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BNPL usage hit an all-time high on Cyber Monday 2024, registering a spend of $991.2 million (a 5.5% year-over-year increase), according to Adobe Analytics data. The trend is in line with Splitit and PYMNTS research last November that found two-thirds of consumers plan to use BNPL payment options for gifting this holiday season (with 38% intending to use it to spend on themselves). This presents a huge opportunity for merchants, especially those in ecommerce, as BNPL is primarily used in online shopping. However, industry experts caution that while BNPL offers flexibility for budget-stretched consumers, it carries financial risk, especially for those who rely most on BNPL services. Let’s explore the impact of BNPL below. Learn why consumers increasingly prefer this payment option, which consumers are more inclined to use it, and where BNPL spending is happening. I also discuss what challenges and opportunities will be for the retail industry. The Rise of BNPL in Holiday Spending BNPL has been gaining momentum since 2021 when it registered a 102.3% increase in BNPL users from previous years. By 2026, forecasts show almost 40% of US internet users will use a BNPL solution, further stressing how the payment method is edging further into the mainstream. For the holiday season, the rise of buy now pay later can be attributed to consumers wanting greater flexibility for their shopping in light of persistent inflation and credit card interest rates being higher than ever. Adobe Analytics projected that American shoppers, carrying more debt, will heavily rely on buy now pay later holiday offerings from retailers, increasing usage by 11.4% the previous holiday season. Shoppers say their main reasons for using BNPL are to free up cash (22%) and to purchase something they couldn’t afford otherwise (19%). BNPL services let shoppers expand purchasing powers by allowing them to pay for their purchases in monthly installments (3, 6, 9, and 12 months) usually with zero to minimal interest. Impact of Buy Now Pay Later Holidays​ on the Retail Industry Retailers should take note of the subsequent rise of BNPL preferences for holiday spending; a study shows that those that have increasingly adopted BNPL have proven they can convert more window shoppers and encourage customers to check out with fuller carts. How does BNPL work during the holidays? Knowing that pay later options are available in the merchant’s store drives higher spending, as more than one in four shoppers who use the financing option before checking out tend to buy more, per PYMNTS. The same study clearly shows that 30% of consumers say they use BNPL more heavily during the holiday season than the rest of the year. And 43% of holiday shoppers (60 million U.S. consumers) are heavily influenced by BNPL holiday offerings when selecting merchants. When it comes to consumers’ dependence on BNPL options for their holiday spending, the same study revealed the following: Nearly one in five anticipated using more than 60% of their total holiday spending for pay later methods. The average buy now pay later holiday shopping​ consumer estimates that 36% of their holiday purchases would be financed by BNPL options. Around half of all holiday shoppers expected to go for BNPL financing between 20% and 60% of their purchases. Only 6.4% of holiday shoppers anticipated financing nearly all their purchases with pay later options. Just 5.4% did not plan to finance any holiday spending. Consumers were likely to use BNPL for bigger expenses, according to a Zip holiday spending survey. The timing of the offering also matters. Most shoppers (62%) prefer to know if a pay later solution is offered before deciding what to buy, rather than after making the purchase. Ninety percent of those surveyed that do not use this financing option would be more likely to use them if offered during the purchase journey. Early promotion of pay later plans in the shopping journey is helpful for attracting new customers. What’s hot at TechRepublic Who uses BNPL during the holidays? BNPL Use Cases Data shows that people across all age groups are more likely and open to use pay later options for their holiday spending. The same PYMNTS study revealed which demographics are more likely to leverage buy now pay later holiday shopping payment options for giving gifts to others and themselves: Parents are prone to leverage the pay later options for holiday spending. Sixty-seven percent, or two in three parents, considered pay later solutions for their holiday purchases. Two in five millennials were highly likely to use pay later plans for holiday shopping, while 34% of Gen Z intended to use pay later options outright. An interesting thing to note is that 6.5% of shoppers who had not yet used pay later plans expected to do so during the holiday season, with an additional 17% considering it. Knowing which age groups are likely to be swayed or enticed to spend (and spend more) because of holiday pay later options fuels customer acquisition, drives retention, and boosts holiday sales. It also reveals that the majority are interested in financing some, but not all, of their holiday purchases through BNPL. Leverage the convenience and financial flexibility these pay later solutions offer to convert undecided customers and those that wanting to maximize gifting during the season. Are there any risks associated with BNPL? Even as holiday shopping is made easier and more financially flexible with BNPL, it does come with risks. More than half (56%) of BNPL users say they have encountered at least one problem, according to a Bankrate survey. Overspending (29%), missing a payment (18%), and difficulty returning items or getting a refund (18%) are among the top problems that users have experienced. A smaller number of users also said they regretted a purchase (17%) or felt dissatisfied with at least one purchase (17%). Consumers perceive BNPL solutions as a better (and safer) alternative to credit cards. Rising interest credit card rates are one of the reasons why consumers prefer to take advantage of BNPL offerings instead of swiping their

