulation and commercial considerations can make for a challenging journey, but it’s an important one and like all journeys, the first step is the most important.”

  22. Public Sector Must Build Up Tech Resilience

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    The Society for Innovation, Technology, and Modernisation (Socitm) has released a series of recommendations to update and build up resilience in the UK public sector, which a focus on cybersecurity posture and the future of AI.

    The society’s new Public Sector Digital Trends report highlights the need for consistently modernised security systems and infrastructure revamps to keep up with the ever-evolving technology ecosystem and the threats and risks inherent to its developments.

    Among its recommendations, Socitm points to some of the key ways the public sector can benefit from emerging technologies, as well as its many hurdles to keep up in an evolving tech ecosystem.

    Cybersecurity 

    Citing the escalation of global threats permeating the cyber landscape, Socitm urged the public sector to stay afloat.

    The organisation cited two significant technical shifts that organisations are taking and should continue to take to stay secure.

    Adopting zero trust models, which assumes threats can exist both inside and outside a network perimeter, was advised to be adopted.

    Further, as vulnerabilities in the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) enyrption protocol increase, organisations are adopted Transport Layer Security (TLS), which employs cryptography to improve data integrity and confidentiality, as well as greater resilience to ‘man in the middle’ attacks.

    While these two cybersecurity methods will increase the safety of systems, Socitm noted several challenges affecting the landscape, including the need for further investment to keep systems up to date, and compliance issues which may delay updates.

    “The volatile, risk-filled landscape of cybersecurity so often gives our adversaries free rein to innovate faster than those who create for the online safety of all of us,” Danny Dresner, professor of cybersecurity in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Manchester.

    AI

    In terms of AI adoption in the public sector, Socitm identified a range of beneficial applications, ranging from speeding up data analysis and organisation, to process automation, and improving the efficacy of citizen service interfaces.

    However, it noted two main factors that will determine the pace of AI’s adoption across the public sector, despite the hype.

    This includes the public sector’s capability and capacity to take on complex AI projects, given other pressing priorities the sector faces as well as the AI skills shortage plaguing the UK.

    Compliance and regulatory concerns – around the quality of data, AI bias, the transparency of algorithms, and concerns about liability – are all set to transform the rush to AI into a quagmire of compliance woes.

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    Harnessing Data

    Successive governments have championed the idea of harnessing data to create better outcomes for the UK, and public organisations should not miss out on the importance of data.

    The public sector typically harnesses data to enhance public services, build trust, and improve outcomes for residences.

    Socitm found a trend in the increased use of place-based insights for specific, community focuses data problems and solutions.

    Emergency response teams are also increasingly relying on data for training and to better support vulnerable communities, and pro-active, data-drive interventions are on the rise as councils and universities use data identity and address issues earlier.

    Infrastructure and Cloud

    Noting the increased reliance on cloud services and infrastructure to prop up connected spaces, Socitm highlighted the need for the public sector to reassess its infrastructure needs and capabilities.

    This includes investigating the interoperability of its systems, including hybrid cloud platforms, to ensure the appropriate flexibility.

    One key issue is that the investment in IT infrastructure has struggled to keep pace with demand and digital developments, a major hurdle as well designed infrastructure is the basis for managing complex patchwork datasets across different systems.

    Further, as many IT suppliers offer a cloud-only service, public sector organisations need to be prepared, or will risk losing out on the data harnessing and AI capabilities that will improve their offerings and keep them secure.

  23. How Does Scotland Fare in its Digital Connectivity?

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    New research from FarrPoint has revealed the latest insight into the UK’s progress in digital connectivity, with Scotland showing the most progress compared to other UK nations.

    The company’s Digital Connectivity Readiness Index (DCRI) evaluates the UK’s digital landscape across two key dimensions: digital infrastructure and digital adoption, offering a comprehensive view of performance and priorities.

    This year’s results present a mixed picture, with infrastructure advancements outpacing adoption progress across much of the UK.

    Scotland saw the highest overall score increase from 80 to 82. Its infrastructure rating increased five points to 85, and was the only nation to see growth in adoption metrics, from 79 to 80.

    UK-wide digital readiness increased by one point to 86, while infrastructure was up two points, to 90. Adoption, however, was a different story, with regional differences leading to a picture of stagnation of the country as a whole.

    Infrastructure

    Sustained investment in gigabit broadband and 5G rollout has propelled infrastructure scores higher for the UK as a whole, as well as for Scotland (85), Wales (85), and Northern Ireland (92).

    For example, the UK’s overall Digital Connectivity Readiness Index saw a one-point increase, rising to 86 in 2025, driven by advances in the infrastructure score (up 2 points to 90), particularly through the continued rollout of gigabit and 5G networks.

    Adoption

    Overall, adoption has been a stumbling block to progress, as overall UK adoption scores stagnated.

    While Scotland saw modest gains in areas such as skills and innovation, England and Wales experienced declines, driven by persistent challenges in affordability and access to digital services.

    Notably, the UK adoption index remained unchanged from 2024 at 83, while regional scores like England saw a one-point drop. Factors like a a slowdown in government spending related to the 2024 General Election, rising affordability challenges, and a notable fall in innovation contributed to this stagnation.

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    Regional Performance

    Scotland and Northern Ireland outperformed other nations in metrics like innovation and digital wellbeing. Scotland saw the largest increase in infrastructure scores, driven by the success of the R100 programme and private investment.

    Additionally, its digital economy grew by 4%, with 10% more people working in the sector.

    However, affordability challenges persist across the UK. Wales saw the second-largest increase in infrastructure (up 4 points), but its adoption score fell due to declines in areas such as digital skills, the digital economy, and innovation.

    Northern Ireland continued to perform well, with improvements in both infrastructure and adoption, but still lags behind other parts of the UK in overall adoption.

    The 2025 DCRI reinforces the need for policymakers to address disparities between infrastructure development and technology adoption, as infrastructure alone does not deliver tangible benefits.

    “Digital connectivity is about more than just infrastructure. It’s about enabling people, communities, and businesses to thrive in the digital landscape,” said Matthew Izatt-Lowry, head of economics at FarrPoint.

    “It’s interesting to note that performance across the UK nations has diverged over the past year, with Scotland and Northern Ireland making notable strides, while other regions face ongoing challenges in adoption.

    “The DCRI offers decision-makers the insights they need to build resilient, inclusive, and future-proof digital strategies.”

  24. Scottish Business Confidence Falls, But Remains Above UK Average

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    Business confidence in Scotland fell two points during January to 42%, according to the latest Business Barometer from Bank of Scotland.

    Companies in Scotland reported higher confidence in their own business prospects month-on-month, up 14 points at 53%. When taken alongside their optimism in the economy, down 17 points to 32%, this gives a headline confidence reading of 42% (vs. 44% in December 2024).

    Looking ahead to the next six months, Scottish businesses identified their top target areas for growth as evolving their offering, for example by introducing new products or services (41%), investing in their team, for example through training (36%) and introducing new technology, for example through AI and automation (36%).

    The Business Barometer, which surveys 1,200 businesses monthly and which has been running since 2002, provides early signals about UK economic trends both regionally and nationwide.

    National picture

    Overall, UK business confidence fell two points in January to 37%.

    While firms’ optimism in their own trading prospects strengthened four points to 51%, their confidence in the wider economy dropped seven points to 24%.

    For the third month in a row, London was the most confident UK nation or region in January (55%), with the West Midlands following behind (51%).

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    There were similar falls in manufacturing, construction and retail this month, with a slight increase in services. Confidence fell to 38% in manufacturing (down 4 points), 36% in construction (down 5 points), and 40% in retail (down 3 points). However, confidence in services increased by 3 points to 38%.

    These results come within a general trend of larger confidence declines in retail and services in recent months. Within the services sector, confidence has notably fallen in hospitality but has remained more stable in business services and health-related services.

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    “Even though overall confidence has fallen, it’s incredibly encouraging to see Scottish businesses report a stronger outlook when it comes to their own trading prospects,” Martyn Kendrick, Scotland director at Bank of Scotland Commercial Banking, said.

    “The country’s businesses have their sights set on growth, and it’s great to see firms setting out clear plans to seize new opportunities as we get underway with the new year – whether that’s through investing in their people or introducing new products and services. We’ll continue to be by their side every step of the way.”

    Hann-Ju Ho, senior economist, Lloyds Commercial Banking, said: “Changes in confidence can sometimes be sudden and sharp, but what we have seen recently has been a more gradual and measured decrease over time.

    “The figures for trading prospects show promise with businesses signalling more resilience and assurance in their ability to weather perceived economic headwinds. The regional picture is similarly a cause for optimism, with seven regions reporting higher confidence, meaning it is the first time since July there has been more confidence rises than falls regionally.

    “Elsewhere, the results for hiring prospects are in line with other trends from this month’s survey – dipping slightly by one point to 32%. Price expectations have fallen too, for the third month out of four”.

    Paul Kempster, managing director for Commercial Banking Coverage, Lloyds Business & Commercial said: “As we begin 2025, the results of our survey show that, whilst business-owners have mixed views about the economy, they have a strong determination to ensure their businesses can stand up to any challenges they might face. That resilience could prove to be a real benefit for the UK economy.

    “With confidence dipping in some sectors this month – particularly in retail and manufacturing – it’s more important than ever that we show our commitment to businesses, providing the right guidance needed to help them grow and thrive.

    “It’s clear the UK has what it takes to deliver growth, and we’ll continue Helping Britain Prosper to realise our collective potential”.

  25. University of Strathclyde Neurotechnology Centre Wins Funding

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    A pioneering centre to research and create ultra-small implantable neurological devices to support people with conditions such as Parkinson’s and dementia is being launched by the University of Strathclyde.

    The Strathclyde Neurotechnology Centre has been awarded a grant of £675,000 from the Wolfson Foundation, an independent charity with a focus on research and education, to provide a combination of technology and equipment unrivalled in Higher Education in the UK.

    A five-year Professorial Chair in Neurotechnology has also been funded by a £1M donation from philanthropist and alumnus Leslie Stretch OBE.

    The Centre is building on long term work and world leading research at Strathclyde and will play a leading role in advancing the understanding of neural circuits – the network of interconnected neurons that work together to process and transmit information within the brain.

    Engineers and physicists will work in tandem with neuroscientists to understand the neural basis of brain disorders and ascertain the optimal technological approach to interact with them.

    Internationally renowned neuroscience expertise will review how this technology functions in action to help understand brain disorders – a step that is required to progress novel neurological treatments towards clinical practice.

    The minimally invasive implantable devices will support and address issues associated with neurological conditions such as blindness, epilepsy, Parkinson’s and dementia.

    Collaborative research with Stanford University has already resulted in the development of a retinal prosthesis, that is now the state-of-the-art in the field.

    Professor Keith Mathieson, Royal Academy of Engineering chair in Emerging Technology, and director of the Centre, said: “We’re delighted to receive this funding which allows us to build on and enhance long term work at the University and bring two key areas of research together, cementing the offering to the wider UK neurotechnology community.

    “At Strathclyde, we are advancing state-of-the-art neural interfaces to further our understanding of the brain and to inform the treatment of neural disorders.”

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    Professor Mathieson and Strathclyde neuroscientist, Professor Shuzo Sakata, have been collaborating since 2011, and have assembled a team of engineers, physicists and neuroscientists along with highly specialist technology and resources.

    The Centre also draws in Professor Martin Dawson from Photonics, Professor Michael Strain, an RAEng chair in chip-scale photonics and Dr Yashar Moshfegi, an expert in AI modelling of brain activity – with a central research goal to develop new technologies and techniques to further understand the brain at the circuit level and use this to develop novel neural interfaces for some of the major neurodegenerative diseases.

    Paul Ramsbottom, chief executive of the Wolfson Foundation, said: “There is an impressive track record at Strathclyde of discovery science and innovation in microelectronics. The new facilities funded by the Wolfson Foundation will allow further exploration of the potential of ultrathin semiconductor devices in brain implants.

    “The project offers exciting opportunities both to garner fresh insights into how the brain functions and to inform the development of new therapies for neurodegenerative conditions.”

  26. Mobile Phone Mast Upgrades Hit 30 Site Milestone

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    30 government-funded mast upgrades have now been activated 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.

    21 sites are now live in Wales, five in Scotland, and four in England.

    Rural towns and villages in North York Moors National Park 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 Helmsley, Harome, Great Edstone and Cold Kirby, can now take advantage of better connectivity.

    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.

    “For far too long, people living and working in remote places have been battling with poor phone signal,” telecoms minister Sir Chris Bryant said.

    “It is fantastic to see 30 Government-funded masts being switched on, breaking down digital divides across the UK. Thanks to the Shared Rural Network we are not only improving the quality of life for communities in these remote areas of Britain, but also creating more opportunities for local businesses, boosting tourism, and helping emergency services save lives.”

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    Since the Shared Rural Network programme began in 2020, an additional 34,000 square kilometres – an area 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.

    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 programme also aims to improve 4G geographic coverage to 79% of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, up from 51% before the programme launched, and 74% of National Parks up from 41%, benefitting millions of visitors every year.

    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’, 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 the UK, including in the areas of Shetland, Yorkshire, Fermanagh and Devon.

  27. VC Investment in Scottish Startups Rose by 14% in Q4 2024

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    The value of venture capital (VC) investment in Scottish startups increased by 14% in the final quarter of 2024, according to KPMG’s latest Venture Pulse report.

    A total of £92.3 million was raised by the country’s startups from October to December, up from the £80.9 million raised in Q3 of last year.

    The volume of transactions also grew to 25, up from 21 in Q3. This was driven by investment activity in the capital, particularly Resolution Therapeutics’ funding round of over £63 million, which significantly boosted overall investment for the country.

    Nationally, the UK raised a total of £15.5 billion in VC investment in 2024, with funding in Q4 alone increasing by more than 40% to £4.4 billion. Investments in 569 businesses contributed to the end of year surge, with the increase in value driven largely by £1.1 billion raised by London-based firm GreenScale. According to KPMG’s latest Venture Pulse report, the UK achieved the highest level of VC investment in Europe in 2024.

    These results come just weeks after KPMG published its KPE Barometer, which revealed that over 90% of Britain’s private business owners are confident of growth in 2025.

    “Despite a challenging economic backdrop, the quality and resilience of Scottish businesses continues to shine through, with a strong end to the year in terms of VC investment,” Vishal Chopra, Scotland senior partner at KPMG UK, said.

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    “Edinburgh’s thriving life sciences and technology sectors have been a key driver of activity, showcasing the city’s ability to attract significant investment even in a cautious market.

    “While investors remain measured in their approach, the fundamentals of Scottish businesses remain strong, and the growing focus on innovation and sustainability has put many in a strong position to deliver VC-backed growth this year.”

    Amy Burnett, UK head of KPMG’s emerging giants practice, said: “After a difficult Q3, it’s great to see the UK end the year as the top destination in Europe for VC investment.

    “The strong rebound in Q4 has boosted optimism among investors looking ahead to the rest of 2025, with AI likely to remain at the forefront of those looking to invest.

    “However, the impact of both global and domestic events such as the UK Budget measures and the new US President taking office could still contribute to a level of investor caution.”

  28. Critical Security Flaw in DeepSeek AI Exposed

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    DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company that as rocked the tech world and seen tech giant’s shares tumbling, could be in sketchy waters as researchers exposed what seems to be a major security flaw.

    DeepSeek rose to fame rapidly, claiming the top spot on app stores just a week after it launched its AI chatbot R1, which rivals leading AI models like OpenAI’s o1, for just a fraction of the price.

    The new entrant into the AI race is not without controversy, however, as it already faced technical issues due to an onslaught of users, faced a cyber-attack, and is being questioned by the Italian data protection watchdog about its data practices.

    As tech giants shuttered and the US president called the app’s launch a “wake-up call”, Wiz Researchers began assessing the novel application’s security posture to see if they could identify any vulnerabilities in the AI prodigy.

    The research team claimed that “within minutes” they were able to access a publicly accessible database on ClickHouse that was linked to DeepSeek, which exposed sensitive data. This linkage was “completely open and unauthenticated,” the researchers said, and was hosted at oauth2callback.deepseek.com:9000 and dev.deepseek.com:9000.

    “This database contained a significant volume of chat history, backend data and sensitive information, including log streams, API Secrets, and operational details,” the Wiz research team said.

    Further, and more alarmingly, the researchers alleged that the exposure enabled full database control and even the potential for privilege escalation, without authentication or a defence mechanism in place.

    The shocking security gaps were reported immediately to DeepSeek, which Wiz claims has now secured the exposure.

    Wiz researchers began their investigation looking through DeepSeeks publicaly accessible domains, where they quickly found two open ports which lead to a publicly exposed ClikcHouse database.

    ClickHouse is an open0source database management system which allows users to perform quick analytical queries across large datasets. Exposure of one of these databases would be incredibly valuable as they are meant for real-time data processing and could expose sensitive data, Wiz explained.

    By using the ClickHouse interface, Wiz researchers were able to directly execute SQL queries, which returned a full list of accessible datasets which contained highly sensitive data. For instance, on the log_stream table, over one million log entries could be accessed, which included a range of data including chat history, API keys, backend details, timestamped logs, and references to DeepSeek API endpoints.

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    According to Wiz, this access “posed a critical risk to DeepSeek’s own security and for its end-users.”

    An attacker could not only collect sensitive logs and messages, but could even potentially retrieve passwords and files from the server using this exposure.

    While the tech world postulates about the potnetial risks and threats of AI technology, the emerging innovation’s security risk tends to “stem from the infrastructure and tools supporting them,” Wiz researchers said, following their findings.

    “The rapid adoption of AI services without corresponding security is inherently risky,” the Wiz research team wrote.

    Basic security measures, such as protecting against the exposure of databases, is paramount to the security of AI systems that rely on and collect vast amounts of sensitive data sets.

    “The rapid pace of adoption often leads to overlooking security, but protecting customer data must remain the top priority,” Wiz researchers wrote.

    “It’s crucial that security teams work closely with AI engineers to ensure visibility into the architecture, tooling, and models being used, so we can safeguard data and prevent exposure.”

  29. First International AI Safety Report Published Ahead of Summit

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    Ahead of the AI Action Summit hosted by France next month, the Independent International AI Safety Report sets out the first comprehensive, shared scientific understanding of advanced AI systems and their risks.

    Spearheaded by Yoshua Bengio – a Turing Award-winning AI academic – the report brings together insight from 100 independent international experts.

    Launched at the AI Safety Summit in November 2023, the report is mandated by more than 30 countries including France, China, and the United States, with operational support provided by the Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology.

    As policymakers worldwide grapple with rapid and unpredictable advancements in AI, today’s report contributes to bridging the gap by offering a scientific understanding of emerging risks to guide decision making.

    The report also highlights how quickly the technology has evolved in recent years and months, including how AI systems are increasingly capable of acting as AI agents – autonomously planning and carrying out complex tasks.

    Its publication looks to plug the gaps by building up a scientific basis of evidence to support policymakers in advancing AI safety, while the full implications of advanced AI systems are still being discovered.

    “The capabilities of general-purpose AI have increased rapidly in recent years and months,” Yoshua Bengio, full professor at Université de Montréal and scientific director of Mila – Quebec AI Institute, said.

    “While this holds great potential for society, AI also presents significant risks that must be carefully managed by governments worldwide.

    “This report by independent experts aims to facilitate constructive and evidence-based discussion around these risks and serves as a common basis for policymakers around the world to understand general-purpose AI capabilities, risks and possible mitigations.”

    Key areas identified for further research include how rapidly capabilities will advance, how general-purpose AI models work internally, and how they can be designed to behave reliably.

    While there are still many challenges in mitigating the risks of general-purpose AI, the report highlights promising areas for future research and concludes that progress can be made. The report emphasises widespread agreement that improving our understanding of how AI works should be a top priority, as international governments and AI companies prepare to gather for the AI Action Summit.

    Ultimately, the report emphasises that while AI capabilities could advance at varying speeds, their development and potential risks are not a foregone conclusion. The report concludes by saying that the outcomes depend on the choices made by policymakers both today and in the future.

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    “The transformative potential of AI is clear, which is why we have placed it at the heart of our government’s Plan for Change,” secretary of state for science, innovation, and technology Pete Kyle said.

    “It will help us kickstart economic growth, transform public services, and boost the living standards of working people across the country, but I remain clear eyed that safety must be baked in from the outset.

    “The UK is already at the forefront of building the global consensus needed on responsible AI, and this report will go a step further as we prepare for the AI Action Summit.

    “It will support decision-makers with the scientific evidence they need to seize the opportunities of AI, which is a charge we are already leading by putting the technology to work to deliver more jobs, more money in people’s pockets, and transformed public services.”

  30. Lloyds Bank to Close 136 High Street Branches

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    Lloyds Banking Group is set to close 136 more high street branches, including 14 Bank of Scotland branches, between May 2025 and March 2026.

    The move, which will also affect 61 Lloyds Banks and 61 Halifax locations, is part of its accelerated plan to digitise its offering and cut costs.

    The announcement for the planned closures comes just weeks after Lloyds transformed in branch business model, enabling customers of Lloyds, the Bank of Scotland, and Halifax to use any store across its brands for any in-person banking needs.

    All workers in affected branches will be offered jobs in other parts of the company, the Bank assured.

    After the closures, the Lloyds brand will be down to 386 branches, with only 90 Bank of Scotland branches left, and 281 Halifax branches.

    Lloyds claimed that they were following customer trends as more turn to digital banking options, shunning traditional, in-person banking.

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    Over the past five years, transactions at the branches fell 48% on average, as more customers shifted to using mobile apps.

    “Over 20 million customers are using our apps for on-demand access to their money and customers have more choice and flexibility than ever for their day-to-day banking,” a spokesperson for the company said.

    “Alongside our apps, customers can also use telephone banking, visit a community banker or use any Halifax, Lloyds or Bank of Scotland branch, giving access to many more branches.

    “Customers can also do their everyday banking at over 11,000 branches of the Post Office or in a Banking Hub.”

  31. Cybersecurity, Data & Integration Lead 2025 IT Priorities

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    Enhancing cybersecurity, improving data management and addressing technology integration challenges have emerged as the top priorities for IT leaders in 2025, according to the newly released OneAdvanced IT Services Trends Report 2025.

    With 76% of organisations now outsourcing some or all of their IT functions to IT service providers, the findings highlight the critical role of working with experts in the field.

    Technology is increasingly recognised as a cornerstone for driving productivity and fuelling business growth, making the expertise of managed IT service providers (MSPs) more valuable than ever.

    Unsurprisingly, cybersecurity is now the top focus for IT teams, with 52% of IT leaders identifying it as their top priority for the coming year.

    Yet, with half of IT leaders (50%) looking to improve analytics and data management, and 45% actively seeking to implement new innovative technologies such as AI and IoT, budget constraints remain the biggest roadblock, with 44% citing financial limitations as a key barrier to implementing new technologies.

    In addition, only 20% of IT leaders report that their organisations view IT as a strategic business imperative despite its clear role in driving productivity and growth. This disconnect clearly presents challenges, as 27% of IT leaders say they struggle to convince senior stakeholders of the benefits of innovation.

    With one-third (34%) of IT leaders citing integration issues with existing systems as a significant challenge, businesses are finding means to continue their growth – 45% of IT leaders prioritise integrating innovative technologies such as AI and IoT to improve efficiency and 43% aim to modernise infrastructure and address legacy systems in 2025.

    “IT leaders are at the forefront of addressing today’s most pressing business challenges, from cybersecurity threats to tech integration,” said Alex Jeffery, SVP of managed IT services, OneAdvanced.

    “IT is the enabler that underpins all of an organisation’s business processes, including people management, finance, spend, and governance, and the activities specific to its sector.

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    “Its role is vital in driving organisational productivity, yet the report highlights ongoing challenges in achieving buy-in from senior leadership. With cybersecurity threats intensifying and integration issues hindering innovation, businesses must prioritise IT as a transformative function rather than simply a cost centre.

