professionals

how two professionals fell after using ransomware

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He ransomware It usually presents itself as an external threat, diffuse and difficult to locate, associated with criminal groups that operate from other countries and to hidden infrastructures on the network. However, the case that has communicated the United States Department of Justice breaks that narrative. Here we are not talking about a specific surveillance failure, but about professionals from the sector itself who, according to the accusation, used their training and position to attack American companies. The conclusion is as simple as it is alarming: the threat does not always come from outside, even in such a specialized field. What is known about the case today is well defined in court documents and official statements. On December 30, 2025, the Department of Justice reported thatthe day before, a federal court in the Southern District of Florida accepted guilty pleas from two men for conspiring to extort in connection with ransomware attacks that occurred in 2023. Both pleaded guilty to a federal crime related to obstructing or affecting commerce by extortion. Sentencing was set for March 12, 2026 and they face a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Who they were and what role they played in the sector. According to the FBIthe accused are Ryan Goldberg, 40, and Kevin Martin, 36. Both worked in the field of cybersecurity and had experience in incident management and in processes linked to attacks with this type of malicious tool. Goldberg worked as an incident response manager in a multinational company in the sector, while Martin worked as a negotiator specialized in this type of extortion within a company dedicated to responding to cybercrime. This professional context placed them in an unusual place for this type of crime. A ransomware model turned into a service. The case documents describe that the attacks relied on ALPHV, also known as BlackCata ransomware operated under a service model. In this scheme, developers maintain the malware and extortion infrastructure, while affiliated third parties execute attacks against selected victims. In exchange for that access, the defendants agreed to give 20% of any ransom obtained to the administrators. The rest was distributed among the participants, after moving the funds through different digital wallets to make them difficult to trace. The investigation is not limited to a single incident. The documents include attacks and attempts directed against US companies between April and December 2023, with victims in sectors such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, industrial and technological sectors. In the only successful case, the ransom paid was around $1.27 million in cryptocurrency at the time of payment, according to the file. In other episodes, the demands reflected in the case ranged from hundreds of thousands of dollars to around five million, always according to court documents. The evidence that supports the accusation. The case is supported by a combination of technical records, financial analysis and statements collected by US federal forces. Among the elements cited are access to tools linked to the extortion infrastructure and the monitoring of cryptocurrency movements after the payment of the ransom. The file also mentions searches carried out before some attacks, including an inquiry about one of the victims on May 4, 2023, days before a subsequent incident. Added to this is a recorded interview in which one of the accused acknowledged his involvement, in addition to searches and other actions incorporated into the case. Images | Xataka with Gemini 3 Pro In Xataka | Gonzalo is the Army’s ChatGPT. Its challenge is colossal: turning AI into the great military ally of the 21st century

The Basque Country and Navarra exported 35,700 qualified professionals who would like to return. The problem is how and where

