Widespread Disruption

Steve Kovach from CNBC provided an overview of the situation: “This outage has taken down operations at so many companies. From TV networks like our own to airlines like Delta and United, banks, and even 911 call centers. UPS, FedEx, and countless other companies and industries have been impacted.” The breadth of the disruption underscores the critical role that cybersecurity infrastructure plays in maintaining operational continuity across various sectors.

Despite the severe impact, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz clarified that this was not a hack or cyberattack. “This was a content update issue,” Kurtz explained. “The update caused Windows devices to reboot into a blue screen. We identified the problem quickly, rolled back the update, and deployed a fix. However, not all systems will recover automatically. Many will require manual intervention by IT staff.” Kurtz emphasized the company’s commitment to resolving the issue swiftly, but acknowledged that full recovery could take several more hours.

Corporate and Government Responses

Microsoft, whose Windows operating systems were directly affected, pointed the finger at CrowdStrike. In a statement on its support page, Microsoft noted, “The CrowdStrike update forced Windows devices into a reboot loop, causing widespread disruptions.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Security Council (NSC) have been actively involved in assessing the situation. “We are working closely with CrowdStrike and Microsoft to understand the full scope of the outages and mitigate any potential risks,” a DHS spokesperson said.

President Biden has been briefed on the situation, highlighting the incident’s significance at the highest levels of government. The ongoing response involves not only corporate IT teams but also national security agencies, reflecting the critical infrastructure at risk.

Economic Impact

The financial markets have also reacted to the news. Shares of cybersecurity firms like Palo Alto Networks and SentinelOne saw a rise, as investors anticipated increased demand for robust cybersecurity solutions in the wake of the outage. Conversely, CrowdStrike’s shares plummeted by approximately 10%, reflecting investor concerns over the company’s role in the incident and potential liabilities.

Phil LeBeau, reporting from Europe, noted the significant impact on international businesses and travel. “Airlines, especially in Europe, have been hit hard. Delta and United flights have faced cancellations and delays, with passengers stranded in major hubs. The ripple effect is massive, affecting logistics and supply chains across continents.”

Expert Insights and Future Implications

Dom Chu, analyzing the broader implications, pointed out the vulnerabilities in global IT infrastructure. “This incident exposes the interconnectedness of our digital world and the potential for a single point of failure to cause widespread disruption. Companies will need to reassess their dependency on single vendors and ensure more robust fail-safes are in place.”

The incident has sparked a debate about the resilience of critical infrastructure and the need for improved oversight and contingency planning. “Organizations must prioritize cybersecurity and disaster recovery plans,” said Katherine Manstead, a cybersecurity expert. “This outage serves as a wake-up call for industries worldwide to strengthen their defenses and ensure continuity in the face of unexpected failures.”

Ongoing Recovery Efforts

As recovery efforts continue, many businesses are still grappling with the fallout. “Our IT workers are tirelessly working to manually reboot systems and restore normal operations,” reported Kovach from the CNBC newsroom. The process is labor-intensive and time-consuming, underscoring the challenges of dealing with such widespread outages.

CrowdStrike and Microsoft are expected to release more updates as the situation evolves. The focus remains on restoring full functionality and preventing future incidents. The collaborative efforts between corporate IT teams and national security agencies highlight the critical nature of cybersecurity in safeguarding not just business operations, but national infrastructure.

Conclusion

The global IT outage caused by a CrowdStrike update has had far-reaching impacts, disrupting services across multiple sectors and highlighting vulnerabilities in digital infrastructure. While recovery efforts are underway, the incident underscores the need for robust cybersecurity measures and contingency planning to mitigate the effects of such disruptions in the future. As businesses and governments work together to restore normalcy, the lessons learned from this incident will likely drive significant changes in how cybersecurity is approached and managed globally.

Unity riled the development market in late 2023 when the company announced a major price change that would have seen many developers pay a fee every time a customer installed their game. In the ensuing uproar, the company had to close its offices as a result of death threats. Unity quickly apologized and backtracked, but the damage was done, with CEO John Riccitiello announcing a month later that he was resigning.

According to an SEC filing, CTO and Unity Create head Marc Whitten is now exiting the company as well.

On May 13, 2024, Unity Software Inc. (the “Company”) announced that Marc Whitten will resign as the Company’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, Create, effective as of June 1, 2024 (the “Transition Date”). Mr. Whitten will assist with the transition of his responsibilities and has agreed to continue serving as an employee until he departs from the Company, effective December 31, 2024 (the “Resignation Date”).

In connection with his resignation and transition, the Company and Mr. Whitten entered into a resignation and transition agreement (the “Agreement”), pursuant to which, from the Transition Date until the Resignation Date (the “Transition Period”), Mr. Whitten will serve as a Strategic Advisor. Mr. Whitten will continue to receive his base salary and his previously granted equity awards will continue to vest during the Transition Period. The Agreement also provides for a customary release of claims by Mr. Whitten.

As the filing indicates, it appears Whitten will continue to serve as a Strategic Advisor, at least for the time being.

RISC-V is the open, royalty-free alternative to Arm. Like Arm, RISC-V develops a set of processor specifications that companies, organizations, and individuals are free to use to build their own semiconductors. Himelstein has been the organization’s CTO for the last four years, playing a pivotal role in its growth and development.

CEO Calista Redmond announced the news in a blog post, thanking Himelstein for his “leadership and contributions” during his time with the organization.

“We appreciate the leadership and contributions that Mark has given to RISC-V and will miss having him in the core team,” wrote Redmond. “During his tenure, the RISC-V technical community has grown to nearly 15,000 engineers and business leaders around the world, collaborating in more than 70 different work groups and committees, progressing and ratifying standards that the world will depend on for generations of computing to come. We have much to celebrate in our accomplishments together, including more than 40 ratified specifications in the past two years alone.”

