A three-judge panel in the Cincinnati-based sixth US circuit court of appeals said the Federal Communications Commission lacked authority to reinstate the rules initially implemented in 2015 by the Obama administration.

The net neutrality rules, which require internet service providers to treat internet data and users equally, were repealed by Donald Trump in 2017, before outgoing President Biden signed a 2021 executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate the rules.

The court cited a June decision from the Supreme Court in Loper Bright to overturn a 1984 precedent that would give deference to government agencies in how they interpret laws they administer. The ruling leaves in place state net neutrality laws but is a blow to Democrat efforts to give federal regulators oversight of the internet.

Net-neutrality rules prevent ISPs from restricting access, slowing speeds or blocking content for certain users. The rules also forbid special arrangements in which ISPs give improved network speeds or access to favoured users, but the rules were opposed by Brendan Carr, who is set to become FCC chair when Trump comes to power later this month.

Following the ruling, sitting FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel challenged Congress to act to “put open internet principles in federal law”.

She said: “Consumers across the country have told us again and again that they want an internet that is fast, open and fair. With this decision it is clear that Congress now needs to heed their call.”

USTelecom, an industry group whose members include AT&T and Verizon, said in a joint statement with other groups that sued that the ruling is “a victory for American consumers that will lead to more investment, innovation and competition in the dynamic digital marketplace”.

However, the FCC’s net neutrality rules received backing the likes of Amazon, Apple, Alphabet and Meta.

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The lawsuit claimed that some of its iPhones and smartwatches unintentionally activated Siri and recorded users’ conversations, sharing the audio with third-party advertisers.

Voice-activated assistants react when people use “hot words” such as “Hey, Siri”, or for Amazon’s Alexa, simply: “Alexa”.

Two plaintiffs said that they received ads for Air Jordan shoes and Olive Garden restaurants after talking about them in what they thought were confidential conversations.

Another said that after a private conversation with his doctor about a brand-name surgical treatment, he began seeing ads for the same treatment.

They claimed to have not used the phrase “Hey, Siri” to wake Apple’s voice assistant.

Allegedly, advertisers who received the recordings could then search for keywords in order to target ads.

The class period for the lawsuit covers from September 17, 2014, through December 31, 2024, starting from when Apple introduced the “Hey, Siri” feature, which plaintiffs allege led to unauthorised voice recordings.

Apple has proposed a decision date of February 14. If successful, tens of millions of people could receive up to $20 per Siri-equipped device.

As noted by Reuters, $95 million is about nine hours of profit for Apple, highlighting that such lawsuits come as a business cost for big tech companies.

Apple has explicitly denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle, as well as claims that it “recorded, disclosed to third parties, or failed to delete, conversations recorded as the result of a Siri activation” without consent.

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Enterprises will need to nail and scale complex data management

Zuzanna Stamirowska, CEO and co-founder, Pathway

“2025 will see enterprise AI transition from proof of concept to production, with a sharper focus on ROI. However, challenges like data management, privacy, and updates will intensify. To succeed, organisations must feed enterprise data into LLMs, ensuring models can contextualise and retrieve complex data at speed. Live AI will gain prominence, enabling smarter handling of fresh structured and unstructured data for operational success.”

Ellison Anne Williams, founder and CEO, Enveil  

“While the promise of AI remains substantial, its value is rooted in an organisation’s ability to access and use rich, relevant data for evaluation and training. This core need will be abundantly clear as AI tools move from sandboxes to operational environments where the stakes are much higher.

“For cyber leaders, this will also amplify the need to ensure that data sources can be used in a manner that prioritises both security and privacy. If not, the value business and mission value delivered by AI will be unable to overcome the impact of risks it introduced.”

Andrew Beal, chief architect, Markerstudy

“AI’s explosive growth has elevated data’s importance, but most organisations’ data platforms were built for MI and reporting, not AI. While AI requires raw, unstructured data, traditional platforms aggregate and structure data, losing its unique value.

“GenAI will unlock unstructured data’s potential, turning documents, images, and videos into valuable resources and driving a need for robust data ecosystems.

“In 2025, security, governance, and ethical practices will become critical. Tools like data catalogues and tagging will ensure data is well-managed, while organisations will need frameworks to address privacy, bias, and ethical AI applications.”

