Daily Tech Digest - June 13, 2025


Quote for the day:

"Never stop trying; Never stop believing; Never give up; Your day will come." -- Mandy Hale




Hacking the Hackers: When Bad Guys Let Their Guard Down

"For defenders, these leaks are treasure troves," says Ensar Seker, chief information security officer (CISO) at threat intelligence cybersecurity company SOCRadar. "When analyzed correctly, they offer unprecedented visibility into actor infrastructure, infection patterns, affiliate hierarchies, and even monetization tactics." The data can help threat intel teams enrich indicators of compromise (IoCs), map infrastructure faster, preempt attacks, and potentially inform law enforcement disruption efforts, he says. "Organizations should track these OpSec failures through their [cyber threat intelligence] programs," Seker advises. "When contextualized correctly, they're not just passive observations; they become active defensive levers, helping defenders move upstream in the kill chain and apply pressure directly on adversarial capabilities." External leaks — like the DanaBot leak — often ironically are rooted in the same causes that threat actors abuse to break into victim networks: misconfigurations, unpatched systems, and improper segmentation that can be exploited to gain unauthorized access. Open directories, exposed credentials, unsecured management panels, unencrypted APIs, and accidental data exposure via hosting providers are all other opportunities for external discovery and exploration, Baker says. 


Prioritising cyber resilience in a cloud-first world

The explosion of data across their multi-cloud, hybrid and on-premises environments is creating a cause for concern among global CIOs, with 86 per cent saying it is beyond the ability of humans to manage. Aware that the growing complexity of their multi-provider cloud environments exposes their critical data and puts their organisation’s business resilience at risk, these leaders need to be confident they can restore their sensitive data at speed. They also need certainty when it comes to rebuilding their cloud environment and recovering their distributed cloud applications. To achieve these goals and minimise the risk of contamination resulting from ransomware, CIOs need to ensure their organisations implement a comprehensive cyber recovery plan that prioritises the recovery of both clean data and applications and mitigates downtime. ... Data recovery is just one aspect of cyber resilience for today’s cloud-powered enterprises. Rebuilding applications is an often overlooked task that can prove a time consuming and highly complex proposition when undertaken manually. Having the capability to recover what matters the most quickly should be a tried and tested component of every cloud-first strategy. Fortunately, today’s advanced security platforms now feature automation and AI options that can facilitate this process in hours or minutes rather than days or weeks. 


Mastering Internal Influence, a Former CIO’s Perspective

Establishing and building an effective relationship with your boss is one of the most important hard skills in business. You need to consciously work with your supervisor in order to get the best results for them, your organization, and yourself. In my experience, your boss will appreciate you initiating a conversation regarding what is important to them and how you can help them be more successful. Some managers are good at communicating their expectations, but some are not. It is your job to seek to understand what your boss’s expectations are. ... You must start with the assumption that everyone reporting to you is working in good faith toward the same goals. You need to demonstrate a trusting, humble, and honest approach to doing business. As the boss, you need to be a mentor, coach, visionary, cheerleader, confidant, guide, sage, trusted partner, and perspective keeper. It also helps to have a sense of humor. It is first vital to articulate the organization’s values, set expectations, and establish mutual accountability. Then you can focus on creating a safe work ecosystem. ... You’ll begin to change the culture by establishing the values of the organization. This is an important step to ensure that everyone is on the same page and working toward the same goals. Then, you’ll need to make sure they understand what is expected of them.


The Rise of BYOC: How Data Sovereignty Is Reshaping Enterprise Cloud Strategy

BYOC allows customers to run SaaS applications using their own cloud infrastructure and resources rather than relying on a third-party vendor’s infrastructure. This framework transforms how enterprises consume cloud services by inverting the traditional vendor-customer relationship. Rather than exporting sensitive information to vendor-controlled environments, organizations maintain data custody while still receiving fully-managed services. This approach addresses a fundamental challenge in modern enterprise architecture: how to maintain operational efficiency while also ensuring complete data control and regulatory compliance. ... BYOC adoption is driven primarily by increasing regulatory complexity around data sovereignty. The article Cloud Computing Trends in 2025 notes that “data sovereignty concerns, particularly the location and legal jurisdiction of data storage, are prompting cloud providers to invest in localized data centers.” Organizations must navigate an increasingly fragmented regulatory landscape while maintaining operational consistency. And when regulations vary country by country, having data in multiple third-party networks can dramatically compound the problem of knowing which data is subject to a specific country’s regulations.


AI Will Steal Developer Jobs (But Not How You Think)

“There’s a lot of anxiety about AI and software creation in general, not necessarily just frontend or backend, but people are rightfully trying to understand what does this mean for my career,” Robinson told The New Stack. “If the current rate of improvement continues, what will that look like in 1, 2, 3, 4 years? It could be pretty significant. So it has a lot of people stepping back and evaluating what’s important to them in their career, where they want to focus.” Armando Franco also sees anxiety around AI. Franco is the director of technology modernization at TEKsystems Global Services, which employs more than 3,000 people. It’s part of TEKsystems, a large global IT services management firm that employs 80,000 IT professionals. ... This isn’t the first time in history that people have fretted about new technologies, pointed out Shreeya Deshpande, a senior analyst specializing in data and AI with the Everest Group, a global research firm. “Fears that AI will replace developers mirror historical anxieties seen during past technology shifts — and, as history shows, these fears are often misplaced,” Deshpande said in a written response to The New Stack. “AI will increasingly automate repetitive development tasks, but the developer’s role will evolve rather than disappear — shifting toward activities like AI orchestration, system-level thinking, and embedding governance and security frameworks into AI-driven workflows.”


