A coalition of organizations and individuals have signed an open letter expressing concern at the U.K. governments decision to appoint a former Amazon executive as chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).The group, which includes U.S. tech outfits such as Yelp, DuckDuckGo, and Mozilla, says that the CMA must be free from political pressure if its to keep Big Tech in check and unlock positive economic outcomes for the whole economy.For context, the U.K.s antitrust regulator hasinvestigated Big Techfor all manner of contraventions, and alongside its counterparts in the European Union (EU) the CMA has played a role in keeping the major players of the tech world in check by blocking acquisitions and forcing divestments.However, the U.K. has sought to reposition itself as a pro-growth, pro-tech nation by cutting red tapeand bureaucracy. And as part of this, it seems, the government wants to make itself more attractive to outside investment by shaking up its antitrust unit.Last month, reports emerged that the U.K.s Department of Business and Tradehad ousted CMA chair Marcus Bokkerink, making way forDoug Gurr (pictured above) who worked in various roles across Amazons U.K. and Chinas business for nearly a decade. Gurr left Amazonin 2020to become director of the Natural History Museum.This government has a clear plan for change to boost growth for businesses and communities across the U.K.,Jonathan Reynolds, the U.K.s secretary of state for business and trade, said in a statement at the time. As weve set out, we want to see regulators, including the CMA, supercharging the economy with pro-business decisions that will drive prosperity and growth, putting more money in peoples pockets.Losing sightIts worth noting that Gurrs appointment is only on an interim basis for now. But it does signal the governments thinking in terms of the type of person its looking to fill the role someone with deep ties to Big Tech. In its announcement last month, the government said that Gurrs past at Amazon would enable him to bring a wealth of experience from his work in the technology sector.And this move has now spurred some two-dozen bodies to address a letter to several senior government ministers, including Reynolds and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves. That the signatories include DuckDuckGo, Yelp, and Mozilla reveals how smaller tech firms view Europe (including the U.K.) as a buffer to Big Techs global influence. Other organizations such as the Future of Technology Institute, Booksellers Association, Coalition for App Fairness, and the Open Markets Institute also put their names to the letter. Following the removal of the CMA Chair and his replacement with a former Amazon executive, we are worried that the UK Government is losing sight of its commitment to robust competition enforcement of the DMU [Digital Markets Unit] regime and the CMAs operational independence, the letter reads. Long-term, sustainable, and inclusive growth and innovation will not be achieved if the CMA is focused solely on the interests of the largest companies and is diverted from its core mandate to maintain and promote competitive markets.The CMAs Digital Markets Unit was set up specifically to tackle Big Tech, and the letters signatories note that this unit mustnt be compromised by political influence.The new DMU regime must be trusted by the government and independent of political pressure if it is to unlock positive economic outcomes for the whole economy, the letter says. Only then will Big Tech firms be compelled to have honest conversations with businesses and consumers about how to promote positive economic outcomes, rather than putting pressure on the regulator to water down the bold remedies required. In short, the DMU and the CMA will only be able to promote growth if they are truly operationally independent.The full text of the letter, and list of signatories, is included below.The Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MPChancellor of the ExchequerHM Treasury1 Horse Guards RoadLondonSW1A 2HQUnited KingdomCC: Rt Hon Jonathan Reynolds MP, Secretary of State for Business and Trade; Rt Hon Peter Kyle MP, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology; Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Future Digital Economy and Online SafetyDear Chancellor,We are a broad group of challenger and mid-sized tech companies, trade associations, civil society organisations, and experts that have long called for greater competition in digital markets through the new Digital Markets Unit (DMU) regime. Like the Prime Minister, we want to see the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) take growth seriously. But sustainable growth and inclusive innovation will only be achieved by breaking down barriers to competition, not by leaving them standing.Following the removal of the CMA Chair, and his replacement with a former Amazon executive, we are worried that the UK Government is losing sight of its commitment to robust competition enforcement of the DMU regime and the CMAs operational independence. Long-term, sustainable, and inclusive growth and innovation will not be achieved if the CMA is focused solely on the interests of the largest companies and is diverted from its core mandate to maintain and promote competitive markets.The ex-ante powers in the Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers Act (the DMCCA) are completely distinct from the CMAs other enforcement powers, such as the mergers regime, designed