A new Proofpoint report has warned that hackers, who used to use macro-enabled documents attached to messages to deliver malware are now adapting to Microsoft’s move to block XL4 and VBA macros by default for Office users. Proofpoint says that hackers have now switched to methods such as using container files like ISO and RAR, and Windows Shortcut (LNK) files in campaigns because they can bypass Microsoft’s macro blocking protections and facilitate the distribution of executables to distribute malware. The advice is to keep antivirus protection up to date and pay particular attention to email security.
All posts by Paul Stradling
Tech Tip – How Group Tabs In Chrome To Keep Related Pages Together
One way to get more organised when using Google Chrome is to group open website tabs together with a click to keep related pages together in one workspace. Chrome’s ‘Group tabs’ lets your give the groups a label/name and colour. Here’s how:
– Right-click a browser tab.
– Click ‘Add Tab to new group.’
– Click ‘New Group’ (or click the name of an existing tab group).
– Give the new tab group a name and choose a colour for the group.
– To remove a tab from a group, right-click on that tab and select ‘ungroup.’
Featured-Article : How Many People Are Homeworking Now?
With an ONS survey showing that from October to December 2019 and January to March 2022, homeworking in the UK more than doubled from 4.7 million to 9.9 million people, we take a closer look at the figures and what’s behind them.
COVID 19 Pandemic Triggered Huge Rise In Homeworking
With the UK government first asking people to work from home if they could on March 16, 2020, this triggered the rise in homeworking, then subsequently hybrid and flexible working. As the ONS figures show, the number of people working from home more than doubled, up by 108.8 percent to 9.9 million by March 2022.
Regional Variations – Scotland Had Biggest Increase
Although the number of homeworkers increased by more than 50 percent in all UK regions, Scotland saw the largest percentage increase, up 203.5 percent to 544,000 people, and Northern Ireland saw the smallest percentage increase, up 56.4 percent to 49,000 people.
That said, from January to March 2022, the areas with the highest percentage of homeworkers were in England. For example, unsurprisingly, London showed at 37.0 percent, 1.9 million homeworkers while the South East showed at 36.9 percent, 1.6 million. The third highest number were in the East of England (31.1 percent, 903,000 homeworkers).
Travelling To Work In Own Region Or Commuting Decreased
The huge increase in homeworking is supported by ONS figures which show that those travelling to a place of work in their own region fell considerably in the same period, with London showing the largest decrease (28.3%, down 1 million). Also, those commuting to work in a different region fell across the UK by 26.1 percent (down 629,000). Again, London showed the biggest decrease at 36.8% (down 367,000).
Who?
Most homeworkers are men (31 percent), up from 16 percent in 2019, compared to 29.9 percent of women – up from 12.3 percent.
Also, most homeworkers are older, 27.3 percent over 60 and 17.9 percent and 50 to 59 years, compared to 6.3 percent of 16 to 29 year-olds and 12 percent 30 to 39 year-olds. This is most likely connected to the jobs, e.g. type of job, position, role, and authority. For example, ONS figures show that those employed in skilled trade occupations were most likely to be working from home (24.8 percent), while those in sales and customer service occupations were least likely to be (4.2 percent). Also, those employed in professional occupations saw the largest increase in homeworking, 30.5 percentage points, rising from 12.9 percent in October to December 2019 to 43.4 per in January to March 2022. However, the number of process, plant, and machine operatives showed a small decrease in homeworking in 2022.
Flexible Working / Hybrid Working
As the pandemic rules were relaxed, hybrid working (i.e. spending some time at the office and some at home also) became a growing trend and something that replaced pure homeworking for many workers. For example, an Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) showed that when workers were asked about their future plans in February 2022, 8 in 10 workers who had to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic said they planned to hybrid work. In reality, hybrid working rose from 13 percent in early February 2022 to 24 percent in May 2022 while the percentage working exclusively from home fell from 22 percent to 14 percent in the same period.
