AI: A Catalyst for Gender Equality in the Workplace
The Equality and Human Rights Commission reports that 77% of mothers have
encountered negative or possibly discriminatory experiences during pregnancy,
maternity leave, or upon returning to work. The joy of impending motherhood is
often tainted by biases, as expecting mothers face subtle exclusions from
projects or career advancements. Maternity leave, intended as a sacred period
for bonding, becomes tinged with anxiety as women grapple with the fear of being
sidelined professionally and the pressure to resume duties prematurely.
Returning to the workplace brings feelings of inadequacy and frustration, met
with insufficient support for balancing work and family responsibilities. These
experiences, rife with frustration and disappointment, mark a daunting struggle
for women seeking to re-establish themselves professionally post-maternity
leave. However, despite these challenges, women actively choose to re-enter the
workforce, embarking on the second phase of their careers post-sabbatical.
Addressing these issues requires normative frameworks that ethically tackle the
consequences of AI usage.
How to Identify and Address the Challenges of Excessive Business Growth
In other words, when processes start breaking down, and you find yourself
constantly in reactive, catch-up mode, it's a sign you need more capacity. The
tipping point will vary for each company, but if productivity and quality take a
nosedive, growth has become excessive for your present resources. Other red
flags include: Customer complaints spike; Employees seem stressed, burned
out; You're always scrambling to meet deadlines; Infrastructure creaks
under the weight - think cyberattacks, IT failures, supply chain issues; No
time for strategy, only tackling emergencies; Costs rising faster than
revenue; Profitability declines. Essentially, if growth starts hurting
rather than helping, it's time for a change. ... Trying to manage a 100-person
company like a 10-person startup will lead to chaos. But running a 10-person
shop like a rigid 100-person bureaucracy will cause frustration. Align your
leadership style, organizational structure, systems, and talent to your current
size and growth needs.
AI Pushes Universities to Modernize IT Infrastructure
The convenience and accessibility of those technologies have created new demands
for higher-quality and customizable learning experiences in higher education.
According to data from McKinsey, 60% of students report that classroom learning
technologies such as generative AI, machine learning and supercomputing have
improved their learning and grades since COVID-19 began. In addition to using AI
in classrooms, institutions can implement AI solutions in their IT
decision-making to create a reliable, secure data infrastructure. As AI becomes
more mainstream in higher education operations, universities can better
understand, invest and apply AI-specific solutions to their IT needs. While
investing in AI and the technology to support it, universities can improve
operations, offering faster innovation and better student, faculty and
researcher experiences. ... With demand for advanced technological offerings at
universities becoming commonplace, IT teams face new challenges under small
bud/gets. Many require modern IT infrastructure to support increasingly large
datasets required for groundbreaking insights from research teams.
Future-proofing the digital rupee
Several factors contributed to the inception of India's CBDC. The global
competition for CBDC development, coupled with the enthusiasm among nations to
embrace digital solutions, played a pivotal role. The introduction of India's
CBDC, the digital rupee, might have been influenced, at least partially, by the
rising prevalence of cryptocurrencies, especially stablecoins. The Deputy
Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) emphasised the need for caution in
permitting such instruments. While stablecoins offer certain advantages, their
applicability is confined to a limited number of developed countries. The
success of UPI in India has raised questions about the necessity of deploying
CBDCs in the country, perhaps making it look like an inconspicuous addition to
an already largely developed payments landscape. The RBI Deputy Governor cited
the ascent of cryptocurrencies and concerns about policy sovereignty as one of
the reasons for considering CBDCs, along with improving digital transactions.
However, India presents a unique case with the well-established UPI system
already in place.
How to lock down backup infrastructure
The first thing to do is to protect the privileged accounts in your backup
system. First, separate these accounts from any centralized login system you
use, such as Active Directory, because these systems are sometimes
compromised. Create as much of a firewall between that production system and
the backup system as possible. And, of course, use a safe password, and do not
use any passwords for these accounts that are used anywhere else. (Personally
I would use a password manager to support having a different password
everywhere.) Finally, make sure that any such logins are protected by
multi-factor authentication, and use the best option available. Avoid the use
of email or SMS-based MFA, as it is easily foiled by an experienced hacker.
Try to use an OTP-based system of some kind, such as Google Authenticator,
Symantec VIP, or Yubikey. Also investigate if your backup system has enhanced
authentication for dangerous actions, such as deletion of backups before their
scheduled expiration, or restoration of any data to anywhere other than where
it was originally created. The first is used to easy delete backups from your
backup system, without setting off any alarms, and the second is used to
exfiltrate data by restoring it to a system the hacker controls.
