Despite gender diversity programs, women in the technology sector around the globe still struggle with discrimination and lack of opportunities. And when it comes to promoting women to mid-senior and senior leadership positions, the path is still not smooth.
Whether deliberate or unconscious, bias makes it difficult for women to move ahead. But knowing that bias exists isn't enough and action is needed to level the playing field.
The tech industry has a long way to go toward achieving equality in the workplace, and in the post-Covid world, it is important to think about the future of work for women in technology.
People Matters gathered insights from women who made it to the top in the technology sector on how they broke the glass ceiling and can inspire others to follow suit, the new challenges for women in tech, and on the changing future of work.
‘Challenges inevitable, but also opportunity to emerge stronger’
 
More women are joining the workforce and assuming leadership roles across industries, which is an encouraging sign.
“While it is a fact that gender bias and discrimination are not fully eradicated from the workplace, the situation today has vastly improved from what it was a few years ago. Cybersecurity, in particular, has always been a male-dominated industry, however, the pandemic and the increasing democratization of technology has helped create more access and caused significant workforce disruption, for women especially.
Continue reading: https://www.peoplematters.in/article/diversity/rising-high-women-tech-leaders-on-cracking-glass-ceiling-33416

Here at Bazaar, we love hearing from women who are thriving at the top of their chosen field, whether it’s fashion and design or artificial intelligence and technology. As far as the latter categories go, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone with greater insight than Laetitia Cailleteau, the data and AI lead for Europe, and the global conversational AI domain head at Accenture.
Accenture’s purpose is to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity, and for the last 23 years, Cailleteau has played an increasingly important role in that mission. Here, we speak to her about the five key takeaways she’s learned in her long and varied career.
SEEK OUT MENTORS — AND ACTIVELY LEARN FROM THEM
It’s no secret that mentorship is a game-changer for career development. “I’ve had some wonderful women that have helped me in my career,” Cailleteau says. “They opened the door and invited me to sit at the table, which is so important if you want to feel confident at work.” Now, Cailleteau takes the time to mentor other young women in the business to keep the cycle going. She recommends seeking out senior team members you admire to ask them for advice, but also being receptive when senior team members show an interest in your career development. “Mentorship can be a two-way street,” she says.
Continue reading: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/guide/a38958666/career-lessons-laetitia-cailleteau/

Today’s Woman in Tech: Caroline Reeves, Senior Manager Technology at Publicis Sapient
As Senior Manager Technology at Publicis Sapient, Caroline Reeves and her team drive the digital business transformation of renowned global companies. Born in England, she is a member of the consultancy’s international Salesforce Practice and has many years of expertise in all aspects of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. A multi-certified technologist, she is an advocate for young female talent and actively promotes greater diversity and inclusion in the industry.
When did you become interested in technology? What first got you interested in tech?
It happened rather surprisingly. My family doesn’t have a technical background. I myself didn’t originally plan to pursue a career in tech either. At University, I studied German and history and later studied international business. Then, during my first job, I got to know the Salesforce ecosystem and I was fascinated. I was excited by the mix of technology, business, and marketing aspects. So I decided to focus on it professionally. My love for Germany and my positive experiences during my internship abroad led me to Munich. I ended up switching to technology consulting and Publicis Sapient gave me the opportunity to develop my potential and expand my skills. It was simply a great opportunity!
Continue reading: https://jaxenter.com/women-in-tech-reeves-176957.html

There is one technology trend that could prove to be even more tectonic and enduring than cloud computing: the blockchain. While the cloud challenges how we build software and modifies how we operate businesses, blockchain technology potentially alters how we think about and process transactions themselves. Beyond serving as a foundation for cryptocurrency, blockchain could influence in a fundamental way how we propose and record agreements.
The revolutionary nature of blockchain and the cryptocurrencies it enables are much touted and certainly subject to exaggeration. And yet, when contemplating how current technology developments might play into the future, it’s tough to identify another development more likely to influence the shape of things to come. Blockchain may prove to be the most significant innovation since the internet.
So what is the blockchain, and why is it potentially history changing?
Consensus truth
Building distributed software systems is hard. The core of this difficulty is the data: protecting it, making it available, storing it. Although much of the difficulty stems from human beings trying to cheat the system, there is also inherent objective difficulty in overcoming failures and maintaining data consistency (for example, see the CAP theorem). Any time data is sent or retrieved (be it a post about your lunch or the balance of your bank account) it is subject to these hazards.
Continue reading: https://www.infoworld.com/article/3653379/a-quick-guide-to-blockchain.html

