BetaNews Staff

Right now, to boost efficiency and achieve economies of scale, businesses want to automate as much as possible. In back office processes, approaches like Robotic Process Automation (RPA), for example, are now increasingly standard and are expected to be a $20bn-plus market by 2030. In parallel, enterprises are looking to ChatGPT and Generative AI to help them speed up everything from creating marketing brochures to drug discovery.

However, where automation is trailing behind is in how organizations go about optimizing cybersecurity. Given that attacks tend to occur at scale, or involve complexity beyond even the smartest average security professional to cope with, this core area of vulnerability should be precisely where the CISO and the SOC (security operations center) seek assistance from automation.

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With the traditional workplace changing beyond recognition at the start of the decade, we saw the most significant changes to the IT security landscape last year; with the wider implementation of artificial intelligence (AI), stronger authentication practices, third-party data breaches, end-to-end encryption, and the Online Safety Bill to name a few. In this time, cyberattacks have advanced exponentially in sophistication and regularity, with IT cyber defenses struggling to keep up.

Thanks to increasingly large supply chains, small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who once thought they were beyond the ‘crown jewel’ targets of large enterprises, are now struggling to defend themselves in the face of more frequent and sophisticated attacks due to smaller budgets and a lack of robust security measures. 

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2023 represented a breakthrough year for generative AI, which gained immense popularity for enhancing productivity through instant content creation based on user inputs. However, in 2024, organizations must shift from marveling at generative AI's dazzling technical capabilities to rigorously evaluating its tangible business impact and risk.

Organizations eagerly anticipate AI's transformative potential. Forrester's September 2023 Artificial Intelligence Pulse Survey revealed that most companies are evolving in their approach to AI. More than a quarter are experimenting with the technology, while 33 percent are expanding their existing efforts, the survey found. In light of this heightened interest, here are three critical AI-centric predictions for the coming year:

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In one way or another, we invariably find ourselves sharing personal details online. Whether it's signing up for a newsletter, registering to access a website, or simply making an online purchase, our presence online is a constant. So how do we keep our info safe when we're buzzing around online?

And how much trust can we place in the websites where we share our personal details? Let's delve into strategies to safeguard our information and ensure our safety when sharing personal details online.

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Cyberattacks are on the rise across all industries, but the history of the public sector’s weaker protections makes it an increasingly attractive target for cybercriminals with costly consequences. IBM asserts the toll of each cybersecurity incident in the public sector averages a substantial $2.6 million. In addition, according to the 2023 Verizon DBIR, Public Administration was the leader in the total number of incidents and the total number of breaches last year.

Cyberattacks can have detrimental impacts on government agencies and officials. Municipal services such as water supply, emergency services, public transportation and waste management rely heavily on interconnected digital systems. Cyberattacks like ransomware can disrupt these services, causing inconvenience and potential safety issues for residents.

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Businesses are on the cusp of an era of transformation with the widespread take-up of AI. Many have already invested time and resources in exploring how these tools could bring additional value. For some that may be improving efficiency and increasing productivity, or creating tailor-made customer experiences to increase sales; for others, it could mean developing new product concepts. The list is endless.

AI promises ground-breaking innovation across industries and professions, provided organizations are fully prepared to take advantage of its capabilities. But are businesses anywhere near ready for AI? Or are they in danger of rushing ahead, akin to the early days of cloud technology, and could live to regret decisions made in the race not to miss out?

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So far in our 'Deep Tech Series,' we have explored ways for companies to share the more technical side of their work, with research-based publications such as white papers, and how to connect with their community through meetup events. While both initiatives have the purpose of reaching out and engaging with the target audience, one component that has been missing so far is that of a true call to action -- an invitation for the audience to become an integral part of these activities.

In 2022, Google awarded more than $12 million in bug bounties to security researchers who helped identify and fix over 2,900 issues and vulnerabilities. A bounty program is one of the most popular ways to achieve this, where vendors offer monetary rewards to anyone finding a security vulnerability in their products. In this particular case, vendors encourage security researchers to disclose their findings and let the company fix the security issue, instead of encouraging a black market for vulnerabilities that would be the only way for its authors to get some money out of their work. The bounties are open to individuals who have the right skill set to identify and potentially fix issues, work for which they can be economically rewarded.

