Catch up on this week’s round-up of the latest hosting and tech news. Here’s what we’ve uncovered since our last edition.
Law firm fined for sharing sensitive data
Law firm, Trinity Chambers LLP, has been fined £10,000 by the Guernsey Data Protection Authority for sharing highly confidential and sensitive information about an individual and their family via post and email.
According to the authority, repeated human error gave unconnected third-parties access to the information which could have had a significant impact within the small community that lives on the island. The fine, which the law firm has not contested, reflects the severity of the breach.
It’s a reminder to all businesses of the need to keep data secure. This includes ensuring, when replying to emails, that previous correspondence is not contained within the message. Encrypting the contents of an email using Email Signing Certificates can also help ensure they only get read by the intended recipient.
China cloud grows faster than Silicone Valley
The cloud arm of Chinese internet giant, Alibaba, saw its growth outpace that of Microsoft, Google and Amazon during Q3, due, in part, to China’s swifter recovery from coronavirus. Its year on year revenues for the quarter rose by 60% to over £1.71 billion, compared to Microsoft’s 48%, Google’s 44% and Amazons 29%.
Alibaba’s gains were mostly from its internet, retail and finance businesses and were driven by the acceleration in digital transformation taking place across all sectors in China. It makes the company the world’s fourth-largest cloud services provider, overtaking companies like IBM and Oracle.
While the company still focuses mainly on its domestic market, it has ambitions to offer cloud computing and data intelligence services across the wider digital economy.
Ransomware payers clobbered twice
Victims of ransomware are being warned about the dangers of paying up after a new report from security firm, Coveware, shows that cybercriminals are forcing them to make a second payment.
The ploy, which is being used by cybercriminal gangs like Netwalker, Sodinokibi and Maze, takes payments from victims with the promise to show evidence that stolen data has been deleted. However, the evidence they are showing is fake and the gangs quickly come back asking for further payments.
Additionally, cybersecurity experts have found that many of the ransomware gangs will sell on the stolen data to other threat actors regardless of whether the victim has paid for its deletion or return.
Data insights company migrates to the cloud
London-based, Kantar Group, the world’s leading data, insights and consulting business is migrating its on-site solution to the cloud. The move will enable Kantar’s evolving business to increase efficiency and provide real-time reporting across the group.
The cloud solution will support the company’s operations and financials by integrating a range of critical organisational tools, including consolidation and reporting tools, to deliver improved financial visibility, better insight into projects and enhanced user experiences. It will also provide the company with improved agility, transparency and control across the organisation.
The company, which has recently come under new ownership, took the decision because its existing on-site infrastructure was coming to the end of its life and this made it the ideal time to migrate.
IT careers attracting more recruits
According to a recent survey by recruitment company, CW Jobs, 55% of people working in non-tech roles were considering retraining to work in IT. This is good news for the UK economy which is rapidly turning to digitalisation at a time where there’s been a significant IT skills gap and where recruiting expertise from abroad has been hampered by Brexit and immigration issues. Of the non-tech workers surveyed, many have begun the process of moving into an IT-based job and over 7% have already completed the move.
The IT skills gap has become exacerbated during the pandemic with many businesses quickly moving to remote working and accelerating their adoption of digital transformation technologies. As a result, more UK companies than ever require support with IT and tech, with 45% of companies now actively looking to recruit employees in tech-based roles.
With lockdown redundancies and automation reducing the number of non-tech roles available, the increased opportunities seen in IT have become a major attraction for those looking to retrain. Indeed, 12% of workers surveyed said the pandemic has hastened their desire to change careers with 25% stating that job stability and security in IT were more important than the salary.
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