TechTarget News - Week of Jan 29, 2023

Noventiq eyes APAC IT services market

IT services provider Noventiq has been expanding its presence in APAC through several acquisitions in India, and is eyeing a bigger slice of the region’s IT services pie

Tiger’s hybrid cloud storage targets medical imaging

Tiger Bridge targets vertical sectors that find it hard to migrate to the cloud by allowing data storage in the cloud while using files locally as if stored on-premise

Schools don't pay, but ransomware attacks still increasing

Ransomware gangs have increasingly focused their attacks on the K-12 education sector, even though most school districts do not pay the ransom. But how long will that last?

Computacenter enjoys strong finish to 2022

Channel player shares an update on the performance in its last fiscal year and talks of Q4 being a ‘record quarter’

BT tests out high-altitude flying antenna

The trial with Stratospheric Platforms may lead to hydrogen-powered drones being used to provide 4G and 5G rural coverage

Channel round-up: Who’s gone where?

Filling the finance position has been popular over the past week and there are a few moves worth noting across the industry

Big tech layoffs may ease software engineer shortage

Recent layoffs will create an influx of software engineers on the job market in the coming months, which might benefit smaller enterprises searching for talent.

Expanded AtScale, Databricks integration adds functionality

The semantic layer platform vendor's tools are now listed on Databricks' Partner Connect, and existing customers can now connect to Databricks SQL and Unity Catalog.

ATO renews major Macquarie deal

The contract renewal will enable the Australian Tax Office to tap Macquarie’s security operations centre, among other services, to secure its IT environment and protect sensitive data

MPs warned of AI arms race to the bottom

Expert tells Parliamentary committee that tech companies developing artificial intelligence are cutting corners and placing safety on the backburner, opening up ‘enormous risks’ for the future of AI

Royal Mail recovers more International Tracked services

Royal Mail is making further progress in recovering IT systems hit by a ransomware attack, and has re-enabled another tranche of international export services

MI5 unlawfully collected and held millions of people’s data

Secretive court finds MI5 knowingly acted unlawfully in use of bulk surveillance warrants, and the Home Office continued granting warrants despite information the agency was operating outside the law

Crédit Agricole tests quantum in finance

The corporate and investment bank has run experiments with Pasqal and Multiverse to demo quantum computing in finance

Russian DDoS hacktivists seen targeting western hospitals

A swathe of attacks by the Putin-supporting DDoS operation known as Killnet has targeted hospitals and other infrastructure in several Nato countries, with the UK thought to be at risk

Oracle officially supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux on OCI

Responding to user demand, Oracle struck a deal with Red Hat to make the latter's Enterprise Linux operating system an integral part of Oracle's multi-cloud strategy.

Tech Nation to shutter after more than a decade

Tech Nation due to shutter after losing core funding to Barclays Eagle Labs, which will take over its role in supporting UK technology startups and scaleups

Horizon3.ai releases POC exploit for VMware vulnerabilities

Penetration testing vendor Horizon3.ai published technical details and exploit code for three new CVEs in VMware vRealize Log Insight that can be chained for remote code execution.

Zoom adds chatbot virtual assistant to CCaaS offering

The Zoom chatbot uses conversational language and proprietary AI to assist people calling Zoom's contact center as a service. Zoom launched its CCaaS last year.

Despite a layoff, Workday is still hiring

Workday's layoff is part of a growing list of tech companies cutting employees. But the company says it didn't overhire and is instead taking steps toward realignment.

NetApp to lay off 8% of workforce, blames economy

NetApp reduced its global workforce by 8%. Analysts said the layoffs are a combination of hardware buyer hesitancy and employee redundancies from acquisitions.

Reaping green dividends with data management

Getting data management right has been pivotal for Singapore IoT startup SensorFlow to optimise energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions for its hotelier clients

Malware variant can block contactless payments

Kaspersky warns that the latest variant of the Prilex malware can block contactless payments to force people to insert cards, enabling criminals to steal money

Innovative Technology deploys age estimation tech in shops and pubs

A company involved in Home Office-led trials of biometric age estimation technologies has begun rolling out its hardware to UK shops and pubs so they can use its facial recognition algorithm to assure customers’ ages

HYCU R-Cloud expands data protection for SaaS

The new R-Cloud connects SaaS data silos to HYCU's data protection capabilities for an under protected part of the IT infrastructure.