as they are to make tailored, targeted decisions to regulate a handful of firms with super competitive power. The new DMU regime must be trusted by the government and independent of political pressure if it is to unlock positive economic outcomes for the whole economy. Only then will Big Tech firms be compelled to have honest conversations with businesses and consumers about how to promote positive economic outcomes, rather than putting pressure on the regulator to water down the bold remedies required. In short, the DMU and the CMA will only be able to promote growth if they are truly operationally independent.The Labour Party has long supported the need for robust and urgent action to tackle monopolisation of the UKs tech sector, including during the passage of the DMCCA. We agree with you when you wrote that the new monopolies of platform capitalism like Google, Facebook, and Amazon [] exert a monopoly power over knowledge and information and block competitive markets. You were right to say that monopolies need to be broken up to ensure that markets are competitive.Since you wrote those words in 2018, little has changed in fact, the largest incumbent tech monopolies have gained strength, and are now leveraging their dominance to ensure a stranglehold in new markets. As established by the Furman Review, and multiple expert studies that have followed around the world, greater competition in digital markets, enforced by independent and impartial regulators, is the key to unlocking the governments core mission of economic growth, not a barrier to it. The CMAs independence must be rigorously defended if it is to pursue its mission in the face of aggressive lobbying from tech giants and other vested interests, whose sole aim is to defend the moats protecting their monopoly rents.If UK businesses are finally able to compete with Big Tech firms on a level playing field, this will unlock critical investment, innovation, and growth without limiting the ability of those companies to invest in the UK economy should they so choose. In fact, proper enforcement of the DMCCA will unleash growth across the UK economy.The CMA has shown that Apple and Google were able to earn over 4 billion of profits in 2021 from their UK mobile businesses above what was required to fairly reward investors. The regulator has also shown that the cost of digital advertising was 500 per household in 2019 or 14 billion overall far higher than it would be in a competitive market. Open choices, trust and transparency, and fair dealing will help UK companies thrive and give UK consumers a better, cheaper, and broader range of products and services. A more competitive and diverse digital economy will help ensure the benefits of new technologies are shared more widely, reduce the UKs dangerous dependencies, and give citizens much greater autonomy and choice over how they share information and interact with each other online.We note that in briefings to the press, government officials have stated that there has been frustration across the board from business regarding the CMAs performance, with the government hearing unhappiness from everyone. We would encourage the government to listen more closely to the hundreds of thousands of firms across the UK that have to do business in monopolised markets every day, and to properly scrutinise the funding and independence of lobby groups which claim to represent the interests of small businesses and startups in order to understand which groups are truly representative of the wider economy.Indeed, we remain supportive of the approach that the CMA has taken in recent years in developing the new pro-competition regime for digital markets, investigating harmful conduct by the largest incumbent tech firms, investigating mergers which risk fuelling concentration further, and building a world-leading team of digital and tech experts. It is an internationally respected regulator, not least due to its approach to digital regulation, which is now being followed around the globe.We hope that the government will use its forthcoming Strategic Steer to the CMA to reassert its commitments to the regulators operational independence and to the swift implementation of the new pro-competition regime for digital markets. We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss how we can work together to achieve this.Yours sincerely,Individuals:Professor Amelia Fletcher, CBE, University of East Anglia (Former Non-Executive Director, CMA; Member, HM Treasury Digital Competition Expert Panel Furman Review)Professor Derek McCauley, University of Nottingham (Member, HM Treasury Digital Competition Expert Panel Furman Review)Professor Philip Marsden, Bank of England (Member, HM Treasury Digital Competition Expert Panel Furman Review)Sir Vince Cable, former Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and SkillsOrganisations:ARTICLE 19Balanced Economy ProjectBooksellers AssociationCoalition for App FairnessDuckDuckGoEcosiaFoxgloveFuture of Technology InstituteGetYourGuideKelkoo GroupMinderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of CambridgeMozillaNews Media AssociationOnline Dating and Discovery Association (ODDA)Open Markets InstituteProtonPublic Interest News FoundationPPA (Professional Publishers Association)Reset TechResponsible Online Commerce CoalitionSkyscannerSociety of AuthorsWhich?Yelp

Initial plans call for a feature, based on the trading card game franchise, with series and other content to be developed as the universe expands.