Himelstein made it clear that he is leaving to return to his own business, confident in RISC-V’s position and future.

When I joined RISC-V on June 1, 2020, I committed myself to three years and I am now at nearly four years and it is time for me to return to my consulting practice.

I am very proud of the work we have achieved together at RISC-V including over 40 ratified specifications, created profiles for application portability between RISC-V implementations, growing the technical organization from 15 to over 70 groups, recruiting incredible member leaders, and leaving an amazing roadmap including matrix operations, trusted execution, control flow integrity, overall security model, server platform specification, and more.

I look forward to seeing the continued success for RISC-V in the future. I will always be proud of my work at RISC-V.

Redmond concluded by saying the company is now looking for a replacement VP of Technology and welcomes applicants.

Unum, a global leader in providing insurance products and services, boasts an extensive customer base of 45 million individuals worldwide. With a mission to safeguard lives and provide affordable access to essential insurance coverage, Unum has consistently been at the forefront of innovation and customer-centricity. Roy kicked off the discussion by highlighting Unum’s recent achievements, including being recognized as the “Most Ethical Company” for three consecutive years, earning accolades as one of the “Most Innovative Companies” by Fortune, and being named a “Great Place to Work” by US News and Reports.

Roy’s role as CTO encompasses overseeing Unum’s comprehensive IT services, spanning infrastructure, operations, and applications. With a keen focus on leveraging technology to uphold Unum’s brand promise of empathy, simplicity, and expertise, Roy emphasized the pivotal role that IT plays in driving business success and delivering unparalleled customer experiences.

Unum’s digital transformation journey, which spans over five years, has been marked by a strategic blend of technological innovation and cultural change. Roy underscored the importance of aligning technology initiatives with business objectives and fostering a collaborative environment between IT and business stakeholders. He emphasized that true transformation goes beyond technology implementation—it requires a shift in mindset and a commitment to embracing change at every level of the organization.

A significant milestone in Unum’s transformation journey was the successful migration of its call centers to AWS Connect. This move aimed to enhance customer experience through features like omnichannel support and intelligent IVRs. Roy highlighted the meticulous planning and collaboration that went into the migration process, which resulted in tangible improvements in customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Furthermore, Roy elaborated on Unum’s adoption of cloud-native services and serverless technologies for developing customer-facing applications, emphasizing the remarkable gains in stability and functionality achieved through these endeavors. By leveraging AWS’s robust cloud infrastructure, Unum has been able to accelerate innovation and deliver cutting-edge solutions that meet the evolving needs of its customers.

The conversation then shifted towards Unum’s embrace of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies, particularly their implementation of Gen AI to augment human interactions and streamline processes across various business functions. Roy highlighted the transformative impact of AI on areas such as call center operations, RFP proposal management, and digital coding, where automation and data-driven insights have led to significant efficiency gains and improved outcomes.

Data emerged as a critical component of Unum’s AI initiatives, with Roy stressing the importance of quality data sources and collaboration with business stakeholders to ensure successful outcomes. He emphasized the need for a robust data strategy that enables seamless integration and analysis of disparate data sources, ultimately driving actionable insights and informed decision-making.

Looking ahead, Roy outlined Unum’s ongoing cloud adoption journey, with a focus on mainframe optimization, reducing on-premises data center footprint, migrating data platforms to the cloud, and strengthening FinOps and security governance. He reiterated Unum’s commitment to leveraging AWS’s unparalleled capabilities to drive innovation, enhance operational efficiency, and deliver superior value to its customers.

In conclusion, Roy expressed optimism about Unum’s partnership with AWS and the transformative potential of cloud computing in reshaping the insurance industry. He underscored Unum’s unwavering commitment to innovation and customer-centricity, positioning the company as a trailblazer in the digital age of insurance.

As Unum continues to lead the charge in digital transformation within the insurance industry, Roy’s insights serve as a testament to the company’s visionary leadership and strategic partnership with AWS. They pave the way for a future where technology-driven innovation drives sustainable growth and superior customer experiences.

The car transportation services industry is constantly changing.

Innovation 

Central to A1’s innovative streak is the integration of advanced GPS tracking systems. Such technology ensures that customers can monitor their vehicle’s journey with real-time updates. This transparency alleviates the stress of uncertainty that car owners often feel when their vehicles are in transit. GPS technology, moreover, assists A1 in optimizing routes. By analyzing traffic patterns and road conditions, A1 can adjust the routes in real-time, ensuring that vehicles are delivered efficiently, reducing fuel consumption and improving delivery times.

Furthermore, A1 Auto Transport has embraced the power of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline their operations. AI algorithms analyze vast amounts of data to predict fluctuations in demand and identify the most cost-effective transport solutions. This predictive analysis enables A1 to mobilize its fleet more effectively, ensuring that trucks are fully utilized, reducing the number of empty miles driven, and consequently minimizing the carbon footprint of each transport.

Pioneering spirit 

The company’s pioneering spirit is also reflected in its customer service approach. Utilizing chatbots and AI-driven customer service platforms, A1 offers 24/7 assistance, ensuring that customers have access to information and support whenever needed. These platforms can handle a multitude of customer inquiries simultaneously, from providing quotes to addressing post-service feedback, thereby significantly enhancing customer experience.

The use of blockchain technology for transaction management and documentation has set A1 apart as well. This innovative step guarantees the integrity of the transaction records, making the entire process from booking to delivery seamless, secure, and transparent. Blockchain’s immutable ledger means that all parties can trust in the accuracy of the records and histories of the transported vehicles.

