The ITPro Podcast

When you stop to think about it, satellite TV is an astonishing technical achievement - a communications relay in orbit around the planet which allows us to beam live footage from across the world directly into our homes. While this is a staggering accomplishment, however, there’s more to running a satellite television network than the satellites themselves.In this week’s episode, we sit down with Peter Simpson, CTO of UK satellite network Freesat, to discuss the challenges involved, how to balance the technical requirements of broadcast TV and on-demand streaming, and why data is so essential for the continued success of the industry.Head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-Telly for more information on all the topics we've spoken about in this week's episode.

“We can rebuild him. We have the technology.” From Robocop to the Six Million Dollar Man, popular fiction has fantasised for years about the potential possibilities of augmenting human capabilities with technology to make us faster, stronger and more intelligent. Recent improvements in fields like robotics, prosthetics and artificial intelligence have brought that dream closer than ever to being a reality - but what does human augmentation really mean? Where do we draw the line between tools and augmentations? And what function - if any - can they serve in a practical business context? In this week’s episode of the IT Pro Podcast, we look at the emerging field of augmentation tech, the biohacking and transhumanist subcultures, and how close we really are to brain chips and bionic eyeballs.For more information on all the topics we've spoken about, check out http://bit.ly/ITPP-Human.

The tech skills gap is something that gets brought up again and again, as organisations lament their struggles to find talented developers, engineers and security professionals. The problem, so they claim, is that there just aren’t enough potential employees in the industry to meet demand for these positions.But are companies struggling to fill roles because there aren’t enough qualified candidates, or does the real reason have more to do with hiring practises, company culture and attitudes towards certifications? This week, we’re taking a look at the supposed causes of the skills gap, and why companies are thinking about tech skills in the wrong way. To find out more about this and other issues, head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-skills.

Floppy disks. Fax machines. Cassette tapes. All are commonly thought of as obsolete technology, but are they really that outdated, or have their applications and use-cases simply become more niche? In this episode, we take a look at the concept of obsolescence, asking what truly qualifies a technology as being past its sell-by date and exploring why some of the oldest technology out there still has a place in modern business.For more information about the topics in this week's episode, head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-obsolete.

Software is eating the world, and the developers who build it have been called ‘the new kingmakers’ – but creating a truly engaged dev team is about much more than just finding people who are able to hammer out code. The best development organisations are made up of brilliant, passionate individuals for whom programming isn’t just a job, but a craft.In this episode of the IT Pro Podcast, we’re joined by Eben Upton, founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, to discuss whether old devs can learn new tricks, how Raspberry Pi’s development team has grown beyond his expectations, and why the best developers are the ones that make your decisions for you. For more insight into everything we've spoken about in this episode, head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-craft.

For the past several years, advances in fields such as 5G, IoT, autonomous vehicles and AI processing have promised to unlock major new innovations for civic planning and public sector management. Technology vendors and local governments alike have laid out visions for glittering, high-tech utopias where next-generation systems manage everything from traffic flow to collecting the bins.For the past year, however, COVID has reduced cities up and down the country to veritable ghost towns, stripped of their usual hustle and bustle. In a post-pandemic world, can the same ideas be turned to making COVID-safe cities, or is the dream of the smart city no longer feasible? This week we’re joined by staff writer Keumars Afifi-Sabet to talk about the future of smart cities.For more information on the topics covered in this week's episode, head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-dream.

On 31 December 2020, the UK’s Brexit transition period came to a close, taking us firmly out of the EU. Many issues have been raised over the flow of goods between Britain and its former partners, but the flow of data is a different matter altogether. Data has become an intrinsic part of modern business and with previous rules on international data transfers now at risk of irrelevancy, many organisations are considering how they can adjust their data practises to avoid falling foul of regulators.With many elements of international data law still up in the air pending various legal cases and policy decisions, we’re joined by Bart Willemsen, VP at Gartner specialising in privacy, to discuss the current regulatory environment and how businesses can prepare themselves for any changes that might be on the way.For more information on everything we're spoken about in this episode, head over to http://bit.ly/ITPP-Transfer.