Moving content in a Microsoft Word document is easy most of the time; you can quickly select sentences, paragraphs, graphics, and more, then cut and paste or move the selection up or down using Shift + Alt + Up/Down. These are only a few of the many ways Word helps you rearrange content. One element Word doesn’t support autonomously is the page; there’s no quick-click option to select and move an entire page. In this tutorial, I’ll show you three easy ways to rearrange Word pages. SEE: How to Protect Header and Footer Areas in Microsoft Word I’m using Microsoft 365 on a Windows 10 64-bit system, but you can use earlier versions. Word for the web supports these methods. The Navigation Pane is available in Word 365 through Word 2007, while the Clipboard history is available in Word 365 through Word 2013. All methods are also applicable with Word on Windows 11, including desktop versions and Word for Microsoft 365. For your convenience, you can download the demonstration .docs and .doc files. Please note that only  the first method will work in the older .doc format. How to move a page using Windows’ cut-and-paste feature It’s easy to jump right to Windows’ classic cut-and-paste feature when moving content, but it can be awkward when moving pages. Since cut and paste is a standard, here’s how to use it to move a page in Word. Enable Word’s Show/Hide feature by pressing Show/Hide in the Paragraph group on the Home tab. This displays hard page breaks, making it easier to locate and move pages. Position the cursor at the beginning of the current page by pressing Ctrl + Home. Select the entire page using one of these two options: If you prefer using the mouse, hold down the left mouse button and drag to the end of the page. This method is quick if you can see the entire page onscreen. Be sure to include the hard page break at the bottom of the page if there is one; if you leave it, you’ll leave an empty page. Hold down the Shift key while pressing PgDn (Page Down) key; this will highlight one screen at a time. Press PgDn until the selection reaches the end of the page. Press Ctrl + X to cut the page and copy it to the Clipboard. Or, click Ctrl + C if you don’t want to delete the content. Position the cursor where you want to copy the content and press Ctrl + V. If you want to paste the content without the original formatting, click Paste in the Clipboard group on the Home tab and choose Keep Text Values Only from the dropdown. Select all the content on the page, including a hard page return if there is one. If you’re only moving one or two pages, cut and paste is adequate. If you have a lot of rearranging to do, consider using Word’s Navigation Pane. If you change your mind or make a mistake, press Ctrl + Z to undo the move. How to move a page using the Navigation Pane in Word Word’s Navigation Pane displays your document by Headings and Pages. For this method to work, you must use World’s built-in heading styles. To open Word’s Navigation Pane, click the View tab and check Navigation Pane in the Show menu. Then, click Pages. Word displays a thumbnail for each page in the document. If the page you want to move begins with a built-in heading style, this is the quickest way to move an entire page. To demonstrate, do the following. Open the Navigation Pane, which defaults to displaying headers. In the Navigation Pane, click the heading that begins the page you want to move. In this case, that’s the first heading: Video. Notice that the page font color is red — that will matter in a minute. Drag the Video header to the end of the list. This will display a bold, guiding line. Drop the header into position. Drag the drop the header to move the page. If you’re working with the demonstration Word document, you can see the red page is now at the end of the document; the first page is green with the Themes heading. If the page you want to move doesn’t have a built-in heading at the beginning of the page, you can still use the Navigation Pane. Select the first few words or lines at the top of the page. Click a heading style in the Styles group on the Home tab. The style is only temporary. This page will now show up in the Headings section in the Navigation Pane. After moving the page, remove the temporary heading style. SEE: 5 Ways to Delete a Page in Word There’s one small catch to using the Navigation Pane: The first heading shows in the Navigation Pane. If there’s a higher-level heading elsewhere on the same page, the move begins with that higher-level heading, not the first heading on the page. This is something to watch out for because there’s no way for you to know that the heading in the Navigation Pane isn’t the highest-level heading on the page. What’s hot at TechRepublic How to move pages using Windows’ extended Clipboard in Word Sometimes you might want to move multiple pages in a Word document. For instance, you may want to swap the position of two pages or rearrange several pages. While you could do that with cut-and-paste or the Navigation Pane, there’s an easier way — the extended Clipboard, also known as the Clipboard history. Here’s how you can use this feature to move multiple pages efficiently. Using the cut-and-paste method above, cut the first page to the Clipboard. Repeat this process to cut the next page to the Clipboard. Position your cursor where you want the first cut page to appear. Press the Windows key + V to open the Clipboard history. Or click the Clipboard group’s dialog launcher. In

