Blockchain is here to stay; as enterprise and supply chain DeFi become a reality, two additional blockchain ecosystems have recently burst onto the world scene: NFTs and gaming. Smart MFG is at the intersection of all three of these trends which are blockchain’s most exciting opportunities.

Blockchain reinventing the supply chain

One of the most promising applications of blockchain technology is supply chain management. The supply chain sector is a multi-billion-dollar industry; however, it is suffering from multiple problems across the entire chain. As a result, the supply chain business suffers billions in losses that should not occur if the processes were transparent and streamlined.

The old-school supply-chain business model needs a complete reset for better efficiency and the answer lies in blockchain, decentralisation and more specifically DeFi. Supply Chain DeFi makes use of smart contracts that will streamline the documentation process, verify quality and provenance and decrease the human error factor significantly.

To compound these already existing problems, a survey of global analysts in August 2020 found that more than 80% of industries experienced supply chain disruptions because of the pandemic.

For this reason, supply chain management is commonly cited as one of the biggest use cases of blockchain technology that will impact the way Industry 4.0 operates: most companies on the Forbes Blockchain 50 list are using blockchain to solve logistical issues.

Blockchain helps supply chain processes with their challenges by creating a complete, transparent, and tamperproof history of the information, inventory, and financial flows in transactions.

SyncFab, a blockchain-based supply chain management company, with numerous high-powered manufacturing and government-led contracts around the world, is a prime example of the disruption happening in the supply chain. SyncFab integrates blockchain technology for data-driven optimised and smart manufacturing.

In 2019, SyncFab developed an innovative hardware tokenisation application using NFTs to ensure quality through the whole supply chain, originally targeted at the aerospace, defense, automotive and medical supplies industries and now expanded to all supply chains.

Through the blockchain smart contract, manufacturing and transaction data are immutably secured and verifiable between all the contracted parties involved.

Smart MFG as the building block of Industry 4.0 and Supply Chain DeFi with the MFG token ecosystem

Smart MFG is a blockchain ecosystem around the MFG token and is the leader in blockchain supply chain incentives, parts tokenisation and smart payments, in partnership with a growing blockchain ecosystem for Industry 4.0 digital transformation with IIOT (Industrial Internet of Things) for use within the manufacturing industry.

SyncFab’s blockchain-centric supply chain features are powered by the MFG token for smart payments and parts tokenisation in the supply chain for quality control, provenance and traceability.

The use case of the MFG token has an ever-growing list of utilities within the ecosystem, such as:

Incentivises & rewards programs

Securing smart contract POs (Purchase Orders)

Hardware tokenisation

Smart payments

NFT marketplace services

Incentivising liquidity providers

Supply chain DeFi finance services

Smart MFG as the “secret sauce” of 3D NFTs to build the metaverse and incentivise gamers, makers, concept artists, industrial designers.

The NFT is the most recent decentralised asset enabled by blockchain, and more specifically, 3D assets are the latest breakout vertical for NFT’s. At the same time, the next evolution of the internet, the Metaverse, is in full growth mode fuelled by 3D NFTs. And it’s much more than just gaming, as the financial industry explores growth opportunities from the Metaverse by adopting it into their business models.

With a community of industrial designers and 3D artists already behind Smart MFG, the expansion into...

Renowned Irish comedian Dara Ó Briain has been honoured as the recipient of the 2021 Maths Week Ireland Award for his lifelong contribution to Raising Public Awareness of Maths.

The award is presented once each year during Maths Week Ireland – the all-island festival of maths and numeracy (16th – 24th October) and has a distinguished list of previous recipients. The all-island event is supported by Science Foundation Ireland, the Department of Education (ROI), the Department for the Economy – Northern Ireland, ESB, universities, institutes of technology, libraries, schools, training colleges and employers, north and south.

Mr. Ó Briain received the award in an online ceremony.

The award was inaugurated in 2016 to honour outstanding work in raising public awareness of mathematics on the island of Ireland. Ó Briain’s infectious enthusiasm for maths, demonstrated across a variety of different platforms through the years, makes him a worthy winner of this award.