The democratisation of data access continues…

Martin Brunthaler, chief technology officer and co-founder, Adverity 

“Data democratisation will reach new heights, fundamentally reshaping how businesses operate. We can expect to see more brands and agencies taking steps to ensure data is easily and quickly available: empowering their teams to take full control of insights without heavily relying on IT or data engineers, so IT can establish secure, scalable systems to maintain organisational standards and focus on other strategic, more valuable initiatives.

“Features like conversational data interfaces, smart recommendations, and customisable micro-apps will become standard, making accessing and acting on data simpler and faster.

“Data democratisation will play a pivotal role in enabling business transformation at scale, helping companies to stay competitive in a rapidly changing world.”

Analytics: Dashboards are dead

Derek Slager, CTO and co-founder, Amperity 

“Dashboards are dead – Generative AI-powered tools offering the ability to answer the questions that matter on-the-fly will be the new surface for analytics and decision making.”

Hybrid models will power Big Data

Enrico Signoretti, VP of product and partnerships, Cubbit

“Unstructured data will grow steadily in 2025, making data management essential for storage and value extraction. Organisations will tackle data growth with CapEx, OpEx, and optimisation, favouring hybrid cloud and STaaS models. Advances in visibility will address challenges like data silos from hybrid and multi-cloud usage, with S3 data lakes emerging as a key solution for improved accessibility and security management.”

Chris Hall, CPO, Precisely

“Disruptive technologies like AI and cloud adoption are driving demand for simplified, trusted data access. To meet this, organisations will converge fragmented data ecosystems and adopt unified data integrity strategies across hybrid environments. Integrated data management reduces costs, ensures governance, and enables data teams with self-service access to power analytics and AI initiatives.”

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Earlier this week, the US Treasury Department revealed that it had been hacked by Chinese hackers, who had accessed several employee workstations and unclassified documents.

A letter by the treasury stated that the hackers compromised third-party cybersecurity service provider BeyondTrust in order to steal unclassified documents in what it called a “major incident.”

It detailed that the hackers gained access to a key used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users.

With the stolen key, the threat actor was able to override the service’s security and remotely access user workstations.

“Based on available indicators, the incident has been attributed to a China state-sponsored Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actor,” the letter read.

The Treasury Department said it was alerted to the breach by BeyondTrust on December 8, and it was working with the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the FBI to assess the impact of the hack.

The letter added that there was no evidence that the hacker was still in its systems.

The Washington Post has since spoken to anonymous US officials who said the attackers compromised the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Office of Financial Research and also targeted the office of US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

According to the report, US officials said that the Chinese government’s motivation would likely be to find out what Chinese entities the US government is considering designating for financial sanctions.

In response to the report, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, said that the “irrational” US claim was “without any factual basis” and represented “smear attacks” against Beijing.

The spokesperson added that China “combats all forms of cyber-attacks”.

The US Treasury has not responded to a request for comment on the report.

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The role of GenAI in reshaping how we interpret and leverage information cannot be overstated, and it is truly proving to be a differentiator, further separating early adopters and laggards. Traditionally, data has been siloed within specialist teams—scientists, engineers, and analysts—leading to bottlenecks that stifle agility and slow decision-making. By implementing GenAI products, businesses can break down these silos by enabling users at all levels to engage directly with data, putting data insights in the hands of every business user, engineer and application builder. When leveraging GenAI for data analytics, businesses are able to guide and automate certain tasks, cutting down the time this would normally take between different data teams, which in turn empowers users to be more productive and help employees serve themselves more efficiently.

Early adopters of GenAI for data analytics, like EcoLab and Verizon, are reaping significant rewards. EcoLab, a global sustainability provider, has trained GenAI on clients’ operational and financial data to quickly and effectively identify the best resources for them, reducing the cost of time and resources. This proves that companies who have already adopted the technology across their operations are seeing benefits such as democratised data access, the ability to deliver actionable insights rapidly and monitor the benefits which have the ability to transform the company. Through being able to leverage, analyse and make data-driven decisions quicker and more effectively through GenAI, employees can prioritise other operations, which accelerates a company’s growth and enables them to scale quicker.

As well as reporting operational benefits, companies are seeing a measurable return on investment with GenAI, reaffirming the technology as both a financial asset and a key competitive differentiator. For example, Verizon—the telecoms giant—has developed a “centre of excellence” which allows them to monitor the ROI they are receiving for GenAI, meaning they can constantly monitor the financial benefits they’re receiving from the technology, and where it’s proving to be most beneficial. When investments are made, it is important to show the value and return making it suitable for the bottom line.