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As technology advances, ensuring the security of computer systems, networks, and applications becomes increasingly critical. One of the ways in which security professionals can assess the security posture of an entire digital ecosystem is by carrying out penetration testing, or pen testing for short. Penetration testing is the authorized simulation of a real-world cyber-attack. This allows organizations to evaluate how strong their security systems are and identify what weaknesses or vulnerabilities are present, if any. According to research by SNS Insider, the penetration testing market is expected to reach $6.98 billion in value by 2032, largely due to the continued advancement of cybersecurity threats. As a fundamental practice for assessing an organization’s security posture, pentests involve both the expertise of experienced security professionals and the use of powerful penetration testing tools. Given the proliferation of these tools, I have come up with a list of the top penetration testing tools available with their features, benefits, and drawbacks. ESET PROTECT Advanced Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Any Company Size Any Company Size Features Advanced Threat Defense, Full Disk Encryption , Modern Endpoint Protection, and more ManageEngine Log360 Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Micro (0-49 Employees), Small (50-249 Employees), Medium (250-999 Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees), Enterprise (5,000+ Employees) Micro, Small, Medium, Large, Enterprise Features Activity Monitoring, Blacklisting, Dashboard, and more Penetration testing software comparison table Here is a feature comparison of our shortlisted pen testing tools and how they stack up against each other. Compliance checks Number of tests covered Open-source / web-based Reporting and documentation Starting price Astra Yes 8,000+ Web Yes $1,999 per year, one target Acunetix No 7,000+ Web Yes Contact for quote. Intruder Yes Not specified Web Yes $157 per month, one application Metasploit Yes 1,500+ Both No Contact for quote. Core Impact Yes Not specified Web Yes $9,450 per user, user per year. Kali Linux Yes Not specified Open-source Yes Completely free Wire Shark No Not specified Open-source Yes Completely free SQL Map No Not specified Open-source Yes Completely free Astra: Best for diverse infrastructure Image: Astra Astra is a penetration testing tool solution with several automated testing features that combine manual with automated penetration testing features for applications, networks, API, and blockchain. With over 8,000 tests supported, this tool can help security professionals investigate vulnerabilities within a system. Astra covers different types of penetration testing, including web app pentest, cloud security pentest, and mobile app pentest. As a comprehensive penetration testing solution, Astra covers many tests that can help organizations meet compliance standards. Some of the compliance standards that Astra can check include SOC2, GDPR, and ISO 27001. The Astra tool also integrates with GitLab, Jira, and Slack and infuses security into a continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline. Why I picked Astra I picked Astra for its Enterprise Web App subscription, which accommodates different infrastructures. In particular, it can be used on web, mobile, cloud, and network infrastructures, offering multiple targets across various asset types. This is on top of Astra’s 8,000+ available tests and its wide range of integrations with other popular software. Pricing Astra’s pricing is categorized into web app, mobile app, and AWS cloud security, each with different pricing. Web app: Scanner – $1,999/year, Pentest – $5,999/year, Enterprise – $9,999/year. Mobile: Pentest – $2,499/year and Enterprise – $3,999/year. AWS cloud security: Under this are the Basic and Elite plans, and both require users to speak to the sales team for a quote. Features Covers 8,000+ tests scanning. Covers all tests required for ISO 27001, HIPAA, SOC2, and GDPR. Integration with GitLab, GitHub, Slack, and Jira. PWA/SPAs apps scanning support. Support through Slack and Microsoft Teams. Astra’s pentest dashboard. Image: Astra Integrations Slack workspaces. Jira. GitHub. GitLab. Azure. CircleCI. Astra pros and cons Pros Cons Supports publicly verifiable pentest certificates, which can be shared with users. What is supposed to be a free trial is charged at $1 per day. Offers one of the widest testing coverages (over 8,000). Support via Slack and MS Teams is only available on the Enterprise plan. Tests are automated with AI/ML. Support via Slack or Microsoft Teams. Acunetix: Best for pentest automation Image: Acuntetix Acunetix by Invicti is a powerful pen-testing tool for web applications. The solution is packed with scanning utilities that can help penetration test teams quickly get an insight into over 7,000 web application vulnerabilities and provide a detailed report covering the scope of vulnerability. Some of the notable vulnerabilities Acunetix can detect include XSS, SQL injections, exposed databases, out-of-band vulnerabilities, and misconfigurations. Acunetix comes with a dashboard that can sort vulnerabilities into