SpaceX and Nasa schedule Crew-9 mission next month
ChatGPT maker OpenAI could lose $5bn in 2024, report
OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is facing a severe financial crunch.
CrowdStrike outage to cost $44m per Fortune 500 company, report
New data from cloud insurance firm Parametrix sheds light on the financial cost of the massive CrowdStrike outage last week that affected millions of Microsoft devices.
UK and India announce joint Technology Security Initiative
The United Kingdom and India on Wednesday announced the launch of a new Technology Security Initiative in a move to bolster economic ties and address critical global challenges.
'Most used rocket' SpaceX's Falcon 9 gets green light to return to Space
The FAA said on Friday that it found no public safety concerns related to the anomaly that occurred during the unsuccessful launch on July 11, allowing the rocket to return to flight operations while the comprehensive investigation proceeds.
Wall Street suffers as Tesla and Google stocks falter
A sudden and sharp downturn gripped Wall Street on Wednesday as a dramatic sell-off in technology stocks sent indices plummeting to their lowest levels since late 2022.
Moon to 'occult' Saturn: When, where it will be visible in India
A rare astronomical event is scheduled to occur on July 25, when the Moon will traverse the face of Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun and the second largest in our solar system. This phenomenon, known as an occultation, will temporarily obscure the planet from view, providing a unique opportunity for stargazers and astronomers to observe.
Astrophotographer captures stunning 236,000-mile-long solar wall of plasma
CrowdStrike shows the systemic risk of being dependent on a single major provider
Alina Timofeeva, currently a Board Member for the British Computer Society, The Chartered Institute for IT, and a strategic advisor in data and technology to the C-suite of major financial services organisations, shares her thoughts on the impact of the outages in areas such as crisis communications and regulation.
CrowdStrike updates caused Linux outages in April
A recent CrowdStrike update wreaked havoc on Windows machines worldwide, causing a wave of Blue Screen of Deaths (BSODs) that crippled operations in critical sectors like healthcare, finance and airlines.
IT Essentials: Clarity versus crapification
Earlier this week I was working on a long article about the EU AI Act, when my Teams notification started buzzing like a swarm of angry bees. [BUZZ] [Expletive] there are some terrible websites out there, fumed my colleague Penny, who was shortlisting awards entries. [BUZZ] Just trying to fight your way through a seemingly impenetrable thicket of buzzwords, jargon and meaningless corporate claptrap to find out 'WHAT DO YOU ACTUALLY DO?' I could only commiserate. The time I've wasted trawling through websites trying to work out whether something is hardware/software/consultancy/all-of-the-above/something-else-entirely must add up to weeks. At least, unlike an IT professional, I don't have to make serious decisions based on this verbiage. The fake-it-til-you-make-it tech industry has always been this way. New widget pretty much the same as the old widget? Rebadge it. Powerful solution or ext gen are good fallbacks. Better, invent a new genre, or, better still, co-opt an existing one. Promise to deliver end-to-end innovation and seamless digitisation. Ensure you're accelerating something intangible as you advance down the road to organisational excellence; always delight the customer; profess a strong belief in the power of togetherness; celebrate new growth ideas - but never never NEVER let on that you produce middleware. Adding to the frustration, modern websites all seem based on the same template, you know, logo and mission statement at the top, scroll-down and it splits into three sections, each with some more verbiage or a flashy video for SEO. Lots of extra clicks and scrolling just to find the basic info you're looking for (assuming it exists). [BUZZ] It's like they've just rolled off the same production line of crapification. It may always been this way, but it seems to be getting worse. Crapification is cumulative, the hellish machinery accelerating as AI, increasingly deployed to produce website content, learns from the crap that went before. To be clear, crapification, the descent of all things into the same worthless brown ooze, is related to, but distinct, from the similar term enshitification, which was coined by writer Cory Doctorow specifically to describe how once-useful platforms become steadily worse over time as they seek to extract ever more revenue from a captive user base. Definitions are important. Which is why I always enjoy working with contributing lawyers. Legal language suffers from its