Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More In the tech world, we like to label periods as the year of (insert milestone here). This past year (2024) was a year of broader experimentation in AI and, of course, agentic use cases.  As 2025 opens, VentureBeat spoke to industry analysts and IT decision-makers to see what the year might bring. For many, 2025 will be the year of agents, when all the pilot programs, experiments and new AI use cases converge into something resembling a return on investment.  In addition, the experts VentureBeat spoke to see 2025 as the year AI orchestration will play a bigger role in the enterprise. Organizations plan to make management of AI applications and agents much more straightforward.  Here are some themes we expect to see more in 2025.  More deployment  Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of AI and data at AWS, said 2025 will be the year of productivity, because executives will begin to care more about the costs of using AI. Proving productivity becomes essential, and this begins with understanding how multiple agents, both inside internal workflows and those that touch other services, can be made better.  “In an agentic world, workflows are going to be reimagined, and you start asking about accuracy and how do you achieve five times productivity,” he said.  Palantir chief architect Akshay Krishnaswamy agreed that decision-makers, especially those outside of the technology cluster, are beginning to get antsy about seeing the impact these AI investments will have on their businesses.  “People are rightfully fatigued about more sandboxing, because it’s off the back of the whole data and analytics journey of the past 10 years, where people also did a ton of experimentation,” said Krishnaswamy. “If you’re an executive, you’re like, ‘this has to be the year I actually start to see some ROI, right?’” An explosion of orchestration frameworks Going into 2025, there is a greater need to create infrastructure to manage multiple AI agents and applications.  Chris Jangareddy, a managing director at Deloitte, told VentureBeat that next year will be very exciting. Competitors will face LangChain and other AI companies looking to offer their own orchestration platforms.  “A lot of tools are catching up to LangChain, and we’re going to see more new players come up,” Jangareddy said. “Even before organizations can think about multiagents, they’re already thinking about orchestration so everyone is building that layer.”  Many AI developers turned to LangChain to start building out a traffic system for AI applications. But LangChain isn’t always the best solution for some companies, which is where some new options including Microsoft’s Magentic, or comparable companies like LlamaIndex come in. But for 2025, expect to see an explosion of even more new options for enterprises.  “Orchestration frameworks are still very experimental, with LangChain and Magentic, so you can’t be heads down for just one,” said PwC global commercial technology and innovation officer Matt Wood. “Tooling in this space is still early, and it’s only going to grow.” Better agents and more integrations AI agents became the biggest trend for enterprises in 2024. As organizations gear up to deploy multiple agents into their workflows, the possibility of agents crossing from one system to another becomes more apparent. This is particularly true when enterprises are looking to demonstrate their agents’ full value to executives and employees.  Platforms like AWS’s Bedrock, and even Slack, offer connections to other agents from Salesforce’s Agentforce or ServiceNow, making it easier to transfer context from one platform to another. However, understanding how to support these integrations and teaching orchestrator agents to identify internal and external agents will become an important task.  When agentic workflows become more complex, the recent crop of more powerful reasoning models, like OpenAI’s recently announced 03 or Google’s Gemini 2.0, could make orchestrator agents more powerful.  However, all of this will be in vain if enterprises do not get their employees to actually use new AI tools in 2025.  Don Vu, chief data and analytics officer at New York Life, told VentureBeat that the last-mile problem of employees often choosing more manual methods over AI will continue for the next year.  “The last mile problem is something that we’ve all stubbed our toe on in 2024, and understanding that change management, business process reengineering stuff that’s not maybe as sexy as building an agent that can do all these incredible things,” said Vu. “It’s harder to change human behavior than deploy an app.” source

By Matt Rizzolo, Matthew Shapiro and John Healy Jr. ( January 3, 2025, 6:34 PM EST) — Europe’s recently established Unified Patent Court and the century-old U.S. International Trade Commission differ significantly in age, but both have proven to be increasingly important strategic venues in high-stakes global patent litigation…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

