Author: Nick Farrell

Barracuda’s email system exploited for seven months

Posted on June 1, 2023 by - News

Barracuda Networks has disclosed that a zero-day vulnerability in its Email Security Gateway (ESG) appliances had been exploited for at least seven months.

According to Barracuda’s investigators, the vulnerability CVE-2023-2868 was first exploited in October 2022 to introduce backdoors into some ESG appliances, allowing attackers to gain continued access to the devices. Barracuda’s investigations discovered that information had been stolen from some of the compromised appliances.

The security flaw was not spotted until 19 May, when suspicious traffic emanated from some ESG appliances. Cybersecurity firm Mandiant helped find the vulnerability and all ESG appliances were patched on 20th May, with attackers’ access to the compromised devices blocked on 21 May.

NHS shared information with Facebook

Posted on May 31, 2023 by - News

Up to 20 NHS trusts have shared patients’ private medical information with Facebook through a hidden tracking tool on their websites.

The Observer found that data was collected from individuals who accessed NHS webpages related to HIV, gender identity services, self-harm, sexual health, children’s treatment, cancer and more.

The websites of 20 NHS trusts were found to be using the Meta Pixel tracking tool, which gathered browsing information and shared it with the social networking site.

That is despite the trusts promising not to collect that information without obtaining proper consent from the individuals involved.

Bankers headed towards a fight with Big Tech

Posted on May 31, 2023 by - News

Bankers and financial institutions are headed towards a fight with an increasingly powerful Big Tech, according to global thought leader Emmanuel Daniel.

Daniel says the technological surge towards artificial intelligence, machine learning, neural networks, chip technology, and quantum computing is reshaping the understanding of centralised control.  The change gives Big Tech quasi-governmental powers.

“Another factor driving the rise of personalisation and the pushback against platforms is the pushback against technology companies becoming ‘governments’ in their own right. Platform owners regulate who has access to their platforms and what they can say or do on them – and, to some extent, wield powers that even governments do not have. As a result, users are migrating to models which favour direct, peer-to-peer action over centralised control.”

If Daniel’s new book, “The Great Transition: The Personalisation of Finance is Here” is correct, then the concept of governments controlling the finance industry might be a thing of the past, although we don’t expect anyone to go down without a fight.

Customers looking for a phone upgrade

Posted on May 30, 2023 by - News

BT Wholesale says its customers want to upgrade their telephony systems, and many are happy to work with their existing channel partners to make it happen.

The company said that the end of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) happening in December 2025, companies are questioning their telephony strategy.

In a report, BT Wholesale wanted to find out what that meant for channel partners and went out to ask customers how they were feeling. It found that 70 percent of businesses are looking to invest in mobile connectivity this year – and many are also likely to do that with their existing partner relationships, with 88 per cent of those quizzed satisfied with their technology provider.

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Nvidia gets enthused about AI

Posted on May 30, 2023 by - News

Nvidia supreme leader Jensen Huang unveiled a raft of new AI-related products and claimed the world was at a tipping point for this sort of thing.

The US outfit, which has been making a fortune out of the artificial intelligence boom, saw its value surge to nearly $1 trillion last week, after the company announced better-than-expected results.

Nvidia chips are a central ingredient to the generative AI revolution, capable of delivering the computing heft needed to churn out complex content in just seconds from data centres worldwide.

Sectigo appoints Aura’s Bray as VP

Posted on May 29, 2023 by - News

Certificate management outfit Sectigo has named Christopher Bray as its new senior vice president of partner and eCommerce sales.

Bray will be responsible for market strategy, sales and marketing operations, and sales execution for the vendor’s partner and eCommerce businesses.

He brings nearly two decades of experience in the security software space and B2B, B2C, and B2B2C channel and SaaS security software businesses.

Bray joins from security vendor Aura where he has spent the last three years as its chief revenue officer.

Lenovo’s numbers slump for the third time

Posted on May 26, 2023 by - News

Lenovo’s revenues made their third consecutive quarterly fall to $62 billion — down 14 per cent from $71 billion in 2022.

Net income came in at $1.6 billion was down from $2 billion– a 21 per cent drop.

The Chinese tech giant said its intelligent devices group (IDG) business saw a 21 per cent revenue setback due to a bad case of “sector inventory digestion” demand slowdown and exchange rate fluctuations.

IDG revenue dropped from $62 billion to $49 billion in 2023.

Microsoft’s Saurabh Rana joins Hexaware

Posted on May 26, 2023 by - News

Hexaware Technologies has poached Microsofty Saurabh Rana as its new Strategic Partnerships and Global Alliances Lead.

This move forms part of Hexaware’s cunning plan to deepen its commitment across the Cloud and Hyperscale Ecosystem to ensure the company fully harnesses the power of its partnerships, propelling clients forward in their digital, data, and cloud transformation journeys.

As a critical element of his role, Rana will accelerate strategic collaboration and establish dedicated business units for top Hyperscale partnerships. His leadership is expected to spur momentum and growth through increased co-selling of joint solutions, driving deal velocity, and bolstering Hexaware’s growth objectives.

UK job market very fluid and patchy

Posted on May 26, 2023 by - News

A survey involving 1,000 British workers has found that more than 25 per cent of respondents reported having switched occupations three times in the previous three years.

The younger generation was known as the “job-hopping generation”, whereas those getting close to retirement stay put for the final years of their careers.

instantprint, a British-based online printing business, conducted research shedding light on the shifting employment landscape. The findings indicate that Generation X and individuals under 18 have relocated an average of four times in the last three years.