own form of obscurantism, of course, with its endless subclauses, provisions, appendices, adjuncts and jargon, but unlike corporate claptrap, this is in the service of precision . I appreciate precision; when you're floundering in the buzzword swamps precision is a blast of clean, fresh air. Lawyers are magicians who can navigate the runic legal passages, retaining the precision (they get into trouble if they don't) while making all the contextual guff disappear. Magic invoked, even a tech journo can get the gist of the important parts of of some pretty dense documentation. There is jeopardy too though. After publishing a story comes the anxious wait for the inevitable ping signalling an incoming email requesting amendments for quotes out of context, clunky paraphrasing or a vital detail omitted. But you know what? That's all good. We'd much rather get it right than leave something inaccurate out there adding to the confusion. So, here's to clarity, here's to precision and here's to lawyers! * * Exclusions may apply Recommended Reads: The worlds' first AI specific legislation comes into force next month. Since the EU is one of the world's largest trading blocs, it will likely be imitated around the world. Moreover, it has significant extraterritorial reach, potentially affecting anyone who wants to sell AI systems or use their outputs in the European market. Find out more in this long read . Elsewhere, Cisco patched a critical flaw in Secure Email Gateway appliances that could be exploited easily by remote hackers, Microsoft rowed back on its DEI commitments , and blessed are the cheesemakers , for they shall be rewarded with gold.
Massive IT outage hits airlines, hospitals and banks around the globe
A massive global IT outage is currently affecting hospitals, banks, airlines, train companies, broadcasters and thousands of other businesses and services across the world, with users reporting Windows crashes and the Microsoft 'blue screen of death' (BSOD).
Going passwordless in mid-size organisations: benefits and challenges
Resource-strapped IT departments at mid-size organisations may find implementing passwordless solutions complex and labour intensive. Here's some expert advice on adopting this important technology from Computing's US sister site MES Computing.
Cloud big three sign open letter urging datacentre kit suppliers to step up
AWS, Microsoft and Google have jointly called on third-party datacentre construction and equipment providers to help them calculate indirect cloud emissions
Microsoft faces down criticism after laying off DEI team
Microsoft has laid off an internal team which focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. Its part of a wider trend.
Long Reads: The EU AI Act - What you need to know
The worlds' first AI Act comes into force next month. As one might expect, it is a sizable document, the English language PDF version running to 144 pages of of dense legalese. It's not an easy read, but because it's the first, and since the EU is one of the world's largest trading blocs, it will likely be imitated around the world. Moreover, it has significant extraterritorial reach, potentially affecting anyone who wants to sell AI systems or use their outputs in the European market. Love it or hate it (there are those on both sides), the EU AI act cannot be ignored. We asked three legal experts for their take.
Amazon warehouse workers in Coventry narrowly reject historic union vote
The GMB union's bid for recognition at the Amazon warehouse in Coventry, UK, fell short in a closely contested vote held this month.
Amsterdam Connect, was held on 13th June 2024 in Amsterdam at the iconic Eye Film Museum. It was hosted by Computing and Atlassian and brought together technology teams from around the world for an insightful day focused on the latest industry trends and insights.
King's Speech promises regulation of 'the most powerful AI technologies'
The King's Speech on Wednesday mentioned measures to enhance the legal safeguards around the most powerful AI technologies, but stopped short of announcing an AI bill.
Google offers smaller cloud firms 470 million to derail Microsoft antitrust settlement
Google offered a group of European Union-based cloud firms a package worth about 470 millionin a failed attempt to persuade them not to settle their antitrust action against Microsoft.
Nearly 7% of all internet traffic is malicious, says Cloudflare
Cloudflare has released its latest State of Application Security Report and it makes for grim reading.
CMA launches probe into Microsoft's hiring spree from Inflection AI
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a formal investigation into Microsoft's recruitment of staff from AI startup Inflection to determine if this constitutes a de facto merger, potentially stifling competition in the AI sector.
