Latest Technology News

The past twelve months have been tough for a lot of organizations. From inflationary pressures to fears of a global recession, many economists have made pessimistic predictions about the year ahead. As a result, controlling and reducing costs is likely to be the focus for many companies in 2023. 

Yet despite these economic stresses, IT spending has continued to rise. Gartner has estimated businesses spent around $4.5 trillion in 2022, up 3 percent year-on-year. While part of this spend is driven by digital transformation and the adoption of new technologies, a good part comes from unexpected expenses - especially when it comes to cloud where businesses can easily incur heavy costs without realizing it. Research finds that 80 percent of organizations lack awareness of how best to manage cloud computing, leading to overspending of between 20-50 percent. 

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Given we've all been told that it's inevitable that we'll get hacked, or at the least we need to assume that we will, what does this mean for businesses? It's clear that investment in cyber security measures isn't slowing down the attacks, and in 2023 it feels like there's been a significant increase in reported cyberattacks already. And we've only just hit February!

It would also appear that cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated and technologically advanced. Fundamentally, you can't prevent a member of your team from clicking a phishing link, and the attack surface remains expanded due to the current hybrid working arrangements in place at most companies. So, if we are being told to expect an attack, does this shift the emphasis from prevention and defense, onto preparation and response? How would you recover your business?

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The new year began with a curveball. Normally, when economic troubles occur, high unemployment follows. That’s not the case this time around: there are plenty of jobs that still need filling. This has created a rare talent-constrained recession, leading analysts such as Forrester to encourage IT leaders to maintain employee numbers.

This is especially true of companies that have committed significant resources towards creating a positive employee experience. In doing so, they’ve been able to attract candidates and retain skilled personnel. By taking a step back, a hard-earned reputation is tarnished and a useful recruiting tool diminished. The following takes a look at talent issues in the year ahead accompanied by some tips to overcome them.

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Two-factor authentication (2FA) is an important means of securing accounts, making it significantly harder for hackers to gain unauthorized access. So it is perhaps a little surprising that Twitter has announced that it is locking one of the most popular 2FA methods behind a paywall.

The company has announced that SMS-based two-factor authentication will only be available to paying Twitter Blue subscribers. The change will take effect on March 20, and after this date non-paying Twitter users will be limited to securing their account with either an authentication app or a physical security key.

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Spam in your calendar? It’s not something that most of us think about -- the word brings to mind email and phone calls and even just old-fashioned snail mail. But your online calendar is also a very real target and it may be growing worse. 

It’s actually fairly ingenious; a spammer sends an invite to an event and, even if the email invitation goes to your spam folder, the event still goes to your Google Calendar. When you click on the event in your calendar it contains a malicious link. Even if you click 'decline' it can still take you to possible NSFW content, or worse. Plus, declining will simply cross out the appointment and leave the reminder behind.  

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Core banking technology moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss out…

The reduced cost of fintech, and increased functionality of cloud-based "as a service" models can reduce the number of applications a bank is running by 30 to 40 percent, and the cost of ownership by 15 to 20 percent, when compared to traditional financial services IT infrastructure.

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Five-hundred-and-thirty in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days.

Microsoft released an update this week that removed Internet Explorer 11 permanently from most Windows 10 devices. Windows 10 and 11 devices are impacted by a new known issue that affects DirectX.

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While Microsoft would very much prefer that you run Windows 11 on a PC, the company recognizes -- albeit rather reluctantly -- that some people favor Macs. Licensing restrictions have meant that, until now, users have not been permitted to run Windows on Apple Silicon.

Microsoft has published an article that officially permits the use of Parallels Desktop 18 to run Windows 11 on ARM-based Macs. This means that Macs with M1 or M2 chips can be used to run either Windows 11 Pro or Windows 11 Enterprise. There are, however, numerous caveats.

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Another year on the calendar, another guarantee that the technology on which we are so reliant will demonstrate new and largely unanticipated consequences. Perhaps nowhere is this clearer than in the world of cybersecurity. Let's take a brief look at three themes of cybersecurity predictions for 2023.

A is for Autonomy. The automobile industry is the very first thing we think of when we hear "autonomy," and there is no denying the promise of fully automated smart vehicles and how they can improve logistics, personal transport, and last-mile delivery. Through a darker looking glass, while we've seen proofs-of-concept in the past demonstrating unauthorized control of a moving vehicle, look for exploits relating to vehicular data: deliberate obfuscation of real-time geolocation coordinates and tampering of previously recorded data will surface as new areas of mischief for researchers and criminals alike.

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Data science involves analyzing and interpreting large, complex amounts of data and turning it into valuable insight to achieve business goals. Though not exactly a breakthrough field now, it has changed many aspects of how markets conduct business.

In a conversation with Jerry Johnson, founder and president of Marketing Data Science Associates and director of Cascade Strategies, we talk about data science, its applications in marketing, and its future with the emergence of AI.

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Microsoft has released a preview version of the KB5022905 update for Windows 11 which not only fixes a host of bugs, but also adds important new facial recognition functionality.

For now, the update is only available to users running Windows 11 Release Preview, and the KB5022905 update which takes Windows 11 up to build 22000.1639. While there are no security fixes in this update, it addresses a lengthy list of issues.

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If an app starts to misbehave in Windows 11, you may need to forcibly quit it using Task Manager. To help make life a little easier, Microsoft is speeding up the process of killing an app by adding an End Task option to taskbar jump lists.

The new option means that it is possible to terminate an app by simply right-clicking its icon in the taskbar and selecting End Task. The feature is hidden by default, but there is a way to enable it right away.

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Seventy-one percent of logistics companies in the U.K. saw an increase in transportation costs in the first quarter of 2022 when compared to the same period in 2021. Forty percent of companies surveyed reported that the costs had risen by nearly 25 percent.

Enterprises are battling rising shipping costs in a hyper competitive market with an eye on providing end users with top-class consumer experiences. It’s a balancing act that leaves companies walking on a tightrope, trying to juggle between cost and consumer expectations.

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When you think of the brand MSI, you probably picture things like laptops, desktops, motherboards, and other PC accessories. MSI products are legendary with the PC gaming community. While MSI is not a name you would normally associate with networking gear, the company is looking to change that by launching two all new wireless gaming routers.

Called "RadiX AXE6600," this Tri-band Wi-Fi 6E router has six external antennas that all feature RGB lighting. Yes, folks, you can customize the light colors on this router. The RGB can even be used to indicate the in-use QoS mode. The router has four Gigabit LAN ports and a 2.5G WAN port. You also get a USB-A port.

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In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has become an increasingly important area for businesses as more and more companies look to connect their products and services to the internet to deliver new experiences and unlock new revenue streams and capabilities. In Eseye's Annual State of IoT Adoption survey, over three-quarters (76 percent) of respondents said that IoT is a priority for their business in the next two to three years. 

However, the design of hardware, firmware, and coding connectivity management software into IoT devices are all highly specialist areas. These three core components require significant specialized knowledge and expertise. A considerable skills gap in the industry makes it difficult for businesses to successfully design, develop, and deploy IoT estates. 

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