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 thousand fake ‘virtual’ employees with AI-generated faces on the LinkedIn platform. In August, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance tweeted that “LinkedIn has 7000 profiles of ‘Binance employees’, of which only 50 or so are real.” In June, it was reported that even the FBI was concerned about it and was investigating the threat caused by the fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes on LinkedIn.

All this appeared to prompt a report back in June by LinkedIn’s Vice President of Product Management, Oscar Rodriguez, of a rise in fraudulent activity. At the time, although Mr Rodruguez assured users that a combination of AI and LinkedIn’s security experts could stop 96 per cent of detected fake accounts and 99.1 per cent of detected spam and scams before they went live, he also urged users to report any activity that they suspected was a scam, and to be careful who they connected with.

New Security Measures 

LinkedIn’s latest announcement highlights new security features designed to tackle fake profiles and scammers on the platform. The social media company says the new features and systems will help users “make more informed decisions” about members they interact with and enhance the “automated systems that keep inauthentic profiles and activity off our platform.” 

The new features are:

– The ‘About this profile’ feature which shows users when a profile was created and last updated, along with whether the member has verified a phone number and/or work email associated with their account.

– A new ‘deep-learning-based model’ to check profile photo uploads to determine if an image is AI-generated and to enable the detection and removal of fake accounts.

– The addition of a warning to some LinkedIn messages that include high-risk content to help protect users from falling victim to scams on the platform.

When? 

Although LinkedIn hasn’t given an exact date for the introduction of these new features it has said that they will be tested and rolled out globally over the next few weeks.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Reports were mounting earlier this year that LinkedIn appeared to be getting overrun with fake accounts, some of them now “deepfakes” and users were facing the threat of being targeted by scammers. Also, the platform was getting some unwelcome publicity about it, with even the FBI reportedly investigating. With LinkedIn focusing on businesses and making its money from advertising, recruitment services, and membership privileges, this was clearly potentially damaging to the platform’s reputation and revenue. It is not surprising, therefore, that LinkedIn made an announcement in June to re-assure users, and has now announced the introduction of these new features, specifically designed to tackle fake profiles and their associated scams.

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 overstated.

– Less than half of those surveyed said they had seen any noticeable speed or reliability improvements since upgrading.

– There is a divide between urban and rural areas. For example, 17 per cent of those in the countryside said they had never been able to connect to a 5G network (three times as many as those in cities).

– There are large regional variations, with some parts of the UK struggling for other signals too. For example, in Yorkshire, only 48 per cent of residents said they receive a reliable 4G service, and 14 per cent said they often had to use a 1990s-style 2G network.

What Are The Benefits Supposed To Be? 

5G (fifth generation) connectivity, the successor to 4G, uses 3 different spectrum bands instead of just the low-band spectrum or LTE used by most carriers. 5G should be up to 20 times faster than the current 4G technology can provide, i.e. 20Gbps for 5G compared to 1Gps for 4G. The benefits 5G is supposed to offer include faster speeds and less latency. In theory, this should mean big improvements in broadband (particularly commercial), ultrafast speeds to mobiles and an end to slowdowns during busy times of day that have been experienced due to the overcrowding of the current limited LTE.

Why Isn’t It Happening? 

In reality, as highlighted by a recent Ofcom study, the UK’s current average 4G speeds are well below 1Gps, with many customers experiencing average speeds of 20Mbps. In Uswitch’s own test, although 5G compared favourably against 4G, it was only measured at 450 Mbps (almost half a gigabyte), nowhere near its maximum 5G connection speed of 20Gbps.

As highlighted by Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at Uswitch.com, despite more than a decade’s research, 5G was only just trialled in the UK 3 years ago and, as such, the technology is not yet living up to its potential because it is “still in its infancy”. Mr Doku pointed to the twin challenges of the technology not yet reaching its potential and not being readily available to all as hurdles to overcome before “5G could well play a pivotal role in connecting our homes in ways we may have never imagined”. 

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

4G speeds are still well below where they are expected to be for many users in different parts of the UK, let alone expecting to get the real benefits of 5G any time soon. As highlighted by the study, there are big differences in connection speeds in different UK regions and between urban and country areas which means that businesses based in more rural areas of the country (e.g. Yorkshire) will be at a disadvantage to businesses in major cities. The study has also highlighted how 5G technology generally is in its infancy in the UK. Countries like North America, China, Japan, and South Korea are well ahead in their availability and use of the benefits of 5G technology and only 6 European markets had 5G Availability above 20 per cent by Q4 202, with the Netherlands leading the European countries. This means that European businesses are at a considerable communications competitive disadvantage to US and Asian businesses, and the wait for consistent 5G that lives up to its potential in the UK looks like being quite a long and frustrating one for many UK businesses.

