Amazon’s automation surge, visa hikes, and Windows woes | Ep. 8

Hello and welcome to your 2-Minute Tech Briefing from Computerworld. I'm your host, Arnold Davick, reporting from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Here are the top IT news stories you need to know for Tuesday, October 28th. Let's dive in.

From Computerworld, Amazon is reportedly planning to use automation to replace more than 600,000 US workers by 2033 that's according to documents obtained by the New York Times, the company's robotics division is working toward automating 75% of its business.

The move could save Amazon more than $12 billion over the next few years. By 2027 automation could eliminate 160,000

jobs, equaling about 30 cents saved for every item delivered. Amazon says the leaked data doesn't reflect its full strategy from cio.com President Donald Trump's decision to increase H 1b visa fees to $100,000

per application has been controversial in the tech world, the goal is to push companies to hire more US workers. Analysts, however, say it may do the opposite, driving firms to near shore it labor in Mexico, Colombia and Latin America.

Experts note persistent skills shortages in cybersecurity and data engineering make these roles hard to fill domestically and from computer world. A recent Windows security update intended to strengthen encryption has instead caused major disruptions across enterprise systems.

The PaaS shifts windows from the older cryptographic services provider to the newer key storage provider, but the change has broken authentication, disabled smart cards, locked websites and even killed USB mouse and keyboard functions in recovery mode. Developers are also reporting widespread issues in Windows 11.

The disruptions have forced some organizations to roll back updates to keep operations running. That's today's 2-Minute Tech briefing. For more enterprise tech updates, visit Computerworld and CIO.com - and don't forget to like and subscribe to TechTalk on YouTube.