Ian Barker

Enterprise AI

Enterprises risk falling behind in AI adoption

Despite the excitement around AI as a transformative force, many enterprises are struggling to adopt the technology in meaningful ways, according to a new survey from Unily.

This has resulted in a growing gap between AI 'haves' and 'have nots,' where enterprises adopting AI tools for their people are making quicker gains than those without. At the same time employees who are open to using AI tools increasingly want more exposure to them and may even choose employers who are early AI adopters over those who are slower to adapt.

By Ian Barker -
CISO graphic

CISOs take on extra responsibilities

The majority of CISOs are taking on responsibilities beyond cybersecurity, including business risk, IT oversight, and digital transformation. Three percent of CISOs attribute their raise to taking on larger scope, while others see it reflected in merit increases.

New research from IANS Research and Artico Search surveyed over more than 830 CISOs and other security leaders to understand the key trends and challenges reshaping CISO role.

By Ian Barker -
worry stress

The top SME security worries for 2025

Smaller businesses are just as vulnerable to cybersecurity issues as larger ones, more so in some cases as they have fewer resources to devote to protection.

New research from UK cloud services firm Six Degrees looks at the concerns of UK SMEs. It finds 35 percent cite AI-related threats as their top concern, outranking malware (25 percent), scams and other fraud (25 percent), phishing (25 percent), and ransomware (23 percent).

By Ian Barker -
UK artificial intelligence

UK government sets out plans to turbocharge AI use

Artificial intelligence will be unleashed across the UK to deliver a decade of national renewal under a new plan announced by the government.

The Prime Minister has agreed to take forward all 50 recommendations set out in the AI Opportunities Action Plan released last year, in a plan to make the UK ‘irresistible’ to AI firms looking to start, scale, or grow their business.

By Ian Barker -
API

Why GraphQL is a serious alternative to the REST API [Q&A]

GraphQL -- in case you haven't heard of it -- is a rapidly rising query and manipulation language for APIs. It's designed to make APIs fast, flexible and developer-friendly, and it moves the complexity of data fetching from the client to the server side.

We spoke to Pete Crocker, director of solutions engineering at OpsMill, to learn why it's increasingly being employed as an alternative to the more established REST API.

By Ian Barker -
Cryptography encryption

The role of encryption in the cybersecurity landscape [Q&A]

Despite being an effective tool for safeguarding sensitive information, encryption remains underutilized by many organizations, leaving them vulnerable to cyber threats.

Many companies still rely on perimeter security measures, viewing encryption as optional rather than essential. Misconceptions about the complexity and cost of encryption further hinder its adoption, leading to a reactive approach that often waits for a data breach before taking action.

By Ian Barker -
Ransomware Malware Cyber Attack

Over 195 million records breached in ransomware attacks last year

In 2024, ransomware groups claimed responsibility for 5,461 successful ransomware attacks on organizations worldwide. Of these 1,204 were confirmed by the targeted organizations, according to analysis by Comparitech.

Across the 1,204 confirmed attacks, 195.4 million records have been breached. These figures for 2024 are lower than those recorded in 2023 (1,474 attacks affecting 261.5 million records), though they are expected to rise as reports often come in months later.

By Ian Barker -
Using paypal for purchase

Clever PayPal attack dodges phishing checks to take over accounts

Research by Fortinet has uncovered what it terms a 'phish-free' PayPal phishing attack that seeks to trick the unwary into giving up control of their account.

It starts with an email request for payment that appears to come from a valid email address. Click the link and you're taken to a PayPal login page showing a request for payment. This is where it gets clever because if you do login your account gets linked to the address the email was sent to -- not the one you received it on.

By Ian Barker -
Futuristic robot artificial intelligence concept.

Delivering return on investment from GenAI [Q&A]

For many people AI has been seen as an answer to all their problems. But a recent Gartner report suggests we could be entering a 'trough of disillusionment' as the biggest challenge when adopting GenAI is estimating and proving the business value.

Getting that value needs creative thinking and integration of GenAI with other technologies that can benefit from its ability to analyze, summarize and create content.

By Ian Barker -
Security

Security platform adopts Open API standards

Exabeam's cloud-native, New-Scale Security Operations Platform has become the first security operations platform compatible with the Open-API Standard (OAS).

This gives SOC teams the power to quickly create automations and playbooks with their best-of-breed portfolios and ditch disjointed, monolithic systems that provide merely 'good enough' security.

By Ian Barker -
business finance AI

94 percent of organizations now use GenAI apps

New research from Netskope Threat Labs has found that 94 percent of organizations are now using GenAI apps, but interestingly more than 99 percent have controls in place to mitigate the risks that they pose.

Organizational use of GenAI has grown from 81 percent of companies using the apps in 2023. ChatGPT continues to be the most popular genAI app, being used in 84 percent of organizations.

By Ian Barker -
Hacker mask data center

Almost half Gen Z and Millennials have had their social media passwords hacked

New research from hardware authentication security key provider Yubico shows nearly half of Gen Z (47 percent) and Millennials (46 percent) have had their social media account passwords hacked.

It's no surprise then that these generations are keen to adopt hardware security keys, reflecting a growing mistrust of traditional passwords and a shift toward more secure, physical authentication methods.

By Ian Barker -
skills learning training

Interest in learning AI skills soars

Newly released usage data from the O'Reilly online learning platform reveals that interest in AI-related skills has surged dramatically, with the most pronounced usage increases seen in topics like prompt engineering (456 percent increase), AI principles (386 percent increase), and generative AI (289 percent increase).

Use of content about GitHub Copilot has seen a dramatic increase too, by an impressive 471 percent, reflecting developers’ enthusiasm for tools that enhance productivity.

By Ian Barker -
cyber defense

The importance of modernizing cyber defenses [Q&A]

The state of high-profile cyber incidents in recent years has highlighted the fact that defenses need to be kept up to date to provide adequate protection.

AI and machine learning have the potential to transform security operations to enhance protection against emerging threats. We spoke to Gurucul CEO Saryu Nayyar to get her view on how protection technologies are evolving and why this is so crucial.

By Ian Barker -
Sales concept with vintage businessman and calculator

How AI assistants can make sales teams more effective [Q&A]

Most business areas are starting to feel the impact of artificial intelligence, enabling data to be used more effectively to deliver intelligence and outcomes.

Sales, though, has always been about people and building relationships over time, so can AI offer value here too? Nikhil Cheerla, co-founder of sales AI assistant company Nooks, thinks it can, and we talked to him to find out how.

By Ian Barker -
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