Healthcare has always been a vital industry, but for obvious reasons, it’s more important now than it’s ever been. Hospitals are being faced with an environment in which they must do all they can to limit physical contact, and technology is playing a key role in making that possible. On top of the COVID-19 crisis, however, healthcare organisations still have to grapple with everyday IT challenges like improving operational efficiency and maintaining their security.To discuss these issues, and how the healthcare sector is using technology to tackle them, we’re joined this week by Craig York, CTO on Milton Keynes University Hospital Foundation Trust, and member of the IT Pro Panel.For more information, head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-healthcare.

Migrating to a new technology is always challenging, but it's even more daunting when your estate includes 2,000 engineers, 10,000 applications and 50 million lines of code. That was the challenge faced by FinTech powerhouse Bloomberg when it made the transition from JavaScript to TypeScript, but with the migration process now well underway, the organisation is reaping big benefits in the hygiene and maintainability of its codebase.This week, we're joined by Thomas Chetwin, the co-chair of Bloomberg's JavaScript guild, to learn more about why the company made the switch, the challenges it faced during the process and why everyone should be using TypeScript.To find out more, head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-TypeScript.

Of all the sectors impacted by the still-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the air travel industry has been among the hardest hit. With international travel highly restricted and video conferences set to supplant a large amount of business meetings for the foreseeable future, the airline industry is having to re-assess its flight path.Rather than sitting on its hands, however, the industry has been using this downtime to spin up a number of digital transformation initiatives, in the hope that when it does re-emerge, its operations will be more efficient, more cost-effective and more environmentally friendly. Joining us this week to discuss the sector’s plans is Pascal Buchner, CIO of the International Air Transport Association.Head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-Air for more information on everything we've spoken about in this episode.

For those of us who don’t get excited over teraflops and motherboard specifications, hardware is just something that we use to get our jobs done, and up until last year, most of us probably didn’t think too much about the devices we use at work. COVID-19, however, threw all of that into sharp relief, as mass remote working suddenly made having the right hardware setup a crucial enabler.Laptops, webcams and headsets were suddenly a hot commodity, and moving to a non-office environment exposed the cracks in many organisations’ client-device strategy. In this episode of the IT Pro Podcast, we take a look at how we use devices, the impact of the pandemic, and what we’ve learned about our own hardware preferences.Head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-Hardware for links to everything we've spoken about in this episode.

The last 12 months have been something of a struggle, but with the strange and miserable year that was 2020 now behind us, it’s time to look forward at what 2021 has in store. As the dust settles and life begins to return to normal, we’re going to have to reckon with the ramifications of the momentous events 2020 brought, including the election of a new president, the continuation of remote working, and the effects of Brexit – whatever those may be.We’re sure to see some significant shifts throughout the IT world and 2021 is likely to hold a lot of upheaval. In this episode, we take a look at the year to come, make our predictions for what themes and trends it will bring, and share what we’re most looking forward to. To find out more about the topics we've spoken about in this episode, head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-lookahead

It’s not overstating matters to say that this year has been the most eventful and unusual in the history of IT. As the COVID-19 pandemic developed and spread, cloud technology was thrust to the forefront, providing the infrastructure to allow business to continue while workers isolated themselves in their homes and, in many ways, saving the day.Aside from the pandemic and its manifold impacts, however, this year has been extremely eventful in other ways. We saw a flurry of high-profile corporate acquisitions, a series of government IT blunders and one of the most tumultuous US elections in living memory. In this special Christmas episode of the IT Pro Podcast, we take a look back over the year just gone and talk about what made it so eventful. For links to all of the stories we've spoken about in today's episode, head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-lookback.