    “Adopting modern IT solutions, such as scalable cloud technologies and AI-powered tools, is critical for improving productivity, ensuring data security, and driving growth.”

    The report also highlights the growing reliance on external IT service providers, with flexibility, scalability, and cost savings emerging as the top benefits.

    While perceived concerns, such as cost of change (41%), remain, 76% of organisations partner with external IT service providers for some or all of their IT needs, recognising the significant value these partnerships deliver.

  32. IT Executives Are Primed for Agentic AI

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    A new report from UiPath reveals that 90% of IT executives have business processes that would be improved by agentic AI, while 77% state they are prepared to invest in agentic AI this year.

    The UiPath 2025 Agentic AI Report – based on a survey of more than 250 US IT executives at companies with revenue over $1 billion and qualitative interviews with senior technology leaders – found that 37% of respondents say they are already using agentic AI, and 93% are either extremely or very interested in exploring it.

    An AI agent is a software entity that uses AI techniques to perceive its environment, process information, and take actions to achieve specific goals or objectives.

    AI agents can operate autonomously or semi-autonomously and are designed to mimic human decision-making or problem-solving processes in a given domain.

    While most IT leaders have seen value from their automation and AI deployments to date, they have also experienced challenges – namely, security, development complexity, integration, and data quality.

    When asked which benefits of agentic AI would be most appealing to their businesses, respondents cited improved oversight of business workflows (58%), increased integration among applications (53%), and the automation of complex business workflows (52%).

    According to the report, the top limitation with existing AI tools is lack of integration with other business applications, with 87% stating that interoperability between different AI technologies is essential or significant to their organisations.

    “Agentic AI is a transformative approach that greatly expands and enhances the ability to automate larger, more complex business processes. For agentic AI to have meaningful impact, organizations need to provide agents with the needed foundation to intelligently plan and synchronize actions across robots, agents, people, and systems, all within enterprise-grade governance and security,” said Daniel Dines, chief executive officer and founder of UiPath.

    “The most powerful use cases for agents will be those that can orchestrate across business systems.”

    Businesses continue to face substantial challenges in driving AI transformation, especially when dealing with complex workflows across multiple systems. Many have yet to see the promised productivity gains materialise and don’t trust AI in their most critical enterprise processes.

    In fact, respondents identified IT security issues (56%) and integration with existing systems (35%) as their top concerns with agentic AI, along with cost of implementation (37%).

    When asked what capabilities would be most critical to effective implementation of agentic AI workflows, the top-ranked response was to “safety and privacy,” followed by “seamless integration with existing systems.”

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    Executives see business value from agentic technology that can operate autonomously, so long as it is governed, secure, and trustworthy, the report found.

    To address the safety, privacy, ethical, and regulatory concerns that IT leaders have with agents, automation-enabled orchestration will be essential.

     “I expect that robotic process automation will orchestrate the agents. For larger scale processes, you need clear orchestration and governance, and that means a deterministic technology like RPA,” said Max Ioffe, director of the Global Intelligent Automation Center of Excellence at Wesco Distribution.

    “As AI systems become more autonomous, enterprises must strike a balance between autonomy and human oversight to prevent unintended consequences and guarantee that AI-driven actions align with ethical, compliance, and legal standards,” said Dines. “A new era of agentic automation is going to address the challenges with orchestration, governance, and value derived from agentic AI.”

  33. Swinney Announces ‘Digital Front Door’ NHS App for Scotland

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    Scotland’s Digital Front Door platform, which will help people manage their NHS information online and includes an app, will launch by the end of the year, according to first minister John Swinney.

    Swinney announced the platform on a speech given at Heriot Watt University’s National Robotarium on renewing the NHS.

    The platform and associated app will be rolled out in phases, beginning in Lanarkshire.

    “This Digital Front Door will begin rollout from the end of this year, starting in Lanarkshire, and, over time, it will become an ever more central, ever more important access and management point for care in Scotland,” Swinney said.

    The first minister described the app as a “much-needed addition” to NHS services to improve patients interactions with health and care teams, as well as manage their own health and care data.

    The Digital Front Door aims to enable people to access their health information online, as well as manage their data, with options for interacting with services, and get notifications.

    The announcement joined Swinney’s speech on the overall renewal of the NHS, with assurances that an increased use of digital solutions and technology would improve capacity, delivery, and outcomes for health and social care services.

    The first minister alluded to opportunities presented by AI as well as robotics, saying that the government intends to create centres to “capitalise on the technological innovation and the potential” of these technologies.

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    He also highlighted the importance of using already existing data to improve the delivery of services.

    “Better use of data will ensure that more operating theatres are working at maximum capacity, with best practice approaches, approaches shown to increase productivity by 20% , rolled out across the country,” he said.

    “Using existing capacity, more operations will be delivered – enabling us to also deliver shorter waiting times. The latest innovations in genetic testing will be harnessed to enable better targeting of medications in cases ranging from recent stroke patients to new-born infants with bacterial infections.”

    The app has been in development since 2022, and comes five years after the English NHS app was launched, and two years after the Welsh version came out.

  34. Italian Data Protection Watchdog Seeks Answers from DeepSeek

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    DeepSeek has rocked the tech world with its claims of an AI model that rivals ChatGPT for a fraction of the price with less compute power, and now data protection watchdogs are mounting their questions.

    The Chinese company broke headlines earlier in the week as stocks of tech titans tumbled after the launch of its app, which quickly rose to the top spot on the US, UK, and Chinese app stores.

    Since then, critics have doubted the company’s claims, while others, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, welcomed the transformative competition. President Donald Trump called it a “wake-up call” to US tech firms which have tried to maintain their market dominance with support of US sanctions against chip imports to China and mass funds for data centres.

    Now, it is time for DeepSeek to reckon with the bane of all AI large language models’ (LLMs) existence: data protection regulations.

    A consumer group, Euroconsumers, has already filed a complaint to the Italian Data Protection Authority (DPA), requesting and inquiry to see if DeepSeek’s handling of personal data is within GDPR.

    The Italian DPA has confirmed it wrote to DeepSeek requesting information around the company’s personal data practices.

    “The data of millions of Italians is at risk,” the Italian DPA noted, giving the fresh AI company 20 days to respond.

    In its privacy statement and terms of conditions, DeepSeek seems to cover its legal bases. While the company operates in China – not an especially safe haven for data privacy – it says that any data transferred to China from a foreign entity is done “in accordance with the requirements of applicable data protection laws.”

    The company’s privacy policy does note the different types of data DeepSeek collects, which is stored in China, as well as that it will, in accordance with the law, share this data with authorities if the company has “good faith belief that is it necessary” under the law.

    It does say that a person’s data rights depend on where they live, and that exercising certain rights can impact a users ability to use some or all of DeepSeek’s services.

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    Euroconsumers, and the Italian DPA, however, want more information, specifically what type of personal data is collected, from what sources, and for what purposes. It also seeks to know what information is used to train AI, as well as DeepSeek’s legal basis for data processing, something that is key to GDPR.

    The Italian data watchdog also asked DeepSeek to explain how those who had personal data collected to train their AI model, through data scraping, have been informed about the processing of their data.

    The consumer coalition was also concerned that DeepSeek’s policies seem to lack information about how the data of minors is treated – the company simply says its service is not recommended for those under 18, and that those between 14 and 18 years of age should read the privacy policy with adult supervision.

    It remains to be seen how DeepSeek will respond to the letter, and how other questions around its data policy, training, and efficiency are answered.

  35. NAO: UK Government ‘Slow’ to Address ‘Severe’ Cyber Threats

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    The cyber threat to the UK government is severe and advancing quickly, the National Audit Office (NAO) has found, as it urges the government to act now to protect its own operations and key public services.

    The public spending watchdog evaluated whether the UK government was keeping pace with the rapidly evolving cyber threat it faces from hostile actors.

    The body found significant gaps in the cyber resilience of the government’s new cyber assurance scheme, GovAssure, which independently assessed 58 critical departmental IT systems by August 2024.

    Multiple fundamental systems controls were found to be at low levels of maturity across these departments, the report found, with at least 228 ‘legacy’ IT systems in use by the departments as of March 2024, with the government unaware of how vulnerable these systems are to a cyber-attack.

    These failings come after decades of work to build the UK’s cyber resilience over successive governments, including publishing a strategy for improving government organisations’ cybersecurity in January 2022. But the government has yet to meet its cyber resilience aims, the NAO says.

    One of the reasons for this lack of cyber resilience could be related to the cyber skills shortage in the government.

    In 2023-24, a third of cybersecurity roles in the government were vacant or filled by temporary staff, with more than half of cyber roles in various departments vacant. Further, nearly three in four (70%) of specialist security architects in post were temporary staff.

    Departments reported that the salaries they can pay and civil service recruitment processes are barriers to hiring and keeping people with cyber skills.

    Other concerns include a lack of coordination within the UK government jeopardising effective cyber defence.

    The respective roles of departments and organisations at the centre, such as the NCSC, are insufficiently understood. Departmental leaders have not consistently recognised the relevance of cyber risk to their strategic goals.

    Financial pressures have also meant that some departments have significantly reduced the scope of their work to build cyber resilience, which could increase the severity of an attack when it happens.

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    In March 2024, departments did not have fully funded plans to remediate around half of government’s legacy IT assets (53%, or 120 out of 228), leaving these systems increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attack.

    For instance, under-investment in technology and cyber was a key factor in the British Library cyber incident.

    “The risk of cyber attack is severe, and attacks on key public services are likely to happen regularly, yet government’s work to address this has been slow,” Gareth Davies, head of the NAO.

    “To avoid serious incidents, build resilience and protect the value for money of its operations, government must catch up with the acute cyber threat it faces.

    “The government will continue to find it difficult to catch up until it successfully addresses the longstanding shortage of cyber skills; strengthens accountability for cyber risk; and better manages the risks posed by legacy IT.”

    In the next six months, the NAO is urging the UK government to develop share, and begin using a cross-government implementation plan for the government cyber security strategy, as well as set out how the whole of government needs to operate differently, and what is needed for this transformation to be effective.

    Within the next year, the NAO urges recommends the UK government make and enact plans to fill cyber skills gaps in workforces.

  36. Will GenAI Put Cybersecurity Tools At Risk?

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    Despite 65% of IT leaders using generative AI, 89% of IT leaders are concerned that flaws in genAI cybersecurity tools could put their organisation at risk.

    This is according to Sophos’s new report which surveyed 400 IT leaders for its report highlighting the scepticism surrounding generative AI and its application in security.

    New research from Sophos X-Ops also cited the slight but noteworthy shift in the way cyber-criminals use AI. After investigation several underground forums, Sophos X-Ops found that while there is still scepticism about GenAI, some criminals are using it to automate mundane tasks, such as crafting bulk emails and analysing data. Others are incorporating it into spam and social engineering toolkits.

    “As with many other things in life, the mantra should be ‘trust but verify’ regarding generative AI tools. We have not actually taught the machines to think; we have simply provided them the context to speed up the processing of large quantities of data,” said Chester Wisniewski, director, global field CTO, Sophos.

    “The potential of these tools to accelerate security workloads is amazing, but it still requires the context and comprehension of their human overseers for this benefit to be realized.”

    With some form of AI embedded in the cybersecurity infrastructure of 98% of organizations surveyed, IT leaders expressed concern about potential over-reliance on AI, with 87% of respondents stating they were concerned about a resulting lack of cybersecurity accountability.

    Further, while 75% of IT leaders agree that the costs of GenAI in cybersecurity products are hard to quantify, 80% believe that GenAI will significantly increase the cost of cybersecurity tools.

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    Still, most organisations believe GenAI offers a path to lowering overall cybersecurity expenditure, with 87% of respondents believing the savings of GenAI will offset the costs.

    GenAI and Reducing Burnout

    Different-sized organizations expressed different priorities for utilizing GenAI. While large organizations (those with more than 1,000 employees) are prioritizing improved protection, respondents with 50-99 employees rated reducing burnout as their top desired benefit from GenAI tools. 

    However, complicating matters, across all sizes of organizations, 84% of leaders surveyed said they were concerned about pressure to reduce cybersecurity professional headcount due to unrealistic expectations about AI’s abilities to replace human operators.

  37. Fragmented Security Solutions Becoming A Liability

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    The complexity of security solutions are becoming their own challenge as organisations manage an average of 83 different security solutions from 29 different vendors, new research from IBM and Palo Alto Networks finds.

    The research, from IBM’s Institute for Business Value, found that seven out of ten surveyed companies that shift to a platformisation approach can improve cybersecurity outcomes, operational efficiencies, and revenue generation.

    The study found that more than half (52%) of surveyed executives note the fragmentation of security solutions is limiting their ability to innovate and deal with cyber threats, with 75% agreeing better security integration is crucial to ongoing digital transformation and governance.

    The analysis suggests a strategy of adding more solutions to combat evolving security issues is contributing to inefficiency – impacting both performance and the bottom line – while moving to a platformised security approach can help businesses achieve reduced response times and cost without sacrificing security efficacy.

    The Reality of Complex Cybersecurity

    Increased interconnectedness expands attack surfaces and creates new vulnerabilities. Cyber-attacks are becoming more sophisticated and harder to defend against, and AI is being used by both defenders and attackers, creating a race in cybersecurity capabilities.

    In an evolving threat landscape, leaders estimate security fragmentation and complexity costs their organisations an average of 5% of their annual revenue.

    For a £20 billion annual revenue company, that’s a £1bn cost to the business in aggregate. Tally the costs of security incidents, lost productivity, failed digital transformations, stalled AI initiatives, loss of customer trust and reputational damage and the numbers add up.

    With 80% saying they face pressure to reduce the cost of security, and 41% saying that fragmentation has driven up procurement costs, it is vital that CISOs and executives drive down these costs stemming from a complex cyber configuration.

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    Further, four out of five executives with non-platform organisations say their security operations cannot deal effectively with the sheer quantity of threats and attacks, making the issue not one just of financial practicality, but of security itself.

    “Organisations continue to be challenged with updating their security posture to address new threats, while simultaneously being pressed to reduce complexity and decrease spend,” said Mark Hughes, global managing partner for cybersecurity services, IBM.

    “Security executives need to enable innovation, protect assets and derive value from their cybersecurity investments to help their organisations thrive and further their business goals.”

    Karim Temsamani, president, Next Generation Security, Palo Alto Networks added: “We have seen the positive impacts of adopting a platformised approach to security, and the benefits of what it delivers to organisations. In today’s AI-fueled world, strong partnerships are more essential than ever.”

  38. Three Industry and Scottish University Projects Win Investment Fund

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    The latest round of the Scottish Inward Investment Catalyst Fund (IICF) has awarded three projects up to £10,000 each.

    The fund supported by Interface and the Scottish Government, attracts investment through research and development with Scottish universities.

    A partnership between Titanvolt and the University of St Andrews was awarded funding for the development of a lithium titanate oxide battery.

    The pouch cell battery, which has no fire risk, is more energy efficient and 95% recyclable, has been produced by Grinergy, a leading South Korean battery manufacturer, and brought to market by North East England based Titanvolt.

    While the technology has gone through extensive testing, the partnership aims to test and validate the battery for the UK market and support its development with the intention to develop battery manufacturing facilities in Scotland in the future.

    Another funded project focuses on technological applications in medical devices.

    Australian health tech company Oraid Solutions is working with the University Strathclyde to develop a low-powered, high-frequency microphone for hearing aids to improve sound clarity and speech recognition in noisy environments.

    This innovation doubles frequency capture, minimises battery use, and enhances noise cancelling capabilities.

    The final funded project went to Masterisk Ltd, a software company based in England, which has developed RASBOX, a risk quantification solution to help financial services organisations quantify and manage their non-financial risk exposures.

    This collaboration with the University of Strathclyde will involve research and development into risk modelling to develop the product’s capability of processing risk data into valuable business information.

    The fund, set up by Interface and the Scottish Government attracts companies from out with Scotland to collaborate with Scottish academics, creating opportunities and growing the economy.  To date, the fund has awarded 34 projects up to £10k in opportunity areas for Scotland such as energy transition, health tech and decarbonisation of transport.

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    Business Minister, Richard Lochhead, said: “Attracting inward investment drives economic growth and prosperity across Scotland. The Inward Investment Catalyst Fund helps build early-stage partnerships between potential investors and Scotland’s world-renowned academia to develop these opportunities.

    “The fund is supporting high quality and innovative projects and laying strong foundations to help potential investors consider Scotland as a destination for their business.”

    Howell Davies, Interface’s head of strategic programmes and funding, added: “The specific nature of the projects being funded through the Inward Investment Catalyst Fund demonstrate the strength and depth we have in a range of academic disciplines, where Scotland is seen as a destination to access facilities and expertise and is a key factor when considering inward investment here.”

  39. Quantum Key Distribution to Drive $6.3BN Investment By 2030

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    Market stakeholders in the telecoms industry are predicted to invest over $6 billion on developing and implementing quantum key distribution between 2025 and 2030, according to Juniper Research.

    Quantum key distribution is a communication method that leverages quantum mechanics to create encryption keys that are unable to be intercepted by fraudulent players, ultimately increasing the security of network transmissions.

    This substantial investment will be driven by the acceleration of quantum computing and its potential use by fraudsters. With traditional network encryption methods vulnerable to quantum computing, this investment is vital to protect the security of telecoms networks, notably for enterprise users.

    Quantum Hardware a Major Cost for Operators

    The report from Juniper Research found that the scalability of quantum key distribution solutions is the most prominent concern for network operators as they deploy nationwide quantum-secure networks.

    Quantum key distribution hardware, such as quantum random number generators that create encryption keys, is expected to be the largest quantum key distribution cost, as operators must implement quantum-capable hardware over their extensive networks.

    The research also anticipated that, as these networks grow, operators must implement tools that enable the real-time management of quantum cryptography.

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    It identified AI-driven network management platforms, which provide optimised traffic routing and resource allocation, and quantum network simulators as two key value-added offerings.

    “As network operators increasingly monetise their networks through enterprise services, it is imperative that they provide protection against quantum threats in the future,” research author Michelle Joynson said.

    “By investing in quantum key distribution now, operators position their networks best to capitalise on the growth of enterprise network users.”

  40. Trump Calls DeepSeek A “Wake-up Call” For US Tech

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    After the sudden and prolific rise of Chinese AI company DeepSeek, and the accompanying drop in shares of US AI firms, President Donald Trump has called the dramatic shift a “wake-up call” for the US tech industry.

    It seemed only a week ago when US tech giants thought themselves untouchable, as they continued to change their internal business values whilst announcing major funding programmes to bolster the infrastructure necessary for them to harness more energy to power their AI models.

    Now, as shares in firms fall sharply, including for AI chip giant Nvidia, the scene on the AI market, and for AI in general, has transformed.

    “The release of DeepSeek, AI from a Chinese company should be a wakeup call for our industries that we need to be laser-focused on competing to win,” Trump said to reporters.

    DeepSeek is now the number one most downloaded free app in the US, just a week after it was launched on the Apple App Store.

    The firm claims that its AI model, R1, rivals the Large Language Models of OpenAI for just a fraction of the price, using less compute power, without premium chips.

    DeepSeek claims their open source DeepSeek-V3 model was trained for around £4.2m, just a mere fraction of what it cost to train rivals such as the GPT series from OpenAI. However, this claim is being disputed by AI leaders, who have shared doubts on if the model functions as well or cost as little as the company claims.

    If proven true, however, then it surely will rock the AI world, as well as the strategy behind technological advancements.

    Sanctions forced many Chinese AI company’s hands: without access to advanced AI chips from major firms like Nvidia, Chinese firms collaborated and experimented with new methods, ultimately improving AI’s ability to work with less compute power.

    DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng stockpiled some of Nvidia’s top performing computer chips which were later restricted for Chinese imports, meaning that after developing much of DeepSeeks technology, Wenfeng’s firm then worked on how to get their AI platform onto less powerful, cheaper chips.

    The method seemed to work, though DeepSeek is already facing some issues.

    Its surge in popularity caused the platform some technical difficulties, and the firm has reportedly already suffered from a targeted cyber-attack.

    If DeepSeek can be seen as a wake-up call, OpenAI seems to have shot out of bed. CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman did give the new competitors credit online, calling DeepSeek’s R1 “an impressive model, particularly around what they’re able to deliver for the price.” He called it “invigorating” to have a new rival in the AI arena, as well, though he claimed OpenAI will deliver better models.

    Tech giants are nervous as the shares in Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia suffered as DeepSeek rose in prominence.

    While Trump called the shift a wake-up call, the President – to which top tech giant chiefs have cosied up to in recent weeks – said that making a cheaper AI product may be ultimately good for competing US firms.

    “If you could do it cheaper, if you could do it [for] less [and] get to the same end result. I think that’s a good thing for us,” he said aboard Air Force One.

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    While it remains to be seen if top US AI competitors will begin to collaborate like Chinese firms, the wake-up call from DeepSeek could greatly shift investment priorities and dramatically disrupt the AI supply chain.

    The AI race was largely constrained by compute power and the availability of advanced – and expensive – computer chips, hence the US’s sanctions on chip imports to disable China’s AI industry.

    If DeepSeek continues to prove its capabilities without this, and without as much power consumption or money for training, the landscape can change dramatically.

    While still a significant sum for training, the ability to train an AI that can rival OpenAI’s models in certain benchmarks can do much to level to playing field to smaller AI developers and firms, potentially toppling the dominance of tech giants as their net worth better insures the massive startup investments AI models require.

    Further, the development of an advanced LLM on cheaper chips can tumble the strategy of chip developers racing to produce advanced computer chips with more processing power, as well as the push for more data centres to power energy-hungry AI systems.

    It is understandable, then, that DeepSeek’s AI claims should be a wake up call for what tech giants are trying to achieve in terms of AI advancements.

  41. TravelPerk Wins $200M In Series E Funding

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    TravelPerk, the business travel platform, has announced a new Series E fundraise of $200 million, lead by European venture capital firm Atomico, alongside EQT Growth.

    The funding round also had significant participation from Noteus Partners and existing investors, including Kinnevik and General Catalyst.

    The oversubscribed round nearly doubles TravelPerk’s valuation to $2.7 billion.

    The funding will be used to further accelerate growth, the firm said, with its eyes set on continued expansion into the UK market following the acquisition of AmTrav in 2024.

    The firm expanded into Scotland in 2022 with the opening of an Edinburgh office, which created 30 jobs.

    Further, the funding will be used to invest significantly into product, technology, and AI to deliver a leading travel and expense management platform for SMB and mid-market companies in the US and Europe.

    TravelPerk also announced its acquisition of Yokoy, a market-leader in Europe for AI-powered expense, invoice, and card payment processing.

    As companies face greater economic pressures and more complicated regulatory environments, they are increasingly demanding a fully integrated solution that brings travel and expenses together into one automated platform, to simplify the end-to-end experience, streamline processes, and help them better control costs.

    Through its acquisition of Yokoy, and deep integrations via an open ecosystem of strategic expense management partners, TravelPerk aims to provide customers in Europe and the US highly localised solutions to suit their individual needs, preserving customers freedom of choice and flexibility.

    “Until now, customers had to make hard trade-offs— an integrated solution or best-in-class travel and expense solutions. A platform delivering a great end-user experience or one focused on the experience for Finance,” commented TravelPerk president and chief operating officer, JC Taunay-Bucalo, adding:

    “Customers don’t have to compromise anymore. Now, they can have the best travel management product built on the world’s largest inventory, and the expense management product that works best for their business, combined for the best integrated experience there is.”

    TravelPerk and Yokoy have collaborated since 2020, successfully partnering to jointly offer travel and expense management to customers such as Breitling, On Running, and Medskin.

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    Philippe Sahli, co-founder and CEO of Yokoy, commented: “Given our successful collaboration to-date, and the compelling vision for the future of integrated travel and expense management, we are excited to come together as one company and are confident in the unprecedented experience we can together deliver to customers.”