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 can set up their own public server / dedicated virtual room / topic-based channel known as a ‘Discord Server’. This can be used as a platform for exchanging ideas, news, or details about shared interests. Users can set up invite-only, topic-based channels to collaborate, share, or just talk without clogging up a group chat.

Discord, which is mostly popular among younger users, was originally set up for those interested in video games and has grown to become a social network with 150 million active monthly users, 19 million active servers per week, and 4 billion server conversation minutes daily.

How It Works 

Discord is free, although there are two subscriptions for Discord ‘Nitro’ which gives users more uploads allowance (50MB or 100MB) and other benefits like custom emojis and HD video streaming.

To use Discord and set up a Discord Server (a channel), you’d need to :

– Go to Discord, get the app for desktop or smartphone/tablet, sign-up and log in.

– Click on the plus symbol (left-hand side of the page).

– Select ‘Create a server.’

– Specify whether the server is for friends or for an official club/community (this question can be skipped).

– Choose and enter a name for the new Discord server, i.e. one that represents the topic of that channel/server, such as #Mr_Bean (servers identified by a hashtag #).

– Click on ‘Create.’

Users can then be invited to the server or find links online to access it.

Who? 

Although under-17s can still register and use the platform, it has a teen rating on the Google Play store and has a 17+ rating on the Apple Store.

How Many/Much? 

Although Discord group chats can be created without a server, this limits the number of participants to 109 per group. Setting up a Discord Server means there can be up to 25 participants per Discord channel using the text and video chat at the same time. A Discord server can contain up to 500 channels.

Pros & Cons 

Some of the disadvantages of having a Discord Server include:

– Parents may wish to note that Discord servers can contain adult content, so may not be suitable for very young users, plus conversations are private to a group so may be difficult to monitor.

– There can be extra costs, e.g. in addition to the Nitro subscription, users can spend money on other users by donating to channels they follow or joining paid-only servers.

– From a business point of view, there are no ads on Discord.

Advantages of Discord servers include:

– It is free (if users don’t subscribe to Nitro) and, particularly for younger users, it is a great place to discover other people with similar interests, learn more about those interests, and to build a community.

– Discord servers are flexible and customisable.

– Discord can be an effective way to market a brand and increase brand awareness, e.g. of an electronic game or similar.

– Many streamers and public figures, for instance, offer private channels on the app that are only available to people who subscribe to their Patreon, which makes it useful for generating new users.

– It’s easy to use the app and communicate, there’s lots of functionality, and it can be accessed on-the-go.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Discord is proving to be increasingly popular among young people and it has been rumoured that Microsoft is interested in buying it. For businesses, Discord’s focus on serving groups with specific interests can provide businesses with a way to closely target specific interest groups and build users. It’s also a platform that is used by influencers and, therefore, provides another way for businesses to reach specific audiences. One of the challenges that Discord could help businesses with is being able to develop a community on a deeper level and develop real engagement with a brand. Discord can provide a way to build the kind of storytelling that’s so important to effective branding and create a real a buzz that could build sales. Discord also offers businesses another route to offer highly efficient customer service.

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 richest man Elon Musk finally bought Twitter in a $44bn (£38.3bn) deal.

Why? 

As with most significant moves that Musk makes, there are different opinions about his motives, many of them critical. As for Musk himself, he said “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important for the future of civilisation to have a common digital town square”, which is similar to his reason given back in May where she described “free speech” as being “the bedrock of a functioning democracy” and said that “Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.” 

Mr Musk, however, tempered any free speech purist views (which have worried many) with an assurance that “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hell-scape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”   

More critical voices have suggested that Musk bought Twitter to control what’s being said about himself, that it’s a kind of folly that he has no firm plan of what to do with, and that he had to go through with the purchase in the end to avoid an extremely costly legal action.

Recent Events 

Although the Twitter purchase has been a long-running, on/off affair, now that the purchase / takeover has gone through, Musk has moved quickly in making some significant changes including:

– Dissolving Twitter’s Board of Directors and making himself the sole Director. As CEO anyway he now has total control over Twitter. Musk also jokingly altered his profile, first to “Chief Twit”, and now to “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator”.