Silicon Valley has long been the US tech industry’s ‘shining city on a hill’, building a seemingly unassailable reputation as the heartland of IT innovation. In recent weeks, however, HPE and Oracle have become the latest in a growing list of companies to announce that they will be moving their official headquarters out of the valley and into Texas.But what does this mean for the west coast techno-utopia? Why are these companies suddenly getting cold feet, and will there be more to follow? In this episode, we look at the so-called Silicon Valley exodus, the possible reasons behind it, and whether Silicon Valley’s glory days are soon to be behind it.For more information on all the topics we've talked about in this episode, head to https://bit.ly/ITPP-sunset.

The internet has been one of the most revolutionary technologies of our age, and most agree that the transformation it’s brought to our society has been beneficial. Social media – one of the more recent arrivals on the scene – has also generally been a good thing, allowing us to connect with friends and family across the world, find people who have similar interests to us, and rapidly share jokes, memes and information.This latter element, however, has slowly turned from a benefit into a problem. Disinformation and what might be termed “fake news” is seeping in everywhere, making it difficult to know what and who to believe.In this week’s episode of the IT Pro Podcast, we speak to Andy Patel, a researcher with cyber security firm F-Secure, about what disinformation is, how it spreads and the negative effects it could have on businesses.To learn more about all of the topics we've discussed this week, head to https://bit.ly/ITPP-disinfo.

Data can be a huge enabler of transformation and efficiency for every sector, and healthcare is no different. However, there can be some significant challenges when it comes to implementing a complete data strategy when it comes to health and medicine, particularly within the framework of the NHS.This is why the Bradford Institute for Health Research established the Connected Yorkshire programme, in an effort to create a data-sharing platform to speed up research and improve community health throughout the region. This week, we're joined by Connected Yorkshire programme manager Kuldeep Sohal to find out more about Connected Yorkshire's work, the challenges involved with managing data at scale, and how a robust data strategy can help supercharge health and social care.To find out more about the topics we've discussed in this episode, head to https://bit.ly/ITPP-Connected.

The COVID-19 crisis has had a profound impact on all of us, but one of the most drastic changes has been to business IT. Digital transformation and remote collaboration have been catapulted to the top of CIOs’ priority list, and companies have found themselves supporting scores of remote workers. But with a vaccine tantalisingly close to rollout, how will these trends evolve once it’s safe to go back to the office? Joining us this week to discuss the potential long-term impact of COVID on the UK’s cloud market is Frank Jennings, commercial & cloud Lawyer at Wallace LLP.Check out https://bit.ly/ITPP-COVIDcloud for links to everything we've spoken about in today's show.

2020 has been a challenging year, to say the least; businesses around the world have had their plans upended, and been forced to enact dramatic shifts to home working and digital-first business models. However, there are valuable lessons that can be learned from the last six months, and with lockdowns set to continue, now is the perfect time for business leaders to examine how they can use these to better prepare for any uncertainty that the future might hold.In this IT Pro Podcast Special Edition, presented in association with O2, we’ll discuss the unexpected challenges that businesses have had to face over the last six months and look at how organisations can apply the principles of agility, flexibility and digital thinking that have seen them through the current crisis to their forward planning.

Banking is changing; the financial services industry is no more immune to digital transformation than any other sector, and new technologies like cloud platforms, APIs and continuous integration have allowed new challengers to emerge and old incumbents to revitalise their practices. One company that’s helping transform money management is Yolt, an ING-backed startup that has recently added current accounts and contactless cards to its offering. In this week’s episode, we speak to Yolt CTO Roderick Simons to discuss the engineering challenges of this expansion, how the API economy has accelerated Yolt’s business, and why the future of banking is in the cloud.For more information on the topics in today's episode, head to https://bit.ly/ITPP-Yolt.

The 2020 US presidential election has been one of the most divisive in recent memory, but after a seemingly endless wait for results, last Saturday saw Joe Biden predicted as the winner, and 46th president of the United States. Although current president Donald Trump still has three months left in the White House, the focus is now on the incoming leader and what his policy stances may be.But how will a Biden administration approach the tech sector, and all the myriad social issues that intersect with it? Will the president-elect support calls from the likes of Senators Warren and Sanders to break up big tech companies? Will he reinstate Obama-era net neutrality laws repealed by the FCC under Trump? To discuss all these questions and more, we’re joined this week by IT Pro’s US managing editor Justin Cupler.For links to all the topics we've spoken about this week, visit https://bit.ly/ITPP-Biden.