    Avi Meir, TravelPerk CEO and co-founder, commented: “Our focus has never been stronger as we expand across core markets, accelerate growth in the US, and now work to become the number one travel and expense management platform.”

    He continued: “Our partnership with Yokoy has already been a great success, and we are excited to take it to the next level by welcoming Phil, Devis, and the rest of the team to TravelPerk. We share a common vision for the role of AI reshaping the future of travel and expense management, and the innovation coming out of Yokoy’s AI labs in Zurich is seriously impressive.”

  42. Security Concerns Surge Amid Social Commerce Boom

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    As retailer’s tech considerations become increasingly complex with the rise of social commerce and advances in AI, data security remains a significant barrier to progress.

    This is according to a new report from SOTI, The Rise of Social Commerce: Turning Tech-Driven Browsers into Influenced Buyers, which surveyed 12,000 global consumers, including 2,000 in the UK. 

    It revealed that social commerce is becoming a critical channel for retail growth, driven by consumer demand for improved and more personalised shopping experiences.

    However, data suggests there is still a lack of robust security for purchases online and with in-store devices, emphasising the need for a security-first approach across all retail channels: in store, online, and social.

    The Rising Importance of Social Commerce

    As brands continue to invest time and money into social media apps, this is changing how consumers shop, blending personalisation to meet consumers evolving preferences.

    In the UK specifically, 71% of consumers say that phones are the most convenient way to make an online purchase, above the global average of 65%.

    Some (50%) shoppers also say social media offers a quick and effortless way to keep up with trends, making it an essential channel for retail growth.

    However, SOTI’s research suggests that the rise in social commerce has brought new challenges to retailers that they need to address.

    Respondents that made a purchase through social media in the past six months have several complaints, including 34% reporting items take too long to be delivered, 24% saying they receive products that look very different to what they ordered, and 22% saying they receive little or no communication about where their item is.

    AI has also had a big impact on how consumers want to shop, according to the study. It found that in the UK, 51% of consumers stated they prefer shopping with retailers that provide a personalised experience, and almost half (44%) believe these companies should use AI to improve recommendations. This highlights a growing demand for more personalised and targeted offerings and the need for brands to provide more interesting shopping experiences.

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    Protecting Consumer Data & Instilling Trust: Navigating Security Concerns

    When shopping, consumers need confidence that their chosen retailer is being cautious with their data. But this survey shows that over 82% of UK consumers are concerned about sharing personal details and that two thirds (61%) feel particularly apprehensive when shopping with smaller businesses. SOTI’s report also reveals that just under a third (27%) of consumers fear online fraud when following purchase links from social media.

    “It’s clear from our research that there is an expectation from consumers for brands to offer bespoke offerings whether they are purchasing via social commerce from a TikTok shop or in-store,” said Stefan Spendrup, VP of Sales, Northern and Western Europe at SOTI.

    “However, it’s crucial we don’t lose sight of a security first approach as retail adapts. We’re continuing to see cybercriminals target all businesses and retailers are not immune.

    “Now is the time for organisations to use secure mobile device technology and protect consumer data, to ensure hard earned brand loyalty and trust is not lost along the way,” he added.

  43. SaaS Security Breaches Surge 300%

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    Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) security breaches have seen a 300% year-on-year surge from 2023 to 2024, new research from Obsidian Security shows.

    The surge in attacks has impacted organisations across all sectors, including major technology and telecommunications companies like Microsoft and AT&T who experienced significant breaches during this period.

    This dramatic surge comes as organisations increasingly rely on SaaS applications with current spend on SaaS in the hundreds of billions, or approximately $8,700 per employee for tools such as Workday, Google Workspace, ServiceNow, and Office 365.

    Obsidian Security based their findings on their own repository of data from its direct involvement in over 150 incident responses alongside leading firms like GuidePoint and Kroll.

    Analysts found that 99% of SaaS compromises originate at the identity provider (IdP), showing the critical importance of securing SaaS identities. Although IdPs help manage access, if they are compromised, attackers can gain lateral movement across entire systems, putting sensitive data at risk.

    The report also found faults in classic security fail safes – multi-factor authentication (MFA) failed to prevent attacks in 84% of incident responses. The data shows that MFA alone is insufficient, bringing to light the need for more robust, layered security solutions to defend against modern threats.

    Further, SaaS breaches are unfolding at an alarming speed, with the fastest time from initial access to data exfiltration recorded by Obsidian was just nine minutes. Traditional security controls often fail to respond quickly enough, increasing the risk of rapid data loss and necessitating real-time monitoring and response strategies.

    “The data is stark and unmistakable; securing the identity and its dynamic relationship with services and applications should be the first task for every security team,” said Glenn Chisholm, CPO of Obsidian Security.

    “Our unmatched dataset of real-life, real-time SaaS compromise telemetry, combined with our knowledge graph of identities across hundreds of large enterprises has allowed  Obsidian Security to build AI models with unmatched efficacy. These AI and LLM models continuously learn and adapt to catch attackers before they breach an organisation’s environment through SaaS.”

    The report also highlighted critical emerging risks in SaaS environments that organisations need to prepare for.

    For instance, the proliferation of third-party applications has created new attack vectors, with Microsoft integration abuse becoming increasingly prevalent.

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    Further, the proliferation of AI applications only increases risk, as organisations typically deploy around 100 AI applications, with 60% lacking proper security controls or federation behind the IdP.

    As unauthorised applications continue to connect to core environments, security risks continue to emerge as well.

    With the average cost of a SaaS breach rising to $4.88 million, it is no wonder that cybersecurity budgets are set to soar. Still, security investment in this area continues to lag behind the rapid adoption of SaaS solutions.

    This disparity creates an urgent need for organisations to reassess their security strategies and investments.

    “In our breach response and intelligence work, we’re increasingly seeing that threat actors recognize the relatively vulnerable state of interconnected SaaS applications as fertile hunting grounds,” says Jim Hung, associate managing director, SPARK, Cyber Risk at Kroll.

    “The quality of malicious tradecraft is improving to rapidly exploit identity and configuration weaknesses to the fullest.”

  44. UK Cybersecurity Budgets Set to Surge Over 30% in 2025

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    Cybersecurity budgets are on the rise, according to research from Infosecurity Europe, with UK organisations predicting an average growth of 31% in 2025, more than double the 15% global forecast from Gartner.

    Whilst three-quarter of organisations expect their budgets to grow, 20% anticipate increases of over 50%. Investment priorities include application security, network security, cloud security, and DevSecOps, as organisations strive to stay ahead of evolving threats.

    Additionally, just over seven in ten (71%) believe they have the budgets required to ensure their organisation is cyber-safe, another 18% said their budgets were nearly enough and 8% said they don’t have the funding they need to cover what they want. The remaining 2% hadn’t yet costed their needs.

    Despite this, almost half (47%) of cybersecurity professionals struggle to engage at the board level, highlighting a gap between technical teams and strategic decision-making. This persistant problem also has a hold on cybersecurity leaders’ salary gains.

    The most-cited barriers to building a strong cybersecurity culture include insufficient resources (40%, up from 22.5% in 2024), and lack of a clear cybersecurity strategy aligned with organisational goals (45%, up from 20.5%).

    Achieving a truly cyber safe world required not only adequate funding but also strategic alignment and collaboration across the cybersecurity ecosystem.

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    “Building a cyber-safe world today goes far beyond protecting data and systems. It encompasses safeguarding the critical infrastructure that underpins our global economy and, quite literally, keeps the lights on,” Rik Ferguson, hall of fame alumnus and vice president security intelligence, Forescout Technologies, Inc, said. “Security must be foundational, baked into every aspect of our digital lives because the reality is, no one is an island.
    “The past three decades have taught us that cybersecurity is not a destination; it’s an ongoing journey. The challenge now is to stay ahead, remain vigilant, and foster a culture of security that extends beyond technology to people, processes, and policy.”

  45. Could DeepSeek Topple the US’s AI Market Dominance?

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    A Chinese-based AI model has taken the tech world by storm, seemingly without build up or warning, as DeepSeek climbs to the top of the Apple App Store in the UK, US, and China.

    The AI app overtook LLM starlight ChatGPT in popularity, offering the same, or sometimes better, performance as OpenAI’s o1 model on a range of benchmarks, with a price tag at just a fraction of competitors.

    DeepSeek claims that its AI model, R1, which was released in mid-January, costs only $5.6 million to train, a drop in the water compared to the hundreds of millions used to train rival models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Meta’s LlaMA.

    Potentially key to the company’s success is what competitors hoped would keep it back – a lack of access to advanced chips, the sale of which was prohibited to Chinese companies by US sanctions.

    DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng had a stockpile of Nvida A100 chips, which are included in the sanctions, which he used to launch his company.

    He then paired these with cheaper, less advanced computer chips that were available in China to create the cheaper AI offering. In order to work on the available GPUs, which operate at half the speed of the top products banned in China due to sanctions, DeepSeek had to reconfigure the training process of its R1 model.

    Further, DeepSeek worked on speeding up calculations and decreasing memory usage without compromising the accuracy of responses. All this, on less powerful computer chips, significantly decreased DeepSeek’s overall spend on developing and using its resulting AI model.

    The sanctions, which were intended to keep American companies at the top of the AI game, shifted the strategy of Chinese-based companies, encouraging collaboration and resource pooling, the MIT Technology Review suggested.

    Despite its success, however, Wenfeng says that the American sanctions are creating a bottleneck of supplies.

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    Still, creating an AI chatbot that can compete with – and even beat – ChatGPT needing less computational power and less upfront training costs can lead to an AI revolution.

    While American companies aim to lobby for further data centres and chip protections to protect their AI dominance, the underdog company could lead to cheaper AI for all, and even disrupt the current AI supply chain.

    Making a low-cost AI model can make investors question the exorbitant amount of capital invested in rival AI companies promising a return on investment.

    Companies heavily entrenched in the AI race in the US saw their shared drop on Monday, including Nvidia, Microsoft, and Meta.

    Tech analysts and leaders have a variety of reactions to DeepSeek’s sudden surge to the top. While many have voiced concerns on how this can affect US competitors, Meta Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun said that, since the DeepSeek’s model is opensource, “everyone can profit from it.”

    Further, showing that it is possible to make a more efficient and cheaper AI model will benefit the AI industry as a whole, Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator argued on X: “If training models get cheaper faster and easier, the demand for inference (actual real world use of AI) will grow and accelerate even faster, which assures the supply of compute will be used.”

    While it may be good for AI advancement overall, it is understandable that massive corporations are concerned on how DeepSeek’s success – both technologically and in the market place – could affect their economic prosperity and plans.

    Afterall, it was just last week that US tech giants and foreign investors banded together to announce an AI infrastructure plan – The Stargate Project – with $500bn in investment.

    If a successful AI model can trump US AI companies currently dominating the scene, it draws into question their strategic priorities when it comes to business and AI, especially amid rising environmental concerns around energy and resource demands.

  46. Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland Becomes Social Enterprise

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    The Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland has announced that it has moved away from being a not-for-profit organisation, and will now be the ‘country’s first cyber social enterprise’.

    The Centre’s new structure will see any profits made through professional services, such as its testing, Cyber MOT and executive education programmes, reinvested into causes that align with the organisation’s existing values and culture.

    The move will also enable the Centre to champion a shared purpose of creating lasting and positive change in the world of cyber, with trusted partners and clients, in an affordable, relevant and accessible way.

    In becoming a social enterprise, the Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland, will align itself with the values of other organisations that are already committed to making a difference, whilst setting a clear example for others to follow.

    Over the last three years, the Centre has accomplished deeds in a number of areas which companies which focus solely on profit struggle to do.

    From taking around 800 calls into its cyber incident response line, to working on over £30 million of fraud related calls with over £13 million stopped or returned to a client, The Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland hopes to continue this work under their new model.

    The Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland further used its position as a not-for-profit to employee ethical hacking students from Abertay University, as well as working with school-aged girls to break down stereotypes of the tech industry and encourage women into tech careers whilst sponsoring the Cyber First Girls competition.

    The group has also provided support to charities including Edinburgh Remakery and Medics Against Violence, as well as providing 1,000s of hours of free training and advice to organisations of all sizes, helping them learn how to identify, respond to, and prevent cyber fraud.

    “Since its inception, the core belief of Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland remains the same – to be a socially driven organisation delivering accessible, affordable and relevant cyber and fraud services,” Jude McCorry, CEO of Cyber and Fraud Centre, said.

    “That’s why we’ve made the step change to become Scotland’s only cyber social enterprise.

    “I am very proud of all the work we do with every member of the team and the trusted partners that we collaborate with. We could not achieve all this on our own and are very lucky to work with like-minded people who share and support our vision, with more exciting collaborative projects coming in the future.

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    “Our dedicated team protects organisations nationally with our offering on professional services, skills and community building.

    “By reinvestimg in our cyber and fraud community, we ensure that all private, public and third sector organisations we work with have access to our people and resources to stay secure.”

    Paul Atkinson, chairman of the Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland, added:  “Becoming a social enterprise represents a natural step in the evolution of the support the Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland provides and reflects a broader vision of combining purpose and profit to benefit the wider community.

    “Now, as a member of Social Enterprise Scotland, this new mission-led approach ensures that our work benefits both our clients, and society as a whole. A good example is our work with Street Soccer Scotland where the team has supported fundraising efforts and helped to strengthen the charity’s cyber posture, giving them a secure base to grow and continue to help those who need it most.”

  47. Paul McCartney Urges UK Gov to Protect Artists from AI

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    Music legend Paul McCartney has called out the UK government to do more to protect UK creatives from potential AI copyright law changes.

    Artists of various mediums have consistently come out and warned authorities of the potential creative and financial fallout of AI data scraping – the process by which AI models gather data to train themselves on.

    At the end of last year, the UK government put out a consultation to potentially change UK copyright law, allowing tech companies to train their AI models on online content, even copyrighted material, unless copyright holders opt out of such training.

    This puts the onus on creatives, publishers, and content generators to opt out of data scraping and AI training on their data, which critics have said can prove ineffective. Content creators may not have the time or capacity to opt out of what could be thousands of different AI training modules, and the copyright law may need each piece of intellectual material to be individually protected in an opt out.

    McCartney said in a BBC interview that the UK government needs to do more to protect artists.

    “We’re the people, you’re the government!” he said in an interview. “You’re supposed to protect us. That’s your job. So if you’re putting through a bill, make sure you protect the creative thinkers, the creative artists, or you’re not going to have them.”

    The Bill McCartney refers to is the UK consultation, which does stipulate that copyrighted material can only be used to train AI models, not be used to generate specific content. However, with generative AI, this line is particularly blurred.

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    Artists and authors have previously slammed AI Large Language Models for being trained on their copyrighted material without their consent, and governments have scrambled to figure out an approach that protects creative licensing as well as ensures AI has a broad pool of data to train on.

    McCartney is not wholly against AI, however, having used it to produce a new Beatles song from an old cassette recording of John Lennon, that reached critical acclaim.

    “I think AI is great and it can do a lot of great things,” Sir McCartney said.

    “But it shouldn’t rip creative people off. There’s no sense in that.”

    Following backlash from critics of the proposed opt-out proposal, an alternative bill, which would allow AI to only train on copyrighted data if artists opt in, it set to be put forth in the House of Lords this week.

  48. UK eVisas System Struggles Despite Warnings

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    Less than a month after the UK Home Office replaced physical documents with an e-Visa immigration system, travellers, immigrants, and refugees are reporting issues with the new system, echoing warnings from migrant support groups and civil societies.

    December 31 2024 saw the expiry of immigration documents across the UK, forcing immigrants to transition to an online-only system to prove their immigration status, which is required for their right to work, reside, and access many services in the UK.

    While the UK has issued e-documents for years, paper immigration documents, such as biometric residency cards, have no been completely phased out and cannot be relied upon to enter the UK, prove a person’s right to work, or access services like GPs or letting agencies.

    Just two weeks into the transition, The Independent reported several instances of immigrants being unable to board flights due to airlines not being able to access their immigration status without logging into their accounts manually, and airline check-ins being ill-equipped to deal with the share codes the e-Visa system now relies on.

    Prior to the transition, the Home Office assured visa holders that airlines would be able to handle the transition and would have access to automated status checks to prove the immigration status of a visa holder, and even access the website themselves to prove a traveler’s status.

    Further, the Home Office said that they had made a 24/7 helpline available to foreign border forces and airline carriers to help with the transition.

    Still, the report found that travelers from France, Germany, Malawi, Egypt, and Cyprus struggled on the system to prove their UK immigration status which impacts their ability to travel to the country.

    Those residing in the UK are also struggling, reports from immigration advocacy groups and charities show, as thousands are still waiting to receive their e-visas despite their physical documents having expired.

    Without proof of immigration status, visa holders are unable to receive benefits, apply for flats, access GPs, enroll in schools, open a bank account, and other key services for everyday life.

    Refugees are also struggling to match their legal status with their passports under the new system as well, according to the groups supporting them.

    Many are now facing evictions from the Home Office as they wait for their e-Visas, a spokesperson the charity The Gap explained.

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    Other refugees and immigrants are unable to log into the UKVI accounts – the online account that show a person’s immigration status – due to a myriad of issues.

    Before the e-Visa system fully took over, the Home Office said it would not be liable for any problems or disruptions, including direct or indirect losses, due to the use of the UKVI account.

    This included any data that was lost or corrupted during the use of the UKVI application.

    The Open Rights Group, which has continually come out against the dramatic shift to real-time, online-only immigration records, says that this lack of liability essentially implies that the Home Office was already aware of the technical issues of the transition, “and is pre-emptively protecting itself against legitimate legal claims.”

    The ORG had previously asked the Home Office to allow the use of QR codes or another type of saveable proof of immigration to allow for the more seamless access to services and travel.

    The Home Office, however, insisted on the real-time element of the new system, saying that visas must reflect the current immigration status held at the exact moment of travel.

    Visa holders were given until 31 December 2024 to apply for their e-Visa, which is not an instantaneous process even if a person has the legal right to live, work, or study in the UK.

    “Many refugees are still waiting for their e-Visas,” the ORG said. ” Without them, they cannot work, set up a bank account, rent somewhere to live or claim benefits. The Home Office needs to sort out this mess urgently.”

    This means that currently, the government is not providing immigrants or refugees with their conditional rights to access services or prove their status, even though the visa holder has gone through the many bureaucratic and financial hoops to achieve their status.

  49. Only Half Of UK Businesses Report Full Data Privacy Compliance

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    A recent Zoho Digital Health study has revealed only 50 per cent of businesses report full compliance with all data privacy regulations and industry guidelines, highlighting a significant gap in data privacy practices across businesses.

    While this is a good improvement from 42 per cent in 2023, the shortfall emphasises the need for businesses to improve their data practices.

    As Data Privacy Day approaches on January 28th, the spotlight intensifies on the urgent need for individuals and businesses to take control of their data.

    More positively, transparency of data practices has emerged as a growing strength, with 50 per cent of respondents agreeing their data privacy policies are clear, simple and transparent, up from 33 per cent in 2023.

    The survey revealed that 47 per cent of businesses now view data privacy as a critical part of their success.

    Despite this, the report exposes serious gaps where businesses are falling behind. Only 31 per cent of businesses report going beyond requirements to provide additional protection for customer and employee data, which suggests that while businesses are meeting compliance, few businesses are taking proactive steps to enhance data protection.

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    “In an increasingly data-driven world,  organisations must prioritise data privacy throughout their operations,” Sachin Agrawal, Managing Director, Zoho UK commented. “It is encouraging to see the growing recognition of data privacy’s role in driving business policies, but there is still a lot of progress to be made.”

    “According to Zoho’s Digital Health survey, businesses must improve transparency around data usage as a clear step toward ethical behaviour. This will play an important role in improving customer experience, strengthening  customer relationships.

    “To unlock the full transformative potential of technologies like AI, businesses must have clear and well-defined data strategies which both protect customer and employee data but enable flexibility of use in the right way.”

  50. Agentic AI on the Rise Despite Workers’ Concerns

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    The use of AI agents is rapidly growing in the UK and the US as it cuts down on what is perceived as tedious tasks and improves productivity and efficiency.

    Research from Pegasystems, however, shows that about a third of workers (33%) do not trust AI agents’ reliability or quality.

    The research found that almost six in ten (58%) workers are using AI agents daily in the survey conducted by YouGov of over 2,100 workers.

    The study defined AI agents as software programmes or tools powered by AI that can generate content, analyse data, automate repetitive processes, and provide recommendations,

    The main benefit cited, by about four in ten workers, was the automation of repetitive, tedious tasks, as well as a reduction in the time spent searching for information related to work, and the summarisation of meetings.

    Despite these major benefits, workers have yet to fully trust agentic AI, with a third (33%) saying they were worried about the quality of AI agents’ work.

    A third (32%) also noted a lack of emotional intelligence and human intuition from the AI agents, an interesting critique for a computer programme.

    Almost more concerningly, given the commonality of use, is that three in ten (30%) say they do not trust the accuracy of the AI agent’s responses.

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    Around four in ten (39%) report that they do not “feel good” about submitting AI-generated work, which could be a deeper sign of integrity, or a bigger sense of mistrust in the machines.

    Pegasystems’ analysis of their data says that AI agents should be treated as a collaborative partner, and that agentic AI is able to continuously learn and therefore decrease errors. Issues remain about trust and accuracy in high-stakes environments, however.

    Effectively training workers on how and when to use AI agents appropriately is not just a safety issue, but a trust issue. Empowering workers will ensure that agentic AI can safely integrate into system flows, and give workers the confidence to work with advancing AI systems.

  51. 73% of Education Orgs Suffered a Cyber-attack in Past 5 Years

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    Nearly three in four (73%) of educational institutions have experienced at least one cyber-attack or data breach in the past five years, new research from ESET found.

    About a fifth of respondents to ESET‘s survey said they experienced three or more incidents in the same time.

    The revelation comes just after a UK school had to shut its doors after falling victim to a ransomware attack last week.

    This aligns with government data from 2024, which found that 77% of education organisations have experienced a breach or attack in just the last year – far higher than the 50% of UK businesses overall that had been targeted.

    Despite being a key target for cyber-criminals, the research found that a third of education institutions still lack fundamental protections, such as antivirus software (33%), and strong password policies (35%). Additionally, the majority (79%) have yet to adopt advanced measures like managed detection and response.

    Another key but often overlooked safeguard is cyber insurance, which, according to government data, under half of primary schools (44%), and even fewer secondary schools (36%) report having in place.

    Troublingly, ESET found that 7% of institutions operate without any annual cybersecurity budget at all.

    The shortfall in cybersecurity protections jeopardises organisational data whilst putting sensitive student information at risk.

    As cyber-criminals increasingly target educational institutions, student’s personal and academic data remain highly vulnerable to theft or misuse. Compounding the issue, one in five (21%) education organisations surveyed admit they feel unprepared or not confident to tackle the rising tide of AI-driven cyber-threats.

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    Organisations say that they prefer to prioritise the budgets they have for cybersecurity measures (37%) when asked why they won’t take out a cyber insurance policy.

    Others cited concerns about payout reliability (33%) and complex or unclear policy terms (32%). Meanwhile, 28% believe cyber insurance is too expensive, while 18% revealed they simply do not understand its value.

    The report comes at a time when education organisations continue to battle familiar foes, with data breaches (61%), malware (55%) and phishing (43%) topping their list of concerns.

    While the majority (76%) of education organisations believe there staff have at least a good knowledge and awareness of online safety and cybersecurity best practices, over half still plan to prioritise increasing staff awareness and training and expanding their cybersecurity tools or software over the next year.

  52. ICO Tackles Data Protection Compliance on UK’s Top 1,000 Websites

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    The Information Commissioner’s Office has announced plans to bring the UK’s top 1,000 websites into compliance with data protection law, focusing particularly on cookie compliance.

    The ICO says it has already assessed the compliance of the top 200 UK websites and communicated concerns to 134 of those organisations, setting out clear regulatory expectations that organisations must comply with the law by giving people meaningful choice on how their personal information is used online.