classes, such as critical, high, medium,  and low. The tool is written in C++ and can run on Microsoft Windows, Linux, macOS, and the cloud. Why I picked Acunetix For businesses specifically looking for automated pentesting, I like Acunetix. It offers scheduled or recurring application scans, includes over 7,000 vulnerability tests, and generates useful insights before a scan is halfway through. I imagine it to be a great solution for organizations that want a no-nonsense pentest tool that saves them time without sacrificing overall security. Pricing Contact Acunetix for a quote. Features Vulnerability categorization into an order of severity. Over 7,000 web app vulnerabilities are supported. Covers the OWASP Top 10 standard for developers and web application security. Scan scheduling functionality. Compatibility with issue-tracking tools like Jira and GitLab. Acunetix scan result classification dashboard. Image: Acnetix Integrations Jira. Azure DevOps. GitHub. GitLab. Bugzilla. Mantis. Acunetix pros and cons Pros Cons Detected vulnerabilities are classified according to their severity level. No pricing details for users. Supports reporting and documentation. Absence of a free trial. Over 7,000 vulnerability tests are a broad coverage. Users can schedule one-time or recurring scans. Supports concurrent scanning of multiple environments. Features Cloud vulnerability scanning. Web vulnerability scanning. API vulnerability scanning. Compliance and reporting features. Internal and external vulnerability scanning. Intruder main dashboard. Image: Intruder Integrations Amazon Web Services (AWS).

A joint venture called The Stargate Project will contribute $500 billion over four years to generative AI infrastructure in the U.S., representatives of SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle announced in partnership with President Donald Trump on Jan. 21. The joint venture will support infrastructure, including data centers, contributing to what OpenAI calls a “computing system.” “This infrastructure will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs, and generate massive economic benefit for the entire world,” OpenAI wrote in a Jan. 21 post on X (formerly Twitter). “This project will not only support the re-industrialization of the United States but also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.” “It’s big money and high-quality people,” Trump said at a White House press conference, according to the Associated Press. At least one location confirmed in Texas OpenAI will initially contribute $100 billion to the project, with the other $400 billion coming at an undisclosed pace over the next four years. OpenAI said building a data center associated with the project has already begun in Abilene, Texas. “We are evaluating potential sites across the country for more campuses as we finalize definitive agreements,” OpenAI wrote. Oracle Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison said 10 data centers were already built or under construction. SEE: AI adoption tends to weaken companies’ chances of meeting sustainability goals, according to a report released in January. More must-read AI coverage Which companies are involved? The initial equity funders are: Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank. OpenAI. Oracle. MGX, a technology investment firm located in the United Arab Emirates. SoftBank will be responsible for The Stargate Project’s finances, while OpenAI will handle operations. Other initial technology partners are: “This builds on a deep collaboration between OpenAI and NVIDIA going back to 2016 and a newer partnership between OpenAI and Oracle,” OpenAI wrote. Trump’s administration will ease the way for more data centers in the United States, he said on Tuesday, according to The New York Times. That easement may include unspecified “emergency declarations” around The Stargate Project potentially generating its own electricity. Building out AI involves rethinking data and power needs “Our current infrastructure is not ready for the demands AI will require for full maturation,” said Sean Tufts, managing partner for critical infrastructure and operational technology at Optiv, in an email to TechRepublic. “This team is a perfect trifecta to embolden a new ecosystem. Bringing together the boldest AI firm, one of the largest data and cloud companies, and one of the most innovative financiers.  This is the type of public/private partnership that America’s innovators thrive on.” Tufts suggested a power generation company should join the group to address electrical needs. In addition to chips, robust data centers, and more efficient cooling, he said, power is one of the pillars required for increased support for generative AI technologies. Government increases reliance on public sector partnerships The Trump administration walked back former President Joe Biden’s initiative to provide guidelines for “safe, secure and trustworthy” generative AI, listing it among a group of what the Trump White House called “unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical” decisions by the previous administration. Tech companies that may be impacted by the rapidly shifting government support for AI should keep abreast of the changes, including those that may affect international deployments or partner companies outside the U.S.. States may also issue individual executive orders regarding AI and its infrastructure. State-level AI mandates, such as those in New York and Colorado, will remain in place. “Look for patterns in new or emerging state AI laws that follow existing non-AI laws,” wrote Gartner analysts Lydia Clougherty