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Data privacy and protection, bias and discrimination, intellectual property rights, and climate change are among the concerns that must be addressed if we are to benefit from AI's advantages while minimizing its potential harm.
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One of the most pressing issues regarding AI ethics is the potential for bias and discrimination. AI systems are trained on data, and if that data is skewed by societal biases, algorithms can perpetuate or even exacerbate these inequalities.
Bias reduces AI’s accuracy and can lead to discriminatory outcomes, particularly in law enforcement, healthcare and hiring practices. To combat bias in AI proactively, developers must ensure that the data collected and used is diverse and representative.
Many organizations are incorporating AI governance policies and practices to identify and address bias, including regular AI algorithmic audits. Further, the implementation of the EU AI act (in effect as of August 1st, 2024), and the introduction of the Algorithmic Accountability Act of 2023 to Congress set clear rules and standards companies must abide by in AI development and use in order to limit bias and discrimination, as well as cover privacy rights. Additionally, resources to help mitigate bias across AI are now available, such as IBM Policy Lab’s suite of awareness and debiasing tools.
To build trust in AI, transparency and accountability are ethical implications that need to be addressed. Disclosing how and why AI is being used, as well as the ability to explain the decision-making process to AI users in an understandable way gives credibility to AI decisions, helps prevent AI bias, and enhances the acceptance and adoption of AI technologies across society. Transparency is particularly crucial in areas such as healthcare, finance, and criminal justice, where AI decisions significantly impact individuals’ lives and the public as a whole.
Many companies are creating their own internal AI regulatory practices by introducing techniques, tools and strategies to demystify AI decisions and improve transparency, making them more trustworthy. For instance, AI model interpretation can be applied using various tools to visualize the internal workings of an AI system to determine how it arrived at a specific decision, as well as detect and rectify biases or errors.
Establishing clear lines of accountability for AI actions and outcomes is essential for fostering transparency. Holding organizations, AI developers, and AI users accountable motivates them to provide understandable explanations about how their AI systems work, what data was used and why, and the decision-making processes. This promotes responsible and ethical AI development and deployment, which in turn improves the general public’s acceptance and adoption of AI technologies.
Some regulatory laws and requirements have already been developed to ensure AI ethical responsibility. In addition to the EU AI Acted noted earlier, there is:
As global collaboration on monitoring and enforcement measures for AI systems increases, more regulatory frameworks are expected in the future.
Due to AI’s collection of vast amounts of personal data, data privacy is another critical ethical consideration in the development and deployment of AI. While our lack of control over personal information has been growing since the beginning of the internet decades ago, AI’s exponential increase in the quantities of personal data gathered has heightened data privacy concerns.
Currently, there are very limited controls that restrict how personal data is collected and used, as well as our ability to correct or remove personal information from the extensive data gathering that fuels AI model training and algorithms.
The EU’s General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) both restrict AI’s use of personal data without explicit consent, and provide legal repercussions for entities that violate data privacy. Generally, though, the ethical implications of personal data collection, consent, and data security still depend significantly on each organization’s internal regulation leaving society to trust that they will do the right thing, often with only the risk of reputational damage as motivation.
When companies don’t establish internal ethical data practices in AI training, personal data risks can include:
To combat data privacy violations, some recommendations to future data privacy regulations include:
With its ability to create massive amounts of new output quickly that appears to be developed by humans, the benefits of generative AI are transforming creative industries. However, since AI-generated creative works are sourced from vast quantities of existing creative content, and due to the current proliferation of creative AI tools used, ethical and regulatory concerns about creative ownership have emerged.
The impact of AI on the job market is twofold: there are benefits such as increased productivity, economic growth, and the creation of new employment opportunities, but there are also significant concerns about the potential negative impact of job displacement due to AI technology.
AI technology is dually positioned to have a significant impact on the environment, as well as offer solutions to help alleviate climate change. Consequently, managing these contrasting effects will require AI companies and governments to ethically commit to driving sustainability in AI development and deployment.
As the use of AI technology continues to surge, so does its energy consumption and carbon footprint. In fact, due to AI’s energy-intensive computations and data centres, the power to sustain AI’s rise is currently doubling approximately every 100 days and will continue to increase, translating to substantial carbon emissions that directly impact climate change.
Government and AI companies must take action to reduce the effects of AI on the environment. Recommended steps towards sustainability include:
In contrast, the power of AI technology has the potential to offer climate change solutions. AI can assist in analysing climate data, optimizing energy usage, and enhancing renewable energy systems. AI contributions such as these to climate change mitigation and adaptation are necessary to counteract the impact of AI technology, and additional AI-supported solutions need to be explored further.
In conclusion, as AI continues to transform various facets of society, addressing its ethical implications becomes paramount. The challenges of bias and discrimination, transparency and accountability, privacy and data protection, intellectual property rights, job displacement, and environmental sustainability require comprehensive strategies to mitigate potential harm. Regulatory frameworks like the EU AI Act and the Algorithmic Accountability Act of 2023 are crucial steps towards establishing ethical boundaries. However, responsibility also lies with AI developers and organizations to self-regulate AI. By fostering an environment of ethical AI development, we can harness AI's extraordinary potential while safeguarding societal values and human rights. The path forward demands collaboration across sectors to create a future where AI serves as a tool for positive change, rather than a source of ethical dilemmas.
[/um_loggedin]On Friday, July 19th, millions of Windows users were locked out of their devices after a faulty CrowdStrike update caused a massive worldwide outage. This is a stark reminder of the potential consequences of software updates and the importance of thorough testing and quality assurance.
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A faulty code in the update files for the latest version of CrowdStrike’s Falcon sensor software was intended to make systems more secure. However, the configuration update triggered a logic error resulting in a system crash and blue screen (BSOD) on impacted systems, leading to the most widespread tech outages in recent years.
Reuters reports that this is potentially due to the code not being properly vetted or sandboxed before the launch.
The outage caused chaos, with many businesses being forced to close or operate in a limited capacity until the bug was fixed.
Microsoft revealed that approximately 8.5 million devices were impacted globally. Despite only accounting for 1% of Windows devices, there were ripple effects across multiple crucial industries, particularly airlines, hospitals, banks, and telecommunication companies.
Hospitals across the US, Canada and UK were forced to cancel elective procedures, with Britain’s National Health Service seeing problems at most GP offices across England due to the impact on their appointment and patient record system.
Air travelers faced the brunt of the chaos, with more than 42,00 flights delayed and a further 4,700 canceled internationally. There were also severe delays at the international borders between the US and Mexico as well as the Canadian border.
Over the weekend, Microsoft deployed hundreds of engineers to support its customers to restore services. CrowdStrike also posted instructions on how to remediate the error, however, this is a manual process which will take time to implement across all affected devices.
CrowdStrike is continuing to work to get all affected devices back online, and in an X post, stated that a significant number were online and operational.
Cyber resilience is more important than ever, but this outage reminds us of how reliant the economy is on technology and how networks have become complex and intertwined, making it easier for one small error to have such broad-reaching consequences. The sheer extent of the crash exposed the vulnerabilities in essential security software, and the full financial damage cannot yet be estimated.
[/um_loggedin]Predictive maintenance uses advanced data analytics and proactive strategies to predict and address equipment issues before they cause breakdowns. This allows businesses to increase machine reliability, reduce costs, optimize resource allocation, and improve operational efficiency.
The advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) has revolutionised predictive maintenance due to their scalability, adaptability, and continuous learning capabilities. This enables businesses to harness the power of data to make informed decisions about the maintenance cycle of their machines and devices.
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AI and ML enable predictive maintenance across industries such as manufacturing, automotive, and energy. It can be implemented to optimize machine maintenance with benefits including:
The goal of implementing predictive maintenance should be operational efficiency, reducing downtime, and financial savings. To successfully do so, there are some things you should take into consideration:
It is critical to integrate AI/ML predictive maintenance capabilities with existing maintenance management systems, enterprise resource planning software, and other operational technology. This enables companies to:
Implementing an AI-driven predictive maintenance model can pose certain challenges, particularly if moving from a reactive to a predictive maintenance strategy. Examples include:
As AI and ML technology evolve, there is huge potential for the sophistication of predictive maintenance solutions. In the future, we can expect the following:
In conclusion, machine-learning-driven predictive maintenance is quickly becoming indispensable for boosting operational efficiency across industries. With the power of AI and ML, businesses can not only predict equipment failures before they occur but also optimize maintenance schedules, save on costs, and minimize downtime. This proactive approach to maintenance, powered by data analytics and continuous learning capabilities, offers a smarter way to manage the life cycle of machinery and devices.
As we move forward, integrating IoT and cloud-based technologies with predictive maintenance systems promises to further enhance the effectiveness and responsiveness of these strategies. The challenge for businesses will be overcoming implementation hurdles such as data quality and legacy equipment to fully realize the potential of AI-driven predictive maintenance.
However, as technology progresses and organizations become more adept at navigating these challenges, the future of maintenance is set to be significantly transformed, emphasizing efficiency, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness.
[/um_loggedin]Recent data shows an estimated 85% of organizations will have faced at least one cloud security incident by the end of 2024.
Therefore, the effectiveness of an enterprise’s cloud security is paramount to ensuring that any security incident, whether a data breach, unauthorized access, or other cyber threat, does not lead to significant operational disruptions, data loss, financial setbacks, or reputational damage.
To protect your company’s data from theft, leakage, and loss, here are eight best practices to follow for cloud security:
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Some aspects of security are managed by your cloud service provider (CSP), while others are managed by you, the customer. All leading CSPs, such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, follow a shared responsibility model, and the general rule is the CSP is responsible for the cloud infrastructure, and the customer is responsible for the data, apps, and configurations in the cloud. However, some security responsibilities vary depending on the cloud delivery model (SaaS, PaaS, or IasS). To avoid a potentially costly security misunderstanding, begin by reviewing the SLA (service level agreement) with your CSP and make sure to ask any questions regarding security responsibilities if in doubt.
Securing access to your company’s cloud environment is crucial to protecting your data and other assets. IAM systems reduce the risk of unauthorized access to your cloud. Incorporate the principle of least privilege to ensure users and applications have only the access necessary to perform their tasks. Go beyond passwords by requiring Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), an essential component of IAM policies. Finally, continuous access control monitoring is key, so schedule regular audits and reviews of access controls to ensure they are up-to-date and revoke access where no longer needed.
Not only is it essential to encrypt data kept on physical or digital storage devices, such as hard drives or servers, but also data in transit traveling over a network, between devices, or entering cloud services. You can use strong encryption features supplied by your CSP or use third-party encryption solutions to encrypt data before it’s stored in the cloud, as well as use secure communication protocols such as secure sockets layer (SSL) or transport layer security (TLS) to encrypt data during transmission to prevent unauthorized access to anyone who does not have the right decryption key.
Your business is responsible for regulatory breaches, even if the security problem originates with the cloud provider. Therefore, staying compliant is a top cloud security priority. Start by reviewing regional-specific regulations governing the acquisition and protection of personally identifiable information (PII), such as GDPR and HIPAA, as well as industry regulations for operating and storing data on the cloud or overall cybersecurity such as NIS2. Before establishing a new cloud computing service, ensure the service provider meets your data compliance needs. Finally, align your cloud security practices with a recognized framework encompassing compliance standards (e.g., CSA STAR, SOC 2, ISO 27001, etc.).
Preparing for anticipated cloud security breaches is the best way to reduce the impact of a security incident. Begin by scheduling regular backups of all critical data in the event of data loss, and then test the backup restoration process periodically to ensure quick data recovery and availability. Also, ensure you have an incident response plan in place in the event of a breach so that your security team is better equipped to quickly address and remediate the situation.
Two of the biggest cloud security risks continue to be misconfigurations and vulnerabilities. As cloud environments grow and change, configurations can drift from security best practices, so be diligent in preventing and finding configuration errors with the help of your CSP and IT team through continuous security monitoring with cloud-native tools and audits. Also, to protect against the risk of new vulnerabilities being exploited, implement a robust patch management process, including automation tools, to regularly to identify, test and apply security patches and updates to all cloud-based systems and applications.
To ensure your cloud can manage any cybersecurity threats, it’s essential to regularly evaluate your cloud environment’s security posture. Implement regular vulnerability scans, both manual and automated, to identify and remediate security weaknesses. Combine this with simulations of real-world attacks and breaches, also known as pen testing, to test the effectiveness of all your protection measures and uncover any security flaws so that you can proactively address them.
The most effective cloud security depends on teamwork between not only you and your CSP but also your staff. From recognizing and avoiding phishing attacks to accidentally installing malware via websites or attachments, educating employees on cloud security awareness and risks is very much a first line of defense against cyber threats. Also, establishing and enforcing a cloud security policy to follow will better protect your data and your organization.
Migrating to the cloud means businesses benefit from enhanced efficiency, flexibility, and cost savings, but there are significant security risks that require a comprehensive cloud security defense plan. Whether your organization is starting on its cloud journey, or growing its hybrid or multi-cloud environment, following cloud security best practices is key to ensuring your company can handle the growing complexity and increasing number of cloud attacks and data breaches facing today’s business world.
[/um_loggedin]DORA aims to strengthen the digital operational resilience of the financial sector in the face of digital transformation and heightened cybersecurity threats. It is the first piece of legislation that provides a comprehensive digital operation framework for financial entities on an EU level.
Once DORA applies in January 2025, all financial entities operating within the EU must fully comply with its measures. This includes traditional financial entities such as banks, investment firms, and credit institutions and non-traditional entities such as crypto asset service providers and crowdfunding platforms. It will also apply to ICT providers who service the finance sector.
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DORA regulates risk management associated with increased digitalization of the financial sector. The legislation covers five main areas:
From January 2025, DORA will be enforced through a two-pronged approach:
You can take many steps to ensure your business is fully compliant by the January 17th deadline.
DORA promises to harmonize regulation on digital operational resilience on an EU-wide level by creating a binding, comprehensive ICT risk management framework. It represents a milestone in the EU’s effort to fortify the financial sector against the growing threat of ICT disruptions. DORA's collaborative nature, emphasizing information sharing and collective resilience, presents an opportunity for the financial sector to strengthen its defenses against common threats.
Compliance is not a once-off activity but an ongoing activity that requires commitment, adaptability, and a proactive approach to risk management.
Knowledge Exchange is here to help you develop your roadmap and connect you to the suppliers you need. Get in touch to learn more about how we can support you in your compliance journey.
[/um_loggedin]Ransomware is a significant cybersecurity threat that can have devastating effects on businesses of all sizes. Understanding the nature of ransomware, its evolution, and the types of attacks is crucial for developing effective prevention and mitigation strategies. This whitepaper provides a comprehensive overview of ransomware, its impact on businesses, and practical steps to protect against and respond to attacks.
Ransomware is malicious software that encrypts a victim’s data or blocks access to a computer system and demands a ransom to release it. Typically, hackers gain access through phishing, malicious websites, or exploiting software vulnerabilities. Once inside, it can quickly spread across networks, locking files and rendering them unusable.
Although the number of ransomware attacks has declined over the last number of years, total ransomware payments exceeded $1 billion for the first time in 2023.
Ransomware continues to be one of the most prevalent type of cybersecurity threat, with 59% of organizations being hit with an attack in the last year[1] according to Sophos’ “State of Ransomware” report.
Large companies or government departments are often high-profile victims of ransomware attacks. Examples of such attacks include the 2021 attack on the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE), which shut down its systems nationwide, affecting over 100,000 people whose data was stolen during the attack.
Italian luxury fashion brand Moncler was also targeted in 2021. The demand of $3 million was not paid, leading to a massive data leak on the dark web by the hackers.
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There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to ransomware attacks. There are various strategies cybercriminals can use to target their victims, including:
Although attacks such as the examples above often make headlines, smaller businesses are disproportionately the targets of ransomware attacks. In 2023, ransomware attacks on SMBs and Enterprises increased to 46% globally[1], and these figures are expected to continue rising in 2024.
Smaller businesses are often more vulnerable to attacks due to several reasons, such as:
Ransomware can have a crippling impact on businesses, especially small businesses. The four areas typically hit hardest are revenue, reputation, finances, and data.
Mitigating ransomware risks requires a multi-faceted approach encompassing technical measures, employee training, and proactive planning. Here are detailed strategies to protect your business:
A well-structured incident response plan is crucial for minimizing the damage from a ransomware attack and ensuring a swift recovery. Here are the key steps to include in your plan:
Ransomware remains a significant threat to businesses of all sizes. By implementing robust cybersecurity measures, training employees, and having a well-prepared incident response plan, businesses can effectively mitigate the risks and recover swiftly from attacks. Investing in these proactive measures is crucial to safeguarding future of your business and maintaining trust with your customers and partners.
Our Knowledge Exchange Account Managers can help you every step of the way, connecting you to the most robust security providers to equip you with the tools you need to prevent and defend yourself from the damage of a potential attack. Get in touch to learn more.
