Women in cybersecurity were the winners in several categories at tonight’s thrilling Scotland Women in Technology (SWiT) 2024 Awards.
During the event in Glasgow’s Radisson Blu Hotel, four out of ten winners working in cybersecurity roles were recognised in the Inspirational Woman of the Year, Mentor of the Year, Career Changer of the Year and Unsung Hero categories.
SWIT is one of the oldest women’s business group in Scotland, now in their 16th year. Silka Patel, founder and chair of SWIT, thanked her partners CISCO and Glasgow Caledonian University for their continued support in their cyber initiatives, as well as celebrating their partnership with Women Who Code Edinburgh.
“I never expected this even in a million years,” Ufonabasi Udak Umo, from JP Morgan Chase, who won the first award of the night, the Rising Star award, dedicated to a woman under 25 who was pushing boundaries and innovating early in their career.
Chelsea Jarvie, chief information security officer at MDU was recognised within the Inspirational Woman of the Year category at the awards and was cheered on by almost 400 guests during the ceremony as she took to the stage. Judges commended Jarvie on her “high level of achievement at a very young age”.
Other awards to cybersecurity specialists included Omowumi Akintokun, a senior cybersecurity specialist, who was named Mentor of the Year during the ceremony and was recognised for being a “trailblazer for women in cybersecurity” where her “mentorship has clearly had a successful impact on the careers of others”.
“I wasn’t expecting this to be sincere,” Akintokun said upon receiving the award. “I just finished my masters in cybersecurity, getting this award tonight is just encouraging to me to continue to do the right thing,” she said. “I encourage you to join us,” in mentoring more women in tech.
Shalu Madan, cybersecurity engineer at Lloyds Banking Group was also named as the winner of the Career Changer of the Year category at tonight’s ceremony and was acknowledged as her career transformation “has had a profound impact through her outreach and mentoring activities.”
“It’s not been an easy journey, in my career from architecture to technology – I had no idea what i was getting into,” Madan said. “I would say, for all the people thinking of moving to technology: go for it, because you can do it. This is a beautiful carer, and you can be a part of it.”
In the brand-new Unsung Hero Award category, Reshmi McIntosh, digitally safe & secure product owner at Lloyds Banking Group was remarked on by judges for being the “creator of a movement” and for being someone that “clearly inspires others both by encouragement and by example.”
“I’m actually speechless,” McIntosh said when she first approached the podium to accept her award. “What I try to do in my life is help others – I’m a feminist, so I try and help other women,” she said, explaining her motivations in setting up WomenConnectTech to bolster networking and support for women embarking on their tech careers.
More broadly in the sector, taking home the Judges Choice Award was Rohini Syed, Data Analyst at Barclays. Presented by Laura Stewart from Gold sponsor JPMorgan, Syed was celebrated for her advocacy for those in the sector which involved “motivating young girls to supporting the BAME community.” Judges also commented that she was “incredibly driven, future focused and technically adept.”
Organisational awards were handed to Harvey Nash for Inclusive Recruiter of the Year and Morgan Stanley took home the Diversity Initiative of the Year for its Glasgow Women in Technology (WIT) Network.
Silka Patel, founder and chair of Scotland Women in Technology said: “Tonight, what has stood out for me is the sheer dedication that is shown to champion and inspire even more women in the technology sector.
“It is humbling to see how passionate every finalist and winner is about driving equality in the ecosystem; from being mentors and diversity cheerleaders to establishing demonstrable programmes, I am so proud to be a part of a community that is truly making a difference within the parameters of work and the wider community. Congratulations to all this evening.”
The awards, which were refreshed for 2024, included four new categories: Mentor of the Year, Unsung Hero Award, Career Changer of the Year and Everyday Leader Award.
A full list of winners for the SWIT Awards 2024 include:
Category
Name
Role
Organisation
Mentor of the Year Award
Sponsored by Harvey Nash
WINNER: Omowumi Akintokun
Senior Cyber Security Specialist
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Ruth McDonald
Product Lead
AND Digital
Gender Diversity Ally of the Year
Krit Singhania
Technology Analyst
Barclays
Diversity Initiative of the Year
Morgan Stanley Glasgow Women in Technology (WIT) Network
Labour’s ambitions to decarbonise the UK’s entire electricity grid by 2030 is at the “limit of what is feasible” but could be achieved if a number of measures were adopted with haste.
This is according to the National Energy System Operator (NESO), the state-owned body that was acquired by the UK Government in a £630m deal from the National Grid that gave the body more powers in aligning the strategy of the energy grid.
NESO has deemed Labour’s formidable goal to decarbonise the entire national grid a “huge challenge” which the new ruling party laid out in its manifesto, which brought forward the previously held 2035 goal.
A decarbonised grid will require a completely different approach than what the current grid relies on. Currently, the UK relies on a handful of large power stations, but decarbonisation will require not only a switch to smaller generators based on wind, solar, and other renewables, but would also require their own grid connections.
To meet these goals, NESO says that the UK will need to scale up its offshore wind capacity to contract as much power in the next two years as in the last six months combined as well as completing upgrades to the transmission network as soon as possible.
While the goal will require investment and effort to build the necessary infrastructure, it can put the UK in a more secure energy position.
“There’s no doubt that the challenges ahead on the journey to delivering clean power are great,” said Fintan Slye, NESO’s chief executive. “However, if the scale of those challenges is matched with the bold, sustained actions that are outlined in this report, the benefits delivered could be even greater.
“A clean power system for Great Britain will deliver a backbone of home-grown energy that breaks the link between volatile international gas prices; that is secure and affordably powers our homes and buildings; that decarbonises the transport that we take to school and work; and that drives the businesses of today and catalyses the innovations of the future.”
Cybersecurity professionals in the UK have seen their wage increase far beyond inflation over the past few years, perhaps to make up for the scourge of anxiety, burnout, and stress that comes with the job.
This is according to the Chartered Institute for Information Security‘s (CIISec) annual Sae of the Security Profession report covering 2023/24, which based its results on an online survey of 311 cybersecurity professionals.
The average salary for the sector amounts of £87,204, over double the amount of the average UK wage of £34,900.
This is an increase of 29% since 2016, when the CIISec stared tracking the figure, and represents a 7% year-on-year increase even after inflation had been factored in.
Wages across the board are rising as well, with nearly one in five (18%) of cybersecurity professionals earning more than £150,000 compared to less than one in ten (7%) in 2016.
However, the report also noted the impact cybersecurity jobs have on workers well-being, despite their high wages.
Over half (55%) of respondents told CIISec that the stress of their jobs kept them awake at night, while 39% said they feat suffering a heart attack due to their jobs.
Nearly a quarter (21%) of security professionals said they were “overworked.”
The main complaint over operational challenges among cyber professionals were people (72%), likely driven by skills shortages and a lack of proper cybersecurity training. Process (17%) and technology (11%) trailed in comparison to the human factor.
Further, the sector is struggling to attract diverse talent, with only 19% of professionals coming into cybersecurity without a degree, and only 10% being women.
Retention also appears to be an issue, as only 41% of cybersecurity professionals think they will be in the same role in two years, likely driven by burnout.
“If the cybersecurity industry wants to attract and keep its talent, it must diversify recruitment practices, hiring based on skills rather than experience or qualifications,” said CIISec CEO Amanda Finch said.
“Issues such as stress and career progression will also need to be addressed to help retain staff. With an ever-widening skills gap and more advanced threats driven by AI, failing to attract talent to the industry will hinder efforts to make the world a safer place, both today and in the future.”
When it comes to AI, cybersecurity professions seem capable of seeing both sides of its implications for cyber – 89% claim it will benefit adversaries, something we are already seeing today, and 71% saying it will have a positive impact on defending networks.
AI is already being used to improve the effectiveness of social engineering campaigns, but is also continually employed by cyber professionals for defence.
Despite these two things being true at the same time, and 85% of professions considering using the technology for work, nearly half (44%) think their organisation remains unaware of the risks associated with AI and does not have policies in place to ensure it is safe.
The UK Government has confirmed that nearly £1.4bn will be spend on various Scottish local growth projects over the next ten years.
32 local authorities have had their projects green-lit and confirmed by Scottish Secretary Ian Murray.
Each investment zone in Glasgow and the north east will receive £160m, and the Cromarty and Forth freeports will receive £26m each, as well as £26m for the Fair Isle Ferry in Shetland.
Almost £39m will be allotted for the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland South transport project in Renfrewshire, while £15m will be spent on regenerating of Drumchapel town centre in Glasgow, with £18m going to the Elgin city masterplan.
10 more areas are set to receive £20m each, as part of the town programme for long term growth, including: Aberdeenshire, North Ayrshire, East Ayrshire, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire, Moray, Dumfries and Galloway, Angus, and Orkney.
The UK government said the cash is in addition to the £1.5bn confirmed for the Scottish government this year and another £3.4bn next year.
“The Chancellor delivered a Budget that will herald an era of growth for Scotland, rebuild our public services and begin a decade of national renewal,“ Murray stated.
“This is a historic Budget for Scotland which chooses investment over decline, and delivers on the promise that there would be no return to austerity.
“I am pleased that we are now able to confirm our commitment to invest nearly £1.4bn into important local projects across Scotland over the next 10 years.
“Over the summer I wrote to every local authority to set out our commitment to building strong and trusted relationships so that together we can deliver the change our country needs.”
Glasgow-based simulation software specialist, Simul8 has joined forces with AtkinsRéalis, an engineering services and nuclear organisation, to help optimise resource planning for the NSPCC, enabling the charity to improve the speed and efficiency at which contacts are handled.
The project, which is part of a pro bono programme by the Operational Research (OR) Society and contributed to by Simul8 and AtkinsRéalis, will enable frontline staff at the NSPCC to respond quickly and efficiently to members of the public or professionals who contact the charity with concerns about a young person’s welfare.
Ultimately, this will result in the charity being able to support more children through their vital work in keeping young people safe.
The NSPCC Helpline responds to around 75,000 contacts a year and, on average, over 200 worried adults a day contact the charity about children who desperately need help to protect them.
In order to maximise response times and meet increasing demand, the NSPCC reached out to the OR Society for support. Working with volunteers from AtkinsRéalis, the NSPCC used Simul8 to deploy a simulation-powered digital twin to redefine its resource planning processes and optimise its responses to calls and online contacts.
Ross Copland, strategic service manager at the NSPCC commented: “When a member of the public or a professional contacts our NSPCC Helpline, it’s our responsibility to make sure that we’re there to listen, to support and to help.
“One contact can be life changing, and this is why we place so much importance on making sure we’ve got people in the right place at the right time to be there when we’re needed most.
“This project has helped us recognise the potential of simulation-powered digital twins and the positive impact they can have on our organisation.
“The technology enables us to plan and allocate resources more quickly, more accurately and more effectively. We can now make confident decisions on how best to manage our resources, allowing our dedicated staff and volunteers to focus on supporting as many children, young people and the adults concerned about them, as possible.”
Stephen Pollard, senior consultant at AtkinsRéalis, OR Society member and project volunteer added: “The NSPCC is an incredible charity doing vital work and our teams were keen to have the opportunity to take the skills they use daily and apply them to a project for social good.
“That inspired us to go the extra mile and deliver a solution that exceeded its expectations and we’re so pleased to be able to contribute to how the NSPCC targets its resources to make such a big difference to the lives of young people around the UK.”
Following the completion of the project, the NSPCC is now looking to enable this same technology to be applied to its Childline service, which provides almost 200,000 counselling sessions a year with a child contacting the helpline on average every 45 seconds.
Laura Reid, CEO at Simul8, concluded: “The NSPCC provides vital support to children across the UK and is a lifeline to thousands of young people suffering abuse and neglect. We are extremely proud to have been able to support this project.
“Our software enables organisations to simulate and test processes and systems in a risk-free environment alongside real-world scenarios, removing the bottlenecks which so often lead to delays or disruption of services. Our software is really helping to make a difference, and in turn, the NSPCC can continue to make an even bigger difference to the lives of so many children at risk.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has committed £75m more in funding to the newly established Border Security Command (BSC) to enable the use of “state-of-the-art surveillance equipment” as part of a wider clampdown on immigration.
Starmer made the announcement at the Interpol general assembly in Glasgow, saying that the funding will help the UK in its counter-terrorism efforts along the border, aiming to ease the “fragmentation” of the border force, police, and intelligence agencies.
The new investment compounds on the previously dedicated £75m fund, with new funding going towards technology for the NCA, which Starmer explained was for “advanced data exploitation.” Funding will also be used for 100 specialist investigators and intelligence officers, as well as fostering collaboration with European allies.
The move, which champions technology as a solution to people smuggling and human trafficking, has faced criticisms from human rights advocacy groups, which have noted the decreasing options for refugees and asylum seekers to legally reach the UK.
Migrants’ Rights Networks as well as the Refugee Council have both lamented the UK’s policies, saying that their limiting options for safe and legal immigration has pushed desperate migrants to turn to often unsafe intermediaries in order to seek sanctuary in the UK.
“Current legislation is already making people vulnerable to using intermediaries to get to the UK because they are refusing to offer safe routes for people of all nationalities,” said Fizza Qureshi, CEO of the Migrants’ Rights Network, said.
“Offering safe routes for all instead of focusing on invasive tech surveillance would reduce the need for anyone to have to use intermediaries to reach the UK, and eliminate the unnecessary investment in surveillance technologies that invade all of our privacies.”
Further, Amnesty International, the global humans rights charity, has said that the UK provides no legal or safe routes for people to come to the UK claiming asylum under current immigration laws, bar a if they are coming from a small select group of countries totalling Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan.
The previous UK government also made many tech investments in order to prevent migrants crossing the channel on boats to reach the UK, most notably in surveillance tech for the tracking of migrant routes.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued a series of recommendations to AI developers and providers to ensure they are better protecting job seekers’ information rights.
AI is increasingly being used in the recruitment process to save time and money, helping to source potential candidates, summarise CVs and score applicants. If not developed lawfully, these tools may negatively impact jobseekers who could be unfairly excluded from roles or have their privacy compromised.
The ICO audited several providers and developers of AI tools for recruitment and made almost 300 recommendations, such as ensuring personal information is processed fairly and kept to a minimum, and clearly explaining to candidates how their information will be used by the AI tool. The companies accepted or partially accepted all recommendations.
The audit outcomes report summarises the key findings and recommendations from the consensual audits, as well as providing examples of good practice, case studies and lessons learned for both AI developers and recruiters.
Ian Hulme, ICO director of assurance, said: “AI can bring real benefits to the hiring process, but it also introduces new risks that may cause harm to jobseekers if it is not used lawfully and fairly. Our intervention has led to positive changes by the providers of these AI tools to ensure they are respecting people’s information rights.
“Our report signals our expectations for the use of AI in recruitment, and we’re calling on other developers and providers to also action our recommendations as a priority. That’s so they can innovate responsibly while building trust in their tools from both recruiters and jobseekers.”
About the Audits
The ICO audits revealed that some AI tools were not processing personal information fairly – for example, by allowing recruiters to filter out candidates with certain protected characteristics. Others were inferring characteristics, including gender and ethnicity, from a candidate’s name instead of asking for information.
The ICO instructed these providers to collect accurate information directly from candidates and ensure that regular checks are in place to monitor and mitigate potential discrimination.
The regulator was also concerned that some AI tools collected far more personal information than necessary and retained it indefinitely to build large databases of potential candidates without their knowledge.
The ICO recommended that all candidates must be provided with transparent privacy information, including a clear retention period.
“We are actively working to implement the specific actions agreed with the ICO in our audit plan,” one of the organisations audited said. “For example, we are making sure to provide the relevant information regarding the use of AI in our privacy policies and evaluating the steps taken to minimise bias when training and testing our AI tools.”
Following these audits, the ICO now intends to work with the organisations using these AI tools to build on its understanding of the privacy risks and potential harms of using AI to aid recruitment.
Apple is set to face the first official fine from the EU for breaching their Digital Markets Act (DMA) following several investigations into tech giants.
The DMA came into effect in March, with the EU Commission launching numerous investigations into some of the biggest tech companies in the world to ensure their compliance.
The Act introduced more stringent regulations and requirements for the most prolific tech companies, labelling them as ‘gatekeepers’.
These include Apple, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amazon, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft.
The DMA aims to cut down on these company’s market dominance and power across their many tendrils, including social media, search, cloud, and systems operations.
Now, Apple’s App Store rules have come under fire. In early summer, the EU competition watchdog preliminary found the tech giant of being non-compliant with the DMA over its App Store practices.
It alleges that Apple is prohibiting developers from informing users of alterative purchasing options free of charge, a method that has been slammed as uncompetitive and an abuse of Apple’s market dominance.
The company’s App Store takes a hefty commission for purchases, at 30%, and does not offer interoperability with other application stores, raising other qualms with the EU.
Despite the EU’s early findings, Apple continues to create new fees in order to maintain its steep cut from developers and evade the DMA’s restrictions. The firm did implement new rules in its attempt to come under compliance with the DMA, including new frameworks and APIs for creating alternative app stores.
According to Bloomberg, the EU’s decision is still being drafted and may be finalised later this month. But Bloomberg has reported that Apple is set to face a fine from the DMA, which could be up to 10% of its global annual turnover. Its total revenue for 2023 was £302.75 billion.
Google will now require mandatory multifactor authentication (MFA) on all Google Cloud accounts as they roll out the technology to mitigate phishing and data theft attempts.
Throughout 2025, the new requirement will be rolled out in phases across Google Cloud accounts worldwide.
General consumer accounts with Google will not be affected by the change.
The move comes after Google Cloud’s Mandiant – the firm’s cybersecurity consulting subsidiary – found that stolen credentials and phishing attempts were the top attack vectors faced by cloud environments.
With 70% of Google users already enabling MFA, the move is unlikely to be a dramatic shift.
Google did say that the US’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) found that users who deploy MFA are 99% less likely to be successfully hacked.
For a smoother transition, Google is taking three steps in its rollout.
From November of this year, it will encourage MFA adoption with reminders in the Google Cloud console to users, providing information and resources to help users plan their rollout and test MFA.
From the start of 2025, MFA will be required for all new and existing Google Cloud accounts which rely on a password sign in.
Finally, from the end of 2025, the MFA requirement will be extended to all users that federate authenticate to Google Cloud accounts.
Those with Google Cloud federated accounts will have many options to meet this requirements.
“For example, you can enable MFA with your primary identity provider before accessing Google Cloud — we will be working closely with identity providers to ensure there are standards in place for a smooth hand-off. Alternatively, you can add an extra layer of MFA through your Google account if you prefer to use our system,” the company said in a blog post about the rollout.
On average, only 48% of digital initiatives meet or exceed business outcome targets, according to Gartner.
This is according to the analysis firm’s annual global survey of over 3,1000 CIOs and executives, and more than 1,100 executive leaders outside of IT (CxOs). A cohort of CIOs and CxOs, known as the ‘Digital Vanguard,’ has the highest achievement rate, where 71% of their digital initiatives meet or exceed outcome targets.
“This digital vanguard distinguishes themselves from the rest of CIOs and CxOs because they co-own digital delivery” said Raf Gelders, VP, research at Gartner.
“CIOs and CxOs are equally responsible, accountable and involved in delivering the digital solutions their enterprises need. This is a radical departure from the traditional paradigm of IT delivery and business ‘project sponsorship’ that predominates in most enterprises.”
Daniel Sanchez-Reina, VP analyst at Gartner added: “Behind every digital vanguard CxO, a digital vanguard CIO is guiding and enabling CxOs and their teams to co-lead and co-build digital delivery with IT.
“Digital vanguard CIOs nurture their peers to become digital vanguard CxOs. Those CIOs make it easier for their CxOs to lead digital with them and for business area staff to build digital solutions together with IT.”
Key Findings
Over 80% of EMEA CIOs polled said they expect to increase their investments in cybersecurity, AI/GenAI, and business intelligence and data analytics in 2025.
“Digital vanguard CIOs do not invest in these technologies to be used by their IT staff only. They also make them easy to use for potential or actual technologists outside of IT,” said Gelders.
“On average, there is 26% of business/corporate area staff outside of IT dedicated to building, implementing or managing technology.
“Many of these technologies naturally lend themselves to easing the burden of work enterprise-wide, accelerating time-to-market and time-to-value, and fostering the accountability of CxOs.”
At the other end of the spectrum, 43% of EMEA CIOs said they expect to decrease their investment in legacy infrastructure and data center technologies.
This is a trend that has become more common in recent years, mainly due to migrating to cloud-based solutions.
That compares with 33% who said they expect to increase it, which can be attributed, in part, to those organizations that acquired on-premise infrastructure to experiment and produce GenAI solutions.
Only 14% of EMEA CIOs surveyed prioritize building a technology workforce enterprise-wide (beyond their own IT departments) in 2025.
That will limit the enterprise’s ability to get the most from their digital investments. It condemns them to perpetuate the low number (48%) of digital initiatives that meet or exceed their business outcome targets.
Furthermore, just 19% of EMEA CIOs said they will prioritize sharing technology leadership with other business areas, a paramount must-have to grow the digital vanguard.
“To become a digital vanguard, CIOs in EMEA need to prioritize four areas – making digital platforms easy for the workforce to build digital solutions; teaching them the interdependencies between technology and business; helping business leaders become innovation leaders at digital; and expanding digital skills beyond the IT department,” said Sanchez-Reina.
Scottish Charity, TechFest, has organised a free Digital Science Festival to take place on the 1-8th November to encourage engagement in STEM for all ages.
The week-long festival will be hosted entirely online including workshops, presentations and interactive sessions, led by professionals across STEM.
The festival will feature a variety of speakers who aim to demonstrate the relevance of STEM subjects in everyday life. One of the speakers, Dr Tom Crawford, also known as Tom Rocks Maths on YouTube, will be combining his passion for mathematics and Pokémon.
Additionally, Doug Allan from BBC’s Blue Planet will be attending the festival to discuss “An Eye Below Zero, a Long-Term Look at the Poles.”
Other speakers at the festival include Scottish Influencer of the Year 2024 and climate activist Laura Young, and Dr Vivienne Ming, a visionary neuroscientist and AI expert who works towards unlocking the human potential.
The festival will close with the unique ‘Universilly Challenged’ pub-style quiz experience, hosted by the one-of-a-kind science troubadour Jonny Berliner and renowned biologist Simon Watt.
TechFest is a charity focused on making STEM more engaging and inclusive for everyone throughout the country and beyond whilst helping to connect STEM to various sectors.
Scotland’s Digital Science Festival has been developed to address the accessibility barriers for rural communities and provide a global platform for participants to join from anywhere in the world.
Sarah Chew, managing director of TechFest, said: “I’m incredibly proud to launch Scotland’s Digital Science Festival, powered by TechFest, in our efforts to bring fun and engaging STEM discussions to people across the globe.
“It is vital that we have more initiatives like this to inspire the next generation of talent and encourage people of all ages to engage with and rediscover their love for STEM.
“We want to challenge outdated perceptions that STEM subjects aren’t ‘cool’, are male-dominated, or too difficult by showing their relevance to exciting career paths demonstrated by our speakers.
“The power of connectivity allows us to bring these incredible speakers and activities directly into homes around the world free of charge.”
With International Day Against Violence and Bullying at School, including Cyberbullying – an UNESCO-recognised day – approaching on the 7th of November, Check Point Software is highlighting the link between cybersecurity and cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is a severe, often relentless form of digital harassment that can manifest in many ways, impacting individuals’ emotional well-being and security.
Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullying follows young people wherever they go, with nearly 93% of UK children aged 10 to 15 online daily, making them vulnerable to round-the-clock harassment, from impersonation and doxxing to severe forms of ‘sextortion’.
With the Malicious Communications Act and Communications Act criminalising online abuse, with fines and even prison sentences for offenders, and the Online Safety Act pledging to hold tech companies accountable for removing harmful content, turning a blind eye to cyberbullying could turn ruinous.
Cyberbullying extends bullying’s reach beyond the school gates, following students through social media and online platforms.
This constant access means that bullying can take multiple forms, such as impersonation, doxxing, harassment, and “sextortion,” leaving young people feeling unsafe at all times.
Given that 92.6% of children aged 10 to 15 in the UK go online daily, with over half spending three or more hours online on a typical school day, protecting them from cyberbullying is critical.
Cybersecurity tools can offer a powerful shield against cyberbullying. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) reduces the risk of impersonation, while AI-driven content filters can detect abusive language and suspicious behaviour.
End-to-end encryption ensures that private messages remain secure, limiting opportunities for bullies to misuse sensitive information. With these tools, parents and schools have effective means of protection, helping to reduce the impact of cyber-bullying on young people’s lives.
The UK has made strides in addressing cyberbullying through laws like the Malicious Communications Act (1988) and the Communications Act (2003), which criminalise online abuse and threats. These laws provide a basis for prosecuting individuals who engage in harmful online behaviour, with fines and even prison sentences for severe cases.
Further bolstering protections, the upcoming Online Safety Bill places accountability on tech companies to monitor and remove harmful content, particularly on platforms used by young people. The bill also introduces penalties for tech executives who fail to act on harmful content, marking a significant step in the fight against cyberbullying.
Countries worldwide have introduced their own laws to combat cyberbullying. Japan’s Cyberbullying Prevention Act enforces strict penalties following high-profile cases of online harassment.
At the same time, Australia’s Cybercrime Act and New Zealand’s Harmful Digital Communications Act impose serious consequences on those who engage in online bullying. In the United States, nearly half of teenagers report being bullied online, and while no federal law directly addresses it, 44 states have enacted criminal penalties for cyberbullying.
“Cybersecurity plays a fundamental role in safeguarding our digital lives beyond the traditional corporate and government spheres,” said Graeme Stewart at Check Point Software.
“By empowering individuals, especially students, with secure tools and digital literacy, we can diminish the pervasive effects of cyberbullying. We believe in fostering an environment where education, regulation, and cybersecurity converge to build a safe and respectful digital space for everyone. Working together to dismantle cyberbullying, we can create a digital world where security and kindness coexist.”
While this question might seem straight out of a poor-performing modern horror film, the idea is not entirely baseless, new research from consumer champion Which? has found.
Researchers with Which? found a range of evidence of excessive smart device surveillance, from air fryers listening in on conversations and sharing data with social media platforms, to TVs finding out users exact locations.
Which? rated products on the type of data they harnessed, finding that most data collection went well beyond what was necessary for the functionality of the product. Data could even be shared with third parties for marketing purposes.
Air Fryers
All three air fryer products – which do not need to be connected to anything but a power outlet to function – were found to require the precise location of their customer, as well as recording audio on their user’s phone, for no reason.
The Xiaomi app linked to its air fryer connected to trackers from Facebook, Pangle (the ad network for TikTok for Business), and Chinese tech giant Tencent (depending on the user’s location).
The Aigostar air fryer wanted to know the gender and date of birth when setting up an owner account, though this was option. Both the Aigostar and Xiami fryers sent people’s personal data to servers in China, which was flagged in the privacy notice.
Smart Watches
The smart watches studied often required consent to their privacy settings in order to work their smart features. This was true for Amazon top-sellers Kuzil and WeurGhy, which were found to be essentially the same product.
