Category: News

The X/Twitter account of Google’s Mandiant cybersecurity service has been taken over by a hacker who is seemingly promoting a cryptocurrency scam.

The incident happened very early Wednesday morning, Eastern time. As of Wednesday afternoon, the account called Mandiant was still run by an operator called ‘Phantom.’ Messages posted refer to “token prices” and include a link to an app.

“We’re looking into it,” Mark Karayan, Mandiant’s media communications lead for threat intelligence, told IT World Canada. “It’s definitely been taken over … We’re working to get it resolved.”

Karayan couldn’t say how the incident happened.

Google acquired Mandiant in 2022 for US$5.4 billion. Mandiant had been owned by FireEye, but was spun off after the parent company admitted in February 2021 that a threat actor had compromised the firm and made off with FireEye cybersecurity tools.

Google has been one of the leading IT suppliers pushing organizations around the world to adopt multifactor authentication (MFA) as an extra step to protect logins not only to its services, but also for any network-linked service. Google staff have had to use MFA for years. Since 2017, all Google employees were forced to adopt Google’s Titan key-based MFA to ensure staff aren’t victims of phishing attacks in which a victim is directed to a fake login site where their username and password can be copied.

It isn’t known if staff who had access to the Mandiant X/Twitter had to use security keys, which are USB sticks that have to be physically plugged into a computer to provide an extra login factor for access.

Still, experts note that, unless MFA systems are set up properly, hackers may be able to get around them by convincing IT support staff to reset passwords. If done through a man-in-the-middle attack, a hacker can get hold of a user’s session cookie to take over access.

RELATED CONTENT: Use these phishing-resistant authenticators

Perhaps by coincidence, the takeover of the Mandiant account this week comes with the revelation that the X/Twitter account of a Canadian senator was temporarily captured by a hacker.

The post Mandiant loses control of X/Twitter account first appeared on IT World Canada.

Xerox today announced that it will lay off 15 per cent of its workforce as part of a newly introduced reinvention and operating model.

The U.S. based corporation provides printing and digital document products and services.

According to its latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Xerox has 20,500 employees, which means 3,075 employees will be getting the axe.

The cuts are expected to take place this quarter.

Xerox said that the proposed reductions will be subject to formal consultation with local works councils and employee representative bodies where applicable. It added that it is committed to providing transition support to affected employees.

Its new organizational structure seeks to improve its core printing business, increase productivity with the formation of a new Global Business Services organization and accelerate revenue diversification through increased focus on its digital and IT services.

“The shift to a business unit operating model is a continuation of our client-focused, balanced execution priorities and is designed to accelerate product and services, go-to-market, and corporate functions’ operating efficiencies across all geographies we serve,” said Steven Bandrowczak, chief executive officer at Xerox.

The company has also restructured its executive team to support the new operating model, with several new appointments, and two departures: Joanne Collins Smee, executive vice president and president, Americas and Tracey Koziol, executive vice president of global offering solutions and chief product officer.

Bandrowczak thanked Smee and Koziol for their contributions to the company and culture.

The post Xerox to cut 15 per cent of its workforce first appeared on IT World Canada.

A “termination notice” sent to VMware channel partners by Broadcom on Dec. 22, as they were preparing to head out of the office for the holidays, did not leave many feeling the warmth of the season, said Jason Van der Schyff, the chief operating officer (COO) of private cloud infrastructure vendor Softiron.

The electronic notice Van der Schyff refers to, a copy of which was obtained today by Channel Daily News, begins by stating that “for more than two years, VMware has outlined its plan to transition from a perpetual to a subscription-based business model. This is consistent with the overall market trend toward cloud operating models and was reinforced with the launch and evolution of VMware’s Partner Connect Program.

“On December 11, 2023, VMware by Broadcom announced its simplified licensing model and solution portfolio. Broadcom and VMware are driven by technology and innovation and have a shared passion for, and commitment to, partner profitability and success. You are now well positioned to capture substantial growth opportunities for delivering advanced, innovative cloud infrastructure and associated services wherever your customers need.”

The big news, which took the form of a termination notice, can be found in the next paragraph, which stated Broadcom would be “transitioning” all of the VMware’s partner programs to the “by-invitation only award winning Broadcom Advantage Partner Program, effective Feb. 5, 2024.