If you’ve spent any time around the PC gaming community in the last thirty years, then you’re almost certainly familiar with Nvidia’s Geforce graphics cards. What you may not now, however, is that the company is also strongly focused on solving next-generation computing challenges - and has been since it was first founded.In this episode, we take a look at Nvidia’s history, its business model and its strategy, including why it’s focusing on AI development, what it plans to do with recently-acquired ARM, and why CEO Jensen Huang should be on next year’s Bake Off. For links to everything to everything we covered in this week's episode, head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-Nvidia

In this special bonus episode, we talk to Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton about the Raspberry Pi 400, the company's newest device, including what makes the Pi 400 so special, how long it's been in development, and how the company is planning to break into the business market.

Data is a vital commodity in modern business, but there’s a growing movement based on openly sharing it for mutual benefit. This trend has neatly intersected with the ongoing coronavirus crisis, in the form of the track and trace efforts which are being used to measure and limit the spread of the virus - but how exactly is open data being used to fight the pandemic, and what lessons can we learn about the use of open data in a business setting?In this week’s episode, we’re joined by Amanda Brock, CEO of industry body Open UK, to find out more about how open data is contributing to relief efforts, the pitfalls of poorly-planned strategies, and how organisations can collaborate on data initiatives.For links to everything we've spoken about this week, check out http://bit.ly/ITPP-opendata.

Passwords are the foundations of our digital identity, which makes them rich targets for cyber criminals. With the right password, a hacker can accomplish all sorts of nefarious tasks, including theft, fraud and impersonation. So how exactly do hackers manage to make off with our passwords, and what can be done to stop them?In this episode, we discuss the methods - both simple and complex - that cyber criminals can employ to pilfer our credentials, including data breaches, watering hole attacks and social engineering, as well as how you can safeguard yourself against falling victim.To find out more about the topic covered in this episode, head to https://bit.ly/ITPP-passwords.

How do you keep track of canine genetic information, breeding data and a quarter of a billion communications records, all spread across different systems? That’s the challenge being grappled with by Guide Dogs for the Blind, a charity organisation dedicated to helping improve the lives of people who are blind or partially sighted. Like many organisations, Guide Dogs is in the process of unifying its data assets in order to make them as efficient and valuable as possible, and in this week’s episode, we speak to CIO Gerard McGovern about how the project is going. We look at the importance of data warehousing, the benefits of accessible data, and how data can help identify a good dog.For more information on the topics we've spoken about in this week's show, head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-doggo.

As tech continues to dominate our lives, more and more people are looking to software development as a career choice, and an increasing number are entering the workforce as self-taught coders. Tools like Codecademy and FreeCodeCamp have allowed more people than ever to pick up skills in JavaScript and Python, as well as more esoteric languages like C++, Ruby and R.But with so many different flavours to choose from, how can aspiring coders identify which programming languages are worth their time to learn? In this week’s episode, we talk to Jess Cregg, a self-taught developer who has gone from working in comms to being an associate solutions engineer at Twilio, to find out how she made the jump, and what languages prospective devs should start off with.To find out more about the topics we've covered in this week's episode, check out http://bit.ly/ITPP-Lang/

For some IT leaders, operating across multiple public cloud platforms is a conscious strategic decision that they’ve made - but sometimes it’s something that can happen completely by accident, either through pressing business imperative or via shadow IT. So what happens when you unexpectedly find yourself in a multi-cloud world without a plan in place to manage it?It’s a problem that many CIOs are grappling with, particularly in light of the current crisis, and in this episode of the IT Pro Podcast, we sit down with VMware’s director of modern apps and cloud native platforms Ed Hoppitt to discuss how organisations can end up in this situation, as well as what can be done to manage the challenges of it.Head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-Madness for links to everything we've spoken about in today's show.

