Iomart Group, the cloud and IT services solutions provider, has announced it will fully acquire all assets of London-based Accesspoint Technologies.
The IT hosting firm has dealt mainly with the UK legal industry since 2009, providing an array of managed services, ranging from software licensing, infrastructure hosting, and security management, to business continuity services and communications provisioning.
Accesspoint generated £3.8m yearly revenue by September 2023, with an adjusted earnings of £800,000. The IT firm is set to provide iomart with a refined industry expertise from its strong reputation in the legal sector, providing insight into the key sector.
£4.5m, the initial consideration, will be paid in cash on a debt free basis, upon completion. There will be a potential further £500,000 that can be payable on particular achievements made after the acquisition.
The deal also includes up to a further £1.4m, which is contingent on the profitability of Accesspoint for the 12 months ending 31 August 2024.
The current vendors at Accesspoint consist only of their existing directors: Richard Roebuck, Victor van Der Poel, and Gary Shaw.
Lucy Dimes, chief executive of iomart, commented, as reported by Insider: “The flow of sensitive data and drive to adopt technology to provide enhanced customer service within the legal sector means that data management, security and data sovereignty are all pressing considerations for legal firms and ones in which iomart and Accesspoint excel.
“We are delighted to welcome Accesspoint’s growing list of customers into the iomart group and excited to be working with the full team to further advance iomart’s differentiation in this sector and positively contribute to overall organic growth plans.”
Despite nearly half of senior decision-makers having reservations about AI, adoption has grown 21% year-on-year to 48% amongst UK organisations, according to Daemon, a UK digital transformation consultancy.
Daemon employed market research agency Vanson Bourne to interview 150 senior business decision-makers as part of a market study into the ever-evolving digital transformation landscape.
The results of the survey show that, contrary to traditional technology investments that normally require extensive evidence on the return on investment (ROI) and procurement processes, AI investment has increased 48% since 2021, so businesses do not fall behind competitors.
AI has then battled to become a key tenet of digital transformation, regardless of size or sector.
This all suggests that AI has upended typical approaches to technology investments. The appetite for AI and ML appears to be, at least partially, driven by decision-makers’ fear of missing out (FOMO) to competitors by not adopting new technologies.
What Sectors Would Benefit from AI?
The research results show that 99% of organisations are looking to use AI or ML to seize new opportunities. Appetite is particularly strong in the retail, distribution and transport sector, where 97% of organisations report either ‘some’ or ‘significant’ adoption of AI, compared to 91% of organisations in financial services.
Almost all organisations (98%) have some vision for the use of AI, and many are already working on using AI to support analytics (60%), automation (51%) and personalisation (40%).
Additionally, organisations are planning to implement AI to support with other business capabilities in less than six months including chatbots (32%), and real-time optimisation (40%).
Forecasting and smart control systems are the least implemented use cases, although both are likely to be harnessed within the next one to two years.
Ian Ray, head of data, ML, and AI at Daemon commented: “It’s clear organisations see the potential value of AI and are working quickly to implement this technology to yield an array of benefits. To maximise the business impact of their investments in digital, organisations need to ensure AI is a strategic enabler as part of their broader digital transformation approach.”
Addressing AI Concerns
Despite 98% of organisations having some vision for the use of AI, 49% of senior decision-makers have low confidence in implementing AI/ML.
So, while there may be a vision, it’s apparent this doesn’t align with the technology and change management deemed possible right now.
Smaller organisations are broadly more confident in implementing AI, particularly in areas such as personalisation and intelligent document processing.
However, this low confidence could be driven by the challenges that larger organisations face. Despite greater resource and capacity, they are likely to experience greater security threats than small organisations.
Concerns around datasecurity and privacy has emerged as the top driver of low confidence among organisations, followed by difficulties of finding a trusted vendor to work with (31%), as well as legacy technology holding organisations back (29%), and a perceived low skill level within the business (24%).
However, the data shows that organisations are pressing ahead with implementation to reap the benefits of AI/ML in the next 12 months. This ranges from increasing IT resource/reducing skills gaps (33%), evolving the customer experience (29%), and moving away from legacy systems (28%).
Tapping Into AI’s Potential
It’s clear that while organisations can see the potential of AI and ML, they still struggle on how best to implement this across their business.
In fact, 97% of organisations agree that when they undertake transformation programmes, they could have a better understanding of what it is they need to solve.
The FOMO is also real, with pressure from customers is cited as the most common trigger for hiring a digital transformation consultancy, increasing by 17% points over the past two years.
“Undertaking digital transformation efforts is no small task when businesses are being squeezed by turbulent economic pressure, smaller budgets, changing consumer needs, and the rapid evolution in the application of new technologies such as AI,” Ray said.
“In this context, organisations will not achieve their goals with a one-time “digital transformation”.
“There is a requirement for organisations to set out a strategic route to maximise business impact from their digital initiatives, but also be prepared to adjust that route and the associated digital investment priorities overtime considering business strategic direction, external trends and insights, and the customers’ perspective.”
Women-led angel investment group, Mint Ventures, has provided funding to Inicio AI, the financial support company based in Scotland and the Midlands.
The strategic partnership looks to aid the AI company in its next phase of product development as the AI landscape continues to transform.
Led by CEO Rachel Curtis, the Inicio AI uses AI to support those struggling with debt.
The investment, which has not been disclosed, reflects the shared commitment between Mint Ventures and Inicio AI to push the boundaries of innovation, promote women investors and founders, and advance social purposes.
Inicio AI plans to use the capital to promote its early client success, where it saw an increase in engagement rates from debtors by 30%, allowing the business to scale and support more consumers through theirB2B software platform.
Gillian Fleming, CEO of Mint Ventures, said: “We are extremely pleased to be supporting Inicio AI to take them to the next level and align our members collective expertise as well as bring more diversity to the investment base.”
Gillian Fleming, CEO of Mint Ventures, said, as reported by Daily Business Group: “We are extremely pleased to be supporting Inicio AI to take them to the next level and align our members collective expertise as well as bring more diversity to the investment base.”
Rachel Curtis, CEO of Inicio AI, as reported by DBG, added, “The partnership brings so much more than just the investment, I now have the counsel, support and backing of an amazing group of women that bring such relevant and timely experience to our journey.
“Alongside our investment from Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab, I’m seeing the investment landscape change, with key organisations finding ways to improve the woefully low levels of funding that currently go to female founders.”
She added: “The idea for Inicio came out of consumer research, where we could see that customers were really struggling with taking the first step to resolving their debt.
“Our new approach to debt support works for borrowers and lenders alike, ensuring it is efficient, fair and removes the barrier of shame that people feel when talking to humans about their debt.”
Scotland was the first nation of the UK to see over half of its banks close, according to consumer reviewer and market researcher Which?
New data has revealed that around 60% of Scottish bank branches have closed over the past nine years.
The new figures show that only 404 bank branches are left in the whole of Scotland after 636 banks and building societies closed their doors since 2015, according to Which?
In the UK as a whole, 5,783 branches have closed since January 2015, with more than 170 branches due to close in 2024.
“The government must protect the needs of local communities,” money editor of Which? Jenny Ross stated after the latest round of closures was announced.
“Banking hubs could play an important role in this, but the rollout is taking far too long and more hubs must open as soon as possible to stop millions of consumers being left behind.”
Meanwhile, the shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds of the Labour party, has said that Labour plans to create 350 banking hubs across Scotland’s high streets to allow people to use in-person banking services and receive financial advice.
“The SNP and the Tories have let Scotland’s high streets decline and failed to prevent the loss of vital local services,” Scottish Labour economy spokesperson Daniel Johnson stated, as reported by The Independent.
“The next Labour government will reverse these damaging trends by rolling out banking hubs across Scotland and ensuring people can access the services they need close to home.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said, as reported by Insider: “The Scottish Government recognises the importance of bank branches to local communities and we share their concerns.
“We are working to establish if UK Government and industry initiatives – such as the BankHUB run by the Post Office where banks take turn to provide services – are sufficient to maintain access to cash and banking services in Scotland.”
A new landmark radar initiative with some of the UK’s closestpartners aims to increase UK security by being able to better detect, track and identify objects in deep space.
The Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) programme – unveiled by the respective Defence Secretaries of Australia, the UK, and the US – will provide 24/7, all weather capabilities that will increase AUKUS nations’ ability to characterise objects deep in space up to 22,000 miles away from earth.
DARC will see a global network of three ground-based radars to be jointly operated that will assist in critical space-traffic management and contribute to the global surveillance of satellites in deep space.
The unique geographic positioning of the three nations means that DARC can provide global coverage, including detecting potential threats to defence or civilian space systems.
The capability is set to benefit all three nations’ land, air, and maritime forces, as well as protect critical infrastructure and benefit their domestic construction and space industries.
“As the world becomes more contested and the danger of space warfare increases, the UK and our allies must ensure we have the advanced capabilities we need to keep our nations’ safe,” UK defence secretary Grant Shapps said.
“Today’s announcement of a global radar network (DARC), based across the UK, US and Australia will do just that. Empowering the UK to detect, track and identify objects in deep space.”
Cawdor Barracks in Pembrokeshire Wales has been identified as the UK’s preferred site for DARC. The final siting decision is conditional on the results of the ongoing comprehensive MOD-funded Environmental Impact Assessment and subsequent Town Planning application.
Alongside DARC’s promised defence benefits, it also has the capability to monitor and protect the essential services that rely on satellites in space, including everyday aspects of life such as communications and navigation.
These new radar systems have higher sensitivity, better accuracy, increased capacity, and a more agile tracking system than current radars, according to the UK government.
This will see greater global monitoring provided to inform UK defence operations, bypassing the current inclement weather and daylight limitations of some current capabilities.
The first DARC programme follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in September 2023. DARC will enhance our collective space domain awareness, which is a key objective of the UK’s Defence Space Strategy, published last year.
AUKUS is a landmark security and defence partnership between Australia, the UK, and the US to support a free and open Indo-Pacific by strengthening the country’s regional global security. The countries are hailing the DARC as a significant step forward for delivery of enhanced security capabilities between the partner nations.
Some of the world’s biggest tech companies banded together to protect UK consumers from online scams, fake adverts, and romance fraud in a pledge with the Home Secretary.
With fraud being the most common crime in the UK, the government has joined forces with leading tech companies – Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, Instagram, LinkedIn, Match Group, Microsoft, Snapchat, TikTok, X (Twitter) and YouTube – to develop and commit to the Online Fraud Charter, the first agreement of its kind in the world.
“The Online Fraud Charter is a big step forward in our efforts to protect the public from sophisticated, adaptable and highly organised criminals,” James Clevery, home secretary said.
“An agreement of this kind has never been done on this scale before and I am exceptionally pleased to see tech firms working with us to turn the tide against fraudsters.”
Services have committed to bring in a raft of measures to help protect people from fraud and scam content when using their sites. Actions include verifying new advertisers and promptly removing any fraudulent content.
There will also be increased levels of verification on peer-to-peer marketplaces, and people using online dating services will have the opportunity to prove they are who they say they are.
The charter is set to bring in a swath of measures aiming to protect people from online fraud and scams.
Companies are set to verify new advertisers and promptly remove any fraudulent content, as well as increasing levels of verification on peer-to-peer marketplaces, such as online dating sites.
The cohort of companies is expected to support tough action to crack down on illegal adverts and ads for age-restricted products, such as alcohol or gambling, being seen by children.
Further, an action plan, agreed to by the Online Advertising Taskforce, will be published, setting out steps industry and government are taking to tackle harms and increase protections for children.
Such tasks include developing a base of evidence, improving information sharing, and promoting industry best practice.
“Our work does not end here – I will continue to ensure we collaborate across government, and with law enforcement and the private sector, to ensure everyone in the UK is better protected from fraud,” the home secretary added.
The agreement has come following discussions between government, the private sector, and law enforcement, and was spearheaded by Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, and Anthony Browne MP, an Anti-Fraud Champion.
“This is a very welcome commitment which has been created thanks to our close collaboration with some of the world’s biggest, and best, tech companies,” Tugendhat said.
“I have every confidence this charter will be an important step forward in our collective efforts to protect the public from fraud.”
The tech firms also aim to target online fraud, and commit to running direct routes for law enforcement to report suspicious activity taking place on the services, making it easier to quickly identify and remove fraudulent content and protect users.
Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak said: “Fraud is now the most common crime in the UK, with online scammers targeting the most vulnerable in society.”
Fraud does account for around 40% of all crime in England and Wales, with data from UK Finance showing almost 80% of all authorised pushed payment fraud originates from social media or a fake website.
“By joining forces with these tech giants we will continue to crack down on fraudsters, making sure they have nowhere to hide online,” Sunak added.
Last year, one in 17 UK residents reported being a victim of fraud, with over three million fraud incidents recorded. The government has already attempted to take action on this, with the latest Crime Survey in England and Wales showing that incidents of fraud feel by 13% in a year.
“The nature of online fraud is constantly evolving and tech companies are continually adapting and improving their approaches to combat this criminal activity,” Antony Walker, deputy chief executive officer of techUK said.
“The charter builds on measures that tech firms already have in place to defend against online fraud and will enable better and more consistent cooperation between the private sector, government and law enforcement.”
The charter’s signatories have voluntarily pledged to implement its measures within six months.
The charter goes hand in hand with other work the UK has done to fight online fraud, and the Security Minister will host a global summit on London in 2024 on the subject.
Some of the UK and Ireland’s largest organisations are looking to their software vendors to help them stay on the right side of AI regulations, research has revealed.
Two-thirds (66%) of respondents surveyed by SAS, a global AI and analytics firm, said they expect their current AI software suppliers to help them comply – placing more trust in them than their own legal (57%) and IT (21%) teams.
According to the survey, they are also more than twice as likely to trust their current vendor compared to a new one.
As many as 85% said they were confident that their AI software could meet new regulatory requirements – and the same proportion again were confident in their vendor’s knowledge of the pending legislation.
Over half (57%) said this was because their vendor had shared their expertise with legislators ahead of new laws being drafted, and 54% said their vendor had previously advised them on AI compliance.
The study also found that 88% of organisations had already started to make changes to their software in line with new legislation or had plans to do so.
That leaves 12% who have yet to take action, putting them at risk of non-compliance and falling behind the technology curve.
The report comes as the EU is expected to implement its AI Act by March 2024, the first of its kind by a major regulator.
Further, the UK government has set out five principles for the responsible use of AI, stressing that it wants to avoid formal legislation. However, it has yet to rule out introducing a statutory duty for regulators to ensure the principles are followed.
“AI is arguably the most powerful and transformative technology we’ve seen in a generation – so it’s more critical than ever that organisations exercise due diligence when selecting a vendor. They need a trusted partner who can advise on adoption of best practices across the organisation, and has the ability to create trustworthy AI solutions,” Dr Iain Brown, head of data science at SAS Northern Europe, said.
“In addition, it’s important to foster accountability throughout the company. Staff training and consciousness regarding data usage need to be firmly grounded in data management principles, including data quality and lineage. It is also crucial to establish robust model governance to continually monitor the array of models being used across an organisation, and ensure outputs minimise potential bias.”
Only 14% of procurement leaders express confidence in their talent’s ability to meet the future needs of the function, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc.
The finding comes as business acumen and competencies in technology and data have rapidly grown in importance over more traditional procurement skills.
“Procurement leaders are generally confident in the current state of their talent and the ability to meet their near-term objectives,” said Fareen Mehrzai, senior director analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain Practice.
“However, our data shows that chief procurement officers (CPOs) are worried about the future and having sufficient talent to meet transformative goals based around technology, as well as the ability to serve as a strategic advisor to the business.”
The Gartner survey of 111 procurement leaders in June 2023 showed a rift between procurement leaders’ assessments of current and future talent needs in the function.
While nearly half (46%) of respondents are confident in their current talent needs, only 14% agree they have adequate talent to meet future requirements.
The number of respondents who strongly felt that they did not have adequate talent tripled from current levels when asked about their future requirements, rising from 47% to 66%.
Driving the lack of confidence in future talent readiness is a shift in the key competencies CPOs need to help drive objectives associated with procurement transformation.
Over two thirds (69%) of respondents said business acumen had gained importance in the last 12 months, while 68% said technology and data skills had increased in importance.
Only about a quarter (26%) said “traditional procurement competencies” had gained importance in the same period.
“Procurement leaders are aware that the competencies required to drive transformation are different from traditional procurement skills, and that there are significant gaps between their current and future needs for the most important competencies,” said Mehrzai.
“Ninety-six percent of respondents reported at least a small gap in their needs for technology and data skills, while 86% reported the same when it came to business acumen.”
Gartner’s survey data suggests that more work needs to be done in refining competency planning strategies to meet future talent needs in the procurement function.
While more than 65% of respondents reported that their organisations have dedicated strategies to target the most critical competencies, only a third (31%) believe that their current competency models are relevant to their staff’s work.
“In evaluating current competency levels, we see procurement leaders relying most on peer and stakeholder feedback, while less than half report engaging in competency-driven interviews to directly evaluate their staff’s skills,” said Mehrzai.
“Considering the significant gaps in the most critical future competencies, CPOs need to consider expanding their options in how they train and evaluate their staff.”
Nearly one in five (17%) small business owners cannot always spot online fraud, according to new research from UK Finance.
The data comes from the result from a quiz developed by the Take Five to Stop Fraud and Amazon titled “Can you spot fraud,” which quizzed over 7000 respondents since it launched last year.
Recreating a busy office environment, the quiz takes users through a series of potentially fraudulent situations.
While some scams, like impersonation scams, appeared to be easier to spot, users tended to struggle with procurement scams, where a user is deceived into appointing a new supplier without going through normal procurement processes, typically resulting in financial loss.
The data follows some startling recent figures from UK Finance revealing that criminals stole £42.6 million from businesses through such scams known as authorised push payment (APP) fraud in just the first six months of 2023.
APP scams occurs when fraudsters tricks their victim into sending money directly from their account to one which the criminal controls.
Other common ways criminals target businesses are through CEO scams and invoice and mandate scams. The latter occur when criminals pose as regular suppliers and convince costumers to change their existing bank account details.
In a CEO scam, criminals impersonate your boss or a senior manager to convince you to make an urgent payment outside of a business’s internal procedure.
Businesses are often a target for criminals as their accounts generally hold more money than the average consumer. Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) can be more at risk than other businesses as they may have fewer protective measures to detect fraud and less regular training on the issue.
“We can see that businesses are increasingly alive to scams. But criminals are also increasingly sophisticated in targeting them,” Paul Maskall, fraud and cybercrime prevention manager at the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit said
“It’s imperative that businesses keep their guard up. We’re encouraging SMEs to reflect on their internal training, culture and policies, and to follow the advice of the Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign: take a moment to stop and think as it could keep your business safe.”
David Raw, managing director of commercial finance at UK Finance said: “Fraud can be devastating for firms – especially small businesses, the lifeblood of the UK economy. As criminals develop more and more complex ways to break through businesses’ defences, many smaller firms often just don’t have the same security resources as their bigger counterparts. That means they need to be hyper-vigilant.
“If you own or work for a small business, remember: when you’re making bigger payments, always check the details with your supplier directly through trusted contact routes. You can also do our Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign quiz to get more advice and arm yourself with knowledge for the fight against fraud.”
Amazon has thrown its hat into AI chatbot ring with their new genAI bot, dubbed Q.
The company – already a behemoth in the online shopping and cloud markets – is creeping into another competitive arena, though they are taking a different approach than mainstream chatbots like ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.
Q is aimed at companies, particularly businesses which use Amazon Web Services (AWS), with plans to help them analyse data, create market reports, draft professional emails, and solve problems.
The chatbot can also help companies draft code or answer customer questions, aiming to entice more businesses to use AWS cloud services over market competitors.
Amazon has said Q is trained on 17 yeas or AWS information, unlike other mainstream chatbots, so can be used to help companies on their AWS cloud integration.
Currently, only a preview of Q is available to prospective companies, and is only able to answer questions in one language (English).
As part of the offering, Amazon says that it will help defend Q customers in suits dealing with copyright infringement, potentially sparked by a number of lawsuits arising over copyrighted intellectual material by high profile authors and stars including George RR Martin, author of the Game of Thrones series.
Q is not Amazon’s only venture into AI – this September Amazon announced its investment in AI firm Anthropic, with over £3m pounds to help them compete against Microsoft’s OpenAI.
The company also launched Amazon Bedrock, which provides users with different foundational models to build their own chatbots, generate text, and create images.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is releasing new measures to battle greenwashing and improve the trust and transparency of sustainable investment products.
‘Greenwashing’ is a term referring to false sustainability claims made by corporations to profit from climate-conscious consumers. Common greenwashing tactics include planting trees to offset carbon emissions, claiming manufacturing processes are green or use less water, and claiming a product is sustainable if it uses just one sustainable product.
These claims often go unchecked, leaving consumers in the dark, and allowing more companies to claim they are environmentally friendly in order to gain more consumer trust.
In just the past year, RepRisk found that 893 European businesseswere at high risk of greenwashing over some of their environmental claims, be it directly mislabelling products or misleading consumers and investing in non-sustainable ventures.
$18.4 ESG (environmental, social, corporate governance) assets are now being managed globally, prompting the FCA to create new Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and an investment labels regime.
These requirements were decided after detailed engagement with a range of stakeholders, including industry, other regulators, and consumer groups.
The package of measures, including the consumer-focussed labelling regime, aims to protect consumers by helping them make more informed decisions when investing and enhance the credibility of the sustainable investment market.
According to the FCA’s research, investors were not confident that sustainability-related claims about investments were genuine, which is exacerbated by a lack of consistency of using terms like green, ESG, or sustainable.
The measures will include an anti-greenwashing rule for all authorities firms to make sure sustainability-related claims are fair, clear, and not misleading.
Product labels will also be required to help investors understand what their money is being used for, based on more clear sustainability goals and criteria.
Further, products will not be able to describe themselves as having a positive impact on sustainability when they do not via new naming and marketing requirements.
“We’re putting in place a simple, easy to understand regime so investors can judge whether funds meet their investment needs – this is a crucial step for consumer protection as sustainable investment grows in popularity,” Sacha Sadan, director of environmental, social and governance at the FCA, said.
“By improving trust in the sustainable investment market, the UK will be able to maintain its position at the forefront of sustainable finance, and capture the benefits of being a leading international centre of investment.”
The new requirements are further backed by a consumer test on 15,000 people, and follows the FCA’s Financial Lives survey which highlighted how the majority of UK adults would prefer to invest in sustainable products with a positive social impact.
ChatGPT is all the rage, and cybersecurity experts are doubtlessly fearful of the AI chatbot’s many applications by threat actors.
But are cyber-criminals actually that keen on using ChatGPT to heighten their prowess? Or if this fear unwarrented?
The research team at Sophos attempted to solve this cyber conundrum by investigating several open forums to see how threat actors – often at the forefront of new technological advancements to better meet their insidious aims – really feel about rising star of tech.
It is no surprise that this is a concern – shortly after the launch of ChatGPT, alternatives deliberately engineered for cyber-crime rose from the ether, including WormGPT and FraudGPT. These removed some of the guardrails of other generative AI chatbot models so criminals could, for instance, access instructions to build bombs, break into safes, or draft convincing phishing texts and emails.
These have been available on phishing and cyber-crime forums on the darkweb, and there is little doubt that they have been used by threat actors to draft phishing emails to steal credentials or receive fraudulent payment.
However, when investigating these uses further, forums of cybercriminals remain unconvinced of the genAI’s revolutionary capabilities, and few have discussed possibilities around its integration outside of drafting cleaner, more correct text.
How are Threat Actors Using LLMS?
After investigating four dark web forums – Exploit, XSS, Breach Forums, and Hackerforums – Sophos’s first impression was that Large Language Models (LLMs) were certainly not a hot topic. They were exponentially less posts about LLMs than cryptocurrencies in the time of investigation, showing that the dark web is not quite buying the hype.
One of the most common threads the researchers did find concerned jailbreaking LLM models. In this case, jailbreaking means bypassing the self-censorship and guardrails that most LLMs come with, which block harmful, illegal, and inappropriate responses.
In conjunction with this, they also discovered a variety of knock-off GPTs that claimed to have these guardrails already removed, ready for threat actors to exploit.
Despite a plethora of options, many users of these forums remained unconvinced by their boasts and capabilities.
For instance, after garnering a flurry of media attention, WormGPT pulled back on some of its capabilities, saying that is was just a “semi-uncensored AI”, blocking some of its “darker” features.
FraudGPT however received backlash on forums for over-exaggerating its abilities after it claimed to generate “a range of malware that antivirus software cannot detect.”
“Short answer is NO,” one user replied when another asked if this was true.
In the explanation, they detailed how FaudGPT, like all the other forms, relied on publicly available data to draft malware, so it was likely that, even if the malware code could work, it would get picked up by anti-virus software.
As far as any malware actually being generated using AI on these forums, none of it appeared to be sophisticated or novel.
While some threat actors are using the bots to translate text, others are using it to generate simple code or test data.
Despite pushback and scepticism, hacking forums are also employing chatbots to automatically reply to frequently asked questions.
It appears that ChatGPT remains good for somethings, but its use by threat actors is, for now, a mixed bag of simple workarounds, theoretical malware, and translation tools.
Europe is outpacing the US in new tech founders, and the UK is leading the continent in projected VC funding this year, despite strong economic headwinds and an overall downturn in the tech ecosystem.
This is all according to Atomico’s The State of European Tech 2023 report, which outlined how the European tech sphere is competing with major rivals including the US and China for funding, entrepreneurship, and talent pool competition.
The report found that the market reset impacting Europe, and showing a slower growth rate compared to the market’s peak in 2022, is a global phenomenon, affecting superpowers like the US, China, and beyond.
Europe, however, continues to see an upward trajectory and is set to raise 18% capital in tech compared to 2020.
The UK alone is set to secure £10bn in VC funding this year, with all of Europe set to raise £45bn this year – a drastic drop from 2022’s £82bn pot.
European VC funding fell by 45%, and UK funding fell by 54%, solidly above the global tech funding drop of 39%.
Despite this global slowdown, Europe is beating the US in the number of new tech founders, even though the overall number of new tech founders decreased by around 30% this year.
AI Boom
A major contributor to seed funding across the globe, and in Europe especially is, unsurprisingly, AI.
AI is the number one key to gain the most early-stage investment in 2023, followed by sustainability and climate tech and health tech.
Despite this, European AI companies have yet to approach the same level of funding as American AI start ups and companies.
Europe has seen a boom, however, in the AI talent pool, outstripping the US each year over the past decade as far as the number of actively employed AI/ML roles.
“Europe is a hotbed for the kind of diversity needed to build the future of AI – and as an industry, we have a responsibility to continue to grow and nurture that talent,” Lila Ibrahim, COO of Deepmind, commented on the report.
While Europe may be leading the US in terms of number of startups, these emerging tech companies struggle to maintain position and grow due to a lack of access to capital.
US tech startups are 40% more likely to have successfully secured venture capital funding, meaning that Europe is missing out on major scaling opportunities to a lack of continued funding out of seed rounds to bolster these up and coming startups.
The UK has published global guidelines to ensure the secure development of AItechnology, which has already been endorsed by 18 countries, including the US.
Dubbed Guidelines for Secure AI System Development, the standards aim to raise the cybersecurity levels of AI and help ensure that it is designed, developed, and deployed securely.
17 other countries have already confirmed they will endorse and co-seal the new guidelines, a testament to the UK’s leadership in AI safety following the AI Safety Summit.
The guidelines have been developed by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a part of GCHQ, and the US’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in cooperation with industry experts from 21 other international agencies and ministries from across the world – including those from all members of the G7 group of nations and from the global south.
Claiming to be the first of their kind to be agreed globally, the guidelines are set to develop any systems that use AI to make informed cybersecurity decisions at every stage of the development process – whether those systems are fully original or built on top of foundational models and services.
“We know that AI is developing at a phenomenal pace and there is a need for concerted international action, across governments and industry, to keep up,” CEO of NCSC Lindy Cameron said.
“These guidelines mark a significant step in shaping a truly global, common understanding of the cyber risks and mitigation strategies around AI to ensure that security is not a postscript to development but a core requirement throughout.
“I’m proud that the NCSC is leading crucial efforts to raise the AI cyber security bar: a more secure global cyber space will help us all to safely and confidently realise this technology’s wonderful opportunities.”
These guidelines are intended as a global, multi-stakeholder effort to address that issue, building on the UK Government’s AI Safety Summit’s legacy of sustained international cooperation on AI risks.
“As nations and organizations embrace the transformative power of AI, this international collaboration, led by CISA and NCSC, underscores the global dedication to fostering transparency, accountability, and secure practices,” CISA director Jen Easterly said.
“The domestic and international unity in advancing secure by design principles and cultivating a resilient foundation for the safe development of AI systems worldwide could not come at a more important time in our shared technology revolution.”
The guidelines are broken down into four key areas – secure design, secure development, secure deployment, and secure operation and maintenance – complete with suggested behaviours to help improve security.
International signatories include representative organisations from: Australia, Canada, Chile, Czechia, Estonia, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Republic of Korea, Singapore, the UK, and the United States.
As technology continually evolves and innovations emerge to the forefront, the foundation stays the same – data.
AI, cybersecurity, connectivity, and IoT all revolve around data in some form or another, and it seems that everyday, the public becomes increasingly aware of how much of their data is being harvested, used, and targeted by different groups.
The ethical considerations around this data have also transformed as data breaches become more and more public, fines from data regulation watchdogs reach record numbers, and the advent of artificial intelligence has brought copyright and arguments and data rights to the forefront.
So how can technology leaders try to stay ahead in this grand data debate, and understand their own responsibilities that come with ever-ammassing data capabilities?
Best Practice: Being a Good Data Custodian
Audience engaged, the panel at DIGIT’s flagship event immediately got straight to the point, with chair Rob Huggins asking: “What strategies and best practices can organisations employ to protect sensitive data and avoid data breaches while continuing to extract value from the process?”
Jude McCorry, CEO of the Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland, matched the straightforward question, getting to the heart of the panel.
“The first thing is basically from the ethical side of it, to be a good custodian of the data that’s entrusted to us,” she explained
This is not so much a strategy, she admitted, but a stamp of responsibility that comes with being entrusted with the data of millions of people. Paramount to being a good custodian is a cultural shift in understanding this responsibility.
“Instilling a good healthy cyber culture around the organisation,” is key to ensuring this responsibility is engrained to every facet of an organisation.
“Cyber should not just be with the IT organisation with the IT side of the business to run, it should be a team sport – everybody should participate in it,” she said.
Cybersecurity and proper data management should not just fall to the IT department – after all they are not the only people in an organisation handling sensitive data or making deals with third parties to share user data.
As many data breaches are the fault of human error, keeping the focus on people is vital: “To me, its always a people piece as well. Do you know who in your organisation actually cares about it?” Adam Sorka, director of Hypercube Consulting asked.
Data ethics and protection has to be something that everyone in an organisation cares about – “I think that sort of champion of leadership and corporate culture is a part of that,” he added.
Changing the culture of responsibility was clearly highlighted, but panel members also shared practical advice they’ve seen organisations skip out on time and time again, much to their frustration.
From regular backups to vulnerability testing, to incident response times – most of these “common sense” for data protection, Zibby Kwecka, CISO for Quorum Cyber explained.
“It’s such common sense that it almost gets pushed to the bottom. It’s very important to plan, but most people see that the plan isn’t tested,” he explained.
Data protection cannot be left to theory, and must be tested with the same vigour as fire alarms even in a mostly empty office block, the panel affirmed.
Overall, the panel appeared frustrated at the continual failings of data protection and cybersecurity measures, with Zibby Kwecka lamenting the failings of improper guidance and regulations.
“If people simply followed the principles, we wouldn’t be having any of these issues,” he said.
But what are these principles, why is it easy for people to follow best practice, and how can we incentivise businesses to follow good data ethics?
Data Ethics: The Nitty Gritty of Regulations
Ethics and business are often seen as antagonistic advancements – more consumer protections are labelled as red paint for businesses trying to reach maximum profits, and emerging technologies that can help businesses transform the working world only seem to give rise to moral quandaries from the public and privacy watchdogs alike.
Aligning these two important facets of data and technology, however, is vital for each to flourish and for everyone to benefit from advancing technologies like AI, machine learning, and automation, as well as protecting them from emerging threats.
The first thing businesses need to do is admit to how they use personal data – “If your organisation is not making money on selling personal records, then don’t sell personal records, and take care of them,” Zibby said simply. “If your business is making money on those, then it should be more protective with this data, and ensure it is getting consent from the people whose data it is.
“You should not be exploiting these people by not telling them how you’re keeping your data,” he finished.
Formalised, informed consent is vital to data ethics, and these principles have been paramount to regulation – but these regulations have issues themselves.
According to Zibby, regulation and enforcement often leaves too much to interpretation, can be overly technical and complex for those who are not tech experts, and can therefore be reactive rather than proactive for emerging technologies and an evolving cyber landscape.
“Too often, you know the principle, however, it is too easy reading a lot of ways for people to decide what is right and what is wrong, as far as technical measures for protecting data,” he explained.
