A UK firm has been hit by a £3.07 million fine after being hit by a ransomware attack that exposed sensitive data related to almost 80,000 people, and disrupted NHS services.

The level of legacy debt varies widely across the NHS and a recent report from the Department of Science Technology and Innovation (DSIT) has revealed that legacy technology can range from as little as 10 to as much as 60-70%. This reliance on outdated systems presents a significant cyber security challenge, heightened by the fact that 15% of surveyed organisations could not estimate the size of their legacy estate. The report also highlights that these systems are high-risk, prone to security vulnerabilities, lack support, and subject to operational failures.

In the contact centre, the customer journey is everything. Every potential point of interaction must be carefully considered, with systems and processes established to maximise the chances of a fast, satisfactory resolution.

Whatever sector you operate in and whatever your long-term business goals, your network is the foundation of your future success. With the distributed workforce now firmly established and customer interactions taking place over an evolving range of channels, business is now truly interconnected, with seamless, secure dataflows its lifeblood.

The UK government has proposed extending its ban on ransomware payments to cover the entire public sector in an attempt to deter cybercriminal attacks and protect taxpayers.

As part of an ongoing effort to offer greater consistency and transparency across their full range of solutions, Microsoft have recently announced several pricing updates.

Stoli Group USA, the US subsidiary of vodka maker Stoli, has filed for bankruptcy – and a ransomware attack is at least partly to blame.The American branch of Stoli, which imports and distributes Stoli brands in the United States, as well as the Kentucky Owl bourbon brand it purchased in 2017, was hit by a ransomware attack in August 2024.

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) represents an elegant convergence of network and security technologies as a single, end-to-end solution, perfectly suited to the modern distributed workforce and the increasingly dynamic nature of corporate networks. As a growing number of organisations are discovering, SASE has the potential to completely transform the way we design, deploy, manage, and scale corporate networks. Indeed, 60% of IT leaders are ready to fully embrace SASE by 2025*.

Despite the numerous interconnected elements now involved in effective digital transformation, the network remains the foundation of everything, ensuring any investment in new technologies delivers the best possible ROI, and that teams at all levels are empowered to deliver their very best, 24 / 7. As such, the digital transformation journey must always begin with a full network transformation.

Whether it's in person or online, the way we shop has changed forever. Seamless flows of customer data are powering truly personalised, interconnected shopping experiences, with retailers willing to embrace the change positioning themselves ahead of the competition and developing world-class, instantly recognisable brands.

It's often said that "You don't know what you don't know". This is especially true in the modern contact centre, where a range of different customer interactions are taking place on a near-constant basis, across a growing range of different channels. It might be tempting for managers to assume that if they aren't having any problems presented to them, everything is running perfectly.

From start-ups to global leaders, across the public and private sectors, organisations' ongoing growth and brand reputation rises or falls based on the quality of their networks. As a result, network transformation is a growing priority, with IT leaders looking to replace cumbersome legacy systems with flexible, scalable, and secure connections that support tomorrow's highly dynamic workflows.