Democratised data access for decision making across levels of a business enables businesses to grow, scale and become more efficient.  This was highlighted in a recent report by MIT sponsored by ThoughtSpot found that nearly half of adopters of GenAI for analytics anticipate a 100% or greater ROI within three years. By moving away from a centralised framework, businesses enhance accessibility to data, and improve performance of data-driven decisions, which is beneficial for businesses in the long-run.

It’s a fact that innovation and originality is also crucial to empower and drive businesses towards efficiency and growth. GenAI for data analytics plays an important role in business innovation as through extracting insights from multiple datasets, GenAI can build a complete and personalise of different customers’ behaviour and habits in an instant. When using traditional in-house teams, although they may be able to reach the same conclusion, they may struggle to do it as quickly. Whereas harnessing GenAI for data analytics means results are achieved quicker, and therefore more can be achieved each day.

In the same way that GenAI has been widely adopted across businesses, agentic AI is now rapidly making inroads into businesses, and already transforming everyday operations. Agentic AI is offering businesses a step beyond GenAI—through operating autonomously to perform tasks in a human-like way. Agentic AI uses large language models (LLMs) to manage multiple agents, which can handle a vast range of operations from data search and analysis to driving complex data-led decisions. The technology’s systems go beyond when it comes to automating end-to-end processes, reducing manual effort and increasing efficiency across operations, to the point where they are widely described as being human-like.

Just as companies have been integrating GenAI products, more companies are now beginning to integrate agentic AI products into their ecosystems. Autonomous agents, such as Spotter, are allowing businesses to work with data in ways that hadn’t been previously possible – allowing them to converse with the system in the same way they would a human data analyst. By embedding the products into their existing business applications, when users ask questions of their data, they can now get the structured and efficient answers they need, which are adapted to both the industry and persona of its users.

To unlock transformative business value, companies must integrate GenAI and agentic AI without delay. Staying ahead of the curve ensures they dismantle bottlenecks, achieve rapid, data-driven insights, and enjoy substantial ROI—essential advantages in an AI-powered future.

The post From assistance to agency: how GenAI for analytics is unlocking measurable business value appeared first on TechInformed.

AI-driven robotics will be able to learn on the job

Pascal Brier, chief innovation officer at Capgemini 

“Advancements in AI technology have accelerated the development of next-generation robots, building upon innovations in mechatronics and expanding beyond traditional industrial uses. While robotics used to be dominated by hard-coded, task-specific machines, the development of Gen AI is spurring the development of new products (including humanoid robots and collaborative robots – or cobots) that can adapt to diverse scenarios and learn continuously from their environment. According to the Capgemini Research Institute’s upcoming report, 24% of top executives and 43% of Venture Capitalists see AI-driven automation and robotics as one of the top 3 tech trends in data and AI in 2025. With robots becoming more autonomous and AI taking on complex decision-making roles, the future of work may see a shift in the traditional structure of authority. The rise of AI-powered machines that mimic human behaviours challenges our understanding of leadership, responsibility, and collaboration, ultimately pushing us to reconsider the role of humans.

Why it matters: As Industry 4.0 progresses, AI-powered robots will drive efficiency, flexibility, and innovation, becoming key components of intelligent, connected systems that redefine industrial processes. By 2025, advances in natural language processing and machine vision will further enhance their capabilities, allowing robots in manufacturing, logistics, and agriculture to take on more complex roles within the modern workforce.”

Michel Spruijt, president, Brain Corp International

“Polyfunctional robots – those capable of performing multiple tasks and seamlessly switching between them as required – are set to have a growing impact across many industries in 2025. We’ve already seen significant impact in retail where robots seamlessly transition between tasks such as floor care and inventory management.

Looking ahead, we anticipate polyfunctional robots will become increasingly prevalent in manufacturing, logistics, and retail. These robots will be able to adapt to changing production needs, provide value in increasingly complex warehouse environments, and enhance customer experience in a variety of contexts.

One of the most promising aspects of polyfunctional robots is their ability to learn and improve over time. As they encounter new situations and tasks, they are able to adapt to increase efficiency and overall productivity.