With an aptitude for maths from a young age, Ó Briain graduated in 1994 with a degree in mathematics and theoretical physics from University College Dublin (UCD).

While his decision to pursue a career as a stand-up comedian initially led him away from the world of mathematics, it continued to have an influence on him and his work. He has noticed similarities between the mathematical proof called ‘reductio ad absurdum’. This is where you take an initial supposition and explore it to see how it leads to a contradiction, and the logic used in comedy – where an assumption is made and then exaggerated until it reaches its breaking point. Dara has shown that the way in which comedians’ minds work; that is, seeing patterns and relationships, is not unlike how the mind of a mathematician might work.

Ó Briain has since combined the two passions, with television programmes including ‘Dara Ó Briain: School of Hard Sums’, and books such as ‘Secret Science’, and ‘Beyond the Sky’. He has used his platform, as one of Ireland’s most successful comedians across the island of Ireland and in the UK, to give a voice to mathematicians, and to highlight that maths and numeracy, like most things, is something that can always be improved upon with practice and engagement.

Dara had this to say on receiving the award: “I’m very flattered and privileged to receive this award for Raising Public Awareness of Maths in Ireland. Maths Week itself is a great initiative as it shows us maths and numeracy are for everyone regardless of your level of proficiency. I would like to congratulate the Maths Week team for their work in promoting maths, it’s incredible to see the huge numbers participating. I’ve always had an interest in maths and am very pleased that I’ve been able to share that interest with a wider audience.

“I don’t consider myself an expert in maths, but I’m an enthusiastic fan and I do try to help promote the work of those who are. To that point, I would like to dedicate this award to Professor Seán Dineen (Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, UCD) who helped to inspire me and my love of maths. Maths is the language in which the universe is written. It’s innate to the human brain and a spectacular thing that we’ve discovered. It permeates our lives, so it’s important to engage with it positively and I’m delighted to be able to help people to do that.”

Professor Dineen was present at the online award ceremony.

Dr. Sheila Donegan, Co-founder of Maths Week Ireland said: “As an all-island festival of maths and numeracy, we’re always looking to get people, both north and south, to engage with the subject in a fun and interesting way. Throughout his career, Dara Ó Briain has done that repeatedly, while also working to make maths less mysterious, or intimidating. Fear of failure can hold people back from engaging with maths, despite the career opportunities it presents, and its importance in every aspect of our lives.

“Dara Ó Briain has helped many overcome this fear. Dara has made mathematical conce...

Digital banking platform provider, Layer has, announced a significant new partnership with global embedded finance platform Railsbank that will enable any business or brand around the world to embed digital finance into their customer journey. Based in Dublin, with offices in Lagos and Dubai, Layer is a digital transformation platform that enables large financial institutions to rapidly revolutionise their customer and back-office digital experiences.

The partnership addresses the increasing demand from companies and brands, both within and outside the financial services industry, who are adding end-user wallets, debit cards, payments, savings, credit, and bank accounts to their platforms and wish to simplify the process.

Layer, in partnership with Railsbank, will enable businesses and brands to offer cards and wallets to customers, providing an enhanced user experience, lower costs, greater speed, boosted security and faster conversion.

The partnership with Railsbank will enable Layer to offer a white-label Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform to fintech, e-commerce, and brands that will revolutionise both the customer experience and back-office digital capability by enabling their clients to offer new products, services and experiences.

Railsbank is a global leader in Embedded Finance and BaaS, empowering a company, or a brand, to easily prototype, build and scale any financial use case.

Speaking about the new partnership, Roy Zakka, CEO and Founder of Layer, said: “We are excited to partner with Railsbank to bring end-to-end banking capabilities to brands and customers in Europe, Asia, and the US. As we see the market for embedded fiance grow exponentially, it offers us the opportunity to provide these global brands with embedded finance capabilities on their digital platforms”

Speaking about the new partnership, Louisa Murray, COO of Railsbank (UK and Europe), commented: “We are delighted to be working with the Layer team who not only have a deep, intuitive understanding of the market but have great empathy with Railsbank’s aims and ambitions. I really look forward to collaborating with them over the coming months and years.”