Breakdown & ShowreelsWicked: Dulcibear VFX Breakdown by ILMBy Vincent Frei - 07/02/2025 Ever wondered how Dulcibear was created? The VFX artists at ILM worked their magic to craft this charming character with stunning detail and lifelike animation. Watch the full breakdown and step into the world of Wicked!WANT TO KNOW MORE?ILM: Dedicated page about Wicked on ILM website. Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2025

In November, architects, designers, digital fabricators, and innovators gathered in Calgary, Canada, for the 2024 Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) conference. This years theme, Designing Change, put forth research, innovations, and hypotheses for how computational designcan be harnessed to adapt and evolve the built environment. Out of the workshops, papers, and Ideation Lab pitches, ACADIA identified a few stand out topics and ideas, including Material Design Thinking, Digital Naturalism, Material Hyperlocalism, Applied Research New Craft Models, and Integrated Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities. The full workshops and conference agenda can be viewed here.Workshops started in Calgary on November 1113, 2024. The conference, located in scenic Banff, followed those sessions, running from November 1416, 2024. (Courtesy ACADIA)The talks and research presented at the conference fostered timely and topical discussions on applying methods of computational design to architectural practice, examples include looking at how technology can be used to deliver infrastructure projects and tackle humanitarian crises.In addition to the in-person events and the presentation of new, innovative ideas, ACADIA also presented its Awards of Excellence. These annual accolades are doled out to individuals and practices committed to working within the digital architecture sphere and have made a significant contribution to it.Elena Manferdini was one of three keynote speakers. (Courtesy ACADIA)Awards of ExcellenceThe Design Excellence Award recognizes an architect, designer, or researcher who has made significant, innovative, and impactful contributions to the fields of architecture and computational design. At ACADIA 2024, the jury awarded it to Philip Beesley, recognizing the professionals work in immersive sentient physical environments.The Digital Practice Award of Excellence went to Matias del Campo for his expertise in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Fologram, a research practice and technology startup, working in extended reality, computational design, and fabrication was recognized for its contributions; that outfit received the Innovative Research Award of Excellence. The Society Award for Leadership, for demonstrated commitment to supporting ACADIA, was given to Andrew Kudless. Kudless teaches at the University of Houston and is the director of the Construction Robotics and Fabrication Technologies Lab (CRAFT Lab).This award recognizes the significant role that Andrew Kudless has played in ACADIAs leadership, and as a voice in the computational design community, the jury wrote in its citation. Andrew is an exceptionally dedicated scholar whose many years as Technology Officer served to advance the organization.And finally, the ACADIA Teaching Award of Excellence was awarded to Larry Sass, an educator at MIT in the Department of Architecture. Sass was a founder of the MIT Design Fabrication Group. The jury described him as a developer of innovative pedagogical approaches that center digital fabrication and making as an integral part of the design process.ACADIA Best Paper Award Winner: Digital Upcycling (Erik Zanetti I, Vincent Witt, Javier Fuentes, Moritz Drstelmann)In addition to recognizing individuals making a significant contribution to the field of computational design in architecture, ACADIA also prizes the best papers and projects presented at the annual conference, awarding both research and innovations that have made significant impact as well as those that have spurred constructive dialogue within the field. The paper taking the top spot in 2024 was titled Digital Upcycling: Transforming Waste Wood for Circular Construction through Digital Strategies. The Vanguard Award was given to researchers with focused work on materiality; that paper was titled, Gradient Multimaterial Printing: Integrated and Tailored Thermal Insulation through Gradient Multimaterial Additive Manufacturing for Masonry Architectural Components.The Best Project Award was given to researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for their endeavor to create dynamic light drawings that reveal what is not easily detected to the naked eye. A process that involves using augmented mirrored sheets, the runner-up was a project focused on wildfire resiliency.ACADIA Ideation Lab First Place: Ecological Scaffolds (Mary Polites)Ideation LabNew this year at ACADIA was the Ideation Laban opportunity for researchers, academics, early career professionals, and students to work with established professionals on early-stage research or initial concepts. Three of these initiatives were recognized with awards.First place was awarded to work by Mary Polites of University of Oregon, titled Ecological Scaffolds: Architectural Infrastructures Informed by Root Morphologies and Growth Patterns. A team at University of Michigan received second place for its work: a low-carbon rainscreen facade cladding product. Third place was given to a team of researchers looking at housing displaced people involved in humanitarian crises.The Architects Newspaperis a media partner for ACADIA 2024.

