Here are 5 of our observations from the last 12 months.

Artificial intelligence has dominated the conversation

It’s been in the works for a while, but 2023 was the year that AI was truly unleashed into society. Software like ChatGPT launched seemingly out of nowhere and become an important tool for business owners in many industries – so much so, that rival companies are now in a race to create the best AI software possible (Google’s Gemini, which is set to outperform Google’s existing AI tool Bard, is one to watch in 2024).

Just as interestingly, the rise in AI has encouraged governments around the world to draft up specific AI legislation that will address how this technology can and should be used. At the moment, it’s something of a free for all, and this has wider implications for data privacy.

Deepfakes are getting harder to spot

Frightening and entertaining in equal measure, deepfakes can now be found in every nook and cranny of the internet – and they’re doing a great job of making us question what’s real when we’re scrolling our social media feeds. Take a look at the examples in this article from CreativBloq to see deepfake technology in action.

What’s particularly scary is that it’s becoming increasingly easy for people to create their own AI-generated likenesses with apps such as Face Swapper, DeepFaceLab and DeepBrain.

Non-traditional tech is being compromised more than ever before

These days, it’s not just businesses that need to implement a robust cybersecurity strategy. The IoT continues to evolve, which means more of the tools we use in our everyday lives can, technically, be ‘hacked’.

From cars to crypto wallets, healthcare systems to nuclear powerplants, cybercriminals can attack virtually any item that is connected to the cloud in some way – and manufacturers, service providers and even government authorities are having to place a great deal of their resources towards staying ahead of the curve and keeping us safe.

MFA is becoming the norm

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a means of keeping apps, systems, and data ultra-secure. It’s not 100% guaranteed to prevent hacks, but it does make it extra challenging for unauthorised users to get into personal or commercial accounts.

MFA has been around for a while, but it’s now becoming the go-to authentication method for most platforms. Microsoft started to force-enable MFA for all its tenants back in June, and plenty of other companies are following suit, including sales management giant Salesforce, which supports more than 150,000 companies worldwide. (And remember, as of January 2023, MFA has been marked as a compliance requirement for Cyber Essentials certification – so it’s definitely not a passing fad.)

Cloud technology is no longer a business luxury – it’s a business necessity

Companies have continued to migrate their systems and services across to a cloud-based infrastructure in 2023. In fact, nowadays it’s thought that 94% of companies use cloud services in some form, and reports have shown that up to 60% of corporate data is stored in the cloud (in 2015, this figure was just 30%!).

This means there’s more pressure than ever before on platforms such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and IBM Cloud to deliver the secure infrastructure that’s so desperately needed by today’s businesses. It also means that the onus is on us, as specialist IT consultants, to help companies find the most appropriate cloud provider and package for their unique needs. Please do contact us for assistance with moving your business apps and systems into the cloud.