The embedded finance sector, where services are offered within non-traditional areas such as in-store shopping, ridesharing, or delivery, is growing rapidly. A recent study by Juniper Research predicts that the market will be valued at €118 billion by 2026, growing from €36 billion in 2021. The study also states that the buy-now-pay-later model, a key element of embedded services, will account for more than 50% of the market by 2026. A detailed report by Simon Torrance reveals that the market could reach almost €6 trillion by 2030. In addition to this, McKinsey reports that the profitability of traditional banks fell by €692 billion between 2015 and 2018, suggesting the cause is in part due to a lack of digital transformation as modern offerings entered the market.

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Pure Telecom, the Irish-owned high-speed broadband and telecoms provider, has announced a near-400% increase in demand for Fibre to the Home broadband for the most recent quarter of 2021, versus the same period in 2019. Meanwhile, fixed line connections have more than doubled. The figures reflect the vital role of reliable high-speed fixed line broadband to facilitate people working, gaming and streaming from home.

Pure Telecom’s figures show the sharp rise in demand for Fibre to the Home (FTTH), providing broadband speeds of up to one gigabit, since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Many office workers are continuing to work from home on a permanent or part-time basis, despite the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions.

Meanwhile, subscriptions to streaming services continue to rise and online games, such as Fortnite and League of Legends, are growing in popularity. A survey carried out by Pure Telecom last year showed that 91% of adults in Ireland use streaming services, while 67% report to be online gamers.

As a result, sales of Fibre to the Home broadband have increased by 374% when Q3 2021 is compared to the same period in 2019. It now represents more than half of Pure Telecom’s broadband sales. Non-fibre sales, meanwhile, now represent just 6% of Pure’s broadband sales, versus 17% in Q3 2019.

The greater demand for faster broadband has led to an increase in new fixed line connections, too. Compared to Q3 2019, new line connections – which are required to get the fastest broadband speeds – increased by 48%.

The figures also reflect progress in the rollout of high-speed broadband across Ireland. Through its agreements with Ireland’s biggest wholesale broadband providers, Pure Telecom now has access to more than 1.1 million homes and businesses across Ireland, compared to more than 610,000 in Q3 2019.

Paul Connell, CEO, Pure Telecom, said: “Despite the easing of COVID restrictions, we are seeing no sign of things returning to how they were pre-pandemic. People have been empowered to find the work style that makes them most productive and gives them the best work/life balance. They expect their broadband service to facilitate that and as a result, mobile connections just don’t cut it anymore. We therefore expect the demand for fixed line connections and Fibre to the Home to continue at the same rate for the foreseeable future.

“What is absolutely critical for this new way of working and living is the rollout of high-speed broadband across Ireland. Pure Telecom is signed up to the National Broadband Ireland network to ensure that as soon as fibre broadband is available, we are there and will be able to deliver it to more people.”

Fibre to the Home gives users the fastest broadband speeds available, as it is delivered via copper or fibre optic cables directly to the premises, rather than to a nearby cabinet or via a wireless connection. It can reach speeds of up to one gigabit.

See more stories here.

Google has launched the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, the latest additions to their smartphone collection. Powered by Google Tensor, and shipping with Android 12, both phones are fast, smart, secure and designed to adapt to you.

Here is everything you need to know:

Pixel Six – The phone that adapts to you

Meet Pixel 6. It’s reimagined, inside and out. Powered by Google Tensor, Google’s first-ever processor, it’s fast, smart and secure. The all-day battery adapts to you. The Pixel Camera captures moments just how you experienced them. And the Personal Safety app and the new Titan M2TM chip help protect you, your data and your privacy.