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Companies argue that one of their main problems when it comes to filling job vacancies is find qualified workers. However, the data suggests that these qualified profiles are forced to leave the country for find better opportunities jobs outside Spain. In fact, a recent study by Artizarra Foundation and Deusto Business School puts precise figures on this mismatch between the situation of qualified talent and its reality. Thousands of professionals trained in Spanish universities and with consolidated careers outside the country they would be willing to return, but the system does not offer them a complete attractive setting to return to. The talent that left. According to the reportmore than 42,000 young people between 25 and 40 years old, trained in universities and higher educational centers in the Basque Country and Navarra, currently work outside their territory of origin. These are not profiles in transition: they are highly qualified professionals, with training in engineering, STEM disciplinesbusiness management or research. However, the key data from this report is the return intention of these professionals. More than 85% of the participants in the study affirm that they would like to return if they found working and living conditions comparable to those they have achieved abroad. If this scenario materializes, the study estimates that up to 35,700 qualified professionals could be recovered. A career developed abroad. Six out of every ten professionals consulted have already accumulated more than six years working in other countries, which implies that they already have consolidated professional trajectories there, competitive salaries and international work experience that is difficult to replicate in the short term. From an economic point of view, its impact is relevant. We are not talking about talent in training, but about already qualified personnel, with high technical knowledge and productive capacity that have been trained in public schools and universities in Spain, but that Spanish companies have not known how to retain. This lack of job opportunities is the key to their departure. Ability to train talent, not to retain it. The contrast appears when crossing the data from the Deusto Business School report with the Cotec Foundation Talent Mapwhich analyzes 55 indicators on talent creation, attraction and retention. In its latest edition in 2023, and maintaining the same territorial framework as the Deusto study, the Basque Country reaches 66.4 points, well above the national average (49.1 points) and only behind Madrid (67.7 points). The conclusions drawn from these data are clear. The Basque Country stands out for the quality of your higher educationtechnical qualification and productive environment. The educational system works well in training talent. The problem comes when that training period ends and that talent compares what you find in your country with what is offered outside. They do not return for the same reason they left. The reasons for the flight of talent are recurring: better salaries, greater professional projection, access to cutting-edge projects and, in the case of scientific profiles, more opportunities to develop a stable research career. As and how they point According to the authors of the Deusto Business School report, these factors do not disappear when the return of that talent is considered. On the contrary. Accumulated experience raises expectations and makes those reasons more visible. The study by Artizarra and Deusto identifies barriers that go beyond employment and connect with structural problems common to an entire generation. Return yes, but where. The price and conditions of housing is one of the main reasons that slows the return of this talent. Returning implies assuming high prices, both for rent as for home purchaseand face it with salaries that do not always compensate for the difference compared to other European markets. For those who have already built a life outside, the opportunity cost is high. The second major barrier to return is the quality of employment. Not so much the absence of work for these qualified profiles, but the difficulty for local companies to match salaries, professional autonomy and recognition of talent. The comparison with international markets is inevitable. A paradox that remains open. The study data supports the spirit of this talent to return because it has not separated itself from its territory and maintains its roots. Most want to return. However, as the authors of the study point out, the biggest problem is an environment that allows doing so without giving up professional and life expectations. From an economic point of view, recovering part of those 35,700 profiles would be an investment that is difficult to match for a labor market that affirms that the shortage of skilled labor It is the stone that prevents them from moving forward. As Joe Biden once said: “Pay Them More“. In Xataka | Spain has such good nurses that it exports them to other countries. The problem is that public health needs 100,000 Image | Unsplash (Philipp hubert)