It is no longer a question of whether we should incorporate blockchain into our startups but rather how and when to implement it.
Blockchain is a decentralized and distributed digital ledger that provides a permanent and immutable record for transactions if you're unfamiliar. This article will give an overview of what blockchain technology is, how it can be used in your start-up organization, and why start-ups should consider looking into the advantages of incorporating this new technology.
1. Virtual marketplaces
Perhaps the most prominent use of blockchain currently is virtual goods and exchange. The most well-known of these companies are virtual currency exchanges, like Coinbase and Bittrex, which allow people to exchange a wide variety of virtual goods through this technology. The main benefit to using blockchain in a marketplace is the lack of fraud. It can be used to verify that a transaction has occurred between two or more parties, therefore eliminating the possibility of double-spending. While many people have already seen these examples on mainstream media, many other industries use this technology in their business models.
2. Network-based services
Another example of a start-up utilizing blockchain technology is that of a VPN service or node. Because a VPN is essentially an encrypted tunnel, the data naturally has to pass through a centralized server. This creates the possibility of foul play by the VPN node owner, allowing them to eavesdrop on your data. The use of blockchain technology in this service helps to ensure that no such malicious acts can occur because it gives players complete control over their interactions.
Continue reading: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/411961

Oil and natural gas remain two of the most valuable commodities in the energy sector. There has never been a greater emphasis on efficiency, minimizing downtime, and reducing environmental impact while meeting economic goals. From an oil well to a topside platform to a refinery, meeting objectives in terms of safety, cost, carbon, and production necessitates a well-defined strategy.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can help meet these needs and save billions of dollars in capital and operating expenditures. With the integration of a data strategy and AI solutions, oil and gas firms can get vital insights to improve their business outcomes in their upstream processes.
Examples of AI applications in the oil and gas industry include:

• Optimizing production with computer vision to analyze seismic and subsurface data faster.
• Minimizing downtime for predictive maintenance on equipment.
• Analyzing reservoirs and supercharging operational decision-making.
• Modelling to predict oil corrosion risks to reduce maintenance costs.
• Digitizing records and automating the evaluation of acquired geological data and charts, potentially revealing concerns such as pipeline damage or increasing equipment utilization.
• Boosting or substituting some human competencies, allowing humans to focus on more creative, value-added activities.
• Assisting in filling the labor gap as older generations retire, increasing productivity benefits.
• Improving the efficiency of oil and gas assets, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars on inventory and tightening supply chains.

Continue reading: https://www.eisneramper.com/ai-og-blog-0322/

Whether you’ve adopted artificial intelligence into your practice yet, or remain undecided, the field of AI continues to grow.
Because AI can be a useful solution for accounting firms struggling with increasing amounts of data, using AI can significantly reduce the amount of time spent on tedious tasks, allowing staff to focus on areas that require their expertise, such as tax planning and strategy.
If you’re curious about AI, check out these survey results from McKinsey & Company (https://tinyurl.com/mr22z38h), a worldwide management consulting firm that recently completed a global survey on the state of AI in 2021.
Released in December 2021, the survey explored adoption and impact, the differentiators of AI, and how to manage AI risks. Here are just a few of their findings.
Adoption
Adoption of AI technology continues to increase with more than 56% of respondents indicating that they have adopted at least one AI function in their business; a 6% rise from 2020. The survey also indicated the top use cases by function:
Continue reading: https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/firm-management/article/21260982/the-state-of-ai-in-professional-firms

All too often, when new technological advances make their way into the mainstream, they benefit young adults, who are generally their creators. Sometimes children are the beneficiaries but seldom are elders considered, which matters to me, an elder psychologist. There’s actually an evolutionary reason to explain that.
The ultimate goal of any species is to replicate itself and keep the species alive. So from an evolutionary perspective, adults of reproductive age and their offspring are valued most highly. There has never been an evolutionary role for the long-lived members of a species because they are beyond the reproductive stage of life. But most humans and some animals live well beyond childbearing.
Today, many adults in developed countries can expect at least seventy years and maybe even one hundred.
The Benefits of Senior Input
What is our role then? Certainly, we must provide some benefit to human evolution. And we do. As elders, we collect and transmit our species’ cultural rules and history. Since the beginning of recorded time, we've done this—consider shaman or priests’ stories passed on by word of mouth before written language.
Continue reading: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/enhance-your-vintage-years/202203/artificial-intelligence-can-learn-seniors