Fortifying cyber defenses: A proactive approach to ransomware resilience
Instead of investing time in formulating non-binding pledges rather than
working on actionable solutions, the US Government should adopt a more
proactive stance by directly procuring advanced cybersecurity tools. These
tools, which have been developed to keep data safe and stop ransomware
attacks, exist and are continually evolving. By spearheading the
implementation, through investment and education, the government can set a
powerful example for the private sector to follow, thereby reinforcing the
nation’s cyber infrastructure. The effectiveness of such tools is not
hypothetical: they have been tested and proven in various cybersecurity
battlegrounds. They range from advanced threat detection systems that use
artificial intelligence to identify potential threats before they strike, to
automated response solutions that can protect data on infected systems and
networks, preventing the lateral spread of ransomware. Investing in these
tools would not only enhance the government’s defensive capabilities but would
also stimulate the cybersecurity industry, encouraging innovation and
development of even more effective defenses.
Cloud squatting: How attackers can use deleted cloud assets against you
The risk from cloud squatting issues can even be inherited from third-party
software components. In June, researchers from Checkmarx warned that attackers
are scanning npm packages for references to S3 buckets. If they find a bucket
that no longer exists, they register it. In many cases the developers of those
packages chose to use an S3 bucket to store pre-compiled binary files that are
downloaded and executed during the package’s installation. So, if attackers
re-register the abandoned buckets, they can perform remote code execution on
the systems of the users trusting the affected npm package because they can
host their own malicious binaries. ... The attack surface is very large, but
organizations need to start somewhere and the sooner the better. The IP reuse
and DNS scenario seems to be the most widespread and can be mitigated in
several ways: by using reserved IP addresses from a cloud provider which means
they won’t be released back into the shared pool until the organization
explicitly releases them, by transferring their own IP addresses to the cloud,
by using private (internal) IP addresses between services when users don’t
need to directly access those servers, or by using IPv6 addresses if offered
by the cloud provider because their number is so large that they’re unlikely
to ever be reused.
Data Leaders Say ‘AI Paralysis’ Stifling Adoption: Study
While AI is not new in the data industry, the public’s fascination with
generative AI has fueled a veritable gold rush for industries to adopt the
emerging technologies for a competitive advantage. But the lack of safety
guidelines and organizational framework and training may be suffocating AI
adoption efforts, according to the report. ... “What happened is everybody got
ahold of the GenAI hammer, and now everything looks like a nail,” she says,
adding that CIOs and CDOs must do their best to articulate the technical needs
to non-technical members of the C-suite. “I do think there’s a disconnect
between the CIO and CDO and the chief executive. We should not, in the data
and technology space, expect people to understand the layer of complexity that
we have to deal with. What we should be doing is taking that complexity and
creating a story and a narrative, so it makes sense to the other people
in our organization and businesses we work with.” The report also showed that
data governance has stalled just as AI is being adopted across industries.
Artificial Intelligence Governance & Alignment with Enterprise Governance
The Objectives of the AI Governance are: Ensure enterprise is adopted
pre-trained foundation models and complied; Guide the decision-making process
to maintain AI Solution coherence; Maintain the relevancy of the
enterprise to meet changing requirements ... The AI Governance Framework helps
Enterprise to Manage, Govern, Monitor, and Adopt AI activities, practices, and
systems across enterprise. AI Governance Framework defines a set of metrics
that can be used to measure the success of the framework implementation. ...
Establish an executive team for identifying and overseeing the AI initiatives
across the enterprise. Define a clear vision and strategy for AI
implementation aligned with the enterprise goals and business functions.
Develop practical communications to, and appropriate access for employees.
Setup AI Governance across enterprise. Define roles and responsibilities of
individuals involved in AI development, deployment and monitoring. Foster the
collaboration between AI experts, domain experts and business stakeholders.
Establish a centralized, cross-functional team to review and update AI
governance practices as technology, regulations, and enterprise needs.
Role of digital in risk management and compliances
Embracing risks is crucial for survival, as risks are inherent in every aspect
of business, whether financial or non-financial. As Mark Zuckerberg says, “The
only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” However, this
leads to a fundamental question: should businesses pursue risks solely in
pursuit of higher returns? Going beyond the pursuit of returns alone,
businesses in today’s context should focus on Return of capital and not just
Return on capital. Business is about taking calculated risks and managing
risks to achieve business goals. Risk exposures must be strategically crafted,
with a comprehensive risk management framework in place. We piloted
technology-enabled compliance way back in 2015, starting with an India-centric
compliance tool that has now been implemented across the global organisation.
The tool aids informed decision-making and swift response to emerging risks.
The digital solution facilitates seamless communication and collaboration
between dispersed teams, ensuring a coordinated approach to risk
management.
Quote for the day:
"Your job gives you authority. Your
behavior gives you respect." -- Irwin Federman
