Our Best Blogs of November post includes stories on tighter internet regulations, holding onto top tech talent and the weaponization of artificial intelligence (AI) in cyberspace. That’s a lot of great stuff to read between cooking holiday dinners!
Lawmakers expected to clamp down in the tech industry
In the European Union, a raft of new regulations called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) recently went into effect and significantly tightened restrictions on the tech industry. Now, US lawmakers are talking about passing the same kind of regulatory package.
The idea of tighter tech regulation in the United States is already a subject of intense discussion inside the industry. Whenever a major business suffers a data breach or admits users’ information was for dubious purposes, the calls for tighter regulation grow louder.
Already, those US businesses that do any type of business in the EU are being compelled to comply with GDPR. If a business database stores something as basic as a European customer’s home address, email, fingerprints or facial image, then GDPR guidelines apply.
While there is a precedent now, adoption of the law wasn’t easy. Many companies chose to stop doing business in Europe, or even shut down, rather than reconfigure their systems for GDPR.
Hold onto your top tech talent 
The US labor market is tighter than ever, and tech leaders must work hard to keep their best talent. According to the 2018 IT Career Outlook report from Spiceworks, one-third of IT professionals have been looking for a new job this year.
However, the reasons behind why IT pros are searching for new employment are split along generational lines. For example, 81 percent of Millennial job seekers said they wanted to earn a bigger paycheck, while 70 percent of Gen Xers and 64 percent of Baby Boomers said the same thing, according to Spiceworks. Millennials are likely chasing a bigger salary because they make less, on average, than other generations. The average annual salary for Millennials is $50,000, while tech Gen Xers average $65,000 and Baby Boomers average around $70,000. Some businesses say they are looking at pay raises as a way to keep their youngest employees.
Millennials and Gen Xers also tended to say they are looking at new job opportunities as a way to expand their skill set. Survey respondents said security and cybersecurity skills were the most important tech skills to learn for this year. Application development and DevOps were seen as the least desirable skills to pursue in 2018.
Weaponizing AI
Artificial intelligence has the potential to bring a large group of advanced tactics to the table with regards to cyberattacks, according to tech experts.
Earlier this month, researchers from Darktrace said the existing threat landscape is filled with everything from script kiddies and opportunistic attacks to sophisticated, state-sponsored assaults, with all kinds of attacks continuing to evolve.
However, for each advanced attack currently in use, there is the possibility of further development through the use of AI.