Whatever happened to our fourth industrial revolution? A combination of IoT, cloud computing, and big data analytics promised higher productivity, predictive maintenance, and end-to-end process automation for all industrial operators. And while these benefits are appearing in fits and starts, we have yet to introduce a holistic reimagining of processes and systems – the ultimate promise of Industry 4.0. 
There’s one major reason Industry 4.0 is off to a rocky start: IoT solutions remain siloed, monolithic, each trapped in its own narrow area of functionality. Maybe that was inevitable, given the organic, ad hoc nature of the market, but it’s ironic given that connectivity is one of the key values of IoT and Industry 4.0 writ large. 
The fact is, siloed IoT solutions are hampering innovation. Luckily, new system architectures are offering distributed data collection, storage, and processing – along with a localized and secure central hub. If Industry 4.0 is broken, these edge-to-cloud platforms are the fix. 
How Far Edge Computing Unifies Industrial IoT 
Most industrial IoT offerings are full-stack solutions: They include sensors or devices, data storage, cloud applications, and, finally, the dashboard or user interface. Users don’t have control of the data that flows through the stack; they don’t even own the data, which typically belongs to the IoT manufacturer.  
When you have a different full-stack IoT solution for every function of your business, the IT architecture becomes a nightmare to use, let alone maintain: You’ve got dozens of dashboards. You have to update devices on-site. There’s no communication between systems. The pace of innovation becomes too slow. 
What’s missing is a system with distributed storage and processing. Edge computing is a start, but it takes a far edge platform to fully realize this vision. 
In an edge computing architecture, data storage occurs close to the source (usually the sensor or device). Far edge computing takes this distributed approach a step further, processing data where it’s collected, i.e., on or near the devices that do the data collection. 
Far edge computing allows you to both collect and process data that wasn’t previously available. Or, if it was previously available, there was so much of it that it caused storage problems in the cloud – problems that distributed, local-cloud storage can solve.  
Continue reading: https://www.iotforall.com/the-problem-with-industry-4-0-and-a-solution

The internet of things (IoT) market is constantly evolving. With this evolution comes a need for uninterrupted data connectivity.
At SIMcontrol, we have been working for over a decade to help our clients reliably connect to cellular networks and choose the right data roaming partners.
Even the best local networks can go down from time to time, whether this is just a tower or at a regional level. For many of our customers, there is a real fear around the impact of network downtime, both from a reputation and an efficiency perspective.
This is where multi-network Sim cards are a game changer.
What is a multi-network Sim?
As the name suggests, multi-network Sim cards can connect to multiple mobile networks within a single country. Users don’t need to reconfigure any settings or make any changes to their device — the Sim automatically compiles a list of available networks and then connects to the one with the strongest signal.
This means that reliability and availability are no longer concerns. And depending on the type of Sim you use, this approach can also be as cost-effective as local Sims.
Useful for companies deploying complex connected devices in the field, multi-network Sims are particularly impactful when IoT deployments cover different regions and different countries because they enable IoT data roaming. They come in all Sim formats, including embedded and eSim options.
But not all global roaming Sim cards are the same. Many differences exist in terms of latency, IMSI options, data routing, reliability and pricing. Furthermore, there are two technically different roaming Sim types – steered and non-steered.
We outline the main differences between the two below.

• Network-specific: Steered Sim cards have the functionality to connect to multiple networks, but they prioritise a primary network over other available networks. This means that these Sims will favour the primary network even if the signal is poor. This can be beneficial when a certain network delivers greater reliability and resilience based on your location or specialty. Unlike a steered Sim, a non-steered Sim card doesn’t have a primary network, meaning that devices will choose between networks randomly.

Continue reading: https://techcentral.co.za/how-to-find-the-right-multi-network-roaming-sim-for-iot-devices-simprom/209461/

The global enterprise IoT market grew by 22% to a total of $157.9 billion in 2021despite some adverse conditions including labor and chip shortages, according to a study released today by Germany-based research firm IoT Analytics.
That figure is slightly lower than the 24% that the company projected in previous reports, but it’s still a substantial rate of growth, and one that IoT Analytics expects will be sustained for the next five years, for a projected total market size of $525 billion by 2027.
One of the main factors driving enterprise IoT growth below previous estimates was a shortage of skilled workers, according to the report. Businesses in 2021 had trouble finding enough IoT-conversant hires to move digital transformation and IoT projects forward, with job postings related to IoT growing by 41% between July 2021 and Mach 2022. The firm also cited other research, from Inmarsat, as saying that a paucity of in-house IoT knowledge is one of the key blockers to more widespread IoT deployment.
[ For more on IoT security, see our corporate guide to addressing IoT security concerns. | Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters. ]
Another key headwind for the enterprise IoT’s global growth is the ongoing worldwide chip shortage. While the impact of the shortage has been felt across almost all markets, it’s particularly painful in the IoT sector, with order lead times stretching to 40 or 50 weeks in some cases, according to IoT Analytics. The company said that 2021 saw a shortfall of around 20 million cellular IoT chips, thanks to the supply shortage. This means that some IoT projects simply can’t be completed, due to supply problems and consequent price increases.
Despite these and several other negative factors—including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the attendant political fallout, ongoing security concerns and mediocre demand growth—IoT Analytics said that the outlook for enterprise IoT remains relatively strong, thanks to a multitude of tailwinds.
Continue reading: https://www.networkworld.com/article/3655668/global-enterprise-iot-market-strong-but-faces-challenges.html

