Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved from being a sci-fi staple to a tool that’s in widespread use. Headlines today are dominated with news of generative AI services such as ChatGPT and Bard, the latest and greatest in large language models from firms OpenAI and Google. These promise users a crack at incredibly capable text generation and interpretation based on vast training models, using nothing more complicated than their browser and a keyboard. As powerful tools for text generation, large ...
Mar 24, 2023•27 min
It’s been over a year since Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and for those in the tech sector cyber warfare has defined the conflict. Ukrainian organisations, both public and private, have been subject to attacks including wiper malware, spear phishing, and data breaches. National cyber security agencies, as well as teams of security experts from throughout the field, remain on high alert for heightened Russian cyber activity. Understanding the strategies of these hackers, as well as the...
Mar 17, 2023•36 min
Metaverse tech has already attracted billions of pounds in investment, and despite its detractors looks set to play a major role in the future of communications and productivity tech. It was also one of the main themes at this year’s Mobile World Congress, where the concept of a CMO - that’s ‘chief metaverse officer’ - was discussed in detail. Companies like Journey, Nike, and Telefónica already have individuals with metaverse in their titles, but there is still a lot to be proved about the long...
Mar 10, 2023•13 min
Open source software can be found in a huge number of businesses' stacks. Whether it’s to save on expensive software, to fix a problem that a devoted hobbyist has a solution for, or because of its lively developer community, open source solutions run throughout the tech sector. However, in recent years security concerns have damaged the perception of open source software and vulnerabilities like Log4Shell left some IT leaders with headaches they aren’t keen to repeat. As the market expands, some...
Mar 03, 2023•29 min
The conversation around UK connectivity is often dominated by the rollout of 5G, or the race for widespread gigabit broadband. But many rural communities and businesses struggle with a lack of even basic connectivity such as reliable cellular service. This has severe consequences for rural businesses, holding back their growth while accelerating brain drain as younger people gravitate towards urban areas for education and employment. Some groups have taken measures into their own hands to ensure...
Feb 24, 2023•41 min
Throughout the pandemic, companies across the world rushed to establish cloud services that could prop up the need for remote working. But in recent months, word of a “cloud slowdown” has been building, with some of the biggest vendors experiencing a drop in the growth of their cloud sales. In the third quarter of 2022, AWS reported the slowest growth in its history, while Google’s growth was down almost 10% on the previous year. In this episode, Jane and Rory speak to Ross Kelly, IT Pro’s cloud...
Feb 17, 2023•21 min
Old technology stacks can be found throughout the sector, especially in companies that have been around for more than a few years. While most firms have undergone digital transformation of some kind, shedding legacy tech is no easy job and can lead people to take the path of least resistance, using a mix of old and new tech across their IT estate. This can lead to big issues down the line. A recent example is the outage that led to thousands of flights being cancelled and delayed across the Unit...
Feb 10, 2023•33 min
IT departments, which have long faced difficulties trying to recruit skilled talent, are now facing an additional challenge as many businesses put a freeze on hiring in the face of economic instability and look to use existing resources as efficiently as possible. With this goal in mind, it’s important to enable employees to be productive, while not leaving them overworked. Improperly organised work stacks, insufficient collaboration and a failure to adapt to changing work environments are all f...
Feb 03, 2023•28 min
Application programming interfaces, or APIs, have become an integral part of maintaining an online business, and are often indispensable for cross-functionality and user experience. However, the increased use of APIs has led to a rise in attacks against them. This can in turn cause breaches of company data or even full account takeovers. Improperly-managed APIs are a key attack surface and firms would do well to treat this seriously as threat actors step up their efforts at exploitation. Today, ...
Jan 27, 2023•26 min
As we enter what is set to be a long recession businesses are looking to manage and reduce costs, and IT departments will be forced to budget where possible. More than ever, IT leaders are evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of serverless architecture, the best payment models for their business, and the risks associated with vendor lock-in amidst uncertain financial conditions. This week, we spoke to Tom Fairbairn, distinguished engineer at event broker Solace, to explore when serverless and l...
