Don’t call it a comeback; tech’s been here for years, rocking its peers.

Tech job postings increased for the second straight month and active postings registered the highest month over month increase in a year, according to CompTIA.

The IT certification firm’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers for January found that tech industry employment went up by 17,833 jobs from December.

Number time. That increase was driven primarily by the technology services and software development subsector, which added 14,500 jobs. Cloud infrastructure and tech (mainly semiconductor) manufacturing came in at a distant second and third, with 2,100 and 1,400 jobs, respectively. On the other end, telecommunications listings dropped by about 3,400 positions.

Read more here.—EH

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As bad actors on the global stage find ways to exploit vulnerabilities and create chaos through coordinated corporate hacks and crypto theft, an oldie-but-goodie technique remains prevalent: social engineering.

Social engineering is usually cost-effective and oftentimes, some IT pros say, a lot easier than “direct technical hacking.” Take North Korea, for example, a nation that has used social engineering and phishing attacks to steal billions in virtual currency over the years.

According to experts, there are a few necessary but not incredibly difficult ways to set up a company’s defenses. It takes work and coordination across multiple teams, but, as the saying goes, a good defense is the best offense.

Adam Marrè, the CISO at cybersecurity firm Arctic Wolf and a former FBI cyber special agent, said staying protected from social engineering comes down to two key aspects: technical controls and awareness.

Read more here.—AF

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

There are so many AI frameworks and laws in the works—from NIST, from the White House, from the EU—one would almost need some kind of all-powerful chatbot to decipher them.

In December, during IT Brew’s live event, “A Delicate Balance: Tech Innovation and Privacy,” an attendee had the following question for guest Elise Houlik, chief privacy officer at the fintech platform Intuit:

“Since privacy and data protection laws are still evolving and maturing around generative AI, what are the best practices which you recommend to ensure your products are compliant and customers trust your products/platforms?”

We posed the question to Houlik and, separately, to other data privacy pros this month.

These responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Sameer Ansari, managing director, Protiviti: You have to be really careful in terms of making sure you understand the data that’s being absorbed, used, and trained for that AI model, and then identifying everything that could be considered sensitive for any personally identifiable information.

Keep reading here.—BH

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

Today’s top IT reads.

Stat: 7%. That’s how much of its total workforce grocery delivery company Instacart laid off on Tuesday. (TechCrunch)

Quote: “You’re not truly dead until the last person who remembers you is gone.”—Father of Uvalde victim Uzi Garcia, on using his dead son’s voice to campaign for stronger gun laws (the Wall Street Journal)

Read: “AI girlfriend” chatbots are offering a cure for loneliness—and collecting vast amounts of personal data. (Wired)