– Many top Twitter executives have gone in the takeover, including CEO Parag Agrawal, COO Ned Segal, legal and policy head Vijaya Gadde, and general counsel Sean Edgett.

– Musk announced plans to revise Twitter’s “Blue Tick” service, which could involve charging businesses $20 (£17) per month to be verified. The Blue Tick service gives subscribers access to various premium features, such as being able to undo a tweet.

Musk bringing Tesla engineers into Twitter’s office to scrutinise internal codes after the takeover.

Concerns 

Twitter has 230 million users (compared with more than 1 billion on TikTok), has been shown to play an important part in America’s national politics, with some high-profile users able to create a serious impact with their Tweets, (e.g., Donald Trump or Elon Musk himself) making it an enormously powerful social media channel with huge influence. This, along with the fact that the company is a large employer and has businesses as advertisers (its customers) have led to many concerns about Musk’s takeover and what could happen next. These include:

– Musk’s well publicised view that Twitter has done too much to control its platform, and that there needs to be more free speech could make advertisers nervous. Twitter currently relies upon advertising for 90 per cent of its revenues. If more free speech means less restrictive moderation and potentially toxic content, advertisers may fear that their brands may be tarnished by association and stop ad spends with Twitter.

– Questions about how responsible Musk himself is/will be going forward regarding the nature of his Tweets, judging by his past record. For example, Musk’s recent (withdrawn) Tweet about Paul Pelosi which apparently gave credence to a conspiracy theory, and his famous 2018 tweet where he stated that he was considering taking Tesla Inc. Private.

– Some brand managers have criticised Twitter as becoming a less engaging and interesting platform over the last year where a high expectation customer-service perception can easily lead to complaints and trolling.

– Even though Twitter has a daily user base of 230 million people, the company hasn’t generated significant profits in nearly nine years (as a public company) and share values have lagged behind those of rivals.

– Ongoing, growing competition from other social media platforms (e.g., TikTok) and their visions for the future, e.g. Meta providing new potential advertising ideas for companies.

– The unusual nature of the deal to buy Twitter, i.e., more cash than the typical buyout and more debt than Twitter may be able to cope with. This, combined with the underwhelming profits, plus the dangers of free speech and its deterrent effect on advertisers could threaten the company’s ability to pay off the high debt and interest payments.

– Apart from Musk’s latest plans to start charging £20 per month for Blue Tick, no other current meaningful source of revenue other than advertising, meaning that the company may have to continue with its current model for longer. No real revenue source changes coupled with nervous advertisers could create huge risk.

– Concerns over potential job losses at Twitter. For example, there have been reports that Musk’s Twitter could lay off 25 per cent of the workforce in first round of job cuts.

– Concerns about the potential effects on national security in the US and possible Saudi influences. For example, U.S. Senator (Democrat) Chris Murphy has said he wants a U.S. national security review of a Saudi Arabian conglomerate’s stake in Twitter Inc.

– Concerns that Donald Trump will be allowed back onto Twitter. For example, Musk tweeted that he would introduce a “council’ to decide whether Donald Trump would be allowed back, despite Trump being given a ‘permanent’ ban, and saying he didn’t plan to re-join Twitter anyway.

– Fears for Tesla. For example, some people have expressed concern that Musk’s Twitter deal and the work needed to make changes and create more revenue could take his attention away from Tesla. Also, Musk selling Tesla shares and putting them up as collateral for personal loans to raise cash means that Tesla’s value may now be linked to Twitter’s. This could mean that any problems with Twitter, e.g., caused by the wrong kind of “free speech” or trouble paying back debt could mean Musk drawing even more on Tesla stock, thereby creating more risk for Tesla.

What Could Go Right? 

Despite there being many concerns, a great deal of uncertainty, plus significant risk to Musk, Tesla, and Twitter’s fortunes, some commentators have pointed to the necessity of keeping advertisers happy, which Musk will no doubt wish to do following the hype of the takeover. In addition to saving costs through executive and other staff layoffs, and adding more revenue via Blue Tick subscriptions, other ways that Musk may add revenue and value going forward could include, for example:

– Enhanced product features, open-source algorithms, spam-beating, and authentication changes building trust among advertisers (and attracting new ones) while creating new revenue opportunities.

– Crypto advertisers, knowing about Musk’s liking for cryptocurrencies, buying more advertising with Twitter.

– New types of experiential and immersive advertising which command higher rates from advertisers (again, remembering Musk’s dislike of traditional advertising).

