Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 33

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, Brian McKenna and Clare McDonald are joined by Computer Weekly’s new security editor, Alex Scroxton, to talk about a range of issues in the tech world, such as whether we should be concerned about cyber warfare, the parallels between healthcare and technology, and using data to cure disease.

• Alex kicks off the podcast by filling the team in on former RSA chairman Art Coviello’s warning that cyber war is now as big a threat as nuclear war, and should be taken as seriously. Coviello is of the opinion that the world needs to see a generation of millennial leadership which understands technology and history in order to avoid cyber warfare.
• To further terrify the team, Alex talks about the recent breached supplier systems at Airbus. It is thought the four major cyber attacks experienced by the firm over the past year were carried out in a bid to steal valuable intellectual property.
• Clare talks about her time at the Healthcare Excellence Through Technology (HETT) show, where she heard the CEO of NHSX, Matthew Gould, speak about the future of digital healthcare. Gould drew several comparisons between the healthcare and technology sectors, including their problem-solving natures.
• Sticking with the topic of health, Brian talks about the £10m data science centre set up by the British Heart Foundation. The centre, which will not have a physical location but will rather be made up of a virtual team spanning the UK, aims to use data for research that could help prevent heart disease.
• After last week’s sceptical coverage of Oracle, Brian fills the team in on the firm’s latest effort to inject good into the world through its offer of free use of its cloud infrastructure to help fight tropical disease Chikungunya. Scientists at the University of Bristol and CNRS in Grenoble can use Oracle’s scalable cloud infrastructure to collect and analyse data from a cryo-electron microscope, among other things.