With March being women’s history month, it’s a great time to reflect on womens' strides, accomplishments and contributions in the global technological, economic, social and intellectual arenas.
This topic brings a lot to mind—what more can be done for women or what should have been done in history. But for the sake of this piece, I’m going to get granular with how to better contribute to creating a female-empowered technology workforce.
Start With Yourself
I am Lilit Davtyan—a daughter, a mother, a wife, an avid runner and an immigrant. But behind all of those things, I am a thirty-something-year-old CEO who works in synergy with five other dynamic C-level female executives and dozens of other brilliant women who are breaking the stereotypes of what the tech scene looks like.
I count my blessings as I write this while also understanding that change begins within oneself—at a deeper level.
Change requires thought and confidence in your power to make a difference—to believe in yourself. Because experience shows that when you believe in yourself, you begin to take action to grow to your full potential and eventually empower yourself toward getting greater positions, pay and recognition.
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Once you’ve reached that potential, all you have to do is pay it forward by mentoring and cultivating a growth-oriented environment amongst your woman work peers.
Build A Skills-Focused Workforce & Invest In Educational Opportunities
As a leader, you have the ambition to build a strong, inclusive and diverse company culture across your team to ensure higher productivity and talent retention. Somewhere between those aspirations, leaders often forget that they need to hire for skills and talent and not to fill a demographic within the company.
To stray away from hiring “just to hire,” companies should implement long-term, female-focused perks like paid parental leave, work flexibility, healthcare benefits and professional development opportunities.
This will attract more women talent to the company and shape its credibility in taking care of its employees. It will also help your company focus on hiring the best people to do the job—while you organically draw more females to join your tech workforce.
Encourage Participation In Professional Female-Driven Societies, Communities And Events
At Phonexa, the leadership team and I always championed the ideology that the stronger the team members, the stronger the company. To kick that ideology into action, the leadership team and I encouraged team members to join professional martech societies and marketing groups as well as attend events highlighting women’s contributions to the industry.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/03/30/three-ways-to-champion-a-female-empowered-tech-workforce/?sh=3e7c30b37b5c

Change the default user name and password settings on your internet-connected uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units, the US government has warned.  
UPS units are meant to provide power backup to keep devices, appliances and applications connected to the internet by supplying off-grid power to places like a data center during a power outage. But hackers have been targeting internet-connected UPS units to disrupt the backup power supply. 
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) said they "are aware of threat actors gaining access to a variety of internet-connected uninterruptable power supply (UPS) devices." 
How? Just like many Internet of Things (IoT) devices, such as routers and smart-lighting systems, they are gaining access "often through unchanged default usernames and passwords." The risk of not changing the default credentials in IoT devices and appliances isn't new. It's also a problem that reminds admins of the importance of network-hardening guidance.    
UPS devices are a critical backup power supply because of the costs of downtime when core business applications and staff devices can't connect to the internet. In healthcare, lives might depend on a UPS in an outage because of powered medical devices.
As CISA notes, UPSs can protect small loads, such as a few servers, large loads, like an entire building, or massive loads, including a data center. 
One complication in an organization is the question of exactly who should manage UPS devices, which only becomes necessary during a power outage. "Various different groups within an organization could have responsibility for UPSs, including but not limited to IT, building operations, industrial maintenance, or even third-party contract monitoring service vendors," CISA notes in an insights alert. 
CISA doesn't cite examples of recent attacks or attribute these threats to specific actors. However, in this case, it seems more important to emphasize remediation steps. 
As CISA notes, it's rare that a UPS's management interface needs to be accessible from the internet. So, its bolded advice is: "Immediately enumerate all UPSs and similar systems and ensure they are not accessible from the internet." It also recommends viewing its, and the NSA's, warning that state-sponsored attackers have targeted internet-accessible operation technology (OT) to breach critical infrastructure, such as water utilities. Again, the agencies warn of the risks of remote access to OT networks and the use of default passwords. 
Continue reading: https://www.zdnet.com/article/iot-warning-hackers-are-gaining-access-to-ups-devices-heres-how-to-protect-yours/