Hauwei Ultimate smartwatch was found to request nine ‘risky’ phone permissions, which were defined as giving invasive access to parts of someone’s phone. These include precise location, the ability to record audio, access to stored files, and the ability to see all other apps installed. The company said that the data is not used for marketing or advertising purposes, and that the trackers Which? found were only active in certain regions.
Smart TV menus are littered with ads, and thirsty for user data. The Hisense and Samsung TVs required a postcode to set up, according to Which?.
LG asked for a postcode, but this was not mandatory. Samsung said a postcode was not mandatory for set up, but according to Which?’s tests, it appeared to be a requirement.
Samsung’s TV requested eight risky phone permissions, including seeing all apps on a user’s phone. The Hisense did not connect to any trackers, Which? found, but Samsung and LG linked to a range of them, including Facebook and Google.
Smart Speakers
According to Which?’s tests, Bose Home Portable speaker and app take the least upfront phone permissions out of all the products they tested, but are stuffed with trackers, including Facebook, Google, and Urbanairship. Their security measures also faired poorly.
Amazon Echo, on the other hand, provided options to skip various requests to share data, but they do require an Amazon or Google account to use the Echo Pop or Nest Mini, respectively. These speakers use their respective company’s trackers, which users cannot opt out of.
“Our research shows how smart tech manufacturers and the firms they work with are currently able to collect data from consumers, seemingly with reckless abandon, and this is often done with little or no transparency,” Harry Rose, Which? magazine editor, said.
“Which? has been calling for proper guidelines outlining what is expected of smart product manufacturers and the ICO has confirmed a code is being introduced in Spring 2025 – this must be backed by effective enforcement, including against companies that operate abroad.”
The UK competition watchdog has updated their findings in their Vodafone-Three merger probe, provisionally saying that under certain conditions, the merger would be allowed to go ahead.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigation, led by an independent inquiry group, decided provisionally that a multi-billion commitment to upgrade the merged company’s network across the UK, including the roll-out of 5G, combined with short-term customer protections, could solve the competition concerns it identified in September.
Back in September, the CMA was concerned that the merger could lead to higher prices for customers and harm the position of mobile virtual network operators, such as Sky Mobile, Lyca, Lebara, and iD Mobile.
Following this, the CMA consulted on potential solutions, or remedies, and has now released a Remedies Working Paper seeking views on the effectiveness of a proposed remedy package.
In the paper, the CMA has provisionally found that a legally binding commitment to undertake the network integration and investment programme proposed by Vodafone and Three would significantly improve the quality of the merged company’s mobile network, boosting competition between mobile network operators in the long term and benefiting millions of people who rely on mobile services.
The CMA also found that short term protections would be needed to ensure that retail consumers and mobile virtual network operators can continue to secure good deals during the initial years of network integration and investment roll-out.
Under the CMA’s proposition, Vodafone and Three would have to deliver their joint network plan – which sets out the network upgrade and improvements they will make through significant levels of investment over the next 8 years across the UK, which would be seen as a legal obligation.
Further, they would have to commit to retain certain existing mobile tariffs and data plans for at least three years, and commit to pre-agreed prices and contracts to ensure that Mobile Virtual Network Operators can obtain competitive wholesale deals.
“We believe this deal has the potential to be pro-competitive for the UK mobile sector if our concerns are addressed,” Stuart McIntosh, chair of the inquiry group leading the investigation, said.
“Our provisional view is that binding commitments combined with short-term protections for consumers and wholesale providers would address our concerns while preserving the benefits of this merger.
“A legally binding network commitment would boost competition in the longer term and the additional measures would protect consumers and wholesale customers while the network upgrades are being rolled out.”
CIOs across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) have identified four emerging challenges making it difficult to deliver value with AI.
“Because of the relentless innovation happening in the tech vendor race, CIOs feel like they are always living the hype, while the reality of their AI outcomes race – how tough it is to get value – makes it feel like they are also in the trough,” said Alicia Mullery, VP research at Gartner.
“However, CIOs can set the pace in their AI outcomes race,” said Daryl Plummer, distinguished VP analyst, chief research at Gartner. “If you have modest AI ambitions, in an industry that isn’t being remastered by AI yet, you can afford to go at a more measured pace.
“This is an AI-steady pace. For those organizations with bigger AI ambitions, or in an industry that’s being reinvented by AI, the pace will be faster. This is an AI-accelerated pace. Whether you’re moving at an AI-steady or AI-accelerated pace, you have to deliver value and outcomes.”
The four emerging challenges were identified in a survey of 451 senior technology leaders in the second quarter of 2024, which found that 45% of EMEA CIOs are being tasked with leading an AI strategy in their enterprise.
Benefits Beyond Productivity
To generate business value with generative AI (GenAI), people must consistently use GenAI tools in their workflow.
In a second quarter 2024 Gartner survey of over 5,000 digital workers in the U.S., U.K., India, Australia and China, employees in EMEA said that they saved an average of 3.37 hours per week by using GenAI. But not all employees get the same degree of benefit from using GenAI.
“Here’s the real challenge with AI productivity,” said Plummer. “Productivity gains from GenAI are not equally distributed. Gains vary by employee, not just because of their personal interest and levels of adoptions, but according to complexity of job and level of experience.”
AI-accelerated organisations are also looking at benefits beyond productivity – operations and process -level improvements, such as automating key business processes or redesigning roles to work with chatbots; and business-level, game-changing improvements, such as outcomes that create new revenue streams or redesign the enterprise value proposition.
“In these cases, CIOs should manage AI benefits like a portfolio. Determine the size of your bet in each benefit area, and manage risks and rewards across this portfolio,” said Mullery.
AI Costs
More than 90% of CIOs said that managing cost limits their ability to get value from AI for their enterprise, according to a Gartner survey of over 300 CIOs in June and July 2024. In fact, Gartner believes that cost is as big an AI risk as security or hallucinations.
If CIOs don’t understand how their GenAI costs scale, Gartner estimates that they could make a 500%-1,000% error in their cost calculations.
“As a CIO, you need to understand your AI bill,” said Plummer. “You must understand the cost components and pricing model options, and you need to know how to reduce these costs and negotiate with vendors. CIOs should create proofs of concept that test how costs will scale, not just how the technology works.”
With AI and data proliferating everywhere in the enterprise, AI and data are no longer centralised assets that IT directly controls. The Gartner survey of over 300 CIOs found that on average, only 35% of their AI capabilities will be built by their IT teams. This means that new approaches are needed to manage and protect data access and govern AI inputs and outputs and safely deliver AI value.
“This is where the concept of a ‘tech sandwich’ comes in,” said Plummer in describing the AI tech stack of the future. “On the bottom of the sandwich is all the data and AI from IT, typically centralised. On the top is all the data and AI coming from everywhere, typically decentralised. And the middle contains the trust, risk, and security management (TRiSM) technologies that make it all safe. It’s what you need to create to accommodate AI and data coming from everywhere.”
“As CIO, your job is to design a tech sandwich that can handle the messiness of AI, but still keeps you open to new opportunities,” said Mullery. “AI-steady organisations (ten AI initiatives or fewer) will govern their tech sandwiches using human teams and committees. AI-accelerated organisations will add TRiSM technologies – a set of technologies designed to createtrust, monitorrisk and managesecurity for safe AI at scale.”
Positives and Negatives
Some employees may feel a strong affinity for AI. Others may feel threatened or resentful. These intense reactions to AI can lead to unintended behavioural outcomes that negatively impact employees’ work performance, such as jealousy of those using AI and overdependence on AI tools.
However, few organisations are actively managing these behavioural outcomes. In the June/July Gartner survey, only 13% of EMEA CIOs said they focus on mitigating potential negative impacts of GenAI on employee well-being.
“Most enterprises aren’t curious enough about how AI makes their employees feel. This matters because AI can lead to all sorts of unintended behavioural outcomes,” said Mullery. “The critical point is that if you use change management to manage this, be intentional about who owns which behavioural outcomes. Organisations must manage behavioural outcomes with the same rigor as technology and business outcomes.”
A new four day work week trial will begin across the UK, with 17 businesses and thousands of workers trying out the condensed work week pilot scheme.
The trail, by the 4 Day Week Campaign will see no decrease in pay as workers work one less day a week.
One of the organisations taking part, the British Society for Immunology (BSI), will introduce an optional four day week, reducing hours from 35 across five days down to 32 hours over four days.
To ensure there is enough staff each day for full service across the week, staff can work either Monday to Thursday or Tuesday to Friday.
“We are excited to offer this new benefit to those employees at the BSI who choose to participate, and hope that this will further enhance our working culture, providing staff with the opportunity to improve their work-life balance and making us an even more attractive employer,” said Dr Doug Brown, chief executive of the BSI.
“Of course, it is vital that the quality of service we provide to our members is maintained, and we will regularly review this throughout the pilot to make sure we continue to provide the full coverage of offerings and high-quality customer service that our members rely on us for.”
The trial follows a 4 Day Week Campaign trail that was performed last year, where most participating companies reported that performance and productivity across their business was maintained despite one less day in the office.
Revenue either stayed the same or rose by 1.4%, even.
Stress and burnout among employees fell dramatically, the study found, with about seven out of ten employees (71%) reporting lower levels of burnout.
People’s mental and physical health reportedly improved, while anxiety, fatigue and sleep issues improved. Employees took less sick days, and work-life balance reportedly improved.
Further, the campaign said that there was a 57% decrease in the potential for an employee to quit.
Following the firs trial, 4 Day Week Campaign says that the number of organisations operating a four-day work week amounts to 200.
The Financial Conduct Authority has released a warning to banks that they must ensure they can deal with potential but plausible severe scenarios, like the CrowdStrike outage, by March 2025, in order to build better operational resilience with their third-party service providers.
In a statement, the FCA noted the increased reliance on “unregulated third parties” for important business services, noting third-party related issues like the CrowdStrike outage which the regulator said they’ve seen an upward trend of since 2023.
The CrowdStrike outage devastated IT systems globally, interrupting major airports, critical infrastructure, and operational systems across the world.
The FCA released a full review of the outage as well as lessons learned that they hope to pass onto other firms, noting where companies succeeded in getting back online and safeguarding their assets, and where others failed to do so.
Firms that mapped their important business services and the resources necessary to deliver these services, were able to prioritise getting key services back online to reduce the overall impact the incident had on their operations.
The FCA also found that firms benefited from having tested scenarios that were severe but plausible, including those impacting multiple important business services at the same time.
The regulator noted that firms with clearly defined and tested communications strategies were better able to quickly and efficiently respond to and communicate with, customers and stakeholders.
The FCA therefore recommends that firms should consider if their current testing scenarios are adequate and assure themselves that impact would be minimised during operational disruptions.
Obvious to many after the CrowdStrike outage, which was largely the result of an update that was phased out globally, the FCA has now stressed that firms should ensure the adequate testing of updates, and consider phasing releases of updates across smaller groups to contain any failures.
Further, firms may benefit from reviewing third-party management frameworks regularly, and after significant events or incidents, to improve the effectiveness of third-party risk controls.
“The CrowdStrike outage was one of the most disruptive incidents to occur this year, so it is not surprising the FCA is using its analysis of the incident to stress the importance of resilience in the financial sector,” David Ferbrache, managing director at Beyond Blue, commented.
“The digital world has grown increasingly interconnected. Heavily regulated industries, such as the UK’s financial sector, have become critically dependent on many less-known and often unregulated suppliers to provide their services. However, this can create serious security and resilience concerns, especially when partners are not practicing good cyber hygiene, have privileged access into your network, or become so critical to operations that financial institutions cannot operate with them.
“This is a challenge that the FCA, together with the PRA and the Bank of England, are looking to address through the forthcoming Critical Third Parties (CTP) regulatory regime, which is expected to land this quarter.
“Operational resilience is the ability for financial firms to meet the vital needs of their customers even in the face of severe disruptions. When third parties—such as cloud service providers, IT management services, or communication platforms—fail, the ripple effect can be catastrophic for financial firms and, by extension, the broader financial ecosystem. The upcoming policy is working to tackle this challenge.
“The policy stipulates that financial firms must have an understanding of the resilience of their third parties in the face of severe but plausible scenarios, while also ensuring they can remain resilient if those third parties are rendered unavailable.
“While we expect the CTP regime will regulate the most important of those third parties, there will many hundreds more of suppliers on which the financial sector depends and which could also cause major disruption. This requires the financial sector to work together to tackle the resilience of those “significant” third parties.
“The Cross Market Operational Resilience Group (CMORG) of the Bank of England brought financial institutions together to agree the next steps on how the community tackles that next tier of suppliers, making recommendations on how scenario testing of third parties is carried out, the types of evidence third parties should provide regarding their resilience to give confidence to financial firms, and how resilience obligations may be embedded in future contracts.
“Operationalising these findings over the coming year will be key to improving sector resilience and complements the roll-out of the CTP regime. Together these initiatives will both be key to a resilient financial sector ecosystem – one that is increasingly complex and interdependent.”
Dropbox is set to cut about 20% of its workforce – 528 layoffs – making it the second round of layoffs for the company just this year.
CEO Drew Houston announced the newest round of job cuts, saying they are a part of the a transitional period for the company as it seeks to centre itself around its AI tool, Dash for Business, among other products.
“Our FSS business has matured, and we’ve been working to build our next phase of growth with products like Dash. However, navigating this transition while maintaining our current structure and investment levels is no longer sustainable,” the Dropbox CEO said.
Huston went on to say that the DropBox is not hitting its targets in line with industry competitors, or delivering the level it thinks its company deserves.
Internal management issues, which staff have complained about as slowing down progress with obtuse organisational interference, were also cited as reasons for the latest round of cuts.
“So we’re making more significant cuts in areas where we’re over-invested or underperforming while designing a flatter, more efficient team structure overall,” he said.
Affected staff will be given 16 weeks of pay, with increased pay offers based on completed years of tenure at the company, and lump sums for those on the corporate bonus plan.
Orbex, the Forres-based company behind the Sutherland Spaceport, has released new plans to increase economic prosperity and address environmental concerns in developing the Sutherland Spaceport.
The company has come together with the local councillors and the community to update previously submitted plans for to make Sutherland a carbon neutral spaceport.
In the new plans, the spaceport will see a slight repositioning on the northern tip of Scotland, and the communications hub will be relocated to the summit of Ben Tongue.
While the original plans were approved in 2020, they have been scaled back for better functionality and environmental concerns.
Part of the changes include a near 60% reduction in peat excavations to reduce carbon emissions, and the instillation of bridges over waterways to allow for “mammal migration paths.”
The spaceport is already under partial development, with current construction efforts underway on the roads and supporting bridges towards the launch pad.
Dorothy Pritchard, chair of Melness Crofters Estate (MCE), said: “We at MCE have a vision of the potential benefits the spaceport, over time, could bring to the Melness/Tongue area which has suffered greatly from the negative effects of an ageing demographic and depopulation.”
Members of the council echoed these hopes and concerns for their community.
“The Melness/Tongue area has been identified as a fragile area as a consequence of a number of factors such as depopulation and poor access to a range of services,” Trudy Morris, chief executive of the Caithness Chamber of Commerce, said.
“The spaceport development is designed to help address these through the creation of new job opportunities and the delivery of community benefits.”
Orbex has already offered job vacancies to those without technical expertise or to those looking to retrain in order to give back to the community it is building in.
Both those in Sutherland and developers are aiming to manage what they hope to be a year-round influx of visitors aiming to view launches from the spaceport.
Despite worries from locals and land developers about increases in through traffic, the council approved the new plans, a welcomed decision from Orbex, which will continue to liaise with the public in its continued planning.
The data centre sector has the potential to become one of the fastest growing industries in the UK, according to a new analysis published by technology trade association techUK today.
According to the Foundations of the Future report, commissioned by techUK and developed by Henham Strategy, data centres are currently contributing £4.7 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) annually to the UK economy.
The report also shows that the sector has created 43,500 jobs across the UK economy, contributing £640m in tax revenue to the exchequer.
However, as technology continues to evolve, with significant advancements in AI and emerging technologies, the demand for data centres is set to increase at a much faster rate than it ever has before, with projections of future growth at between 10-20% a year.
The report suggests that if the UK can meet the projected growth of the data centres sector above its recent growth rate of 10% to 15% a year, this could have a transformative impact on the sector and wider UK economy by 2035.
The report estimates the construction and operation of data centres will contribute an additional £44b in GVA between 2025 and 2035.
Further, it should boost employment, with 40,200 additional jobs directly employed in data centre operational roles by the year 2035, with 18,200 additional jobs directly employed in data centre construction roles over the period 2025-35.
techUK also estimates that the infrastructure will create a tax boost of £9.7bn.
“Data centres are the backbone of the digital economy; without them our transport, energy and wider economy couldn’t function,” Matthew Evans, director of Markets and COO at techUK, said.
“And with continued AI advances, the importance of data centres to unlocking tech-led growth is only accelerating. Despite the critical role data centres play in supporting sustainable economic growth, their potential is far from fully realised. With the right policy support and collaboration between industry and government, the sector is poised to drive further innovation and enable digital transformation across all sectors of the economy across the country.”
Key Recommendations
The report sets out several key policy areas where government action can further enable the growth of the data centre sector and address existing challenges.
Energy
Data centres require large amounts of energy, and the sector faces challenges in securing timely and affordable access to clean energy. techUK highlights the need for government support in improving grid connections, reforming queue processes, and enabling access to renewable energy through initiatives like Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). Additionally, the development of on-site renewable energy sources such as geothermal or small modular reactors (SMRs) can help ensure the long-term sustainability of data centres.
Sustainability
Despite a doubling of data centre workloads since 2015, electricity demand has remained flat due to the industry’s ongoing efficiency improvements. The report recommends greater integration of data centres into district heat networks, the adoption of sustainability reporting standards, and continued focus on resource optimisation to support the sector’s journey towards net-zero emissions.
Planning Reforms
The UK’s planning system needs reform to accelerate data centre development. The report calls for the introduction of a National Policy Statement for data centres, streamlined planning processes through the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime, and improved training for local planning authorities to ensure speedy and consistent decision-making. These changes will help ensure that data centres can be built quickly and efficiently, contributing to local and national economic growth.
Data centres offer high-paying, stable jobs, but the industry faces challenges in attracting skilled workers. The report encourages reforms to the apprenticeship levy and greater promotion of career pathways in the sector. Initiatives such as the National Data Centres Academy and local partnerships with colleges are key to addressing skills shortages and fostering the next generation of talent.
Collaboration
While the industry welcomes the role that DSIT has been playing in coordinating with other government departments, the sector would encourage further coordination to ensure any further policy developments across areas of government remain coherent and consistent in their approach. In the past, data centres were often caught by default in numerous regulations. It is therefore imperative to achieve growth objectives that various policies do not diminish these aims, and support DBT/OFI and DSIT in their efforts to promote the industry in the UK internationally and its competitiveness.
“Data centres are critical to powering the technology that drives our modern economy. This government has already begun to give a boost to the sector by giving them Critical National Infrastructure status which will strengthen protections against events like cyber-attacks.
“As these findings show, if government and industry work together to tackle the challenges and harness the opportunities the sector offers, we can create thousands of jobs and drive prosperity across all corners of the country. We have already seen the sector respond with over £25 billion of private investment committed in recent months.”
Nick King, Managing Director at Henham Strategy said: “The essential role that data centres play in our modern economy is underappreciated by the public and politicians alike.
“Not only do they unlock the vast array of technological services we all rely on every day but they’re big business – bringing investment, jobs and tax revenues at both a local and national level. This report aims to shine a light on both their current impact but also their future potential. If the UK can present itself as an obvious market for international investors over the next decade, we all stand to gain.”
How do you approach a task like breaking down and analysing Mark Logan’s time in government?
It’s been over four years since he published the Scottish Tech Ecosystem Review (STER), coinciding with the end of his first two years as Chief Entrepreneur of Scotland, a role that was essentially created for Logan.
We’re certainly not bereft when it comes to lines of inquiry – key areas of progress made since the STER report, areas where Logan felt he could have made further progress, vulnerable points in the tech ecosystem, challenges in government, what he was looking forward to next – are a few that spring to mind.
He had just published an update to the DeepTech Supercluster initiative he was excited to spearhead, when just two days later, he announced his resignation via a LinkedIn post.
Despite not mincing his words in said post, speculations – as well as support – flooded in, and now, Logan would be forced back into the limelight he so often tried to avoid, as commentators (representing both good and bad faith) scramble to define his legacy.
In this interview with DIGIT, we speak to the former Chief Entrepreneur to discuss his time in government, and why he left, in his own words.
From STER to Chief Entrepreneur
Logan saw his transition from writing STER to leading its implementation as a linear, sensical progression.
Once he wrote the STER report, which reviewed the current Scottish tech ecosystem and offered various key recommendations, he could not help but feel attached.
“I think I realised after completing STER that if I really wanted to see it come to fruition, I would need to follow over the wall into implementation,” Logan said.
He realised if he left the report’s fate in the hands of others it would leave it “open to a lot of interpretation, and potential for dilution.
“I think it was useful to keep an author of a report like that very much in the vanguard of its implementation, so that the original intent and meaning wasn’t lost in translation.”
When Logan cut his teeth in the Scottish startup scene in the 90s, Scotland lacked an interconnected ecosystem.
Logan reflects on the challenges faced by early startups, emphasising the absence of supportive networks and resources at that time.
“There weren’t any of the support networks or social networks, or even good places to go and start a tech company in those days.
“That’s changed a lot.”
Logan noted that just before STER, the Scottish government did not necessarily take the idea of a tech startup nation as seriously as it does now, resources were “isolated,” unlike successful national strategies in countries like Estonia, Finland, and Lithuania.
“The government did not talk about tech startups or ecosystems at that time – it wasn’t really in the vocabulary.”
He says: “Now, there’s a much stronger sense of a systematic model and approach that spans multiple stakeholders, it’s much easier to collaborate because we have a common model for what we’re trying to do. There’s also a lot more belief in the ecosystem that you can make improvements to the betterment of the companies that are trying to thrive within it.”
His reflection on the thematic manifestations his work with the government has created has galvanised a true explosion of life in the Scottish tech ecosystem.
Logan could of course discuss the success of Techscaler in the short term, with the programme claiming in its first annual report that companies supported by Techsclaer attracted investment of more than £52 million in 2023 – according to the project’s first Annual Report.
He also provided some updated figures, saying that the total investment raised by Techscaler startups since joining totals £91.2m, with 908 startups.
Beyond this, STER has prompted the formation of STACS to improve computing science education, the establishment of an Ecosystem Fund to help startups, as well as the formation of the Northern Scaleup Fund to help more remote regions feel the benefits of the newly forming ecosystem. Of course, it would be remiss to not mention the Pathways report (which Logan co-authored with Ana Stewart), which highlighted the need to mitigate gender imbalance in Scottish entrepreneurship, its associated Pathways Fund, and, just days before he announced his resignation, the formation of a DeepTech Supercluster.
All of these, of course, come with a caveat, it’s hard to objectively gauge the success of any of these initiatives in isolation – time will tell how meaningful their impact will be.
It’s an impact that Logan won’t be in office to see following his shock resignation.
In terms of looking back, Logan was realistic on how things work in government – it takes persistence and patience to see things through.
While education reform was one of his “greater frustrations,” it also imparted important lessons on how to balance a considered, thoughtful approach to government, whilst managing the need for speedy addressing of key issues.
“There’s good reasons why governments are thoughtful and cautious, but there’s no question that the government and civil service in Scotland could move faster than it does,” he pointed out.
Essentially, Logan’s frustration was rooted in bureaucratic processes and structural barriers, rather than in taking time for careful consideration.
“My eternal ask of government is to learn how to iterate more quickly – and this is not a party political point, because it’d be the same challenge that any party in power would find,” he clarified.
“We have to always seek to better learn how to subordinate functional priorities to the tasks needing done, the jobs needing done in the country which span those boundaries.”
It’s a similar problem many face in any large company, Logan assured, though in government the stakes are even greater, often more care will be necessary, and decisions and actions will be met with greater scrutiny. But speed is still of importance.
Despite this, Logan feels that in his time with the government, a lot got done, though it’s clear he feels that with more streamlined governmental processes, much more could be achieved.
On his resignation
Mark’s resignation statement did not leave much to the imagination, saying he was ‘increasingly becoming a target for some in the right-wing of Scottish politics and their supporting publications.’
While the circumstances of his departure certainly sent shockwaves through the ecosystem, the nature of his implementation in the role were unprecedented.
Logan was the only industry expert brought in, and he was meant to advise on and encompass the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem, despite his background being firmly in tech.
Reflecting on this isolation, and considering the amount of time Logan bore the role, it’s given him a clear idea on how a future Chief Entrepreneur could progress this kind of work.
If nothing else, Logan’s time made it clear that he would like to see more industry experts working in government to better address the diversity of the ecosystem.
“There’s absolutely no question that the principle of bringing people like me close to government is the right one.
“But, we shouldn’t just have one person doing that.”
Having a pluralistic aspect to the role of chief entrepreneur would perhaps have avoided some of the pitfalls Logan experienced.
In his first address to the Scottish Parliament, conservative MSPs asked him nothing about his work or recommendations, but only challenged the existence of his position.
While looking at Logan’s body of work in his time in government could certainly serve as a solid justification for the existence of the role, these kinds of questions early in his tenure warned him that he would be playing not just an advisory role, but a political one as well.
It was the increasing number of these attacks – Logan was candid in calling out articles like those in the Daily Express and the Telegraph, as well as repeated criticisms from Conservative MPs – that made him consider if this was the right role for him.
“As I got into the second-half of this year, I started to detect an uptick of this sort of stuff and I decided to start monitoring that more closely. It was clear that this was going to escalate quickly, as my potential contract extension neared, and as we edged closer to elections in Scotland.” Logan said.
His frustration was palpable as he noted the frequent Freedom of Information requests requiring detail on every single meeting he had and their associated minutes in an attempt to place a price tag on conversations over coffee.
Logan’s salary continually came up during his tenure. He was contracted for two days a week to work for the Scottish Government, though both he and members of the government say he most often exceeded this time scale, and could have been paid £200K a year. In actuality, he says he was paid about £130k per year, with the FOI request revealing he was paid £236,000 during his time as Chief Entrepreneur.
With this in mind, Logan felt that his position was at risk of being scrutinised for all the wrong reasons, and would pull attention away from his accomplishments and further goals, especially with an election ahead.
“Four and a half years is a long time to be doing a job of this nature,” he said of the job, as well.
He had reached a point in the DeepTech Supercluster initiative where he felt comfortable announcing its current phase, before announcing his resignation.
“In isolation of all those things, I would have been delighted to continue work on these, along with other initiatives.”
However, these attacks were ‘draining’, and affecting Logan’s mental wellbeing.
”At some point you’re going to say that ‘this isn’t the best thing for you, Mark, and it’s time to protect yourself a little bit.’”
He had been doing the job for longer than he imagined – back when he wrote STER, he thought that would be that. Eventually, he realised he had choices.
