Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites may soon face lawsuits alleging that the way their algorithms work may be a factor in causing mental illness in some users. A Defective Product? In the US, a reported consolidation of lawsuits across multiple districts that are rumoured to......
With OpenAI’s ChatGPT making the headlines and quickly becoming a useful tool for many businesses, here we look at some of the more novel ways to use this innovative technology. 20 Ways Here are 20 ways to use ChatGPT that you may not have heard......
OpenAI and Microsoft have announced that they are extending their partnership to work on more AI research and development. What Is Open AI? OpenAI is a San Franciso based research organisation/capped-profit company that develops and promotes ‘friendly’ AI. Their research focuses on creating and promoting......
In this article, we look at how significant job cuts and other factors are evidence of a tech recession, what the causes are, plus what tech businesses can do to survive and move forward. Tech Recession Evidence – Job Cuts Much of the evidence of......
Security researchers have reported observing a threat actor using widespread, ongoing Google Ads campaigns to spread malware, steal passwords, and breach networks for ransomware attacks. It’s been reported that the ads feature websites for popular programs, like LightShot, Rufus, 7-Zip, FileZilla, LibreOffice, AnyDesk, Awesome Miner,......
Blockchain data platform Chainanalysis has reported that cybercriminals have seen a 40 per cent fall in their earnings as more people have refused to pay the ransom following ransomware attacks. More Strains With Shorter Lifespans However, the number of unique ransomware strains being used in......
22 passengers experienced the UK’s first full-size autonomous bus for the first time as part of a testing process by Stagecoach, the UK’s largest bus and coach operator. Trial Over The Forth Bridge The ground-breaking trial of a full-size autonomous single-decker bus, carrying a mixture......
Here we look at the trend of ‘job boomeranging’, the reasons why the trend occurred, and why businesses may choose to re-hire boomerangers. What Is It? Job boomeranging refers to when an employee leaves a company and then returns to work for the same company......
In this feature, we look at what is known as ‘Davos’ is, why it exists, plus how it can help the worlds of business and technology. What Is It? The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an annual meeting held in Davos, a small ski resort......
PayPal has confirmed that nearly 35,000 users may have been affected following a data breach between December 6 and December 8, 2022. The suspected ‘credential stuffing’ attack may have meant that details like users’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers, tax ID numbers, and/or dates of......
This second part of ‘Why Use Outsourced IT Support?’ focuses on what kind of questions to ask when looking for your ideal outsourced IT support company. 10 Important Questions Here, we’ll focus on 10 important questions (although you may have others) and the reasons why......
Following a recent case where a remote worker was fined for ‘time theft’, we look at what it is, the legal and ethical aspects, and how it relates to employee monitoring software. What Is Time Theft? ‘Time theft’ refers to any instance in which an......
A new AI feature for Nvidia’s Broadcast client will overlay your eyes with some deepfake ones which are always looking at the camera. Eye Contact Feature The ‘Eye Contact’ feature has been designed to make users/content creators look more engaged while video conferencing or during......
Consumer champion Which? says that high-end smart products may lose features and functionality, or become a hacking risk, after as little as two years because manufacturers may stop tech updates. Stopping The Smart Updates Limits Lifespan Which? says it discovered the risk after analysing smart......
Users of Zoho ManageEngine are being urged to patch their instances against a critical security vulnerability prior to the release of a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit code. Zoho recently released a security advisory about multiple ManageEngine products saying it relates to “an unauthenticated remote code execution......
In this feature, we look at some of the most prominent tech trends for 2023 and how businesses could benefit from them. A Dozen Key Tech Trends Here are as dozen key tech trends to watch this year. 1. Satellite mobile connections and satellite broadband are expected......
Although figures show no bank robberies last year in Denmark, it appears online banking fraud and other forms of digital crime are now replacing the traditional ‘hold-up’. Why No Bank Robberies? It is believed that the recent Danish bank association ‘Finans Danmark’ figures showing no......
Looking at this question in two parts, here we’ll be firstly looking at the pros and cons of opting for outsourced IT support. The Popularity Of Outsourced IT Support A considerable number of businesses in the UK now use outsourced IT support, as outsourcing has......
Iridium, a satellite phone company, and Qualcomm, a chip manufacturer, are partnering to bring satellite connectivity to premium Android smartphones later in the year. Connect To Satellites The Partnership will mean that in areas where there is no mobile coverage, users will be able to......
Hackers from ‘Vice Society’ have stolen confidential pupil data from 14 UK schools and leaked the data online on the dark web. A variety of documents and data were stolen during the attacks in 2021 and 2022 including SEN information, child passport scans, staff pay......
In this insight, we look at some of the ways to avoid the potential awkwardness of ‘tipsy texting’ over the Christmas period. Regrets… I’ve Had A Few A 2015 study (Dunne, Katz), for example, showed that 89 percent of participants said they’d sent a drunk......