In 2025, we expect polyfunctional robots to play an increasingly important role across many sectors, driving innovation, increasing productivity, and creating new opportunities to future-proof industries.”

Robots will be able to adapt to their human colleagues

Volker Spanier, head of manufacturing solutions, EMEA, Epson

“In 2025, we will see a wider adoption of smart manufacturing, which in the UK will be underscored and stimulated by the Government’s new £16 million investment aimed at accelerating digital transformation among SME manufacturers. Alongside this, the expansion of the UK Government’s Made Smarter Innovation programme in 2024, with an additional £37 million in funding for 2025-2026, aims to promote innovation and digitalisation across the manufacturing sector. This programme includes grants for research and development in automation and robotics, as well as tax incentives for manufacturers investing in AI-driven technologies, further catalysing the shift towards smarter, more efficient manufacturing processes.

The increasing productivity and safety of robotics, alongside easier software, will reduce the need for expensive peripheral equipment or complicated programmes for automating operations. Instead, these robots can be quickly and easily repurposed for various products and processes. This year marks a turning point where robotics, with its precision and speed, becomes a partner to humans, enhancing productivity and strengthening the UK’s manufacturing excellence and superiority.”

Adrian Negoita, CTO, Dexory

“Over the past year, the robotics industry has seen impressive progress, both in terms of technological evolution and increased adoption across other industries. It is now firmly an industry for the future that will drive significant change across multiple industries.

As we look ahead to 2025, we can expect to see further improvements in the autonomy and sensor technology integrated into robotic systems. This will allow robots to better navigate their surroundings and handle more complex, unstructured environments. I foresee a world of increased collaboration between humans and robots – this improved autonomy will be essential to that, as it means robots can smoothly operate in the same spaces as humans without safety concerns. This will be key for industries such as logistics, where companies are looking at deploying robots alongside humans to improve efficiency, freeing employees time to focus on strategic planning and driving growth within these industries.

With the continued development and growth of the robotics industry, it is an opportunity for people to upskill themselves for a field that will provide opportunities for growth and allow them to define and shape the future of robotics.”

The post 2025 Informed: Four robotics predictions for the next year appeared first on TechInformed.

With hybrid models gaining traction, AI integration accelerating, and multi-cloud strategies redefining enterprise IT, cloud technology stands at the forefront of digital transformation.

Industry leaders share their insights and predictions for the trends and challenges that will dominate the cloud ecosystem in the year ahead.

The AI cloud revolution

John Bradshaw, director of cloud computing technology and strategy EMEA, Akamai

“In 2025, AI will become integral to Cloud-driven operations, with more tangible applications than before. Organisations will begin to realise the potential of changing company headcounts by automating repetitive tasks and decision-making processes.

However, many companies may face challenges due to underbudgeting for AI implementation and the substantial data requirements necessary for these systems to function effectively.

As AI moves from buzzword to business imperative, many organisations will find that their Cloud infrastructure (essential as the backbone of AI advancements) is not yet equipped to handle the intensive data and computing workloads that AI demands.” 

Hybrid and multi-cloud strategies

Sergei Serdyuk, VP of product management, NAKIVO

“The adoption of the hybrid cloud model will continue in 2025 due to its flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency. The hybrid model has highlighted the need for cost optimisation as data volumes grow, as well as the necessity of robust cloud security.

“New tools like standardised APIs, self-service portals, and cloud storage gateways have made it easier to manage hybrid cloud environments. However, more work is still needed to streamline cloud and on-premises systems integration.

“Nevertheless, new challenges are bound to arise, such as the need for consistent security practices across hybrid cloud infrastructures to manage risks effectively. Additionally, the complexity of managing a hybrid cloud infrastructure will increase data sprawl and waste resources and will require skilled professionals to manage it.”

Steve Ellis, head of Amdocs cloud division, Amdocs 

“In 2025, enterprises that initially made big bets on a single cloud hyperscaler will begin to diversify by introducing secondary providers, adding competition, and unlocking capabilities their primary provider may not offer.

“While the major cloud players still dominate enterprise spend, there will be a noticeable shift toward multi-cloud strategies as businesses seek to complement their existing investments. This trend and the evolution of cloud networks from the enterprise to the application portfolio level will drive greater self-service capabilities for both tech and business teams.

Additionally, as  cloud continues to mature, AI’s regulatory compliance and technical tooling will also improve, enabling public-facing AI interactions to become more commonplace.”