Jones, Frances Karamouzis, Svetlana Sicular, Avivah Litan in a Jan. 14 white paper. “For example, AI algorithmic discrimination laws are often duplicative of existing non-AI laws that prohibit certain discriminatory actions.” The removal of the 2023 executive order will mean “the dilution of significant federal oversight of model development,” Jones told TechRepublic in an email, “including requirements to submit per-market safety training results or notice of large-scale computer cluster acquisition, paving the way for streamlined innovation in a less federally regulated environment.” Projects like Stargate show that other AI initiatives may land in private hands rather than public ones. “Regardless of the status of the 2023 EO, strengthening sovereign AI will increase reliance on partnerships with the private sector,” said Jones. She pointed out that another major AI-related executive order, Advancing United States Leadership in Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure, was not revoked. Making the U.S. a powerhouse of AI innovation is still a goal for the new administration. “Given the substantial amount of energy infrastructure needed to train AI models, the challenge to accelerate AI development lies in the massive energy demand and consumption,” Jones said. “With the revocation of the 2023 EO and announcement of Stargate, we see the convergence of data centers and power — power being both literally in terms of energy demand and figurately in terms of the US’s competitive ambitions.” source

Security researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and Ruhr University Bochum discovered two side-channel vulnerabilities in devices with Apple name-brand chips from 2021 or later that could expose sensitive information to attackers. Specifically, the vulnerabilities known as SLAP and FLOP skim credit card information, locations, and other personal data. Data can be gathered from sites like iCloud Calendar, Google Maps, and Proton Mail via Safari and Chrome. As of Jan. 28, Apple is aware of the vulnerabilities. “Based on our analysis, we do not believe this issue poses an immediate risk to our users,” an Apple representative told ArsTechnica. According to the researchers, Apple plans to release a patch at an undisclosed time. The researchers have not found evidence of threat actors using these vulnerabilities. Which Apple devices are affected? The following Apple devices include vulnerable chips, according to the researchers: All Mac laptops from 2022 to the present (MacBook Air, MacBook Pro). All Mac desktops from 2023 to the present (Mac Mini, iMac, Mac Studio, Mac Pro). All iPad Pro, Air, and Mini models from September 2021 to the present (Pro 6th and 7th gen., Air 6th gen., Mini 6th gen.). All iPhones from September 2021 to the present (all iPhone 13, 14, 15, and 16 models, SE 3rd gen.). What are the SLAP and FLOP vulnerabilities? Both vulnerabilities are based on speculative execution, a cyberattack technique that uses indirect cues such as power consumption, timing, and sounds to extract information that would otherwise be secret. Contemporary Apple chips inadvertently enable speculative execution attacks because they use predictors that optimize CPU usage by “speculating.” In the case of SLAP, they predict the next memory address the CPU will retrieve data from. In FLOP, they predict the data value returned by the memory subsystem on the next access by the CPU core. SLAP enables an attacker to launch an end-to-end attack on the Safari web browser on devices with M2/A15 chips. From Safari, the attacker could access emails and see what the user has been browsing. FLOP lets threat actors break into Safari and Chrome web browsers on devices with M3/A17 chips. Once inside, they could read the device’s location history, calendar events, and stored credit card information. SEE: Chinese company DeepSeek released the most popular AI chatbot on the App Store this week, ahead of OpenAI. “There are hardware and software measures to ensure that two open webpages are isolated from each other, preventing one of them form (maliciously) reading the other’s contents,” wrote researchers Jason Kim, Jalen Chuang, Daniel Genkin, and Yuval Yarom on their Georgia Tech site about SLAP and FLOP. “SLAP and FLOP break these protections, allowing attacker pages to read sensitive login-protected data from target webpages. In our work, we show that this data ranges from location history to credit card information.” The research highlights the dangerous potential of side-channel attacks, which both SLAP and FLOP take advantage of. Side-channel attacks are difficult to detect or mitigate because they rely on properties inherent to the hardware. In March 2024, Apple silicon ran afoul of another side-channel attack called GoFetch. Must-read security coverage What can users do about the vulnerabilities? Users can’t apply mitigations to these vulnerabilities, since the vulnerabilities are rooted in the hardware. “Apple has communicated to us that they plan to address these issues in an upcoming security update, hence it is important to enable automatic updates and ensure that your devices are running the latest operating system and applications,” the researchers wrote. TechRepublic has reached out to Apple for more information. source

