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Horizon 2050

Nadia — Final Chapter

The story of Nadia, a quantum security expert in 2050 London, comes to an end

Nadia, a story by Miquel Morales.

Jumping in now? Catch up with previous chapters.

Final Chapter

Nadia got to the address her sister had mentioned way before noon. Not because she cared about punctuality or anything like that. She hadn’t been able to sleep after the call, and there was only so much walking around to be done in a small town like Coventry. Plus, she needed to survey the area before the meeting. If the events of the past few days have told her anything, that was to always be prepared for the worse. Her sister must have thought that was a safe place to hide from the kidnappers. Nadia wouldn’t be doing her any service if she got spotted out of pure recklessness.     

In any case, there she was, hiding behind some bushes like a sloppy burglar. That was, of course, assuming her sister meant 246 Reinford Lane, Coventry and not 246 Reinford Lane, London or some other city. Hopefully not.   

It was a small house, one of those narrow and tall townhouses with a small, elevated staircase that connects the front door with the street. The curtains were closed shut on all windows, so there was not much that Nadia could make out from across the street. She examined what seemed to be the door to the basement, a rusty door at the street level with no handle or windows. A side alley led to the back of the property.   

After making sure no one besides her was lurking behind a bush, Nadia walked across the street and went into the alley. It ended abruptly on a wooden fence crowned by overflowing vegetation. Nadia went back a few steps and made a run for it. After a couple failed attempts, she managed to push herself over the fence and fell in the middle of a jungle of a garden. Plants were sprouting from literally everywhere, to the point that it was hard to distinguish the flat stones that served as the floor. The house’s back wall was covered in vines. So were the windows.   

Nadia fought her way through the greenery all the way to what seemed to be the door into the house. She tore off the vines covering it and tried pushing the handle. To her surprise, the door opened with a tiny squeak. Shhh!   

A rancid smell hanged in the air. For all she could see in the pale light coming through the open door, she was in the basement she had seen earlier. A staircase led upstairs, probably to the rest of the house. Nadia stood still and listened for a while. No sounds were coming from upstairs. She started making her way up, slowly but steady, one step at a time. The wood cracked under her feet with every step, making her cringe. But Nadia hadn’t made it half the way up when a fluorescent light turned on behind her.   

“Welcome, sister.”  

Nadia gave a jump and turned around with a racing heart. There was her sister, sitting on a worn-out leather armchair by the door.   

“You really are that easy to predict, aren’t you?” The smirk on her sister’s face brought Nadia back to her childhood days and the not-so-nice version of her sister. She had changed so much over the past years. Nadia hadn’t seen that mocking smile in a long time. Something was off. “Classic Nadia, always one step ahead, or at least happily thinking so. Well, this time I was the one ahead, wasn’t I?”  

“Ahead of what? Seriously, can you tell me what’s going on with this whole thing? How did you free yourself? Where were they keeping you?”  

“Free myself? You really don’t get it, do you? It beats you to think someone could outsmart you or want you harm. It always has.”   

“Alright, you are freaking me out, siss,” said Nadia. “Spill it. What’s going on.”      

“Why don’t you take a seat?”  

“I’m fine.”  

“As you wish,” said her sister crossing one leg on top of the other and resting her back against the armchair. “Do you recognise this?” she said holding up a card. Nadia did recognise it right away. It was the invite card that Tom had given her to get into the party. It was hard to believe only two days had passed since then. And it felt like ages ago.  

“How did you get that?”  

“Oh, it’s easy. I made it myself. You see, there’s just so much you can squeeze into such a thin material these days. Recording the data was the easy part, I just needed you to have the card with you while you were in the holovisor cabin.”  

“So Tom…”  

“Yep. He was acting on my behalf. Don’t blame him. Let’s just say he wasn’t too keen on me letting the police know about his boyfriend’s little magic tricks with his taxes. A pity he decided to make it up to you and ended up shot for it.”  

Nadia’s blood was boiling, her head spinning between confusion and sheer disbelief.   

“But why…”  

“Because it needed to be done. You had it coming all along. Since we were kids, I’ve had to deal with your oh-so-perfect aura. You know, it wasn’t that fun seeing everybody praise every little step you took while I failed at every major goal I set out to achieve. You were the one who was good with numbers, the one that made it into the good schools. Don’t you get it? I wanted to be you, have your career, your life, not have to depend on a miserable admin salary. Well, now it’s my turn.   

As much as it hurt, Nadia wasn’t entirely surprised by her sister’s revelations. She had exhibited that kind of attitude for most of their childhood. But Nadia thought they had left those years behind, grown into adults who got along just fine. Heck, she thought they had even become friendly to a certain degree. Her birthday gift sort of sealed that conception. Her sister, reaching back to one of the few things they had in common growing up: Ziza.  