By James Boyle · January 6, 2025, 3:53 PM EST A former Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, school superintendent has left the education field after more than 30 years to join Barley Snyder as the firm’s new chief operating officer…. Want to continue reading? Unlock these benefits today when you sign-up for a FREE 7-day trial: Gain a competitive edge with exclusive data visualization tools to tailor to your practice Stay informed with daily newsletters and custom alerts across 14+ coverage areas relevant to you Streamline your business of law needs with integrated news and research in a single destination Already have an account? Sign In Now source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More For this year’s lineup, Samsung said that AI will come to life in more ways than just great picture quality. The company is introducing AI-backed experiences to make your day simpler, more dynamic, and just plain better. Announced at CES 2025, these experiences will help usher in a new era for Samsung TVs known as Vision AI. Vision AI will deliver better picture quality, optimized sound, and new experiences that will change how you watch TV. And before I forget, here’s an interesting fact: 60% of Samsung TV owners play games each month. In 2025, Samsung is upgrading features like AI Upscaling, Auto HDR Remastering and Adaptive Sound Pro. It is also introducing new Color Booster Pro, which leverages AI to offer richer, more vibrant colors than ever before. The 2025 TVs will also see a whole suite of AI features designed to help you discover new content and learn more about what you’re watching. Click to Search can identify people, places or products on your screen and provide information tailored to you, in real time. With just one click of the new AI button on your SolarCell remote, you can learn who the actors are in a given scene, where that scene is taking place or even the clothing the characters are wearing. Samsung shows side by side what a TV can do with AI turned on or off. The TVs can also take the dishes from movies or TV shows you’re watching and show you how to make them via recipes with Samsung Food. Leveraging the AI processor, it recognizes the food on your screen and provides recipes for bringing them to life. Samsung Food can also analyze what’s in your fridge and build a shopping list of missing ingredients. Plus, you can purchase groceries or takeout using provider apps and monitor delivery right from your TV. AI will also provide security and accessibility features. Samsung AI Home Security transforms your TV into a smart security hub. It analyzes video feeds from your connected cameras and audio from your TV’s microphone to provide comprehensive home monitoring. It can detect unusual sounds and movements, such as falls or break-ins, to give you more peace of mind whether you’re at home, or away. You’ll receive alerts and notifications on your phone or directly on your TV screen, helping you stay connected to your home while ensuring the safety and well-being of your loved ones. Plus, Samsung is the only manufacturer to offer Knox Matrix on the TV lineup, providing end-to-end encryption for all of your personal data. On the accessibility front, Samsung is using AI to power new features like Live Translate. Now, you can instantly translate closed captions on live broadcasts in up to seven languages. Samsung lets you control your TV with your smart watch. Samsung is improving AI-based Voice Removal with Audio Subtitles, a feature for the visually impaired. The 2025 TVs will analyze subtitles, isolate voices and adjust reading speed for a seamless experience. Together, the AI-backed accessibility features are eliminating barriers and making sure Samsung TVs are inclusive and accessible for everyone. Finally, they’ll be more ways to control the TV lineup in 2025. Samsung has trained Bixby to better understand context and assist with multiple actions – like changing the channel and raising the volume at the same time. And then there’s Universal Gestures. While not an AI feature, it does introduce a super cool new way to control your Samsung TV using prompts and hand gestures on your Galaxy Watch. Samsung Odyssey G7 gaming monitor The Samsung Odyssey G7 is a 40-inch gaming monitor. Samsung released a bunch of its monitor announcements last week. But today it’s also revealing the Odyssey G7, a new addition to the Odyssey series. It is the industry’s first 40-inch 21:9 WUHD (5120×2160) gaming monitor. Its unique combination of a large, wide screen with a 1000R curvature and WUHD resolution provides extra dimensions and a more detailed experience. The G& is HDR10+ gaming certified, which is the latest premium HDR (High Dynamic Range) gaming technology that guarantees beautiful HDR graphics optimized for HDR displays automatically . The G7 supports VESA DisplayHDR 600 for a rich and vibrant color expression so users can enjoy all the details in their favorite game. The back side of the Odyssey G7 gaming monitor is pretty too. It encompasses a black finish and three-side, bezel-less design, eliminating the need for a clunky dual monitor setup in favor of a seamless, modern set up. Gamers will also be able to remain competitive in quick action gameplay with its 1 m/s GtG response time and 180Hz refresh rate. Samsung Neo QLED 8K TVs The latest 83-inch Neo QLED 8K TV. Samsung said its lineup of Neo QLED 8K TVs are its flagship technologies for 2025, and it’s introducing two models, the QN990F and QN900F. Both ultra premium TVs are packed with several firsts to deliver the pinnacle of immersive 8K viewing. After creating the industry’s first OLED with Glare-Free technology, Samsung is bringing it to the 8K lineup, helping you enjoy the highest resolution picture in any room, bright or dark. The QN990F will also feature a brand-new technology that will make cable clutter a thing of the past: the Wireless One Connect Box. The Wireless One Connect Box can transmit wirelessly up to 10 meters away, even with obstacles in its path. Leveraging WiFi7 and Omni-Directional Technology, it doesn’t even need to face your TV to transmit an 8K resolution at up to 120Hz. The company is also providing access to the Samsung Art Store on the QN990F, QN900F and several other models across the 2025 lineup. Now, more buyers than ever can create a gallery-like experience in their homes with access to 3,000+ pieces from renowned museums and institutions across the globe. The Frame is aimed at displaying art. Owners of 2025 Samsung