COVID-19 has been challenging for every sector, but the technology industry has been particularly pivotal during this crisis. The adoption of SaaS tools and cloud collaboration platforms has enabled businesses to transition relatively seamlessly to working from home - something which would have been almost unthinkable ten years ago.However, there have also been some distinctly less successful moments, such as the government’s faltering approach to developing a track-and-trace app in order to try and halt the spread of the virus. In this week’s episode of the IT Pro Podcast, we’re joined by staff writer and occasional guest host Keumars Afifi-Sabet to discuss the highs and lows of COVID-19’s effect on the technology sector.Click over to http://bit.ly/ITPP-COVIDTRIAL for links to everything we've talked about in this week's episode.

If you ever need proof that we’re living in the future, just look at virtual reality; a technology that was considered science fiction less than two decades ago is now available to all for a comparatively affordable price. Despite its rapid development, however, it has yet to find its place outside of niche gaming and tech enthusiast communities. Manufacturers like Lenovo and HTC have tried to bring VR into the business world, but enthusiasm is still seemingly limited. While applications like training, prototyping and collaboration have all shown a degree of usefulness, it appears that VR still lacks a ‘killer app’. In this episode, we look at the development of enterprise virtual reality technology, and whether it’s ever going to crack the big time.For links to everything we've spoken about in this episode, head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-VR.

When it comes to data breaches, one of the most common warnings is that in addition to the potential fines, business disruption and data loss that can occur as the result of a successful hack, the damage to a victim’s reputation can be as bad, if not worse. The commonly-accepted wisdom is that, should you leave yourself open to a cyber attack, customers and partners alike will lose trust in your ability to safeguard their data, and will abandon you in droves.However, there are numerous examples over the last few years of companies who have suffered extremely serious data breaches - often through lax cyber security practices - and appear to have suffered little to no long-term consequences. Whether it’s Ashley Madison, Equifax, Marriott or British Airways, there are plenty of organisations for whom this oft-mentioned reputational damage doesn’t seem to have been very damaging after all.So what effect does a data breach have on a company’s reputation? How does it compare to the operational impacts of a breach? And should companies be concerned about reputational damage in the first place? In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Rois Ni Thuama, head of cyber governance at Red Sift, to discuss the topic.Head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-Myth to learn more about everything we've spoken about in this week's episode.

Unsurprisingly, the issue of Brexit has been somewhat pushed out of the public consciousness by the ongoing coronavirus crisis - but that doesn’t mean it’s gone away. In less than four months, the transition period will end, and on 31 December, Britain will officially leave the EU. This will have wide-reaching implications in a number of areas, but there are still significant questions to be answered around how it will affect the IT security of UK companies.Issues like the availability of security talent, the integrity of supply chains, intelligence-sharing and more are all going to be impacted when the transition period ends. But what changes can businesses expect to see, and what can they do to prepare themselves for them? In this episode, Adam is joined once again by special guest co-host Keumars Afifi-Sabet to discuss.Head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-BrexitSec for links to everything we've spoken about in this week's episode.

While you may not be familiar with the tech industry’s latest acronym, DARQ, you’ve probably heard of its constituent components: distributed ledger, artificial intelligence, extended reality and quantum computing technology. Three of those four could be set to have a significant impact on the future of security, with possibilities including unbreakable encryption algorithms, AI-enhanced cyber attacks and much more.In this week’s episode of the IT Pro Podcast, we’re joined by RSA CTO Dr. Zulfikar Ramzan to dig into the future of these technologies, and the effect they could have on cyber safety. We discuss why blockchain is the betamax of distributed ledgers, the cost of a quantum attack, and why your next compliance officer might just be a robot. For links to everything we've talked about in this week's episode, head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-DARQ.