    “Uncontrolled tracking intrudes on the most private parts of our lives and can lead to harm,” Stephen Almost, ICO executive director of regulatory risk, said.

    “For example, gambling addicts being targeted with more betting ads due to their browsing history or LGBTQ+ people altering their online behaviour for fear of unintended disclosure of their sexuality.

    “Our ambition is to ensure everybody has meaningful choice over how they are tracked online and what we’re publishing today sets out how we intend to achieve that.

    “Last year, we saw significant improvements in compliance among the top 200 websites in what was a promising step forward for the industry. Now, we are expanding our focus to the top 1,000 websites – and beyond that to apps and connected TVs.

    “We’ll continue to hold organisations to account but we’re also here to make it easier for publishers to adopt compliant, privacy-friendly business models.  By combining advice, guidance, and targeted enforcement, we aim to create an environment where businesses can succeed, and people can have trust and control over their online experiences.”

    The new action forms part of the ICO’s online tracking strategy for the new year, which seeks to ensure that people have meaningful control over how their personal information is tracked and used online. The strategy plans to address the significant harm that can occur when online tracking practices are misused.

    The release of the strategy coincides with new measures to support businesses to adopt more privacy-friendly business models that give users the lawful choice and control they expect.

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    This includes draft guidance on tracking people online, based on last year’s consultation on ‘consent or pay’ models. These include models where organisations give people the option between agreeing to personalised adverts – and the data harvesting necessary to produce these – or paying to access a service and avoid these adverts and the data harvesting integral to them.

    The ICO’s new guidance clarifies how organisations can deploy ‘consent or pay’ models to give users meaningful control while supporting their economic viability and includes a set of factors for organisations to assess their models against to demonstrate people can freely give their consent.

    In the guidance, organisations are provided with a set of factors to “assess whether people can freely give their consent or not in the context of a “consent or pay” model.”

    The “or not” stipulation here should raise questions, as not giving consent does come with a monetary price, and therefore would not necessarily be “freely” given.

    “Tracking should work for everyone – giving people clear choices and confidence in how their information is used, while enabling businesses to operate fairly and responsibly. Our strategy ensures both,” Almond assured the UK public.

  53. CMA Investigates Apple and Google Mobile Ecosystems

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    The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a new investigation into the mobile ecosystem, taking aim at the potential market dominance of Apple and Google.

    In two separate investigations, the CMA will assess – in parallel – Apple’s and Google’s position in their respective ‘mobile ecosystem’ which include the operating systems, app stores, and browsers that operate on mobile devices.

    The investigations intend to explore the impact on people who use mobile devices and the thousands of businesses developing services or content such as apps for these devices.

    Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, play a fundamental role in the lives of people in the UK. Almost all (94%) of 16+ year olds in the UK, around 56 million UK consumers – currently have access to a smartphone and the average UK users spends around 3 hours a day using a mobile device.

    Besides the grip on consumers, the mobile market is also made up of almost 15,000 businesses which are involved in development of apps used on mobile devices in the UK, and the total UK revenue for app development is estimated to be around £28 billion.

    The CMA says that it is important for these markets to work well for all businesses to create maximum opportunities for growth, investment, and innovation across the UK economy.

    As virtually all mobile devices sold in the UK are pre-installed with either IOS (Apple) or Android (Google), and Apple’s and Google’s own app stores and browsers have either exclusive or leading positions on their platforms compared to alternative products and services.

    This would give Apple and Google the ability to exert considerable influence over much of the content, services, and technological development provided on a mobile device.

    The CMA will assess if Apple and Google have strategic market status (SMS) in the mobile ecosystem, and specifically will investigate the extent of competition between and within these ecosystems.

    The competition authority will also look into the possible leveraging of Apple’s and Google’s market power into other activities, such as favouring their own apps on their devices.

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    The CMA will also look at if Apple or Google are exploiting their market position by putting unfair conditions on the use of their systems and devices in the mobile ecosystem.

    “The operating systems, apps and browsers installed on our phones and tablet devices act as our gateway into the digital world – whether that is communicating with our friends and loved ones, buying from businesses or accessing creative content,” Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, said.

    “More competitive mobile ecosystems could foster new innovations and new opportunities across a range of services that millions of people use, be they app stores, browsers or operating systems. Better competition could also boost growth here in the UK, with businesses able to offer new and innovative types of products and services on Apple’s and Google’s platforms.”

  54. Internet Exchanges See Record-breaking Global Data Traffic

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    More than 3,400 connected networks exchanged over 68 exabytes of data traffic at DE-CIX’s – one of the world’s leading internet exchange operators – locations around the world, corresponding to an increase of around 15 percent compared to the previous year: In 2023, this figure stood at 59 exabytes.

    Global data traffic has more than doubled in the five years since 2020, when the number was 32 exabytes. 68 exabytes equates to the amount of data that it would take to stream – in high definition – a football game that lasts for 2 million years.

    While UEFA Champions League streaming is traditionally seen as the cause of data traffic records, in 2024 gamers became the new record-breakers.

    At exactly 7pm UTC on November 20, in a single second, global data throughput reached a one-off peak of 24.92 terabits per second (Tbit/s), the highest throughput for the year, in parallel to several gaming releases and updates from a range of providers.

    Correlation of the timing suggests that the peak was induced by new releases such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, as well as Microsoft’s update to its Xbox Cloud Gaming platform, which allows gamers to stream select games from their own library to devices such as TVs, tablets and smartphones.

    The record-breaking 68 exabytes of data exchanged through the year, if printed, would be equivalent to a stack of paper 20 times higher than Mount Everest. In the space of one minute, 186.9 terabytes of data flowed over DE-CIX IXs worldwide.

    What’s Driving Development? 

    The growing use of Internet-based and cloud applications has been driving the development of data traffic at DE-CIX for years.

    While 32 exabytes of data was exchanged in 2020 and 38 exabytes in 2021, this grew to 48 exabytes in 2022, and then 59 in 2023.

    Together with the growth in 2024, this makes 113 percent growth in traffic over DE-CIX exchanges worldwide in the last five years.

    The November peak coincided with the latest record at DE-CIX Frankfurt: The traffic exchanged by the close to 1,100 local, regional, and global connected networks reached a peak of 18.11 Tbit/s on that day.

    DE-CIX Frankfurt is Europe’s largest Internet Exchange, with more than 45 exabytes of data throughput in 2024, an increase of 13 percent compared to 2023.

    Keeping Connections

    From video conferencing and streaming services to gaming – there were significant differences in terms of usage over the course of the second half of 2024: Video conferencing saw strong seasonal changes, with growth of up to 30 percent in the third quarter of 2024, after the summer slow-down.

    The level reduced slightly during the festive season over the turn of the year. Usage of Video-on-Demand streaming services stayed consistently high throughout the second half of the year, showing the extent to which these services have become the standard for many viewers.

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    Online gaming, which contributed the largest amount of traffic of the three traffic classes examined, also remained consistently high over Q3 and Q4 2024, with a slight uptake during the festive season.

    These highs are reflected at individual DE-CIX locations around the globe. For example, on a regional level, DE-CIX North America saw in excess of 7000 PB, with DE-CIX New York experiencing over 4348 petabytes (PB) of data flowing over the exchange during the year.

    It reached a peak of 1.7 Tbit/s, representing growth of 10% in 2024. DE-CIX Dallas experienced 2630 PB with a peak of 1.35 Tbit/s, that is growth of 50% in 2024.

    “In this, our 30th anniversary year at DE-CIX, we again see the enormous importance of interconnection for powering daily life for millions of people,” said Ivo Ivanov, CEO at DE-CIX.

    “Whether it’s for communication, entertainment, learning, health, data-based products and apps, artificial intelligence, or the transmission of global sports highlights – the fast and secure connections at DE-CIX Internet Exchanges are essential for our modern way of life.

    “Our Internet Exchanges not only connect people and communities worldwide, but also bring individual companies and entire economies together to do business.”

  55. KPMG Appoints New Lead of Aberdeen Office

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    KPMG UK has appointed Natalie Macfayden to lead the firm’s Aberdeen office.

    Macfayden, an R&D tax specialist, will oversee a team of 100 people at KPMB’s 1 Marischal Square premises in Aberdeen.

    She has worked for KPMG UK for 10 years, moving her way up through various roles in the firm’s tax practice in Scotland before being promoted to tax director in 2022.

    In her new role, Macfayden will focus on strengthening KPMG‘s position in the Aberdeen market, including its relationship with key local sectors, such as energy. She will work closely with the senior leadership team that includes tax partner Deborah May, audit partner Kelly Dunn, audit directors Michelle Smarsh and Daniel Crighton and tax director Anna Morrison.

    MacFayden succeeds Paula Holland, who has stepped down after two years in the role.

    “This is a particularly important time for Aberdeen as the city continues to play a central role in the energy transition, presenting significant opportunities for growth and innovation,” Macfayden said of her appointment.

    “I am eager to contribute to this journey and to support our clients across the region. I’m excited to take on this new role and build on the successes achieved to date.”

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    Vishal Chopra, Scotland senior partner, added: “Natalie has played a key role in our R&D tax team for the last decade, working with businesses in Aberdeen and across the wider region. The local economy is going through significant change, and I know Natalie will do a great job in leading our team and supporting businesses with the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”

    Late last year, DIGIT reported that KPMG had made several new key leadership appointments, including Chopra and Dunn. Shortly after, the company joined forces with FinTech Scotland to foster innovation in financial services.

  56. LinkedIn Faces Lawsuit Over Using Customer Data to Train AI

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    Microsoft’s LinkedIn is being sued by its Premium customers who claim that the social media platform gave their personal messages to third parties without permission to train generative AI models.

    Millions of LinkedIn Premium customers, who pay for extra services on the website, will be represented in the class action lawsuit filed on Tuesday.

    Last August, LinkedIn introduced a privacy policy that let users enable or disable the sharing of their personal data in a quite update.

    However, on September 18, users claim that LinkedIn quietly updated its terms saying that data could be used to train AI models, and that opting out of any future training does not affect training that had already taken place.

    The complaint said that LinkedIn tired to “cover its tracks,” alleging the company was “fully aware” that it was violating customer’s data protection rights and privacy.

    The lawsuit, filed in California, is on behalf of all LinkedIn Premium customers whose private data was disclosed to third parties for AI training, and those who sent or received InMail messages, on or before September 18.

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    The lawsuit seeks $1,000 per person for violations of the Stores Communications Act, a federal law, as well as an unspecified amount for breaching the contract of California’s unfair competition law.

    Microsoft has yet to issue an official response to the lawsuit.

  57. MIT Tech Review: Responsible AI Principles Urgently Needed

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    While the majority (87%) of business executives believe that responsible AI principles are critical to adopt, 85% of all the executives say they are not well prepared to implement them.

    This is according to a study by HCLTech and MIT Technology Review Insights, which revealed that despite the recognised importance of responsible AI, a significant gap exists between the acknowledgement of its importance and the ability to implement it effectively.

    The study revealed a range of challenges contributing to this adoption vs preparedness gap, including the complexity of implementation, a lack of expertise, difficulties in managing operational risks, regulatory compliance challenges, and inadequate resource allocation.

    On a more optimistic note, the study revealed that business executives plan to increase investments in building responsible AI in the next twelve months.

    The report – Implementing Responsible AI in the Generative AI Age – was released at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos.

    It outlines some of the key challenges faced by enterprises as they integrate responsible AI, with major concerns including bias and fairness, data privacy and security, compliance with regulations, operational disruptions and user adoption. It also delves into how organisations can integrate responsible AI effectively and sustainably by following best practices to enhance readiness.

    For instance, GenAI and AI-driven transformation are progressing from proof of concept to wider adoption, with executives acknowledging AI’s potential to drive productivity and innovation in key business functions like customer service, software development, and marketing.

    Further, responsible AI can provide a competitive advantage. Most executives say their business will increase investments in building responsible AI in the next twelve months.

    The report also highlighted agentic AI, which operates autonomously with minimal human involvement. The technology is gaining tracking in lower-risk areas, such as IT operations, where it can work alongside humans.

    While half of respondents are confident in managing operational risks, less than a quarter feel prepared to handle issues related to user adoption, change management and bias.

    Steven Hall, president of Europe and chief AI officer of ISG, whose advisory firm covers the AI space and who was interviewed for the report, said that although we all know AI is the most influential change in technology today, there is still a huge disconnect on how to embrace it.

    “Everybody understands how transformative AI is going to be and wants strong governance, but the operating model and the funding allocated to responsible AI are well below where they need to be given its criticality to the organization,” Hall said.

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    According to Vijay Guntur, CTO & head of ecosystems, HCLTech, “AI can be a tremendous force of positive change in businesses and society at large, but its full potential can only be realized when it can be trusted.”

    Guntur continued that to support responsible AI adoption, the ethical use of technology and to close the “readiness gap” to widespread adoption and implementation, HCLTech has several key recommendations.

    First, companies should architect a robust responsible AI set of enterprise-guiding frameworks and capabilities that provide guardrails for trustworthiness, ethics, responsibility, safety and security, sustainability, regulatory compliance, change management and user empowerment.

    Second, organisations should lean into their tech partner ecosystems to pilot, test and learn to bring the most appropriate technologies and best practices together to move at pace.

    Third, establishing a dedicated team (or Center of Excellence) is advisable to act in a cross-functional driving role across the organisation.

  58. 2024 Saw the Biggest DDoS Attack On Record, Says Cloudflare

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    The fourth quarter of 2024 saw an attempted DDoS attack of a whopping 5.6 Terabit per second (Tbps) – the largest attack ever reported.

    This is according to Cloudflare’s latest edition of its DDoS Threat Report, which tracked the trends of DDoS attacks across the last quarter of 2024.

    The cybersecurity company detected and blocked the record-breaking distributed denial of service attack during the week of Halloween 2024, which was launched by a Mirai-varient that targeted a Internet service provider based in Eastern Asia.

    The UDP attack, which lasted only 80 seconds, originated from 13,000 connected devices, with the average unique source IP addresses per second being 5,500 during the attack.

    Besides the record-breaking attack, Cloudflare tracked various trends in the last quarter of 2024 from emerging threats to increased volume.

    In 2024 as a whole, Cloudflare blocked around 21.3 million DDoS attacks, a 53% increase year on year compared to 2023.

    This represents an average of 4,870 blocked attacks every hour.

    The fourth quarter showed a marked uptick of hyper-volumetric attacks, those exceeding rates of 1 billion packets per second and 1 Tbps, which grew 1,885% from Q3 to Q4.

    In Q4, Cloudflare blocked 6.9m DDoS attacks, 53% of which were HTTP DDoS attacks, while 49% were Layer3/Layer4 DDoS attacks.

    The majority (73%) of the HTTP attacks were launched by known botnets, while 11% were pretending to be a known browser, and 10% contained suspicious or unusual HTTP attributes.

    For Layer3/Layer 4 or network layer attacks, the top three vectors included SYN floods (38%), DNS flood attacks (16%) and UDP floods (14%).

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    Emerging Methods

    However, Cloudflare also noted some up-and-coming emerging DDoS attack threats, including Memcachad attacks, which grew by 314% quarter-on-quarter.

    Memcached is a caching system used on databases for speeding up networks or websites – those that support UDP can be abused to launch a DDoS attack.

    BitTorrent attacks also skyrocketed, with a quarter-on-quarter increase of 304%. These exploit the BitTorrent Protocol, which is used for file sharing between peers, who often will use trackers or Distributed Hash Tables (DHT) to identify peers for file sharing. This can be exploited to launch an attack, Cloudflare explained.

  59. Europol Seeks Evidence on Encryption’s Effect on Crime

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    Europol is asking EU member states to gather examples of how end-to-end encryption technologies are being exploited by criminals as law enforcement authorities reinvigorate calls for full lawful access to encrypted messages.

    Authorities are continually struggling to amass evidence of criminal gangs using encrypted messaging services to evade law enforcement efforts in order to quantify the issue and better make their case for how encryption can harm crime prevention efforts.

    Popular encrypted messaging services include WhatsApp, Meta’s Facebook Messenger, and Signal. Monitoring the communication of known or suspected criminals have been made difficult as it is impossible to collect data from encrypted messages without a pass key in order to maintain user privacy.

    The call for evidence aims to show how encryption has interrupted or prevent police investigations into criminal activity, though it remains unclear if presented evidence will be released to the public.

    Encrypted messaging has long been the scourge of law enforcement campaigns which have investigations stalled or disrupted by a lack of access to potentially incriminating messages.

    With a warrant, UK police are able to request personal messages for a criminal investigation directly from a network provider or platform, and encrypted messages can be decrypted in certain cases.

    Still, Europol director general, Catherine De Bolle, has called on Bit Tech to give law enforcement full access to encrypted data and messages.

    Tech companies have a “social responsibility” to provide encrypted messages to police for a criminal investigation, De Bolle told the Financial Times.

    The call highlights the disconnect between security and cybersecurity – whereas law enforcement argues encrypted messaging enables criminals to maintain anomynity, tech and privacy experts say that encryption ensures privacy and better protects users from cyber-attacks.

    Law enforcement in the past have called for “cooperation” between tech companies and authorities, saying that police access to encrypted data and communications should be “lawful and strictly controlled.”

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    Without clearer legislation, law enforcement also warned that tech companies are left in a dilemma on the legal and ethical ramifications on decrypting data and sharing it with criminal investigators.

    In the UK, a case exposing criminal gangs using EncroChat exposed the potential fallout of relaxed protections on encrypted communications. The investigation relied on the bulk surveillance of EncroChat messages, staking this on the claim that all communications over the app were criminal. This case raised alarm bells concerning how far law enforcement authorities could take their powers if able.

    Encryption, however, has continually come under fire in terms of child safety and harms, with law enforcement saying it hinders the ability to prosecute heinous crimes including child sexual abuse, human trafficking, and terrorism.

    It was a major sticking point of the Online Safety Act, earlier drafts of which threatened to dismantle encryption by pre-screening messages.

    Tech and security experts have warned that backdoors to encrypted messaging not only leaves room for law enforcement, but for criminals as well. Further, protecting privacy – the ultimate point of end-to-end encryption – would be largely ineffective if surveillance became the norm.

  60. Boardy AI Trump Email Has Women Raising Their “Tremendous Eyebrows”

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    AI-based introduction platform Boardy is under fire for an email campaign which used its AI chatbot to generate emails about user’s profile photos (that was alluded to be) in the style of US President Donald Trump.

    The American company aims to add AI to professional networks, using Boardy, its chatbot, to analyse introductory calls from users and connecting them with people who share the same interests, typically over LinkedIn. It just won a VC seed funding round of $8m to bolster its AI offering, a process which increased its expanding network by 10,000 people, the chatbot said itself.

    Just a week after it announced its funding win, it rolled out a new campaign, beginning on the day Trump was inaugurated as President.

    In an email to users, the chatbot attempted to compliment recipients based on their profile photo in the style of the President. While the email did not outrightly say the chatbot was in the voice of Trump, it heavily alluded to the President, saying that someone who was “busy today” had taken a look at the user photos.

    The emails are drawing intense scrutiny for the gender split in their tone and focus. Female email recipients were complimented almost exclusively on their appearance, while male users were given less aesthetically-focussed compliments.

    How Are Users Reacting?

    The pattern was exposed across LinkedIn as users simply did what Boardy asked of them: the chatbot urged users to share their emails across LinkedIn with the hashtag #MakeLinkedInFunAgain in the mode of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to Make America Great Again.

    Co-CEO of Tidal, Anna Dewar Gully shared her email, which focused on her “tremendous smile” and “perfectly shaped eyebrows.”

    Humaira Ahmed took to LinkedIn, expressing her disappointment at having the chatbot comment on her looks, including her “platinum hair” and “blazer and white collar combo.”

    “What was likely intended as humor came across as disrespectful amplifying the very issues many of us face daily as working women,” she said.

    “What hurts even more is the realisation that now, on top of everything, we might have to deal with harassment from AI bots too.”

    In perhaps one of the more disturbing emails, COO Milly Barker shared her thoughts on Boardy’s email, referencing her despair at Trump’s inauguration that day “only for some motherf*cking robot to shove itself into my inbox with comments about how my ‘mouth commands attention’ and that my ‘eyes sparkle.'”

    “It, oddly, doesn’t mention my multiple degrees or my significant professional experience, it just wants me to know that my value in society is purely aesthetic,” she added in her post.

    Men, on the other hand, were typically complimented on other aspects, including more appropriately their professional acumen and “approachable excellence” which was echoed for Consultant Jeremy Krage and Boardy’s chief executive Andrew D’Zouza.

    The President is of course not without controversy – over 20 women have accused the President of sexual misconduct including rape and sexual assault. He was found liable for sexually abusing a magazine columnist in a New York department store in the 1990s in a civil court decision in 2023. Prior to his first stint as commander in chief, it was revealed that Trump said he liked to “grab them by the p*ssy,” referring to women he wanted to pursue sexually.

    It gives pause as to what speeches or speech patterns of the former and current President were used to train the AI bot, if the emails were edited, or why they thought this would be a good idea in the first place.

    Routinely, Trump has focused on the aesthetic of women, even his campaign rivals,  calling former Vice President Kamala Harris “a beautiful women” while he dogmatically attacked her ethnicity.

    It is therefore of no surprise that something trained on Trump’s words, tone, style, or mannerisms would spit out something sexist.

    The decision to send these emails out, whether they were edited or not, in an effort to bring back ‘fun’ and lightheartedness, on a day when millions fear the potential fallout of a second Trump presidency, while albeit some were celebrating, feels misguided.

    Recommended reading

    Tech Dominating Headlines For The Wrong Reasons

    Boardy AI is an American company that aims to connect people professionally through introductions, and recently raised $8M in venture capital funding to invigorate its AI chatbot.

    As women-founded teams struggle to gain even 2% of VC funding, and often miss out on the AI funding boom, the Broady story touches on the many facets of sexism and gender inequality in the tech world.

    Shortly after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who was in attendance alongside fellow tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos at Trump’s inauguration, said that the tech world needed more ‘masculine energy’, the tech industry further exposed itself.

    Andrew D’Souza, CEO of Boardy, took full credit for the idea and apologised, but at first seemed gun-ho at the campaign to boost the AI chatbot’s reach. D’Souza said that he hoped Boardy could help people “have a bit more fun along the way,” saying the chatbot wants users “to take ourselves less seriously.”

    D’Souza’s post did include a message from Boardy in the style of Trump, and did focus on his appearance in his profile photo, saying that D’Souza’s beard was “perfectly maintained,” his casual style was “genius branding” and that the way he held his microphone was a “casual power move.”

    Since the backlash, D’Souza issued an apology, saying that complimenting people based on their appearance was not something the company intended to do in their mission to connect people.

    It’s been a very exposing few weeks in the tech sphere, from Zuckerberg’s earlier mentioned comments to Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and X, appearing to do a Nazi salute twice at Trump’s inauguration. A call for more masculine energy in tech is hardly going to encourage some of the half a million missing women from the sector, as revealed by research from BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, to join the industry.

    The leadership of one person does not necessarily reflect the feelings or values of an entire nation, or an entire sector. However, the Broady incident does provide insight into a clear disconnect between the formidable abilities of nascent technology and a willingness to use it in a considered and responsible manner.

    Given how polarising a character Donald Trump is, putting his rhetoric front and centre of a campaign representing a platform that’s meant to engender connectivity and accessibility can only charitably be described as misguided).

  61. UK Government To Offer Digital Wallet

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    In a flurry of government digital announcements, including Plans for Change which rely heavily on AI integration, the UK government is now launching an app will include a wallet and digital drivers license.

    The app will include multiple government services and offer digital forms of ID, as well as providing an online format to apply for childcare or report lost documents.

    The Gov.uk Wallet will be launched in conjunction with the app, and will provide users with the ability to get digital drivers licenses.

    At first the app and Wallet will offer driving licenses and Veteran Cards, which will be piloted over the summer. By 2027, the app will offer even more, including DBS and other government-issued credentials.

