Countering the risk of ransomware with operational continuity
In recent years, organizations all over the world have been hit by increasingly sophisticated ransomware attacks. For some, the impact is so severe that normal business operations experience major disruption with a knock-on effect on customers and revenue. For others, the impact can last weeks or even months as they seek to restore IT services and access to vital data.
Since the start of last year, for example, organizations across a huge range of sectors -- from oil and gas to food -- have seen their services impacted by ransomware. KP Snacks suffered an incident that brought its supply chain to a halt, with the company unable to process orders and dispatch products. And most recently of all, The Works, a retailer with over 500 stores across the UK, was forced to close some outlets after an employee reportedly fell victim to a phishing email that introduced ransomware to their infrastructure.
How to continue the growth of open source in the UK
Open source adoption rates are growing globally, with non-propriety code proving to be both efficient and cost-effective for a variety of organizations. Approximately 82 percent of IT decision-makers are more likely to choose a vendor that actively gives back to the open source community, according to a recent report from Red Hat. In the UK in particular, much of the reason for this open source drive is down to increased public cloud usage, the growing demand for rapid digital transformation and a greater understanding of open source’s cybersecurity resilience.
To help continue this open source upsurge in a sustainable manner, organizations utilizing the technology need to be contributing back to the community, to best enable the development of the technology.
How the Ukraine-Russia conflict affects international remote employment
Russia invading Ukraine is just the latest large-scale crisis and source of consternation on the world stage. The effects of a lingering pandemic, decimated economies and the threat of spiraling global war add up to a fraught situation for employees, recruiters, managers and business leaders.
This is a brief look at how the Ukraine-Russia conflict is affecting the stability, availability, culture and safety of international remote employment.
Chipotle's metaverse ambitions
I recently read a thorough review and watched a playthrough of Chipotle’s new Roblox metaverse game. I use the word "game" here extremely loosely, even though I have the widest palate for games you can imagine. I've played everything from Gameboy to NES, mobile free-to-play to PC, and my newest obsession: the PS5. Though Chipotle’s new Burrito Builder has all the trappings of a mobile game, it has the potential to be much more.
For those who missed it, the new Chipotle game allows players to take on the thrilling challenge of making burritos for digital customers. That’s right -- you get to be an employee at Chipotle in the metaverse, and they’re calling it a game. If making burritos isn’t that fun for you, you can take on the side quest to deliver them as well.
4 steps to convince a big brand to partner with you
Is it a partnership with Salesforce you dream about? Do you want to get involved with Nike? Innovative startups have never been in a better position to strike partnerships with big industry players. But there are a few things that can help you along the way.
It can seem like an impossible feat for small businesses to partner with household names when you aren't that well known yet. However, If you have built some brand recognition in their industry and audience, getting a big brand to notice you can be easier than you might think.
5G and the metaverse
The metaverse is a concept that has been around for decades and to many sounds like science fiction: a parallel, virtual universe in which we live our lives as if in a video game. However, recent advances in technology mean that this fiction is becoming a reality. Countless technological components that will make up the metaverse already exist today, and society is increasingly preconditioned to virtual and augmented experiences.
The creation of a parallel digital world opens the doors for organizations to create new experiences for businesses and consumers, and we can expect companies to provide virtual content and services from education to entertainment, medicine to fashion. The possibilities go on as network technologies continuously grow stronger, telecommunication providers offer more tailored offerings, and connectivity becomes interwoven in enterprise operations at all levels.
The race against hackers to secure EV cyber-grid
The electric vehicle (EV) revolution is here. After decades of hype, EVs are finally starting to get their day in the sun. In the last ten years, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles have grown from 16,000 to over 2 million vehicles, and auto executives expect over 50 percent of US vehicles to be all-electric by 2030.
It is not hard to see why experts make such an optimistic prediction. In addition to the growing fleet of EVs, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal signed earlier this year will include $7.5 billion to help plan and build an extensive network of EV charging stations across the country, a task critical to ensuring full adoption of the technology. It took decades for the current network of gas stations to stretch from one end of the U.S. to the other, and a similar process is now underway for EV charging stations. An infrastructure project of this size requires thorough planning and significant investment, after all.
How technology can inspire teamwork and collaboration
The way we work is always evolving, and it makes sense that where and how we work would also change. Office working isn't for everyone and there is a lot more to consider than only your morning commute.