Researchers extract gold from e-waste using cheesemaking byproduct
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) have developed an innovative and sustainable method to recover gold from electronic waste.
BCS calls for publication of ethical AI policies and improved cybersecurity
An open letter from the BCS, the professional body for computing has highlighted several issues that need to be addressed if the UK is to fulfil its role in the world. A separate missive from a range of domestic and global advocates for good governance makes a case for open government being central to all of our lives.
Announcing the shortlist for the Cloud Excellence Awards 2024
We are pleased to announce the shortlist for this year's Cloud Excellence Awards . The Computing Cloud Excellence Awards honour the products, projects and individuals making this happen. This year's finalists embody both innovation and delivery, taking their ideas through to a successful end state with satisfied customers and provable returns. We will be honouring the finalists' success at the awards ceremony on Wednesday 18th September, at the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square. Attendees will enjoy an evening of celebration and networking, with a drinks reception, live entertainment and of course the awards ceremony itself. Click here to book your place at the ceremony After careful consideration and rigorous evaluation, our panel of judges has selected the following companies and individuals for their exemplary contributions: Best Cloud Automation Solution UBIO Web Automation RELAYTO Salesforce Before / After PagerDuty Automation SnapLogic Intelligent Integration Platform Drata's continuous security and compliance automation platform Ericsson Lemongrass success story The Boomi Enterprise Platform Best Cloud Native Product Honeycomb.io OneResponse Ambulance Electronic Patient Record Kissflow Low-code application development Aqua Cloud Native Security Platform Confluent x 10X SuperCore Best Cloud Project (Finance Sector) Lloyds Banking Group AuthZ Lloyds Banking Group - Power Platform Centre of Excellence - branch transformation Worldline UK&I - Integrale Control migration to Google Cloud Direct Line Insurance Group Plc - Direct Line Group cloud desktop transformation Ardonagh Advisory - Network improvement programme Best Cloud Project (Tech Sector) Persistent Systems - Persistent Systems and Monument Bank Cloud Platform Kocho - A seamless migration and cloud security infrastructure overhaul for Hallo Healthcare Group Expert Thinking - Delphix Cloud Data Platform CI/CD and DevSecOps service RELAYTO Version 1 - Early Careers Programme Best Cloud Project (Other) Masterful migration: easyJet's rapid ascent to the cloud VAAMG Consulting Limited - Home Office Liverpool FC - Liverpool Football Club and Wasabi Technologies Government Digital Service - GOV.UK One Login Sellafield Ltd - Journey to a pseudo sovereign cloud at an OS:SNI security posture Hyve Managed Hosting - National Television Awards Best Cloud Support Provider Escrow London - Software and SaaS Escrow solutions Technology Associates - CoPilot Adoption Assessment workshop Hyve Managed Hosting's Extra Mile support culture Godel Technologies - Delivering cloud excellence IRIS Software Group - Hybrid by design, supporting customers with personalisation Best use of AI in the Cloud RELAYTO Salesforce Before / After CSI Ltd - Personalising cancer Patient treatment with innovations in digital pathology Ideagen Carbon Accounting Darktrace - Darktrace Cloud Silverfin Cloud DR and Continuity Product of the Year Databarracks Jump-Start CTERA Enterprise File Services Platform Assurestor Limited 2Cloud platforms N-Able Cove Data Protection Transputec Cloud DR and Continuity Product Cloud Management Solution of the Year Office Attendance Reporting, VAAMG Consulting FinTech Innovation case study RELAYTO Ericsson Lemongrass Success Story Actian Data Platform Cloud Professional of the Year Munish Goswami, VAAMG Shobitha Shivakmuar, IBM HARSHITHA SHIVAKUMAR, IBM Lee Sunter, Worldline UKI Ayelet Sachto, Google Aaliah Haq, KPMG Cloud Security Product of the Year (SME) Immuniweb - ImmuniWeb Cloud Security Test CTERA - Enterprise File Services Platform One Identity - Cloud PAM Essentials LogRhythm - LogRhythm Axon Kocho - XDR Rapid Protect Atlantic.Net - Atlantic.Net HIPAA compliant cloud hosting Cloud Security Product of the Year (Other) CTERA - Enterprise File Services Platform Checkmarx - Checkmarx One Portnox - Leading UK lender deploys Portnox Cloud Native NAC across 75 sites Cato Networks - Cato SASE Cloud CrowdStrike - CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security Darktrace - Darktrace Cloud Cloud Vendor of the Year Civo Content Guru Symmetry