Return-to-office mandates rise as worker productivity drops
In the first quarter of 2023, labor productivity dropped 2.1% in the US, even as
the number of hours worked increased by 2.6%, according to the BLS. The highest
levels of remote workers are in North America and Northern Europe, with lower
levels in Southern Europe, and even fewer still in Asia — particularly in
developing countries, according to a study by Stanford University’s Institute
for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) released in July. ... “Bosses want workers
back in the office; workers want flexibility,” said Peter Miscovich, the
managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle IP (JLL), a global real estate
investment and management firm that tracks remote work trends. But current
return-to-office mandates haven't always been effective and they risk driving
employees away, according to Miscovich. "Given current low-unemployment rates —
particularly in technology fields — talent has the upper hand and will have the
upper hand over the next 10 to 15 years,” Miscovich said. While some companies
have drawn attention for heavy-handed tactics to get employees back to the
office, others are succeeding for getting buy-in for structured hybrid work
policies.
IT professionals: avoiding bad days at work
The most common cause of stress is work-related, with one recent study showing
that 79% of UK professionals say they frequently feel stressed and our own
research revealed that over two-thirds of IT leaders(70%) reported that there is
pressure to deliver security protection in a short amount of time. Whilst
organisations must be able to identify the sources of stress to support their
people, unfortunately, it must be noted that due to the nature of working with
technology, IT professionals will encounter stressful situations – whether the
solution is to turn it off and on again or something much more serious. Having
the right mix of people, processes and technology will assist in minimising
these situations; however, when they do occur, it is vital that leaders are able
to recognise these situations and support their people This comes back to
ensuring the most appropriate technology is in place, along with having clear
plans and processes in place to best support the needs of the organisation, its
people and its customers.
Why synthetic data is a must for AI in telecom
Synthetic data reflects real-world data both mathematically and statistically.
But rather than being collected from and measured in the real world, it is
created by computer simulations, algorithms, simple rules, statistical modeling,
simulation and other techniques based on small, anonymized real-world samples.
“While real data is almost always the best source of insights from data, real
data is often expensive, imbalanced, unavailable or unusable due to privacy
regulations,” Gartner VP analyst Alexander Linden said in a Q&A blog post.
“Synthetic data can be an effective supplement or alternative to real data.”
Artificial data can help mitigate weaknesses in real data or can be used when no
live data exists, when data is highly sensitive or otherwise biased, or can’t be
used, shared or moved. But it doesn’t always have to be trained on real data,
however: It can be generated just by looking at domain or institutional
knowledge or traces of real data. With the massive explosion in the use of
data-hungry generative AI models and the necessity of privacy and security,
enterprises across industry segments are recognizing the potential in synthetic
data
DDoS Attacks and the Cyber Threatscape
Occasionally, DDoS attacks were carried out to extort ransom payments,
colloquially known as Ransom DDoS (RDDoS) attacks. The RDDoS attack should not
be mistaken for ransomware, which may be driven by similar motivations but
employs different tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). The operational
method in ransomware requires ‘denial of data’ by a malicious script, whereas
RDDoS involves denial of service, generally by a botnet. Running a ransomware operation requires access to internal systems, which is
not the case in ransom DDoS attacks. In RDDoS, threat actors leverage the threat
of denial of service to conduct extortion, which may include sending a private
message by email demanding ransom amount to prevent the organisation from being
targeted by a DDoS attack. According to a threat intelligence report, throughout
the 2020–2021 global RDDoS campaigns, attacks ranged from few hours up to
several weeks with attack rates of 200 Gbps and higher. The DDoS attack can also
serve as a means of reconnaissance, allowing attackers to assess the target’s
vulnerabilities and gauge the strength of its defenses.
MDM’s Role in Strengthening Data Governance Practices
Ensuring regulatory compliance and the trustworthiness of data is paramount.
This is where a systematic process comes into play, and Gartner MDM is leading
the way in providing a comprehensive solution. With the ability to configure
data governance policies, capture metadata, and perform data lineage, Gartner
MDM allows for a full understanding of data assets and their use. This
translates into improved compliance, reduced risk, and enhanced data
trustworthiness. By implementing a systematic process that includes Gartner MDM,
organizations can confidently navigate the complex landscape of regulatory
requirements, safeguard data integrity, and ultimately increase customer trust.
... Data Governance has become essential with the ever-increasing amount of data
organizations generate. However, manually reviewing and managing such a large
amount of data can be challenging and time-consuming. This is where automation
techniques come into play. By automating data governance processes,
organizations can streamline the process, reduce errors, and make better
decisions resulting from the data.