Andrew Beal, chief architect, Markerstudy

“In 2025, the adoption of hybrid and multi-cloud environments will continue to accelerate, driven by organisations seeking to optimise costs and avoid vendor lock-in.

As more providers embrace multi-cloud strategies, we will see significant growth in platforms offering a single pane of glass for platforms such as API management, firewalls, data, and Kubernetes. This move would reduce the overheads associated with managing multiple cloud environments.

To support the drive for standardisation, Kubernetes will become the default hosting platform for many, ensuring software engineers have a consistent development experience, regardless of the cloud provider.

Much of this shift will be driven by platform engineering, as organisations transform their DevOps teams into platform engineering teams that focus on the entire developer ecosystem. This transformation will enhance the efficiency and productivity of development processes across different cloud environments.

Overall, 2025 will be a pivotal year for cloud technology, with advancements in hybrid and multi-cloud environments providing businesses greater flexibility, security, and control over their digital infrastructure.”

Data protection and security in the cloud

Johan Paulsson, CTO, Axis Communications

In previous years, we’ve highlighted how hybrid architectures, those making the best use of edge, cloud, and on-premises technologies, have become the de facto choice for security solutions.

The drivers for the choice of architecture will be unique to every organisation, considering technological, legal, ethical and governance concerns and requirements.

Whether demanded by emerging local and regional regulations or concerns over data control, cost, or energy efficiency, hybrid solutions will continue to offer the greatest flexibility in creating architectures to suit specific organisational needs best and allow a system to be scaled.”

Sergei Serdyuk, VP of product management, NAKIVO

“Data protection will always be a top priority for cloud environments. More businesses are using strong cloud security measures to protect against ransomware attacks, including encryption, access controls, and immutable storage to combat cloud-specific cyber threats.

There’s growing understanding of the shared responsibility model between organisations and cloud service providers (CSPs), though some companies are still catching up. The focus will be on implementing robust backup and recovery solutions, encryption, and access controls to protect critical data across hybrid cloud infrastructures.”

Andrew Beal, chief architect, Markerstudy

“The current geopolitical climate, marked by uncertainty and the potential for a global trade war, will bring cloud sovereignty to the forefront. Discussions around data sovereignty and localised cloud services will become more prevalent, with major hyperscalers already exploring solutions in this space.

This shift will be crucial for businesses looking to ensure compliance with regional regulations, such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)  for UK financial services and Insurance companies and mitigate risks associated with geopolitical tensions.”

The post 2025 Informed: Cloud Predictions appeared first on TechInformed.

Healthcare LLM training and specialised AI tools

Oskar Wenbar, COO and co-founder, Evaro

“2025 will mark the end of ‘AI theatre’ in healthcare. After the initial rush to implement any form of AI, we’ll see a decisive shift toward measurable, clinically validated AI applications. The standout innovation will be ‘predictive healthcare triage’ – AI systems that combine patient data, medical histories, and real-time health metrics to predict and prevent health issues before they become critical.

“Two major trends will emerge: the rise of ‘healthcare data cooperatives’ pooling anonymised patient data to train AI, particularly impacting preventative care. The NHS’s dataset will become one of Britain’s most valuable assets.

“Generic chatbots will be replaced by specialised AI tools focusing on specific medical domains, augmenting clinicians’ capabilities—for example, AI specialising in chronic condition management or medication response patterns.

“Data sovereignty will shape this evolution. Countries with robust healthcare datasets like the UK will gain advantages, sparking new collaborations and data-sharing agreements, especially post-Brexit.”

More efficient clinical trials are on their way

Melvin Lai, senior associate, Silicon Foundry

“Technologies using AI, data analytics, and digital platforms will continue to emerge to streamline clinical trials by improving processes, data quality, and patient engagement.

The life sciences sector has been among the lagging industries in the post-Covid era but is expected to outperform in the coming year as capital market conditions continue to improve and a window for IPOs and M&A exits spurs further positive momentum.”

Drug discovery over drug repurposing

Marina Hickson, managing director, Vivanti

“Start-ups like BenevolentAI and Recursion are making a compelling case for the transformative power of AI in drug discovery, and big pharmaceutical companies are starting to take notice. Over the past five years, nearly all major pharma players have dipped their toes into AI, primarily focusing on drug repurposing. However, there’s a noticeable shift from repurposing to developing new drugs, a trend expected to continue into 2025”

Quantum computing and AI will help accelerate innovation

Monika Rai, partner, EIP

“Quantum Computing to enhance AI in healthcare will likely be a standout technology in 2025, accelerating big dataset evaluation for more precise and efficient solutions.