She understood all of a sudden.   

“EVE”  

“Exactly. See? You are not that stupid after all. It wasn’t too complicated to install a backdoor into the AI before giving it to you. I must admit I had quite some fun telling you what to do.”  

“But everything that EVE, I mean that you told me to do was petty stuff. You couldn’t have retrieved the Duplo data through that.”  

“Agreed. But it was enough to open little wholes within the system, right where I needed them, so that I could start transferring information to the card. Worked pretty well.”     

Nadia felt so stupid. It was a very simple trick in reality. One of the world’s most protected systems, breached through carelessness and personal deceit. The wailing sound of sirens could be heard approaching in the distance.   

“I took the liberty of calling some friends,” said her sister. “They should be here any minute.”  

“What did you do with the data?”  

“Why, sell it, of course. I am now what they technically call filthy rich.”  

“I’ll tell them everything.” The sirens grew louder and louder.  

“Good luck making them believe this crazy story,” said her sister with a chuckle. “Goodbye siss, enjoy your prison cell. It will be your home for many years.”  

With that, her sister stood up and walk out into the garden. Nadia heard a crashing boom as the special operations team busted through the house’s main door.   

The End.

Discover another story: Edna’s Garden – Chapter 1

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Press review Tech Magazine

Weekly News: Bot Friday

Also discover our article: The IT Jobs Market of Today

Bot Friday

Black Friday long ago escaped the confines of its native United States to become a global shopping phenomenon. Now, another trend is joining this spread: bot.

If you are looking to catch a sweet deal this year, be advised: you’ll have to compete with more than a swarm of people lining up at the store’s gates. 

For some time now, retail bots have been out there scouting the Internet for the best deals. The exact second an item goes on sale, the bots flag the deal to their owner, who then makes a profit by selling a bot at a higher price. 

The item on sale is sold out? Chances are bots are to blame and it’s on eBay now.

BBC

Fighting cyberattacks with deception

With cyberattacks getting increasingly sophisticated, organisations have to deploy comprehensive cybersec solutions that address multiple fronts. 

Enter deception.

Deception technology is easy to deploy and manage, being to attackers what a honey trap is to fruit flies. Whereas traditional deception was solely focused on this honeypot approach, today’s solutions are way more powerful and have become one of the most effective ways to detect and stop attackers early on.  

However, persistent myths about the technology are keeping companies from leveraging its full potential. 

eWeek

SAP skills shortage threatens UK businesses

We have discussed the issue of SAP skills shortages before, but new research insights keep coming in reinforcing this trend.

In the last two weeks, two surveys conducted in the UK have put a number to the SAP talent gap. A study by Ensono revealed how 80% of SAP customers have postponed cloud migrations due to skills shortages. 

According to the UK & Ireland SAP User Group, 35% of organisations cite the cost of salaries as the main roadblock for recruiting SAP roles, while the overall lack of skills in the market is the main cause for concern for 24% of companies.

The SAP skills gap is further accentuated with the industry’s imminent migration to S/4HANA, which has businesses competing for the scarce number of professionals with this set of skills.  

Diginomica

With S/4HANA migration in full throttle, becoming an S/4 expert is more than a smart move.

 Download our S/4HANA career guide to find out how.

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Horizon 2050

Nadia — Chapter V

Follow the story of Nadia, a quantum security expert in 2050 London

Nadia, a story by Miquel Morales.

Jumping in now? Catch up with previous chapters.

Chapter V

“You know, it’s not the first time I deal with the likes of you. Nor it will be the last, for that matter.”

There is something unsettling about empty houses. Especially when they aren’t yours. Everything in the living room looked tidy and ready to be used, with only a thin layer of dust betraying how abandoned the place was.

As Tom had suggested, Nadia had made it out of the city under the cover of darkness. The paycard he had left her at the apartment had been useful. Tom had left her a burner phone as well. Seriously, though. What on Earth is going on? She had been played by this EVE. But how?

Nadia had gotten herself a headscarf and a cheap regular-speed train ticket to Coventry, hoping her friend would be there and willing to let her lay low for a while. Tina was her name. Her family had a big country house surrounded by fields of barley, which they mainly used in the Summer months. Nadia had been invited for a barbecue a few times with other people from college. She had met Tina in a physics class.  

Well, it wasn’t Summer, and there was no one in sight. But it was too late to go back to London, and she couldn’t risk staying at a hotel or something like that. RayStar had a big reach, and every modern establishment had AI-enabled security cameras these days. There was probably already an arrest order out there. She couldn’t risk any of her biometrics being picked up by the system.

Thankfully, Nadia was able to find a half-open window in the back of the house. Well, more like she had half-opened the window. Ooops. Anyway, she doubted they would mind at all. They had too much money in any case.