Unpacking the security complexity of no-code development platforms

Applications generated by no-code platforms are first and foremost applications. Therefore, their exploitability is first and foremost attributed to vulnerabilities introduced by their developers. To make things worse for no-code applications, they are also jeopardized by misconfigurations of the development and deployment environments. ... Most platforms provide controls at various levels that allow white-listing / blacklisting of connectors. This makes it possible to put guardrails around the use of “standard integrations”. Keeping tabs of these lists in a dynamic environment with a large number of developers is a big challenge. Shadow APIs are even more difficult to track and manage, particularly when some of the endpoints are determined only in runtime. Most platforms do not provide granular control over the use of shadow APIs but do provide a kill switch for their use entirely. Mechanisms exist in all the platforms that allow for secure development of applications and automations if used correctly. These mechanisms that can help prevent injection vulnerabilities, traversal vulnerabilities and other types of mistakes have different levels of complexity in terms of their use by developers. Unvetted data egress is also a big problem in these environments just as it is in general enterprise environments. 


Modernizing Financial Systems: The Critical Role of Cloud-Based Microservices Optimization

Cloud-based microservices provide many benefits to financial institutions across operational efficiency, security, and technology modernization. Economically, these architectures enable faster transaction processing by reducing latency and optimizing resource allocation. They also lower infrastructure expenses by replacing monolithic legacy systems with modular, scalable services that are easier to maintain and operate. Furthermore, the shift to cloud technologies increases demand for specialized roles in cloud operations and cybersecurity. In security operations, microservices support zero-trust architectures and data encryption to reduce the risk of fraud and unauthorized access. Cloud platforms also enhance resilience by offering built-in redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities, which help ensure continuous service and maintain data integrity in the event of outages or cyber incidents. ... To build secure and scalable financial microservices, there are a few key technology stacks needed. They include Docker and Kubernetes containerization for managing multiple microservices, and cloud functions for serverless computing, which will be used to run calculations on demand. API Gateways will ensure that there is secure communication between services and Kafka for real-time data monitoring and streaming.


Ultra Ethernet Consortium publishes 1.0 specification, readies Ethernet for HPC, AI

Among the key areas of innovation in the UEC 1.0 specification is a new mechanism for network congestion control, which is critical for AI workloads. Metz explained that the UEC’s approach to congestion control does not rely on a lossless network as has traditionally been the case. It also introduces a new mode of operation where the receiver is able to limit sender transmissions as opposed to being passive. “This is critical for AI workloads as these primitives enable the construction of larger networks with better efficiency,” he said. “It’s a crucial element of reducing training and inference time.” ... Metz said that four workgroups got started after the main 1.0 work began, each with their own initiatives that solidify and simplify deploying UEC. These workgroups include: storage, management, compliance and performance. He noted that all of these workgroups have projects that are being developed to strengthen the ease-of-use, efficiency improvements in the next stages and simplified provisioning. UEC is also working on educational materials to help inform networking administrators on UEC technology and concepts. The group is also working industry ecosystem partners. “We have projects with OCP, NVM Express, SNIA, and more – with many more on the way to work on each layer – from the physical to the software,” Metz said. 


From Tools to Teammates: Are AI Agents the New Marketers?

The key difference is that traditional models were built as generic tools designed to perform a wide range of tasks. On the other hand, AI agents are designed to meet businesses’ specific needs. They can train a single agent or a group of them on their data to handle tasks unique to your business. This translates to better outcomes, improved performance, and stronger business impact. Another huge advantage of using AI agents is that they help unify marketing efforts and create a cohesive marketing ecosystem. Another major shift that comes with AI agent implementation is something called AIAO- AI Agent Optimisation. This is highly likely to become the next big alternative to traditional SEO. Now, marketers optimise content around specific keywords like “best project management software.” But with AIAO, that’s changing. AI agents are built to understand and respond to much more complex, conversational queries, like “What’s the best project management tool with timeline boards that works for marketing teams?” It’s no longer about integrating the right phrases into your content. It’s about ensuring your information is relevant, clear, and easy for AI agents to understand and process. Semantic search is going to take the lead. 


Under the Cloud: How Network Design Drives Everything

Let’s be clear, the network isn’t an accessory; it’s the key ingredient that determines how well your cloud performs, how secure your data is, how quickly you can recover from a disaster, and how easily you scale across borders or platforms. Think of it as the highway system beneath your business. Sleek, fast roads make for a smooth ride, while congested or patchy ones will leave you stuck in traffic. ... It’s tempting to get caught up in the flashier parts of cloud infrastructure, like server specs and cutting-edge tools, but none of it works well without a strong network underneath. Here’s the truth. Your network is doing the quiet, behind-the-scenes heavy lifting. It’s what keeps your games lag-free, your financial systems always on, and your hybrid workloads running smoothly across platforms even if it doesn’t get all the attention. You should think of your network as the glue that holds it all together – from your cloud services to your bare metal setup. It is what makes it all possible for AI models to work seamlessly across regions for backups to run smoothly in the background and for your users to enjoy fast, always-on experiences without ever thinking about what’s happening behind the scenes. ... A reliable, secure and performant network is nothing if it can’t be managed the right way. Having the right architecture, tools and knowledge to support it, is key for success.

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