Forget Flash Gordon - Tech Trailblazers Really Can Save The Earth (in less than 14 hours)

It’s Friday – it’s five to five (well five to 11 actually) and it’s Crackerj… Well, no, it’s not – but that does spare us the Peter Glaze school of acting (for those of a certain age and disposition, especially those of us still in therapy as a result of overexposure to said “talent”).

No – it’s time for something far more exciting than that – it’s Tech Trailblazers time of year again. The 2026 version is open for business, so get those entries in: https://techtrailblazers.com/

As a “from day one” judge, as noted before, one braces oneself for a brace of entries all starting with “we are unique in being the only…” – and they are usually all in the same category, with a product that sounds just like the one that went before it (and, before you ask, the rule is only one entry per category, so these ageing eyes are not deceiving me – and nor are the over-imaginative narratives accompanying those entries). And then, of course, there’s the AI blitzkrieg to survive. This started long before the actual AI bombardment took place globally; see – Tech Trailblazers really does blaze away ahead of the game. Note: “AI” actually replaced a short-lived dominance for “Machine Learning” that peaked, I would guess, around six to seven  years ago…

Proof – for those of you entering the competition for the first time – that “AI” doesn’t have to feature AT ALL in your proud product precis comes c/o last year’s winner of the security category – Goldilock (no bears). Said entry was AI free, because the product is likewise, though that doesn’t stop some vendors. What the successful Goldilock entry did prove – beyond all doubt – is that Tech Trailblazers really can save the world. As noted before in these ‘ere pages, Goldilocks’ FireBreak tech – as tested –  really does stop a cyberattack in milliseconds; hence its use by defence departments (noting there are multiple ways of spelling “defence” and in multiple languages), energy companies – including nuclear – water utilities, transportation, airports… Think of cyberattack disaster movie heaven and the Goldilock technology will – or certainly should – be there to save the planet, or at least a movie set. So if you are in doubt as to whether your energy supplier, water supplier, local airport, EV car manufacturer etc – you get the idea – has adopted the Goldilock tech, then I suggest you ask why not? After all, we all have a vested interest in protecting nuclear power stations, water filtration systems, aircraft, trains, manufacturing plants, data centres…

Of course, one of the primary weapons of choice for cyber criminals is… AI, especially in agentic form. Just imagine billions of spies running around the world, unobserved. Think of all the “mischief” they could get up to. Except that these are especially evil, particularly well disguised spies, capable of wreaking heinous damage, especially in scenarios such as within a supply chain (007 goes digital). So, why is it that companies seem happy to let their developers bombard the interconnected world with badly designed, completely non-secured AI apps and agents? The same companies, that is, who have spent millions – and possibly billions – on their security infrastructures. Mind-blowing isn’t it. From an IT perspective, It means we’re back to the early days of SNMP v1, when all the networking guys, wowed by their shiny new management platforms, complete with lots of glowing red lights, were happy to send completely open text files across t’Interweb, detailing their network configurations. Nice…

Well, once more, it’s a case of Tech Trailblazers to the rescue, this time c/o recent dual winner Atsign, whose – again tried and tested – platform natively secures any AI app or agent from birth, c/o its NoPorts tech – regardless of what LLM a developer wishes to use. Just to reiterate, that is ANY AI app. Moreover, as detailed in the test report, the company’s AI Architect, in conjunction with the Atsign Platform, means a massive reduction in dev time – our cited example in the report reduced seven weeks to three hours – and it is born as a fully secured app or agent.

Once more then, when encountering AI in your daily life, be it via an insurance company, a retailer, or even an AI app dev company, DO ask the question: are they using the Atsign Platform and, if not, then why not? This might seem like I’m being a tad OTT, but this stuff really matters. Who knows how the current wars raging across EMEA will escalate. It’s happening right now, so wake up guys n gals. The technology to save yourselves is here – just use it.

Of course – going back to the Tech Trailblazers entry advice, and the overuse of “one and only” – both Goldilock and Atsign, do have genuinely unique (and protected) technologies – splendid irony there, methinks. Or maybe it’s a clue as to how you win an award in the first (and second) place 😊.

Meantime, I am looking forward (I think) to some entertaining entries and, talking of entertaining, for those of you whose Peter Glaze driven Crackerjack appetites have been well and truly whet, here’s a link to the gang in action (for those of you not in the know, he’s the gobby one, front left). It also features “the other” Don McLean; this one lacking American Pie, but sporting a fine set of gnashers to eat it with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBagailEL1k&t=2s

Happy viewing.