After hunting for snacks in the kitchen — cashews would do — Nadia did a full tour around the house and decided to settle down in the downstairs living room. It was nice and cosy, and the big windows would allow the upcoming morning light to wake her up early. She needed to devise a plan and get going. Staying for more than a day in that house would be too dangerous. But first, some rest.

She threw herself on a comfy couch and hugged a hand-knitted pillow with a big smile. Two seconds later she was falling into a deep slumber, her dreaming brain conjuring up old memories.    


Nadia woke up in a fright, her face covered in cold sweat from one of those nightmares only the subconscious remembers. IT was still dark. A hellish sound was coming out of her backpack. The phone. She picked it up. Unknown number.

“Hello?”

“Hey. It’s me.” Her sister.

“What the… Where are you, what’s going on?”

“246 Reinford Lane. Meet me there at noon.”

“What?”

Nadia threw the phone across the room in anger. The call had dropped. 

To be continued…

Read the next chapter: Nadia — Final Chapter

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Cybersecurity Tech Magazine

Cybersecurity Careers Overview

When it comes to cybersecurity, one thing is certain: things only get more complex over time. Therefore, spurred by the global health crisis and the business world’s increasing reliance on IT systems, cybercrime is on the rise. At the same time, the industry is facing a rapidly widening talent gap that makes securing company networks and infrastructure doubly difficult. Moreover, the leading cybersecurity professional organization (ISC)² estimates that the global cybersecurity workforce needs to grow by 145% to meet the demand for skilled cybersec talent. Message received about cybersecurity careers: it’s the perfect time to be a cybersecurity professional

But it’s not always easy to identify the right career path in this ever-changing and all-encompassing area of IT. Here are a few guidelines to help you navigate the field. 

Three levels of roles  

All cybersecurity job titles fall within three levels or categories: entry-level, mid-level and advanced. Examples of jobs at the various jobs available depending on the level of experience include: 

  • Entry-level: System Engineer, System Administrator, Network Engineer, Security Specialist
  • Mid-level: Security Technician, Security Analyst, Incident Responder, IT Auditor, Cybersecurity Consultant, Penetration Tester
  • Advanced: Cybersecurity Manager, Cybersecurity Architect, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)

Cybersecurity careers : How to get a job

Although the previous distinction seems obvious at first glance—most careers have the same three levels—it is important to note that these don’t necessarily imply a linear progression, especially when looking to access mid-level cybersecurity roles.  

That is due to the fact that a large proportion of security experts started out as experienced IT professionals with deep technical expertise, only moving into cybersecurity after mastering the ins and outs of networking, cloud and other core areas related to the security practice. 

While accessing the cybersecurity industry through an entry-level role is possible and quite common—companies like to hire recent tech graduates who can quickly learn the basics and adapt to their particular workplace culture—most cybersec professionals are more on the senior side.  

According to (ISC)², the average cybersec pro has worked for 9 years in IT roles, having spent 5 of those working on cybersecurity-related projects. 

Top skills for cybersec pros 

Since cybersecurity has many specialisation fields, there is not a unique set of skills that applies to all positions. Those interested in more technical tracks will have to gain full proficiency of the protocols, environments, devices and applications that are important for their specific niche.  

Some of these technologies include: 

  • Operating systems & databases (Windows, Unix, Linux, SQL…) 
  • Programming (C, Python, shell, assembly languages…) 
  • Networking (configuration, TCP/IP, Proxy servers, firewall protection, VPNs…) 

Once that is covered, security pros tend to go onto focus on a particular field or family of technologies, including: 

  • Cisco and Microsoft 
  • Cloud computing 
  • Wireless 
  • Database modelling 
  • Cryptography 

In addition, managerial roles will require the ability to plan and conduct training, write technical specifications, evaluate risk and the compliance with legal regulations.   

Soft-skills are also critical for a successful career in cybersecurity. Team building and collaboration, a curious mind with a passion for solving puzzles, the business acumen to navigate corporate environments. All of these  

Cybersecurity careers: certify yourself 

Finally, and as it is often the case with technical careers, certifications are absolutely vital. There are several world-renowned organisations and companies offering certifications based on the area of focus: 

  • CompTIA 
  • EC Council 
  • (ISC)² 
  • ISACA 
  • Cisco Systems 
  • Microsoft 

Besides validating your expertise within the industry and justifying, for instance, a career change into cybersecurity, certifications will often allow you to earn more money. 

According to (ISC)² estimates, the average salary for cybersecurity experts holding a security certification is €60,000, way more than that of those who don’t —about €7,000 on average. 