“Effective today, we are also announcing changes to VMware’s partner programs which will exist through February 4, 2024. Please refer to the VMware partner program operative changes on the VMware by Broadcom Essential Partner Information page.

“Also, effective today, all VMware Partner Incentive programs will end on or before February 4, 2024.”

The by-invitation only part of the program means that actual invitations to join are scheduled to start being issued this month, and the timeline will vary by partner type and route to market, the notice stated.

Invitations, “will be sent to the partner identified primary and alternate contacts on file with VMware. Take this opportunity to ensure your company’s contact information is correct within the ‘My Company’ section of the Partner Connect portal home page.”

Van der Schyff countered that the  “greater channel has watched as Broadcom disassembled CA and Symantec, further limiting the available SKUs to make margin on. Seemingly irrespective of the promises of Broadcom, they are doing the exact same thing with VMware.

“Early in the narrative, we heard that Broadcom essentially had worked out how to pay for the US$60+ billion acquisition with the VMware revenue from the top 10 per cent of their clients. So, if the play here is to get as much revenue in as short time as possible, eviscerate VMware’s customer base, and move on to the next thing, they simply do not need their channel. I think that is exactly what we are seeing.”

It is not just many VMware partners wondering or worried about next steps, but end user organizations as well.

Andrew Moloney, Softiron’s chief strategy officer, wrote in a blog issued on Nov. 27, five days after the deal formally closed, “with the Broadcom acquisition now closed and the wide-reaching layoffs and restructuring starting to happen, another inflection point has been created.”

It is, he maintained, an inflection point that is “causing many IT leaders to re-evaluate their strategic options and chart the right path for the future – one that may or may not include VMware. I get to talk to many industry analysts in my role and they all tell me the same thing – everyone is looking for a credible alternative to VMware as their license renewals come due.

“And for those not willing or able to migrate all their workloads to the public cloud, their options are severely limited.”

Moloney added that anyone would be “hard-pressed to find a VMware customer who is happy with the cost of their VMware software licensing. And with a ~US$61Bn acquisition to pay for, prior form in that regard, and significant earnings promises being made to investors in an already saturated market, VMware customers are increasingly anxious that those licensing bills are only going one-way post-acquisition as Broadcom leadership exerts its authority.”

The post Broadcom drops bombshell with ‘termination notice’ first appeared on IT World Canada.

Major disruptions are expected in the cloud business this year which will see hyperscalers adapting, leaving an opportunity for challengers and startups to catch up, Forrester revealed in a new report.

Here’s what we can expect in 2024:

1. FinOps

FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification (FOCUS), an initiative driven by the FinOps Foundation, will become the standard in 2024, Forrester predicts. This will compel cloud providers to align on cost reporting to give customers a vendor-neutral multi-cloud view of their resources.

Even Amazon Web Services (AWS), who initially held out from FOCUS, is expected to join the community in 2024, Forrester noted.

The collective voice of the user community, driven by FOCUS, will continue to be a game-changer in leveling the playing field between cloud providers and consumers, further explained Kyle Campos, chief product and technology officer (CPTO) at CloudBolt Software.

This will be even more critical, as 2024 will be the year that the cost to run an application will be the ultimate performance metric, while traditional metrics like CPU, memory, disk and network will become less important, he added.

He said, “As digitally transformed organizations continue their advance to the cloud, the cost-of-goods-sold will get linked intrinsically with operational and services measured at a finer-grained level; looking at specific tools, services, and algorithms for cost savings.”

Further, FinOps silos that drive friction and optimization pitfalls will find a breakthrough as conversations and solutions shift from “motivation” to “facilitation”, noted Campos. This means that FinOps practices will become a native part of its “golden paths,” on par with security and observability, as the trifecta of defaults in the delivery process, especially as the majority of forward-thinking IT organizations adopt Platform Engineering as a technology approach by the end of 2024, he explained.

Advances in AL/ML will continue to lower user complexity/friction and hence cost granularity in the FinOps solution ecosystem.

“What used to take hours of custom configuration, trial and error, will be a low friction conversation,” Campos said, adding, “AI/ML will facilitate Unit Cost solution inversion such that unit cost is provided to the user, not from the user.”