Vulnerable routers (2 global brands) and compromised monitor screens and fleet tracking systems were used extensively by hackers as part of large botnets to share and deploy rootkits across the globe in March. This resulted in a significant spike in botnet traffic recorded by our global honeypots in March. Though the spike has subsided a bit, the rise in infections caused by this sudden surge will only become apparent in the next few weeks. This trend presents a new reason for concern among IoT cybersecurity teams.    
Most of the attacks were logged at 2.5 MBPS and above and the requests ranged from 1.5- 3 million requests per second on certain target websites. Based on the traffic patterns, over 150 command and control servers located across 15 countries were identified by Sectrio’s threat research team. These servers were coordinating not just the spread of the attacks but the propagation of a variety of rootkits and other payloads including Revil ransomware.
The sudden botnet expansion could also be attributed to the use of older versions of certain operating systems in phones and other desktop and laptop machines. With such an expansion, hackers now have more bots at their disposal as well as a means to upgrade their botnet infrastructure by promoting more bots to command and control servers. The scope for many of these Bot networks to grow exponentially in the next weeks has increased with the rising number of bots getting added each week.
Traffic from these botnets was not confined to any geography and each bot was sending traffic to multiple IP addresses across regions. Analysis of this traffic reveals a well-orchestrated strategy being deployed by hackers to target IoT projects at various levels and phases as well as to expand botnets by targeting consumer devices. The level of stealth and obfuscation is growing as hackers devise new means to bring down multiple target entities through the same botnet. Many of the old botnets are also being resurrected for this purpose as hackers are planning to increase their operations across geographies.
For IoT projects, this is bad news as the lessons from 2020 and 2021 as articulated in our IoT and OT Threat Landscape reports seem to have been forgotten or ignored. While a portion of these new IoT-linked botnets may be connected to projects that are in the PoC phase, a larger volume of the traffic seems to be emerging from established projects as per the traffic patterns analyzed by Sectrio’s threat research team. This is quite a worrying development as it indicates the possibility of existing IoT devices being compromised or new and untested devices being added to existing projects without security-linked adequate testing.
Continue reading: https://securityboulevard.com/2022/03/the-volume-of-ddos-attacks-from-compromised-iot-devices-rose-significantly-in-march/

Connected device manufacturers are increasing production to meet demand in a fast-growing industry. According to McKinsey, the market value of IoT is expected to be between $5.5-12.6 trillion by 2030. That leaves IoT makers in need of a security strategy that can scale with the growing market. But security for IoT devices isn’t yet as mature as other sectors.
IoT devices are discoverable, easy to access, and more connected to physical systems than ever before. This leaves them vulnerable to opportunistic threat actors as well as more sophisticated nation-state attackers looking to carry out distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, assemble botnets, and direct cyber-physical attacks on critical environments.
The IoT Security Foundation recently released a report that found only 21.6% of firms have a detectable vulnerability disclosure policy and 78.4% of firms would fail a threshold test.
Many device manufacturers struggle to prioritize product security without sacrificing production or incurring large costs. In Ponemon’s survey, most respondents say they struggle with a lack of resources (62%) and lack of in-house expertise (60%) as top obstacles to expanding product security efforts. This shows that security is not yet an executive priority, and that’s having a negative, real-world impact. While only 27% say their company’s leaders require proof of product security, 94% of respondents see a moderate or high impact from recent supply chain compromises on their security priorities.
Customers, for their part, are paying attention: According to Ponemon’s study, 76% of respondents said their customers rank the importance of device security at least 7 out of 10. Securing your connected and embedded products is critical to staying competitive, so let’s look at strategies to create secure products at scale.
Identify your baseline
You can’t secure what you can’t see. If you’re unaware of all the components in your embedded device firmware – like the 70% of Ponemon’s respondents who can’t create a software bill of materials (SBOM) for their devices – any remaining security efforts will have a significant blind spot.
Finding a baseline will offer insight into which vulnerabilities exist within firmware and give you a starting point as you look to improve the device’s security posture. For many manufacturers, penetration testing represents a baseline security tactic, but this type of testing is difficult to scale and impossible to automate.
According to one recent study, commercial third-party code is now more common than in-house developed code. Attackers are more likely to exploit vulnerabilities in widely used components than to launch a bespoke attack on first-party code. When you need to know what’s in your devices without vendor cooperation, binary analysis provides an excellent baseline security testing strategy. Discovering components and identifying servers pinged by the code running in your devices can give you the visibility you need into where your data is going and what software is operating in your devices.
Without this baseline of visibility into binaries, you could allow major security holes into devices deployed in critical environments. For example, DJI drones were found to transmit information to the Chinese government, leading to pressure from the Pentagon to halt their use.
Continue reading: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2022/03/31/devices-security/