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Cybersecurity Tech Magazine

The State of Cybersecurity in 2020

A surprising number of things can happen in a minute, especially when it comes to cyber threats and their consequences. Quick overview. The state of cybersecurity in 2020

Firstly, every 60 seconds, 375 attacks are unleashed upon the global community, costing the world economy $2.9 million. In other words, every single computer with an internet connection is targeted by malicious agents about 1.5 times per minute. A whooping 16,172 records are compromised.[1] Certainly not a promising picture if you are a business leader or oversee a company’s cybersecurity for a living.

As we celebrate cybersecurity awareness month to promote greater security and cyber hygiene, we would do well to keep in mind that every day should be cybersecurity awareness month. Therefore, we can all benefit from a deeper understanding of today’s most common threats and what we can do to protect our business systems from them.

Cybersecurity in 2020: the impact of the pandemic

The already complex world of enterprise security got further intricate with the advent of COVID-19. Also, the sudden shift to remote work has pushed company networks to the limit, opening a myriad of new potential points of entry for attackers to exploit. Additionally, the ensuing fear and confusion have given more leverage to attackers looking to deceive individual employees as a means to gain company-wide access. As they say: you are as strong as your weakest link. And hackers love that.

Cybsersecurity in 2020: the impact of the pandemic

Social engineering, the act of tricking someone by using their natural tendencies and emotional reactions, has acquired a whole new dimension of sophistication and finesse. Phishing emails disguised as governmental safety announcements, fake HR memos encouraging you to get acquainted with the office’s new cafeteria policy. And that is just the start two per cent of all COVID-related websites created in recent months contain malicious code. A seemingly small number until you realise there are billions of COVID-19 pages out there.[2]

Remote work is here to stay, and so are the advanced techniques that cybercriminals use. In fact, they will only get more refined in the months to come.    

A growing variety of cyber threats – Cybersecurity in 2020

In addition to the rising complexity of attacks, the sheer variety of techniques hackers use is a top concern for companies and cybersec professionals who are struggling to catch up with an ever-growing catalogue of threats. New forms of mobile malware alone, for instance, have grown 12% compared to last year. PowerShell-based malware, which leverages the Microsoft task automation and configuration management framework to carry out attacks without leaving any traces, grew by 1,902% over the same time period.[3]  

Also discover our article & interview: Leadership Failure: The Real Human Element Behind Cyber Attacks

Targeting the cloud

Cloud has become the backbone of the modern enterprise, and hackers are targeting it accordingly. The rise in attacks is being particularly felt in those industries which depend the most on the cloud for productivity. For example, threats aimed at the transportation and logistics sector increased by 1,350% in the first quarter of the year. Education experienced a 1,114% rise in attacks, with governmental organisations, manufacturing and financial services following behind.[4]    


The Top 10 Belgian Cloud Pros to Follow on Twitter


Most attacks are opportunistic in nature and involve the “spraying” of cloud accounts with stolen access credentials. The majority of access attempts came from either China, Iran or Russia. [5] 

Ransomware-as-a-service

While phishing and trojans are still behind most cyber attacks, ransomware continues to surge and is perhaps the most feared malware of them all. Its capacity to cripple an entire company’s operations in a matter of minutes, together with how difficult it can be to prevent these attacks in the first place, surely keeps many security specialists and IT managers awake at night. Also, threat actors are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

What started as attacks by individual hackers or small rogue groups has now evolved into full-fledged criminal organisations that operate under a ransomware-as-a-service approach. Some even have “customer service” helplines to guide victims through the process of paying the ransom.

These hacker groups have greatly benefited from COVID-19, taking advantage of the increase in cloud usage and telework. Half of the world’s organisations were hit by ransomware last year, with most successful ransomware attacks involving public cloud data. Data was successfully encrypted in 73% of attacks.[6]

Additionally, attackers are finding more and more weaknesses to exploit as remote workers and IT engineers increasingly use Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to access internal resources. The higher use of personal devices has also complicated the problem of shadow IT, multiplying the potential points of access and making it more challenging for security professionals to safeguard company networks.


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[1] The 2020 Evil Internet Minute, RiskIQ, Inc. (2020)
[2] 2020 Threat Report, Webroot (2020)
[3] The McAfee Labs COVID-19 Threats Report, McAfee (2020)
[4] McAfee Labs COVID-19 Threats Report, McAfee (2020)
[5] McAfee Labs COVID-19 Threats Report, McAfee (2020)
[6] The State of Ransomware 2020, Sophos (2020)
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Horizon 2050

Nadia — Chapter IV

Follow the story of Nadia, a quantum security expert in 2050 London

Nadia, a story by Miquel Morales.

Jumping in now? Catch up with previous chapters.

Chapter IV

“You know, it’s not the first time I deal with the likes of you. Nor it will be the last, for that matter.”

