Technology
Current Tech Market Conditions Leave Businesses Vulnerable to Insider Threat
By Quentyn Taylor
How will GDPR regulations present new challenges for cyber security teams?
GDPR legislation for both the UK and Europe has revolutionised the way businesses communicate, secure and store data, as well as holding businesses financially and personally accountable for when they fail to handle data correctly. In fact, GDPR fines hit a total of 97.29 million Euros in the first half of 2022, an increase of 92% over H1 2021.
This year, there has been an increasing number of fines centred around Article 32 of GDPR, which states that penalties can be enforced if companies have a lack of technical and security measures in place, even if this does not lead to a breach. While the focus will undoubtedly still be on enforcing reactive fines responding to data leaks, in 2023, penalising those that do not have adequate preventative measures will become increasingly more prominent. Ultimately, legislation has moved faster than many organisations can keep up with, particularly alongside the challenge of managing and executing IT security in a hybrid environment. Next year, regulations will only become tighter, and organisations will be held up to increasingly higher scrutiny.
Where will IT investment be directed in 2023 and how will this impact the execution of security strategies?
Digitisation was critical in the shift to hybrid, and as a result, IT teams have enjoyed relatively high budgets in previous years while other business functions have been cut. However, now organisations are operating in a different landscape, with rising inflation and the threat of a global recession, many will begin to reassess all their budgets, IT included.
Despite this economic turbulence, security will remain a priority for investment. The threat landscape continues to develop at pace, and with financial and reputational damage attached to security breaches which could make or break some businesses as recession hits, minimising security budgets will be non-negotiable.
Yet, reducing IT budgets while increasing security investments present a problem when it comes to the execution of this strategy. Fundamental to the success of a security plan is whether it can be delivered via an operational IT team. Reducing spend for IT will inadvertently open organisations to attack, as security teams will not have the apparatus needed to implement their plans.
As we enter 2023, it is, therefore, critical for IT security leaders to consider their holistic IT strategy instead of viewing IT and security as two separate entities.
How will the global economic crisis impact the security industry?
Europe is still in a recovery state from the pandemic, and other macroeconomic pressures, such as energy shortages and soaring inflation rates are threatening how businesses can invest and grow. The tech industry has ultimately felt the crunch, with 12,000 tech jobs already being lost worldwide, the market is becoming increasingly more volatile and unpredictable.
Previously, the buoyancy of the tech sector meant many IT professionals were able to find a job by the end of the week if they were let go, but with this safety net removed, we will see cases of insider threat on the rise in 2023. Indeed, in Q3 2022, this peaked to its highest quarterly level to date accounting for nearly 35% of all unauthorised access threat incidents.
The current tech market conditions leave businesses vulnerable to insider threat, for example, some workers attempt to copy data and utilise it for their next employer. Cybercriminals will exploit this issue as well by keeping up with current trends in the tech sector, as they are able to implement new strategies that target those who are being laid off.
Organisations must ensure data is secured when employees leave the business and that it has not been transferred onto personal devices. Yet, according to our recent research, only 18% of IT decision-makers say they are able to track information across the full lifecycle. In response, businesses should increase visibility across their data journey, so organisations can identify when employees are printing and sharing information beyond company defences.
Quentyn Taylor – Senior Director of Information Security and Global Response at Canon EMEA
By Dipo Olowookere
The Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for MTN Nigeria, Mr Babalola Oyeleye, has disclosed that the telecommunications company intends to expand its infrastructure to give its customers quality service.
The demand for connectivity in Nigeria is growing, and with a new forecast predicting the Internet of Things (IoT) market to reach $38.7 billion by 2030, stakeholders, especially operators, are already positioning themselves to dominate the space
Government and private sector investments in digital transformation have created an ecosystem that includes system integrators and security specialists. Industries such as utilities and agriculture are leading the charge, adopting IoT to solve localised problems like power theft and low crop yields.
Currently, 4G coverage has reached approximately 80 per cent of Nigeria’s population, with 5G services already in major cities like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Kano. This connectivity backbone is essential for the low-latency communication required by millions of connected devices.
“Reaching the $38.7 billion mark isn’t just about the numbers; it’s about the millions of data points helping Nigerian SMEs and large corporations make smarter decisions every day. Our goal is to ensure the connectivity is there to meet this soaring demand,” Mr Oyeleye noted.
As the ecosystem matures, the focus is shifting toward all-in-one solutions that simplify the user experience. With ongoing investments in NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT) and other low-power connectivity options, the next five years are set to see an explosion in smart city and smart home applications across the country.
