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.
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.
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.
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.
Gigamon harnesses agentic AI to deliver guidance for security and IT teams
As cyber adversaries increasingly use AI to move faster and exploit blind spots, security, network, and application teams face mounting challenges, not helped by a global shortage of skilled professionals.
Observability specialist Gigamon is launching a new agentic AI application purpose-built for network-derived telemetry to deliver immediate guidance for security and IT operations teams.
New AI testing platform uses crowdsourcing to deliver better results
While crowdsourcing testing is increasingly popular the market has long struggled with lengthy setup times, inconsistent tester quality, poor signal-to-noise ratios.
Testing platform Testilo is seeking to address this with the launch of two new AI technologies, LeoAI Engine and LeoMatch. LeoAI Engine is a proprietary intelligence layer, while LeoMatch seeks to match the right testers to projects in real-time.
Ransomware costs jump 17 percent though insurance claims fall
A new report from risk solutions company Resilience shows in the first half of 2025, the average cost of an individual ransomware attack rose by 17 percent, while the volume of incurred claims across Resilience's portfolio dropped by 53 percent, highlighting the persistent and destructive threat of financially motivated cybercrime.
Ransomware accounted for almost all (91 percent) of incurred losses, while financially motivated social engineering, especially via tailored attacks bolstered by AI-powered phishing content, fueled 88 percent.
Taking a holistic approach to human risk management
We tend to think of cybersecurity as being a technology problem, but in fact it’s often about humans. Attackers exploit our weaknesses with social engineering, phishing and other attacks designed to trick us into giving up valuable information.
A new whitepaper released today by KnowBe4 looks at the core principles of a modern human risk management (HRM) approach and how organizations can apply the framework to strengthen security culture and drive measurable change in employee behavior.
Software engineers need new skills in the age of AI
AI is transforming software engineering, changing what software engineers do and the skills they need to succeed. A new survey from Uplevel, of over 100 senior engineering leaders at mid-to-large technology companies, looks at what they believe will be the most important skills for their teams.
It finds that validation of AI outputs and quality assurance (QA) is valued highest, cited by 66 percent of leaders, followed by performance monitoring and optimization (39 percent), and system architecture and integration skills (34 percent)
Poor data quality is the biggest barrier to AI in insurance
Almost three-quarters of insurance underwriters say fragmented, siloed, and unstructured data -- not technology -- is the main barrier to AI transformation.
New research carried out by Reuters for technology transformation specialist CI&T shows that data fragmentation, unstructured formats, and siloed systems are the real roadblocks to delivering faster, more accurate underwriting and pricing.
Only 37 percent of recruiters prepared for AI’s impact on hiring
A new survey of 1,000 US HR and recruiting leaders shows teams are struggling to verify skills, assess culture fit, and find qualified candidates and that only 37 percent are prepared for an AI-driven future
The study from TestGorilla finds 58 percent struggle to verify skills on resumes, 47 percent find it difficult to identify candidates aligned with the company culture, and 43 percent cite a lack of skilled candidates in the market.
The challenge of syncing virtual economies across platforms [Q&A]
As people increasingly demand seamless experiences across platforms, developers face growing complexity in managing unified virtual economies.
In the games sector in particular companies need to leverage distributed architecture, virtual currencies, and real-time inventory reconciliation to ensure consistent user experiences and secure transaction flows.
Poor data quality is hindering AI adoption
A new report reveals that although 84 percent of IT leaders say a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is essential to driving decision-making and operations, a majority feel their current systems lack the data quality, accuracy and completeness they need, hindering the ability to maximize enterprise AI implementations.
The study from Device42 polled IT leaders across industries including finance, healthcare, government, and technology, and finds that over 50 percent of respondents use CMDBs, monitoring tools, or manual discovery processes, to gain insights about their infrastructure, yet 58 percent report a lack of confidence in their visibility.
Ian's Bio
Ian spent almost 20 years working with computers before he discovered that writing about them was easier than fixing them. Since then he's written for a number of computer magazines and is a former editor of PC Utilities. Follow him on Mastodon
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