A1’s commitment to innovation is also seen in its approach to fleet maintenance. With the implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors on their carriers, A1 can monitor the health of their fleet in real-time. This proactive maintenance can predict when a vehicle may need service before a breakdown occurs, ensuring reliability and avoiding delays.

Moreover, A1 has not ignored the shift towards sustainability. The company is at the forefront of incorporating electric and hybrid vehicles into its fleet. This move not only prepares A1 for an inevitable future where such vehicles will dominate the market but also signals to consumers and industry peers alike their commitment to eco-friendly business practices.

Conclusion 

A1’s innovative approach demonstrates a visionary understanding of the symbiosis between technology and customer service. Their pioneering use of GPS tracking, AI, automation, blockchain, IoT, and green technology is more than a mere business strategy; it’s a comprehensive transformation of the auto shipping paradigm. It is these strides in innovation that promise to keep A1 Auto Transport at the vanguard of the industry, delivering not just vehicles, but trust, reliability, and unparalleled service excellence.

Software development, like most tech sectors, is rapidly evolving. To help keep up with the growing pace of innovation, here are seven key trends business owners and tech leaders must know.

1. AI-Assisted Programming

Generative AI — made famous by tools like ChatGPT — was undoubtedly the defining technology of the past year. It’ll also be one of the most significant in the years to come.

While generative AI’s natural language and image-producing capabilities often take the spotlight, its coding ability is more practical in software development. As these tools improve, more devs will likely use them to automate repetitive programming tasks like writing basic scripts or checking code.

AI-assisted programming can free hours in devs’ schedules and reduce errors for more polished final products. As tech talent gaps grow more severe, businesses can’t afford to overlook that potential. Tech teams should consider how they can integrate generative AI into their workflows — and, more importantly, learn to check its results to use it effectively and ethically.

2. Growing Cybersecurity Concerns

The growing need for better cybersecurity is an older but still relevant software trend. While businesses have become more aware of cybersecurity concerns, cybercrime hasn’t gone away, so improved protections are imperative.

Dev teams must embrace security early in the design phase instead of applying it as an afterthought. Cybercriminals are also starting to leverage AI, so businesses must respond with AI-guided protections and testing against these more sophisticated attacks.

Security throughout the software supply chain is also coming into focus. With third-party breaches rising and merger activity tripling in some industries, addressing partner vulnerabilities is more important than ever. Businesses must perform thorough due diligence and limit other parties’ access privileges across the software supply chain.

3. Low-Code and No-Code Development

Today, virtually every company is a tech business to some extent. This shift has created skyrocketing demand for tech talent across all sectors, leaving many organizations with IT worker shortages. In response, the industry is leaning toward low-code and no-code development processes.

Plug-and-play development interfaces — especially for websites and mobile apps — have become increasingly common. Capitalizing on these tools is essential in remaining productive despite a competitive programming labor landscape.

Businesses with plenty of coding talent have a unique opportunity amid this trend. If these teams can develop low-code and no-code technologies for other organizations, they could profit heavily from this growing market.

4. DevSecOps

Another key software trend is a shift toward DevSecOps development cycles. This practice builds on the rapid, highly collaborative DevOps philosophy by adding security teams into the mix from the first stages.

DevSecOps addresses two significant concerns in modern software. First, it enables continuous improvement and higher functionality by emphasizing teamwork and ongoing reviews to create the best product possible quickly. Secondly, it ensures security by design by involving cybersecurity experts throughout the entire dev process.

Because DevSecOps is so rapid and intensive, learning to use it will require adjustment. Teams must experiment with it now to become confident in the practice for future projects. Failing to implement DevSecOps in the coming years will give more agile competitors an advantage.

5. Microservices Architecture

In the pursuit of more functional apps, software development is also trending toward microservices architecture. Conventional, monolithic architecture groups all features in a single service, but microservices break them into smaller, independently running modules.

The primary advantage of this new method is that you can change one feature without affecting the entire program. That segmentation leads to fewer errors and faster update timelines. It also improves scalability and flexibility, which is increasingly crucial as software trends shift more frequently.

Like with DevSecOps, switching to microservices architecture will entail initial disruption. This method may increase organizational complexity, so dev teams must learn to distribute specialized duties while communicating closely. Off-the-shelf containerization tools can also help.

6. Emphasis on UX

As the public uses more digital apps and websites, their expectations about these services are rising. Consequently, user experience (UX) is an increasingly central pursuit for software development teams.

A dedicated app or website is no longer enough to stand out as a business. These services must be highly functional and convenient, or they risk turning users away. Increasing loading times from just one to five seconds increases bounce rates by 90%, so everything must be as responsive as possible.

Good UX starts with optimizing apps and websites to run quickly, even on minimal hardware — and especially on mobile. Apart from these technical considerations, devs must pay close attention to user trends to see what kinds of formats and features they prefer. Ongoing feedback and adjustments are necessary to keep UX optimal amid changing demands.

7. Sustainable Software

Sustainability is a growing trend in many industries, and software is no exception. As the world relies more heavily on software, data centers’ energy consumption has come into the spotlight. Power-hungry innovations like AI and blockchain will make balancing performance and sustainability more challenging yet important.

If dev teams can create more sustainable digital solutions, they’ll stand out from the energy-intensive crowd. As that trend grows, those who don’t adapt may stand apart for the wrong reasons.

Sustainable software relies heavily on designing resource-efficient architectures. The less power an app needs to deliver the same performance, the better. Using renewable-powered data centers to support these services is also important.

Capitalize on These Software Trends to Stay Ahead

Today’s software trends will define the technology of tomorrow. Businesses must stay on top of these developments to adapt to shifting markets. That adaptation will mean some disruption in the near term, but if organizations can tackle it sooner rather than later, they can get ahead of the curve and ensure long-term success.