Enter collaborative technologies and with them, a boom in users per day by the millions. Companies are becoming more flexible and accessible to their employees and partners. It has become clear that maintaining an enjoyable working environment is crucial, even when workers are not sat within reach of each other.
How has UK tech evolved to achieve such landmark success?
The past decade has been a period of sustained growth for the UK tech sector. But it has also seen the industry evolve remarkably -- something that has been apparent to those working within it.
It was reported only last month the sector had surpassed a milestone $1 trillion valuation, becoming only the third country to do so behind rival giants China and the US. Naturally, this puts the UK at the top of Europe’s digital food chain.
Screen grabbing utility Screenpresso 2.0 features improved video capture and better multi-monitor support
For some people, taking screen grabs is a simple matter of hitting Print Screen and pasting the contents of the clipboard into an image editor, while others with slightly greater needs may turn to Windows' Snipping Tool. While of these options are fine, they are both quite limited, and this is why the likes of Screenpresso remain important utilities.
For the uninitiated, Screenpresso is an advanced screen capture tool that makes it possible to take grabs of what you see on your screen -- but it includes a huge range of tools and options that make it stand out from the competition. The app can also be used to capture video footage, and with the release of Screenpresso 2.0.0 even more powerful special features help take your screen grabbing to the next level.
The benefits of implementing a multi-layered ransomware defense strategy
Ransomware is becoming a risk that UK organizations cannot afford to take, with rising financial and operational costs. A staggering 75 percent of UK organizations were targeted by ransomware in 2021, and where these attacks were successful, most (82 percent) paid the ransom. This makes the UK the most likely country in the world to make ransom payments. As cybercriminal strategies evolve to bypass traditional network-based defenses, a multi-layered ransomware defense strategy is vital for organizations to protect their mission-critical data.
First, it’s important for us to understand the typical defense strategies that attackers have adapted to, in order to appreciate the rationale for the boost in cyber protection. And, we need to understand the rising costs of these incidents, to prove the business value of initiatives that are aimed at prioritizing prevention and detection of cyber-attacks before they occur. It’s not just a quick fix -- failure to implement these solutions can affect your profitability, reputation and even put your company out of business.
No code test automation is a game changer
Manual testing of software, no matter how rigorous, poses significant risks to businesses that rely on it. It is time-consuming, prone to human error, and extremely difficult to scale effectively. So why then, when enterprises are increasingly turning to automation to speed up digital transformation, is only 15 percent of software testing currently automated?
Let’s look first at why manual testing is no longer suited to the needs of today’s businesses. With the ever-increasing speed of software development and customization, relying on manual testing alone won’t allow a business to scale effectively. The resource-heavy and time-consuming nature of manual testing can lead to slower release cycles, with companies being forced to cut corners, or not test all their software appropriately. This in turn can lead to systems breaking, and businesses failing to operate as they should. The surge in digital transformation and increased pressure on IT teams has only heightened this challenge, with software needing to be tested 24/7, while everything continues to change.
The one cloud threat everyone is missing
Ask security professionals to name the biggest threat to their organizations' cloud environments, and most won’t hesitate to give a one-word answer: misconfigurations. Technically, they’re not incorrect, yet they’re defining "misconfiguration" much too narrowly. They’re likely thinking of an Amazon S3 bucket that’s left exposed or a misconfigured security group rule. While identifying and remediating misconfigurations must be a priority, it’s important to understand that misconfigurations are but one means to the ultimate end for attackers: control plane compromise, which has played a central role in every major cloud breach to date.
Considering the steady cadence of news headlines tying cloud breaches to misconfigurations over the last several years, it’s understandable that finding and fixing misconfigurations has been the primary focus of security professionals and their solutions vendors.
Adopting big data for business intelligence
It’s hardly contested nowadays that business intelligence is beneficial to any organization, regardless of industry. Data optimization and governance have been shown to produce better decision-making in the long-term.
That doesn’t mean data implementations have been perfect. Some companies have been failing efforts to become data-driven at a much larger scale than one would expect. Others, however, are rushing ahead and have begun using external data sources en masse.
Why are businesses slow on the uptake with logistics tech?
The incremental growth of eCommerce has accelerated significantly in recent years, with national lockdowns raising the profile of online retail to the status of truly rivaling traditional high street retail in every workable sector.
As a proportion of total retail, the UK’s eCommerce sector commands 27.8 percent of all sales as of February 2022, up from 22.7 percent before the pandemic. The figure was as high as 37.7 percent in November 2020, owing to a convergence of lockdowns and peak retail season.
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