Ransomware attacks in March continued to break records for 2024, with global levels of ransomware attacks increasing from February. The total cases rose to 421 and 416 in the previous month, an increase of 1%, according to NCC Group‘s March Threat Pulse. Year-on-year ransomware attacks in March have decreased in targeting by 8%, going from 459 to 421 attacks compared to March 2023, which was largely down to the mass exploitation of the GoAnywhere MFT vulnerability, which ransomware gang CL0P claimed responsibility for before going silent until its major MOVEit exploitation in May. Despite the ..read more

The influence of AI deepfakes on the UK General Election is a concern for most tech experts, according to a new survey. Some 65% of IT professionals polled said they feared AI generated fakes would affect the result – and are calling for technical and policy solutions. And 92% of technologists said political parties should agree to publicise where and how they are using AI in their campaigns, according to the survey by BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. The two most effective measures for limiting the detrimental impact of deepfakes on democracy will be public education and technical solutio ..read more

The latest KPMG Private Enterprise Venture Pulse report has showed that a total of 19 firms shared £98 million in venture capital (VC) investment in the opening quarter of 2024, a rise when compared to 2023 when 14 firms shared around £70 a million in funding – at the time a three year low. Standout deals completed during the first three months of the year include agriculture tech firm Intelligent Growth Solutions Limited (£28.6 million) and electric and tech focused public transport company Ember (£13.9 million), both based in Edinburgh. It was recently revealed that over £359 million was inv ..read more

There is a stark contrast between the experiences of AI leaders and AI laggards, a new global report from NetApp has revealed. Their 2024 Cloud Complexity report provided global insight into the readiness, challenges, progress, and momentum over the past year in AI adoption, and the critical role of a unified data infrastructure. “AI is only as good as the data that fuels it,” said Pravjit Tiwana, general manager and senior vice president of Cloud Storage at NetApp. “Both the AI leaders and AI laggards show us that in the prevailing hybrid IT environment, the more unified and reliable your dat ..read more

JPMorgan Chase welcomed employees and guests to the ribbon cutting ceremony at its new office in Glasgow. Located on Argyle Street in the city’s International Finance District, the 270,000 sq ft, 14 storey building employed 3,900 construction workers and took five years to finish. The building features ‘experiential’ meeting spaces, conference rooms, work cafés and games rooms. The layout of collaboration space is configurable, with several equipped with touchscreens. There are amenities such as a wellness studio, nursing and mindfulness rooms. The bank currently employs 2,600 people in Glasgo ..read more

In the build up to the 31st anniversary of the World Wide Web’s public domain debut on April 30th, Forrit unveiled a report indicating that the current state of the internet could hinder the evolution of Web 3.0 and the metaverse. The report, titled Web O.No: Your Business’ Bleak Online Future and How to Avoid It, represents findings from a survey of over 500 UK business decision makers, shedding light on the challenges in the internet landscape.  Alarmingly, 87% of respondents expressed fears that the “chaotic” state of the internet would impede the realisation of innovative technologies ..read more

According to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), more than one in five cars sold globally this year are expected to be electric, with demand for electric cars continuing to accelerate over the next decade. The IEA’s latest annual report, the Global EV Outlook, noted that global electric car sales are set to reach around 17 million by the year’s end. In the first quarter of 2024, sales rose by approximately 25% when compared to Q1 2023—with last year’s electric car sales growing by 35% to nearly 14 million. Despite the continued rise that’s projected, different global marke ..read more

In a move to posture the UK as a leading force in science and technology, the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) has appointed a number of experts to its leadership team. Leading the charge as the lead non-executive Director is Shonnel Malani, who will provide strategic guidance to the department. Continuing their pivotal roles from the Start-up Board to the new DSIT Departmental Board are Melissa Di Donato, Jason Chin, and Saul Klein.  “I am pleased to rejoin the department as DSIT’s lead non-executive director. In doing so, I welcome back Melissa Di Donato, Saul K ..read more

New research shows that professional services are optimistic about growth opportunities and plan to invest significantly in technology to realise their ambitions. This is according to a recent report by Deltek, the software and solutions provider, which found that the majority of project-based businesses (84%) expect to increase profits in 2024, compared to 71% saying the same in 2023. However, on the road to growth, increasing profitability is a top challenge identified for firms’ financial leaders (38%). To address this, leaders also have ambitions to reduce expenses (29%), ensure people reg ..read more

In November of 2022, with funding by the Scottish Government and delivered by Codebase, Techscaler emerged onto the scene, looking to strengthen the country’s tech sector and encourage entrepreneurship.  The idea was spun out of the 2020 Scottish technology ecosystem review, or Mark Logan report, which first put forward the idea for a “long-term, affordable, high-quality incubation space,” for the Scottish tech sphere.  The £42m programme’s task is now carrying out a tall order: build a network of startup and scale up hubs across Scotland, aiming to build on, and eventually surpass t ..read more