Went to see my brother and the rest of our family in Edinburgh last weekend, which was predictably traumatic. No, not because my father likes dressing up in women's clothes when he's drunk and parading around in front of his family – we've all come to terms with that. And it's not because my darling nephews like to play an endearing little game called "throw things at Uncle Phil's head until he bleeds", and it's not that I found myself in the centre of Edinburgh at 1am in an England football top. Amazing how hard it is to get a taxi sometimes. Don't think I gloated too much about England's overwhelming sporting, economic and cultural superiority.

And it wasn't because the train back from bonnie Scotland took roughly seven hours, though it was a joy to return to London not by the usual East coast route, but via such hidden gems as Kettering, Derby and Loughborough. No, the trauma was all about fielding the daily gamut of IT-related questions from my family, as if I'm suddenly some kind of expert.

Actually I'm the last person who could help – it's my bro who's built his own PC, installed his own Wi-Fi network and is now probably working on a datacentre in his garage. He represents the dictionary definition of enthusiastic amateur, but in my world, theory and practice are sadly worlds apart – I might talk to IT vendors and analysts five days a week but hands-on skills definitely ain't my bag.

In a lot of ways my brother is a great example of how IT-literate the white-collar worker of the 21st century has become, and has had to become. As we keep hearing in IT security circles, the biggest risks usually come from the human factor, the one thing you can't automate, the office worker who leaves his password on a Post-It note on his desk. But there is hope, and this trend could see the IT chief's job becoming a bit easier, as a new generation of IT-savvy graduates find their way into the world of work.