The part-time role was eating up more of his time – Logan is a university professor at the University of Glasgow where he teaches 100 students each year, and he also works as a private consultant.
Logan is a self-proclaimed introvert who is also autistic. He says that, within this context, he was able to successfully manage the many public-facing aspects of the job – the presentations, meetings, networking, intensively liaising with a large number of stakeholders, though at times it could be draining.
He successfully managed his autism during his prior roles, such as his stint as Chief Operating Officer of Skyscanner, often able to tend to his own needs throughout his career, and use the “considerable advantages” of being a variant on the spectrum throughout his life, even in the era before tech decided to champion itself as a sector made of and supporting of neurodivergent people.
“It probably helped me to write the STER report in six weeks, for example,” he says.
He does not regret not mentioning his autism during his time in government, saying that “it was something that I’ve managed perfectly effectively throughout my entire career and I didn’t need to make it anyone else’s issue, was what I felt.”
By all reasonable accounts, his assessment was right – he successfully worked with the government for over four years, fulfilling many of his ambitious goals, and laid a foundation for Scotland to realise its entrepreneurial aspirations.
“But a relatively new experience for me was to become, or be at risk of becoming Scotland’s pantomime villain in a very public way, as a result of systematic attempts to deliberately undermine my position by the Conservative party.
“I feared that might be too much for me to want to add on to an already, as you can imagine, quite demanding role I had.”
He said his ability to manage his autism amidst these growing “attacks” was “a key consideration for me.”
Mark was also concerned of what this might mean for government, thinking that the continued visceral media attacks would be a distraction from the work of the government.
While there are areas in which Logan wished he could have dedicated more time – supporting social enterprises and ‘scale deep’ efforts – he feels like he has left the overall Scottish ecosystem in capable hands.
However, he is well aware that these foundations need to be nurtured, and have many vulnerabilities.
“Something I put great store on is the value of narrative.
“You know, what’s the story that we are telling ourselves that we can then go and execute on?
“And I would just urge my peers across those and other areas to continue to be clear on what the narrative is.
“Why are we doing the things we are doing and how are we going to get them done and what’s the consequences of not getting them done.”
Mark said that one of the great things about his role was that he had the “freedom to narrate” which he knows may be more difficult for institutions to do.
This is something he urges the government to look for when seeking to fill the role in the future.
“I genuinely feel that our various projects are in safe hands, but I do feel there’s still vulnerability because, you know, any country can go backwards as well as forwards,” he noted.
And Mark is not going anywhere. He spent far more than the four years in government working for the Scottish tech ecosystem.
He turned down opportunities to chase California dreams in Silicon Valley, or cement himself in the already solid London ecosystem.
“I always made the deliberate choice that I was going to invest my contribution in Scotland alongside others who are doing the same,” he said.
“I will still absolutely continue to contribute.”
He’s not sure what these contributions will look like at the moment, besides his existing commitments, but Mark Logan is not “walking off into the mystical sunset.”
The rising trend of cloud repatriation – relocating workloads and applications from the public cloud to on-premises – could be due to missed expectations around growing cloud costs, new research from IDC warns.
The new report found a mismatch of expectations and reality is driving more and more organisations to abandon the public cloud in favour of local data storage.
According to the group’s Cloud Pulse survey for Q4 2023, nearly half of cloud buyers spent more on cloud than they expected, with 59% expecting similar overruns in 2024. Forecasting costs can be a challenge due to the complexities of the cloud environment, on top of uncontrollable external impacts.
Further, increasing costs for energy and third-party services, as well as fiscal implications of AI, contribute to these unexpectedly high bills.
It should be clarified, however, that only 8-9% of companies plan a full workload repatriation, with most instead choosing to repatriate specific parts of their workloads.
The IDC report noted that cloud repatriation is also being driven by a mismatch of workloads. Not all workloads benefit from the cloud infrastructure, and performance and latency complaints are common, especially across applications that need real-time processing.
Security and compliance concerns were also a noted reason, despite cloud infrastructure boasting advanced security tactics. Data breaches, as well as compliance with regulators, were a major concern cited by those moving away from the cloud.
It makes sense then that backup/disaster recovery processes and production data are some of the most commonly repatriated workload elements.
Further, the already complex cloud environment is only getting more complex, as multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments become more common place. Managing across different vendors and platforms, integrating cloud services, and ensuring security consistency can prove too much of a challenge, making cloud adoption a daunting prospect to many firms.
Another reason for cloud repatriation is simply to allow for greater operational control across IT stacks, which can help organisations more specifically tailor their infrastructure with on-premise workloads.
Snapchat has been identified as the most widely-used platform for online grooming, according to figures analysed by NSPCC, the children’s charity.
According to police figures, the year to March 2024 saw the highest number of Sexual Communication of Child offenses since the offence was created, at over 7,000.
Social media platform Snapchat made up close to half (48%) of the cases of online grooming recorded by the police.
Meta’s various platforms also contributed greatly to the figures, with WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger contributing to 12% of cases, and Instagram 6%.
According to a statement to the BBC, Snapchat said it has a “zero tolerance” policy concerning the sexual exploitation of children, and has safety tools for teens and parents.
However, online safety advocates point out how the design of Snapchat can make it a danger in itself. Messages and images on Snapchat typically disappear after 24 hours, and users can see if a recipient has screenshot or saved any images shared.
This makes criminality more difficult to track than on other platforms.
Amid the continued rise in offenses, the NPCC is calling on Ofcom to strengthen the Online Safety Act and focus on prevention rather than mitigating harm after offenses take place.
The charity is calling for more proactive safety measures from social media platforms to combat surge in offences.
“One year since the Online Safety Act became law and we are still waiting for tech companies to make their platforms safe for children,” NSPCC chief executive Sir Peter Wanless said.
“We need ambitious regulation by Ofcom who must significantly strengthen their current approach to make companies address how their products are being exploited by offenders.
“It is clear that much of this abuse is taking place in private messaging, which is why we also need the Government to strengthen the Online Safety Act to give Ofcom more legal certainty to tackle child sexual abuse on the likes of Snapchat and WhatsApp.”
Despite the growing need for professionals, global cybersecurity workforce growth has slowed for the first time in six years, holding at 5.5 million people.
This contrasts with last year when the workforce grew 8.7% year-on-year despite declining economic conditions.
This is according to ISC2’s 2024 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, which reveals that professionals are feeling the impact of declining investments in the cybersecurity workforce, including budget cutbacks and layoffs, affecting workforce satisfaction, the development of organisational security, the adoption of new technologies and more.
For the first time, participants cited “lack of budget” as the top cause of their staffing shortages, replacing “lack of qualified talent” as a top cause in the previous year’s research.
Additionally, 74% of respondents say the threat landscape is the most challenging they have experienced in the last five years, and job satisfaction has fallen from 74% in 2022 to 66% in 2024.
Meanwhile, 67% of respondents indicated they had a staffing shortage this year, while 90% reported skills gaps on their cybersecurity teams.
More than half of those surveyed (58%) believe a shortage of skills puts their organisation at significant risk, and over one-third of respondents cited AI as the biggest skills shortfall on their teams. Professionals believe that AI and automation will have the most significant impact on their ability to secure their organisation.
The study also measured cyber professional’s perspectives on the opportunities they see for growth.
Study participants are optimistic about AI adoption and are focused on attaining the skills they need to be successful in an AI-driven workplace. 66% of study participants say AI represents career growth opportunities, while 54% say it will be helpful to their organisations’ security operations.
About half (51%) believe AI will result in certain cybersecurity skills becoming obsolete, but two-thirds are confident their expertise will complement the technology, with 80% saying their cybersecurity skill set will be more important in an AI-driven world.
“As economic conditions continue to impact workforce investment, this year’s Cybersecurity Workforce Study underscores that many organisations are putting their cyber teams under significant strain, risking burnout and attrition as job satisfaction rates fall,” said ISC2 acting CEO and CFO Debra Taylor, CC.
“Despite these challenges, AI is viewed by professionals as a solution to strengthen their organisations’ security and create new efficiencies for their teams.
“They also view effectively managing risk associated with AI adoption and its strategic importance to their organisation’s future success as career growth opportunities for themselves and their peers. Organisations and cybersecurity leaders must recognise how AI can contribute to creating more resilient security teams, especially while economic challenges persist.”
Cyber Professionals Embracing AI
To prepare for future opportunities, 73% of respondents are building their cybersecurity skill set, 52% are focused on becoming a more strategic contributor to the organisation, and 48% are learning more AI-related skills.
Additionally, 45% of respondents teams are already utilising AI in cybersecurity tools in a number of use cases.
These include augmenting common operational tasks (56%), speeding up report writing and incident reporting (49%), simplifying threat intelligence (47%), accelerating threat hunting (43%), and improving policy simulations (41%).
However, despite AI enthusiasm, AI readiness may need catching up.
Nearly 90% of professionals said their organisation has a GenAI use policy, but 65% say their organisation needs to implement more regulations on the safe use of GenAI.
Concerningly, only 60% of respondents reported that their cybersecurity team is involved with creating regulations and guidelines for GenAI.
In fact, lack of a clear GenAI strategy was cited as one of the top barriers to its organisational adoption by nearly half (45%) of all participants.
Once AI strategies are enhanced, 68% agree within the next two years they will be able to use GenAI effectively as part of their roles.
Cyber-criminals are increasingly using AI Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate content for large-scale phishing and scam attacks, Kaspersky’s AI Research Centre experts have discovered.
As threat actors attempt to generate fraudulent websites in high volumes, they often leave behind distinctive artifacts – such as AI-specific phrases – that set these sites apart from those created manually. So far, most phishing examples observed by Kaspersky target users of cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets.
Kaspersky researchers analysed a sample of resources, identifying key characteristics that help distinguish and detect cases where AI was used to generate content or even entire phishing and scam websites.
One of the prominent signs of LLM-generated text is the presence of disclaimers and refusals to execute commands, including phrases such as “As a language model.” Two phishing pages targeting users contain this type of wording, for instance.
Another distinctive indicator of language model usage is the presence of concessive clauses, such as: ‘While I can’d do exactly what you want, I can try something similar.’
In other examples, targeting Gemini and Exodus users, the LLM declines to provide detailed login instructions.
“With LLMs, attackers can automate the creation of dozens or even hundreds of phishing and scam web pages with unique, high-quality content,” explains Vladislav Tushkanov, research development group manager at Kaspersky. “Previously, this required manual effort, but now AI can help threat actors generate such content automatically.”
LLMs can be used to create not just text blocks but entire web pages, with artifacts appearing both in the text itself and in areas like meta tags: snippets of text that describe a web page’s content and appear in its HTML code.
There are other indicators of AI usage in creating fraudulent sites. Some models, for instance, tend to use specific phrases like “delve”, “in the ever-evolving landscape”, and “in the ever-changing world”.
While these terms are not considered strong indicators of AI-generated content, they may still be viewed as signs.
Another feature of text generated by a language model is the indication up to which the model’s knowledge of the world extends. The model typically articulates this limitation using phrases such as “according to my last update in January 2023”.
LLM-generated text is often combined with tactics that make phishing page detection more complicated for cybersecurity tools. For instance, attackers may use non-standard Unicode symbols, such as those with diacritics or from mathematical notation, to obfuscate text and prevent matching by rule-based detection systems.
“Large language models are improving, and cybercriminals are exploring ways to apply this technology for nefarious purposes. However, occasional errors provide insights into their use of such tools, particularly into the growing extent of automation.
“With future advancements, distinguishing AI-generated content from human-written text may become more challenging, making it crucial to use advanced security solutions that analyze textual information along with metadata, and other fraud indicators,” said Vladislav Tushkanov.
The UK government is set to recommend the creation of special ‘computing zones’ for easier building of data centres, as well a simplified visa process for foreign workers with AI skills.
In a commissioned report sent last month to the government and due to be published in November, key recommendations are made for the UK’s tech sector, with emphasis on making Britain a top destination for AI experts.
Reported by the Financial Times the “AI Opportunities Action Plan” was written by Matt Clifford, an entrepreneur who was appointed as an advisor by the new Science, Innovation, and Technology secretary Peter Kyle.
A main tenant in the proposal is the creating of computing zones, which would make it easier to build data centres and any of their related infrastructure.
Data centres have already become a priority of the government, as secretary Kyle designated them as critical national infrastructure just this September in a bid to give the tech sector greater support from government and more sovereign data storage capabilities.
According to reports, this designation means that data centres will face less building restrictions, giving developers the power to overturn objections to building proposals.
One of the major hurdles to data centre development has been power resources – the proposal aims to make it easier to build the necessary power connections to source the data centres, and ease their concentration pressures.
Further, the report echoes calls from industry to streamline the lengthy bureaucracy and lesson the cost burden of the visa process, in an attempt to not lose on top tech and AI talent from abroad.
The previous government controversially changed the UK skilled visa immigration rules, increasing the wage threshold by over £10k and raising associated costs.
The new Labour government has so far kept these new reforms in an attempt to curb net immigration, so it remains to be seen if the government will make it easier for any immigrants, no matter how skilled, to work in the UK.
If the charity closed, then 31 jobs at the organisations were at risk, and students would have lost the opportunity to study the SCQF Level 6 in entrepreneurship.
YE Scotland has been in operation for 30 years, delivering education in enterprise building to schools and colleges to bring vital skills to Scotland’s students.
Despite losing its typical grant, Kate Forbes reassured in the Scottish Parliament yesterday that the charity would receive the necessary funds.
“I will be very clear: funding for Young Enterprise Scotland has not been withdrawn,” she said.
“Since 2022, the Scottish Government has advised Young Enterprise Scotland, along with other stakeholders, that all future entrepreneurial education programmes will move to competitive funding – that approach is consistent with other entrepreneurial funds and is in the DNA of entrepreneurship.
“Although Young Enterprise Scotland was not successful in bidding for entrepreneurial education funding because of the strength of other applications – many of which had not previously received government support – I met the chair and chief executive of Young Enterprise Scotland this morning to update them on the conversations about additional support that had already taken place with officials, and I have approved the requested £285,000 to run into this year the two programmes that were previously funded by the Scottish Government.”
According to Forbes, this funding will cover the charity’s expenditure from April 2024 to March 2025, and the charity has confirmed that the funding will ensure their ongoing viability.
In the past year, YE Scotland supported over 18,000 school and college students through its enterprise programmes, including the flagship Company Programme, which many entrepreneurs reflect on as the pathway to their business career.
The Information Commissioner’s Office, as well as several global counterparts, are highlighting how social media companies can better protect personal information, as concerns grow about mass scraping of personal data within social media platforms, often to support AI models.
The ICO has joined 16 other global data protection authorities engaged with some of the world’s largest social media companies after issuing a joint statement on data scraping last year. As a result of this engagement, they have now issued a follow-up statement laying out additional takeaways for industry.
As AI models continue to proliferate across various systems, and need more and more data to train themselves, data scraping has become of utmost concern for data privacy. Social media platforms continue to roll out their own AI models, often scraping the data of their users to train the AI systems.
Last year, data protection authorities called on industry to identify and implement controls to protect against, monitor for, and respond to data scraping activities on their platforms, including by taking steps to detect bots and block IP addresses when data scraping activity is identified, among other measures.
As Meta and X begin training their AI models on their user data, which faced some controversy from data protection authorities, the new joint statement lays out further expectations to safeguard user data.
The statement says that organisations must comply with privacy and data protection laws when using personal information, including from their own platforms, to develop AI large language models (LLMs).
A combination of safeguarding measures and regular review must be deployed to keep pace with advances in scraping techniques and technologies.
Organisations are also urged to ensure that permissible data scraping for commercial or socially beneficial purposes is done lawfully and in accordance with strict contractual terms.
After the first statement was signed by members of the Global Privacy Assembly’s International Enforcement Working Group in 2023, it was sent to the parent companies of YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, LinkedIn, Weibo, and X.
According to the ICO, this led to constructive dialogue between data protection authorities and several of these social media companies, as well as with the Mitigating Unauthorised Scraping Alliance, an organisation that aims to combat unauthorised data scraping.
The discussions enabled all parties to delve deeper into the issues related to data scraping, resulting in a more nuanced and robust understanding by data protection authorities of the challenges that organisations face in protecting against unlawful scraping, including increasingly sophisticated scrapers, ever-evolving advances in scraping technology, and differentiating scrapers from authorised users.
Generally, social media companies indicated to data protection authorities that they have implemented many of the measures that were identified in the initial statement, as well as further measures that can form part of a dynamic multi-layered approach to better protecting against unlawful data scraping.
Some of the additional measures that are presented in the follow-up joint statement include using platform design elements that make it harder to scrape data using automation, safeguards that leverage artificial intelligence, and lower cost solutions that small and medium-sized enterprises could use to meet their safeguarding obligations.
Scotland’s businesses are calling on the Chancellor to prioritise a competitive tax system that incentivises growth when she delivers her first Budget, according to the latest data from Bank of Scotland’s Business Barometer.
When asked about the key areas they want to prioritised to support their businesses, 46% of the 1,200 respondents highlighted the need for a competitive tax system that incentivises growth.
Just over two-fifths (42%) expressed a desire for solutions to skills shortages and the training needs for businesses. Another 32% called for improvements in both digital and physical infrastructure, while the same percentage (32%) wanted incentives to promote investment in new products, services, and innovations.
To support the prosperity of Scotland’s economy more generally, firms also wanted the Chancellor to prioritise a competitive tax system that incentivises local growth (43%), along with addressing skills shortages and the training needs of businesses (41%) and improving physical or digital infrastructure (27%).
Recent research shows that 55% of Scottish businesses are worried about tax rises, an increase from last year’s figures.
And, with the UK pressing ahead with decarbonisation, 55% would like the government to prioritise supporting businesses to improve their energy efficiency to help them align with the UK national target of net zero by 2050.
“Firms across Scotland have said that they are hoping that their priority areas of a competitive tax system that incentivises growth and addressing skills shortages are supported in the Budget,” Martyn Kendrick, Scotland director at Bank of Scotland commercial banking said.
“These priority areas are seen by businesses as crucial to help drive their operations. At Lloyds, we remain committed to supporting our customers to help them reach their growth aspirations.”
Scottish businesses are currently in a state of limbo, according to recent reports on business confidence, as they look ahead to the Autumn statement.
Information Commissioner John Edwards is urging organisations to improve data protection for people in vulnerable situations as new figures reveal the scale of UK data theft.
Figures released by the Information Commissioner’s Office show nearly 30 million people in the UK have experienced a data breach. In total, 55% of UK adults reported having had their data lost or stolen, with 30% of them experiencing emotional distress as a result.
Yet, 25% said they received no support from the organisations responsible and 32% found out through the media rather than from the organisation itself.
Qualitative research conducted by the ICO also revealed experiences of people having to move homes, feeling forced out of their jobs and facing discrimination as a result of data breaches they had experienced.
People reportedly informed the ICO that they felt the real impact on their life was insufficiently recognised by the organisation responsible.
Edwards said people in vulnerable situations – such as survivors of domestic abuse and those living with long-term health conditions – are often disproportionately affected by such breaches.
These people may already be in precarious situations, and the unauthorised disclosure of their personal data can heighten the risks they face.
“There are two important things I need organisations to understand: empathy and action. You have a role to stop the negative ripple effect in someone’s life from spreading further,” Edwards said.
“It is vitally important to acknowledge what has happened, be human in your response and commit to making sure it doesn’t happen again.
“We trust organisations with some of the most sensitive personal information imaginable, yet these data breaches continue to happen. This is not just an admin error – it is about people. When data is mishandled, it can have serious and long-lasting consequences, particularly for people in vulnerable situations. We need organisations across the country to do better.”
Adam Freedman, policy, research & influencing manager at National AIDS Trust, who worked with the ICO on ensuring that the harms of personal HIV data breaches are recognised and understood said: “The stigma and discrimination experienced by people living with HIV is compounded by the additional distress caused by unlawful data breaches.
“We welcome the new guidance provided by the ICO and urge organisations to consider the very real human impact of mishandling someone’s personal information.”
A new survey shows that the Scottish Government’s ‘New Deal for Business’ initiative has done little to turn the tide with the business community.
Only 9% of Scottish firms agree that the Scottish Government understands the business environment in Scotland, compared to 64% of businesses that disagree for the second year in a row.
This is according to the latest Scottish Business Monitor, a survey of over 350 firms conducted in August and September, produced by the Fraser of Allander Institute at the University of Strathclyde.
The Institute also asked firms about their relationship with the Scottish Government as part of an annual assessment following the New Deal for Business launched in April 2023, comparing the findings to last year’s report.
The report found that just 6% of businesses agreed that the Scottish Government engages effectively with their sector, down from 8% in 2023, meanwhile 68% of firms disagreed with this statement.
While nearly a fifth (19%) of firms believe they can influence Government policy if new announcements affect their business, 46% disagree. This is an increase from last year’s 39%, reflecting a growing frustration among businesses regarding their ability to have a say in policymaking.
The latest analysis also finds differences across sectors, with construction and finance firms expressing the highest levels of dissatisfaction. In contrast, businesses in the professional, scientific, and technical activities sectors were slightly more positive, although overall confidence remains low across the board.
“These results will undoubtedly be disappointing for the Scottish Government, particularly given that it’s been well over a year since the launch of the New Deal for Business,” João Sousa, deputy director of the Institute, said.
“While no one expected a dramatic reconciliation in only a year, the Government would have hoped for at least some signs of progress. But that is not what we found. And while businesses have undoubtedly faced broader challenges from economic instability over the past 15 years, some specific high-profile policies and political turmoil closer to home have only strained this relationship further.
“Of course, there is a shared responsibility here. Business representatives and firms, both locally and nationally, need to actively engage in this reset. Real improvement in the relationship between Government and the business community can only come through meaningful collaboration — and these results should serve as a clear mandate for making that happen.”
Highly precise and accurate sensing technology, to protect infrastructure and security, is being developed by researchers at the University of Strathclyde.
This technology has capacity in various applications, including preventing smuggling and enabling navigation in GPS-denied environments.
It will have the capability to detect solar weather events for the protection of critical national infrastructure, such as the power grid.
It can also be used to identify concealed objects at high security locations such as airports and seaports.
The technology will develop advanced versions of optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs), which demonstrate high precision, stability, and reliability.
The research, by Dr Dominic Hunter, of Strathclyde’s Department of Physics, aims to use innovative techniques in the magnetometry and vapour cell fabrication to achieve the highest levels of precision, equivalent to a few parts-per-billion of the Earth’s magnetic field.
Dr Hunter has received a Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) UK Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for the research.
He is one of six newly-announced recipients of the grants and his fellowship is worth £250,000 over two years.
“Security and infrastructure are essential to ensuring that society as a whole functions properly and the importance of protecting them cannot be overstated,” Dr Hunter said.
“This will be, with the support of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s fellowship, the aim of my research.
“OPMs are an exceptional platform for magnetic imaging, which has many applications for achieving these goals. A central focus of the research will be stability, which is crucial for avoiding drifts and ensuring the clear detection of magnetic signals of interest.
“Most commercial systems often suffer from drifts and require frequent recalibration when operating in the Earth’s ambient magnetic field conditions. This research proposes a self-calibrating method to address these challenges.”
Each fellowship awardee receives funding for at least two years of their project and mentorship from a Fellow of RAEng, as well as an advisory from the intelligence community.
A cross-party House of Lords committee is warning the UK government of the huge financial costs it risks if it fails to maintain its data transfer agreement with the EU.
The warning comes shortly after the new government introduced its proposed Digital Information and Smart Data (DISD) bill, following the scrapping of the conservative’s Data Protection and Digital Information (DPDI) bill.
Introduced as the Data Use and Access bill on 23 October, the bill will change the UK’s implementation of the GDPR, as well as the Law Enforcement Directive (LED), which are both transfixed in UK law under the Data Protection Act 2018.
In 2021, UK was granted data adequacy with the EU, allowing it to maintain free flow data transfers between the two entities. However, changes in data laws could mean the EU would revoke this allowance.
Essentially, the EU investigates other country’s data protection laws to ensure EU citizens would have equal data rights if their data is transferred to an outside country. The EU revoked its data agreement with the US back in 2020 after it found that the US’s laws would not ensure “essentially equivalent protection.”
Now, the House of Lords European Affairs Committee has written a letter to digital secretary Peter Kyle raising the issue with government, urging them to enter into early talks with the European Commission to ensure the UK can maintain its data adequacy agreement.
The European Commission is set to make two different adequacy determinations under the GDPR and LED.
The letter warned that losing EU data adequacy would increase costs and administrative burdens for the private and public sector, and could make the UK a less-attractive location for businesses because it would lose its free data movement with its closest market.
“The Government should therefore pursue data protection policies that are aimed at retaining the UK’s data adequacy status with the EU, under both the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Law Enforcement Directive (LED),” Lords wrote.
“Securing adequacy renewal decisions from the European Commission in the first half of 2025 should be the Government’s immediate data protection policy priority.”
The letter also encouraged the UK government to take this opportunity to strengthen its international reputation as a “trusted and responsible data bridge.”
“The Government should be fully engaged in the international debate about future data
protection arrangements with the aim of ensuring that the outcome serves UK interests, in enabling digital innovation, and rights and protections the public expect to be in place.”
LinkedIn has been issued a fine of €310 million (£258.36m) by the Irish Data Protection Commission for violating GDPR in its advertising practices.
Based on an initial complaint filed in 2018 to the French data protection authority, an inquiry looked into the lawfulness and transparency of LinkedIn’s processing of personal data from its behavioural analysis and targeted advertisements.
The investigation fell under the remit of the Irish DPC since LinkedIn’s European headquarters are based in Ireland.
The personal data involved in the complaint included data provided directly to LinkedIn by its users as well as the data its third-party partners were able to obtain.
The investigation found that LinkedIn was in breach of several articles of GDPR, which includes: gaining formal consent, ensuring legitimate interest, and ensuring a principle of fairness is followed when processing third-party and first-party data.
The ruling includes three administrative fines, a formal reprimand and demands that LinkedIn gets its practices under compliance.
“Today the Irish DPC reached a final decision on claims from 2018 about some of our digital advertising efforts in the EU. While we believe we have been in compliance with the GDPR, we are working to ensure our ad practices meet this decision by the DPC’s deadline,” LinkedIn said in a statement.
The company did not share if it would challenge the fine.
In the green tech takeover, saving money appears to be the main motivation among UK consumers switching to green technology, rather than environmental concerns.
This is according to Eco Expert’s 2024 National Home Energy Survey, which asked 2,184 UK adults about their motivations for adopting sustainable technology.
According to the research, the UK population is making more green tech purchases, with solar panel purchases having risen by 13 percentage points year-on-year, while heat pump purchases rose by 5%.
Respondents were more likely to purchase green tech due to their own financial worries rather than for environmental concerns.
Energy bill saving was the number one reason, cited by over half (51%) of all adults.
In contrast, just 15% of adults purchase green tech because of concern for the environment, while 18% have done so due to government incentives.
Graham Hendra, a UK homeowner from Southampton, told The Eco Experts that his reason for adopting low carbon tech in the home is because he “wants to save on monthly bills” and “doesn’t like giving energy companies loads of money.”