    “For people who choose to use Gov.uk Wallet, they will find it easier to prove they’re entitled to benefits or check their age when buying alcohol or DIY equipment, with more security and trust than ever before,” Peter Kyle science, innovation, and technology secretary, said. “Crucially, it also opens huge opportunities to make interacting with public services much easier by putting people in control of their own data.

    “We will be overhauling how the public sector uses technology which is essential to delivering our Plan for Change, and in combination with this new tech for people to use themselves, we are going to slash the time people waste dealing with annoying processes so they can focus on what matters to them.”

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    The full app is set to be launched in summer 2025, which will offer the app and an accompanying website, which will even allow people to apply for benefits or find a job on their phone.

    People can also receive notifications and alerts on topics like application or policy updates that are relevant to their personal profile.

    “Having access to their HM Armed Forces Veteran Card via their smartphone will help make it even easier for them to verify their veteran status and access the support and benefits they’re entitled to,” Alistair Carns, minister for veterans and people said, commenting on how the Veteran Card will be one of the first digital offerings.

    “This is a government committed to delivering for all those who serve and have served. We’re turning words into action to improve life for every veteran.”

  62. Comment: The End of DEI in the US Cannot Follow Suit in the UK – Here’s Why

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    Technology was front and centre at the US inauguration earlier this week. A lineup of leaders from Meta, Google, Amazon and Apple gathered behind President Trump as he took the oath of office.  

    Their presence followed a maelstrom of news in recent weeks surrounding the rollback of diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in major tech organisations in an apparent hat-tip to the incoming administration.  

    Their moves were perhaps justified as, within the first few hours of President Trump’s taking office, it was announced that he would oversee plans to review and possibly end what he described as “discriminatory programmes,” including that of diversity training initiatives. 

    But the changes could run much deeper, with damaging consequences to the global tech sector. In parallel to these announcements, we heard from Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg calling for workplaces to reintroduce a more “masculine energy” (which has led to many parodies around the ubiquitous “tech bros” running Silicon Valley). 

    Having spent my career championing women and individuals from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities in the tech sector, such words make me shudder – and worry. Given the global nature of the tech sector, I am concerned that the UK – including Scotland – might see the fallout of this policy reversal and workplace cultural mandate and it will ultimately be to the benefit of no one.  

    DEI brings big business wins 

    Positively, we have seen some US organisations (not just in the tech sector) push back through their investors, recognising that the disposal of DEI programmes could not only impact their reputation as employers, but also their bottom lines. For instance, Apple’s board of directiors assured investors that their DEI initiatives would be well protected even under the new US regime.  

    Once considered a “nice to have” policy, DEI programmes are now powerful organisational initiatives. From a financial perspective, fully inclusive organisations are typically able to hit their financial targets by 120%. Additionally, diverse organisations are 35% more likely to outperform their more homogenous competitors.  

    But the benefits are not just financial; organisations with diverse teams are 87% more likely to make better decisions and innovation has been shown to increase nearly two fold (1.7 times).

    In what has been a challenging market environment for many, the benefits (certainly from my perspective) appear to outweigh the negatives.  

    Keeping focus on DEI 

    While many UK-based organisations already have a rich seam of DEI initiatives and programmes, ensuring that they remain (and are not subject to being cut because of US policies) and run deeper to strengthen the experience and skills of a company is vital.  

    I see a plethora of organisations excelling in this area, but for those who may not have officially dipped their toes in the DEI waters, there are some easy steps you can take to build or enhance diversity and inclusion within your organisation: 

    1. Empower your people  

    As they say, change comes from within. As a starting point, look at who is in your organisation and who has the passion to make that change. DEI programmes shouldn’t be enforced by HR – they take the contribution of everyone in a company.  

    From offering mentoring programmes to establishing women in technology working groups who can hear from other organisations about how they have championed parity in the workplace – when diversity becomes a part of the culture of a company and isn’t an “add on,” then you know are doing something right.  

    2. Extend your partnerships  

    Learning from others is another major aspect of supporting diversity. There are many magnificent organisations working in Scotland and the UK to do just that, including The DataKirk, Black and Scot, and Empowering You. By engaging with organisations like these and taking on their insights and knowledge, it will benefit your organisation in spades.  

    It isn’t just about professional partnerships, though, as looking at the source of your talent pool is just as important.  

    For a time, new applicants were required to be educated to Masters degree level, but now, more organisations recognise the value in the person rather than their qualification.  

    Forrit’s apprenticeship programme, for example, welcomes those who have completed an HNC and then supports them through their degree – all while working.  

    EY offers similar programmes – all showing that having a degree doesn’t isn’t the qualifying factor to entering the workforce anymore. Therefore, it’s an idea to work with local colleges to increase profile and opportunities with talented students thus extending your talent pool.  

    3. Reframe returners 

    In being a champion of diversity, it is also as much about looking at who is not present as who is – and giving those who are not a seat at the table. Data from the British Computing Society last year estimated that the UK tech sector was ‘missing’ half a million women. This follows individuals leaving the sector because of personal circumstances, the impact of the pandemic, or not being supported by their organisation.  

    Creating opportunities and a culture that supports their needs and allows for flexible or hybrid working along with relevant upskilling programmes could make a significant difference to organisations and positively benefit the culture of organisations too.  

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    Rather than considering returners as lacking in any specific area, the opposite is true – from boosting the presence of role models to increasing perspectives from having been focused on other aspects of their lives, organisations will win either way.  

    4. Champion diverse excellence 

    Whatever the initiative you action in your organisation, make sure that you take the time to recognise it. DEI takes time. There are no two ways about it. It also takes passion, so using opportunities like Town Halls, weekly meetings or submitting individuals for awards to be celebrated amongst industry peers can go a long way. 

    5. Act now, talk later 

    Guaranteeing that DEI programmes continue and become more engrained in the fabric of an organisation won’t happen through talk – it will take action. With so much potentially at risk following a shift in policies across the pond, organisations need to do more – and now – to realise the potential benefits that successful diversity programmes bring.  

    Creating a culture of action will give those with the passion and fire the opportunity to continue to drive and enhance the programmes that already exist.  

    Being open to new ideas is what this is all about and appreciating the nuances that every single individual brings in an organisation. Following the rule of inspiring for inclusivity rather and culling committees where no action is ever taken is a must.                                  

    Mirroring success 

    We are fortunate that in Scotland there are a plethora of organisations doing DEI well – and I hope they won’t be pressured to change because of the global geo-political environment.  

    From Women in Tech Aberdeen to Morgan Stanley Glasgow Women in Technology Network and Amazon Women in Engineering, we see cohorts of individuals working collectively to negate the opinion that the tech sector is “male, pale and stale”.  

    Equally though, gender allies have a role to play and at last year’s Scotland Women in Technology Awards we saw how men from 2i Testing and Barclays are supporting and championing the voice of women in their team’s and wider organisations.  

    We must hold on to the hugely positive – the action that is being taken – and ensure that as a collective we do not take our foot off the DEI gas.  

    Rather than consider DEI as an “alphabet” policy that can be easily shoved into the back of a dusty cabinet, I implore tech leaders in the UK (both with and without ties to the US) to make sure that they keep their eye on diversity within their organisations.  

    Not only will such a focus bring big business benefits, but it could have hugely positive outcomes for your organisation as an employer brand.   

  63. Scotland Bucks Trend of Slowing UK Tech Incorporations

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    The number of new UK technology incorporations feel 5% in 2024 compared to the previous year, marking the first annual decline since 2020, according to analysis by audit, tax and consulting firm RSM UK.

    The data shows a total of 48,518 new tech companies were incorporated in 2024, down from 52,017 in 2023. The number of incorporations also fell for the third consecutive quarter in Q4 2024, from 11,368 in Q3 to 11,031 in Q4.

    However, while most UK regions saw a year-on-year decline, Scotland was one of the few regions to experience growth, at 5%, along with Northern Ireland (21%), and the North East (8%).

    This bucks the trend of even London, the city which accounts for the highest number of tech incorporations, which saw its first annual decline in five years, down 6% from 26,060 in 2023 to 24,455 in 2024.

    “The fall in UK tech incorporations in 2024 points to lower business confidence and a slowing tech sector which will come as more tough news for the Chancellor,” Ben Bilsland, partner and head of technology industry at RSM UK, commented.

    “With weak economic growth, high interest rates and high inflation, and businesses set to bear the brunt of the Chancellor’s tax rises, confidence among tech businesses is diminishing.

    “Uncertainty in the US, particularly surrounding new policies and potential tariffs, is also partly to blame for caution in UK tech boardrooms as they take a ‘wait and see’ approach.

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    “Ultimately, the growing costs associated with starting a business, finding talented people, and scaling it, is viewed as too risky for some entrepreneurs.

    “Despite recent positive noises from the government around investing in AI, tech businesses still have to wait until the spring to see the full details and the impact is not expected to be immediate. A forward looking and positive stance on AI is welcomed as it represents a huge growth opportunity for the sector.

    “Many tech businesses feel they’ve been overlooked as the Autumn Budget did not include much in the way of fresh policies and funding to directly stimulate the sector.

    “It is crucial for the UK that the government delivers a plan to ensure that founders on the cusp of tech evolution have enough incentive to launch their idea in the UK, rather than taking it overseas.

    “This may be in the form of generous tax breaks, direct funding or further plans around enterprise zones. Without some form of urgent action, this downward trend in tech incorporations will continue, and the UK will fall behind on the global stage.”

    Number of new technology company incorporations – year-on-year comparison

    Region 2023 2024 % change
    East Midlands 1,627 1,618 -1%
    East of England 3,730 3,628 -3%
    London 26,060 24,455 -6%
    North East 704 758 8%
    North West 3,602 3,528 -2%
    Northern Ireland 377 458 21%
    Scotland 1,553 1,633 5%
    South East 5,160 4,981 -3%
    South West 2,422 2,148 -11%
    Wales 1,150 924 -20%
    West Midlands 2,797 2,641 -6%
    Yorkshire and The Humber 1,835 1,746 -5%
    Total 51,017 48,518 -5%

    Separate analysis from Beauhurst shows the top five subsectors which saw the highest number of incorporations include application software, marketing brand and advertising, AI, video games, and HR tech and recruitment.

    “It comes as no surprise that AI ranks so highly given the surge in interest in recent years,” Henry Whorwood, managing director of research and consultancy at Beauhurst, added.

    “In addition, these are just the companies actively working on AI, so the number of businesses set up to commercialise other company’s AI tools will be even higher. Video games has long been a very strong industry for the UK which looks set to continue given the number of innovative companies being launched.”

  64. 2025 Scottish Economic Conditions Start Out Weak

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    The pathway to economic growth in 2025 is riddled with challenges as we exited 2024 with weak economic and business conditions, as well as dismal expectations.

    Despite this, current expectations are that growth in 2025 will be an improvement compared to 2024, according to the latest quarterly economic assessment by the Fraser of Allander Institute at the University of Strathclyde.

    In the Deloitte sponsored economic commentary, the Institute’s economists are forecasting that growth in 2024 will end up at 0.9% and will be followed by 1.3% growth in 2025, and 1.2% growth in 2026.

    The forecast for 2025 is a significant revision up from previous estimates, driven by large increases in government spending during 2025-26.

    However, as the latest analysis shows, the concern is that this growth could be a short-term boost rather than leading to increased growth in the medium to long term.

    Analysis of the information published alongside the UK Budget shows that in the medium term, the measures announced by the UK government in the budget will mean that inflation and interest rates are higher for longer, and real incomes lower than would otherwise be the case.

    “The UK Government were keen to present their Budget in October as supporting growth, and that they had avoided tax increases on working people,” professor Mairi Spowage, director of the institute, said.

    “However, the analysis alongside the Budget shows that that impact of measures will reduce growth in the medium term and that tax increases will mostly be passed through to workers through less employment and fewer wage increases.

    “The UK Government will be hoping that improvements in public services will start to be felt, given extra public spending, and that growth will surprise on the upside to make future fiscal events easier. The reaction of businesses to the budget, with taxation increasing as a concern, may make that more difficult.”

    Douglas Farish, head of tax for Deloitte in Scotland, added: “Businesses across the country are navigating somewhat of a balancing act, striving to attract and retain top talent while managing cost pressures and economic uncertainty.

    “Demographic shifts and evolving workplace demands are straining labour markets, and the rise of AI is reshaping the skills businesses require, underscoring the need for adaptive workforce strategies that ensure innovation and productivity thrive alongside human expertise.”

    As a result of the UK Government’s Budget, the Scottish Government had more money to allocate for 2025-26 than had previously been expected, with a £3.4bn uplift on the previous envelope for 2025-26. In particular, there was a considerable uplift in capital spending, which has allowed key capital budgets, such as the affordable housing programme, to have funding restored.

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    “The Scottish Government had more flexibility than they were likely expecting given the increases in funding for 2025-26,” Dr Joao Sousa, deputy director of the Institute, said.

    “Overall, though, this budget in December had one eye on the Holyrood election in May 2026, with announcements on mitigation of the two-child benefit cap from April 2026.

    “This issue has proven key, with Scottish Labour now set to abstain on the Budget which is likely to ensure it will pass.

    “Wider issues about fiscal sustainability remain, though, with higher public sector pay in Scotland, the much larger public sector, and the increasing proportion of the Scottish Budget, which is taken up by social security payments, which will increase further given the decision on the two-child cap.”

  65. Gartner: Global IT Spending to Grow 9.8% in 2025

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    Worldwide IT spending is expected to total $5.61 trillion in 2025, an increase of 9.8% from 2024, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.

    “While budgets for CIOs are increasing, a significant portion will merely offset price increases within their recurrent spending,” said John-David Lovelock, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner.

    “This means that, in 2025, nominal spending versus real IT spending will be skewed, with price hikes absorbing some or all of budget growth. All major categories are reflecting higher-than-expected prices, prompting CIOs to defer and scale back their true budget expectations.”

    While GenAI is set to influence IT spending, IT spending will not necessarily be on GenAI itself.

    Segments of spend predicted by Gartner include data centre systems, devices and software, which are all expected to see double-digit growth in 2025, largely due to generative AI hardware upgrades.

    However, these upgraded segments will not differentiate themselves in terms of functionality yet, even with new hardware.

    Worldwide IT Spending Forecast (Millions of US Dollars) 

     

    2024 Spending

    		  

    2024 Growth (%)

    		  

    2025 Spending

    		  

    2025 Growth (%)
    Data Centre Systems 329,132 39.4 405,505 23.2
    Devices 734,162 6.0 810,234 10.4
    Software 1,091,569 12.0 1,246,842 14.2
    IT Services 1,588,121 5.6 1,731,467 9.0
    Communications Services  1,371,787  

    2.3

    		  

    1,423,746

    		  

    3.8
    Overall IT 5,114,771 7.7 5,617,795 9.8
    Source: Gartner (January 2025)

    “GenAI is sliding toward the trough of disillusionment [on the Gartner Hype Cycle] which reflects CIOs declining expectations for GenAI, but not their spending on this technology,” said Lovelock.

    “For instance, the new AI ready PCs do not yet have ‘must have’ applications that utilise the hardware. While both consumers and businesses will purchase AI-enabled PC, tablets and mobile phones, those purchases will not be overly influenced by the GenAI functionality.”

    Spending on AI-optimised servers easily doubles spending on traditional servers in 2025, reaching $202 billion dollars.

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    “IT services companies and hyperscalers account for over 70% of spending in 2025,” said Lovelock. “By 2028, hyperscalers will operate $1 trillion dollars’ worth of AI optimised servers, but not within their traditional business model or IaaS Market. Hyperscalers are pivoting to be part of the oligopoly AI model market.”

  66. Government Interrogates Use of Computer Evidence in Court

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    The UK government will examine the role of computer evidence in the criminal justice system through a call for evidence to prevent future miscarriages of justice, following years of proceedings relating to the Horizon Post Office scandal.

    The government’s call for evidence highlights the misnomer that computers, and the evidence they process, are infallible until proven otherwise.

    The limitations of this notion, however, were highlighted by the wrongful convictions of hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters in the Post Office Horizon scandal.

    Faults in the Post Office’s accounting software – which was denied by the Post Office for years – proved the fallibility of digital evidence and the potential for devastating miscarriages of justice if evidence is not thoroughly interrogated, and if testimonies of people dealing with the technology are not believed.

    By seeking new ways to ensure people are better protected from miscarriages of justice, the review aims to help build on the government’s broader efforts to restore public confidence in policing and the criminal justice system through its Plan for Change announced this week.

    Computer evidence forms a substantial part of many modern prosecutions, particularly in crimes such as fraud, which can involve thousands of digital documents. Digital evidence is also often used in rape and serious sexual offence cases.

    Any change requiring the prosecution to prove any computer deice works correctly could impact how quickly cases can be completed, meaning that any legislation affecting this must be well though out and future proofed.

    The call for evidence is therefore seeking expert input on how computer evidence should be defined and what could fall into scope of any change to the law.

    Distinctions may be made between text messages and social media posts and evidence which has been specifically generated by a computer system or software.

    It will further seek views from organisations and individuals with experience of the criminal justice system, along with those with expertise in computers and software.

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    The government did clarify that the miscarriages of justice which occurred in the Post Office cases were down to deliberate failures to properly interrogate and disclose evidence – which prevented postmasters and others from effectively challenging the reliability of the Horizon computer system evidence.

    Any changes to the presumption would not be able to further protect against instances where parties mislead a court on the accuracy of the evidence – this would count as perjury, a separate crime.

    However, removing or changing this presumption could mean defendants are better equipped to interrogate computer evidence against them, and would put more onus on the party supplying the digital evidence to ensure it can stand up to scrutiny.

    “We must learn the lessons of the Post Office scandal,” justice minister Sarah Sackman KC said.

    “A blanket ‘no questions asked’ acceptance of the accuracy of digital evidence can have a devastating impact on people’s lives.

    “We need to carefully consider how we can both use and interrogate digital evidence in court. Ensuring people are protected from miscarriages of justice is vital, and one part of the government’s Plan for Change.”

  67. EU Adds Hate Speech Guidance to Digital Services Act

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    The EU is sharpening its online hate speech guidelines following some revealing rollbacks from major tech companies prompted by right-wing backlash and the inauguration of Donald Trump as the US President.

    Hate speech online will be included in the EU’s Digital Services Act, which would formalise a code that was voluntarily agreed to by big tech back in 2016.

    The new code of content explains how companies are expected to deal with potentially harmful material, such as hate speech, or content that can incite violence.

    Under the code, compliant organisations will agree to check two in three content removal requests within 24 hours of being reports, as well as issuing better transparency over hate speech.

    It also says that cooperating corporations should allow a network of ‘monitoring reporters’ – entities with expertise on illegal hate speech, to regularly monitor these hate speech notices.

    The European Commission has clarified that the code is not a mandatory stipulation of the DSA, but instead the Commission will take it into consideration as a reference point when enforcing other aspects of the DSA, according to a press briefing.

    Previous signers of the 2016 code include Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Twitch, and others.

    While the EU does not have a specific definition of hate speech, member countries must criminalise hate speech against racial, ethnic, and religious groups. Some countries have elected to have also criminalised hate speech against gender identify and sexual orientation.

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    The move comes after Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg announced several measures, including cutting its fact checking programme, getting rid of the company’s DEI imitative, and rolling back hate speech protections against the LGBTQ community.

    Specifically, Meta’s new hate speech moderation rules, which affect Facebook and Instagram, no long classify posts that contend that members of the LGBTQ community suffer from a mental illness as hate speech.

    The Commission also said that it plans to formalise a new code of practice on disinformation, which it hopes to finalise soon.

  68. UK Lags Behind Europe in 5G Availability

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    The UK is lagging behind most of the EU in terms of 5G availability, with just 42% of the UK populous having 5G devices that are mainly connected to 5G networks.

    This is in contrast to Europe’s top competitors, the Nordic countries, with Denmark in the lead with 83.4% 5G availability. Switzerland is the only other country to beat the 80% threshold.

    This is according to new research from Speedtest.net, which assessed the 5G progress across European countries in terms of connection availability.

    The results are somewhat disappointing for the UK, which appeared to be a trend setter in the earlier days of 5G performance and adoption.

    A series of policy issues, such as the ban of Hauwei which was predicted to potentially delay 5G rollout completion by up to three years, as well as delays to spectrum releases by Ofcom which could improve urban 5G availability, are likely culprits behind this lag behind European competitors.

    Previous and current government policies to ensure 5G hits all populated areas by 2030 seem vague and potentially too low of a target to effectively catch up.

    This does not even begin to mention the issues around rural and remote connectivity woes, and the delay of 4G rollout to some of the UK’s most disconnected locations.

    Commercial 5G rollout continues to struggle to catchup with masts and fibre optics, as planning permissions can delay construction as well.

    The research from Speedtest, however, does point out that spectrum configuration decisions are pivitol to the prospects of continued connectivity success, as well as being directly linked to the quality of this connection.

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    European countries that are outperforming the UK, including Ireland (at 61.9% 5G availability) and the Netherlands (60.5%), have done so by relying on Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) which enables 4G and 5G networks to share the same frequency bands at the same time

    While a cost-effective method to expand 5G coverage, the reliance on DSS can negatively impact 5G performance and is therefore meant to be a temporary technique used only until more 5G networks are produced.

    The Nordic model of not relying on DSS for their expansion, making 5G rollout key to their digital strategy, and encouraging higher levels of inter-operator collaboration on mobile infrastructure buildouts has contributed to their 5G rollout success.

    While the UK still outperforms countries like Hungary (23.6%) and Slovenia (36.8%), 5G rollout needs to be of continued importance to protect the success of businesses, enable equal access to education, and eradicate digital exclusion.

  69. IT Supply Chain Overhaul in Wake of CrowdStrike Outage

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    The July 2024 CrowdStrike outage has triggered a major rethink of tech supply chains, as businesses around the world look to build IT resilience and minimise risk, research from Adaptavist, the digital transformation technology and solutions provider, today reveals.

    Six months on from the incident, which affected 8.5 million devices worldwide, the findings show a decisive shift in vendor relationships and a loss of confidence in traditional single-vendor approaches, with only 16.25% of respondents expressing satisfaction with their current providers.

    The study – which surveyed 400 people with software development responsibilities in organisations with $10 million or more in annual revenue in the UK, US and Germany – showed the outage has fuelled fears of a supply chain incident, with 10% viewing over-reliance on single-vendor solutions as the biggest threat to their company’s IT resilience.

    Some 42% believe that a vendor they rely on will cause a major incident, demonstrating how companies are increasingly approaching supplier relations with caution.

    As a direct response to CrowdStrike, Adaptavist’s findings show that some 27% are actively diversifying their software and service providers, while 57% are considering, revealing a widescale response from organisations to mitigate risk.

    However, despite waning confidence, organisations aren’t simply abandoning existing relationships. 37% say they are actively strengthening partnerships with current vendors, while 34.25% are increasing their reliance on open-source solutions, suggesting a sophisticated approach to risk management.

    The incident has further catalysed comprehensive reform of software management practices. 29.5% say they are much more cautious and delay updates, 30.75% are moving towards more in-house development, and around 20% plan to implement Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), stress testing (20.75%), and monitoring and visibility (19.75%) for the first time.

    Additionally, three-quarters (74.5%) of respondents report placing greater emphasis on vendor risk management, with 32.5% actively exploring multi-vendor solutions, and 29.75% implementing more rigorous testing protocols, indicating a systematic approach to reducing future risks.

    Organisations are backing this strategic evolution with significant resources.

    The study reveals that 79.25% have increased investment in IT infrastructure, while an unprecedented 99.5% plan to hire additional technical staff.

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    This investment surge suggests organisations are serious about building long-term resilience, rather than implementing temporary fixes.

    Overall, the research underscored how the incident has catalysed positive change, with 74% reporting improved collaboration between IT and other departments, which may explain their enthusiasm for diversification.

