Leeds Digital Festival 2023: Our Events Recap
Last week, we hosted two exciting events as part of Leeds Digital Festival on creating a cyber savvy workforce and the future of collaboration.
Read our article for a recap of the insightful insights we discussed.
Creating a Cyber Savvy Workforce
On Wednesday, we joined Laura for our morning session on creating a cyber savvy workforce. We explored the human side of cyber security, where Laura emphasised that an organisation is only as strong as its weakest link.
At this interactive session, Laura shared her expertise on password policies, the impact remote working has had on secure working, and the significance of data security policies and regulations.
Social Engineering
Laura kicked off the session by sharing how a hacker thinks. She shared that hackers are trained to find personal information on individuals from their social media accounts and other public platforms. They use manipulation to gather information to exploit employees or organisations.
Laura expressed employees need to stay vigilant to avoid falling victim to phishing, vishing, and other social engineering attacks. As such, individuals must be cautious and double-check before clicking on email links or disclosing personal or confidential information.
Creating Secure Passwords
Laura shared that the cyber space aims to avoid using passwords due to the potential risks they can pose for individuals and organisations. The importance of creating secure passwords for organisations that still utilise them was emphasised. Laura shared a series of common passwords to avoid along with shocking stats demonstrating the number of individuals that utilise unsecure passwords and the subsequent data breaches. Only this year, the password 123456789 has been used and breached over 7.7 million times!
An insightful tip on creating secure complex passwords to reduce cyber incidents was shared. Individuals should also be wary of how they store their passwords. For instance, the common practice of writing company passwords on post-it notes and placing them on a computer screen or storing passwords in an insecure note file on your laptop poses massive cyber security risks.
Remote and Physical Security
Maintaining a secure environment within the physical work environment is equally important. Being vigilant, speaking up, and preventing unauthorised access to individuals within your workspace and work building is vital. Hackers will seize every opportunity to gain information on your organisation, and they typically target employees to gather the information they need to execute these attacks. As such, screening employees and limiting access to confidential information, from company files to office storage spaces, whether online or in person, is critical. Training employees to be aware of potential cyber security threats and attacks is equally essential.
In summary, now more than ever, individuals need to ensure they trust no one, speak up when they observe suspicious behaviour, and double-check before disclosing information. Organisations have the responsibility of going the extra mile to implement policies and training to protect against cyber attacks and security incidents.
The Future of Collaboration
On Thursday, we had an intriguing panel event where we were joined by speakers: Deborah Sweeney from TD Synnex, Antonia Martin-Wright from CEG, Matt Simmons from Jungle IT, and our host Alex Carey.
We explored exciting topics surrounding remote working policies, data governance and compliance, artificial intelligence (AI), and digital technologies changing the way we collaborate in physical and virtual working spaces.
Remote Working
Remote working and technology has revolutionised the way we work together. Deborah shared her thoughts on the prominent shift towards hybrid working post the pandemic. Numerous organisations have embraced technology tools such as Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 during and post-lockdown. However, she stated many organisations still don't understand the full capabilities that these and other technology tools can have on our ability to work productively.
Matt shared the challenge remote working poses for ensuring a secure working environment. Challenges can arise from children and other unauthorised users having access to work laptops and systems. Further challenges arise from using insecure networks and infrastructure whilst working from home. The need to ensure employee systems are kept up to date to protect against data breaches and promoting cyber awareness training in the workplace was highlighted.
Antonia, the commercial development director at CEG, commented on her stance and the work CEG is doing to promote working in physical workspaces. CEG is helping to change the way organisations work by providing modern work spaces that enable individuals to work easily from providing hot desking and creating office spaces where employees can work comfortably, securely and maximise productivity.
AI and Automation
Automation is a huge trend that has transformed the way organisations work. Many of the day-to-day tools we use are changing to employ automation to make it easy for individuals to work.
Deborah mentioned Microsoft Copilot, an automation tool Microsoft is releasing in the upcoming months to transform the way organisations work. Copillot's powerful technology and automation will help skyrocket productivity for Microsoft tools, such as Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Teams, Excel, etc.
"It was great to have the opportunity to discuss the Future of Collaboration in this new era of AI with the audience and bounce thoughts and ideas off the other panellists. We’re moving into an exciting new phase of technology with AI, and it’ll be fun to see how it evolves."
We had a sneak peek of the functionality of Copilot, and its ability to use prompts to output impressive results from Meeting minutes and action points in Teams to comprehensive graph comparisons in Excel.
Antonia commented on the way CEG is utilising AI to showcase impressive virtual spaces to clients for real estate projects. Virtual reality and AI has also began to share other industries including education and this trend will continue to grow.
Data Security & Privacy
Ensuring data security and privacy is becoming incredibly challenging as the digital landscape changes rapidly.
Antonia shared the importance of ensuring employees can work securely in the workplace. Having office booths and work infrastructure fitted with soundproof capabilities and hot desk policies can enable employees to work securely.
Matt highlighted the importance of ensuring organisations internal data is stored securely and is up to date according to GDPR policies. Failing to follow governance and compliance regulations can result in fines of up to 4% of a companies annual turnover or £17.5 million which ever is greater. Utilising tools such as Microsoft Purview and Azure can help improve secure working environments.
Deborah commented on the relationship data and security has on the functionality of AI tools. Without having an organisation's data in a fit state, Microsoft Copilot and automation will not be able to produce accurate, beneficial results. Automation is only as powerful as the data that it has access to work with. As such, ensuring an organisation's data is clean is crucial.
The Human Element
With all these technological developments and the proliferation of AI, now more than ever, there is a need to maintain human interaction and connectivity within the workplace.
Deborah and Matt commented on the tools Microsoft provides for collaboration, such as Microsoft Viva and Microsoft Teams.
Antonia shared the importance of having physical workspaces where possible to enable human interaction and networking.
At Jungle IT, we're committed to enabling our clients to work effectively with the IT structures, technology, and IT expertise they need to be efficient. The focus of technology should never be to replace human interaction but rather to enhance the way we work together.
Microsoft Copilot: Shifting the Way We Work Together
Microsoft Copilot is an exciting tool that will be a game changer in improving the way we collaborate. Sign up below to hear about the exciting updates and functionalities Microsoft Copilot can provide for your organisation.
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