Farfetch plans to use their IPO windfall to dramatically improve their technology which they see as the best way to improve the consumer experience.

Farfetch Founder and CEO José Manuel Ferreira Neves recently discussed Farfetch and the online luxury brand industry on Bloomberg:

Online Luxury is Growing 25 Percent a Year

It’s a very unique opportunity. You have this amazing global industry. It’s $300 billion, the personal luxury goods industry and only 9 percent is online. There are two opportunities here really. One is the growth of online luxury which is going to grow to 25 percent a year for the next seven years. This is a $100 billion opportunity shift in online luxury.

The big question is how is technology going to help brands and retailers really improve the consumer experience in the physical store. This is something at Farfetch that we are very passionate about.

China is an Incredible Opportunity for Online Luxury

China is a very exciting opportunity. Chinese citizens are at the onset of the luxury industry, whether they shop at home or when they’re shopping abroad. Online penetration is very low in China so this means that there is an incredible growth runway for Farfetch in the territory.

That led to our partnership with JD.com where we have our own team. We have the Farfetch China app and website, we have local customer service, local payment systems, and local marketing. It’s a truly localized service. That is what’s driving incredible growth to the Farfetch brand in that region.

José Neves, founder and CEO of @farfetch, told us about the company’s grand ambitions for China at the WWD’s Men’s Wear Summit this week. https://t.co/MrMj7y5VCG

— Jing Daily | 精日传媒 (@JingDaily) March 29, 2018

WeChat is an amazing app with over 900 million users. It is the Instagram, plus WeChat, plus PayPal, etc. of China in one app. That is very powerful and very interesting. Now with our acquisition CuriosityChina we are powering the retail presence of 80 luxury brands. We think that is very interesting for the industry and we think that is probably something that we will see for the western world.

How Farfetch plans to capture the growth in online luxury e-commerce https://t.co/t9HI0igMFV pic.twitter.com/RjvAel79li

— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) September 21, 2018

Brands Now Using Social and Digital Marketing Extensively

I think brands move cautiously and they choose their marketing channels very carefully. As these newer channels have developed the brands have adapted to them and their now using social media and digital media extensively to create desire, to drive discovery of new products obviously transactions as well.

It’s a gradual pace but it’s really exciting that were at that inflection point where the brands see this as a tremendous opportunity.

However, as the last several years have shown us, restaurants and business owners were faced with immense challenges, having to bring forth more innovative solutions to a wide range of marketplace problems. 

From the pandemic, which brought global supply chains to a near halt, a decrease in exports across Europe due to the ongoing geopolitical conflict in Ukraine, tight labor market conditions, and inflation soaring to a four-decade high – restaurants had to fight for their survival. 

While the last few years have proven to be somewhat challenging, in more than one way possible, a looming recession and further economic headwinds are further threatening an industry that has yet to be able to recover from the pandemic.  

Nonetheless, there have been changes and improvements in the restaurants we eat and the places we order food from. The introduction of contactless payments, self-checkouts, and online ordering are only a few of the visible gems that have already transformed the dining experience. 

Economists continue to warn about the likelihood of a possible recession hitting our shores this year. This only further highlights the importance, and pace at which businesses, and more so restaurants should start focussing on introducing more tech-based innovations.

Technology trends changing the restaurant industry 

While it’s no longer possible for businesses in the Food & Beverage industry to ignore the importance of technology, especially with a recession looming, tech and digital innovation can often be a solution to help simplify operations and manage costs more efficiently. 

In the near future, the restaurant industry will see off-premise consumption become an even bigger part of their equation. This would mean that restaurants will no longer require technology for in-house operations, but perhaps need to start looking at how they can transform the off-premise consumption, ordering, and deliver experience for customers. 

Blockchain Technology And Customer Loyalty Programs

Customer loyalty programs are set for a massive improvement in the coming years, as blockchain technology gains increasing momentum and begins to transform the way businesses and companies operate their customer loyalty programs. 

Keeping existing customers will be easier, and a lot more affordable than having to market and find new customers. According to industry research, it costs businesses five times more to recruit new customers, than having to retain existing ones. 

Keeping customers engaged, especially through customer loyalty programs, blockchain technology could become a key solution as it can help reduce costs, establish frictionless systems and create more real-time processing. 

Not only will blockchain technology improve the efficiency of customer loyalty programs, it can further provide a more secure environment for customer-to-business transactions, and help to encourage the sharing of important data with restaurants to further understand the changing consumer marketplace. 

AI Automating Inventory Management 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a key driving force behind the technological advancements taking place among several high-profile industries. Commercial adoption of AI-powered software such as ChatGPT has already gained serious traction since its release in November 2022. 

However, AI is more than a software engine for users. Instead, it has the potential to help automate mundane and complex tasks that often require human resources and consume valuable time. 

Leveraging the possibilities of AI, restaurants can automate important operational aspects of the business, such as inventory management. With these capabilities, restaurants will have better control over their inventory orders, helping to reduce costs and minimize food wastage. 

Creating an automated system that works throughout the restaurants would ensure that both front-of-house and back-of-house staff are informed about any low inventory items, or create forward-looking timelines for when new orders will need to be placed. 

These efforts are not only a way for restaurants to be more sustainable, but they could help them be more accurate in their predictions, what they will need, and the quantity they need to order. 

Digital Food Delivery 

During the pandemic food ordering and delivery services experienced a surge in demand, as stay-at-home and quarantine orders restricted the movement of people. This led to an even bigger demand for delivery drivers, with more than 1.4 million delivery drivers currently employed in the United States. 

While the pandemic was perhaps the biggest driver of food delivery services, the coming years will see even more demand for these services, as online ordering and contactless payment becomes even more advanced. 

