Embracing Digital This Week

Microsoft confirms new version of its popular AI chatbot will be able to turn text into VIDEO. GPT-4 and future developments will forever change how we think about artificial intelligence. This powerful AI can process text and numbers, videos, images, and more. Microsoft explained that GPT-4 would be “multimodal.” Holger Kenn, Director of Business Strategy at Microsoft Germany, explained that this would allow the company’s AI to translate a user’s text into images, music, and video.

AI to replace actors? Imagine using AI to create a film without hiring real actors or writing a fully illustrated 200-page book in just one day. Yes, you read that right, GPT-4 makes it possible to use artificial intelligence for almost anything you can imagine.

Schrodinger: A ChatGPT-Integrated Fully Interactive Multi-Agent Financial Market Simulator Citadel, one of the world's most successful hedge funds, is in talks to secure an enterprise-wide ChatGPT license. ChatGPT can produce correct code with a (simple) trade execution strategy.

“Zero” is the new word of the day, with the “Data Alliance” coining the word Zero-Copy for new distributed data architectures. Zero-copy integration is a concept that enables data to be shared between different systems without copying it. The traditional approach of copying data from one system to another can lead to inefficiencies, data consistency issues, and security vulnerabilities.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the vision of data everywhere, in the cloud, the data center, laptops, and IoT devices. This data sprawl has caused IT organizations to re-evaluate their data strategies. New distributed data management strategies and solutions need to be developed that are more comprehensive in managing heterogenous data types, including structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.

The complexity of data governance is driving organizational changes, including the emergence of the data steward role in organizations. Data stewards are beginning to manage data access, privacy concerns, and data lifecycle management. Placing data stewards in the organization is still up for a healthy debate as organizations mature their data-centric organizations.

An open-source adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) phishing kit has found several takers in the cybercrime world for its ability to orchestrate attacks at scale. Microsoft Threat Intelligence tracks the threat actor behind the kit’s development under its emerging moniker DEV-1101. An AiTM phishing attack typically involves a threat actor attempting to steal and intercept a target's password and session cookies by deploying a proxy server between the user and the website.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has warned organizations that operate critical infrastructure about ransomware vulnerabilities in their devices. The advisory includes a list of devices that attackers may target and recommends that organizations assess their networks for possible risks. CISA has a newly established Ransomware Vulnerability Warning Pilot (RVWP) program with two goals: to scan critical infrastructure entities' networks and help vulnerable organizations fix the flaws before they get hacked.

A report by Drata highlights key compliance trends for 2023. The report outlines the shift towards continuous compliance monitoring and the need for automation tools to achieve compliance. It also highlights the increasing focus on privacy regulations and the growing importance of vendor risk management. The report recommends that companies prioritize their compliance efforts, utilize automation tools, and stay current with evolving regulatory requirements to avoid potential fines and reputational damage.

Check out this weeks full length episode "Closing the Digital Skills Gap" where Darren interviews Jon Gottfried from Major League Hacking.