Leading London: a live panel discussion from London Tech Week

Internet connectivity is the lifeblood of modern businesses, powering operations, communication, and growth. But not all “fibre” connections are created equal.

All connections use fibre at some level, but performance, reliability, and guarantees vary depending on the underlying network. Choosing the right type of connection now can save downtime, frustration, and cost in the future.

In this guide, we'll explore key factors when selecting the ideal business internet provider to keep you connected and thriving.

Understand the connection types

Here’s a quick comparison of the three main fibre-based connections available to businesses:

FTTC and FTTP may work for small teams or low-risk work, but DIA is the only connection built for business-critical reliability, speed, and consistent performance.

Ask yourself these questions

Before comparing providers, clarify your internal needs:

• How critical is uptime for your business operations?
• Which teams rely heavily on cloud apps, video conferencing, or large file transfers?
• How much bandwidth do we need now, and how much will we need in 2–5 years?
• Are upload speeds as important as download speeds for our workflows?
• Would temporary downtime cause financial or reputational damage?

This self-assessment helps you match connection types to your business requirements.

Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) like OpenAI's ChatGPT are revolutionising industries across the board. From writing emails to creating educational content, they're powerful tools built to understand and generate human-like text. But the same tech that makes GPTs useful also makes them risky, particularly for cybersecurity.

In February 2024, Microsoft and OpenAI spotted several state-backed hacking groups from Russia, North Korea, Iran, and China using GPTs to improve their exploitation tactics. The Strontium group, linked to Russian military intelligence, has been found using large language models (LLM’s) to understand satellite communication protocols, radar imaging technologies, and other sensitive miliatry information.

But GPTs can also be misused in everyday cybercrime and by employees or contractors who have access to sensitive data.

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How GPTs can be weaponised in everyday cybercrime

• Phishing: GPTs can generate convincing phishing emails that mimic real writing styles, making it more difficult to spot and harder for filters to block.
• Social engineering: these models can be used in live chats, like customer support, to trick people into giving up sensitive information. Connected to text-to-speech tools, they could also be used in voice scams.
• Malware code generation: even with filters in place, attackers can trick GPTs into writing malicious code.
• Data leakage: when employees input sensitive company information into these models, that data gets stored and could be leaked back to others.
• Misinformation: GPT’s can 'hallucinate', which means they present false information portrayed as fact. When spread, this can lead to real-world consequences such as political confusion or interference during a crisis.