Catch up on this month’s round-up of the latest hosting and tech news. Here’s what we’ve uncovered since our last edition.
Police Drone-Copter
The UK’s National Police Air Service (NPAS) has begun testing a drone helicopter. Designed to improve air support, reduce CO2 emissions and fly less noisily than traditional helicopters, the Schiebel Camcopter S-100 is controlled from a ground station and can fly for up to 12 hours, far longer than the two to six hours of manned aircraft. It will also be fitted with an infrared camera system.
The NPAS intends to use the drone helicopter for operations such as searching for suspects and missing persons, which make up about a third of its call-outs. With extended flight times and lower costs, it can be used more frequently than manned aircraft, while the 90% reduction in emissions helps the NPAS achieve its environmental objectives.
The current trials over the Bristol Channel are funded by the Home Office and managed by the Civil Aviation Authority and National Air Traffic Services. Several years of testing are expected before the drone can be used operationally.
Ransomware Closes Business
A ransomware attack by the cybercriminal group Akira has led to the shutdown of Knights of Old, a Northamptonshire haulage company that has been in business for 158 years. By exploiting the weak password of a single employee, the hackers were able to encrypt the firm’s data, halting its operations and leaving its 500 trucks immobilised. Unable to recover from the disruption, the haulage company, which employed 700 staff, has gone out of business.
The growing susceptibility of logistics and supply chain sectors to ransomware attacks has become a major issue. To avoid similar incidents, security experts are urging firms to use stronger access controls and multi-factor authentication, as well as to conduct regular password audits.
IT Disruptions Rise
A survey by Asanti has shown that 72% of UK organisations faced significant IT disruptions or downtime over the past year. Despite this, just over half of the organisations have clearly defined and regularly tested Recovery Time Objectives, while even fewer have done the same for Recovery Point Objectives, both of which are essential for reducing downtime and data loss. As a result, only 31% of IT leaders feel extremely confident in their disaster recovery and business continuity strategies.
The report highlights a resilience competency gap, indicating that planning, testing and investment are not keeping up with the increasing complexity and frequency of IT threats. Cloud service outages were identified as the primary operational risk (51%), overtaking traditional system failures, while 90% of respondents indicated that human error was also a significant problem.
Asanti noted that without clear recovery objectives, thorough testing and integrated risk management, even sophisticated infrastructure can fail. It advises IT leaders to integrate resilience into their systems, operations and leadership to minimise the potential for financial and reputational harm.
AI Browser Wars
The race to create AI-powered browsers is heating up, with Perplexity introducing its Comet browser and OpenAI’s browser expected soon. Both browsers will aim to take on Google’s dominance in search and browsing by embedding AI into the user experience, potentially disrupting Google’s ad-based model.
Currently only available to Perplexity’s premium subscribers, Comet is based on the open-source Chromium platform but uses Perplexity’s AI search engine to provide conversational summaries rather than standard link lists. Its features include an AI assistant for natural language queries, tools for summarisation, context-aware browsing commands, and integration with services like Gmail. OpenAI’s upcoming browser is expected to keep users within a ChatGPT-like interface, which may decrease clicks to publisher websites and raise copyright issues.
While AI search engines are still a relatively new development, their natural language skills and ability to give immediate responses mean they are expected to become the most popular way to find information online, overtaking traditional link-based searches.
Bradford Data Centre
Plans have been put forward for a new data centre at Listerhills Road in Bradford. The centre is designed to help the region engage with growth sectors, like artificial intelligence, while improving connectivity and research capabilities for universities across the country. The facility will contain high-capacity computing equipment for data processing, research and commercial uses, providing essential digital infrastructure for the city and northern England.
The proposal, submitted by Deep Green Technologies, will see the data centre built next to a new low-carbon energy centre. The project will feature four emergency generators to provide backup power and will connect with Bradford’s District Heat Network. This connection allows excess heat from data centre operations to heat civic buildings, like the City Hall and the law courts, reducing their energy costs.
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