2. Oracle to take on the cloud monopoly

With its increased focus on performance and cost advantages, Oracle is expected to steal hyperscaler business for more than 10 major accounts bringing at least US$100 million in annual cloud spend each, Forrester said.

The increased interest in AI will also give Oracle the opportunity to offer massive compute power to help customers train and run their generative AI models on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). The company offers a low-latency AI supercomputer with high performance and low-cost supercluster capabilities.

3. Hyperscalers to announce new regions

By the end of 2024, public cloud vendors will have announced and launched at least two geographically separated regions in every significant market, to stay ahead of sovereignty requirements, climate change challenges, and risks connected to geopolitical tensions — a feat that will total 30 new regions across the globe, Forrester claimed.

Indeed, service outages caused by factors such as the water leak in Google’s only Paris region in April 2023, a fire-related incident at OVHcloud in 2021, or a ransomware attack wiping out CloudNordic clients’ data in August 2023 are all putting pressure on hyperscalers to failover to foreign regions.

4. Prompt engineering

Hyperscalers, Forrester said, have all the building blocks for data science except for prompt engineering.

That will change in 2024 as generative AI and foundation models continue to boom.

In 2024, all hyperscalers will announce the preview or general availability of prompt engineering, Forrester predicts. For instance, Google Cloud put Grounding Prompt in the product vision of its AI platform.

That said, enterprise adoption will be limited. Most are expected to add prompt engineering talent internally, using business subject-matter experts and data scientists to accelerate model grounding and value delivery. This is due to incomplete contextual data and limited experience in natural language and prompt engineering among data scientists. As a result, cloud providers’ first-gen prompt engineering services will not suffice to address tailored fine-tuning needs.

5. Architecture reconsiderations

Forrester predicts that the first WASI offerings will emerge on major cloud platforms and quickly spread.

WASI enables a new concept: modular monoliths, which are different from just monoliths or microservices. While monoliths are tightly integrated and efficient, but hard to iterate with agile development practices, microservices break apps into smaller chunks for faster iteration but add production complexity and require more management overhead.

WASI-enabled modular monoliths, on the other hand, will allow WebAssembly apps to run server side and introduce a new way to compose components into larger integrated applications at runtime.

The full Forrester report is available for purchase here.

The post Cloud Predictions 2024: Costs control, sovereignty concerns, competitors and more to spark disruptions first appeared on IT World Canada.

The office of Canadian Senator Amina Gerba has confirmed the Quebec parliamentarian’s account on the X/Twitter social media platform was hacked this week.

Senator Amina Gerba

Walter Calderon, the Senator’s executive assistant, made the confirmation Wednesday in a telephone interview. It followed the disclosure of the hack on Tuesday by MalwareHunterTeam, a resource on ransomware for IT teams and security researchers.

According to MalwareHunterTeam, the account was renamed as “LFG” and — taking advantage of Gerba’s followers — was being used to promote a scam.

However, late this morning the account and its content had been restored.

Asked when Gerba knew she couldn’t get into the account, Calderon said that on Tuesday “she just realized she didn’t have access to her account. Like anyone would do, she tried her password but it didn’t work because the email was not associated with the account.”

Gerba, who had created the account herself to promote her work as a Senator, then notified the federal government’s IT department, Calderon said.

At the time he spoke to IT World Canada, he didn’t realize the account had been restored.

Calderon didn’t know if the Senator had implemented multifactor authentication to protect from login compromise.

Gerba was appointed to the Senate in 2021 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. She sits as an independent. She is a member of the Senate Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee and the Human Rights Committee. She is also very actively involved in the Parliamentary Black Caucus and Senators for Climate Solutions.

This isn’t the first time a Canadian parliamentarian’s social media account was taken over.
In 2019, Twitter confirmed Senator Linda Frum’s account had been hacked. The threat actor posted racial slurs and some of Frum’s personal information, including her driver’s licence. Her access was quickly restored. In 2018, Conservative Senator Don Plett’s Twitter account was briefly taken over. Around the same time, Conservative MP Peter Ken reported he had been locked out of his Facebook and Instagram accounts.

In the U.S., Senator Joe Manchin’s social media accounts were hacked in 2018. In 2012, Senator Chuck Grassley’s Twitter account was taken over.

Suspected attackers of the social media accounts of politicians range from hacktivists to foreign governments.