Pixel 6 is just as durable as it is beautiful. With IP68 protection, it can take a little water and dust. The 6.4-inch Smooth Display is made with Corning® Gorilla® Glass Victus™, the toughest Gorilla Glass yet, with up to 2x better scratch resistance than previous Pixel phones. Pixel 6 comes in three iconic and vibrant colours that are expressive and versatile: Sorta Seafoam, Kinda Coral and Stormy Black, and it starts at only €649.

Pixel 6 Pro – The best of Google, built around you

Introducing Pixel 6 Pro, the redesigned, high-spec Google phone. The brand-new triple rear camera system includes a pro-level telephoto lens with 4x optical zoom. Its main sensor captures 150% more light, bringing vivid colour and greater accuracy to photos. Pixel 6 Pro’s 6.7-inch Smooth Display with LTPO technology can intelligently adjust up to 120 Hz for smoother, more responsive performance, or lower to 10 Hz to save battery.

Pixel 6 Pro is premium and unique, with three sophisticated colour combinations that complement the high-end materials: Sorta Sunny, Cloudy White and Stormy Black. It starts at €899 and sets a new bar for Pixel phones.

Powered by Google Tensor, the new chip from Google

Google Tensor is the first processor designed by Google, custom-made for Pixel. It helps make Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro the smartest and fastest Pixel phones yet. With up to 80% faster performance than Pixel 5, Pixel 6 runs smoother, apps launch faster and gaming is more responsive. Tensor delivers Google’s advanced on-device AI for features deliver the Google way like faster, more accurate speech recognition and image processing. Plus it saves power to help you get through the day.

Only on the all-new, all-Googe phone

Incredibly intelligent machine learning helps you do things the Google way like instantly translating messages and videos using Live Translate. Tensor’s custom image processor lets Pixel’s brand-new camera capture fun times and starry nights exactly how you remember them. And Tensor’s security core brings an extra layer of protection and works with the new Titan M2™ security chip to keep Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro even more resilient to attacks.

The most advanced smartphone camera

Your photos match your moment with the most advanced Pixel Camera on Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. The main sensor captures 150% more light – the most ever in a Pixel. Face Unblur helps to clearly capture faces even in the toughest conditions. Magic Eraser in Google Photos removes photobombers and distractions from your photos, just like that.

Make everyday shots epic with Motion Mode which captures brilliant action shots and beautiful long-exposures. With Real Tone, portraits on Pixel represent all people and skin tones beautifully and accurately. Pixel 6 Pro’s pro-level lenses also include a telephoto lens with 4x optical zoom and an ultrawide front camera with a 94° field of view for stunning group selfies.

The safest Pixel phones yet

Your life is on your phone: your financial information, personal data, photos and more. So Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are built with the most layers of hardware security in any phone, including the new processor and the next-gen Titan M2TM security chip. Every day, Pixel helps you feel safe with five years of security updates, the Security hub, and protection from hackers and phishing in messaging apps. And Pixel keep...

When talking to a prospect, if you start a conversation by introducing yourself and your outstanding product, you are well on the way to losing the attention and interest of the prospect.

Similar to “First Dates” when you spend the time talking about yourself and not listening to the person opposite you, a second date is doubtful.

Whether it’s affairs of the heart or business affairs, let the other person do most of the talking and you the listening if you wish for further engagement.

Prepare

Research the company:

The following suggestions are obvious – look at the website, LinkedIn, Newsletter, posts online, look up company results.

The Person:

Review their profile on LinkedIn, Twitter etc.

Where did they go to college, what did they study, where have they worked in the past, do you have any mutual connections, can they be useful?

Too Busy:

Often, people tell me they do not have the time to research as they are busy, busy, busy.

So are the people you plan to meet, do not waste their time by arriving unprepared in the hope that they will give you time to waffle on, in the belief you will say something that might engage them.

Successful businesses succeed as they seek to overcome problems quickly by partnering with people who turn up at meetings with an in-depth knowledge of their problems/issues and quickly explain how they can fix the problem.