A historic capital project at Storm King will soon come to a close. The cultural staple in New Yorks scenic Hudson Valley will publicly debut its new buildings and artworks this spring, on May 7, after a lengthy construction process. The art center has been transformed by Heneghan Peng Architects and WXY. Landscape architects Reed Hilderbrand and Gustafson Porter + Bowman made substantial changes to Storm Kings topography, allowing for more walkable green space and artworks.Storm King Art Center executive director Nora Lawrence steered the capital project, the first in the centers 65-year history. A handful of new commissions by contemporary artists Kevin Beasley, Sonia Gomes, and Dionne Lee will soon go up near existing works by Isamu Noguchi, Alexander Calder, Maya Lin, Roy Lichtenstein, and others.Landscape architects upgraded the hard and natural surfaces of the art center. (Courtesy Storm King Art Center)Ticketing Booth architectural detail (Courtesy Storm King Art Center)The $45 million capital project was first announced in 2022, as reported by AN, and construction started in 2023. Among the most visible changes to Storm King are four new buildings designed by Heneghan Peng and WXY. These new buildings include: a new welcome center, a space dedicated to group orientation, a restroom pavilion, and maintenance facility. All of these buildings are electric. The welcome center is connected to an existing, historic building thats been on the site for over 100 years. It has a pitched roof mimicked after the existing, historic structure and a generous cantilever that provides shade. That pavilion offers information and ticketing for folks arriving from the new and improved parking lot area, with increased capacity for visitor vehicles and electric vehicle charging stations.The restroom building has a gentle curve in plan. (Courtesy Storm King Art Center)The restroom building has a shared sink. (Courtesy Storm King Art Center)The space for group orientation is open to the elementshumble wood columns uphold a utilitarian roof member. The all-gender restroom area has a slight curve in plan; a series of stalls line an open corridor that faces a shared sink.The new state-of-the-art maintenance facility is named after David R. Collens, who led Storm King for more than 40 years as executive director, before Lawrence took over a few years ago. The David R. Collens Building will be for maintaining artworks, but also conservation and fabrication. The facilitys expansive ceiling height will allow for conservators to negotiate artworks of all scales. It also has a workshop, studio, mechanical shop, storage space, and office area.The David R. Collens Maintenance Facility is named after Storm Kings longtime executive director, who stepped down recently. (Courtesy Storm King Art Center)The work by Reed Hilderbrand and Gustafson Porter + Boman entailed reclaiming two former parking lots on museum grounds and turning them into green space capable of hosting large artworks.This portion of the project added another 5 acres of landscape at the heart of the site. More than 650 trees and 20 species of plant life were interspersed throughout Storm King as well. The plant selection was carefully curated to enhance resiliency in response to climate change. This ecosystem connects to existing wetlands and adjoining waterways, serving as a conduit.Storm King is pursuing LEED Gold accreditation for the welcome pavilions.

Detail of Happily Ever After (2024), oil on linen, 70.5 x 57.25 inches. All images courtesyof Harpers, New York, shared with permisisonBees and Irridescent Bubbles Infiltrate Still-Life Traditions in Marc Dennis PaintingsFebruary 7, 2025ArtGrace EbertDuring the Dutch Golden Age, vanitas grew in popularity as a genre of memento mori that emphasized lifes transience. The opulent paintings were steeped in symbolism and foregrounded the futility of ambition and worldly pleasures.Marc Dennis draws on this 17th-century tradition as he refashions the still life for a contemporary audience. In a recent oil painting, Happily Ever After, hordes of honeybees and hornets descend on a lush bouquet. Kaleidoscopic bubbles float across the five-foot canvas, reflecting the surrounding colors and distorting clear viewers of nearby flowers and fruit. Happily Ever After (2024), oil on linen, 70.5 x 57.25 inchesThe insects and glossy orbs add another layer of impermanence to the already fleeting imagery, while also reflecting on the tenuous relationship between the organic and human-made. Similar tensions appear in Allegory of the Readymade, which suffocates and warps a seemingly vibrant painting with thick layers of plastic wrap. Each of the works clings to a brief moment in time, capturing both life at its prime and serving as a bold reminder of its inevitable end.Dennis paintings are on view in Im Happy Youre Here through March 1 at Harpers Gallery in New York. Find more from the artist on Instagram.Based on a True Story (2024), oil on linen, 70.75 x 55 inchesDetail of Based on a True Story (2024), oil on linen, 70.75 x 55 inchesSuperstar (2024), oil on linen, 70.5 x 55 inchesPortrait of the Artist as a Juvenile Delinquent (2024), oil on linen, 72 x 58 inchesAllegory of the Readymade (2024), oil on linen, 48.75 x 37 inchesGiottos Fly (2024), oil on linen, 72.5 x 96 inchesDracula (2024), oil on linen, 71.5 x 56 inNext article