There will be only one young man for every three professionals who retire

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Spain faces an unprecedented challenge with respect to generational relay of the current active population due to demographic aging. According to a recent one Study of the Observatory of the Professional Training of Caixabank Duiza and Orkestra Basque Institute of Competitiveness, in Spain there is a deficit of almost 3.5 million people under 30 years in the employed population to compensate for the weight of the population over 50 years of age than He will retire In the coming years. “There is a true demographic fire, only that it is not unforeseen, we have seen it on and extend,” declares to The avant -garde Mónica Mosa, researcher and co -author of the study. This mismatch among young people under 30 and over 50 years old It has doubled In the last decade, putting at risk the sustainability of many companies and economic activities for shortage qualified labor. Demographic differences in the working population. As the report points out, for each young person under 30 there are three workers over 50. This imbalance will make, for example, in a decade this proportion He moves To the price for retirement benefits, where a worker would support the benefits of several pensioners, increasing pressure on the pension system. In communities such as Asturias, for every 100 young people under 30 there are 257 over 65 years old, while in Castilla y León and Galicia this proportion exceeds 220 greater than 65 per 100 young people. These regions, characterized by being rural and with a High depopulation ratethey have added difficulties to attract and retain young labor in fundamental professions such as agriculture, livestock or forest agents, pillars of their local economy. The low birth rate. The main trigger for this situation is decline Birth rate in Spainwhich in the last ten years has dropped by 27%. The average number of children per woman is well below the necessary to maintain the population, which has gone from 9.11 born by a thousand inhabitants in 2013 to 6.61 births per thousand inhabitants in 2023. However, this rate varies considerably depending on the origin of the families, varying from the 8.30 births per thousand inhabitants of Spanish mothers at 16.05 of foreign mothers. Likewise, the study includes that the number of children per woman has also dropped from 1.27 in 2013 to 1.12 in 2023, being equally lower among Spanish women (1.09 children) than among foreign women (1.28 children). These last figures are a clear risk to the sustainability of the generational relief in the workplace, taking into account that at least 2.1 children per woman would be necessary to guarantee it. The impact goes by sectors. The shortage of young people especially affects sectors with traditional and technical trades such as electricity, plumbing, carpentry, manufacturing industry, construction or repair of vehicles. In this group of artisans and qualified workers record a deficit of around 500,000 young people to occupy the vacant positions left by the workers who retire in the next decade. In sectors such as public administration, difference is even more marked: For every 100 officials under 30 there are 690 over 50 years. This is one of the reasons why the Public Administration has stepped on the accelerator in the call for oppositions in which record figures have been reached. In the opposite pole, sectors linked to leisure and culture, Information and communications and hospitality are not affected by this mismatch in the generational relief since they attract a greater number of young people, contrasting with the low attraction of young professionals in industrial and administrative activities. Labor scarcity will impact the economy. The regions with the greatest presence of the most affected professional sectors such as Andalusia (Agriculture and Livestock) Catalonia and Madrid (industrial sectors), show the largest deficit figures of professionals in absolute numbers approaching (and even exceeding) close to half a million people. These communities stand out as the main focuses where the lack of generational relief will be more critical for the local and national economy since its active population percentage with respect to Spain’s total is also greater. Professional training as a key to relay. The report indicates The importance of professional training (FP) as a fundamental solution To face this deficit of new professionals in industrial sectors. According to their authors, the greatest imbalances are seen in the average grade, where there is a lower attraction of young people with respect to those of higher degree. In general terms, there is a lower generational gap among people occupied with FP. This is due to the ease of access to the labor market of young people studying professional training. However, the different branches of professional training must keep attracting young people during the next decades to balance the current deficit. On the other hand, the lack of young people trained in the care sector, whose growth is linked to demographic aging, and the talent migration of the abroad health sector complicate the balance in the generational relief. The report underlines the importance of achieving “young people stay in the territory” and connect their training with the business fabric to ensure effective relief. In Xataka | Talent scarcity has chronified to an extreme point: 75% of companies do not find what they are looking for Image | Unspash (Gabor Szuhan)

more repentance, more erased clinics and professionals who live worse than before

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The tattoo has gone from be a symbol of rebellion to A fashion accessory. Soccer players, Influencers And even your fifth neighbor look like skin designs. This massive acceptance caused an unprecedented boomFilling Spain with studies and artists. But the party is over. The bubble seems to have exploded and has left behind a precariousness and also repentance panorama among the different clients who decide to remove their tattoos. Regretting what they tattoo. A phenomenon that we are seeing right now is that of Delete what one day was permanent in their skins. This was demonstrated by a study Made by Lutronic PBSwhich pointed out that 60% of the people who tattoo in our country end up regretting. The problem that arises is that eliminating a tattoo is not easy to do. The ink that is injected directly into the skin dermis, which is the second layer of the skin. This causes an aggressive treatment to be able to eliminate it completely. The number of professionals who remove them increase. The demand for withdrawing tattoos makes new treatments and clinics appear. In 2023 it was recorded A 30% increase in the number of demands regarding eliminating tattoos through laser technique. And is that choosing a good professional It is fundamental so that later it is marked on the skin. And such is the ‘fashion’ of eliminating tattoos, which even in social networks can already see how trends and up as #Tattoremoval where The before and after this treatment is shown. And sometimes people make these tattoos impulsively Without having anything clear. And then the repentance is there. The tattoo sector has a ‘dark side’. In addition to the change of opinion of many consumers of this art, The avant -garde has collected in a report As the market has changed radically. Raúl, a professional tattoo artist since 2001, reports that when he started in this world, the coil machine was an almost artisanal artifact of more than 300 euros. Now this same machine It can be found on Amazon for fifty euros With an initiation kit that includes needles and inks of doubtful quality. This technological democratization has had an immediate effect: a marketing of the market. The National Union of Professional Tattooators and Anillers (UNTAP) esteem That in Spain there are about 10,000 “legal” tattoors, but they estimate that the double works irregularly from their homes. These “home tattoors” They are announced on Instagram and Facebookcompeting directly with studies paid for rent, taxes and health licenses. And this is something that results in a fall in demand to professionals. The ‘Glovo’ model has reached the tattoo. If unfair competition is a battle front, labor conditions are the other. The sector operates in a legal limbo where the ‘false autonomous’ has gained prominence, as they relate to the avant -garde. In this way, they point out that the studies have autonomous tattoors, who carry a percentage of the final price of each tattoo, and the material costs are shared. The point is that some studies would demand to meet fixed schedules of up to 60 hours per week and with imposed vacations. Emilio San Miguel, labor lawyer, is clear about it: as soon as an autonomous depends economically on a single payer and has time and tax holidays, it can be considered a false autonomous. “Almost all the tattooists who work in studies,” he says. ‘Chiquitatus’ and businessmen: the devaluation of art. This panorama has been the breeding ground for a new business model. According to Fidel Prieto, secretary of UNTAP, many of the new studies are not led by artists, but by investors who see tattoo as a simple business opportunity. In this way, they take care of a place with a central location and hire young tattooists, with little experience and more likely to accept abusive conditions. And to be a large production chain, they specialize in ‘Chiquitatu’, that is, a butterfly, an infinity or a small symbol that has a cost of 50 euros. Something that denounces devalues ​​the price of this work, and makes people have to work from their home and in black so that it deserves the penalty economically. Because becoming autonomous is something that many people cannot afford. What you earn in the trade is not very attractive. As they point out in the report, a tattoo artist can have a good month and invoice about 3,000 euros gross. But It is not a stable tradeand depends on the number of customers you have. In this way, in a bad month those income can collapse up to 700 euros easily. A tattoo artist, Virordia, points to that I would prefer to have a decent salary, a normal schedule and decent conditions. The situation is as unsustainable that figures such as the “false hired” have emerged: a 10 -hour weekly contract for someone who works more than 45. The objective is to reduce the social security quota, a desperate patch in a broken system. Tattoos have a future beyond the aesthetic. Although many people are tattooed for pleasure, science explores other options. For example, it is already explored to use them as a system to control blood glucose or go much further to Be authentic biosensors to analyze other biochemical parameters of our organisms in a little invasive way. Images | Benjamin Lehman In Xataka | “We are not giving the card”: the regulations to validate the truck driver with Morocco are 20 years old