AI is increasingly creeping into modern business, as organisations seek to improve efficiencies and speed up their processes. It’s very easy to get this wrong, however, as the UK government recently found out. An AI algorithm designed to issue students’ final grades for A-Levels and GSCEs has caused uproar over the last few weeks as complaints of unfair and inconsistent results led to widespread protests.The Department for Education was eventually forced to backtrack, announcing that the algorithm-generated results would be scrapped in favour of grades based on teachers’ predictions. But why did this AI system get it so badly wrong, and what can businesses learn from this debacle about deploying AI within their own organisations? In this episode of the IT Pro Podcast, we look at what AI can and can’t do, whether it should be placed in charge of important decisions, and why it’s not a good idea to take your hands off the wheel. For the next four weeks, we’ll also be testing out a new format – instead of having a news roundup, each week we’ll be focusing solely on an in-depth discussion of that episode’s topic. Let us know what you think!For links to all the things we've talked about in this episode, head to http://bit.ly/ITPP-snake.

Many people jokingly (and some non-so-jokingly) refer to the dangers posed by so-called ‘killer robots’. The truth is, these people are right - we are at risk from dangerous AI. It just might not come in the form you’d expect.Businesses have been increasingly turning to AI to automate tedious, manual tasks and make them more efficient, but it turns out that hackers have been doing the same thing too. New developments in AI are allowing cyber criminals to launch larger, faster and more effective campaigns than ever before, and this week, we spoke to Darktrace director of threat hunting Max Heinemeyer to find out how and why.We also discuss Microsoft’s very first foldable phone, the departure of one of the world’s oldest laptop companies, and why police use of facial recognition may be on the way out.To find links to everything we've talked about in this week's episode, head to https://bit.ly/ITPP-AIhack.

The perils of running a startup are often talked about, whether it’s trying to secure funding, marshalling the tech you need or establishing your go-to-market strategy - but no company can remain a startup forever. Eventually, every startup needs to try and grow beyond its current stage, undertaking the difficult journey to scale its operation without falling apart at the seams.In many ways, the scale-up stage is the ‘tricky second album’ of corporate operations, and is fraught with new and distinct pitfalls than those faced by founders in the early days of a company’s lifecycle. This week, we’re joined by startup adviser and SmartDebit CIO and director Gavin Scruby, to discuss how companies can effectively meet the challenges of becoming a scale-up.In this week’s news section, we look at what the theft of secret documents from former trade secretary Liam Fox says about data security practises, whether the new iMac represents good value for money, and the conviction of Uber’s self-driving maven Anthony Levandowski. Head to https://bit.ly/ITPP-scaleup for links to everything we've talked about in this week's show.

Once-in-a-lifetime events are, as the name would suggest, very few and far between. Those that are completely unforeseen are even fewer. Unlike the 2008 economic crisis or the dot-com bubble before it, the COVID-19 pandemic is one of those occasions when everyone was taken by surprise and the economic and social implications have already been significant, with more aftershocks predicted.For businesses, this is an extremely tough time and it’s hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel, particularly as things as fundamental as how and where we live and work are being disrupted on a seemingly permanent basis.Data analytics, however, may hold the answer not only to how businesses can survive these turbulent times, but even reinvent themselves and thrive. This week, Adam and Jane are joined by Libby Duane, co-founder and CCO of Alteryx, to discuss this and how organisations can make better use of data analytics in the longer term.In the news this week, some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley have been getting a grilling from the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, Intel has said goodbye to its chief engineering officer following further delays to its next generation of 7nm chips, while 11 UK Councils are being awarded £800,000 to build on digital services created during the pandemic.For links to all the content we've spoken about in this episode, head to https://bit.ly/ITPP-analytics

Security is an unusual field; while it’s one of the fastest-moving areas of IT in some ways, in other aspects it hasn’t changed in decades. For example, phishing, business email compromise and physical infiltration tactics have remained largely unchanged over the years.That might seem odd, compared to the rate of change in other areas, but it’s because these techniques rely on exploiting fundamental quirks of human nature – quirks that allow hackers to manipulate us for their own ends. But what buttons do these attack methods push in our heads and is there any way for us to fight back? In this episode, we talk to Stephen Burke, CEO and founder of Cyber Risk Aware, to learn more.In the news this week, we discuss Minecraft’s migration to Azure, Salesforce silencing Einstein, and the government accidentally breaking data protection rules with its Track and Trace programme.Visit https://bit.ly/ITPP-psych for links to everything we've spoken about in this week's show.

