Edinburgh Ranks Among Top VC Hubs - DIGIT Tech News Roundup

Welcome to the latest edition of the DIGIT Tech News Roundup.

In this week’s newsletter, we will cover some of our top-trending tech news stories and features from the week beginning the 2nd of December.

This week, a new study reveals the growing paradox between the power of AI in threat detection weighed against its ability to enhance the scale and sophistication of cyber-attacks.

Beyond that, the WEF has come out saying that economic downturns trump any potential threat from AI. In other tech news, a recent survey has shown public levels of distrust in connected places and smart city tech.

Finally, a new report singles out Edinburgh as having developed a strong VC ecosystem that fosters entrepreneurship.

All this and more below.

One in Three Scottish Businesses Experienced Fraud in the Last Year

More than one third (35%) of Scottish businesses have experienced fraud in the last five years, according to a new survey from Edinburgh-based consultancy BDO.

Of those businesses, 86% said they had experienced fraud in the last year. Additionally, more than one in four (29%) have seen multiple incidents of fraud in the last year.

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Public Shows Distrust In Connected Places and Smart Cities Tech

In a recent survey commissioned by London Economics, over three quarters of UK respondents did not know what term ‘connected places’ meant.

This lack of understanding may drive the apparent mistrust in such places that are connected by technology, with 62% somewhat concerned about connected places technology.

Respondents were, however, more likely to trust technology managed by the government (15%) or local authorities (14%) than technology managed by private companies.

People do seem to have a general understanding of the difference between personal and public data, with only 12% trusting technology that uses personal devices, compared to 25% for technology that uses only public information.

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90% of Security Pros See GenAI as a Benefit, and a Threat

In a new report, Gen AI and Cybersecurity: Risk and Reward, Ivanti found that 90% of the 14,500 executives, office workers, and IT and security professionals surveyed believed in the value of genAI for security teams, but despite this positive outlook, accessibility challenges are preventing organisations from fully leveraging AI, with 72% saying their IT data and security data remains siloed.

Elsewhere, when asked which threats are becoming more dangerous due to genAI, phishing was the top response (45%), followed by software vulnerabilities (38%), ransomware attacks (37%), and API vulnerabilities (34%).

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Highland Council Undergoes Digital Telecoms Cloud Upgrade

The Highland Council, the UK’s largest local authority by area, has seen a major communications transformation thanks to Daisy, part of the Wavenet Group.

The major infrastructure upgrade modernised 5,000 lines across schools, businesses, and two contact centres with a RingCentral cloud-based unified communications solution.

The enhanced system is set to significantly improve the reliability and efficiency of essential services, ensuring that 100% of emergency calls related to health and social care, housing, roads, and public buildings are now answered.

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Edinburgh Ranks Among Top VC Hubs in New Report

Scotland now counts 9,000 employees across venture capital (VC) backed businesses, and last year 7% of all companies that received VC funding were based in Scotland, according to a new report from the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA).

According to the industry body’s latest annual report, Edinburgh in particular stands out as having developed a strong VC ecosystem that fosters entrepreneurship, being named along with Oxford and Cambridge as a regional hub and focal point for innovation.

BVCA’s report names the Scottish capital as one of the UK cities driving growth in the tech sector across Europe, alongside seven other UK cities including Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham and Bristol that are home to two or more unicorn companies.

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