Over the weekend, Chinese AI company DeepSeek released an AI chat app including a “reasoning” AI model comparable to OpenAI’s o1, causing a stir among American AI companies as DeepSeek rose to the top of Apple’s App Store. DeepSeek is a Hangzhou, China-based company providing generative AI models and AI integration. Its first products to make waves in the American market are the GPT-4-like DeepSeek-V3 and R1, an advanced “reasoning model.” Like ChatGPT, DeepSeek-V3 and R1 quickly answer natural-language prompts. NVIDIA and Microsoft stock fell on Monday after the buzzy debut. Overall, the stock market reflected a sudden dip in confidence in U.S. AI makers. DeepSeek’s success sparked conversation about whether U.S. restrictions on Chinese access to AI chips limited or encouraged competition. For tech professionals, DeepSeek offers another option for writing code or improving efficiency around day-to-day tasks. Along with DeepSeek’s R1 model being able to explain its reasoning, it is based on an open-source family of models that can be accessed on GitHub. More must-read AI coverage What is remarkable about DeepSeek? Like OpenAI’s o1 (formerly known as Strawberry), the reasoning model slows down its prediction capabilities to “reason through” its work, which helps it provide more accurate answers. In particular, reasoning models have scored well on benchmarks for math and coding. DeepSeek said DeepSeek-V3 scored higher than GPT-4o on the MMLU and HumanEval tests, two of a battery of evaluations comparing the AI responses. DeepSeek said one of its models cost $5.6 million to train, a fraction of the money often spent on similar projects in Silicon Valley. DeepSeek-V3 and R1 can be accessed through the App Store or on a browser. Visitors to the DeepSeek site can select the R1 model for slower answers to more complex questions. When selected, the R1 model creates lengthy answers that explain in a conversational style how it arrived at its conclusions. As of Monday morning, the DeepSeek chat site warned service may be disrupted, though the chatbot was functioning normally. DeepSeek also offers an APII, which operates through the OpenAI SDK or software compatible with the OpenAI SDK. SEE: OpenAI announced Operator, an AI agent that can take multi–step actions in a web browser, such as choosing flights. What does DeepSeek’s V3 and R1 launch mean for the AI industry? “We can fully expect an ecosystem of applications will be built on R1 as well as several global cloud providers offering its models as a consumable API,” said Gartner Distinguished VP Analyst Arun Chandrasekaran in an email to TechRepublic. “Deepseek’s future success is predicated on its ability to continuously innovate (rather than being a one-off success), build a developer ecosystem on its products and overcome cultural barriers, given its country of origin.” Chandrasekaran said DeepSeek’s low cost, efficiency, benchmark results, and open weights make it remarkable. DeepSeek-V3 was trained on 2,048 NVIDIA H800 GPUs. U.S. manufacturers are not, under export rules established by the Biden administration, permitted to sell high-performance AI training chips to companies based in China. “The potential power and low-cost development of DeepSeek is calling into question the hundreds of billions of dollars committed in the U.S,” said Ivan Feinseth, a market analyst at Tigress Financial, according to a note to clients acquired by ABC News. DeepSeek further differentiates itself by being an open source, research-driven project, while OpenAI increasingly focuses on commercial efforts. “Deepseek R1 is one of the most amazing and impressive breakthroughs I’ve ever seen — and as open source, a profound gift to the world.,” Silicon Valley insider and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen posted on X on Friday. Gartner said the global AI semiconductor industry will reach $114,048 in 2025. Gartner predicted the power required for data centers to run newly-added AI servers will reach 500 terawatt-hours by 2027. DeepSeek introduces multimodal models On Monday, DeepSeek followed up its success with another surprise: the Janus-Pro family of multimodal models, which can analyze and generate images. OpenAI alleges DeepSeek ‘distilled’ existing models On Jan. 29, Microsoft announced an investigation into whether DeepSeek might have piggybacked on OpenAI’s AI models, as reported by Bloomberg. Microsoft security researchers found large amounts of data passing through the OpenAI API through developer accounts in late 2024. OpenAI said it has “evidence” related to distillation, a technique of training smaller models using larger ones. Distillation violates OpenAI’s terms of service. OpenAI has not detailed the nature of the alleged evidence. Security concerns raised about DeepSeek’s models Since DeepSeek’s debut rocked the AI world, several security concerns about its models have swirled in the industry. Some concerns – input data feeding the model, copyright concerns, and possible disinformation or misinformation – apply to generative AI broadly; others caution U.S. users from potentially giving information to or opening a backdoor for a Chinese company. “The technology sector needs frameworks that ensure all AI systems protect user privacy and intellectual property rights according to international standards, while recognizing the different data access and governance requirements that exist across jurisdictions,” said Cliff Steinhauer, director of information security and engagement at U.S. nonprofit The National Cybersecurity Alliance, in an email to TechRepublic. “The path forward requires balancing innovation with robust data protection and security measures, while acknowledging the varying regulatory landscapes in which AI systems operate.” DeepSeek research temporarily exposed in a public database On Jan. 29, research firm Wiz Research revealed that they found a publicly accessible database of information exposed by DeepSeek, including chat history. The database has since been secured. Wiz Research found chat history, backend data, log streams, API Secrets, and operational details within the DeepSeek environment through ClickHouse, the open-source database management system. “This exposure underscores the fact that the immediate security risks for AI applications stem from the infrastructure and tools supporting them,” Wiz Research cloud security researcher Gal Nagli wrote in a blog post. “While much of the attention around AI security is focused on futuristic threats, the real dangers often come from basic risks—like accidental external exposure of databases.” Alibaba Cloud debuts new model