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The global cloud computing market is expanding rapidly and reaching new milestones every year. According to recent data, the market is projected to grow from USD 626.4 billion in 2023 to USD 1,266.4 billion by 2028 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15.1 percent during the forecasted period.

The industry's rapid financial growth is also driving new technological advancements. With this, the dynamic and innovative nature of cloud technology brings new security vulnerabilities and risks, thereby every year increasing the number of malicious incidents. According to the 2023 Thales Cloud Security Study, more than a third (39 percent) of businesses experienced a data breach in their cloud environment last year, an increase from the 35 percent reported in 2022. The leading targets for hackers were Software as a Service (SaaS) applications (38 percent) and cloud-based storage (36 percent).

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Sustainability has become one of the largest considerations for businesses worldwide with 96 percent of G250 companies reporting on sustainability or ESG matters. And sustainability cannot, and should not, be forgotten in your IT advancements and digital transformation.

Developing your digital transformation strategy has many considerations, but one that you shouldn’t neglect is the impact it can have on the environment. Integrating sustainability into a digital transformation program is not just about reducing environmental impact -- it's about future-proofing your business, enhancing efficiency, and meeting the expectations of customers and stakeholders in an increasingly eco-conscious world.

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The last 12 months have been seismic for cybersecurity, with successful hacks and breaches continuing to make front-page news. The task of keeping networks and data safe is an ever-evolving one, with hackers and cybersecurity professionals in a constant state of cat-and-mouse as they try to outsmart one another.

Events of the past year, including the widespread adoption of, and interest in, AI, as well as new geopolitical challenges, have had a profound impact. They provide some clues as to what 2024 might hold.

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Data is the most valuable resource for the global enterprise. For any company wanting to remain relevant in today’s competitive business landscape, data needs to be at the center of every business decision, allowing the C-suite to review initiatives, make real-time decisions and if necessary reverse actions. A quick response fueled by real data insights will power and improve the customer experience and product offerings while driving lower prices through better efficiency. Ultimately, this will improve the bottom line and deliver successful outcomes for many organizations.

However, to unlock the true value of data, it is equally important that organizations ensure that confidential data is always secure. To achieve this, the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), who acts as the gatekeeper to data to ensure it is compliant and secure, and the Chief Data Officer (CDO), who aims to unlock and exploit data, have different and competing priorities, yet they must be able to work together towards a common goal to achieve the strategic objectives of the organization and deliver great customer and business outcomes. There are significant benefits to be had when these two role holders work together and huge drawbacks when they don’t. 

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AI is already revolutionizing whole industries and professions. New applications and projects appear regularly across every sector, limited only it seems by the boundary of our own inspiration. That means that AI workloads will be critical to organizations across the board; the question is: how can we ensure AI applications are stable, secure and accessible?

Many companies depend on the trusted backup to ensure fail-safety and security against data loss and outages. From a data protection perspective this makes sense, however, backups aren’t best suited to business continuity and disaster recovery (DR), particularly for the most important data and workloads, such as AI.

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History is littered with knee-jerk legislation, enacted with good intentions and often in response to genuine public fear. If you have ever traveled to the USA, you may be familiar with the I-94W Nonimmigrant Visa Waiver form that must be completed before entry. Among a number of questions asked, one is ‘Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities -- Yes or No’. I’m sure many have often wondered whether those actually involved in such activities would be inclined to tick the ‘Yes’ box. This example effectively illustrates the challenges that all regulators and legislators should ask themselves at the outset, namely:

Are we doing this to address the problem or is it just a knee-jerk reaction to placate journalists and voters? (Remember that line from BBC political comedy Yes Minister -- “He’s suffering from Politician’s Logic. Something must be done, this is something, therefore we must do it.”)

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Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) entered the public consciousness and debate about one year ago. As a science, it goes back several years but as an applicable piece of software, it is very much in its infancy. 

Text, images, and audio can be generated by GenAI models,but their integration into existing software tools worldwide is still in its early stages. Similarly, the majority of business leaders are only talking about GenAI, with some experimenting through proofs of concepts, while a small minority have deployed initial, and usually specific, use cases.

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A sense of urgency to address climate change has led many businesses to commit to carbon neutrality or net-zero emissions by 2030, and many more by 2050, yet just 5 percent of the UK’s biggest companies have said how they plan to get there.

This disconnect between ambition and action is something my firm is out to solve through IT infrastructure. These are five of the biggest sustainability trends I believe businesses must pay attention to in 2024.

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