Feeling forgetful?

You’re not alone; the IT industry is in the midst of a memory shortage that’s adding to budget pressures, delaying projects, and creating a whole lot of stress for IT pros.

The culprit is familiar: AI data centers, where major manufacturers are allocating chip production capacity to meet demand for the high-bandwidth memory these facilities need. Enterprise organizations’ IT departments are left in the lurch, scrambling to secure enough memory to keep AI and other digital projects on track.

Gartner expects PC shipments to fall more than 10% globally this year, ITPro reported, and for DRAM and solid-state drive prices to grow 130% by year’s end. One of the likely outcomes is enterprises holding off on device upgrades.

“In my 25-year career, we’ve never seen anything like this,” Bob Bogle, VP of devices at solutions integrator Insight Enterprises, told Morning Brew.

And it’s not a short-term problem, he said.—JG

For cybersecurity professionals, nothing builds character like a high-stakes security incident.

Cybersecurity pros are increasingly putting their trust in leaders with security mishaps under their belts. According to a May ISC2 research report, 76% of cybersecurity professionals either somewhat or strongly agree that a leader’s credibility increases when they have previously been through a “real, high-profile security incident.” The findings are based on an April survey that queried close to 800 cybersecurity professionals.

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day. The recent research hints at a drift away from the stigma surrounding cybersecurity leaders whose organizations are successfully hit by cyberattacks. Just a year ago, a Sophos report found that 25% of leadership teams were replaced following ransomware attacks. IT Brew has reported on some of the challenges security leaders face following a cyber calamity.

“Businesses are really cognizant of how much impact an incident can have, and therefore want trusted leaders that have experience in incident management and dealing with such things,” ISC2 CISO Jon France told IT Brew in an interview.

Cybersecurity pros shared other traits that build trust.—BM

Incident management: This involves a set of structured processes designed to quickly identify, log, categorize, and resolve IT service disruptions. Incident management pros are expected to return service to an acceptable level of quality. Learn more.

For an IT pro, is there anything scarier than someone saying, “There’s been an incident”?

If you want to heighten that fear, imagine it is described as an “AI incident,” which could mean anything from a deleted database to a tricked chatbot.

Check Point Software Technologies recently surveyed 1,042 cybersecurity and IT professionals around the world and found that more than half had reported an “AI-related security incident.”

We asked IT pros to explain what an AI incident means to them, and what a high percentage of those events reveals about the IT industry’s preparedness.

“The adoption is outpacing the readiness,” Paul Barbosa, VP of cloud security and SASE at Check Point, told us.

Incident response. Check Point’s study, released on May 26, found that 54% of respondents experienced an AI-related security event—and just under a quarter (24%) “cannot confirm due to lack of visibility.”

The Check Point report divided incidents into three categories:

• Unauthorized or shadow AI usage (41%)
• AI-generated content used in an attack, such as phishing or deepfakes (37%)
• Sensitive data leaked to or through AI services (32%)

And there are agentic incidents, too.—BH