The introduction of autonomous vehicles is already something we’re witnessing in places such as Las Vegas, Nevada, and Miami, Florida. Bigger companies such as Domino’s Pizza and Amazon have already started experimenting with the potential of autonomous vehicles and drone delivery to help create more efficient delivery systems. 

While this will minimize the need for human drivers, in some parts, technology could now be an optimal solution that could see restaurants reaching customers in remote regions. This would help ensure that orders are delivered faster, and more efficiently, and that driverless deliveries are certainly something that we will see more of in the coming years. 

Digital Bookings And Table Reservations 

Restaurant-goers have one of several options when it comes to booking or reserving tables at their favorite dining houses. The more traditional involves visiting a restaurant to reserve a table or phoning in. Other options could include booking on the restaurant website, or even through social media. 

While these options are convenient, technology is helping to further stretch the limits with the introduction of mobile booking applications. Customers can now make a reservation at some of their favorite places through one app. 

Not only will they be able to book through these apps, but they can also browse different restaurant options available in their area, get seething plans, and share their dining and eating preferences. 

Businesses will also benefit from digital booking and reservation apps. Information shared by guests would help them set up menus tailored to their customer’s dietary demands. They can collect important demographic data, and plan for upcoming events. 

Seating arrangements will be more efficiently laid out, and employees will have better control over their guests, knowing exactly what their preferences are and how to cater to their needs. 

Ultimately, digital booking platforms will become a way to not only improve the way customers can interact with restaurants, but it will also help enhance the customer experience and further provide them with personalized options before even visiting any establishment. 

Staff Retention And Team Management Software

Even employees will benefit from improved technological adoption in the coming years. With more aim to improve staff scheduling, and floor plans, and help prioritize team management, restaurants will help ensure employees are receiving adequate training and are being more effectively utilized. 

Instead of relying on outdated pen-and-paper methods for setting up work schedules, automated systems can now undertake the task of diligently analyzing employee needs, and ensuring staff will get preferred shifts that suit their working needs. 

This could mean that shifts will be more equally shared among all employees, leading to less need for employees during off-season periods, helping to give employees enough time to rest, and also helping to reduce overhead costs. 

Other benefits that could help restaurant employees are effective management of payroll services, reimbursement, advancement opportunities, and the scheduling of paid time off. 

The goal of these systems would be to help employees to have a better work-life balance, but also ensure that every staff member is treated fairly and equally. 

These systems would require investment on behalf of restaurant owners and managers, but the outcomes would pay for themselves in the long term. 

While there are several exciting developments taking place in the technology sector, helping improve the efficiency and productivity of businesses around the world, perhaps the most interesting is the deployment of these systems in the food and beverage industry. 

Given how these digital systems have evolved over the last several years, the time ahead would only bring more innovation into our restaurants. Making an impact on how restaurants are operated, improving employee retention, and minimizing human-induced errors, but more so, enhancing the customer experience, both for in-store and off-premise dining experiences. 

Microsoft Threat Intelligence says bad actors have been using the ms-appinstaller URI scheme (App Installer) to distribute malware since at least mid-November 2023. Microsoft has disabled the protocol handler in an effort to combat its abuse.

The observed threat actor activity abuses the current implementation of the ms-appinstaller protocol handler as an access vector for malware that may lead to ransomware distribution. Multiple cybercriminals are also selling a malware kit as a service that abuses the MSIX file format and ms-appinstaller protocol handler. These threat actors distribute signed malicious MSIX application packages using websites accessed through malicious advertisements for legitimate popular software. A second vector of phishing through Microsoft Teams is also in use by Storm-1674.

Threat actors have likely chosen the ms-appinstaller protocol handler vector because it can bypass mechanisms designed to help keep users safe from malware, such as Microsoft Defender SmartScreen and built-in browser warnings for downloads of executable file formats.

The attacks are especially dangerous for Teams users, since the bad actors are spoofing legitimate Microsoft pages.

Since the beginning of December 2023, Microsoft identified instances where Storm-1674 delivered fake landing pages through messages delivered using Teams. The landing pages spoof Microsoft services like OneDrive and SharePoint, as well as other companies. Tenants created by the threat actor are used to create meetings and send chat messages to potential victims using the meeting’s chat functionality.

More information can be found here, including detailed analysis of the attack. In the meantime, Microsoft says organizations should educate Teams users to be able to identify and protect themselves from this exploit.

Educate Microsoft Teams users to verify ‘External’ tagging on communication attempts from external entities, be cautious about what they share, and never share their account information or authorize sign-in requests over chat.

AI is being used to generate content, with it being an especially popular option among students. Educators are anxious for tools to detect such content, with many different tools claiming to be able to do so.

Unfortunately, according to an article on the company’s website, such tools simply don’t work:

Do AI detectors work?

• In short, no. While some (including OpenAI) have released tools that purport to detect AI-generated content, none of these have proven to reliably distinguish between AI-generated and human-generated content.
• Additionally, ChatGPT has no “knowledge” of what content could be AI-generated. It will sometimes make up responses to questions like “did you write this [essay]?” or “could this have been written by AI?” These responses are random and have no basis in fact.
• To elaborate on our research into the shortcomings of detectors, one of our key findings was that these tools sometimes suggest that human-written content was generated by AI.
  • When we at OpenAI tried to train an AI-generated content detector, we found that it labeled human-written text like Shakespeare and the Declaration of Independence as AI-generated.
  • There were also indications that it could disproportionately impact students who had learned or were learning English as a second language and students whose writing was particularly formulaic or concise.
• Even if these tools could accurately identify AI-generated content (which they cannot yet), students can make small edits to evade detection.

The revelation sheds greater light on why OpenAI shuttered its own AI content detector and illustrates the challenges that lie ahead for educators and others.

