Even if you’ve been cooped up in the office answering help desk requests, you’ve likely felt the effects of scorching temperatures across the US—more than 100 million people were affected by heat warnings on July 8, according to the Guardian. But what does the heatwave have to do with hardware, infrastructure, and IT operations? IT Brew caught up with IT pros to find out.

Spencer Kimball, co-founder and CEO of Cockroach Labs, “a software company that develops a cloud-native SQL database for modern cloud” apps, told IT Brew that infrastructure is “impacted by extreme weather events.”

“Sometimes that can mean that things like hurricanes, certainly heatwaves, can put a lot of stress on the grid that’s providing the power, or on the cooling systems that are critical for keeping this infrastructure up and running, because obviously, there’s a lot of heat that’s put off in these data centers,” Kimball said.

He also noted AI’s role in “increasing the energy consumption.” Vox reported in March that “AI already uses as much energy as a small country.”

Read the rest here.—AF

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What’s better than two parties? A third party, according to many cyberattackers today, as threat actors frequently target providers of popular IT services.

While a hospital, auto dealer, or bank cannot easily control the security controls of their off-prem partner, a disaster-recovery plan has a chance to ease any outages when a supplier gets cyber-struck, according to IT pros who spoke with IT Brew.

This year has already seen disruptive supply-chain attacks—where the compromise of one vendor has led to IT consequences for the vendor’s many partners.

• NBC News on June 24 reported how auto dealers reverted to manual paperwork after a cyberattack hit digital-services provider CDK.
• That same month, NHS hospitals similarly documented patient blood tests without computers after a cyberattack, according to The Guardian.
• In January, Bloomberg News revealed that banks resorted to Excel, following a cyberattack on transaction-processing firm EquiLend.

“In these instances, they’re not taking a couple hours to recover. This is days, if not weeks,” Rob T. Lee, chief curriculum director and faculty lead at SANS Institute, told IT Brew, of organizations impacted by third-party service outages.

Read more here.—BH

Legislators in Michigan want high schools throughout the state to offer at least one computer science (CS) class, and have successfully passed a bill through the state House of Representatives requiring them to do so, the Michigan Public Radio Network (MPRN) reported.

The bill, sponsored by state Democratic Rep. Carol Glanville, would impose the requirement beginning in the 2027–2028 school year. A legislative analysis from the state’s House Fiscal Agency indicated that 68% of Michigan high schools had students enrolled in at least one CS course in 2022–2023.

The text of the bill requires schools to offer the courses in person wherever possible, but allows virtual courses as a fallback if other options aren’t feasible. The bill still needs to pass the state Senate, where it’s headed next.

Glanville told MPRN that students are already receiving some CS training, but state schools need to begin treating it as a “basic literacy skill” crucial for high-paying tech jobs. The bill passed 87–22, with only Republicans voting no; representatives from the Michigan Department of Education and CS education advocacy group Code.org testified in support of its passage.

Keep reading here.—TM

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