Mr Hendra added that “My electricity bill is quite high so I want to reduce that and not buy as much from the National Grid. The carbon offset is a bonus.”
Christopher McFadden, The Eco Expert’s energy expert, said: “In a world that is becoming increasingly more unstable, it is more important than ever to become as energy independent as possible.
“Renewable energy systems, whether traditional, like solar panels and wind turbines, or more up-and-coming, like micro-CHP, are a great way to cut your reliance on fossil fuels.
“You should think of it like investing. If it saves you money now and in the future, stops you from worrying about rising energy costs, and adds value to your home, that can’t be a bad thing, can it?”
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is under investigation for its partnership with AI company Anthropic by the UK’s competition watchdog.
The Competition and Markets Authority is furthering its investigation into the merger over concerns it will impact the AI market create an unfair competitive advantage for Alphabet.
Alphabet’s Google pledged a $2 billion investment into Anthropic last year, and Google has also signed a major cloud agreement with the company.
The CMA has conducted several probes into the AI market already, and recently cleared a $4 billion investment into Anthropic from Amazon. This probe concluded that Anthropic did not meet revenue threshold limits or have a large enough share of supply in the country to warrant intervention.
It also opened short investigations into Microsoft’s deals with Mistral and Inflection, which were both swiftly closed with no further action.
Currently, Microsoft’s partnership with prolific AI firm OpenAI is underway, and is perhaps more contentious as OpenAI’s market dominance in the AI race, with their GPT models, is more clear.
For the Alphabet and Anthropic probe, the CMA set a deadline for the 19th of December to see if the investigation will be escalated.
Google said in a statement that their deal with Anthropic does not prohibit the company from working with other cloud providers, and it did not demand exclusive rights to its tech.
An Anthropic spokesperson said that the company intends to cooperate with the CMA and give them “the complete picture” concerning their collaboration and investments from Google.
The CMA has been a global leader in AI market investigations as the tech sector worries a few major and early players will skew the market.
The EU and the US Federal Trade Commission have also begun investigation into AI partnerships to crack down on anti-competitive behaviour in the expanding market.
Only 35% of cybersecurity professionals or teams are involved in the development of policy governing the use of AI technology in their enterprise, new ISACA research shows.
Further, nearly half (45%) report no involvement in the development, onboarding, or implementation of AI solutions, according to the recently released 2024 State of Cybersecurity survey report from ISACA.
In response to new questions asked by the annual study, sponsored by Adobe – which showcases the feedback of more than 1,800 cybersecurity professionals on topics related to the cybersecurity workforce and threat landscape – security teams noted their primary uses for AI.
These include automating threat detection/response (28%), endpoint security (27%), automating routine security tasks (24%), and fraud detection (13%).
“In light of cybersecurity staffing issues and increased stress among professionals in the face of a complex threat landscape, AI’s potential to automate and streamline certain tasks and lighten workloads is certainly worth exploring,” says Jon Brandt, ISACA director, professional practices and innovation.
“But cybersecurity leaders cannot singularly focus on AI’s role in security operations. It is imperative that the security function be involved in the development, onboarding and implementation of any AI solution within their enterprise – include existing products that later receive AI capabilities.”
Cybersecurity leaders are no less stressed from being left out of AI implementation.
Two thirds (66%) say their roles are more stressful, with 81% of respondents crediting this to an increasingly complex threat environment.
Further, over half (57%) say their cybersecurity teams are understaffed. This combination can be disastrous for organisations as cybersecurity professionals notoriously face burnout due to a constant influx on threats, which are only exacerbated by the introduction of new technologies.
Nearly two fifths (38%) of cybersecurity teams have said they’ve experienced an increase in cyber-attacks, the survey found, showing that if anything, threats are expanding.
Despite this increase in attacks, cybersecurity funding levels have dropped significantly this year, and its incremental year-on-year decline shows signs of a potential multiyear freefall.
About 44% of respondents think their budgets are somewhat underfunded. While 47% of respondents think budgets will increase, 13% think they will shrink, a figure that continues to grow year on year.
Young Enterprise Scotland risks facing closure as the Scottish Government has neglected to continue funding for the national charity.
YE Scotland, which has delivered enterprise education to schools and colleges for over 30 years, has lost its Scottish government grant which accounted for the majority of its income.
Without the grant, the organisation will be forced to shut its doors if it fails to acquire emergency funding.
Up to 31 jobs may be lost as a result of the closure, and students would be unable to complete their SCQF Level 6 qualification ‘higher’ in entrepreneurship.
In the past year, YE Scotland supported more than 18,000 school and college students through its enterprise programmes. These include the Company Programme, which YE Scotland says many entrepreneurs credit with setting them on a business career trajectory.
More than 1,000 students have gained a YE Scotland enterprise qualification in just the past three years.
“We are absolutely devastated that the future of Young Enterprise Scotland now seems untenable, with the loss of our major income source,” chief executive of YE Scotland, Emma Soanes, said.
“Not only will this have a huge detrimental impact on our dedicated staff team, who now face redundancy, but given our extensive reach across Scotland, it will also impact massively on the national education landscape and the education of young people in Scotland of which our work played such a crucial role.
“Failing to support this crucial stage of the entrepreneurial pipeline is entirely at odds with strategic priorities reflected in the government’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation and the key recommendations of the Entrepreneurial Campus report.”
Historically, YE Scotland’s funding has come from a combination of a Scottish Government core continuity grant, ongoing support from a pipeline of trusts and foundations, and some private sector support.
However, the two financial years saw government funding significantly delayed, with the 2023/2024 delay resulting in a late submission of the charity’s audited accounts, which impacted its ability to apply to additional funding.
The charity had relied on its longstanding relationship with the Scottish Government, as well as previous communications about available funding, to move ahead with onboarding around 80% of the schools and colleges it expected to work with in the coming year.
In July of this year, however, YE Scotland was informed that the grant process would cease and be replaced with a competitive process – The Entrepreneurial Education Fund – which opened in August.
“For over 30 years, Young Enterprise has delivered life-changing opportunities for young people in Scotland, myself included,” Andy Campbell, founder of the Scottish Space Network and YE Scotland chair, said.
“We understand that government budgets can face challenges and delays, particularly in the current climate – as a committed partner, the charity has historically supported the government’s delays in funding, continuing delivery to ensure our young people’s futures are not impacted.
“Historically, these delays were always addressed, with costs settled and accompanied by thanks and apologies, but despite this constructive commitment, it now appears that future funding is to be withdrawn – which we can manage, albeit as a vastly smaller organisation and not delivering the vast majority of our current activity.
“Critically, it now seems that our historical outlays will remain unsettled putting the entire organisation at risk of closure.
“Without emergency funding, the charity will be in a precarious situation, one that could have been avoided – we are ready to engage with Ministers and officers, hopeful that our past support will be reciprocated.”
Decarbonisation and clean energy solutions group, D2Zero, has acquired flow measurement consultancy Kelton.
Aberdeen-based Kelton’s proprietary technology and software enabled real-time monitoring and data gathering to provide more informed asset performance and compliance analysis, which enabled solutions to improve efficiency, lower cost, and reduce carbon intensity.
D2Zero hopes their acquisition of Kelton will improve their digital capabilities, and further accelerate its momentum in the energy transition industry.
Kelton’s technical capabilities can help align D2Zero’s strategy to decarbonise traditional energy sources while invigorating the transition to renewable energy.
With 12 offices around the world, Kelton brings a 25 strong team of consultants to D2Zero.
“We are proud to announce that Kelton is now part of D2Zero,” managing director of Kelton, Iain Pirie, said. “Over the past 33 years, our team has developed differentiated technology and expertise, and we are excited at the possibilities for the business as part of a Group with such a clear focus on accelerating the energy transition.”
Aberdeen-based D2Zero balances its focus on servicing the oil and gas sector while pushing for decarbonisation and empowering the transition to renewable energy sources.
This acquisition is just the latest in D2Zero’s moves, as it acquired OSL Consulting Engineers back in July. The Group consists of Score and Hydrasun, as well as Powerstar, Nexos, and Fuel Cell Systems, provide a wide breadth of expertise in energy transition technology.
Bob Drummond, chief executive officer of D2Zero said: “We are delighted to welcome Kelton to D2Zero. The Kelton team have been helping some of the world’s most sophisticated energy businesses better understand their operations for decades with their precision measurement technology and data analytics.
“Kelton further strengthens our ability to understand and solve the complex decarbonisation challenges that our customers are facing and we look forward to helping the business thrive as part of D2Zero.”
The UK government has introduced the new Data Use and Access Bill, which they claim will harness the power of data to boost the UK economy by £10 billion and save millions of staff hours.
The bill targets data regulations and access for public services, including the police and the NHS, to cut down on admin and better harness personal and business data for easier transfer between services.
By unlocking the secure and effective use of data under the bill’s provisions, the UK government aims to make public services more efficient without adding pressures to the country’s finances.
Some of the key measures include cutting down on bureaucracy for police officers, to lessen the burden of administrative tasks, which would free up an estimated 1.5 million hours a year.
Key to the digitisation of the NHS, the bill will make patients’ data easily transferable across the NHS so that frontline staff can make better informed decisions for patients more quickly, freeing up 140,000 hours of NHS staff time every year, speeding up care and improving patient’s health outcomes.
The better use of data under measures in the bill also aim to simplify important tasks such as renting a flat and starting work with trusted ways to verify online identities, or enabling electronic registration of births and deaths, so that people and businesses can continue with their lives without unnecessary admins.
Vital safeguards will remain in place to track and monitor how personal data is used, giving peace of mind to patients and victims of crime. IT systems in the NHS operate to the highest standards of security and all organisations have governance arrangements in place to ensure the safe, legal storage and use of data.
“Data is the DNA of modern life and quietly drives every aspect of our society and economy without us even noticing – from our NHS treatments and social interactions to our business and banking transactions,” technology secretary Peter Kyle said.
“It has the enormous potential to make our lives better, boosting our National Health Service, cutting costs when we shop, and saving us valuable time.
“With laws that help us to use data securely and effectively, this Bill will help us boost the UK’s economy, free up vital time for our front-line workers, and relieve people from unnecessary admin so that they can get on with their lives.”
The bill, delivered by the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, has three core objectives: growing the economy, improving UK public services, and making people’s lives easier.
The measures will be underpinned by a revamped Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s independent authority responsible for regulating data protection and privacy laws, with a new structure and powers of enforcement – ensuring people’s personal data will be protected to high standards.
“Data underpins every part of our economy and society, offering significant opportunities both for economic growth and public service reform through improved access and use of data,” Neil Ross, associate director for policy, techUK commented.
“This Bill marks the start of a welcome effort from the new Government to unlock the power of data, through initiatives on digital ID, Smart Data, digitising key public registers and assets, and reforming the data protection laws.
“These legislative changes strike the right balance between maintaining the UK’s existing high data protection standards and driving forward essential reform. However, they must be coupled with the cultural and organisational mindset shift required to seize the full potential advantages of new data-driven technologies.
“techUK looks forward to continuing to work with the Government as it commits to this reform agenda with the potential to provide significant benefits for economic growth and public services.”
On the ten year anniversary of the Cyber Essentials scheme, Minister Feryal Clark looks to expand the programme to the supply chain to secure critical industry.
The Cyber Essentials scheme provides a credential to organisations that have completed a self assessment to ensure that they have basic cybersecurity measures in place.
The scheme has awarded nearly 190,000 certificates aiming to make small and large organisations more safe from cyber-threats.
In her speech, Clark revealed positive statistics for the programme, showing that organisation with Cyber Essentials are 92% less likely to make a claim on their insurance than those without it.
Further, those that require their third parties to adopt Cyber Essentials experience fewer third party cyber incidents.
Additionally, 82% of certified organisations are confident that they have the controls appropriate to protect against common cyber-threats.
But in her speech, the minister delved into prominent threats as the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve.
“Supply chain attacks are increasing in prevalence, and their impact can be far reaching,” she said.
The recent cyber-attack on Synnovis, the IT provider, for instance, devastated hospitals, revealing the severity of these attacks.
“We know many organisations across the economy are struggling to manage the cyber security risk presented by suppliers,” she said.
“This is clearly reflected in the fact that just 6% of UK businesses are assessing cyber risks in their wider supply chain.”
Feryal believes the Cyber Essentials programme can help mitigate security threats along the supply chain by offering a similar scheme for organisations along this chain.
In her speech, she announced that the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has entered a joint agreement with major UK banks to collaborate on raising cybersecurity levels in critical national supply chains by exploring pathways to expand the Cyber Essentials programme.
“By requiring suppliers, or other third parties, to have Cyber Essentials themselves, customers gain tangible assurance that fundamental cybersecurity controls are in place, and they are protected from common cyber-attacks,” she explained.
The minister also noted the introduction of the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which is set to be introduced into law, as a marked step to improve cyber resilience in the UK.
“However, the proposed legislation must be complemented by other efforts to improve cybersecurity across the wider economy,” she noted.
She urged members of the House of Lords to encourage all organisations, especially SMEs, to become certified to better protect overall security of the UK.
The return on investment (ROI) of AI is dismal, new reports show, meaning that C-suite patience may not be paying off as AI adoption only seems to be increasing.
This is according to the new 2024 State of AI report from Appen Limited, which surveyed 500 IT decision makers across the US, finding that AI adoption is growing.
However, the adoption of generative AI and machine learning are hindered by a lack of accurate and high-quality data. The report found a 10% increase year over year in bottlenecks related to data – its sourcing, cleaning, and labelling.
“Enthusiasm around GenAI and other AI-powered tech remains high, as indicated by the rapid growth, but users are quickly finding that the promise of these tools is matched by an equally daunting challenge,” said Si Chen, VP of strategy at Appen.
“The success of AI initiatives relies heavily on high-quality data, and this is becoming more difficult as AI use cases increase in complexity and become more specialized.
“This is reflected by the fact that high-quality annotations, meaning high consistency and accuracy, are the top features companies seek in a data annotation solution. Those building the AI tools and models of tomorrow value strategic data partnerships now more than ever.”
Adoption of GenAI is up 17% in 2024 versus the previous year, a healthy growing pace. At the same time, however, 86% of respondents retrain or update their ML models at least once every quarter, indicating a critical desire for fresh, relevant and high-quality data as accuracy declines.
Data accuracy, meanwhile, has decreased by 9% since 2021, making the quest for high-quality data a major challenge – as models are being iterated more frequently, data remains the most significant challenge, especially where accuracy and availability are concerned.
Further, enterprise deployment and ROI appear to be down in 2024. The mean percent of AI projects making it to deployment has dropped by 8% since 2021, while the mean number of deployed AI projects that have shown meaningful ROI has dropped 9.4%.
Despite the rapid growth of GenAI, managing bias and ensuring fairness in GenAI model training remains a key challenge. Custom data collection is the primary method for sourcing genAI training data.
The diversity of data is also the most valued feature in AI, followed by the efforts to reduce bias, and ensure scalability, with 97% saying these elements are vital to building AI models.
The research also found that humans are still more vital to AI than some might expect, as 80% of respondents highlighted the importance of human-in-the-loop ML, validating that human insight is key to refining AI systems.
A human rights activist will have his day in UK court to pursue a legal case against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after his phone was hacked with Israeli spyware.
Pro-democracy campaigner Yahya Assiri will be able to file a legal claim against Saudi Arabia after he alleged the government used Israeli-developed surveillance technology on his mobile device.
This appears to be the fist case concerning the Israeli-made spyware QuaDream to reach the High Court in London.
Yahya Assiri is the founding member of the Saudi opposition National Assembly Party, and has worked with high-profile opponents of the Saudi royal regime including Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist murdered in 2018 in a Saudi consulate, and Abdullah Hamid Ali al-Hamid, a Saudi poet and activist who died while being detained in 2020.
Assiri is also the founder of the human rights organisation ALQST, which works to defend human rights in Saudi Arabia, and previously served as the capital of the Royal Saudi Airforce before coming to the UK and claiming asylum in 2014.
According to Assiri, he clicked on a link sent to his iPhone via text in 2018, and his phone froze as a result.
The lawsuit claims that between 2018 and 2020, Assiri’s mobile device was targeted and infected by Pegasus and QuaDream spyware – both Israeli-made. This has been backed up by independent analysis by The Citizen Lab, a Canadian interdisciplinary laboratory.
Pegasus, which was developed by NSO Group, an Israeli company, and QuaDream, were allegedly used by Saudi authorities to extract and monitor sensitive data on Assiri’s devices.
Both tools employ a zero-click exploit to hack targeted devices, and the spyware potentially enabled the Saudi government to access a wide range of data, including text messages, calls, location information, photos, and files.
The spyware also has the ability to intercept voice calls, activate device microphones to record ambient sounds, take photos, and track movements.
The initial text which sparked the concerns was analysed by Amnesty International and The Citizen Lab, which revealed that it was hosted on a server linked to Pegasus spyware, and was associated with Saudi Arabia.
A replacement phone acquired by Assiri in 2018 was also compromised, this time allegedly by QuaDream.
The time of the attack coincides with the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, which Assiri protested heavily, advocating for sanctions and boycotts against Saudi officials.
According to the human rights activist, he stored vast amounts of sensitive and confidential data on his iPhone, including court documents, contact details, and ID documents of human rights defenders.
“I am fully aware that the authorities will want to target me,” Assiri said.
“However, it is outrageous for them also to target individuals such as the victims of rights abuses and their families in Saudi Arabia simply because these people have been in contact with me.
“We have no idea how the authorities might use the information found on my device against them.”
While this is the first case brought over QuaDream to the UK, this is Assiri’s second personal case brought up against Saudi Arabia in the UK concerning the use of Pegasus spyware.
There is currently a separate ongoing investigation by the Metropolitan Police over complaints by other activists that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are targeting them with spyware.
The separate case refers to Pegasus spyware, which has been connected to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, as well as being implicated in attacks against UK government networks and even the Prime Minister’s office.
Ofcom has said that there was a ‘clear connection’ between online activity and the violent disorder seen in early August this year in the UK, with illegal content and disinformation spreading rapidly.
The regulator refers to the violent, racist, right-wing attacks seen at the beginning of August which rocked the UK following the misidentification of the murderer of three young girls in Southport. Following the spread of misinformation on social media, violent, destructive riots broke out, spurred on by racial hatred online.
Following the attacks, Ofcom investigated the impact of social media on the riots, the worst the UK has seen in recent years. Social media firms were largely silent during the violence and in the aftermath, though users on their platforms spat out misinformation and inciting illegal and harmful material, Ofcom’s inquiry found.
According to an open letter sent by Ofcom chief Dame Melanie Dawes, some social media platforms were seeing illegal and harmful material being shared in tens of thousands of posts, with some accounts with followers of over 100,000 sharing false claims and identification of the Southport attacker.
“Posts about the Southport incident and subsequent events from high-profile accounts reached millions of users, demonstrating the role that virality and algorithmic recommendations can play in driving a divisive narratives in a crisis period,” Ofcom said.
Ofcom found that some major social platforms were used to post and spread content calling for violent action in Southport and other cities. Private messaging services hosted closed groups with thousands of users spreading calls for targeted violence.
Some firms did tell Ofcom that they took immediate action, including the implementation of incident response protocols, prioritising moderation and removal or illegal and harmful material, and engaging with civil society and law enforcement.
Overall, the response of some social media platforms was “uneven”, the chief said.
The chief also detailed some of the stipulations social media firms would have had to answer to if the full powers of the Online Safety Act had taken effect.
These include:
Clear and consistent terms of service prohibiting illegal and hateful content
Swiftly taking down illegal content, and prioritising moderation of viral content, with a adequately resourced team
Effective mechanisms for users to complain about illegal content, including in messaging services
Assessing if changes to recommender systems need to be made
The August riots brought the UK’s underbelly of extremism into sharp focus, as well as social media’s role in spreading hatred, fake content, and inciting violence. So far, however, social media executives have stayed largely silent, and have not faced any consequences for the role their sites played in the violence.
X owner, Elon Musk, however, shared an interaction with the prime minister in the aftermath of the riots, saying that “civil war is inevitable” while Sir Keir Starmer said social media companies “can and should be doing” more.
New research shows that the UK economy could benefit from a £79bn boost in the next 12 months, if SMEs c
onnectivity readily available to support them.”
Despite the clear benefits of tech investment, 42% of SMEs are concerned that difficulties onboarding new technologies will impact their business’s ability to grow in future, whilst more than half (55%) say that the costs associated with this are concerning.
Over two in five (42%) said they are unable to prioritise investment in tech, and a similar amount (43%) are concerned that they’re failing to capitalise on emerging technologies.
In addition, almost all SMEs said a reliable (97%) and high speed (94%) internet connection was important for their business.
These were both deemed to be more important than having good local transport links (64%), sufficient office space (69%), and access to skilled labour (83%).
But more than half (53%) of these businesses said poor mobile in their area could affect their ability to grow.
Yet, current connectivity capabilities are working against businesses in the UK, with 5G availability and download speeds lagging significantly compared to Europe.
According to recent research from OpenSignal, the UK came 22nd out of 25 European countries, with London coming last in a list of 10 European cities.
Additionally, the UK’s general network speed is also poor in comparison to Europe, ranking 26th out of 31, according to an Ookla Speedtest in 2024.
In order for businesses to fully take advantage of new technologies, it is clear they need capital – and support investing in this capital.
However, connectivity is the foundation of most businesses, so without critical investments and improvements, the UK will continue to lag behind other nations, both in terms of productivity and growth.
“Technology is a key driver and enabler of growth for businesses, who are at the heart of the UK economy,” Mike Tomlinson from Three Business said.
“This was recognised in the Government’s long term Industrial Strategy, published last week, which outlined a focus on supporting businesses who can deliver growth in the tech sector, as well as aiding the adoption of technologies that can aid boost the productivity of our businesses.
“At the same time, through the combination of Vodafone UK and Three UK, we would be able to invest £11bn in growing the UK’s mobile infrastructure, and create a best-in-class 5G network which would further enable economic growth and innovation in all nations and regions.”
Claggy software ecosystems full to the brim with underutilised SaaS tools have created a quagmire IT and security professionals are desperate to not sink in: the dreaded tool sprawl.
The ever-expanding selection of tools at company’s disposals, as well as their associated complexity, can often hamper IT teams, leading to less productivity, and expanding attack surfaces by introducing new platforms, only increasing cybersecurity pressures.
Red Canary’s 2024 Security Operations Trends report detailed the fallout of tool sprawl, which has impacted the attack surface for 73% of respondent in the past two years, by an average of 77%.
The urgency of technology adoption often creates new security gaps, with the pressure to compete often trumping the need for caution.
The report found that SOC teams have on average over 90 different security tools, but two thirds of respondents say that turning threat intelligence into action is difficult, and time consuming.
In fact, 85% have admitted that the detection deficit – the time between detecting and resolving an incident – has either increased or stayed the same in the past 12 months.
More concerning is the fact that 87% said that their organisation had a security incident in the past 12 months that they were unable to detect and neutralise before it had a negative impact on the business.
And this is despite security budgets growing – 63% of security leaders had an increase in their budgets in the past year, but only 37% felt that it was enough to stay secure.
Most (67%) feel they are too busy keeping the proverbial lights on rather than improving their operations or strategy, with teams on average spending twice as long on operational tasks compared to cyber-readiness.
Part of this is to do with tool sprawl, but security teams also say they are drowning in data, with 60% saying there is too much noise and too many security alerts to deal with effectively.
The advent of AI appears to only be making matters worse: 64% of organisations admit to having knowledge and skills deficits around new technology, with all experiencing challenges when it comes to cloud security, and 62% saying AI has made it more difficult to stay secure.
Finding the right talent to help mitigate these issues is also a struggle, with 83% of organisations saying it is only getting more difficult to recruit and retain skilled security professionals, while 62% are experiencing higher levels of churn due to overwork and stress.
Meta is testing a new facial recognition service across its Facebook platform in order to crackdown on celeb bait scams taking over the site.
The trial is taking place about three years after Meta ceased its facial recognition operations on Facebook after it faced pushback from privacy regulators.
About 50,000 public figures will be enrolled in the test, which will compare their Facebook profile photos to photos used in advertisements which are suspected to be scams. If the images are found to match, and the ad is a scam, then Meta will block the ad.
The company intends to expand the trial globally in December, except for in areas where it does not have regulatory clearance such as the UK, the EU, South Korea, and two US states.
Essentially, the trial will target public figures whose appearance had been identified as being used in scam advertisements.
“The idea here is: roll out as much protection as we can for them. They can opt out of it if they want to, but we want to be able to make this protection available to them and easy for them,” Meta’s vice president of content policy, Monika Bickert, said in a press briefing.
The trial provides a rare opportunity for Meta to test its oft-labelled invasive facial recognition technology to address rising concerns about the growing number of scams appearing on its site in a manner that will reduce complaints over its user data handling.
Meta is currently facing lawsuits which claim it is not doing enough to stop celeb bait scams, which often rely images of famous people generated by AI, to scam users into giving money to fraudulent investment schemes.
To mitigate any privacy complaints, Meta said that it will immediately delete facial data generated in its comparisons with suspected scam ads, regardless of if the ad was fraudulent or not.
Prior to the tests, Meta put the facial recognition technology through vigorous privacy risks reviews, and discussed the trial with regulators, privacy advocates, and policymakers before starting the programme.
The company also plans to use the facial recognition tool to let non-famous users of Facebook and Instagram to regain access to compromised accounts.
The UK government has agreed a five-year contract with Microsoft, which will provide access to Microsoft’s AI-powered products and services for the Crown Commercial Service.
The agreement, which will come into effect on 1 November, will enable eligible public sector organisations, via their chosen procurement route, to pursue their digital transformation and innovation ambitions, through access to cost savings on Microsoft 265, the Azure cloud platform, Business Applications, and Microsoft 365 Copilot.
The UK government hopes the agreement will increase the speed of innovation across the UK public sector, enhance efficiency, improve cross-departmental collaboration, and deliver improved services for UK citizens.
“AI technologies present a unique opportunity to transform public services and fuel the UK’s economic growth,” Clare Barclay, CEO of Microsoft UK, said.
“This exciting new five-year partnership will mean Microsoft can continue to support the UK Government to create a world-class, digital-first public sector infrastructure, that will improve service delivery for citizens across the whole of the UK and create opportunities for all.”
Accelerating the adoption of digital technologies could add £550bn to the UK’s GDP by 2035, recent research from Public First found.
The partnership will also provide a platform for Microsoft to support the UK government’s missions to deliver this economic growth needed to fund public services.
The new deal will also focus on developing the skills necessary for a flourishing UK AI sector. Microsoft is currently developing new certifications and skilling programmes for public sector employees, as well as further investment by Microsoft in its Enterprise Skills Initiative.
Further, the UK government is aiming to build the next generation of government cloud services to enhance data quality and productivity, which will be supported by Microsoft’s AI-powered services.
“This agreement will support eligible public sector organisations to pursue their digital transformation and innovation ambitions, by enabling them to benefit from leveraging the size and scale of the UK public sector,” Roger Gonourie, chief commercial officer at the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), said.