By Adedapo Adesanya
South African-founded Refiant AI has raised $5 million to slash the energy footprint of artificial intelligence (AI) in a seed round led by VoLo Earth Ventures, a top climate technology fund.
The startup uses nature-inspired algorithms to radically compress AI models, slashing the hardware and energy required to run them. The new fund will be used to scale Refiant’s team – which already includes a former Google Cloud architect, a Cambridge PhD researcher, and an engineer with NASA experience – to build out a platform and to accelerate enterprise partnerships.
According to a statement shared with Business Post, the company is in active conversations with several multinational technology firms exploring how Refiant’s approach could reduce their AI compute costs while maintaining data and energy sovereignty.
“AI’s growing energy footprint is one of the most urgent and underappreciated challenges in the climate space,” said Mr Sid Gutta, the company’s co-founder. “The industry’s default answer is to build more data centres and consume more power. Ours is to make the AI itself dramatically more efficient.”
The company said it has already successfully demonstrated it can compress a 120 billion parameter AI model to run on a standard laptop, reducing energy requirements by over 80 per cent while preserving near-identical quality. It achieved this to run on a MacBook Pro with just 12GB of RAM. The same model would normally require hardware with at least 80GB of memory. The model retained 95-99 per cent of its fidelity, ran alongside a second AI model on the same machine, and the entire process took four hours with no cloud computing required.
For Refiant, its approach will help businesses reduce their carbon footprint and adopt AI to stay competitive. The energy required to process a single AI prompt on standard infrastructure could power roughly 100 equivalent prompts using Refiant’s approach.
The current breakthrough results were attained at the end of last year, and since then, the team have been gearing up to demonstrate successfully exceeding these results with further compression, longer context windows and model traceability.
“The AI industry is spending hundreds of billions scaling infrastructure when the real breakthrough is the ability to do more with radically less,” said Mr Viroshan Naicker, co-Founder and a mathematician with published research in networks and quantum systems. “Nature doesn’t build by brute force. Evolution optimises. We’ve applied that principle to AI – and the results speak for themselves.”
“AI’s biggest constraint isn’t demand – it’s energy,” added Mr Joseph Goodman, Managing Partner, VoLo Earth. “What’s been missing is a fundamentally more efficient way to compute. Refiant’s architecture replaces brute-force scaling with a far more efficient, nature-inspired approach that lowers energy use while increasing capability. That’s the kind of breakthrough needed to make AI sustainable on a global scale.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
Google and UpSkill Universe, Sub-Saharan Africa’s leading AI and business skills training partner, have announced a major redesign of the Google Hustle Academy programme. For the first time, the free training initiative is open to everyone, not just business owners.
The new curriculum is focused on equipping individuals and entrepreneurs with practical AI skills and comes at a time when small businesses have become the engine of Africa’s economy, creating over 80 per cent of jobs on the continent. To help them grow, the Hustle Academy was launched in 2022, providing bootcamp-style training on business strategy, digital skills, AI, and leadership. The program has since trained over 18,000 SMEs, with many reporting increased revenue and job creation.
Now, as AI reshapes the job market, the program is evolving. The 2026 edition is built for anyone in Sub-Saharan Africa, including employees, students, and job seekers, who want to use AI to advance their careers. To meet the needs of a diverse audience, the new format includes short, 60-minute webinars and more immersive, high-impact bootcamps. These sessions are laser-focused on putting AI to work immediately in areas like digital commerce, marketing, and growth strategy.
Speaking about the academy, Mr Gori Yahaya, Founder & CEO of UpSkill Universe, said, “The 2026 Hustle Academy is designed to close the AI Skills gap with hands-on training that is short, focused, and immediately useful. AI is reshaping how businesses win and how careers are built, right across this continent. We’re excited to renew our partnership, now in its fifth year with Google, combining their global AI leadership with our deep regional AI expertise. The next wave of AI leaders will come from this continent. We are making sure they are ready.”
The Hustle Academy initiative has strengthened digital competitiveness across emerging African economies by enabling SMEs to move beyond AI awareness to practical implementation, positioning them for sustained growth in an increasingly AI-driven business environment.
“We believe that the future of Africa’s digital economy lies in the hands of individuals and entrepreneurs alike. Our new strategy focuses on scaling reach by training individuals in the latest AI-centred tools and techniques,” said a Google representative.
Applications for the 2026 cohort are now open. Interested participants can apply at: https://rsvp.withgoogle.com/events/hustle-academy
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