The vulnerability and phishing campaign was discovered by Oleg Zaytsev and Nati Tal, researchers at Guardio Labs.

Those phishing campaigns cleverly evade conventional detection methods by chaining the Salesforce vulnerability and legacy quirks in Facebook’s web games platform. Guardio Labs has disclosed these findings and worked with Salesforce and Meta to close the vulnerabilities and misuse.

The phishing campaigns tried to trick users into going to a fake Facebook page in an effort to steal their Facebook login information, as well as their two-factor authentication information. Targets received an email that appeared to come from Meta but came from a salesforce.com domain.

So it’s a no-brainer why we’ve seen this email slipping through traditional anti-spam and anti-phishing mechanisms. It includes legit links (to facebook.com) and is sent from a legit email address of @salesforce.com, one of the worlds leading CRM providers.

The researchers praise both Salesforce and Meta for quickly addressing the issue and providing a fix to all impacted services. At the same time, they express concern over the growing sophistication of such phishing attacks, combining a range of legitimate services to thwart countermeasures.

The prevalence of phishing attacks and scams remains high, with bad actors continuously testing the limits of email distribution infrastructure and existing security measures. A concerning aspect of this ongoing battle is the exploitation of seemingly legitimate services, such as CRMs, marketing platforms, and cloud-based workspaces, to carry out malicious activities. This represents a significant security gap, where traditional methods often struggle to keep pace with the evolving and advanced techniques employed by threat actors.

It is imperative for these service providers to exercise additional caution and implement stringent measures to thwart such abuse. Taking proactive steps to keep scammers away from secure and reputable mail gateways is of utmost importance. This includes bolstering verification processes to ensure the legitimacy of users, as well as conducting comprehensive ongoing activity analysis to promptly identify any misuse of the gateway, whether through excessive volume or through analysis of metadata such as mailing lists and content characteristics.

Kudos to Salesforce and Meta’s Security teams for their prompt response to our discoveries and their ongoing efforts to enhance the security and resilience of their platforms against scammers’ attempts.

Security firm Sophos made the discovery, dubbing the malware campaign “Nitrogen.” Sophos says Nitrogen “is a primarily opportunistic attack campaign abusing Google and Bing ads to target users seeking certain IT tools, with the goal of gaining access to enterprise environments to deploy second-stage attack tools such as Cobalt Strike.”

The company goes on to describe how the malware campaign works:

The observed infection chain starts with malvertising via Google and Bing Ads to lure users to compromised WordPress sites and phishing pages impersonating popular software distribution sites, where they are tricked into downloading trojanized ISO installers.

When downloaded, the installers sideload the malicious NitrogenInstaller DLL containing a legitimate software application bundled with a malicious Python execution environment. The Python package uses Dynamic Link Library (DLL) preloading to execute the malicious NitrogenStager file, which connects to the threat actor’s command-and-control (C2) servers to drop both a Meterpreter shell and Cobalt Strike Beacons onto the targeted system. Throughout the infection chain, the threat actors use uncommon export forwarding and DLL preloading techniques to mask their malicious activity and hinder analysis.

The infection chain involves multiple stages and components, which are still under analysis at this writing.

Cisco AnyConnect, WinSCP, and TreeSize downloads are three that are specifically being targeted by the malware campaign.

Sophos recommends taking basic steps to avoid the malware, such as not clicking download links in search advertisements, using an ad blocker to hide such ads altogether, and making sure downloaded files have the appropriate file extension.

Of course, the report raises significant questions about the security measures — or lack thereof — that Google and Bing’s advertising networks offer.

Michael Schwarz was speaking at a World Economic Forum panel in Geneva, according to Bloomberg, and made the following statement:

“I am confident AI will be used by bad actors, and yes it will cause real damage. It can do a lot damage in the hands of spammers with elections and so on.”

Schwarz went on to say that he believed AI needed to be regulated but said lawmakers should tread carefully and wait to see what damage it causes to better understand how to regulate it effectively.

“Once we see real harm, we have to ask ourselves the simple question: ‘Can we regulate that in a way where the good things that will be prevented by this regulation are less important?’” Schwarz said. “The principles should be, the benefits from the regulation to our society should be greater than the cost to our society.”

Concerns regarding AI’s future have been growing, with Google’s “Godfather of AI” recently quitting the company and expressing regret over his life’s work. Dr. Geoffrey Hinton expressed similar, and much more dire, concerns as Schwarz.

“It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things,” Dr. Hinton said.

One of the challenges of virtual meetings is ensuring everyone can be seen, especially when traditional conference rooms are paired with videoconferencing. All too often, some of the attendees are hidden behind others, making it difficult for those tied in via videoconference to interact effectively with everyone.

Zoom’s Intelligent Director is designed to solve that problem.

The traditional conference room experience can come at the cost of clarity and transparency. Someone can get lost in the back of the room, or left out if they’re not in the office. Meaningful connections can’t be mutually exclusive with a physical location — we have to find ways to share information in real time, regardless of where people are.

Building on the popular smart gallery feature for Zoom Rooms, Intelligent Director, patent pending, uses multiple cameras and the latest AI technology to determine the best angle of the individuals in a Zoom Room to display within a meeting. And it’s included in existing and new Zoom Rooms.

The tool is currently available on Mac and Windows but will come to other devices in the future.

To learn more and get started, check out Zoom.com.

According to a job posting, Microsoft is looking a Principal Program Manager, Nuclear Technology to head the company’s transition to nuclear reactors to power training its AI models:

This senior position is tasked with leading the technical assessment for the integration of SMR and microreactors to power the datacenters that the Microsoft Cloud and AI reside on. They will maintain a clear and adaptable roadmap for the technology’s integration, diligently select and manage technology partners and solutions, and constantly evaluate the business implications of progress and implementation.