“It shows CCS’s continued commitment to providing maximum commercial value for our customers, removing barriers to growth across the public sector. It’s about securing a better future for us all.”
Financial services firms are being held back by the usual suspects – security and legacy systems – as they try to benefit from AI, open-source software, and machine learning.
This is according to the 2024 State of Open Source in Financial Services, which was created in conjunction with the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS), the Linus Foundation, and Scott Logic, which found that 84% of financial services businesses agree that OSS delivers substantial business value.
The report also revealed that AI and ML are of growing value to the sector, with nearly half (45%) of those surveyed indicating their importance for the future of financial services, up by 10% from last year.
However, concerns over security continue to hinder progress in the adoption of these emerging technologies, as well as the ability to see returns on investment. Nearly half (47%) of those in financial services claim that investing in secure software development practices and legal compliance would increase their organisations open source software (OSS) usage.
Further, selecting the appropriate OSS can be problematic for companies due to legacy technologies and interoperability issues.
Confidence is mixed on the ability to control (30% extremely confident, 54% somewhat confident), and maintain (37% extremely confident and 47% somewhat confident) up to date versions of open source components used in development.
Still, the amount of time respondents report spending on contributing to open source projects has increased, which may be in part to the conscious focus on automating processes to reduce the amount of manual steps required for tasks.
“It’s clear that the Financial Services industry can benefit from innovative technology such as Open-Source Software, AI and Machine Learning and it is certainly encouraging to see this increasingly recognised by leaders in the sector,” Colin Eberhardt, CTO at Scott Logic and report co-author, said.
“However, given the highly regulated nature of Financial Services and the understandable concerns around data security, many firms aren’t yet reaping the rewards.
“A careful approach to ensure any new tools are compliant with industry regulations and standards is certainly needed.
“However, one critical point that is also hindering businesses in the sector from truly benefitting from the potential of OSS and other tools is the issue of legacy IT systems which simply can’t accommodate the changes required.
“Replacing these tech stacks is a monumental job for many, particularly those firms that have had systems in place for decades. It will require brave and bold leadership, but it is, without doubt, a necessity.”
Following 100% successful live-fire trials, RAF pilots are a step closer to being equipped with a cutting-edge laser self-protection system.
The laser is being designed to be fitted to a range of RAF aircraft including the intelligence gather Shadow R2 and A400M transporter, ready to rapidly detect and defeat threats such as missiles.
During the trial at the Vidsel Test Range in Sweden, the operation system defeated a range of infrared heat-seeking missiles being fired simultaneously.
100% of threats were quickly defeated using a laser with pinpoint accuracy which has been designed and developed by the Team Pellonia partnership between Leonardo UK, Thales UK, and the MOD’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.
“Identifying, tracking and defeating threats from the air in seconds is crucial to having the edge over those who try to do us harm,” defence secretary John Healey said.
“We’re equipping our Armed Forces with the very latest technology to keep them safe and give them the advantage on operations.
“This high-tech laser is another excellent example of joint working between our Dstl experts and the UK’s defence industry.”
The system works by Thale’s Elix-IR threat warning system quickly detecting and identifying the launch of missiles, using a series of algorithms to filter out background clutter so that only valid threats are tracked, classified, and declared.
Once the threats have been classified, an alert is sent to the Leonardo’s Miysis directed infrared countermeasure, which moves to track the incoming missile and precisely directs a jamming laser onto the missile.
Threats are defeated in a matter of seconds, the UK Government claims, giving the MOD the latest generation in protection with full operation independence, which will be offered to its export customers, which includes the Israeli military.
“The UK defensive aids system is the culmination of MOD’s detailed understanding of changing threats alongside years of sustained defence investment in science and technology nurtured within Dstl,” the department of science and technology lab (Dstl) chief for air survivability, Mark Elson, said.
“This has been aligned with the development capabilities of our commercial partners through Team Pellonia.
“The design of the system has the agility to protect platforms now and into the future, providing long-term operational advantage to the UK and our allies. This is enabled through Spiral Development which provides capabilities such as the Dstl developed jamming waveform that defeats the guidance of the missile threat.
Plans for an expansive solar farm and two battery storage facilities have been submitted to Aberdeen City Council to be situated between Bridge of Don and Dyce.
The facilities, which were proposed by English company Innova Renewables, named the Lower Bodachra Solar and Storage facility, are designed to span across 212 acres, an are over 15 times the size of Windsor Castle.
The project will involve the instillation of a 72MW solar farm, along with a 45MW battery energy storage system on land at Lower Bodachra Farm and Perwinnes Farm, east of Dyce.
The development is expected to generate sufficient power for an estimated 23,8000 homes once connected to the grid, the equivalent of nearly a fifth of all properties in Aberdeen.
Developers have argued that the site will play a key role in the transition to renewable energy, as the project is projected to save an average of 142,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
Before submitting its planning application, Innova consulted with Aberdeen City Council officers as well as representatives from the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit. The final say on the proposal will be made by Scottish Ministers.
If it gains approval, execution of the plans will take around four months. As reported by Aberdeen Live, once established, both the solar farm and the battery storage facilities would operate fr 40 years, after which the land would be reverted to its original state.
Features in the energy storage facility will include a ventilation and air conditioning unit, as well as a fire suppression system and a transformer.
In another development, Source Galileo Limited is submitting plans to build a battery energy storage system on the outskirts of Dyce at Goval Farm, just a few metres away from a new housing development. The proposed site, roughly the size of a football pitch, will store 49.9MW units of energy, and be connected to a nearby substations via an underground cable.
For safety, the facility would be fully monitored, include heat and smoke detection as well as ventilation control, and the company will liaise with the local fire crew.
The countdown is on for the Scottish Ethnic Minority Talent Summit and Festival 2024, taking place from the 29 October to 2 November.
The event promises to inspire empower and celebrate the vibrancy of Scotland’s ethnic minority over the course of the five day event.
The summit and festival will feature talks, workshops, networking opportunities, and cultural festivities designed to unlock Scotland’s potential through diversity and innovation.
Here, we’ll take you through what to expect from the week.
Starting on the 29th of October, the event will begin with the African-Scottish Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Pipeline, where it will explore how Scotland’s African and minority entrepreneurs can navigate resources and build successful businesses. The free event is in collaboration with DataKirk, Techscaler, and Bruce Walker.
On the same day, DataKirk and FanDuel are hosting an evening networking session designed to help career acceleration, tap into mentorship opportunities, and unlock professional potential.
For the 30th of October, Lara Oyedele, CEO, Black on Board Ltd, will host a session focusing on overcoming rejection and career setbacks, turning them into valuable growth opportunities.
The Scottish Ethnic Minority Talent Summit will take place on the 31st of October as the hallmark event, where leaders, prospective employees, and students will gather from across industries at Tynecastle Park in Edinburgh.
The all-day event will feature panels and discussions on the future of Scotland’s workforce, inclusive hiring practices, and strategies for fostering diverse talent across key industries.
Finally, on the 2nd of November in Glasgow, a day-long celebration of Scotland’s cultural diversity will take place. The Festival will showcase performances, food, workshops, and more.
Whether you are an entrepreneur, a job seeker, a community leader, or simply someone passionate about creating an inclusive and equitable future, DataKirk’s event aims to provide a place for everyone.
“This Summit and Festival is more than just an event; it’s a movement,” Fash Fasoro, CEO of Datakirk, said.
“It’s about opening doors to opportunity, sparking new ideas, and building a Scotland where everyone, regardless of background, has the chance to thrive.
“Whether you’re looking to expand your network, accelerate your career, or simply celebrate the richness of Scotland’s cultures, you won’t want to miss this. Let’s come together and build the future we all deserve.”
Tickets are still available for the event, which follows two successful Scottish Black Summits put on by DataKirk.
Confidence among Scottish businesses is expected to hold steady for the next six months, with many stuck in a ‘wait-and-see’ mode, as they look to the upcoming budgets for clarity on the economic direction of both Scotland and the UK as a whole.
This is according to the latest Scottish Business Monitor developed by the University of Strathclyde’s Fraser of Allander Institute, which conducted a surveyed of over 350 firms conducted in August and September.
The findings revealed that while challenges remain, business sentiment in Q3 2024 remains cautiously optimistic. Many firms report an increase in hiring and a reduction in the cost of running their businesses, buoyed by easing inflation rates and expectations of further rate cuts in the future.
However, the report also highlights ongoing concerns regarding exports, investment, and rising employee costs – the latter of which has become more pressing as firms face potential National Insurance hikes reportedly being considered by the Chancellor.
As businesses brace for the upcoming UK and Scottish government budgets, 85% of firms said that economic uncertainty is a major concern, while 75% view political uncertainty as a significant factor.
Staff availability is also a major worry, with 78% of businesses reporting it as a critical issue for the next quarter.
Scottish businesses continue to show steady confidence in their activity levels for the next six months, with expectations for business volume holding firm at a net balance of 16 to 17.
For the second quarter in a row, fewer businesses are saying their costs have gone up. However, around two in three firms report that wages and employee costs remain their top cost pressure.
Further, the pressure from borrowing costs has eased significantly, with only one in three firms now reporting this as higher this quarter compared to the previous three months.
“Scottish businesses are showing cautious sense of hope as they face today’s challenges,” João Sousa, deputy director of the Institute, said.
“Drops in costs and interest rate cuts are good news, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty about the upcoming budgets from the UK and Scottish governments. Many companies are in a ‘wait-and-see’ mindset, looking for clear guidance on what to expect over the next year.
“Scottish firms told us that political uncertainty is still top of mind, and it’s no surprise given some of the more pessimistic messaging from the UK Government on short-term growth prospects and tax rises. But there is underlying optimism, and a clearer sense of direction and purpose in the coming Budget might be able to harness that. Will business get that? We’ll know better on the 30th October.”
Looking ahead, one in four businesses expect moderate growth in the Scottish economy over the next 12 months, but confidence in strong growth remains limited. Only 4% of firms expect strong economic growth, while many still expect the economy to perform below par.
A surge in AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) has been documented across publicly accessible areas of the internet, exposing even more people to the horrific imagery, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) found.
In a new report, the online safety advocacy group said that many of the images and videos of children being hurt and abused were so realistic that they can be very difficult to tell apart from imagery of real children, and are regarded as criminal content under UK law.
IWF analysts have seen a 6% rise in confirmed reports containing AI generated CSAM in the past six months along, compared with the preceding 12 months.
Most alarmingly, almost all (99%) the content flagged to the IWF was visible on publicly available areas of the internet, rather than hidden away on the dark web.
The majority of reports come from members of the public (78%) who have stumbled across the criminal and heinous imagery on sites that host forums or AI galleries, showing that the issues is pervasive and moving away from the dark reaches of the internet and into the mainstream.
New data also shows that more than half of the AI-generated content found in the past six months was hosted on servers in two countries, Russia (36%) and the US (22%), followed by Japan (11%) and the Netherlands (8%).
“This criminal content is not confined to mysterious places on the dark web,” a senior internet content analyst at the IWF said. “Nearly all of the reports or URLs that we’ve dealt with that contained AI generated child sexual abuse material were found on the clear web.
“I find it really chilling, as it feels like we are at a tipping point and the potential is there for organisations like ourselves and the police to be overwhelmed by hundreds and hundreds of new images, where we don’t always know if there is a real child that needs help.”
Videos and images of real victims are often being used by perpetrators to generate some of the AI imagery, which re-traumatises existing victims and allows perpetrators to create more extreme content.
Deepfake videos of abuse continue to use imagery of existing child victims in new AI imagery and videos, as noted in previous IWF reports.
Viewing AI-generated CSAM is noted to be just as psychologically harmful to unsuspecting viewers as watching real CSAM, the IWF noted.
“People can be under no illusion that AI generated child sexual abuse material causes horrific harm, not only to those who might see it but to those survivors who are repeatedly victimised every time images and videos of their abuse are mercilessly exploited for the twisted enjoyment of predators online,” Derek Ray-Hill, interim chief executive officer at the IWF, said.
“To create the level of sophistication seen in the AI imagery, the software used has also had to be trained on existing sexual abuse images and videos of real child victims shared and distributed on the internet.
“The protection of children and the prevention of AI abuse imagery must be prioritised by legislators and the tech industry above any thought of profit. Recent months show that this problem is not going away and is in fact getting worse. We urgently need to bring laws up to speed for the digital age, and see tangible measures being put in place that address potential risks.”
Electric wallpaper is being piloted in 12 tenement properties in Glasgow to assess its effectiveness as a clean heat source, as a part of a project involving the Universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow.
Dr Alejandro Moreno-Rangel, from Strathclyde’s Department of Architecture, and project lead Dr Ahmad Taha from the University of Glasgow are working with West of Scotland Housing Association and Glasgow City Council to explore the feasibility of electric wallpaper as a viable, eco-friendly replacement for gas central heating.
The technology, which uses the Internet of Things (IoT) and AI-enabled data analytics to collect information on efficiency, comfort, and tenant’s feedback, is being piloted in properties owned and managed by West of Scotland Housing Association.
Scotland’s homes are among the oldest in the world and the worst insulated in Europe, which contributes to their high carbon footprint. Heating buildings are a major contributor to carbon emissions in Scotland and across the UK, accounting for more than 36% of total emissions.
The average Scottish home loses heat three times faster than homes in many European countries, and gas central heating – which relies on fossil fuels – is the most common heating system.
“Achieving net zero is one of the keys to tackling climate change,” Dr Moreno-Rangel said.
“There are particular challenges in adapting older buildings, constructed when awareness of these issues was far more limited, but we aim to ensure that they can comfortably accommodate net zero measures.
“Electric wallpaper has the potential to be an effective, sustainable and affordable means of heating homes. With the use of advanced technology and data systems, we aim to make a difference not only to the environment but to the wellbeing of many households.”
Funded by Scotland Beyond Net Zero – a coalition of leading climate and sustainability experts from Scotland’s universities – this trial is one of eight new research collaborations aimed at accelerating Scotland’s transition to net zero.
Each project involves cross-sector collaborations to address sustainability challenges in energy, finance, food, the built environment, natural systems, and transport.
“We have been trialling this technology for a few months now and have had excellent feedback from our tenants where this has been installed,” Andrew Kubski, director of development and asset management for West of Scotland Housing Association said.
“We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with both the University of Glasgow and University of Strathclyde to bring a thorough academic lens to the effectiveness of the electric wallpaper.”
Councillor Ruairi Kelly, convener for neighbourhood services and assets at Glasgow City Council, said: “Glasgow has around 70,000 tenement flats, so finding new solutions to more efficiently heating them is vital to reaching a net zero future.
“Innovative pilot projects such as this are vital when considering how best to help tackle the issues of energy costs and emissions in Glasgow’s homes.”
Professor Lisanne Gibson, vice-principal of research at the University of Dundee and chair of Scotland Beyond Net Zero’s seed fund committee said: “Scotland’s ambitious net zero targets demand a bold and integrated approach.
“The seed fund was designed to strengthen cross-institutional research partnerships between Scotland’s universities and external organisations, including community groups, government bodies, and the private sector. This will ensure robust research directly informs industry practice and innovation.”
“These projects are a crucial step in our journey towards a more sustainable and equitable future, not just for Scotland, but globally.”
Equity deals in the UK were on the decline in all nations and regions in 2023, but early signs from the first half of 2024 indicate stabilisation.
This is according to the latest Nations and Regions Tracker from the British Business Bank, which tracked the financial performance of all 12 nations and regions in the UK.
In the first quarter of 2024, equity funding for smaller businesses increased by 7% compared to the same period in 2023, suggested renewed confidence among investors.
Equity Deals
While London came out on top, Scotland had the second most announced equity deals per high growth enterprise (HGE), coming above the UK average.
Scotland also performed well in terms of the value of announced equity deals, with the third largest monetary amount, behind the East of England, and London which again came in the lead.
The Bank cited Edinburgh as of particular importance to Scotland’s success in this area.
Further Scotland was one of the only UK nations/regions to experience an increase in deal activity relative to the first half of 2023.
Overall, trends show that while equity activity is still in a general downward trend since mid-2022, the data from the first half of this year shows signs of recovery.
External Finance
In terms of external finance, usage among smaller businesses saw notable growth in 2023, with 46% of businesses now leveraging it, an increase of 10% from the previous year. Growth rates in Scotland were modest.
Further, the report found an increasing reliance on credit card usage with nearly one in five (17%) of businesses making use of credit cards, followed by bank overdrafts (13%), and leasing and vehicle finance (12%), highlighting the challenges of finding external finance.
Smaller businesses were showing renewed interested in external finance in 2023, with a growing number using it to seek investments that had been delayed before.
Between 2021 and 2023, fewer than half (44%) across the nations and regions had identified and made any investments in their business.
Although inflationary pressures have slowly begun to ease, the majority (61%) still viewed current trading conditions as presenting more threats than opportunities and over three quarters (76%) were still feeling the impact of recent increases in costs in 2023.
While the distribution of core debt finance forms such as terms loans and overdrafts across UK nations and regions is less imbalanced than other finance types, location-specific challenges remain.
Scotland is one of the leaders in terms of the highest concentration of bank loans and overdrafts relative to the size of its small business populations, though this was largely driven by the strong presence of finance-reliant sectors like agriculture and manufacturing.
However, things may be turning around in 2024, as early signs suggest a more promising outlook. The first half of 2024 saw a 21% increase in the volume of approved loans and overdrafts compared to the first half of 2023.
“While we continue to face a challenging economic environment, it is encouraging to see a renewed appetite for external finance among the business community,” Louis Taylor, CEO, British Business Bank, said.
“This year’s Nations and Regions Tracker captures a mood of cautious optimism throughout the UK, and one which will hopefully see an uplift this year and beyond.”
Meta has introduced new tools to its social media platform Instagram to protect users from sextortion scams.
Online sextortion usually comes in the form of email or messages, where threat actors will threaten victims that they have sexually explicit images or videos of the victim that they will release if a ransom is not paid.
The heinous practice is on the rise in the UK, with research showing AI is only enhancing cyber-criminals ability to make this targeted crime appear more realistic.
“The dramatic rise in sextortion scams is taking a heavy toll on children and teens, with reports of online enticement increasing by over 300% from 2021 to 2023,” John Shehan, senior vice president form the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), said.
In response, Instagram said it was testing new tools to make their app safer from this crime back in April of this year, and have announced that those tools have now been launched.
This includes new safety features as well as an education campaign aimed at parents and teens using Instagram to better protect themselves from the crime.
The new rules are in addition to Meta’s new teen accounts, which were introduced to Instagram to better protect under 18s from unwanted attention online.
The new additions will make it harder to accounts showing signals of potentially scammy behaviour to request to follow teen accounts. These requests will be either blocked entirely or sent to a spam folder.
Further, Meta says it is testing new safety notices in Instagram DMs and Messenger to let teens know if they are chatting to someone in a different country, as scammers often misrepresent where they live.
Accounts that have shown patterns of ‘scammy behaviour’ will face many restrictions with the new rules, including not being able to see people’s follower or following lists, or the list of accounts that have liked someone’s post, photos they’ve been tagged in, or other accounts they have tagged in their own photos.
In the future, Instagram says that it will not allow people to directly screenshot or screen record ephemeral images or videos sent via private messages. This means that photos sent via Instagram’s restricted viewing settings will not be allowed to be screenshot or recorded in the app. These settings will also be restricted on Instagram web.
In conjunction with this, Instagram will finally be rolling out its nudity protection feature globally after first testing it in April. This will blur images that Meta detects to contain nudity automatically for users under 18, as well as warn users about the risks of sending sensitive images.
Besides these tools, Meta is launching an educational campaign to help users understand the warning signs of a sextortion scam and avoid its consequences.
Meta has worked with the NCMEC and Thorn, both child safety expert organisations, to develop an education video highlighting the red flags of these scams.
“Campaigns like this bring much-needed education to help families recognize these threats early,” Shehan said. “By equipping young people with knowledge and directing them to resources like NCMEC’s CyberTipline, and Take it Down, we can better protect them from falling victim to online exploitation.”
Meta will also feature the Crisit Text Line in the US as an option to for live chat when people report issues related to sextortion or child safety, but currently it has yet to be seen if a similar scheme will be rolled out in other countries.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is launching an AI Lab aiming to help firms overcome challenges they face in implementing and building AI solutions, as well as supporting safe and responsible AI development.
The UK financial watchdog announced the new venture at a speech celebrating its 10th anniversary serving the country.
The AI Lab is set to play a vital role in providing insights, debates, and case studies within the realm of AI, providing a deeper understanding of AI opportunities and risks.
In her speech, Jessica Rusu, chief data information and intelligence officer at the FCA, highlighted the FCA’s dual nature when it comes to innovation
“Some see us as gatekeepers, others as enforcers,” she said.
“A wall, or teachers with red pens. And, in truth, we are at times all of those things. But our role is more nuanced, more holistic.”
She did point to the FCA’s successes in collaborating with industries, supporting companies through TechSprints, Sandboxes, and Innovation pathways.
But the majority of the speech was focused on AI.
“AI will revolutionise financial services, providing solutions to improve consumer financial inclusion, help prevent market abuse, and support the delivery of new products and services,” she said.
“And whilst we are just starting to see AI’s benefits emerge, we are clear that those benefits do not come without risks.
“As a regulator, we must play a critical role in ensuring AI is deployed in a way that is safe, fair and in the best interests of consumers and the market as a whole.”
To do this, the AI Lab will be composed on four parts, including an AI Spotlight, an AI Sprint, an AI Input Zone, and a Supercharged Sandbox and testing.
The AI Spotlight aims to bring firms together to share examples of how they are leveraging AI to lead industry growth, which they will have the opportunity to present at a showcase at the FCA London Office in January 2025.
The AI Sprint will bring together developers from multiple sectors – public, private, academic, and regulatory – to work on enabling the safe adoption of AI in financial services.
The Input Zone will invite stakeholders to have a say on the future of AI by providing feedback online, via a platform that will open next month.
In the Supercharged Sandbox, the FCA will run techsprints focussed on AI to enhance their digital sandbox infrastructure with greater computing power, better datasets, and increased AI testing abilities.
“It’s a chance for us to work together to shape the future of AI in financial services, providing us with a practical understanding of AI usage, and helping to inform the FCA’s policy approach,” Rusu said of the lab.
TechUK has published its Growth Plan ahead of the UK chancellor’s Autumn Budget, outlining how the government can boost economic growth via its tech sector.
The technology trade association says the UK is on track to become the biggest single sector contributing to GVA (gross value added) due to its size and faster growth rate than other industries in the wider UK economy.
Additionally, virtually every other business sector has a ‘growth plan’ predicated on greater digitisation and the use of new and emerging technologies such as AI, quantum, and automation, meaning that support for the industry is critical.
As the UK faces an unprecedented set of challenges, including slow economic growth and labour shortages, it is crucial that the new government recognises the tech sector’s ability to establish sustained growth, aimed at making the UK the best place to start, scale, and run a technology business.
TechUK postulates that decisive action taken by the government could create up to 678,000 new tech jobs across all regions of the UK, raise £40 billion for the government through AI and digital technology, and ensure the UK leads in the technologies that will drive global economic growth in the next decade.
“The Government is currently grappling with multiple challenges, from boosting economic growth and supporting public services to tackling climate change,” Julian David, CEO of techUK said. “Despite tight fiscal conditions, investing in the tech sector can yield substantial returns.
“We can seize this opportunity by recognising the tech sector as a driver of growth and change, but this requires Government action to stay ambitious, keep up with technological advancements, and continue prioritising investment in research and innovation to tackle economic challenges.”
The Growth Plan is framed around three main initiatives, including building the right foundations, enabling competitiveness, and ‘shooting for the stars’ by capitalising on the UK’s unique advantages.
Building Foundations
To boost productivity and enable growth, TechUK says building the right foundations, including skills, digital adoption, infrastructure and investment incentives is vital.
This includes reforming the planning system to allocate billions to digital infrastructure across the UK, and improving the UK’s R&D tax credit to encourage more investment.
It also recommends the establishment of a digital adoption strategy aimed at SMEs to adopt AI and digital tools, with the goal of increasing digital adoption by 2030.
Further, techUK points to the creation of provisions to boost digital skills, hand in hand with creating a more diverse and inclusive tech sector.
Empowered Competition
The trade association recommends that a place-based approach to develop tech clusters would be most beneficial to supporting scaleups and startups.
It suggested reforming public processes for public procurement, and delivering on recommendations set out in the Harrington Review on foreign direct investment by working with the support for mayors and devolved governments.
TechUK also suggested following in Ireland’s footsteps by creating a connected hubs programme to create remote and co-working locations across the UK.
This initiative centres itself on leveraging the UK’s economic growth opportunities through its advantages in net zero, AI and quantum.
This would include delivering a new AI strategy to unlock its full potential and raise the UK GDP possibly by 10.3%.
TechUK is urging the government to maintain its planned increase in the UK public research and development budget to support quantum and semiconductors, as well as use the regulatory innovation office to help commercialise emerging technologies.
It also wants the UK to create tailored scale-up support to help close the UK scaleup gap.
“This is a crucial moment for the UK to signal its commitment to investing in industries that will shape the global economy over the next decade,” David said.
“The Growth Plan presents practical examples of how the Government can build the right foundations for growth, empower the competitiveness of the economy and support the industries that will define the economy of the 2030’s.
“These ideas are backed by practical interventions that recognise the fiscal position the Treasury finds itself in, in the early stages of this Government.”
Meta is laying off workers across its various platforms and ventures, including Instagram, WhatsApp, and Reality labs, according to reports from the Verge.
According to the report, which did not specify the number of jobs to be affected, the smaller rounds of cuts have to do with team realignment rather than a company-wide cull.
As former employees post to social media exposing their redundancies, Meta has said that it is all part of restructuring.
“Today, a few teams at Meta are making changes to ensure resources are aligned with their long-term strategic goals and location strategy,” a Meta spokesperson shared with The Verge and Reuters.
“This includes moving some teams to different locations, and moving some employees to different roles. In situations like this when a role is eliminated, we work hard to find other opportunities for impacted employees.”
While it is currently difficult to tell the extent of these current layoffs, they are certainly on trend for Meta, which cut jobs at Reality Labs just earlier this year.
The layoffs follow Mark Zuckerberg’s year of efficiency in 2023, in which his company cut 10,000 workers.
This added to the 11,000 workers Meta cut in 2022 after they failed to meet their growth goals following the winddown of the pandemic.
While it is unrelated to the current spate of redundancies, Meta also fired 24 staff in its Los Angeles location, allegedly for using their daily meal credits to purchase household items, a report from the Financial Times alleged.
The company appears to be performing well, as their shares surged by 60% in 2024. Its second quarter results showed a revenue that beat market expectations, with its successful digital-advertising market pulling enough weight to balance out its AI spend.
While layoffs may be shaking up the tech world, workers themselves continue to question if their current roles are right for them, as half of UK tech workers consider leaving their jobs, citing pay, culture, and career progression as determining factors.
Business leaders have high hopes that artificial intelligence investments can drive market-changing innovations to transform everything from customer satisfaction to product innovation.
However, a poor data foundation is holding over three quarters (78%) of organisations back from achieving these goals.