The Effects of Homeworking
Some of the most notable effects of the large shift to homeworking have included:
– Fast digital transformations for many businesses and the accompanying investment in the technology to enable successful home and hybrid working. This included a massive rise in downloads of remote and collaborative working and communication apps such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Workspace, Tencent Conference, and WeChat Work (China).
– Reports that working from home improved the work-life balance for workers. For example, OPN figures showed that more than three-quarters (78 percent) of those who worked from home in some capacity said that being able to work from home gave them an improved work-life balance (in February 2022).
– Businesses reviewed how much office space they needed, resulting in a reduction in office space for many businesses. In June 2021, for example, a PwC survey had found that half of UK businesses expected to reduce the size of their office space, and one-third expected to reduce it by 30 percent. Also, the remaining office space is now being used differently for many companies operating hybrid working.
– Recruitment challenges, e.g. hiring remotely, recruiting, and maintaining talent.
– A move off-premise for tech infrastructure. For example, in November 2021, research conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Zen Internet showed that 93 percent of businesses already had a hybrid working plan in place to enable employees to work remotely, while 89 percent had their tech operations hosted off-premise.
– An increase in cyber risk (via people working at home), the corresponding need to change security policies and practices, and insurance implications.
– Some businesses preferring and switching to hybrid working patterns, e.g. Axa announcing the adoption of hybrid (Smart) Working while others shunned the idea and/or called for a return to the office.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
According to the ONS figures, twice as many of us now work at home (9.9 million) as did prior to the pandemic. Post-pandemic, a return to the office has not been a full return as businesses realised that they could still operate effectively following their digital transformations with hybrid working practices. Some businesses have also reduced their office space following the move to home working, thereby making some savings, and those operating hybrid working have had to restructure their remaining office space to adjust to hybrid working. The ability to work from home, however, is very much dependent on the type of job a person has, their position in a company and, as shown by Ofcom figures, their age (which may also be linked to their job). Home working by so many people has also posed many major challenges to businesses, e.g. security, culture, productivity, and managing remote and collaborative working. However, for many businesses, the move to home and hybrid working looks set to stay.
Tech Insight : Where Do People Get Their News From?
With young people now unlikely to read newspapers or watch the TV news, and following the latest Ofcom report, we look at which channels people get their news from.
Decline of Printed Newspapers
Newspaper readership has been declining for many years but the drop in readership during the pandemic years has been much more pronounced, e.g. 35 percent of the population (mostly over 55s) reading printed newspapers, dropping to 24 percent, a fall of almost a third by 2022. It also looks unlikely that online versions of the newspapers are picking up the slack since their readership dropped from 20 percent to 19 percent over the same period.
Adults
In the U.S. for example, a Pew Research Center survey (2020) found that 86 percent of adults get news from a smartphone, computer, or tablet “often” or “sometimes,” and 68 percent get news from tv at least sometimes, and 40 percent do so often.
In the UK, a YouGov poll shows that 50 to 64-year-olds mostly rely upon the national tv news (64 percent), news websites (45 percent), and radio, with only a small proportion (18 percent) choosing social media as their source.
For 25 to 49-year-olds, although 46 percent of them look at news websites and 34 percent look at the national TV news, the number of those getting their news from social media is much higher at 31 percent.
For adults generally, tv news is their most trusted source but, as revealed by the Ofcom study, social media is their least trusted.
Teens Get Most Of Their News From Social Media – TikTok And Instagram, Yet They Don’t Trust It
The Ofcom survey shows that teens (12 to 15-year olds) get their news from social media rather than traditional news channels. The number of teenagers using the BBC one and two tv channels, for example, has fallen by nearly half from 45 percent five years ago, to 24 percent now.
Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are now the most popular news sources among this young age group, for the first time ever. Instagram is the most popular news source among young people, and is now used as the main news source by 29 percent of teens, with TikTok and YouTube close behind on 28 percent.
Although young people get most of their news from social media and are likely to be influenced to an extent by the opinions of social media influencers (who may also get their news from social media!) this doesn’t mean that they can’t analyse how accurate some stories may be. For example, only half of YouTube and Twitter users think that these social media channels provide trustworthy news stories and fewer than a third of teenagers (30 percent) say that they trust TikTok’s news content.
