businessinfomag.uk magazine 06 missed – a problem compounded by a lack of clear ownership in incident response. More than one third (36%) of respondents say they rarely isolate incidents to a specific team, compared to just 21% who say they do so regularly. Petra Jenner, SVP & General Manager EMEA at Splunk, says this ambiguity increases the risk that important security alerts are left unaddressed, leaving organisations more vulnerable to attacks and exposing them to avoidable breaches and downtime. “IT teams are drowning in noise. Every day they’re hit with alerts, but without the right context or ownership it’s almost impossible to know which ones really matter. This lack of clarity puts a lot of pressure on teams and slows response times. When critical alerts get lost in that noise, organisations risk downtime and customer disruption, which can quickly translate into revenue loss and lasting reputational damage,” she said. “To build resilience and combat alert fatigue, organisations need to consider the psychological wellbeing of their IT staff and ensure the tools they use genuinely support them. This means observability tools that accurately triage alerts, understand context, suggest clear remediation paths and reduce the number of interfaces already-stressed teams are required to work with. With the right systems in place, alongside better cross-departmental coordination, teams can act quickly, with confidence and avoid the pitfalls of alert fatigue.” Two thirds (66%) of global respondents report that better collaboration between the observability and security teams reduces customer-impacting incidents. … First for phishing Microsoft continues to be much the most impersonated brand in phishing attacks, according to the Check Point Research (CPR) Brand Phishing Ranking for Q4 2025. Its analysis shows that Microsoft appeared in 22% of all phishing attempts in the quarter, followed by Google (13%), Amazon (9%), Apple (8%) and Facebook/Meta (3%). term, it is expected to create new specialisms and drive continuous learning, reinforcing the sector’s growth. By embracing crosssector collaboration, international cooperation and globally shared skills and knowledge frameworks and standards, we can build a workforce that is not only skilled but resilient, adaptable and prepared for the evolving threat landscape.” https://socura.co.uk/ … Alert fatigue takes its toll Last year, 75% of UK IT teams experienced outages due to missed, ignored or suppressed alerts, according to Splunk’s State of Observability 2025 report, based on a survey of 1,855 ITOps and engineering professionals, including 300 from the UK. The report highlights several challenges faced by UK IT teams, including tool sprawl (61%), false alerts (54%) and the overall volume of alerts (34%), which respondents say are harming morale and causing team members to deliberately ignore or suppress alerts (cited by 15%). The report states that even when alerts are not deliberately ignored, constant interruptions create an environment in which they can be Women in Cyber Unlimited, said: “It is disappointing that gender diversity in the sector remains fairly static, with women making up just over 20% of the cyber security workforce. Initiatives such as the CyberFirst Girls competition and the increasing number of Women in Cyber networks are important in addressing this imbalance. Providing a platform for women to showcase their skills and meet other women, alongside being visible role models, all help to raise awareness of the importance of diversity. The more brilliant minds we have working on cyber security challenges, the more resilient we will all be.” Another challenge identified in the Socura report, A Wave in Cyber, is Artificial Intelligence. Even though AI increasingly performs tasks previously allocated to entrylevel cybersecurity jobs, Dr Yulia Cherdantseva, Director of the Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education at Cardiff University, expects it to have a positive impact overall. She said: “Artificial Intelligence is transforming the profession, yet the outlook for the cyber security workforce remains positive. Practitioners increasingly view AI as a way to augment rather than replace human expertise. Longer BULLETIN …continued How to use AI responsibly The University of Edinburgh has launched a new online course to teach SME leaders the importance of designing and using AI responsibly. Part of the UK Research and Innovationfunded BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Divides) research programme, Responsible AI for SMEs consists of five self-paced modules designed to equip entrepreneurs with the tools and insight they need to assess whether, how and when to engage with AI. Subjects covered include the principles and best practice of Responsible AI innovation; understanding AI risks and opportunities; responsible AI and regulatory readiness; and the practical elements of a Responsible AI by design approach. BRAID Co-Director Professor Shannon Vallor, who designed the course with Professor Ewa Luger, Co‑Director of BRAID and Chair of Human-Data Interaction at the University of Edinburgh, said: “This course is designed to help SMEs filter through the noise around AI, offering grounded, practical guidance that helps them make good decisions, including the decision not to adopt AI at all. Our goal is to help businesses move forward with confidence, not just because they feel they should adopt AI, but because they understand it well enough to make the right call for their business and their customers.” The course will be freely available via the edX platform and is also accessible through Coursera. www.ed.ac.uk/onlinelearning/register-yourinterest-responsible-ai- for-smes-short-course BRAID Co-Director Professor Shannon Vallor
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