“The majority see the obstacles; the few see the objectives; history records the success of the latter, while oblivion is the reward of the former” – Anonymous

When you focus on what you do (your product), people find reasons for doing nothing; no budget, wrong time of the year, too much disruption etc. etc.

Focus your conversation on the great outcomes as a result of your intervention and not on how you do it.

People will then buy into your solution and find a way to work with you.

It’s a Win-Win solution. Prospects get their problem solved and you get the business.

If you wish to hear your prospect say “Yes”, why not talk to me – together we can capture your business story and create conversations/presentations that will quickly engage your audience.

By Executive Coach Andrew Keogh of Aristo.ie

The wait is over: Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, the completely redesigned Google phones, are here. Powered by Google Tensor, Google’s first-ever processor, and shipping with Android 12, both phones are fast, smart, secure and designed to adapt to you.

Pixel 6 is an outstanding all-around phone and it starts at only €649. If you want all the advanced capabilities and upgraded finishes, Pixel 6 Pro is the right phone for you, starting at €899.

Powering the new Pixel lineup is Google Tensor, a mobile system on a chip designed specifically around Google’s industry-leading AI. Google Tensor enables entirely new capabilities for your smartphone and makes Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro more helpful and more personal.

Distinct design

Pixel has a bold new design this year with a cohesive look across the software on the inside and the hardware on the outside. The first thing you’ll notice is the Camera Bar, giving the phone a clean, symmetrical design that puts the camera front and centre.

Pixel 6 has a distinctive graphic and vibrant look. The matte black metal band complements the expressive, versatile colour options. Pixel 6 Pro was inspired by the finishes you see in luxury jewellery and watches. It’s made with a polished metal unibody and transitions into gorgeous curved glass in colours that complement the metallic frames.

Speaking of colour, Android 12 brings a full redesign to the OS, with Material You.

Android 12 on Pixel 6

Android 12 builds on the best features of Android so your phone can be your phone: It can adapt to you, it’s secure by default and private by design. And Android 12 looks especially stunning on Pixel 6.

When you choose your wallpaper, your entire UI will update to reflect that choice. Everything will feel more responsive and smoother. At a Glance, which shows up on the home and lock screen, has a fresh new look and some new capabilities. Here, you’ll find what you need, right when you need it — like your boarding pass the day of your flight or stats from your current workout.

And Pixel 6 is again the highest-rated phone for security. It includes the next-generation Titan M2TM, which works with Tensor security core to protect your sensitive user data, PINs and passwords.

New Pixel, new camera

Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have the most advanced cameras Google has ever built. The entire camera experience is improved from the hardware to Pixel’s revolutionary computational photography.

Both Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro have a new 1/1.3 inch sensor on the back. This primary sensor now captures up to 150% more light (compared to Pixel 5’s primary camera), meaning you’re going to get photos and videos with even greater detail and richer colour. Both phones also have completely new ultrawide lenses with larger sensors, so photos look great when you want to fit more in your shot.

Pixel 6 Pro also has an amazing telephoto lens with 4x optical zoom and up to 20x zoom with an improved version of Pixel’s Super Res Zoom. There’s also an upgraded ultrawide front camera that records 4K video.

You can make use of that wider front camera in Snapchat’s new ultrawide selfie feature. Plus, for instant Snapchat access, the new Quick Tap to Snap feature is coming exclusively to Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro later this year.

Magic Eraser makes distractions in your photos disappear, just like that. With a few taps in Google Photos, remove strangers and unwanted objects.

Motion Mode features options like Action Pan and Long Exposure, which bring movement to your shots. You can use Action Pan to take photos of your kids riding their scooter or landing crazy skateboarding tricks against a stylish blurred background. Or create beautiful long exposure shots where your subject is moving, like waterfalls or vibrant city scenes.

Smarts and speech

Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro also have improved speech recognition and language understanding models, so they can make everyday tasks easier. For instance, you can now use your voice to quickly type, edit, and send messages wit...

Collaboration between community, state and corporate sectors is needed to ensure every adult in Ireland has the necessary literacy, numeracy and digital skills to fully engage in society.