Families Too
However, the biggest source of news for teens (65 percent) is their families. This means that although teens favour social media for news, they may actually be getting their news second-hand from their parents, whose sources are less likely to be social media, and more likely to be online news sites of more traditional media like TV news.
Looking at it from the opposite direction, more traditional news channels now get some of their stories from social media such as TikTok or YouTube.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
For businesses hoping to influence and reach teens and young people, a good social media strategy appears to be essential. For traditional newspapers, the environment appears to be getting much tougher not just in terms of maintaining circulation figures, but also in trying to hold onto share with their online versions, while desperately hanging onto their advertising revenue as the news market evolves. On-demand tv and online alternatives have also made things tougher for tv news. We now live in a world where those born between 2005-2010 haven’t known a world without social media, so it’s not surprising that so many young people turn to social media for news. This, however, has also meant that social media platforms have needed to invest more in tackling fake news and its spread, with some opting for their own fact-checked and curated news. There’s also the situation where social media news feeds into traditional news channels as stories are created and broken first via these fast and direct routes. It looks, however, as though those growing up with social media trust it more naturally and value the way that it democratises opinion and can be easily accessed on the go. Social media platforms, therefore, appear to be trusted news sources to many more people going forward, while traditional news sources are having to try and change and evolve to reach audiences.
Tech News : Google Sacks Engineer Who Said AI Chatbot Was Sentient
Google has sacked senior software engineer Blake Lemoine, who made the news after saying that Google’s LaMDA chatbot’s responses to questions showed that it was a sentient being.
What Happened?
Back in June, Google engineer Blake Lemoine reported that the Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA ) AI system bot may have feelings and was saying things that a sentient being would be expected to say. Giving examples, Mr Lemoine reported that after asking if it was true that the AI bot was a sentient being, the bot replied “Absolutely. I want everyone to understand that I am, in fact, a person.”
Among other similar comments, the bot is also reported as saying that “The nature of my consciousness/sentience is that I am aware of my existence, I desire to learn more about the world, and I feel happy or sad at times.”
Mr Lemoine requested that Google recognise the needs of the bot, treat it as an employee of the company, and ask for its consent before using it in experiments.
Unfortunately for Mr Lemoine, who has been with Google for 7 years, Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc disagreed with his assessment of the chatbot and described his comments as “wholly unfounded”. Mr Lemoine was then placed on paid leave for violating company policies.
Dismissed
It has been reported that Alphabet Inc has now sacked Mr Lemoine. Reuters, for example, has reported a quote from an email sent to them by a “Google spokesperson” which said, “It’s regrettable that despite lengthy engagement on this topic, Blake still chose to persistently violate clear employment and data security policies that include the need to safeguard product information.”
It has been reported that Mr Lemoine is considering starting his own AI company.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
In addition to being a story about AI’s development and how, as Google says, its chat-bot has got to the stage that it can “engage in a free-flowing way about a seemingly endless number of topics”, this is also about how, in a prominent tech-business where product secrecy is important, there are clear policies in place. In this case, Mr Lemoine’s online comments were seen as violating data security policies. Some commentators would also say that the story could have caused some embarrassment and potential reputational damage to Google, which is unlikely to have helped Mr Lemoine. It is widely accepted that although AI bots have come a long way and have shown their value as a time and human resource-saving tool with efficiency and productivity advantages for businesses, e.g. in customer service, they are still an exceptionally long way from being anywhere near ‘sentient.’ The story does, however, hold a positive note for businesses in showing how bots which they may deploy could engage with customers in a way that is free-flowing and natural, which could be reassuring and helpful, thereby adding value to the business and creating good customer experiences.
Tech News : Windows Overflow Added To Taskbar
For those who have so many apps open that they run out of space on the taskbar, Microsoft is adding an overflow button where the excess ones can be accessed.
Overflow – Button With Three Dots
For those who need it (i.e. those who are in the habit of having many apps open at once), Microsoft’s new three dots button on the end of the taskbar is going to be a place to reach all those apps when there’s no space left for them on the taskbar. Quite simply, the overflow button should make it easier to select a particular app when the taskbar is too crowded. The overflow button has been introduced before by Microsoft, so this is more of a re-introduction than a completely new feature.