“For healthcare businesses, this offers opportunities to improve clinical trials, speed up medicine development, and drive innovation. However, it also brings challenges, including access to reliable medical data, smaller markets for personalised treatments, and the need for collaboration within a competitive industry and across governments—all amid geopolitical turmoil.

“Meanwhile, traditional healthcare solutions remain unavailable to much of the global population.”

Financial constraints will see rise in tech adoption

David Joerring, CEO and co-founder, HealthKey

“2025 will see global health systems under intensifying pressure, driving rapid innovation in healthtech. Unsustainable financial models will accelerate the adoption of AI triage systems, virtual-first healthcare, and scalable preventative care. Comprehensive virtual healthcare packages, including GP services and chronic disease management, could become available for as little as £50 per person annually.”

Roger Mazella, senior medical product lead, Qt Group

“The MedTech industry is on the verge of a big boom. Recent downturn in the market, might suggest that the industry is headed for a steep decline but a more accurate way to view this is as a necessary course correction of the pandemic-driven industry bloating that led businesses to overexpansion and missteps in strategy.

“The conditions are ripe for a boom. We’ve got the biggest part of the population – the baby boomer generation – approaching their 60s and 70s. Healthcare is increasingly moving out of the hospital, with more care delivered at home. New technology initiatives are advancing to improve the delivery of healthcare for more people, in more locations, in a manner that is more efficient.”

Femtech advances will make workplaces more inclusive

Caroline MacDonald, Founder & CEO, Oggadoon 

“Healthtech, or specifically, Femtech continues to captivate startups and investors alike, showing remarkable growth potential. People are becoming more proactive about monitoring their health. However, a significant challenge remains: most research still overlooks the complexities of the female body.

“In 2025, there will be increased resources for managing menopause and perimenopause symptoms, offering holistic approaches to improve quality of life. In the workplace, we are witnessing a growing trend towards support systems for navigating menopause, with technology set to play an increasingly important role in this transformation. Also, demand to monitor general menstrual cycles, and the rise of Gen-Z, who need to understand their hormones more than ever. “

Valentina Milanova, founder, Daye

“AI and ML will revolutionise gynae healthcare, enabling more accurate diagnostics, especially for underfunded, under-addressed conditions, and personalised treatment plans. We’ll see AI-powered analysis of mammograms and other imaging becoming standard, significantly improving early detection of breast and ovarian cancers.

“Advanced wearables and femtech devices will expand beyond cycle tracking to provide comprehensive health monitoring. These will offer real-time data on hormonal changes, bone density, and cardiovascular health, enabling proactive interventions for conditions like osteoporosis and heart disease, which disproportionately affect women and AFAB individuals.

“Telemedicine platforms specialising in women’s health will expand, offering services like virtual maternity care, menopause counselling, and mental health support. This will create new business models and improve access to specialised care for women in underserved areas.

“Increased focus on data privacy and security in women’s health apps and devices will likely lead to stricter regulations, potentially reshaping the femtech landscape.”

How will geopolitical events influence healthtech?

Mayra Hurtado, CEO and co-founder, Hormony 

“There are a variety of factors at play for femtech, as women’s health is a highly politicised issue. The news of the US President Elect Trump’s victory, for example, may cause a rise in women’s telehealth services to ensure access to care, particularly in states where women are losing rights when it comes to their healthcare and autonomy over their bodies.

“The same could be said for regions undergoing conflict; where healthcare is scarce there is an increased need for women’s healthcare and paediatrics. At the same time, in the UK for example, where the incumbent government has pledged increased support for startups as well as the launch of the Invest in Women Taskforce, we could see renewed interest in investment in women’s health startups and femtech, which would give the industry increased support and facilitate the development of innovation.”

At-home devices will help advance personalised healthcare

Dr Rui Lopes, medical advisor, OMED Health 

“With the rise of at-home kits and devices to monitor all aspects of our health, 2025 will cement bespoke treatment pathways for consumers and patients. Whether it’s due to long wait times for healthcare treatment, or sheer curiosity, more consumers are turning to health and wellness devices that can be used autonomously, or with private clinician support, to track their health and help diagnose and treat various conditions.