That is the view of Heydi Foster, Chief Executive Officer of An Cosán, Ireland’s largest community education provider.

Speaking at a ‘Leaving No One Behind’ digital inclusion webinar hosted by An Cosán this morning for its community partners, Ms Foster said, “We need a whole of society approach to a whole of society problem. Digital literacy is fast becoming an essential requirement for life, work and learning. Without digital literacy, citizens cannot participate fully in society, or acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in the twenty-first century.”

Calling on all sectors to commit to work together, Ms Foster said, “Almost one in two adults in Ireland has low digital literacy levels, according to the Digital Economic and Society Index 2018. This is something that we all have a responsibility to address as a matter of urgency.

“A collaboration between community, state and corporate sectors is urgently needed to ensure every adult has the necessary literacy, numeracy and digital skills to fully engage in society. Let’s all commit to working together to help those we support realise their full potential.”

Ms Foster added, “Founded 35 years ago in West Tallaght with a mission to eradicate poverty by empowering people through education, the aim of An Cosán has always been to leave no one behind by reaching out to the furthest behind first.”

Roisin Doherty, Director of Further Education and Training Learner Support at SOLAS, was a guest speaker at the webinar. Ms Doherty spoke about how the aim of the government’s 10-year Adult Literacy For Life (ALL) strategy, which she was instrumental in developing, was “An Ireland where every adult has the necessary literacy, numeracy and digital literacy to fully engage in society and realise their potential”.

Ms Foster was a member of the Technical Advisory Committee for the 10-year ALL strategy and spoke at its launch on 8thSeptember.

An Cosán’s Digital Inclusion Coordinator, Mark Kelly, shared during the webinar how An Cosán had been working with its partners to develop innovative solutions to address digital exclusion in Ireland, including a Digital Stepping Stones (DSS) tool developed with Accenture that allowed people to evaluate their digital level competency and to see where they needed to upskill to fix any gaps in their digital skills.

Since its rollout in 2020, Mr Kelly said the tool had been used by more than 5,300 people across the Further Education and Training sector, including Education and Training Boards (ETB) centres, regional Community Training Centres (CTCs) and local development companies, family resource centres and other community organisations.

In order to support the ALL ambition to reduce Ireland’s basic digital skills gap from 47% to 20% of adults, Mr Kelly announced the development of a new suite of digital learning materials to complement the success of the DSS assessment tool, using DigComp, the European Digital Competence Framework for citizens.

Ariana Ball, Corporate Citizenship Lead at Accenture, also spoke during the webinar. She talked about how an increasing dependency on digital resources meant that those who didn’t have the skills required to interact digitally risked being marginalised. She also spoke about the importance of adopting a growth mindset that will not only help us to start our digital learning journey, but to embrace continuous learning as digital technologies continue to evolve.

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Future Planet, an Irish-developed Artificial Intelligence (AI) based sustainability transformation platform that is a world first in enabling businesses to map and deliver their sustainability ambitions, has been launched.

Created by software entrepreneur, Donal Daly and sustainability supply chain expert, Ingrid De Doncker, Future Planet is the only software solution of this kind on the market. The cloud-based platform maps out, and builds, a company’s sustainability journey, defining target outcomes and enabling an actionable plan. Traditionally, using a sustainability consultancy firm takes on average six weeks for in-depth analysis. Using Future Planet will reduce this to less than a day — saving time and resources.

The team have also launched a free personal carbon footprint app, available on IOS and Android, for the general public and employees working from home to assess their own CO2 emissions. This will mean companies can include their team’s home working in their emissions calculations.

With the country’s first carbon budget due to be announced and the gathering of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), major changes are imminent to everyday lives to bring climate change under control. Ireland has made a commitment to reach zero carbon emissions by 2050 and a 51% reduction by 2030. This requires a reduction of at least 7% per annum.