[1] Sophos. (2024, April). The State of Ransomware 2024. Retrieved from sophos.com: https://assets.sophos.com/X24WTUEQ/at/9brgj5n44hqvgsp5f5bqcps/sophos-state-of-ransomware-2024-wp.pdf
[1] OpenText. (2023, November). OpenText Cybersecurity 2023 Global Ransomware Survey: The risk perception gap. Retrieved from opentext.com: https://blogs.opentext.com/opentext-cybersecurity-2023-global-ransomware-survey-the-risk-perception-gap/
[/um_loggedin]As the complexity and intensity of cyberattacks continue to surge, the zero-trust security model is becoming increasingly vital in today’s business world. However, while almost 90% of organizations worldwide have started implementing zero-trust security in some form, only 2% have mature deployments in place. This is about to fundamentally change, however, as the adoption of zero trust continues to accelerate. Estimates show that the current Zero-Trust Security Market size of $32.61 billion in 2024 is expected to reach $73.57 billion by 2029.
Zero-trust is identity-based security that operates on the “never-trust, always verify” philosophy. It reaches beyond an organisation’s network perimeter with required user and entity identity verification, even from within the network.
Zero trust security has been around for more than a decade, but its importance took a significant turn for enterprises with the COVID-19 pandemic. With employees suddenly working remotely connected to unsecured home networks, the extensive adoption of cloud services, BYOD (bring your own device) policies, and the use of numerous new remote work IT tools, the cyber-attack surface of companies increased exponentially.
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The traditional perimeter security architecture, which reached only as far as a company’s network barrier, was no longer sufficient or effective. Zero-trust verification gained momentum instantly, and since then, with the complexity across each enterprise’s digital supply chain continuing to grow and the addition of edge computing, IoT, and AI to business, zero-trust security architecture has become even more essential to businesses.
The concept of zero-trust is based on three core principles:
In 2024, zero trust architecture is now considered best practice across the increasingly complex cybersecurity landscape facing businesses worldwide. The sophistication and quantity of cyber threats will continue to rise, which is why most companies are implementing some level of a zero-trust strategy despite the costs, resources, and time required. ROI is significant and long-term, which is why 77% of enterprises have increased their budget for implementing a zero-trust model, and 96% of security leaders consider this model a critical measure of business success who incorporate zero-trust’s core principles benefit from:
While the benefits ensure a measurable ROI, zero-trust implementation for many enterprises comes with some critical challenges.
To combat these challenges, it’s essential to look at zero trust as a journey instead of a destination. Implementation can be done gradually as long as a clear zero-trust strategy has been defined, including your organization’s goals and an assessment of your current security posture. Progressive implementation should be accompanied by strategic and operational metrics measuring security success, progress, and costs. This will drive better management in budget planning and staffing requirements as well as allow for easier adaptation in operations and by staff.
In summary, the zero-trust journey will be different for every business. This comprehensive, identity-centric security approach requires a thorough understanding and assessment of an enterprise’s security needs and capabilities. With the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Cybersecurity report indicating that 29% of organizations were materially affected by a cyber incident, the time is now to incorporate zero trust, which is best-suited for today’s complex and dynamic business environments and the growing cyber threat landscape.
Ready to start or continue your zero trust journey? Connect with a Knowledge Exchange expert to gain the latest insights and information on zero-trust approaches and get the right support in building a zero-trust roadmap that maximizes your enterprise’s cybersecurity.
[/um_loggedin]IoT refers to the network of physical devices that are connected via the internet, allowing them to share and collect data in real-time. It can be found in many objects, from household devices to industrial machines. The smartwatch you’re wearing on your wrist, the tracking of your latest Amazon purchase, that’s IoT.
According to recent estimates, the number of IoT devices is expected to reach around 30 billion by 2025. This number is a direct result of its powerful combination with other recent technological advancements.
5G-powered IoT allows for un-interrupted connectivity and greater data usage, which increases the stability and performance of IoT devices. The improvements to IoT include lower data latency, more extensive coverage, and real-time data processing, which in effect, makes IoT’s reach limitless.
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The addition of AI is transforming IoT’s extensive real-time data collection and processing to the next level by activating machine learning and actual decision-making capabilities without human intervention. This powerful combination is helping create intelligent machines that can automate processes and facilitate predictive maintenance, resulting in increased productivity and reduced operating costs and downtime.
The emergence of edge computing in IoT is providing faster and greater volumes of data to be processed and resulting in more actionable solutions in real-time. Besides providing scalability and flexibility in IoT deployments, the movement of data processing and analytics closer to IoT devices, also increases data privacy and security.
Large enterprises have been stepping up and becoming pioneers in the IoT revolution, taking full advantage of this innovative technology and its capacity to profitably reshape their business. However, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which represent about 90% of global business, have been slower to incorporate effectively IoT technology and systems due to lack of resources and expertise.
SMEs that have managed to make the investment and deploy IoT into their daily processes run more efficiently and are seeing long-term cost savings and greater business growth. Therefore, it is essential that more SMEs leverage IoT to improve existing business practices and stay competitive.
While implementing IoT can be a significant initial investment for an SME, the ROI is quick on improving operational capacity, reducing costs, managing resources better, and enhancing customer service and experiences. SMEs can benefit from this continuously evolving and innovative technology in the following ways.
IoT implementation can streamline processes by automating tasks that can benefit a number of business areas, from logistics to manufacturing to operations, resulting in increased efficiency, agility and cost savings. Here are some examples:
IoT devices generate a large amount of data in real-time, which can be analyzed to gain insights into the business. This can help SMEs identify trends, optimize processes, and make better-informed decisions, such as:
The data flowing in from IoT customer touchpoints and the products or services they use can provide a multi-dimensional view of their experiences and satisfaction levels not possible before. This opportunity to measure and analyse consumer behaviour can also take the guesswork out of marketing strategy. Further, with IoT data in real-time, companies can respond quickly to issues and requests as they arise. Besides helping meet a consumer’s changing needs, IoT can improve their experiences and increase brand loyalty and retention which can drive long-term business growth. Here's some examples how:
Approximately 84% of current IoT deployments “are addressing or have the potential to address” the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. SMEs can use IoT to implement sustainability measures, such as waste reduction and optimizing operations to reduce energy consumption. Here’s some examples how:
In summary, the adoption of IoT technologies is no longer limited to large enterprises, presenting numerous opportunities for SMEs to improve their efficiency, cut costs, enhance customer relationships, and increase their competitivity and overall profitability. While implementing IoT solutions requires an initial investment, the ROI can be substantial and quick and therefore far outweigh the costs.
Due to limited resources, many SMEs choose to partner with specialized third-party companies to accelerate IoT solution development. Other SMEs opt for stable & secure IoT platforms to access IoT technology that is both scalable and customizable.
Need guidance on how to start your SME’s IoT journey to reap the benefits this advanced technology can offer? Reach out to our Knowledge Exchange experts for the latest technological insights and advice.
[/um_loggedin]The modern workplace has changed and as a result of hybrid work becoming the norm, your IT team needs better ways to troubleshoot, repair and maintain business PCs that might be in the office, employee homes, or anywhere else.
Remote management has become a critical need for businesses of all sizes as it allows for enhanced flexibility, accessibility, efficiency, and security. Remote management software enables IT teams to support systems from anywhere, reducing downtime and cutting costs associated with on-site visits.
Remote manageability gives IT administrators the ability to do software upgrades or security patches all via the cloud. This means having a hardware-level management solution that can establish a communication channel for IT, giving them the ability to manage issues at a moment’s notice, inside or outside the firewall environment.
Intel vPro® is an integrated, validated platform that is rigorously tested for the demands of the modern workplace. Its “built for business” features meet the needs of both IT teams and end users. Intel vPro®’s platform integrates a suite of technologies designed to enhance security, performance, and manageability. Core features and benefits of vPro include:
Maximise your vPro® fleet with Managed Activation Platform (MAP):
MAP is your all-in-one solution, brand new cloud-based SaaS designed to simplify the vPro activation process, so you can harness its full potential for remote management.
Leroy Merlin, a DIY hypermarket turned to Intel vPro® technology with Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) and Intel® Endpoint Management Assistant (Intel® EMA) to manage their devices which includes desktop PCs, laptops, point-of-sale (POS) systems, kiosks, and digital signage systems deployed across 120 stores in Spain and Portugal. This decision significantly reduced operational costs and minimized disruptions for end users. Previously onsite issues now can be resolved remotely, offering support at any time of day. Read the full case study here.
Source: Protech Insights
In today’s digital age, businesses of all sizes are recognizing the numerous benefits of migrating their operations to the cloud. From increased flexibility and scalability to enhanced collaboration and cost savings, cloud computing offers a myriad of advantages for organizations looking to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving marketplace. However, transitioning to the cloud requires careful planning, execution, and management to ensure a smooth and successful migration process. In this blog post, we’ll explore key steps and best practices for transitioning your business to the cloud effectively.
Before diving into the migration process, it’s essential to understand the benefits that cloud computing can offer your business. By migrating to the cloud, you can:
The first step in transitioning your business to the cloud is to assess your current infrastructure and identify your specific requirements and objectives. Conduct a comprehensive inventory of your existing IT systems, applications, and data to determine what needs to be migrated to the cloud and what can remain on-premises. Consider factors such as performance requirements, regulatory compliance, data sovereignty, and budget constraints when evaluating cloud migration options.
Once you’ve assessed your requirements, it’s time to choose the right cloud service provider and deployment model for your business. Consider factors such as reliability, security, performance, scalability, and cost when evaluating potential providers. Decide whether a public, private, or hybrid cloud deployment model best suits your needs and objectives. Public clouds offer affordability and scalability, while private clouds provide greater control and customization. Hybrid clouds offer the best of both worlds, allowing you to leverage the benefits of both public and private clouds.
With your requirements defined and a cloud service provider selected, it’s time to develop a comprehensive migration plan. Start by prioritizing your migration objectives and identifying the critical applications and data that need to be migrated first. Create a detailed timeline and roadmap for the migration process, including milestones, tasks, responsibilities, and deadlines. Consider conducting a pilot migration to test your plan and identify any potential issues or challenges before proceeding with a full-scale migration.
Data security and compliance are paramount considerations when transitioning your business to the cloud. Work closely with your cloud service provider to implement robust security measures and protocols to protect your data and applications from unauthorized access, data breaches, and cyber threats. Ensure that your cloud provider complies with relevant industry regulations and standards, such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS, to avoid potential compliance issues and penalties.
Transitioning to the cloud requires buy-in and support from your entire organization. Provide comprehensive training and education to your team members to ensure they understand the benefits of cloud computing and how to leverage cloud-based tools and applications effectively. Offer hands-on training sessions, workshops, and resources to help employees adapt to the new technology and workflows and maximize productivity.
Once your business is successfully transitioned to the cloud, it’s essential to continuously monitor and optimize performance to ensure optimal efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Leverage cloud monitoring tools and analytics to track key performance metrics, identify potential bottlenecks or issues, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your cloud infrastructure and resources. Regularly review your cloud usage and spending to identify opportunities for cost savings and efficiency improvements.
Transitioning your business to the cloud is a transformative journey that offers numerous benefits for organizations seeking to modernize their IT infrastructure and drive innovation. By following the steps and best practices outlined in this blog post, you can successfully navigate the cloud migration process and unlock the full potential of cloud computing for your business. With careful planning, execution, and management, you can achieve a smooth and successful transition to the cloud and position your business for long-term success in the digital age.
For fast growing companies, security compliance is key, but choosing which compliance to pursue can be a difficult choice to make, especially considering that the framework for both ISO 27001 and SOC 2 is so similar.
Both demonstrate that a business has implemented robust security measures and takes information security seriously, however there are some key differences.
This blog will discuss both compliance frameworks and the elements you should take into consideration when choosing which to complete.
ISO 27001 is one of the leading international standards that provides a framework for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving an Information Security Management System (ISMS).
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ISO 27001 certification provides customers with third-party reassurance that your organization has built an ISMS and is committed to handling and protecting sensitive data.
There are 14 key components that form the foundation of the ISO 27001 certification. Organizations must adhere to these to achieve compliance which are as follows:
SOC 2 is a reporting framework developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). It is designed to measure how a business’ system achieves the AICPA Trust Service Criteria which covers: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
Unlike ISO 27001 which sets out a more rigid framework, each company has the freedom to design its own controls in order to comply with the criteria.
As mentioned above, there are five areas which are examined to achieve SOC 2 compliance which are as follows:
Although Security is the only mandatory area, in order to have a well-rounded assessment, companies should commit to implementing appropriate measures to demonstrate compliance.
There is no “one size fits all” answer but there are several factors to consider when choosing the right compliance standard for you, including the organization’s needs, resources, and goals.
Some key considerations are:
Deciding between ISO 27001 or SOC 2 should be guided by your specific needs, client demands, industry standards and regulatory requirements. Ultimately, both are strong displays of a business’ commitment to ensuring information security. By understanding the nuances and differences between these certifications, organizations can make an informed decision that best suits their unique circumstances and security objectives.
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Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) which refers to a group of learning academies that have formed an association, have become increasingly common in the United Kingdom. This is due in part to the Government’s plan to encourage most schools to join a MAT by 2030 as outlined in the 2022 Schools White Paper, “Opportunity for all: strong schools with great teachers for your child”.
With this, the government is pushing the education landscape to become more competitive as academy trusts optimize their processes and technology.
However, as MATs onboard new academies this can bring some IT challenges that stem from the need to merge IT infrastructure, reduce costs, centralize services, migrate data, and manage technical changes across multiple schools within a trust.
The challenges:
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The process of merging academies to work under one MAT can seem never-ending and overwhelmingly complex. Where does one even begin? To help address the challenges noted above and facilitate transitions, from the initial setup of a MAT to onboarding new academies, below we offer an action plan for MATs to pool their resources and streamline organizational IT integration successfully.
In conclusion, the importance of aligning organizational and structural digital transformation efforts is fundamental to the overall educational strategy and success of MATs, but requires a tremendous amount of planning, effort and resources. By following some of the recommendations we have listed however, you will significantly improve a MAT’s capacity to reach the ultimate goal of this educational framework: enhanced teaching and learning while remaining competitive.
For further assistance and information on getting the right digital strategy in place for your MAT, connect with our Knowledge Exchange program today. Our Account Managers provide access to expert advice, industry insights and a network of technology partners to fit your needs.
IT Sustainability has gained significant traction lately due not only to environmental concerns, but also as a way to boost operational resilience and financial performance. This has also been driven by The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) which came into effect on January 5th, 2023. The directive will require almost 50,000 EU companies to report their environmental impact starting in the 2024 financial year. They must also ensure all their suppliers comply within certain parameters of real data, reporting and due diligence to develop a sustainable supply chain.
It is imperative for companies to invest in sustainable IT to comply with regulations, cut costs and reduce environmental damage. And according to a recent study where 78% of customers say environmental practices influence their decision to buy from a company, investing in sustainability also makes excellent business sense. That’s why sustainability has been identified as a top-three driver of innovation and a primary consideration in IT procurement. In fact, a recent study of 3,250 IT decision-makers showed that 79% indicated at least half of future IT investments would be directed towards achieving their sustainability initiatives.
There are four key areas that enterprises can invest in to reach their sustainable IT goals; artificial intelligence, green computing, automation, and supply chain. This blog will detail how your business can also benefit from adapting more sustainable technologies.
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AI, in particular Generative AI, is already being used by companies to optimize a wealth of business activities. However, its role is also about to dominate the sustainability agenda.
Due to AI’s capacity to analyse vast quantities of data, it can be used to make informed decisions on energy use and efficiency, as well as measure and predict a number of other sustainable business needs.
AI is currently being used to deliver sustainability by:
And this is just a small sample of AI technology’s capacity in delivering sustainability solutions. To find out how each organization can benefit from AI in reaching sustainability goals, there are now a number of AI-powered sustainability platforms, such as IBM Garage, Microsoft Sustainability Manager, and Nasdaq Sustainable Lens, as well as AI reporting and decision support systems to help guide organisations in planning and achieving their IT sustainability transformation. -
IT operations currently contribute 5 - 9% of global electricity consumption, with this projected to increase to 20% by 2030. The cost of this is extensive greenhouse gas emissions that have a significantly negative environmental impact. To counteract the negative impact of IT operations on the environment, “green computing” will be fundamental.
Green computing is the adoption of IT practices, systems and applications that lower energy usage and reduce the carbon footprint of technology.
Taking a life-cycle approach that considers from procurement and design to operations and end-of-life disposal, here are three practices that incorporate the “Green Computing” trend.
Streamlining tasks with minimal human intervention, automation has seamlessly become part of all aspects of society, delivering efficiency and convenience. And in the business world, companies have incorporated automated systems to expedite processes, boost productivity and enhance efficiency in their operations; and this has also allowed sustainability benefits at scale.
In 2024, automation will continue to be leveraged in product design and manufacturing processes to improve accuracy, reduce waste and minimize the carbon footprint of companies. And specifically related to sustainability initiatives, automation will also make measuring, reporting and verifying emissions reductions more efficient and accurate through, for example, real-time monitoring of any environmental impact.
With supply chains accounting for 90% of the organisation's greenhouse gas emissions, supply chain management at companies will reach a new level of importance in light of the new EU sustainability reporting requirements mentioned earlier, and in effect from the beginning of 2024.
Not only will large EU companies and non-EU entities with substantial activity in the EU need to comply with established ESG reporting specifications, but these companies will be required to ensure all suppliers comply with certain parameters in order to develop a sustainable supply chain.