In this article, we look at what ChatGPT is, what it can do, and what type of businesses could get the most out of it. What Is ChatGPT? Released by OpenAI in November 2022, ChatGPT is a free, text-based AI Chatbot that can answer questions, write......
It’s been reported that global logistics firm DHL is using “a good number” of leased robots to help it deal with high demand over the Christmas period. What For … And Where? The Wall Street Journal has reported that DHL is using leased robots for package handling......
Microsoft has retained the No.1 spot in Drucker Institute’s annual Management Top 250 ranking for the best-run companies in the U.S. for the third year in a row, while rankings for some other tech companies have slipped. Top Five Not All Tech This Year One of......
It’s been reported that kernel-mode hardware drivers that have been certified (signed) by Microsoft’s Windows Hardware Developer Program have been used maliciously in post-exploitation cyber attacks, i.e. where the attacker had already gained administrative privileges on compromised systems. The attacks have been linked to known......
As part of Project Gigabit, the UK government has announced a trial of Starlink satellite broadband in the Lake District as part of wider plans to connect highly remote areas. What Is Starlink? Starlink, operated by billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX company uses a constellation of......
Here, we look at more of the rapid changes at Twitter, what the reaction has been, how this has affected the platform, plus the wider implications. All Change The beginning of Twitter’s (current) saga was when the world’s richest man, Tesla and SpaceX founder, Elon......
The Government’s decision to amend the Online Safety Bill to allow ‘legal but harmful’ content has received a mixed reaction with criticism coming from The Samaritans. What Is The Online Safety Bill? The UK government’s Online Safety Bill, originally proposed by former PM Teresa May,......
With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launching India’s first pilot for a retail digital rupee (e₹-R/eINR/E-Rupee) this month, we look at what this means and what the benefits could be. Why? The pilot will help to decide whether India could intrpduce one of the......
The German Data Protection Conference (DSK) has banned the use of Microsoft Office 365 in German schools over an alleged lack of transparency about how personal data is processed, and the potential for third-party access to it. The ban has also been issued because the......
The announcement by San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors to allow the city’s police to use robots that can deploy “deadly force” in the fight against crime has been met with concern. What Killer Robots? According to a San Francisco Police Department policy document, the city......
A report from Seagate has highlighted how the rising costs of storing and managing data is hitting businesses hard. One-Third Of Company Budgets The report highlights how up to a third of company IT budgets are being eaten up by data management and storage costs......
In this insight, we look at what ‘quiet quitting’ is, what its causes are, together with what could be done to prevent it. Quiet Quitting? Quiet quitting is a term commonly associated with employment where it refers to how workers decide to only do the......
Following news of the collapse of FTX, we look at what it was plus the events leading up to its demise and the effects going forward. FTX FTX, until very recently, was a Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange, founded in 2019 which at its peak (July 2021) had more......
Password app company LastPass has reported a second data breach that may be related to a previous breach in August where source code and some proprietary LastPass technical information were taken. The company has reported that in this most recent attack, a threat actor using......
In this insight, we take a closer look at the new alternative positioning system to GPS that is accurate to within an incredible 10 centimetres. Issues With Current GPS System Society heavily relies on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) like GPS for positioning and navigation,......
A Helsinki startup has developed a ‘Medicine-as-a-Service’ system where drugs can be 3D printed to exactly match the needs of the patient in terms of their size, physiology, species, plus any allergies. CurifyLabs According to CurifyLabs, the startup that has created the system, there is......
Following the UK government’s decision back in June 2020 to remove all Huawei Equipment From 5G Network Cores, the deadline has now been pushed back to December 2023. Why Remove Huawei Equipment? The decision to remove the equipment in the UK dates back to the......
Following a copyright lawsuit against an AI code generator and industry questions about who actually owns images made by AI text-to-image generators, we look at the legal issues (and others) surrounding generative AI. The Issue The recent lawsuit and questions from coders, artists, musicians, and......
According to a Cybernews report, it has been alleged on a hacking community forum that 487 million WhatsApp user phone numbers from 84 countries, including the UK, are for sale online as part of a database which may have come from a breach. It’s been......
WhatsApp has given a progress update on new business-focused features that can embed the entire shopping experience directly into the WhatsApp chat. Find A Business – Browse Businesses By Category WhatsApp says that it is launching a new ‘Business Search’ feature. This allows users to......
Speaking in the House of Commons, UK chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt said that Brexit “freedoms” could be leveraged to “turn Britain into the world’s next Silicon Valley.” How? Mr Hunt highlighted artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technology and robotics as key areas he believes the UK could......
Following the roll-out of a range of new features for Google’s Maps, Search and shopping, we take a look at what they are and what benefits they could bring to users. Two New Features For Shopping It’s the ideal time of year to introduce new......