“We’ll keep seeing bespoke pathways spring up for an increasing number of conditions, as brands unlock the technology to make this possible.”

Gareth Jones, business development director, HGS

“The future will see the delivery of care and the interface with patients increasingly devolved away from hospitals and surgeries. The need to reduce incremental costs and hospital admissions, as demand from an ageing population increases, will result in an increase in telehealth, adoption of digital devices at point of care, and the use of wearables.

These changes will see AI and machine learning playing increasingly critical roles, analysing vast amounts of patient data to enable more precise diagnoses, predictive analytics, and personalised treatment plans.”

Read more here: The startups tackling the gender data gap to improve female health

The post 2025 Informed: Healthtech predictions appeared first on TechInformed.

The documents reveal that Rostislav Panev, a 51-year-old man with dual Russian-Israeli citizenship, is facing extradition to the US to face charges alongside two others accused of working for the cybercriminal group

Panev allegedly served as a malware developer for the ransomware group from its inception in 2019 until February 2024, receiving approximately $230,000 in cryptocurrency transfers from the group between June 2022 and February 2024.

During his time at the group, Panev and his co-conspirators helped grow LockBit into what the US Justice Department refers to as “the most active and destructive ransomware group in the world.”

LockBit is responsible for more than 2,500 attacks across at least 120 countries, including 1,800 in the US.  Victims have included businesses of all sizes, hospitals, schools, nonprofit organisations, critical infrastructure, government agencies, and law enforcement entities.

In total, the group received at least $500 million in ransom payments and caused billions of dollars in losses.

According to the Justice Department, at the time of his arrest, Panev had admin credentials for LockBit’s Dark Web online repository with the gang’s ransomware source code, alongside source code for an affiliate tool called “StealBit” used to exfiltrate stolen data.

Panev’s laptop also had access credentials for the LockBit control panel used by affiliates.

In interviews with Israeli authorities following his arrest in August, Panev admitted to performing coding development and consulting work for the LockBit group and receiving regular payments in cryptocurrency for his work.

“The Justice Department’s work going after the world’s most dangerous ransomware schemes includes not only dismantling networks, but also finding and bringing to justice the individuals responsible for building and running them,” said the Justice Department’s attorney general Merrick B. Garland.

“Three of the individuals who we allege are responsible for LockBit’s cyberattacks against thousands of victims are now in custody, and we will continue to work alongside our partners to hold accountable all those who lead and enable ransomware attacks,” he added.

In February this year, the UK, US, and EU law enforcement announced the takedown of the group with a notice on the gang’s extortion site that read: “The site is now under the control of law enforcement.”

In what was called ‘Operation Cronos’, the agencies displayed multiple screenshots of LockBit’s backend and announced its affiliates in Poland and Ukraine.

Then, in May, the National Crime Agency led a campaign to identify the ‘leader of LockBit’, unmasked as Dmitry Khoroshev.

More recently, unknown individuals claiming to represent the ransomware gang have broken cover to announce the impending release of a new malware, LockBit 4.0.

Reported screengrabs from the Dark Web show the supposed cyber-criminal inviting interested parties to “sign up and start your pentester billionaire journey in 5 minutes with us.”

It showed a countdown timer with a launch date of 3 February 2025.

Read more about who LockBit were during their time as a cyber gang here.

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This isn’t just a local issue — data suggests that globally, temperatures reached unprecedented highs this July, marking the hottest month ever recorded.

These rising temperatures are putting pressure on a variety of industries, from energy and transportation to agriculture, and preparing for the summer months is becoming a top priority.

For food retailers, the challenge is particularly unique. As an industry already operating on tight margins, supermarkets must keep perishable produce cool and in optimal conditions even while outside temperatures soar.

At the same time, they need to combat skyrocketing energy costs and prevent equipment breakdowns as cooling systems are forced to work harder in the heat.

To meet these challenges, food retailers are turning to advanced digital technologies. These innovations can improve energy efficiency, reduce the risk of catastrophic machine failures, and ensure optimum conditions for fresh produce, all while minimising food waste.

Fresh, safe, and available

For food retailers, keeping produce fresh, safe, and available for consumers is a top priority. This is especially challenging during heatwaves when warmer conditions increase the risk of spoilage and force refrigeration systems to work overtime to maintain the ideal conditions.