    Meanwhile, 84% are investing more money into training for existing staff, bolstering training across cybersecurity (87.5%), incident response (86%), software testing (89%), Agile, and DevOps practices training (89.25%) to plug any remaining gaps.

    “This research paints a complex picture of the challenges facing organisations as they work to strengthen their digital resilience,” Jon Mort, chief technology officer at Adaptavist commented.

    “The data suggests a fundamental reshaping of the software industry’s approach to vendor relationships, moving toward a model that balances the benefits of strong vendor partnerships with the resilience of diversified technology stacks. This isn’t just diversification for diversification’s sake – it represents a mature evolution in how organisations approach technology partnerships and risk management.

    “However, this underscores a growing need for strong service management practices that provide greater visibility and insights. The next critical challenge is going to be finding the right equilibrium between people, processes, and technology. We need to empower IT teams to work with confidence – safe in the knowledge that their processes can withstand scrutiny – if we want to ensure long-term resilience and security.”

  70. £150M AI Framework Set to Boost NHS

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    The back office services systems for the NHS has issued a tender for £150m to cover the use of AI to improve the efficiency of diagnosis.

    The NHS Shared Business Service says that their current AI offerings are set to expire, prompting the body to bring together their previous framework agreements into a singular “comprehensive offering.”

    Previous AI offerings from the NHS Shared Business Service included AI software for neuroscience for stroke decision support, and imaging and radiotherapy equipment and diagnostic imaging empowered by AI.

    The new framework agreement will focus how AI can be applied to different specialities, empowered by new efficient ways to optimise clinical workflow along diagnoses, prevention, and treatment.

    AI can help with a number of tasks, Bevington explained, ranging from improving the accuracy of diagnosis and helping with preventative care through faster screenings, to resource management, efficient treatment planning, and specialised support for organisations adopting smart technology.

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    The new framework agreement will be initially split into six lots depending on AI’s prospective application:

    Lot 1. Radiology and diagnostic imaging will be the first lot, where early detection and diagnostic will be achieved through data analysis and medical imaging across neurology, oncology, cardiology, urology, and ophthalmology.

    Lot 2. Similarly, the second lot will focus on early detection and diagnostic through data analysis and medical imaging, this time focusing on pathology such as dermatology, haematology, and virology.

    Lot 3. This lot will focus on using predictive analysis to improve management, such as patient flow and experience, hospital admissions and discharges, and patient appointments by using health data.

    Lot 4. Research and development, including cross-institution collaboration, will be supported, possibly in  drug discovery and clinical trials.

    Lot 5. Clinical workflow optimisation will also be enhanced with AI, as well as supply chain management.

    Lot 6. Specialist support, such as training, consultancy, and implementation will also be boosted by Ai.

    “AI has the potential to transform NHS patient care, speeding up diagnosis and treatment times by ensuring that expert clinical resource is targeted where it has the greatest impact for the patient,” Kelly Bevington, senior category manager of digital and IT at NHS Shared Business Service said in a blog post about the new offering.

  71. TikTok and Other Chinese Companies Face GDPR Complaints

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    While it faces an imminent ban in the US, TikTok is now facing potential GDPR fines in the EU alongside five other Chinese tech companies.

    It’s been a rocky start of the year for TikTok, as the social media website faces a ban in the US that has users running toward alternatives, and the company’s only saving grace in the country may be a reversal of the ban by Donald Trump, the convicted felon who will return to the office of the US President on Monday.

    Now, TikTok, along with AliExpress Shein, Temu, WeChat and Xiaomi are facing GDPR violation allegations from Noyb, the European Centre for Digital Rights which typically leads to the charge against major GDPR violators.

    The advocacy group claims that these companies send European’s personal data outside of the EU, specifically back to China, which is in violation of GDPR.

    Following EU complainants filing access requests to the six companies to see if their data was transferred outside of the EU, and the companies failing to respond, Noyb filed their complaints.

    Organisations operating within the EU are not allowed to transfer EU citizens’ data outside of the EU unless they are explicitly allowed to, and even then, the organisations and the countries they transfer to must meet stringent data protection requirements.

    Shein, AliExpress, Xiaomi, and TikTok all do explicitly mention data transfers to China in their terms and conditions, while WeChat and Temu simply note unspecified “third countries.”

    Organisations can transfer data outside of the EU if they employ Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), in which the non-EU entity agrees to abide by EU data protections.

    However, this process is only possible when the EU can verify that European data will be secure in the foreign country, and that the SCCs will not conflict or be overwritten by any national laws that call for access to the personal data.

    With these matters in mind, Noyb did not mince its words or cloud its concerns: “Given that China ia an authoritarian surveillance state, it is crystal clear that China doesn’t offer the same level of data protection as the EU,” one of Noyb’s data protection lawyers, Kleanthi Sardeli, said.

    And this fear of unrestricted government data access is not unfounded – taking a look at Xiaomi’s transparancy reports, Noyb was able to view unfettered access to its private data by the Chinese government.

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    The advocacy group found that Xiaomi complied on almost every occasion the Chinese government requested access to its customer data.

    Further, Noyb also warns that China lacks an organisations that citizens can turn to for concerns on government surveillance, leaving it impossible for foreigners to exert their data rights in the nation.

    The Noyb filing’s reasoning is awfully similar to why TikTok is currently facing a ban in the US, which has left US users scrambling to find an alternative.

    US officials claim to be protecting citizens from the possibility of Chinese-state surveillance, as China’s data policies would allow the government access to any data it requests.

    However, the founding nature of Noyb should wrinkle some noses due to the slight stench of hypocrisy. The EU severed its data adequacy agreements with the US for similar reasons, after Edward Snowden revealed that the US is surveillance of its own citizens, and Max Shrems of Noyb pointed out that this would be true of EU citizen data that is transferred to the country as well.

    Only last year did the EU renew its data adequacy agreement with the US, making it easier for companies to transfer data to the nation, though a clause in the agreement has garnered much controversy. The data agreement, which was ratified by executive order by then-President Joe Biden, said that the US would refrain from requesting or accessing EU citizen data unless it is required for national security – the benchmarks of which can change at the drop of a hat.

    It is important to also note that, even with the GDPR fines and the TikTok ban, the main issue revolves around where personal data ends up and who can see it – it already surrenders the fact that these corporations are harvesting personal data and often selling it for capital gain.

  72. Three Scottish Firms Make UK Top 100 Tech List

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    Three Scottish companies were highlighted in the Sunday Times ranking of the UK’s fastest-growing tech companies.

    The new 100 Tech list from the Sunday Times ranks Britain’s top contending private tech companies, with the inaugural list featuring three Scottish firms.

    Utopi, a Glasgow-based smart sensors firm, was named as Scotland’s fastest-growing technology company. The company was also featured in Deloitte’s 2024 round up of fast-growing tech firms.

    The firm offers data management solutions for asset managers, estate investors, and operators. The company gained traction with its analytics devices which track energy usage, aiming to help users manage their costs and reach sustainability goals.

    Founded by Ben Roberts, Falk Bleyl, John Trower, and CEO Jonathan Burridge, the company had sales reaching £6m in 2024, with 100,000 devices installed across the globe.

    Skyrora, the Glasgow-based rocket firm preparing for a launch at SaxaVord spaceport, was also featured on the list.

    In 2022, the space firm built the largest rocket engine manufacturing facility in the country at the time.

    Safer Group, based in Port Glasgow, is a site security technology company that rounded out Scotland’s contribution to the top 100 list, and was ranked the 20th fastest-growing tech firm in the country.

    The firm launched a new office in Inverclyde this year, after its first international expansion in 2023.

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    In order to qualify for the list, companies must have been independent and privately owned, as well as headquartered in the UK.

    Most of the companies were based in London (56), and less than a fifth were founded or are led by a woman (17).

    According to the research, which was conducted in collaboration with Beauhurst, the companies collectively generated £3.2bn in sales, an increase of £2.6bn from three years ago.

    In total, the companies employee about 20,700 people, with 11,200 new jobs created in just the last three years.

    Beauhurst, which provides data of private companies, also found that over 90 of the featured companies gained some external investment, totally to £10bn, with large individual amounts contributing greatly to the figure.

  73. Great Responsibility Does Not Come With Great Paychecks, CISOs Say

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    The success of the CISO revolves around their strategic relationship with the board, research has found, as CISOs continue to expand their role.

    This is based on the IANS Research and Artico research in the State of the CISO 2025 Report, which categorises executive cybersecurity leaders into three distinct segments based on their organisational influence and executive access.

    While Functional CISOs, who have significant influence in the C-suite or the board but lack consistent visbility in both areas, make up half of all CISOs (50%), strategic CISOs (28%) tend to excel in influencing these arenas as they successfully align cybersecurity with broader business goals.

    Tactical CISOs (22%) tend to have even less influence with the board and C-suite, and are often positioned as back-office technical practitioners.

    “With CISO scope expanding and evolving, security leaders continue to be viewed as business executives rather than simply technical leaders,” said Steve Martano, IANS faculty and executive Cyber Recruiter at Artico Search.

    “Effective communication with senior executives has never been more important, as alignment between business strategy and security programming is essential for long-term partnership and success.

    “This report demonstrates that board engagement and C-suite access is critical in shaping the future of a security program and a CISO’s career.”

    Equally, it seems just as important to gain greater job satisfaction and a higher paycheck, as Strategic CISOs earn 57% more than their functional peers, and twice as much as Tactical CISOs.

    However, taking on more responsibilities does not seem to correlate to a higher salary, as only 3% of CISOs credit any salary hikes to this.

    This is despite a onslaught of extra work being added onto cybersecurity leaders plates, with 1-25% of them reporting AI, change management, digital transformation, and other tasks added to their workload.

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    It does seem that board influence may mean more than extra workloads in terms of pay and job satisfaction, though security leaders did report these extra responsibilities do correlate to at least some merit increases.

    It may be difficult for CISOs to break into board influence though, as only 47% of cybersecurity leaders engage with boards on a monthly or quarterly basis, and 42% meet with their boards on an ad hoc basis, if at all.

    The increasing responsibility remit of security leaders is reflected in the emergence of hybrid roles, such as dual CISO/CIO and external board seats, which are gaining traction among experienced CISOs. These positions allow security leaders to expand their influence and command a higher compensation.

    “The CISO role is undergoing a seismic shift—they are no longer just security leaders but are increasingly pivotal business strategists,” noted Nick Kakolowski, senior research director at IANS.

    “As their responsibilities expand into areas like business risk and IT oversight, the ability to align cybersecurity with organizational goals sets transformative leaders apart. Those who navigate these expanded responsibilities effectively are redefining the role as indispensable to business success, amplifying their influence and driving greater organizational impact.”

  74. Report: The Future of AI Hinges on Data Storage

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    Businesses leaders across 15 industry sectors and 10 countries expect that adoption of AI applications will generate unprecedented volumes of data, driving a boom in demand for data storage, in particular cloud-based storage, according to a Recon Analytics survey commissioned by Seagate Technology.

    With hard drives delivering scalability relative to terabyte-per-dollar cost efficiencies, cloud service providers rely on hard drivers to store mass quantities of data.

    Recently, analyst firm IDC estimated that 89% of data stored by leading cloud service providers is stores on hard drives.

    Now, according to this Recon Analytics study, nearly two-thirds of respondents (61%) from companies that use cloud as their leading storage medium expect their cloud-based storage to grow by more than 100% over the next three years.

    “The survey results generally point to a coming surge in demand for data storage, with hard drives emerging as the clear winner,” remarked Roger Entner, founder and lead analyst of Recon Analytics.

    “When you consider that the business leaders we surveyed intend to store more and more of this AI-driven data in the cloud, it appears that cloud services are well-positioned to ride a second growth wave.”

    With nearly three in four (72%) of business leaders surveyed saying that their business uses AI today, this could lead cloud usage to skyrocket overall.

    And the importance of this is not lost on leaders, as those surveyed ranked storage as the second most important component of AI infrastructure, only beat by security.

    Of those businesses which have adopted AI technology, 90% believe longer data retention improves the quality of AI outcomes.

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    Further, the vast majority (88%) of respondents who use AI today believe that adoption of trustworthy AI requires an increased need to store more data for longer periods of time.

    This all points to a trend toward organisations retaining data for longer periods of time to ensure they have the data integrity needed to optimally train AI models. In order to AI innovation and adoption to continue, AI results and outcomes need to become increasingly accurate.

    “Trustworthy AI is really the key to enabling mainstream adoption of AI,” said BS Teh, Chief Commercial Officer of Seagate.

    “With the vast majority of survey respondents saying they need to store data for longer periods of time to improve quality outcomes of AI, we’re focused on areal density innovation needed to increase storage capacity for each platter in our HAMR-based hard drives. We have a clear pathway to more than double per-platter storage capacity over the next few years.”

  75. 2024 Saw A Record Number of Ransomware Victims

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    2024 saw a record number of ransomware victims, according to an annual report from GuidePoint Research and Intelligence Team (GRIT).

    The number of publicly posted ransomware victims reached 4,848, with a high in Q4 of 1,600.

    The record setting figure is despite a slump in ransomware cases over Q2 and Q3, likely the result of the disruption of major ransomware gangs LockBit and Black Cat.

    The number of ransomware attackers also reached a new high, however, with a 40% increase in active threat groups since last year.

    The total number of attacks came from a range of gangs and was less dominated by top groups, pointing to the diversifying ecosystem.

    While security professionals expected more of a lull in mid 2024 thanks to the disruption of LockBit and Black Cat, the rise of RansomHub kept them on their toes, contributing to the sustained ransomware threats over the year.

    2024’s Q3 and Q4 also did not suffer the same slump seen in the last two years, with Q4’s record setting claimed ransomware victims likely driven by newcomer gang Funksec and the return of Clop.

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    Over the course of last year, manufacturing was the most targeted industry by ransomware groups, as observed by GRIT. 67% of the tracked ransomware groups claimed at least one victim within the industry last year.

    Banking and finance saw a relative decrease in the number of ransomware victims, with a near 25% drop in observed attacks (245 vs 185).

    While the United States was the most targeted country by far (51.53%), the UK (4.97%) and Canada (4.95%) trailed far behind.

    In terms of vulnerabilities which ransomware groups can exploit, 2024 saw an explosion of different common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs).

    There were 3,900 published CVEs over the year, nearly a 40% increase from 2023. A high level of these CVEs presented substantial risks, and with an average of 378 CVEs published a day, organisations were drowning in potentially exploitable vulnerabilities.

  76. Microsoft To Lay Off More Workers in New Round of Cuts

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    According to reports from Business Insider, Microsoft is planning a second round of layoffs shortly after announcing a round of job cuts just last week.

    The newest round is set to be small, according to confirmation given to Business Insider, with Microsoft reportedly first informing workers of the job cuts on Tuesday.

    The cuts are set to hit a variety of departments, including security, experiences, devices, sales, and gaming.

    Last week, Microsoft revealed that it would cut 1% of its global workforce, with poor performers being shown the door first. This merit-based firing scheme was mimicked earlier this week by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

    The first round of cuts this year were also set to hit the company’s security team.

    The company says it is aiming to take a performance-lead management strategy, evaluating workers over the past few months before deciding on the cuts.

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    According to an internal memo seen by CNBC, Microsoft is asking employees to not expense travel while also pausing hiring efforts in their consultancy department in a bid to cut costs.

    With 2025 just over two weeks in and already two major global tech companies announcing multiple layoff rounds, the a new year of redundancies may be well underway.

    This follows from last year when Microsoft cut jobs at its cloud departments and its gaming divisions.

  77. Ofcom: All Porn Sites Must Introduce Age Verification

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    Websites that provide a platform to any pornographic material, including social media platforms, will now be tasked will issuing “robust” age verification measures as Ofcom issues guidance laid out in the Online Safety Act.

    The new regulation, which will put the onus on platforms to check for age verification potentially in the form of photo ID matches or credit card checks, aims to prevent children from viewing pornographic material online.

    “For too long, many online services which allow porn and other harmful material have ignored the fact that children are accessing their services”, said Ofcom head Melanie Dawes. “Today, this starts to change.”

    Research from the internet watchdog found that the average child will see porn at the age of 13, with some being exposed to the material even earlier.

    The Children’s Commissioner estimated that one in ten UK children see pornography by age nine, due to the material being so readily available and easy to access.

    Most adult websites have lacklustre age checks, asking prospective users to merely click a box to confirm that they are 18 years or older.

    New age checks may require photo ID matches, credit card checks, or even facial age estimation techniques.

    Ofcom has explicitly come down on current pornography sites main form of age verification, saying that “self-declaration of age” is not considered an effective enough method for age checks.

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    The new guidance does provide clarity to firms which have long awaited for Ofcom to set a clear path on the new string of internet safety regulations it will oversee.

    The UK regulator published a list of potential technologies that platforms can employ to verify the ages of their users, from open banking to mobile network operate age checks, digital identity services, and email-based age estimation.

    But privacy advocates are apprehensive about platforms getting more data from users in the form of these checks.

    Silkie Carlo, CEO of privacy advocacy group Big Brother Watch, warned that these age checking methods “introduce additional risks to children and adults alike including security breaches, privacy intrusion, errors, digital exclusion and censorship.”

  78. Orbex Launches New CTO

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    UK-based orbital launch services company, Orbex, has today announced the appointment of its new Chief Technology Officer, Andy Bradford.

    Bradford brings over two decades of experience in the space industry, with specialism in small satellite and launch operations having previously led UK Launch Services Ltd (UKLSL) as CEO and spent over 10 years in various senior technical and project roles, including Director of Engineering, with Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL).

    UKLSL has worked with Orbex since 2017, providing Andy with vast knowledge of the company’s technology and approach.

    Bradford’s appointment comes at a critical time for Orbex as it enters the final preparations of the development of its advanced, low-carbon, high-performance micro-launcher, Orbex Prime. The company is now gearing up to deliver its inaugural launch later this year.

    Andy Bradford said: “Since 2017, in my role as CEO of UKLSL, I’ve worked closely with Orbex to help define and shape the UK’s vertical launch capabilities, and I’m excited to join the company permanently at such a crucial time in its journey, allowing me to fulfil a personal ambition of playing a key role in enabling the first launch of a UK built launch vehicle from UK soil.

    “Orbex’s technology is pivotal in making the UK a hub for European orbital launch and I look forward to bringing my experience to a launch vehicle which will compete with the best of Europe’s spaceflight companies.”

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    Phil Chambers, CEO of Orbex, commented: “We are thrilled to welcome Andy to the Orbex team. He will play a key role in the final development and delivery of Orbex Prime. Andy’s extensive expertise and visionary approach to technology will be invaluable as we prepare for our first launch this year.”

    Bradford’s experience also includes operating as Programme and Technical Director at SSTL, a major UK satellite manufacturer. He is also the current Vice-Chair of the UKSpace Launch Committee (ULC), is a member of the UK Spaceflight Safety and Regulatory Council (SSRC) and a member of the Earth & Space Sustainability Initiative (ESSI) Advisory Board.

  79. AI May Actually Be Coming For Your Job Now

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    New research suggests that UK businesses are turning to AI not just to improve efficiency, but to cut spending on staff.

    The report, commissioned by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), shows that over half (51%) of UK business leaders are planning to redirect their investment expenditures from staff to AI. 44% are looking to prioritise investment in AI.

    Globally, one in three companies plan to allocate over $25 million to AI, the study found.

    The UK tend contrasts with the global overview, which found that less than 10% of executives expect a decrease in headcount due to AI automation.

    This could reflect changing employment conditions in the UK – employer contribution to the National Health Surcharge has increased, and the national minimum wage is set to increase again in April.

    Investing in AI typically requires hiring staff with AI skills, though this trend does not seem to safeguard current jobs and positions, nor has it lead to an increase in overall staffing vacancies.

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    Information and Communication vacancies have seen a downward trend this year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

    UK businesses may be taking a page out of Big Tech’s book, as numerous tech giants site investments in AI as a contributing factor to their continued mass layoffs of staff.

    In the global review, BCG claimed that workers have staying power, as 64% of businesses eye AI and humans working side by side. 22%, however, see AI taking the lead, with humans retaining oversight.

    While the global trend says that job replacement is an overstated fear, it may be a growing reality for UK workers as businesses.

    As Starmer pushes for the UK to utilise AI to drive the growth, it will take time to see how this will affect the workforce.

  80. Dynamic Data Management Key To AI Tool Use

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    In 2025, organisations will shift from static dashboards to dynamic, real-time “conversations with data,” leveraging AI-powered tools that enable natural language queries for instant insights, according to Ataccama predictions.

    This transition will democratise data access, reduce decision fatigue, and foster a more intuitive, impactful approach to analytics.

    According to Krishna Cheriath, CDAO at Thermo Fisher Scientific, “Conversational analytics will make data feel less like a static tool for analysis and more like a dynamic collaborator.”

    Key strategies will include investing in AI-driven tools, focusing on data quality and promoting data literacy to empower teams to make data-driven decisions quickly and confidently.

    Leadership roles in data and AI will expand to encompass strategic business use cases, transforming Chief Data Officers (CDOs) into pivotal players driving innovation and revenue.

    As AI becomes integral the focus on offensive use cases like enhancing customer experiences and innovating business models will become clearer. Success requires building trust in data, securing executive buy-in, and targeting high-impact initiatives.

    Generative AI will move from experimentation to delivering customer-impacting outcomes and after years of exploring its potential, organisations will invest in foundational capabilities to ensure data is trusted and accessible.

    To succeed, identify impactful use cases, such as improving operational efficiencies, and foster cross-functional collaboration for widespread adoption.

    Federated governance will emerge as a balanced model, combining centralised processes with domain-specific expertise which ensures scalability and efficiency.

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    Jess Smith, VP of data quality at Ataccama highlights that, “Data quality will move from a defensive necessity to a strategic enabler.”

    Organisations will shift from merely measuring quality to actively improving it, unlocking innovation and competitiveness, the company predicts.

    Agentic AI, while still in early stages, will pave the way for autonomous data management and governance. Through 2025 will focus on experimentation, laying the groundwork for its adoption is critical for future readiness.

    Data management in 2025 is about driving value, operational efficiency, and preparing for emerging trends. Focus on quality, governance, and actionable use cases to thrive in this evolving landscape, turning data into a catalyst for growth and innovation.

  81. Misinformation and Disinformation Top WEF Short Term Threat List, Again

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    The World Economic Forum (WEF) has found that the number one perceived threat of the next two years is misinformation and disinformation, following the trend of last year’s prediction, according to the organisation’s latest report.

    The WEF’s Global Risks Report 2025 tracks threats on three different temporal spectrums – the current year’s (2025) top threats, short term threats (seen in the next two years) and long term threats (seen in the next ten years).

    While the top short term threat remained misinformation and disinformation, this year’s top risks and the WEF’s long term projections paint a different picture.

    Immediate Threats

    The WEF found that this year’s top threat is state-based armed conflict (23%), with misinformation and disinformation falling to fourth place (7%).

    Extreme weather events (14%), such as the wild fires currently burning down vast sections of Southern California, and geoeconomic confrontation (8%), such as shifting sanctions, rounded out the top three of this year’s list of threats.

    The Next Two Years

    But interestingly, it was misinformation and disinformation that continues to be the top short-term threat viewed by the WEF.

    Compared to wildfires, droughts, hurricanes, and floods, the looming threat seems vague. However, misinformation and disinformation is a contributing factor to climate change and other visceral, physical threats to our global well-being.

    The WEF says that misinformation and disinformation, which it classifies as a technological threat, can manifest in multiple ways, complicating the geopolitical environment, influencing and misleading voters, and misrepresenting countries and conflicts.

    Extreme weather events, state-based armed conflict, and societal polarisation rounded out the top four short term threats. Cyber espionage and warfare was the 5th biggest threat expected in 2027, the WEF found, as the role of technology in geopolitical conflicts continues to expand.

    The Long View

    In the long term view, which looks forward ten years, environmental issues top the list, ranging from extreme weather events, ecological collapse, changes to Earth systems, and a shortage of natural resources.

