Client News

Hoteliers Report Drop in Business Sentiment for 2024: Irish Hotels Federation 86th Annual Conference

• Rising business costs cited as the most serious challenge facing hotels in 2024
• 79% of hoteliers concerned about the outlook for the global economy
• Forward bookings for hotels down 4.5% in 2024 compared to this time last year

Stubbornly high business operating costs, coupled with concerns about the economic outlook for the year ahead, are weighing on the minds of hoteliers as they gather today for the Irish Hotels Federation’s (IHF) 86th Annual Conference taking place this year in the Slieve Russell Hotel, County Cavan.

Following a strong performance in 2023, IHF President Denyse Campbell pointed to a more challenging outlook for the Irish hotels sector in the year ahead, with forward bookings underperforming and business sentiment among hoteliers taking a hit. Recent industry research carried out by the IHF shows a drop in levels of optimism across the sector, with only 47% of hoteliers reporting a positive outlook for trading conditions over the next 12 months. This contrasts with 74% who reported a positive outlook at the same time last year.

Hoteliers ranked rising business costs as the most serious challenge facing their business this year, with early forecasts indicating further increases of in excess of 8% in operating costs over the year ahead, significantly outpacing levels of inflation within the wider economy. This follows a period of already unprecedented cost increases over the last two years.

Some 79% of hotels indicated they were concerned about the outlook for the global economy and the potential impact on their business. Forward bookings for the year ahead are now down 4.5% compared to this time last year, with 53% of hotels reporting a net decrease in bookings. Of particular concern is the domestic market along with the UK and rest of Europe. Bookings for North America are holding up, however, which is very welcome given the growing importance of this key market as a source of tourism revenue.

Ms Campbell said: “While it is too early to predict the overall performance for the year, initial indications are concerning and highlight the challenges our industry faces across key markets. This is at a time when consumer finances are under ongoing pressure and businesses are dealing with additional costs and a sharp rise in interest rates. We are also seeing the impact of the Government’s decision to increase tourism VAT, making us an outlier with the third highest rate of VAT in Europe.”

“It is incumbent on the Government to do more to tackle the very high cost of doing business within the Irish economy. This is a major challenge for tourism and hospitality, our largest indigenous employer. Increasing costs are continuing to erode our competitiveness as a destination and jeopardise the sustainability of our wider industry – a vital part of the economy supporting some 270,000 livelihoods, 70% of which are outside of Dublin. More needs to be done to address Government-controlled costs, particularly for labour intensive industries such as tourism.”

Commenting on levels of ongoing investment within the sector Ms Campbell noted that, having invested significantly in their properties over the last two years, many hotels are continuing to prioritise investment in maintaining a consistently high-quality offering for visitors – a cornerstone of our competitiveness. Some 78% of hoteliers indicate they are planning refurbishment projects and increased capital investment over the next 12 months, including refurbishment of guest bedrooms (56%), refurbishment of common areas (47%) and guest technology (30%).

IBM Report: Identity Comes Under Attack, Straining Enterprises’ Recovery Time from Breaches

• 71% spike in cyberattacks caused by exploiting identity
• 50% AI market share milestone to trigger a cyber problem
• Nearly 70% of attacks globally targeted critical infrastructure in 2023
• Europe feels brunt of cyberattacks, making up 32% of global incidents

IBM today released the 2024 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index highlighting an emerging global identity crisis as cybercriminals double down on exploiting user identities to compromise enterprises worldwide. According to IBM X-Force, IBM Consulting’s offensive and defensive security services arm, in 2023, cybercriminals saw more opportunities to “log in” versus hack into corporate networks through valid accounts – making this tactic a preferred weapon of choice for threat actors.

The X-Force Threat Intelligence Index is based on insights and observations from monitoring over 150 billion security events per day in more than 130 countries. In addition, data is gathered and analysed from multiple sources within IBM, including IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence, Incident Response, X-Force Red, IBM Managed Security Services, and data provided from Red Hat Insights and Intezer, which contributed to the 2024 report.

Some of the key highlights include: 

• Attacks on critical infrastructure reveal industry “faux pas.” In nearly 85% of attacks on critical sectors, compromise could have been mitigated with patching, multi-factor authentication, or least-privilege principals – indicating that what the security industry historically described as “basic security” may be harder to achieve than portrayed.
• Ransomware groups pivot to leaner business model. Ransomware attacks on enterprises saw a nearly 12% drop last year, as larger organisations opt against paying and decrypting, in favor of rebuilding their infrastructure. With this growing pushback likely to impact adversaries’ revenue expectations from encryption-based extortion, groups that previously specialised in ransomware were observed pivoting to infostealers.
• ROI from attacks on generative AI not there – yet. X-Force analysis projects that when a single generative AI technology approaches 50% market share or when the market consolidates to three or less technologies, it could trigger at-scale attacks against these platforms.