– New ways of monetising Tweets. For example, charging companies fees for embedding or quote-tweeting verified users.

Like Weibo? 

Some commentators have also suggested that Musk could tie many strands together to turn Twitter into something like China’s ‘Weibo’ app. Weibo is a kind of everything app / super app – an amalgamation of Twitter, WhatsApp, Amazon, and PayPal (PayPal was founded by Musk). Musk was reported to be considering an app like Weibo, which he called the ‘everything app’. Back in the summer, when talking to Twitter employees, Musk suggested that there was no equivalent to a super app like WeChat outside of Asia and has been reported to be considering creating a superapp, perhaps from Twitter.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Twitter has hundreds of millions of users, is highly influential socially and politically, and is a valuable channel to advertisers and businesses globally. This means that who is in charge of it plus its direction and fate socially significant and with Musk’s controversial personal brand now linked with Twitter’s (not to mention Tesla’s fate also linked to the deal) there are obvious concerns going forward, particularly if too much of the wrong kind of ‘free speech’ is involved. That said, as the world’s richest man with some significant business successes on the cutting edge of future technologies (Tesla electric vehicles, Space X etc) it could be argued that he has the skills and experience to improve Twitter. Musk has already suggested new revenue streams, e.g. Blue Tick, and could develop Twitter into a super app. However, it’s early days with Musk as supreme leader and it remains to be seen how things move forward following what appears likely to be an imminent and significant round of job cuts.

In what could be big step forward for environmental clean-ups, a team of researchers from the University of Washington has created a new technique for destroying so-called ‘forever chemicals’.

What Are Forever Chemicals?

‘Forever chemicals’ refers to molecules / chemical compounds that are found in found in many different consumer, commercial, and industrial product and encountered in our everyday lives e.g., food packaging and household cleaning goods. These chemicals, however, persist in water, air, fish, and soil, and are known to be able to cause health problems such as cancer or fertility issues. The fact that these don’t degrade and simply circulate in our water and food is why they are known as ‘forever chemicals.’ For example, Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) that are referred to as forever chemicals.

New technique for destroying both PFOA and PFOS 

The good news is that researchers from the University of Washington have created a new technique that completely breaks down PFOA and PFOS using “supercritical water,” which is formed at high temperatures and pressure. The method, which happens within a ‘reactor’ made from thick stainless-steel pipe works by heating water pressure so that it doesn’t turn to steam. Instead, it reaches a different state of matter, called the supercritical phase. In this phase, where it is not a liquid or a gas, the water molecules become like ionized particles, bouncing around at high temperatures and high speeds. This enables them to break down PFOS and PFOA leaving only harmless substances, such as carbon dioxide, water, and fluoride salts.

Real World Applications 

Although the researchers are still at the stage of testing how the reactor process could destroy other forever chemicals, and assessing how well the technology could work for real-world scenarios, there is speculation that this new method of destroying forever chemicals could:

– Help improve the effectiveness of treating industrial waste, thereby cutting the amount of forever chemicals being released into (and damaging) the environment.

– Destroy many of the concentrated forever chemicals currently present in the environment, thereby preserving plant and animal life.

– Dispose of old stocks, such as the forever chemicals in fire-fighting foam, thereby reducing the risk of further pollution and improving safety.

What Does This Mean For Your Organisation? 

How to effectively and completely break down damaging forever chemicals, at scale, and in a low-cost way has been a major challenge. This new method, which appears to be highly effective and essentially just uses water and breaks down the chemicals to totally harmless substances is extremely promising both from human health and broader environmental perspectives. Using this method, industrial waste could be cleaned-up before it comes into contact with the environment, dramatically reducing the amount dangerous of long-term pollutants entering the food chain, and helping to make those industries cleaner. The hope is also that this method, as is being tested at the moment, will also work for other real-world scenarios.

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 since the start of 2022, the advice to users is to upgrade to version 107.0.5304.87 for macOS and Linux, and 107.0.5304.87/.88 for Windows to mitigate potential threats. Users of Chromium-based browsers – Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi – are also advised to apply the fixes.

If you’re looking for a free, online image editor with plenty of functionality, you may want to try Photopea.

With Photopea, you can edit photos, apply effects, filters, add text, and crop or resize pictures in your browser. It supports PSDs and you can export files in a number of popular formats including jpg, png, and pdf. You can also give it access to your OneDrive, Dropbox, or Goole Drive, and Photopea offers its own PeaDrive cloud storage. To try it:

– Go to https://www.photopea.com/.