Web3 is the future of the internet. Over the next few years, the worlds of Web 2.0 and Web3 will merge, revealing blockchain’s mass-market potential. The market for Web3 digital products is growing rapidly, and it is difficult for people to resist. As a result, the number of creators, including social media influencers, experimenting with Web3 digital products has risen. Although several creators have already built multimillion-dollar brands through such digital products, many creators continue to struggle. The market is ripe for innovation, and it is sizable, boasting more than 50 million creators. With the power of Web3, creators can reap enormous benefits from NFTs.
It’s 2022, and we’ve all heard of Web3 and NFTs. However, in this new digital era, how can creators effectively leverage NFTs?
Here are three ways:
1. Convert existing content to NFTs.
2. Create unique and new content for NFTs.
3. Link NFTs with other products and services.
Several prominent creators have already jumped aboard the NFT bandwagon:
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/03/31/three-ways-web3-and-nfts-will-redefine-the-future-of-influencer-marketing/?sh=793c2560515a

I recently wrote an article examining the origins and promises of blockchain and cryptocurrency, asking whether these technologies are really living up to the hype being thrust upon them by industry investors, pundits and insiders.
My conclusion after much research was that blockchain, as a foundational technology, is real and is starting to live up to some of the hype heaped upon it.
While blockchain has mostly been discussed in terms of a few key applications, like cryptocurrency, the value it provides in eliminating trusted intermediaries between individuals and groups is starting to be seen in broader applications.
One of the most talked about buzzwords today in terms of blockchain technology is the term Web 3.0, or Web3. This term and sector are in the midst of great debate right now as to whether it has real validity and utility for consumers or whether it’s a marketing hype machine created by venture capitalists.
So, is Web3 just a buzzword being used to make VCs some bucks by jacking up crypto prices, or is it a real evolution of the internet that people must pay attention to?
Continue reading: https://www.cmswire.com/digital-experience/is-web3-a-buzzword-or-the-real-deal/

If you think Blockchain technology won’t impact your business, think again.
From accounting to business processes, the growing unanimity among industry executives is that blockchain is likely to influence every significant area of work – and the change is already starting. In fact, some estimates found that blockchain could add $1.77 trillion to the international economy by 2030.
How it works
Blockchain automatically follows transactions from beginning to finish without conferring a major authority tasked with maintaining the transaction or encrypting the data without the necessity for human intervention. Rather, by categorizing them, blockchain or NFT equips transparency around what's happened in the history of the transactions. Moreover, because blockchain is immutable, this data is secure.
This 'digital ledger' permits developers and disruptors of NFT to flip the writing on typical organizational processes in different stimulating ways.
Intrinsically transparent, unchangeable, and decentralized, the technology presents more significant transactional security. Blockchains store data employ worldly math and software rules that are nearly incomprehensible for attackers to exploit. Each block added onto the chain holds a hard, cryptographic reference to the previous block. This reference is a complex mathematical problem that must be translated to get the following block into the network and chain. The technique constructs a uniquely encrypted digital fingerprint
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2022/03/31/what-is-the-true-effect-of-blockchain-on-modern-businesses/?sh=73002ebdb83f

Innovative technologies such as blockchain, drones, and internet of things might seem a bit futuristic and out of the purview of many managed services providers. But these technologies have practical applications but a limited talent pipeline that can execute those functions—a combination that presents a perfect opportunity for enterprising MSPs looking to get involved, according to panelists in a “Tech in 2022 and Beyond” session during an Emerging Technology Community meeting at CompTIA’s Communities & Councils Forum.
Decentralizing Data with Blockchain
When many people hear the term blockchain, their minds frequently jump to cryptocurrency. While Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies do utilize blockchain technology, the applications for blockchain greatly exceed that of decentralized finance. As a distributed ledger system that allows people to create transactions between multiple parties in a shared space, this emerging technology is vital for decentralizing data. In other words, blockchain and applications for it can be used to meet many business needs today, according to Adam Lesh, CTO of The Maker Foundry and co-chair of CompTIA’s Blockchain Advisory Council.
Data has become increasingly valuable as businesses seek ways to better understand their customers and companies gather information. The web has evolved significantly and continues to become more dynamic and personalized. But that wasn’t always the case. The industry commonly refers to these stages as Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0.

• Web 1.0: Static pages that were primarily used for informational purposes.
• Web 2.0: Dynamic pages that involve commerce transactions but are centralized and controlled by enterprise companies.
• Web 3.0: Decentralization of data to help individuals own and control their own data.