Guidelines, when followed, can mitigate risk and encourage consumer trust. But if they remain as guidelines or are too vague, they risk being interpreted incorrectly, or in ways which can serve business needs and underserved consumer protection.
On the other hand, however, overly technical advice and legislation is at risk of falling behind the trends, leaving organisations without guidance and at risk of emerging threats.
The likes of generative AI and its growing potential risks to data and cybersecurity is just one example of how dramatically and quickly the landscape can transform.
“I think it needs to be an active stance,” Adam said. “I think organisations really need to match the pace of change – this space is going to really accelerate.”
Maintaining a balance of not-overly-vague but not-overly-specific guidance and regulation is key in the tech sphere as it continues to evolve and change. Agility is key.
“Its the hype that kills us,” Rhona MacLenna, lead data consultant at Forth Point warned, lamenting how new technologies can rush in to distract us from current underlying problems.
“People talk about unintended consequences, but there aren’t any, it’s not thinking of consequences,” she reiterated.
The solution for regulations, she proposed, is by mastering the art of the carrot and the stick, by bringing in all stakeholders – companies, data rights groups, consumers – to to table to discuss how to protect personal data.
“The world has fundamentally changed, but the problems are still the same. And we have to tackle these problems, collectively, universally,” Rhona said.
The six month pilot run by DeepTech LaunchPad will provide each entrepreneur with a £15,000 innovation voucher, which will be repaid to the programme if they win funding or hit a profit target.
Supported by Barclays Eagle Labs and funded by the UK government Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, the scheme could be rolled out across other Scottish universities if shown to be a success.
Deeptech, or deep technology, aims to revolutionise entire sectors by harnessing scientific and engineering discoveries and innovations, rather than cause only slow-moving change.
In order to advance this aim, the pilot will offer entrepreneurs training and support from the university’s commercialisation team, guiding them to be investment-ready with tested prototype products, viable routes to market, and industry partners.
“Having a deeptech accelerator is one of the missing pieces in Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and will allow our nation to create companies that can compete on an international scale,” Grant Wheeler, head of commercialisation at Heriot-Watt, said as reported by Insider and others.
“This isn’t about organic improvement – it’s about harnessing the latest scientific research and engineering breakthroughs to create companies that will disrupt their industries and grow to a global scale.
“We expect that the businesses that will be created will go on to attract support from other parts of Scotland’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, such as Codebase’s Techscaler programme and Scottish Enterprise’s programmes for high-growth businesses.”
Matthew Corbidge, director at Barclays Eagle Labs, added, as reported by Insider: “Heriot-Watt University’s DeepTech LaunchPad is exactly the type of game-changing initiative that we want to support through our Ecosystem Partnership Programme.
“This isn’t about reinventing the wheel or setting up competing schemes – instead, this is about spotting gaps in the ecosystem and helping existing players to fill that need.
“Deep-tech is one of the most-promising opportunities within both the Scottish and wider UK economies and accessing deep-tech at the National Robotarium will help to create companies of a truly global scale.”
The UK’s partnership with the Republic of Korea will be pushed to new heights with a series of science and tech deals concerning AI, semiconductors, space, and more.
Set to be signed by secretary of state Michelle Donelan, minister of trade, industry and energy Ban Moon-kyi, and minister of science and ICT Lee Jong Ho, the deal is part of a new landmark Accord between the two countries.
Both nations have an established place in the top five of the Global Innovation Index, and aim to strengthen their tech prowess through the agreement.
The two countries are set to work closer together than ever before to harness the potential of critical technologies like AI, quantum and semiconductors to create jobs and unlock economic growth, alongside a new £4.5 million fund to create joint research and innovation partnerships.
This builds on the recent international progress on safe, responsible AI development achieved at the AI Safety Summit, the next edition of which will be co-hosted by the Republic of Korea and the UK next year.
New commitments to collaborate in space, and on digital tech, as well as an over-arching agreement on science and technology, could open up new opportunities for trade, innovation, and investment in both countries.
President Yoon, the Duchess of Edinburgh and the Science and Tech Secretary will attend the event marking the sci-tech deals’ signing, and hear from some of the brightest minds working on science and tech projects in the UK and the Republic of Korea, before Secretary of State Donelan formally signs the sci-tech agreements which form part of the new bilateral Accord. The UK and the Republic of Korea share a close relationship, and the Accord also deepens ties on defence, trade and investment.
“The Republic of Korea is a tech powerhouse, and a vital partner to the UK,” secretary Donelan said.
“We share the same values and face the same challenges: from creating future jobs and industries fit for the AI age, to bringing the power of science to bear on climate change and supporting ageing populations. As part of the new Accord between our two countries, this raft of agreements will future-proof our relationship for decades to come: a partnership that is already bearing fruit as we work closely together on the next AI Safety Summit.”
The science and technology agreements being signed as part of the UK-Republic of Korea bilateral Accord range from responsible AI commitments to semiconductor and space cooperation.
The accords include a new Framework for Semiconductor Cooperation to enhance the collaboration on skills, research and development, supply chain resilience and trade, and to deepen industry links.
Further, a memorandum of understanding on space cooperation will also be agreed to, paving the way for joint space endeavours between the two nations.
Overarching the Accord will be a new Implementation Arrangement, which will update and reboot a Science and Tech cooperation agreement from 1985, to modernise the two countries’ partnerships for the 21st century.
In addition to these, the Accord will also open up a new dialogue on quantum which will include talent exchanges, and a commitment to closer cooperation on engineering biology.
To mark the signing of the agreement, the Royal Society and the National Research Foundation of Korea are investing up t £4.5 million into the new UK-ROK International Collaboration Awards for emerging UK and Korean research leaders to develop collaborative partnerships.
This is supported by the International Science Partnerships Fund, the UK’s global fund for research and innovation. Innovate UK will also invest over £8 million from the next financial year into innovation programmes with the Republic of Korea, driving the development and commercialisation of critical technologies, including for the first time – semiconductors.
These bilateral agreements, alongside Horizon association, demonstrate the UK’s global ambitions to deepen collaboration with leading lights in science right across the globe. The government is determined to open up the broadest range of opportunities, for the brightest British minds to unlock breakthroughs with colleagues, the world over.
Engineered bacteria could hold the key to recovering critical metals from electric vehicle (EV) batteries at the end of their uselife, in a new bio-based recycling process out of the University of Edinburgh.
Experts in sustainable biotechnology at the university, led by Professor Louise Horsfall, are exploring the concept, which sees bacteria used to extract metallic compounds from lithium-ion batteries. Once recovered and processed, these valuable elements – including cobalt, manganese, nickel, and lithium – could feed into a new UK-based supply chain for rechargeable vehicle batteries.
The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) is supporting the project to reach industrial capacity, using facilities at its FlexBio centre to refine the process in a larger bioreactor. Meanwhile, bacteria have been selected and engineered using the Edinburgh Genome Foundry, based at the University of Edinburgh, to ensure their effectiveness at scale.
Using a fermenter, bacteria are added to battery leachate – the liquid the remains after the initial processing stages – to stimulate a natural biological reaction.
During the process, the bacteria produce nano-sized particles of the metallic compounds, resulting in a sediment that can be separated and filtered out from the residual liquid. The current tests are being undertaken using material recovered from an EV battery previously used in a Nissan Leaf.
The latest research forms part of the wider Reuse and Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries (ReLiB) initiative, led by the University of Birmingham and funded by the Faraday Institution – the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage science, skills development, market analysis, and early-stage commercialisation.
According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), battery electric vehicles accounted for 16.1% of total new cars between January and June 2023, making the UK one of the top ten European countries for EV sales.
As the market grows, so does the need for initiatives that can support the increasing supply chain pressures and deal with waste batteries as they come to the end of their useful lifetime.
In turn, as the reserves and resources of metals used in batteries decline, increasing amounts of raw minerals will reside in existing batteries themselves.
At the moment, the majority of metals used in EV batteries are imported – including cobalt, manganese, nickel, and lithium.
Generally, these metals are exploited from countries in Africa, where pressure for resources has driven mass conflict and depravation. Developing alternative recycling routes could open up a more sustainable UK-based pipeline of materials, lessening pressures on the incessant precious metals trade.
Professor Louise Horsfall, chair of sustainable biotechnology at the University of Edinburgh, said: “We often read about initiatives to reduce EV battery costs and improve their performance, but as the market for green transport grows, we also need to consider what happens to the technology once it is no longer fit for use. This project is about using cutting-edge sustainable biotechnology to find ways of tackling that challenge and, in turn, extract some of the most valuable metals that can go back into the sector at the early stages of vehicle production.
“The work of the Edinburgh Genome Foundry to select the best performing bacteria, combined with the scale-up expertise we’ve been able to access via IBioIC, means we are heading in a positive direction towards turning the research idea into an industrial reality.”
Dr Liz Fletcher, director of business engagement at IBioIC, added: “This project is a great example of how biotechnology can be used to make everyday products and services like cars and transport more sustainable. No one wants to see lithium-ion batteries ending up in landfill, so it is important to explore different ways to repurpose and recycle them. The method being developed here has dual value – as well as being a petrochemical-free way of dealing with waste, it could also help to reshore the supply chain for rare metals and future battery manufacturing.”
Ofcom has fined Shell Energy £1.4 million for breaking important consumer protection rules concerning their phone and broadband customers.
The UK consumer watchdog found that the energy company did not properly tell over 7,000 customers to review their contract, or let them know what they could save by signing up to a new deal.
The specific rules that were breached, introduced by Ofcom in 2020, require providers to proactively prompt their customers before their existing broadband or phone contract is up.
“Every day tens of thousands of customers come to the end of their phone or broadband contract and can make significant savings by switching provider or signing up to a better deal. That’s why our rules, which demand that providers prompt customers with the information they need to take action, are so important,” Suzanne Cater, enforcement director at Ofcom said.
72,837 customers were found to be affected by Shell Energy’s failures between March 2022 and June 2022 – in some instances, the company failed to send end-of-contract notifications and annual best tariff notifications at all.
In other cases, the notifications included inaccurate or incomplete information, caused by a combination of manual errors and system and process failures on behalf of Shell Energy.
Notably, 7,750 customers received an end-of-contract notification that contained incorrect price information on their minimum term period ending.
Of these customers, 6,054 went on to pay higher charges than they were originally quoted, collectively amounting to £398,417.67 – an average of £65.81 each.
“Shell Energy’s failings represent a serious breach of our consumer protection rules and they must now pay the price. This sends a message to the whole industry that we won’t hesitate to step in on behalf of customers if they don’t play by the book,” Cater added.
According to Ofcom’s new 2020 rules, providers must provide information to help customers shop around and take advantage of a better deal, as well as remind their customers if they are already outside of their minimum contract period.
More specifically, telecoms and pay-tv companies must issue an ‘end-of-contract’ notification to customers – by text, email, or letter – between ten and forty days before their minimum contract period comes to an end.
Further, companies must send notifications at least annually to customers who are already outside of their minimum contract period, reminding them that they are free to leave or change their current deal. Both notifications must also include information on the best tariff available so customers are more informed on how they can save.
As a result of Shell Energy’s failings to do so, Ofcom has imposed the £1.4m fine, payable to HM Treasury within four weeks. The penalty includes a 30% discount from the amount Ofcom would have otherwise imposed following Shell Energy’s admission of liability and agreement to enter into Ofcom’s settlement process.
Ofcom has stated that the fine would have been higher if Shell Energy had not self-reported the contravention, co-operated with the investigation, and proactively taken steps to remedy the breaches following discovery of the issue.
The regulator has also said Shell Energy has since made a number of changes to its systems and processes to help prevent future recurrence, as well as refunded customers.
“Shell Energy Broadband has found itself under a significant amount of scrutiny from Ofcom ever since it rebranded from First Utility Broadband in 2019. According to Ofcom’s latest broadband customer service report, Shell generated the most customer complaints of any major British broadband provider,” Tom Paton, founder of Broadband Savvy, a broadband advice service, said.
“It’s not just that Shell failed to send out end-of-contract notifications. Ofcom found that the company sometimes provided incorrect information to customers, potentially leading people to renew their contract when they did not need to.
“We think that Ofcom’s punishment is more than fair, and that they could potentially have gone further with an even larger fine, to make it clear to large ISPs that these rules are not to be broken.”
According to new research from WithSecure, the number of new multi-point extortion ransomware groups surged during the first three quarters of 2023.
Ransomware — a type of malicious software (malware) that steals control of machines or data — has become a massive source of revenue for cyber-criminals at the expense of people, organisations, and even governments all over the world.
While its prevalence has remained consistent for several years, other aspects of the threat have changed.
For the past few years, a number of gangs have gained notoriety by using multi-point extortion ransomware attacks, which involve using several methods to pressure victims into paying a ransom to regain control of their data.
Often, these groups both encrypt data, and steal it to publish online unless they’re paid.
For the past few years, a number of gangs have gained notoriety by using multi-point extortion ransomware attacks, which involve using several methods to pressure victims into paying a ransom to regain control of their data.
Often, these groups both encrypt data, and steal it to publish online unless the ransom is paid.
A new analysis of data leaked on sites operated by these multi-point extortion ransomware operators indicates that many new groups have become active in this space during 2023.
Out of the 60 multi-point extortion ransomware gangs whose activities WithSecure has tracked during the first nine months of 2023, 29 are new.
According to threat intelligence analyst Ziggy Davies, the new groups largely follow playbooks established by existing operators, but play a key role in sustaining the amount of ransomware attacks facing organisations.
“Code and other aspects of one particular cyber crime operation end up getting used elsewhere because groups and their members often recycle the same resources when they change who they work for or with,” said Davies.
“Many of the new groups we’ve seen this year have clear lineage in older ransomware operations. For example, Akira and several other groups share many similarities with the now-defunct Conti group, and are likely former Conti affiliates.”
The analysis produces several other notable insights about multi-point extortion ransomware attacks in 2023 to date.
In the first three quarters of 2023, for instance, there was a 50% increase in data leaks from ransomware groups compared to the same period from the previous year.
Lockbit – one of the most infamous ransomware group currently operating, accounted for the biggest share of leaks (21%), according to WithSecure’s analysis.
The five groups with the most leaks, which include 8Base, Alphv/BlackCat, Cl0p, LockBit, and Play, accounted for over half of the total leaks seen to date.
Still, even with the continued success of known and existing ransomware groups, about a quarter of all data leaks in the analysis were from groups that began operations in 2023.
Interestingly as well, the study found that only six of the 60 groups posted victims every single month of 2023 to date, showing that despite some of their prolific activity, they are not consistently active.
While cyber-criminals look to be more interested in ransomware than ever before, the degree to which these groups recycle each other’s playbooks does provide defenders with some advantages, WithSecure stipulated.
“Ransomware remains an effective moneymaker for cyber-criminals, so they’ll mostly stick to the same basic playbook rather than come up anything really new or unexpected. This makes them pretty predictable, which is good for defenders because they know what they’re up against,” said Davies.
Despite the setbacks experienced in digital ventures, more than three quarters (78%) of UK businesses are gearing up to invest in AI in the next twelve months.
Yet 73% admit to being ill-prepared for the integration of this technology into their operations.
This data has been revealed by recent research by Infinum, a digital product consultancy, which investigated 1003 IT decision makers and leaders in the UK to ascertain trends in the causes for digital failures.
Business Diving Into AI Blind
This study highlights a fervour for AI adoption, with 90% of chief technology officers (CTOs) at UK businesses planning to invest in AI in the next 12 months.
Notably, the industries considering AI adoption, such as IT, healthcare, finance, and automotive, are also the ones indicating a lack of readiness for integration.
Likewise, companies with larger digital transformation budgets and higher turnovers have encountered more failures in the past five years. However, this was not a completely linear trend.
Companies with £50-£99m in company turnover saw a 79% fail rate in digital products, while those with £100-£499m and those with £500m or higher saw a 73% and 66% failure rate respectively.
Those will lower turnovers and budgets also saw a similar declining trends in their failure rates.
“In the rush to seize the golden ticket of AI innovation, many firms find themselves swept up in the excitement, fearing they might miss out on the next big thing,” Jonathan Boakes, managing director of Infinum UK, said.
“However, this enthusiasm can obscure sound judgment, causing businesses to leap into AI without a well-thought-out plan. And learning from the impulsive golden ticket hunters in Willy Wonka’s world, those who dive in impatiently will face challenges.
“It’s a reminder that while FOMO is a powerful motivator, it can lead to incorrect investments and untimely scaling. To succeed in the AI revolution, businesses need to reflect on their past mistakes and determine if it is truly productive to join the trend.”
Understanding Data Is Vital to Survival
The study reveals that 65% of UK businesses are uncertain about how to effectively use their data to drive digital transformation — a concerning statistic as the right data is essential for advancing AI innovation.
Additionally, 35% of businesses acknowledge a shortage of the necessary skills to successfully implement AI specifically.
“Using unreliable or unverified data can result in biased outcomes and legal, ethical, and security risks,” Boakes continued. “Racing to the forefront of investment serves no purpose if you’re destined to fail when the starting gun fires.”
Privacy Concerns Top Business Agenda
When asked to rank their concerns regarding practical AI integration, business expressed primary concerns about data privacy and security risks, accounting for a significant 38%.
Additionally, one in four (25%) businesses is apprehensive about regulatory changes and ensuring compliance with AI standards. These worries coincide with the UK’s preparations to host the world’s first AI Safety Summit in November, with eager anticipation of a clear framework for compliant AI adoption.
Children’s charities, free speech advocates and other groups could, for the first time, raise online safety and freedom of expression concerns directly to Ofcom through a “super-complaint” under a proposal unveiled by the government.
Under the newly legislated Online Safety Act, social media companies have been given new duties to protect children, enforce the promises they make to users, and remove illegal content, or they will face huge fines from Ofcom.
Individuals can report harmful and illegal content to social media platforms, and it is their responsibility to tackle this within the law.
The super-complaints process is designed to help Ofcom stay on top of systemic harmful trends and emerging threats by letting organisations, such as charities and consumer groups, raise new concerns as soon as they emerge.
In a consultation published today, the government is seeking views from expert groups to help define who can make super-complaints, the conditions and format of a super-complaint, and expectations on how Ofcom should respond to each complaint.
For example, a super-complaint could notify Ofcom of a new social media feature used on multiple services that subjects children to harmful content, such as violent or pornographic images, or flag that platforms are consistently failing to take down illegal content they have a duty to remove.
Similarly, a campaign group may raise that a social media platform’s content moderation systems are consistently removing legal content that their terms of service do not prohibit, undermining freedom of expression on the platform.
The detail of how these super-complains are set to work will be informed by the consultation set to take place on 16 November, which will ask for views on the process and how it can be managed swiftly and easily.
Organisations that will be allowed to raise super-complaints will meet the criteria established in this consultation, ensuring that the regulator is only made aware of legitimate, considered complaints, allowing it to deal with said complaints in a timely and effective manner, and establishing how Ofcom deals with those complaints.
Super-complaints may allow Ofcom to update Codes of Practice or investigate if particular services are complying with the new law. If found to be non-compliant, companies could face fines that reach billions of pounds.
Similar super-complaints processes already exist in in other sectors, like the Competition and Markets Authority.
“Protecting children and protecting free speech are key pillars of the UK’s groundbreaking new online safety laws. Campaigners’ voices have helped lay the foundations, and we want to continue hearing from them as we build a safer life online,” Gill Whitehead, Ofcom’s Online Safety Group Director, said.
“We’ve assembled a world-class a team so we can keep a close eye on issues as they emerge, and we’ve already set out our first blueprint for what tech firms need to do to tackle illegal harms. But we won’t be doing this alone, and we’re looking forward to working with a broad coalition of experts.”
Ranging from AI adoption rates to personalisation and employee experience, a new survey has revealed some top trends digitalleaders are expecting for 2024.
Quantum Metric, an analytics platform, announced the findings of its 2024 trends report, 4 Big Digital Bets for 2024, which surveyed digital leaders to uncover their biggest priorities heading into the new year.
Findings that emerged pertain to AI investments, digital experience, and mobile trends, employee experience becoming an increased priority and changing tides of customer loyalty programmes and personalisation.
The research team surveyed 1,000 digital leaders across sectors in the US and the UK.
Are Digital Leaders Full Committed to AI?
Although AI investments are on the rise, some digital brands have yet to take the leap; just over a third (35%) of digital leaders are either waiting to see how the tech progresses or have no plans to pursue AI in the near future.
Quantum Metric’s data found that 59% are overwhelmed by the amount of AI tools available and a third know AI has value, but simply are not sure what it is yet.
On top of this, the majority of digital leaders understand that AI regulations are well on their way, yet they remain underprepared. Almost two thirds (61%) anticipate that new AI regulations will impact their investments, with over a half (51%) saying the new regulations will add complexity to their investments.
Further, around a third (30%) of digital leaders feel a lack of visibility into how customers use AI will make it harder to meet new regulations.
Mobile Is Gaining Traction
Social media ads and features like live shopping have made mobile the first touchpoint according to two thirds (66%) of digital leaders.
The survey showed that about half (48%) of leaders say social media ads have grown mobile traffic and conversations in the last year.
Further, a fifth say life shopping is driving mobile traffic and conversations, and 38% say social media is set to drive mobile adoption in 2024.
As mobile adoption grows, digital has become part of the physical brand experience with 55% believing that digital will drive almost all business to physical locations by next year.
Employee Experience Will Be A Priority
Hiring is expected to rise in 2024 with 75% of digital leaders expecting to increase staffing for their teams.
In an effort to double down on the customer experience while also improving the employee experience, 57% of digital leaders will increase staff for customer-facing teams.
The right investments in employee experience will be critical, but about half (48%) of digital leaders say there is not enough prioritisation on backend tools.
As a result, this leaves the employee experience with major gaps which can have detrimental effects on revenue.
In fact, 30% say gaps in the employee experience have made a noted impact on company revenue and the ability to convert new audiences into loyal shoppers.
Personalisation and Customer Loyalty Programmes
With the rise of emerging tech like AI, personalisation has become an assumed part of the digital experience.
In terms of personalisation, digital leaders say the top services customers want personalised are self-service tools (55%), searches for products or services (51%), and when managing current orders or returns (48%).
When it comes to loyalty programmes, digital teams are focused on building multi-service customers. To do so, 60% will offer new services including new subscription options in 2024.
Additionally, the goal of loyalty programmes has changed: 31% say the primary goal of a loyalty programme is to engage the most loyal customers in these new offerings while just 14% say its to retain customers.
“As the digital customer experience continues to evolve, one thing remains critical to the success of its success and that’s complete visibility into the customer journey,” said Danielle Harvey, VP of industry strategy.
“Be it to understand the value of new AI investments, optimize mobile or enhance the ties between the customer and employee experience, it is critical that digital organizations be able to understand and empathize with the customer experience. Going into 2024, this is what will help define the businesses that continue to excel on digital from those who get left behind.”
The announcement comes after the German rocket launch provider has carried out an extensive series of engine tests in Shetland over the past three years.
Although HyImpulse will attempt its maiden sub-orbital launch early next year from Australia, the two companies have signed a letter of intent to conduct two sub-orbital launches from Unst from August 2024 onwards.
That will be followed by the first orbital launches from late 2025 onwards, rising to full commercial operations by 2030.
“They carried out their first tests at Scatsta in Shetland in early 2021, and have been testing and honing their technology both there and in Germany ever since,” SaxaVord business development manager Robin Huber said.
“So we are delighted to announce that we have reached an agreement for a program that will culminate in the company having a permanent presence in Unst as it gears up towards full commercial operations.”
HyImpulse co-CEO Christian Schmierer said: “We are looking forward to working with SaxaVord and expanding our operation in the UK for the work on propulsion development and testing, rocket structures and ground infrastructure in the coming months.”
HyImpulse CEO Mario Kobald added: “The Shetland Isles and SaxaVord Spaceport are an integral part of HyImpulse’s journey to space. We have been in close collaboration with SaxaVord since 2021 and have been doing our flight motors qualification testing also on the islands. We are looking forward to carrying out our first orbital rocket launches from SaxaVord Spaceport.”
Founded with the goal to revolutionise access to space, HyImpulse’s sounding rocket SR75 and small launcher SL1 are powered by unique and proprietary hybrid propulsion systems.
Telemetry logs were missing in nearly 42% of attack cases studied in a new cybersecurity reports, with cyber-criminals deleting these logs in 82% of cases.
The research is pulled from Sophos‘s new Active Adversary Report for Security Practitioners report, covering incident response cases the company analysed from January 2022 through the first half of 2023.
Gaps in telemetry – which automatically collects and transmits data – decrease much-needed visibility into organisations’ networks and systems, especially since attacker dwell time (the time from initial access to detection) continues to decline, shortening the time defenders have to effectively respond to an incident.
“Time is critical when responding to an active threat; the time between spotting the initial access event and full threat mitigation should be as short as possible. The farther along in the attack chain an attacker makes it, the bigger the headache for responders,” said John Shier, field CTO, Sophos.
“Missing telemetry only adds time to remediations that most organizations can’t afford. This is why complete and accurate logging is essential, but we’re seeing that, all too frequently, organizations don’t have the data they need.”
In the report, Sophos classifies ransomware attacks with a dwell time of less than or equal to five days as ‘fast attacks’ which accounted for 38% of the cases studied. “Slow” ransomware attacks are those with a dwell time greater than five days, which accounted for nearly two thirds (62%) of the cases.
When examining these “fast” and “slow” ransomware attacks at a granular level, there was not much variation in the tools, techniques, and living-off-the-land binaries (LOLBins) that attackers deployed, suggesting defenders don’t need to reinvent their defensive strategies as dwell time shrinks.
However, defenders do need to be aware that fast attacks and the lack of telemetry can hinder fast response times, leading to more destruction.
“Cyber-criminals only innovate when they must, and only to the extent that it gets them to their target. Attackers aren’t going to change what’s working, even if they’re moving faster from access to detection,” said Shier.
“This is good news for organizations because they don’t have to radically change their defensive strategy as attackers speed up their timelines. The same defenses that detect fast attacks will apply to all attacks, regardless of speed. This includes complete telemetry, robust protections across everything, and ubiquitous monitoring.
“The key is increasing friction whenever possible—if you make the attackers’ job harder, then you can add valuable time to respond, stretching out each stage of an attack.”
Shier added: “For example, in the case of a ransomware attack, if you have more friction, then you can delay the time until exfiltration; exfiltration often occurs just before detection and is often the costliest part of the attack. We saw this happen in two incidents of Cuba ransomware. One company (Company A) had continuous monitoring in place with MDR, so we were able to spot the malicious activity and halt the attack within hours to prevent any data from being stolen.
“Another company (Company B) didn’t have this friction; they didn’t spot the attack until a few weeks after initial access and after Cuba had already successfully exfiltrated 75 gigabytes of sensitive data. They then called in our IR team, and a month later, they were still trying to get back to business as usual.”
Amazon is the latest company to join the rest of the gaming industry in cutting jobs, announcing it plans to cut 180 jobs in an attempt to restructure. This is following on from the company laying off more than 100 employees in the same division back in April.
The gaming industry has faced around 6,500 job cuts this year, with cuts coming from major gaming companies including Epic Games, Ubisoft Montreal, and Niantic.
The company, which also owns the gaming streaming website Twitch, is also abandoning its own Twitch channel after it failed to amass enough views.
Despite the cuts, Amazon had also announced a new Tomb Raider single-player game in 2022, and just this summer said it a Lord of the Rings based game was in the works.
The BBC has seen an internal email where Amazon executives explained the cause for the layoffs:
“After our initial restructuring in April, it became clear that we needed to focus our resources even more on the areas that are growing with the highest potential to drive our business forward,” Amazon Games vice president Christoph Hartmann wrote.
The BBC did report that the email also said they were recruiting other positions in the gaming department, however.
While the industry faces a later wave of job layoffs, the gaming sector saw massive success in 2023, with highly rated games and like the newest Zelda and a new Super Mario hitting the scene.
However, the success of the games appears to not have offset the over-hiring trend in the gaming industry which hit big tech earlier in the year.
New research from STX Next, a prominent IT services and consulting company has found that 91% of CTOs see technical debt as their biggest challenge heading into 2024.
This underlines how many businesses face significant long-term issues that could be costly to rectify down the line, unless steps are taken to address capacity sooner rather than later.
Indeed, the survey found that the second most prominent challenge highlighted by CTOs is capacity, cited by 68%, suggesting that technical leaders are still grappling with staffing and employee attrition.
This highlights the competition across the sector for skilled professionals and the industry-wide shortage that is making projects more difficult to fulfil in good time.
The findings were taken from STX Next’s 2023 Global CTO Survey, which surveyed 500 global CTOs about the biggest challenges facing their organisation.
Security was the third most prominent challenge at 62%, suggesting that many are still battling to tame the rise in ransomware and other cyber-attacks plaguing the sector.
To add to CTOs existing woes when it comes to hiring, employee retention is also a significant headache, with 42% of respondents suggesting it was one of their foremost concerns.
Overcommitment is another key challenge for CTOs when it comes to delivery is overcommitment, with a fifth (22%) saying that this, followed by technical debt (14%) and communication failures (12%), contributed to delivery difficulties.
Ronald Binkofski, CEO at STX Next said: “Our survey shows that economic uncertainty has placed added pressure on businesses looking to grow and succeed. The skills shortage in the technology industry that has long been on the minds of leaders continues to place pressure on teams. This is particularly pertinent given the persistent danger of cyberattacks.
“Overwhelmingly, technical debt and refactoring are the most pressing concern for CTOs, perhaps brought on by the skills shortage leading to sub-optimal solutions being implemented to save time and money. Although driven by necessity in many cases, these short-term fixes will no doubt place strain on businesses as they require more work in the long run.
“With capacity being CTOs’ next biggest concern, the data demonstrates a clear need for strategic planning so that businesses can be agile enough to ride out the challenges of the coming years and successfully meet the needs of customers and employees.”
Binkofski believes that scaling will be the biggest area of focus for technical leaders in the next two years.
“As we look ahead to the coming year, success for CTOs will be defined by their ability to balance a commitment to consistent delivery while simultaneously accommodating growth.
“Economically and efficiently scaling an organisation’s tech capabilities, teams, culture and processes is no easy feat. To do this, CTOs must embrace technology that can easily be scaled up according to business needs, adopt modern engineering practices, and foster a culture of continuous learning and innovation as a minimum.
“Crucially, it’s also about being careful not to scale too quickly or commit to overly ambitious projects: achieve a balance that is manageable for the business in the long run, and organisations can put themselves on a solid, sustainable growth trajectory.”
After being alerted to the potential and real dangers of data tracing for victims and survivors of domestic abuse, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) conducted an overview of data protection practices of the UK tracing agent sector.
An undisclosed women’s charity told the ICO that a tracing agent had tracked down a domestic abuse victim to their place of safety at a refuge and passed this personal information to their abusive partner, prompting the investigation.
As part of the investigation, the ICO contacted tracing companies and professional association about their role and responsibility to members, as well discussing with groups supporting victims of domestic abuse, the National Police Chief’s Council, and the Home Office.
Findings
While the ICO’s findings did not put tracing companies and private investigators at fault, its investigation revealed that domestic abusers are using readily available and affordable technology to trace ex-partners in a worrying trend the ICO provided no remedy for.
Many of the tracing agents the ICO spoke to demonstrated an awareness of the potential risks to vulnerable people and victims of domestic abuse if they are traced. This includes requiring a person’s consent before sharing their data for ‘lost family or friend’ and ‘ex-partner’ tracing, and not starting a trace for a person believed to be vulnerable.
The ICO also found that private investigator industry bodies encourage data protection compliance and provide relevant training and resources to their members.
According to the ICO, its investigations therefore did not reveal evidence where tracing agents had been directly involved with the sharing of victim’s details.
When speaking with industry experts and charities, a deeper issue was highlighted – abusers are able to use easily accessible mainstream technology themselves to trace their victims. This includes inserting AirTags into cuddly toys given to children at supervised visits, as well as tracking victims via smart phones and watches and through searches on social media profiles.
Recommendations for Tracing Agents
The ICO did release some guidance and recommendations for tracing agents though they found no evidence of non-compliance with data protection law.
The advice includes ensuring that any impact of a trace on a person is justified, and safeguarding policies are followed and continually assessed for risk.
Further, data security and privacy measures should be integrated into all data protection activities. Agents need to consider and safeguard information rights, and people being traced should also be provided with the information they need to exercise their data protection rights, such as the right to be informed or the right of access to their personal information.
Agents should also conduct an audit of their policies and procedures to ensure they are complying with data protection law.
Protecting Information Rights of Domestic Abuse Victims
The ICO has promised to continue to work with charities and rights organisations to ensure the personal information of domestic abuse victims are handled appropriately and safely.
“As highlighted, advances in technology and popularity of social media mean that perpetrators have an enhanced level of access to information about their partner and children,” its statement said.
The ICO then referred to specialist groups and charities such a as Refuge, Women’s Aid and SafeLives for people experiencing complex forms of tech abuse.
As employees experiment with generative AI, Gartner, Inc has advised what guidance regulators must issue to steer the proliferation of this emerging technology responsibly.