The B2B event technology landscape has continued to transform apace over the past two years. In this environment, standalone virtual event platforms have struggled as leading vendors have broadened their capabilities to support a wider range of event types. Despite these expanded capabilities, enterprises continue to run multiple, overlapping event technology platforms, with 22% of large enterprises deploying six or more event tech solutions. With event budgets under massive pressure, leaders should explore the benefits of consolidating onto an all-in-one event management platform. When evaluating all-in-one event technology, marketers should ask themselves three questions: What mix of events will we be running? In-person events have seen a robust resurgence over the past two years. Vendor data indicates that approximately three-quarters of all registrations are currently for in-person or hybrid events, with only a quarter for virtual-only events. But event formats are evolving. The fastest-growing event type is the small, owned/hosted in-person event with fewer than 200 attendees, while virtual events are becoming simpler and shorter. Marketers need to assess the range of events that they’re running and choose a partner that can provide centralized, scalable support. Are we maximizing the value of our event data? With increasing restrictions on access to audience data, event data has become one of the most valuable sources of zero- and first-party data, and marketers are prioritizing the maximization of its value. An all-in-one event management platform is crucial in this regard. Marketers should evaluate vendors based on their ability to capture and analyze attendee data to deliver more personalized experiences. Leading vendors can aggregate data across events and accounts, benchmark it against peer data, and use AI to answer data questions, run predictive analytics, and make customized attendee recommendations. Does this platform integrate into our broader martech stack? To fully leverage the value of event data, it is essential for marketers to integrate their all-in-one event platform into their broader marketing technology stack, but many organizations fail to do this and must prioritize it. Most vendors offer a range of native, API, and webhook integrations into leading marketing automation platforms and CRM systems, as well as app marketplaces for additional event solutions. Top vendors go further by offering deeper levels of integration, dedicated CRM objects, and exclusive partnerships. Are you interested in learning more? Forrester clients can access The Forrester Wave™: All-In-One Event Management Platforms, Q4 2024, schedule a guidance session or inquiry with me, and also register for an upcoming ask the analyst webinar, where I’ll be sharing highlights from the Wave research and taking questions! source

Financial regulations exist to ensure stability and trust in global banking systems. They protect customers, preserve systemic integrity, and help mitigate risks of financial crises. However, even in a heavily regulated industry, banks and financial institutions worldwide routinely fail audits, often paying steep penalties amounting to billions of dollars. While many penalties have historically addressed financial misconduct, regulatory bodies are increasingly targeting failures in operational resilience — penalizing lapses in the critical systems and services that underpin modern banking operations. Two regulatory frameworks, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) in the European Union (EU) and the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) guidelines in the United States, underscore the increasing emphasis on IT operational resilience. These regulations mandate strong risk management and incident response frameworks to safeguard financial operations against escalating technological threats. Meeting these requirements necessitates a shift in how CIOs, CTOs, and IT leaders manage their IT ecosystems, making comprehensive IT management platforms like BMC Helix essential. Why operational resilience matters DORA and FFIEC share a focus on operational resilience, though their approaches differ. DORA mandates explicit compliance measures, including resilience testing, incident reporting, and third-party risk management, with non-compliance resulting in severe penalties. Meanwhile, FFIEC offers broader, non-binding guidelines, enforced selectively by regulatory bodies like the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Despite their differences, both emphasize the interconnected nature of financial systems. Failures in one institution can cascade globally, underscoring the importance of strong information and communication technology (ICT) risk management. This risk is magnified by the growing complexity of financial services often spanning multiple and rapidly evolving technology landscapes. Compliance involves addressing issues such as cybersecurity threats, service disruptions, and