A new report from MIT Technology Review Insights, in partnership with Snowflake, found that while businesses have big ambitions for generative AI – with 72% looking to increase efficiency or productivity, 55% betting on increased market competitiveness, and 47% aiming to see more innovation in products and service – the foundational data strategy needs to be improved to maximise AI’s potential.
Businesses need strong data foundations, powered by modern cloud data platforms, to enable them to harness their own stores of data, and also vast volumes of previously inaccessible data, largely from unstructured data such as videos and images.
According to the report, just 22% of business leaders say they are ‘very ready’ to engage with AI, while 53% are ‘somewhat ready.’
Higher readiness correlates with fewer challenges related to accessing scalable computing power, data silos and integration issues, and data governance.
Despite many business leaders’ confidence in the results AI can deliver, they are realising that data is key to how quickly and effectively they can unlock AI’s value.
Another challenge facing organisations is deploying AI at scale.
The vast majority (95%) of those surveyed reported facing hurdles when implementing AI. 59% of respondents cited data governance, security, or privacy as their most prevalent challenge, followed by data quality and timeliness (53%), and costs of resources or investment (48%).
Spending and resourcing decisions, including those needed to improve data foundations, are a challenge when it comes to any technology investment.
But the cost of generative AI itself is decreasing, with enterprises having begun to build smaller large language models (LLMs) that remain equally capable, and less expensive.
“Many of today’s organisations have big ambitions for generative AI: they are looking to reshape how they operate and what they sell,” says Baris Gultekin, head of AI, Snowflake.
“Our joint research shows that as organisations feel increasing urgency to deploy AI applications, they are realising that their data can help them deliver insights from previously untapped sources of information.
“A strong data foundation is at the core of generative AI capabilities, and business leaders need to move quickly to deal with concerns such as data security and cost, and establish the foundation they need to deliver on the promise of AI.”
While companies further along their AI journey are now reaping some benefits, the importance of a robust data foundation remains key for companies looking to expand their AI adoption.
The upcoming 2024 US presidential election is being preceded by an escalation in cyber-threat activity, researchers from Fortinet’s cybersecurity division FortiGard Labs has found.
The report detailed the main threats driving the surge in cyber activity, ranging from phishing scams and even the sale of sensitive data of US citizens across the darknet.
Phishing attacks duping perspective voters is a top concern. Threat actors have created and are selling ‘phishing kits’, which help criminals impersonate US presidential candidates and their funding campaigns, on sale for $1260.
The kits can be used to collect credit card numbers and other personal details.
Over a thousand new domain names with links to the election have been created since the start of the year, sparking more concern as many of these sites are designed to mimic legitimate campaign donation sites.
Darknet Threats
According to the research, the darknet has become a cesspool of cyber-activity related to the election.
Social security numbers, email addresses and passwords make up some of the billions of personal details listed across darknet forums.
Around 3% of posts across the darknet involve businesses and government associations in the US, only intensifying concern about account takeovers, identity theft, and other cyber-crimes.
The amount of usernames and passwords generated from these organisations, amounting to 1.3 billion, increases the risk of effective credential stuffing attacks.
US government agencies have continually been targeted in ransomware attacks, which saw an overall rise of 28% in 2024.
If these attacks are successful and data is encrypted, they could disrupt the electoral process or damage the reputation in the system.
Simple preventative measures and basic cyber hygiene can make a big difference in quelling this surge in attacks, Fortinet says.
Multi-factor authentication and regular software updates, as well as endpoint protection and cybersecurity training, are important steps in keeping systems secure.
After three years of decline, funding in AI and cloud companies has risen across the US, Europe, and Israel, with Accel estimating it will hit $79.2 billion by the end of 2024.
The venture capital firm’s new report showed this was an increase of over a quarter (27%), beating out 2023’s $62.5bn. Investments in AI companies represent two fifths of the 2024 figure, showing that AI hype appears to not be going anywhere.
As far as money invested into AI companies, which totals $56 billion in 2023 and 2024, the US is dominating, winning 86% of investment. Companies working on foundation models have won out two-thirds of the funding, totalling $37bn.
Megarounds in the US may be skewing the figures for global AI investment, OpenAI’s $6.6bn, xAI’s $6bn, and Anthropic’s $4bn investment wins turned heads throughout the year.
Private genAI companies in the US gained about $25bn in total, versus $6.4bn in Europe, but funding in Europe appears to be growing at a faster rate. Back in 2023, genAI investment was a mere $2.4bn, while the US amassed $22.4bn.
Accel identified three different genAI leagues that are emerging, including tech titans, AI majors, and AI challengers.
Tech titans, including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Apple, are spending tens to billions on their own AI projects, with OpenAI leading AI major companies in terms of funding.
AI challengers are spending 100s of millions trying to catch up and compete in the accelerating arena.
Apart from AI, cloud funding is rebounding to pre-Covid levels, the report from Accel shows.
Despite peaks in 2021, cloud funding is now at $47.3bn, just slightly above 2020’s $46.1bn. While the European public cloud index is in recovery, it is still 31% below its peak in 2021.
Further, growth of companies in this cloud index is slowing down, with no company growing more than 40% in 2024.
While AI is doing well, macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty are creating new obstacles for tech, whether it be in the form of skills shortages and layoffs, or cybersecurity woes as nation-state threat actors up their game.
Spend on enterprise software is therefore under pressure, which could limit digital transformation efforts as well as cloud and AI adoption.
A new report from Microsoft has revealed that every day, over 600 million cyber-criminal and nation-state attacks are levied.
These attacks range from ransomware to identity theft and malware, and continue to blur the lines between nation-state threat actor activity and non-state-affiliated cyber-crime.
This is according to the Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2024, which found that nation-states are regularly collaborating with cyber-criminals to collect intelligence as threat actors serving Russia and Iran continue to lean on cyber and influence operations.
Nation-State Threats
Nation state actors appear to have a range of motivations, as revealed in the report, including espionage, election influence, cryptocurrency theft, cyber-crime services, data destruction and data theft for profit.
Nation-state influence operations tended to converge around the time of major elections for maximum effect. By the end of 2024, two billion people will have had the opportunity to vote in a nationwide election, with Russia, Iran, and China all engaging in election influence efforts during the year.
In 2024, the most targeted industries by nation-state actors included IT (24%) and education and research (21%). Education and research institutions often offer intelligence on policies for the government, and may be used as testing grounds by nation-states.
Countries being hit the most by nation-state cyber-threats, besides the US and the UK, include other countries with active military conflict or regional tensions, including Ukraine, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, and the state of Israel.
Microsoft also showed that North Korea is entering the ransomware playing field, with a newly identified North Korean ransomware variant, FakePenny, being aimed at aerospace and defence organisations.
Identity Attacks
The report also highlighted patterns in identity attacks, with more than 99% of them being password attacks, including phishing, breach replay, or password spray tactics.
These rely on predictable human behaviours, such as using easy-to-guess passwords, repeating passwords between sites, or perhaps more importantly, not using multifactor authentication.
In just over the past year, Microsoft said they blocked 7,000 password attacks per second.
Ransomware
Besides this, ransomware has remained a critical cyber concern, as Microsoft observed a 2.7b year-over-year increase in human-operated ransomware-linked encounters.
Despite a rise in the number of encounters, the percentage of organisations that have been ransomed, meaning their ransomed data has reached the encryption stage, decreased by more than threefold over the past two years. So, while ransomware groups may be making more attack attempts, these are not necessarily getting more successful.
Cyber-enabled financial fraud is on the rise globally, with new trends in the misuse of legitimate services.
One such type highlighted by Microsoft is called techscam, which uses fake tech support services and ads impersonating legitimate services to trick users into clicking malicious links or downloading malware.
The paper showed that techscam traffic surged 400% from 2021 to 2023, outpacing rises in malware (180% rise) and phishing (30% rise).
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
DDoS attacks are evolving and growing more sophisticated as they transform to target the application layer.
Microsoft said they mitigated 1.25 million DDoS attacks in just the second half of the year, representing a 4x increase compared with last year.
Application-layer attacks tend to be stealthier, more sophisticated, and harder to mitigate than network-level attacks, making them a greater risk to businesses availability.
The UK government is looking into adopting a requirement for all new electronic devises to have the same charging cable style, a USB-C.
Currently, electronic devices, including phones, laptops, and tablets, are all able to have different charging portal shapes and chords, meaning that their charging ability is not interoperable with different brands and models.
The consideration of the UK government to adopt a universal charging cable style comes after the EU passed a law requiring all new electronics to use a common charging cable, the USB-C, which companies must adopt by December this year.
At the time the EU adopted this legislation, back in 2022, the UK said it was not considering similar legislation.
Apple, which introduced its own exclusive phone charging port for its smart phone starting with its iPhone 5 model, critisied the move, though ultimately it relented with its newer models, starting from the iPhone 15.
Some older devices will still use a lighting cable, designed by Apple, or a micro USB instead of the now widely adopted USB-C.
The move to lesson the number of cables people need to purchase to charge their devices, is in an effort to decrease the overall amount of e-waste people produce each year.
Enforcing interoperability between devices would lessen the number of individual charging cables which can significantly decrease the amount of wires discarded each year. It would also mean customers could switch between brands without needing to purchase new charging cables.
However, as older models of devices still use different charging cables, the amount of discarded cables is unlikely to decrease in the following years.
A new bill from the UK government could force social media companies to exclude teenagers from their targeted algorithms, in an effort to make social media content less addictive for under-16s.
Ministers will discuss the safer phones bill, which was pitched by Labour MP Josh MacAlister, this week, as it has already received backing from both major parties and child protection advocates.
Not only would the bill implement possible restrictions on algorithms directed towards teens, but it would also require the government to review phone sales to teenagers. Ministers would review if technological safeguards would be required to automatically be uploaded on phones sold to those under 16.
While some of the provisions have been met with support, as ministers look to see if they are compatible with the Online Safety Act, there is more opposition to any restrictions on the sale of phones to teenagers.
The bill will be introduced on Wednesday this week (16 October), and though private member’s bills often receive amendments before they are set into law, it may be adopted if it wins enough support.
“The evidence is mounting that children doomscrolling for hours a day is causing widespread harm,” MacAlister said.
“We need the equivalent of the ‘seatbelt’ legislation for social media use for children.
“Parents are in an impossible bind over whether to ostracise their child from social media or expose them to the harms and addiction of content. Countries around the world are now taking bold action and our children risk being left behind.”
While the ban on phone sales is the most contested platform in the bill, other propositions are less controversial.
The bill also proposes raising the age of adulthood on the internet from 13 to 16, which would change the age at which companies can source data consent from children without explicit permission from parents.
This would make it harder for companies to use children’s data to create targeted algorithms which have contributed to doomscrolling and a dependency on social media.
Numerous lawsuits have been levied against social media giants for their addictive nature and targeting on teens, with many pointing to their advanced algorithms keeping kids glued to their phones, with adverse affects to their mental health.
The Safer Phones bill envisions strict regulations to keep social media firms at bay, proposing a legal ban to mobile phones in schools, though the UK government has not said there are currently any plans to back a ban.
The bill would also look to extend Ofcom’s growing regulatory powers, giving the watchdog the ability to enforce better age verification methods from social media platforms.
MacAlister and supporters of the bill, which include Samaritans, Mind, and the Molly Rose Foundation, are urging the government to reclassify smaller websites that promote harmful content – such as suicide or eating disorders – to be classified as higher risk under the law.
Funding for UK startups dropped dramatically in the third quarter of 2024, according to recent figures, as founders feel the pressure to find new sources of investment.
Venture capital funding for startups fell by 50% from the previous quarter, as startups secured only around $2.9bn according to the latest Dealroom and HSBC Innovation Banking report.
“Despite a typical seasonal slowdown in VC activity over the summer, Q3 still saw $2.9 billion raised by UK startups, and continues to track in line with 2023,” Simon Bumfrey, head of technology and life sciences at HSBC Innovation Banking said.
2024’s third quarter marked the lowest point for startup investment in the UK in the past five years.
According to the report, the slowdown is mainly due to a drop in megarounds, while early and breakout stage funding remained fairly stable in comparison.
Within this, however, funding trends were similar to that seen in 2023.
Fintech has come on top as the UK’s best-funded tech sector this year, raking in $3.3bn, still a decrease from $4.5m in 2023.
The health tech sector came in second place, rocketed by a few large funding rounds, including £156m series C funding for Flo Health, and £90m of series A funding for Myricx Bio. Health tech funding totalled $2.3bn.
Flo’s funding round also propelled it to become Europe’s first femtech unicorn, a technology startup focused on solutions aimed at women.
Within this, AI and deeptech-associated technologies were leading segments for UK VC investment. Generative AI-related companies raised £1.4bn, while autonomous mobility, drug discovery, and remote monitoring also gained traction.
Despite a downward trend in funding, the UK still came out on top compared to other European nations in terms of VC funding.
Startups in the UK raised nearly as much VC funding in 2024 as France and Germany combined.
In the first three quarters of 2024, UK startups raised £12.4bn, significantly outpacing France (£6.5bn) and Germany (£6.7bn).
Interestingly, 70% of VC funding for UK startups came from abroad in 2024, one of the highest shares to date.
That’s not to say UK-based VC investors are faltering – the data shows that they are on track to raise a record £12.2bn of fresh capital by the end of 2024.
“This deep pool of liquidity is a sign of confidence from long-term investors in the strength of the domestic innovation ecosystem and suggests a buoyant outlook for 2025 and beyond,” Bumfrey said.
“In 2024, top global funds have been actively raising capital to be deployed in UK start-ups and scale-ups ready to achieve their next phase of growth.
“Encouragingly, the fact that Q3 funding was heavily weighted towards deals at the critical Series B and C ʻbreakoutʼ stages, suggests that these global VCs will have no shortage of mature, high-growth businesses to invest in.
“The proportion of inbound, international investment is at its highest since 2021, which underscores the strength of UK innovation on the global stage.”
A new report has revealed the hidden mental health impact of cyber-crime on the UK public, an oft-overlooked fallout of rising scams, fraud, and ransomware attacks.
A survey of 1,002 Britons who have bene a victim of cyber-crime in the past year, commissioned by Akamai Technologies, reports that most are ashamed of their experience, feel as if they’ve done something wrong, and believe there is an unfair stigma placed on them.
While a cyber-crime on average cost surveyed victims £808, the report showed the damage is much deeper.
The hidden mental health crisis
As a result of the financial loss, one on five victims struggled to pay their bills, or had to cut back on spending on essentials like food in the wake of the incursions.
Nearly two-thirds of Britons said they felt traumatised by what happened to them (62%), and a majority also admitted to feelings of shame (59%) and embarrassment (67%).
Over half (55%) said they continued to experience anxiety after the cyber-crime, especially while using online services, and nearly one in three (29%) had trouble sleeping.
Despite this, many Britons are likely to hide the cyber-crime they experienced from others.
More than two-fifths (43%) said they avoided telling people about what happened to them, out of fear that they would be judged.
A similar number (41%) admitted they hid the true extent of the emotional impact. Nearly two-thirds (64%) blamed themselves for what happened.
“Cyber-crime is incredibly common. And with the rise of AI, it’s becoming even more difficult to tell the difference between a genuine request from someone you know, and a scammer,” said Natalie Billingham, EMEA managing director, Akamai.
“Cyber-crime is not just a technological issue; it’s a human one. Cyber-criminals prey on a victim’s vulnerability as there’s still a perception that if you’re a victim of cyber-crime, you’ve done something wrong. They rely on their victims not talking about their attack.
“We need to stop this ‘cyberstigma’ because if we’re more understanding about cyber-crime, and talk about it more, we’ll stand a better chance of fighting back against cyber-criminals.”
The Britons surveyed experienced a wide range of cyber-crimes, including phishing (57%), identity theft (33%), phone hacking (30%), and ransomware (15%).
The majority, however, said they could not find resources and support to help them (55%), and that there needs to be more support for cyber-crime victims (70%).
Britons reported it took an average of ten weeks for them to feel back to normal after the cyber-crime they suffered.
“Cyber-crime can be devastating to an individual’s mental well-being. As this research has shown, self-blame is common, and feeds into feelings of inadequacy that can be incredibly toxic,” said Dr Tara Quinn-Cirillo, associate fellow of the British Psychological Society.
“The truth is, today cyber-crime can happen to anyone, and it’s so important we consider the mental health effects of this type of crime on victims.”
Dr Quinn-Cirillo and Akamai published a new guide to deal with the mental health impact of cyber-crime, titled Its Time to Talk About Cyberstigma, providing advice for victims to discuss cyber-crime.
Scottish unicorn Skyscanner has seen its profits take off, as they climb to nearly £100m as travel restrictions enforced during the pandemic ease.
The travel search company, based in Edinburgh, reported £95.2m in profit before tax in 2023, soaring from £31.5m in 2022.
During the same period, Skyscanner’s revenue also increased to £349.4m from £283.8m during the same period, according to accounts filed with Companies House.
This shows the company is well beyond its post-Covid recovery, as its current revenue exceeds pre-pandemic figures.
In 2019, the year before the pandemic dramatically changed the travel industry, Skyscanner’s turnover reached £311.3m, with a pre-tax profit of £48.6m.
Further, the number of sessions on its site increased by a third, reaching 2.9bn, with 110m using the platform each month.
With this, revenue generated from flight commissions rose from £223.1m to £271.2m, with hotel commission revenue increasing from £6.9m to £9.7m.
Car hire commission grew from £8.6m to £11.5m , while advertising and partner analytics saw a revenue jump from £45m to £56.9m.
The company’s net assets soared by 129% compared to 2022, with an increase in cash from £1.9m to £45.9m due to better trading conditions for the company.
2023 saw Skyscanner increase its headcount from 823 to 967.
“The company’s business and financial results improved as the remaining markets to improve travel restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic reopened their borders in the first half of 2023,” a statement from the company’s board read.
“The lifting of global travel restrictions led to a strong recovery in traveller numbers and in the resulting revenue generated by the company.
“This revenue growth has been sustained as travel returns to pre-pandemic levels and travel booking patterns broadly return to their seasonal trends.”
The Scottish unicorn – a tech company valued at over £1bn – was founded in 2004, and is now part of the Trip.com Group.
The cybersecurity skills shortage is damaging small and medium sized businesses (SMBs), as talent shortages cause chronic burnout to flare, creating more vulnerabilities for threat actors to exploit.
This is according to Sophos, the security vendor, which surveyed 5,000 IT and security professionals in 14 different countries, who work in organisations with 100 to 500 employees.
The report, titled Addressing the cybersecurity skills shortage in SMBs, reveled that the ongoing skills shortage is ranked as the second biggest risk to SMBs, topped only by zero-day threats.
SMBs were more likely (96%) to find basic security tasks, such as identifying and prioritising signals to investigate and getting enough data to identify if a signal is harmful, more difficult than larger enterprises.
Further, SMBs struggle to have the resources to battle some of the most commonly exploited vulnerabilities.
For instance, about 91% of ransomware attacks begin outside of standard business hours, but SMBs have no one monitoring or investigating security alerts a third of the time, including during business hours.
This can result in more devastating attacks. For SMBs, 74% of ransomwre attacks resulted in data encryption. While this figure remained high (72%) for businesses with 501-1000 employees, it dropped (to 66%) for larger enterprises with 1001-5000 employees.
A smaller team will also mean that burnout, already a scourage among the cybersecurity community, can become chronic.
85% of organisations in Asia stated that they experience fatigue and burnout among their cyber and IT professionals, Sophos cited a past report.
90% of those organisations already experienced burnout says the problem has only increased in the last year, with nearly a third (30%) saying burnout increased significantly.
This can lengthen response times to malicious activities, prolonging risks and increasing damage.
Three quarters (75%) of SMBs find remediating malicious alerts or incidents in a timely way challenges, likely due to having a smaller team suffering from burnout.
“A shortage of in-house cybersecurity skills is one of the biggest cyber risks for businesses today,” Aaron Bugal, field CTO of Sophos, said.
“When you couple this mounting skills gap with a major burnout crisis among cybersecurity professionals, small businesses are more vulnerable to attacks.
“With 91% of ransomware attacks occurring outside of standard business hours, SMBs need to monitor their networks 24/7 to identify malicious activity before an attacker can exfiltrate or encrypt data.
“Businesses should take stock of their security capabilities and look for opportunities to improve their overall cyber resilience. It’s a delicate balance between people, processes and technology. Understand your team’s strengths and limitations and balance them with external expertise to enhance the security posture.”
Revolut has come up on top – as far as UK fraud complaints go.
The alternative bank has been named in more fraud complaints in the UK than any other major bank in the country, according to an investigation from BBC Panorama.
The London-based bank was granted a provisional banking licence just this July, and was named in nearly 10,000 fraud complaints in just the past year, the investigation revealed.
This is over double the amount of complaints levied against its main rival Monzo, and 2,000 more than top competitor Barclays.
The findings could potentially risk the e-money company’s status as a registered bank as it struggles to confine itself under stricter regulations.
One man identified in the BBC research said fraudsters stole £165,000 from his Revolut account, which he says the bank refuses to refund.
The Financial Ombudsman Service is currently looking into that specific case, and received 3,500 complaints about Revolut in 2023, more than any other bank or similar firm.
While Revolut says it investigates each case fully, it may be facing a large price tag if its security protocols are subpar.
Just this month, new financial conduct rules have required banks to reimburse fraud victims. Most victims will be reimbursed automatically for values of £85,000, which will be split by sending and receiving banks. The same rules will apply to e-money firms as well, meaning that Revolut will have to pay up even if its provisional banking license is revoked.
Revolut could be feeding into the rise in scams and fraud, particularly authorised push payment (APP) scams.
These are scams where fraudsters trick customers into transferring money.
For every £1m deposited into Revolut accounts, about £756,000 was from APP fraud. This figure far outpaces that of other banks – Monzo, for instance, had £183,000 deposited as a result of APP fraud per £1m.
If Revolut is able to become a fully-fledged bank, its customers would be guaranteed up to £85,000 each if the firm were to fail.
Becoming a bank, however, would mean that Revolut could grant its customers credit, credit cards, overdrafts, and even mortgages, which could increase the financial risk of being scammed.
Revolut contends that it follows the same regulatory standards as traditional banks, and that it even cut fraud by 20% last year.
Independent regulators will decide the e-money firm’s fate, and have yet to comment on the findings.
In a post on LinkedIn, chief entrepreneurial advisor to the Scottish government Mark Logan explained Scotland’s deeptech pathways initiative.
The ex-Skyscanner chief detailed how the Scottish ecosystem is primed to become a deeptech superpower with its stellar universities and strong startup ecosystem.
“Scotland is commencing a phased, multi-year programme to establish a series of Deeptech advanced manufacturing pathways across several technology domains,” Logan wrote.
The initiative aims to give spinouts, deeptech startups, and deeptech businesses better access to advanced manufacturing capabilities in Scotland, as well as expertise in the field.
Though Scotland boasts the highest per-capita concentration of world-class universities in the world, according to QS World Rankings, and these universities develop top tier spinouts and startups, developing beyond the prototyping stage has proven a challenge as manufacturing opportunities are difficult to access.
This has caused companies to either move away from Scotland, or to stagnate at the protype stage, highlighting the need for advanced manufacturing capabilities in Scotland to be more accessible.
“What if Scotland’s tech sector included a series of advanced manufacturing pathways, across a variety of key tech domains that enabled deeptech and related start-ups to move from prototyping to limited-scale manufacture in Scotland?” Logan posed.
The initiative in answer to this query would sit alongside other programmes in Scotland, including Techscaler, Filament STAC, and the nation’s range of accelerator programmes.
Pathways would vary depending on the entry point and end goals but typically would begin with a startup already at the deeptech prototyping stage, which would then be supported by a physical environment to construct an advanced manufacturing line, provided with access to a shared supply chain and expertise, and discounted access to contract manufacturers in Scotland.
The initiative, cited as “bold” by Logan, will work on building a network of advanced manufacturing pathways across Scotland, and start providing a model in one technology domain before progressing to others.
Phase 1 of the programme will be located at the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District (AMIDS) in Renfrewshire, which is already a National Manufacturing Institute of Scotland (NMIS) advanced manufacturing demonstrator.
The site will house a dedicated facility for manufacturing line set up, along with supply chain discovery support.
“It’s been exciting to witness both the collective ambition and collaborative spirit of so many stakeholders in getting to this point,” Logan wrote.
“The Deeptech Supercluster initiative is an important step in establishing Scotland as one of the world’s best places to launch and scale a Deeptech start-up.”
Hays, the UK technology recruiter, shared that recruitment struggles are not going anywhere soon amid lower unemployment levels.
The firm forecasted that its profits from the first half of 2024 would be lower than the six months before, citing economic downwinds affecting the recruitment industry.
Fees were also down, by 14%, in the last three months ending on 30 September.
“Net fees in the quarter were down, as expected, reflecting the tough market conditions, particularly in permanent (hiring)where we see longer time to hire and low levels of confidence which we expect to continue,” Dirk Hahn, CEO of Hays, said.
A mix of lower unemployment and high interest rates have made the hiring market all the more tumultuous, despite tech’s relatively high turnover and the consistent threat of mass layoffs.
Hays has already reduced its headcount by around a fourth as global hiring faces a drop, but the company announced it would layoff around 2% of its remaining workforce.
In conjunction with this reduction was the shut or merger of 17 offices across its global operations.
Back in August, the recruitment firm, which specialises in accounting and tech hiring, aimed to slash costs by around £30 million as its annual profits were almost completely sunk for the year.
The recruitment firm also revealed some overall changes in the hiring landscape – hiring for temporary jobs was not nearly as impacted as hiring for permanent positions, revealing caution among employers.
Fees from hiring temporary jobs were down by 16% in the UK, ten percent less than the decrease seen for permanent jobs (26%).
While hiring activity remained stable but subdued in the private sector, according to Hays, the public sector saw a modest reduction.
Shares for the company were down 20% for the year, despite a small 1.9% uptick last Friday.
As technology evolves and becomes more accessible, providing new and exciting ways to make our lives easier, it’s easy to ignore the elephant in the room – the huge amount of e-waste our appetite for consumption is causing.
Back in March, the parliamentary Environment Audit Committee reported that the UK government has made very little progress in tackling the issue, with chairman Phillip Dunne telling environment secretary Steve Barclay it had “yet to grasp fully the scale of the e-waste tsunami”.
So why is the UK creating more e-waste than other nations? Is it down to our general attitude towards tech or a hoarding instinct that leaves us holding on to old devices?
Several studies point to this, such as research from Currys revealing that two-thirds (66%) of young people are more likely to bin than recycle their technology, and three in four (75%) are storing unwanted tech in their homes.
Another study, by Material Focus, estimates that Brits are stockpiling an average of 30 items in their homes, equating to 2.8 million tonnes of CO2 emissions that could be saved by households returning their small electricals to the economy.
It’s hard to ignore these statistics, however I believe the problem stems fundamentally from a lack of awareness. As consumers cannot see directly the effects of hoarding their devices, it is unlikely they realise the problems this could be causing. They are also, in many cases, unfamiliar with the right way to recycle their e-waste. There are several solutions to combat this problem.