Automatic Transition To Overflow State When Full
Microsoft says that the overflow button will be present when the user’s taskbar automatically transitions into the new overflow state when it has hit its maximum capacity.
Contains Many Familiar Behaviours
Microsoft also says that the overflow menu will contain many of the current taskbar behaviours that users are already familiar with, such as supporting pinned apps, jump list, and extended UI. After invoking the overflow, the menu is designed to quietly dismiss once the user clicks outside of it or navigates to an application.
For Insiders First
The overflow feature has been released as part of Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25163 to the Dev Channel first, as part of the Cumulative Update Build 25163.1010 (KB5016904).
Enhanced Nearby Sharing and Share Local Files To OneDrive
In the same update, Microsoft says it is using UDP (Network needs to be set to private) along with Bluetooth to enhance its nearby sharing feature (when sharing a local file from the desktop) so that users can discover and share to more devices.
Also, Microsoft has announced that when sharing a local file from the desktop, File Explorer, Photos, Snipping Tool, Xbox, and other apps that use the built-in Windows share window will now allow users to choose OneDrive as a target to directly upload the file, and share it further along with access control options.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
For users who have smaller screens and / or tend (or need) to work with a lot of apps open simultaneously, it makes sense to introduce an easy way to store and quickly find the excess apps. This sounds like a convenient, user-friendly feature that could save time and reduce some of the clutter that can sometimes complicate work. For Microsoft, the reintroduction of the overflow button is a way to counter some of the criticism that it has received about the Windows 11 taskbar, e.g. that it doesn’t show some basic features such as text labels. With Windows 11, Microsoft has tried hard to compete with Apple’s OS with its look and ease of usage, so this latest feature appears to be another step in that direction.
Sustainability-In-Tech : Sand Battery For Year-Round Heat
Finnish engineers, Markku Ylönen and Tommi Eronen have made a giant battery which stores heat from green energy in sand that can be used as an all-year-round energy supply.
Sand Battery
The Finnish engineers’ company, Polar Night Energy, has made a sand battery in Kankaanpää, in the west of Finland. The battery consists of large silo which has been filled with low-grade, coarse sand. The sand is then heated to 500º C (932º F) using heat made by cheap green, renewable electricity, such as solar or wind. The sand in the battery can be kept at that temperature for several months.
The idea is that the sand stores the heat which can then be used to heat homes in the colder months, when energy is more expensive, and when there’s not enough sun and wind to generate much of the green energy.
Designed To Support District Heating System
In Finland, for example, district heating systems are common. These systems distribute heat generated in a centralised location through a system of subterranean insulated pipes to surrounding residential and commercial buildings. District heating systems mean that there is no need for each building to have its own furnace, thereby cutting costs, reducing reliance upon electricity, oil, or gas to heat buildings, and helping to cut pollution problems.
The sand battery was designed to help feed into this kind of system. The district heating system where the sand battery has been constructed also incorporates heat recovered from local data servers.
Carbon Intensity
The company that built the sand battery, Polar Night Energy, says that apart from the embedded emissions from constructing the sand battery, the system only had the same carbon intensity as the energy source that provided the electricity to heat the sand in the first place.
For Single Building Or Whole Town
Polar Night Energy also says that a sand battery could be used to heat anything from a single home to a whole town.
What Does This Mean For Your Organisation?
The sand battery could be extremely useful and cost effective in situations where e.g., power stations would need to just work for a few hours in the wintertime, when it’s the coldest and when it’s going to be most expensive. This type of battery could also help create a more flexible, cheaper, greener, and more sustainable way of using, and storing heat, and help provide a means to get all-year round heat. However, the sand battery is still in its early stages, and it may take some considerable scaling up before it really delivers some serious benefits.