“While ‘security fundamentals’ doesn’t get as many head turns as ‘AI-engineered attacks,’ it remains that enterprises’ biggest security problem boils down to the basic and known – not the novel and unknown” said Charles Henderson, Global Managing Partner, IBM Consulting, and Head of IBM X-Force. “Identity is being used against enterprises time and time again, a problem that will worsen as adversaries invest in AI to optimise the tactic.”

A Global Identity Crisis Poised to Worsen

Exploiting valid accounts has become the path of least resistance for cybercriminals, with billions of compromised credentials accessible on the Dark Web today. In 2023, X-Force saw attackers increasingly invest in operations to obtain users’ identities – with a 266% uptick in infostealing malware, designed to steal personal identifiable information like emails, social media and messaging app credentials, banking details, crypto wallet data and more.

This “easy entry” for attackers is one that’s harder to detect, eliciting a costly response from enterprises. According to X-Force, major incidents caused by attackers using valid accounts were associated to nearly 200% more complex response measures by security teams than the average incident – with defenders needing to distinguish between legitimate and malicious user activity on the network. In fact, IBM’s 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report found that breaches caused by stolen or compromised credentials required roughly 11 months to detect and recover from – the longest response lifecycle than any other infection vector.

This wide reach into users’ online activity was evident in the FBI and European law enforcement’s April 2023 takedown of a global cybercrime forum that collected the login details of more than 80 million user accounts. Identity-based threats will likely continue to grow as adversaries leverage generative AI to optimise their attacks. Already in 2023, X-Force observed over 800,000 posts on AI and GPT across Dark Web forums, reaffirming these innovations have caught cybercriminals’ attention and interest.

Adversaries “Log into” Critical Infrastructure Networks

Worldwide, nearly 70% of attacks that X-Force responded to were against critical infrastructure organisations, an alarming finding highlighting that cybercriminals are wagering on these high value targets’ need for uptime to advance their objectives.

Nearly 85% of attacks that X-Force responded to in this sector were caused by exploiting public-facing applications, phishing emails, and the use of valid accounts.  The latter poses an increased risk to the sector, with DHS CISA stating that the majority of successful attacks on government agencies, critical infrastructure organisations and state-level government bodies in 2022 involved the use of valid accounts. This highlights the need for these organisations to frequently stress test their environments for potential exposures and develop incident response plans.

Generative AI – The Next Big Frontier to Secure

For cybercriminals to see ROI from their campaigns, the technologies they target must be ubiquitous across most organisations worldwide. Just as past technological enablers fostered cybercriminal activities –as observed with ransomware and Windows Server’s market dominance, BEC scams and Microsoft 365 dominance or cryptojacking and the Infrastructure-as-a-Service market consolidation – this pattern will most likely extend across AI.

X-Force assesses that once generative AI market dominance is established – where a single technology approaches 50% market share or when the market consolidates to three or less technologies – it could trigger the maturity of AI as an attack surface, mobilising further investment in new tools from cybercriminals. Although generative AI is currently in its pre-mass market stage, it’s paramount that enterprises secure their AI models before cybercriminals scale their activity. Enterprises should also recognise that their existing underlying infrastructure is a gateway to their AI models that doesn’t require novel tactics from attackers to target – highlighting the need for a holistic approach to security in the age of generative AI, as outlined in the IBM Framework for Securing Generative AI.

Additional findings:

• Europe – adversaries’ preferred target – Nearly one in three attacks observed worldwide targeted Europe, with the region also experiencing the most ransomware attacks globally (26%).
• Where did all the phish go? Despite remaining a top infection vector, phishing attacks saw a 44% decrease in volume from 2022. But with AI poised to optimise this attack and X-Force research indicating that AI can speed up attacks by nearly two days, the infection vector will remain a preferred choice for cybercriminals.
• Everyone is vulnerable – RedHat Insights found that 92% of customers have at least one CVE with known exploits unaddressed in their environment at the time of scanning, while 80% of the top ten vulnerabilities detected across systems in 2023 were given a ‘High’ or ‘Critical’ CVSS base severity score.
• “Kerberoasting” pays off – X-Force observed a 100% increase in “kerberoasting” attacks, wherein attackers attempt to impersonate users to escalate privileges by abusing Microsoft Active Directory tickets.
• Security misconfigurations – X-Force Red penetration testing engagements indicate that security misconfigurations accounted for 30% of total exposures identified, observing more than 140 ways that attackers can exploit misconfigurations.