After a new report published which says that most business leaders plan to increase investment in sustainability initiatives to protect against disruption, we look at what this means. Report A recent Gartner report highlighted how 86 per cent of business leaders plan to increase their......
After analysis of 1,237 Google Chrome extensions available via the Chrome Web Store, researchers from data protection company Incogni concluded in a recent report that almost half (48.6 per cent) have a high or very high-risk impact. This means that they may be storing sensitive,......
Following announcements that Twitter under Musk will generate revenue by blue tick subscriptions, we look at what this means and at the blue tick chaos that followed the announcement. What Is this ‘Blue Tick’ ? Twitter’s paid-for Blue service, launched last year, is a subscription......
Meta has announced that it is laying off a masive 13 per cent of its workforce globally in re-structuring market uncertainty about the Metaverse vision. Losses Lead To Layoffs Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced the 11,000-employee layoff from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram,......
Amazon is reported to be testing the machine learning ‘Sparrow’ robot arm that could handle 65 percent of its 100+ million diverse parcels. Challenge Although Amazon already uses robot arms called ‘Robin’ and ‘Cardinal’ to re-direct boxed-up pre-delivery items around its warehouses, the challenge has......
Zoom has announced that its new (beta) productivity tools, Zoom Mail and Calendar (clients and Services), combined with its existing features will mean that workers will have everything they need in one app. Give Workers A ‘Toggle Tax’ Break Zoom says that the new productivity......
Check Point’s latest Global Threat Index has highlighted how three particular malware families (info-stealers) made up approaching a fifth (16 per cent) of global detections in September. These are AgentTesla (RAT malware) that affected 7 percent of organisations, SnakeKeylogger, a Modular .NET keylogger and credential......
Privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch has filed a complaint to the ICO that the face recognition search engine PimEyes may be unlawful, plus it could be enabling surveillance and stalking. What Is PimEyes? PimEyes is a search engine that uses facial recognition technology to......
Meta’s WhatsApp has announced the global rollout of it ‘Communities’ feature along with in-chat polls, 32-person video calling, and groups with up to 1024 users. Communities The Communities feature, for iOS and Android, allows users to connect multiple groups, e.g. schools, local clubs, non-profit organisations,......
In this insight, we look at how you can use voice commands to carry out tasks in Windows, plus how speech recognition technology can be used for voice control of different systems and devices. How Does Speech / Voice Recognition Work? Voice commands can be......
Here we look at what Matter 1.0 is, its advantages for the IoT and setting up a smart home (or office), and what its current limitations are. What Is Matter? Released just recently this October, Matter 1.0 is the new open standard that resolves interoperability......
Avanan researchers have warned that threat actors could send a phishing email through Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Customer Voice CRM tool. This could be done by disguising it as an important voicemail from the customer where the “Play Voicemail” button redirects the victims to a phishing......
Microsoft’s Social media platform LinkedIn has announced the introduction of new security features to help verify, identity, detect, and remove fake accounts, all aimed at boosting authenticity. Problem With Fake Accounts Back in April, researchers from the Stanford Internet Observatory reported finding more than one......
A recent Uswitch.com study has concluded that 5G connectivity has been overhyped, with many users yet to experience any real improvements in mobile speed or reliability. Overstated The study found that: – One in six mobile users felt the power of 5G technology had been......
In this insight, we look at what a ‘Discord server’ is, how to set one up, and the pros and cons of Discord servers. What Is It? Launched in 2015, ‘Discord’ (https://discord.com/) is a (free to access) voice, video and text chat app where users......
After finally buying Twitter, firing the CEO, dissolving the Board, plus naming himself sole director and “Chief Twit,” we look at what’s happening at Twitter and where it could be heading. Twitter Takeover Following many months of negotiations, Tesla founder, Space X boss and world’s......
Google has rolled-out an emergency security update for its Chrome web browser to fix an exploited zero-day “confusion” flaw in in the V8 JavaScript engine, i.e. a confusion between object types in the part that executes JavaScript code. For this (seventh) zero-day in Google Chrome......
(ISC)2’s 2022 Cybersecurity Workforce Study has highlighted how the workplace skills gap, particularly the gap in the number of cyber security professionals, has grown by 26.2 per cent in the last year. All Time High – But Still Not Enough The study revealed that even......
Following a BBC report which suggested that TikTok was making money from families in Syrian camps begging for donations on its platform, we take a closer look at what’s happened and what’s being done about it. The Report The much publicised, recent BBC report followed......
Concordium Blockchain, COBRA, Aarhus University, the Alexandra Institute, and the IT University in Greenland have been given DKK 3.6 million (by DIREC) to research a blockchain-based online voting system for Greenland. What Is Blockchain & Why Might It Be Good For A Voting System? Blockchain......
New research from Gartner suggests that companies may be planning to increase their IT spend to help them meet the challenges of a recession. The Recession Following the worst bout of inflation for 40 years and a shrinking economy, in September the Bank of England......