Jan 20, 2023•33 min
Large companies are relying on online learning more and more, to improve the career goals of their employees, and upskilling can be an important way of retaining staff while adding to existing expertise. But the public sector has lagged behind the private sector on this front, and is currently experiencing record churn and vacancies. 410,000 staff quit social care in 2021, and care roles around the country are now short of approximately 165,000 staff. This week, we spoke to Hadi Moussa, general ...
Jan 13, 2023•28 min
Passwords can be tricky at the best of times. Proper password hygiene is one of the most important factors in endpoint security, as it keeps sensitive data secure and prevents threat actors from getting into important systems. Despite the risks, the use of weak or recycled passwords continues to be a problem even amongst IT professionals and remembering too many unique passwords is a strain. While systems such as multi-factor authentication have been used as an extra layer of security, groups li...
Jan 06, 2023•30 min
In today's festive edition of the podcast, Jane and Rory discuss a few key trends happening right now that could influence 2023. With Twitter undergoing constant change, and other firms such as Meta and TikTok facing regulatory battles, current conversations around the upheaval of social media could play a major role in the coming year. Together with the recession into which the UK has fallen, and the rise of generative AI like ChatGPT, these emerging trends from 2022 will continue to dominate h...
Dec 30, 2022•40 min
In today's festive edition of the podcast, Jane and Rory discuss three things that were predicted to happen during the course of 2022, but never did. The metaverse making sense, Russian threat actors winning against Ukraine and other nations, and the 'bonfire' of EU regulations were all promised or anticipated, but none came to pass. We ask what has happened instead, and question why things turned out the way they did. For more information, read the show notes here....
Dec 23, 2022•33 min
In a sector of changing priorities, cyber security remains at the top of the list in any boardroom. With the threat landscape presenting challenges old and new, and the increasing risk of entities such as state-sponsored hacking, it is essential that businesses carefully craft their cyber security strategy to keep ahead of the next big attack. The speed that threats evolve now demands real-time action from companies, who must maintain oversight of their assets and maintain as many assets as poss...
Dec 16, 2022•31 min
Hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure has become such an important aspect of digital transformation, but it brings its own potential risks. It’s important that businesses maintain a macro view of their environment, with centralised dashboards proposed as an option to provide adequate observability to security teams. With the increasing pressures of data sovereignty, and concerns surrounding lateral security, it’s more important than ever that siloed teams are brought together under clear securit...
Dec 09, 2022•35 min
5G holds major potential for businesses, from improved speeds and the technology it enables such as the Internet of Things. But to unlock its true potential, and lay the groundwork for 6G, a number of new technologies have to be tapped. To grasp opportunities like open RAN, network slicing, and private network environments, radical overhaul is necessary, to drive both innovation and revenue growth. Networking has never been more important across every aspect of life, and telcos hold a unique opp...
Dec 02, 2022•34 min
Ten years ago, identity fraud typically meant people manually forging, but today’s threat actors work with purely-digital fakes with an increasingly-advanced toolset including ‘deepfakes’ that work even on live video feeds. At the same time, Twitter advertisers have seen billions wiped off their market caps as the platform struggles with its ID verification. On top of the growing scale of digital fraudsters, a surprising amount of businesses are willing to let a small amount of fraud occur. Comp...
Nov 25, 2022•37 min
Metaverse technology: although it still hasn’t found its feet, it’s the headline-grabbing area of development that has seen massive investment in just the past few years. Meta has spent over $15 billion on the tech through its Reality Labs division, and Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, and more have all begun development using variations on metaverse tech. But like any new technology, metaverse tech will also usher in new security risks, from innovative threat actors and existing vulnerabilities inheri...
Nov 18, 2022•34 min
Automation has been widely adopted across the sector, and firms have repeatedly applied it to laborious tasks such as document handling. Using machine learning and AI, a great number of documents can be processed, and decisions made without the need for painstaking human input. But automation in the legal space requires careful thought, as contracts can be very complex and often require a human touch — here, a hybrid approach is needed. This week, we spoke to Rich Somerfield, CTO at Summize, to ...