Hoppy Ever After: DSPCA Celebrates Love at the Shelter this Valentine’s Day

This Valentine’s Day, many of us will be taking time to celebrate the special animal love in our lives. This is no different at the Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA) where adorable couple Bao Bunny and Rosie are inseparable ahead of the big day, and capturing hearts with their story of love and friendship.

Abandoned by their previous owners, Bao Bunny and Rosie found themselves in the caring hands of the DSPCA. Despite their tumultuous past, these furry friends have flourished in the nurturing environment provided by the staff at the DSPCA, and have formed an unbreakable bond along the way. Their love for each other is evident in every hop and snuggle, serving as a reminder of the power of companionship and compassion.

Bao Bunny and Rosie truly embody the spirit of resilience and love and their story is a testament to the importance of animal welfare and the impact that your donations to the DSPCA can have.

As the furry couple continue to enjoy their blossoming relationship, the DSPCA is asking for those who can’t. Your donation, no matter how big or small, will mean the DSPCA can continue to be there for animals like Bao Bunny and Rosie, every single day.

For more information or to help visit https://www.dspca.ie/.

 

Taste of Dublin 2024 Bigger Than Ever with New Iconic Location at Merrion Square

New location also marks the announcement of JYSK as headline sponsor

Dublin’s legendary culinary festival, Taste of Dublin, is set to return this June with another explosion of flavours and food innovation. This iconic event will take place for the first time in one of Dublin’s most beautiful Georgian Squares – the historic Merrion Square. To mark this new location the festival has also revealed JYSK, the Danish interiors retailer, as its headline sponsor.  

This year’s edition spotlights the remarkable surge in Irish culinary creativity. The larger festival footprint will ensure a more immersive experience for food aficionados. Taste of Dublin will take place from the 13^th – 16^th of June with over 34,000 people expected to attend the event.  

Once again, the festival will bring a constellation of well-known Irish chefs, restaurants, artisan food innovators, and musical acts together for a truly remarkable experience for the senses. Cultural diversity in food will be at the heart of the festival. Furthermore, together with JYSK and other key sponsors, the organisers are planning several new and exciting activations and visitor activities as part of the 2024 line up.   

Commenting on behalf of Taste of Dublin, CEO, Equinox Events, Jo Mathews, said, “This year marks a new chapter in the story of Taste of Dublin as we host the festival for the first time in the historic surroundings of Merrion Square and welcome JYSK as our headline sponsor. It has been a pleasure to work with the creative team at JYSK to craft a truly unique festival experience while staying true to the magic that has been synonymous with our event over the last 19 years. Innovation is the cornerstone of the Taste of Dublin blueprint, and we look forward to celebrating some of Ireland’s, and indeed the world’s, top food creators and experts again this year. Together with JYSK and our wider partners, we look forward to sharing more exciting details as we move closer to June”. 

Country Director for JYSK UK & IRE, Roni Tuominen, added: “2024 is a very exciting year for us at JYSK, between opening our new flagship store in Liffey Valley, continuing our expansion nationwide and partnering with Taste of Dublin as the lead sponsor of the festival, we’re really looking forward to the year ahead.  JYSK is one of Ireland’s go to destinations for high quality, on trend products for the home and garden and we can’t wait to bring our Scandinavian design ethic and style to Taste of Dublin 2024”. 

With everything from cookery demonstrations, interactive workshops, and hands-on masterclasses, there really is something for everyone at Taste of Dublin 2024.  For more information visit tasteofdublin.ie  

 

Uisce Éireann Announces 700 New Jobs Nationwide

Ireland’s National Water Authority offers exciting career opportunities in all counties

 Uisce Éireann, Ireland’s national water authority, has today announced it will be recruiting for 700 new jobs across the country. These exciting opportunities will be available in the next year, with positions ready to be filled immediately.

The roles span a range of disciplines, offering a chance for professionals, tradespeople at all levels, recent graduates, and skilled workers to contribute to their local communities while building rewarding careers. Uisce Éireann is committed to providing ongoing training, and attractive compensation and benefits packages to ensure a secure and fulfilling work experience.

Speaking at the announcement, Uisce Éireann’s People and Safety Director, Dawn O’Driscoll said, “As we continue our development as Ireland’s national water authority with responsibility for the delivery of public water and wastewater services nationwide, we are delighted to be announcing 700 new jobs for candidates across the country. We’re filling an exciting range of roles in all counties, including front-line operations, science and engineering, administration, communications, management and IT.

“This is the largest recruitment announcement made by Uisce Éireann to date and reflects the scope and scale of the activities we are carrying out nationwide. These new positions will not only offer a chance to make a tangible difference to your community but will provide plenty of opportunities to develop your career in a growing organisation. We are looking for people with diverse skillsets to play their part in delivering transformative water services that enable their local communities to thrive.