All are simple to implement and can be hugely effective if relayed in a straightforward way that encourages participation.
Like the “Dig for Victory” campaign created during the Second World War, the best chance of achieving success is by engaging households and businesses so that everyone wants to do their bit.
1. Sustainability Begins at Home
We need to create a system based around reverse logistics, making it just as easy for used goods to be returned to manufacturers or disposed of properly as for them to be delivered to the consumer.
To support this idea, recycling measures such as bins and collections should be increased and heavily promoted. Implementing recycling as part of an everyday routine will ensure consumers think about how the process relates to all their waste, including technology.
2. Enforcing Stricter Rules
The UK government has been exploring proposals to strengthen legislation around business-to-business waste collection and the suggestion of new metrics to measure the success of any changes to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) regulations.
There needs to be greater accountability placed on the consumer, creating a bigger deterrent for those who breach the household waste duty of care and companies that breach WEEE.
The same is true of Switzerland who rank third on the e-waste naughty list.
France, meanwhile, has a mandatory repairability index on electronic and electric products, assessing how viable they are to be repaired against criteria including documentation, disassembly and the price and availability of spare parts. This aims to increase the proportion of products that get repaired and actively promotes a circular economy.
In the UK, it can be a challenge to invest time travelling to dispose of e-waste at a local recycling centre, even if you have a car.
Consumers will be far more likely to do this if the system was easier, through the implementation of take-back schemes and increased collections from households and businesses that encourage a behavioral shift.
While it is easy to suggest that incorrect disposal comes from a place of carelessness, studies like this show that consumers do want to recycle, they just do not know the correct way to do it.
6. Remanufacturing a New Frontier of Sustainable Hardware
It used to be rare for consumers to purchase pre-owned electrical goods, however the popularity of second-life devices has taken off.
Traditionally businesses looking to procure items like laptops have seen buying brand-new as the safest and best-quality option but that is changing, especially now with more of a focus on sustainability and cost effectiveness.
Increasing corporate adoption of remanufactured electronics is a simple solution for UK businesses to keep their e-waste in check.
Remanufactured technology will also enable them to dramatically cut down their CO2 emissions and hit their ESG goals, with the production of second-life laptops using 6.34% of CO2 emissions compared with an average new device.
With IT procurement a key corporate expense, another catalyst is that remanufactured laptops can cost up to 40% less than a new device, while standards bodies can certify models’ performance and quality, removing any perceived barriers.
The adoption of second-life hardware gives companies an easy route into the circular economy and means – as they seek to upgrade devices – their outgoing technology can be taken by remanufacturers and not consigned to landfill.
As the e-waste problem continues to grow, this model will keep organisations ahead of regulatory changes and play a leading role in helping them reach their sustainability targets.
There is a lot of hard work and changes required to ensure consumers are considering e-waste when they move on from old technology.
A co-ordinated approach is vital, combining legislative shifts, improved education and a wider promotion of the circular economy.
Promoting corporate strategies that prioritise repair over replace and remanufactured over brand-new will also make sure businesses are doing their part to combat e-waste.
In an effort to tackle the digital skills gap, ScotlandIS has funded a scholarship for 10 pupils, launched at the beginning of the year, in partnership with The Education Academy Scotland, to support their National 5 Maths exams.
Ten pupils from Glasgow and the West received a comprehensive programme of education which resulted in them not only passing, but improving their National 5 Maths grade in the final exam.
The programme also offered a series of engagements and activities with a group of inspirational role models from Scotland’s digital sector, including senior leaders in companies, college and university staff, and award-winning experts in the field.
Within months, 100% of the ScotlandIS Scholars reported the programme had grown their interest in a digital/cyber/technologies career, with 75% now planning to work in STEM, and 40% now choosing these specific fields.
100% of the students passed their final exam, with all of them improving their grades with an average upturn of over two grade bands across the full cohort. 90% of scholars gained A-C grades, versus a national average of 68%.
Additionally, 88% of ScotlandIS Scholars say their problem-solving skills are increasing, and 75% of them say their knowledge and understanding in maths is increasing.
ScotlandIS Scholars will now be offered fast-track entry to a range of digital courses at Glasgow Clyde College, City of Glasgow College, or West College Scotland.
Courses accessible through the scholarship include NCs, NQs, and HNDs in a variety of topics ranging from cybersecurity and software engineering to esports and computer game design.
“I am incredibly pleased with the results our scholars have achieved, the impact of dedicated support and inspiration from industry professionals has been phenomenal,” Karen Meechan, CEO of ScotlandIS said.
“The Scholarship was designed to pave the way for young people across all backgrounds and demographics to enter this area of STEM, to see it as a viable future pathway for them, letting them experience the exciting and rewarding opportunities that working and studying in digital holds for them.”
It should also be noted that over 60% of scholars reside in the lowest SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) quintile, with the data showing a positive testament to ways to mitigate the link between attainment and deprivation.
“We are proud to provide an opportunity for all young people that is genuinely addressing and bridging the digital skills gap,” Meechan added.
“I can’t wait to see how our Scholars’ journey’s progress as they continue on to College courses.”
ScotlandIS and The Education Academy Scotland aims to grow this offer for the new academic year in 2024 and into 2025, in order to increase the number of young people receiving the educational support needed for today’s digital careers, and exposure to inspirational role models in the technology sector.
TikTok, the social media giant owned by China-based ByteDance, is reportedly laying off hundreds of workers, mainly those based in Malaysia, as it pushes to rely more heavily on AI in its content moderation.
While early reports said the number of layoffs in Malaysia totalled over 700, TikTok clarified the matter, saying that less then 500 staff members were affected in Malaysia.
The majority of the workers affected were in the company’s content moderation team, and were let go via email on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
TikTok later confirmed that several hundred workers would be laid off across its global workforce as part of its larger plans to modernise.
“We’re making these changes as part of our ongoing efforts to further strengthen our global operating model for content moderation,” a spokesperson for TikTok said in a statement.
According to the company, 80% of the social media platform’s content that is outwith TikTok’s guidelines is removed by automation. Its current content moderation operation has a mix of human and automated moderators.
The company says they are looking to invest $2 billion in trust and safety across their global operations this year.
The layoffs come after a contentious time for social media firms in Malaysia, as the country is asking is requiring firms to apply for an operating licence by the start of 2025, in an attempt to mitigate online offenses.
The country cited a rise in harmful social media content this year across many social media platforms, including TikTok.
TikTok is facing its own set of scrutiny as well, as 13 different US states have levied a lawsuit against the tech giant for harming the mental health of teens.
Turning more to AI and automation of content moderation may only fan the flames against the controversial company, which recently faced senate appeals in the US for a total ban over Chinese surveillance concerns.
As AI content creation continues to harm the trustworthiness of internet content, relying on AI to moderate harmful and illegal content on one of the most popular social media sites for teens may only decrease trust in the company.
The UK economy grew for the first time this August after two flat months, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
According to August statistics, gross domestic product (GDP) was up by 0.2% in August, in a positive contradiction to the lack of any growth seen in June and July.
The uptick should come as a relief to the nation, as well as to Chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of her inaugural autumn budget.
While all main sectors in the economy saw growth over the month of August, the broader picture, according to ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown, shows “slowing growth in recent months, compared to the first half of the year.
“In August, accountancy, retail and many manufacturers had strong months while construction also recovered from July’s contraction,” she said.
“These were partially offset by falls in wholesaling and oil extraction.”
The main contributor to growth – the services sector – was up by 0.1% in August, carrying on from its similar rise in July.
The productions sector, while smaller, saw a bigger increase, rising 0.5% in August despite a 0.7% contraction the previous month.
Meanwhile, construction output rose 0.4% in the month of August, following a fall of 0.4% in July, continuing on its overall 1% growth in the three months coming up to August.
“Growing the economy is the number one priority of this government so we can fix the NHS, rebuild Britain, and make working people better off,” chancellor Reeves said.
“While change will not happen overnight, we are not wasting any time on delivering on the promise of change.
“Next week hundreds of the world’s biggest businesses will come to Britain as we deliver on our promise to bring investment, growth, and jobs back to every part of the country.”
In the month of August, business confidence in Scotland appeared high, though it later took a downturn across the UK.
Announcements from the new Labour government about tough decisions coming ahead in the Autumn statement have stoked fears across the UK economy, as they already brace for rising energy costs across the colder months.
The National Cyber Security Centre, in partnership with US agencies such as the FBI and NSA, have issued a fresh advisory about the latest online tactics used by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).
The advisory details the latest methods used by SVR actors to collect foreign intelligence for future cyber operations, including in support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
SVR attackers are exploiting vulnerabilities at a mass scale as part of a continued global campaign and more than 20 publicly disclosed vulnerabilities have been shared which the threat actors are assessed to have the capability and interest to exploit.
These attackers have consistently targeted foreign entities in the defence, technology, and finance sectors, with an emphasis on remaining anonymous and undetected.
According to the advisory, the SVR cyber-actors, also known as APT29, Midnight Blizzard, Cozy Bear, and the Dukes, generally have two types of intended victims: target of intent and targets of opportunity.
Targets of intent include government and diplomatic entities, think tanks, technology companies, and financial institutions across the globe, including in the UK.
On the other hand, targets of opportunity are located by scanning internet-facing systems for unpatched vulnerabilities at scale which are then opportunistically exploited – meaning any organisation with vulnerable systems could be targeted.
For both sets of victims, once initial access has been achieved, the SVR cyber-actors can then conduct follow-on operations from compromised accounts or attempt to pivot to other networks connected to the victim, such as in their supply chain.
“Russian cyber actors are interested in and highly capable of accessing unpatched systems across a range of sectors, and once they are in, they can exploit this access to meet their objectives,” NCSC director of operations Paul Chichester said.
“All organisations are encouraged to bolster their cyber defences: take heed of the advice set out within the advisory and prioritise the deployment of patches and software updates.”
The NCSC, FBI, and NSA have released a list of recommended mitigations to quell the spread and effectiveness of SVR’s attacks.
Rapidly deploying patches, minimising internet-accessible services, and enforcing multi-factor authentication are some of the baseline defence methods recommended.
Limiting token access, regularly auditing cloud-based accounts, and continuing threat hunting activities were also recommended.
Any UK organisation that may have been compromised through the vulnerabilities described in the advisory should report it to the NCSC.
While over three quarters (78%) of young girls are interested in technology, only two in five (39%) are interested in pursuing a tech career, new data from social enterprise InnovateHer shows.
Girls current interest in a tech career is 50% lower than boys, highlighting a gender gap that the industry needs to close between girls’ curiosity in technology and viewing a career in the sector as a viable option.
Based on an extensive survey of over 1,000 UK students aged 11 to 17, the report reveals a lack of inspiration for technology roles, as 41% of girls interested in technology cite a lack of female role models as a barrier to entering the industry, with the Chartered Institute for IT reporting that only 21% of IT specialists in the UK are women, reinforcing the need for action against gender disparity.
The report, When I Grow Up: Career Aspirations of GenZ and Alpha in Tech 2024, offers a glimpse into the perspective of young people on the future of the tech industry.
The statistics offer a clear picture of the challenges and opportunities that the industry needs to navigate to ensure they attract young girls into a career in technology to diversity the sector.
Multiple factors for the generational gender gap are revealed in the report, including the need to increase education around the vast number of technology roles that are available in sectors girls are already inserted in, including healthcare and design.
“As CEO, I’m proud to share this new research, collated by my trailblazing team,” Chelsea Slater, CEO and co-founder of InnovateHer, said.
“The insights are clear. While 78% of girls are interested in tech, many are uncertain about pursuing careers in the field.
“This is a call to action for all of us. We must rethink how we connect young people’s tech interests, like gaming and design, to real career opportunities.
“Girls are driven by creativity and social impact but still face barriers like a lack of role models and tech education.
“It’s our responsibility as business leaders to work with schools, offer mentorship, and promote inclusivity in tech. I hope this report not only informs but inspires action. Let’s work together to build a future where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.”
New research from UpSlide reveals that the investment banking sector is wasting millions on underutilised and badly managed software.
With investment banks waiting apprehensively for the new government’s Autumn Statement later this month following a period of macroeconomic uncertainty, investment banks are cutting IT budgets and placing greater emphasis on return on investment (ROI).
In a survey of more than 600 IT and innovation professionals in the investment banking industry, UpSlide found that 94% of respondents said they are facing budget cuts this year, with one-third facing cuts of more than a fifth as investment banks scale back in the face of ongoing uncertainty.
35% of those surveyed believe these cuts could impact business performance, while 43% believe they could impact the quality of customer service.
At the same time as investment banks are scaling back IT budgets however, UpSlide’s research reveals that current software spend is not being used effectively.
More than two-thirds (68%) of IT leaders surveyed believe firms are wasting over a quarter of their remaining budget on underutilised and redundant tools.
Forty-five percent of investment banking IT leaders with £10 million plus budgets meanwhile, report that half of that is wasted on redundant or underused software.
It is unsurprising therefore that, faced with tighter budgets and IT waste, more than half (55%) of respondents are looking to establish stricter SLAs with software vendors and that ROI has become the most important metric when it comes to choosing providers.
Asked what factors are hindering ROI on software spend, 68% of respondents identified poor training while 52% identified integration with existing tech as an issue.
“The last few years have proven challenging for investment banking globally with macroeconomic and geopolitical factors weighing on confidence,” UpSlide CEO Julien Villemonteix said.
“While we’re seeing conditions improve and deal flow increasing, confidence is still muted and strained budgets are leading to a greater focus on ROI.”
“Software and tech remain one of the biggest areas of investment for the investment banking sector, as firms look to compete in new technologies ranging from AI to automation. These technologies are crucial to gaining a competitive edge, for example by allowing analysts to deliver pitchbooks both at speed and without inaccuracies.
“As revealed by our research however, the scramble to innovate and onboard new tech has come at the expense of proper integration and deployment and firms are wasting millions on underutilised tech every year.”
“A simple solution for IT leaders in the sector faced with budgetary constraints is to make sure that the tech they’ve already onboarded is being used effectively and is integrated fully into wider systems and processes.”
“Longer term too, our research points to the growing importance of ROI and onboarding when it comes to SaaS in the investment banking sector and the growing role that APIs will play in helping IT leaders build coherent tech ecosystems.”
Global efforts to keep children safe online are set to be bolstered under a new UK-US statement agreed by UK technology secretary Peter Kyle and US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo.
To improve the sharing of expertise and evidence, the UK and US governments will set up and launch a new joint children’s online safety working group.
Currently, there is limited research and evidence on the casual impact that social media has on children and young people.
Research, however, does continue to show the malicious effects of social media on children, from exposing them to inappropriate and harmful content causing distress and mental health issues, to opening up a playing field for predators to take advantage of children’s online presence.
Once established, the group will work on key areas including promoting better transparency from platforms and consider researcher’s access to privacy-preserving data on social media, helping better understand the impacts and risks of the digital world on young people, including new technologies like generative AI.
This is set to build on the work between the UK and international partners to help ensure safety is built into technology from the start to help deliver a more secure digital world for young people.
“The online world brings incredible benefits for young people, enriching their education and social lives,” technology secretary Peter Kyle said.
“But these experiences must take place in an environment which has safety baked in from the outset, not as an afterthought. Delivering this goal is my priority.
“The digital world has no borders and working with our international partners like the US – one of our closest allies and home to the biggest tech firms – is essential.
“This joint statement will turn our historic partnership towards delivering a safer online world for our next generation.”
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said: “As more children across the U.S. and around the globe have access to online platforms for online learning and social media, there is also increased risk to this exposure.
“That is why we are taking the necessary steps in the United States, and with our UK partners, to protect children’s privacy, safety, and mental health.
“We remain committed to combating youth online exploitation and this historic agreement will help us expand resources to support children and young people thrive online at home and abroad.”
The statement outlines both countries’ commitment to ensuring the benefits of technology can be maximised for society, as well as social media companies’ responsibility to respect human rights and deliver safe experiences, especially for children.
Both the UK and US are trying to spearhead international approaches to children’s online safety.
According to government figures, the UK’s safety technology sector in the UK is second only in size to the US, and companies contributed over £600 million to the UK economy in the last year.
The UK’s Online Safety Act places duties on online platforms to protect children’s safety and put in place measures to mitigate risks. Platforms will also be required to proactively tackle the most harmful illegal content and activity.
The UK government is committed to working with the regulator to get the Act implemented swiftly and effectively to deliver a safer online world. The Technology Secretary met with Ofcom Chief Executive Melanie Dawes earlier this week to receive an update on how the regulator is progressing with getting the Act’s protections in place.
In the US, the government’s Kids Online Health and Safety Taskforce is advancing the health, safety and privacy of children online.
The statement also commits both countries to working with international partners on the joint priority, promoting the statement’s principles and common solutions to champion a safer online world for children.
The Technology Working Group – chaired by Michelle Scrimgeour and supported by the Investment Association – has published its final report, focussing on the AI deployment strategies for UK investment management forms.
This new report shifts the Group’s focus from fund tokenisation, as explored in the first two reports published in November 2023 and March 224, to artificial intelligence.
Specifically, the report explores existing and future cases for AI within the UK’s asset management sector, as well as the barriers firms have or are expected to encounter in their AI adoption journey.
“I am thrilled to welcome today’s report from the Technology Working Group,” Tulip Siddiq MP, the economy secretary to the treasury and city minister said.
“It provides UK asset managers with a blueprint for harnessing the power of AI and capturing the enormous opportunities it creates.
“On the eve of the International Investment Summit, this report once again demonstrates UK financial services at its cutting-edge best.”
The report delves into the current posture of firms across the industry with regards to AI innovation, ranging from proven to developmental use cases.
Currently, early stage use cases include general purpose AI co-pilots, analysing ESG elements, predictive modelling, code creation, monitoring suspicious transactions, and investment intelligence powered by AI.
As far as factors impacting the use of AI in the financial industry, the report identified several enabling elements, but in equal measure a range of potential barriers.
While the UK investment management industry benefits from a mature risk management and government arrangement, as well as a vibrant fintech ecosystem, public mistrust for AI technology and sustainability concerns may overshadow these positives.
Legal uncertainties, skills shortages, and malicious misuse of AI is currently hampering innovation, though it poses the potential for a more stringent regulatory approach to AI.
It could also introduce new system-wide financial stability risks as AI continues to be adopted, leading to either mistrust in AI or enhancing AI’s capabilities.
To improve the prospects of AI in investment management, the report made several recommendations, including the need for upskilling and more clear and consistent regulations.
They also noted the increase in the malicious use of AI, and recommended for more joint public and private sector action to combat this.
For legal and systemic risks, the report recommends working in tandem with relevant advocacy and regulatory groups while AI is being adopted, as to not stall innovation.
Lastly, the Group intends to continue fostering a boisterous fintech ecosystem in the UK to better ensure collaborative approaches to AI, regulation, security, and innovation.
The Technology Working Group was set up by the Asset Management Taskforce and is spearheaded by the HM Treasuring, The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and also involves other non-asset management stakeholders as well as members of the Taskforce.
OpenAI has revealed that some of their AI models have been used to generate fake content, ranging from short social media posts to long-form articles and comments, poised to influence elections.
Since the release of ChatGPT, threat actors have continually used AI tools to support their malicious cyber ventures. From improving their phishing and other social engineering tactics to generating fraudulent content for social media, OpenAI has seen their most prolific AI model being used for criminal activity.
The AI company, which just won a £6.6 billion funding round, said it stalled 20 of these attempts, including a group of ChatGPT accounts that were used to produce fake articles about the US election, among other topics, back in August.
A number of accounts originating in Rwanda were also banned by the company in July, which were used to create comments concerning the country’s election, designed to be posted on X (formerly Twitter).
According to OpenAI, none of these campaigns successfully gained much traction online, Reuters noted from the company’s report.
However, the use of AI in generating and disseminating false information has been a major concern, rising to prominence in 2024 with major elections around the globe.
AI companies have employed heir own methods and even signed accords to quell the use of their technology to spread misinformation and propaganda, but the success of these operations is difficult to analyse.
OpenAI was a signatory of the “Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections”, which set eight commitments to deploy technology to prevent the use of AI in interfering in elections.
Back in January, the prolific AI company revealed the steps and initiatives it was taking to combat the misuse of its technology, including image provenance tools, and re-directing election questions to independent reliable sources rather than having its chatbot provide answers directly.
The UK is set to collaborate with Canada on the Redwing microsatellite Space Domain Awareness (SDA) mission scheduled to launch in 2027.
Redwing is primed to track objects in congested orbits with improved sensors, and provide near real-time tasking in response to evolving space events.
The size of a small washing machine, Redwing will bee directed and tasked by the Department of National Defence’s science and technology organisation, Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC).
The satellite itself will deploy a smaller nanosatellite that will incorporate a payload from the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) on behalf of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and UK Space Command.
“Space is increasingly congested and it is vital that we keep pace with new and emerging threats,” Dr Gemma Bagheri, Dstl space research and development programme manager, said.
“The collaboration with our Canadian partners will enable us to improve the characterisation of objects and maintain security in space to protect our mutual interests.”
An uptick in space exploration by nation states as well as private ventures – which make up over half of all satellites orbiting the earth – has lead to 30,000 pieces of space debris cluttering space.
To combat this, the Redwing’s nanosatellite, roughly the size of a cereal box and known as Little Innovator in Space Situational Awareness (LISSA), will incorporate as its primary payload a Dstl experimental short waved infrared (SWIR) camera.
Once separated, Redwing and LISSA will fly in tandem in sun-synchronous low Earth orbit, approximately 575km above the Earth and up to 200km apart.
The mission will assess the capabilities of the SWIR camera with particular focus on the South Pole of Earth, where the glare from the illuminated Antarctic ice sheet can hinder object identification in orbit.
Space objects over the Earth’s South Pole are less monitored than in the North Pole and the mission will inform future space surveillance considerations based on findings from the mission.
This international research cooperation between the countries provides the opportunity for joint collaboration and for developing prototype infrastructure and data processing architecture.
“The space domain continues to change and evolve and requires space faring nations to innovate to keep informed of the security situation in the space domain,” Scott McLelland, DRDC director of research and development for the Defend North America strategic focus area, said.
“DRDC is thrilled to have Dstl participate in the Redwing mission to help grow both nations’ defence space programs.”
A new study from Red Hat Inc has revealed the key drivers for cloud strategies over the next 18 months.
Preparing for AI adoption was cited as a priority for 88% of UK respondents, almost level with cloud-native application development and DevOps (89%), and evolving cloud strategy in line with business objectives (89%).
“AI has the potential to help address a range of business demands, and we believe an AI-centric future requires greater choice, flexibility and independence across clouds,” Joanna Hodgson, country manager, UK, Red Hat.
98% of UK IT managers see advantages in adopting enterprise open source solutions for AI, including predictive and generative.
Accelerating innovation is seen as the top benefit for enterprise open source AI in the UK (53%), with cost efficiency coming in second place (50%).
The research surveyed 609 IT managers from large businesses (500+ employees) across six countries: the UK, the UAE, France Germany, Italy, and Spain.
It explores the priorities and challenges for IT managers as they navigate cloud complexity and the opportunities and barriers they face in executing AI strategies.
According to the survey, almost all UK IT managers surveyed (98%) consider cloud technology investment a priority for 2025.
Over a quarter (28%) are planning a strong focus on innovation and new technologies, while 61% expect balanced growth between new technologies and enhancements to existing systems.
Of this subset of respondents, over half (53%) plan to increase their investment by 21-50%.
About 8 in 10 (81%) of UK respondents agree that there is an urgent skills gap in the area of AI – including data science, large language model (LLM) and generative AI – making it the top ranked skills gap. This number is up from 72% in 2023.
Other urgent gaps include cybersecurity (75%), and strategic thinking and ability to tackle business-level issues (68%).
When asked about the advantages in adopting enterprise open source solutions for AI – including predictive and generative – more than half of UK IT managers surveyed (53%) cited accelerated innovation, alongside cost-efficiency (50%), and trust and transparency (43%).
Further, when determining their trust in an enterprise model for generative AI, UK IT managers deem having transparent, modifiable models with explainable sources the most important factor (95%).
“Cloud technology continues to unlock significant advantages in scalability, cost efficiency and faster time to market,” said Hans Roth, senior vice president and general manager EMEA, Red Hat.
“Yet, this adoption can also drive increased complexity, with many organisations finding themselves slowed down by internal silos, as shown in this latest survey.
“With the increasing prominence of AI in cloud strategies, we see from this survey that both IT managers and CTOs care about transparency when it comes to AI models: we believe that an open source approach can bring the transparency, modifiability and explainability needed for enterprise-ready generative AI.”
Cloud as an Investment Priority
IT managers surveyed across the six countries describe their organisation’s planned approach to investing in cloud technology by 2025, with some opting for a strong focus on innovation and new technologies (26%) and others (14%) focussed on essential services only.
Still, half (50%) are taking a balanced approach, focussing equally on new technologies and enhancements to existing systems.
As far as priorities in cloud strategy for the next 18 months, centralising cloud management came out on top (80%), followed by security, compliance and sovereignty regulatory requirements (78%), preparing for AI adoption (77%), and lining up their cloud with business objectives (76%).
Silos are Slowing Adoption
The vast majority (96%) of IT managers surveyed said siloed teams pose challenges when adopting cloud technologies, with 53% encountering this issue frequently.
Among those affected, the most common impacts on cloud strategy include inconsistent security and compliance across different providers (54%), increased costs (47%), and limited control and visibility over cloud resources (42%).
AI Readiness
When asked about their ability to take advantage of the growing AI opportunity, 40% of IT managers surveyed state that their organisation has scalable, flexible and accessible IT platforms but lacks the right skill sets to fully harness AI’s potential.
This compares to 25% that have the right platforms and feel well-positioned to get the best value from them, and 35% who are in need of new platforms (22% of which are on a path to acquire these.)
With generative AI increasingly being explored by enterprises looking to solve existing problems or seize new opportunities, the survey looked into the importance of a range of factors in determining trust in an enterprise model for generative AI.
It found that the following all placed similarly among respondents:
Transparent, modifiable models with explainable sources (cited by 89%)
Proven performance and reliability in similar use cases (85%)
Protection with model indemnification (84%)
Compliance with data privacy and security standards (83%)
Accessible for use across teams, not just data scientists (83%)
Cost-effectiveness (82%)
Domain-specific models (as opposed to generic LLMs) (79%)
However, CTOs also cited obstacles from advancing generative AI initiatives, including concerns about data privacy and security (43%), energy consumption and sustainability concerns (39%), insufficient infrastructure or resources (32%), and a lack of transparency in AI models (31%).
Glasgow-based simulation software specialist, Simul8 has partnered with Air Canada to help the airline to streamline its call centre systems in order to improve customer experience.
Through the international partnership, Air Canada is using Simul8’s simulation software to optimise its customer care lines, reducing call wait times, improving call routing and prioritisation and optimising the telephony platform to handle spikes in call volumes during busy periods.
As Air Canada’s global contact centre operation had grown and evolved, the airline had accumulated several different telephony systems from a range of providers. These disparate systems were impacting service.