The total value of payments made to cyber criminal ransomware gangs fell dramatically in the back half of 2024, and according to statistics released this week by Chainalysis, a supplier of blockchain and crypto services, less than half of victims of recorded incidents even made a payment.Chainalysis found that over 2024 as a whole, ransomware gangs collectively made about $813.6m (652.7m), down from 2023s $1.25bn, and although payments were up by 2.4% in the first half of the year, in the second half, they dropped by 37.5% in the second.Its analysts suggested that both a growing number of law enforcement actions and the effects of international cooperation on ransomware were likely important factors in the fall. Additionally, they said, more victims seem to be refusing to pay.However, wrote the reports authors, this does not mean that cyber criminal operations are shutting up shop.In response, many attackers shifted tactics, with new ransomware strains emerging from rebranded, leaked or purchased code, reflecting a more adaptive and agile threat environment, they said.Ransomware operations have also become faster, with negotiations often beginning within hours of data exfiltration.Read more about ransomwareA ban on ransomware payments by UK government departments will be extended to cover organisations such as local councils, schools and the NHSshould new government proposals move forward.NCA-led Operation Destabilise disrupts Russian crime networks that funded the drugs and firearms trade in the UK, helped Russian oligarchs duck sanctions, and laundered money stolen from the NHS and othersby ransomware gangs.An individual associated with the LockBit ransomware gang has broken cover to tease details of a new phase of the cyber criminal operation's activity, which they claim isset to begin in February 2025.Coveware senior director of incident response Lizzie Cookson, who shared insight with the Chainalysis team for the report, said the market had never really recovered following the downfall of the LockBit and ALPHV/BlackCat gangs.We saw a rise in lone actors, but we did not see any group(s) swiftly absorb their market share, as we had seen happen after prior high-profile takedowns and closures, said Cookson. The current ransomware ecosystem is infused with a lot of newcomers who tend to focus efforts on the small- to mid-size markets, which in turn are associated with more modest ransom demands.Improved cyber security hygiene and resiliency may also be playing a role here. The increased profile of ransomware attacks in daily discourse means organisations are investing more and better in defensive countermeasures, and hence find themselves better able to resist cyber criminal demands, negotiate to reduce the final payments, or explore other options such as ignoring the gangs and restoring from backups when they get hit.Christian Geyer, founder and CEO atActfore, a Washington DC-area cyber forensics specialist, said: Organisations have increasingly implemented comprehensive data backup solutions, so the business can rapidly recover their systems through a wipe-and-restore process.Many are becoming more tech-driven when it comes to incident response services, enabling them to identify the breached data much faster, he told Computer Weekly. Digital forensics is not only becoming more advanced and precise, but data mining services and incident response are evolving to be more efficient and proactive. Technology is allowing organisations to better understand the contents of the stolen data before proceeding down the road of ransom payment.Geyer also said victims may be resisting demands out of concern over the ethical and legal ramifications of sending large ransomware payments to unknown, unidentified actors.For instance, if the threat actor is a foreign nation-state sponsored terrorist group, then it could be seen as illegal to be paying money to those adversaries, he said. The playing field becomes more level when you have more data to make decisions about whether to pay or not.Chainalysiss insight into how cyber criminals exploit the world of crypto in their attacks may also explain some of the changes. The team said they observed significant changes in how ransomware gangs off-ramp their funds, with a significant decline in the use of so-called mixers in 2024 likely testament to the impact of sanctions and police action.A far higher proportion of ransomware funds are now flowing through centralised exchanges, and personal wallets, while cross-chain bridges are replacing mixers as a means of obscuring where the money is heading.The use of personal crypto wallets is particularly interesting, said Chainalysis, and likely a big factor in the decline.Curiously, ransomware operators, a primarily financially motivated group, are abstaining from cashing out more than ever, they said. We attribute this largely to increased caution and uncertainty amid what is probably perceived as law enforcements unpredictable and decisive actions targeting individuals and services participating in or facilitating ransomware laundering, resulting in insecurity among threat actors about where they can safely put their funds.Finally, Jon Miller, CEO and co-founder of ransomware prevention specialist Halcyon, suggested there may be another factor to partially explain the decline.2024 was a major election year in the US, with a lot at stake for nation-states like Russia, who give safe harbour to ransomware operators, he said.The 2022 lull has in part been attributed to Russia redirecting some cyber criminal resources to conduct more state-supported operations against Ukraine and their western supporters, so this decline in payments could also be in part the result of the most talented ransomware operators being yet again pulled off their cyber criminal activities to support Russian state priorities around the US election, so the drop was most precipitous in the second half of the year.