third-party dependencies, making an advanced IT management platform indispensable for aligning with these standards. BMC Helix: A holistic solution for DORA and FFIEC compliance BMC Helix is an AI-powered platform designed to enable compliance with DORA, FFIEC, and similar frameworks. The platform automates IT operations, integrates service and operations management, and provides real-time visibility into critical systems. By aligning IT processes with regulatory expectations, BMC Helix empowers financial IT leaders to meet the stringent demands of operational resilience. Key features of BMC Helix that help IT leaders meet compliance requirements include: Comprehensive service mapping: IT leaders must first understand their service and application dependencies to prevent disruptions, including new dependencies from mergers and acquisitions. BMC Helix automates the mapping of technology components to business services, creating real-time, dynamic service maps. These maps show interactions and dependencies across on-premises systems, cloud environments, mainframes, and third-party services, giving organizations a clear picture of their operational landscape. Risk management through real-time monitoring and modeling: Regulatory frameworks emphasize proactive risk management, requiring constant monitoring and vulnerability assessments. BMC Helix provides real-time alerts for emerging threats and uses predictive analytics to recommend corrective actions. Automated remediation processes restore services quickly while minimizing operational risks. Incident and recovery management: Both DORA and FFIEC highlight the importance of swift incident response and recovery. BMC Helix enables organizations to quickly detect, respond to, and report incidents efficiently. AI-driven insights help predict and mitigate risks, while automated recovery workflows minimize service disruptions and deliver faster recoveries. Additionally, the platform generates comprehensive reports to meet audit requirements. Governance and compliance reporting: Meeting governance standards is vital for avoiding fines and reputational damage. BMC Helix automates key governance processes, including reporting and change management, ensuring institutions remain audit-ready. Dashboards tailored to DORA and FFIEC compliance provide actionable insights into vulnerabilities, enabling organizations to proactively address gaps. Mainframe integration for enterprise visibility: Many financial institutions rely on mainframes for critical operations. BMC Helix integrates with BMC’s mainframe resiliency suite, providing unified monitoring and security across all systems. This cross-platform integration is critical for compliance, ensuring operational visibility and continuity. The future of operational resilience DORA and FFIEC represent a broader trend in regulatory frameworks, where operational resilience is intertwined with financial stability. For financial institutions, operational resilience is no longer optional — it’s mandatory to ensure trust is maintained and to avoid significant penalties. With its AI-driven insights, automated workflows, and comprehensive service and operations management, BMC Helix is at the forefront of this transformation. The integrated solution empowers financial organizations to meet regulatory requirements, reduce risks, and enhance operational efficiency, positioning them for success in a time when resilience is paramount. Learn more about financial regulations and how BMC can help. Visit here for more information or contact BMC. source

By Ryan Harroff ( January 6, 2025, 4:01 PM EST) — A pair of robot lawn mower companies that have been fighting over the aftermath of their prior partnership have come together to tell North Carolina’s business court that they are ready to drop their dispute following an earlier motion that stated they had agreed to a settlement…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

Competing in a global esports tournament at Wimbledon last year not only fulfilled my childhood dream, but also sharpened skills that are essential to my day job, including strategic thinking, confidence and networking, says AJ Schuyler at Jackson Lewis. source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More Nvidia unveils Mega Omniverse blueprint for building industrial robot fleet digital twins, as part of a CES 2025 keynote speech by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. The new framework enables next era of industrial AI and robot simulation through software-defined testing and optimization to factories and warehouses, the company said. According to Gartner, the worldwide end-user spending on all IT products for 2024 was $5 trillion. This industry is built on a computing fabric of electrons, is fully software-defined, accelerated — and now generative AI-enabled. While huge, it’s a fraction of the larger physical industrial market that relies on the movement of atoms. “In the future, every factory will have a digital twin,” Huang said. Today’s 10 million factories, nearly 200,000 warehouses and 40 million miles of highways form the “computing” fabric of our physical world. But that vast network of production facilities and distribution centers is still laboriously and manually designed, operated and optimized. In warehousing and distribution, operators face highly complex decision optimization problems — matrices of variables and interdependencies across human workers, robotic and agentic systems and equipment. Unlike the IT industry, the