What keeps you up at night?

BCS has always had interesting answers to the question “What’s most likely to keep you awake at night?” This year, the top three answers are consistent for both IT leaders and digital professionals (as they were in 2022):

2022: Cybersecurity attacks: leaders 38%, professionals 29%.
2022: Lack of resources: leaders 19%, professionals 16%.
2022: The pace of change: leaders 9%, professionals 13%.
2023: Cybersecurity attacks: leaders 39%, professionals 29%.
2023: Lack of resources: leaders 19%, professionals 12%.
2023: The pace of change: leaders 11%, professionals 10%.

These are general items, of course, so we always dig a little deeper for specifics in terms of technologies and techniques – and we also asked for verbatims, where we can get an idea of concerns in people’s own words.

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The verbatim responses were sometimes technology-focused, but most were societally or culturally focused. For example: ‘bullying and discrimination becoming more widespread at my employer’. The view that technology is viewed as ‘a silver bullet, rather than an enabler’. The impact of Brexit was mentioned, as was the potential for injustice resulting from IT failure. Those taking a future view also mentioned the importance of ‘teaching IT to new generations, and teaching them how to stay safe’.