While artificial intelligence (AI) poses many risks for networks of all sizes, it also highlights the pitfalls of traditional network management in addressing real-time demands and unanticipated challenges not to mention risks such as static configurations, manual interventions and reactive troubleshooting have become liabilities in the era of rapid technological advancement.Self-healing networks represent a seismic shift in the paradigm, offering a solution that promises to boost security and make teams more efficient. But how exactly do they make this possible?In this article, we dissect the promise of uptime and reliability, and discuss how self-healing networks redefine the role of IT operations in digital transformation.Usually, network issues entail downtime until human intervention determines the cause and internal processes are altered. Of course, this results in lost time and money.On the other hand, self-healing networks are engineered to detect, diagnose and resolve issues autonomously, often before they are even apparent to users or administrators.This proactive approach is underpinned by large language models (LLMs) and proactive systems that gather analytics, analyse them and act on them. As a result, this empowers the network to anticipate disruptions, execute corrective actions and continuously optimise its performance.The best way to describe self-healing networks would be to view them as combat medics if they get injured, theyre capable of patching themselves up, right? Certainly.Moreover, a self-healing network is composed of distributed communication protocols. But what makes them able to self-diagnose without affecting uptime? It hinges on:Real-time monitoring: Constant surveillance of traffic patterns, resource utilisation and device health. This lets monitoring systems determine the desired state of things, enabling them to immediately spring to action once theres a deviation from usual metrics.Predictive analytics: Using historical data and ML to forecast potential failures and pre-emptively address them. The self-healing network can adjust itself during times of higher traffic or if an anomaly has been detected in similar networks elsewhere.Automated recovery: In addition, these networks can take steps autonomously, such as dynamic rerouting, load balancing and isolating compromised nodes to maintain service integrity.Continuous learning: Once an incident occurs, self-healing networks analyse it and store it in its database. Any lessons are added to protocols, reinforcing feedback loops that refine the systems response, enabling it to adapt to new threats and conditions.Its clear that self-healing networks are suffering from the same issues as other new tech price and complexity. Nevertheless, organisations are opting for it due to:Always-on infrastructureIn industries where downtime translates directly to lost revenue or compromised safety, self-healing networks are a game-changer. With automated recovery processes, they eliminate delays associated with human intervention.Think of HIPAA server hosting environments, for example, which can benefit from these capabilities by mitigating risks of overloading and ensuring seamless application delivery. Otherwise, patient data leaks and other issues might be left unmitigated.Strengthened security postureWhether its due to the proliferation of AI or the decentralisation of hacking collectives, network security is no longer a static discipline. Threats evolve dynamically, often exploiting fleeting vulnerabilities.For this purpose, self-healing networks enhance security by detecting anomalies, isolating potential breaches and patching vulnerabilities on the fly. This is particularly useful for Wi-Fi security, which is often the target of attacks. Instead of being left to its devices, any Wi-Fi network becomes significantly more robust with autonomous monitoring and response systems.Operational efficiency and cost savingsTraditional network management is resource-intensive, requiring constant attention from skilled personnel. Not to mention, incidents result in downtime and teams focusing on rectifying the situation instead of improving security altogether.Due to their ability to offload routine tasks to automated systems, self-healing networks free up IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives. The cost savings in terms of reduced downtime, minimised hardware failures and streamlined operations are substantial.According to some estimates, this particular application of AI can reduce costs by up to 40%. This amount is bound to increase with scaling up.While every organisation or service provider can benefit from self-healing networks, there are three main applications for this innovation:Large-scale enterprisesFor multinational corporations, managing a sprawling network across continents is a Herculean task. Self-healing networks simplify this complexity by ensuring uniform policies, consistent performance and real-time adaptability.When integrating resource-heavy solutions like high-definition camera systems, these networks can dynamically allocate bandwidth and storage, maintaining operational efficiency without compromising performance.Likewise, suppose a particular part of the network is under attack. In that case, the AI model in charge of decision-making can pull the plug on irrelevant aspects of the system until the issue is resolved.Smart cities and IoT ecosystemsThe rise of smart cities has introduced unprecedented levels of connectivity, for better or worse. Traffic management systems, environmental sensors and public safety networks all depend on uninterrupted communication for the city to function normally.Self-healing networks ensure that disruptions are localised and resolved without cascading failures, allowing cities to operate smoothly even under peak load conditions.Nevertheless, there is still the issue of certain purposes requiring additional security. What if someone hacks into a smart city network and gains access to a residential camera system? If it can be done to water treatment facilities, less essential systems will also be prone to breaches.Healthcare systemsIn 2024, there were more than 600 reported attacks on healthcare companies in the United States alone. This is no surprise, given the healthcare sectors reliance on digital networks for patient records, diagnostics and insurance claims.At the same time, the proliferation of telemedicine makes