X/Twitter offers this advice to users for protecting their accounts:

use a strong password that’s not used on other websites;
enable two-factor authentication as protection, in case an outsider is able to get hold of your username and password; 
require email and phone number confirmation from X to request a reset password link or code;
be cautious of suspicious links that claim to send you to X/Twitter. Always make sure you’re on twitter.com before you enter your login information;
never give your username and password out to third parties, especially those promising to get you followers, make you money, or verify you;
Make sure your computer software, including your browser, is up-to-date with the most recent upgrades and anti-virus software.
The post Canadian Senator temporarily loses control of X account first appeared on IT World Canada.

Any laptop user who routinely works with numbers faces the same challenge – they either need to use an external keyboard or carry a separate numeric keypad to work efficiently. Either way, it’s a pain: one more thing to carry around, extra weight, and it makes it virtually impossible to use the laptop on, well, your lap.

LG sought to solve that problem with the 15.6-inch 2023 Gram SuperSlim, list price C$1,699.99. In a sleek package that weighs less than a kilogram (990 grams, to be precise), it manages to include a powerful computer, good-sized FHD OLED screen, and (ta-da) a backlit keyboard complete with numeric keypad.

It features a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, Intel Iris XE graphics, 32 GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, offering plenty of power and storage for the most demanding tasks.

My only complaint about the screen, which is crisp and bright, is that it’s only full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution; for me, that’s the bare minimum – I’ve been spoiled using QHD (2560 x 1440) displays. A lot more fits on the screen at higher resolutions (though of course, it’s smaller). It’s a matter of taste, and what makes your eyeballs happy.

But if the 15.6-inch screen isn’t enough, LG has also launched the C$500 16-inch +view external display that connects to the Gram via USB C.

The system comes with Windows 11 Home, and its Windows Hello biometric security is via facial recognition. There is no fingerprint reader.

The keyboard takes a bit of getting used to, since the laptop is a bit narrower than a standalone keyboard, but the keys are in the right places. I found that, because the machine is so slim (less than half an inch thick), the key travel is very slight – too little for my taste.

And users may be somewhat baffled by the alternate characters printed on the keys – they include both standard English characters and those for Canadian French (which won’t work unless you’ve chosen the Canadian multilingual keyboard in Windows).  But those are quibbles – the system, on the whole, works very well.

While the port collection isn’t spectacular, it is adequate: a couple of USB 4 type C ports with power delivery, display port, and Thunderbolt 4 support, plus a USB 3.2 type C port and an audio jack. The A/C adapter uses one of the USB ports. You’ll need a dongle or a hub for any other connections.

I was not impressed with the battery life, though. Slim and sleek equals less room for batteries, and it shows. Despite manufacturer ratings that claim much better, I got 5ish hours under my normal use. But, as the saying goes, your mileage may vary.

I also found that the system uses power even after it has been shut down – for example, on one occasion, at shutdown, battery was at six per cent, but when I rebooted, it was down to two per cent. Another time, it powered off at 66 per cent, but when I rebooted two days later, it was down to 49 per cent.

That said, the LG Gram SuperSlim compensates for these shortcomings with its performance and impossibly light weight. And with that all-important numeric keypad, which makes working with spreadsheets and other number-centric tasks so much easier.

The post LG Gram 15 2023 review: Impossibly light with lots of power first appeared on IT World Canada.

Cybercrooks have increased the number of new or stolen Gold checkmarked accounts from the X/Twitter platform offered for sale; they are a valuable way for threat actors to push links to malware on the social media site through what users will see as a post from a trusted source.

There has been a surge of dark web posts selling accounts with X/Twitter Gold verification., say researchers at Singapore-based CloudSEK. A “strikingly similar series of advertisements” was also seen in channels on the Telegram messaging site, the report adds.

X/Twitter offers users the ability to buy Gold, Blue and Grey tickmarks for a monthly fee, to enhance the credibility of their brands. Grey checkmarks have been set aside for NGOs and government bodies.

Some of the Gold accounts being sold on the dark web are new, allowing a threat actor buying one to change its name to one similar to a brand and impersonate the company or individual. Others once were controlled by individuals or companies but have been taken over by brute-force login attacks.

Prices range from an average of 30 cents for a new account to $2,000 for an aged account converted into Gold (all prices in U.S. currency). Prices go up depending on the number of followers of an existing and stolen account.