“At Uisce Éireann, we are proud to provide all employees with equal opportunities and we continue to demonstrate our full commitment to creating an open, diverse and inclusive workplace that enables all our people to achieve their full potential.”

Uisce Éireann encourages interested individuals to visit www.water.ie/careers to explore and apply for the exciting opportunities available in their local areas.

 

Sevilla FC transforms the player recruitment process with the power of IBM watsonx generative AI

• Sevilla FC introduce Scout Advisor, an innovative tool built on IBM’s watsonx platform, to enhance player recruitment process.
• “Scout Advisor” is designed to unlock the full potential of Sevilla FC extensive players database to create new competitive advantages.
• watsonx enables Sevilla FC to bridge the gap between traditional human-centric and data-driven scouting in the identification and characterization of potential recruits.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Sevilla FC has introduced Scout Advisor, an innovative generative AI tool that Sevilla FC will use to provide their scouting team with a comprehensive, data-driven identification and evaluation of potential recruits. Built on watsonx, IBM’s AI and data platform designed for enterprises, Sevilla FC’s Scout Advisor will integrate with their existing suite of self-developed data-intensive applications.

Sevilla FC’s data department worked with IBM Client Engineering Team to build Scout Advisor, leveraging watsonx’s natural language processing and foundation models to search and analyse massive amounts of information present in the club’s existing databases to evaluate potential recruits. This includes both quantitative data such as height and weight, speed, number of goals or minutes played, and qualitative unstructured data such as the textual analysis contained in their more than 200,000 scouting reports.

The solution’s natural language processing capabilities have enabled Sevilla FC to use multiple large language models (LLMs) to help enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of their player identification. Using language prompts from Sevilla FC scouters that describe the key characteristics of the players searched, Scout Advisor generates curated lists of candidates based on stated requirements and summarises the full set of scouting reports for each individual player. Additionally, Scout Advisor links every player to the Sevilla FC’s own data-applications to obtain deep insights about their quantitative performance figures.

Player scouting and recruiting decisions at elite sports teams, especially in the football industry, involve multi-million-dollar investments, long term contracts and high levels of uncertainty on performance and ROI. Traditionally, player recruitment has relied on a combination of subjective human observation and manual data analysis. However, this approach has several limitations, as it is both time-consuming and considers only a limited number of factors.

Already widely recognised for its massive database of quantitative player evaluations, the Sevilla FC scouting team has attracted the global attention for its successful track record of identifying rising football stars. In addition, Sevilla FC is a pioneer in the development of its own data-intensive applications targeted to characterise players based on a wide spectrum of quantitative figures. Now, Scout Advisor offers Sevilla FC further competitive advantage — combining their existing capabilities with the use of generative AI to bridge the gap between metrics-based scouting and human-centric observations that cannot be as easily measured on the pitch. This automated approach is designed to further enhance their player identification process, to help them to make more efficient and informed recruitment decisions.

IBM watsonx capabilities allow Scout Advisor to unlock the full potential of Sevilla FC’s extensive players reports database making it possible to search for players using natural language and retrieve potential recruits based on their key quantitative indicators and the detailed opinion that scouting experts have about them. This provides Sevilla FC with potential competitive advantages, in terms of being able to make better-informed recruitment decisions with technology empowered insights.

“We are excited to work with IBM as this project can be a game-changer for Sevilla FC and the whole Sports Industry” José María del Nido Carrasco, Sevilla FC’s President. “Our team of scouters and analysts is committed to finding the best players to support our team’s success and have worked tirelessly to build an impressive database of player reports, and now, with the support of IBM, we can utilize this asset to its full potential. This gives us a significant advantage in the player recruitment process and enables us to find the best players for our team and continue to improve our performance on the pitch. We believe that this collaboration will have a positive impact not only for Sevilla FC but for the sports industry as a whole. With this tool, Sevilla FC also demonstrates that technology is not just a goal but an intimate companion on the journey towards the future of our entity; it is part of its DNA”.

“We are proud to collaborate with Sevilla FC to use the power of IBM watsonx generative AI to help enhance the accuracy and effectiveness of their player recruitment process” said Ana Paula Assis, Chair and General Manager at IBM EMEA. “With the appropriate guardrails and governance in place, AI continues to be a game-changer for businesses across many industries looking to modernise operations. In this instance, by producing trusted and explainable insights that advance the goals of a competitive football club while transforming the work of a football scout.”

The collaboration between IBM and Sevilla FC is part of the club’s wider business and technology strategy, which aims to leverage the power of data and AI to enhance their football operations. By integrating the watsonx-based solution into their existing data architecture, Sevilla FC aims to increase the ROI on existing resources with faster, more efficient, and better-informed recruitment decisions.