COVID-19 is creating a new normal for all of us; not only have face masks and social distancing suddenly become front-of-mind concerns, many businesses are grappling with remote working - and all of the challenges it brings - for the first time.For IT professionals, even familiar challenges have taken on added levels of complexity. In the domain of cyber security, access management and passwords have become a major focus, particularly as use of cloud and SaaS tools balloon and with many users working from unsecured personal devices.In this IT Pro Podcast Special Edition, brought to you in association with Specops, we discuss how security and IT professionals can face these new – and old – challenges head on.Download Specops Password Auditor free: https://specopssoft.com/product/specops-password-auditor/Download Specops Password Notification free: https://specopssoft.com/product/specops-password-notification/Download Specops Password Policy (free trial): https://specopssoft.com/product/specops-password-policy/

Hacking is one of the glitzier parts of IT, and Hollywood frequently bombards us with images of black-clad hackers hunched malevolently over glowing screens. Sadly, real-world hacking isn’t quite as glamorous as it’s often made out to be - but that doesn’t mean it’s not a fascinating and lively career.In this week’s episode, we sit down with professional pen-tester and Cyberis director Gemma Moore to find out what the life of a hacker for hire is really like, the common security holes that intruders exploit, and why laziness is a hacker’s greatest weapon.Elsewhere, we discuss the Twitterpocalypse which saw verified users barred from tweeting, and the landmark decision by the government to remove Huawei from the UK’s 5G networks, as well as what it could mean for UK businesses.Head to https://bit.ly/ITPP-hackers for links to everything we've spoken about in this week's episode.

How do you weather a storm like coronavirus when you’ve got a small staff, minimal cashflow and a fledgling business? That’s the question being faced by many of Britain’s startups, as they batten down the hatches and try to ride out the current turbulence.This week, we speak to Andrew Roughan, managing director of Plexal - a London-based startup hub - about why startups are well-positioned to cope with the crisis, how co-working spaces can safely reopen and why the government needs to provide more support to struggling startups.We also take a look at the latest developments in the ongoing spat between Huawei and the UK government, the new Thunderbolt 4 standard, and SUSE’s acquisition of Rancher Labs.Click here for links to everything we've talked about in this week's episode: https://bit.ly/ITPP-startup

It’s no secret that there’s a recession looming on the horizon as a result of COVID-19, and increasing numbers of people are finding themselves out of work. There may be an up-side to this seemingly bleak scenario, however: It could be the perfect environment for creating an unprecedented startup boom.As part of this discussion, we dig into the historical links between economic turbulence and startup success, how the tech tools used to deal with coronavirus can accelerate new businesses, and why the surge in demand for tech skills has made it easier than ever to start a new company.In this week’s news section; the Computer Misuse Act may be starting to show its age, Matt Hancock looks to retire the humble pager, and Microsoft promises free up-skilling for all.For more information and links to everything that we've talked about in this week's episode head to https://bit.ly/ITPP-recession.

Since lockdowns came into effect, businesses across the country have been scrambling to institute remote working infrastructure to support employees - but while speed has understandably been a focus, security should not be neglected. In this IT Pro Podcast Special Edition, brought to you in association with RSA Security, we look at how businesses can use the current situation as an opportunity to establish a culture of safe, secure and sustainable remote working within their organisation. We spoke to Just Eat CISO Kevin Fielder and RSA’s director of digital risk solutions Angel Grant to examine the cultural, technological and mindset shifts required to support this move, as well as how embracing sustainable remote working can be a true business accelerator, rather than a box-ticking exercise. For more information on how you can prepare your business for secure long-term remote working, download our special report: https://bit.ly/WP-COVID