– Drag and drop a photo in and give it a try.

Other photo editors are, of course, available.

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 30 TikTok accounts broadcasting live from Syrian camps for people displaced by the 11 year-long war in the country. Its main findings were as follows:

– “TikTok middlemen” in the camps had provided families with phones and equipment to go live and gave them access TikTok accounts. These middlemen, in this case affiliated to TikTok in China and the Middle East said they worked for agencies, also known as “livestreaming guilds”, which are part of TikTok’s global strategy to recruit live streamers and encourage TikTok users to spend more time on the app.

– Once set-up on TikTok, the families, adults, and children used daily TikTok livestreams to beg for digital donations, repeating phrases such as “Please like, please share, please gift.” The BBC has reported that the TikTok middlemen were using British SIM cards suggested to families that they should aim their pleas at UK people because they are likely to give the most generously.

– The BBC observed TikTok viewers donating digital gifts with streams earning up to $1,000 (£900) an hour.

Families Received A Fraction of the Money 

The crux of the report was not just the sad sight of the begging families, the role of the middlemen, plus the fact that many people donated in good faith and urged others to do so but also that:

– TikTok is alleged to have taken around 70 per cent of the digital donations as commission.

– The TikTok middlemen also took around a 35 per cent commission of the remainder.

Profiting From Misery? 

All of this translated into media accusations that TikTok was greedily profiting from displaced Syrian refugees and was playing a part in “exploitative begging.”

The war in Syria has displaced around 13 million people, with 12 million being food insecure, 50 per cent now living in extreme poverty. Nearly 5.8 million are children.

How Was This Evidence Uncovered? 

The BBC has claimed that it was able to uncover what appears to be exploitative activity by building a computer program to scrape information from 30 of the Syrian camp TikTok accounts of over 5 months. This was part of a wider operation by BBC’s Global Disinformation Unit, BBC Arabic and BBC Eye Investigations which claim to have followed more than 300 TikTok accounts livestreaming from north-west Syria.

It also claims to have used BBC staff in London to send TikTok gifts and measured the amount that actually reached a test account, set up through TikTok-affiliated agencies. One example it gave was that BBC staff sent $106 in donation and the end balance in the account following a livestream was $33. This appeared to indicate that TikTok had taken 69% of the value of the gifts in commission.

What Did TikTok Say? 

TikTok has been reported as saying that the livestream begging is a violation of its Community Guidelines and that it has now taken action to remove such accounts from its platform. TikTok is also reported to have said that it would terminate its relationship with the agency in question and will be writing to all its LIVE agencies to remind them of their contractual agreement to adhere to its policies.

TikTok is also reported to have said that it took significantly less than 70% of donations made on the livestreams in question, and that it will be expanding its global policies around exploitative begging. The social media giant has also said that it will soon let users run adult-only livestreams although it is not yet clear how this could be enforced.

Child Privacy Issues 

This is not the first time TikTok has faced accusations about the protection of users, particularly children on its platform. For example, in September the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued the company with a notice of intent (preceding a potential fine). This related to allegations that in May 2018 and July 2020, TikTok may have processed the data of children under the age of 13 without appropriate parental consent. It is also alleged that TikTok failed to provide proper information to its users in a concise, transparent, and easily understood way and processed special category data without legal grounds to do so. That said, TikTok is reported to be only one of 50 different online services that the ICO is looking at in relation to the Children’s Code.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

The reports of the BBC investigation have many sad and disturbing aspects to them, not least the plight of the war-refugees in the first place. This investigation, however, has led to the revelation that a social media platform familiar to young people everywhere and associated mainly with fun videos may have been playing host to (and profiting from) the misery of refugees and particularly children. There are also the disturbing allegations about the part that agency middlemen affiliated with TikTok may have played in facilitating what’s been termed “exploitative begging.” This may all be more evidence of how social media companies need to do much more to effectively enforce and update their own rules and policies, particularly in protecting children and the vulnerable. TikTok does provide a way for people to make money on its platform but in this case, it seems that the company’s system was flawed in a way that has damaged the company’s reputation, allowed others to be exploited, and may have allowed affiliated agencies to act in a less than satisfactory way, the details of which were only discovered by a third-party. TikTok has said that it is acting with regards to the accounts in question and its agencies, yet it is worrying that social media platforms generally are still places that appear to need surveillance and pressure from the outside to pick up on risky areas and improve safety, privacy, and other important factors for users.

