Cyber-attacks costing the UK economy £147 billion a year
Apparently, 1.8 million of UK’s businesses have been victims of a cyber-attack, and that costs the country’s economy more than £147 billion, in the last year alone. This is according to a new report by Gareth Bacon, GLA Conservative London Assembly, entitled Safe & Secure: Protecting London’s data.
Pretty much all businesses affected by these security breaches -- 99 percent of them -- are small businesses, counting 249 employees, or less. With that in mind, the report proposes a Mayoral Standard for data security, helping London consumers and businesses protect themselves from cyber-attacks.
UK businesses report 88 percent more breaches
It's not that there are less data breaches lately -- it's that they're not being disclosed. That's basically what Huntsman Security is saying, after it requested data about error and breaches in security through the Freedom of Information Act. Between April 2015, and March 2016, a total of 2,048 incidents were reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
This represents a jump of 88 percent, as the year before, there were a total of 1,089 reported incidents.
How much does it cost to start a business in UK?
How much money do you think it needs to kickstart a business in UK? A couple of thousands? Maybe go straight into five figures? Wrong. According to a new report by cloud accounting software provider FreeAgent, you probably don't need any money.
The company surveyed micro-business owners and freelancers in the UK, and according to the results 44 percent of business starters required no funds at all. Almost the exact same percentage (43 percent) used their personal savings, and that was enough. Four percent borrowed money from friends or family, two percent used either credit card or bank loan, while just one percent used government assistance.
UK tech salaries continue to grow
Salaries for tech jobs in the UK are still rising in the second quarter of the year, despite the fact that the number of jobs in the industry is slowly declining. This is according to a new report by Dice, the online career site for the technology community.
Together with Watch, it lists the most wanted jobs and skills in the industry. The two companies say cloud and security skills are still most wanted, both in permanent and contract roles.
Apple's iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are the best selling smartphones in US
Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge's reign as the most popular smartphones in US in the three months ending May was short lived, as the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus climbed to the top of the sales chart in the second quarter of 2016. Perhaps it's not all doom and gloom for Apple's flagships.
The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus accounted for 15.1 percent of the smartphones sold in Q2, while Samsung's flagships only made up 14.1 percent of sales, according to a new report from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Previous figures were 14.6 percent and 16 percent, respectively.
Brexit has little impact on UK's IT jobs market
The Brexit vote is yet to make a more significant impact in the UK’s tech job market, according to a new Dice report. The career site for the tech community surveyed 1,200 UK tech professionals and recruiters, and found that people are generally not making any dramatic movements because of Brexit.
It says that just above a fifth (22 percent) changed their career plans since Brexit. While more than half think a positive vote on the referendum would have a negative impact on the UK’s tech job market, 44 percent say they’re now looking for a new job in the EU.
Addressing the STEM skills gap in UK
UK's Science and Technology Committee recently published a report stating that the digital skills gap is costing the UK economy £63 billion a year in lost GDP. It’s a time of turbulent change, both politically and economically and fostering home grown talent with the most up to date digital skills is more important than ever.
We caught up with Julian Wragg, EMEA Managing Director at online IT learning provider Pluralsight, to see what can be done to address the STEM and IT skills gap in the UK.
UK workers would like a six-hour workday
Some 11 million workers in the UK would very much like to see a six-hour workday, according to a new report by remote working solutions company, TeamViewer.
TeamViewer says workers believe a six-hour workday would improve their work - life balance, and reduce their stress levels. Productivity is also expected to increase.
82 percent of Brits use the internet every day
Adults in Great Britain are using the internet more than ever before according to new figures released by the government's Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The internet was used daily or almost daily by 82 percent of adults (41.8 million) in Britain in 2016, up from 78 percent (39.3 million) in 2015 and 35 percent (16.2 million) in 2006 when statistics were first collected.
Cyber security is not a priority for most UK businesses
Despite the constant warnings experts keep giving out to businesses concerning cyber-security, UK’s firms won’t be prioritizing it in the next 12 months.
This is according to a new quarterly survey by Close Brothers. Its key takeaway is that 63 percent of companies decided not to invest in better security, while the other 37 percent decided to do so.
Advanced technology is not in the cards for small UK businesses
The UK might be a leader in advanced technology, such as driverless cars or 3D printing, but the majority of small organizations in the country don’t believe they’ll be using advanced technology any time soon.
Those are the results of a new study by Axa Insurance.
US and UK facing IT 'talent crisis'
Both the UK and the US are in serious need of cyber-security talent, as there are hundreds of thousands of job vacancies in this industry that won’t be filled any time soon.
This is according to a new report by Intel Security and CSIS, which polled businesses all over the world. There is a "talent crisis" in Australia, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico, US and UK.
O2 customer information available for sale on the dark web
O2 customer data has been found available for sale on the dark web, most likely as a result of a hack that occurred several years ago.
The gaming website XSplit was hacked three years ago and those responsible for the hack were able to obtain usernames and passwords from the site. Through the process of credential stuffing, in which account credentials acquired through a hack are tested on multiple websites, the hackers were able to gain access and log into O2 accounts.
Teradata buys Big Data Partnership
US-based data analytics company Teradata has acquired UK-founded Big Data Partnership. Maria Wagner, investment director at Beringea hopes the deal will serve as an inspiration to British startups that the global market is still open to them, despite Brexit results.
Founded in 2012 by Mike Merritt-Holmes, Pinal Gandhi and Tim Seears, Big Data Partnership’s goal is to help businesses use the power of complex data. Two years ago, they got £1.2 million in a Series A funding, which was led by Beringea, transatlantic venture and growth investor. In a Series B round, in May 2015, Beringea again led to a total of £3.1m investment.
Amazon gets government approval to test 'Prime Air' delivery drones in the UK
When Amazon initially announced that it wanted to make deliveries by drone, the world became very curious. The media jumped on the story, of course, driving people to get both excited and anxious about the possibilities.
Like many things, however, the USA government bureaucracy stifled our drone delivery dreams, somewhat. While I am all for safety and testing, I hate to see progress move at a snail's pace. The UK Government seems a bit more open to the unmanned delivery idea, as it is now working with Amazon to begin testing these drones in the nation as a delivery method.
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