Therefore, companies will need to know how suppliers work environmentally in greater detail or be held accountable. Supply chain management, across all areas of a business including IT operations, will become more extensive as monitoring the sustainability of current suppliers and channel partners increases, and incorporating environmentally green criteria in new vendor selection and bidding is established. Actively seeking green IT partners and suppliers that comply with required EU sustainability goals will be the norm as procurement is optimized to consider the carbon footprint of all purchased materials and investments.
Whether in fulfilling the new CSDR requirements, searching for long-term operational efficiencies, or wanting to keep and attract customers that are choosing businesses based on their environmental practices, IT Sustainability must be a crucial part of your company’s framework. 2024’s Sustainable IT trends include investing in AI, green computing, automation, and a greener supply chain to reach your sustainability goals but are just the beginning in our journey to a greener business world.
Do you need guidance in getting started on IT sustainability? A Knowledge Exchange Key Account Manager can help you map your sustainability technology initiatives. Get in touch to learn more about how we can help.
[/um_loggedin]EU places Cybersecurity as top directive for 40K business in its member states by mandating companies to comply with its new legislation to protect businesses from attacks and breaches.
The Network and Information Systems (NIS2) Directive is an extension of the original NIS Directive published in 2016, which has been adopted by EU member states. It imposes stricter cybersecurity requirements and ensures uniform sanctions across the EU. It came into effect in January 2023, and must be established as law by all member states and submitted to the European parliament for review by its council by October 2024 which means should your company fall within the criteria set by the directive, compliance with the new requirements will be mandatory.
The legislation expands on the number of sectors covered in the original legislation to encompass all companies that play a critical role in society. The distinction is made between "essential" and "important" entities within these sectors, with both categories required to comply with stringent security measures. Essential entities are subject to proactive supervision, while important entities are monitored after incidents of non-compliance are reported. The NIS2 Directive significantly expands its scope to cover a wide range of sectors and organizations, impacting approximately 40,000 additional companies across the EU, which will be overseen at a national level by each member state’s respective governing body for cybersecurity.
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There are four key areas of business that will have increased requirements following the implementation of the legislation.
In addition to these four key overarching requirements, NIS2 mandates that companies implement baseline security measures to address likely cyber threats. In order to prepare for compliance with the NIS2 Directive, organisations need to determine if they fall within the scope, evaluate security measures, amend policies, plan for compliance and incorporate relevant security measures such as:
The consequences of non-compliance with the NIS2 Directive are severe. Essential companies which do not comply can face fines up to €10 million or 2% of global annual revenue. Companies classified as important under the scope of the legislation can be fined up to €7 million or 1.4% of global revenue.
In addition to financial consequences, companies may also face non-financial repercussions, such as security audit mandates and alerts to clients about potential risks.
These heavy penalties ensure both essential and important companies will prioritise cybersecurity measures to protect national security, economic stability, and public safety.
NIS2 came into force on January 16, 2023, and all EU member states must transpose it into national law by October 17, 2024. Companies that fall within the scope of NIS2 must ensure compliance by this date.
To prepare for the NIS2 Directive, companies need to take several key steps to ensure compliance with the enhanced cybersecurity requirements. Here are some essential measures you can take now to be prepared:
By joining Knowledge Exchange, you will be paired with a Key Account Manager who will act as your central contact for all you IT needs. Your Account Manager searches for the right information on your behalf and links you to a market player who can offer you a specific solution to the cybersecurity challenges you are currently facing so that you can get everything you need in place to ensure compliance. Get in touch to learn more.
[/um_loggedin]At the beginning of the year, Google sent out a message to users about changes to its policy in relation to a forthcoming “sensitive event;” the World Health Organisation (WHO) sent out warnings of a new Disease “X”, and the academics, billionaires, politicians, and corporate elites of the world gathered at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland to under girder such warnings and throw in a few predictions of their own.
It must be an election year!
“Rebuilding Trust” was the theme of the annual WEF gathering which covered areas such as security, economic growth, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and long-term strategies for climate, nature, and energy. Knowledge Exchange previously reported, the explosion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) upon society presents both potential benefits and threats, including increased mis-information and disinformation that looks set to increase this year.
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The WEF warns that the benefits of AI, will only come to fruition if ethics, trust and AI, can all be brought together.
But the question of this statement to many observing the forum’s discussions is: “Who’s ethics and trust of who?
This question of trust and ethics is also particularly poignant for other observers of WEF forums when discussions at Davos moved towards the potential combination of AI with biotech and nano technology.
Trust is certainly an important commodity for a world that is still barely crawling out of a pandemic, which has also seen a rapid rise in misinformation, disinformation and censorship around public health, climate, politics, economy, and war. This may make it difficult for people to rebuild trust in institutions, including think tanks like the WEF and other bureaucratic organisations.
But can we stop the rampant AI empowered digital transformation in our personal and business lives that will increasingly make Moore’s law look like glacial progression? Especially when the calls for a pause1 in AI development seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
It seems not. After a slew of announcements and releases last year, IT giants such as Google and Microsoft continue to duke it out in the AI arms race in 2024 by announcing plans to integrate AI functionality into search, office productivity software, and operating system level. Developments such as the introduction of a Microsoft Co-pilot key for certain laptops and desktop computers ramps up the hard integration of AI into the silicon of CPUs, GPUs, NPUs of PCs and servers in the cloud.
With analysts such as McKinsey predicting that Generative AI will “add the equivalent of $2.6 to $4.4 trillion of (Global) economic value annually”, who wouldn’t want to get a slice of the AI action?
However, McKinsey did also quite rightly state that like in other ‘generational’ advancements in technology, turning the promise into sustainable business value are sometimes difficult to get past the pilot stage. CIOs and CTOs have a “critical role in capturing that value” according to its Technology’s generational moment with generative AI: A CIO and CTO guide that states:
“Many of the lessons learned from [early developments in internet, mobile and social media] still apply, especially when it comes to getting past the pilot stage to reach scale. For the CIO and CTO, the generative AI boom presents a unique opportunity to apply those lessons to guide the C-suite in turning the promise of generative AI into sustainable value for the business.”
But it also comes at a cost, especially in terms of human employment, with industries lead by media and entertainment, banking, insurance and logistics looking likely to be hit the hardest, according to a poll of top directors by the FT.
"Whenever you get new technologies you can get big changes," said Philip Jansen, Chief Executive of BT who spoke to the BBC about the 55,000 jobs it intends to cull by the end of the decade- with a fifth of those being replaced by AI.
Because Generative AI tools can imitate humans in conversational chat, solving problems and writing code, Jansen added that AI would make BT´s services “faster, better and more seamless.”
According to a survey of 750 business leaders using AI by ResumeBuilder “1 in 3 companies will replace Employees with AI in 2024” it also cites that 44% of companies surveyed say AI will lead to layoffs in 2024, 53% of companies use AI, with a further 24% planning to start in 2024
With such alarming cuts like this year’s Google AI layoffs, Onur Demirkol of Dataconomy believes:
“The tech industry is navigating a transformative period where AI is increasingly automating tasks traditionally handled by humans.
As we see these changes, the industry is adapting to innovative technologies and facing critical questions about the implications on employment and the broader workforce landscape.”
Although proponents of AI development probably dismiss dystopian claims about machines running amok like in The Terminator or a society in perpetual surveilled panopticon2 as envisaged by George Orwell in 1984, there are alarming signs of such technology insidiously being introduced into society. This can be either in guise of entertainment, such as the Metaverse or in the name of public safety such as the New York Police Department’s Digidog, that was rereleased last year. GPS trackers and Autonomous Security Robot all have the potential to link to AI technology to detect, track, discriminate and engage “targets.”
And while Robocob might be still some years off, it would seem that group think narratives spiked by a cocktail of AI and algorithms to prepare society for such events such as Disease X, current and future wars, and issues surrounding climate change are already at work. With growing instances of deepfakes and misinformation, narratives are being pushed through ephemeral persuasion via search and social media. And not only high-profile celebrities, sports people or politicians are being targeted. Such tactics in the wrong hands can affect businesses or people’s reputations, like impersonating the CEO via an email or using deepfakes to discredit certain individuals that are opposed to a certain viewpoints or narratives and something that CIOs and CTOs need to be on the watch for and alert staff about.
Copyright and Intellectual property are also areas where AI could get companies into trouble as they increasingly look to AI to help in copywriting and marketing activities. For example, creating art using an AI platform like DALL-E or MidJourney may seem miraculous and tremendously impressive, questions are being asked what sources have been used to train these platforms and if they had permission to use them. Stable Diffusion found out the hard way when it received papers from Getty Images for copyright infringement.
If a company then creates an image to use in marketing or on the Web using a similar AI platform, theoretically another company like Getty could argue that this is also copyright infringement and sue that company using the AI platform as well.
In other areas, what happens when employees start uploading corporate presentations, technical designs, or white papers or even code into AI platforms to give them a bit more zing, what then happens to the information that is uploaded? And could a potential competitor use this information for their own gain? E.g. I am sure the designers at Mercedes F1 would love to use AI to design a car like Adrian Newey’s Red Bull.
What companies need to remember is that Millennials now occupy over half of those that have IT buying decisions. Compared to their Gen Z colleagues, Millennials are more digitally native as they grew up in an increasingly online and digitally enabled world, which is now quickly changing the way companies buy technology.
This means that influencing, rather than hard selling, is something that has bled over from the B2C world into B2B purchasing and this is a key factor in so many companies looking to invest in AI. Companies want to invest in solutions that can help them have the conversational interaction of humans, but also the analytical, predictive and processing power of machines that can capture intent signals, as well as to steer conversations in the right direction or to suggest solutions that might fit customer needs. If there is greater accuracy, transparency, and accountability via regulation there will be more trust in rolling out AI systems and that may involve more input and supervision of AI systems by human knowledge workers than less.
Pat Gelsinger, CEO of microprocessor and AI giant Intel, believes that it is fundamentally all about improving the accuracy of AI’s results. In an interview with US cable broadcaster CNBC, he said “This next phase of AI, I believe, will be about building formal correctness into the underlying models.”
“Certain problems are well solved today in AI, but there’s lots of problems that aren’t,” Gelsinger said. “Basic prediction, detection, visual language, those are solved problems right now. There’s a whole lot of other problems that aren’t solved. How do you prove that a large language model is actually right? There’s a lot of errors today.
Gelsinger believes although AI will improve the productivity of the knowledge worker, the knowledge worker or human still has to have confidence in the technology.
Trust is especially important for the IT industry whose technology is seen as the key not only to the riches of the AI castle, but also general day to day systems that people rely on for their day to day lives.
In January of this year, ITV’s docudrama, Mr. Bates vs The Post Office captured the attention of the UK public as it detailed the scandal surrounding the Horizon IT system which has been rumbling for the last 20 years. Originally introduced to eliminate paper-based accounting, over 900 UK Sub postmasters3 were the victims of what some commentators are calling he biggest gross miscarriages of UK justice that saw many wrongfully convicted of theft or fraud, some jailed and all smeared due to the ultimately faulty IT system.
Back then before cloud and AI, human intelligence was responsible for large scale IT roll outs and open to human error in software coding.
And it has taken 20 years of campaigning, questions in Parliament, investigations by publications such as Computer Weekly and finally a TV show to shine a light on a faulty IT system that was introduced in 1999, in order for the victims to finally get justice.
Sadly, some of the wrongly accused committed suicide or did not live to see the promised reparations, overturned convictions, and the clearing of their names they all deserved. Many cases are still sub judice.
What was galling for many viewers of the dramatization was the fact that some insiders at the Post Office allegedly knew there were issues with the system such as the ability to remote log into it, but continued to promote the misinformation that the system could only be accessed by the local operator and thus any errors in the accounting were solely down to the (human) Postmaster, which as it turns out was not true.
In this case, it appears to have been the humans running the Post Office covering up of the Horizon IT system errors that were to blame. But when AI, that can already successfully code language like C++, gets to the stage of being trusted enough to code sensitive medical, military, or other machinery that interacts with human ‘nodes’, will AI become more difficult to question and hold accountable, when machines are running the show?
And worse still with the introduction of AI into law enforcement or military machines, will lethal decisions be made in error? Will AI systems, like the HAL 9000 computer 2001: A Space Odyssey, think they are:
“By any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.”
As we face a new era in artificial intelligence, the rapid development of AI is underscored by the critical need for a balanced and ethical approach to said development.
There is an undoubtable need for robust ethical frameworks, transparent practices, and proactive governance to harness the transformative power of AI while mitigating its risks. It is imperative for stakeholders to collaborate to ensure AI serves as a force for good, and that society fosters an innovative, while still equitable and ethical outlook in the march toward a technologically advanced future.
[/um_loggedin]A common misconception about artificial intelligence is that it is expensive, complex, or requires technical expertise to put into practice. In reality, SMEs can integrate low risk, affordable, easy-to-customise AI tools and platforms that gives them the opportunity to level the playing field with larger enterprises.
While there are a vast number of AI tools that can help SMEs maximize their efficiency and productivity, here are three areas of your business where you can integrate AI and see benefits to your business right away.
Employing AI chatbots and customer service automation allows SMEs to enhance their CX by delivering more efficient and satisfying customer service, which in turn generates customer loyalty and drives business growth. AI also allows SMEs to scale their customer engagement and free up resources needed for more critical customer interactions with tools such as:
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SMEs can benefit from AI tools that execute machine learning to automate and enhance a variety of marketing functions such as market research, branding, and content generation. AI-based marketing tools can:
I can increase efficiency within your business by optimising processes. For example, it can be used to:
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to integrating AI technology into your business. As AI continues to evolve and deliver more capabilities, it is essential for SMEs to embrace it to increase efficiencies, enhance productivity, drive growth, and remain competitive.
To implement AI strategically, begin by identifying areas where AI can add the most value to your SME, then research and choose the right tools, and continue to stay up to date with the latest AI advancements to scale up your business. If you are looking for help developing a robust AI strategy, Knowledge Exchange's Key Account Managers can support you and connect with the right providers. Get in touch today.
[/um_loggedin]Knowledge Exchange examines best practices for small and medium enterprises to strengthen their defences against cyber threats.
With cyberattacks surging since the pandemic, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face extraordinary challenges when it comes to cybersecurity. According to a recent survey by cybersecurity company Guardz, 57% of SMEs have experienced a cybersecurity breach, among whom 31% reported their business had been targeted by a breach in the past 12 months alone.
So, why are hackers targeting the smaller fish in the pond?
For cybercriminals, it’s about choosing the path of least resistance to an organisation’s data, infrastructure, and finances. Due to lack of budget and resources, many SMEs have weaker security measures, limited security training and a lack of dedicated IT staff in place to combat cybercrime. Also, SMEs can offer a gateway for hackers to gain access to larger businesses through supply chains, which makes them even more attractive to hack.
The hard consequences of these attacks include data loss, financial costs, reputational damage, or a complete system shutdown that can last hours, days, even weeks, bringing your business to a standstill. In many cases, SMEs have gone out of business over one successful cyberattack.
It is paramount for companies to put the nbackuecessary precautions in place to thwart any potential attacks. Knowledge Exchange shares five key steps to take today to protect your SME:
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One of the largest cyber-security threats to SMEs unfortunately comes from the behaviours and habits of employees. Luckily, it’s also the threat that you have the most power to control, and building a strong security culture is key.
Ensure every employee, including executive management, prioritises cybersecurity by:
Today’s cybercriminals go way beyond traditional spam or malware threats, so relying on basic security such as firewalls, antivirus software, and basic email filtering technology is no longer sufficient. Despite smaller budgets and less sophisticated cybersecurity infrastructures than larger enterprises, SMEs must be prepared as much as feasibly possible to prevent modern-day attacks.
Key areas for investment are:
To an SME, data loss due a cyber-attack can be one of the most devastating costs, leading to a lack of trust, a bad reputation, and a loss of significant business revenue. In the event of a cyberattack, a data backup and recovery plan is fundamental, and should include:
In conclusion, SMEs have become an even bigger target for cybercriminals, and cyberattacks will continue to increase and become more complex. However, despite limited resources, there’s a lot you can do to reduce cybersecurity risks starting right now. Engaging employees in building a secure culture, investing in cybersecurity tools and services, and planning for potential attacks will go a long way in protecting your SME.
[/um_loggedin]The EU's landmark AI Act gained momentum last week as negotiators from the EU parliament, EU commission and national governments agreed rules about systems using artificial intelligence. The proposal will be passed in the new year by the European Parliament, but what does it mean for the AI technological revolution?
The draft regulation aims to ensure that AI systems placed on the European market and used in the EU are safe and respect fundamental rights and EU values. This landmark proposal also aims to stimulate investment and innovation on AI in Europe.
“This is a historical achievement, and a huge milestone towards the future! Today’s agreement effectively addresses a global challenge in a fast-evolving technological environment on a key area for the future of our societies and economies. And in this endeavour, we managed to keep an extremely delicate balance: boosting innovation and uptake of artificial intelligence across Europe whilst fully respecting the fundamental rights of our citizens.” – Carme Artigas, Spanish secretary of state for digitalisation and artificial intelligence.
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The aim of the act is to ensure the responsible development and deployment of AI technologies, and it addresses key concerns such as risk, transparency, and ethical use of AI.
AI technology will fall into one of four risk categories – Prohibited, High-Risk, Limited Risk and Minimal Risk – based on the intended use of the system. Examples of High-Risk AI include systems used in sectors such as healthcare, transportation, and the legal system where AI’s impact could have greater consequences.