The woman had a distinctive voice. Coarse, yet sharp as a whistle. A slight lisp and the way she pronounced the ‘r’ betrayed her as a non-native English speaker. Eastern Europe, maybe? Hard to tell.   

“Scoundrels. Corporate leeches who would rather put their energy to nefarious use than do their actual job. Tell me: what was it, how did they get to you? Money? It’s usually money. Perhaps the promise of a shiny new job?”

Nadia tried to keep a steady face despite the woman’s determined scrutiny. A plain metallic table separated the two of them in the middle of an otherwise empty room. Exactly how one would imagine an interrogation room to look like.

“Excuse me, where exactly are we?” It had been a relatively short ride to whatever that place was, but the back of the van they had put her in had no windows. In any case, they couldn’t have gotten further than a few blocks. Somehow, the secrecy of it all made Nadia think it had less to do with the actual police and more with someone else’s particular idea of justice. Ugh, so stupid. If only she had made it for the elevator a couple of seconds earlier, the policeman’s hand wouldn’t have been able to stop the doors from closing. Guess no one is naturally prepared to run from the police at a moment’s notice.  

“Ah, she speaks!”

“I do!” said Nadia with a mocking smile. “And I can tell you right away that I don’t have the foggiest idea of what you are talking about.”

“Funny, because your friend said quite the opposite.”

“My friend?”

The woman pulled up some information on her bracelet’s screen.

“Mr… Tom Schultz. Ah, chatty fella.” Wait, how was Tom involved in any of this? “We know you stole the RayStar duplos, so let’s go straight to the point, please.”

“What?” It was impossible to hide her surprise this time around. “I did not do such… Wait. Are you even police?” Definitely not. This has RayStar written all over it.

“Who is paying you?” The woman was clearly starting to lose her temper.

The door opened and a man in a suit walked in. He leaned on to whisper something in the interrogator’s ear.

“We’re not done here,” said the woman as she reluctantly stood up and followed the man out of the room. The door locked with a beep.

Nadia finally let her guard down and allowed her body to show how nervous she really was, her right foot going up and down in an endless loop. She wished they hadn’t taken her earpiece. She could’ve used Ziza’s help with going through the events of these recent days. The duplos. But EVE had not gotten even remotely close to that data. She couldn’t have the way the system was designed. Especially not with that useless hidden attachment strategy. Plus, EVE’s target had always been the proprietary security algorithms of Nadia’s company. Or at least Nadia had assumed so, given her interest in getting close to the quantum encryption core systems. No, they must have made a mistake. Nadia hadn’t messed around with the duplo dataflows at all. Someone else had to be behind all this. Or had she missed something? She would just tell them about EVE, the attachments, the kidnapping of her sister… The door opened again. It was…

“Tom?! What on Earth…”

“Nadia, listen. There is no time.” He was all sweaty and dishevelled, his eyes full of fear behind the colourful glasses. “They know everything, they figured it all out. I’m so sorry. They had Hao’s file, and they said they would…”

“Tom!” Nadia grabbed him by the shirt and tried to shake him into making some sense. “What is going on? What are you doing here, and what did you do?”    

 “I… There is no time! They will be back any second.” He took her by the arm and the two ushered into a dimly lit hallway with concrete walls. “You need to get out of the city. Didn’t you have a friend up in Coventry? “

“I do. But my sister…” They were now running through a maze of corridors across what seemed like the basement of a large building.

“Your sister is fine, don’t worry.”

“Wait, how do you…”

“She’s fine Nadia! You need to worry about yourself right now.” Voices and steps could be heard some distance behind them. The guards were in pursuit. And getting close.

“Where is my sister?” They reached a fire escape door and Tom cracked it open, prompting the alarm to go off. The light of day filtered in, momentarily blinding Nadia.

“Remember the party the other day? Wait until nightfall and head there. You will understand everything once I’ve also left you an untraceable paycard. You shouldn’t use any of your accounts until I contact you. Not until we clear our name.”

“Tom – where is my sister!”

“Where she has been all this time. At her place.”

“What!”

“Trust me Nadia, I’ve got a plan.” He reached inside his shirt’s chest pocket and took out Nadia’s earpiece. He handed it to her and pushed her towards the door. “Now go! I’ll keep them for as long as I can.”

Flooded with questions, Nadia rushed out into a quiet back alley and started running without looking back. A shot could be heard in the distance.

To be continued…

Read the next chapter: Nadia — Chapter V

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Press review Tech Magazine

Weekly News: A crypto-worm is stealing AWS credentials

Researchers have discovered what they believe to be the first-ever crypto-mining worm that also manages to steal AWS credentials. 