Nov 11, 2022•34 min
Procurement has long been treated as a ticketing problem, with check boxes to fill and suppliers to onboard according to regulation. But with increasingly sophisticated automation systems, and a growing need for exact partner agreements amidst global supply chain issues, companies could do well to rethink their linear approach to procurement. This week we talked to Sudhir Bhojwani and Lalitha Rajagopalan, co-founders of supplier engagement platform ORO Labs, about its ‘smart’ procurement strateg...
Nov 04, 2022•40 min
Facing the triple threat of supply issues, tough economic headwinds, and the climate crisis it’s vital that the supply chain can run at low cost, and with as little carbon footprint as possible. Implementation of smart ports using the internet of things and 5G could hold the answer. Using fast local networks, smart port tech can track crane movement, metrics such as operational speed and maintenance needs, and the location of resources in near real-time to provide valuable operational data. This...
Oct 28, 2022•35 min
Spurred on by the pandemic, digital transformation has become a core business aim for many companies both in and out of the tech sector. When it comes to handling data on a massive scale, especially when such data is sensitive, compliance is key. The insights from data analysis can be priceless for business growth, but require careful strategy in order to be properly implemented. This week, we talk to Nicola Wadham, Chief Information Officer at the Financial Ombudsman Service, about the specific...
Oct 21, 2022•40 min
Fibre rollout appears to be going well, with the majority of UK homes and businesses able to access gigabit-capable broadband. But there is still much confusion around what exactly terms like ‘full fibre’ mean, and adoption still lags behind international partners even as businesses turn to greater bandwidths than ever before to undergo digital transformation. Moreover, many rural businesses aren’t being catered to by large network providers, and as they remain on copper lines, wonder if alterna...
Oct 14, 2022•30 min
Businesses are rapidly having to contend with responding to the climate crisis, and the tech industry is set to become one of the biggest contributors to energy drain by the end of the decade. It is clear that sustainable software options are a goal, but many firms are reluctant to adopt lower-carbon systems out of concern for loss of power. Joining us this week is Behrad Babaee, Technology Evangelist at Aerospike, to talk about his proposals for a universal metric with which to measure the carb...
Oct 07, 2022•27 min
Technology plays a vital role in helping government and public sector organisations respond to challenges and deliver services to the public, and in increased use of digital tools can unlock new capabilities and efficiencies. One somewhat unique example of this is the Welsh government, which must meet certain standards to ensure that the Welsh language is treated equally to English. As well as providing Welsh-language options in its apps and services, this also includes supporting Welsh speakers...
Sep 30, 2022•34 min
The technological arsenal available to cyber criminals is already enough to give any security professional nightmares, but there’s another emerging threat on the horizon that may keep them up at night: bio-augmented hackers. Implantable chips and other modifications are growing in capability and sophistication, and there are a variety of creative ways that attackers can use them to carry out both physical and device-based attacks - This is made all the more concerning by the fact that these impl...
Sep 23, 2022•41 min
The global energy market is currently experiencing some extreme turmoil, with low availability resulting in steep price increases. The turbulence is particularly pronounced in the UK, where spiralling power bills are raising concerns for both consumers and businesses alike over whether or not they’ll be able to afford them. The IT industry isn’t exempt from these challenges; in fact, thanks to the extreme power usage that data centre infrastructure requires, the risk of further price rises shoul...
Sep 16, 2022•31 min
Phishing remains one of the oldest and most persistent attack methods for hackers trying to break into an organisation, and potential targets continue to use simulated phishing attacks as one of the primary ways to ensure their staff are ready to defend against it. However, these spoof attacks aren’t always well-recieved, and employees can frequently feel unfairly trapped or caught out by these tests. Appearing on this week’s podcast to discuss why phishing simulations are often so poorly receiv...
Sep 09, 2022•39 min
Five years ago, the security world was rocked by one of the most sudden and widespread ransomware outbreaks in history. Even now, organisations are still recovering from the damage done by WannaCry, and its shadow still looms large over the industry. While ransomware has remained a major threat for organisations over the last half-decade, we haven’t seen anything as globally impactful as WannaCry since then - so what (if anything) has the industry learned from the incident, and are we likely to ...
Sep 02, 2022•35 min