The sale on the dark web of Gold accounts has been going on since last March. CloudSEK says the number of shops and service providers today offering them “is humongous.” Most can be detected by running simple Google Dork queries.

The researchers worry that with the increase in availability on the dark web of Gold accounts, a huge wave of phishing or disinformation attacks will soon follow.

Usually buyers have access to an account for 30 days, which is the standard duration of X/Twitter Gold subscriptions.

The damage a stolen or fabricated Gold account can do is tremendous. The report gives as an example the September 2023 takeover of an account of the co-founder of the Ethereum digital currency. The hacker exploited his large following by posting a deceptive message
offering free non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to unsuspecting users. The malicious link embedded in the tweet directed users to a fake website that could drain cryptocurrency from their wallets. Despite being active for about 20 minutes, the hackers managed to siphon off  US$691,000 in digital assets before removing the fraudulent post.

The most common targets are X/Twitter accounts of organizations, created before 2022, that have not been used in a while or have been abandoned. Hackers will try to brute force the account, and, if successful, change the recovery email and contact details so the original owner can’t regain control. Then the account is converted to Gold depending on the ask by buyers.

Another tactic of hackers is to gather Twitter-based logins from information stealer malware. These logins are then validated using configs and brute force methods that will provide a positive response for working accounts. Then, on hacker advertising forums and websites, threat actors announce the account for sale, convert it into Twitter Gold, and sell it for as low as US$800.

Organizations can avoid their X/Twitter accounts from being abused by ensuring dormant accounts are closed if they have been inactive for an extended period, the report says. To ensure login credentials aren’t stolen, organizations have to enforce best password protection practices. Monitoring the organization’s feed for signs of X/Twitter hacking, including fake profiles, unauthorized product listings, misleading advertisements, and malicious content is also vital.

The post Stolen Gold X accounts are increasingly being peddled on dark web, says report first appeared on IT World Canada.

A major cybersecurity company is urging governments to forbid all organizations in their countries from paying ransomware gangs, arguing it would at least make crooks shift from hitting critical infrastructure providers such as hospitals, utilities and schools.

Emsisoft made the plea Monday in releasing final — and record — ransomware numbers for 2023 for the number of organizations hit.

Just over 2,200 U.S. hospitals, schools, and governments were directly impacted by ransomware, the company said, with many more being indirectly impacted via attacks on their supply chains. Additionally, thousands of private sector companies were either directly or indirectly impacted. The number of victim organizations is likely much higher; the numbers gleaned by Emsisoft are ones that can be confirmed. Many organizations — in every country around the world — don’t report successful cyber attacks.

“The only viable mechanism by which governments can quickly reduce ransomware volumes is to ban ransom payments,” Emsisoft argues. “Ransomware is a profit-driven enterprise. If it is made unprofitable, most attacks will quickly stop.”

“Were there to be a ban, we believe that bad actors would quickly pivot and move from high-impact encryption-based attacks to other less disruptive forms of cybercrime. It would really make no sense for them to expend time and effort attacking organizations which could not pay. Additionally, bad actors already do attack healthcare providers, local governments, and other custodians of critical infrastructure – relentlessly, day in, day out – and it’s far from certain that they would have either the incentive or the resources to attack them any more frequently.”

Related content: Canadian mid-sized firms paid an average $1.4 million in ransoms

A ban would not need to stop all payments, Emsisoft argues. It would simply need to stop enough to ensure that ransomware ceased to be profitable and, as most companies would abide by the law, this would likely be achieved.

In 2022, Emisisoft notes, both North Carolina and Florida banned public sector entities from paying demands. “As far as we are aware, no entity in either state has experienced catastrophic data loss as a result of the ban, and nor have any experienced unusually excessive downtime.”

We reached out to Canadian-based Emsisoft threat researcher Brett Callow with two questions about banning ransomware payments:

First, why would a ban on ransomware payments would stop a gang from attacking organizations? Wouldn’t gangs continue stealing and encrypting data, and then threatening to embarrass the organization into capitulating? “The aim wouldn’t be to stop all cybercrime,” Callow replied, “it’d be to stop disruptive encryption-based attacks. And, yes, a decrease in ransomware could well mean an increase in business email compromise and other forms of cybercrime. But those other forms don’t put people’s lives at risk.”