DigitalOcean Most Innovative Cloud Product Zortrex Ltd - SecureCloudGuard: Revolutionising cloud data protection with Zortrex RELAYTO - FinTech innovation case study Salt Communications Amplitude - Amplitude Digital Analytics Platform Civo Forterro - Cloud ERP for SME Manufacturers Symmetry - bluQube HSBC - HSBC Data Science Workbench BT Group - Network Cloud Payara Services Ltd - Payara Cloud Lloyds Banking Group - Low Code Centre of Excellence MSP of the Year Daisy Corporate Services Dedalus Group (Healthcare Systems Group) Wavenet Hyve Managed Hosting Kocho Infinity Group Transputec Ltd Ensono Multi- Hybrid-Cloud Product of the Year Zeus Cloud CTERA Databricks IRIS Software Group Sustainable Use of Cloud RELAYTO for Good Creative ITC - Building better: sustainable cloud solutions transforming the AEC industry GOV.UK One Login - Digital sustainability Join us as we honour these remarkable individuals and businesses and their contributions to technology reserving your place at the event now.
Atos secures 1.7bn for financial restructuring
French IT reseller and services provider Atos has successfully secured 1.67 billion in new financing and reached a lock-up agreement with a group of banks and bondholders, marking another key step in implementing its protracted restructuring.
Disney faces potential data breach, hacker group claims massive leak
The Walt Disney Company is reeling from a suspected cyberattack by a hacktivist group calling itself NullBulge, exposing a significant amount of sensitive information.
Tech isn't as meritocratic as you think
The socio-economic and ethnic diversity of the tech workforce will form part of the discussion at the Women and Diversity in Tech Festival in November. Here, we ask if over reliance on graduates is part of the reason why people from working class backgrounds are so much less likely to pursue a tech career than their middle class peers. Chances are you consider tech to be one of the more meritocratic professions. Compare it to something like medicine or law and it stands to reason that it should be. There's no need for years of expensive post graduate training and free coding courses and bootcamps are popping up all over the place. There are far fewer unpaid internships common to professions like media or the performing arts. Dr. Mona Mourshed, Founder of the global non-profit Generation , explains why her organisation, which supports people into better paid work, considers technology employment to be such a useful driver of social mobility across the world. The wage level of tech roles tends to be at or above living wage in most countries, and the growth trajectory in terms of career can be quite strong. These are durable careers, which makes them attractive. Dr. Mona Mourshed, Generation Above all, tech is teachable. All it takes is a certain aptitude, a great attitude and some graft. Surely that makes it one of the most meritocratic professions out there, and consequently an excellent driver of social mobility. Right? Well, no actually. Class matters Tech Talent Charter's most recent report based on a survey of 30,000 tech employees across 85 employers found that 9% of tech employees were from what they classify as lower socio-economic backgrounds, compared to 29% in finance and 23% in law. The Sutton Trust found in 2021 that two thirds of UK tech workers came from professional/managerial backgrounds and 21% attended independent or fee-paying schools which is well above a UK average of around 7% at most. The gold-standard study in social mobility is that conducted by Sam Friedman and Daniel Laurison , published in 2020 and based on data from the UK Labour Force Survey, and qualitative research in form of interviews and case studies. It researched 19 elite occupations, one of which was IT, and found that of those working in IT, 19% are from a working-class background compared to 33.3% of the nationwide population (2014 Labour Force Survey). In contrast, those with parents from a professional-managerial background made up 45% of workers in the sector compared to 31.2% of the nationwide population. Interestingly, the Friedman and Laurison study also found that even if you get into IT from a working-class background, you'll earn less. There's a world of difference between getting in and getting on. Their study identified a class pay gap of around 5000 a year in salary between IT workers from a working class background and those with professional parents, and a small gap of approximately 2000 between those with intermediate origins and their more privileged counterparts. The figures vary from one study to another but what is clear is that young people who have at least one parent employed in a professional and/or managerial capacity are more likely