In such scenarios, traditional methods have fallen short, making it clear that precision and control are key.

Digital solutions, such as IoT (Internet of Things), have the potential to overcome these challenges, by providing unparalleled visibility and control over the critical equipment in a supermarket, such as the refrigeration systems and HVAC units.

By mining and monitoring millions of raw, real-time data points from these machines, advanced solutions can then analyse the data, detect inefficiencies, predict potential failures, and make automatic adjustments to ensure optimum conditions for produce.

Take refrigeration, for example. Traditionally, the complex nature of managing vast amounts of refrigeration equipment meant all products were chilled to the lowest temperature required by the most sensitive items, like meat.

This one-size-fits-all approach led to unnecessary energy use and often compromised the quality of less sensitive items. Now, with digital technology that integrates third-party data such as merchandising systems, retailers can tailor refrigeration temperatures to the specific needs of each product type, ensuring maximum freshness and minimising waste.

This level of precise, micro-control over operations not only enhances food quality but also drives significant reductions in food waste. It is this unique ability to combine granular control with macro-level outcomes that provides retailers with a robust and resilient approach to machine management, even during the most challenging conditions like heat waves.

Ensuring energy efficiency

Integrating digital technology into retail infrastructure can significantly reduce unnecessary and costly energy consumption, helping to protect retailers’ bottom lines. During periods of extreme heat, cooling equipment consumes more energy as it works harder to maintain regulated temperatures.

Research from Imperial College, London shows that a 2ºC increase in average summer temperatures will lead to a 6% rise in an estate’s refrigeration energy consumption  over the summer months. This highlights the critical need for energy efficiency in food retail operations.

Significant energy efficiencies can be gained and sustained by deploying IoT software to collect and make sense of hundreds of thousands of data points from machines, controls, and systems across entire retail estates.

Such technology can offer powerful solutions by contextualising this data with other connected systems to gain visibility and precise control over machines, allowing them to optimise the machines, as well as the schedules and processes these systems run.

For example, lighting and HVAC systems can be automatically adjusted based on store hours or weather conditions, significantly reducing energy consumption during off-hours or lower temperatures to limit costs.

The real-time data generated by interconnected assets supports a comprehensive and holistic energy management strategy. During warmer months, when refrigeration units are under increased stress, additional load-shedding capabilities can be implemented. This means energy can be strategically redistributed from less critical units, such as those storing beverages, to crucial units that require more power and lower temperatures, like those preserving fresh produce.

By using these advanced digital strategies, retailers not only optimise energy use but also ensure that their operations remain resilient and efficient, even in the face of rising temperatures.

Mitigating breakdown

Leveraging data and IoT technology provides a significant maintenance advantage, especially during heatwaves when cooling systems must work harder and are more prone to faults and failures. In these high-stress conditions, machines are under greater strain, making the risk of breakdowns and energy inefficiencies higher.

By continuously monitoring cooling assets for incremental changes, IoT solutions can identify and alert when an asset performance deviates from ideal conditions and is demonstrating behaviours of a fault or failure.

When performance issues are identified, advanced solutions can immediately and automatically adjust the system to maintain ideal operating conditions, preventing negative outcomes such as increased energy consumption or spoilage of valuable stock. If these automated adjustments do not – or cannot – resolve the issue, the system will promptly alert an engineer to take further action.

This approach to early fault detection and swift intervention is crucial in preventing catastrophic machine breakdowns. It shifts retailers from a reactive maintenance model to a predictive one, enabling them to address issues before they escalate. By catching problems early, retailers can maintain operational efficiency, reduce the risk of costly downtime, and protect their business from the adverse effects of equipment failure.

Heat waves vs Innovation 

Heat waves pose significant challenges for food retailers, including soaring energy bills, increased risk of equipment breakdowns, and the threat of food spoilage due to compromised conditions. These issues demand robust solutions to protect both business operations and product safety and quality.

However, retailers are rising to the occasion with impressive innovation and resilience and by embracing cutting-edge digital technologies, they are not only addressing the immediate challenges of higher temperatures but also transforming their operations for long-term sustainability. These advancements enable food retailers to improve cost and energy efficiency, enhance operational reliability, and reduce food waste, proving that with the right tools, they can thrive even in the face of extreme heat.

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