Three Chinese citizens have been charged in the U.S. courts after it was found that they hacked U.S. law firms and then used the stolen information for insider-trading that netted them $4 million dollars.

A Manhattan federal court charged the 3 men this week with conspiracy, insider trading, wire fraud and computer intrusion in a case that mixed cyber-crime with securities fraud.

How They Did It

It has been reported that the trio aged 26, 30 and 50 hacked 2 U.S. law firms, specifically targeting the email accounts of partners working on mergers and acquisitions. The hacking trio used the law firms’ employee’s credentials to install malware on the firm’s servers in order to access emails from lawyers.

The hackers were searching for commercially sensitive information that would give them an advantage in the second level of the fraud which was to trade on company stocks based on the insider information they had gained about mergers and acquisitions.

Another U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission civil lawsuit has shown that the men were able to avoid suspicion by listing themselves in brokerage records as working at information technology companies.

Law Firms Not Yet Officially Identified

The 2 law firms have not yet been identified, although speculation in a technology news post on the Reuters website suggests that New York-based Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP may be a likely candidate. The speculation appears to be based on news that the bank represented Pitney Bowes in its 2015 acquisition of Borderfree Inc, which one of the mergers in question in the recent case. It has also come to light that in March 2015 Cravath was reported to have discovered what was described as a “limited breach” of its systems.

Accused of Making Money From Intel’s Altera Inc Acquisition

U.S. prosecutors are reported to have accused the trio of defendants of making large amounts of money by trading using information that they allegedly stole from the law firm that represented Intel on its acquisition of Altera Inc in 2015.

It is reported that the men bought more than 200,000 shares in early February 2015, and then sold them when the stock price peaked with the release of the acquisition, allegedly making the trio around $1.4 million in profit. There is speculation on the Reuters website that this law firm that was hacked in this case may have been Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, but this has not been confirmed.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

It seems that governments, banks and now law firms can be hacked in sophisticated multi-level crimes, most of which result in fraud. This attack has been described as a wake-up call for law firms globally, although it also serves as a reminder to all businesses to prioritise cyber and data security. Businesses have a legal responsibility to protect client data and should take what action they can to protect themselves and their clients and to maintain confidentiality and client trust.

Having a robust information security management system (ISMS) with cyber security controls is now an important requirement.

Businesses should now take proactive steps to protect themselves and their clients. Clients need to be able to trust that their information is confidential and is well protected. Having a strong information security management system (ISMS) with cyber security controls is now an important requirement. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plans are now also essential.
Attacks can occur for multiple reasons such as system vulnerabilities, human error, or even employees / ex-employees with malicious intent. Businesses should, therefore, take a holistic approach to information security that covers the people, the processes, and the technology.

The word from recruitment specialists to employers is that challenges in IT recruitment for 2017 will include a ‘High-Demand, Low Supply’ hiring landscape, and the need to adapt to the needs and expectations of millennials and Generation Z.

Complications and Challenges

The complications that businesses now face in areas such as security, big-data and cloud technologies, are among the reasons why IT recruitment has become an important issue.

The IT recruitment landscape, however, means that employers face many challenges in finding the skills they need. These challenges include a competitive, ‘high-demand but low supply’ hiring landscape, continued growth in the IT market, and the need to adapt to new technologies and the changing needs and expectations of the workforce. With these challenges in mind, employers can help equip themselves by recognising 8 of the key IT recruitment trends that are likely to affect them in 2017.

Trend 1 – User Interfaces Need To Be Easy-to-Use

Recruitment commentators are warning companies that since the bulk of the workforce is made up of millennials and Generation ‘Z’, when it comes recruitment (and technologies that they are expected to used at work), user interfaces need to be simple and user experience made as easy and intuitive as possible. This is because people from these generations expect (and are used to) easy-to-use technology and they are known to dislike complexity.

Trend 2 – More Technology Used in Interviews

Recruitment specialists are also reporting an increase in the use of technology in job interviews for 2017. Face to face, in-person Q & As are now being replaced by live chat, video interviewing, and more interactive processes such as whiteboard sessions.

Trend 3 – Companies Need To Look Further Afield For IT Candidates

Reports of a less than 2% unemployment rate for IT roles means that employers will need to look further afield geographically for candidates and will, therefore, need to consider using video interviewing.

Trend 4 – Specialists Rather Than Generalists Sought

One other trend identified by recruitment commentators is that in IT hiring, employers are now more likely to be looking for and hiring candidates with specialist knowledge and experience, rather than generalists. This is because IT roles in companies are now more focused on niche areas.