to be employed in a tech role than those from less privileged backgrounds. The reason? Those with professional or managerial parents are far more likely to have a degree The cost of employing only graduates Generation published global research last year that was conducted in late 2022 and early 2023 with more than 1300 companies with tech vacancies to fill and in excess of 4000 tech employees and job seekers. When recruiting for entry-level roles in areas like development, half of the employers surveyed had a degree requirement, with 17% seeking STEM degrees. In fact, 30% of employers have added degree requirements over the last three years, and 13% have removed this requirement. Similar proportions of employers had also tightened work experience requirements. The consequences of this approach are expensive. The employers that tightened their entry level requirements spent 13% more on average to fill entry level vacancies than those who were more flexible. 53% are finding it extremely difficult, very difficult, or somewhat difficult to fill entry-level positions, and 70% recognised a need to revise the hiring process for entry-level talent. Skills-based hiring enhances diversity Benefits of skills-based hiring What is the alternative to relying on universities to furnish you with high quality candidates for entry level tech jobs? Mona Mourshed explains: The 24% of employers that have softened their education and/or work experience requirements would have tech assessments and interviews whereby candidates would have to demonstrate skills, as opposed to those skills being assumed because you have a computer science degree, for example. Another way to demonstrate skills is via certification from the likes of AWS, Microsoft. Cisco etc. Interestingly, AWS announced earlier this week that it has delivered free cloud computing skills to over 31 million learners across 200 countries and territories, far eclipsing its goal of 29 million people by 2025. This is an excellent example of enlightened self-interest. Is it in Amazon's interest to pay to train an army of young people embedding them into organisations across the world, shoring up their customer base and also making sure they don't struggle to recruit the skills they need? Yes. Does it widen and democratise access to potentially lucrative careers, extending opportunity to people and communities who would otherwise not get a financial slice of the action? Also yes. These candidates often perform better on the job than those recruited via the more traditional outlets, as Mourshed explains. The great news is that 89% of these companies got the same [31%] or more [58%] applications for open tech roles. But much more importantly, 84% of those companies said that the hires made through the through the assessment process, are performing as well, if not better, on the job than those that they hired the traditional way. Other benefits of skill-based hiring reported by those who practice it is that it's quicker to fill vacancies, which reduces recruiting costs. A longer-term financial benefit is the reduction in attrition rates. A study by McKinsey suggests that employees without college degrees tend to stay in their roles for 34% longer than their degree educated counterparts. This is intuitively easy to understand. If you think your employer extended an opportunity to you that its competitors didn't, you're far more likely to stick around. Skills-based hiring also delivers a more ethnically and socio-economically diverse tech workforce by opening doors for groups which are increasingly excluded from higher education. If you have the right certifications for a role, it is an important equalizer when it comes to ethnicity, Mona Mourshed says. However she goes on to acknowledge that, when it comes to gender the picture is more complicated. When certifications are part of the evaluation process, men and women have broadly similar conversation rates from application to interview (the research showed 75% for women and 80% for men.) However, far more men than women convert interviews into offers, which goes to show how much work still has to be done to unpick gender biases in tech recruitment. Why isn't everyone hiring based on skills? An obvious question is, if skills-based hiring is so great, why aren't more employers doing it? Generation has been researching this, and Mourshed is happy to drop a few hints in advance of publication later this year. We have a spectrum of responses on this. For some companies in the midst of the financially conservative environment that we are in and the waves of layoffs and the budget cuts, this just isn't a good time. HR teams have also had layoffs as well so resource is just very limited for some. AI is also making