reliability paramount. In this context, self-healing networks guarantee uninterrupted access to critical systems, safeguarding patient outcomes and reducing the administrative burden on IT departments.Artificial intelligenceAI and machine learning (ML) are foundational to the adaptability of self-healing networks. Algorithms analyse terabytes of data to predict failures, identify inefficiencies and recommend or execute optimal solutions in real time.Lets take a small e-commerce site as an example. If its self-healing network has more than 10 years of data indicating there are more attacks on Christmas Eve, the network can automatically adjust to anticipate breach attempts.Software-defined networking (SDN)SDN separates the networks control plane from its data plane, enabling centralised management. Likewise, its particularly valuable for dynamic resource allocation, as it can automatically adjust bandwidth, reroute traffic and scale resources based on demand.This centralised control improves network visibility, enhances security by enforcing policies in real time and streamlines operations through automation.Edge computing and decentralisationSelf-healing networks enhance the efficacy of local processing by extending intelligence to the edge, enabling real-time monitoring, detection and automatic resolution of network issues without relying on centralised systems. This localised decision-making reduces latency, minimises downtime and ensures continuous operation.In industrial automation, where machinery and sensors must operate with precise timing, any network disruption can halt production and lead to costly downtime. Self-healing networks can quickly identify faults, reroute traffic or isolate malfunctioning components to maintain smooth operations.Similarly, in remote surveillance systems, uninterrupted connectivity is critical for security. Edge-based self-healing capabilities ensure continuous video streaming and rapid fault correction, preventing gaps in monitoring.Automation frameworksAutomation underpins the efficiency of self-healing networks. From orchestrating recovery processes to deploying software updates, automation reduces the margin for error and accelerates response times.Whats truly interesting, however, is that the network itself can become a part of a wider automation workflow.In the beginning, this can be something basic, such as increasing allocated bandwidth at certain times. Later on, an advanced application of a self-healing network can have the underlying AI mitigate breaches, generate reports and notify team members via email or Slack.Deploying self-healing networks requires significant investment in both infrastructure and talent. Organisations must also navigate the complexities of integrating new technologies with legacy systems.Likewise, despite their potential, self-healing networks demand a level of trust that many organisations are hesitant to extend. This means small businesses will be the last to feel the benefits not to mention that concerns about over-reliance on automation and potential failure scenarios remain barriers.Where do we go from here, then? Well, its on the organisations themselves to weigh the benefits against the apartment downsides. Ultimately, we must collectively find the right balance.From ensuring reliable Wi-Fi security in enterprise environments to optimising server hosting performance under heavy loads, self-healing networks are subtly transforming every aspect of connectivity. Their integration into critical systems, such as urban camera surveillance networks, underscores their growing indispensability.Furthermore, the promise of self-healing networks lies not just in their technical sophistication, but in their ability to redefine network management paradigms. If we properly apply and maintain these networks, we can achieve a level of resilience and agility that was once thought impossible.Read more about network security managementA comprehensive and scalable network security management plan is more important than ever in the face of ever-rising threats and attacks orchestrated by bad actors.BT expands its expands managed software-defined wide area network solution with new security service edge capabilities to help businesses transition to a secure access service edge model.Infoblox CEO Scott Harrell discusses the companys new Universal DDI service designed to address the growing challenges of managing network security in hybrid IT environments.

The carrier will now deduct up to $1,000 when you trade in an older iPhone model - even if it's damaged or cracked.

ZDNETIt happens like clockwork, around the first of each month. Sites that focus on technology churn out nearly identical articles, all based on a chart like this one, prepared by the good folks atStatcounter Global Stats. Every month, tech bloggers try to turn a chart like this one into a story, but most of them miss what's actually happening. Statcounter GSI saw that chart in dozens of posts this month, along with detailed explanations of what the author thought the underlying data points mean. Sometimes the authors of these posts even convince an industry analyst to share their thoughts. It's stereotypical horserace coverage.Also: How to upgrade your 'incompatible' Windows 10 PC to Windows 11 in 2025This month, the challenge for every pundit was to explain why Windows 10 (the purple line at the top) appears to be suddenly collapsing in popularity and why Windows 11 (the blue line in the middle) has regained its mojo. Here's a small sampling of some of the stories that the Statcounter "Windows market share" report inspired. At the start of every month, stories like these appear, all based on the same charts. Screenshot by Ed Bott/ZDNETMy favorite quote from this batch is from Forbes, which made this bold assertion: "The January stats are now out, and according to Statcounter, the Windows 11 upgrade trend has now un-reversed itself ... some 40 million hold-outs have suddenly upgraded their PCs in the last 31 days."Inevitably, these posts try to answer the question, "Why did this happen?" But maybe a better question is, "Did this happen?" followed by "Are you sure?" and "Why doesn't any of this data make sense?"Because here's the reality: Statcounter's "market share" reports are a great excuse for tech bloggers to crank out a story each month, but they bear only the most casual relation to the real world, and most of those month-to-month spikes