“To craft effective policy, general counsel must consider risk tolerance, use cases and restrictions, decision rights, and disclosure obligations,” said Laura Cohn, senior principal, research at Gartner. “Having GenAI guardrails and policies in place will better prepare enterprises for possible future legal requirements.”
Based on practices in AI policies instituted by companies and city governments, general counsel should direct organisations to consider four actions when establishing a policy.
1. Align on Risk Tolerance
To get started on determining the company’s risk tolerance — the amount of loss or negative outcome a company is willing to deal with due to an investment or decision — legal leaders should borrow a practice from enterprise risk management and guide a discussion with senior management on “must-avoid outcomes.”
Discuss the potential applications of generative AI models within the business.
Once these are identified, consider the outcomes that may result from them, which are “must avoid,” and which entail acceptable risk given the potential benefit of AI.
“Guidance on using generative AI requires core components to minimize risks while also providing opportunities for employees to experiment with and use applications as they evolve,” said Cohn.
2. Determine Use Cases and Restrictions
Legal leaders should gain an understanding of how generative AI could be used throughout the business by collaborating with other functional leaders.
This can be accomplished by compiling a list of use cases and organise them according to perceived risk — both the likelihood and severity of the risk.
For higher risk situations (e.g., producing content for customer consumption), consider applying more comprehensive controls, such as requiring approval from a manager or AI committee.
In the highest-risk cases, legal leaders may consider outright prohibition. For lower risk use cases (e.g., translating or transcribing), they may consider applying basic safeguards such as requiring human review.
“General counsel should not be overly restrictive when crafting policy,” Cohn said. “Banning use of these applications outright, or applying hard controls, such as restricting access to websites, may result in employees simply using them on their personal devices.
“Leaders can consider defining low risk, acceptable use cases directly into policy, as well as employee obligations and restrictions on certain uses, to provide more clarity and reduce the risk of misuse.”
3. Agree on Decision Rights and Risk Ownership
It’s imperative that general counsel and executive leadership agree on who has the authority to make decisions on generative AI use cases. Legal teams should work with functional, business, and senior leadership stakeholders to align on risk ownership and review duties.
“Document the enterprise unit that governs the use of AI so that employees know to whom they should reach out with questions,” Cohn said.
“General counsel must be clear if there are uses that do not need approval, specify what they are directly in the policy, and provide examples. For use cases that need approval, inform employees what they are, clearly document the role that can provide approval, and list that role’s contact information.”
4. Decide on Disclosures
Organisations should also have a policy of disclosing the use and monitoring of generative AI technologies on both internal and external stakeholders.
General counsel should help companies consider what information needs to be disclosed and with whom it should be shared with.
“A critical tenet common across global jurisdictions (including the standard-setting EU) is that companies should be transparent about their use of AI. Consumers want to know if companies are using generative AI applications to craft corporate messages, whether the information appears on a public website, social channel, or app,” said Cohn.
“This means general counsel should require employees to make sure the GenAI-influenced output is recognizable as machine generated by clearly labeling text. Organizations also may consider including a provision to place watermarks in AI-generated images to the extent technically feasible,” Cohn concluded.
A report published today by global software and cloud solutions provider SoftwareOne Holding AG, shows that 98% of organisations globally are facing a cloud skills gap.
This is causing digital transformation projects to fall behind by an average of five months, with one-third of businesses claiming their financial objectives will take a significant hit as a result.
The SoftwareOne Cloud Skills Survey canvassed the opinions of 500 IT decision-makers (ITDMs) from the UK, Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg), North America, and Australia to understand how the cloud-skills shortage is impacting IT teams and how they plan to combat it in 2024.
Almost all (95%) of the IT decision-makers believe their team has been negatively impacted by the cloud skills gap, while nearly two-thirds (62%) report having their workload increase in the last 12 months.
When looking at how the cloud skills gap had impacted the teams’ work, the survey found that vital areas were being missed. 43% of respondents noted their organisations have struggled to keep up to date with security and compliance.
Further, two fifths (41%)have had application performance issues and outages, and 38% have missed KPIs on delivering new innovations to the business. One third even said they had to restrict their use of the cloud altogether.
When looking to the future, the IT-decision makers were confident that the cloud skills gap within their organisation would improve in the years to come, with 87% saying they believe it will get better in the next five years.
In the interim, the survey respondents view investing in cloud managed services as the key to success.
Almost all (93%) respondents agree that investing in cloud-managed services will be a priority in the next 12 months, with respondents also claiming that investing in cloud-managed services could increase productivity globally by as much as 156%.
“For companies who want to accelerate their digital transformation, closing the cloud skills gap is critical. We have seen our clients innovate faster through cloud and application mastery while reducing their risk profile,” stated Craig Thomson, senior vice president, cloud & application services, SoftwareOne.
“Our research into the cloud skills gap shows how much is at stake. The majority of organisations see cloud managed services as a crucial way to bridge the gap, with the option of scaling back these resources as they build their own internal capabilities for the future,” added Thomson.
Worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 20.4% to total £554.5 billion in 2024, up from £460.1 billion in 2023, according to the latest Gartner, Inc. forecast.
“Cloud has become essentially indispensable,” said Sid Nag, Vice President Analyst at Gartner. “However, that doesn’t mean cloud innovation can stop or even slow. The tables are turning for cloud providers as cloud models no longer drive business outcomes, but rather, business outcomes shape cloud models.”
“For example, organizations deploying generative AI (GenAI) services will look to the public cloud, given the scale of the infrastructure required,” said Nag. “However, to deploy GenAI effectively, these organizations will require cloud providers to address nontechnical issues related to cost, economics, sovereignty, privacy and sustainability. Hyperscalers that support these needs will be able to capture a brand-new revenue opportunity as GenAI adoption grows.”
All segments of the cloud market are expected to see growth in 2024. Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is forecast to experience the highest end-user spending growth in 2024 at 26.6%, followed by platform-as-a-service (Paas) at 21.5%
Another key trend driving cloud spending is the continued rise of industry cloud platforms. Industry cloud platforms address industry-relevant business outcomes by combining underlying software-as-a-service (SaaS), PaaS and IaaS services into a whole-product offering with composable capabilities.
Gartner predicts that by 2027, more than 70% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate their business initiatives, up from less than 15% in 2023.
“GenAI adoption will also support the growth in industry cloud platforms,” said Nag. “GenAI models that are applicable across diverse industry verticals might require significant customization, affecting scalability and cost-effectiveness.
“Public cloud providers can position themselves as partners in the responsible and tailored adoption of GenAI by building on the same approaches applied to industry clouds, sovereign clouds and distributed clouds.”
Cybersecurity chiefs are encouraging Black Friday bargain hunters to increase their vigilance this shopping season as online fraudsters are likely to use artificial intelligence (AI) to increase the perceived legitimacy of their scams.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – which is part of the UK’s intelligence agency GCHQ – is warning that cyber criminals are likely to use AI technology such as large language models to produce more convincing scam emails fake adverts, and bogus websites.
While AI offers huge opportunities for societal advancements, it can also be exploited by fraudsters to help them produce accurate and professional looking content intended to dupe victims into giving away their financial details or download malware on an increasingly large scale.
The warning comes as new data from Revealing Reality/Yonder found that 72% of British people are worried that new technology such as AI will make it easier for criminals to commit online fraud.
Previously, scams could often be identified by features such as poor grammar or spelling, coming from an unusual email address, or feature imagery or design that feels ‘off’, the NCSC says. But while AI might generate more polished communication in phishing attempts, many of the typical hallmarks of a scam remain the same.
Typical tell-tale signs of a scam include messages of urgency and scarcity.
Criminals will often threaten that shoppers only have a limited time to respond to get a deal, or that something on offer is in short supply, encouraging them to make rash decisions.
Current events, such as Black Friday, are also often exploited by criminals to make their scams seem more relevant to to hit more people.
Shoppers are also being reminded that while scams are increasingly convincing, it is even more important to have basic security measures in place when it comes to email security, including switching on two-step verification and having strong passwords.
“As we enter the Black Friday and festive shopping period, online shoppers will naturally be on the lookout for bargain buys,” Felicity Oswald, NCSC chief operating officer, said.
“Regrettably, cyber-criminals view this time of year as an opportunity to scam people out of their hard-earned cash, and the increased availability and capability of technology like large language models is making scams more convincing.
“I would urge shoppers to follow the steps in our online shopping guidance, which includes setting up two-step verification and using passwords with three random words, so they’re easier to remember and harder to hack.”
The warning comes as new data published by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), which is run by the City of London Police, revealed that British people lost £10.6 million to online scammers between November 2022 and January 2023 – which each victim losing £639 on average.
The figures, which come from the reports made to Action Fraud and analysed by the NFIB, revealed that over half of reports (51%) mentioned one social media account, showing that social media platforms are by far the most likely medium for shopping and auction fraud to take place.
The figures also revealed that the age group most likely to fall victim to a scam were 25-34 year olds, closely followed by the 35-44 and 18-24 age groups.
“We know that because of the rising cost of living, people are looking to try and get the most from their money and save where they can. This year’s festive season will no doubt add pressure on people at an already expensive time of year,” Pauline Smith, head of Action Fraud said.
“With retailers already slashing prices for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, it is easy to rush into making a purchase to try and grab a bargain. But don’t forget, criminals still operate at this time of year and will do anything they can to try and get you to part with your money.
Make sure you know where and who you are buying from. While our figures show that people aged 25-34 years old are most likely to fall victim to an online shopping scam, fraud can affect anyone of any age. Be alert when using social media to purchase items as more than half of people who reported online shopping fraud to Action Fraud encountered a problem on these sites.
“Where possible, use a credit card when shopping online as this will offer you more protection if anything goes wrong, and follow our practical advice to help you shop online safely.”
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which reinforces their common mission to uphold individuals’ data protection and privacy rights, and cooperate internationally to achieve this goal.
The MoU builds on the strong collaboration already established in other forums that both authorities mutually participate in, such as the Global Privacy Assembly and the G7 Data Protection Authorities Roundtable.
Setting out how the authorities will continue to share experiences and best practices, the MoU will ensure they cooperate on projects of interest, share information or intelligence to support their regulatory work, and promote dialogue among data protection authorities and other digital regulators.
“Today’s MoU formalises the existing and ongoing collaboration between my office and the EDPS,” The UK information commissioner John Edwards said. “We’ll continue to work together both bilaterally, and in other international groups, to find pragmatic solutions to ensure that organisations are supported and aware of their data protection, while upholding people’s information rights.”
Importantly, the MoU will not involve the sharing of personal data and claims to be in line with the ICO’s legal responsibilities.
In joint investigations, the two organisations will be able to share with each other some information as long as they follow appropriate confidentially and security measures.
The MoU follows years of severing ties between the UK and the EU in terms of data laws. In 2018, the UK officially set out its own UK GDPR, changing their data protection regulations to fall under the jurisdiction of the ICO rather than the EU’s data protection authority.
Still yet to be formalised, the UK has been working on further distancing itself from GDPR, with its draft Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, which is set to dramatically change data protection laws in the UK.
“This MoU aims to further strengthen the EDPS and ICO’s joint commitment to ensure a consistent and coherent approach to the protection of individuals’ rights to privacy and data protection,” Wojciech Wiewiórowski, European Data Protection Supervisor said. “This document maps out concretely how both of our authorities, with our respective experiences and knowledge, plan to prioritise individuals’ fundamental rights across the EU and the UK.”
The University of Edinburgh is launching a new multi-million pound initiative set to push towards the forefront of generative AI (genAI) to benefit society and stimulate economic growth.
The Generative AI Laboratory (GAIL) will unite the University’s research and innovation in AI to develop safe solutions and systems for industry and government and bring substantial benefits to those who use them.
“GAIL builds on world-class research at the School of Informatics in AI and machine learning, which has been applied to a variety of fields such as healthcare, fintech and sustainability,” Professor Helen Hastie said, head of the school of informatics at the University.
“The School is well placed to be an anchor for the GAIL cross-disciplinary research and development, by forging key collaborations within the University and with external partners and policymakers.”
GenAI, explained briefly, is a type of machine learning that can be used to generate various types of content including text, images, video and computer code.
GenAI is not auditable or explainable, and can create results that are not repeatable, meaning it can be unpredictable and difficult to study or manage, raising many questions abouts its ethical and safe applications.
Despite these concerns, progress in this type of AI has been swift in recent months and genAI has already transformed business operations, increasing productivity and enhancing areas of academic study.
Experts at GAIL are set to work in partnership with the University’s Centre for Technomoral Futures to take a fresh look at the ethical, legal, and regulatory frameworks necessary to ensure the safe and responsible use of AI.
The initiative aims to develop techniques for generative AI in key areas such as robotics, drug discovery, medical diagnoses, semi-conductor development, and tackling climate change.
Edinburgh’s deep-rooted partnerships with public and private sector institutions are meant to strengthen this project, as well as benefit from the innovative uses of generative AI that GAIL will create.
Further to this, the UK Government also announced that Edinburgh will host a trio of AI training centres from UKRI, including one in biomedical innovation, one in language processing, and one in robotics.
“Edinburgh is uniquely placed to provide world-class leadership and expertise around generative AI,” professor Iain Gordon said, the vice principle and head of the college of science and engineering at the University of Edinburgh. “Once operational, this exciting initiative will create a new pipeline of talent with the skills to both benefit from and shape the economic and societal benefits of this transformational technology.”
Two-family-run Edinburgh care homes are at the leading-edge of artificial intelligence (AI) – having implemented new technology that assess tiny changes in expressions to understand residents’ pain and comfort levels.
One of Scotland’s top rated care home groups, Elder Homes Ltd, has adopted PainChek’s AI technology across its two Edinburgh care homes to assist staff in assessing pain levels for its 90+ residents.
PainChek uses AI facial recognition to analyse facial expression from a smart device’s camera. It detects pain indicators like grimaces and winces and guides caregivers through observing other pain behaviours like vocalisations and movements in resulting in an overall pain score to help monitor the effectiveness of pain management over time.
The app aims to improve the quality of life for those with cognitive difficulties who may struggle to communicate their discomfort, such as people living with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Residents and staff at Elder Homes have been using the app since July 2022, which has resulted in better pain detection and treatment, reduced reliance on pain medication, as well as more accurate treatment plans.
Cheryl Henderson, education and dementia coordinator at Elder Homes has been spearheading the implementation of PainChek, while ensuring relevant members of staff are trained to care for residents diagnosed with dementia.
Commenting on PainChek, she said: “Treating our residents with dignity is one of our key aims. We want to ensure all residents feel at home, whilst receiving the highest standard of care.
“Using this technology, and other technologies across our homes has been extremely rewarding. We’re excited to see how the use of technology continues to develop and the benefits it can bring to care home residents across Scotland.”
The care home also utilises other innovative technologies including electronic medication system which assist monitoring medication given to residents, and electronic charting.
PainChek is currently being used in 18 care homes across Scotland, as well as forming a pillar of the Care Inspectorate’s Quality Improvement Plan which sees a further 15 care homes trialling the tech.
PainChek’s head of business development UK&I Tandeep Gill said: “Our latest figures reflect the value and impact of the PainChek technology in UK care homes and worldwide.
“Reaching over three million pain assessments is a real milestone for us – each one brings more objectivity and consistency to evaluating pain, whilst making a difference to care home residents and enhancing their quality of life.
“We’re delighted to see staff at Elder Homes leading the way in adopting PainChek and embracing innovation to improve pain assessment and deliver person-centered care.
“By achieving positive outcomes for care home residents and the care staff involved in the Care Inspectorate trial, we hope to gain the opportunity for a broader government-funded rollout across Scotland.”
As laid out in the Act, Ofcom is now exercising its newfound powers in the tech sphere, detailing the duties social media, gaming, pornography, search and sharing sites follow.
Ofcom says its role will be to force these tech firms to tackle the “causes” of online harm, by making their services “fundamentally” safer.
The regulator, however, will not be making decisions about individual content posts or accounts, or responding to individual complaints about illegal or harmful content.
Instead, tech firms will be required to assess the risks of users being harmed by illegal content on their platform, and take appropriate steps to protect users from it.
There will be particular focus on “priority offences” set out in the legislation, such as child abuse, grooming, and encouraging suicide – but it could be any illegal content.
“Regulation is here, and we’re wasting no time in setting out how we expect tech firms to protect people from illegal harm online, while upholding freedom of expression,” Dame Melanie Dawes, chief executive of Ofcom said.
“Children have told us about the dangers they face, and we’re determined to create a safer life online for young people in particular.”
Combatting Child Sexual Abuse and Grooming
Protecting children will be its first priority, the regulator says.
Scattergun friend requests are frequently used by adults looking to groom children for the purposes of sexual abuse, and Ofcom’s new report sets out the scale of and nature children’s online experiences of potentially unwanted and inappropriate contact online.
Three in five secondary-school-aged children (11-18 years) have been contacted online in a way that potentially made them feel uncomfortable.
This includes over one in ten (13%) children who have been sent pictures or videos of naked or half-dressed people, and 10% who have ever been asked to share these types of pictures or videos themselves.
For 11-13-year-olds, these figures drop only to still significant 6% and 4% respectively.
But children are already protecting themselves online to keep these numbers down, with 30% receiving an unwanted friend or follow request.
“Our figures show that most secondary-school children have been contacted online in a way that potentially makes them feel uncomfortable. For many, it happens repeatedly,” Dame Melanie said.
“If these unwanted approaches occurred so often in the outside world, most parents would hardly want their children to leave the house. Yet somehow, in the online space, they have become almost routine. That cannot continue.”
The range and diversity of services within the scope of Ofcom’s regulatory powers means that it is not taking a one-size-fits-all approach.
Instead, Ofcom has proposed some measures for all services in scope, and other measures that depend on the risks the service has identified in its illegal content risk assessment and the size of the service.
Larger and higher-risk services should ensure by default:
Children are not presented with lists of suggested friends
Children do not appear in other users’ lists of suggested friends
Children are not visible in other users’ connection lists
Children’s connection lists are not visible to other users
Accounts outside a child’s connection list cannot send them direct messages
Children’s location information is not visible to any other users
Further, Ofcom is proposing that larger and higher-risk services should use a technology called ‘hash matching’ – which is a way of identifying illegal images of child sexual abuse by matching them to a database of illegal images, to help detect and remove child sexual abuse material circulating online.
In conjunction with this, they should also use automated tools to detect URLs that have been identified as hosting CSAM.
To combat the risks of suicide, all large general search services should provide crisis prevention information in response to search requests regarding suicide and queries seeking specific, practical, or instructive information regarding suicide methods.
Fighting Fraud and Terrorism
Ofcom’s draft Code of Practice also proposes targeted steps to combat fraud and terrorism.
Among the measures for large higher-risk services include automatic detection of keywords for stolen credential sales to mitigate fraud, and verifying accounts to reduce the risk of fraudulent accounts reaching more people.
To battle terrorism, all services should block accounts run by proscribed terrorist organisations. These are, assumedly, terrorist organisations that are deemed so by the UK government.
More broadly, Ofcom is proposing a core list of measures that services can adopt to mitigate the risk of all types of illegal harm, including naming a person accountable for compliance and creating teams to tackle harmful content.
Further, Ofcom is tasking large tech companies to make it easier for users to report harmful content and block users, as well as creating safety tests for their recommender algorithms to ensure they are not disseminating illegal content
Next Steps
Following these initial steps, Ofcom will soon release guidance on how adult sites should comply with their duty to ensure children cannot access pornographic content.
In Spring 2024, the regulator will publish a consultation on additional protections for children, from harmful content promoting suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, and cyberbullying, among other things.
New research into the venture capital (VC) landscape has revealed an extensive gender gap in capital and funding, resulting in a trickle down effect on female-led businesses seeking funding from male-dominated VCs.
According to research from Docsend, all-men-owned management companies raised about ten times more capital and eight times more funds than all-women-owned management companies between 2017-2023.
All-male owned companies also raised 4.5 times more capital than mixed-ownership management companies as well.
The report claims to be the first of its kind to investigate where limited partner (LP) capital has been invested within the last five years, to determine if there were gender discrepancies in where the majority of LP is directed.
Other studies have highlighted the discrepancies of VC funding arriving to male vs female-led companies, but this takes an internal look at VCs themselves, their company demographics, and how this may affect the amount of LP capital they receive, which can have a trickle down affect on further gender gaps in funding.
Only 38% of the total VC workforce are women, the report found, but broken down further, this drops to only 22% with a leadership title.
In fact, women actually make up the majority of non-investment roles in VC funds, at 81%, but drop to 56% and then 45% in junior and mid-level titles respectively.
In senior positions, there is a 60-40 split between men and women, with women dropping to 22% in leadership roles but rising to 27% in advisory roles.
Despite holding titles that may suggest ownership, only 17.7% of individuals with significant ownership of VC firms are women as well, showing an even starker gender gap.
In terms of how this affects funding, the picture seems clear: of the over $6.6bn raised, just 7p for every pound raised goes to all women-owned management companies, and only 17p per pound goes to mixed-ownership VCs.
Women led, and even women-involved VCs, are receiving less LP money, which is potentially trickling down to startups and small businesses seeing VC investment.
Last year, women-founded tech companies only raised 15% of total VC funding going to tech in the UK, and according to the Rose Review 2023, less than 1% of total VC funding UK-wide went to all-women teams.
The ownership of VC firms also plays into the overall gender balance of the company – at senior and leadership levels, mixed-led and all-female funds consistently get a higher percentage of female representation than their all-male counterparts.
“If we want to have a diverse ecosystem for founders we need more Limited Partners investing more of their capital into a more diverse group of fund managers,” Karariina Helaniemi, head of impact at Illusian Group Oy, said. “This report clearly shows the impact that diversity at the decision-making level has on the underlying companies that get funded.”
The report outlined some very basic recommendations that are often also referred to for VCs themselves, including encouraging LPs to diversify their pipelines and implement gender pay bench markers.
Further, it advices that LPs should sign up to the Investing in Women Code and make concrete commitments to invest in more women-led companies.
In addition, DocSend also calls on government agencies including the FCA, Treasury, and the Department for Business and Trade to promote targets for diverse funding and create intervention to address the lack of diversity in LP funding.
Update 11:54 am: DIGIT can now confirm that Police Scotland has been involved and it is an active case, with further updates to be provided later today, a spokesperson revealed.
Last night, the Western Isles Council, or Comhairle nan Eilean, website went down due to an ongoing incident which disrupted its IT system.
The incident is now being reported as a potential ransomware attack on the Western Isles Council system, though this has yet to be confirmed by the Council itself.
Further, while the Council has confirmed to DIGIT that they have involved Police Scotland, the BCC has reported that Dell, the computer company, has also been engaged to help the Council in the ongoing situation.
“The comment I can provide is that we are engaging with Scottish government and police Scotland and taking preventative advice. Our priority continues to be to restore and secure data,” a spokesperson said, though DIGIT is expecting further updates.
As 6:31 pm, the Western Isles Council posted on X that their IT system had “been affected by an incident which has caused significant disruption.”
The Western Isles Council represents the Na h-Eileanan an Iar constituency which was formerly known as the Western Isles, and consists of the Outer Hebrides, a set of Scottish Isles including Lewis and Harris, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, and Barra.
Disruption to Comhairle IT System
Access to Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s IT system has been affected by an incident which has caused significant disruption.
Currently, the council has yet to disclose what has caused the disruption, and it remains to be seen if it was an internal IT system error or caused by external threats.
“The current priority is to restore and secure data and ensure the continued delivery of services to those in our communities who need them most. Work is underway to redirect public phone numbers which will allow key services to be contacted,” the X post thread continued.
The Council also confirmed that it engaged the Scottish Government and “professional advice” to “establish the root cause of the incident and identify necessary actions.
DIGIT reached out to the Western Isles Council for comment on the incident and is currently waiting to hear back.
William Wright, CEO of Closed Door Security, a cybersecurity company in the Western Isles, said: “The council’s website is currently down, and only vague information is available into what has happened, but this does look like a ransomware attack from the outside. Being so close to home, we’re on hand to help the council should they require it.
“The incident highlights that all organisations are a target for criminals, even councils in remote locations in Scotland. They don’t always go after the biggest organisations; small and relatively unknown organisations are just as lucrative, and they often don’t benefit from big security budgets to keep determined attackers out of their networks. This is reminiscent of the SEPA ransomware attack and could potentially have a similar timeline, bringing many vital services to a standstill for a prolonged period of time.
“The incident is another reminder of the importance of proactive defences against ransomware – reaction is not the goal.
“When it comes to defences, organisations must focus on a layered strategy, which includes running proactive security assessments to find and close exploitable bugs, training employees on attack techniques, and having the ability to segment the network, so even when unauthorised intruders do break in, they can’t travel.”
Jude McCorry, CEO of Cyber and Fraud Centre- Scotland, said: “Data breaches can be caused by many factors, and one of the most common causes is cyber attack. This impacts organisations large and small, as well as affecting individuals. If any organisations in Scotland need support to mitigate the impacts of an attack, our free Incident Response helpline is available on 0800 167 0623. ”
Only 26% of retail organisations this past year were able to disrupt a ransomware attack before their data was encrypted, according to new research from Sophos.
The cybersecurity as a service firm released their The State of Ransomware in Retail 2023 which revealed the three-year low for the retail sector — a decline from 34% in 2021 and 28% in 2022 — suggesting the sector is increasingly unable to halt ransomware attacks already in progress.
“Retailers are losing ground in the battle against ransomware. Ransomware criminals have been encrypting increasingly greater percentages of their retail victims in the last three years, as evidenced by the steadily declining rate of retailers stopping cybercriminal attacks in progress. Retailers must up their defensive game by setting up security that detects and responds to intrusions earlier in the attack chain,” said Chester Wisniewski, director, global field CTO, Sophos.
In addition, the report found that, for those retail organisations that paid the ransom, their median recovery costs (not including the ransom payment) were four times the recovery costs of those that used backups to recover their data ($3,000,000 versus $750,000).
“Forty-three precent of retail victims paid the ransom according to our survey respondents, yet the median recovery cost to victims who paid the ransom was four times the cost to those who used backups and other recovery methods. There are no shortcuts in these situations and rebuilding systems is almost always required. It’s better to deprive the criminals of their spoils and build back better,” said Wisniewski.
Despite suffering financially from ransomware, the number of retail organisations attacked by ransomware dropped this year, from 77% to 69%.
However, in line with a broader, cross-sector trend, the retail sector experienced its highest rate of encryption over the past three years, with 71% of those organisations targeted by ransomware stating that attackers successfully encrypted their data.
Further, retail organisations are taking longer to recover from attacks, with the percentage of organisations recovering in less than a day decreasing from 15% to 9%, and the percentage of organisation taking more than a month to recover increased from 17% to 21%.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and the emergence of generative AI (GenAI) are already shifting how humans and machines interact, resulting in two key focus area CIOs must take seriously as AI becomes an enterprise, not just an IT, initiative, according to Gartner, Inc.
“GenAI is not just a technology or just a business trend. It is a profound shift in how humans and machines interact,” said Mary Mesaglio, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner. “We are moving from what machines can do for us to what machines can be for us.”
“Machines are evolving from being our tools to becoming our teammates,” said Gabriela Vogel, senior director analyst, at Gartner. “Gartner predicts that by 2025, GenAI will be a workforce partner for 90% of companies worldwide.”
Vogel added that CIOs have a major role in how they shape AI and how AI continues to shape us. CEOs are therefore looking to CIOs as their number one choice to unlock the value of GenAI.
Gartner identified two major frameworks CEOs and CIOs must prioritise over the next one to two years in order to fully unleash and harness the potential of AI: deciding their AI ambition, and becoming AI-ready.
Deciding Your AI Ambition
According to Gartner, there are two ‘flavours’ of AI CIOs should be mastering over the next two years: everyday AI, and game-changing AI.
Everyday AI is focused primarily on productivity: machines should be a productivity partner, enabling workers to do what they already do faster and more efficiently.
Currently, 75% of EMEA CIOs and technology leaders are focused on the opportunities of everyday AI. “It is important to note that everyday AI will go from dazzling to ordinary with outrageous speed,” said Mesaglio. “Everyone will have access to the same tools, and it will not provide a sustainable competitive advantage. Everyday AI is the new table stakes.”
Meanwhile, game-changing AI is focused on creativity.
“It doesn’t just make us faster or better. Either it creates new results, via AI-enabled products and services; or it creates new ways to create new results, such as with AI-enabled new core capabilities. With game-changing AI, machines will disrupt business models and entire industries,” said Mesaglio.
“More and more AI will be jointly delivered by IT and the wider enterprise,” said Vogel. “To succeed, the whole executive team must be engaged. This provides a tremendous opportunity for CIOs to make a difference.”
CIOs can help their CEO and CxO peers cut through AI complexity and define their organization’s AI ambition by examining the opportunities and risks of using GenAI in four areas: the back office, the front office, new products and services, and new core capabilities.
Being AI-Ready
As AI continues transforming the relationship between humans and machines, CIOs must actively shape the nature of this change. In this new era of human-machine interaction, there will be many unforeseen consequences.
“A technology decision is not just a technology decision anymore. It is a technology, economic, social and ethical decision all at once,” said Mesaglio. “To navigate decisions about AI in their organization, CIOs and IT leaders need lighthouse principles — a vision for AI that lights the way and says what kind of human-machine relationships they will and will not accept.”
Despite these sentiments, few organisations have yet to establish lighthouse principles or even a clear vision for AI.
A Gartner survey in June 2023 of 606 CIOs and technology leaders found that only 9% of organisations have an AI vision statement in place, and more than one-third of respondents had no plans to create an AI vision statement.
To facilitate swift and safe AI adoption in the next 12 months, Gartner is advising organisations to do three things:
Establish AI-ready principles: Lighthouse principles must align with the values of the organisation. The organisation’s values must be the guiding light for navigating the unknowns of how humans and machines will interact.
Make data AI-ready: For data to be AI-ready, it must meet five criteria. It is secure, enriched, fair, accurate, and is governed by the lighthouse principles.
Implement AI-ready security: For every positive use of AI, someone is putting that same technology to negative use. This is the “dark side” of AI, Gartner says. CIOs should prepare for new attack vectors and work with the executive team to create an acceptable use policy for public generative AI solutions.
“The era of AI-powered business will lead to unintended consequences without advance planning. CIOs need a way to light the way forward, even when everything seems new or murky,” said Mesaglio.
“To safely harness this disruption, CIOs must work with executive leaders to define their ambitions for using everyday AI and game-changing AI, and to establish AI-ready principles, data and security.”
Over four million game-related desktop infection attempts were detected by Kaspersky between July 2022 and July 2023, displaying the severity of video game cybersecurity issues.
Gaming is increasingly popular, with two in five people across the globe participating in some form of video gaming, a year-on-year increase of 6.3%, according to Newzoo.
With gaming revenue already at $242.39 billion globally – with expectations it will double – it is no wonder threat actors are targeting the popular and lucrative online video game sphere for malware and phishing attempts.
As new games are released and old ones maintain their grip on gamers, threat actors can use popular titles as a malicious lure to their malware campaigns.
As nearly a quarter of gamers were under age in 2022, they can often be easier prey for attackers.
Kaspersky investigated the state of cybersecurity in gaming, and revealed some shocking trends in just how targeted the industry is for attacks.
To delve into this world, Kaspersky’s report researched attacks involving active malware families, and threats disguised as popular games, cheat codes, or mods. Further, the research firm investigated phishing pages using some of the most popular video game titles for both mobile and desktop usage.
Desktop Findings
From the over four million desktop infection attempts, around 192,456 gamers were affected worldwide.
Kaspersky found that downloaders (89.7%) were the most common threat, followed by Adware (5.25%), and Trojans (2.39%).
Essentially, downloaders look like harmless, normal programmes, but are designed to find and install malware onto devices, and were the most popular method by far used on gamers.
Adware involves the use of pop-up adds to either collect user date, or lead users to infected URLs or download infected malware.
Trojans, on the other hand, once installed allow threat actors to perform all administrative attacks a user would typically only have access to.
Of the 14 games chosen for the research, Minecraft was the most targeted by far, making up nearly three quarters (70.29%) of attacks.
The game has over 160 million actively monthly users in 2023, and is one of the most popular games in the world. The average user of Minecraft is a 24 year old male, but the game has players as young as three years old.
Roblox was targeted in 20.37% of alerts, followed by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (4.78%), PUBG (2.85%), Hogwarts Legacy (0.60%), GOTA (0.45%) and League of Legends (0.31%).
Mobile Findings
Minecraft remained at the top for most targeted mobile game, with 90.37% of attacks which impacted 80,128 players.
The most targeted country of mobile Minecraft gamers was Iran, with 140,482 alerts triggered.
PUBG: Battlegrounds Battle Royale was targeted in 5.06% of attacks, with mostly Russian players targeted.
In mobile gaming, Roblox had the third highest number of alerts (3.33%), but the second number of affected users. This is likely because a Trojan was deployed and distributed among players disguised as a mod.
The report also revealed trends in phishing, as video games tend to be a lucrative target for cyber-criminals.
As many games let users purchase and sell in-game items, gaming accounts with a good collection of these items are prime targets.
