Every business will, at some point, be impacted by cyber attacks. Companies task security teams to prepare the first line of defense against cyber attacks, and most have plans in place for the damage they leave behind – be it data loss, encryption by ransomware operators, or large-scale service disruptions.

But something that often goes unremarked upon in the wake of cyber attacks is the psychological, human effects of cyber attacks. When the dust settles, staff can be left with feelings of fear or shame, particularly those directly related to IT security.

Who’s at risk of this harm? And what can leaders do to minimize the impact?

In this episode, Jane and Rory speak to Parisa Bazl, head of user experience at data protection firm Commvault, to discuss the psychological harms that come with cyber attacks and what organizations can do to better support frontline IT staff.

Read more:

• Why 'psychological safety' is so important for building a robust security culture
• Building an incident response strategy in 2024
• The hidden cost of ransomware is more painful than many realize
• Why ransomware attacks happen to small businesses – and how to stop them
• The end of ransomware payments: How businesses fit into the fight
• UK firms are failing miserably at data breach responses
• Data breach response: How to react when your business gets hit
• Dell hacker claims they had access to systems for nearly three weeks

This classic episode of the ITPro Podcast was first published on 14 July 2023.

When you consider the roles that hold influence over business decisions and operations, which come to mind? Doubtless, the CEO and CFO, as well as the COO if you have one. The CMO may also be there – but what about the CIO or CTO?

The advent of cloud computing, bring your own device (BYOD), and increasing cyber security threats were all supposed to coincide with CIOs finally having their seat at the table. ITPro has published articles on exactly this trend.

But it seems that in some areas, this shift is stalling or even reversing.

In this episode, Jane and Rory are joined by Anthony Byrne, EY partner leading technology practice for the UK and Ireland to discuss what’s behind this regression and the changing role that CIOs must play.

Read more:

• What is BYOD?
• Majority of CIOs plan to expand their IT teams despite shrinking budgets
• Why people management skills are key to being a CIO
• How CIOs and CTOs can collaborate more effectively
• IT Pro Podcast: Are chief metaverse officers here to stay?
• Protecting CIOs' IT budgets is "paramount" in maintaining business growth
• Why business leaders – not technologists – make the best CIOs

June has been a month filled with tech conferences. ITPro has covered events including HPE Discover, Splunk .conf24, Snowflake Data Summit, Cisco Live, Pegasystems Inspire, and Pure Accelerate, all held in Las Vegas, amid a busy season for the industry.

But throughout the many hours of these events, with tens of thousands of attendees and swathes of product announcements, what have been some of the standout moments and recurring themes?

In this episode, Jane and Rory welcome back Ross Kelly, ITPro’s news and analysis editor, to explore the past month’s many events.

Read more:

• Generative AI is the name of the game again at HPE Discover, but don’t mistake it for a repeat of 2023
• Finally, an HPE AI solution that offers something for the channel
• Splunk expands its AI Assistant in observability, security push
• Exclusive: Splunk will play a key role in Cisco's AI plans, claims former CEO
• "Our job is not to screw up”: Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins vows to make Splunk ‘better’ following acquisition
• Dell doubles down on Nvidia partnership with ‘AI factories’ and models at the edge
• Dell Technologies doesn’t know where AI is headed – but it might be the honesty its partners need
• Sustainable AI is key to Pure Storage — and Pure Accelerate 2024 will make that mission clear
• How HPE plans to combat generative AI’s 'dirty secret'
• How Nvidia took the world by storm

With the generative AI gold rush continuing at speed in enterprise IT. Ranging from chatbots to AI training services, every provider is looking for that killer use case that makes it indispensable for AI.

At HPE Discover 2024, the story has been no different. In collaboration with Nvidia, the company believes it has something unique to offer its enterprise customers.

In this episode, recorded live at HPE Discover 2024 in Las Vegas, Jane speaks to Mohan Rajagopalan, general manager for Ezmeral Software at HPE, to explore the benefits of enterprise AI and the specific routes he sees for beneficial AI adoption.

Read more:

• Exclusive: HPE CEO Antonio Neri says "simplicity of experience" key to AI innovation
• Finally, an HPE AI solution that offers something for the channel
• HPE’s drive for enterprise AI dominance continues with new Nvidia partnership
• HPE talks up AI’s role in boosting server business
• HPE Discover 2024 live: All the news and updates from the day-two keynote
• HPE Partner Growth Summit 2024: What can we expect for the channel?
• Everything you need to know about HPE
• What is HPE GreenLake?

When Cisco announced it would be buying Splunk, doubts were raised over the company's future within its new home.

Splunk .conf24, the company's annual conference, was a proving ground to see if these fears were well founded. According to ITPro's intrepid features editor, however, Splunk's brand is as strong as it ever was, with both Cisco's CEO and Splunk's GM offering reassurances that neither company's customers or partners will suffer in the wake of the acquisition.