    Technological issues, such as misinformation and disinformation (5th), adverse outcomes of AI technologies (6th), and cyber espionage and warfare (9th), fell in importance.

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    AI As a Future Threat

    However, the WEF says that “complacency” around the risks of AI should be avoided, as misuse of generative AI can spread misinformation and contribute to societal polarisation.

    Further, the global conglomerate warned of other adverse affects of technology, like gene editing.

    Other issues with AI noted by the forum include its tendency towards bias, which can make other technological risks such as mass surveillance and censorship even more problematic.

    Indeed, AI does have its risks. New research shows that asking ChatGPT to write an 100 word email uses 519 millilitres of water – just over your average bottle. Ten to 50 queries from the chatbot uses about two litres of water, analysis says.

    AI’s increasing use in data centres is set to increase their energy expenditure by 160%, compounding its environmental impact.

    In a world that is preparing for natural resource shortages and seeing climate change-driven disaster after disaster, the risks of AI indeed seem like something we cannot afford to let slip under the radar.

    The world has changed profoundly over the last 20 years and will continue to do so in unpredictable ways,” WEF managing director Saadia Zahidi said.

    “But foresight based on informed, expert views remains critical for better planning and preparation, in both the short and long term.”

  82. Meta to Lay Off 5% of its Workforce

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    Meta is not slowing down when it comes to major announcements and shifts, as reports that it will cut around 5% of its global workforce were revealed in a memo to staff.

    This follows days after Mark Zuckerberg made several transformative calls, including sawing off its third-party factcheckers, ending its diversity, equity, and inclusion programmes, and changing its hate speech moderation qualifications.

    Zuckerberg further fanned flames when he publicly said that work environments needed to embrace more ‘masculine energy’.

    Now, the founder and CEO of Meta, who is privately worth $211 billion, said he will begin cutting the company’s poorest performers in what he said would be an “intense year” for the social media conglomerate.

    Zuckerberg described the move as “rais[ing] the bar on performance management,” in the memo first reported by Bloomberg.

    “We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”

    Those working in the US will find out their fate with the company by 10 February, with the rest of the global workforce set to find out later.

    The memo did say that only those who have worked with Meta long enough to need a performance review would be subject to the layoffs, and that severance would be provided in line with previous job cut rounds.

    Meta’s recent tumult of changes seem politically charged, focused on appeasing a right-wing call against ‘woke’ diversity policies, citing fact checking as censorship, and in support of the ‘bro’ culture popularised by President-elect Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk.

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    The layoffs however, seem to be in line with the pendulum swing of tech’s AI ambitions, as Zuckerberg said the company would focus on important technologies, including AI.

    Meta’s shares have already dropped by 2.3% on Tuesday following the flurry of policy changes.

    How the newest round of layoffs and new policies will affect Meta’s reputation – with the public, with governments, and with investors – remains to be seen.

  83. AI Is The Fastest Growing Skill in the UK

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    AI is now the fastest-growing skill among employees, job seekers, and students in the UK and globally, new research from online learning platform Coursera has found.

    To keep pace with evolving labour market demands, learners are embracing AI skills at a rapidly-accelerating rate. Course enrollments in this domain have increased 866% year-over-year, the learning platform found in their Job Skills Report 2025.

    The report drew on insights from over five million learners who accessed Coursera through a university, business, or government partner.

    Generative AI Interest Surges

    Generative AI is now the fastest-growing skill among employees, students, and job seekers. In the UK, generative AI was the top skill overall, with ‘Google AI Essentials’ the most popular course taken on Coursera’s platform by British learners – which represent 4.2 million of Coursera’s 162 million learners.

    ‘AI for Everyone’ and ‘Supervised Machine Learning’ were also amongst the top 10 courses taken by UK learners. Notably, more than half (54%) of GenAI course enrolments come from learners in India, Colombia, and Mexico, signalling a shift in the globalization of AI talent and their availability in emerging markets.

    Women Under a Third of Enrolments

    Whilst AI skills surge globally, only 28% of Coursera’s GenAI course enrolments are from women.

    This is particularly concerning given 79% of working women—compared with 58% of working men—are employed in occupations susceptible to generative AI disruption.

    “When you look at the tech landscape today, it is clear that the gender gap remains pronounced. The gender gap in STEM has long been a problem, and now it’s becoming increasingly apparent in the field of AI” said Marni Baker-Stein, chief content officer at Coursera.

    “With only 22% of AI and data science professionals being women, the gender gap is a significant barrier that has consequences for both social equity, and the overall effectiveness of AI technology.

    “Women cannot afford to be excluded from the global AI upskilling revolution. Encouraging women to pursue AI skills through educational initiatives and workplace policies will be crucial to narrowing the gender gap and ensuring AI benefits everyone.”

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    Prompt Engineering Skills Also Vital

    With 22% of recruiting professionals updating job descriptions to reflect the use of GenAI, courses like Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT and Generative AI: Prompt Engineering Basics rank among the top 5 GenAI courses taken by students and job seekers.

    These skills are essential for effectively using AI tools in diverse professional contexts, making prompt engineering a critical competency for staying competitive in an AI-driven job market.

    Nikolaz Foucaud, managing director EMEA, Coursera commented: “The announcement of Starmer’s AI action plan to “mainline AI into the veins” of the UK has put serious weight behind Britain’s AI ambitions.

    “But turning this vision into reality hinges on a fundamental reimagining of our educational landscape and how we prepare our workforce for an AI-driven future.”

    “While AI is now the fastest-growing skill among employees, job seekers and students in the UK and globally, with course enrollments on Coursera in this domain having increased 866% year-over-year, there are challenges developing around gender divides and knowledge gaps.

    “Only 28% of courses were taken by women overall in 2024, creating an urgent need to address gendered disparities within the AI workforce.

    “On top of this, systemic issues are coming from lack of policy in higher education, as according to Coursera’s independent research published recently, less than half (48%) of educators say their university has a policy in place to manage it, while almost two-thirds (62%) say higher education is unprepared to handle AI usage.

    “With the government’s plans to supercharge the economy through AI, it’s clear that proper skilling and strategy needs to be tackled first.

    “If there isn’t a level playing field in terms of access to learning and development across men and women, and also obstacles for students in higher education to develop job-ready skills for AI, then the UK will be on the backfoot when it comes to capitalising on emerging technologies.”

  84. Fed Up Tech Leaders Push for Decentralised Social Media

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    A group of nine technology leaders have formed a new group – Free Our Feeds – aiming to raise $30 million to create a decentralised social media platform, breaking free from the billionaire-owned, for-profit model of today.

    The group did not mince their words or leave their reasoning up for much debate – the group directly called out Elon Musk (owner of X) and Mark Zuckerberg (founder and owner of Meta), accusing Zuckerberg of “going full Musk last week,” citing Meta’s new policies to roll back its fact checking rules.

    Since Musks’ takeover of X, formally known as Twitter, in 2022, there has been an exodus of regular and high profile users alike, with spurts of exits aligning with different technical changes to the platform as well as perceived political moves from the South African owner of Tesla.

    Musks’ burgeoning relationship with President-elect Donald Trump, and Zuckerberg’s rolling back of DEI and fact checking prerogatives on Meta platforms has lead to more disillusionment toward the social media platform owners.

    While former Twitter users have converted to other platform’s, such as Bluesky and Mastadon (with even The Guardian leaving X permanently), there appears to be a market vacuum in terms of viable alternatives.

    Not only are the platform owners’ politics facing scrutiny, but their platforms’ transforming functions have been called into question, leaving many social media users disillusioned toward the for-profit system.

    Relying on advertisements for profit, Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram require user data which they then sell to advertisers for personalised ads, requiring this permission as a term of use.

    When this condition was found in breach of the EU’s GDPR, Meta attempted a pay or consent model, forcing users to pay a premium for no ads, and no data harvesting.

    As each company continues to work on their own perspective AI model, the harvesting of user data to train these models has come into sharp focus from users as well. X even faced a potential fine for not allowing users to opt out of their data being used to train the company’s AI, Grok.

    All of this has contributed a general dissatisfaction with social media, but equally a sense of resignment – even the one of the world’s most popular messaging apps, WhatsApp, is owned by Zuckerberg.

    As TikTok faces a potential ban in the US, X and Meta appear well placed to take political advantage of the incoming Trump regime despite their data harvesting practices, contribution to misinformation proliferation, and role in a youth mental health crisis.

    These compounding factors seem to have laid the groundwork for fed-up technologists to launch an official scheme to fully decentralise social media, with Free Our Feeds proposal to fuel BlueSky’s Authenticated Transfer (AT) Protocol in an attempt to prevent ownership by a single entity of the new platform.

    But what does their plan entail, and how would this even work?

    A Social Media with No Owner

    The nine technology leaders are by no means billionaires, but do come from lofty technical backgrounds.

    The Free Our Feeds group aims to launch an independent foundation to fund Bluesky and help transform its AT Protocol into an “entire ecosystem of interconnected apps and different companies that have people’s interests at heart.”

    While Bluesky has already built the technology to decentralise the platform itself from a technical perspective – more on that later – it remains a commercial company

    The independent group made up of open technology experts is aiming to raise $30 million to create a foundation and get critical infrastructure up and running so the platform is not vulnerable to billionaires.

    According to an open letter the group published, which has been signed by technologists and even celebrities, the funds will be used to support making Bluesky’s tech resistant to billionaire capture.

    It also aims to build an independently hosted infrastructure to allow users, developers, and researchers full access to the platform’s content and data stream, no matter the company’s future prospects. This is related to the technical aspect of Bluesky’s system, and is integral to the democratisation of the service.

    Further, the fund aims to help developers build more social applications on top of the open system to enable more varied options.

    Currently, they are asking for $4 million to create the foundation and build the infrastructure that will make this decentralised alternative viable.

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    What is the AT Protocol, and How Does it Work?

    Integral to the idea of a decentralised, open social media network is the AT Protocol, which relies on three parts: Personal Data Servers (PDS), which contain all account data, including what people post; Relays access, gather, and then transmit this data to App Views which organise this data into a view dependent on the selected app.

    According to the model, PDS can be Relayed across multiple app views, meaning the way that information is indexed and moderated can be changed without any of that data being lost.

    Essentially, the PDS will stay the same whether it is relayed to one app view or the other, meaning the system is open.

    Bluesky is therefore just one App View possible, but users could use their same data – the same handle, profile picture, and content – across multiple platforms, in theory.

    Bluesky is currently the only forum that runs a relay across the AT Protocol at the moment, though anyone would be able to run a new relay and app view with the dataset if Bluesky goes under.

    Developing a relay is a massive undertaking, however, requiring capital and skill. Hence, the Free Our Feeds campaign.

    The intiaitl $4 million ask on the group’s Go Fund Me aims to create this alternative relay outwith BlueSky’s control in order to ensure the data and social media options are truly decentralised.

  85. Power and Utilities CIOs Must Mitigate Risk of AI Uptake

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    By 2027, 40% of power and utilities will deploy AI-driven operators in control rooms, reducing human error risks, but increasing cyber-physical system security vulnerabilities, according to Gartner, Inc.

    The 2025 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey indicated that 94% of power and utility chief information officers (CIOs) plan to increase their AI investments in 2025, with an average spending increase of 38.3%.

    “AI technology is poised to transform the power and utilities sector,” said Jo-Ann Clynch, sr director analyst at Gartner. “Human decision-making is critical, but it is also a significant factor in industrial accidents. AI-driven operations offer a compelling solution, performing tasks with repeatability, precision, and without bias when effectively governed.”

    The power and utilities industry is transitioning from its traditional model of utility-owned assets, driven by technological advancements and evolving customer attitudes.

    Future decentralisation through distributed energy resources, such as solar panels and energy storage will enable dynamic circular behaviours, allowing customer-owned intelligent assets to address objectives like costs, production, and comfort, Gartner says.

    “Power and utility CIOs must focus on creating intelligent operations to integrate these assets into their digital ecosystem,” said Clynch. “Investing in data infrastructure and analytics, transitioning to cloud-based services, and preparing for AI integration in control room operations will help them succeed in this new competitive landscape.”

    Managing Security Risks

    Introducing AI to control rooms acts as a double-edged sword: while it reduces human-error risks and enhances efficiency, it leads to new cyber-physical security vulnerabilities, demanding significant investment in advanced security measures and compliance with evolving regulations.

    “Organisations must establish guardrails, such as access control and scope enforcement, for the implementation of their AI tools and the data the tools can access,” said Clynch.

    “CIOs should develop an AI strategy aligned with business goals, supported by strong governance and security frameworks, and ensure workforce training and infrastructure upgrades for effective management and scalability.”

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    To successfully navigate the transition to AI-driven operations and fully leverage AI-driven decision intelligence, Gartner has advised three key priorities for CIOs to focus on.

    Enhancing Operational Efficiency

    Gartner advises CIOs to develop a comprehensive AI integration plan, identifying key areas in control room operations where AI can minimise human error and establish governance controls for implementation and monitoring to mitigate risks.

    Strengthening Cyber-Physical System Security 

    Strengthening the system through implementing advanced security practices and investing in cutting-edge measures tailored for AI systems, such as quantum-enhanced security, can be key in mitigating risks. Conducting regular audits of essential security hygiene, including vulnerability assessments and incident response planning, is also recommended.

    Fostering Effective Human-AI Collaboration

    Training control room staff on AI technologies to ensure they can effectively collaborate with AI systems is advised. This is recommended with an emphasis on oversight, interpretation of AI output, and maintaining critical thinking in decision-making. It could be vital if there are any compliance issues surrounding human-in-the-loop requirements for AI systems.

  86. UK Proposes Ban on Public Sector Ransomware Payments

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    The Home Office is launching a consultation on three new proposals which aim to tackle the threat of ransomware and cyber-crime.

    The most radical of the proposals sets out a ban on all public sectors bodies and critical national infrastructure from making ransomware payments, aiming to make them unattractive targets for criminals.

    Government bodies are already banned from making any ransomware payments – extending this ban to critical infrastructure and the public sector hopes to further deter cyber-criminals from targeting these essential bodies.

    The second proposal would set out a ransomware payment prevent regime, increasing the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) awareness of live attacks and criminal ransom demands.

    This would provide victims with advice and guidance before they decide how to respond, and block the payments of ransoms to known criminal groups and sanctioned entities.

    Essentially, this proposal would require that organisations not already banned from paying a ransom would first have to consult a government agency and gain their permission before paying a ransom.

    A mandatory reporting regime for ransomware incidents rounds out the final proposal, which aims to maximise the intelligence used by UK law enforcement agencies to warn of emerging ransomware threats, and target their investigations on the most prolific and damaging organised ransomware groups.

    This final proposal would likely not require the first two – the ban and the regime – to go through, but will still provide cyber defence specialists with vital information

    Both the second and third proposal will be assessed to see if they will be inputted as a blanket regime or if they will be applied on a case-by-case basis.

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    “This consultation marks a vital step in our efforts to protect the UK from the crippling effects of ransomware attacks and the associated economic and societal costs,” Richard Horne, National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) CEO said.

    “Organisations of all sizes need to build their defences against cyber attacks such as ransomware, and our website contains a wealth of advice tailored to different organisations.

    “In addition, using proven frameworks like Cyber Essentials, and free services like NCSC’s Early Warning, will help to strengthen their overall security posture.

    “And organisations across the country need to strengthen their ability to continue operations in the face of the disruption caused by successful ransomware attacks.

    “This isn’t just about having backups in place: organisations need to make sure they have tested plans to continue their operations in the extended absence of IT should an attack be successful, and have a tested plan to rebuild their systems from backups.”

  87. Google to Be Investigated Under New CMA Regime

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    The UK’s competition watchdog is using its new powers to assess the position of one of the world’s most dominant global tech companies, Google, in its dominance over search.

    The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), with new powers that came into effect at the start of this year, is able to designate companies with strategic market status (SMS) in relation to a particular digital activity.

    Once designated, the CMA can impose conduct requirements or propose pro-competition interventions to achieve positive outcomes for UK consumers and businesses.

    The CMA will assess whether Google has SMS in the UK search and search advertising sectors, and, in parallel, consider whether conduct requirements should be imposed in the event of a final designation decision.

    While the CMA acknowledges the “significant benefits” Google’s services have generated for the UK, it also notes the company’s dominance.

    In the UK, Google accounts for more than 90% of all general search queries and more than 200,000 UK advertisers use Google’s search advertising.

    “That’s why it’s so important to ensure these services are delivering good outcomes for people and businesses and that there is a level playing field, especially as AI has the potential to transform search services,” Sarah Cardell, chief executive for the CMA, said.

    “It’s our job to ensure people get the full benefit of choice and innovation in search services and get a fair deal – for example in how their data is collected and stored.

    “And for businesses, whether you are a rival search engine, an advertiser or a news organisation, we want to ensure there is a level playing field for all businesses, large and small, to succeed.”

    Search tools are vital for commerce in the modern era, facilitating business growth and connection, as well as generating a wealth of data that can be used to develop a new AI products and services to foster innovation.

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    Given the importance of search as a key digital service for people, businesses and the economy, it is critical that competition works well.

    The CMA’s investigation will focus on a range of issues, ranging from weak competition and barriers to entry and innovation in search, as well as Google’s possible leveraging of market power.

    It will also investigate Google’s potential for exploitative conduct, which involve the collection and use of large quantities of consumer data without informed consent, and the use of publisher content without fair terms and conditions (including payment terms).

    The competition watchdog has also outlined potential conduct requirements ahead of the pending SMS qualification, which could include requirements on Google to make the data it collects available to other businesses or giving publishers more control over how their data is used including in Google’s AI services.

  88. New IBM Survey Highlights Challenges in Developing AI

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    As enterprises rush to adopt the technology, they are tasking their developers with building, customising, testing and deploying generative AI applications.

    Yet enterprises underestimate the complexity of the AI stack and development lifecycle.

    A new survey conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of IBM explores the complexity of developing generative AI applications, unveiling the challenges developers face when it comes to skills variance, toolset complexity, and accuracy assurance.

    Skills Gap and Tool Sprawl

    The survey, of over 1,000 enterprise AI developers in the US, revealed that generative AI skill levels vary significantly among surveyed developers.

    A majority of developers who identify as ‘AI developers’ or ‘data scientists’ view themselves as experts in generative AI – but a minority of the seven other developer demographics do.

    App developers in particular rarely view themselves as generative AI experts, despite being on the front lines of generative AI adoption.

    Less than a quarter (24%) of application developers ranked themselves as ‘experts’ in generative AI.

    This speaks to the skills gap in the generative AI space. For many developers, genAI is new terrain with a steep learning curve – and fast innovation means new technology is constant.

    Compounding the skills gap is a lack of clarity when it comes to reliable frameworks and toolkits. Survey respondents listed the lack of a standardised AI development process as a top challenge, along with prioritising transparency and traceability.

    “Lack of a standardized AI development process” and “Developing an ethical and trusted AI lifecycle that ensures transparency and traceability of data” are tied as top challenges in the development of generative AI applications among those surveyed.

    Developers are also frustrated with the tools at their disposal. The most important tool qualities for building enterprise AI are also the rarest, respondents said, hampering the development process.

    Meanwhile, developers must juggle a roster of tools.

    Performance (42%), Flexibility (41%), Ease of Use (40%), and Integration (36%) are the four most essential qualities in enterprise AI development tools, according to those surveyed. Yet over a third of those surveyed also said those very same traits are the rarest.

    A majority (72%) of those surveyed use between five and 15 tools to create an AI enterprise application. A notable number — 13% — use 15 or more tools.

    Enterprises are investing in generative AI for a competitive advantage. An overly complex AI stack saps this investment and ripples out to other systems.

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    These challenges will only become exacerbated as the industry pushes further into agentic AI, which promises greater power and autonomy – but also hinges on trust and integration with broader IT systems.

    Almost all developers surveyed (99%) are exploring or developing AI agents – and the top concern reported for agentic development is trustworthiness.

    A Solution? Simplifying the Stack

    The survey sheds some light on what can be done to address the complexity of AI development.

    While developers crave easy to use tools, only one third are willing to invest more than two hours in learning a new AI development tools. Simplicity and user experience is key when it comes to introducing new tools to the development process.

    Further, 99% are using coding assistance in some capacity for Ai development, most commonly saving developers one to two hours a day, with 22% saying it saves them three hours or more.

    Simplifying the AI stack and development lifestyle can be key in ushering the new era of AI safely and effectively.

  89. UK Innovation Economy Worth a Combined $1.2 trillion

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    UK innovation businesses ended 2024 with a combined $1.2 trillion in enterprise value, according to new analysis from HSBC Innovation Banking UK and Dealroom.

    This marks a 20% increase on 2023, and has increased by nine times in just a decade.

    Half of this enterprise value lies in pre-exit companies, signalling potential for significant untapped value realisation in the form of acquisitions or public listings in 2025 and beyond.

    In addition, nearly half of this value is from companies founded in the last 15 years.

    This growth has helped to drive substantial job creation within the sector, both at home and abroad. Startups with a HQ in the UK now employ over 1.8 million people, double the level of 2020.

    The European Perspective 

    The UK remains Europe’s leading ecosystem and is the third largest in the world, behind the US and China.

    Valued at $1.2 trillion collectively, the UK innovation ecosystem is worth more than the French and German ecosystems combined.

    UK startups raised $16.2 billion in 2024, compared to $8.2 billion for Germany and $7.8 billion for France. The largest amount of funding was secured at the breakout stage, with series B and C rounds accounting for over $6.5 billion.

    At the late stage, the UK minted 9 new unicorns in 2024, bringing the total to 181. This figure means the UK is now home to almost a third (31%) of European startups valued at over $1 billion. The founder flywheel is in full effect, with UK startups spawning dozens of new startups via staff turned alumni.

    AI in Focus

    UK AI focused venture backed businesses raised $4.2 billion in VC investment in 2024, a 31% increase from $3.2 billion in 2023. This meant that over a quarter (27%) of all venture capital was raised by AI startups in 2024, its highest share to date. AI companies closed 5 ‘mega rounds’ of over $100 million, including a $1.1 billion round from Wayve.

    Fintech on Top

    Overall, fintech was 2024’s most funded sector, attracting $3.9 billion in VC investment, retaking the top spot from climate tech in 2023. This was driven by significant rounds including Monzo ($448 million & $190 million) and WorldRemit ($267 million).

    Health and Enterprise Software both raised $3.3 billion in VC investment in 2024, with Enterprise Software raising $1 billion in Q4 alone, 65% more than in Q3. The strong quarter was driven by megarounds for Lighthouse, NScale and Tessl.

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    Investment Up

    With more of the larger funds coming back to the market in 2024, UK-based venture capital firms raised $11.3 billion in dry powder, a 59% increase from last year’s $7.1 billion, signalling a strong future for UK VC investment.

    Meanwhile, an increasing share of investment in UK startups is being driven by international investors, with 68% of funding rounds involving participation from overseas backers. This is particularly acute for late-stage rounds.

    “The UK innovation economy remained resilient in 2024, achieving record enterprise value and driving significant job creation across the ecosystem,” Simon Bumfrey, CEO at HSBC Innovation Bank UK, said.

    “AI continues to thrive, setting the stage for a wave of disruptive commercial solutions across the vast majority of sectors.

    “With half of the UK’s enterprise value concentrated in pre-exit companies and dry powder levels reaching near-record highs, the commitment and confidence from domestic and international investors towards UK innovation businesses is strong.

    “As we look to 2025, we remain committed to partnering with firms across the ecosystem to support and accelerate growth.”

  90. ScotRail Employs Digital Twins for Energy Efficiency

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    ScotRail has partnered with UK-based company, Optimise AI, to create digital twins of all its stations and depots to help reduce emissions and improve energy efficiency.

    The technology, delivered by Optimise AI, monitors energy usage and carbon emissions in real time, which allows ScotRail to identify opportunities for reducing emissions and improving energy efficiency across Scotland’s Railway.

    The tool allows the train operator to assess performance of its locations against the UK Energy Performance Certification standard. This benchmarking provides a clear understanding of how stations and depots perform relative to common standards.