Second, if paying crooks is banned, isn’t there a risk organizations will ease off on cybersecurity. They would think, ‘Crooks know I won’t pay to get data back, so I won’t be a target any more.’ Callow replied that governments have many legal and regulatory tools to make organizations invest in cybersecurity. For example, he noted that recently New York’s Attorney General secured US$450,000 from U.S. Radiology Specialists, Inc. (US Radiology) for failing to protect its patients’ personal and healthcare data.

Last year, 48 countries, including Canada and the U.S., agreed their national governments shouldn’t give in to ransomware demands. The promise came at the end of the third annual meeting in Washington of the International Counter Ransomware Initiative (CRI).

“CRI members affirmed the importance of strong and aligned messaging discouraging paying ransomware demands and leading by example,” the group said in a statement.

The post Ban ransomware payments, Emsisoft urges governments first appeared on IT World Canada.

Coffee Briefings are timely deliveries of the latest ITWC headlines, interviews, and podcasts. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by IT World Canada’s editorial team! 

Missed the last Coffee Briefing? We’ve got you covered.

The Ski and Snowboard CyberSecurity Conference to take place on Feb. 29

Cybersecurity experts who are also avid winter sports enthusiasts will convene at the 2nd Annual Ski and Snowboard CyberSecurity Conference on Feb. 29 at the Heights Ski & Country Club in Barrie, Ontario.

Attendees will be able to ski, snowboard, snowshoe and apres-ski, with rentals and instructors available on site, while networking with industry leaders. Additionally, the event will feature thought leadership and customer story sessions, as well as an executive panel.

Attendees requiring accommodations can call Horseshoe Resort directly to benefit from a special conference rate. Reservations must be made by Jan. 28, 2024 in order to qualify for the group rate.

General admission tickets can be purchased here at C$79.73.

Federal government says it’s on track to exceed connectivity targets

The government of Canada has said it is on track to exceed its goal of providing access to high-speed internet to 98 per cent of Canadian households by 2026, and 100 per cent by 2030, with projections showing that 98.6 per cent of Canadians will have access to high speed internet by 2026.

So far, 93.5 per cent of Canadian households have access to high-speed internet.

The $3.225 billion Universal Broadband Fund (UBF), as well as other federal and provincial investments, have been largely responsible for this progress.

Since the launch of the UBF in November 2020, 295 projects have been announced across Canada, including 45 in 2023 which will serve more than 200,000 households. In 2023, 40,000 households also gained new access to high-speed internet through completed UBF projects.

Additionally, the government has secured more than C$2 billion in co-funding with the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island, allowing for more households to be connected.

“The Government of Canada will continue working with provinces and territories, municipalities, Indigenous communities, and internet service providers so that all Canadians, no matter where they live, have access to high-speed internet as fast as possible,” said Gudie Hutchings, Minister of Rural Economic Development.

Semiconductor capacity to reach record high 30 million wafers per month in 2024

Microelectronics association SEMI announced in its latest quarterly World Fab Forecast report that global semiconductor production capacity is expected to increase 6.4 per cent in 2024, reaching record levels of 30 million wafers per month (wpm).

The growth will be driven by capacity increases in logic and foundry, AI and high-performance computing  (HPC) applications, as well as the recovery in end-demand for chips. 

“Resurgent market demand and increased government incentives worldwide are powering an upsurge in fab investments in key chipmaking regions,” said Ajit Manocha, SEMI chief executive officer.

He added, “The heightened global attention on the strategic importance of semiconductor manufacturing to national and economic security is a key catalyst of these trends.”

Covering 2022 to 2024, the World Fab Forecast report shows that the global semiconductor industry plans to begin operation of 82 new volume fabs (fabrication plants), including 11 projects in 2023 and 42 projects in 2024, spanning wafer sizes ranging from 300mm to 100mm.

A sample of the report can be downloaded here. (Registration required)

Business leaders pouncing on private, secure generative AI tools: Report

Over 60 per cent of business leaders say their companies have deployed private, secure generative AI tools to the workforce, a survey conducted by Insight Enterprises, in partnership with The Harris Poll, found.

More than half (54 per cent) report improved productivity as a top outcome expected from the technology, as well as improved customer experience (42 per cent), improved customer service (40 per cent), and/or reduced human error (37 per cent).