employers wary around entry-level tech recruitment. They think with AI they may need fewer entry level people than they did before. There's a sort of a wait and see approach and they're not going to rejig the hiring process in the meantime. For others there was a management capacity issue. There's a perception that if you hire people who don't have the traditional profile, that managers are going to have to spend more time coaching and supporting them, so that is also a barrier. These are all factors that companies will admit to. But there are other reasons that a majority of tech employers are continuing hiring practices that are counter to their interests. IT employment decision makers are highly likely to be graduates themselves. Seeking value beyond a traditional graduate talent pool involves questioning the intrinsic value of a degree on suitability for employment. That's not an easy process if it's the route you took. Nobody is arguing that tech employers shouldn't employ graduates, just that they don't employ only graduates. Tech is more meritocratic than some competing professions. But the question of how to make it more meritocratic and diverse as a consequence - can be answered by examining how employers measure merit. We all want the best person for the job. But re evaluating how you hire could help you find that person a lot faster and keep hold of them for longer. Socio-economic diversity will be one of the topics of discussion at The Women and Diversity in Tech Festival which takes place on 5th November in London. Click here for an agenda and here for early bird tickets.
Asian Tech Roundup: Indian entrepreneurs call for 70-hour week
Welcome to Computing's fortnightly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look at China's future tech ambitions, Australia's plans to crack down on Big Tech, and Japan's plans for the UK's Graphcore.
Google strengthens Advanced Protection Program with passkey integration
Google has announced a significant upgrade to its Advanced Protection Program (APP), offering high-risk users the option to enroll with passkeys instead of physical security keys.
Lenovo Introduces Energy Efficiency-Focused AI Solutions for Enterprises
Lenovo unveiled the sixth generation of its Neptune liquid cooling technology that will support artificial intelligence (AI) computing, on Wednesday. The solution has a focus on energy efficiency and uses recycled loops of warm water to cool data centre systems and server components. It also highlighted its enterprise-grade AI Center of Excellence and AI Innovator sol...
Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut PC Review: A Cut Above the Rest
Through its pared back quest design, its diegetic approach to map markers, and its evocative visuals and music, Ghost of Tsushima set the bar for what a modern open-world action-adventure title should be. Now, the game arrives on PC in a package that amplifies what it already did well on PS4 and PS5.
Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G World Champions Edition First Impressions
The Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G World Cup Edition features a customised back panel. The top half has a blue matte finish, with Redmi and the AFA logo in muted gold colours. The bottom half features stripes from the AFA jersey that Argentina players wore during the tournament. On the centre, a golden number 10 represents both Redmi Indias 10th anniversary and the ic...
Rise of the Ronin Review: Team Ninja's Samurai Story Strains Under Its Own Weight
Rise of the Ronin blends the ethos of a challenging action-RPG with the approach of a modern open-world action-adventure title. But in its best of both worlds approach, the game loses the sanctity of Team Ninjas robust and relentless combat established in the studios previous games and fails to bring new and distinct ideas to the open world formula.
Moto G64 5G Review: Just a Spec Bump
Moto G64 5G launched in India earlier this month with some minor improvements over its predecessor. The phone gets a new processor, and Gorilla Glass protection. Thats pretty much everything thats new. Heres our review of the new Moto G64 5G, and if you should pick it over last years model or other alternatives.
Singapore updates cybersecurity law to expand regulatory oversight
Amendments to the country's cybersecurity bill aim to bolster its administration amid changes in the threat landscape.
Cult Shock X Review: An Average Budget Fitness Tracker That Gets the Job Done
Cult Shock X is a recent fitness tracker launched by Cult.sport that offers entry-level tracking for fitness enthusiasts. We've spent some time with the Cult Shock X and tested out its hardware and features, and here's what we think of the fitness tracker.