CryptoRom scam abuses Apple and Google app stores to claim victims

Sophos researchers report on two fake apps used by romance scammers to lure victims into parting with their money, both of which were able to escape the attention of Apple and Google app store safeguards

BI adoption poised to break through barrier -- finally

Analytics use within organizations has been stuck for more than a decade. But the combination of embedded BI, NLP and development of a data culture could result in a breakthrough.

Hard drives fall on hard times

Hard drive manufacturers have had a couple of bad quarters due to the lingering effects of the pandemic and supply chain issues, but see a turning point on the horizon.

EE unveils 5G connectivity for London Underground

Just weeks after 4G landed on the Central and Northern lines for the first time, BT-owned operator now brings 5G to the Tube, with Archway, Notting Hill Gate and Tufnell Park the first stations to benefit

North Korea’s Lazarus gang exposes itself in opsec failure

WithSecure researchers linked a campaign of cyber attacks targeting medical research and energy firms to North Korea’s infamous Lazarus APT after a group member accidentally screwed up

Jellyfish value stream management tool busts bottlenecks

Jellyfish adds value stream data to its productivity tracking tool for engineering teams that want to address inefficiencies in software development.

FluidOne dips back into M&A market

Cloud player FluidOne is expanding the business less than a year after its last move as it continues to expand its portfolio and reach

Ransomware attacks on public sector persist in January

Many of the attacks disclosed or reported in January occurred against the public sector, including multiple school districts that were hit within days of one another.

HeadCrab malware targets Redis to mine cryptocurrency

Aqua Security said the HeadCrab botnet has taken control of at least 1,200 servers via internet-facing instances of the opensource DBMS Redis and is using them for cryptomining.

Azure Load Testing now GA with new speed, security options

Microsoft's Azure Load Testing rolls out with new features to create fast load tests, securely push code to test environments and monitor test performance during the run.

Samsung seeks bigger role as a business mobile provider

Samsung's wide variety of mobile devices, partnerships with software makers and government-grade security are differentiators in the business market, analysts said.

EEOC hearing on AI bias criticized as one-sided

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a hearing this week to examine how AI bias can hurt job seekers. But the panel's composition was accused of being unbalanced.

MEPs vote to amend platform worker directive

MEPs have voted in favour of amendments to the European Commission’s platform worker directive that would introduce a presumption of employment and increase algorithmic transparency

BDx to open fourth datacentre in Hong Kong

Big Data Exchange’s upcoming HKG8 facility will provide hyperscale and enterprise customers with fail-safe resiliency and connectivity in one of the region’s fastest-growing datacentre markets

Record fibre growth fails to halt mixed Q3 for BT

Strategy of focus on fibre and 5G vindicated in financial results showing leading UK telco buffeted by inflationary headwinds – but also seeing benefit of growing investment in fixed network infrastructure

FCA cracks down on misleading promos by social media influencers

Social media is becoming a major part of the FCA’s work in clamping down on misleading financial advertising and promotions, with multiple influencers rapped for their behaviour

LockBit gang confirms Ion cyber attack as disruption continues

The LockBit ransomware cartel has taken responsibility for this week’s attack on financial software firm Ion, and is threatening to leak stolen data on Saturday 4 February

UK seeks head of quantum office

A vacancy on the civil service jobs site suggests the UK’s new quantum strategy is about to be rolled out – and there’s going to be a new chief

Salesforce upheaval likely as Elliott Management moves in

As the CRM and CX giant's financial fortunes have sagged in recent years, activist investor funds have targeted the vendor for cuts that could slow technology R&D and investment.

Top manufacturing ERP systems focus on industries, UI

Panorama Consulting Group's top 10 manufacturing ERP report indicates that the systems are increasingly cloud-based and delivering functionality for specific industries.

New Teams Rooms features aim to streamline user control

Microsoft's latest changes to Teams Rooms include easier access to its most-used buttons, a scroll-through calendar preview and more ambient theme background display options.

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