With around 25,000 telephone calls coming into the contact centre daily, long wait times and unanswered calls were leaving customers hanging. Air Canada reached out to Simul8.
Kieran Hurley, programme manager of contact centre IT at Air Canada added: “Simul8 came in and went well above all of our expectations. They helped us to build the tool and then run simulations.
“By leveraging a custom-made simulation-powered digital twin, we were able to rightsize our systems prior to committing to a full migration. I cannot thank Simul8 enough.”
The simulation-powered digital twin worked to replicate Air Canada’s call routing system and here the airline could perform tests and optimisation in a safe digital space that accurately reflected real world demand.
For example, looking at how the system would cope if there was an influx of customer calls due to bad weather and cancelled flights.
This not only ensured a smooth transition to the new system, but it also brought great improvements in the overall service.
Operating from a centralised telephony platform, customers can now call into the switchboard from a single number and have their queries ordered by priority and answered accordingly.
This marks a significant improvement from Air Canada’s previous compartmentalised systems. Following the roll out of the new systems, the airline received zero customer complaints, and zero internal business complaints from the team.
Tom Stephenson, director of services and strategic partnerships at Simul8 said: “This challenge required a rapid response to ensure that there would be no further impact on customers while the migration took place.
“Our consulting team is very familiar with the inner workings of contact centres so we were able to take some fundamental building blocks for a digital twin in this setting and fine tune them to Air Canada’s requirements without any delay.”
In the world of innovation and entrepreneurship, the journey of a startup is both exhilarating and daunting.
While growing your business, with all the challenges that come along with it, sometimes you can lose sight of which stage of the journey you’re at.
The startup growth journey can be quick, founders are juggling multiple jobs at once, and sometimes the day to day running of the business takes over the bigger picture: strategic thinking.
There’s also a lot to learn when it comes to startups. With a seemingly infinite world of information out there about how to grow and develop a startup business, where on earth do you begin?
There are of course key things you’ll need to learn about before you begin your startup journey in earnest, but there’s also plenty you can bookmark to delve deeper into along the way.
It can help to be able to see a birds-eye-view of the whole process from start to finish, so you can understand what you need to become the expert in just now, and what topics you can save to delve into at a later date.
Here, we go through the fundamentals it takes to build, grow and scale a startup, and the steps needed along the way.
First, you have an idea.
Every great startup begins with a spark of inspiration. You’ve identified a problem or opportunity, and from this exploration, an idea emerges. This is the genesis of your startup and a moment with potential and excitement, where the possibilities seem endless.
Once you have your idea, the next step is to figure out your target market and develop a product that meets their needs.
This is where you brainstorm, prototype and iterate, crafting a solution that resonates with your audience. The aim is to develop a product concept that directly addresses the pain points you’ve identified.
At this stage, you need to validate your solution. Does your product effectively solve the main points of your customers?
Achieving problem/solution fit means that your target customers can see and validate your product as a viable solution to their problems. It’s a critical milestone that confirms you’re on the right track.
Creating a minimum viable product (MVP) involves building the simplest version of your product that still delivers value.
The MVP includes the essential features necessary and allows you to start testing its effectiveness with real users, and is the first tangible manifestation of your idea in the market.
Why is an MVP so important? It embodies a key rule of startup building: fail fast.
Many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of spending precious time and money on building a fully fledged product to try to solve the problem they’ve found before they’ve fully tested whether that’s the right solution. How can you avoid this? Build a prototype your customers can test and talk to them about it.
With your MVP in hand, it’s time to iterate. This phase is all about experimentation: building new components, measuring customer feedback, and learning from the results. The goal is continuous improvement. You don’t need to get it perfect at first, but you can refine your product to better meet the needs of your customers.
Next up, a solid go-to-market strategy is needed to successfully launch your product. This involves planning how you persuade your customers to buy your product, and how you intend on letting people know it exists! You’ll need to analyse the market, identify your target audience, and develop strategies for pricing, sales and marketing.
Once your product is in the market, the focus shifts to acquiring customers. This involves getting people to start using your product and experiencing its value first hand. Effective customer acquisition strategies are vital for gaining traction and building a user base.
Growth is then driven by continuous feedback and iteration. As you gather customer feedback, use it to make alterations to your product and fine-tune it to better satisfy customers. Lean into product development and enhance functionality, improve user experience, and stay ahead of the competition.
Source: Techscaler
Achieving product/market fit is a significant milestone, having launched your MVP to a broader market.
At this stage your product isn’t just viable, but it has a strong market appeal, paving the way for scaling up and demonstrating substantial demand.
Scaling up involves focusing on operations, expanding your customer base, and increasing revenue, and is a phase marked by exponential growth. Strategic planning and execution are crucial for sustained success.
The diagram shows the lifecycle of a startup, but at the same time – it almost definitely doesn’t!
The startup lifecycle diagram simply provides a rough outline of the key processes and milestones you should be looking to achieve when building your product and your business.
You may jump forwards or backwards through the steps, change direction, and it’s highly likely (and advisable!) that you repeat and iterate on the sections that are indicated with the arrows icon as your startup grows and develops.
The new Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which was first teased in July’s King’s Speech, will be introduced to Parliament in 2025.
The bill is set to introduce updates to the legacy regulatory framework for cybersecurity by expanding the remit of regulation to protect more digital services and supply chains.
In addition, the bill aims to put regulators on a strong footing to ensure essential cyber safety measures are being implemented.
Key to the bill is a mandate to increase incident reporting to give the government better data on cyber-attacks.
A flurry of hostile cyber-attack levied against critical infrastructure and UK government affiliated organisations, including London hospitals, the different NHS boards, the Ministry of Defence, ransom attacks against the British Library and Royal Mail, have galvanised an increased sense of urgency to secure the UK’s cyber sphere.
The cyber-attacks pose severe risks to these sectors, UK citizens, and the wider economy, with the total cost of cyber-attacks in the UK estimated to be at £30bn in 2023.
“The UK can’t afford to standstill when it comes to cyber policies, especially given the wave of high-profile attacks that have threatened CNI and businesses this year,” Andy Ward, SPV international for Absolute Security, said.
“Centralised incident reporting in the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill is an important measure to promote accountability when defending against cyber attacks and help to better understand the dangers and impact of threats such as ransomware.”
“In order to bolster nationwide cyber resilience, businesses must play an active role in enhancing their security systems and reporting threats when they occur.
“Security teams need visibility over their networks and device fleets for real-time monitoring, being alerted to suspicious behaviour as soon as it happens, as well as having the ability to free, or shut off, potentially compromised devices or applications when a major breach happens.”
With the new bill, regulators like the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) are set to be in a better position to ensure proper security measures are being implemented, including cost recovery mechanisms to better resource these bodies, with a total of 12 regulatory bodies expected to benefit from these responsibilities.
The government will also open a public consultation in the coming months to gather input on these new regulations.
David Manfield, associate director for cybersecurity for Investigo, highlighted the recruitment challenges facing businesses:“Businesses are feeling the squeeze when it comes to recruiting cyber staff, reflecting talent pipeline struggles caused by tightening budgets over the past year. Boardrooms know the problem, with 30% saying that recruiting cyber staff is their main hiring concern, but the increase in the volume and complexity of cyber threats has exacerbated the issue.”
“While businesses should aim to have cyber experts in place at all times, there are cost-effective options to bolster cyber defences. Recruiting interim cyber staff, for example, to evaluate and set organisation-wide cyber policies, especially during peak threat periods throughout the year, offers a more budget-friendly way to remain resilient against cyber-attacks while looking to hire permanent staff.”
Ventex, the Scottish venture capital firm based in Aberdeen, has acquired Rovtech, a Cumbria-based manufacturing business, to accelerate its nuclear energy expansion.
Rovtech marks the third business to join Ventex, which is geared on repurposing companies, technologies, skills and experience in the supply chain to support renewable energy markets and goals.
The English company specialises in harsh environment manufacturing, mainly serving the nuclear and subsea energy sectors in the UK, France, Japan, and the US.
Following COP28 where 25 countries agreed that nuclear energy will be key in reducing carbon emissions, nuclear power generation is expected to increase three-fold by 2050.
“The miniaturisation of electronics and the progressive automation of tasks are reshaping this industry, and Rovtech is ideally positioned as a full-capability manufacturer,” Stuart McLeod, managing partner Ventex, said.
“Rovtech exemplifies a mature business that is unaware of its excellence and scale potential – it is a hidden gem, perfectly placed to support the energy transition and net zero supply chain.”
Headquartered in Barrow-in-Furness, Rovtech has a growing market focused in decommissioning of large legacy nuclear portfolios worldwide, partnering with the government and the financial sector.
“With our support, investment, and access to new markets, Rovtech can achieve its full potential and accelerate the journey to net zero, ” Steve Gray, another managing partner of Ventex, said.
“Significant cost-savings can be enabled by Rovtech’s range of ROV sensors and tools, particularly in the offshore wind sector.
“This will expedite offshore wind construction and help the UK meet its climate targets, aligned with our core mission.”
McLeod and Gray launched Ventex just earlier this month in Aberdeen.
Gray previously found and was the chief executive of ROVOP, a firm in the underwater vehicle rental market, and McLeod led oil and gas completions before launching the company.
According to a new report, a wave of AI adoption is radically shifting how software goes from ideation to deployment.
Black Duck Software Inc’s new Global State of DevSecOps2024 report polled more than 1,000 IT professionals around the world in varied positions, delving into the impact new technologies have had on the development and security operations.
Nearly all survey respondents – over 90% – said that they are using AI in some capacity for their software development process, demonstrating just how crucial it is for organisations to take the proper security measures throughout the entire development lifecycle.
And yet, 67% of respondents were concerned about security AI-generated code.
Industries across the technology, cybersecurity, fintech, education, banking/financial, healthcare, media, insurance, transportation, and utilities sectors reported similar high adoption, underscoring the importance of having seamless security mechanisms in place.
In the non-profit sector, which is traditionally slower to adopt technological advancements due to constrained resources, at least half of organisations surveyed reported that they were using AI.
Unsurprisingly, the larger the organisation, the more likely it has significantly adopted some facet of AI in its software development.
“AI is a technology enabler that should be invested in, not feared, so long as the proper guardrails are being prioritised,” said Jason Schmitt, CEO of Black Duck.
“For DevSecOps teams, that means finding sensible uses to implement AI into the software development process and layering the proper governance strategy on top of it to protect the heart and soul of an organisation – its data.”
A large majority (85%) of survey respondents noted that they have at least some measures in place to address the challenges posed by AI-generated code, such as potential IP, copyright, and license issues that an AI tool may introduce into proprietary software.
However, less than a quarter (24%) are ‘very confident’ in their policies and processes for testing this code.
Security Vs Speed
More than half of respondents (61%) said that security testing moderately or severely slows down development.
Half (50%) of those that feel this way also say that most projects are still being added manually.
Testing the Tools
A broad proliferation of tools may be leading to high levels of testing inconsistencies.
A whopping 82% of organisations are using between six and 20 different security testing tools, making it challenging to effectively integrate and correlate results across platforms and pipelines, leading to difficulty in distinguishing between genuine issues and false positives.
A proposed £129m grant set to be awarded to BioNTech by the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) is now being reviewed by the UK’s competition watchdog.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is tasked with evaluating if DSIT’s award complies with the relevant subsidy control requirements. The review will be conducted within 30 days by the CMA’s Subsidy Advice Unit.
The subsidy was deemed necessary by DSIT to secure the inward investment of about £1bn by BioNTech to enable its expansion in the UK.
With the funding, the company aims to carry out new activities in Research and Development (R&D) and AI over the next ten years, which should create about 460 new jobs.
BioNTech’s project would focus on structural biology, regenerative medicine, oncology, and AI-driven drug discovery.
The company also aims to set up a centre of excellence in Cambridge for drug developments, and a major hub in London centring on AI expertise.
According to DSIT, supporting BioNTech would address market failures that disincentivise R&D investment and contribute to the delivery of the governments’ plans to boost the life sciences and strengthen UK health resilience, and grow the UK economy.
The subsidy would set out clearly the funded activities and eligible expenditure of the grant, the achievement of which would be closely monitored during delivery.
A new independent content moderation body for social media users in the EU is now available to make complaints against the content decisions made by platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
Supported by Meta’s Oversight Board, which oversees content decisions across the company’s social platforms, and certified by Irelands’ media watchdog, the Appeals Centre Europe will serve as an alternative to settlement disputes under the EU’s Digital Services Act.
Without the new independent body, users in the EU previously needed to rely on the court system to contest content decisions made by social media companies.
Beginning operations before the end of the year, Appeals Centre Europe will first decide cases concerning Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, but looks to include more platforms as it develops.
The new body, which will be based in Dublin, Ireland, is currently recruiting a team of experts, which will review each case to determine if the relevant platform’s decisions are compliant with their content policies, all within 90 days.
According to the Digital Services Act, however, online platforms are not required to engage with the body, even if users bring up a case. Further, the Appeals Centre will not be able to impose a binding settlement based on its decision.
Meta’s oversight board has however thrown its support to the centre, with a one-time grant to fund its startup costs. The rest of the Centre’s costs will be funded from court case fees charged to social media companies, as well as a nominal fee paid by users which will be refunded if they win their case.
“We want users to have the choice to raise a dispute to a body that is independent from governments and companies, and focused on ensuring platforms’ content policies are fairly and impartially applied,” Thomas Hughes, CEO of the Appeals Centre, said.
The UK is drastically lagging behind in its 5G capabilities compared to other nations, new research has revealed, ranking last in a list of 15 developing and advanced international markets.
With the importance of 5G – for the economy, education, and digital inclusion – being well documented and understood by the public and private sectors, it is no wonder the UK government’s 5G aspirations are high.
By 2035, widespread availability of 5G could add £159 billion to the UK economy, providing direct benefits to businesses through operational efficiencies and diffusing innovations across industries.
However, a new study from the Social Market foundation (SMF) found that the UK ranks last in a list of 15 international markets when it comes to 5G capabilities, including availability and download speeds.
The cross-party think tank found that UK users only have access to a 5G signal 10% of the time, compared to users in India having access over 40% of the time.
This is despite the UK government aiming to become a leader in 5G technology since 2017, with countless policy papers and strategy documents following.
In the final quarter of 2023, however, the UK consistently came up short when it came to 5G capabilities.
In terms of availability, 5G was available to UK users only 8% of the time, compared to 43% in India, and 38% in South Korea.
The UK also ranked as one of the slowest in terms of average 5G download speed, at just 118 Mbps, compared to 437 Mbps in South Korea, which came out on top, and trailing the next lowest contender, Italy, with 133 Mbps.
In the study’s composite 5G network analysis, the UK came in 15th out of 15 countries, which included South Korea, India, Norway, New Zealand, France, Australia, the US, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, and Canada.
The UK trails not only against global tech contenders, but also against comparable economies in Europe.
The study, an eviscerating review of the UK’s 5G progress, comes shortly after the new Labour government announced its intension to bolster the UK’s digital infrastructure.
The commitment follows the previous government’s Wireless Infrastructure Strategy, published in 2023, which set to have nationwide standalone 5G coverage across the UK’s populated areas by 2030.
However, many areas, including the UK’s most rural and remote, still lack stable broadband coverage, let alone 5G.
SMF’s review claimed that private investment in the UK could unlock its 5G potential, suggesting that the UK currently lacks enough investment in infrastructure as well as innovation, holding it back from realising its 5G ambitions.
Delays in building this critical telecommunications infrastructure, including masts, is due to investment barriers and over-complex planning laws, according to the review.
A stall in the Three UK and Vodafone merger, as well as continuous regulatory litigation, was also argued by SMF to be delaying 5G rollouts.
The UK’s approach to spectrum and infrastructure pricing is actually decreasing the amount of land supplied to mobile network operators to rollout fiber cables and build masts, the review also argues.
The government has announced a dedicated new office that they claim will deliver emerging technologies, like AI and drones, to the UK public faster without “the burden of red tape.”
The new Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO), formed under the Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology, is set to reduce the burden for businesses which aim to bring new products and services to the market in some of the UK’s fastest-growing sectors.
Exemplary innovations include AI-training software for surgeons to deliver more accurate surgical treatments for patients and drones which can improve the delivery to remote areas of the country.
The new RIO is set to support regulators to update regulation, speed up approvals, and help ensure different regulatory bodies work together more seamlessly.
The new office will also inform the government of any barriers to innovation, set priorities for regulators which align with the government’s broader ambitions and support regulators to develop the capability they need to meet them and grow the economy.
The launch of the RIO comes shortly after a raft of public and private investments announced this past weekend aimed at transforming cancer treatments for patients while bringing a wave of cutting-edge UK-made medtech products to the global market.
Four fast-growing areas will make up the RIO’s initial support missions, including engineering biology, space, AI and digital healthcare, and connected and autonomous technology.
These intersectional emerging technologies, which do not fit neatly into existing regulatory frameworks, can mean a slower process in getting them onto the market.
“The launch of the Regulatory Innovation Office, a key manifesto commitment, is a big step forward in bringing the UK’s most promising new technologies to the public faster and safely while kickstarting economic growth,” Peter Kyle, science and technology secretary, said.
“By speeding up approvals, providing regulatory certainty and reducing unnecessary delays, we’re curbing the burden of red tape so businesses and our public services can innovate and grow, which means more jobs, a stronger economy, and a better quality of life for people across the UK.
“From breakthroughs that could help doctors diagnose illnesses earlier to satellite navigation for more accurate weather forecasting and getting emergency supplies to where they are needed, quickly and effectively, RIO will make sure UK companies are at the forefront of the next generation of technologies.”
Secretary Kyle is also seeking to appoint the RIO’s first chair to lead the charge in backing business and safe innovation, and work with regulators and partners to shape a regulatory environment that is fit for the future.
Hybrid cloud environments are under threat as a new threat actor – Storm-0501 – was observed by Microsoft.
In an advisory, Microsoft detailed a novel method of attack performed by the group across multiple sectors in the US, including government, manufacturing, transportation, and law enforcement.
Compromising hybrid cloud environments, the group performed lateral movement from on-premises cloud environments, resulting to data exfiltration, credential theft, ransomware deployment, tampering, and backdoor access.
“Storm-0501 is a financially motivated cyber-criminal group that uses commodity and open-source tools to conduct ransomware operations,” the advisory said.
The group has been active since 2021, and started out targeting US school districts. Since then, the attacks have been mostly opportunistic, operating as a ransomware-as-a-service firm, deploying ransomware payloads created by other threat actors including major hitters such as LockBit and BlackCat.
According to Microsoft, Strom-0501 is the latest threat actor on the scene exploiting weak credential and accounts to maneuver from on-premises to cloud environments.
“They stole credentials and used them to gain control of the network, eventually creating persistent backdoor access to the cloud environment and deploying ransomware to the on-premises,” the advisory said.
“Microsoft previously observed threat actors such as Octo Tempest and Manatee Tempest targeting both on-premises and cloud environments and exploiting the interfaces between the environments to achieve their goals.”
To initially penetrate on-premise environments, Storm-0501 achieved access leveraging stolen credentials, exploiting unpatched interfaces and known vulnerabilities.
By exploiting the admin privileges on the compromised devices, the threat actors then attempted to get more access to sensitive data and other environments.
Microsoft noted that Strom-0501’s most recent campaign saw the group use stolen credentials to move laterally from the on-premises to the cloud environment and establish access to the network through a backdoor.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a new audit framework designed to help organisations assess their own compliance with key requirements under data protection law.
The framework will help organisations identify necessary steps to improve their data protection practices and create a culture of compliance, providing these organisations with a starting point to evaluate how they handle and protect personal information.
The framework, an extension of the ICO’s existing accountability framework, will be pertinent for senior management, data protection officers, compliance auditors, or those responsible for records management or cybersecurity.
It offers practical tools for building and maintaining strong privacy management, with nine toolkits covering key areas from accountability and data sharing, to personal data breach management and AI.
Each toolkit will come with a downloadable data protection audit tracker that will help organisations conduct continued assessment of their won compliance.
“Transparency and accountability in data protection are essential, not just for regulatory compliance but for building trust with the public,” Ian Hulme, ICO director of regulatory assurance, said. “Research shows us that people increasingly value the responsible use of their personal information, and want organisations to be able to demonstrate strong data protection practices.
“Our new audit framework will help build trust and encourage a positive data protection culture, as well as being flexible in targeting the most pressing areas of compliance. We want to empower organisations to embrace data protection as an asset, not just a legal requirement.”
Ryanair, the budget airline, is in hot water as the Irish data protection watchdog challenges the company’s processing of personal data for booking flights.
The inquiry, launched by the Irish Data Protection Commissions (DPC), will investigate Ryanair’s requirement of supplemental ID verification of customers who book through third-party websites or online travel agents, as well as what happens to this data, which is often biometric.
“The DPC has received numerous complaints from Ryanair customers across the EU/EEA who after booking their flights were subsequently required to undergo a verification process,” Graham Doyle, deputy commissioner of the DPC, said.
“The verification methods used by Ryanair included the use of facial recognition technology using customers’ biometric data. This inquiry will consider whether Ryanair’s use of its verification methods complies with the GDPR.”
The inquiry will not delve into if the process itself is permittable, but if it follows GDPR guidelines to protect personal data. Multiple EU states will be involved in the probe.
Ryanair has longstanding issues with unauthorised third-party websites that sell the its tickets, which cause the airline to implement the Customer Verification Process in the first place.
This process requires ticket purchasers to complete and ID check to confirm their tickets with the airlines, which could jeopardise the purchase made on third-party sites.
“We welcome this DPC inquiry into our Booking Verification process, which protects customers from those few remaining non-approved OTAs, who provide fake customer contact and payment details to cover up the fact that they are overcharging and scamming consumers,” a Ryanair spokesperson said, as reported by The Register.
“Customers who book through these unauthorized OTAs are required to complete a simple verification process (either biometric or a digital verification form) both of which fully comply with GDPR.
“This verification ensures that these passengers make the necessary security declarations and receive directly all safety and regulatory protocols required when travelling, as legally required.”
Glasgow-based specialist workforce optimisation software provider, Corporate Modelling Services Ltd (CMS), has secured £750,000 in equity funding from the Investment Fund for Scotland (IFS), managed by Maven Capital Partners and delivered by the British Business Bank.
CMS helps clients to transform their back office operational efficiency and improve the ultimate end customer experience through the implementation of a suite of workforce optimisation technologies, delivered through its platform OPX.
The software currently supports organisations with multiple tools including task allocation and employee time analysis, to enhance customer operations.
Today’s transaction will allow the business to invest further in its platform, enhancing its capabilities and building out further AI functionality into its modular software suite.
Funding will also support its growing sales function to service global operators, including current opportunities in the US, as well as embarking on a number of strategically significant international partnerships to expand its customer research.
“CMS has built an impressive platform that can transform many businesses across different industries,” Craig McGill, investment manager at Maven said.
“Alex and the senior team are all highly driven, experienced individuals with a genuine entrepreneurial focus and we look forward to supporting the business as it enters this exciting next phase of growth.”
Alex Allan, CEO at CMS, said: “I am delighted to be working with Maven.
“We didn’t want a passive investor and it was clear from the early conversations with Craig and the team at Maven that their market experience and contact base will help accelerate our growth, which in turn will allow us to deliver better customer experience, accelerate our AI technology roadmap and develop new markets.”
This marks the seventh investment made by IFS Maven Equity Finance, demonstrating Maven’s strong track record of identifying and nurturing high-potential businesses, and the opportunity in Scotland to drive innovation and growth.
The Fund has also backed 3D printed micro-tumour specialist, Carcinotech and Glasgow University spinout Nami Surgical.
The £150m IFS covers the whole of Scotland and provides loads from £25,000 to £2m and equity investment up to £5m to help a range of small and medium sized businesses to startup, scale up, or stay ahead.
“The Investment Fund for Scotland was set up to support a nation of entrepreneurs, reflecting the critical role access to finance plays at every stage of their journey,” Mark Sterritt, director, nations and regions funds, at the British Business Bank, said
“Technology continues to be a high-growth sector for the Scottish economy and CMS is a great example of a business using specialist software to help companies all over the world to work more effectively and efficiently. We look forward to playing a part in the firm’s future growth.”
Innovative technologies like AI will give a boost to cancer treatments in the UK as a raft of new therapies are trialled in the UK.
New partnerships backed by public and private sector investment will trial new ways to tackle cancer and other life-threatening diseases with faster diagnoses and better treatments, deploying innovative technologies and approaches.
The new deals could unleash a plethora of new medical tech products onto the global market, including more flexible medical scanners and an AI tool to help spot lung cancer sooner.
Medical technologies like these not only offer the hope of a longer, healthier life, but also drive economic growth through the UK’s life sciences industry.
Already contributing £108 billion to the UK economy, the life sciences industry drove £800 million in foreign direct investment into the UK in 2023, and supports around 300,000 jobs up and down the country.
The MedTech sector is also booming, supporting more than 138,000 jobs and exporting more than £5.6bn in products annually, according to the UK government.
Adoption of medical technologies is also critical to building an NHS that is match-fit for the future, as emphasised in the findings of the recent Darzi Review. This independent report laid bare the current problems facing the NHS, including the fact that the cancer survival rates in England are lagging far behind other countries.
The package of investment is set to play a crucial role in the government’s plans to address these challenges and rebuild and reform the NHS, which will prioritise the adoption of innovative technologies and approaches and identify ways to do things differently across the health service in order to provide a better service for patients.
“Cancer is a disease that has brought pain, misery and heartbreak to every family in the country, including my own,” science and technology secretary Peter Kyle said.
“But through Government working in partnership with the NHS, researchers, and business, we can harness science and innovation to bring the detection and treatment of this horrendous disease firmly in to the 21st century, keeping more families together for longer.
“The UK’s scientists, researchers and captains of industry have brilliant ideas that aren’t just going to boost our health – they’ll boost our economy too, helping to build a virtuous circle for more investment in both health and research which will ultimately drive up living standards.”
The new tech deal comes as UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) announces a £118m fund that will create five new hubs across the country, from Glasgow to Bristol, to help develop new health technologies.
The funding will be split between Government funding and partner support in an effort to encourage the private sector to kickstart the economy and support the futureproofing of the NHS.
The Hubs will work in intimate partnership with the private sector, with experts at UCL developing scanners to improve cancer surgery, delivering their research together with both large MedTech multinationals and British start-ups, for example.
Further, the International Investment Summit, taking place in October, will see the UK government form a new partnership with business to grow our economy through more high quality, long-term investment and innovation.
“As a cancer survivor, I know how vital an early cancer diagnosis and the latest treatments are,” health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, said.
“This investment will not only save lives, but also secure Britain’s status as a powerhouse for life sciences and medical technology.
“When we combine the care of the NHS and the genius of our country’s leading scientific minds, we can develop life changing treatments for patients and help get Britain’s economy booming.”
New medical technology and treatments that could eventually be brought to market include training AI models in diagnosing cancer via a new cross-NHS data network, and new methods for real-time monitoring, and developing cheaper and more useable scanners for early cancer detection.