Delivering privacy in a world of pervasive digital surveillance: Tor Project’s Executive Director speaks out
Our stance is clear, we think that encryption is a right – which is why it is
built into our technology. As more and more aspects of our lives are carried out
digitally, whether it is conducting financial transactions, accessing health
care services or staying in touch with friends and loved ones, our online
activity should be governed by the same rights to privacy and anonymity as our
analog experiences. As part of our work, the Tor Project is currently active in
the debate around the need to safeguard EE2E. We are engaged in advocacy work on
the issue and have supported other organizations in their efforts to raise
awareness, especially as part of the Global Encryption Coalition. ... Earlier
this year, we launched the Mullvad Browser, a free, privacy-preserving browser
offering similar protections as Tor Browser without the Tor network. Mullvad
Browser is another option for internet users who are looking for a
privacy-focused browser that doesn’t need a bunch of extensions and plugins to
enhance their privacy and reduce the factors that can accidentally de-anonymize
themselves.
The Debate Around AI Ethics in Australia is Falling Far Behind
In 2016, the World Economic Forum looked at the top nine ethical issues in
artificial intelligence. These issues have all been well-understood for a
decade (or longer), which is what makes the lack of movement in addressing
them so concerning. In many cases, the concerns the WEF highlighted, which
were future-thinking at the time, are starting to become reality, yet the
ethical concerns have yet to be actioned. ... The WEF noted the potential
for AI bias back in its initial article, and this is one of the most
talked-about and debated AI ethics issues. There are several examples of AI
assessing people of color and gender differently. However, as UNESCO noted
just last year, despite the decade of debate, biases of AI remain
fundamental right down to the core. “Type ‘greatest leaders of all time’ in
your favorite search engine, and you will probably see a list of the world’s
prominent male personalities. How many women do you count? An image search
for ‘school girl’ will most probably reveal a page filled with women and
girls in all sorts of sexualised costumes. ...”
Vigilance advised if using AI to make cyber decisions
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) driven tools and
technologies are on the rise to help organizations address these challenges
by significantly improving their security posture efficiently and
effectively. Tools using ML and AI are improving accuracy and speed of
response. ... The vendor may have utilised AI in various product development
stages. For instance, AI could have been employed to shape the requirements
and design of the product, review its design or even generate source code.
Additionally, AI might have been used to select relevant open-source code,
develop test plans, write the user guide or create marketing content. In
some cases, AI could be a functional product component. However, it’s
important to note that sometimes an AI capability might really be machine
learning (ML). Determining the legitimacy of AI claims can be challenging:
the vendor’s transparency and supporting evidence are crucial. Weighing the
vendor’s reputation, expertise and track record in AI development is vital
for distinguishing authentic AI-powered products from “snake oil.”
3 GitOps Myths Busted
It is highly likely that as your organization embarks on its cloud native
journey, there will come a point where scaling to multiclusters becomes
necessary. For instance, developers may need to work on and test
applications before making pull requests without having direct access to the
production code, of course, for applications running in production on
Kubernetes. Moreover, in certain scenarios, a team might manage multiple
clusters and distribute workloads among them to ensure sufficient fault
tolerance and availability. For example, when running a machine learning
training workload, the team might increase the number of replicas or cluster
replicas to meet specific demands. Additionally, different clusters may be
deployed across various physical locations in cloud environments, whether on
Amazon Web Services, Azure, GCP and others, requiring separate tools and
processes to align with geographic mandates, legal restrictions, compliance
requirements, and data access policies.
Simplifying IT strategy: How to avoid the annual planning panic
In developing your strategy, you have two responsibilities related to the
finances of any proposed project: First, you must articulate the costs and
benefits of the project; and second, you must contextualize those costs and
benefits by comparing them to overall budget projections, which should
include multi-year projections that align with the needs and norms of your
finance organization. Not sure how to frame the numbers? Borrow revenue
projections from FP&A, then layer in projected IT run-rate spend, IT
project spend for each year in the forecast, and summarize total IT spend as
a percentage of revenue. Hint: Be ready to explain any increase in this
metric. ... What will you need from others for your plan to succeed?
Dedicated resources from BUs and functions? Participation in steering
committees? Incremental funding? The point is you can’t drive a
transformation alone. Key to success will be clarifying roles and
responsibilities and ensuring others have skin in the game. ... Once you’ve
tried answering the questions, consult your deputies. Test and refine your
hypothesis as a group.
Quote for the day:
"Great leaders go forward without
stopping, remain firm without tiring and remain enthusiastic while
growing" -- Reed Markham
No comments:
Post a Comment