The ideal candidate will have experience in the energy industry and a deep understanding of nuclear technologies and regulatory affairs. This role will also be responsible for research and developing other precommercial energy technologies.

The company’s job posting illustrates the steep requirements involved in developing generative AI models.

Red Hat ignited a firestorm in late June with an announcement that it would restrict access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux source code to paying customers. What’s more, the RHEL license prohibits sharing or re-publishing the source code, something that many are saying is a violation of the GPL. Even if it is not a violation of the letter of the law, it certainly is a violation of the spirit.

Some had wondered what stance SUSE would take since the two companies share significant similarities. Like Red Hat, SUSE sells support for an enterprise Linux distro, SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE). SUSE also relies on a community-driven distro as its upstream source, openSUSE Tumbleweed, much like Red Hat relies on Fedora. The two companies often share similar legal perspectives, with SUSE quickly following Red Hat’s lead last year when the latter disabled GPU acceleration on AMD GPUs over patent concerns.

On the issue of open source and the spirit of open source, SUSE appears to be distancing itself from Red Hat’s stance. SUSE CTO Dr. Thomas Di Giacomo penned a blog post outlining the company’s values:

Red Hat has decided to remove public access to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) source code. It’s a big change in its source code access policy and this decision has caused significant concern within the open source community. That’s understandable. RHEL’s existence owes much to the collaborative efforts of many upstream projects, including the Linux kernel developed by many different contributors, among them SUSE. At the center of our world is innovating together. We are all working to build something greater than the sum of all our parts. We are all interdependent.

Read More: Red Hat Continues Damage Control, Clarifies Term ‘Freeloader’

Right away, SUSE’s stance is far different from Red Hat’s. While the latter has defended the decisions it has taken in the context of its own business, Dr. Di Giacomo’s words seem to paint the picture of SUSE as a company far more concerned with the greater open source community it is a part of. Dr. Di Giacomo emphasizes the importance of users being able to access, modify, and share code — just as the GPL intended:

At SUSE, the principles of open source and power of collaboration are dear to us. While changes in the open source landscape may shift dynamics, we firmly believe that the freedom to access, modify, and distribute software should remain open to all. Our commitment to customer satisfaction, stability and reliability remains unwavering. We will continue to invest in robust support infrastructure, deliver timely updates and provide a best-in-class user experience to our community users and customers.

Dr. Di Giacomo also reassures SUSE Liberty Linux users that the company will continue to support open source principles…even in the context of the RHEL installations SUSE helps support:

SUSE helps many enterprise customers run and manage heterogeneous environments including CentOS and RHEL. Our solution for these customers is SUSE Liberty Linux. We want to reassure our customers that we remain fully committed to delivering a seamless experience for SUSE Liberty Linux. Red Hat’s decision does not change that. We will continue to collaborate with our partners in the open source community and leverage our decades of expertise to provide Red Hat binary compatible updates and security fixes going forward.

SUSE’s stand on the Red Hat controversy is a welcome endorsement of open source principles. SUSE is currently used by 60% of Fortune 500 companies (via SiliconANGLE, provides one of the most technologically advanced Linux distros, has an industry-leading focus on security, and uses the RPM package format like RHEL. With the above assurances, it would not be surprising to see many companies start switching from RHEL to SLE.

T-Mobile announced Ray’s intention to retire by Fall 2023, with Executive Vice President and Chief Network Officer Ulf Ewaldsson taking his place. Throughout his tenure, Ray helped the company transition from a 2G carrier to the 5G powerhouse it is today.

During that time, Ray was a fixture in the company’s commercials, quarterly calls with investors, and the company’s biggest product announcements.

“Under Neville’s network leadership we have accomplished so much together, and it’s amazing to think that milestones he’s helped T-Mobile achieve – the many network firsts, breakthroughs and innovations – have brought us to where we are today, taking the crown as the nation’s overall network leader,” said T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert. “There are so many things Neville has contributed to this company but one of the most important has been his commitment to building the best, most effective Technology team in this industry that will continue to deliver for our future. Neville and his team have worked tirelessly to bring the Un-carrier from last to best in network performance and made T-Mobile’s network a true competitive weapon. What’s even more exciting is that we’re just getting started! As this next chapter of the Un-carrier story is beginning to unfold, we owe a lot of gratitude to Neville for all he’s done to carve this path that will continue to lead us into the future!”

Sievert continued, “This has been a thoughtfully planned succession and I am thrilled we have an excellent leader in Ulf Ewaldsson to lead our Technology teams. When Ulf joined T-Mobile four years ago, he brought years of experience and deep network strategy leadership capabilities that allowed him to hit the ground running and bring our leading 5G network to life. That’s exactly what he did – and what he will continue to do as President of Technology, leading the best team in our industry! Our goal is always to build a strong bench of leaders who are ready to fill key positions when they’re needed, and this is a perfect example of that approach.”

Ewaldsson joined the company in 2019 after a 27-year career at Ericsson. He was quickly promoted to EVP and Chief Network Officer in 2021. Ewaldsson has played a crucial role in helping T-Mobile achieve many of its recent milestones, especially in the 5G race. There’s no doubt Ray will be missed, although Ewaldsson certainly has the experience needed to succeed him.

Dan Springer, CEO of DocuSign, discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation and he says that businesses are not going back to a manual world:

COVID Pandemic Accelerated Digital Transformation

We’ve been really pleased with the growth we’ve had since going public a few years. We have also seen significant acceleration since the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s obviously a horrible pandemic and our number one priority has been the health and wellbeing of our employees so we can take good care of our customers. As you can see in our Q1 earnings we did see an acceleration of our bookings to 59 percent.