Any high-risk AI system will have to pass a fundamental rights impact assessment before it is put in the market. It will also oblige certain users of such systems to register in the EU database for high-risk AI systems. There are also provisions for lower risk systems which such as disclosing that content is AI generated to allow users to make more informed decisions.
In order to protect individual privacy, the act proposes strict limitations on the use of biometric identification and surveillance technologies by law enforcement and public authorities, particularly in public places. Such systems will be subject to appropriate safeguards to respect the confidentiality of sensitive operational data.
In addition to determining the risk of a system using AI, the act also sets out cases where the risk is deemed unacceptable and therefore such systems will be banned entirely in the EU. Examples of such applications include cognitive behavioural manipulation, the untargeted scraping od facial images from the internet or CCTV footage, emotion recognition in the work place and educational setting, social scoring, biometric categorisation and some cases of predictive policing.
The initial proposal by the European Commission was substantially modified in order to create a legal framework designed to support the innovation of AI systems in a safe and sustainable manner.
It has been specified that AI regulatory sandboxes, designed to create a controlled setting for the development, testing, and validation of cutting-edge AI systems, should permit the testing of these systems in actual real-world scenarios under specific conditions and safeguards. To ease the administrative load for smaller companies, the provisional agreement outlines a set of measures to support such operators and incorporates limited and clearly defined exceptions.
The Act also sets out potential penalties for any company in violation of the legislation which is set as a percentage of the company’s global turnover or a fixed amount, whichever is higher. There will more proportionate caps on administrative fines for SMEs and start-ups. The penalties are as follows:
AI has revolutionized many aspects of human life, both in personal and professional aspects, and has been a trending topic globally. The AI Act will be finalised in the coming weeks and will come into effect in 2025, with some exceptions for specific provisions. It comes at a time when AI’s development has been described as over-hyped in the short term and underestimated in the long run. The EU is the first governing body to address the concerns, challenges, and opportunities of AI with legislation and it could set a precedent for other nations to follow suit.
[/um_loggedin]Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is a holistic framework for businesses to achieve sustainability beyond just environmental factors, but diversity and societal priorities too. It requires businesses to behave ethically to achieve a sustainable and responsible future.
In recent years, ESG goals have gone from being “nice to have”, to a non-negotiable for companies looking to attract new customers, partners, and employees. While many may have primarily focused on “E”, “S” and “G” have increased in priority for companies looking to adapt a 360 approach to sustainability.
ESG is important for several reasons. It not only addresses environmental and social challenges, but it also contributes to the overall resilience, sustainability, and success of companies as it focuses on the following areas:
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There are a number of benefits associated with pursuing a well-rounded ESG strategy. McKinsey defined five ways ESG can add value to a company:
Companies have typically had a siloed approach when implementing ESG policies relying on departmental expertise to address the most pressing issues. This had led to a fragmented approach with little coherence around how to create standards and guidelines.
However, working towards ESG goal should not be a siloed activity, cross-departmental collaboration is needed to fulfil objectives on a company-wide scale.
A coordinated approach is crucial for achieving meaningful and lasting impact. By breaking down the traditional silos and fostering collaboration across various departments, companies can leverage a diverse range of perspectives, skills, and resources to address the multifaceted challenges posed by sustainability and responsible business practices.
This holistic approach enables the development of comprehensive ESG strategies that align with the organization's overall mission and values. Moreover, a unified front in implementing ESG policies promotes consistency in reporting, transparency, and accountability, which are essential elements for building trust among stakeholders, including investors, customers, and employees. In essence, the shift towards a coordinated approach underscores the recognition that ESG considerations are integral to the core functioning of the entire business rather than isolated initiatives, leading to more robust, resilient, and socially responsible organizations.
IT Teams have a pivotal role to play in helping companies achieve ESG goals, across the different areas.
IT infrastructure often accounts for a sizeable amount of carbon emissions, making it a key target area for reducing a company's environmental impact. As companies implement more and more digital transformation strategies, it is vital that the improvements in business efficiency do not come at the expense of their carbon footprint. Companies who are dedicated to achieving their ESG goals need to look at the full lifecycle of their IT assets and embed sustainability data into their asset management processes
When thinking about industries with a heavy carbon footprint, software development might not necessarily come to mind, but in fact it is responsible for 3% of global carbon emissions, which is on-par with the aviation industry. Technology leaders need to consider the environmental impact of software, whether they are building it in-house or choosing different platforms to install. Companies looking to reduce their carbon impact can use the environmental impact of the software they use as a metric. .
Ensuring accessibility promotes social inclusivity and is a huge part of any company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). IT departments play an essential role in establishing digital accessibility for both its employees and customers alike. In doing so, companies ensure social inclusivity, which not only fulfils a moral duty but also opens doors to a wider talent pool and customer market.
IT teams need to take the ESG achievements of their suppliers and third-party vendors into account if they want to take a holistic approach to reaching their own ESG goals. Some questions to consider when choosing IT vendors and suppliers are; what do the working conditions look like across the supply chain? Are the companies IT vendors in compliance with fair labour standards? Are human rights respected?
Transparent reporting is essential for building trust with stakeholders, whether that be investors, customers, employees, or regulators as it fosters accountability and demonstrates commitment to sustainable practices. IT departments play a crucial role in this as they implement the infrastructure needed for efficient data management to ensure accurate and reliable data. They can also leverage the capabilities of automation and artificial intelligence to enhance data processing, identify patterns and enable predictive analytics so companies can make more informed decisions regarding ESG.
The risk of cyber-attacks is one of the most financially material sustainability risk that businesses face. Even small companies can handle vast amounts of sensitive data such as customer information, financial records, employee details. The frequency of cyber-attacks is on the rise, meaning robust cybersecurity processes are crucial to mitigate the risks of the reputational and financial fall out a potential attack could cause.
Knowledge Exchange is a programme designed for IT decision makers to fully understand their challenges, needs, and priorities. It is a complementary independent brand and partner programme which supports companies by offering a number of services and tools to facilitate the IT purchasing process with expert advice, trends and analysis and unrivalled access to bespoke solutions from BNZSA’s vendor and channel partners.
By joining Knowledge Exchange one of our Key Account Managers will work with you to build a robust road map to achieve your IT ESG goals.
[/um_loggedin]In this month’s Knowledge Exchange we examine why users are closing the once mighty Windows platform in favour of macOS and Chrome OS devices which continue to grow in popularity and market share!
Despite remaining the most dominant Operating System (OS) with 68% of market share worldwide, Microsoft’s Windows continues to face growing competition within the OS market.
Over the past decade Windows has lost more than 22% of its desktop OS market share worldwide, and more than 27% of market share in the USA alone. In the same time frame macOS has gained 13.5% and Chrome OS has grown by more than 4%.
Window’s popularity is due in part to its widespread availability on PCs from manufacturing partners such as Dell, HP, and Lenovo, but why has it lost such a significant proportion of the market in recent years?
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Apple’s macOS, which can be found in Apple’s Macbook and Mac Desktop product lines, which includes popular devices such as Macbook Air and Macbook Pro, has been steadily gaining ground in the OS space. It is particularly popular in the North American market where it holds 33% of market share, compared to just 15% in Europe and 21% worldwide.
Apple introduced Apple silicon, a series of system on a chip (SoC) and system in a package (SiP) processors manufactured by Apple in 2020 and subsequently rolled out installation in every new product they produce.
This move has undoubtedly accelerated Apple’s popularity across both consumer and enterprise markets as it allowed Apple to increase the performance and battery life of their devices compared to previous versions which were powered using Intel CPU processors. This heightened the competitiveness of Apple’s devices in terms of performance power compared to traditional PCs.
The rise in popularity of Google’s Linux-based Chrome OS can be attributed in part to the fact that Chromebooks are often a less expensive option for consumers compared to traditional PCs or Macbooks. Their lower price point has made them a popular device within the education sector and amongst parents looking for an affordable starter device for their children.
The popularity of Chromebooks surged in 2020 as the pandemic took hold and businesses and schools were forced to move to remote working and online learning environments. In the same year. PC shipments grew 13.1% hitting 300 million units, with Chromebooks accounting for 10.8% of devices sold, outselling Macbooks for the first time.
Windows may still dominate the desktop OS market, but when it comes to mobile devices and tablets, Microsoft has yet to make a dent, and has even discontinued its mobile operating system.
Despite Windows powered tablets such as the Microsoft Surface Pro being available, Android and Apple share 99% of this market. Android claims the lion’s share of the market with 70% of the combined phone and tablet market, whereas when considering tablets alone Apple’s iOS edges ahead with 53.5% due to the popularity of iPad devices.
The resulting demand for PCs caused by the pandemic gave way for Google and Apple to expand their market share at Microsoft’s expense.
There is no doubt that regardless of losing large market share Microsoft’s Windows remains as the most popular OS for desktops, however this popularity does not carry over to tablets and mobile devices as Apple and Android have saturated the market.
Microsoft and Intel are already preparing for the launch of Windows 12 according to leaked documents, so it remains to be seen if this will enable Microsoft to claim back some market share.
[/um_loggedin]As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, organizations must adapt to stay ahead in a highly competitive landscape. With the release of Windows 11, Microsoft has introduced what it calls: ‘a new era of computing.’ In this blog post, Anteriad will explore the key reasons why organizations should consider migrating to Windows 11 and the benefits it offers as well as the challenges faced by organisations-such as incompatible legacy hardware.
Let us start with some facts & figures:
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Security is a top concern for organizations. In previous blogs we reported on the evolving threat landscape with a growing number of sophisticated malware and ransomware attacks. Due to the hybrid work environment, PCs are getting used in environments where they are much more vulnerable to cyber threats. Windows 11 addresses these concerns by integrating advanced security features. Windows 11 provides hardware-based security through Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 and Secure Boot, making it more resistant to cyber threats. With the introduction of Windows Hello for Business, organizations can utilize biometric authentication, such as facial recognition or fingerprint scanning, for enhanced login security. This can help prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data and applications.
Windows 11 also offers improved performance and efficiency. The new operating system (OS) is optimized for modern hardware, utilizing the latest technologies to deliver faster boot times, improved battery life, and reduced resource consumption. Windows 11 takes advantage of the latest hardware technologies and accelerates performance through optimized hardware utilization. For example, Windows 11 is optimized to leverage the processing power of latest families of Intel CPUs with efficient and performant cores. The OS is designed to make the most efficient use of the available cores, ensuring that tasks and applications run smoothly and efficiently. This can result in better overall performance, faster application responsiveness, and smoother multitasking experiences, according to the manufacturer.
Microsoft also claims that Windows 11 represents a significant leap forward in terms of user experience & productivity. It strengthens collaboration within organizations by integrating with Microsoft 365 services. It also provides contextual recommendations for more efficient workflows across Windows with suggestions for files, contacts, and actions. And in an era of increased working from home (WFH) and working from anywhere, Windows 11 is designed to support hybrid work enhancing the Microsoft Teams experience, enabling users to connect with colleagues, join meetings, and share content. The integration of Microsoft Teams directly into the taskbar has been designed to streamline communication and collaboration workflows, to promote efficient teamwork and productivity. In this latest release, videoconferencing becomes smarter and easier including intelligent noise canceling, and background blur. Windows 11 includes several other features that can offer improved productivity for your organization. For example, it includes a new feature called “Snap Layouts” which allows users to quickly arrange multiple windows on their desktop for better multitasking. It also includes a new feature called “Snap Groups” which allows users to save groups of apps together for easy access.
Windows 11 offers enterprise-grade management and deployment tools to facilitate the migration process and ongoing system management. Current management tools provide centralized control, and it offers a streamlined approach to the management of devices, updates, and security policies. These tools simplify the migration process and enable efficient management of the Windows 11 ecosystem within the enterprise.
Finally, in terms of testing, Microsoft Windows 11 Version 23H2, due for release this autumn, this one shares the same servicing branch and code base as last year’s release (22H2), which could mean less time for IT managers in testing according to Techfinitive.
Perhaps the biggest reason Windows 11 has received some negative comments, but not as bad as for some of its past releases, is the new hardware requirements and especially the requirement for the TPM chip, but for some commentators the incompatibility was not with the TPM module but with the CPU itself, especially 32bit processors, as Windows 11 will only run on 64-bit Intel or AMD chips. Depending on a company’s refresh cycle, some organisations have already refreshed their fleet of PCs and Laptops and have been unaware that the CPU not the TPM chip would be responsible for incompatibility.
Although it would be fair to say that the longer companies take to migrate, the more complex the process is, some firms are adopting a wait and see approach especially when the support for Windows 10 doesn’t end till October 2025, So although Microsoft has stated it will not be releasing anymore features to Windows 10, save for security patches, some companies are asking if they really need to refresh fleets now — especially if they have just recently done it to support more Windows 11. And although as we have discussed above, the new OS has been designed to support and sustain hybrid work, sometimes he first iterations of a major release are not always bulletproof out of the box and require revisions and patches further down the line. Although Microsoft has said new features will be released with a yearly cadence, some firms are asking if it would be best to wait for the next hardware refresh to ensure compatible TPM and CPUS and an OS that has been out in the field with enough time to be stable.
While imitation is often the finest form of flattery, the look and feel of Windows some commentators have noted is aligning to that of Android and iOS and although, there are promises of better user experience that come with this UI, such as streamlined videocon-ferencing capabilities within Windows 11, users get used to where to find things and exe-cute things in a particular environment. When features and access menus are changed, users need more time or more training to access the features and tools they are familiar with as the user interface (UI) takes some time to navigate and adjust to which may brief-ly cause a dip in productivity or an increase in tickets to your help desk.
Usually on a major release, you usually see speeds and feeds that exclaim how much fast-er the latest version of the OS is, compared to the last one. And although Intel’s Thread Director—an API that works between the CPU core and the OS for performance and efficiency improvements, is designed to work for both Windows 10 and 11, the folks at PC World didn’t find that tests with an Intel core didn’t see any major or significant improve-ments in performance of Windows 11 vs Windows 10. However, we do note that only a few functionalities of Intel’s Thread Director are available for Windows 10 versus 11 and further.
Perhaps the most controversial IT topic right now is the rapid development and deploy-ment of Artificial Intelligence onto devices, into the cloud and its potential impact, as we examined in last month’s Knowledge Exchange on AI and how companies respond to its adoption. With Windows 11, early demos hinted that AI technology such as the Windows Copilot AI assistant would be more deeply integrated with the new OS, according to Barry Collins at Techfinitive but this doesn’t seem to be the case for test releases:
“IT departments will have a big decision to make on whether to permit employees to use AI tools, with the inherent risks of AI-generated content not being accurate or reflective of company policy”, Collins said.
With the increasing migration to cloud and hybrid cloud environments, some commen-tators are predicting that in the future companies may be moving to a more Open Source Model where companies will ditch the OS licensing fees in favour of paying for engineer-ing expertise and support. Like in the old mainframe days or the Network Computing days, Oracle’s Larry Ellison promised us in the 1990s, the applications, storage, security, and processing power returns to the “centre” and away from the endpoint in a Desktop-as-a-Service model, which is being utilised by the healthcare and financial companies where privacy of personal information is very important. However, with the Hybrid Work Model, we have seen the request for more powerful endpoints able to provide performance for collaboration tools (Zoom, Teams, Webex) in addition to the normal workload. And with the Cloud and SaaS model used for most of the software/applications, not only the CPU performance but also the connectivity performance of a PC becomes important.
Apart from security patches, Microsoft has announced there will be no new features developed for Windows 10 in the next couple of years and in consideration of how fast technology and security vulnerability moves, in addition to the sudden surge in hybrid working, it would seem prudent to consider migrating to Windows 11 when it makes sense to in the next couple of years or at least planning PC fleet refreshes with compara-ble hardware, especially CPUs. Consider aligning training of the new interface before or whilst rolling out the new OS, not after and ensure help desk staff are familiar with the FAQs that come with all software upgrades to reduce dips in staff productivity the new system was supposed to improve. And make sure you are in step with the latest security features the new OS offers to help fend off new and nefarious attacks into your central and remote environments. In addition, with new loads on CPUs for Windows 11ing or remote access to applications in the cloud it would seem for the increasing adoption of WFH and WFA, Windows 11 migration is a good step in order to take your organization one notch above your competition.
[/um_loggedin]There is no question that the working world is constantly evolving and adapting to modern life. Since the first industrial revolution in the 18th century, which saw the advent of machines for mass production, the way we work has been continually advancing. The age of the internet and computers began in the late 20th century, bringing a further shift towards automation and digitalization.
Now with what has been deemed the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, cloud computing, machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and Internet of Things (IoT), further blur the lines between physical, digital, and biological domains.
We have started to see the impact of these technologies in the workplace, but looking ahead to the future, how could they be further integrated into our day-to-day working environment?
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The Covid-19 pandemic was a catalyst for one of the biggest shifts seen in the labour market in recent history, as companies had no option but to adapt to a remote working environment if they wanted to stay operational during strict global lockdowns.
Now, more than three years later, more companies than ever look set to make remote and hybrid working environments a permanent fixture according to Scoop. The latest Flex report for Q2 2023 found that 51% of companies offer work location flexibility, up from 43% in Q1.