physical industrial market is still waiting for its own software-defined moment. That moment is coming, Nvidia said. Mega The company today at CES announced “Mega,” an Omniverse Blueprint for developing, testing and optimizing physical AI and robot fleets at scale in a digital twin before deployment into real-world facilities. Advanced warehouses and factories use fleets of hundreds of autonomous mobile robots, robotic arm manipulators and humanoids working alongside people. With implementations of increasingly complex systems of sensor and robot autonomy, it requires coordinated training in simulation to optimize operations, help ensure safety and avoid disruptions. Mega offers enterprises a reference architecture of Nvidia accelerated computing, AI, Nvidia Isaac and Nvidia Omniverse technologies to develop and test digital twins for testing AI-powered robot brains that drive robots, video analytics AI agents, equipment and more for handling enormous complexity and scale. The new framework brings software-defined capabilities to physical facilities, enabling continuous development, testing, optimization and deployment. Developing AI Brains With World Simulator for Autonomous Orchestration With Mega-driven digital twins, including a world simulator that coordinates all robot activities and sensor data, enterprises can continuously update facility robot brains for intelligent routes and tasks for operational efficiencies. The blueprint uses Omniverse Cloud Sensor RTX APIs that enable robotics developers to render sensor data from any type of intelligent machine in the factory, simultaneously, for high-fidelity large-scale sensor simulation. This allows robots to be tested in an infinite number of scenarios within the digital twin, using synthetic data in a software-in–the-loop pipeline with Nvidia Isaac ROS. Supply chain solutions company Kion Group is collaborating with Accenture and Nvidia as the first to adopt Mega for optimizing operations in retail, consumer packaged goods, parcel services and more. Huang offered a glimpse into the future of this collaboration on stage at CES, demonstrating how enterprises can navigate a complex web of decisions using the Mega Omniverse Blueprint. “At Kion, we leverage AI-driven solutions as an integral part of our strategy to optimize our customers’ supply chains and increase their productivity,” said Rob Smith, CEO of Kion Group, in a statement. “With Nvidia’s AI leadership and Accenture’s expertise in digital technologies, we are reinventing warehouse automation. Bringing these strong partners together, we are creating a vision for future warehouses that are part of a smart agile system, evolve with the world around them and can handle nearly any supply chain challenge.” Creating Operational Efficiencies With Mega Omniverse Blueprint Kion is working with Mega Creating operational efficiencies, Kion and Accenture are embracing the Mega Omniverse Blueprint to build next-generation supply chains for Kion and its customers. Kion can capture and digitalize a warehouse digital twin in Omniverse by using computer-aided design files, video, lidar, image and AI-generated data. Kion uses the Omniverse digital twin as a virtual training and testing environment for its industrial AI’s robot brains, powered by Nvidia Isaac, tapping into smart cameras, forklifts, robotic equipment and digital humans. Integrating the Omniverse digital twin, Kion’s warehouse management software can create and assign missions for robot brains, like moving a load from one place to another. These simulated robots can carry out tasks by perceiving and reasoning in environments, and they’re capable of planning next motions and then taking actions that are simulated in the digital twin. The robot brains perceive the results deciding the next action, and this cycle continues with Mega precisely tracking the state and position of all the assets in the digital twin. Delivering Services With Mega for Facilities Everywhere Accenture, global leader in professional services, is adopting Mega as part of its AI Refinery for Simulation and Robotics, built on NVIDIA AI and Omniverse, to help organizations use AI simulation to reinvent factory and warehouse design and ongoing operations. With the blueprint, Accenture is delivering new services – including Custom Robotics and Manufacturing Foundation Model Training and Finetuning; Intelligent Humanoid Robotics; and AI-Powered Industrial Manufacturing and Logistics Simulation and Optimization — to expand the power of physical AI and simulation to the world’s factories and warehouse operators. Now, for example, an organization can explore numerous options for their warehouse before choosing and implementing the best one. “As organizations enter the age of industrial AI, we are helping them use AI-powered simulation and autonomous robots to reinvent the process of designing new facilities and optimizing existing operations,” said Julie Sweet, chair and CEO, Accenture, in a statement. “Our collaboration with Nvidia and KION will help our clients plan their operations in digital twins, where they can run hundreds of options and quickly select the best for current or changing market conditions, such as seasonal market demand or workforce availability. This represents a new frontier of value for our clients to achieve using technology, data and AI.” source

