Articles about 2017

More than 20,000 new vulnerabilities were cataloged in 2017 according to breach analysis specialist Risk Based Security.

The figures from the company's own VulnDB eclipsed the total covered by MITRE's Common Vulnerability Enumeration (CVE) and the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) by more than 7,900.

Continue reading →

Barely a week seemed to go by in 2017 without news of a new data breach exposing customer or commercial data.

But just how bad was it? File transfer specialist Ipswitch has put together an infographic looking at the year in breaches.

Continue reading →

Almost two billion data records were either lost or stolen in the first half of this year, according to a new report by Gemalto.

The company found that 1.9 billion records were lost or stolen during the first half of 2017 -- more than in the whole of last year, and equivalent to 10,439,560 records per day -- or roughly 3,000 whilst you read these few sentences.

Continue reading →

The International Data Company (IDC) has just released its latest spending estimates for the Internet of Things (IoT), and the research firm predicts that investments will grow by 16.7 percent in 2017 to almost $800 billion.

Global IoT spending is expected to hit nearly $1.4 trillion by the year 2021 as a result of enterprise investments in IoT software, services, connectivity and hardware.

Continue reading →

Worldwide IT spending will jump another 1.4 percent this year, according to a new report by Gartner. The report says IT spending is expected to hit $3.5 trillion this year. A quarter before, the increase was 2.7 percent, but the difference occurred mostly due to the strengthening of the US dollar.

"The strong US dollar has cut $67 billion out of our 2017 IT spending forecast," says John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. "We expect these currency headwinds to be a drag on earnings of US-based multinational IT vendors through 2017."

Continue reading →

"What leads you to believe that Bitcoin will top £3K in 2017?" The answer does not lie in an analysis of macro-economic or monetary theory but in a more interesting understanding of human behavior. An understanding of human behavior and motivation, similar to that which lead Steve Jobs to develop the products he did and the digital marketing system of today. But first, let’s rewind.

Six months ago, before the Brexit vote, when the world seemed a safe and steady place, I put forward the theory that Bitcoin would surpass gold as the safe haven currency. While I pondered this theory, I realized that given the right conditions digital currencies can only trend up in value. The date was late April 2016, I had just been paid, so I went online and spent all that month’s wages on Bitcoins. I'm not a gambler and I’ve never invested in shares. But this was a sure thing.

Continue reading →

The technology industry is full of jargon and buzzwords, which, if you’re not in the club, can often feel like a foreign language. When it comes to communicating new technologies and processes to other parts of the business, IT professionals need to be careful when translating these buzzwords into human-speak if they want to avoid a confused, blank look. It’s this confusion that results in a data breach, shadow IT activity, or missing out on investment in new IT equipment.

Whether it’s to educate yourself or others, we’ve de-coded the buzzwords. Now the next time someone asks you "what the blockchain you’re on about," rather than giving them SaaS, you can breakdown the meaning, benefit, and importance.

Continue reading →

Following the release of flagship devices such as the iPhone 7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 in 2016, water resistant handsets are now the fastest growing segment in the smartphone industry. But, what does this mean for handset design in 2017?

Let's take a look at recent research from IDC and explain how hydrophobic nano-coating technology can support OEMs when looking to incorporate this increasingly sought after feature.

Continue reading →

A lot can happen in 12 months. Last year, bots exploded into the mainstream, and adoption was rapid. For example, over $1.5 billion was invested in AI startups; Microsoft has over 35,000 bot developers on its platform; The Economist even asked if bots are the new apps.

As with any technology that grows so quickly in such a short amount of time, sometimes we need to take a step back. Last year, we saw bots enter the home through the likes of Amazon Echo’s Alexa and Google Assistant, and this paved the way for more bots to be introduced to our everyday lives. So what happens next?

Continue reading →

Gartner has tweaked its IT spending predictions for 2017, and now says the three percent increase in spending is not exactly realistic. It's going to be less -- 2.7 percent to be exact, which is still a positive prognosis, keeping in mind we're talking about growth.

The reduced spending is mostly to blame on the "wait-and-see" approach many companies are taking, caused by political and economic uncertainty.

Continue reading →

Last year, more than a few stories didn’t make headlines that I thought should have. Whether they weren’t sexy or sensational enough for mainstream news channels, I don’t know.

My inner Nostradamus is telling me that the trend will continue and, therefore, I’m predicting seven storylines that should be covered in 2017, but that most likely will never cross your daily news feeds.

Continue reading →

I couldn’t put it off any longer so here are my technology predictions for 2017. I’ve been reading over my predictions from past years and see a fundamental change in structure over that time, going from an emphasis on products to an emphasis on companies. This goes along, I’d say, with the greater business orientation of this column. That makes sense with a maturing market and mature industries and also with the fact that a fair number of readers are here mainly as investors, something that didn’t used to be so much the case.

Of course we begin with a look at my predictions from a year ago to see how I did. Almost nobody in my line of work does this, pointing out their own mistakes, but then I always have been kind of stupid about my career. So here we go.

Continue reading →

It’s that time of the year again: when the great and good of the cybersecurity industry reach for their crystal balls to anticipate what the threat landscape might look like in the next 12 months. We all know cybercriminals by and large don’t operate to annual deadlines.

But December still represents a good opportunity for us to point out what might be coming down the road. It’s what Trend Micro’s 1,200-strong global threat research team does all year round to ensure we’re prepared for anything the black hats can throw at us. The good news for the UK’s CISOs is that much of what we’ll see is a steady evolution from threats that will already be familiar to many. The bad news: that won’t make them any less dangerous.

Continue reading →

Could 2017 be any more turbulent than 2016? Some would argue that because of last year’s unprecedented surprises, fluctuating markets and politics and real-world events, this year couldn’t possibly offer any more shocks.

In the midst of all of this, the technology world continues unabated, with the FinTech sector holding some exciting new developments for the year ahead. Here are four themes within the FinTech sector to keep an eye on in 2017:

Continue reading →

The messaging landscape has seen big changes in 2016, and its evolution is set to continue over the next 12 months. Omnichannel has been around for a while, but 2016 in particular has seen the concept truly take flight and become a key player in the growth of messaging.

With instant messaging apps making more noise, and adding larger enterprises to their commercial list, the developments in chatbots, and ever-expanding IoT, 2017 is set to see more activity in the communications ecosystem than ever before. Here are some of the things that will happen over the next 12 months, to shape omnichannel strategies of the future.

Continue reading →