Keeper is an all-around password manager that offers a variety of authentication options and an intuitive user interface. In this article, we walk you through how to set up Keeper, how to use it, and how you can maximize its capabilities for your organization. Dashlane Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Micro (0-49 Employees), Small (50-249 Employees), Medium (250-999 Employees), Large (1,000-4,999 Employees), Enterprise (5,000+ Employees) Micro, Small, Medium, Large, Enterprise Features Automated Provisioning ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Any Company Size Any Company Size Features Access Management, Compliance Management, Credential Management, and more Keeper step-by-step instructions 1. Choosing a Keeper subscription Keeper has two subscription types: Personal & Family and Organizations. The Personal & Family options are the more consumer-facing subscriptions, while the Organizations tier is designed for small to large businesses. In our hands-on review, Keeper received a rating of 4.4 stars out of 5. Check out the full Keeper review here. Keeper Personal & Family. Image: Keeper Keeper’s Personal or Unlimited plan is priced at $2.92 per month and comes with one user vault. The Family plan is $6.25 per month for five user vaults. Keeper Organizations plans. Image: Keeper The Organizations plans are divided into Business Starter, Business, and Enterprise. Keeper Business Starter covers small teams of up to ten people, while Keeper Business is meant for small to medium-sized businesses — with the two plans starting at $2 per user, per month, and $3.75 per user, per month, respectively. Keeper Enterprise is tailored towards larger companies and includes more business-focused features. You can contact Keeper for a quote on Enterprise pricing. Keeper offers a generous 30-day free trial for Keeper Personal, and a 14-day trial for Keeper Business; neither requires a credit card or payment information to access. I highly recommend picking the plan best suited for you or your business and trying out their free trial. This lets you experience Keeper’s password management without paying for a premium subscription. Keeper has a free version, but it’s very limited and is only available on the mobile application. 2. Setting up the web app and browser extension To get access to one of Keeper’s free trials, click the “Try It Free” button at the top of Keeper’s Pricing page and select your plan of choice. For this guide’s sake, we will try out Keeper Personal. Starting a Keeper free trial. Image: Keeper Keeper will ask you to provide an email address. Once you’ve provided one, you’ll be redirected to Keeper’s web application. From there, it’ll ask you to input your email address and create a Master Password. Your master password is technically the only password you’ll have to make on your own. It unlocks your Keeper vaults, where all your data and credentials are going to be stored. Creating a master password. Image: Luis Millares Because it’s your main gateway to all your passwords, it’s crucial that you remember your master password. Keeper will send you a verification code through your email and ask you to input it on their app. Once you input the code, you’ll now be able to access Keeper’s full web vault! Initial Keeper web vault page. Image: Luis Millares 3. Using Keeper When you first encounter Keeper’s web vault, it’ll offer you a few tutorials on how to import passwords, install the browser extension, and set up account recovery. Keeper tutorials. Image: Keeper Of the three tutorials, go through the browser extension guide first. This will allow you to have Keeper’s extension ready on your browser at all times and will make your password management experience more seamless. If you’re using Chrome, you can download Keeper Password Manager on the Chrome Web Store. Now that you have both Keeper’s web app and browser extension installed, you can start saving and managing your passwords. Keeper Chrome extension. Image: Keeper To show you how to save your first login, I’ll demonstrate the process by creating a new Goodreads account. Upon navigating to Goodreads’ account creation page, you will see that a Keeper logo will appear on the password field. Clicking on it will show the Keeper’s password generator. Keeper password generator. Image: Luis Millares Keeper’s password generator automatically creates a random password for every new login you have. Through the generator, you can configure how many characters you want a password to have and whether you want it to have numbers, letters, symbols, or a combination of the three. At default, Keeper’s password manager generates a 20-character password with a maximum of 100 characters. After you’ve input your new account details, Keeper’s browser extension will ask you to save the new login to your Keeper vault. New saved login. Image: Luis Millares Once you click “OK,” you’ve officially saved your very first login in Keeper! How to ensure