IT Brief UK

Quantum computers capable of breaking today's cryptography are still, by most estimates, a decade or more away. But according to Armin Reuter, Director of Innovation at identity solutions provider Veridos, the more challenging phase for passports and national IDs isn't that eventual breakthrough; it's the years-long migration window that leads up to it. In a new whitepaper from Veridos, the firm argues that this window requires action from governments and other issuers of identity documents.

Google has identified three suspected Russian cyber espionage groups targeting people in academia, defence, government and think tanks. The clusters abuse legitimate authentication processes to gain access to accounts. Its Threat Intelligence Group said the activity centres on UNC6293, UNC7005 and UNC5976, which it tracks as separate operations with overlapping tactics but different infrastructure and tradecraft.

Sovos has brought several Global 2000 clients live in France ahead of the country's e-invoicing mandate, one of Europe's biggest tax compliance changes for business invoicing. The clients were activated a month before the requirement that all established companies in France must be able to receive e-invoices.

NAVEX has expanded its AI assistant, Nira, into customer support, adding the tool to its customer-facing support operations. The new offering, Nira for Support, is available in the NAVEX Community. It is designed to answer product questions, explain features and direct users to relevant support resources. During business hours, customers can connect to live chat. Outside those hours, the tool guides them in creating a support case.

Tech Mahindra has expanded its partnership with ServiceNow through a multi-year agreement focused on enterprise AI deployment. The expanded arrangement is intended to help large organisations move AI projects from pilot stages into wider operational use. It combines ServiceNow's AI platform with Tech Mahindra's consulting, engineering and implementation capabilities across several industries.

Guideless has raised €1 million in pre-seed funding in a round led by Superhero Capital. The Vilnius-based software training startup also drew backing from FIRSTPICK and three angel investors from Vinted's leadership team: Group Chief Executive Officer Thomas Plantenga, Vinted Go Chief Executive Officer Vytautas Atkočaitis and Vinted co-founder Mantas Mikuckas.

Efekta Education has passed 5 million active users on its learning platform, reaching the milestone three years after launch. The UK-based education technology group now works with governments across Latin America, Asia and Africa and supports about 250,000 teachers worldwide. Its platform is used in school systems, teacher training and workplace learning, with deployments ranging from English-language teaching to adult and higher education.

Cohesity has expanded its Aspire Global Partner Program with new incentives, simpler requirements and a Professional Services Specialisation, aimed at partners building services-led and recurring-revenue data security businesses. The updated program broadens rebates for customer deals, changes some training and certification requirements, and adds a new dashboard in the partner portal. It also introduces a new credential structure called Specialisations, beginning with professional services.

Hexnode has launched Hexnode Context Layer for its endpoint management platform, linking Hexnode Genie AI with live management data. The new layer serves as an orchestration and governance layer between the conversational AI interface and Hexnode's Unified Endpoint Management system. It is designed to take a natural-language request from an IT administrator, interpret the intent, and send it to the relevant agent within the management platform.

FormationQ and the Hartree Centre have formed a strategic partnership to support the adoption of quantum computing across industry, government and research, with a focus on the UK market. They will work on applications for quantum computing, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and hybrid computing across healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, logistics, energy, infrastructure and the public sector.