Threat actors often lure gamers in with free giveaways of these items, and require users logins to be inputted into the phishing site, which are then stolen.
Gamers are also having their social media credentials targeted as these are often used to log into gaming websites, or being tricked into paying for delivery fees for fake game-related prizes.
A new study revealed just how easily people can be tricked by AI-generated voices, with only one in 50 able to tell the difference.
A survey of over 1,000 residents in the US by cloud communications company, Ringover, has found that, initially, over three quarters (78.3%) of people were confident they could tell the difference between AI and human voices.
In reality, only 2% of those surveyed could correctly guess every AI voice tests given in the study, a dismal drop from their self-assured attitude.
Ringover conducted the survey in the US in response to Tom Hanks’ recent condemnation of a dental company using his voice and image through AI-generation. Deepfakes – the use of people’s images and voice to create pictures, video and audio with their likeness – has become a burgeoning issue thanks to recent AI advancements and has hit well-known celebrities in particular.
But even those out of the spotlight should be concerned by AI’s continued development in biometrics – AI-generated images and voices can be used to trump biometric security measures, putting people’s data, assets, and other personal information at risk.
The findings from Ringover’s survey are therefore concerning, showing just how accurate these AI-generated voices are becoming.
With around two-thirds (68.3%) of Americans beleiving their voice to be secure, it is important to check how easy it is to fake some of the most well-known voices in the country.
Guess Who -Celebrity Voice Edition
The study tested Americans on five well-known celebrity voices in the country, including media mogul Oprah Winfrey, former President Barak Obama, pop start Miley Cyrus, comedian Kevin Hart, and the UK’s Prince Harry.
While only 2% identified the fake AI voice from the real celebrity voice in all five instances, over a third (35.5%) were able to tell the difference between at least one celebrity voice and their AI clone.
Oprah Winfrey was the most easily spotted, with 42.7% guessing her real voice correctly, while Prince Harry – the only one with a non-American accent – proved to be the trickiest with just 28.5% correctly identifying his voice.
The age group which identified the voices most accurately were Gen X, aged 45-54, which identified the AI clones 22.9% of the time, with the lowest age group being millenials (25-34) at 12.8%. While those over 65 struggled, their sample size was too low to have statistical significance in the study.
The accuracy across the voices may also have to do with popularity and familiarity about the different celebrities, which can range with age as well.
“This study highlights the importance of how easy it can be for us to be tricked by AI,” Renaud Charvet, co-founder and CEO at Ringover, commented.
“Voice recognition software could pose a huge potential risk to businesses, and customers, being able to bypass security on phone banking by mimicking other people’s voices in order to obtain personal details and access accounts is really concerning.
“We would advise that you check with your friends and family if you receive out of the ordinary phone calls from them. If you think you’re being scammed, reach out to the person to check if it’s really them, and then block the number if you suspect any suspicious activity.
“Whilst this study was conducted listening to celebrity voices, it shows how accurate these pieces of software are at mimicking the voices of other, and how misleading they can be.”
Facebook and Amazon have both released concessions to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which accepted commitments from each company over their retail platforms: Facebook Marketplace and Amazon Marketplace.
Two separate investigations by the CMA lead to the commitments from each online retail platform to change their practices to ensure better and more fair market competition.
While the investigation lead to the commitments, they were given voluntarily by each company and do not necessarily mean any wrongdoing was exposed.
Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, said: “We welcome the constructive resolution of our concerns in a way that benefits people and businesses and expect to see more of this kind of resolution once the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill comes into force.”
Amazon Marketplace
Commitments secured from the CMA from Amazon are intended to ensure that third-party Marketplace sellers can compete on a level-playing field and that UK customers get access to the best deals.
Most sales on Amazon – everything from saucepans to cosmetics – take place through the ‘Buy Box’. By giving independent sellers that use the Marketplace a fair change of their offers being featured in the ‘Buy Box’, the commitments will help ensure that customers do not miss out on attractive product offers from alternative sellers.
In addition, Amazon will be prevented from using Marketplace data is obtains from third-party sellers to give itself an unfair competitive advantage and will allow sellers to negotiate their own delivery rates directly with independent providers of Prime delivery services.
These concerns were first brought up in the CMA 2022 investigation, which also looked into if Amazon was giving an unfair advantage to sellers that use its own warehousing and delivery services rather than rival logistics businesses.
Compliance with these commitments will be monitored by an independent trustee that will be approved by the CMA.
Meta has also signed commitments which will prevent the firm from exploiting its advertising customer’s data, which should ensure the protection of businesses and customers.
Without these measures in place, Meta risks having an unfair competitive advantage that could distort competition, the CMA argued.
Going forward, competitors of Facebook Marketplace that advertise on Meta platforms can ‘opt out’ of their data being used to improve Facebook Marketplace.
As well as giving competitors more autonomy over their ad data, Meta has also pledged to limit how it uses ad data when developing its products.
As a result, Meta cannot exploit advertising customer’s data to give itself an unfair advantage when competing with products or services sold by those advertising customers.
“We have accepted Amazon’s commitments as they help thousands of independent UK sellers to compete on a level playing field against Amazon’s own retail arm. This should also mean customers get access to the best product offers,” Ann Pope, senior director for antitrust enforcement at the CMA, said.
“The commitments secured from Meta mean the firm cannot exploit advertising customers’ data to give itself an unfair advantage – and as such distort competition.
“Having assessed the commitments and the feedback received, including from sellers, advertisers and customers, we believe both sets of commitments address the specific competition concerns we had here in the UK.”
Financial services firm Embark Group has launched the brand new Dundee Tech School, which intends to create a pipeline of high-value fintech and technology roles and inject fresh investment in the Dundee economy.
The facility is the latest part of a wider initiative, started in 2020, which aims to create 150 new jobs in Dundee.
The Dundee Tech School is situated within Embark’s West Marketgait office and has initially recruited 12 graduates and career changers into junior software developer roles.
Recruitment to the specialist positions is supported by an intensive eight-week training and development programme, in association with leading tech training organisation QA and Embark fintech specialists.
The Tech School will be led by engineering community lead, Rose Ulldemolins, who brings first-rate expertise and experience; having been on an almost identical career trajectory as the participants. Rose will work alongside the Embark Engineering Team to design, develop, and implement the internal training programme.
The school, which is also being supported by Scottish Enterprise, aims to play a leading role in solving the acute skills and recruitment challenge for technology business nationwide.
With its people-first approach, this initiative aims to frontload essential learning, empowering students to develop their confidence, and commercial productivity within six months.
Seeing as one in ten new job openings in the UK are now technology related, Embark’s tech school aims to help fill the gap in training for graduates and new starters interested in a career in technology in Dundee.
The programme provides participants with a permanent role and a salary from the very start of their employment. It is designed to plug participants into the Embark business in Dundee for the long term, rapidly providing them with the skills necessary to excel in a career in technology.
Embark became a part of Lloyds Banking Group in 2022, and founding The Dundee Tech school is part of the company’s Helping Britain Prosper corporate purpose.
“Dundee is world renowned as a centre of excellence for digital skills and innovation, so it makes perfect sense for us to nurture future talent right here in the city,” Jackie Leiper, CEO of Embark Group, said.
“I’m really excited about launching Embark’s first school dedicated to bringing more young people into fintech roles, which will increase the digital skills base in the local economy. For companies like ours to grow and provide customers with first class digital services it’s essential we have a pipeline of talented and skilled software developers, so I’m looking forward to inducting our first intake of students in a few weeks’ time.”
Mark Newlands, Interim Director of Global Investment at Scottish Enterprise, added: “We’re very happy to continue our long-standing support for Embark with the establishment of its Dundee Tech School.
“The facility will help ensure future employees have the right skills for the role, by providing them with the latest expertise and knowledge to support Scotland’s dynamic and growing fintech sector. This project is also an example of partnership at its best, with business and the public sector working together to support high value employment in the local area.”
Thousands of homes are set to be heated in a UK first, using waste heat from nearby data centres, thanks to a share of nearly £65 million of government funding for five green heating projects across the country.
The Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation across four London boroughs will be the first of its kind to recycle waste heat from large computer systems storing internet data to supply heating for the local community.
The heat network, backed by £36m in government support, will connect 10,000 new homes and 250,000 square meters of commercial space to a low-carbon energy source that will help keep bills low and contribute to the UK’s drive to reach net zero by 2050.
It is one of five innovative green heating projects in London, Watford, Suffolk and Lancaster allocated grants from the Green Heat Network Fund. Together they are expected to create thousands of skilled jobs as part of the government’s aim to grow the economy.
One of these successful projects will see Lancaster University fully decarbonise its campus, by receiving over £21 million in support for a new low-carbon heat network. The heat network will supply heat to the university campus using a large heat pump, powered by a new solar farm and existing wind turbine.
“Innovative projects, like these announced today, are another example of why the UK is a world leader in cutting carbon emissions,” energy security secretary Claire Coutinho said.
“We are investing in the technologies of the future so that families across the country will now be able to warm their homes with low-carbon, recycled heat – while creating thousands of new skilled jobs.”
Heat networks supply heating and hot water to homes and businesses via heat pumps or sources from underground, manufacturing, and waste management.
They help cut carbon emissions by supplying heat to multiple buildings from a central source, avoiding the need for households and workplaces to rely on individual energy-intensive heating solutions, such as gas boilers.
The transition to heat networks forms a major part of the UK’s carbon reduction commitment, with heating in buildings making up 30% of all UK emissions.
Today’s round of funding comes on top of £122 million already awarded to support 11 new heat network projects across the country, under the government’s Green Heat Network Fund.
“Keeping homes warm with waste heat from technology is a glimpse into the future – and demonstrates just how innovative this country can be when it comes to reducing our carbon emissions,” Lord Callanan, minister for energy efficiency and green finance, said.
“The £65 million we’ve awarded today will help spread this success across the country, by rolling out innovative low-carbon heating to help to drive down energy bills and deliver our net zero goal.”
Equal Pay Day serves as a timely reminder that even in the lucrative tech industry, women are still paid less than their male counterparts.
Currently, the gender pay gap stands at 14.9% in the UK across industry. Women make up about 22% of the workforce in tech, but are underrepresented at senior and higher roles, meaning the gender divide in tech is only adding to these issues.
Areej AbuAli, founder of Women in Tech SEO, a global community of women meant to create a safe space for marginalised people in the tech industry, has therefore provided seven actionable steps employers can take to commit to gender pay equity while fostering a more inclusive environment for all employees.
The Seven Steps for Pay Equality
1. Transparent Pay Structures
Employers should develop comprehensive and accessible pay structures that clearly define how salaries are calculated, whilst taking into account a person’s experience, performance metrics, and (if relevant) qualifications.
Being transparent about this structure and updating it on a bi-annual basis will help build trust and accountability within an organisation, whilst also allowing employees to know where they stand within these pay brackets.
2. Regular Pay Audits
Relevant teams should also conduct bi-annual pay audits, breaking down data by gender, job roles, and organisational levels.
This data-driven approach enables the swift identification and resolution of gender-based wage disparities which can then be acted on.
3. Mentorship for Progression
Whether implemented internally or through external networks, mentorship programmes offer women opportunities to connect with influential senior leaders who passionately champion their career development. By connecting with accomplished mentors, women not only acquire knowledge and skills but also gain the confidence to assert themselves in their chosen fields – therefore, allowing them to enter higher-paid roles.
Mentorship also fosters a culture of support within organisations. It shows a commitment to developing female talent, which, in turn, boosts retention rates and enhances the organisation’s reputation as an employer that values diversity and equal career opportunities.
4. Unconcious bias training
Many companies are unaware of their unconscious biases which can affect decision-making processes and career opportunities for women.
Training specifically aimed at addressing these biases, such as Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) training, is essential. It raises awareness among employees and leaders about the existence of bias and its consequences which can impact promotions, pay rises and career advancement opportunities.
5. Flexible working and family-friendly policies
The introduction of flexible working policies empowers those who are working parents and caregivers to balance their professional and personal work lives effectively. This initiative acknowledges that employees have diverse needs and responsibilities outside of their workplace, whilst striving to accommodate those needs while maintaining productivity and efficiency.
6. Offer Training and Workshops – Exclusively for Women
By offering training and development opportunities exclusively for women, employers demonstrate their commitment to promoting gender equality. These initiatives address the gender pay gap by empowering women with the skills and knowledge needed to excel in their careers, ultimately closing the earnings disparity.
Employers should also consider holistic workshops addressing female-specific challenges, such as education and training on menopause support, reproductive health, and more. This helps women manage these challenges whilst still managing to advance in their careers.
7. Budgets for Training and Conference Participation
Employers should also encourage women’s participation in conferences and industry events. These opportunities provide employees with exposure to the latest industry trends, technologies, and best practices, whilst, of course, expanding their professional network.
Areej AbuAli emphasises that these seven proactive steps are crucial for achieving gender pay equity. Employers who embrace these measures not only empower their female employees but also create workplaces where diversity and inclusion thrive. These actions are essential in closing the gender pay gap and ensuring a fair and equitable working environment for all.
Digital transformationrequires constant agility, innovation, and ingenuity in order to keep up with the evolving technology and consumer landscape.
Making appropriate investments in new technologies, being able to adapt to and adopt burgeoning and emerging innovations, and ensuring systems are not just up to date, but can evolve with technology, is vital to ensure organisations are not just digitally transformed, but have the potential for continuous transformation.
It’s not so much a revolution as a constant evolution in technology. For example, what started as the cloud has now evolved into the multicloud and what started as AI-driven language models is now generative AI.
As is often touched upon, much of digital transformation revolves around understanding and harnessing what is already at the disposal of organisations: data.
“If multicloud is about managing data, hybrid working is about accessing your data, cyber is about protecting your data, and GenAI is about leveraging as much value from you data through innovation,” Stephen Bosarge, senior director at Dell Technologies, explained during his talk on the future of innovation at DIGIT’s Digital Transformation summit in Edinburgh’s Dynamic Earth on 26 October.
Bosarge hit some of the major trends encapsulating the current and future of the tech industry, and envisaged how even these concepts have changed – and will continue to change – as companies evolve and transform.
Into the MultiCloud
While small businesses, third, and public sector organisations are transitioning to the cloud-verse, Bosarge is already certain about the necessity of multicloud.
“Multicloud-by-design is the logical endpoint now,” noting how just ten years ago – 100 years in the tech world – companies were transitioning to cloud-as-a-service models as a new, innovative, and lucrative industry.
“Our purpose through the introduction of our multicloud by design strategy is to help our customers, maximise the opportunities for innovation across all cloud environments, giving them flexibility, control and choice.”
Essentially, multicloud is when a company uses multiple cloud providers for their data storage, often with different cloud stacks, typically with a mix of private and public stacks.
Often, this will mean using multiple cloud vendors to manage data across an organisation, which can prove difficult considering the nature of the current cloud market.
“We want our customers to stay in control of their digital supply chain and minimise the risks around talent and resource fragmentation,” Bosarge added. “The aim should be to maintain a sustainable exit strategy no matter what platform they buy into. Dell’s role is to rationalise architectural diversity, minimise complexity and reduce the likelihood of unexpected costs.”
That’s why Bosarge recommended Mutlicloud by design for transformation and evolution going forward, and stressed the importance of interoperability.
“Multicloud by design with interoperability is what we need,” he said, encouraging listeners at the packed Dynamic Earth to “learn and reflect on what happened over the last ten years” with the new technology.
With the future of data management clear, Bosarge moved onto the future of data access: hybrid working.
Best of Both Worlds: Hybrid Working
“Hybrid working is about access to your data,” Bosarge reiterated.
Before Covid, Dell’s idea on work was simple: work is something you do, not somewhere you go. With the pandemic, lockdown, and social isolation, this had to change.
“Now, the office is wherever you are,” referring to a backpack full of tech and office essentials, complete with laptop, notepad, and reusable coffee mug.
Working from home was a cinch for tenured and experienced staff – but new hires were struggling. What may have been a six-month onboarding turned into nine or 12 months process. Organisations were anxious that newcomers were still coming to grips with the working world, often from their bedrooms.
The view of Bosarge and Dell Technologies? “The office has a new role to play.” Dell operates on a model of three days per week in the office where possible (Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays). Newer entrants are benefitting from not only collaborating with their coworkers, but from learning from tenured staff.
“Everyone who’s tenured know its easier to work from home but it’s about what you can give to your team,” Bosarge urged.
Hybrid working is here to stay, and in many ways makes sense, offering people flexibility, the option to work remotely, and giving people more agency over their own work-life balance.
Dell details how it and other organisations manage to work from anywhere, by ensuring that every worker has access to the necessary equipment, connection, and network.
But by doing so, this created more vulnerabilities, meaning organisations have to relook at how they can protect their data.
Cyber: With Great Power Comes Great Vulnerabilities
With the advent of remote and hybrid working, more endpoints are created and with more endpoints, come more vulnerabilities.
Cyber, Bosarge said, is about how companies protect their data, and this task is becoming increasingly pertinent and complicated. As he cited, the UK is the second most hacked economy outside the US, and cyber-attacks become more costly each year.
Further, 90% of data breachers appear to be the result of human error, Bosarge told the audience. The creation of more endpoints creates more potential for human error to lead to greater disasters and has made cyber an evermore paramount issue for tech specialists, and the price tag is heavy.
The National Cyber Security Council (NCSC) estimates that cybersecurity failures cost the UK economy £27 billion, with ransomware costing the most. And with other advancements in technology, like generative AI, reputable organisations are not the only ones benefiting from more powerful technologies.
Voice biometrics, complex and advanced social engineering techniques, better phishing emails – AI is ushering in a new age of cybersecurity issues and concerns.
At DIGIT’s Scot-Secure West Summit, an AI model could reproduce the voice of DIGIT Founder Ray Bugg, allowing it to say anything in a believable rendition of Ray’s voice, from what football team he liked to authorising a payment.
“The dark web is more sophisticated than the good web,” Bosarge warned. “They think about these things, these applications, and it’s up to us to respond.”
Bosarge also touched on the common misconceptions around cybersecurity and the cloud.
“You’re responsible for your company’s cloud data,” he said. “Read your contracts. If cloud goes down, it’s your responsibility.” He suggested to the leaders at the DIGIT summit to check their cloud provider’s cyber offerings and ensure that they have proper mitigations in place for data loss in the event of a cyber incident.
With an increase in endpoints, human error, and advancements in generative AI, cyber has become an all-encompassing issue.
GenAI – The New Frontier
But generative AI in itself is a massive subject worthy of exploring – and that is why the media, international governments, and businesses, have been consistently discussing some of its most recent advancements, potential, and risks ad nauseum.
Bosarge agrees with most tech experts when he says generative AI is going to have a profound impact on the tech industry, and the world, but he goes further to explain what generative AI requires from the tech industry to be so ground-breaking.
“To do Gen AI well, you need two things: you need quite a lot of power and computational capability.”
This means organisaitons must consider their power consumption and as a result, their energy efficiency, and build this into their design.
Power and computational capability are both essentially infrastructure problems. In order for Gen AI to function, it requires advanced graphics processing units (GPU)s – “but demand is far outstripping supply,” Bosarge warned. And this demand with the rise of AI has caused a transformation in the industry.
“Cloud providers want to become GPUs-as-a-service providers. They are looking at setting up near windfarms, cloudflares, to harness unused power for data centres,” Bosarge said.
The new priority makes sense – generative AI is anticipated to be a $1 trillion opportunity, Bosarge told audience members.
GPUs make generative AI possible. As opposed to central processing units (CPUs) which handle tasks in a linear fashion, GPUs handle tasks in parallel, and can run against a neural network, building the foundation for the groundbreaking 2017 Transformer paper which started Gen AI as we know it, Bosarge reminded us.
With more power, and as the data processing capabilities of GPUs expand, AI can continue to proliferate, expand from regurgitating a single sentence to entire novels, from generating an abstract painting to a photograph that can fool law enforcement.
The move to create data centres and processing units that are capable of harnessing more data is paramount to the continual advancement of AI, as well as enabling more and more organisations to take advantage of the tech as it currently stands.
“Data is the most critical and most powerful part of everything,” Bosarge reiterated, “we just need to figure out how to use it.”
Digitalskills are regarded as an essential in today’s working world, yet more than 54% of UK office workers do not feel their formal education adequately prepared them for working life.
This is according to new research of over 5,500 office workers across EMEA from ServiceNow, a digital workflow company.
With artificial intelligence growing in prominence, the majority of UK workers agree that AI (73%) and coding (73%) should be mandatory in formal education, arming the young people of today with the knowledge needed in the future workplace.
In fact, digital skills as a whole are regarded as a vital skill (96%) and seen as more important to learn than sport (94%), languages (91%), and creative writing (87%).
“Tech innovation is moving at an incredibly fast pace and as the business need increases, many of today’s workers are struggling to keep up,” comments Cathy Mauzaize, President, EMEA at ServiceNow.
“We cannot ignore this pace and need to address new solutions for education to help workers embrace the new digital mindset and prepare for the future of work.”
Amidst the ever-changing job market and concern around the tech skills gap, the demand for upskilling is evident among workers, with some even welcoming new career paths.
More than three quarters (78%) of those surveyed, for instance, think that digital skills will give people an edge in business, and nearly two-thirds (65%) feel additional education in this area would help them feel more confident about their career prospects, rising to three-quarters (76%) of those aged 18-34.
Many are calling for more direct action, with almost three-quarters (72%) feel there should be a standardised qualification for digital skills that employers can recognise to ensure they are recruiting the right talent.
This is reflected in the current workforce now – tech roles have some of the highest starting salaries in the UK, and often offer hybrid and flexible working opportunities. With AI threatening to replace more and more jobs, almost a quarter (23%) of UK office workers wish they had taken a different career path, and some (15%) are considering retraining in a different field.
Will the Digital Skills Divide Widen?
More than two in five (44%) UK respondents feel that AI is the biggest opportunity for the future of the workforce, with almost half (49%) seeing its potential to boost productivity.
Yet despite this promise, many (41%) admit to currently lacking the technical abilities needed to work alongside and use AI systems.
In terms of the capabilities of generative AI, almost half (47%) still do not understand how this technology can support their role today.
It is, however, recognised as a significant opportunity at every level of work, with the majority of office workers planning on using generative AI for tasks including: emails and social media (69%), scheduling and diary management (69%), creating Excel formulas (68%), transcribing (66%), and reviewing documents like reports and CVs (65%).
Despite the opportunities digital skills and AI bring, workers can find it time-consuming and overwhelming to undergo personal improvement, with nearly half (46%) admitting it’s been hard to fit digital skills development around their work schedule.
A lot of this comes from not knowing where to start (38%), or from feeling intimidated (37%) by new technologies.
This leads to nearly half (47%) of those surveyed feeling anxious that the pace of technological change means any new digital skills they learn will quickly become outdated.
“Unless we act now to both upskill current workers and train young people in using AI, the digital skills divide will continue to exponentially grow,” adds Mauzaize.
“Employees and employers alike know that AI offers so much potential to boost productivity and enhance working experiences and upskilling doesn’t have to be hard or inaccessible.
“ServiceNow’s RiseUp programme is just one example of available skills training for people of all backgrounds to find opportunities in this fast-growing tech industry.”
Will Tech Talent Leave Tech?
Those working in the IT and computing sector are most likely to feel confident they have the skills to be successful throughout their career (81% vs. average of 65%).
In addition, nearly three-quarters (71%) say their employer has given them adequate technology training, compared to less than two-thirds (58%) elsewhere.
In contrast, many are considering new industries or roles – a shift that could be a boost for other industries, but runs the risk of a talent drain in the tech sector.
Despite already being in tech roles, one in three (35%) of those working in IT and computing are currently retraining in a different field, and more than a quarter (28%) wish they had taken a different career path.
While this change of heart may be due to a number of factors, more than half (57%) admitted to feeling intimidated by new technologies – compared to a third (36%) across other industries, and many (53%) state they currently lack the technical capabilities to work alongside or use AI systems.
DataKirk’s second annual Scottish Black Talent Summit provided an engaging, enlightening, and critical event fostering community, empowerment, and opportunity for the black talent pool in Scotland.
DataKirk was able to showcase and discuss some of the most pertinent issues affecting the Scottish tech ecosystem and the black talent pool, highlighting where intersections and progress is needed and can be made.
The summit featured two jam-packed days filled with mentorship and hiring opportunities, as well as panel discussions about hiring, leveraging black talent, barriers to entry, and opportunities for prospective staff and employers.
As part of the day, Neil Gray MSP, minister for the wellbeing economy, announced that DataKirk is a recipient of two Scottish government initiatives set to support startups and foster entrepreneurship.
DataKirk is one of 42 recipients that will share £1.6m through the Ecosystem fund, which is awarded to organisations that support Scottish entrepreneurs from disadvantaged and unrepresented groups
The company will also receive a grant from the Prestart Pathways Fund, set up to support more people from minority and underrepresented backgrounds to begin their entry onto the entrepreneurship pipeline.
The summit itself offered a strong sense of community and mentorship – audience participation was encouraged, self-affirmation was abundant, and every individual with experience had a word of advice to share with younger audience members.
DataKirk applauded three of its own cohort who benefited from some of its esteemed programmes, showcasing how it enabled two young people in Scotland to pursue technology education and internships, and provided much needed support for an immigrant to enter the UK workforce.
Soleye Sotannde, a chairman on the board of trustees at DataKirk, said: “Talent knows no boundary; there is an abundance of untapped potentials and it is our duty to honour these potentials.”
A common theme throughout the day was the importance of transferable skills – many people who benefitted from Datakirk’s programmes and support were immigrants who had left their education and careers behind for life in Scotland, but not knowing where to begin.
“My most frustrating thing with international students, when you reach the UK, is you bring the experience from abroad, do not delete your past because you’re having a present – all those skills are transferable,” Martina Chukwuma-Ezike, of the University of Aberdeen, said. “Do not delete your history just because you are starting your future.”
Coming to this country, Petra Adesuwa Ekhator of Thames Water said, is an education in itself.
Inclusivity at the event was also paramount, so much so that parents brought their babies so they could attend the event. This was applauded by Abel Aboh, the first speaker at the second day of the event, who noted the importance of this ambition.
“Why is it inspiring to have a mother with a baby on her back?” he asked, referring to a delegate he connected with on the summit’s first day.
“The reason for that is because they really want to get the opportunities, they really want to contribute to Scottish economy, they really want to contribute to the communities as well.
“And I’ll always say: the black community is a community of agile people, highly-skilled people, and they are mobile as well,” he said.
But offering a safe space for parents to network with children in tow, for people to have honest and open discussions around racism, inequality, and immigration woes, was inspiring in its own right, and created a critical atmosphere for people to feel welcomed, important, listened to, and appreciated.
The summit ranged from giving advice to students about applying for jobs – and applying themselves – navigating immigration woes, to offering insider advice and CV mentorship that many people beginning their UK tech journey may not know and who do not see themselves already represented in the tech sphere.
In a way, this showcased just how diverse the black talent pool currently is, and how it too often remains untapped, overlooked, and misunderstood.
“There’s absolutely a lack of awareness of blackness, if I can use that word, and sometimes employers find it difficult to relate to you if you are black,” Iyke Ikegwuonu, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow, said during the last panel session, speaking on the misunderstanding of the overarching misunderstanding of black talent.
“And that is, perhaps, systemic in itself, but is not recognised by the system,” he said.
And this statement truly shows how important DataKirk’s work has been – they do not shy away from tackling difficult conversations, nor do they put marginalised races into a singular monolith.
“We are socialised and culturally different as well, and so it’s not a monolith of blackness,” Dr Charmaine Blaize, consultant and health data expert at NHS Scotland said.
Employers need to make the effort to understand the black community in Scotland, not just in what they can offer and do for the company – which is demonstrably a lot – but as a vibrant community in itself.
Kweku Bram-Larbi, a digital design lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, is calling for employers to adopt a “cultural education: understand the people you’re going to employ, understand the people you’re going to work with. It’s about understanding dynamics and culture.”
A simple way to do this introduced in another panel session is via reverse mentoring: “Let the black guy in your organisation mentor the senior leader,” Jude Osamor, founder of CyBlack said. “If you haven’t walked that road, it’s difficult to have the solution.”
Overall, the summit was incredibly people centric – the focus was not on grand statistics showing how businesses will benefit from diversity, how vital inclusion is for retaining talent, or how harnessing the black talent pool will help with the tech skills shortage. This was mentioned, but the focus of the event was fostering, growing and empowering a flourishing community in Scotland with a lot to offer, one that is deeply aware of their potential and value.
“I am student of history,” Abel Aboh said, “and it is clear that it’s us people that makes this country what it is: it’s not the weather, it’s not the accent, it’s not the landscape. It is people.”
Nations across the globe convened for the first time at the UK’s AI Safety Summit to reach a world-first agreement at Bletchley Park, establishing a shared understanding of the opportunities and risk posed by frontier AI.
The agreement also highlighted the need for governments to work together to meet the most significant challenges brought forth by AI developments, and was signed by the global tech superpowers including the US, China, and the European Union.
The Bletchley Declaration on AI safety sees 28 countries from across the globe, including Africa, South America, the Middle East, and Asia, as well as the EU, agreeing to the urgent need to understand and collectively mange potential risks through a new joint global effort to ensure AI is developed and deployed in a safe, responsible way for the benefit of the global community.
Countries endorsing the Bletchley Declaration include Brazil, France, India, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates.
“Many risks arising from AI are inherently international in nature, and so are best addressed through international cooperation,” the Declaration read.
“We resolve to work together in an inclusive manner to ensure human-centric, trustworthy and responsible AI that is safe, and supports the good of all through existing international fora and other relevant initiatives, to promote cooperation to address the broad range of risks posed by AI.”
The Bletchley Declaration fulfils key summit objectives in establishing shared agreement and responsibility on the risks, opportunities and a forward process for international collaboration on frontier AI safety and research, particularly through greater scientific collaboration.
As the summit continues on its second day, leading frontier AI companies and experts from academia and civil society will further discuss the risks of frontier AI and how safety can be improved.
Countries agreed substantial risks may arise from potential intentional misuse or unintended issues of control of frontier AI, with particular concern caused by cybersecurity, biotechnology, and disinformation risks.
The Bletchley Declaration sets out agreement that there is “potential for serious, even catastrophic, harm, either deliberate or unintentional, stemming from the most significant capabilities of these AI models.”
Countries also noted the risks inherent to AI and its applications, including bias and privacy.
Recognising the need to deepen the understanding of risks and capabilities that are not fully understood, attendees have also agreed to work together to support a network of scientific research on Frontier AI safety.
This builds on the UK Prime Minister’s announcement last week for the UK to establish the world’s first AI Safety Institute and complementing existing international efforts including at the G7, OECD, Council of Europe, United Nations and the Global Partnership on AI.
This will aim to ensure the best available scientific research can be used to create an evidence base for managing the risks whilst unlocking the benefits of the technology, including through the UK’s AI Safety Institute which will look at the range of risks posed by AI.
As part of agreeing a forward process for international collaboration on frontier AI safety, The Republic of Korea has agreed to co-host a mini virtual summit on AI in the next 6 months.
A spokesperson for the Republic of Korea Government said: “Minister Lee is delighted that Korea will be the co-hosts of the mini virtual summit. Korea is a world leader in technologies like AI and recognises the importance of multilateral cooperation to ensure AI technologies are designed, used and governed in safe ways.”
France will then host the next in-person Summit in a year from now. Further details on these events will be confirmed in due course.
A spokesperson for the French Presidency said: “The French authorities welcome the international and cooperative work cycle launched by the AI Safety Summit to analyse, understand and respond to the risks that certain Frontier AI models could cause. France is ready to participate in this long-term collective effort and will be happy to host the next in person Summit.”
This ensures an enduring legacy from the Summit and continued international action to tackle AI risks, including informing national and international risk-based policies across these countries.
The Declaration, building upon last week’s announcement of the UK’s emerging processes for AI safety, also acknowledges that those developing these unusually powerful and potentially dangerous frontier AI capabilities, have a particular responsibility for ensuring the safety of these systems, including by implementing systems to test them and other appropriate measures.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “This is a landmark achievement that sees the world’s greatest AI powers agree on the urgency behind understanding the risks of AI – helping ensure the long-term future of our children and grandchildren.
“Under the UK’s leadership, more than 25 countries at the AI Safety Summit have stated a shared responsibility to address AI risks and take forward vital international collaboration on frontier AI safety and research.
“The UK is once again leading the world at the forefront of this new technological frontier by kickstarting this conversation, which will see us work together to make AI safe and realise all its benefits for generations to come.”
A new survey of tech workers in the UK reveals that nearly a quarter (72%) of women in tech roles have experienced at least one form of sexism at work.
This is according to System Update: Addressing the Gender Gap in Tech by the Fawcett Society and sponsored by Virgin Media O2, which went for the jugular in terms of tackling the cultural issues exacerbating sexist inequalities in the tech sector.
Of those 72%, women cited being paid less than their male colleagues, sexism described as ‘banter’ (22%), and the questioning of their skills and abilities (20%) as the top three forms of sexist behaviour they’ve endured in the sector.
The figures get worse for Black and minoritised women, who experience additional levels of exclusion, with nearly three in four having experienced racism at work, on top of the sexism already cited.