you’re maximizing Keeper’s capabilities Out of the box, Keeper offers heightened security in protecting your passwords. However, there are a few steps you can take to fully maximize its features. Download Keeper’s dedicated desktop app I highly recommend downloading one of Keeper’s desktop applications alongside its browser extension. This provides you with a more organized view of your encrypted vault and prevents any slowdown that could happen with your browser, especially if you anticipate accessing a ton of login credentials at any given time. Currently, Keeper has dedicated desktop applications for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Consider Keeper’s paid add-ons You should also check out Keeper’s secure add-ons, which are separate purchases to your Keeper membership that add extra functionality. Chief among these are Keeper’s BreachWatch and KeeperChat add-ons. BreachWatch is Keeper’s take on dark web scanning, while KeeperChat is an encrypted messaging service that works with the Keeper Password Manager. Maximize Keeper discounts for selected groups Keeper provides generous discounts to people in the military, first responders, medical personnel, and students. In particular, Keeper offers a 50% discount for students and a 30% discount

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Research from Google and Accenture suggests that an increasing number of Australians and businesses are using artificial intelligence, which may not come as a surprise. However, there is a significant disparity in the number of employees who feel equipped to use AI, and what C-suite executives perceive that number to be. Google polled 1,000 Australians and found that 49% used generative AI in the last year, up from 38% in 2023. This rise is accompanied by a new level of optimism. The proportion of people who believe AI will benefit them increased by 6%, and the percentage who think it will change work for the better within five years rose by 7%. Accenture surveyed 790 C-suite executives and 687 non-C-suite level employees across five Asia Pacific countries, including Australia, for its Pulse of Change report. A whopping 87% of the leaders said they planned to boost their AI investment in 2025, and 91% believe their employees are able to use the technology efficiently. Employees feel differently, though: Only 70% feel prepared to make  the most of AI at work. Furthermore, just 30% of them claim to understand the potential value of GenAI “to a great extent,” compared to 55% of APAC C-suite leaders. While 70% of workers feel they have received adequate AI training, 91% of C-suite leaders believe their employees are set up to use it. This suggests the AI training being provided may not meet employees’ specific needs. SEE: Australian IT Skills Shortage and Self-Upskilling The Accenture research also looked at employees’ concerns around AI, which may shine light on the areas where training should be focused. Non-users of AI at work cite concerns about inaccuracies (27%), lack of resources (26%), and integration struggles (22%). AI skilling has been identified as a key gap in Australia, with many employees consistently saying their organisations talk about AI tools but do not invest in the people using them. The country needs 312,000 additional tech workers by 2030 to meet demand, or more than 60,000 new entrants annually in the tech workforce. In December, Australia announced plans to develop a national AI strategy to strengthen its AI capabilities and attract investment, aiming to unlock the $600 billion of productivity potential of these technologies. Microsoft also committed to equipping one million people across Australia and New Zealand with essential AI skills by 2026. Matt Coates, technology lead for Accenture in Australia and New Zealand, said in a press release: “Too many organisations view generative AI solely as a technological solution, rather than as a driving force to rethink talent strategies. “While investments in AI continue to grow, many still face significant challenges in understanding, training, and implementation.” More Australia coverage AI skills gap should be addressed to prepare for continuous change Both reports suggest that Australian businesses are aware that changes related to AI adoption are ongoing. Google’s survey found that 54% of workers hope that automation will free them up to focus on more rewarding work, but 46% think that it will put pressure on them to do more with fewer resources. Over time, Australians are getting more optimistic, confirming that certain aspects of AI doomerism were overblown. For instance, the portion of Google respondents who think that jobs and industries will change for the better within the next five years thanks to AI increased by 7% in a year. Fewer Australians now think their roles will be absorbed by AI, with the percentage dropping from 20% in 2023 to 12% in 2024. “It’s incredible to see Australia move beyond experimentation to action, harnessing AI to create real-world benefits — and it’s exciting to think about the potential benefits to our economy,” said Mel Silva, managing director of Google Australia and New Zealand, in a blog post. SEE: 5 Generative AI Trends to Watch in 2025 The Accenture respondents also predict industry disruption, with 79% of employees believing their roles will be impacted by AI. “Only a third of executives have a clear vision for how generative AI will impact their workforce,” Coates said. “This emphasises the importance of a strategic approach that harmonizes technology and human talent to fully realise the power of reinvention that gen AI provides.” source