Despite the popularity of remote and hybrid working, it is not without its challenges. Some of the biggest obstacles faced by companies incorporating remote working into their working environment include:
Last month’s Knowledge Exchange focused on how AI is evolving - for better or for worse. But how will it affect workplaces and the more pertinent question on everyone’s lips – will it be used to replace a large part of the workforce?
Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, described the next generation of AI as “moving from autopilot to copilot” in terms of how we can incorporate AI into our work processes. AI is already second nature to most digital experiences and from automation to job creation, its effects are quickly being felt across the workforce.
Since the industrial revolution, technology has always been there alongside a human workforce to streamline processes and make them more efficient. AI has powered online experiences for years, and there will be no exception in how it will increasingly power the workplace.
Although many hybrid and remote workplaces were set up practically over night following mandated lockdowns due to Covid-19, companies continue to embrace remote working environments with the help of technology.
Despite the skepticism over job losses caused by AI, it is poised to create more jobs than it will automate. In order to embrace these opportunities, the workforce will be required to upskill or reskill as an investment in their future.
Technology has revolutionized how we work since the Industrial Revolution and now with robust digital transformation strategies and technologies such as generative AI, workplaces will continue evolve, no longer relying on physical offices and becoming ever more digitalized and automated.
[/um_loggedin]This month’s Knowledge Exchange will examine why more firms are not only adopting a work from home strategy (WFH) but also a WFA strategy, and what effects this is having on technology purchasing decisions, productivity, staff collaboration, corporate culture, and staff wellness including mental health. It will also examine what potential pitfalls to avoid, when looking to adopt a WFH policy.
According to the United States Bureau of Labour and Statistics, remote work has risen by 31% in the US in the last couple of years. While many associate this trend as a by-product Covid, allowing staff to work from home has been experimented with since another energy emergency gripped the world back in the 1970s, the Oil Crisis1.
During this time, which scarily mirrors the current energy crisis, rising inflation, the pressure on cost of living and energy, as well as the soaring costs for commuting forced the hand of some companies to allow its knowledge workers, to work from home.
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While these experiments were primarily aimed at supporting employees working from home, the proliferation of the Internet, email and other communications technology was making it easier for people to work from other places too such as customer sites, airports, and other places with reliable internet connection. Remember those Internet Cafes in the ‘90s?
Even before the Covid pandemic, around 20% of US workers were already working at home, according to the Pew Research Center. And this trend looked likely to grow, especially in the IT sector. The rapid and widespread onset of Covid naturally accelerated this adoption with office closures and lock downs, in another mass human experiment, this time on how businesses could continue to operate, and workers could effectively work remotely. After three years of WFH experimentation, the genie seems to be truly out of the bottle for a lot of workers with 54% of workers surveyed by Pew expressing a wish to continue to WFH now the pandemic has been declared over.
More recently, WFH has expanded the ability to work from anywhere (WFA) for cohorts of workers and especially Millennials and Gen Z who are attracted to being ‘digital nomads’, living in different parts of the world and working for companies that encourage remote, hybrid, WFH and WFA environments.
As we examined in last month’s Knowledge Exchange, the move to hybrid cloud is somewhat making it easier for organisations to adopt more WFH and WFA practices as a lot of the concerns of distributed computing can be managed in the cloud and with water-tight IT policies. Of course, the endpoint devices must be secure and have the right anti-virus and anti-malware detection on them as well as virtual private networks (VPNs) to encrypt traffic between the end point and the company environment, but with collaborative cloud-based office platforms, CRMs and video calling and instant messaging tools, the consistent threat to IT managers are the employees themselves and the email inbox!
Despite spam, malware and other malicious software screening, the level of sophistication of hackers and bad actors is constantly putting networks and infrastructures at risk either in a centralised office or in a distributed environment. Throw Artificial intelligence (AI) into the mix and IT Managers have another headache. AI can be immensely helpful in detecting suspicious activity and patterns, but also extremely tricky at the same time to detect as we examined in our recent cybersecurity articles.
Making sure remote workers are regularly trained in IT policy and best practice as a mandatory policy to be able to WFA is a prudent step to take when adopting a WFH/WFA strategy. And in a distributed cloud environment looking at a unified security solution should also be part of the strategy, according to Lloyd Tanaka of Checkpoint Software who thinks:
“Traditionally, organizations have established security protocols in conjunction with internet gateways. However, this approach only works when the number of access points are minimal and controlled, such as in a company’s office building,”
“When it comes to securing a WFA environment, making remote access work for all your employees requires must-haves, including, VPNs, real-time threat intelligence, a Zero-Trust approach to access management, and mobile and Internet of Things (IoT) device security.”
Tanaka also suggests IT Managers think about a unified approach to security in a distributed cloud environment and adopting Secure Access at the Service Edge (SASE) instead of managing point solutions. This, Tanaka suggests allows organisations to protect remote users and offices, consolidate networking and provide security-as-a-service.
“With SASE, organizations can lower OpEx and increase security at scale. Protect your distributed workforce with security that’s simple to implement, easily scalable and offers optimal management controls,” Tanaka said.
87% of employers said they anticipate prioritizing tech and digital infrastructure investments that support sustained remote work, according to the Boston Consulting Group
Lloyd tanaka
Before Covid forced those that could work at home to do so, one of the main concerns companies had around WFH was largely centered around declines in staff productivity and staff collaboration, but in an in-depth study of the U.S. Patent & Trade Office (USPTO) started in 2012 by Harvard Business Review of working from home revealed that productivity actually increased by 4.4% without any loss in quality of work or work having to be redone.
Whereas a study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) of 12,662 workers in the US, Germany and India found that during the Covid pandemic, 75% of employees said they had maintained or improved productivity levels by WFH. Although, the number was lower for collaborative tasks and cooperation,. Over 50% said they were able to maintain high levels of collaboration with co-workers including across geographical boundaries, which is encouraging for employers who have had concerns over how collaboration can work without in-person meetings and increasing requests from employees to WFA.
In a separate study the BCG estimates using its analysis, as well as data from Forbes and Global Workplace Alliance estimates, that productivity can increase between 15-40%, a massive 40% reduction in absenteeism, can reduce staff churn by 15-20% and reduce real estate and associated costs by 20%.
Many commentators have attributed the increased productivity of WFA to the reduction in commuting to places of work. Traditionally businesses have looked to locate offices in large cities or towns that often have very high retail and renting prices, meaning the majority of the workers have had to commute into work from surrounding areas because they can’t afford to live near the office location. In addition, the quality of life in the suburbs or further away is usually much better than living in overcrowded city centres. So, workers have traditionally had to balance the stress and unproductiveness of the commute with the benefits of where they live even if it means that days are usually longer and there is less time at home and family during the working week.
Cities and towns have built vast networks of public transport to ferry thousands of people into them every day, these networks are often unsuitable for the increasing numbers of people who wish to use them leading to uncomfortable overcrowding. There is also a loss of productivity due to the dead time involved, where working whilst commuting is rarely possible despite advances in smart phones, WiFi connectivity and high-speed transit.
For places with high retail and rental prices such as London, two- and three-hour commutes are not uncommon. Now with the introduction of HS2 rail, the UK is rather questionably looking to transport even more commuters from the north of the country into London in addition to the traditional south and southeastern commuter belt. Perhaps now after three years of people working remotely and wanting to continue to do so, providing high speed internet connectivity rather than high speed rail would be a better solution for rural areas and areas where there are fewer job opportunities. Just getting to work can be an extremely stressful and energy zapping experience that can also affect people’s productivity when they arrive, which in turn can lead to more sick days as employees have to juggle the usual pressures with work, with commuting, school schedules and other factors.
For those that can drive to work the pressures are similar with overcrowding on public highways and perpetual roadworks to fix the infrastructure from too many vehicles. In addition, with the increases in tolls and low emission zones to enter cities and towns over a long period of time the extra costs combined with the current high fuel costs, are influencing many workers to look for WFA options to save costs, decrease carbon footprints in favour of increases in productivity.
And in terms of collaboration, the advancements in platforms such as Teams or Zoom has shown during the pandemic that staff can be just as, if not more collaborative by the ability to have video calls, instant message, and share files in the cloud. However, some employees have noted that even with collaboration tools, the ability to approach someone in an office at their desk, or in a communal eating space or even for a coffee, is something that they miss about WFH.
Combined with the high costs of commuting, in addition to high housing and rental prices in urban and suburban areas, the appeal to work in cheaper rural areas or in warmer climates can be beneficial for both younger and more senior employees. Inc. notes that for employees on a starting wage, WFA gives them the chance to reduce costs which would be the equivalent of a pay rise without their employer having to raise salaries. For more senior or longer tenured workers, WFA can offer the ability to relocate at more retirement friendly locations that would encourage them to remain in employment longer and retain their skills and experience in the organisation.
Or in other instances, employees could locate nearer family members that may have already retired and may welcome being closer together for support and well-being.
With less commuting, there are naturally positive knock-on effects to public transport and infrastructure and potentially less cars on the roads. Not only will this help employees save money on commuting charges but will also help reduce emissions on roads and for those that need to commute by public transport, more space on the trains and buses!
Since the pandemic, many employers have also made savings on the physical size of workplaces and therefore rent and other costs to heat and cool employees as hybrid, WFH and WFA policies have continued. According to research by the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics:
“Telework is also related to changes in the physical size of workplaces. Among the 6 percent (of its study) of establishments that reduced the square footage of their workplaces since the start of the pandemic, 63 percent increased telework.
“By contrast, among establishments that either kept their square footage the same or increased it, 31 percent increased telework. Relatedly, among the 4 percent of establishments planning to decrease their square footage in the next 12 months (as of the time of the survey), 52 percent increased telework since the start of the pandemic. Of the remaining establishments, 32 percent increased telework.”
And considering the current energy crisis which has mandated several countries in Europe to have set climate controls in term of maximum and minimum temperature for summer and winter months for public and working environments, WFA can allow employees to work from cooler spaces in the summer and hotter areas in the winter, while organisations can save on overall energy costs.
Many companies have encouraged staff to join gyms by giving discounted incentives or participate in sporting activities such as yoga or have things like bicycle subsidies in place to encourage staff to cycle to work. Why? Because it has long been considered that a worker’s physical health directly correlates to good productivity and less sick days. In its survey, the Boston Consulting Group found:
“Employees who have experienced better physical health during the pandemic than before it is about twice as likely to have maintained or improved their productivity on collaborative tasks as those with worse physical health. This highlights the importance of building time for sleep, exercise, and nutrition into the new work routines.”
And with the increasing awareness of mental health and wellbeing in the workplace, employers need to be mindful of how to support remote workers with the same schemes as the physical office to ensure that remoteness does not become isolation or feeling out of the loop with what is going on. Again, there’s a distinct correlation between productivity and collaborative tasks and good mental health.
Moving forward, WFA will not be for all organizations, but the future of work looks increasingly hybrid with many companies surveyed by BCS expecting 40% of employees will be remote workers. To this end, employers will increasingly introduce or refine WFA and hybrid models to allow staff to switch seamlessly between spending time in the office, interacting with colleagues and managers and experiencing the company culture and general buzz of in-person interactions, with the ability to WFH and WFA.
With technology and cloud increasingly making WFA a reality for a lot of workers just as long as end point devices are managed and secured in the same way application data is managed and secured in the cloud, companies can attract and work with the best talent anywhere in the world whilst offering more local staff the flexibility of hybrid working, that will in turn lead to improved productivity, a happy and healthier workforce and significant reductions in building and energy costs.
1. Childcare is more flexible during holidays and school pick-ups times
2. Less sick days as people have a better work/life balance and tend to be healthier
3. Better productivity
4. Better flexibility for staff to keep physically fit
5. Improved mental well-being for those that are comfortable in working remotely
6. Lower living costs
7. More time with family or closer proximity to family and friends.
8. Reduction in physical office space and associated costs
9. Improved ESG goals
10. Attract the best staff from anywhere in the world
1. Online security: Humans tend to be the weakest link in the security chain. Managing point solutions can lead to overcomplex environments.
2. There is some concern the effect that pervasive WiFi and more recently 5G is having on the environment, especially for bees and migratory birds.
3. Worry that a company’s culture and values can be lost in a 100% WFH scenario.
4. Social connectivity enables us to be collaboratively productive which is more present in an office environment
5. Not all work and functions are suited from WFA
6. Reduced physical fitness as more workers become sedentary
7. Increased chance of mental health issues due to lack of interpersonal interaction
Harvard Business Review - Our Work-from-Anywhere Future
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Flexjobs – Top 30 Companies That Hire Work-from-Anywhere Jobs
Indeed – 23 Jobs You Can Do From Anywhere in the World
Newsweek - Radiation From Cellphones, Wi-Fi Is Hurting the Birds and the Bees; 5G May Make It Worse
Digital Nomad World – Live Everywhere, Work Anywhere
Tech Journal – Work From Anywhere: Concept or Reality
BCG - What 12,000 Employees Have to Say About the Future of Remote Work
BCG -Remote Work Works—Where Do We Go from Here?
[/um_loggedin]This month’s Knowledge Exchange will examine both the benefits and the potential dangers of unregulated Artificial Intelligence on Enterprise resourcing, business IT platforms, sales and marketing strategies and also on customer experience. It will also ask if it is possible to pause AI development to roll out ethical and regulated AI that protects and enhances jobs rather than potentially replace them; protects personal data, privacy, and preferences rather than manipulate it for nefarious reasons and that doesn’t spiral us into a “Terminator” or “Matrix” like future where the machines are in control!
As we discussed in last month’s Knowledge Exchange on Hybrid Cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has some compelling usages for ITDMs especially when it can help tame IT complexity by automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks. It can also be used to learn and write code from past data and be used to autogenerate content and images from multiple sources by mimicking human intelligence and human labour. As the technology develops, there seems to be a whole raft of plug-ins and algorithms that people such as Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella believes will: “Create a new era of computing.”
Copilot (sic) works alongside you, embedded in the apps millions of people use every day: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more…it (sic) is a whole new way of working.
Microsoft 365 head I Jared Spataro
And as corporations and investors are constantly looking at growth, efficiencies and ultimately profit, the lure of AI to support this new paradigm must be insatiable proposition right now, especially as we are seeing a lot of economic pressure from various financial, energy and geopolitical crises.
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This is perhaps why, as news service Reuters notes, since the March 2023 launch of Microsoft’s AI “Co-pilot” developer tool, over 10,000 companies have signed up to its suite that can help with the generative creation and optimisation of its Office 365 Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook email software that some commentators are calling “Clippy on Steroids”
Speaking to Senior editor of the Verge, Tom Warren, Microsoft 365 head Jared Spataro said: “Copilot (sic) works alongside you, embedded in the apps millions of people use every day: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more…it (sic) is a whole new way of working.”
Microsoft has also invested $1bn into former non-profit, OpenAI a company co-founded by billionaire inventor and investor, Elon Musk who has since left the company to concentrate on his Tesla automotive and SpaceX Aeronautical business. Now a for-profit business, OpenAI, is working on an Artificial Generative Intelligence (AGI) to perform like a human brain.
Microsoft and OpenAI will jointly build new Azure AI supercomputing technologies. OpenAI will port its services to run on Microsoft Azure, which it will use to create new AI technologies and deliver on the promise of artificial general intelligence. Microsoft will become OpenAI’s preferred partner for commercialising new AI technologies,
Microsoft 365 head I Jared Spataro
The partnership will offer Microsoft the chance to not only catch up with Google’s AI developments of late, but also give it more muscle for AI development due to its combination of resources and hardware combined with the researchers and developers at OpenAI, according to industry watcher, TechGig it noted:
“Microsoft and OpenAI will jointly build new Azure AI supercomputing technologies. OpenAI will port its services to run on Microsoft Azure, which it will use to create new AI technologies and deliver on the promise of artificial general intelligence. Microsoft will become OpenAI’s preferred partner for commercialising new AI technologies,” according to an official Microsoft statement.
Back in November 2022, OpenAI launched its much lauded and controversial text generator ChatGPT, ahead of rivals Google that launched its rival Bard text generator product later in February 2023. Until then, Google had been largely considered at being ahead of its rivals by integrating AI tools into products such as its search engine, something Microsoft also started to implement into its Bing search engine in February. But unlike ChatGPT, Bard is still not available or supported in most European countries.
As the AI ‘arms’ race heated up in April this year, Google launched a raft of tools for its email, collaboration and cloud products, according to Reuters, that reported Google had combined “Its AI research units Google Brain and DeepMind and work on “multimodal” AI, like OpenAI’s latest model GPT-4, which can respond not only to text prompts but to image inputs as well to generate new content.”
And there certainly seems a tsunami of AI development projects that are either in development or planned to be rolled out from seemingly all collaboration, content, cloud, data and security vendors that can see the potential that AI could do to enhance current offerings and workflows. As we examined in March’s Knowledge Exchange whitepaper, adding AI to Cybersecurity applications to prevent increasing vulnerability and sophistication of attacks, including AI generated malware, was one of the main hopes and priorities of ITDMs for 2023 and beyond.
In other applications of AI, from a customer user experience point of view, having the ability to generate not just content but localised or personalised content is also very attractive for companies to generate Website content, emails and sales and marketing communications, because they don’t require hundreds of content and digital specialists to create it. For example, in the UK, Press Association (PA), has recently launched its Reporters And Data and Robots (RADAR) service to supply local news media with a mixture of journalist generated content and AI generated content to supplement their local coverage.
