This Week's Top 5 Stories in Technology

Confirmed: Chinese Groups Behind Microsoft SharePoint Hack

Just days ago, Microsoft experienced one of the largest cyberattacks of its 50-year history, with hackers targeting the firm's SharePoint platform.

SharePoint is a data repository and file-sharing network that is used by some of the world's largest businesses, as well as millions of casual users.

Initially, authorities suspected that the attack may have been coordinated by a single perpetrator or a lone-acting cybercrime syndicate, but Microsoft has now revealed that three Chinese hacking groups are behind the attack.

The US-based tech giant confirmed that two named Chinese nation-state actors, Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon, alongside another China-based threat actor tracked as Storm-2603, were exploiting vulnerabilities targeting internet-facing SharePoint servers.

While connections to China's government are fraught with significance, Chinese delegates have distanced Beijing from the event in statements.

"China firmly opposes and combats all forms of cyber attacks and cyber crime," China's US embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu says.

"At the same time, we also firmly oppose smearing others without solid evidence."

How AI is Changing Dating Apps Like Hinge, Match and Grindr

Dating has been a digital pursuit for years now.

Tinder was first launched in 2012 and in the years since, dating apps have become the norm.

But as the generation those apps first catered for settles down and a new era of daters start explore their options, it appears as though dating apps may have lost that spark.

Many of the industry's titans have acknowledged that they are struggling to appeal to Gen Z users, many of whom have grown weary of traditional swipe-and-text interactions.

In an attempt to rekindle that flame, several of the sector's largest services are turning to AI.

Some are using AI chatbots to coach daters, others are going offering algorithmic matchmaking, many are implementing automated safety screening.

But are these technological advances doing the trick?

Google Cloud: How AI is Continuing to Drive Business Growth

The numbers tell the story. More than half (52%) of businesses implementing AI technologies report revenue increases between 6% and 10% annually, according to Google Cloud data.

“AI investment is not slowing down,” says Alex Rutter, the company’s EMEA Managing Director for AI. “Businesses continue to embrace new innovations, with advancements in Gen AI, multimodal models and AI agents driving everything from content generation to streamlined knowledge-sharing, fundamentally changing how businesses operate.”

Today, AI is solving real problems that have plagued businesses for years: how to create content faster, get information to the right people and connect with customers properly.

“With proven benefits of increased efficiency, productivity gains and cost-savings, AI is an opportunity no business can afford to overlook,” Alex explains.

NTT DATA: Gen AI Ambitions Outpace Reality in Healthcare

Gen AI is bringing a wealth of benefits to the healthcare industry.

Beyond direct patient care, it enhances healthcare operations from managing resources to patient flow. 

For example, McKinsey highlights how Gen AI can efficiently wade through and comprehend vast volumes of information from patient records, allowing healthcare professionals to dedicate more time to complex patient care. 

It also has the capacity to transform health insurance processes by converting unstructured data into structured formats and enabling benefits verification almost instantly.

Yet, new research from NTT DATA reveals a critical disconnect between the high ambitions surrounding Gen AI and healthcare’s actual ability to deliver on its promise.

Canva & Meta Plot a Course For a New Era of Advertising

Digital design platform Canva and social media giant Meta have joined forces to address the growing challenge of creating effective short-form video advertisements.

In a recent webinar, executives from the two companies shared their thoughts on how brands should be building creative strategies for an increasingly competitive digital landscape where attention spans continue to shrink.

Erin Harlan from Canva's B2B Product Marketing team and Cecilia LV, Strategic Partnerships Lead at Meta, outlined how creative content has become central to advertising performance.

According to Cecilia, creative quality now accounts for roughly half of all campaign outcomes, a figure that has remained consistent since 2017.

However, the methods for capturing audience attention has undoubtedly evolved in that time.

In 2025, short-form video content is a huge focus for marketing teams across the world, whether it's TikTok, YouTube, Instagram or Facebook. When delivering that kind of ad campaign, companies are having to consider how to appeal to audiences in a whole new way. 

"It's not enough to just show up – you have to stand out," Cecilia says during the webinar.

In their discussion, the teams from Canva and Meta both explained that advertising with Instagram Reels can deliver 24% higher brand lift compared to other formats and influence over 60% of viewers to consider a brand or product — a clear indicator that the advertising is changing.