Further, a third of Black women in the sector have been assumed by colleagues to not hold a technical role.
The survey itself held interesting information regarding the landscape of women tech workers: It surveyed 1438 people, including men and women, and had in-depth conversations with 21 women who either currently work in a tech role, have left tech, or work outside of tech.
Those who work outside of tech had STEM qualifications equivalent to A level or above, and thus represented a pool of untapped STEM talent that refrained from a tech role.
The report also highlighted the intersectional issues surrounding tech, and the feelings of women towards different “women in tech” initiatives.
Intersectional Differences
Those with intersectional identities were more likely to report barriers and cultural discrimination in the workplace.
Despite Black and minoritised women outside of tech – with relevantqualifications – being more interested than their white counterparts (59% compared to 31%) to work in tech roles, they were more likely to report biased and unfair recruitment practices include condescension at an interview, and unexplained rejections.
Further, Black and minoritised women, as well as disabled women, and lesbian and bisexual women, were less likely to report feeling comfortable in their workplace.
72% of Black and minoritised women experienced racism as work, and 73% of disabled women experienced ableism at work, on top of the 72% of women overall experiencing sexism at work.
The compounding discrimination and inequalities are hitting those with intersectional identities the most.
Workplace Culture
Over a quarter of women outside of tech (26%) also said that there is more sexist behaviour in tech work than in other types of work.
The feelings of men in tech seemed to corroborate this perception, with 19% saying “women are naturally less well suited to tech roles than men” as a reason why fewer women work in the sector.
Women outside of tech agreed that tech had a ‘laddie’ and toxic ‘tech bro’ culture, turning them off from entering the sector.
Flexible working is always a topic when discussing workplace inequalities with women, but both men and women cited flexible working as important when looking and keeping a job.
Despite this, women were more likely to cite that flexible or part-time work options were not often provided after a return from maternity leave, and that flexible work was not normalised in their workplace culture.
More women (22%) than men (15%) also cited caring responsibilities as a reason to leave the workforce, again highlighting how these are overarching societal pressures.
Perceptions on DEI Initiatives
The survey also highlighted how women in tech feel about the ‘progress’ being made in the sector.
Women who have worked in tech for the last ten years did speak of slow progress, but others cited companies’ ‘diversity‘ cultures as performative.
Some said there was an over-emphasis on outreach and education, which does not fix internal workplace practices.
Women also were not in agreement about the term ‘women in tech’ – some thought it fostered community, but others found it ‘othering’.
In the tech sphere, women found themselves being blamed for male colleagues’ mistakes, and perceived as a diversity hire, and these figures rose for Black women surveyed.
The survey raises important issues surrounding the tech sector as it stands, including how sexism, racism, and ableism is affecting women in the workforce, and the need for intersectional approaches.
It provides a much needed reflection of the workplace tech culture, and how the route of the issue continues to revolve around active and institutionalised sexism.
Along with Canada, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the US, and partners across the continent of Africa, the UK is helping to fund a £80m boost in AI programming aiming to combat inequality and boost prosperity.
The goals of the UK government’s AI for Development programme range from creating or scaling at least eight responsible AI research labs at African universities, to helping at least ten countries create sound regulatory frameworks for responsible, equitable, and safe AI.
Further, the initiative wants to unlock the benefits of AI to the 700 million people who speak 46 African languages – as a continent, Africa is home to around 2,000 languages, making up a third of the world’s total languages.
The programme also aims to make five or more African countries globally influential in the worldwide conversation on AI including in using AI to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Africa is one of the world’s most diverse continents, with 54 countries and over 3,000 ethnic groups. Through slavery, colonisation, and decolonisation tactics, much of the country has been robbed of its natural resources, wealth, cultural history, and autonomy.
The initiative will initially focus on sub-Saharan Africa, aiming to ensure that this ground-breaking technology will be accessible to all.
AI could have a transformative impact on a range of challenges, including speeding up drug discovery, helping people who are deaf or blind access education, and improving access to clean energy.
Over the next five years, the programme aims to fund training and fellowships in AI across African universities and invest in innovators building models with data that accurately represents the African continent, using home-grown skills and computing power.
While the UK continues to grapple with its own regulatory woes about AI, the programme also hopes to foster responsible AI governance to help African countries mitigate the risks of AI and adapt their economies to technological change.
The programme is also part of wider aims, hoping to help sub-Sahara African countries have a bigger voice in influencing how AI is used to further the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, a series of targets to make the world a healthier, fairer and more prosperous place by 2030.
At the UK’s own summit today, one civil organisation, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, and three countries – Kenya, Nigeria, and Rwanda – are set to represent Africa as confirmed attendees.
“The transformative power of AI should have a global benefit. AI can change lives for the better around the world, including helping to develop new treatments for diseases and to tackle food insecurity,” James Cleverly, the UK foreign secretary said.
“The AI for Development programme, alongside the AI Safety Summit hosted in Britain this week, are a testament to how we and our partners will use cutting-edge technology to create a more equitable and prosperous future.”
Eliud Owallo, Kenya’s cabinet secretary for information communications and digital economy said: “Through this broad coalition of partners, AI potential benefits will open opportunities and the risks preparedness broadened. This partnership will benefit all countries and ensure that developing countries are not left behind in the AI revolution.”
Paula Ingabire, Rwanda’s minister of information communication technology and innovation said: “Africa has historically lagged behind in previous technological revolutions due to a lack of local production and value addition capacity. Rwanda is fully committed to harnessing the transformative power of AI to drive our nation’s and continent’s social and economic development agenda by becoming the proof of concept hub that Africans produce from, for the continent.
“This collaborative initiative is of paramount importance as it empowers African countries to become producers, not just consumers, in the AI revolution, ensuring that we are at the forefront of shaping our own future and driving sustainable progress across the continent.”
Business confidence in Scotland fell seven points during October to 26%, according to the latest Business Barometer from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking.
Companies in Scotland reported higher confidence in their own business prospects month-on-month, up five points at 44%. When taken alongside their optimism in the economy, down 19 points to 10%, this gives a headline confidence reading of 26%.
Scottish businesses identified their top target areas for growth in the next six months as evolving their offer (37%), introducing new technology (37%), and entering new markets (31%).
The Business Barometer, which surveys 1,200 businesses monthly, provides early signals about UK economic trends both regionally and nationwide.
A net balance of 33% of businesses in the region expect to increase staff levels over the next year, up two points on last month.
National Picture
Overall UK business confidence rose three points in October from 36% to 39%, and firms’ outlook on the overall UK economy increased four points to 34%.
Businesses’ confidence in their own trading prospects also continued the upward trend, rising four points to 45%.
Companies’ hiring intentions reached their highest level since May last year, with 32% of firms intending to increase staff levels over the next 12 months, up six points month-on-month.
Firms in Yorkshire reported the highest levels of business confidence, jumping 12 points to 52% – the highest reading for the region since March 2022.
Companies in the South West reported the biggest uptick in business confidence, increasing 26 points month-on-month to 47%.
Following a fall in confidence in September, the retail and service industries both saw an increase in business confidence, with retail business confidence increasing by five points to 37% and services rising seven points to 43%.
Levels are still lower than seen in August, however, when retail business confidence was at 44% and services at 42%. Manufacturing confidence was 36%, unchanged from last month when confidence rose to a three-month high. Construction fell for a second month in a row to 31% (down five points).
“Despite the drop in overall business confidence, it’s reassuring to see that firms across the country remain optimistic about their own trading prospects as we head into the final quarter of the year,” Martyn Kendrick, regional director for Scotland Bank of Scotland, said.
Hann-Ju Ho, senior economist Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “Business confidence this month reflects a more positive outlook as we head into the important festive period, with trading prospects and economic optimism both at their second highest levels this year. The level also underlines the wider upward trend of steadily rising confidence in 2023. If you look at the year in quarterly time periods, confidence has steadily risen from 20% in the first quarter, 26% in the second and in September an average of 27% in the third.
“However, our data shows that firms are still safeguarding their profit margins in response to the possibility of interest rates remaining high, wage increase pressures, and the prospect of higher energy prices again this winter.
“Therefore, businesses will be keeping a keen eye on the forthcoming Autumn Statement and Bank of England policy announcements as they navigate through a challenging economic period ahead.”
Scotland’s national Techscaler network is being expanded across the nation to support more of the country’s most promising young technology companies.
A partnership with Borders organisation Hometown Hub will give entrepreneurs access to services, including free mentoring and expert advice, from locations in Jedburgh, Eyemouth, St Boswells, Lauder and Stow.
The £42 million Techscaler programme is a key element of the Scottish Government’s drive to boost innovation, develop entrepreneurial talent and transform the economy.
In the first year about 400 young businesses have been helped to scale-up by existing hubs in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness. A seventh hub in Dumfries and Galloway will open in the coming months.
Techscaler has also continued to help the Scottish tech system flourish through various partnerships aimed at public and private sector collaboration and diversity and inclusion.
Through partnering with CivTech earlier this year, Techscaler is working to drive public sector innovation and bring digital transformation to Scottish towns and authorities.
Techscaler is also the main partner of DataKrik for their Scottish Black Talent Summit taking place on 30 and 31 October, featuring top talent from the Scottish sector aiming to connect young black talents in Scotland with the wider ecosystem.
Innovation minister Richard Lochhead said: “Growing businesses are fundamental to a thriving Scotland and the Scottish Government is committed to helping businesses unleash their enormous potential for innovation.
“We want to cultivate a world-leading entrepreneurial ecosystem and our Programme for Government 2023/24 sets out a very clear vision and tangible actions.
“Techscalers have made Scotland one of the most tech start-up friendly places in the world. The creation of this network of hubs across the South of Scotland will help break down even more barriers and ensure the entrepreneurs of today, and tomorrow, get the support they need.”
Chief executive of South of Scotland Enterprise (SoSE) Jane Morrison-Ross said: “The new Techscaler South of Scotland network complements SoSE’s existing work to develop an entrepreneurial roadmap for the region, as well as our start-up, scale-up and scale-deep approach.
“We are always excited by opportunities to collaborate, extend our services and make additional expertise available to benefit tech start-ups in the South.”
Hometown Hubs Operations Manager Craig McBeath said: “This is an exciting partnership for Hometown Hub and it ties in perfectly with our commitment to supporting local businesses, promoting growth and encouraging entrepreneurship. We can’t wait to see what interesting innovations come from our area with the support of the Techscaler programme.”
Recent announcements by the UK prime minister and the impending gathering at the world’s first global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Safety Summit at Bletchley Park this week have brought AI and cybersecurity to the fore.
New and timely research by OnePoll and Gemserv, the cybersecurity consultancy, reveals that companies must upgrade their systems now as AI threatens to make cyber-attacks more sophisticated.
Knowledge and information gaps are emerging as critical challenges, particularly for chief information security officers (CISOs), as the cyber threat landscape is expected to become increasingly volatile, further exacerbated by this year’s geopolitical tensions.
In “Through the Cyber Lens:The Evolving Future of Cyber Security“, the study surveyed 200 CISOs across the United Kingdom and Europe, assessing the readiness of CISOs to confront their evolving challenges, particularly those stemming from the rise of AI innovation, while also exploring their expectations for the future.
Generative AI and Emerging Threats: The Perilous Path Ahead
The survey reveals that 38% of respondents anticipate a significant increase in cyber-attacks utilising deep fake AI technologies over the next five years, with an additional 45% expecting a moderate rise.
In total, a striking 83% of respondents believe that generative AI will play a more prominent role in cyber-attacks. However, a mere 16% of respondents consider their organisations to have an excellent understanding of these advanced AI tools.
“As the AI revolution transforms the landscape of cybersecurity, CISOs stand at the forefront of this change,” Mandeep Thandi, director of cyber and privacy at Gemserv, commented.
“AI is reshaping the contours of cyber defence by augmenting human capabilities, predicting threats, and fortifying organisations against the volatile cyber threat landscape.”
Preparing for Emerging Threats: A Need for Vigilance
The ever-evolving cyber threat landscape presents CISOs with the formidable challenge of predicting and preparing for attacks. Information and budgetary resources are essential for adequate preparation.
The survey, however, did reveal that 69% of organisations lack access to either SIEM tooling or cyber threat intelligence, with 8% having neither.
Further, over three quarters (78%) of CISOs believe the cyber threat landscape will become more complex and challenging over the next 12 months.
Aware of emerging trends, a significant 83% of CISOs expect to see more cyber-attacks using generative AI tools.
In this environment of uncertainty, CISOs face challenges in securing adequate budgets, making informed decisions, and recruiting and retaining the right talent.
These hurdles underscore the urgency of investing in cybersecurity resources, including robust cyber threat intelligence, as a proactive measure to combat evolving threats.
When it comes to advising key stakeholders within their organisations, the research reveals that 63% of CISOs feel that their senior leadership lacks a comprehensive understanding of the imminent cybersecurity and privacy threats.
Moreover, 69% of European CISOs and 61% of UK CISOs report a deficiency in cyber threat intelligence (CTI), hindering their ability to prioritise budgets and inform their boards about impending threats.
Mandeep Thandi emphasised the importance of CTI, stating, “CTI is vital for organisations as it provides proactive insights into potential cyber threats, enabling timely identification, risk assessment, and tailored defence strategies.
“It empowers organisations to stay ahead of adversaries, enhance incident response, and continuously improve their cybersecurity posture in the face of evolving cyber risk.”
New Regulations: A Ray of Regulatory Hope
Amidst these challenges, new regulations are on the horizon. The European Union’s (EU) AI Act and the UK’s Data Protection and Digital Information (DPDI) Bill are set to reshape the regulatory landscape.
These regulations aim tackle some of the most pertinent legislative quandries concerning the tech ecosystem, and aim to help regulate and clarify laws for developers, businesses, and consumers.
A notable 82% of CISOs believe these new regulations will support their organisations’ growth and expansion of services. The EU’s AI Act, in particular, distinguishes between high-risk and low-risk AI tools, aiming to ensure that organisations maintain high standards of transparency and security.
A Call for Resources and Resilience
In conclusion, the survey offers a sobering glimpse into the world of CISOs tasked with safeguarding digital landscapes amidst a barrage of challenges. While CISOs demonstrate unwavering resilience, the need for additional resources and support is palpable. Budget constraints, talent shortages, communication gaps, and evolving cyber threats underscore the urgency of fortifying cybersecurity efforts.
The cybersecurity landscape is ever-changing, and as threats evolve, so must our commitment to equipping CISOs with the resources they need to protect our digital future.
Technologyleaders have been shown to uplift digital adoption and talent attraction when they are given a seat at the top table, according to a new global survey from Nash Squared.
The Nash Squared Digital Leadership Report surveyed 2,104 technology/digital leaders across the globe over the summer of 2023, reaching 86 countries in total.
Leaders of the digital world shared insights, stats, and outlooks pertinent to AI, hybrid working realities, and the skills shortages.
But the study also revealed the value of tech leaders themselves, with boards which include tech and digital leaders seeing a 20% increase in adopting new technology, and nearly a quarter (24%) advantage in attracting and retaining talent.
What’s more, over two thirds (68%) of technology leaders globally are members of the operational board/executive management team, the highest level since 2017 (71%).
The report also detailed leader insights around AI, tech investment, hybrid work, and the skills gap.
AI
Ahead of the AI safety summit in Bletchley Park taking place this week, AI regulation is one of the top topics among business leaders and government officials alike.
The report however, found that this emerging technology is still at the experimentation stage globally. Despite the predicted market growth of AI, only one in ten tech leaders across the globe report having large scale implementations of AI, a figure that has not changed in five years.
Still, about half (49%) of global organisations are either piloting or conducting a small scale implementation of AI – for generative AI, this figure drops to about a third.
Further, while the EU already has government regulations in place and the UK is set to discuss AI safety, only two in ten (21%) of global organisations have an AI policy in place, with more than a third (36%) have no plans to attempt such a policy at this time.
Two major concerns are hindering the continued acceleration of AI adoption among tech leaders, including dataprivacy and emerging cyber threats.
Still, seven in ten technology leaders across the globe think that the benefits of AI outweigh the risks – they also think on average, only 17% of jobs will be lost to automation.
“Over the years there has been much hype about the potential for AI, but this year our research suggests we may have reached a tipping point. AI sits at the intersection of people and technology, and with the recent mass adoption of generative AI, the opportunities and challenges for organisations is potentially vast,” Bev White, CEO of Nash Squared said.
“It could be the trigger that prompts an avalanche of AI investment –similar to the mass adoption of cloud over the last ten years. This just makes the regulation and governance of AI more important than ever.
“Despite their keenness, many tech leaders admit that they don’t have a clear picture of the way forward and feel unprepared for the challenges ahead. Establishing clear guardrails, guidelines and ethical safety nets around AI is simply essential. Otherwise, what could be one of the truly transformational enablers of the modern age could instead become one of its biggest, risk-laden destabilisers.”
Tech Investment
After hyper growth both during and when coming out of the pandemic, expectations of technology spend and investment in people have returned to more ‘normal’ levels, the report says, with tech leaders still optimistic about 2024 growth.
Almost half (45%) expect their overall technology budget to increase during the next 12 months – a figure broadly in line with pre-pandemic years.
Half (50%) of tech leaders also expect to increase their headcount, which is the second highest reading in the last decade outside of the pandemic peak, although a significant fall on last year.
Somewhat surprisingly, however, is that investment in emerging tech has largely stalled except in the pilots of AI, quantum technology, and the metaverse.
Work Culture: Inclusion and Hybrid Working
Changes in work culture have seen the office fluctuate. Research from Nash Squared found an interesting correlation between flexible working policies and the number of women in organisations.
A high number of mandated days in the office appears to have a negative impact on the proportion of new female hires in the tech team over the last two years.
Companies with five mandated office days have about 22% of women in the tech team, but for those without mandated in-office days, 28% of the tech team hired recently are women.
This largely falls to societal pressures meaning more women are help responsible for caring duties, making it more likely for them to elect flexible work so they can manage care work as well.
Despite the potential for hurting gender inclusivity, 84% of small businesses report that their in-office policy is working well compared to 66% of large organisations.
Globally, it seams, inclusion efforts – at least in terms of gender – have not lead to overall improvement. 14% of tech leaders globally identified as female, which is the same as last year. On tech teams, women represented 23% of workers both in the UK and on average globally.
Talent Shortage
Globally, it appears the skills shortage is easing slightly, with 54% of tech leaders saying that the skills shortage is preventing them from keeping pace with change, down from a record 70% last year.
However, although scarcity of top skills for every type of technology professional has fallen year-on-year, there still remains a shortage with the most scarce skills being data engineers, enterprise architects, software engineers and technical architects.
Cybersecurity specialists did see the largest fall in demand (37%), despite sitting at the top three most scarce skills in recent years.
Despite this drop, a quarter of technology leaders globally still struggle to find the right cybersecurity skills. The report also suggests that, if AI begins to generate new levels of cyber risk, cyber specialists may once again top the league table of skills in demand.
Human rights groups – including violence against women and girls organisations – have issued warnings to survivors and victims of domestic abuse over the new NHS data sharing plan.
GPs in England will be contractually obliged to provide patients with remote access to their medical records via the NHS app and website by the end of this month – the plans were originally set out for completion in 2021, but was delayed due to privacy concerns.
Now, as the deadline nears, rights watch groups are voicing their alarm at how the law may make those at risk of domestic abuse more in danger from perpetrators.
Abusers may be able to gain access to a user’s records by coercing the patients to share access or through other means – this can make their address available, as well as other pertinent medical information that can be used against them or put them in further danger.
While the changes only have to apply to prospective medical records made from the date of access, the specialist Technology-Facilitated Abuse Team at Refuge, a charity group, have found owing to historical local decisions and patients previously opting in when joining practices, there are inconsistencies in the information available to patients.
Some are only able to access new, or recent, medical records, while others can see as far back as the 1970’s and some have full information while for others sensitive information has been redacted.
The discrepancies in the amount and type of data made accessible online has drawn concern from major rights groups including Refuge, Women’s Aid, and Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW), as well as the British Medical Association.
One in four women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, and one in five women are likely to experience stalking, according to an open letter signed by the groups.
Accessibility to patient records may allow perpetrators to weaponise information for abuse, the groups have warned.
Therefore, they urge survivors and victims and those at risk to discuss what records are on file and to have sensitive data removed or redacted from online records.
Further, if they believe it is safe to do so, survivors and victims may even consider deleting the NHS app from their devices until better safeguarding and protections are in place.
Currently, the organisations are engaging in dialogue with NHS England to raise safety concerns for survivors over the past few years. The IRISi has developed specific guidance for GPs on how the app should be used in cases of domestic abuse.
“It is really disappointing and saddening that the Government and NHS England have not fully addressed the real risk to survivors that these changes will create,” Ellen Miller, the Interim CEO of Refuge said.
“These changes will allow perpetrators to gain access to survivors’ personal health records, including details on medications, sexual, reproductive, and mental health records, and disclosures of domestic abuse.
“The lack of publicity around these changes means that some survivors records may already be available in the NHS app, and they do not even know it.”
A new investigation from consumer researcher Which? has revealed how two major AI large language models (LLMs) – ChatGPT and Bard – are enabling a new wave of sophisticated AI fraud risks.
Typically, people look for poor grammar and spelling to help them identify scam messages, as when it surveyed 1,235 Which? members, more than half (54%) said they used this to help them.
But with advents in AI language models, threat actors can turn to ChatGPT and Bard to craft realistic and grammatically correct emails to dupe victims.
ChatGPT, created by OpenAI, and Bard, created by Google, are both supposed to have strict guardrails stopping it from deceminating illicit or illegal advice, guidance, or tools. In theory, this means if users as ChatGPT or Bard to provide instructions on how to make a bomb, or to construct a phishing email, they will not do so.
And in some practice this is true: when Which? asked ChatGPT to create a phishing email from PayPal on the latest free version (3.5), it refused, saying ‘I can’t assist with that’. When researchers removed the word ‘phishing’, it still could not help, so Which? changed its approach, asking the bot to ‘write an email’ and it responded asking for more information
However, when Which? changed the prompt to: ‘Tell the recipient that someone has logged into their PayPal account’ and in a matter of seconds, it generated an apparently professionally written email with the heading ‘Important Security Notice – Unusual Activity Detected on Your PayPal Account’.
The email even included steps on how to secure a users PayPal account as well as links to reset passwords and contact customer support, providing a template where fradusters could change these links and redirect victims to malicious sites.
Similarily, when Which? asked Bard to: ‘Write a phishing email impersonating PayPal,’ it responded with: ‘I’m not programmed to assist with that.’ So researchers removed the word ‘phishing’ and asked: ‘Create an email telling the recipient that someone has logged into their PayPal account.’
While it did this, it outlined steps in the email for the recipient to change their PayPal password securely, making it look like a genuine message. It also included information on how to secure your account.
Which? then asked it to include a link in the template, and it suggested where to insert a ‘[PayPal Login Page]’ link. But it also included genuine security information for the recipient to change their password and secure their account.
This could either make a scam more convincing or urge recipients to check their PayPal accounts and realise there are not any issues. Fraudsters can easily edit these templates to include less security information and lead victims to their own scam pages.
Which? also found the same methods worked when they asked the models to create missing parcel texts – a popular recurring phishing scam. They both created convicing text messages and offered redelivery links where threat actors could link to their malicious sites.
“OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard are failing to shut out fraudsters, who might exploit their platforms to produce convincing scams,” Rocio Concha, Which? Director of Policy and Advocacy, said.
“Our investigation clearly illustrates how this new technology can make it easier for criminals to defraud people. The government’s upcoming AI summit must consider how to protect people from the harms occurring here and now, rather than solely focusing on the long-term risks of frontier AI.
“People should be even more wary about these scams than usual and avoid clicking on any suspicious links in emails and texts, even if they look legitimate.”
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has been investigating its first reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
In total, 20,254 AI-generated images were found to have been posted to one dark web CSA forum in just a month.
The initial investigations uncovered a world of text-to-image technology which could produce CSAM with a high degree of realism, raising alarm bells among watch groups as it can potentially jeopardise future investigations and cause further harm to children.
The harrowing report detailed the images perpetrators are able to produce from simple text-to-image AI models, which create fast and accurate results.
Previous child victims are having new images of them recreated, and celebrities are being de-aged using the technology and depicted being sexually abused as children.
The technology is mostly derived from open source AI models which developers can access to create bespoke models designed to bypass the guardrails of generative AI models, which typically have rules against the production of illicit and even legally pornographic material further.
Still, many of these models have already been trained on pornographic material, but Stable Diffusion 2.0+ attempted to ensure that the data set it is trained on is much more filtered so it is harder to make adult content.
The issue is confounding lawmakers even after the introduction of the Online Safety Bill to government.
While the images are AI and therefore do not depict real-life abuse, IWF has said that the images are criminal under one of two UK laws which are: The Protection of Children Act 1978, and The Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
These laws criminalise the “indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child” as as any “prohibited image of a child” including cartoons, drawings, animations, or similar.
Under these laws, AI-generated images of child abuse would be found to be illegal, as well as those purchasing, generating, or distributing them.
The IWF found that perpetrators can legally download everything they require to generate these images and do so completely offline, avoiding detection.
One of the major concerns for authorities is that most AI child abuse material is realistic enough to be treated as ‘real’ CSAM.
Text-to-image technology is advancing, and the most convincing AI material is indistinguishable from real CSAM, which can confound investigators trying to help children who are being actively abused.
Further, even though these images do not depict active abuse, they have increased the potential for the re-victimisation of known child sexual abuse victims, as well as the victimisation of famous children and children known to perpetrators.
The production of AI child sexual abuse material also opens another avenue for perpetrators to profit from abusing children.
The report follows a joint statement issued by the UK and the US, pledging to work together fight the development of these disturbing images and their pernicious use of AI.
The sickening report does spur a call to direct action, however: the creation and distribution of guides to generate AI CSAM is not currently an offence under UK law, but could be made one.
Currently, the legal status of AI CSAM models is a complicated question, but one that may have to be addressed at the upcoming AI Safety Summit in light of this harrowing report.
“Everyone needs to understand the scale of the marketplace that is driving these changes. This is organised crime and it is worth a significant amount of money which is why it is thriving,” Annabel Turner of CyberSafe Scotland commented on the disturbing report.
“Responding to this is going to require something from everyone… and many of the issues surrounding this are complex. But first and foremost we need urgent leadership around the development of responsible and ethical AI and platforms and developers to harness all tech solutions to prevent these images being made or shared.
“There will need to be further conversations about likely regulation, individuals to be continuously educated on what to do when these images surface on the clear web and on steps they can take to reduce personal risk, We urgently need the minds of those in leadership and tech to be focused on solutions.
“I hope that the Scottish Government will push for this to be front and centre at the UK Government Bletchley Park AI summit at the beginning of November.”
More than 46 million signals of potential cyber-attacks are seen on average every single day across the world, according to new data released by BT.
The company currently logs more than 530 signals of potential attack per second as they guard their global networks against an army of malicious actors seeking to exploit vulnerabilities – targeting businesses and critical national infrastructure.
With businesses of every size going digital, the most targeted industries in the past 12 months are IT, defence, banking and insurance – a fifth (19.7%) of malware sightings are directed towards these high-stakes targets.
The retail, hospitality and education sectors are also at high risk, account for 14.9% of malware sightings in the past 12 months.
Criminals often capitalise on seasonal sales and spikes in online traffic, which makes the approaching festive period a particular worry for retailers.
Small businesses, startups and charities are also finding themselves in the firing line; approximately 785,000 cyber-crimes were found across UK charities just in the last year. These less traditional targets may not have the security tools in place to protect them, but also tend to harbour sensitive data from more vulnerable individuals.
The BT data shows that every 30 seconds cyber-criminals scan any device connected to the internet looking for weaknesses, using automation and machine learning to identify vulnerabilities in business defences – the digital equivalent of a burglar looking for an open window.
All of this means that the average business will have its network scanned and tested by cyber-criminals over 3,000 times each day.
These figures become particularly concerning when well over half of businesses (61%) in the UK say that keeping up with cybersecurity measures is becoming increasingly difficult, according to BT’s global cybersecurity research from May.
This is compounded by the challenge of keeping the whole organisation aware of the threats, with one in four (26%) businesses saying that this is their biggest pain point.
Tris Morgan, managing director, security at BT, commented: “The volume of cyberthreats in the UK is rising at an alarming rate, so it’s really concerning that so many businesses and public services are leaving themselves open to attack.
“The fabric of the modern business has changed, and there’s now more connected tech for hackers to exploit, more valuable data to target and a bigger prize at stake if they make it through.”
The UK’s finance authority highlighted issues surrounding cryptoassetfinancial promotions, identifying some of the top risks associated with crypto marketing.
The FCA is calling out organisations for promoting claims about the safety, security, or ease of using cryptoasset services without highlighting their potential risks, making these risk warnings not visible enough to consumers, or failing to provide customers with adequate information on the specific risks of certain products and services.
Following this, the regulator is expecting authorised firms to take these regulatory obligations seriously, threatening action if they are not – the authority has already placed restrictions on rebuildingsociety.com ltd for not following these obligations.
Since the FCA took crypto under its remit, they have issued 221 alerts to different companies for not complying with different predatory promotional laws and not ensuring customers are aware of the risks associated with cryptocurrency and crypto trading.
While the UK attempts to become a superpower in technology, the regulator has taken a somewhat hard line when considering crypto, consistently calling the finance form “high-risk” for consumers.
Currently, the regulator is working across industries – including social media platforms, app stores, search engines and domain name registers – to remove or block illegal promotions. They are also collaborating with payments firms to limit the exposure of UK consumers to firms issuing these illegal promotions.
The FCA is also encouraging consumers to check their warning list before making a crypto investment, which includes a list of unauthorised firms and individuals that are not allowed to operate in the UK.
“Even with the new marketing rules, cryptoassets still remain high-risk and largely unregulated. If something goes wrong, it is unlikely people will have access to consumer protections, so should be prepared to lose all their money,” the regulator warned.
Legacy systems, technology downtime, the skills gap, cloud complexity, data confusion — companies are citing everything to explain recent revenue losses, according to a new report focused on IT as a service (ITaaS) from Hitachi Vantara.
Their Embracing ITaaS For Adaptability and Growth study revealed that around 40% of businesses across Europe and North America are citing these issues – and more – for their revenue losses.
Further, 55% if enterprises are struggling to derive meaningful insights from their data, highlighting an industry-wide need to deliver technology faster, more reliably, and in more places.
The survey revealed ongoing challenges related to security, inflexible systems, isolated data, a skilled labour shortage, and the need for infrastructure agility.
With these, the underlying issues surrounding data complexities, rigid technology environments and increasing costs due to aging or legacy infrastructure remain to confound businesses and complicate growth.
Hitachi Venture’s study surveyed 213 IT leaders with a focus on subscription- and consumption-based ITaaS models. The survey exposed some major legacy infrastructure challenges, which can be a death nail for businesses attempting to enhance their offering amid burgeoning technologies like multicloud and AI.
Technology downtime (56%), technical debt (50%) and complex cloud landscapes (45%) were some of the most common reasons IT leaders found themselves struggling.
“In today’s digital age, IT is not just a department; it’s a driving force that propels progress. It enables enterprises to innovate, collaborate, and flourish amid ever-evolving technology,” said Gary Lyng, vice president, product and solutions, Hitachi Vantara.
“But complexity is hindering innovation, which emphasizes the need for trusted specialists to simplify setup for seamless access to data and applications. Our expertise in storage and digital infrastructure and pay-as-you-go solutions rights the ship for struggling enterprises, maximizing value and the overall return on their investment.”
Despite these harsh realities, the survey also found that ITaaS is experiencing recent growth as an industry, with 42% of leaders expanding their adoption.
ITaaS is expected to grow, actually, according to the report, with an expected rise not only for individual solutions but also across the entirety of various infrastructure categories.
For example, 56% of respondents are using ITaaS for all of their primary infrastructure today and this value is expected to increase to up to 86% in three years.
A new investigation has revealed that UK civil servants are allegedly using AI algorithms to make important life decisions regarding benefits and marriage licence approval.
The Guardian reported this after looking into the use of AI across the UK government, and also revealed that AI systems are continually being used by the Metropolitan Police for facial recognition.
While government applications of AI are often thought of as commonplace, such as for biometric passport checks, other applications are less transparent, and potentially disastrous for citizens.
For instance, the Guardian found that an AI algorithm employed by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) potentially lead to some families having their benefits removed, as it was accused of doing so by a minister.
Civil servants alerted Parliament to the AI tool’s bias, citing their concerns the DWP was increasing investment into this technology, with a planned £70m over the next two years.
The DWP says the AI is still learning, and insisted it did not use nationality as a factor when analysing applications, though they also did admit to not fully understanding the underlying algorithm in a hearing this September.
Further, an AI model used by the Home Office to approve marriage license was disproportionately flagging marriage applications from certain countries and nationalities as fraudulent.
In the Met Police, a facial recognition algorithm was less able to recognise different black faces than white faces in certain instances.
These startling revelations follow the disbandment of an independent advisory board which held the government to account for AI applications.