This venture is beneficial for local areas that have seen local news coverage drop in favour of centralised national news coverage and shines a light on how AI and Human intelligence can be combined to create quality content. And from a marketing point of view, the ability to generate personalised emails by AI using data from multiple sources would seem like discovering the Holy Grail. Imagine a scenario where AI looks at intent data from a customer Ideal Customer Profile list to see who is currently in market for a product or service by analysing what content a company or individual might be consuming. Using some predictive analysis, autogenerated content could be used to nurture those companies or individuals to a point where more predictive analysis could be deployed to analyse where they are in the purchasing process and create content accordingly. Or it could be used send invitations to follow up with a sales person or drive people to a website where there are AI enhanced chatbots that can gather yet more information about a product or service requirement in more of a conversational style, as Cloud giant AWS is developing:
Businesses in the retail industry have an opportunity to improve customer service by using artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots. These solutions on AWS offer solutions for chatbots that are capable of natural language processing, which helps them better analyse human speech.
By implementing these AI chatbots on their websites, businesses can decrease response times and create a better customer experience while improving operational efficiency.
Lastly, from a sales and business development point of view, having AI enhanced tools to generate less cold call intros and help with following up with more personalised and less generic emails is also a compelling application of AI in the lead and pipeline generation space.
With increasingly leaner SDR and BDR teams, it is often difficult for companies, especially start-ups, to get sales staff up to speed on complex IT solutions. But having a product matter expert involved in the modelling of AI algorithms that can enhance conversational email and follow up allows the BDR/SDR not only achieve the right messaging but also allows them to manage and communicate with more potential leads.
As a species, humans have always seemingly developed tools, products, medicines, industries, and societal frameworks that have the potential either help or harm society. But more recently we’ve really accelerated the ability for our tools to impact our world for better or worse.
But often, we are too distracted by the “wow isn’t that cool” part of technology before we think: Should we be doing this? What are the down sides? Who is regulating this? What are the long-term impacts. Can we stop it if we have to?
AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research and acknowledged by top AI labs. As stated in the widely-endorsed Asilomar AI Principles, Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources.
Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter
And while we marvel at dancing robotic dogs from Boston Dynamics or AI infused technology into computer generated imagery and text there are many leading tech and industrial figures that are worried of the implications of rapidly evolving, unregulated AI upon businesses and society at large. They are very worried.
Before his death, eminent physicist, Stephen Hawking, forewarned that AI could help to end the human race. And in March this year, Elon Musk, who has started his own AI company and a whole host of tech leaders put their signatures to an open letter to the Tech industry to “pause giant AI experiments” for at least 6 months and not surpass any technology that exceeds frameworks like ChatGPT 4. The letter at the time of writing had nearly 30K signatures.
In the letter it said:”
“AI systems with human-competitive intelligence can pose profound risks to society and humanity, as shown by extensive research and acknowledged by top AI labs. As stated in the widely-endorsed Asilomar AI Principles, Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources.
“Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not happening, even though recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control.”
And although many play down this threat by assuming we can switch the machines off, there are others who think that if the core ethics and principles of AI are not agreed, implemented and policed now, the ability for ‘bad actors’ to exploit this technology for serious societal damage is very real (see Ugly, below)
For Musk, the proposal is simple. Using his experience of the regulation that is seen in the automotive and aeronautical business, he believes the necessity to have the same regulatory and oversight is badly needed now. For Musk and others, the sheer speed of AI development is currently ‘out of control’. And in a climate where institutions and governments are attempting to root out online disinformation, propaganda and other influencing material, a next breed of generative AI that can take a combination of text, picture and video ‘deepfakery’ could make this process extremely difficult.
This view is shared by Dr. Geoffrey Hinton who dramatically quit his job at Google recently warning the dangers of AI. Widely seen as a pioneer or ‘the Godfather’ of AI, Hinton and his research team at the University of Toronto in 2012, developed the deep learning capabilities and neural networks that are the foundation of the current systems like Chat GPT.
Speaking to the New York Times, Hinton said he quit his job so he could ‘speak freely’ about the risks of AI and that he now ‘regrets his life’s work.”
In an interview with the BBC, Hinton explained that the digital intelligence that is being developed is different to biological intelligence in that individual AI “copies” can learn separately but share instantly similar to a hive mind or collective, that will quickly eclipse average human intelligence.
Although, Hinton believes that AI is currently not ‘good at reasoning,’ he expects this to “get better quite quickly”, And although he currently doesn’t think that AI becoming sentient or heading to a Terminator style future is the main concern, he is concerned about AI’s effect to:
John Wannamaker pioneered the practice of marketing throughout the 19th century and early 20th century. Since then, companies have been investing in marketing and advertising to understand consumer preferences and influences. With TV ratings being measured since the 1940’s and the rise of marketing agencies in the 1950’s, the marketing industry now generates billions of dollars annually.
It now seems everyone wants to know not just what you watch or what brands you like, but who your friends are, where you go and other personal data that can be stored, analysed, and used or sold to those that are interested. Combined with increasing surveillance through signals intelligence and physical surveillance like CCTV and embedded cameras in devices, this creates a troubling prospect of mass surveillance, narrative manipulation, reduced freedoms, and increased central control for those who are aware of these developments.
As the Internet Age became more prevalent in the mid 1990s, most people certainly in the Western hemisphere, were happy to share some personal information in return for more personalised online experience or relevancy for advertising for things we might want or need. The bad actors, we were told back then, were those criminal gangs that operate on the dark web and broker personal information from cyber breaches to try and set up scams and other fraudulent activity.
Back then, not many people were fully aware or willing to admit that it wasn’t just the bad actors that were looking to track your online footprint and preferences, it was also governments around the world or more accurately government departments such as the National Security Administration (NSA) in the US that, that were increasingly interested in what you are up to! And these departments have little oversight by elected officials in the US Senate or Congress
And it wasn’t until people such as Julian Assange of Wikileaks and former National Security NSA contractor and whistle-blower Edward Snowden made us aware of some unethical online digital practices by our governments that we started to be more aware that the cool tech we were becoming more reliant on was increasingly being used not just for anti-terrorism or national security measures, but just to keep tabs on people’s everyday activity, conversations and online networks. It was Snowden that revealed cameras and microphones contained within certain devices can be activated without the user’s knowledge and used to monitor digital footprints, keywords and other activity. Speaking to the Guardian Snowden, said that the NSA’s activity is “….intent on making every conversation and every form of behaviour in the world known to them”.
“What they’re doing” poses “an existential threat to democracy”, Snowden said.
Even in “flight mode” or switched off, your indispensable tech is recording, surveilling and feeding back zettabytes of data into remote and often unregulated servers when they are reconnected to internet that are increasingly using artificial intelligence to conduct predictive modelling and other learnings.
And while this practice we are again told is to prevent terrorism or help curtail the spread of pandemics, increasingly, personal biometric and health information is being gathered and monitored in vast quantities and being analysed alongside individual consumer practices and sold on.
Even personal movement, either on foot or by public transport is being captured, analysed and stored with so called health trackers on watches and phones and by automatic number plate recognition (ANP).
In fact, most all private companies these days have entered the “spy business,” in one way or another according to J. B. Shurk of international policy council and think tank, The Gatestone Institution.
And this information is increasingly being bought by governments around the world, to track and monitor the activities and movements of their citizens, according to Ross, Muscato of the Epoch Times who notes that the chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, US Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers confirmed that US State and federal governments regularly purchase Americans' personal data from private companies, so that they may "spy on and track the activities of U.S. citizens.”
"No kind of personal information is off-limits. Government agents use data brokers to collect information on an individual's GPS location, mobile phone movements, medical prescriptions, religious affiliations, sexual practices, and much more.”
Muscato also quotes findings from US Senator, Rand Paul that discovered at least 12 overlapping Department of Homeland Security (DHS) programmes that were tracking what US citizens were saying online and that they were targeting children to ‘report their own family for “disinformation” if they disagreed or had counter information about the official Covid narrative.
And it is perhaps these current “hand-cranked” measures used by agencies that could be incredibly enhanced via AI that people such as Elon Musk and Dr. Hinton are referring to when they voice concerns over the rapid, unregulated development of AI especially if it were weaponised into legislation such as the controversial US Restrict Act that could give power to AI to track millions of pieces of communication and mislabel it as dangerous, extremism or hate speech and then take further action on that individual.
So as we enter the summer months, why don’t we take a 6 month breather, not to stop what is currently in development or explore the benefits of AI to our current business needs and challenges but to also debate in a non-partisan way a technology that has tremendous potential for good, but also discuss if not regulated and controlled, we could be in a scenario where we can’t put the genie back in the bottle. For more details of how the industry may make policies during a pause please visit here:
2. https://www.reuters.com/technology/tech-ceos-wax-poetic-ai-big-adds-sales-will-take-time-2023-04-26/
3. https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/16/23642833/microsoft-365-ai-copilot-word-outlook-teams
6. https://futureoflife.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/FLI_Policymaking_In_The_Pause.pdf
7. https://futureoflife.org/ai/benefits-risks-of-artificial-intelligence/
8. Issac Asimov’s Law of Robots
In today’s hyperconnected world, AI has revolutionized the way we work. But as more and more information and data flows seamlessly, cyberthreats are becoming ever-more sophisticated and traditional cybersecurity measures are no longer sufficient.
Cyberattacks are on the rise, and although on one hand, threats have become more sophisticated due to advancements in AI and Machine Learning (ML), AI has also become an indispensable tool in cybersecurity. This is due to its ability to analyse vast amounts of data, detect anomalies, and adapt to evolving threats in real-time.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Deep Learning (DL) have multiple applications in cybersecurity to make threat detection and prevention strategies more robust and effective. Some benefits of their use include:
■ Phishing detection and prevention
AI powered algorithms can detect email phishing by analysing vast amount of data to thwart phishing attacks. ML models can be trained to flag suspicious details of the mail such as the sender’s address, links and attachments and the language used in the message to determine if it is from a trustworthy source or not.
■ Password protection
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AI and ML can detect trends in compromised passwords to create rigid password policies and suggest stronger passwords that are harder for hackers to crack. AI-powered systems can also use behavioural biometrics to verify user identities, analysing typing patterns, mouse movements and other cues to detect potential imposters.
■ Network security
By analysing data and patterns, Artificial Intelligence algorithms can learn normal network behaviour and flag any changes that may signal sinister activity. AI can also be used in identifying and moderating Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks by analysing traffic pattern and blocking untrustworthy IP addresses.
■ Vulnerability Management
With more than 20,000 known vulnerabilities, AI and Machine Learning can be vital tools for detecting anomalies in user accounts, endpoint and servers that can signal a zero-day unknown attack, which can protect companies from vulnerabilities before they have even been reported or patched.
While AI has a welcome place in technology, its development should be kept under an ethical watchful eye because as cybersecurity professionals use it to strengthen their defences, cybercriminals also have access to the same technology to create more sophisticated attacks.
However, it cannot be denied that by implementing AI in your cybersecurity strategy, you can significantly improve your defence against and detection of potential threats.
[/um_loggedin]Disinformation is defined as “false information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth”.
While most commonly used in politics and public health discourse, disinformation campaigns can be used to target businesses of all sizes and can have damaging effects on reputation and revenue. And in an age where disinformation can be easily spread via the internet, it is feared that tools such as ChatGPT will make it easier to create and circulate false narratives on a larger scale than ever before. But what threat does AI engineered disinformation pose to businesses’ integrity, reputation and most importantly security?
AI has revolutionized many aspects of human life, both in personal and professional aspects, and as of late, Large Language Models (LLMs) have been one of the main focal points of AI development. With the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, there has been an arms race between tech companies to develop and launch similar tools. OpenAI, Microsoft and Google are leading the way, but IBM, Amazon and other key players are close on their tails.
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Although these advancements in AI are a testament to how technology has evolved since the inauguration of the internet just 50-odd years ago, the question arises – just because you can, does that mean you should?
OpenAI’s ChatGPT3, which launched in November 2022, is the most powerful LLM chatbot launched to date, harnessing the power of 570 GB of data. With ChatGPT4’s capabilities being more creative and nuanced than its predecessor, with the ability to process both audio and video as well as text, its potential to generate information is at a level that has been previously unknown.
There has been growing concern amongst high-profile players withing the technology sector , with many calling for legislation on the development of AI. Key figures warning of AI’s power are Elon Musk (Tesla), Steve Wozniak (Apple Co-founder), and Dr. Geoffrey Hinton (Formerly Google).
Disinformation attacks differ from typical cyber threats as there is no need to physically, or virtually infiltrate a business or its network. Bad actors can produce and circulate disinformation with relative ease, generating it en masse using chat bots such as ChatGPT and spreading the resulting inauthentic content via social media, blogs, or emails.
■ Manipulated audio and video
A deepfake refers to an AI generated video used to spread a fake narrative. They are often hyper-realistic in appearance. A falsified video of illegal activity, or business leaders making incendiary comments can erode public trust and can be used for extortion. They can also increase the effectiveness of phishing attacks, make identity theft easier and manipulate and severely damage a company’s reputation.
AI systems can also be trained to impersonate a real person, to generate speech that mimics a particular style, and language patterns, lending more credibility to scam attempts.
■ Fraud
Fraud is often motivated by a desire to obtain financial gain. AI can be used to create forged documents with fake letterheads, copied and pasted signatures, or even business contracts and invoices that can be used to deceive and mislead people.
■ Proxy websites
Proxy websites are used as fronts by malicious actors to host their fraudulent content. They are disguised as a legitimate site in order to launder fake news and divisive content and drive page views. Often times the only way they can be detected is by spotting a slight misspelling in the URL or cross referencing the site’s information with verifiable sources.
■ Disinformation-as-a-Service
Disinformation-as-a-Service is nightmare fuel for information warfare where anyone can buy fake news and misinformation campaigns powered by a network of professional trolls, bots, and other manipulation tools. Be it a competitor, a disgruntled client or ex-employee, anyone with bad intentions can engage an incendiary service to damage a business or individuals’ reputation with falsified information.
Fake news is more than a catchy phrase, disinformation poses serious harm to individuals and businesses alike and can result in:
■ Reputational damage:
False information can be spread quickly and easily on the internet, and despite best efforts and rebuttals with the truth, once trust is lost it can be greatly difficult to build this back with the public. This can result in a loss of sales and being unable to attract new customers.
■ Financial loss:
Disinformation can be used to inflate and manipulate stock market prices or to deceive investors, which can lead to significant financial losses for both the company and investors when the truth comes to light.
■ Cybersecurity breach
AI can be used to generate more sophisticated phishing attacks that appear to be from legitimate sources which can then be used to install malware on business systems, giving hackers access to confidential company information or customer data.
■ Business disruption
Disinformation can be used to spread false rumours about business operations or product availability which may cause customers to cancel their orders or avoid doing business with the company in the first place.
As Artificial Intelligence continues to develop, its power needs to be looked at through an ethical lens. With every benefit it brings, those with bad intentions also have access to use its power for evil rather than good. It will be interesting to see how global governments decide to handle it and how legislation will be put in place to regulate its advancement.
The development of AI legislation is already underway within the European Union. The European Parliament is looking to introduce the AI Act to ensure a human-centric and ethical development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Europe, MEPs endorsed new transparency and risk-management rules for Artificial Intelligence systems.
Although AI can be used to improve work processes, it can also be used to optimise output of defamatory and dangerous mistruths. We are in an age where fake news and disinformation is no longer limited to the political sphere, and companies are also at risk of disinformation attacks. There is no doubt that AI powered Large Language Models (LLMs) such as Chat GPT have the power to increase the frequency, intensity, and consequences of disinformation attacks against businesses.
Companies need to put precautions in place to detect and defend themselves from AI powered attacks, but only time will tell the true power of AI for better or worse.
[/um_loggedin]Part 2: The future is hybrid
Not all cloud storage solutions are created equal. In an ever-evolving digital landscape, it is crucial for SMBs to asses which cloud infrastructure is properly suited to their needs and digital transformation objectives. Small businesses should plan ahead and implement modern digital strategies from the beginning to set up an agile environment for growth.
Cloud storage is key as businesses store more data online, and there are different types of cloud solutions available. Public cloud solutions are more affordable and easier to manage for small companies, while private cloud is more secure but limited in scalability and more expensive to maintain.
Hybrid cloud is a computing environment that combines both public and private cloud infrastructures. Public cloud refers to services provided by third-party cloud service providers, while private cloud is a cloud computing infrastructure dedicated solely to a single organization. Hybrid cloud allows organizations to run their critical workloads on a private cloud, while still benefiting from the cost savings and scalability of public cloud services.
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With the advent of hybrid cloud technology, organizations are now able to leverage the benefits of both public and private cloud environments to drive innovation and streamline operations. Hybrid cloud, which combines public and private cloud infrastructures, is a popular solution for small businesses as it simplifies management, improves speed and innovation, and optimizes costs while providing flexibility and security. A recent survey found that 75% of respondents in the Netherlands have opted for a hybrid cloud solution, up from 66% in 2020.
Both public and private cloud solutions have their benefits, a hybrid cloud environment offers the best of both options, allowing businesses to take full advantage of its features such as:
One of the primary benefits of hybrid cloud is the ability to scale resources up or down as needed. This allows organizations to easily accommodate fluctuating demands for computing resources without incurring the costs of maintaining an on-premise data center. Additionally, hybrid cloud provides flexibility for organizations to choose which workloads should be run on private cloud and which should be run on public cloud, based on their individual needs.