We’ve heard a lot about cloud computing, edge computing and various other kinds of computing, but confidential computing is less well known. As an emerging encryption model, it promises to offer greater protection to data as it's being used, supplementing at-rest and in-transit encryption.Protecting against attacks like memory dumps and malicious root user compromise, the development of confidential computing is being spearheaded by the Confidential Computing Consortium, an open-source industry group working to address the problem. In this week’s episode, we talk to Dr Richard Searle, senior security architect at Fortanix and general member’s representative to the governing board of the consortium, about what the technology aims to do.In this week’s news, we discuss Apple’s decision to make its own Mac chips and other announcements from its annual WWDC conference, HPE’s new software portfolio, and the case of a disgruntled ex-director who deleted all the files in her former employers’ Dropbox account.For links to everything we've talked about this week, head to https://bit.tl/ITPP-CCC

As the final day of IT Pro Live dawns, we turn our gaze to the future, exploring how businesses can build a resilient technology stack that will last them into the next decade, as well as looking at some of the emerging technologies and methodologies which could transform business in years to come. Register: https://live.itpro.com/itprolive2020/en/page/ticketsWatch: https://live.itpro.com/itprolive2020/en/page/agenda

As we move on to day four of IT Pro Live, our focus turns to the topic of innovation - a goal often strived for, but frequently stymied by the need to keep regular business operations ticking over at the same time. We'll hear from data experts, IT practitioners and even the founder of Raspberry Pi about how they're keeping innovation alive while still meeting the needs of the business. To register for your tickets, head to https://live.itpro.com/itprolive2020/en/page/tickets, and head to https://live.itpro.com/itprolive2020/en/page/agenda to watch the day's sessions.

Day three of our special IT Pro Live bonus miniseries focuses on security. Featuring speakers such as ex-hacker Greg van der Gaast, RSA Security CTO Zulfikar Ramzan and digital propaganda expert Dr. Samuel Woolley, day three of IT Pro Live is packed to the gills with all of the security insights you need to keep your business safe. Head to live.itpro.com to get your free tickets.

For the second day of IT Pro Live, we're talking all about cloud - including panels on building a minimum viable product, a Q&A with Salesforce on customer engagement amid COVID-19, and a keynote from OpenUK's Amanda Brock. Head to live.itpro.com to sign up for your free ticket.

In the first of five special bonus mini-episodes, we give you a sneak peek about what's coming up during day one of our first ever virtual conference. To register for your free ticket, head to live.itpro.com

For the last few years, vendors and analysts alike have been touting the transformational benefits of 5G, proclaiming that it will unlock new innovations like smart cities and autonomous cars. Here in the present, however, these benefits haven’t quite materialised.Not only that, but many are now vehemently opposed to 5G, claiming (among other things) that it’s linked to the spread of COVID-19, even going so far as to vandalise cell towers. To get the truth on what 5G actually offers, and when we can expect to see the benefits from it, we spoke to Paul Beastall, director of technology strategy at Cambridge Consultants and advisory board member of trade body UK5G.Also in this episode, we look at native Windows applications finally coming to Chromebooks, the CIA’s lacklustre security, and the first step towards password-free banking.For links to everything we've talked about, head to https://bit.ly/ITPP-5G.

Whether it’s the new oil, the new gold, or the new depleted uranium, most businesses agree that data is becoming more and more critical to continued success. Organisations across the world are investing in their data competency, and throughout this process, the office of the CDO has been thrust to the fore.But what exactly does a CDO do? What impact can they have on business? And how much of a priority should it be for businesses to appoint one? To answer these questions, and more, we talked to Caroline Carruthers, author, data expert and one half of data consultancy Carruthers and Jackson. Caroline is also delivering keynote speech at our upcoming virtual conference, IT Pro Live.Also in this episode, we discuss Amazon and IBM’s decisions to limit their sale of facial recognition technology to police forces, what IBM’s cloud outage means for smaller companies, and whether a recent healthcare data leak could put an early end to video consultations.Visit http://bit.ly/ITPP-CDO for links to everything we've spoken about in this episode.