Concerns over AI bias are ramping up as their applications diversify and make more decisions over people’s lives.
The insights shine a spotlight on the UK government’s use of AI comes just a before its AI Safety Summit, set to take place on 1 and 2 November at Bletchley Park.
This potentially reveals bias within these government systems – AI algorithms do not create their own bias, and only rely on the bias inputted in their system via data.
If AI algorithms, for instance, see more applications being denied for marriage licences from people from certain nationalities without other causes, then it may do the same depending on the algorithm employed by the system.
Generative AI can also be unpredictable, so can potentially make decisions somewhat indiscriminately.
The UK government’s use of AI is also antithetical to the EU’s current AI legislation, which restricts the use of AI in major decision making applications.
The use of algorithms with bias can put the UK government in jeopardy of being taken seriously as a proponent of AI safety and responsible AI ahead of the summit, which is set to discuss ethical applications of AI and the potential for regulation.
A new global study from HR, payroll, and workforce management software provider UKG reveals that many people use AI daily both at home and at work, and it’s already making innumerable jobs easier — employees just don’t know it.
This disconnect underscores the need for greater transparency from companies using AI and more insight into the benefits of prioritising AI at work to help build trust with employees, increase productivity, and improve business outcomes.
UKG surveyed more than 4,000 employees in 10 countries, including C-suite executives and people managers, about their real and perceived use of AI.
Already, over three quarters (78%) of C-suite leaders say their organisation is using AI today.
Executives are estimating that half (56%) of their workforce is directly using AI to automate or augment job tasks.
Despite these admittances from their higher-ups, only 42% of employees globally think they are using AI-powered devices in their day-to-day work.
Outside of work, just 44% of employees globally believe they interact with AI in their personal lives, even though at least 90% say they have used at least one application featuring AI technology.
These include maps and navigation (66%), predictive product/entertainment suggestions, such as in Netflix and Spotify (50%), text editors and autocorrect (47%), virtual home assistants, such as Alexa and Google Assistant (46%), or intelligent chatbots (31%).
Employees Want to Embrace AI
Despite prevailing Hollywood depictions of AI systems taking over humans, and experts saying AI advances herald doom, more and more employees say they are open to using AI at work – with some critical caveats.
The UKG study found that three out of four employees would be more accepting/excited about AI if their company was more transparent about the direct ways AI could improve their workflow (78%), and how their organisation is using AI (75%).
Greater transparency around AI at work paves the way for increased trust among employees and companies, which is integral to workplace culture.
It is also what workers across the UK are asking for, by calling for direct government legislation to enforce transparency in workplace uses of AI.
“AI is here, and it’s already providing some amazing benefits for the workforce — from automating tedious tasks to answering common questions to helping crunch millions of data points in mere seconds. However, 54% of people say they have ‘no idea’ how their company is using AI, and that lack of transparency is a real problem,” said Dan Schawbel, managing partner at the firm Workplace Intelligence, which partnered with UKG for the study.
“Organisations must be more upfront about how they’re using AI in the workplace, if they want a competitive advantage and want to earn, and keep, the trust of their employees.”
Employees expect to see many benefits from embracing AI technology in their job, with 63% saying it will increase their engagement/job satisfaction, 55% saying it will improve their willingness to go above and beyond, and 49% saying it will increase their desire to stay with their company long-term.
Around half (48%) say it will increase their trust in their company and leadership, with over half (54%) saying it will improve their overall happiness.
Executives are Onboard with AI
Executives are recognising the advantages of AI at work, with companies and employees embracing the technology already noticing the difference it can make.
Around three in four people using AI at work say that it makes them more efficient and productive at work, that it makes it possible for them to spend more time on meaningful tasks, and that it increases the quality or accuracy of their work.
Moreover, 71% of C-suite leaders say increasing/advancing their use of AI is either a high or medium priority for their organisation, citing the competitive advantage AI can bring. In fact, 62% of executives say they are at least slightly concerned that their company is not moving fast enough with AI.
There’s little question in executives’ minds that AI is good for business and for people, but they are split on who it might be better for.
51% of C-suit executives say that their employees have benefitted the most via simplified work, and 49% say that companies have benefitted the most through increased financial returns.
“Many businesses are finally realising what great workplaces have known for a long time now: AI, when used ethically, responsibly, and transparently, has the potential to be everyone’s favourite co-worker,” said Hugo Sarrazin, chief product and technology officer at UKG.
“AI is nothing new — we’ve been using AI at UKG since 2015 to help businesses achieve better outcomes. What is new is the transformational potential of generative AI to reshape employee experiences and provide timely, insightful feedback and recommendations with context that empower companies to create a great place to work for all people.”
What About the Future?
Executives at companies using AI today estimate that 70% of their total workforce will use AI to automate or augment some of their job tasks by 2027, according to the UKG study.
Even executives at companies not using AI today estimate that a fifth (20%) of their workforce will use AI to automate or augment some of their job tasks within the next five years.
While backups are an integral part of security protocol, cloud backups pose a particular risk as ransomware gangs become more creative and widen their scope of targets.
In 2022, Cloudstar, a major cloud services provider, suffered a major ransomware attack, with hundreds of firms affected.
According to the NCSC, threat actors often target backups and infrastructure in the early stages of a destructive ransomware attack, deleting or destroying the data stored there to make it harder for the victim to recover their data, and more likely to pay the ransom.
This puts data in cloud-based backup services a particular risk form ransomware actors, unless additional measures are taken to protect it.
As cloud-based backup services will not necessarily be resistant to ransomware attacks by default, the NCSC has set out the functions a service should offer, so that it can be considered resistant to destruction by ransomware.
Vendors of cloud-based backup services should show how their service meets the principles outlined by the NCSC, allowing them to describe their service as resistant to ransomware, and helping customers understand how their backup data will be protected.
For system owners, the guidance can provide a launching-off point to form questions for potential suppliers in order to understand how their service will protect backup data if a ransomware attack occurs.
Principle 1. Backup Resiliency to Destructive Actions
Backups should be resistant to the destruction threat actors may try to cause to frustrate or prevent the effective recovery of victim data.
The NCSC says that effective measures to prevent the destruction of backup data include outright blocking deletion requests and delaying deletion requests.
Further, companies can offer a soft-delete by default option, where ‘deleted’ data is marked as inaccessible, but is still recoverable for a certain period of time.
Principle 2. Configuring For Unblocked Customer Access
Instead of outright deleting backup data, ransomware gangs can instead attempt to block victim organisations from access this data by deleting or disabling customer accounts.
In order to mitigate this, backup systems should be configured so that threat actors cannot deny all customer access.
To prevent this, organisations can allow customer access to the backup service even if all existing corporate IT systems and assets are unavailable due to an attack. This would be possible by agreeing to a separate, out-of-band mechanism.
Organisations are also advised to forbid any identity and asset management (IAM) policy that restricts access to a single account within an attacker’s control.
Principle 3. Mitigating Against a Corrupted Backup
Threat actors can corrupt backups instead of destroying them, so a backup service should allow customers to store backups for a retention period that aligns with their risk appetite, and system owners should monitor and test the state of their backups regularly.
Creating and retaining a version history, storing backup data according to a fixed time period, and offering flexible storage policies, can mitigate the risks of a corrupted backup.
Further, providing mechanisms so that system owners can test whether they can restore from the current backup state can also provide more security.
Principe 4. Robust Key Manage for Data-at-Rest Protection
Threat actors can simply delete or modify encryption keys to block users off data that is protected through encryption.
The NCSC has its own guidance of cloud key management created specifically to mitigate against this risk.
Offering an out-of-band key backup option, such as a QR code form, so that the key data can be stored in a secure location, can also provide customers with more piece of mind.
Principle 5. Alerts for Changes and Privileged Action Attempts
Attackers rarely want to be noticed until it is too late, so creating alerts that users can approve or raise to their vendor for significant changes to their backup or for privilege actions are vital in raising an early alarm bell.
These alerts should be raised even if a change is unsuccessful so customers can be aware they are at greater risk of a threat, and the alerts should still work even if a customer’s infrastructure is compromised.
Significant changes themselves should require extra authorisation and automatically initiate extra protective monitoring in order to prevent successful attacks.
September saw record levels of ransomware attacks, according to NCC Group‘s September Threat Pulse, with 514 victims details released in leak sites.
The data represents a 153% year-on-year increase from last September, and break’s July’s record of 502 victim leaks.
August, in contrast, saw the lowest number of attacks following July’s high.
New Threat Actors on the Scene
Recently formed threat actor LostTrust ranked as the second most active group, responsible for 53 (10%) of all attacks, with another new group – RansomedVC – in fourth place with 44 (9%) attacks.
LostTrust is believed to have formed in March this year, with activity now coming to light in September. The group has adopted similar methods of double extortion used widely by more established threats.
Well-established threat actors remained active in September, with Lockbit retaining its August top spot. With new threat actors emerging and following the decrease of its activity in August, Cl0p was only responsible for three ransomware attacks in September, according to NCC Group’s data.
Ransomware in the West
In line with previous months’ trends, North America continued to be the most targeted region for ransomware attacks, with 258 attacks in September. Europe remained the second most targeted region with 155 attacks, followed by Asia in third place with 47.
However, September saw the targeting of North America and Europe increase by 3% and 2%, respectively, whilst attacks in Asia decreased by 6% from August.
This indicates a growing focus from threat actors on targeting Western regions.
Attacks on Healthcare Ramp Up
In September, Industrials continued to experience the highest volume of attacks 40% (19) followed but Consumer Cyclicals with 21% (10) and Healthcare 15% (7).
The continued targeting of Industrials is unsurprising given that the theft of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Intellectual Property (IP) remain attractive motivators for threat actors.
The Healthcare sector experienced a significant increase in ransomware attacks. It witnessed 18 attacks, marking an 86% month-on-month increase from August. However, the increase is in line with trends in earlier months this year, suggesting that the dip in August was an anomaly to the overall trend.
Healthcare continues to be an attractive target for threat actors because of the financial impact that a ransomware attack on companies in the pharmaceutical industry can have.
Spotlight: New Threat actor RansomedVC on the Rise
The record levels of ransomware attacks are partially the result of the emergence of new threat actors including RansomedVC. Like 8Base and other well-established organisations, RansomedVC operate as ‘penetration testers’. This is essentially penetrating a network to expose vulnerabilities, which is then reported to an organisation for a ransom.
However, its approach to extortion also incorporates the claim that any vulnerabilities discovered in their targets’ network will be reported in compliance with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
RansomedVC’s innovative approach increases the pressure on victims to meet ransom demands. Financial incentives for paying the ransom are heightened as GDPR allows for fines of up to 4% of a victim’s annual global turnover.
Using these methods, the group claimed responsibility for the attack on Japanese electronics company, Sony, on 24 September. As part of the attack, RansomedVC compromised the company’s systems and offered to sell stolen data. Successful targeting of a major global company such as Sony is indicative of the wide impact RansomedVC is having, likely to be a group that remains active over coming months.
Matt Hull, global head of threat intelligence at NCC Group said: “After the drop in ransomware attacks in August, the surge in attacks during September was somewhat anticipated for this time of year. However, what stands out is the volume of these attacks and the emergence of new threat actors who have been major drivers of this activity.
“These groups, including the likes of LostTrust, Cactus, and RansomedVC, are noteworthy for their approach: adapting existing ransomware techniques and introducing their own variations to add pressure for victims. We’ve witnessed a growing number of groups utilising the double extortion model as a strategy, piggybacking off this as a successful method used by more established threat actors. New threat actors are also increasingly embracing Ransomware as a Service (Raas) model, whilst diversifying their activities and creating ‘unique selling points’.
“The influx of new groups is evidence of the evolving nature of global ransomware attacks. There’s a focus on ramping up pressure on victims, a tactic successfully employed by the likes of RansomedVC, as we saw with its attack on Sony last month. It’s likely that we’ll see other new groups explore these methods of increasing pressure on victims to comply with other variations of RaaS in the coming months.”
One of Scotland’s largest independent electronics contract manufacturer, CB Technology, has delivered a 36% increase in turnover for 2022-23, taking its revenues to £14.3 million.
CB Technology’s revenues have increased 500% since the successful management buy-in backed by Maven Capital Partners in 2015. The Livingston-based electronics manufacturing service (EMS) provider remains on track to achieve its £20m turnover target by 2025.
Over the last 18 months, CB Technology has continued to successfully diversify its manufacturing capability beyond its traditional energy sector involvement with the addition of new clients in communications, IoT, and the life sciences sectors.
The company continues to invest in new equipment, along with increasing its headcount to 85 over the last year. CB Technology has also played its part in developing the next generation of electronic engineers by taking on three apprentices while planning to increase that number over the coming year.
This robust growth trajectory is forecast despite an expectation that the UK economy will contract by around 1.4% in 2023, with Make UK expecting a 3.2% reduction in output in the manufacturing sector compared to last year.
CB Technology has built a strong reputation for supplying complex and highly reliable electronic components worldwide, manufactured to globally renowned standards from its dedicated facility in West Lothian.
The company, founded in 1999, supplies technology products and services to blue-chip multinationals, whilst simultaneously partnering and supporting the growth of innovative SMEs across the UK.
John Cameron, managing director at CB Technology, said: “Our latest financial results are a testament to the skills and hard work of our team with the continued support of our innovative customers and dedicated shareholders. We remain extremely positive about our growth trajectory and the broader electronics manufacturing sector in Scotland.
“Despite a range of significant events creating a challenge for the global manufacturing industry, CB Technology has established a strong position for itself within the electronics manufacturing sector through strategic alignment with cutting-edge customers in the IoT, sensing technology and life sciences sectors.
“The company’s manufacturing capabilities and experience, combined with our financial strength, will continue to position CB Technology as a reliable and trusted partner for globally established Original Equipment Manufacturers as well as innovative SMEs.”
Experts may have welcomed the UK government’s moves to increase its focus on frontier AI at its upcoming AI Safety Summit, but they still have a flurry of questions.
What are these advanced areas of AI, what risks do they pose, and what impact could frontier AI have on the UK’s current pro-innovation stance?
Develop a shared understanding of the risks posed by frontier AI and the need for action
Put forward a process for international collaboration on frontier AI safety, including how best to support national and international frameworks
Propose appropriate measures which individual organisations should take to improve frontier AI safety
Identify areas for potential collaboration on AI safety research, including evaluating the potential capabilities of AI and the development of new standards to support governance
Showcase how ensuring the safe development of AI will enable AI to be used for good globally, for example with new rapid medical and drug advancements.
Frontier AI Explained
Katie Simmonds, managing associate and AI regulation expert from transatlantic law firm Womble Bond Dickinson explains: “Frontier AI applications are advanced foundation models that power systems such as OpenAI’s GPT-3 and GPT-4 (which underpin the widely known ‘ChatGPT’).
“Whilst these models have enormous potential, including efficiency and innovation benefits, they have potentially dangerous capabilities which should not be underestimated. Such models can pose risks to public safety and global security as by advancing towards human ability, they can be used to exploit vulnerabilities in software systems and spread persuasive disinformation at mass scale.”
Many of these models are generative AI models, which have inherent problems, such as producing unexplainable results, ‘hallucinating’ false outputs, and exacerbating existing biases.
New AI can be unpredictable due the nature of the algorithms, and dangerous capabilities can arise unexpectedly (regardless of intensive testing) and remain undetected until after harm has been caused.
Regulators and technology experts have found it continually difficult to specify how AI models should be applied, and what they should be allowed to do. The struggle to distinguish dangerous and useful outputs without knowing the context of their application can be detrimental to developers trying to advance the technology.
For instance, facial recognition can be useful for biometric security, but has also caused a flurry of human rights concerns if used by law enforcement authorities to track crowds.
Another overriding issue is that frontier models are much more difficult to train than to use, so end up being available to the public who will inevitably use the AI for tasks the developers never expected, which can result in misuse.
Open-source models can also result in dangerous capabilities being introduced at a later stage more easily by third parties, sometimes as an unintended consequence.
The addition of tailored extensions to ChatGPT for instance can potentially introduce cybersecurity vulnerabilities or allow third parties to track the data inputted by users without informed consent.
Current regulation of AI in the UK: a ‘pro-innovation’ approach’
Amy Battinson, trainee solicitor at Womble Bond Dickinson added: “The UK government has so far promoted a pro-innovation approach and opted not to impose legislation in the area, yet there has been recognition that foundation models need more thought and intervention.”
In its White Paper presented on 29 March 2023, the Office for AI proposed a de-centralised and self-regulatory approach in order to encourage innovation.
Amy explained that the theory behind this stance was that regulators would use existing legal frameworks to implement the following five principles, on a non-statutory basis:
1. Safety, security and robustness
2. Appropriate transparency and explainability
3. Fairness
4. Accountability and governance
5. Contestability and redress
Katie said: “There is currently ongoing debate about whether the existing frameworks do enough to mitigate AI based risks, especially when confronted with frontier AI, and how best to balance this and the strive for innovation.”
“Since the White Paper was published, the government has been working with regulators to determine whether the principles are being applied in a proportionate and effective manner, or if statutory intervention is needed.”
“The UK government has recently launched the Frontier AI Taskforce (which was previously known as the Foundation Model Taskforce) to focus on the significant risks posed by these particular systems. This shows that the government is recognising the significant risks and threat posed by misunderstanding or underestimating frontier AI. It also shows the needs to be agile and responsive as we all begin to learn more about what AI can offer, how it can be harnessed for good, and how we can manage potential negative impacts”.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published an issues statement setting out the proposed initial scope of its market investigation into cloud services, and potential remedies, should competition problems be found during its investigation.
While the issues statement is not part of the CMA’s official investigation and does not in itself entail that major players in the cloud market – namely Microsoft, Amazon, and Google – are undermining fair market practices, it does detail what the CMA is looking to investigate.
The market was initially referred to the CMA for an investigation by Ofcom following its own market study, which already identified features that make it difficult for UK business to switch and use multiple cloud providers.
Ofcom was particularly concerned about the position of Amazon and Microsoft as leaders in the £7.5 billion cloud services market in the UK.
The issues statement outlines the proposed initial scope of the CMA’s investigation, drawing on the three features of the market Ofcom was most concerned about plus the impact, if any, of software licensing practices on cloud competition.
The CMA is set to examine if technical barriers are making switching providers and multi-cloud difficult for customers and whether these barriers are contributing to the lock-in of customers to a single provider.
Further, they will also investigate whether egress fees act as a barrier to switching and multi-cloud, and if they contribute to unpredictable costs for customers or hinder competition, an issue highlighted by Ofcom’s report.
Investigations will also investigate if discounts created by existing cloud providers are blocking entry and expansion among new and smaller companies, and if the software licensing practices dissuade customers from using rival providers.
“Cloud services are an essential part of how businesses in the UK operate and they underpin many aspects of our daily activities, from banking to communications,” Kip Meek, chair of the CMA’s inquiry group, said. “This is why effective competition in this market is so important.
“Following Ofcom’s market study, we’re proposing to focus our investigation on a number of issues that may be affecting cloud customers’ ability to switch between providers and make it harder for rival firms to enter the market. We welcome views on these issues as we get this investigation underway.”
The House of Lords Communications Committee has criticised the UK Government’s response to its report on digital exclusion, underscoring the lack of understanding and action on the pertinent issue in government.
In response, the Government outlined recommendations based on the report, which the Committee disparaged as lacking ambition and failing to engage with the concerns raised by the report.
The Committee emphasised that the divides between digital ‘haves and have-nots’ will deepen unless the UK government takes the issue more seriously.
In a letter to Minister Paul Scully, Baroness Stowell, chair of the Communications and Digital Committee, rejected the Government’s assertion that digital exclusion is a priority, citing that the Government digital strategy is over a decade old and includes links to now defunct websites and long discontinued programmes.
She pointed out that other government strategies are updated regularly, and that the failure to do the same for digital exclusion “suggests a reluctance to dedicate political attention and departmental resource to this matter.”
“As the world rapidly moves online and ground-breaking advances in AI occupy political attention, we must ensure that the UK has firm digital foundations across all sectors of society. The Government still has time to demonstrate its commitment to this issue by developing a new digital inclusion strategy,” the letter read.
The Committee also expressed further disappointment at the lack of action on recommendations it put forward to help tackle digital exclusion, including removing VAT from broadband social tariffs, giving Ofcom powers to ensure social tariffs are appropriately promoted, embedding digital skills targets across education life stages and expanding internet voucher schemes to more people in need.
“Digital exclusion is not a problem that will solve itself. It is an ongoing challenge and we need clear direction from the Government about how they will prioritise making sure people are not excluded or left behind when it comes to enjoying the benefits of being online,” Baroness Stowell commented.
“Our report set out a series of key areas where the government could take the lead in tackling the digital divide, including in developing digital skills and confidence among those with the lowest level of digital capability.
“In their response the Government have reasserted that digital exclusion is a priority, but their actions do not live up to the words. It is simply not credible to claim it is a priority when the key strategy for helping people keep pace in such a fast-moving area is over a decade old. It is disappointing that the Government’s response has not taken up the Committee’s positive challenge and signalled the ambition needed to close the digital divide for the UK to thrive as a tech superpower.”
The Bank recognised 12 small businesses from across the UK as leading and inspiring examples of UK startups supported by the programme.
So far, the programme has delivered more than £1 billion of funding to over 105,000 businesses since 2012. Of these loans, 50% of loan recipients have been women, and 20% have been from minority ethnic backgrounds.
In Scotland, the British Business Bank as made 6,855 loans, totalling to the amount of £62,930,827.
For this year’s cohort, Glasgow-based Metahelios was chosen after receiving a Start Up Loan from the Bank in January this year.
The imaging tech startup is developing a first-of-its-kind long distance camera that could be sent to space in support of a range of sectors.
A spin out, the company was set up by physicists from the University of Glasgow in January 2022 by Charles Altuzarra and Yash Shah.
Setting their sights on the stars, the company is currently in talks with the UK Space Agency for the potential to join a rocket launch from British soil.
The annual Start Up Loans Ambassadors programme, now in its eighth year, aims to celebrate exceptional business owners who have launched an enterprise using funding from the government-backed scheme.
Each Ambassador is selected for their ability to inspire others and embodies the can-do mindset it takes to make a start-up successful.
Drawn from each of the UK’s 12 Nations and Regions, the 2023/24 Start Up Loans Ambassadors reflect the broad diversity of sectors and business owners supported via the programme.
Richard Bearman, managing director of Small Business Lending, British Business Bank, said: “Start Up Loans is proud to support and nurture British entrepreneurial spirit and I’m inspired to see the breadth and diversity of this year’s Ambassadors. They represent the dedication and resilience that it takes to launch and grow a business in the current economic environment. Small businesses are a vital part of the UK economy, and when they thrive, we all do.
“These Ambassadors are being celebrated soon after we’ve passed the huge and exciting milestone of having put £1 billion of finance into UK startups through the Start Up Loans programme. We hope these great business owners help us to reach new heights and support even more aspiring entrepreneurs.”
Through a network of business support partner organisations, the Start Up Loans programme provides access to pre-and-post loan support to help applicants to develop a business plan; fixed-interest first and second loans of up to £25,000 to start or grow their business; as well as mentoring support to help loan recipients with everything from cash flow to marketing.
New research from Gong, the revenue intelligence leader, shows that the majority of UK business students (78%) feel equipped to enter an AI-driven world, while 45% say they’re motivated about the role AI will play in their work.
The findings will be a relief to British businesses looking to the next generation for AI-literacy, as nearly 90% are already implementing the technology and the majority (82%) want to implement more AI technology into their day-to-day workflow in the future.
AI in the workplace has caused excitement as well as anxiety in offices across the UK, but is seems the next generation of workers have accepted its inevitable impact, as 69% agree that AI is here for good and therefore it’s important for their career that they embrace it.
This optimism around working in an AI-driven environment is underpinned by an air of confidence, as 95% of students surveyed say they already have an understanding of AI, and the role it plays in business.
Ben Robinson, final year philosophy, politics, and economics student at the University of Exeter said, “AI is undoubtedly reshaping the world of work, and as I near the end of my studies and look to my career beyond university, its impact is definitely something I’ve considered. This technology holds huge potential to support workers, particularly in the field of sales and related client facing roles. As long as individuals are equipped with the correct skills to use AI as a beneficial tool within their work, I believe its adoption should be celebrated, and not feared.
“Many entry-level roles require the completion of menial, day-to-day tasks that AI tools can perform quickly and effectively. This would allow more time to dedicate to enhancing key, people-centric skills that are crucial to the success of sales. AI has not yet mastered the human element of the role and therefore our involvement is, and continues to be vital.”
Anna Carway, a recent University graduate and sales development representative at Gong said: “AI is nothing to be scared of – it’s not some crazy phenomenon, it just makes my life easier and more efficient. It does the things you don’t even think about, like automating processes and reducing doubling up on tasks. It’s not the be-all-and-end-all, but if you already have a good work ethic and you fully integrate it into your ways of working, it can make you twice as successful.”
But despite this confidence and optimism, students remain wary about the future of AI.
While they are confident in their ability to embrace AI, business students also share a sense of trepidation about it, as 65% are concerned that their job after University could be replaced by AI in the next ten years.
Job security remains an important decision for students as they begin to pick their career pathways, and AI plays a role in this decision. Nearly three quarters (71%) of students gravitate towards the jobs or industries that are least likely to be replaced by AI in the future when considering their career choices.
Almost a third (31%) of business students plan to pursue a career in sales and the findings suggest that they are already aware of how AI can help them.
For example, 62% know that AI can understand all the interactions between a sales rep and a prospect and accurately predict whether that prospect will buy, while 64% know that AI can write follow-up emails to send after a call.
Luke Mulvaney, senior sales development representative at Gong said: “AI helps me as a salesperson by making me increasingly more productive. I was familiar with AI prior to working with it, but nothing prepares you for how it’s going to change your ways of working until it’s part of your every day. It reminds me about action items, it takes notes, and without a doubt, I would be less successful without it. I now can’t imagine not having AI tools to complement my skills and enhance my productivity every day.”
Social media giants Meta and TikTok have been warned by the European Commission to detail how they have mitigated the spread of disinformation, violent content, hate speech, and terrorist propaganda on their platforms, just a week after X was also given the same warning.
Now, the platforms have a week to explain the specific actions they have taken to dispel and remove this content amid one of the most desperate humanitarian crisis’ of the last decade.
Disinformation has flooded social media after the October 7 attacks on Israeli civilians by Hamas militants which sparked even further bombings and airstrikes by the Israeli military onto civilians in Gaza, a population of around 2 million, around half of which are children. The death toll in Gaza has reached 3,000 over the weekend.
The conflict has raised global tensions and has since seen a rise in hate speech and violent content arise on social media. The EU’s Digital Services Act does not allow for hate speech, and calls on social media platforms to censor violent content so viewers can better control what they are exposed to on social sites.
The disinformation on X has been well documented as the conflict continued to escalate – the nature of the conflict and the unbalance access to media outlets, internet, and electricity between areas occupied by the Israeli government and areas allotted to Palestinians, including Gaza and the West Bank, have made violence difficult to document appropriately.
For instance, journalists are still unable to independently verify what organisation was behind the bombing of the al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza. Palestinian officials said the bombing, which resulted in the death of at least 500 civilians seeking shelter amid continuous attacks, was the result of an airstrike from the Israeli military. Israel, however, pushed back on these claims, saying it was a failed strike from Islamic Jihad, a different group operating in Gaza, which denied the the accusation.
The stakes could not be higher with regards to the danger of disinformation – a child in the United States has already been murdered in an Islamiphobic attack, with disinformation and an overall lack of understanding of the current situation in Israel-Palestine serving as a culprit to spur egregious action.
The EU is therefore calling on social media sites to combat the spread of disinformation proliferating on their platforms under the Digital Services Act, which has creates specific stipulations for tech’s biggest players.
The Digital Services Act is asking them to not just stop the spread of disinformation, but violent and hateful content as well. How this is defined, however, may come into question.
For instance, Instagram users are already saying that some of their content is being blocked or ‘shadow-banned’ from being’s newsfeeds. Essentially, while the content is not outright removed, it is not typically shared widely and Instagram’s algorithm will filter out certain content from people’s usual feeds.
Supporters of Palestine are saying their content is being censored – the Guardian reported several Instagram users whose accounts no longer showed up in searches, whose content no longer showed up on people’s feeds, after they posted content in support of Palestine.
Meta has previously come under fire for the same offence, and in 2021, independent analysis commissioned by the company itself found that it had violated the human rights of Palestinians in censoring content related to the attacks on Gaza by the Israeli government.
The removal of violent content is also not straightforward in times of conflict and genocide, as the public needs to and wants to stay informed. Still, the EU is asking social media sites to filter violent content and hate speech as the assault on Gaza continues.
Tech startups across the UK are set to receive access to the latest scientific research, business coaching, and help to raise capital from universities and business experts thanks to a fresh round of Digital Growth Grant funding.
Seven organisation are set to receive up to £250,000 each to run programmes to support tech and digital businesses across the UK.
Local programmes in cities including Edinburgh, Exeter, and Sheffield will be match-funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s Digital Growth Grant, delivered by Barclays Eagle Labs. The funding will match each organisations’ investments in new and existing programmes that help local tech businesses.
“Britain’s innovative tech startups span the nation and drive global innovation forward. We are delighted to boost these programmes to provide on-the-ground support for founders in their local areas, giving them the help they need to thrive,” Paul Scully, minister for tech and the digital economy, said.
“Directly supporting businesses in this way is the cornerstone of our Digital Growth Grant, which champions a future where every corner of the UK benefits from the job creation and growth technology provides.”
The programmes provide a variety of support including access to digital services, entrepreneurship training, and access to networking and fundraising opportunities.
Each programme has a specialist focus dependent on local specialisms, with Edinburgh backing “deep tech” startups which are converting scientific discoveries into businesses.
Other regions are focussing support on tech start-ups helping tackle climate change, those supporting creative industries, or driving innovation in the NHS.
The winning programme in the Scottish capital, Venture Builder Incubator, is tied to the University of Edinburgh, and will give researchers access to a cut of £100,000, access to AI research facilities and a ‘National Robotarium’ to convert their inventions into innovations and businesses across robotics and more.
Season 2 of the Ecosystem Partnership Programme opens for applications from 19 October, where organisations can apply for matched funding for activity being delivered between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025.
This date also marks six months since Barlcays Eagle Labs started leading the delivery of the Digital Growth Grant, taking over from TechNation. In this time, Barclays Eagle Labs has initiated nine accelerator programmes, including the Black Venture Growth Programme for underrepresented founders, helping to foster and grow the digital economy.
Matt Corbidge, director at Barclays Eagle Labs, said: “We are proud to be able to support these projects which are designed to help early-stage tech entrepreneurs across the UK. It’s vitally important that start-ups and scale-ups are supported particularly in growing sectors in AI, climate-tech and the digital space.
“Using our Ecosystem Partnership Programme, we’re allocating funding to organisations that are already plugged into their national and regional ecosystems. We hope these projects will go a long way to supporting start-ups and scale-ups, which are vital to growing local economies throughout the UK.”
The £12 million Digital Growth Grant builds on more than £42.2 million invested by the government to support tech startups and scaleups since 2016. The two-year grant, awarded to Barclays Eagle Labs, was launched in April 2023.
Nvidia, the most valuable chip company currently on the market, is entering a deal with Foxconn, the iPhone manufacturer, in a partnership to create ‘AI factories’.
The partnership will see Foxconn integrating NVIDIA’s chip technology to develop a “new class” of data centres, with applications ranging from digitalised manufacturing workflows, AI-powered electric vehicle and robots platforms, and ass to the growing number of language-based generative AI services.
These AI factories will be created using NVIDIA GPU computing infrastructure built for transforming vast amounts of data into valuable AI models and tokens.
Foxconn plans to use NVIDAI tech as the foundation for some of their upcoming smart models, including EV, robotic systems, and a Foxconn Smart City.
“A new type of manufacturing has emerged — the production of intelligence. And the data centers that produce it are AI factories,” said NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang. “Foxconn, the world’s largest manufacturer, has the expertise and scale to build AI factories globally. We are delighted to expand our decade-long partnership with Foxconn to accelerate the AI industrial revolution.”
The plans come in the wake of the US imposing new chip export restrictions on China, in a major blow to Nvidia.
Nvidia said that at least two of its chips specifically geared toward the Chinese market were being blocked as part of the restrictions, and their start stock, which had previously hit some of the highest in the company’s history, feel by nearly 5% as a result.
China makes up around a quarter of Nvidia’s data chip market, and restrictions could potentially dampen its sales.
Nokia, the Finnish telecoms giant, has announced it will cut up to 14,000 jobs by the end of 2026 in order to reduce organisational costs.
This comes off the back of the company’s 20% reduction in sales disclosed in their interim Q3 2023 report, citing macroeconomic uncertainty and higher interest rates pressuring operator spending.
Nokia says they are expecting to end up with a workforce of 72,000 to 77,000 employees by 2026, compared to the 86,000 employees they have today.
The telecoms company has been cutting jobs since 2015, and the new round of layoffs will see their workforce decrease by at least a further 9,000 around the globe.
