Miles walked: Over 50.

Booths visited: Dozens.

Takeaways: Three.

IT Brew went to CES ’23 earlier this month to see what the tech world has in store as we head into a new year. The massive convention, held in Las Vegas, offers industry analysts, buyers, media, and exhibitors the opportunity to scope out the state of tech and look to the future of the sector.

There were gadgets galore and exhibits big and small—we’ll have ongoing coverage from what we saw over the next few weeks. But first, our three big takeaways on what’s likely to be moving the tech world forward, how that affects IT, and how cybersecurity impacts nearly every company now.

The rEVolution is coming—quick.

Electric vehicles are here. Automotive companies are deploying their long-awaited rechargeable vehicle while established electronics giants—like Sony, which unveiled its Honda-affiliated Afeela car—are entering the market. Some companies, like Peugeot, had their autonomous prototypes on hand.

The internal combustion engine isn’t going extinct quite yet, but a wholesale shift in car culture is well underway—and with it, as BlackBerry CTO Charles Eagan told IT Brew, will come security challenges alongside opportunities.

“Every time we build a new infrastructure, we learn from the past,” Eagan said. “So, the software-defined vehicle will be more secure than the mobile phone, which is more secure than the computer.”

Read more here.—EH

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

Just three days before Christmas, the single-sign-on provider LastPass gave a very un-merry disclosure: threat actors stole customer data, including encrypted vault passwords and unencrypted email addresses.

Despite this, password managers are still superior to 20 Post-it notes that say “QWERTY.” The tools are especially valuable for companies using lots of software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings.

“I can’t tell you the number of clients I’ve come across that are rolling out password managers because they’re using so many SaaS applications and they may not have paid the money for the corporate version,” said Sushila Nair, VP of the Greater Washington, DC, chapter of the IT governance association ISACA.

“You’ve got a load of passwords that people are managing. If you’re not careful, they’re going to use the same password for their corporate account as…this freebie SaaS account,” Nair told IT Brew.

The bad news:

• In the December disclosure, LastPass noted that threat actors obtained copies of customer-account metadata like company names, email addresses, telephone numbers, and other info that makes phishers drool.
• A backup of encrypted website usernames and passwords and form-filled data was also obtained.

The better news:

• With 256-bit AES encryption covering passwords and master passwords, cracking the code is difficult and would take a high level of computing power. With complex master passwords, the job is even more difficult.

“Anything that would cause me to press the panic button on LastPass is protected by strong encryption,” Lisa Plaggemier, executive director at the National Cybersecurity Alliance, told IT Brew.

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: 28%. That’s how far worldwide sales of PCs dropped in 2022 Q4, but some analysts warn the numbers are only out of whack due to a surge in computer purchases in 2021. (TechCrunch)

Quote: “We anticipated this and that’s why we have already filed 500 individual arbitration demands—and counting.”—Shannon Liss-Riordan, attorney for former Twitter employees who were told Friday by a judge they need to settle with the company in private arbitration (The Verge)

Read: UK lawmakers back bill that could send tech bosses to jail for failing to protect the underage online. (Reuters)