Crypto-mining worms have been around for a while, stealthily infiltrating a network and using its computing power to mine cryptocurrency. This new worm is actually not even that good at it, having only made a mere $300 in profits. 

However, the attackers, who go by the name TeamTNT, have managed to incorporate the credential-stealing feature into their code. The researchers believe the attackers have recycled this functionality from a previous worm that targetted Alibaba’s cloud. 

This points to an emerging trend of copy-and-paste, opening the door for future malware to replicate TeamTNT’s code and go onto steal AWS credentials and compromise cloud ecosystems.

Fired for skipping the firewall

A whopping four out of ten businesses in the UK admit having dismissed employees for breaching the company’s security protocols. That’s according to a new survey by Centrify, a privileged access management solutions provider.

Most incidents were related to work-from-home scenarios, as a large proportion of employees tends to circumvent safety measures in favour of comfort or portability. 

As a result, 65% of companies have made important changes to their cybersecurity policy. Shadow IT was already a huge problem before the workforce transitioned to remote work. Now it’s become even more difficult to ensure that employees don’t use personal devices to access company networks and files.

Well, just keep in mind that you could get fired for it.

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IT Decision-makers Tips & errors to avoid

Strengthening the IT support team: the top back-to-school challenge for CIOs?

Many companies have been hit hard by the Covid-19 epidemic. Disruption was inescapable, from decline and suspension of activity to forced restructuring of teams and processes. IT teams were among the most impacted by these upheavals, as IT decision-makers had to take on a new role to help their organizations navigate the crisis. Therefore their new mantra: adapt, anticipate, and reassure internally. Is then strengthening the IT support team the top back-to-school challenge for CIOs?

As we approach the start of the new school year, the challenges for CIOs and other IT managers are increasing. Like who awaits impending doom, they are faced with the threat of a new lockdown at any minute. Adapting to a new way of working and conducting business won’t be easy either.

It is now more strategic than ever to strengthen their IT support team, guaranteeing operational continuity and completing the digital and organizational transformation of the company. Yet budget and organisational constraint make this a challenging endeavour.

Strengthening the IT support – A front-line service

IT support has always been a vital service within the company. Operating as an internal customer service, it helps solve end-user problems, responds to all their requests related to the work environment, and improves productivity.

In just months, the pandemic has strengthened the role of IT within organizations and propelled the IT service to the front line. While some companies had to completely shut down activity during lockdown, many were able to remain active thanks to telework.

But managing such a sudden and massive transition has required significant technical and organizational adaptation. Setting up collaboration tools, remote troubleshooting and technical assistance, rapid resolution of incidents, training of employees regarding cybersecurity risks… IT support teams had to put in long hours to ensure the proper functioning of remote work.

Moreover, to complicate things, cybercrime has skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic and continues to rise.  Hackers are taking advantage of the human and organizational weaknesses of companies, targeting remote access points and employee email. Finding the right security experts has become a big challenge for businesses in recent months.

In short, IT support teams have made themselves more essential than ever.

Facing new challenges

The challenges related to the Covid-19 crisis add to a multitude of already existing challenges within IT support teams. Issues such as cost reduction, process optimization and quality of service have only acquired more importance.

The notion of the internal customer is leading many companies to redefine their structure and put the user at the heart of the process to improve employee experience. This perspective, which brings benefits like satisfaction and fluidity, often requires support teams to unify points of contact, collect feedback and proactively participate in improving the image of the overall IT department.

Another challenge: reducing tasks with low added value and exploiting technologies such as AI to automate as many operations as possible. The idea here is to allow support teams to focus on more strategic tasks like provide guidance to users.

IT support managers have also one more major new challenge: communication. They need to be transparent and reassuring with their team and play an important role in raising employee awareness about increased security threats.

Set up an adapted Talent Strategy for strengthening the IT support team

To have a good IT support, you need to start by having a suitable team. Having the right people in place is an essential condition for success, as it is often the skills and motivation that make the difference between an efficient support service and an insufficient one.

But how do you make sure you have a strong team? You can start by following these few tips:

  • Perform an audit of current skills within your support teams: look at what skills are missing, see if key skills are concentrated in too few employees, etc.
  • Adapt your team’s organization to be able to call on the right people at the right time: in an emergency, you need to be ready to activate a reorganization plan to mobilize key skills
  • Identify the most efficient resources and secure your existing talent
  • Set up training mechanisms to re-skill certain employees whose area of ​​expertise is no longer suited to the current situation
  • Establish a recruitment plan to cover the missing skills and be able to quickly find the right candidates when needed
  • Focus on communication and transparency

Strengthening the IT support : Is calling on external resources an effective strategy for your IT support?

On top of operational challenges, the current economic crisis is having a heavy impact on corporate budgets. Many organizations have had to drastically cut down their expenses, especially their IT costs.