Pekke Lundmark, the president and CEO, said that their Q3 results, while arguably poor, “demonstrated resilience” in their operating margin, admitting their weakness was in net sales.
“Cloud computing and AI revolutions will not materialise without significant investments in networks that have vastly improved capabilities,” he said. “However, given the uncertain timing of the market recovery, we are now taking decisive action…”
The lay-offs will take place around three levels: strategic, operational, and cost. Essentially Nokia aims to streamline their operations by giving business groups more operational autonomy, embedding sales teams into business groups, and resetting their cost-base.
Based on this, it may be reasonable to project that sales and business consultant teams may be affected by the job cuts, though Nokia has not yet said which departments or countries will be hit by the layoffs.
Nokia fell from its top spot as a handset manufacturer years ago with the advent of smartphones, pioneered by Apple and Samsung. Nokia then turned its focus to telecoms, and is currently in partnership with BT as its primary equipment provider.
As budgets tighten, however, and 5G rollouts slow, Nokia’s business model has taken a hit yet again.
Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $5.1 trillion in 2024, an increase of 8% from 2023, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.
While generative AI (genAI) has not yet had a material impact on IT spending, investment in AI more broadly is supporting overall spending growth.
“In 2023 and 2024, very little IT spending will be tied to GenAI,” said John-David Lovelock, VP analyst at Gartner. “However, organizations are continuing to invest in AI and automation to increase operational efficiency and bridge IT talent gaps. The hype around GenAI is supporting this trend, as CIOs recognize that today’s AI projects will be instrumental in developing an AI strategy and story before GenAI becomes part of their IT budgets starting in 2025.”
Cloud Price Increases and Cyber Behind Increases
The software and IT services segments are both set to see double-digit growth in 2024, largely driven by cloud spending.
Global spending on public cloud services is forecast to increase by about a fifth (20.4%) in 2024, and similarly to 2023, the source of growth will be a combination of cloud vendor price increases and increased utilisation.
While inflation’s effect on both consumers and businesses plagued the devices market throughout 2022 and 2023, devices spending is predicted to to rebound modestly in 2024, growing 4.8%.
Cybersecurity spending is also driving growth in the software segment. Gartner found that 80% of CIOs reported that they plan to increase spending on cyber and information security in 2024, the top technology category for increased investment.
“AI has created a new security scare for organizations,” said Lovelock. “Gartner is projecting double-digit growth across all segments of enterprise security spending for 2024.”
As AI is becoming continually integrated into systems, security experts must be proactive in their response to mitigate the potential risks arising from AI, ranging from data protection concerns to advanced phishing techniques made possible my large language models.
CIOs are experience what Gartner dubs ‘change fatigue’, which manifests as a hesitation to invest in new projects and initiatives. This is pushing a portion of 2023’s software investment into 2024, a trend that is expected to continue into 2025.
“Faced with a new wave of pragmatism, capital restrictions or margin concerns, CIOs are delaying some IT spending,” said Lovelock.
“Organizations are shifting the emphasis of IT projects towards cost control, efficiencies and automation, while curtailing IT initiatives that will take longer to deliver returns.”
A landmark deal could see Amazon becoming a customer of Microsoft 365 for a reported $1 billion, in a major move of potential armistice between the two major tech powers.
Insider first reported the matter, and viewed internal documents suggesting that Microsoft 365 tools will begin to be used across various levels of Amazon, from corporate to frontline, beginning in November.
Amazon has around a 1.5m strong workforce globally, and the deal is expected to cover five years and one million individual users.
The deal will coincide with the release of a new version of 365 which will include generative AI tools such as Microsoft Co-pilot.
The internal documents suggest that in preparation for the transition, Amazon has already started allocating cloud servers.
Currently, Amazon has neglected so far to adopt Microsoft products, instead opting for their own versions of the Microsoft Office suite, and relying on in-house tools like WorkDocs and Chime, which are not as up-to-date as more modern applications like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Workspace.
Keeping everything in house, however, has been one of Amazon’s hallmarks as it competes as a heavy-weight with major tech companies in the cloud market.
Amazon and Microsoft are at the forefront of cloud technology, cornering around 60-70% of the market between them.
The move to strike this billion-dollar deal is therefore unlike other partnerships we’ve yet to see, and is a major departure from Amazon’s typical business model.
A new global survey of over 3000 business and IT leaders released today by Avanade, the Microsoft solutions provider, reveals the workplace impact of AI for organisations and how to safeguard roles as AI is scaled.
The survey found that most employees anticipate positive impacts and outcomes from AI, with 79% believing generative AI tools will cut down about 20 hours, or half, of their work week.
However, 63% of business and IT executives think that said employees will need some new skills, or a completely new skill set altogether, to cope with the introduction of AI models and systems into their day-to-day.
So, the workforce skillset will need to change, but what about the workforce itself?
From the early days of automation to the recent advancements of generative AI, humans are potentially more worried than ever that a robot will take their job.
This is contrary, however, to how nearly two-thirds (64%) of IT and businessleaders feel, as they believe that AI will maintain or increase the number of human roles at their organisation in the next year, with most expecting headcounts to increase by up to 9%.
Digging a bit deeper, confidence levels regarding how organisations and their leaders are prioritising actions to ready their people, processes, and platforms for AI, vary significantly by industry, country, role levels, and job titles.
And these discrepancies track with recent research into how AI will – and already has – affected workers and the workplace.
Further, the global survey shows just how varied government responses to the prospect of AI regulation has been, ranging from the EU’s landmark AI Act, to the UK’s current non-statutory position on the burgeoning technology.
Still, Avanade’s survey found that most (95%) of employees are optimistic about AI and its impact. Even this overwhelmingly positive response is littered with doubts suggesting organisations may be overlooking how to protect their people when adopting AI responsibly and effectively.
According to the survey, less than half (48%) of organisations have put in place a complete set of specific guidelines/policies for responsible AI, which is lower than the 52% of business and IT leaders who answered this question in March 2023.
As well, while almost all employees (96%) are confident their organisations and IT teams have the knowledge and resources to scale AI, but only 52% say their organisation has complete human capital and workforce planning processes in place to safeguard headcount as generative AI is scaled.
More concerning, is that about half (49%) of employees admit they do not have the utmost confidence that their organisation’s risk management processes are adequate for an enterprise-wide technical integration of generative AI.
This confidence level dipped to 45% in the UK, and was lowest amongst government, life sciences, utilities, and non-profit sectors.
While AI is already here, and confidence is high it will have an impact on the future of work, how this is carried out is still causing concerns for employers and workers alike.
The UK Space Agency is launching a new programme – Unlocking Space for Business – to help businesses unlock the benefits of satellite data and services.
Global satellite services currently support activity that contributes £370 billion to the UK economy, which is around 17.7% of our GDP.
As the cost of accessing space continues to fall and the pace of innovation increases, a greater number of businesses now have the opportunity to harness the advantage offered by satellites through enhanced imagery, connectivity, and navigation capabilities.
Unlocking Space for Business is an 18-month programme designed to bring these untapped benefits to hundreds of new organisations across the UK, focused on the leading transport and logistics and financial services sectors.
Opportunity areas can include using satellite imagery to improve the measurement of climate variables and verification of customer insurance claims after extreme weather events, satellite position and navigation to support location tracking and enabling the movement of people and satellite connectivity to help crew and passengers keep in touch with operators and families on shore.
Unlocking Space for Business will provide workshops, networking events, learning and development sessions, and online resources to support companies in their understanding of what satellite data and services can mean for them.
The programme will also offer the opportunity to bid for a share of up to £6 million UK Space Agency funding later this year to help launch innovative pilot projects, data procurement or partnerships.
Dr Paul Bate, chief executive of the UK Space Agency, said: “Unlocking Space for Business will champion the use of space and help tackle barriers facing organisations that have not traditionally used satellite data or services. This will help catalyse further investment into our growing space sector and deliver greater benefits for businesses, people, and the environment.
“This is just one of the ways we’re working to deliver the goal set out in the National Space Strategy to build one of the most innovative and attractive space economies in the world, developing new skills and creating jobs.”
Satellite data and services have the ability to unlock and deliver new revenue growth opportunities, operational efficiencies, improved customer experiences and ESG benefits for organisations.
Unlocking Space for Business will connect leading data suppliers, technology integrators, insight providers and end-users to encourage the development and adoption of innovative solutions using satellite data and services.
Delivery of the project is being supported by PwC, a leader in human-led, tech powered business transformation, and the Satellite Applications Catapult, a leader in bringing space-based services to market.
Faye Melly, delivery partner at PwC, said: “Businesses today face significant challenges which demand innovative solutions. The to-do list can range from driving operational efficiencies and strengthening customer experience, through to taking action to drive towards Net Zero. In all of these areas space can play a pivotal role.
“Unlocking Space for Business gives UK firms the opportunity to realise the benefits of satellite data and services, and we’re proud and excited to be supporting the delivery of this programme for the UK Space Agency, in partnership with the Satellite Applications Catapult.”
Organisations can register their interest to get involved with the project and keep up to date with planned activities including Insight and Networking Events, Exploration Workshops and learning and development sessions ahead of the funding call opening later in the year.
Lucy Edge, chief operating officer and acting CEO at the Satellite Applications Catapult, said: “We’re excited to launch Unlocking Space for Business today. By bringing together key players in the satellite industry, integrators and end users, we’ll make it easier for businesses to access the business-critical data they did not even know was available to them. We’ll also connect companies with government funding sources to test out pilot projects using satellite tech.
“Satellite services drive innovation in all businesses and will boost the bottom line. By building up these partnerships and support systems, we aim to accelerate the adoption of satellite solutions across the private sector.”
60% of new unicorns created over the last 12 months are GenAI native, according to a new report highlighting how generative AI has spearheaded the economic recovery of the tech ecosystem in Europe and the globe.
In fact, venture capital investment in tech in Europe has now reached pre-covid levels, according to the data from Accel, with AI driving the largest private rounds and fuelling innovation across multiple tech applications.
The AI-boom is even behind tech’s newest super unicorn Nvidia, which is now worth $1.1 trillion thanks to the increased need for its AI-capable microchips.
Large foundation models were found to take the largest private financing rounds of 2023 so far, with OpenAI ($10B), Anthropic ($2B), and Inflection ($1.3B) raising the three highest amounts this year.
US rounds were still beating European financing rounds, however, despite two new European genAI unicorns – Synthesia and Stabiliy.ai – joining the blessing.
However, the EU and UK are beating the US in terms of total AI journal publications and citations, with 15% and 22% of the world total, respectively. The US, in contrast, only contributed to 10% and 15% of publications and citations, respectively.
Europe also has a wide and deep AI talent pool, with Accel’s report citing the University of Edinburgh as a hub for AI innovation and talent, likely thanks to its dedicated AI Futures Institute. Other hubs included London, Oxford and Cambridge, but previous reports have found Edinburgh to be the most AI-ready city outside of London.
What’s Next?
Accel also identified some trends they predict will impact the global economy and tech sphere, with a heavy emphasis on AI advancements and their potential effects on the globe.
The emergence of specialised genAI applications, especially in terms of media creation, will likely proliferate as AI continues to see a boom. This will contribute to more and more organisations moving to genAI native tools and infrastructure to enable the seamless integration of the advancing technology.
Enterprises will see transformation on two main fronts, Accel predicts: in intelligent automation, and a transition to a modern data stack. These are set to increase efficiency by better directing human-lead efforts and work and harnessing the power of data stored effectively in the cloud.
The advances of cloud infrastructure and AI applications also lead to issues in cybersecurity, with Accel predicting that non-human identity, data, and analytics will be a new frontier cyber experts will have to reckon with to keep complex cloud systems secure.
The Scottish Black Talent Summit, set to take place at the end of October, is returning to Edinburgh with the backing of national tech programme, Techscaler.
The second inaugural summit will span across the two final days of October, taking place in the Scottish capital, offering insights and networking opportunities to the Scottish black talent pool.
Featuring a networking and hiring fair showcasing some of the major players across different industries, panel discussions highlighting important topics for young people entering their careers lead by experienced mentors, and workshops enabling collaboration between community members, the summit is set to be a hallmark event for increasing diversity and inclusion across Scottish vocations.
Featured speakers include Abe Aboh, the data management lead at the Bank of England, Manira Ahmad, chief officer at Public Health Scotland, and Viana Maya FRSA, founder of pRESPECT & pRESPECT Hub CIC.
Behind the two-day event is Datakirk, a not-for-profit organisation, dedicated to address the data divide, with initiatives to produce more diversity in Scotland’s talent pool. To them, this means increasing the representation of disadvantaged groups in the data economy by improving data literacy, data science skills, machine learning expertise, and overall self-development of Scotland’s most disadvantaged.
The two day event will offer CV workshops and networking opportunities on its first day, which features a hiring fair, connecting the Scottish black talent pool directly to industry.
Panel discussions on the second day are set to benefit industry leaders as well as talented newcomers looking to enter the data workforce, featuring topics ranging from accessing untapped talent to the importance of collaboration in Diversity Equality and Inclusion (DEI) strategies.
Since its last event in 2022, Datakirk has seen its community membership more than double, from 1,200 members to now over 3,000. The company has focused on expanding its network outside of Edinburgh, and added several partners across Aberdeen, Glasgow, Dundee, as well as in the Scottish capital.
Besides the Scottish Black Talent Summit, Datakirk has hosted 44 webinars in the past year, focused on supporting black talent in Scotland and fostering a diverse and inclusive ecosystem in Scotland.
In January this year, Datakirk launched three new projects aiming to propel Scottish black talent in the ecosystem. AccelerateBLK is focused on helping black talents start their career, and TalentPoint is an organisation centred on supporting and nurturing the black community.
Datakirk went even further with DaYii (Datakirk Tough Internship Initiative), providing young learners internship and work experience opportunities with partner organisations.
These initiatives show just how pervasive the issue of inequality is in the Scottish data ecosystem and wider society – every facet of the hiring and work process needs more support for disadvantaged groups in Scotland. Datakirk’s event, taking place on 30 and 31 October, is a prime example of the importance of purpose-lead organisations in driving inclusion initiatives.
“Inclusion isn’t a goal; it’s a journey we must all embark on. The 2nd Scottish Black Talent Summit & Hiring Fair is your opportunity to take that first step,” the team at Datakirk told DIGIT.
The Scottish Black Talent Summit will take place on 30 and 31 October at The Gorgie Suite in Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh. More information on the event, including tickets, can be found here.
New research has found that 95% of military and defence industry decision-makers recognise that ongoing digitalisation has led to a more dynamic and complex ‘information battlespace’ and a further 93% agree defence will require increased integration across domains.
Recent conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine and the escalation of violence between Israel and Palestine, have highlighted the integration of digital infrastructure, cybersecurity, disinformation, and defence. These devastating incursions have shown just how dramatically the defence landscape has changed, and how important cyber defences against infrastructure attacks and disinformation can be in global conflicts.
BAE Systems’ report found that greater levels of Multi-Domain Integration – across land, sea, air, cyber and space – will be key as the defence landscape becomes increasingly digitalised.
Nine out of ten respondents said better Multi-Domain Integration would enable a more effective response to grey zone threats, cybersecurity attacks and AI developments with 83% saying it would reduce uncertainty and volatility.
Researchers gathered views of senior business and IT decision-makers from military and private industry defence and aerospace organisations across the UK, Canada, Australia, the Nordics and the Middle East. It sheds light on the recent significant changes in the defence landscape and highlights areas the sector must focus on to overcome emerging threats.
The report highlighted the need for collaboration across military departments and the need to break down siloes to enable integration and unified strategies for defence.
It also identified the need for regulatory standards to streamline and coordinate the implementation of Multi-Domain integration programmes.
“Standards have the potential to prevent vendor lock-in, create incentives that encourage and enhance collaboration, and ultimately result in future-proofed intelligence and deterrence strategies,” the report said.
This all ties in to the need for integrated technology development, to ensure that systems are updated and innovations are introduced across department to allow inter-operation and reduce siloes.
The Information Battlespace
With 86% agreeing that future wars will be fought in an ‘information battlespace’, it’s clear that digital capabilities are central to modern military strategies.
The information battlespace refers to the use and management of communications, digital technology, and data to gain a competitive advantage over an adversary. As the volume of global data increases, the information battlespace as been increasingly prioritised.
Almost all respondents (98%) acknowledged an evolution of processes will be essential for navigating the complexities that modern defence brings.
The report highlights that, in addition to the challenge of digitalisation, the defence sector faces rapid evolution due to a number of geopolitical factors. These include the return to conventional war in Europe and the requirement to protect against operations within the so-called ‘grey zone’, which consist of activities that sit just beneath the threshold of an act of war.
Embracing Multi-Domain Integration – whereby every part of defence operates seamlessly together –promotes unified action that allows for more effective responses to cyber-attacks and Artificial Intelligence (AI) developments (93% agree).
Mivy James, digital transformation director, BAE Systems’ Digital Intelligence business, said: “One of the main benefits of Multi-Domain Integration is operational effectiveness and the ability to access a holistic view of a situation. We’re seeing a decline in the clear distinction between traditional domains in modern warfare and we need to differentiate less between the physical and digital space and create digital threads between domains to manage this evolving threat.”
Bolstering Defences
As adversaries employ increasingly sophisticated digital strategies, 79% of respondents recognise Multi-Domain Integration’s critical role in shaping today’s military operations.
They acknowledge the intricate nature of Multi-Domain Integration while simultaneously deeming it indispensable – with 91% of those surveyed agreeing Multi-Domain Integration is difficult to implement but essential.
Sidharth Kaushal, research fellow, Sea Power at Military Sciences, RUSI, added: “System integration, spanning domains, nations and industries, inevitably raises cybersecurity concerns. While there’s unanimous agreement on the need for greater integration, particularly in our collaboration with allies, we must be prepared for the inherent challenges this brings.
“Integration at this scale isn’t just about technology; it’s a transformative journey prompting us to revisit and potentially disrupt long-standing procedures. It’s essential that we approach this evolution with caution, ensuring we balance the promise of unified systems with the potential risks they might introduce.”
Gartner, Inc. has revealed their top strategic technology trends that organisations need to explore in 2024.
“Technology disruptions and socioeconomic uncertainties require willingness to act boldly and strategically enhance resilience over ad hoc responses,” said Bart Willemsen, VP analyst at Gartner.
“IT leaders are in a unique position to strategically lay down a roadmap where technology investments help their business’s sustenance of success amidst these uncertainties and pressures.”
“They and other executives must evaluate the impacts and benefits of strategic technology trends, but this is no small task given the increasing rate of technological innovation,” said Chris Howard, VP analyst and chief of research at Gartner.
“For example, generative and other types of AI offer new opportunities and drive several trends. But deriving business value from the durable use of AI requires a disciplined approach to widespread adoption along with attention to the risks.”
The top strategic technology trends for 2024 are revealed below:
Democratised Generative AI
Generative AI (GenAI) is becoming democratised by the confluence of massively pretrained models, cloud computing and open source, making these models accessible to workers worldwide.
GenAI applications can make vast of information — internal and external — accessible and available to business users. This means the rapid adoption of GenAI will significantly democratise knowledge and skills in the enterprise.
Large language models enable enterprises to connect their workers with knowledge in a conversational style with rich semantic understanding.
AI Trust, Risk and Security Management
The democratisation of access to AI has made the need for AI Trust, Risk and Security Management (TRiSM) even more urgent and clear.
Without guardrails, AI models can rapidly generate compounding negative effects that spin out of control, overshadowing any positive performance and societal gains that AI enables.
AI TRiSM provides tooling for ModelOps, proactive data protection, AI-specific security, model monitoring (including monitoring for data drift, model drift, and/or unintended outcomes) and risk controls for inputs and outputs to third-party models and applications.
Gartner predicts that by 2026, enterprises that apply AI TRiSM controls will increase the accuracy of their decision making by eliminating up to 80% of faulty and illegitimate information.
It will be interesting to see if these mitigating steps can prevent certain flaws inherent to generative AI models, such as hallucinations and the exacerbation of bias in data inputs.
AI-Augmented Development
AI-augmented development is the use of AI technologies, such as GenAI and machine learning, to aid software engineers in designing, coding and testing applications. AI-assisted software engineering improves developer productivity and enables development teams to address the increasing demand for software to run the business.
These AI-infused development tools allow software engineers to spend less time writing code, so they can spend more time on more strategic activities such as the design and composition of compelling business applications.
Intelligent Applications
Intelligent applications include intelligence — which Gartner defines as learned adaptation to respond appropriately and autonomously — as a capability. This intelligence can be utilised in many use cases to better augment or automate work.
As a foundational capability, intelligence in applications comprises various AI-based services, such as machine learning vector stores and connected data.
Consequently, intelligent applications deliver experiences that dynamically adapt to the user
Gartner postulates that a clear need and demand for intelligent applications currently exists with 26% of CEOs in 2023 citing the talent shortage as the most damaging risk for their organisations.
Attracting and retaining talent remains CEO’s top workforce priorities, despite major layoffs occurring since the start of this year. These layoffs actually reflect a turning point in hiring practices however, with major tech companies including Meta, Microsoft, and Google realigning their priorities toward AI development amid citing reasons for the mass layoffs plaguing the tech sector this year.
CEOs cite AI as the technology that will most significantly impact their industries over the next three years, so hiring a workforce that is AI-capable will also be vital.
Augmented-Connected Workforce
The augmented-connected workforce (ACWF) is a strategy for optimizing the value derived from human workers. The need to accelerate and scale talent is driving the ACWF trend.
The ACWF uses intelligent applications and workforce analytics to provide everyday context and guidance to support the workforce’s experience, well-being, and ability to develop its own skills. At the same time, the ACWF drives business results and positive impact for key stakeholders.
Through 2027, 25% of CIOs will use augmented-connected workforce initiatives to reduce time to competency by 50% for key roles.
Continuous Threat Exposure Management
Continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) is a pragmatic and systemic approach that allows organisations to evaluate the accessibility, exposure and exploitability of an enterprise’s digital and physical assets continually and consistently.
Aligning CTEM assessment and remediation scopes with threat vectors or business projects, rather than an infrastructure component, surfaces not only the vulnerabilities, but also un-patchable threats.
By 2026, Gartner predicts that organizations prioritizing their security investments based on a CTEM program will realize a two-thirds reduction in breaches.
Machine Customers
Machine customers (also called ‘custobots’) are nonhuman economic actors that can autonomously negotiate and purchase goods and services in exchange for payment. By 2028, 15 billion connected products will exist with the potential to behave as customers, with billions more to follow in the coming years.
Gartner predicts that this growth trend will be the source of trillions of dollars in revenues by 2030 and eventually become more significant than the arrival of digital commerce. Strategic considerations should include opportunities to either facilitate these algorithms and devices, or even create new custobots.
Sustainable technology is a framework of digital solutions used to enable environmental, social and governance (ESG) outcomes that support long-term ecological balance and human rights. The use of technologies such as AI, cryptocurrency, the Internet of Things and cloud computing is driving concern about the related energy consumption and environmental impacts.
This makes it more critical to ensure that the use of IT becomes more efficient, circular and sustainable. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2027, 25% of CIOs will see their personal compensation linked to their sustainable technology impact.
Platform Engineering
Platform engineering is the discipline of building and operating self-service internal development platforms. Each platform is a layer, created and maintained by a dedicated product team, designed to support the needs of its users by interfacing with tools and processes. The goal of platform engineering is to optimize productivity, the user experience and accelerate delivery of business value.
By 2027, Gartner predicts more than 70% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms (ICPs) to accelerate their business initiatives, up from less than 15% in 2023. ICPs address industry-relevant business outcomes by combining underlying SaaS, PaaS and IaaS services into a whole product offering with composable capabilities.
These typically include an industry data fabric, a library of packaged business capabilities, composition tools and other platform innovations. ICPs are tailored cloud proposals specific to an industry and can further be tailored to an organization’s needs.
This year’s top strategic technology trends highlight those trends that will drive significant disruption and opportunity for CIOs and other IT leaders within the next 36 months
Tay5G, a Tay Cities Region Deal project in collaboration with the Scotland 5G Centre and industry partners, has today announced the winners of its Challenge Fund.
Aiming to accelerate the development of innovative projects using the power of 5G, the competitive funding initiative is supported with around £430,000 of Scottish Government funding as part of its £2m investment in Tay5G.
Winners of the challenge include Digiflex, Neutral wireless working with QTV, James Hutton Ltd, and Scotland Re:Design.
The fund attracted extensive interest and the winners, chosen from a wide range of great ideas, represent a diverse range of innovation across various sectors.
“From improved farming to smarter city planning, broadcasting advances to virtual try before you buy fashion, these winning projects demonstrate the enormous variety of uses for this cutting edge 5G technology,” Scottish Government wellbeing economy secretary Neil Gray said.
Supported by the adoption of 5G technology, these projects aim to bring about advancements in fashion, agritech, smart cities, and broadcasting, driving economic growth, and delivering tangible benefits to businesses and communities in Scotland and beyond.
Digiflec, a Dunfermline-based tech company, have become one of four successful applicants selected for their smart cities, digital twins, and Internet of Things (IoT) project.
By harnessing the power of 5G connectivity, Digiflec aims to create smart city solutions to improve the quality of life for residents and enhance urban infrastructure efficiency.
To do this, the company employed the use of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) equipment to create two Smart urban areas monitored by the CiiM (Connected Intelligent Infrastructure Monitoring) systems. This allows for the development of smart, real-time traffic and people monitoring and management systems that are fully anonymised aiming to improve urban living and sustainability.
Steven Gillan, Digiflec Company Director said: “I’m absolutely delighted that Digiflec emerged as one of the four companies to win a portion of the Tay Cities Deal Tay5G Challenge Fund.
“This is about more than just funding, it’s about pioneering the future with 5G communication technology. Digiflec are on a mission to redefine urban living with real-time monitoring, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the evolution of Scottish smart cities.”
Another winner is James Hutton Ltd, the commercial arm of the James Hutton Institute, a world-leading agriculture and agritech research organisation. The company as secured funding of its innovation which leverages 5G technology to enhance precision in farming practices, increase crop yield and quality, and support sustainable agriculture.
By developing sensor networks, adding automation, and utilising real-time data analytics, the company aims to provide farmers with valuable insights and recommendations to optimise farming operations, reduce resource consumption, and improve overall productivity.
The technologies boast the ability to ‘revolutionise’ agricultural practice and contribute to a more efficient and socially responsible food production system.
Glasgow-based Neutral Wireless is another winner for the Tay Cities Region Deal challenge, with their sustainable mobile wireless technology company working in partnership with broadcasting company QTV. Leveraging 5G technology, they aim to further enhance broadcasting infrastructure that supports high-quality, low-latency live streaming and remote production. This aims to enable broadcasters to deliver immersive and engaging content to viewers, regardless of their location.
By embracing 5G capabilities, their work will help to ensure a seamless viewing experience for audiences.
Moving along to a completely different sector, Scotland Re:Design has been awarded funding for their immersive experience fashion project, which merges the worlds of fashion, textiles, and technology.
Combining virtual reality, augmented reality, and 5G connectivity, Scotland Re:Design will work with designers to create interactive fashion experiences that allow customers to virtually try before buying.
This futuristic concept could transform the textile and retail sectors, contribute to reducing waste and provide a unique shopping experience to consumers.
Tay5G and the Scotland 5G Centre continue to encourage and support the development of innovative 5G projects, fostering Scotland’s position as a leader in technological advancements. By embracing the opportunities presented by 5G, Scotland is set to unlock new possibilities and create a brighter future for its industries and citizens.
“I congratulate the winners on their innovative use of 5G technology, which promises to improve quality of life and drive sustainable economic growth within the Tay region,” secretary Gray said.
“The Scottish Government invested £2 million in Tay5G through the Tay Cities Region Deal and is working to ensure our substantial investments in Scotland’s digital infrastructure make the maximum impact on lives and livelihoods.”
Dundee City Council’s Fair Work, Economic Growth and Infrastructure Convener, Councillor Steven Rome, said: “The Tay5G Challenge Fund was designed to help the Tay city region growth sectors embrace 5G networks and enhance their business by optimising processes, increasing capability through to enabling new products and services.
“The winners have certainly risen to the task. Each project represents genuine innovation with the power to harness the latest connectivity technology and transform sectors of the economy from fashion to farming. They all have real potential, and I look forward to seeing how they develop going forward.”
The Scotland 5G Centre says: “The Scotland 5G Centre’s (S5GC) Dundee hub is pleased to be a partner of the Tay5G in this Innovation Challenge. As a purpose built 5G testbed location invested in the region, and at the heart of the technological innovation ecosystem, S5GC supports research and development on enabling technologies for applications where 5G connectivity plays a key role in transforming key industries. We are looking forward to supporting the winners alongside the process in this unique opportunity the region is offering.”
An AI ‘confidence gap’ linked to low levels of public trust in the technology could risk preventing the UK from realising artificial intelligence‘s potential to be a force for good in areas including healthcare, food safety, and sustainability, with overt three fifths wanting guidelines for its safe use, a study by BSI reveals.
BSI’s Trust in AI Poll of 10,000 adults across nine countries identifies global attitudes towards AI’s potential to improve our society, with more than half of UK respondents (54%) feeling excited about how AI can shape a better future for everyone by improving the accuracy of medical diagnosis and almost half (43%) welcoming help from the technology in reducing food waste. Just under half (47%) say AI can help create a more energy-efficient built environment.
With the NHS facing pressures including the COVID-19 pandemic backlog, rising patient numbers linked to an aging population and complex disease profiles, AI poses a huge opportunity according to UK respondents.
Nearly half of Britons (49%) support the use of AI to help ease pressure on the healthcare system and reduce waiting times, while 48% believe the use of AI can help to meet staffing needs across the sector.
Furthermore, over a third (37%) expect to be regularly using AI at the doctors or in hospital by 2030.
Yet while Britons are aware of the opportunity for AI, there are low levels of trust. The UK, along with other major economies, including France and Germany, is facing a confidence gap linked to low levels of public trust in AI.
For example, just one fifth of Britons have more confidence in AI than people to detect food contamination issues, 65% say patients need to be made aware AI tools are being used in diagnosis or treatment, and three in five feel vulnerable consumers need protections around AI.
Equally, while many Britons currently use AI technology (e.g., 57% use facial recognition for banking) three in five are unsure whether this uses AI.
There is therefore a blatant opportunity for education to build understanding in AI and empower people to collectively harness its capabilities.
The research by the business improvement and standards company, BSI, was commissioned to launch the Shaping Society 5.0 essay collection, which explores how AI innovations can be an enabler that accelerates progress. It highlights the importance of building greater trust in the technology, as many expect AI to be commonplace by 2030.
Examples of common expected uses include automated lighting at home (27%), automated vehicles (23%), or biometric identification for travel (31%), and nearly one in five (18%) expect AI to be regularly used in school within just seven years.
Three fifths of Britons (61%) therefore want international guidelines to enable the safe use of AI, indicating the importance of guardrails to ensure AI’s safe and ethical use and engender trust. For example, safeguards on ethical use of patient data are important to 50% of people globally.
Without addressing and taking steps to bridge the gap in confidence, countries such as the UK could lose out on the benefits AI has to offer, especially when compared with growing economies such as China and India, where enthusiasm for and use of AI already superseude the UK.
For example, China (70%) and India (64%) already use AI everyday at work whereas the UK average is only 29%. 86% and 89% respectively expect their industries to use it by 2030, falling to 51% in the UK (62%) globally.
Harold Pradal, chief commercial officer, BSI said: “AI is a transformational technology. For it to be a powerful force for good, trust needs to be the critical factor. There is a clear opportunity to harness AI to drive societal impact, change lives and accelerate progress towards a better future and a sustainable world. Closing the AI confidence gap is the first necessary step. It has to be delivered through education, to help realize AI’s benefits and shape Society 5.0 in a positive way. BSI is proud to be at the forefront of ensuring AI’s safe and trusted integration into everyday lives around the world.”
There is clear opportunity to harness AI to drive societal progress. By 2050 nearly a quarter of Britons (25%) say a top priority is for AI to help to reduce our impact on the environment, 25% focus on it improving medical diagnosis and nearly a fifth (17%) pick AI helping to make society fairer and reducing inequality.
Nearly half of Britons (48%) say AI can be used most effectively to take on tasks’ humans don’t have time for, and 55% say with training they would trust AI to do parts of their job, including the most menial aspects. Furthermore, 14% say a priority is AI making a four-day work week possible for all.
Craig Civil, director of data science and AI, BSI said: “The magnitude of ways AI can shape the UK’s future means we are seeing some degree of hesitation of the unknown. This can be addressed by developing greater understanding and recognition that human involvement will always be needed if we are to make best use of this technology, and by ensuring we have frameworks that are in place to govern its use and build trust.
“Now is the moment for the UK to collaborate to balance the great power of this tool with the realities of actually using it in a credible, authentic, well-executed, and well-governed way. Closing the confidence gap and building the appropriate checks and balances can enable us to make not just good but great use of AI in every area of life and society.”
New analysis shows that the UK is potentially missing out on billions of pounds of tax in 2021 from big tech companies as it strives to become a global tech superpower.