Data security and compliance are top priorities for organizations. With hybrid cloud, organizations can keep sensitive data on-premise while still utilizing public cloud resources for less sensitive data. This allows organizations to maintain control over their critical data, while still benefiting from the agility and cost savings of public cloud services.
Hybrid cloud allows organizations to optimize their computing resources and save costs by leveraging public cloud services for non-critical workloads. Additionally, the ability to scale up or down resources as needed means that organizations only pay for what they use, rather than investing in costly on-premise infrastructure that may go underutilized.
Hybrid cloud provides organizations with the flexibility to experiment and innovate with new technologies and services. With public cloud services, organizations can easily test and deploy new applications, without the need to invest in costly infrastructure or worry about capacity constraints.
Hybrid cloud is driving digital transformation by providing organizations with the scalability, flexibility, data security, compliance, cost savings, and innovation they need to compete in today's digital landscape. As more and more organizations adopt hybrid cloud technology, it is clear that it is the future of cloud computing. Whether you are a small business or a large enterprise, hybrid cloud can help you stay competitive and agile in an ever-changing business environment.
Don´t miss: Part 1: The future is hybrid
In order to facilitate quick and agile growth, companies need to build flexible, scalable digital solutions. In this two part blog series, we will discuss the challenges of choosing the right cloud and the advantages of adopting a hybrid cloud infrastructure.
One of the key decisions a business faces when adopting a cloud strategy is choosing between public and private cloud. When choosing the right cloud infrastructure for your business needs there is often a trade-off between public and private cloud. While a public cloud may be initially easy and more affordable to set up, it is not as secure as a private cloud, which is hosted internally or by a trusted third party.
The main challenges that need to be taken into consideration when choosing a cloud structure are security, costs, scalability, and control.
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Public cloud poses a higher risk of a data breach, which could lead to significant financial and brand damage. On the other hand, private cloud is initially more expensive to set up and maintain, making it more suitable for larger businesses. However, it is more secure than public cloud and offers greater control over the environment.
Security is a significant concern for businesses that handle sensitive data. While public cloud may be more affordable, and relatively safe, it is not suitable for businesses that require enhanced security when handling large amounts of sensitive data.
Public cloud may be more accessible and flexible, but it is not as secure as private cloud. With private cloud, the maintenance and management are handled entirely by the provider, giving the user more control over the environment.
Small and medium businesses in particular may not have the resources to purchase and maintain the technology they need, making public cloud a more appealing option. However, hidden management and security costs mean relying on a singular cloud environment may not be cost-effective in the long run.
Companies need to invest in technology that can easily scale with their business as it grows. Small companies run on small margins, but their IT infrastructure must be set up to be able to quickly adapt to customer and market needs.
For small businesses struggling to balance these challenges, hybrid cloud may be the best choice. Hybrid cloud infrastructure allows you to prioritize what information and data you need to keep secure while remaining more cost-effective than relying solely on public or private cloud.
The cloud infrastructure you choose is critical to the success of your business. When deciding what cloud infrastructure to use, it is crucial to determine what information is important and what is worth paying a higher price to protect. Small businesses should consider all the challenges they may face when developing their cloud strategy and choose a solution that is both scalable and secure. In part two we will break down the advantages of a hybrid cloud solution and how it is driving digital transformation.
In this month’s Knowledge Exchange, we evaluate the growing trend of enterprise and mid-market companies to migrate to cloud computing and examine the advantages and potential disadvantages of adopting a hybrid cloud strategy and what is needed to manage the process.
Data visibility and management across multiple environments is one of the biggest headaches for enterprises that have or are in the process of migrating to hybrid, multicloud computing environments, according to recent research from cloud specialist, Nutanix. It found in its global Enterprise Cloud Index, survey of 1,450 IT Decision makers (ITDMs) that
the ‘majority’ of IT teams surveyed were: “Leveraging more than one IT infrastructure…but struggle with visibility of data across environments with only 40% reporting complete visibility into where their data resides.” Although there is no right way or wrong way for businesses to adopt a cloud strategy, Hybridcloud appears to be the more popular way for businesses to drive digital transformation, especially during the last few years following the pandemic.
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Leveraging more than one IT infrastructure…but struggle with visibility of data across environments with only 40% reporting complete visibility into where their data resides.
Nutanix research, cloud specialist
Although there is no right way or wrong way for businesses to adopt a cloud strategy, Hybrid cloud appears to be the more popular way for businesses to drive digital transformation, especially during the last few years following the pandemic.
Hybrid cloud is generally defined as a mixed environment of on premises infrastructure, private cloud services and public clouds managed by vendors such as Google, AWS, and Microsoft, with orchestration software for the various platforms. In all, analyst Gartner predicts that total end-user spending in world-wide cloud services could reach $600bn in 2023.
This will be largely driven by cloud application services (SaaS), closely followed by cloud system infrastructure services (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS).
In the first cloud deployments, companies mainly concentrated on data storage rather than “insight generation” or gaining meaningful insight from data according to Suresh Vittal, Chief Product Officer at cloud analytics firm Alteryx. Later, the need for data storage was augmented by the growth of apps and the growing shift to software-as-a-service capabilities. And with the exponential growth of data and its distribution across multiple instances, 2023 will mean it is a year of both hybrid adoption, as well as the quest to manage and analyse this data to gain insight.
[/um_loggedin]This month’s Knowledge Exchange white paper on emerging and existing Cyber Security threats will examine why ITDMs and Business Leaders are extremely worried about a ‘catastrophic cyber event’ that could have more of a societal impact than Covid-19 in next few years, and what ITDMs can do today and longer term to mitigate those risks.
It may be pure co-incidence, but it was certainly chilling to see that in a matter of weeks after the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2023 annual summit in Davos, Switzerland that warned of a total “grid down” scenario caused by a ‘catastrophic cyber event;’ a mysterious high-altitude balloon was seen floating across America.
And while many in the mainstream media have quickly judged this and subsequent other balloons to be a surveillance or spy balloons, other commentators claim that most state sponsored espionage is done via satellites1 and that this vehicle has potentially a more sinister capability: The ability to activate an electromagnetic pulse or EMP at high altitude (HEMP) using a smaller lighter nuclear payload.
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Therefore, if the balloon was carrying an EMP device or was just a drill to test the detection and response time of such devices, at the sort of altitude the vehicle was flying it would have a greater geographical reach than a ground detonated device and could have knocked out a big chunk of the infrastructure it was flying over.
A grid down scenario would make Covid’s impact seem like, ‘a small disturbance’
Klaus Schwab, founder of the WEF.
he result would be an instant shut down of power, communication, finance, and business systems that would have a devastating effect to emergency services and supply chains that could tip society into chaos in a matter of days.
A grid down scenario would make Covid’s impact seem like, ‘a small disturbance,’ according to Klaus Schwab, founder of the WEF.
President of the Centre for American Defence Studies, Paul Crespo also confirmed the high-altitude vehicles could be a trial run for a cyber-attack using a balloon-mounted weapon.
Speaking in the Epoch Times Crespo said:
“While China has tested hypersonic missiles launched from balloons in the past, that isn’t a likely use for these airships."
“The biggest threat is sending one or more of these high-altitude balloons over the US with a small nuclear EMP device.”
While we hope the vehicle may be nothing more than a ‘weather balloon,’ with rising geopolitical tension between the US with China2, over Taiwan, tensions with Russia, over Ukraine; an increasingly unstable regime in Iran and a reescalation of tension with North Korea, the usage of EMP enabled weapons for a global pre-emptive strike seems alarmingly possible.
Military strategists at these countries may be in favour of a high-altitude pre-emptive HEMP strike over a conventional full blown nuclear attack as it limits immediate death, radiation fall out and keeps the infrastructure intact, albeit broken, that can be repaired in time.
With more balloons and objects being spotted and shot down by the US and also sightings over other countries such as India, some emergency disaster recovery planning would seem prudent for all businesses to see if there are short-to-midterm policies that can be adopted as well as longer term solutions to keep communications, business systems and
supply chains up and running.
And it is not just the enterprise and big companies that will be affected as many SMEs and mid-size business have been moving their formerly static sensitive data to Softwareas-a-Service companies or moving on premise systems to cloud infrastructure, which can introduce more rather than less security vulnerabilities.
With a massive grid down scenario many watchers believe at best it can get back up and running in a year but more likely more. But even a 12-month delay could cause massive increase in societal instability.
Jonathan Hollerman of Grid Down Consulting explains that although the US and the EU has been aware for a while that ‘critical infrastructure,’ is open to attack there has been a reluctance to do so because upgrading grids and infrastructure many of which are still using 1970’s technology would cause massive disruption to governmental, business, communication and residential needs.
In other cases, firms have been reluctant to make the necessary changes for fear of being subjected to stricter governmental audits and certifications needed to be labelled ‘critical infrastructure.’
Citing the US commander of Cyber Command Admiral Michael Rogers, Hollerman explains that in a meeting of the House Select Intelligence Committee in 2014, Rogers told the House he believed there would be a catastrophic cyber-attack before 2025:
We see multiple nation states and, in some cases, individuals and groups that have the capability to engage in this behaviour… It is only the matter of when and not if we are going to see something traumatic.
US COMMANDER ADMIRAL MICHAEL ROGERS
Since 2014, there have been increasing attacks on critical infrastructure via cyber warfare which have grown in sophistication. Using an EMP device however, albeit as a worst-case scenario, would at a stroke and when needed bypass the need for sophisticated malware and hacks.
Although these threats have been identified for some time, more than half of the US Government Accountability Office’s recommendations for protecting critical infrastructure from cyber threats have not been implemented since they were put in place in 2010, according to Edward Graham of Nextgov who states:
“The report found that of the 106 public recommendations for bolstering cyber critical infrastructure that have been issued by the agency since 2010, only 46 have been implemented as of December 2022.
“Until these are fully implemented, key critical infrastructures will continue to have increased cybersecurity risks to their systems and data,” Graham warned.
So, what can enterprise and SMB ITDMs do to extend ever growing cyber security polices to include mitigating for EMP or other kinetic attacks to critical, IT infrastructure, communication and supply lines? And with the growing threat of ‘conventional’ cyber warfare and attacks such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDos) attacks, Ransomware that is increasingly destroying data rather than encrypting it and other phishing and data breaches, what do you prioritise first?
For the enterprise, the answer is perhaps easier. Government and military organisations have for many years used underground data centres to prevent satellite espionage and mitigate from EMP that until recently was more likely considered to be generated by solar storms that emit localised EMP strikes, than man-made airborne attacks.
More recently, finance and pharmaceutical companies have been looking to datacentre companies that have been repurposing abandoned Cold War nuclear bunkers to offer secure data facilities that have independent power systems to keep systems up and running in what many people are calling ‘underground clouds.’ In the EU there are many such facilities in the Swiss Alps, dubbed the Swiss Fort Knox.
Even in land-based or co-located facilities—eg datacentres near wind, solar or sea-generated energy, datacentres and IT infrastructures can be EMP-proofed by either the combination of materials used in the construction or internally essentially creating Faraday cages around IT cabinets and servers which can be certified as EMP proof.
“When it comes to protection, the first thing to do is take a good review of the security systems that you have in place now and see how your servers are protected.”
GUNNEBO MATT BROOKES
For on premises servers, Brookes suggests protecting your servers with the right kind of pulse-shielding. If hosted, Brookes suggests you can ask your provider what EMP certification they have either at the Datacentre level or rack/cabinet level. It is also a wise move, Brookes says, to see what general EMP protection the actual physical datacentre has in place—such as the materials used in construction, double skinned outer walls etc, if you are looking to do some partial or complete cloud migration.
For smaller midsize operations Brookes suggests:
“The room itself or the building can be made EMP-proof, but that is expensive. It’s much better to look at individual server installations and protect them with the right kind of pulse-shielding. Any electric cable which goes into your server is a possible conductor of an EMP so isolate all of those cables and have connectivity via fibre-optic cables which will not conduct that pulse.”
In conclusion, while threats from EMP until recently have perhaps not been seen as a massive priority, with the rising geopolitical instability and capability to launch such an attack growing daily, it seems that it should be part of all businesses disaster recovery and cyber security policies. And while before the pandemic this might have been another headache for an enterprise ITDM, the migration to hybrid and cloud infrastructure is also making it a headache for the SMB ITDM as more data is being held on third party systems.
And if it is a lower priority for SMB ITDMs because there are so many other threats from more conventional cyber-attacks, it might be a good idea to enlist the services of an managed service provider (MSP) as HelpNetSecurity suggests:
“MSPs can play a vital role for SMBs when it comes to cybersecurity support. Since many SMBs don’t have the resources to hire several in-house IT / cybersecurity professionals, MSPs can shoulder a lot of that load, providing services to help reduce risk, enable growth opportunities, and support end users and customers alike.”
Even without the emerging threat of EMP strikes, state sponsored, criminal and other generated cyber-attacks are set to rise in 2023 for enterprise and SMB alike, with more sophisticated software and the growing use of Artificial intelligence.
Although EMP strike is the worst case and hopefully only a theoretical scenario, the number and sophistication of cyber-attacks is growing at an exponential rate with more state-sponsored attacks accompanying criminal groups, mercenaries and ‘hacktivist’ attacks on business, governmental systems and critical infrastructure.
Security vendor Kaspersky has noted there is a “looming threat of reoccurring attacks” of state sponsored attacks in 2023:
“If a company was compromised once, with the attack successfully remediated, attackers are highly likely to try hacking this organization again. After an unsuccessful attack this organization is most likely to be attacked again, as it is a long-term goal of threat actors. This is especially noticeable in government organizations, which tend to get attacked by state-sponsored actors.”
As well as the state sponsored attacks there is also the growing threat and sophistication of other ‘bad actors.’ For example, since its discovery in 2014, Cloud Atlas has, according to research by cyber security vendor Check Point:4
“Launched multiple, highly targeted attacks on critical infrastructure across geographical zones and political conflicts, however its scope has narrowed significantly in the last year (2022), with a clear focus on Russia, Belarus and conflicted areas in Ukraine and Moldova.”
And although cyber-attacks are increasingly using AI and other sophisticated malware to launch attacks, email is still the major delivery vehicle for initiating cyber-attacks, and people clicking on links are still the unwitting culprits of launching them, according to Check Point that noted that in 2022 86% of file-based attacks in the wild were delivered-by email.
In the US a major energy provider found malware on its system that operated turbines, controllers, and other industrial machinery. It had been undiscovered for a year and infiltrated the network due to an employee clicking a bad link in an email!
86% of file-based attacks in the wild were delivered-by email in 2022
according to check point
And with AI being deployed to create more convincing and genuine emails this threat emphasises the importance of zero-day prevention of attacks, across the entire IT infrastructure, including email, endpoint, network, cloud, and everything in between according to Maya Horowitz, VP Research at Check Point Software Technologies who noted:
“In the last days of 2022, we witnessed a dramatic advancement in the field of generative artificial intelligence, which is able to generate highly professional text (code included) on demand in seconds. As we step into 2023, we should keep in mind that this technology may quickly be adopted by threat actors, to craft even more malicious emails, in even better quality than those typically authored by threat actors, and with endless variations of malware and malicious code in general.”
Although the technology exists, it may not be possible to completely guard systems from a Grid-Down scenario the likes of which the WEF want us all to be mindful of. As well as EMP and electronic based warfare that will also look to spread disinformation on mainstream and alternative media outlets, there is still the risk of more conventional ‘kinetic’ warfare that can pose a similar threat, like the discovery of an apparent Russian spy ship that was thought to be observing undersea power and internet cables that connect the UK from the rest of Europe, according to Dutch intelligence services. Gas, electricity and wind farm critical infrastructure are also likely targeted by the Russians, according to Dutch Intelligence. Such conventional or nuclear strikes would be very difficult to prevent.
However, for the other cyber security vulnerabilities the weakest chain in the link, humans, can be managed in order to prevent or mitigate an attack and with email still being the primary vehicle for such attacks , raising awareness and continual training are perhaps the most important areas to focus on either internally or with the assistance of an MSP as these factors can be controlled whereas other scenarios such as EMP are more problematic.
· Geopolitical landscape for nuclear powers standing off against each other has not been as dire since the Cuban Missile crisis in the 1960s.
· Developments in smaller footprint nuclear EMP devices could be behind recent sightings of high-altitude vehicles being spotted in the US, Canada, and other regions.
· EMP can bring down infrastructure and critical infrastructure without the same levels of devastation and radiation than conventional, however the consequences would be equally catastrophic as a nuclear strike and affect power, communication, supply chain.
· Businesses and Governments have been slow to patch vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure and to move to EMP proof premises.
· EMP proofing IT infrastructure is relatively cheap to do and underground cloud infrastr ucture looks likely to become the new norm, but time is running out if action is not done now.
· Despite emerging EMP threats, state sponsored attacks on critical and business infrastructure will further increase.
· Email is still the most likely vehicle for transmission for malware/cyber-attacks.
· Employees that are not trained or regularly briefed about emerging and existing cyber threats will be the weakest link in the security chain.
· Rise of AI combined with sophisticated malware looks likely to be more commonplace.