professionals to fix their pifias

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Artificial intelligence has reached Transform the labor market of ways that neither the companies themselves imagine, promising efficiency and cost reduction. However, behind this technological revolution, there are a group of professionals who are seeing their income growing thanks to errors that makes the AI. The rise of automation with AI has opened a new labor niche: fix the strips that the AI ​​leaves in its path. There are more and more companies that, after trying to replace employees for AI agentshave discovered that failures They can leave expensive. The rush for adopting artificial intelligence without a deep analysis have generated an unexpected demand for experts capable of solving the problems that these technologies cause. Advance is expensive. In recent months, much has been discussed about how artificial intelligence is replacing workers And how could I still do it More in the near future. However, the reality is that those who have opted to replace human employees too soon, have found that AI makes mistakes, and many. According to Recent dataAI agents can make up up to 70% In complex tasks, which shows that its reliability is far from perfect. Companies who fired staff To save costs they have had to hire experts after the AI ​​did not meet the minimal demands of the task. “The AI ​​also has many cases in which it can ‘hallucinate, generating irrelevant, invented or inconsistent content,’” Explain To the British BBC he Feng Li Professor, Associate Dean of Research and Innovation at the Bayes Business School. “Although it seems a quick and economical option, the AI ​​rarely takes into account the unique identity of the brand, the objective population groups or the design centered on conversion. As a result, much of the result seems generic and can harm the reputation or effectiveness of the brand,” says Li. The business of fixing the IA errors. In that context, some professionals have found a gold mine in the repair of the Errors made by AI. Such and as they highlight To BBC some of these professionals, these interventions usually be done at the last minute and as a last resort before an imminent delivery, which triggers prices. He supposed savings that promised AI ends up becoming an extra cost, since experts charge raised rates for solving these problems to counterreloj. Sophie Warner, co -owner of the Create Designs agency in the United Kingdom, says: “We often have to collect a research rate to find out what has failed, since (clients) do not want to admit it, and the process of correcting these errors takes much longer than if professionals had been consulted from the beginning.” Warner remembers the case of a client who, for saving 15 minutes of work to update his website, turned to Chatgpt to generate a code fragment. Solving the error “cost them about 400 euros and their online business was inactive for three days.” 100 dollars an hour to fix the pifias of the AI. Sarah Skidd, product marketing manager, He published on LinkedIn His experience, counting that it was hired by a content agency to urgently review the text of a website produced with AI for a client in the hotel sector. “I dedicated about 20 hours to rewriting the text, charging 100 dollars per hour,” explained Skidd, who says it was not about making small changes, but “rebuilding everything” to give consistency. Far from fearing the AI, Skidd considers that “he is not afraid of AI as chatgpt because they are very basic when writing texts.” In its LinkedIn publication, writer Sarah Taslik too I commented that a company generated 50 articles with AI and hired it to review them: “I needed two whole months to rewrite them.” The most human: a new source of income. These professionals emphasize that it is not only about correcting the possible mistakes and hallucinations that AI commits, but of humanize the content generated by AI. Kashish Barot, editor in India, He counted to the BBC that edits texts written by AI for American clients with the aim of “seems more human.” Barot points out that “a good edition, just like writing, it takes time because you have to think and not select how AI. (AI) does not understand the nuances well because it only selects the data.” This phenomenon has opened opportunities for professionals who previously dedicated themselves to Create original contentand that now find in the content edition generated by the additional source of income that, in addition, due to the urgency context is even better paid. The work of these experts has become essential for companies that seek to maintain the quality and authenticity of their communication, despite automation. In Xataka | We believed that AI was going to take our jobs. At the moment it has begun to whisper your boss who should say goodbye Image | Unspash (Headway)