(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 though the global cybersecurity workforce is at an all-time high, with an estimated 4.7 million professionals, and with the addition of 464,000 more cybersecurity professionals this year alone, it’s still not enough. The data on which the study is based suggests that a massive 3.4 million more cybersecurity workers are likely to be needed to secure assets effectively, and that 70 per cent of respondents report that their organisation doesn’t have enough cybersecurity employees.

Why The Increasing Demand? 

The (ISC)2 highlights “geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic instability, alongside high-profile data breaches and growing physical security challenges” as the main drivers of the increasing demand for cybersecurity professionals.

Increase In Cyber Security Staff Expected 

Despite the sizeable skills gap in the number of cyber security professionals over the last year, there is some optimism as 72 per cent of the study’s respondents said that they expect their cybersecurity staff to increase somewhat or significantly within the next 12 months. This is a very promising predicted growth rate when compared to the last two years, i.e. 53 per cent in 2021 and 41 per cent in 2020.

Skills Gap Anyway 

There has long been a digital skills gap in the UK anyway which has affected the competitiveness of UK businesses and posed a major challenge to the UK government’s vision of making the UK a global technology centre. For example, back in 2018, a Nominet survey showed that less than half of UK adults have the digital skills needed to easily complete a number of common tech tasks, and in 2020, The Open University’s new ‘Leading in a Digital Age’ survey noted digital skills shortages that UK businesses and organisations faced (63 per cent of senior business leaders report a skills shortage for their organisation) and a regional divide in those companies reporting skills shortages, i.e. more employers in the South/Southwest reporting that digital skills were in short supply.

The same survey also highlighted how business leaders felt they lacked the tech skills to manage in the digital age, with more than three-quarters acknowledging that they could benefit from more digital training. There has also long been a gap in the number of women pursuing tech careers.

Effects Of The Pandemic 

At the end of 2020, it appeared that remote working and accelerated digital transformation deepened the disconnect around skills and it was felt that more workers needed to be equipped with in-demand IT skills.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Increasing cybercrime, geopolitical tensions, macroeconomic instability, and the complications caused by the pandemic have all increased the online security risk that businesses face and, therefore, the demand for more cyber security professionals. The challenge is that there simply aren’t enough of them fully trained or available yet in the labour market to meet the demand despite the optimism among most businesses that they will be able to find enough cybersecurity staff in the next 12 months.

The introduction of new qualifications, greater availability of cyber security courses and training could help. The (ISC)2 report also noted that some work cultural and demographic factors have complicated hiring or retaining some sections of the workforce (women and non-white employees citing discrimination). However, 64 per cent of those surveyed for the report said that new certifications for skills growth and staying current with security trends could be a way for businesses to tackle issues such as the business cyber security skills gap.

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 raised interest rates as it reported that the UK is already in recession. Many financial commentators are now predicting that factors such as the effects of the war in Ukraine, China’s tough pandemic policies, and the US heading into recession could all be contributing to a global recession into 2023.

Investing In IT To Save Money On Other Activities 

Gartner’s report highlights how businesses are projected to increase IT spending by 5.1 per cent next year to try and beat the worst effects of the recession.

According to the report, the extra IT spending will be focused on progressing the kind of IT initiatives that can curb long-term spending. The thinking behind it appears to be that businesses see IT as a way to save money on other activities, and as a way of providing ways to make them operate more efficiently. Using IT, companies could improve their internal operations in a way that could enable them to scale without adding extra staff, thereby helping them to combat some of the effects of a recession.

Software And Services 

The Gartner report indicates that most of the increased IT spend will be on software and services. Software spending (worldwide) is predicted to rise from $790 billion this year to $879 billion in 2023 – a growth rate of 11.3 per cent. Spending on IT services is predicted to rise from $1.25 trillion this year $1.35 trillion next year – a growth rate of 7.9 per cent. Spending on data centre and other on-premises services also look likely to increase.

Not Devices 

The Gartner report, however, predicts that there will be a small decline in spending on end-user devices in 2023 due the effects of inflation on consumer purchasing.

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

High energy costs and the pressures of recession look set to challenge businesses in the year(s) ahead to find ways to operate more efficiently. The Gartner report indicates that many businesses may consider that increasing their spend on IT services and software that could improve their internal operations in a way that could deliver cost-savings, curb long-term spending, and enable them to scale without increasing headcount. Smart IT spending in 2023 could, therefore, be a way for businesses to protect themselves from some of the effects of recession.