Dell expands Apex options

Posted on May 25, 2023 by - News

Michael DellGrey box shifter Dell has added more elements to its Apex as-a-service portfolio, with more cloud compatibility, storage, data management tools and PC subscription options.

Apex added Microsoft and Red Hat offerings as collaborative cloud platforms that should support more public cloud choices among customers.

The vendor is also rolling out more options for public cloud, providing block and file enterprise features for partners to pitch. Dell announced Apex Navigator, which helps data mobility, storage and container management across multi-cloud environments.

Claroty releases new certification programme

Posted on May 25, 2023 by - News

Cybersecurity vendor Claroty has launched a new partner certification programme.

Dubbed FOCUS the programme differs by improving the requirements which Claroty hopes will help security-focused MSPs better develop the skills and processes necessary to deliver across “the entire enterprise security services lifecycle”.

The company said that it had formalised the different licencing models it used with its partners.

There had been guidelines established around technical certifications, training and some education that Claroty wanted to see its partners bring to the table.

Crayon sees gross profit growth of 31 per cent

Posted on May 25, 2023 by - News

Norwegian MSP Crayon has had a gross profit growth of 31 per cent in its first quarter thanks to high demand for software and cloud services.

Crayon CEO Melissa Mulholland said while the global tech market continued to be impacted by the challenging macroeconomic climate, the company’s core business model helped its resiliency.

Adjusted EBITDA increased 50 per cent to £13.5 million, reflecting a margin of 14.7 per cent.

Operating profit increased to £4 million from £3.4m in the same quarter of the previous year.

“We see a strong demand for optimisation and innovation across all our markets, and our customer centricity ensures we can deliver on those demands,” Mulholland said.

Across Europe, YOY gross profit growth increased by 53 per cent, for the Nordics it was 26 per cent, the US was up by 25 per cent and Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa was 21 per cent.

 

 

Good results for Westcon-Comstor

Posted on May 24, 2023 by - News

UK-based distributor Westcon-Comstor has announced an 18.3 per cent year on year increase in total revenue to $3.42 billion for 2023.

The company said its good numbers were driven by strong demand for cybersecurity and networking , and an acceleration in its shift to a software and subscription-based recurring revenue model.

This is the second consecutive year that the company has reported double-digit growth. Westcon-Comstor also said it’s the first time that revenue has exceeded $3 billion, with CAGR of eight per cent.

Revenue from cybersecurity solutions was up 17 per cent yearly to $1.33 billion, while, revenue from its networking portfolio increased by 19 per cent to US$1.76 billion.

The company’s earnings results for the year ending 28 February 2023 show a 21 per cent year on year increase in Adjusted EBITDA profit to $95.1 million.

Cohesity teams up with Google cloud

Posted on May 24, 2023 by - News

Security outfit Cohesity has announced an expanded partnership with Google Cloud to help organisations unlock the power of generative AI and data.

Cohesity also unveiled Cohesity Turing, a unique, comprehensive, and rapidly evolving set of AI technologies that brings the power of AI to data security and management.

The company said the expanded partnership with Google Cloud and Cohesity Turing will enable organisations to leverage their entire data estate through a single, secure workflow across on-premises, multi-cloud, and edge environments.

Cohesity wants to extend its AI-ready data security and management platform — Cohesity Data Cloud — to work closely and have deeper integrations with leading cloud services, including Vertex AI, Google Cloud’s fully managed ML (machine learning) platform designed to help companies to accelerate the deployment of ML and AI models.

It believes that combining Cohesity’s data security and management capabilities and Vertex AI will enable joint customers to gain new insights into the same data they’re already securing and managing on Cohesity’s platform. Through this integration, customers couldquickly search across exabytes of data to gain insights into data patterns, like finding anomalies in their data to detect threats, or find answers to very specific questions, or quickly recover data using contextual searches.

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said that Vertex AI was one of the best platforms for building, deploying, managing and scaling ML models – and we’re excited that Cohesity is joining our growing open ecosystem to help more customers get value from their data via AI.

“Cohesity’s excellent data security and management capabilities, combined with Google Cloud’s powerful generative AI and analytics capabilities, will help customers get exceptional insights into their backup and archived data.”

Cohesity CEO Sanjay Poonen said businesses need to be able to easily get rapid insights from their data utilising cutting-edge and leading AI/ML models.

“We agree with Google that AI must be handled securely and responsibly. With our unique platform, Cohesity not only provides phenomenal search via our built-in indexing capabilities, but robust security protocols to help customers maintain control and privacy of their data at every turn.”
Creating Unprecedented Efficiency and Insights Via Cohesity Turing

Sage sees AI, automation, security and software-as-a-service (SaaS) growing

Posted on May 23, 2023 by - News

AI, automation, security and software-as-a-service (SaaS) is attracting a lot of interest according to the latest report from Sage

Sage’s Partnering for success: State of the IT channel ecosystem report said that AI is taking centre stage thanks to rising customer interest.

The supplier found that along with AI and automation, security and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications are also in strong demand, and areas yielding revenue for the channel both now and increasingly in the future.

The expectation from many partners (47 per cent globally) is that the interest in AI will only accelerate. That has left many in the position of bolstering their skills to be able to support that growth.

Sage found the channel was using more AI and automation tools to improve their own businesses, and that was also driving increased interest and a demand for skilled staff, with almost half of UK respondents recruiting staff with skill sets in AI and machine learning.

Security is already a well-known revenue-generating area, and there are also signs there will be no slacking of the pace on that front, with 39 per cent of UK partners indicating it remains a vital source of growth for their organisation and customer pipeline. There were also high rates of demand for data privacy tools and services.