Alex Coop @itsjustalexcoop
Published: July 16th, 2020
To keep up with the firehose of news and press releases, we’ve decided to deliver some extra news to you on the side every Monday and Thursday morning. Some of it is an extension of our own reporting that didn’t make its way into a story, while others might be content we’ve bookmarked for later reading and thought of sharing with you. We’re doing a similar thing at Channel Daily News – check it out here. Today’s briefing is delivered by ITWC editorial director Alex Coop.
That escalated quickly. We went from a few odd posts from Bill Gates and Elon Musk to what is likely the most catastrophic security breach in Twitter’s history. Here’s what we know:
In an email, Terry Cutler, a certified ethical hacker and the founder of Cyology Labs, a cyber defence firm in Montreal, told IT World Canada that he suspects hackers got access through third-party apps that connect via an API into Twitter. “For example, applications like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck are popular tools for managing multiple Twitter accounts. Via their system, they can push your Tweet or scheduled post into Twitter through an API.” Third-party apps, he added, bypass the two-step verification that Twitter Verified apps must-have. They plug directly into Twitter’s back end.
We’ll provide you with more details as they become available.
Talking the digital office and corporate responsibility with ServiceNow’s Chris Pope
Executives don’t have to worry about a permanent workforce in sweatpants, but we’re never going back to the way things were, says Chris Pope, the global vice-president of innovation at ServiceNow. Even legal firms – *legal*, one of the most paper-bound industries on the planet – are rapidly modernizing to accommodate a workforce that isn’t very technically literate.
“I was talking to a CIO and they were struggling to remain connected,” Pope explained. Technical literacy wasn’t high on the agenda for this legal firm, and they were looking to reduce support costs as well. “They’ve gone on to deploy MacBooks, leading to a 30 per cent reduction in support calls. They were used to their iPhones, but historically, they weren’t attracted to Apple at all. But the support infrastructure became appealing.”
Gartner says 75 per cent of CIOs expect at least 5 per cent of their workforce to work remotely permanently. And even as the discussion recently in the corporate world has shifted to how we can safely get back to the office, Pope says it’s never going to be the way it was. Vendors and channel partners should be prepared to serve a market that’s permanently been altered by the pandemic. No more “banging people over the head with 70 per cent discounts,” he said.
Confidence in their product alone doesn’t get them through the door automatically anymore, either. ServiceNow’s flagship software is near-mission-critical in several organizations. Zoom even recently announced a new Hardware-as-a- Service offering that will run on the ServiceNow platform But it was roughly 18 months ago when Pope began noticing RFPs seeking more information about applicant’s hiring practices and supported social causes. “If you’re not a socially responsible organization you will suffer brand damage.”
Provisioning equipment for remote workers remains a challenge, and supply chain shortages continue to complicate purchases. Moving forward, the challenges will begin to take form elsewhere, as more and more businesses try to install or enhance e-commerce tools to establish contactless payments. Returning to the brick and mortar store has to be an employee-led decision, Pope emphasized, and that still doesn’t remove the need for an online storefront that not only works, but customers will want to come back to.