There are no professionals to do them

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He housing price It has been one of the main concerns of the Spaniards. The increase in rent price The real estate market is tensioning even more. For many, the solution to that problem goes through Build more homes. The big problem facing Spain in this sense would no longer be available for spaces for those homes, but who will build them, due to the great scarcity of qualified labor In the construction sector. Bricklayer, welder or plumber on the roads of extinction. According to him last report of EURES (European Employment Service) on scarcity and surpluses of labor is warned that almost half of the occupations classified in the category of professions with labor shortages belong to the construction sector. These are specific works for which a training of several years is required for its development, which has been aggravated even more with the aging of the templates and with return from the migrant population, to their countries of origin. A good part of this population had occupied these positions for decades and now do not have a generational replacement that covers demand. An unattractive sector. A report of the European Federation of the Construction Industry (FIEC) points out that one of the decisive factors for this situation of labor scarcity is that the sector has failed to present itself as an attractive option for young people. The sectorial employer has recognized that its activity has been shown as tedious, with great physical and potentially dangerous demands. According to the report, this bad projection is also behind the low female presence in the sector, which has a presence of only 15%. Decades of precariousness. The report data suggest that young people have stopped seeing the construction sector as an option to develop their professional career because it is considered a very unstable sector in terms of temporality of contracts for work and service. In 2008, 25.2% of the sector employees were under 30 years old. In 2022, that percentage fell to 9.2% of the total workforce of the sector. The sector highlights that much of the activity in this sector is carried out through subcontracts or self -employed workers. The statistical data Facilitated by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy corroborate this statement placing the construction sector as the second that concentrates the most self -employed workers (12.1%), only behind the services sector (73.9%). Change of trend. EURES points out that FP reinforcement As a formative model with wide professional exits and the ecological transition are marking a change in trend in which younger and more young people look at the construction sector. The need to build wind farms and stations for solar energy is giving a more technical character to this sector by promoting new professions that have a good reception among the FP students. Projects financed from the EU as “Woman Can Build“They are redefining the roles in the construction sector, eliminating the traditional idea of ​​not being a” for women “sector, thus increasing their labor base. A relay that does not arrive on time. Despite this change in trend among young people, from the National Construction Confederation (CNC) They point To today, some 700,000 qualified professionals are needed. Although the sector applauds the FP formation reinforcementthey assure that this is a medium -term solution that will still take some years to show Its effect on the labor marketso they are committed to recovering the figure of the apprentice between 16 and 18 years, so that these students can carry out practices at work and accelerate their training. In Xataka | Construction and hospitality do not hire the same pace as before. Health and education cut cod in job creation Image | Unspash (Josh Olde)

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