However, employee knowledge or training on generative AI tools remains a top barrier to implementation.

“It’s remarkable that most IT budgets did not even anticipate generative AI a year and a half ago. But now, as we enter 2024, just about every business leader is fixated on how this technology can reinvent their operations and create new business models,” said David McCurdy, chief enterprise architect and chief technology officer at Insight. “That said, there’s a certain ‘finesse’ that many employees still need to acquire in order to effectively leverage generative AI in their work. As we shift gears into the next phase of adoption, advanced training will be crucial to success.”

Other insights from the report:

Generative AI tools are used for data analysis and visualization, task collaboration such as using as a copilot for research or email summarization, generating written content like reports or presentations, and to help with personalized learning.
Deeper applications to improve the business, like product design and development, are being readily explored.
Business leaders are being tasked to define return on investment for implementing generative AI
Security concerns when it comes to generative AI remain top of mind for business leaders
Only 15 per cent consider costs of implementation –  technical debt, initial implementation and ongoing maintenance costs – a barrier.

Montreal company secures large pre seed investment to fuel AI growth

INTO AI, a technology company that specializes in conversational AI solutions, has announced that it has secured a pre-seed investment of $400,000.

The company said that the pre-seed investment will be instrumental to further developing its technology, expanding its market reach, through sales and marketing efforts, as well as expanding its research and development team. 

“We firmly believe that AI is revolutionizing the way businesses engage with their customers,” said Sebastien Brault, CEO of INTO. “This pre-seed investment will enable us to further innovate and refine our solutions, empowering businesses to provide personalized, efficient, and seamless customer interactions.”

The company’s conversational AI technology has gained significant traction, particularly in the hospitality industry.

More to explore

Microsoft disables feature after abuse by threat actors

Application developers relying on Windows’ App Installer feature for distributing software over the web will have to find another vehicle, after Microsoft disabled a key protocol because it is being abused by threat actors.

HR Predictions 2024: Generative AI, employee experience, remote work and more

Generative AI will continue to influence how HR teams increase productivity and optimize employee experience in 2024, a new report from McLean & Company which surveyed 1,373 business professionals in September 2023, found.

A look back at Quantum in 2023

The field of quantum sciences is booming and has been prominent in the media throughout 2023. With the year coming to an end, let’s look back at what has happened in the last twelve months in the quantum field in Canada.

Predictions 2024: Artificial intelligence

The hottest topic of 2023, artificial intelligence (AI), has not only generated lots of interest this year, it has pundits of all descriptions coming out of the woodwork with predictions of what will happen in 2024.

2024 Telecom predictions: 5G, AI, sustainability and messaging trends to guide innovation

Next year, the telecommunications ecosystem will be guided by four key themes: 5G, artificial intelligence, sustainability and the messaging evolution, a report by Juniper Research identified.

Predictions 2024: Probing what’s in store for PC channel, MSPs

It is always good to have something to look forward to, and such will be the case next year for anyone in the channel involved in the selling of personal computers and accessories. We thus start off this particular crystal-ball gazing session with an upbeat prediction from Canalys.

Channel Bytes December 22, 2023 – National procurement standard published; Cisco to acquire Isovalent; Okta to acquire Spera Security; and more

Staying informed is a constant challenge. There’s so much to do, and so little time. But we have you covered. Grab a coffee and take five while you nibble on these tidbits.

Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending

OpenAI Predictions for 2024: Hashtag Trending Holiday Bytes December 27th, 2023

Listen to the latest episode of Cybersecurity Today

Cyber Security Today, Dec. 29, 2023 – Get cracking on your cybersecurity strategic plan

Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Tendances

If you live in Québec, or prefer to consume the latest technology news in French, our sister publication Direction Informatique has you covered. Follow them on Twitter as well.

The post Coffee Briefing Jan. 2 – Ski and Snowboard Cybersecurity Conference; Federal government provides update on connectivity targets; Montreal company secures pre seed investment to fuel AI growth; and more first appeared on IT World Canada.

The field of quantum sciences is booming and has been prominent in the media throughout 2023. With the year coming to an end, let’s look back at what has happened in the last twelve months in the quantum field in Canada.