Currently, we are in Web 2.0, but the outlook is that blockchain technology is ideal for moving us forward into Web 3.0.
Blockchain Opportunities for MSPs
Blockchain technology allows for a transparent ledger system where knowledge is visible to all while remaining immutable. For MSPs, blockchain helps companies have greater insight into tracking of products and transactions. “Right now, probably the biggest area for blockchain is defi—decentralized finance,” said Lesh. “That’s probably the biggest growing field. Also, the supply chain is a really huge way of leveraging blockchain technology, using smart contracts to manage and track movement through the supply chain.” Lesh hopes that blockchain is the technology to put the control of data back into individuals’ hands, rather than large companies.
Using Drones for Data Collection
Drones have evolved from toys and military tools to become a valuable tool for business. The drone industry is projected to be a $43 billion industry by 2024 with applications in most industries. Most drones are being used to capture data from above through aerial photography and videography, while helping to reduce the danger to workers.
Ted Parisot, co-founder of Helios Visions and vice chair of CompTIA’s Drone Advisory Council, has seen a real lack of practical drone operation skills in the workforce and recommends MSPs prepare themselves for basic drone flight or software support. “You can begin with drones by taking serial phots and videos for marketing and other purposes or by supporting drone service companies with cloud services or other IT services,” says Parisot.
Parisot sees great potential for drones in the infrastructure sector, helping to keep buildings and roadways in good condition. “What we’re seeing, especially with the infrastructure built is that a lot of roads and bridges need repair,” he notes. “Drones are a great tool for that process. Agriculture definitely has lots of acres to cover. We’re also seeing a lot of drone delivery.” Parisot recommends that MSPs start with basic operations. From there, it’s just a matter of identifying a specific use case.
Continue reading: https://connect.comptia.org/blog/how-to-find-your-opportunity-with-innovative-technologies

In January 2020, Kelly Gilbert felt as if her life was at a standstill.
The new mom was suffering from postpartum depression. She had just resigned from her security job of seven years, unable to take the stress. To make extra money, she began driving for ride-sharing companies, but she had to take her infant daughter along. As she struggled to make ends meet, she faced eviction from her home.
“I was overwhelmed. I knew I couldn’t give up, but I knew I didn’t have the energy to keep putting on a brave face,” said Gilbert, 32. “I didn’t have the fight in me.”
Then a friend told Gilbert about a new program from Atlanta-based nonprofit Women in Technology (WIT) that could help her launch a career in information technology. The application was due in four days so Gilbert called her contacts with an urgent request for recommendations and submitted the application in time.
During the interview, she was sure the panel would not take her seriously.
“How will you do this when you just walked away from your job?” one panel member asked.
“I am going to show my daughter that she can do whatever she wants to do,” Gilbert replied, crying.
A few days later, while she was driving for Uber, Gilbert got the call. She had been offered a spot in the program. “I felt like I had hope,” Gilbert said. “I said, ‘This is your light.’”
Continue reading: https://www.ajc.com/life/opinion-atlanta-nonprofit-offers-path-to-success-for-women-in-tech/MJVMOU2MMFAAFMFUH4NL2ZYXQU/

Careers in technology are some of the most sought after in the United States — yet the tech industry has traditionally been a space where few women have worked.
According to a report by Girls Who Code and Accenture, only 16% of engineering roles and 27% of computing roles nationwide are held by women and that number is expected to shrink within the next ten years. 
As a woman in tech, I am eager to call attention to the need for more women in technology, how achieving gender parity is necessary to maintain a thriving tech sector, and highlight steps that can pave the way for more women in this space.  
Spark interest in the classroom 
Homeschooled and the oldest of 10 children, my parents encouraged my curiosity, even though I know there were moments they wished they didn’t. I recall trying to construct a water filtering system on my mom’s new solid wood table (and ruining it), cutting open an AC adapter and placing my palm on an iron to see if it really was “hot”.  Young girls who have an interest in computers are four times more likely to pursue tech as adults.  
Continue reading: https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2022/03/30/theres-need-more-women-technology/7159133001/

We recently wrote a piece about the gender gap in tech that got a huge response from readers. Clearly, we touched a nerve in terms of what women in tech are facing, as well as the importance of gender equality (not to mention equality in general) in tech organizations. After all, these are the companies building the tools that are, quite literally, changing the world. Representation here matters because it impacts the algorithms that power big decisions, the products that are built and the ways in which we decide to solve (or not solve) some very big problems.
Just to catch you up, women only hold 25% of professional computing occupations in the U.S. and 28% of STEM jobs. In addition, despite the fact that women’s workforce participation has increased steadily since the 1970s, the number of women in tech has remained relatively static for decades.
What’s going on here? We wanted to hear from readers about their experiences with the gender gap, so we sent out our annual Gender Gap survey. (You can check out last year’s survey results here.) Our survey of 300 people in the tech industry revealed that not everyone agrees on just how much of a problem gender bias presents - or whether or what should be done about it.
Continue reading: https://www.techopedia.com/the-gender-gap-in-tech-2022/2/34746

