Shadow AI? No, nothing to see here…
Workers are increasingly using shadow AI to draft emails, analyze data, or summarize meetings, but are pretending they haven’t.
New data from marketing agency OutreachX finds 52 percent of US workers are worried about how AI will be used in their workplace in the future and that 48 percent of desk workers say they would be uncomfortable telling a manager they used AI for common tasks.
Dashboard dependency leads to burnout among IT staff
A new study from Liquid Web shows IT professionals spend an average of 77 minutes per day checking dashboards, which equals about 468 hours per year or nearly 20 full workdays.
This is leading to stress and a risk of burnout as one in three say they can’t relax unless they check their server dashboard at least once an hour. 51 percent say they check dashboards during the night, at weekends, or on vacations, blurring the line between work and personal time.
Brands are increasingly testing AI influencers, but trust in them is low
Global influencer marketing spend is forecast to reach $32.5 billion in 2025, with much of the new growth coming from AI influencers, according to a new case study by UNmiss.
From polished AI Instagram avatars to TikTok personalities who never sleep, brands are increasingly testing whether audiences care if creators are real or virtual.
Children as young as seven linked to school cyber breaches, with over half of education attacks carried out by pupils
The Information Commissioner's Office, the UK’s independent regulator for data protection and information rights, says more than half of cyber attacks and data breaches in schools and colleges in the past three years were carried out by pupils.
Of the 215 hacks and breaches in educational establishments investigated by the ICO in that period, 57 percent of them were perpetrated by students.
64 percent back Online Safety Act but censorship worries persist
A new survey of 2,000 UK consumers shows that 64 percent agree the Online Safety Act protects children, with support higher among parents of young children and lower among ‘empty nest’ parents.
However, the data from verification and anti-fraud platform Sumsub also shows 48 percent concerned it will lead to censorship.
Spotify now offers lossless audio
There are many reasons to love Spotify, and just as many to dislike it. One of its many failings has been the fact that audio quality has been – to be diplomatic – less than perfect.
Now, thanks to the long-awaited arrival of lossless audio, this is finally changing. The ability to hear tracks at the best possible quality is something that will be celebrated by Spotify users... but not everyone.
Microsoft releases Windows 11 25H2 ISOs
The rollout of Windows 11 25H2 is now underway – at least to anyone signed up for the Windows Insider Release Preview channel. When the rollout started, there was disappointment when Microsoft did not have the ISOs for the build ready, saying that they would be coming soon.
But now the company has released the Windows 11 25H2 ISOs which is great news for anyone who likes to keep an offline. It is also extremely useful for people looking to install Windows 11 25H2 on multiple machines – ISOs just make things easier.
New study shows why the places you feel safest online might actually be the most dangerous
F-Secure has released new research that suggests a troubling divide between how safe people believe they are online and the dangers they actually face.
The Digital Perception-Reality Gap Report, based on a survey of 9,000 consumers worldwide, suggests that misplaced confidence is leaving large numbers of internet users exposed to cyber crime.
Helpdesks struggle to keep up with cyber threats
Helpdesks are bogged down by repetitive, time-consuming tasks (34 percent), long resolution times (34 percent) and limited resources (31 percent).
This is among the findings of the latest digital employee experience (DEX) report from Ivanti. It shows that while many businesses are automating certain operations, like security patch management (72 percent) and IT ticket routing (67 percent), but nearly 40 percent still haven't automated password resets -- missing an easy win that could eliminate countless routine support tickets.
UK Online Safety Act leads to rise in searches for fake ID and dark web access
We know that the UK’s Online Safety Act has had a number of consequences including a surge in interest in the use of VPNs. But VPNs aren’t the only things that have seen greater interest.
New research from Comparitech shows more people are searching for fake IDs, how to access the dark web, and torrenting services. The company has recorded a 56 percent increase in impressions for blog posts related to the law and guides to using VPNs as a means of accessing restricted content.
1 in 5 workers are misusing GenAI, according to a new survey
A new survey from ABBYY highlights the hurdles businesses face when adopting generative AI, revealing that many companies need additional AI tools to get the results they want. The report, State of Intelligent Automation: GenAI Disillusionment and AI Wishlist, points to training, integration and governance as major sticking points.
The research, carried out by Opinium, shows that 31 percent of business leaders find training models more difficult than expected. Another 28 percent say GenAI tools are hard to integrate, while 26 percent cite governance problems. Misuse by staff was flagged by 21 percent of respondents, suggesting that some deployments lack proper oversight.
Golden Concept launches iPhone 17 backplates and cases with pricey materials
Following the launch of the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro/Pro Max, and iPhone Air yesterday, case makers have quickly begun rolling out new designs.
Golden Concept, a Swedish company that focuses on high-end add-ons, has announced a collection of luxury (i.e. expensive) cases and detachable backplates for all three models, including the new Air.
Lookout uses AI to guard against mobile social engineering threats
As we do more and more on our mobile devices it’s clear that the front line of cyber defense isn't the corporate server it's the employee's phone.
As AI boosts social engineering, hackers are bypassing traditional firewalls to target people directly with smishing and phishing, making every employee a critical, and often vulnerable, defender against highly convincing threats.
Responding to the challenge of deepfakes [Q&A]
Recent advancements in publicly available AI models have made it incredibly easy to generate deepfakes -- so much so that attackers don’t need to be technical experts to pull off convincing deception campaigns.
Attackers can scrape public content to recreate someone's voice or face, and inject that fake identity into virtual meetings, phone calls, or even training videos.
WhatsApp is changing how read receipts look for iOS and Android users
Read receipts in WhatsApp are getting an upgrade. The two-tick system that appears below the sent message is loved and hated; yes, it lets you know that a message is sending, that it has been received, and that it has been read – but why is there no response now you know that it has been read!?
Putting aside concerns about why someone may be ignoring you, themes in WhatsApp which change the color of the messaging app can be problematic. If you’d become used to read receipts having blue check marks, the fact that some themes changed that had the potential for confusion. Now WhatsApp is addressing this.
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