Anyone who administers Linux machines likely knows secure shell. Without this tool, administering those servers remotely would be quite challenging. It would also become harder to move files back and forth, at least with a modicum of security. That’s where secure copy comes into play. With the SCP command, you can copy files to and from a remote Linux server through an encrypted SSH tunnel. SEE: How to View Your SSH Keys in Linux, macOS, and Windows However, with the help of SSH key authentication, you can make that even more secure. I want to show you how you can use secure key authentication and SCP so you can rest assured your files are being moved back and forth securely. I will demonstrate on an Elementary OS client and Ubuntu 16.04.1 server and assume you have a secure shell installed and working. 1 New Relic 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 Analytics / Reports, API, Compliance Management, and more 2 Rippling IT 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 Activity Monitoring, Automated Provisioning, Configuration Management, and more 3 Zoho Assist 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 Analytics / Reports, API, Document Management / Sharing, and more SSH keys The first thing that must be done is to create an SSH key pair. To do this, open up a terminal window and issue the command: ssh-keygen -t rsa You will be asked to name the file (use the default) and give the keypair a passphrase. Once the key’s randomart prints, your key is ready to go. The next step is to copy the key to the remote server. This is done with the command: ssh-copy-id USER@SERVER Where USER is the username of the remote server, and SERVER is the address of the remote server. You will be prompted for the remote user password. Once you successfully authenticate, the public key will be copied to the server. You’re ready to go. SEE: Securing Linux policy (Tech Pro Research) Using SCP with your key Now that our keys are in all the right places, let’s see how we can use them through SCP. Assuming you accepted the default name for your SSH key upon creation, the command to send a file to your remote server using your SSH key is: scp -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub FILENAME USER@SERVER:/home/USER/FILENAME Where FILENAME is the name of the file, USER is the username on the remote machine, and SERVER is the address of the remote server. You should be prompted for the SSH key password (not the user password). Once authenticated, the file will be transferred. The same holds true if you need to pull a file from the remote server. The structure of that command would be: scp -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub USER@SERVER:/home/USER/FILENAME /home/USER/FILENAME Again, you will be asked for your SSH key password, and the file will be pulled from the server and copied to the local machine. SEE: How to Add an SSH Fingerprint to Your known_hosts File in Linux Forget that password Let’s say you are about to undergo a long session of copying files to your server. Sure, you could tar them all up into one bigger file. But say they need to all be placed in different directories. That’s a lot of typing. You can make this slightly more efficient by using the ssh-agent and ssh-add commands. That’s right, using the combination of SCP, SSH key authentication, and ssh-agent works well. This will keep you from having to type that SSH key password every time you issue the SCP command. The one caveat is that you must remember the PID of the agent session and kill it when you’re done. Here’s what you have to do. Before issuing the SCP command issue eval ssh-agent to start the session. Make a note of the Process ID you are given when the session starts. Add your SSH key to the session with the command ssh-add. Start using SCP to copy your files. That’s all there is to it. When you’re done with the session, ensure to issue the command kill PID (where PID is the actual number given to you when you started the ssh-agent session with eval). SEE: 20 quick tips to make Linux networking easier (free PDF) (TechRepublic) Is SCP still secure? Someone asking if SCP is secure has likely read the 2019 release announcement for OpenSSH 8.0, which stated that the SCP protocol is “outdated, inflexible and not readily fixed” and recommended SFTP and Rsync as alternatives for file transfer. Before OpenSSH 8.0, SCP could not verify file integrity during transfers, leaving users exposed to unauthorized overwrites and injection attacks if their server was compromised (CVE-2019-611). However, the update introduced stricter filename checking as the default for the SCP command, making it more secure, and moved its previous non-checking behavior to the command scp -T. Then, in OpenSSH 9.0, released in 2022, SFTP was adopted as the default backend for SCP instead of the legacy SCP/RCP protocol, meaning that transfers are now encrypted and authenticated with the SSH protocol. While widely regarded as secure, users should still be wary of other risks like misconfigured servers or outdated software versions. What can I use instead of SCP? SFTP: While SCP defaults to using the SFTP protocol, you can consider using native SFTP clients for advanced file management as it allows for more operations, such as viewing directories and file deletion. Rsync: Ideal for synchronizing files and directories, especially for incremental backups and large datasets. See TechRepublic’s guide on how to back up a network using Rsync. FTPS: A secure option for traditional FTP transfers with SSL/TLS encryption, but it can be complex to configure. HTTPS-based tools: Such as curl or wget, for secure downloads over HTTPS. This is great for