IT STRATEGY

Nick Iluzada

At the start of the year, while others pledged to go to the gym more often or eat healthier, Botpress CTO Michael Masson had his own resolution: remove take-home assessments from his company’s hiring process.

The reasoning was simple: He had witnessed candidates leveraging AI to conquer the entire test without actually using their technical skills.

“We saw it again and again, where people were just using AI without really thinking,” Masson said. “We didn’t see any work. We just saw them complete the assessment really easily.”

The end of take-home assessments. Botpress is one of several organizations that is reassessing the value of take-home assessments in today’s increasingly AI-driven world.

Time for take-home test 2.0.—BM

      

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IT STRATEGY

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Photos: Adobe Stock

A stronger-than-expected jobs market in August didn’t translate into an employment boom for the tech sector, but the news is a little more complicated than simply “good” or “bad,” with AI continuing to impact the industry’s dynamics.

According to a CompTIA analysis of Bureau of Labor and Statistics data, companies across all industry sectors added 86,000 tech jobs in August, even as tech companies reduced headcount by 14,700 positions.

There were 600,000 technology occupation postings in August, 42% of which were for new positions, and—importantly—320,000 open AI positions, marking a 4.5% increase from July’s AI job count. That’s a sign of the continued strength of the AI subsector.

As the Economist noted in a September 4 article about the impact of AI on hiring, predictions that the technology would result in a “jobs apocalypse” have thus far been unfounded, despite some employment disruption due to AI; the magazine estimates the technology may have helped create 1 million jobs in the US since 2023, including engineers and data annotators.

Why AI-driven employment may keep rising.—EH

      

WORD OF THE WEEK

Green IT: At every step of the supply chain, organizations and individuals can take steps to reduce their environmental footprint when using IT. Learn more.

CYBERSECURITY

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You’ve likely heard of zero-click attacks, in which an attacker sends malware via vulnerable applications such as messaging or email, infecting a system without the victim actually having to click or download anything.

Half-click attacks, in which simply previewing or opening an email is enough to trigger malicious code, are an insidious variation on zero-click attacks. They have also gained momentum over the past year; for example, cybersecurity experts recently warned that threat actors have begun using this exploit against Outlook Web Access.

According to Tim Rawlins, director and senior advisor for global cybersecurity company NCC Group, half-click attacks are expected to become more of an issue for the private sector because of “this ability to create valid exploits.”

“Zero click needs no action, maybe half-click needs just opening or previewing a message,” Rawlins said. “The pressure has actually come back onto the technology side, and the IT team, the security team…they now have to up their game in order to be able to deal with this.”

Get the full scoop.—CN

      

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patch notes

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top IT reads.

Stat: 157,000. That’s how many skilled workers will be needed in the US by 2030 to handle chip manufacturing needs, according to a study from McKinsey and the SEMI Foundation. (CNBC)

Quote: “Modern tankers run navigation, propulsion, steering, and cargo systems on the same onboard network that also carries IT and satellite connectivity, often behind a single firewall.”—Liz Martin, senior director of threat hunting at cybersecurity company Dragos, on rising concerns about protecting ships and other vessels from cyber adversaries (Cybersecurity Dive)

Read: Now some garbage trucks have AI cameras that can snitch on code violations in your home. (Popular Science)

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