Hope for the best by preparing for the worst: Knowledge Exchange examines the five key trends for ITDMs for 2023 and beyond.
As we enter the last few days of 2022 it is a customary tradition to do a bit of navel gazing about what the next year will hold for the IT Market and what hot topics will keep ITDMs awake at night next year.
As we end what has been for many, a rollercoaster of a year, there seems to be plenty of things that will cause a few sleepless nights in the months ahead!
Therefore, it is important to identify and adapt to these trends in a world that has had a perpetual round of shocks in the last decade that in more recent times has seen: a global pandemic, inflation, global supply chain issues, energy and food crises and latterly geopolitical instability through war. There are also many concerns over increasingly sophisticated criminal and state sponsored cyber-attacks.
With another global recession on the horizon, it is more essential than ever to have the best and most actionable data, combined with continued investment in employee and customer value propositions, in order to ride the wave of these uncertain times.
In the first of this two-part piece, BNZSA will identify the key trends and challenges in the market for 2023 and beyond.
Many commentators have been tracking the long-lasting implications of Covid on the workplace and what knock-on effects it has had on the provision of IT services and employee working practices. While the race to look for more collaborative technologies during lockdowns and social distancing measures was a necessary first response to a natural disaster, most industry watchers believe that hybrid and remote working will continue after the pandemic.
In November 2022, a YouGov study on behalf of IT service and consultants NSC noted “… organisations should expect this to be a permanent and persistent pattern in their workplace and to prepare for this long-term shift.”
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It also believes that this paradigm shift is the ‘new norm’ and that increasingly companies will move to a ‘distributed enterprise.’ The report also noted that the global market for IT and business services grew 29% to $84.2 billion in 2021 as businesses reviewed and implemented new technology to improve “overall long-term business resilience.”
In order to fully utilise hybrid-infrastructure, ITDMs must factor in the following trends. With opportunity, comes potential challenges and risks, which if not fully planned for may bring some nasty surprises along the way.
The knock-on effect of the long period of remote working is that many employees now associated office-based jobs with an unnecessary and expensive commute on backed up highways and overburdened public transport networks.
Whereas hybrid and remote ways of working offer more flexibility, productivity and time to be with family. Many workers have decided that going forward they want to work for companies that will offer remote or hybrid working, according to analyst Gartner.
It found that nearly half of employees surveyed wanted to work for companies that offered more hybrid work and latterly shorter working weeks. It also stated that the “employee value proposition must change for hybrid work and respond to shifts in employee expectations”
In its report, Gartner has identified these key future work trends:
In conclusion, Gartner believes because the ongoing transformation in the way knowledge workers work, the move to hybrid working will prove great opportunities for companies. However, it will also provide potential risks such as increased exposure to cyberattacks, which we will examine below.
Other factors such as the way companies have traditionally procured and managed hardware look likely to change as demands for more bring (or use) your own devices (BYOD) grows and the demand of purchasing more mobile devices rather than traditional desktop devices grows.
Break fix services will also be a consideration for the future in terms of maintaining, services and replacing devices. And with a growing need for employees to monitor activity and productivity of remote staff, there looks likely to be some concerns about how much data companies are holding on employees, how it is processed and other concerns that ITDMs will have to manage as part of ongoing privacy policies.
While YouGov/NSC found, in a survey of 263 business executives, that 79% of respondents had a digital transformation plan in place, almost half cited that legacy technology as a key constraint. Many are now looking to cloud migration or companies that offer as-a-service solutions, to not only help with their digital transformation plans, but to also maintain solid customer value propositions and customer experience.
To this end, YouGov predicts that demand for as-as-service offerings will rise. And this can also mean how companies hire staff. According to Gartner, in looming recessionary times functional leaders must get “recession ready.” And this means being agile in securing talent.
For BNZSA’s clients, the demand for BDRs-as-a-service and SDRs-as-a-service also looks set to rise in 2023 and beyond as companies look to backfill existing shortages or look to grow pipelines and closed won revenue by adding instant ‘virtual’ resources at a fraction of the cost of traditional FTEs.
During the pandemic, a lot of the traditional face-to-face (F2F) ways to educate potential customers on IT products and solutions and generate sales pipeline such as conferences and events were put on hold. In turn, this has accelerated many companies to look to digital solutions and social platforms to educate and also for lead generation provision.
While it is universally accepted that ‘content is the backbone of any buyer journey or customer experience. Analyst company Forrester notes that currently marketeers must catch up on critical skills to ensure content will deliver its ‘intended impact’. It also notes that having a pre-pandemic approach to content provision and content syndication in an increasingly sophisticated digital landscape will not yield the results or ROI that marketeers and sales people expect. While we may have to wait for the Metaverse or some similar virtual reality platform to interact with brands, there are plenty of smarter ways for companies to use content on current digital platforms.
To this end Forrester advises five important focus areas for content provision, effective digital campaigns and providing the right content to the right people at the right time:
As we approach 2023, it seems that while most companies may claim they have a digital transformation in place, it may be hindered by a number of factors that need to be addressed and fixed.
If for example, legacy hardware is the reason why cloud migrations and as-a-service provision is faltering, looking to companies that provide managed services and have the necessary infrastructure in place could be a short-term solution to allow ITDMs and marketeers to focus on other areas of the business that need to be fixed such as content.
Like managed service providers, there are a number of agencies like BNZSA that can not only create the content for your campaigns but also manage both the awareness and the generation of marketing qualified and sales ready opportunities.
While the migration from on premise infrastructure to cloud computing has been happening the enterprise for some time, it is quickly becoming a top priority for the mid-size market. According to YouGov/NSC, it found that: “in 2021, cloud spending by small and midsized businesses shot up significantly, with as many as 53% spending more than $1.2 million annually on the cloud – up from 38% in 2020”.
It also states that companies are increasingly looking for cloud-based solutions “to keep up with digital transformation and ensure remote workers have what they need to stay productive”.
Considering the above trends and challenges of modern workplace, hybrid computing and digital transformation, it is small wonder that YoGov/NSC found that execs from all sizes of companies ranked cloud services between 80-93% as the most important technology for their business post Covid.
In terms of best practice around cloud migration, there is a whole range of advice around whether to ‘lift and shift’-migrating existing architecture to cloud-based services, ‘refactor’ or fully refactor, according to AWS cloud migration partner Cloud Bridge that notes
“In our experience, there is no ‘right’ way. The key decision is whether to modernise as you move, or afterwards.”
With the move to more hybrid and remote working combined with the growth of using more “as-a-service” offerings by cloud migration and outsourced human resources is creating more security threats for both enterprise and mid-size companies.
The holiday period is also a prime time for cyberattacks according to managed services provider, Transputec that warns:
“The main issue with cybersecurity over Christmas is that many organisations are severely understaffed during this time. Employees are often underprepared when the cyberattack takes place, and even struggle to deal with recovering from the damages done after the cyberattack. Detection and response times are much higher in Christmas than any other time of year as a result.”
“Cyberattacks are more prevalent since organisations just don’t have the defences in place to deal with the numerous forms of cyberattacks. In particular, ransomware attacks increased by 70% during the holiday period of 2021.”
According to Transputec, as well as raising awareness of cyberattacks over the holidays with staff and running compliance courses, it is also important to add things like multi-factor authentication to accounts and devices:
“This will provide an additional layer of security that makes it more difficult for cyber-attackers to bypass. Cyber-attackers have often been able to guess or steal passwords. Having multi-factor authentication helps your organisation become less susceptible to social engineering.”
Going forward into 2023, YouGov/NSC notes that “67% of the C-suite see the single biggest “headache”, with technology today, as Cybersecurity.”
While Analyst Gartner also notes that for audit departments, executives see Cyber threats as a growing risk in 2023.
“Fewer than half (42%) of audit executives are highly confident they can provide assurance over cybersecurity risk — although 81% plan to cover cybersecurity in audit activities. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and resulting geopolitical hostility could lead to increased cyberthreats. Even before war broke out, organizations believed that actors sponsored by the Russian government targeted them.”
However, there are certainly solutions. Having a strategy and backup in place to deal with cyberattacks is crucial concludes Transputec that observes:
“Since cyberattacks are more common during the Christmas season, it’s also important to have backups of your data in the case of a successful cyberattack. With cloud computing being commonly used, having a physical backup of your data could be a life-saver”.
Stay tuned for part two where we will offer some tips and advice from our internal experts, clients and ITDMs, using real world examples on how to adapt for these challenges.
With a likely recession, companies have to become recession proof in order to ride the wave.
Becoming recession proof does not necessarily mean cuts but smarter ways of working and by better use of collaboration technologies, hybrid, cloud and ‘as-a-service’ offerings
Employee and customer value propositions look likely to be maintained with the shift to the above two points.
Security in the new distributed enterprise is key to ensuring the successful transition from traditional workplaces and on-premise infrastructure to hybrid and remote working facilitated by cloud computing.
[/um_loggedin]THIS MONTH'S LATEST CYBER SECURITY RESEARCH From security vendors, bloggers, and analysts
Author: Maya Horowitz, VP Research at Check Point Software Technologies
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Authors: Sergey Solatov, Roman Nazarov
The first three blogs of our cybersecurity and digital transformation series focused on the threats and security challenges faced by businesses when implementing a digital transformation strategy. In this concluding installment we will lay out the steps you can take to protect your company from potential attacks.
SMBs face a significant risk of cyber-attacks and security breaches. Businesses can take this steps to improve cybersecurity practices. A single attack can cause irreparable damage to the business. Therefore, it's essential for businesses to establish robust security practices to mitigate security threats to their infrastructure and organization. In this fourth and final installment of our cybersecurity series, we will lay out the best ways to tackle these challenges and threats.
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Preparing your business for potential security breaches may seem daunting, but there are many steps you can take to improve your security measures. Here are some ways to improve your business's cybersecurity practices:
Backing up your data on the cloud is an easy and secure way to ensure that your data is safe and accessible even in the event of hardware failure or corruption. Cloud storage is less susceptible to theft or damage than physical on-premise devices as cloud service providers offer firewall protection, making it a safer choice for data storage. Public and private cloud options are available to businesses of all sizes, and data can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection.
Access control policies limit access to your business's critical assets. Avoid sharing user IDs for accessing systems and data. Instead, use unique IDs and login credentials to make it easier to track who is accessing your resources. Implementing automated Identity Access Management (IAM) systems helps streamline this task and eliminates a large amount of risk.
Humans are often the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain. It is essential that your employees and adequately trained in your more updated security procedures. They need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to be able to identify and avoid potential threats. Without this, they may be more likely to fall victim to sophisticated phishing attacks, and unintentionally expose the company’s data or put it at risk of an attack.
User authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user before they are granted access to a system or application. Multi-factor authentication creates a layered security system that requires employees to use a randomly generated one-time code sent via SMS or email in addition to their password to verify their identity. This type of security system protects your data by preventing unauthorized third-party users from gaining entry to business systems and websites.
Small businesses and their IT security teams can struggle to keep pace with their growing volume of technology and threats. A Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service is a cybersecurity service that combines high-end technology with human expertise to rapidly identify and limit the impact of cyber threats without the need to hire additional staff. This service monitors your systems and applications 24/7 to detect and respond to any security incidents.
In conclusion, improving your business's cybersecurity practices is essential to safeguarding your data and ensuring the continuity of your business. By implementing these security measures, you can help protect your business from cyber threats and avoid the devastating consequences of a security breach.
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In part one of our cybersecurity and digital transformation blog series, we set out the importance of keeping security needs at the forefront of any digital strategy. This installment will present the most common cybersecurity threats that businesses are faced with.
Cybersecurity threats come in various forms from different sources, and can be defined as either passive or active, attacking both operating systems and hardware.
Passive cybersecurity threats are attacks which does not harm a company’s system directly, but information is obtained which may be sensitive data. A hacker will attempt to remain unnoticed while gathering information about the victim’s machine, network, or other systems.
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An active attack encompasses a wide range of different techniques that jeopardises a system’s integrity and availability. This type of attack poses a threat to both the organisation and individuals where a hacker attempts to directly modify resources. Unlike a passive attack, these breaches are more easily identified.
Cyberattacks can affect both operating systems and hardware, creating challenges for businesses who wish to fortify their infrastructure against cybersecurity threats. This can create even greater challenge for smaller businesses who are trying to manage this with limited resources. The third installment of this blog series will discuss the challenges caused by these security breaches.
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In part two of our cybersecurity and digital transformation series we detailed the most common forms of cyberattacks. In this blog, we will discuss the biggest cybersecurity challenges facing businesses.
As digital transformation introduces new, and ever evolving technology to small business IT infrastructure, it is inevitable that an organization’s potential attack surface grows, introducing more cybersecurity challenges.
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As they try to navigate a wide range of potential threats, small businesses can struggle to distribute the right resources to ensure they stay safe, meaning they are vulnerable to various cybersecurity challenges such as:
One major cybersecurity challenge that small businesses face is the secure back-up and recovery of data. Companies must have adequate systems in place to ensure that their data is securely backed up and recoverable in the event of damage or corruption.
Data-driven companies, in particular, must protect their information from sophisticated ransomware attacks. As small businesses increasingly include multi-cloud and on-premise storage of data in their IT infrastructures, cyber resilience is essential to ensure business continuity in the event of a data loss.
The vulnerability of cybersecurity breach above and below a company’s operating system will inevitably increase as the business grows. Threats can present themselves in various forms with the intention of accessing, changing, destroying, or deleting information without authorized access.
The challenge arises for businesses to install the right systems that can promptly identify these threats and adequately defend their IT infrastructure. According to IBM, in 2022 it took an average of 277 days or 9 months to identify and contain a breach. The longer a breach lasts, the greater the strain on a business’ resources.
Supply chains are a multi-party ecosystem. Businesses rely on advanced technology to support connectivity and sophisticated logistics networks. However, this technology is also vulnerable to attacks, threatening the integrity of supply chain systems. It is vital to maintain the security of the supply chain eco-systems to avoid operational disruptions, lost revenue, jeopardized data, reduced productivity and potential brand and reputation damage.
Technology supply chains can also be infiltrated with counterfeit devices that have been tampered with. IT teams work hard to secure their infrastructure, but this is a futile activity if a third party does not maintain their defence along the supply chain. Businesses must ensure devices and their components are safe to deploy using secure verification.
With cyber-attacks posing a threat at any time of day, businesses must remain vigilant around the clock. However, companies often face the challenge of not having the necessary resources in house to physically monitor their networks continuously.
As threats continue to increase in frequency and complexity, efficient threat detection systems are essential in identifying and preventing attacks before any damage can occur. This can mean having to invest in outsourced services to ensure networks are monitored 24/7.
Small businesses face numerous cybersecurity challenges in the ever-changing landscape of digital transformation. To ensure their safety, companies must prioritize cyber resilience and invest in efficient threat detection systems. By doing so, they can protect their data, maintain supply chain integrity, and prevent cyber-attacks from disrupting their operations. In the fourth and final blog in this series we will lay out the steps you can take to improve your security measures to keep your infrastructure safe.
Part four will conclude this blog series by detailing the steps needed to implement practices that best address your cybersecurity challenges.
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In this four-part blog series, we will discuss the importance of cyber security in digital transformation, types of cyber security threats, security challenges, and how you can improve your cyber security practices to overcome them.
Digital transformation has undoubtedly been accelerated in recent years due to the pandemic. The rise of hybrid, digital-forward working environments has forced companies to re-evaluate their digital strategies and invest in new technology. However, as companies transition to more digital systems, cyber security must remain a top priority.
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Businesses are at risk as they expand their IT infrastructure. A security breach can have serious consequences, including the loss of valuable data, supply chain integrity, and ransomware attacks. To avoid such risks, security needs to be at the forefront of digital transformation strategies.
The rise of hybrid, digital-forward working environments has forced companies to re-evaluate their digital strategies and invest in new technology.
One of the most significant aspects of digital transformation is becoming a more data-driven organization. As companies centralize their data, they become more vulnerable to attacks from hackers, who are always on the lookout for valuable data.
Furthermore, the pandemic has highlighted the need for hybrid working environments. While this is great for flexibility and convenience, it poses a significant challenge for IT security teams. The challenge is to manage a vast infrastructure that includes PCs connecting from multiple and potentially global locations, which amplifies the need for each employee to uphold their personal responsibility to follow cybersecurity best practices.
Cyberattacks are on the rise, and small companies cannot afford to take risks when it comes to securing their IT network. On average, a cyberattack happens every 11 seconds, and the cost of an attack can be as high as $13 million. With the evolution of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and many companies do not have stringent measures in place to handle these risks.
To tackle this problem, cybersecurity must no longer be viewed as solely an IT issue, but rather a business risk. A company is only as strong as its IT infrastructure, meaning that its business strategy must revolve around IT security. As a result, employees play a crucial role in upholding the security of their systems and fully understanding the risks that the business can face.
In conclusion, as digital transformation continues to shape the business landscape, cyber security is becoming more critical than ever. Small businesses need to prioritize security to mitigate the risk of cyberattacks and ensure business continuity. Executive-level employees will also need to be accountable for treating cyber security risks as part of their employment contracts and any at-risk payments.
By taking these steps, companies can protect themselves from the increasing threat of cybercrime and maintain their reputation and ability to operate effectively.
In part two, we will examine the most common types of cyber security threats.
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