In this episode of the ITPro Podcast, Jane talks to Rory about his experiences attending the conference, where Splunk sits in Cisco's strategy, and if we're likely to see a .conf25.

Splunk knows what it’s worth – .conf24 showed Cisco does too
Exclusive: Splunk will play a key role in Cisco's AI plans, claims former CEO

Splunk .conf24 live: All the news and announcements from the Las Vegas conference

"Our job is not to screw up”: Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins vows to make Splunk ‘better’ following acquisition

One of the most unexpected things to happen in May was a sudden outage at the Australian pension fund UniSuper.

After days of confusion and concern that the fund may have been hit by a cyber attack among its customer base, it emerged that Google Cloud had accidentally deleted UniSuper’s entire cloud subscription. We dive into what lessons businesses can learn from this freak event.

Also in May, OpenAI trumpeted its goal to unlock so-called artificial general intelligence (AGI) through new advancements. But is such a thing even possible, and who would it benefit?

As the tech sector creates data at greater rates than ever before, using more cloud and on premise workloads, it’s more important than ever that firms consider their sustainability strategy and carbon footprint.

Until the world has achieved net zero energy, every watt that goes into powering hardware and software adds to overall global emissions, with data center growth accounting for more and more global energy demand. Renewable energy and greater efficiency help with this but are not silver bullets.

Breakthroughs in AI and quantum computing have put extra strain on data centers and thrown a spanner in the works when it comes to improvements in energy efficiency across the sector. 

In this episode, Jane and Rory discuss what the tech sector is doing to counteract this and whether the benefits of this new era can outweigh its carbon cost.

As enterprise AI becomes more widely adopted, businesses are being forced to examine whether their architecture is up to the task. The feverish hype around AI in the public cloud that started in November 2022 has given way to greater investment in open ecosystems for AI and smaller models run at a business’s edge.

From chatbots stored on a laptop for offline use to AI handling data produced by sensors in smart manufacturing, there’s a huge range of ways to use AI at the edge. But where is customer demand when it comes to this new frontier for this technology, and how has their understanding of AI architecture changed since this time last year?

In this episode, recorded live at Dell Technologies World 2024, Rory speaks to Dermot O’Connell, senior vice president for EMEA services at Dell Technologies, to learn more about the changes in approach to enterprise AI and how businesses can prepare themselves for the technology’s adoption.

Read more:

• Dell Technologies World 2024 live: All the news and announcements from day-two
• "The big obstacle isn't anything technical": Dell CTO John Roese on why companies are failing on AI adoption
• Dell Technologies expands AI ecosystem with Microsoft, Hugging Face support
• Dell doubles down on Nvidia partnership with ‘AI factories’ and models at the edge
• What is 'multi-cloud by design'?
• Google shows off new smaller generative AI tools and an AI agent on your phone

The LockBit ransomware group recently suffered another major blow at the hands of international law enforcement, as the UK’s NCA revealed the name and face of the group’s long-sought-after leader.

Dmitry Khoroshev, known as ‘LockBitSupp’ on the dark web, was unmasked by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) while the US Department of Justice announced a 26-count indictment against him.

While this is a significant development in the fight against the group, what does it mean for LockBit in the long term and could it have lasting impacts on the ransomware landscape?

In this episode, Jane and Rory speak to speaking to Solomon Klappholz, staff writer at ITPro and our resident expert on all things cyber security, to get us up to speed on the LockBit situation and explore what it means in more detail. 

Read more:

• LockBit mastermind unmasked by law enforcement
• LockBit could be done and dusted after NCA operation gained access to admin environments, source code, and affiliate info
• February rundown: LockBit takedown and ChatGPT woes
• LockBit rises from the ashes, but will it pack the same punch as before?
• The 'Big Three’ ransomware groups are losing their grip on the industry as gangs begin to fracture, study shows
• ALPHV leak site seized by law enforcement as decryption tool released
• Qakbot forced offline, but history suggests it probably won’t be forever
• This ransomware variant has now been used against 500 targets — here's what you need to know
• What are the different types of ransomware?
• What you need to know about the new NCSC ransomware guidance
• “Security has to work together”: Cyber collaboration as a mission at CPX 2024
• The end of ransomware payments: How businesses fit into the fight

Some experts will tell you the first step in adopting AI is making sure your data is in order. But what about your skills? When it comes time to put AI in the hands of their workforce, leaders need to know that they’ll be able to hit the ground running and unlock productivity benefits without delay.

Achieving this will involve investing in AI skills – but where should businesses begin and how far-reaching does this AI training need to be?

In this episode, Jane and Rory speak to Arun ‘Rak’ Ramchandran, president and global head of consulting and GenAI practice at Hexaware, to explore how businesses can ensure their internal AI skills can meet growing demands and challenges.