Category: Advent IM Blog
News and information from the Advent IM team.
Advent IMPact | Turning Surplus into Support: Easter Volunteering with The Bread and Butter Thing | Mikes Story
- by Olivia Lawlor-Blackburn
- Advent IM Blog General
Returning this Easter following his Christmas volunteering, Mike once again joined the team at The Bread and Butter Thing, a UK organisation that makes life easier for people struggling to afford food. Much like Mike’s volunteering over Christmas, the work required vans to be loaded with bulk pallets and individual food bags before heading out […]
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Shadow AI – Governance, risk, compliance and assurance perspective
- by Olivia Lawlor-Blackburn
- Advent IM Blog
The old governance problem in a new and much riskier suit Most organisations have seen this pattern before. First it was shadow IT: unknown tools, services and workarounds adopted outside formal controls because they were quicker, easier or simply less irritating than the approved route. Then came BYOD, where convenience, flexibility and speed collided with […]
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Whitepaper | When budgets shrink what actually gives way in security, and how to triage without hollowing out resilience
- by Olivia Lawlor-Blackburn
- Advent IM Blog
Cyber risk is no longer an abstract technical problem, it is a lived reality for organisations of all sizes. Recent surveys show that cyber attacks and breaches are not only common, but increasingly unavoidable. Yet despite rising threat levels, many organisations still lack the governance foundations needed to manage cyber risk effectively. The latest data […]
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Post‑Quantum Cryptography: Inevitable Preparation or Premature Bet?
- by Olivia Lawlor-Blackburn
- Advent IM Blog
Post‑quantum cryptography (PQC) has rapidly moved from academic research to a topic of board‑level concern. Two recent articles capture the debate clearly. Computer Weekly’s “Shrinking PQC timeline highlights immediate risk to data security” argues that organisations must act now to mitigate growing cryptographic risk. In contrast, The Register’s “Cryptographers place $5,000 bet whether quantum will […]
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What the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 Means for UK Care Providers — And Why Going Digital Requires More Than Just New Software
- by Olivia Lawlor-Blackburn
- Advent IM Blog
The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, which became law on 19 June 2025, introduces several meaningful shifts in how data is handled, accessed, and governed across the UK, and adult social care providers will feel its impact in practical and positive ways. One of the most significant changes is the new legal duty on […]
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The ICO’s Changing Tone on Cyber Security Signals a Long-Overdue Alignment
- by Olivia Lawlor-Blackburn
- Advent IM Blog
Cyber security, data protection, privacy, governance and risk management were never meant to operate as separate worlds. The ICO’s evolving stance reflects a more realistic view of how organisations actually manage risk, protect data and build trust. There has been a noticeable shift in the ICO’s tone on cyber security, and it is a significant one. For years, many organisations have treated cyber […]
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Live Facial Recognition: A Necessary Debate That Demands Real‑World Accountability
- by Olivia Lawlor-Blackburn
- Advent IM Blog
The Home Office’s consultation on a new legal framework for live facial recognition (LFR) and broader biometric technologies is more than another policy exercise, it is, as the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner recently described it, a “once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity” to get this right. And getting it right means placing governance, ethics, and public trust at […]
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When Technology Sees Everything: Why Meta’s AI Glasses Scandal Demands a Reset in Trust, Ethics, and Governance
- by Olivia Lawlor-Blackburn
- Advent IM Blog
Having spent decades championing security, privacy, and robust governance, I’ve seen the pattern play out enough times to recognise it instantly: innovation races ahead, controls lag behind, and society ends up dealing with the fallout. The recent revelations about Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses should worry anyone who values ethics and public trust and they should […]
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What a box of American breakfast cereal can still teach us about cyber security, OT and legacy risk
- by Olivia Lawlor-Blackburn
- Advent IM Blog
One of the most famous stories from the early days of hacking did not involve sophisticated code, advanced persistence or organised cyber crime. It involved a plastic whistle found in boxes of Cap’n Crunch, an American breakfast cereal. In the early 1970s, phone phreaks discovered that the whistle could generate a 2600 Hz tone. At […]
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Volunteering at Christmas: Mike’s Day at the REfUSE Community Kitchen
- by Olivia Lawlor-Blackburn
- Advent IM Blog
For many of us, Christmas is a time spent with family, comfort and celebration — but for others, it can be one of the hardest days of the year. In December 2025, our CEO, Mike, chose to spend his Christmas supporting a remarkable organisation that makes sure no one in their community is left behind: […]
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