Venture funding of cybersecurity vendors has dried up, although there are some signs the drought might break soon, according to research by executive recruitment firm Pinpoint Search Group.

Pinpoint’s data pegged the total amount of dough venture capitalists threw at the sector in the first quarter of 2024 at $2.3 billion—a 20% year over year decrease. That’s close to a three-year low overall.

The final month of Q1 saw a noticeable comeback, when cybersecurity funding hit $1.4 billion over 42 rounds. 

Marc Sasson, co-founder and managing partner of Pinpoint, told IT Brew the numbers are mostly small in comparison with prior years, when venture capital firms oversaturated the market with investments in mid- to late-stage companies that just didn’t pan out.

Read more here.—TM

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected]. Want to go encrypted? Ask Tom for his Signal.

But choose wisely—or meet your doom.

Eaton’s Server Room of Doom is a text-based game that lets you choose your path based on your industry: small business, enterprise, data center, retail, education, or healthcare. But even if you don’t work in one of those industries, you’re sure to 1.) have a good time and 2.) find some useful info as you play.

Server Room of Doom is complete with industry-specific details, jokes, and a diabolical IT test. It could feel eerily reminiscent of your day-to-day work—and you might even get some ideas to help you take back your own IT environment.

Eaton created this game because IT pros (aka real-life heroes) keep their orgs running, often without recognition. And these heroes deserve an adventure.

When you’re out of the game and back at the real-life gauntlet, Eaton products will help you overcome your challenges efficiently, securely, and intelligently.

See how you fare in the Server Room of Doom. Answer the IT heroes’ call.

Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency (CSA) is urging organizations in the country to fully adopt “essential cybersecurity measures” per its findings in a 2023 cybersecurity report. The CSA stated in a press release March 28 that it “believes that partial adoption of measures is inadequate, and unless all essential measures are adopted, organizations are still exposed to unnecessary cyber risks.”

“The findings show that while organizations have put in place some measures to protect their assets, this is not sufficient given the increasing frequency and scale of cyber threats that we are facing today,” David Koh, chief executive of the CSA, said in the release.

One of the main reasons organizations in Singapore have not adopted cybersecurity measures in full is due to a lack of knowledge or experience, with 59% of businesses and 56% of nonprofits citing this as the top challenge, per the report. In addition, the findings show that 46% of businesses and 49% of nonprofits didn’t perceive themselves as a likely target of a cyberattack.

Read more here.—AF

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

The majority of professional software engineers will be using AI assistants by 2028, Gartner projects—but tech execs expecting massive increases in productivity are likely to be disappointed.

According to Gartner, while under 10% of software devs were using such assistants in early 2023, another survey in late 2023 showed 63% of organizations were piloting or deploying them. By 2028, the consulting firm expects three out of four devs to be using AI assistants regularly on the job.

“You see the jump,” Philip Walsh, a senior analyst in Gartner’s software engineering practice, told IT Brew.

The number of devs using AI assistants had already risen from under 10% in early 2023 to 18% by October, Walsh said, and an additional three-fifths of respondents reported their organization was planning, piloting, or deploying AI tools. That said, he cautioned productivity gains in practice might be modest, even if some of the most optimistic projections—like time savings of up to 50% on some tasks—are correct.

Keep reading here.—TM

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected]. Want to go encrypted? Ask Tom for his Signal.

Lean, green, SaaS machine. Believe it or not, budgeting season is quickly approaching. That’s why BetterCloud designed a free guide to help IT leaders get a head start with SaaS savings. Learn how to unearth hidden expenses, minimize security risks, and analyze spend for smarter decisions. Grab your copy.