Traditionally, if you look at the billings-type metric they have been in the mid-30s’. A significant portion of that (increase) was due to increased use cases from customers driving that digital transformation faster with services like DocuSign.

Companies To Stay In This Digitally Transformed World

One of the things we’ve seen with the pandemic impact is that it has really accelerated the path that companies were already on to drive that digital transformation. We don’t see companies after the pandemic settles down going back and saying they want more paper and more manual processes.

Once they’ve got the benefits from that efficiency in their business, the better customer experience, and the better employee experience, they’re going to stay in a digitally transformed world. They are going to use DocuSign and other fantastic services to do that.

The Future Is Going To Have eSignature At The Center

We really think that the future is going to have eSignature at the center of what we call the overall Agreement Cloud. Companies want to be more agreeable. They want to be easier to do business with and be easier to do business for. They’re going to not just use DocuSign for signature but all of the other components of preparing agreements and managing those agreements digitally once they’ve been created. That’s why we’re excited about our very robust future.

We just past a billion dollars in revenue (for DocuSign eSignature). We are only four percent penetrated today and we’re six times larger than the next biggest player in the space. There’s not a lot of penetration yet in that core business. Notary is still predominantly done manually. We are making investments there. We believe we can bring the same ease of use that we brought to eSignature we can bring to notary.

AI To Power The DocuSign Agreement Cloud

Much bigger than that, even expanding upon the opportunity of eSignature is that broader Agreement Cloud opportunity. We think this is the next big cloud opportunity. You are going to see companies increasingly say I don’t just want to do the workflow and signature. I also want to drive the creations of those agreements. I want to think about artificial intelligence and search capability to manage my agreements. This would enable me to actually manage my business and make my company more agreeable.

Those are some of the investments we’re making. That’s why we just finished the acquisition of Seal Software last month so we can bring additional artificial intelligence and analytic capability to help people run their businesses better.

Not only has Salesforce transformed the way they work with Slack but so are the customers of Salesforce. The company sees Slack as a core platform for powering digital transformation.

“Customer 360 and Slack are powering this transformation for companies in every industry in every region of the world,” said Taylor in yesterday’s earnings call. “Slack outperformed our expectations in the first full quarter as a part of the Salesforce family. The number of customers on Slack who spent over $100,000 was up 44% year-over-year. The adoption of Slack Connect was up an astonishing 176% year-over-year. Slack is not just a product, Slack is a network, and it’s just incredible to see that growth.”

The company seemed pleasantly surprised about how transformative Slack is to the operations of large enterprises. As Slack brought on millions of new users during the pandemic they focused on innovation that has made Slack much more than a simple communications platform.

“Slack also continues to innovate at an unbelievable pace,” notes Taylor. “Slack Huddles, which is Slack’s new real-time audio capability, is already used weekly by over 1/3 of Slack users. And Slack Clips, the new asynchronous video capability, are being played nearly 1 million times a week. And this month at Slack Frontiers, which I hope all of you have watched; and if you haven’t, you can watch it online. Stewart and the team are now the next generation of Slack’s platform, and it’s going to truly transform the way companies think about workflows and automation.”

Customer 360 and Slack are powering this transformation for companies in every industry in every region of the world, according to Taylor.

Slack outperformed our expectations in the first full quarter as a part of the Salesforce family. The number of customers on Slack who spent over $100,000 was up 44% year-over-year. Adoption of Slack Connect was up an astonishing 176% year-over-year. Slack is not just a product, Slack is a network, and it’s just incredible to see that growth.

Slack also continues to innovate at an unbelievable pace. Slack Huddles, which is Slack’s new real-time audio capability, is already used weekly by over 1/3 of Slack users. And Slack Clips, the new asynchronous video capability, are being played nearly 1 million times a week. And this month at Slack Frontiers, which I hope all of you have watched; and if you haven’t, you can watch it online. Stewart and the team are now the next generation of Slack’s platform, and it’s going to truly transform the way companies think about workflows and automation.

“That is definitely what I saw firsthand,” said Co-CEO Mark Benioff. “I was like, how could it be that an airline is basically front-ending their entire system with Slack? That’s a shock to me.”

“Slack is the system of engagement for every workflow, every application, every person on your enterprise,” added Taylor. “It’s really an amazing platform vision. And absolutely watch Slack Frontiers. If you haven’t seen it, I think it will blow your mind.”

“Every CEO and every Board I talk to is focused on how they can succeed in this era of flexible work,” says Taylor. “According to Slack’s research, 93% of workers are looking for flexibility when they work, and 76% are looking for flexibility where they work. Companies need to connect their employees, their partners, their customers from anywhere because we all know we’re not going to be in the office 5 days a week.”

“Our offices aren’t going away,” he said. “It’s just that your digital headquarters is going to be more important because it’s truly the infrastructure that connects all of it, and especially in this new normal. And Slack and Customer 360 together are really powering this transformation.”

On July 2, Kaseya began learning of a coordinated attack against its software. Kaseya makes IT management software, and its customers provide managed IT services to somewhere between 800,000 and 1,000,000 small businesses.

The company says it immediately shut down the software being targeted, although an estimated 800 to 1,500 businesses have been compromised.

“Our global teams are working around the clock to get our customers back up and running,” said Fred Voccola, CEO, Kaseya. “We understand that every second they are shut down, it impacts their livelihood, which is why we’re working feverishly to get this resolved.”

The perpetrators appear to be the REvil gang, most recently responsible for the ransomware attack on meat processor JBS. That attack resulted in JSB paying an $11 million ransom to prevent excessive strain on the world’s meat supply.

In this case, the group initially demanded a $70 million ransom. According to CNBC, REvil has privately lowered the demand to $50 million.