So how, as an IT decision-maker, can you strengthen your support teams without taking significant budgetary risks? Outsourcing or calling on IT freelancers can be a winning strategy in this time of crisis.

In addition to fewer administrative constraints and the positive effects that freelancers can have on your internal teams, the recruitment of an independent consultant can allow you to mobilize very specific skills to accelerate projects or resolve incidents in key business areas.

The flexibility of working with contractors allows you to limit risks during this unstable period, as well as access highly coveted expertise such as cloud and certain collaborative tools.

Regardless, the start of the school year promises to be pretty intense. Whether you choose to strengthen your support teams through hiring or by occasionally calling on external staff, do not neglect the importance of having a strong support team to face the coming months with confidence.


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Horizon 2050

Nadia – Chapter III

Follow the story of Nadia, a quantum security expert in 2050 London

Nadia, a story by Miquel Morales.

Jumping in now? Catch up with previous chapters.

Chapter III

Finding the Blue Dragon hadn’t been precisely easy. It turns out speakeasies, those hidden bars that had been so popular at the beginning of the century, were back in fashion. Exclusive cocktail lounges, disguised as laundromats or hidden in the basement of a regular restaurant. Secret meeting places for those who like to feel special and mingle with the ‘different’ people. Although you can’t really call them secret when they are all listed online. But this one wasn’t.

Nadia had wandered around the apartment building at 4 Chance St for quite some time before finally finding the right door. She had mistakenly knocked on at least four flats, their inhabitants greeting her with caution before closing the door again. At the fifth doorbell she rang, a nice old lady with an evident passion for spying on her neighbours had pointed Nadia the way.

“I believe you want to go to the end of that hallway, my dear. Third door on the left. People have been up and down making a fuss all afternoon. Odd-looking bunch, if you ask me.”  

Nadia was now sited on an expensive leather couch, sipping on some unpronounceable drink that tasted like mouldy oranges and leftover coke. Tom hadn’t arrived yet. Thought real leather had been banned years ago. A self-described staunch defender of animal rights, Nadia decided she couldn’t afford to enjoy that blood-stained comfort any longer and headed for the bar.

The place didn’t look like a cocktail lounge. The layout was all off, as if was someone had squeezed a bar and a few tables into a regular apartment. The walls were covered in red, velvet-like material, with dark curtains separating the main hall from the smaller private rooms. At the front door, the security guard who had taken Nadia’s invite card was welcoming a young couple in fancy attires. Here and there, small groups of people engaged in quiet conversation. Their soft chatter made for a good accompanying tune to the synthetic jazz playing through the speakers.      

“There you are!” Nadia jumped up startled as Tom’s arm hugged her from behind.  “See, love. I told you she’d come.”

Tom’s breath smelled of alcohol and smoke. Clearly, he had had a head start. His boyfriend Hao was standing behind him with an apologetic grin. He seemed colder than usual.  

“I thought you prided yourself in never being late,” said Nadia while poking Tom’s arm with one of those tiny cocktail umbrellas.

“And I wasn’t!” responded Tom triumphantly as he signalled the bartender to bring another round for three. “We were closing a deal in one of the backrooms,” he said patting Hao’s shoulder. “You didn’t think you’re the only one who knows how to do business, right?”

“Oh, great. Another one of your crazy ventures,” said Nadia. “What was the last one, again? A virtual bar for AI assistants to go on dates?”     

“Please: more like a soulmate bazar,” corrected her Tom. Nadia spilt her drink as she burst out laughing. “Say what you want, girl, but it was a brilliant idea. Why bother wasting time on dates when we could simply send our AI assistants to figure it out for us? I still don’t get why people weren’t that into it.”  

“Yeah, quite the mystery, huh?” All this talk of AI assistants had taken Nadia’s mind back to EVE. Thankfully she had been quiet so far. Hopefully, she would remain like that for the rest of the night. “So, these are your friends, Hao?”

“Oh, no. They already left,” he said quietly. Something was off between the two; Tom’s uncharacteristic early drunkness and Hao’s unusual gloomy mood. Nadia wondered what had happened during their meeting. Somehow she got the impression that Hao wasn’t okay with the whole thing.

“Trust me, Nadia. This time it’s something big,” said Tom in a serious tone.

The bartender arrived with a sumptuous, pyramid-shaped ensemble of fresh fruit and laurel leaves. Three cubic glasses sat at different levels of the pyramid, holding a golden liquid with no observable bubbles. Whatever. Better enjoy before she’s back. They each grabbed a drink and let the night take its course. Things ended up picking up the pace when the music changed to something more upbeat. Hao loosened up a bit and accepted Nadia’s invitation to dance. At least until Tom came back to steal her dancing partner as a knight in shining armour. Jokes and office gossip were exchanged in between several more pyramids. Tom decided to move on from virtual matchmaking and devoted perhaps too many efforts to find a suitable someone for Nadia among the attendees. A fun yet embarrassing pursuit. It wasn’t a bad night.


