Be prepared. Or if you’re the majority of companies in North America…don’t?

A new data analysis from the Cybernews Business Digital Index found that 65% of North American companies scored a D or worse on cybersecurity protections, a damning statistic that points to how underprepared businesses are. The breakdown—31% scoring a D and 34% scoring an F—is concerning, all the more so when you consider that only 7% scored an A. Of Fortune 500 companies analyzed, a staggering 84% scored a D or worse.

Vincentas Baubonis, Cybernews head of security research, told IT Brew that while the numbers aren’t good, the findings of the analysis may lead to positive change. While it’s not the responsibility of Cybernews to provide solutions—Baubonis noted that they focus on analysis of publicly available data—he suggested an internal audit, and that companies look at the index as a resource.

“Hopefully, for the next year we’ll see more companies in the A grade, because it’s definitely achievable,” Baubonis said.

Checking in. Data breaches in 2024 reached major companies, including Meta, Fortinet, JPMorgan Chase, and others. As IT Brew reported in September, governments around the world are taking action, levying fines and establishing regulations to enforce data privacy guidelines that aim to ensure the security of information.

Read the rest here.—EH

Like big Hollywood stars, today’s tech vendors lately are saying, Go talk to my agent.

In the latter half of 2024, companies like Microsoft, Salesforce, and Google introduced agents—AI assistants that perform specific tasks on a user’s behalf. Some market pros and analysts believe agentic AI will bolster the software market in 2025, in time.

“The agent part of AI still has to be proven. I think we’re going to really see agents coming to maturity maybe in another year or another two years,” Eric Hippeau, managing partner at venture capital company Lerer Hippeau, told CNBC on Nov. 25. “There’s a lot of development around this, but not a lot in practice,” he said.

• Microsoft announced 10 autonomous agents to help customers with tasks like sales team client prioritization and supplier monitoring in October.
• Days after Microsoft’s launch, Salesforce made its Agentforce platform generally available. The company claims the agentic tool will take action to support enterprise scenarios like the resolution of customer cases and the improvement of marketing campaigns.
• On Dec. 11, Alphabet subsidiary Google announced Gemini 2.0, which CEO Sundar Pichai said in a post will “enable us to build new AI agents that bring us closer to our vision of a universal assistant.” (Google also recently introduced a platform “space” for enterprise users to manage multiple agents.)

If copilots are software extensions that help users navigate an app’s features, agents autonomously perform the task. That’s how Pierre DeBois, founder and CEO of analytics firm Zimana defined the term in 2023.

Read more here.—BH

There’s no denying it: 2024 was a lot for IT, and that’s just in the US’s neck of the woods. To name a few, there was Broadcom’s contentious takeover of VMware; a seismic election that could result in huge price spikes for IT gear; and the rush to bring generative AI products to the enterprise market.

But it’s a big world out there. As 2025 begins, here’s three of this year’s biggest IT stories from across the globe.

Aussie algorithms

Australia’s equivalent to the National Security Agency (NSA) is ditching old cryptographic models ahead of schedule due to advances in quantum computing.

In December, The Register reported that the Australian Signals Directorate issued guidance instructing government agencies using a category of devices called High Assurance Cryptographic Equipment (HACE) to abandon a number of common cryptographic algorithms, including SHA-256, RSA, ECDSA, and ECDH. The rationale behind the decision is that future quantum computers may be able to crack these algorithms, potentially allowing foreign adversaries to spy on any communications using them.

While US agencies have set the deadline to abandon those algorithms by 2035, Australia is aiming for 2030.

Keep reading here.—TM