The top news in tech – the June digest

There has been plenty of interesting news dominating the headlines this past month, including ​​sectors like big tech, AI, telecoms, cloud and data privacy. However, the possibility of cybersecurity employees turning away from their jobs en masse might just top the list.

40% of cyber leaders say stress could push them to leave their jobs within the next year, according to a new study. As ransomware attacks reach alarming new heights, concerns about cybersecurity burnout have been growing for months. In addition, cybersecurity skills are in short supply, making the situation even more concerning. Keeping IT systems secure is a complex task, and not all professionals have the appropriate skills and training to keep up with evolving threats. As a result, software flaws are being increasingly exploited by bad actors. 

Hackers said to be from the Chinese government have broken into several major telecommunications firms around the world. According to a new advisory from several American security agencies, the hackers are using well-known vulnerabilities to gain full access to the network traffic of both private companies and government agencies. 

Elsewhere, there have been two recent cyberattacks on the Costa Rican government within the span of just two months. The Costa Rican government said at least 30 of the agency’s servers were affected, despite shutting systems down to try to limit the damage. Hive, a ransomware gang is demanding $5 million in Bitcoin to unlock the infected servers. This is just a month after an attack from a separate group, ransomware gang Conti, who threatened to overthrow the government if it doesn’t pay a $20 million ransom. 

Many organisations who have sped up their adoption of digitisation as a result of Covid-19 have not looked back. So with increased digitisation, the possibilities for cyberattacks might just be limitless. With cyber professionals already under huge pressure with no sign of this letting up, is the industry heading for a complete talent shortage in the future?

Here are the other top news stories from June that caught our attention:

 

The total cloud market reached $126B in Q1 2022 – TechCrunch

Synergy Research valued the cloud market at $126 billion in Q1 2022, up 26% from the previous year. The highest-valued areas are infrastructure and platforms, equating to $44 billion and managed private cloud services, enterprise SaaS and CDNs accounting for a $54 billion share of value.

John Dinsdale, who is the research director at Synergy, believes that cloud services will remain an attractive option even if the economy begins a downturn. He argues, “the thing about cloud services is that the fundamental benefit they bring is all about agility, flexibility and responsiveness.”

As it stands, the cloud market is booming, and it’s going to get even bigger in the long run. The Software as a Service model is also not going anywhere and continues to grow.

 

Microsoft retires Internet Explorer after 27 years

After an illustrious career that lasted 27 years, it’s time for Microsoft Internet Explorer to hang up its boots. This announcement has been written in the stars since the dawning realisation that it could not compete with other browsers like Apple’s Safari, Google Chrome and Firefox. 

In the future, anyone who attempts to use the desktop application will find that it has been disabled and is no longer supported, and will be automatically redirected to the Microsoft Edge browser. For many, Internet Explorer would have been the first browser they had ever used – but it’s time to say goodbye.

 

Report: Only 40% of users trust brands to use their data responsibly

New data from Twilio confirms that while people expect hyper-personalisation during every single brand interaction, the conundrum is that the majority of consumers don’t trust brands to keep their personal data secure.

While it is necessary to collect personal data for personalised services, consumer attitude towards sharing data online is changing. It’s time for businesses to move away from renting customer data and instead owning it directly, and companies have started doing just that. Forty-three percent of business leaders think first-party data is the way forward for greater customer privacy.

This shift will not be an easy one, but Google has announced that “Chrome will phase out support for third-party cookies over a three-month period finishing in late 2023”.

 

Potential impacts of the metaverse on human behaviour

To end on an introspective note, Nicola Morini Bianzino, Global Chief Technology Officer at EY, has written an insightful commentary on the future of technology relating to social media and the metaverse.

According to Bianzino, the design of smartphones and social media platforms has encouraged an explosion of screen addiction. Metaverses aim to create environments that are always on, which may lead to a whole new wave of addiction! It’s early days, and there is still much to learn, but behavioural researchers have gained ground-breaking insights using experimental economics. Our behaviour could change as a result of the metaverse in a way we can’t currently imagine.

It is fairly uncharted territory, so organisations have a number of opportunities to take advantage of the next-generation behaviours the metaverse will shape.