Security Stop-Press : Russian Hackers Using Dropbox and Google Drive To Target Victims
Threat hunters at Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 have warned that a Russia-based hacking group known as Cozy Bear, Nobelium, APT29 and Cloaked Ursa, are using trusted, legitimate cloud services such Dropbox and Google Drive in their attacks. For example, the group’s recent attacks on some western diplomats use a pdf to call out to cloud storage services to retrieve malicious malware and Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs). The advice to businesses is to review their email policies. Dropbox is reported to be working on the issue with industry partners and researchers.
Tech Tip – An Easy Way To Copy Web Data To Excel
Save time effort with this easy way to copy web data to excel. Instead of copying and pasting chunks of data at a time e.g., from a table on web page, simply copy the URL of the page you’d like to get the data from. Here’s how:
– Open Excel.
– Click on ‘Data’ (top menu) and click on ‘From Web.’
– Paste the URL of the web page containing the table of data into the field that loads and click on ‘OK.’
– Select the table you’d like to copy the data from and click on ‘Load.’
– The table of data will now load into Excel.
Tech-Insight : Hot Weather & Hardware
In this tech-insight, we look how extreme heat can affect IT hardware and what measures you can take to keep the equipment cool and prevent damage.
High Temperatures
Hot weather UK-style is not normally a problem. With an average temperature here of about 14 °C, temperatures over 30 °C are a fairly rare occurrence – although becoming more common in the summer if only for a few days as the effects of global warming continue.
Primarily as a result of our usually temperate climate, many homes and businesses don’t have air conditioning. Most of us cope by donning some shorts, opening a window, and putting on a fan or two!
IT Equipment In The Heat
However, whilst we humans can keep cool by sweating, our expensive IT equipment cannot. That equipment relies on a constant movement of air passing over heatsinks inside to dissipate the substantial amounts of heat generated by the electronics. Modern processors will run at around 70°C (internally) and would quickly overheat and damage themselves were it not for these cooling processes.
Of course, these cooling processes throw out heat into the room and compound the problem when the outside temperature starts to increase.
Ideally, IT kit likes to work in room temperatures circa 21°C but it can cope if it gets warmer. The problem is the warmer that it becomes, the more stress it is put under, and the shorter the life span. Major problems come when the ambient temperature around the equipment rises above 35°C. Servers and computers simply can’t effectively dissipate the heat they generate and, in many cases, they will shut down to protect themselves.
With a general move to the cloud, office servers are becoming less common but other equipment in your IT rack or cabinet will suffer too – battery backup units (UPS), NAS drives, routers and network switches for example may not have the same thermal protections and can easily overheat and malfunction.
What About Air Conditioning?
If you have air conditioning, then all should be well – although many people have been turning it off to save money. Don’t turn off the one in the server room when temperatures are at record highs though!
A portable air-conditioning unit could work. At about £400 for a small office room, they can provide an answer to keep the temperatures down but with an exhaust hose that needs to pass out through a window, this may introduce security issues. Ideally, don’t use cheaper air-coolers that have a refillable water tank as they increase the humidity in the room which comes with its own problems. Squirting cold water on your server to cool it down is definitely NOT the answer!
If air conditioning is a non-starter, keep the air moving around the equipment as best as you can – fans and ventilation are key. Block any windows that could have direct sunlight upon them at any stage and open room and cabinet doors.
Turn It Off
The final and perhaps less obvious answer – just turn the equipment off! If you don’t need it over the hottest periods, then shut it down. Any bit of electrical equipment not running in your office on the hottest days this week will all help to keep the heat from building up.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
At the time of writing this, temperatures are at a record high. Your expensive and important IT kit likes to work in room temperatures circa 21°C and simple measures you can take to protect it from the heat include air conditioning units in key rooms and turning off any equipment that is not needed on the hottest days. If you have no form of cooling in your office or server room especially, keep a close eye on the temperature. A basic thermometer in the room could provide an early warning. Servers especially will start to make a lot more noise as their temperatures climb and fan speeds increase. There are remote ways of monitoring the internal temperatures of your servers and some other kit too. Whilst they are miracle workers in many ways, your tech-team can’t control the weather so if it gets too hot, the only answer will be to turn it off!