While there’s been meaningful progress, cultural and societal expectations continue to have a dampening effect on the number of women in leadership positions.
Less representation at the executive and board levels creates unique challenges for women. This is magnified in tech, which has traditionally had far fewer women in top management roles.
Some modern organizations are proactively working to address this imbalance, but many women struggle to deal with challenges like unfounded concerns about their technical abilities, being overlooked for opportunities because of gender or biases based on race, age, and appearance, and imposter syndrome that keeps marginalized but well-informed female experts from engaging with peers.
As a woman in the software tech industry for over 20 years, I’ve seen it all firsthand and I’m extremely fortunate to work for a company now that truly provides equal opportunities for all. To help other women succeed in that world, I’d like to share what I’ve learned along the way.
Continue reading: https://fortune.com/2022/03/30/women-tech-careers-bias-gender-gap-priya-rajagopal/

At Amsterdam Drone Week today, Commercial UAV Expo sponsored a panel of experts from all over Europe to discuss security and counterdrone strategies.  From INTERPOL to drone incident reporting systems DroneALERT, experts talked about the importance of security in drone integration. The City of Amsterdam gave us an inside look at how they approach the problem of unauthorized drone activity.
Brooke Tapsall of DroneAlert points out that cUAS is not just shooting drones down, or what happens during a drone incursion.  Rather, it’s an interoperable system of regulation, technology, and multiple stakeholders.
DroneAlert records countless drone incursions: from criminal intent drone use to uneducated operators using drones in the wrong places.  The locations where you need cUAS protection, however, can be placed in broad categories: urban environments, critical infrastructure assets, events, emergency locations, and cross-border areas.
Robotics expert Gokul Srinivasan says that CUAS technology solutions can also be categorized: kinetic solutions for mitigating drone threats include high energy laser, high energy electromagnetic pulse, air defense systems, drone vs. drone, and simple handguns.  Non-kinetic solutions to drone incursions involve spoofing or jamming.
Beyond the specific technology, however, are a myriad of stakeholders and communication systems that need to be involved: and these systems must be interoperable in order to be successful.  The City of Amsterdam explained how they are handling security and counterdrone problems.
Continue reading: https://dronelife.com/2022/03/30/security-and-counterdrone-from-the-floor-of-adw-the-city-of-amsterdams-strategy-for-dealing-with-unauthorized-drone-activity/

Berlin, Weiterstadt, Cologne/Bonn, March 30, 2022 — German logistics and aviation holding Zeitfracht Group and its subsidiary German Airways will be among the first companies worldwide to commercially deploy drones in logistics. In a joint letter of intent with the German drone manufacturer Wingcopter, the companies have agreed to purchase 17 Wingcopter 198 delivery drones and acquire options to order an additional 115 drones in two further tranches by the end of 2023. The aircraft are to be deployed from the second half of 2024 – initially offshore, for example for the delivery of spare parts to wind farms.
The Zeitfracht Group is already successfully operating in this business with its specialized shipping company OPUS Marine. As the delivery drones must be able to land with pinpoint accuracy on a moving ship, their use will be technologically demanding. German Airways and Wingcopter will work closely together on the development of this feature.
The Wingcopters will take off from Rostock Airport, which has also been part of the Zeitfracht Group since the beginning of the year and offers the Wingcopter development team an ideal environment for extended test flights as well as premises for measurements and the evaluation of the data collected in the process.
Holding an Air Operator Certificate (AOC), German Airways already fulfills essential requirements to operate Wingcopter’s delivery drones in the “specific category” and, later, in the “certified category”. In addition, German Airways is also IOSA certified and thus operates according to the highest internationally agreed standards of the international aviation authority IATA.
Wingcopters can carry a payload of up to five kilograms and – depending on the payload – can cover distances between 75 and 110 kilometers. The aircraft were selected by German Airways because of their extraordinary wind- and weather resistance and their globally leading payload-to-range ratio. They take off vertically, without requiring additional infrastructure, and then move forward horizontally in flight like a normal aircraft. Thanks to their purely electric propulsion, Wingcopter delivery drones also contribute to zero-emission logistics.
Zeitfracht CEO Wolfram Simon-Schröter: “At the Zeitfracht Group, we are very creative and always interested in using new technologies in a market-leading way. We believe the time is now ripe for the commercial use of drones, for example for the delivery of spare parts to offshore wind farms. With German Airways, our Rostock Airport and the experience of our shipping company OPUS in delivery operations on the high seas, together with Wingcopter we have the ideal prerequisites to drive this technology a huge step forward.”
Continue reading: https://www.suasnews.com/2022/03/german-airways-and-wingcopter-agree-to-cooperate-and-drive-the-use-of-drones-with-offshore-deliveries/