01732 759725 04 NEWS Cabinet reshuffle BT Group’s start-up and digital incubation hub Etc. has announced a series of pilots, starting this autumn in Northern Ireland, to assess the technical and commercial viability of converting decommissioned street cabinets (previously used to provide copper-based broadband and phone services) into electric vehicle charging points. The Government is committed to growing the number of UK charge points from 45,000 to 300,000 by 2030 and repurposing existing infrastructure could play a key role in helping them to do this. Early projections by Etc. suggest that two thirds of BT Group’s 90,000 cabinets could be converted into EV charging points, either as a dedicated BT Group venture or in partnership with other organisations. Tom Guy, Managing Director of Etc. at BT Group, said: “With the ban on sales of internal combustion engine vehicles coming in 2030, and only around 45,000 public charge points today, the UK needs a massive upgrade to meet the needs of the EV revolution. We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to connect for good in a whole new way by innovating around our cabinet infrastructure.” www.bt.com/about ······ An addition of note In an industry-first, online visual communications and collaboration platform Canva is giving users the option to include commercially released music clips in their designs at the point of creation. Agreements with Warner Music Group and Merlin will enable Canva Pro, Canva for Education, Canva for Nonprofit and soon Canva for Teams customers to use clips of their favourite songs from the Merlin, Warner Recorded Music and Warner Chappell Music libraries in videos for social media (including TikTok), as well as presentations and training material. Recording artists will earn royalties when clips of their songs are used in published Canva designs. Canva recently launched Beat Sync, a tool in the Canva editor that helps users match their video footage to the beat of a selected soundtrack. ······ Barcode Warehouse opens Newark innovation centre The Barcode Warehouse, the business technology solutions integrator specialising in barcode and RFID technology and mobility managed services, recently opened its third site in Newark, Nottinghamshire. The Innovation and Customer Experience Centre (ICE) gives visitors the opportunity to see at first-hand technology solutions and applications for the manufacturing, healthcare, field services, retail, hospitality, transport and logistics industries, as well as leading brands such as Samsung, Epson, Zebra and Honeywell. Still a family-run business, The Barcode Warehouse was established in Newark 35 years ago and now employs more than 300 people, many from Newark and the Sherwood District. The purpose-built 25,000-square foot ICE includes interactive meeting and training rooms, demonstration areas, a café, an auditorium and break-out spaces. www.thebarcodewarehouse.co.uk ······ Tech sector accelerates move back to the office Out of all industries, the technology sector saw the greatest shift back to office working in the 12 months from May 2022 to May 2023, according to global workplace consultancy AWA. Its analysis of 119 workplaces and 155,000 employees in 22 countries shows that average office attendance in the technology sector increased from 15% to 32% in this period, with 46% of desks being NEWS continued... CYBER TRENDS AI please n UK SMEs handle 597 cybersecurity alerts a day. n Security staff have an average of just two minutes to assess each incident. n 4 in 10 cybersecurity alerts are not investigated. n 35% of UK SMEs have two or fewer people in their cybersecurity team. n 30% use 21-30 security products, with one in eight using 31-40. n 29% want to be able to deploy AI and machine learning so that they can respond to and prevent attacks autonomously. (source: Censornet, State of AI in Cybersecurity) Protection? What protection? n 85% of organisations have a cyber resiliency strategy in place, but only 23% have confidence in it and 53% admit it could be improved. n 70% say they lack the skilled workers to respond effectively to a data breach or loss. n 29% would definitely pay a ransom, and 62% would consider it depending on the ransom and the severity of the attack. Only 9% rule out paying a ransom. n 48% say it is harder to get insurance now than it was three years ago. (source: Cohesity, 2023 State of Data Security & Management Report) Thanks for the help! n 70% of security analysts say the number of security tools they have has increased significantly over the last three years (70%). n 66% say the number of alerts they manage has increased significantly in the last three years. n 39% of security analysts agree security tools increase their workload. n 41% agree that security vendors flood analysts with pointless alerts because they are afraid of not flagging a breach. n 71% admit their organisation may have been compromised and they don’t know about it yet. (source: Vectra, 2023 State of Threat Detection) Gavin Jones
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