It’s been over a year since Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and for those in the tech sector cyber warfare has defined the conflict. Ukrainian organisations, both public and private, have been subject to attacks including wiper malware, spear phishing, and data breaches.

National cyber security agencies, as well as teams of security experts from throughout the field, remain on high alert for heightened Russian cyber activity. Understanding the strategies of these hackers, as well as their individual motivations, has been key to retaining the integrity of targeted systems.

In this episode, Jane and Rory speak to Daniel Thanos, head of Arctic Wolf Labs, to discuss the current state-sponsored threat group landscape, and how the terms of the conflict have shifted over time.

For more information, read the show notes here.

Metaverse tech has already attracted billions of pounds in investment, and despite its detractors looks set to play a major role in the future of communications and productivity tech. It was also one of the main themes at this year’s Mobile World Congress, where the concept of a CMO - that’s ‘chief metaverse officer’ - was discussed in detail.

Companies like Journey, Nike, and Telefónica already have individuals with metaverse in their titles, but there is still a lot to be proved about the longevity of these roles. With metaverse tech still lacking definition in the minds of businesses and consumers alike, the impact that this new concept of a CMO will have on the industry as a whole.

In this special episode, IT Pro reviews editor Bobby Hellard presents a report from MWC, covering the definition and responsibilities of a chief metaverse officer, and whether or not the role could have a vital role to play in the C-suite of the future.

For more information, read the show notes here.

Open source software can be found in a huge number of businesses' stacks. Whether it’s to save on expensive software, to fix a problem that a devoted hobbyist has a solution for, or because of its lively developer community, open source solutions run throughout the tech sector.

However, in recent years security concerns have damaged the perception of open source software and vulnerabilities like Log4Shell left some IT leaders with headaches they aren’t keen to repeat. As the market expands, some open source developers find themselves under more pressure than ever before and questions have been raised around the duty of larger firms to help support the community they rely on.

In this episode, Jane and Rory speak to Keumars Afifi-Sabet, features editor at IT Pro and our specialist covering open source, to discuss the challenges facing the open source community and ask whether it will survive in its current form.

For more information, read the show notes here.

The conversation around UK connectivity is often dominated by the rollout of 5G, or the race for widespread gigabit broadband.

But many rural communities and businesses struggle with a lack of even basic connectivity such as reliable cellular service. This has severe consequences for rural businesses, holding back their growth while accelerating brain drain as younger people gravitate towards urban areas for education and employment.

Some groups have taken measures into their own hands to ensure they receive the connectivity they need. In this episode, Jane and Rory speak to Dave Happy, collaboration lead at 5GRuralDorset, to discuss the connection difficulties facing rural businesses and what is being done to help.

For more information, read the show notes here.

Throughout the pandemic, companies across the world rushed to establish cloud services that could prop up the need for remote working. But in recent months, word of a “cloud slowdown” has been building, with some of the biggest vendors experiencing a drop in the growth of their cloud sales.

In the third quarter of 2022, AWS reported the slowest growth in its history, while Google’s growth was down almost 10% on the previous year.

In this episode, Jane and Rory speak to Ross Kelly, IT Pro’s cloud specialist and staff writer to discuss what’s behind the cloud slowdown – and whether it’s even happening.

For more information, read the show notes here.

Old technology stacks can be found throughout the sector, especially in companies that have been around for more than a few years. While most firms have undergone digital transformation of some kind, shedding legacy tech is no easy job and can lead people to take the path of least resistance, using a mix of old and new tech across their IT estate.

This can lead to big issues down the line. A recent example is the outage that led to thousands of flights being cancelled and delayed across the United States, which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) blamed on accidental file deletion while updating a database. The authority is heavily-reliant on old systems, and has said it will take until 2029 to phase them out.

In this episode, Jane and Rory speak to Ravi Mayuram, SVP of engineering and CTO at cloud database platform Couchbase, to discuss the challenges presented by legacy infrastructure, and why enterprises need to take the opportunity to upgrade before problems become entrenched.

For more information, read the show notes here.

IT departments, which have long faced difficulties trying to recruit skilled talent, are now facing an additional challenge as many businesses put a freeze on hiring in the face of economic instability and look to use existing resources as efficiently as possible. With this goal in mind, it’s important to enable employees to be productive, while not leaving them overworked.

Improperly organised work stacks, insufficient collaboration and a failure to adapt to changing work environments are all factors that can negatively impact productivity, and must be tackled from the planning stage to allow workplaces to thrive.

In this episode, Jane and Rory speak to Christian Lund, co-founder at productivity tech firm Templafy, to unpack concerns around productivity in the current landscape and how automation and AI can help to solve these problems.

For more information, read the show notes here.

Application programming interfaces, or APIs, have become an integral part of maintaining an online business, and are often indispensable for cross-functionality and user experience.

However, the increased use of APIs has led to a rise in attacks against them. This can in turn cause breaches of company data or even full account takeovers. Improperly-managed APIs are a key attack surface and firms would do well to treat this seriously as threat actors step up their efforts at exploitation.

Today, we spoke to Yaniv Balmas, VP of security research at Salt Security, to discuss the risks that come with using APIs and how to mitigate against them.

For more information, read the show notes here.

Large companies are relying on online learning more and more, to improve the career goals of their employees, and upskilling can be an important way of retaining staff while adding to existing expertise.

But the public sector has lagged behind the private sector on this front, and is currently experiencing record churn and vacancies. 410,000 staff quit social care in 2021, and care roles around the country are now short of approximately 165,000 staff.

This week, we spoke to Hadi Moussa, general manager and managing director for EMEA at one of the largest online learning platforms, Coursera, to unpack how virtual upskilling courses can help improve staff retention in social care, as well as the prospects of roles within the sector.

For more information, read the show notes here.