The retina-tracing lasers of the holovisor cabins were clearly not designed for hungover eyes. Nadia stepped out of the egg-shaped enclosure and poured a few eye drops after a long yawn. Unbeknown to Nadia, a red alert popped up on the system’s main dashboard.

“How about a little walk, stretch your legs?” suggested EVE.

“So, you care about me all of a sudden?” said Nadia as she exited the RayStar security room and made it down the hallway.

“Oh, Nadia. I have always cared about you and your loved ones, tried to keep you all safe.”  

The security wing was at the very top of the building, so at least employees could compensate for the long hours inside a holopod with 360 views of the City. A corridor went around the whole floor along the window. It took about two minutes to complete a whole round. Nadia knew because she had timed it before.

“I still don’t see what you are hoping to get out of this,” said Nadia.   

“You will soon.”

Dark clouds were gathering beyond the city skyline. A group of tiny people could be seen doing yoga in the park across the street. A cargo drone flew by, carrying a debris container from the construction site next door.

“You know I only have access to the RayStar servers. The encrypted attachments you are making me…” Nadia interrupted herself as she crossed paths with a group of technicians engaged on a heated debate. Something about a game?

“The encrypted attachments you are making me hide in my messages to colleagues. Whatever they are, they are not going to get you anywhere. Our system is designed in a way that all accounts are independent of one another and from the central system itself. When I send them a message, they only get a representation, an image of the message, not the message itself. Whatever is in the attachment will never make it out of my account.”

“Let me worry about that.”

Nadia had completed a full circle around the building and was back in front of the holovisor room. It had taken her longer than usual. She should better get back to work. Plenty to do before lunch. Nadia rested her chin on the biometric scan. But the system made a beep and marked and error. Weird. Nadia tried again. Access restricted.

“Nadia?” said EVE

“What now…”

“Thank you.”

And just like that, EVE’s voice disappeared. But someone was still calling her name. Coming down the hallway were a couple of security guards. A police officer accompanied them.

“Nadia? Nadia Zabeen?”     

“Run,” whispered Ziza’s familiar voice.

To be continued…

Read the next chapter: Nadia — Chapter IV

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Categories
Press review Tech Magazine

Weekly News: Rise and Fall of a Hacking Empire

Bringing to light an international hacking empire

More often than not, reality overcomes fiction. Why bother with whodunnit novels books when you can read newly-unsealed court documents?

An estimated $1.5 million in profits. Over 300 target companies across 44 countries. Under the moniker “Fxmsp,” a hacker made global headlines last year for stealing and selling source code and customer access to MacAfee, Symantec and Trend Micro.

More importantly, the hacker built backdoors into enterprise networks and then made them invisible to the system. He then sold these through Russian hacking groups for up to hundreds of thousands of dollars a piece. 

Meet Andrey Turchin, a 37-year-old man from Kazakhstan whose name has just been made public by a U.S. court. He established a full-blown business almost overnight, even employing another reputed hacker as his sales manager. 

Read the full story before Hollywood makes a movie out of it. 

More on cybersecurity

Another week goes by, leaving us with new record-breaking cyber incident metrics.

British security provider Sophos published a comprehensive cloud security study, revealing that 70% of companies hosting data or workloads in the public cloud experienced a breach in the past year. 

Businesses in the multi-cloud received almost twice as many attacks compared to those using a single cloud provider, highlighting why companies should be more worried about their cloud data

On another note, be advised that there is a new kid on the block. A novel strain of ransomware called Conti can use 32 simultaneous CPU threads to encrypt your data.

The most in-demand IT pros

Remote work is here to stay, and that is re-shaping the IT talent needs of companies looking to remain competitive in this new reality. 

Unsurprisingly, being knowledgeable in collaboration tools like Zoom or Teams comes in handy. So does expertise in cloud-based business suites like Microsoft 365 and G Suite.

Networking and infrastructure skills are also in high demand, as companies need to build stronger ecosystems that are able to withstand the surge in remote work and cyber attacks. 

But general business acumen takes the spotlight in the post-COVID world. Here are the most sought-after business skills of the moment.

News from Microsoft

We got some updates from the Redmond-based company this week.

The wave 2 release plans for Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform are now available. Be sure to review all the upcoming changes and additions ahead of the October roll-out. Early access begins on August 3rd.

Also — Microsoft Teams will now present your team in a fake auditorium during video calls. It certainly looks strange, but apparently our brains process it better than the rectangular grid with everyone’s face on it.