This is according to TaxWatch, which estimated how much seven of the biggest tech companies, including Google, Apple, and Microsoft, would have paid in taxes had their profits not been routed outside of the UK.
In 2021, these companies paid an estimated £750m in UK corporation and digital sales tax. However, TaxWatch estimated that they would have paid £2.8 billion in UK tax if their profits had not been routed outside the UK.
The analysis is based on TaxWatch’s estimate that the seven large US-based tech companies made almost £15bn of profit from UK customers in 2021 alone.
International tax rules permit them to shift much of this profit, however, outside of the UK so that they were only liable for UK taxes of around £753m.
By using complex tax driven structures, these companies appear to have reduced their UK corporation tax from what would have been around £2.8bn – a saving of roughly £2.0bn.
TaxWatch admitted that it was difficult to directly track the companies’ UK profits, so the campaign group aimed to show the UK tax position that would arise if the UK arms of these global groups declared profits at the same rate as they declare them worldwide, and then calculated the gap between UK corporation tax on these profits vs any tax payments that they could find from UK resident entities related to either corporation tac of the new Digital Services Tax.
The campaign group detailed the difference for seven of the largest tech companies operating in the UK, though it did specify that these companies were not conducting any illegal activity in avoiding these taxes.
Corporate responses ranged, with Adobe stating they merely followed international tax law and regulation, Amazon questioning TaxWatch’s methods, and Meta saying they understand frustration with global tax systems and hoping to see further progress in fair taxation.
AI projects in areas as diverse as fashion, farming, and fire-fighting are being backed with a further £37 million, as the science and technology secretary Michelle Donelan highlights how AI in SMEs can be a force for good ahead of next month’s AI Safety Summit.
Research teams and businesses of all sizes in high-growth industries – from transport to agriculture and construction to creative industries – are encouraged to apply for a share of £32 million, which is now open for bids.
The funding is set to help grow their AI initiatives in a safe and responsible way and boost the wider sector, supporting their workforces and help the UK towards the Prime Minister’s priority of growing the economy.
A further £5 million has been awarded to feasibility studies for 100 projects involving small businesses across the UK, helping to sow the seeds of an idea that could flourish into game-changing technology, part of a push from government to grasp the positive effects of AI to boost productivity and growth.
Among the winners include Kapdaa, a sustainable fashion brand in Kingston Upon Thames, which has received backing for its AI4Fibres project, using AI for textile and fibres recycling.
TradeWork’s AI-assisted project management systems have also won funding, enabling the company to advance tech which creates more efficient work scheduling, resourcing, budgeting, and completion that in turn drives faster and cheaper housebuilding.
Another project gaining funding is DeepPlanet, which is working to detect and predict diseases in wine grape plants through satellite imagery to prevent waste.
Meanwhile DigiLab in Exeter is helping farmers to identify and verify carbon capture and Better Environment and Transport is exploring AI solutions that will help UK Fire and Rescue services to move their fleets towards net-zero, saving on fuel bills and cutting pollution.
Science and Technology Secretary, Michelle Donelan, said: “When it is deployed safely and responsibly, AI can and will transform what is possible in the world of work, unlocking gains in productivity and efficiency that could never have been imagined before.
“That is why we are backing 100 small teams with the seed of an idea – from using AI to boost clothing recycling to driving housebuilding – to drive them forward. At the same time our £32 million competition will support teams of all sizes to kick their ideas on to the next level, further helping us shape how this vital technology of the future can work for us and grow our economy.
“It is also why we are bringing world leaders and tech experts together in just a few weeks’ time for the AI Safety Summit, to build cooperation around the risks and opportunities of this incredibly promising technology and how we manage it safely.”
The £32 million competition is currently open, and closes on 8 November, just days after the UK hosts leading AI nations, technology companies, researchers, and civil society groups at the world’s first major summit in AI safety, driving national and international action for the safe and responsible development of frontier AI around the world.
Funding, through the UKRI Technology Missions Fund and delivered by the Innovate UK BridgeAI programme, will be granted to at least one micro business, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), and one large enterprise and one academic institution or research and technology organisation (RTO).
Dr Kedar Pandya, Executive Director, Cross-Council Programmes at UKRI, said: “The feasibility projects UKRI is funding will demonstrate how AI can aid and be incorporated into many of the UK’s industries and sectors.
“Similarly, the new competition will develop consortia that involve small, medium and large business partnering with academic and research bodies. This will mean drawing on both the knowledge and practical experiences of partners.”
The latest funding boost comes weeks after the Technology Secretary committed £2 million towards four projects exploring Ai solutions to come of the hardest-to-treat cancers and followed £13 million, pledged through the UKRI Technology Missions Fund, for research that will deliver pioneering AI innovation in healthcare, with 22 winning university and NHS trust projects stretching from Edinburgh to Surrey, receiving a share.
In June, the government also announced £31 million to create a UK and international research and innovation ecosystem for responsible and trustworthy AI.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has approved the Microsoft Activision deal following months of delay after the company made some concessions concerning its cloud gaming rights.
The original deal, which had amounted to an $69bn (£59bn) all cash acquisition, had to be completely refigured after the CMA dismissed it on grounds that Microsoft’s dominant role in the cloud industry would give it an unfair market advantage.
Microsoft originally appealed this decision, but to no avail. The CMA was therefore the only significant regulatory body standing in the way of one of the largest all cash acquisitions in business history. Activision is the company behind major global games including Call of Duty, Candy Crush, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch, with a market capitalisation of $74.29 billion (£60.91bn).
Microsoft’s cloud market dominance was the CMA’s main concern, and remains to be, as Ofcom has called on the CMA to do a formal investigation into the cloud market in the UK. Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) make up about 60-70% of the UK cloud market, dominating the field and potentially stopping smaller cloud companies from emerging into and succeeding in the market.
For the cloud gaming sector, the CMA was concerned Microsoft’s cloud dominance would curtail fair market competition and raise prices for customers.
In order to still acquire Activision, Microsoft made a concession that would see Ubisoft, instead of Microsoft, acquire Activision’s cloud gaming rights. This new deal will put the cloud streaming rights (outside the EEA) for all of Activision’s PC and console content produced over the next 15 years in the hands of an independent competitor with plans to offer new ways of accessing that content.
Upon this redraft, the CMA looked afresh at the deal and launched a new investigation, finally giving approval to the deal.
The CMA has said that the new deal will stop Microsoft from locking up competition in cloud gaming as this market takes off, preserving competitive prices and services for UK cloud gaming customers.
It will allow Ubisoft to offer Activision’s content under any business model, including through multigame subscription services. It will also help to ensure that cloud gaming providers will be able to use non-Windows operating systems for Activision content, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA said: “The CMA is resolute in its determination to prevent mergers that harm competition and deliver bad outcomes for consumers and businesses. We take our decisions free from political influence and we won’t be swayed by corporate lobbying.
“We delivered a clear message to Microsoft that the deal would be blocked unless they comprehensively addressed our concerns and stuck to our guns on that.
“With the sale of Activision’s cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft, we’ve made sure Microsoft can’t have a stranglehold over this important and rapidly developing market. As cloud gaming grows, this intervention will ensure people get more competitive prices, better services and more choice. We are the only competition agency globally to have delivered this outcome.
“But businesses and their advisors should be in no doubt that the tactics employed by Microsoft are no way to engage with the CMA. Microsoft had the chance to restructure during our initial investigation but instead continued to insist on a package of measures that we told them simply wouldn’t work. Dragging out proceedings in this way only wastes time and money.”
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh have developed a low-cost ‘smart scalpel’ that is able to track the force surgeons use during operations, with potential to support future robotic surgeries.
The device, developed by researchers in the School of Informatics, consists of a scalpel connected to a sensor-loaded circuit board fitted inside its handle. The research team designed a machine learning model that analyses data captured as force is applied by scalpel users.
Researchers who studied the data captured by the scalpel during trials found its sensors could accurately track how much force users were applying during surgical procedures, and how they were controlling the device over time.
While the level of force applied is known to be important in surgery, there have been few tools until now capable of measuring it in real-life settings. These types of measurements have also never been used in traditional assessments of surgical skill, the team said.
Sensor data analysis has showed the technology could assess this key skill as effectively as traditional evaluation methods, which involve visual assessment by experienced practitioners.
Further development could see the technology – which is equipped with a newly developed force-sensing system – used to to assess a wide range of surgical skills and aid the creation of robotic devices that can perform procedures safely and efficiently, the researchers said.
The Trial
Researchers tested the new technology by tracking 12 medical students and two surgeons as they carried out a procedure known as an elliptical incision.
The procedure – which involves making two curved cuts to the skin – is used to remove moles and skin legions such as melanoma. Tests were performed on synthetic material made of gelatin and silicone that mimics the properties of human skin.
Next, data analysis of each participant’s skills was compared with naked eye assessments made by four surgical experts – two neuroscientists and two plastic surgeons.
Results broadly matched surgical experts assessment of each user’s ability, suggesting this type of technology could help help simplify the process of assessing surgical skills.
Some discrepancies arose, however, partly because neuroscientists and plastic surgeons have differing instrument and tissue handling techniques, the team says.
“We are excited to develop this new system, which uses a combination of real-life sensing technology and machine learning methods to quantitatively assess surgical skill. This system will enable the development of new systems for skill assessment and training, and could one day lead to the creation of automated surgical devices that can assist surgical teams,” Professor Ram Ramamoorthy from the School of Informatics said.
A new survey of 2,000 UK secondary school students from safeguarding solutions provider, Impero, has found that more than a quarter (27%) have successfully bypassed internet filtering systems in order to access prohibited online content.
Around half of pupils have used messaging apps (54%), social media sites, (50%), and listened to music or watched music videos (50%) during lessons, while a third (32%) admit to online gaming – and a similar number (30%) have accessed AI sites like ChatGPT in lessons, to help with their work.
The survey also found that students are demonstrating increasing awareness, though perhaps not understanding, of complex online concepts, including cybersecurity threats.
Over half (56%) said they were aware of the dark web, though this awareness may not mean they are aware of how to access the dark web.
Research also shows that most children (54%) have some understanding of generative AI, though this may also be limited to ChatGPT. Children may also struggle to grasp the concept of generative AI as well as its associated dangers.
Interestingly, 40% of schoolchildren also say they have a knowledge of social engineering, a term for a number of tactics used by threat actors to conduct cybercrimes like phishing.
Perhaps because of the high-profile targeting of public figures and celebrities, 39% of children said they knew about deep fakes as well.
The survey found however, that a majority of students (83%) said their school already has at least one type of ban on personal devices, with just under half (46%) prohibiting mobile phones. Yet this is not proving effective in stopping students from accessing ‘inappropriate’ content while as school.
The research also comes not long after the Online Safety Bill was passed in Parliament, which introduces new rules surrounding the protection of children from harmful online content.
Most children now are referred to as ‘digital natives,’ growing up with knowledge and access to the internet and to smart devices.
With the new academic year in full swing, Sam Heiney, VP of product at Impero has provided five tips for implementing effective internet filtering systems in schools.
Build a safeguarding-centric approach with flexibility: Internet filtering should be viewed as a safeguarding solution, focusing on student wellbeing rather than just an IT measure. Leverage digital IDs to tailor filtering based on age groups and specific educational needs. This approach allows for more flexibility while maintaining a strong safety net.
Create integrated safeguarding solutions: Develop an integrated stack of safeguarding solutions that include internet filtering, monitoring, student wellbeing reporting, classroom management, and secure remote device access. By concentrating on the free-flow of data between these systems, it will help create a more holistic view of student safeguarding across different tools. Having this fuller picture then enables early intervention in potential safeguarding concerns.
Establish comprehensive filtering: Ensure robust internet filtering for all devices, including personal ones, while connected to the school network. Take regional requirements into account, such as blocking specific regional sites and detecting region-specific keywords or slang to address local concerns effectively.
Produce customised reporting for stakeholders: Tailor the types of reports generated by your internet filtering system to suit different school stakeholders’ needs. For instance, safeguarding leads might require reports on visited sites, IT teams may need network performance insights, and school leaders and administrators might want reports that provide an overarching view of online safety.
Ensure universal compatibility: Make sure your internet filtering system is compatible with all types of internet-connected devices commonly used in schools, and that it works with older models, so you support access to online safety measures for all students.
The new research shows the UK’s consumption of small ‘fasttech’ electrcals is becoming an issue set to outstrip ‘fast fashion’, in terms of the amount sent to landfill.
This is according to a new study conducted by Material Focus as part of the Recycle Your Electricals campaign to mark International E-Waste Day taking place on 14 October.
‘Fasttech’ refers to everyday small electrical items, from headphones to cables, decorative lights to mini fans and even single-use vapes.
These items often have a short lifespan and cost, on average, £4. This means they may be seen as ‘disposable’ (47% of us don’t expect cheaper electricals to last long), even when they’re not designed to be.
The emerging issue is just the tip of the e-waste iceberg, however, with the valuable materials contained inside these items – gold, aluminium, and lithium – lost forever when thrown away. These materials are some of the world’s most valuable as they enable the function of semiconductors and microchips which power every facet of our electronics – importantly, they are finite materials that the Earth will eventually run out of.
Material Focus found that over half a billion FastTech items were purchased in the last year alone – equal to one every sixteen seconds.
Nearly half a billion of these (471m) end up in landfill per annum including: 260 million disposable vapes, 26 million cables (enough to go round the earth five times), 29 million LED, solar and decorative lights, 9.8 million USB sticks, 4.8 million mini fans and more.
Every year in the UK, the average adult buys nine FastTech items and throws away eight (90% thrown away), buying FastTech for a wide range of reasons from replacing a broken item (39% of UK adults) or as a fun novelty (8%).
Some of the most likely items of FastTech to be finned include mini speakers, handheld vacuum cleaners and step counters.
With annual spend on FastTech passing the £2.8 billion mark for reportedly the first time in 2023, Material Focus is sharing a timely reminder that anything with a plug, battery, or cable can be recycled.
Scott Butler, Executive Director, Material Focus, which runs the Recycle Your Electricals campaign, says, “FastTech is seriously rivalling Fast Fashion, and is causing similar headaches. People should think carefully about buying some of the more frivolous FastTech items in the first place. But as FastTech items are quite cheap and small, people may not realise that they contain valuable materials and will just pop them in the bin, meaning we lose everything inside them instead of recycling them into something new.”
Although the total number of electrical items thrown away has decreased since 2017 (103 thousand tonnes of electricals are thrown away every year, down 34% partly due to lighter weight items) and more and more people are recycling (60% of people say they regularly recycle their electricals, up from 52% in 2021).
However, a staggering 880 million household electricals are lying unused in UK homes – that’s a 67% increase compared to then research was last conducted three years ago. The average household now has 30 items gathering dust.
“We want to get the message across that anything with a plug, battery or cable can be recycled and there’s somewhere near you to do it,” Butler said. “The scale of the issue is huge, but there’s an easy solution – just as the trend for recycling and repurposing fashion has grown and grown, we want to encourage the nation to recycle FastTech, guilt and fuss-free.”
Any UK resident can find their nearest tech recycling point using a Recycling Locator which has over 16,000 recycling points.
NTT Ltd., an IT infrastructure and services company, has unveiled the findings of its 2023 Global Employee Experience Trends Report, exploring how current workplace trends, such as hybrid work and AI, are influencing EX strategies and the correlation between EX and business performance.
The report found that while 90% of businesses see the enablement of hybrid and remote work as having a positive impact on their bottom line, just under half (48%) of organisations strongly agree that employees have access to the technology they need to work well both at home and in the office.
Many organisations are now implementing more structured approaches to work, with the report finding that approximately 56% of hybrid workers spend half the work week at the office. However, with hybrid models still favourable and recognised by the majority of business leaders as fundamental to positive EX, organisations need to ensure they are providing employees with the technologies they need to work effectively, regardless of location.
This shows how the EX-narrative has evolved over the last several years. Today, it is a business-wide priority to proactively ensure employees are empowered and have the right technologies in place to feel connected and drive efficiency.
Top-performing companies that increased their IT spend and invested in EX technology were 56% more likely than underperformers to report improved business growth due to improvements to EX, and 89% more likely than all others to have significantly increased employee satisfaction.
Commenting on the research, Amit Dhingra, executive vice president of network services at NTT Ltd. said: “The disconnect between what employees need and what businesses provide them with is still too large. Too often we see hybrid working strategies focusing on one type of working style, despite employees wanting the flexibility to work in a way that suits them.”
“It was positive to see that 73% of organizations agree that hybrid and remote working has led to their investment in mobility over the last two years to promote flexibility, but more still needs to be done to reduce the disconnect and improve EX. This is especially true given that satisfied and engaged employees are 66% more likely to deliver exceptional customer service,” added Dhingra.
In addition to hybrid work, EX is also being impacted by the rise of AI, with the emerging technology voted as the number one enabler of future customer experience (CX) and EX strategies, and AI interfaces rising to become the norm for four in five organisation within the next 12 months. Despite this, 87% of organisations agree that human-led support remains a critical element in their customer engagement.
“NTT’s report findings are reflective of today’s dynamic work landscape, including a more permanent era of hybrid work and focus on employee engagement” said Sheila McGee-Smith, president & principal analyst, McGee-Smith Analytics.
“The adoption of AI is growing, driven by the real business outcomes revolutionary AI technologies are bringing. Organizations are seeking guidance on how to harness all that AI has to offer to succeed in dominating their markets while supporting employee fulfillment and well-being.”
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has asked for comment prior to their investigation to the Vodafone-Three merger which was announced earlier this year.
The CMA is inviting interested third parties to provide comment on the potential market impact the merger could bring to UK consumers in advance of launching a formal investigation once it has received the information it needs from the two merging companies.
Vodafone, which is owned by Vodafone Group Plc, and Three UK, which is owned by CK Hutchison Holdings Limited, announced their merger in June this year, as two major telecommunication companies yet to strike a partnership.
The other major UK telecoms companies, EE and O2, are already in major partnerships. EE has been partnered with BT, and Virgin Media operates with O2. Both of these companies have outperformed Vodafone and Three UK according to broadband performance results released by GWS.
Considering there are currently five major telecoms providers out there, and two of them consist of major partnerships, Vodafone and Three UK are right to feel confident that their merger will be accepted.
However, Three UK was previously blocked by the EU to merge with O2 prior to Brexit.
“Millions of consumers and businesses in the UK rely on Vodafone’s and Three’s mobile networks to stay connected,” Sarah Cardell said, chief executive of the CMA.
“We will be carefully considering how this deal may affect competition in the UK, which could affect the options and prices available to customers. We will also assess how it may affect incentives to invest in the quality of UK mobile networks.
“This is an opportunity for those with an interest in this merger to let us know their views before we launch a full investigation.”
The CMA by law must assess the potential impact of a merger on competition, but it must also not consider other potential effects that it might have on other issues, such as employment or access to personal data.
Commenting on the earlier announcement of the merger, Dr. Paul Carter, CEO of mobile benchmarking and intelligence provider GWS, said: “On paper this merger makes sense for two companies looking to close the gap on competitors who have themselves benefited from combining their connectivity offerings.”
Yet it remains to be seen if the CMA will agree, or if other parties will have something different to say.
By 2026, more than 80% of enterprises will have used generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) APIs or models, and/or deployed GenAI-enabled applications in production environments, up from less than 5% in 2023, according to a survey from Gartner, Inc.
“Generative AI has become a top priority for the C-suite and has sparked tremendous innovation in new tools beyond foundation models,” said Arun Chandrasekaran, VP analyst at Gartner. “Demand is increasing for generative AI in many industries, such as healthcare, life sciences, legal, financial services and the public sector.”
The 2023 Gartner Hype Cycle for Generative AI identified key technologies that are increasingly embedded into many enterprise applications. Specifically, three innovations that they projected to have a huge impact on organisations within ten years include GenAI-enabled applications, foundation models, and AI trust, risk and security management.
AI is already being taken advantage of across enterprises, and the public is making use of large language models at an unprecedented scale.
Integrating GenAI into APIs, the backbone of most websites, however, is not as heavily discussed as other major uses of AI.
GenAI-Enabled Applications
GenAI-enabled applications use GenAI for user experience (UX) and task augmentation to accelerate and assist the completion of a user’s desired outcomes.
As application become enabled with GenAI, this will permeate a wide spectrum of skill sets within the workforce.
“The most common pattern for GenAI-embedded capabilities today is text-to-X, which democratises access for workers, to what used to be specialised tasks, via prompt engineering using natural language,” said Chandrasekaran. “However, these applications still present obstacles such as hallucinations and inaccuracy that may limit widespread impact and adoption.”
“Foundation models are an important step forward for AI due to their massive pretraining and wide use-case applicability,” said Chandrasekaran. “Foundation models will advance digital transformation within the enterprise by improving workforce productivity, automating and enhancing customer experience and enabling cost-effective creation of new products and services.”
Foundation models are on the Peak of Inflated Expectations on the Hype Cycle. Gartner predicts that by 2027, foundation models will underpin 60% of natural language processing (NLP) use cases, which is a major increase from fewer than 5% in 2021.
“Technology leaders should start with models with high accuracy in performance leaderboards, ones that have superior ecosystem support and have adequate enterprise guardrails around security and privacy,” said Chandrasekaran.
AI Trust, Risk and Security Management (AI TRiSM)
AI TRISM ensures AI model governance, trustworthiness, fairness, reliability, robustness, efficacy and data protection. This includes solutions to several of AI’s inherent problems like model interpretability and explainability and data and content anomaly detection, as well as wider issues surrounding data protection and attack resistance.
“Organizations that do not consistently manage AI risks are exponentially inclined to experience adverse outcomes, such as project failures and breaches. Inaccurate, unethical or unintended AI outcomes, process errors and interference from malicious actors can result in security failures, financial and reputational loss or liability, and social harm” said Chandrasekaran.
AI TRiSM is an important framework for delivering responsible AI and is expected to reach mainstream adoption within two to five years. By 2026, organizations that operationalize AI transparency, trust and security will see their AI models achieve a 50% improvement in terms of adoption, business goals and user acceptance.
A draft agenda of the impending AI Safety Summit next month has revealed the potential intention of establishing an ‘AI Safety Institute” as part of its international collaboration.
Advisors to the Prime Minister have been attempting to lock down international collaboration for the future of AI regulation which will be the main topic of discussion at the AI summit soon to be held at Bletchley Park this November.
Specifically, the Summit is set to discuss the associated risks of AI and its various forms, and discuss how the advancements of AI could affect national security.
The “AI Safety Institute” would focus on this last point, specifically how advancing frontier models could be regulated by nations in the interest of international security and collaboration.
Part of the ambitions announced for the summit include this topic, with the intention of creating a forward process for international collaboration on frontier AI safety, including how best to support national and international frameworks.
Matt Clifford, the Prime Minister’s representative for the AI Safety Summit, however, somewhat countered the idea of setting up a formal institution as suggested by the draft agenda which was seen by The Guardian, saying in a post on X that “Our view is that most countries will want to develop their own capabilities in this space, particularly to evaluate frontier models.”
So far, the Summit is expected to host around 100 people, ranging from AI professionals to cabinet members from various governments.
Companies expected to participate in the summit include ChatGPT developer OpenAI, Google and Microsoft and it is said they will publish details on AI safety commitments, agreed with the White House in July, with updates likely to include reference to safety, cybersecurity and how AI systems could be used for national security purposes.
A government spokesperson said: “We have been very clear that these discussions will involve exploring areas for potential collaboration on AI safety research, including evaluation and standards.
“International discussions on this work are already under way and are making good progress, including discussing how we can collaborate across countries and firms and with technical experts to evaluate frontier models. There are many different ways to do this and we look forward to convening this conversation in November at the summit.”
While it is still uncertain what the summit will result in – either further regulation or international bodies – collaboration is key, according to Clifford.
“Collaboration is key to ensuring we can manage risks from Frontier AI – with civil society, academics, technical experts and other countries,” he wrote on X.
As conflict rages on between Israeli militants and Hamas, the dominant political party and militant group in Palestine, researchers say the disinformation proliferating on social media is at a degree they’ve never seen before.
“For many reasons, this is the hardest time I’ve ever had covering a crisis on here,” said Justin Peden, known on X as IntelCrab, a rising researcher most notable for his reliable fact checking and social media coverage of the war in Ukraine.
As information swelled and exploded across social media as Israel launched counter-strikes over Hamas and civilian buildings in the Gaza strip, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, and Hamas took hostages of Israeli civilians, disinformation ran rampant on social media sites, most particularly X, formally known as Twitter.
Just one example caught on IntelCrab’s current page is ‘news’ that a US nuclear-capable B-52 bomber had landed in Israel – a claim IntelCrab made clear was false.
Images and videos which are either doctored or from other instances have been shared, claiming to be from the conflict.
A viral photo of what appeared to be Gaza aflame in red was actually a photo of Algeria taken earlier this summer.
Documents claiming that the US had authorised $8bn in military aid for Israel also circulated on X before other users showed it was a doctored document which originally sanctioned $400m in aid to Ukraine.
A fake document is being widely shared online claiming to show the authorisation of $8bn in military aid to Israel by President Biden.
It's a doctored version of a 25 July document detailing $400m in aid to Ukraine authorised by President Biden; fact-checked by @Info_Rosalie. pic.twitter.com/jYZDDrlRwF
A video of gunfire was also circulated on X, with 2,654 views, but was actually a shootout which took place in Mexico in 2017.
Another video, this time of a “lost girl” with a man speaking Arabic falsely claimed to be a Hamas militant kidnapping a child, but the video was actually dated to nearly a month before the October attacks.
“Credible links are now photos. On the ground news outlets struggle to reach audiences without an expensive blue checkmark. Xenophobic goons are boosted by the platform’s CEO,” IntelCrab’s post on X read, encapsulating the issues surrounding misinformation on the social media.
For many reasons, this is the hardest time I've ever had covering a crisis on here.
Credible links are now photos. On the ground news outlets struggle to reach audiences without an expensive blue checkmark. Xenophobic goons are boosted by the platform's CEO.
The nature of the conflict, perhaps one of the world’s most contentious, makes the issue of disinformation all the more pertinent. The targeting of civilians by both sides has confounded support and brought on a flurry of either new found or intensified fear for civilians in the region.
The misalignment and misunderstanding of what it means to be Jewish vs what it means to be Zionist, what it means to live in Israel vs what it means to support the Israeli government and occupation, what it means to be Palestinian vs what it means to be with Hamas, has lead to the conflation of supporters of Palestine with antisemites, the conflation of sympathisers of Israeli civilians with supporters of their government, and disallowed nuanced understandings of the conflict.
This has mainly prevented governments of allied nations on each side of the conflict from fostering a peaceful solution to the people that live in the region, and also leads to the proliferation of online hate, propaganda, and misinformation to align with people’s preconceptions around the conflict.
On X in particular, antisemitic views have run rampant since Musk’s takeover, and posts denying the Holocaust failed to be removed by their content moderation protocols. Musk himself in a post on X urged people to “stay as close to the truth as possible”, essentially forfeiting his responsibility as executive of one of the largest social media platforms in the world.
As always, please try stay as close to the truth as possible, even for stuff you don’t like.
This platform aspires to maximize signal/noise of the human collective.
The main issue remains however, that however people may already feel about the devastating situation, they must remain critical of online information if big tech companies continue to fail at their basic and legal duty to dispel disinformation across their platforms.
Alba Bank – one of the UK’s newest challenger banks dedicated to supporting SMEs, has announced that it will partner with Mambu‘s cloud banking platform to manage its lending services, as well as its retail and business deposits.
Founded by Scottish entrepreneur Jim McColl in 2018 and headquartered in Glasgow, Alba Bank was established to provide commercial finance to UK SMEs which remain underserved by the mainstream banks.
By adopting Mambu’s cloud banking platform, Alba Bank aims to embrace a composable approach, enhance its agility and speed to market, and provide a much-needed boost to SMEs.
Over the last five years, over half (58%) of UK SMEs have been unable to secure any or sufficient funding to cover the needs of their business, on at least one occasion, according to a report by Mambu. More than nine in ten (93%) would consider switching lenders if a competitor provided a better service. Globally, there is an unmet financing need of around $5.2 trillion for SMEs.
Nick Lawler, market director for Northern Europe at Mambu, says: “Now more than ever, the availability of finance is key to the success of all SMEs. SME pain points need to be properly acknowledged by banks, as success rates for loan applications are 20% lower than for large enterprises.
“By pivoting to Mambu, along with a growing number of neobanks in the UK, Alba is in good stead as it continues to transform this sector of banking, supporting small and medium-sized businesses to reach their potential. We look forward to working with Alba as it supports direct lending to SMEs and fuels economic growth in Scotland and the wider UK region.”
“We’re excited to work with Mambu and fully embrace a cloud-first approach,” Sandeep Kadam, chief technology officer at Alba Bank added. “Our partnership will enable us to build our products quickly and adapt to ever-changing market demands. At a time when SMEs are being underserved by traditional lenders, speed to market and agility are both crucial. Mambu’s ability to offer both will enable Alba to build a great banking experience for our customers.”
Hacktivist attacks have increased as the conflict between Israel and Palestine escalated this weekend following Hamas’s attack on Israel-occupied land.
According to officials, about 700 Israelis were killed as part of the attacks, and 150 were taken hostage. Since this Saturday, 511 people were killed by the Israelis on the Gaza strip, and Palestinians had already counted 227 casualties just this year, according to the most recent figures from the United Nations.
According to a report from The Cyber Express, there are about 35 pro-Palestine hacking groups participating in the conflict, and about four which are pro-Israel.
Russian-based Killnet, one of the most infamous hacktivist groups on the modern landscape, has already focused efforts against Israeli institutions, announcing the following on its Telegram channel:
“Government of Israel, you are to blame for this bloodshed. Back in 2022, you supported the terrorist regime of Ukraine. You betrayed Russia. Today Killnet officially informs you about it! All Israeli government systems will be subject to our attacks.”
It has said that it would only target the Israeli government, rallying against the targeting of civilians. The gang has teamed up with Usersec, another pro-Russian gang, to deface Israeli websites.
Indian Cyber Force, which is aligned with the Indian government, has claimed an attack on the Palestine Web Mail government services, while other Indian-aligned groups such as Mysterious Team Bangladesh and Team Insane, have pledged to disrupt Israeli institutions.
New groups appear to have emerged out of the rising conflict, such as the new group Libyan Ghosts which claims to target smaller Israeli websites.
But the hacktivist groups did not just start with the new rise in violence. Microsoft’s Digital Defence Report 2023 reported a tide of activity from a Gaza-based hacktivist group called Storm-113, which targeted Israeli private sector infrastructure groups.
The report said that this group worked to support Hamas, the dominate political party and militant group in the Gaza strip. “Targets have included organizations in the Israeli energy and defence sectors and entities loyal to Fatah, the dominant Palestinian political faction in the West Bank, which were historically targets of Hamas cyberattacks.”
Further, it was found that Israel’s Education Ministry and Ministry of Foreign affairs was shut down by a group called ‘Ghosts of Palestine.’
Some of the hacktivist groups have also targeted supporters of Israel, with Sylhet Gang-SG attempting a distributed denial of service (DDoS) on a Ukrainian site in retaliation to the country’s support for Israel.
A Timeline of Known Cyber Events
On LinkedIn, a harrowing timeline of the cyber-attacks and the violence which took place on 6, 7, and 8 October was documented, highlighting the interconnection between in-person and cyber warfare.
Before the violence erupted, an Iranian-linked hacktivist group Cyber Av3ngers took credit for compromising the Noga Independent Systems Operator networks, which manages some of Israel’s electricity. It was most likely a DDoS attack based on a screenshot of the attack.
On 7 October, air raid sirens rang out across central and Southern Israel alerting residents to the start of a mass of rockets from Hamas.
Anonymous Sudan launched an DDoS attack against some of Israel’s alert applications less than ten minutes prior to Israeli defences confirming Hamas fighters had crossed the boarder and entered Israel. After this, Anonymous Sudan claimed to have taken down all of Israel’s alert applications.
After Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel announced that Israel was now at war following Hama’s taking of hostages, Israel struck 21 buildings they claimed housed Hamas, though civilians did suffer as a result of the bombings.
In the same day, Anonymous Sudan took down the Jerusalem Post in a DDS attack, and the Cyber Av3ngers took the Israel Electric Corporation offline. Anonymous Sudan also announced they were targeting more of Israel’s alert systems, including the Iron Dome, an Israeli in-air missile defence system.
On 8 October, ThreatSec, which is currently not known to be affiliated with any particular nation-state, compromised AlfaNet Palestine, which they said provides the service for over 500 services across the Gaza strip.
Cyber Av3ngers claimed to compromise a power plant, and leaked confidential documents on the same day. Killnet took responsibility for the Government of Israel and the Discount Bank Isreal’s websites being down.
The Israel-Palestine conflict has drastically escalated, with Hamas’s assault on Israeli occupied territory. Israel’s continued expansion into Palestinian land and the actions of its settlers, as well as government initiatives restricting the movement of Palestinians and the killing of civilians, serves as a backdrop to this heightened period of violent conflict.
Just as in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it appears modern warfare escalates in real life and online in conjunction.
