IT Tools for Managers - CIO Management Toolkit
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How to Implement Omni Commerce -- the Wave of the Future
The IT-ToolKits.com website is a resource site for Information Technology management.
eCommerce systems are now moving towards the new paradigm
The Wave of the Future - SmartPhones and tablets are changing the way the way people and business browse the Internet, shop, provide service and communicate with suppliers, customers and associates.
Enterprises need to have the right foundation. Management and leadership begin with having a strategy in place that works and then having the right people in place to create and implement them.
Platform consistency.
Implement a flexible platform
Keep emerging platforms in mind
Ensure IT and marketing agility
Order Omni Commerce Planning Toolkit
Download Selected Pages Omni Commerce Strategy
Many AI Impliementations Lack Mandated Security Requirements
Policy and Procedure AI Security Compliance Management Made Easy
requirements. Common findings include use of default and potentially insecure settings for AI-related services, deploying vulnerable AI packages, and not following security hardening guidelines.
Popular packages used to automate the creation, training, and deployment of AI models include Python scikit-learn, Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK), PyTorch, TensorFlow, Transformers, LangChain, CUDA, Keras, PyTorch Lighting, and Streamlit. Around 62% of organizations used at least one machine learning package that contained an unpatched vulnerability.
More than half of organizations (56%) whose cloud assets were tested had adopted AI models to build applications for specific use cases. This often means using a cloud service that provides access to AI models, deploying models locally along with training data, deploying associated storage buckets, or using specific machine learning tools.
Organizations also regularly expose AI-related API access keys inside code repositories and commit histories. According to Orcas report, 20% of organizations had exposed OpenAI keys, 35% had exposed API keys for the Hugging Face machine learning platform, and 13% had exposed API keys for Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude family of LLMs.
IT Pros face hiring shutdown
IT Pros High Unemployment - Hiring Stalls
With the unemployment rate for IT pros at over 5.5% for two months, the unemployed IT Pros fare facing the prospect of taking several months to find positions comparable to their prior ones.
In July the IT job market size shrank by 6,900 jobs while 17,500 jobs added in the last 12 months.
CIOs and CFOs in most companies have halted hiring of ne IT Pros entirely. Some have ever pulled back requisitions for critical replacements. Fears of a recession, political uncertainty with a looming election, and the possibility of US entanglement in another war are all driving factors.
AI may not be the force for recovery as nearly a third of those projects will be abandoned within 12 months of inception - largely due to poor data quality, inadequate risk controls, escalating costs, or unclear business value.
Big Tech firms continue pruning staff
Google continues to lay off staff - Cloud Services Impacted
Google has conducted multiple layoffs this year - and the slow burn is intentional. Google CEO Sundar Pichai the company is "taking the time to do it correctly and well." In the meantime, employees are starting to look over their shoulders as over 100 IT pros in the Cloud group were let go. That even include a new hire who was in new employee orientation program.
Cyberattackers use AI to increase attacks
More companies have faced ransomware attacks as cyberattacks are AI generated
There has been an increase in AI-generated phishing attempts and other cyberattacks. To get the base of knowledge, attackers may have electronically read scores of press releases, company correspondence to customers, and other CSR data from companies to get the right mix for their attacks. That has significantly improved the generative AI used to base their attacks.
A human-crafted phishing email takes an average of 16 hours to create. By comparison, AI can generate deceptive high-quality phish in a few minutes.
This is increasing the number of ransomware attacks. Attacks hit record highs in 2023 despite falling payment rates, as attackers scaled up the number of attacks and new AI weapons were brought to bear on both sides of the war, promising to make an even bigger impact this year.
Ransomware payments were over $1.1 billion in 2023 or twice what they were in 2022. The frequency, scope, and volume of attacks were all up in 2023. Also, the number of independent groups conducting the attacks increased dramatically, according to one research firm.
The size of each payment is up, with more than 70% of all payments totaling $1 million or more. However, more companies are refusing to pay ransoms and restore from backups. It is estimated that just under 30% of victims paid up in the fourth quarter of 2023, down from 85% in 2019. This data comes from the insurance industry.