Future Planet founder Donal Daly said: “Businesses have a crucial role in meeting the net-zero target by reducing their own emissions. Almost 70 of Ireland’s largest companies have publicly signed The Low Carbon Pledge, committing to recording and reducing their carbon footprint. This is an encouraging start, but more need to get onboard. Tighter mandatory restrictions for businesses on emissions are inevitable. If not outlined at the upcoming COP26, they will be developed in the near future.

“The stakes are real for companies. Outside of climate change being a collective crisis for humankind, failure to have carbon targets in place can impact access to capital, the ability to attract new investors, retain customer loyalty and also affect attracting top talent. However, the challenge for many businesses is that they see corporate climate action as being both costly and complicated. Our mission is to be part of the solution, making it easier for companies to build a clear roadmap that will help them define and achieve their sustainability targets while delivering their commercial goals.”

The AI software has synthesised 30 main sustainability challenges that companies face into an easily understood structure. It incorporates knowledge relating to the main reference bodies and ratings agencies such as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and other key global standards.

Future Planet’s Head of Research and Innovation Ingrid De Doncker added: “The software dramatically removes barriers for responsible business leaders who are trying to deliver sustainability projects but who struggle because of a lack of time or knowledge. Through assessment, individual journeys, and reporting, the platform discovers a company’s sustainability maturity, calculates a score, and builds an instant report to create a transformation plan. This lets all stakeholders know the actions they need to take to improve and meet their targets.”

Speaking on the launch of Future Planet, Norman Crowley, CEO of Cool Planet Group said: “Climate change is the critical challenge for our planet, we know that. For more than a decade we have been helping companies reduce their emissions, and we are really excited about what Future Planet brings to help solve that problem. The approach is unique, and recognises that reducing emissions doesn’t necessarily mean reducing profits. In fact it shows that the opposite can be true by using AI to help a business grow while reducing its impact on the planet.”

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Typetec, one of Ireland’s leading managed IT and cyber security solutions provider, has announced the results of a new survey which reveals that 52% of small and medium-sized business owners in Ireland have paid a ransom to a cybercriminal. The average ransom amount paid was €22,712.

The survey of more than 200 business owners in firms of up to 150 employees was commissioned by Typetec and conducted by independent research company, Censuswide.

The research found that more than a quarter (27%) of those businesses who paid a ransom failed to have all affected data restored. Furthermore, 60% of business owners reported that sensitive data was leaked on the dark web despite paying a ransom.

A majority (57%) of small business owners also revealed that they keep a cryptocurrency reserve in case they are needed to pay a ransom.

When asked about their biggest fears in terms of cybersecurity, loss of customers (37%) ranked first, followed by loss of employees (34%) and sensitive data being made available on the dark web (33%). In addition, more than a quarter (27%) of company owners fear going out of business in the event of a successful cyber-attack.

Despite these findings and the increased awareness of ransomware and other security threats, only 39% of SMEs in Ireland consider themselves to be very well protected from cyber-attacks.

Trevor Coyle, Chief Technology Officer, Typetec said, “While we were aware of the growing trend that businesses are being forced to pay ransoms to cybercriminals, we are still alarmed by how widescale it is in Ireland.

“With tens of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses operating here, this means staggering amounts of money, often in the form of cryptocurrencies, are being lost to cyber criminality. Yet despite paying out these ransoms, some business owners admit that all affected data cannot be restored, and most business owners say their sensitive data has been leaked on the dark web.

“It’s a very worrying and unsustainable situation, when facing the short-term financial cost but the long term reputational and brand cost could be substantial.

“Understanding the current security posture of your business is critical and conducting outdated audits is no longer an effective way of measurement, this will lead to a false sense of protection.

“As the survey results demonstrate, paying out ransoms in response to cyberattacks do not guarantee a successful restoration of data or systems, and it also encourages future attacks. It’s so important that businesses owners become proactive rather than reactive when it comes to protecting their customers, their employees and ultimately their businesses.

“These threats are not going away. A clearly defined and well managed cybersecurity strategy, particularly in an increasingly hybrid working world, is an absolute necessity for businesses of all sizes.”

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