The year began with the announcement of the National Quantum Strategy in mid-January by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, which he said will shape the future of quantum technologies in Canada and help create thousands of jobs. The strategy aims to strengthen Canada’s global leadership in quantum research and foster business growth, technology development and talent development in Canada. It is accompanied by a federal investment of $360 million.

Developed through extensive public consultations, including stakeholder roundtables and an online survey, it is based on three components:

Hardware and Software: Make Canada a world leader in the continued development, deployment, and use of these technologies.
Communications: Provide Canada with a secure national quantum communications network and post-quantum cryptography capabilities.
Sensors: Support Canadian designers and early adopters of quantum sensors.

Three months later, in March, two important announcements were made. First, Sweden’s Ericsson created a new quantum research centre in Montreal as part of its global cutting-edge quantum research program. The company uses the centre to conduct research projects aimed at exploring quantum algorithms to accelerate processing in telecommunications networks and distributed quantum computing. Ericsson supports quantum research projects by providing academic challenges, telecommunications and networking skills, and facilities.

That same month, French cloud computing giant OVHcloud announced the deployment of its first quantum computer in Canada at its facilities in Beauharnois, near Montreal. The MosaiQ computer is powered by a photonic processor, and was designed by French company Quandela. This purchase kicks off numerous research and development projects, the company said at the time, with the ambition of providing its research and development teams with appropriate tools to experiment with various use cases around a machine based on a QPU (Quantum Processing Unit).

The summer was also full of important announcements in the quantum field. In mid-June, DistriQ, zone d’innovation quantique, a Sherbrooke, Quebec NPO that presents itself as a catalyst for quantum expertise and infrastructure to promote the emergence and acceleration of innovation in this industry, launched the Quantum Studio in partnership with Quantonation Ventures and the Accelerator for the Creation of Technological Companies (ACET).

The next day, PASQAL, a French company dealing in quantum computing based on ordered neutral atoms, announced its intention to create a state-of-the-art quantum production and processing plant at DistriQ’s Espace Quantique 1 in Sherbrooke. PASQAL Canada intends offer its technology to the North American market to support the accelerated adoption of neutral atom quantum computing in the region.

Also in June, NGen and DIGITAL, supported by the previously announced National Quantum Strategy, joined forces to invest $30 million in projects aimed at stimulating the commercialization of quantum technologies. This five-year funding initiative will see the two partners work with companies to develop their projects and create strategies to protect and commercialize their intellectual property (IP) as well as identify project partners.

In July, IBM and the Plateforme d’innovation numérique et quantique du Québec (PINQ²) began the process of installing the first IBM Quantum System One in Canada. It is a utility system of 127 qubits that will be used to accelerate the use of advanced quantum research in the development of applications to address various complex and pressing challenges.

Under its agreement with the computing giant, PINQ² is the exclusive operator of the quantum computer, with the objective of strengthening Quebec’s position as a world leader in the field of quantum technologies. This collaboration between IBM and PINQ² builds on a partnership announced in February 2022 that created the Quebec-IBM Discovery Accelerator.

The installation of the device went well, and the device was inaugurated on September 22 in the presence of many representatives from government, academia, and industry. It was described as a major turning point in the field of computer science, and for all sectors of innovation in Quebec. It was, at the time of its inauguration, one of the most advanced quantum systems in IBM’s global fleet of quantum computers.

At the beginning of November, France’s PASQAL offered $500,000 in support to the Faculty of Engineering at the Université de Sherbrooke to create a professorship in applied quantum computing, a contribution matched by Canadian federal and provincial organizations. The creation of this research chair is part of PASQAL’s strategy to offer concrete applications to commercial industries, and a near-term quantum advantage.

The quantum year 2023 ended with the launch in early December, at the IBM Quantum Summit in New York, of the IBM Quantum Heron, a 133-qubit processor that the company claims offers up to five times the error reduction of its predecessor.

The new processor powers the IBM Quantum System Two, also unveiled at the event. IBM describes it as the company’s first modular quantum computer, which is the cornerstone of IBM’s quantum-centric HPC architecture. The first of these computers, powered by three IBM Heron processors, is operational at IBM’s facility in Yorktown Heights, NY.

At the same time, IBM unveiled its quantum development roadmap, now extended to 2033, which includes new objectives to improve the quality of gate operations and thus increase the size of quantum circuits.

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