Trend 5 – Freedom and Flexibility

The trend of some specialist IT workers preferring the independence, freedom and flexibility of moving from one client to the next for specific jobs on temporary contracts (the gig economy), rather than staying with one main employer is forecast to continue in 2017.

Trend 6 – All Candidates Now Need IT Skills

The word from employers and recruitment specialist alike is that all roles in today’s business environment tend to involve the use of IT in some capacity, and therefore a reasonable level of IT skills is now expected in candidates across multiple industry sectors, simply to be considered for employment.

Trend 7 – Higher Pay For Technology Skills Expected

One message that recruitment analysts have for employers in 2017 is that they should expect to have to have to pay premium rates to attract and retain people with the right technology skills.

Trend 8 – Human Recruitment Specialists Will Still Be Still Needed

One (perhaps unsurprising) prediction for 2017 by recruitment experts is that their own skills, knowledge, experience and processes can’t be fully replaced by AI, bots, and other ‘robot’ technologies. This, of course, means that businesses are likely to need to use (and to pay for) specialist IT recruitment services to attract the right candidates.

Recruitment commentators have however acknowledged that some use of AI and bots can be used to speed up and streamline the administrative aspects of recruitment, and could, therefore enable improve performance from recruiters in the near future.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Adoption of evolving technologies (and the challenges posed by it), compliance and IT governance issues, and IT security challenges mean that businesses in 2017 and beyond may be more likely to require people with more and more specialised IT skills. This could come at a cost and could require businesses to understand and adapt more to the needs and expectations of millennials and Generation Z.

Figures from Gartner and IDC show that, apart from the 3 big vendors, sales of PCs fell in 2016, with technology improvements and innovations proving to be not strong enough motivators to stop the downward trend.

Fifth Year Running

According to Gartner figures, the fall in PC sales is part of a downward trend that’s been going on for the last 5 years. The last quarter of 2016 saw sales dip by 3.7%, and PC sales fell globally in 2016 by 6.2% to a still quite impressive 269.7 million unit shipments.

Why the Fall in Sales?

The PC market appears to be feeling the effects of a change in consumer behaviour and technology commentators broadly agree that there are 2 main reasons why PC sales are still in decline:

1. Smart-phones and apps. The now wide-scale ownership of smart-phones, and the growth in app development has meant that many people now use their smart-phone for things they would have used a PC for several years ago.
2. Technology improvements are not enough. The technology improvements in PCs in recent years have not been sufficient to stimulate growth in sales. Even the development of 2-in-1s, thinner and lighter notebooks, big improvements in battery life, the introduction of Intel’s Skylake microprocessors, virtual reality (VR), and the launch of Nvidia 10-series graphics cards have all failed to become big enough motivators to reverse the downward trend.

The launch of Apple’s new MacBooks did, however, prove to be a strong enough attraction to buck the trend slightly with 2.4% increase in shipments in the last quarter of 2016.

Bigger Manufacturers Winning Market Share

However, sales of PCs have  been growing in recent years for the ‘big 3’ manufacturers who have essentially been taking market share from other, smaller manufacturers rather than finding new, untapped markets. Lenovo, for example, increased its already leading market share by 1.6 per cent to 21.7%.

HP and Dell also gained ground to take 20.4% and 14.8% market share respectively. Figures indicate that growth in market share for these 3 companies may have been at the expense of Asus, Apple and Acer who all saw declines in unit shipments last year.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Consumer habits are changing as we favour mobile devices over traditional PCs. Although PCs are still important to many businesses (PC sales are still strong for the business sector and gamers), a move to the cloud, collaborative working, trends like BYOT(Bring Your Own Technology) and more developments in mobile technology  will continue to see businesses moving more towards mobile device options for staff.

With many businesses now having upgraded to Windows 10, it’s useful to know which of the latest features the O/S can offer that can help you to work smarter, save time, and get better results.

New Features

Although Build 15007 has just been introduced (and it includes some new additions), many technical commentators agree that the most impact was made by the rollout of Build 15002 a few days earlier. Here are, arguably, some of the better and important changes from 15002 Build as identified reported by ‘Insider’ previews, that we can expect to be using soon:

• Reduced Blue Light Pollution: Medical studies have shown that the blue light produced by your computer display at night could be a contributor to health problems e.g. obesity, and even cancer. Build 15002 allows you to decrease the amount of blue light produced at night.
• Dealing with Tabs in Microsoft Edge: You can now minimize tabs that you aren’t using and then restore them later. You can also preview tabs in Edge by clicking the down-caret icon from the tab list, and then scrolling a tab carousel.
• More sensible stroke erasing in ‘Ink’: The stroke eraser in Microsoft Ink now only erases one stroke at a time.
• Cortana improvements: Predictive / suggested, legitimate commands for Cortana are now displayed as you type, and Cortana now delivers recurring reminders for your important events.
• Control over update timing: With Windows Pro, Enterprise, and Education you can pause updates for 35 days.
• Refresh Windows: Rather than a complete re-install there are times when a refresh is a better option. This is now possible via theSettings > Recovery menu, used as part of the Defender app.
• Find all connected devices in one place: They are now (conveniently) all listed on one page.
• Create your own Touchpad gestures: You can now create and set your own gestures using three and four-finger swipes in Touchpad (see Settings).
• Personalisation tracking: Your desktop personalisation changes can now be tracked over time, and rolled back.
• Simplified themes: The themes page (in the Settings Menu) is better organised and easier to use.
• Display settings improvements: Display resolution is now in a more convenient front-and-centre position on the page.
• Create virtual machines fast: In Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education, Hyper-V can be used to quickly create virtual machines, thereby enabling you to securely test a new app, or new software without risk to your PC.
• Accessibility improvements: Narrator now works with WinPE (repair Windows) and WinRE (Windows recovery), and Braille support will be available in Windows 10 soon.
• Easy and effective icon scaling: Your screen icons can now be scaled to the right, consistent sizes.
• Sharing options organized better: Now there is an organized panel on the right-hand side of the screen, rather than fly-out apps.
• Easier web payments: Windows 10 will be able to work with Payment Request API, which stores checkout and shipping preferences in your Microsoft Wallet.
• New calendar options: Windows 10 has will soon support the lunar calendar which is widely used throughout other parts of the world.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

As more businesses switch to Windows 10 with its ‘as a service’ model and automatic updates, the O/S will incorporate more helpful and improved features. These could, of course, help to save money, time and improve efficiency.

This will also mean that businesses will have to find ways of keeping up with the latest updates, which could in itself be time-consuming.

The EU has voted to give a Bill of Rights to robots that will give them “electronic personhood” status in the eyes of the Law in anticipation of a new kind of industrial robot revolution.

Why?

The need for European Parliament’s legal affairs committee to vote in favour of extending rights to robots has come about in anticipation of a booming new age of robot, bot, and android development. The anticipated huge growth in this area of technology and the possible wide-scale effects on society have necessitated the laying down of some ground rules in order to enable the full economic exploitation of robotics and A.I., while safeguarding humanity.

What Are The Issues?

More robots with greater (artificial) intelligence, being produced in greater numbers, and having a greater impact on our work and home lives raises issues around privacy, human dignity, the human labour market, care to robots, and our physical safety if robot systems fail or are hacked.

The robot Bill of Rights (when completed) is therefore reported to be likely to cover issues like:

• Control. With AI, robot intelligence could potentially surpass human intelligence. This could pose a threat to human survival. Safeguards will therefore be needed to allow the intelligence to be harnessed without it being able to pose a danger to humans.
• Safeguards. Making sure that not only do robots remain in the service of humans, but also that they are unable to physically harm us. This could mean that designers, producers and operators of robots will need to comply with legislation which ensures that robots will act a certain way when they become self-aware i.e. in accordance with laws similar to those suggested by Isaac Asimov.
• Off Switch. The need for the inclusion of a ‘Kill Switch’ in robots to give humans ultimate protection.
• Job Security. The possible need for a universal basic income in EU member countries where jobs could be taken by AI or robots.
• Technical Expertise. The possible need for a European agency that provides technical, ethical and regulatory expertise to those involved in robotics and AI.
• Accountability. Robot designers may be required to register their robots, provide access to the source code, investigate any accidents and damage caused by their robots, and consult ethics committee about research for new robot designs.
• Legal Issues. Decisions will need to be made about legal liabilities in relation to the results of robot behaviour, and to what degree an owner / designer is responsible for it, taking into account the robots instructions, level learning capability or autonomy.

What Happens Next?

Now that the EP’s legal affairs committee has voted in favour of “electronic personhood” for robots, the European Commission will now need to present a legislative proposal, and the full house / the European Parliament will vote on draft proposals in February.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

AI and robotics are now being introduced into many aspects of businesses e.g. IT systems, manufacture and production, customer service, and autonomous vehicles.

The fact that countries now feel the need to discuss the issues and produce guidelines and legislation for robots is a sign that a new kind of robot revolution may well be at hand. This could mean greater opportunities for businesses, but new laws will also mean new areas of legal responsibility and liability that businesses will need to become familiar with.