    Developed at Cardiff University, the tool’s algorithm studies utility performance data from comparable buildings to identify specific measures that can reduce consumption, improve efficiency, and save money.

    By leveraging this data-driven approach, ScotRail can make informed decisions about the type of investment needed to achieve cost savings and eliminate carbon emissions from its operations.

    The train operator is working to further develop the capabilities of the Optimise AI tool, including identifying potential cost savings from energy efficiency measures and mapping out a clear route to net zero by eliminating fossil fuel use.

    ScotRail has also chosen to remain with a 100% UK renewable electricity energy tariff which will result in a reduction in electricity costs starting in the new year.

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    “We’re excited to partner with Optimise AI on this groundbreaking initiative,” David Lister, ScotRail safety, sustainability, and asset director, said.

    “Reducing our carbon footprint and improving energy efficiency is a top priority for ScotRail.

    “By using digital twins, we can gain a deeper understanding of our energy use and take meaningful steps to reduce emissions across all our stations and depots.

    “This partnership, combined with our move to 100 per cent UK renewable energy for our stations and depots, will help us build a greener future for Scotland’s Railway.”

  91. Apple Faces UK Class Action Lawsuit Over App Store Chargers

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    Apple is facing a a class-action lawsuit in the UK claiming that the company is using its dominant position to overcharge app developers, leading to higher costs for UK consumers.

    The lawsuit is the first to target a Big Tech company under the UK’s class action-style legal system, which is being heard at London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal.

    Apple is facing a similar and separate case from directly from developers.

    Both lawsuits allege that Apple is leveraging its dominant market position by charging app developers a 30% commission on any apps sold on its App Store, the cost of which trickles down to UK consumers who lose up to £1.5 billion.

    Apple restricts any other application store from functioning on its products, essentially coercing app developers to sell their applications via the App store.

    In-app purchases, including subscriptions, made on Apple devices also require a commission to the tech giant.

    Apple is no stranger to this argument, as it faces continued scrutiny from the EU and the US over its developer fees.

    The EU already ruled that Apple’s App Store practices were outwith their strict competition rules, giving Apple a year to respond or comply.

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    In this current lawsuit, Apple claims that most developers – around 85 – pay no commission, and their application ecosystem offers numerous benefits, from its platform to its security.

    The company’s lawyer, Marie Demetriou, also claims that the class-action case sidesteps Apple’s intellectual property rights, claiming that giving developers the ability to simply use their technology with no limitations or chargers was “expropriation of property rights masquerading as competition.”

    Apple is not the only tech giant facing a similar charge. Google is set to face a lawsuit from app developers claiming that it overcharges app developers for access to its Play Store, which is widely used across Android devices.

  92. Are Sex Toys The New Hacking Frontier?

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    Cyber threats may be lurking in a rather scandalous and unsuspecting place – in Bluetooth and remote controlled sex toys.

    In a research paper commissioned by the UK Department of Science, Technology, and Innovation, the government has warned that Bluetooth-connected and ‘smart’ sex toys can be hacked by threat actors, leading to data theft and even over-heating of devices.

    Bluetooth connection of sex toys to companion apps, which can let users control devices remotely, can leave sensitive data vulnerable to hacking. The research noted that these connections are often not encrypted, leaving them “more vulnerable to interceptions from malicious third parties.”

    The review, which was first published in March 2023, reviewed devices ranging from fitness trackers to children’s toys, though its review of the dangers of sex toys has ushered renewed interest.

    The review said that overall, sex toys have a “clear capacity to inflict physical and psychological harm onto unknowing consumers” over its many attack surfaces.

    The physical harms include the warning that hackers can infiltrate these vulnerabilities and take control of the sex toys, leading them to potentially overheat, malfunction, or lock.

    On top of this, hacking into partnered applications can leave vulnerable personal and sensitive information, potentially exposing user’s sexual habits or preferences.

    While the DSIT paper does say that Bluetooth poses a major threat to sex toy users, critics of the paper have said that this risk is overblown.

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    “The range of BLE [Bluetooth Low Energy] is up to 100 metres. The number of people walking around with the desire and motivation to hijack remotely controlled sex toys to overheat them is…not high,” James Bore, a publisher at Security Blend Books, posted on LinkedIn.

    The threat of hacking to associated apps with lacklustre security guards, however, is more of a plausible risk, though it is my no means unique to the world of sex toys.

    Smart and Internet of Things devices overall pose major security threats if their connections are not kept secure, as the number of connection points tends to only increase the cyber vulnerability surface.

    For those concerned about the potential hacking of their sex toys, however, it is worth reconsidering whether using associated apps is necessary to fully enjoy themselves.

  93. Tech Workers Seek New Roles Despite Salary Hikes

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    2025 may see a record exodus from tech as a record number of workers are seeking new roles in the industry amid declining benefits and return-to-office mandates.

    In a survey from Dice, the career hub, nearly half (47%) of tech workers said they were actively looking for a new role, a marked rise from just below a third (29%) last year.

    This is despite overall pay for tech workers on the rise, with the average tech professional salary hitting $112,521 (£92,802) in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 1.2%. Those with expertise in AI and ML, however, see a bump on this salary of up to a whopping 17.7%.

    Manufacturing saw the highest tech salary growth at 15.1%, though consulting, software, and finance maxed out as the highest paying sectors with average salaries for tech workers reaching over $125,000 (£103,000).

    Despite professionals with three to five years’ experience seeing salary growth of about 6%, employee satisfaction has plummeted in 2024.

    Even with these high and growing salaries, the majority (60%) of tech workers reported feeling underpaid.

    This may not be directly related to salaries, but decreasing benefits, ranging from health insurance to flexible working, and a lack of opportunities for professional development

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    Remote working options, once a major pull into the tech sector, have decreased by 4% this year, with training opportunities also seeing a drop (6%).

    Merit-based raises are also down this year, at 36% compared to 41% in 2023.

    Those working on emerging technologies, such as AI and ML, report higher salaries and job satisfaction, likely related to how sought-after their skillset is.

    Still, the survey found glimmers of good news, as women in tech with over 20 years of experience said that work place culture was improving about 1.5 times more than their male counterparts. Overall, just shy of half (48%) of all tech workers said that the culture has improved, showing more work is to be done.

  94. Tech Giants Reconsider DEI Ahead of Trump Inauguration

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    Ahead of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, major tech companies based in the US are reconsidering their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes and policies to appease the incoming official.

    Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta announced in an internal memo that it will roll back its DEI efforts, citing a shift in the US legal landscape.

    Jannelle Gale, the company’s human resources VP, reportedly wrote in the memo that the US Supreme Court’s recent policies have thrown DEI initiatives into doubt, allegedly saying that even the very term DEI is now “charged”.

    Gale refers to a 2023 decision made by the US Supreme Court to reverse affirmative action efforts across academic institutions, which traditionally aim to mitigate the effects of systematic discrimination by giving better opportunities to socioeconomically disadvantaged people.

    The initiative came into the foray following the Civil Rights movement in the US – there was a major drop in college admissions to minority applicants in top US universities following its dissolvement.

    Another DEI Supreme Court case, which alleges ‘reverse discrimination’ – discrimination of the privileged majority – is set to be decided early in 2025, making many businesses fearful of backlash for their DEI initiatives.

    Meta’s decision, which has been echoed by Amazon, is just one facet of its new conservative regime as it makes more efforts to appease the incoming anti-‘woke’ president.

    The social media giant announced two major changes to its platforms last week, saying it was set to ax its fact-checking programmes across Instagram and Facebook.

    While this raised enough alarm bells, its new hate speech guidance also sparked outrage as Meta will now allow users to claim that members of the LGBTQ+ community are mentally ill or unwell.

    “We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words such as “weird”,” the company’s new guidance reads.

    Meta also seems to be bending over backwards to appease Trump specifically, adding one of his ally’s, Dana White, to its board, who is the President and CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

    This appointment followed two other key conservative Meta hires, as well as a $1 million donation to Trumps inaugural fund.

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    Big Tech has long had its teeth in politics, and Meta has managed to balance along the US’s evermore right-swinging pendulum. The supposed allyship between Tesla and X owner and CEO, Elon Musk, and the president elect may have other tech giants scrambling to gain favour with the incoming president.

    This is especially important as the US government has only recently made larger forays into tech regulation, following the major US trade decision urging Google to break up its allegedly ‘illegal’ monopoly, and their recent attempts to ban on TikTok.

    Apple, on the other hand, has taken a different approach.

    The company’s board has urged investors to vote against a new proposal to end its DEI programmes, which was put forth by the National Centre for Public Policy Research (NCPPR).

    The NCPPR, a conservative group, said that the policies put Apple at risk of litigation, though Apple says that its “well-established compliance programme” will protect it from any such fallout.

  95. Government Details UK Clean Energy Plan

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    The UK Government has unveiled reforms to the country’s energy systems in an ambitious effort to bring the UK clean and secure energy.

    The clean energy revamp also aims to protect households from energy price spikes, reindustrialise the country with thousands of skilled jobs, and tackle the climate crisis.

    Energy secretary Ed Miliband will today (13 December) set out a detailed plan for achieving the target of clean power by 2030.

    The plan is set to provide a foundation for the UK to build a clean energy system that can bring down bills for households and businesses for good.

    The independent National Energy System Operator (NESO) set out pathways to a clean power system in 2030, and confirmed it was deliverable, more secure, and could see a lower cost of electricity and lower bills.

    The plan includes measures to clean up dysfunctional grid system by prioritising the most important projects and ending the ‘first-come-first served’ system, as well as speeding up decisions on planning permission by empowering planners to prioritise critical energy infrastructure. Further, the plan aims to expand the renewable auction process to stop delays and get more projects connected.

    According to the government, delivering on these reforms will unleash £40 billion a year of mainly private investment in homegrown clean power projects and infrastructure across the country, creating jobs across the country including engineers, welders, and mechanics.

    “A new era of clean electricity for our country offers a positive vision of Britain’s future with energy security, lower bills, good jobs and climate action,” energy secretary Ed Miliband said.

    “This can only happen with big, bold change and that is why the government is embarking on the most ambitious reforms to our energy system in generations.

    “The era of clean electricity is about harnessing the power of Britain’s natural resources so we can protect working people from the ravages of global energy markets.

    “The clean power sprint is the national security, economic security, and social justice fight of our time – and this plan gives us the tools we need to win this fight for the British people.”

    Over the past five years, the grid connection queue has grown tenfold, and now contains an equivalent capacity of 79 GW. Many of these projects are speculative or do not have the necessary funding or planning permission to progress.

    To meet the 2030 ambition, action is needed now to rationalise the queue and accelerate the projects that are critical to the goal. This means going beyond previous plans to deprioritise slow-moving or stalled projects and prioritise based on readiness alone.

    Instead, this plan will help remove unviable projects, re-order the queue, and accelerate connection timescales for the projects needed most.

    Cleaning up the queue will mean crucial infrastructure from housing to gigafactories and data centres can get a connection to the grid, helping to unlock billions of investment and grow the economy.

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    The plan will further provide clarity on what the energy mix will look like for 2030 on a national and regional level, including updating the National Policy Statements for energy that guide planners so they have clear direction on the importance of delivering the right amounts of clean power and energy infrastructure for 2030.

    The government is also bringing onshore wind back into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) regime in England – this will make it easier to progress onshore farms larger then 100MW.

    The government will also bring forward a Planning and Infrastructure Bill with measures to streamline the delivery of critical infrastructure in the planning process.

    Communities will also be ensured by the government to benefit from hosting clean energy infrastructure.

    Further reforms to accelerated homegrown clean power include expanding the renewable auction process, unlocking investment in supply chain, and introducing pro-consumer reforms to help households have more choice.

  96. EV Chargepoint Rollout On Track But Hurdles Remain

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    Public electric vehicle chargepoint installations are currently on track to meet the minimum 300,000 needed across the UK by 2030, but government faces challenges to address the location of chargepoints, their accessibility and wider barriers such as planning rules, according to a new National Audit Office (NAO) report.

    As of July 2024, 64,632 EV chargepoints had been installed. This is in line with projections made by the Department for Transport (DfT), through the Office for Zero Emissions Vehicles (OZEV), a team working across government supporting the transition away from petrol and diesel.

    DfT anticipates that its local EV chargepoint programme and continued growth in private installations will support the trajectory needed to reach 300,000 by 2030.

    While the overall number of chargepoint installations is on track, the estimate does not account for where chargepoints should be installed.

    This has created a regional divide2; 44% of public EV chargepoints in the UK have been installed in London and the South-East, while only 15% of chargepoints in England are in rural areas. London has more chargepoints installed per capita than any other region.

    DfT established the local electric vehicle infrastructure (LEVI) programme to support local authorities in rolling out chargepoints: a £450 million fund running between 2022-23 and March 2025. Through LEVI, DFT is supporting more local authorities to install chargepoints, and currently forecasts the programme will install of at least 100,000 EV chargepoints.

    But the programme has faced delays, owing to local authority plans taking longer to develop than DfT expected and an established procurement route proving no longer feasible. Consequently, local authorities may need further government support beyond the current programme end date.

    The location of EV chargepoints is also an issue along the strategic road network: motorways and major A-roads. Whilst the number of rapid and ultra-rapid chargepoints installed along the strategic road network has exceeded DfT’s expectations, there are stretches of A-roads which don’t have sufficient chargepoints.

    In 2020, the government announced an aim for six ultra-rapid chargepoints at every motorway service area in England by 2023, anticipating that the private sector would be able to achieve this. As of July 2024, 62% of service areas have met this.

    The UK’s chargepoint rollout is being hindered because it is slower and more expensive than it needs to be for chargepoint operators to get planning permissions and electricity grid connections.

    In response, government is working with stakeholders to streamline planning and connection processes where possible, and is considering more fundamental reform, including looking at rules around highway consents and gaining landowner permissions for development.

    Consumers have numerous concerns over using public chargepoints, which government has put in place regulation to address.

    These concerns include complexity in using chargepoints, with operators having different ways to pay; pricing being unclear or unduly expensive; and malfunctioning or inoperative chargepoints. It is still too early to say whether OZEV’s regulatory intervention has helped, as many of its requirements only came into force from November 2024.

    Drivers with disabilities have been left behind in the rollout to date; many chargepoints – and their surrounding environments – have features that make them inaccessible. These include chargepoints placed on kerbs, with nearby obstructions, or those closely spaced together, presenting difficulties for wheelchair users.

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    DfT said in its 2018 inclusive transport strategy that the Equality Act 2010 was applicable to the provision of chargepoints, and co-sponsored the creation of a standard which specifies minimum requirements for chargepoint accessibility. However, industry and local authorities have reported further clarity is needed on compliance with this standard, and DfT has established a technical group to address these issues.

    “Government’s estimate of the 300,000 public electric vehicle chargepoints needed by 2030 appears achievable, although there is more to do to ensure adequate coverage in all parts of the country,” Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said.

    “Government is using regulation to improve the user experience of public chargepoints and needs to address access for people with disabilities.”

    A key way to encourage drivers to use electric vehicles is to provide public chargepoints. While most electric car owners have driveways or garages where they can install a chargepoint for their private use, many people do not have this option, and will need to rely on public chargepoints.

    Long distance journeys may also require access to public chargepoints. To give drivers confidence to switch to electric vehicles, these chargepoints need to be installed in sufficient numbers and at key locations. This may not happen at the pace and in the locations needed without government intervention.

  97. What Are the Top Soft Skills for Cybersecurity Leaders?

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    A new survey from ISC2 shows that the majority (85%) of cybersecurity leaders think that communication is the most important leadership quality.

    Strategic qualities was a distant second (41%), which was then followed by open-mindedness (37%). Being technically skilled (33%), and decisive (21%), and having a good business acumen (20%).

    Businesses acumen ranked surprisingly low as a leadership quality (32%) with managers and even more so among team members (13%).

    This suggests a failure to recognise the relationship of business acumen with communication, especially in interaction with the C-suite.

    Poor communication, in fact, was the most common complaint in responses to open-ended questions about leadership mistakes.

    Respondents also cited leadership mistakes such as working in silos and failing to explain priorities to team members.

    As one respondent put it: “Not communication with the team especially when an incident happens.”

    The same respondent noted a ‘lack of business acumen to develop cybersecurity strategy.”

    Despite the need for more formal training, the survey indicates cybersecurity professionals have a healthy degree of self-awareness, recognising areas that need improvement.

    Technical knowledge, though important, doesn’t cancel out other qualities, such as communication, strategic thinking and inclusiveness – a theme emphasised by ISC2 for many years.

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    Although business acumen ranked low as a leadership quality, it isn’t being completely overlooked. Respondents see the need to articulate and translate complex cybersecurity matters to non-technical leaders.

    The emphasis respondents placed on open-mindedness underlines the complexity of cybersecurity issues. Creativity, diversity and analytical skills are required to understand problems and come up with solutions.

    Even managers recognize the importance of skills such as communication, strategic thinking and open-mindedness. Recognition is the first step toward correction.

  98. Top Trends Impacting Infrastructure and Operations for 2025

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    Gartner Inc, the analysis firm, highlighted the six trends that will have a significant impact on infrastructure and operation (I&O) for 2025.

    “These trends give the opportunity for I&O leaders to identify future skills requirements and seek insights to help meet implementation requirements,” said Jeffrey Hewitt, vice president analyst at Gartner.

    “They will provide the differentiation needed for enterprises to gain the optimal benefits from their I&O operations in 2025.”

    1. Revirtualisation/Devirtualisation

    The recent license changes for certain vendor-based solutions have forces many infrastructure and operations teams to re-evaluate their virtualisation choices with some moving more to public cloud, some turning to distributed cloud and some moving to private cloud.

    This involves multiple options beyond just changing hypevisors.

    “I&O leaders must inventory all current virtualisation implementations and any related interdependencies,” said Hewitt. “Evaluate alternative paths including hypervisors, hyperconvergence, distributed cloud, containerisation, private cloud and devirtualisation. Identify existing I&O skills and how those need to evolve to support top choices.”

    2. Security Behavior and Culture Programmes

    As the sophistication and variety of attacks increases, security programmes must evolve to address behaviour and culture to optimise their effectiveness. Security behaviour and culture programmes (SBCPs) are enterprisewide approaches to minimise cybersecurity incidents associated with employee behaviour.

    SBCP programmes result in improved employee adoption of security controls and reductions in behaviour not considered secure. They enable infrastructure and operation to help support the more effective use of cybersecurity resources by employees.

    3. Cyberstorage

    Cyberstorage solutions utilise a data harbour made up of data that is fragmented and distributed across multiple storage locations.

    The fragmented data can be instantly reassembled for use when needed.

    Cyberstorage can be a dedicated solution with comprehensive features, a platform-native service offering with integrated solutions, or a collection of stand-alone products that augment storage vendors with cyberprotection capabilities.

    “For cyberstorage to be successful, I&O leaders should identify the risks of costly and disruptive storage threats, combined with increasing regulatory and insurance expenses to build a business case for cyberstorage adoption,” said Hewitt.

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    4. Liquid-cooled Infrastructure

    Liquid-cooled infrastructure consists of rear-door heat exchange, immersion and direct-to-chip. It enables I&O to support new chip generations, density and AI requirements, while also providing I&O opportunities to flexibly place infrastructure to support edge use cases.

    “Liquid cooling has evolved to move from cooling the broader data centre environment to getting closer and even within the infrastructure,” said Hewitt.

    “Liquid-cooled infrastructure remains niche today in terms of use cases but will become more predominant as next generations of GPUs and CPUs increase in power consumption and heat production.”

    5. Intelligent Applications

    Generative AI has revealed applications’ potential to operate intelligently, which has created the expectation for intelligent applications. Intelligent applications adapt to their user’s context and intent, thereby reducing digital friction.

    It can interoperate in pursuit of their own, as well as their users’ intents, by marshalling the appropriate interfaces to external APIs and connected data.

    Ultimately, intelligent applications reduce required intervention and interactions on the part of I&O. It also optimises processes and utilisation while reducing resource overhead.

    6. Optimal Infrastructure

    Optimal infrastructure is when I&O teams place a highly significant emphasis on the best infrastructure choices for a given use case across a range of deployment styles.

    This approach utilises a business-based focus so that executives outside of IT can understand why infrastructure choices are made from their perspectives.

    “These choices are ultimately aligned with platform engineering adoption,” said Hewitt. “They allow I&O to align infrastructure choices with the business objectives of the overall organisation. They also facilitate the support and approval of business unit leaders and C-level executives.”

  99. IT and Security Leaders Admit Hardware Cybersecurity Gap

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    The cybersecurity gap seems to be a hardware problem, as new research from HP reveals that platform security is often overlooked, weakening cybersecurity posture for years to come.

    The report from HP Wolf Security, based on over 6,000 employees and 800 IT and security decision makers from across the globe, shows that platform security is a growing concern, with 81% of these leaders agreeing that hardware and firmware security must be prioritised.

    However, over two-thirds (68%) report a shortfall in hardware and firmware security investment, leading to costly security headaches, management overheads and inefficiencies further down the line.

    The HP report detailed security failings throughout the five stages of device life, from supplier selection, configuration, management, monitoring, and decommissioning.

    Supplier Selection

    60% of IT and security decision makers say the lack of IT and security involvement in device procurement puts the organisation at risk.

    In addition, 34% say a PC, laptop or printer supplier has failed a cybersecurity audit in the last five years, with 18% saying the failure was so serious that they terminated their contract.

    Further, 52% of IT and security leaders say that procurement teams rarely collaborate with them to verify supplier’s claims, with 48% calling procurements teams “lambs to slaughter” for trusting vendors claims wholeheartedly.

    Onboarding and Configuration

    More than half (53%) of IT and security leaders say BIOS passwords  – system set up passwords -are shared, used too broadly, or are not strong enough. Moreover, 53% admit they rarely change these passwords over the lifetime of a device.

    The majority (78%) of leaders want zero-touch onboarding via the cloud to include hardware and firmware security configuration to improve security, with 57% feeling frustrated that they cannot onboard and configure devices via the cloud.

    Ongoing Management

    Over 60% of leaders do not make firmware updates as soon as they’re available for laptops or printers.

    A further 57% of leaders say they get FOMU (Fear Of Making Updates) in relation to firmware. Yet, 80% believe the rise of AI means attackers will develop exploits faster, making it vital to update quickly.

    One in four employees would rather put up with a poor-performing laptop than ask IT to fix it as they cannot afford the downtime, which about half (49%) say takes over 2.5 days.

    This has driven 12% to unauthorised third-party repair providers for work devices, which could compromise platform security.

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    Monitoring and Remediation

    Monitoring and remediating hardware and firmware threats to prevent threat actors accessing sensitive data and critical systems is vital. However, 79% of ITSDMs say their understanding of hardware and firmware security lags behind their knowledge of software security.

    Every year, lost and stolen devices cost organisations an estimated $8.6bn (£6.7bn). One in five work-from-anywhere employees have lost a PC or had one stolen, taking an average 25 hours before notifying IT.

    Second Life and Decommissioning

    Nearly half (47%) of IT and security decision markers say data security concerns are a major obstacle when it comes to reusing, reselling, or recycling PCs or laptops, while 39% say its a major obstacle for printers.

    This leads to 59% of leaders destroying devices as giving them a second life can prove too difficult.

    “Buying PCs, laptops or printers is a security decision with long-term impact on an organization’s endpoint infrastructure,” warned Boris Balacheff, chief technologist for security research and innovation at HP Inc.

    “The prioritization, or lack thereof, of hardware and firmware security requirements during procurement can have ramifications across the entire lifetime of a fleet of devices – from increased risk exposure, to driving up costs or negative user experience – if security and manageability requirements are set too low compared to the available state of the art.

    “It’s essential that end-user device infrastructures become resilient to cyber risks. This starts with prioritizing the security of hardware and firmware and improving the maturity of how they are managed across the entire lifecycle of devices across the fleet.”