are simply statistical noise.Let me show you what I mean with another chart, which I created using data I downloaded from Statcounter's site. For this one, I changed the parameters to include data from January 2022 through January 2025, covering only the United States. After plugging that data into Excel, I created a line chart like the ones they publish, but I made two changes. First, I added third-order polynomial trendlines for the Windows 10 and Windows 11 data points to show the general direction of those monthly figures over time. Then, I added a shadow on either side of that trendline to indicate a likely margin of error. Adding a trendline helps to smooth out the statistical fluctuations and reveals the real patterns in this data. Chart by Ed Bott/ZDNET; data from Statcounter GSWell, that tells a very different story, doesn't it?At the sites that use Statcounter's web analytics service, pageviews from PCs running Windows 10 are steadily declining, while pageviews from PCs running Windows 11 are steadily increasing. And those trends have been consistent over time, despite some fluctuations in the data.You'll notice that description doesn't mention "market share." Statcounter's data counts pageviews, not visits, or sessions, or individual devices.Also: Microsoft has a big Windows 10 problem, and it's running out of time to solve itAnd make no mistake about it, those monthly fluctuations really are just noise. Look at the teal-colored line for Windows 8.x versions from January 2024. Do you really think that 10 or 20 million people fired up their old Windows 8 devices on New Year's Day, used them for a few weeks, and then put them all back in the closet? That's unlikely.None of those other monthly spikes mean anything either. Did millions of people uninstall Windows 11 in December 2024 and then change their mind a month later? Of course not. The data is just messy!Now, let me be crystal clear here: I don't blame the Statcounter folks for taking advantage of an irresistible opportunity to generate publicity. I do, however, want to have a serious talk with every journalist and analyst who relies on Statcounter's charts without questioning the underlying data behind them, because those numbers can't stand up to even the mildest questioning. Who is Statcounter? Statcounter is a web analytics company based in Ireland. It was founded in 1999, during the Web 1.0 era, with a simple business model of counting "hits" to websites using a tracking pixel that clients embedded on their pages. If you're a website owner, adding Statcounter's tracking technology to your site can give you valuable information about your visitors.It was a good business for a long time, but over the years the company's customer base has shrunk. In 2009, it boasted that 3 million customers were using its service. By 2022, its own pages acknowledged that the customer base had been cut in half, to 1.5 million websites.Also: How to do a clean install of Windows 11: See which option is best for you and whyW3Techs, which tracks companies in this space, reported that 0.9% of all websites were using Statcounter's services in 2019. By January 2024, that number had shrunk to 0.5%, and when I checked again in January 2025, the number was down again, to 0.4%.None of that decline should be surprising. Google Analytics dominates this space today, and other big players, like Meta Pixel, WordPress Jetpack, and Adobe Analytics, have also stolen share from tiny firms like Statcounter. Where do Statcounter's numbers come from? Statcounter's customer base consists of a lot of small websites and a few medium-sized ones. The Statcounter Global Stats reports aggregate all the pageviews from those sites, with details about the visitors, including the hardware type, operating system, and browser, as collected by that tracking.Statcounter's data collection has declined dramatically in the last decade. A decade ago, thecompany's FAQ pagereported that it measured more than 17 billion pageviews in a typical month. By 2022 (the last numbers that Statcounter has provided onthe current FAQ page), that number was down to 5 billion a month.Statcounter represents a tiny sliver of actual traffic on the web, mostly from fairly esoteric websites that have chosen to embed the Statcounter tracking code on their websites, like Futbin.com,Filmyzilla.com.fj,Ask.com, andKernel.org. They can't count traffic from the most popular sites on the web, like Google, Facebook, or Wikipedia.Also: Can you still get a Windows 10 upgrade for free in 2025? Short answer: MaybeIt's like trying to do a survey of consumer behavior without including Costco, Walmart, Home Depot, Target, CVS, or any Kroger grocery store. By leaving out those giants, your sample becomes quirky and almost certainly not representative of the greater market.More importantly, Statcounter measures only pageviews, not visits or sessions. If I go to a site that uses the Statcounter service and visit five pages on my Windows 11 PC, and you load 10 pages with your Windows 10 PC, the results in Statcounter's "market share" report will show that Windows 10 is twice as popular as Windows 11. You see the problem here, I presume.Of course, that assumes all those pageviews are even counted. On my Windows 11 PC, where I use Microsoft Edge with its tracking protection set to Strict, Statcounter's tracking code is automatically blocked. Oops.So, what's the real story?The data from Statcounter tells a perfectly valid story about how people use websites that belong to its customers. But it says nothing about the "market share" for Windows PCs.It does show, in the most general terms, that traffic to those sites from Windows 10 PCs is declining slowly and that traffic from PCs running Windows 11 appears to be increasing slowly as well. Do those numbers map to the population of PCs worldwide? Probably not, although no one can say for sure.We do know that there are a very large number of PCs running Windows 10 that are not eligible to upgrade to Windows 11. That number will probably still be very large in October 2025, when support for Windows 10 ends. Someone with access to Microsoft's telemetry servers could probably give you a pretty good estimate of how many devices are in each population, but they're not talking.The rest of us, unfortunately, are left to guess. And if you want to make a wager based on data from Statcounter, go right ahead. Just don't put any serious money on that bet.Featured