News

IT governance

• September 05, 2023 05 Sep'23

  NCSC names ex-NCC man as new CTO

  New NCSC CTO Ollie Whitehouse joins from NCC Group, having also worked at BlackBerry and Symantec

• September 04, 2023 04 Sep'23

  LockBit ransomware gang allegedly leaks MoD data after hit on supplier

  The UK government appears to have become entangled in a LockBit ransomware attack after data was leaked from a third-party supplier online

• September 01, 2023 01 Sep'23

  Police Scotland five-year digital strategy approved

  Police Scotland’s new strategy outlines how the force will approach and invest in its digital transformation over the next five years, but notes its ability to achieve its ambitions is subject to the availability of funding

• September 01, 2023 01 Sep'23

  IT experts issue new warnings over Online Safety Bill plans to weaken end-to-end encryption

  BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, argues the government is seeking a technical fix to terrorism and child abuse without understanding the risks and implications

• August 31, 2023 31 Aug'23

  Home Office and MoD seeking new facial-recognition tech

  The UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator is running a ‘market exploration’ exercise on behalf of the Home Office to identify new facial-recognition capabilities for security and policing bodies in the UK

• August 30, 2023 30 Aug'23

  Met police data platform deployed with data protection issues

  Met Police deploys integrated record management system despite data protection ‘compliance issues' that would inhibit its ability to retrieve data, meet its statutory logging requirements, and respond to subject access requests

• August 29, 2023 29 Aug'23

  Top-performing CISOs reserve time for professional development

  Survey of chief information security officers conducted by Gartner sheds light on habits shared by the top-performing members of the profession

• August 24, 2023 24 Aug'23

  Bletchley Park to host UK government AI safety summit

  An international collaboration event on artificial intelligence safety is being run at the site that was home to the world’s first programmable computer

• August 23, 2023 23 Aug'23

  St Helens Council in Merseyside hit by ransomware attack

  St Helens Borough Council is investigating a suspected ransomware incident targeting its systems, and is advising residents to be on the alert for follow-on phishing attacks

• August 22, 2023 22 Aug'23

  Met Police data platform £64m over budget

  A freedom of information request has revealed that the Met’s Connect integrated record management system is running tens of millions over budget, and has already generated more than 25,000 support requests so far

• August 22, 2023 22 Aug'23

  Clop’s MOVEit attacks drive ransomware volumes to record high

  Such has been the scope of Clop’s activity since May that ransomware attack volumes have more than doubled year on year, according to the latest data

• August 21, 2023 21 Aug'23

  Cyber attack on Aussie energy services firm may hit UK CNI

  Energy One, an Australia-based supplier of tech services to the energy sector, is investigating the possibility that some UK customers may have been caught up in an ongoing cyber attack on its systems

• August 18, 2023 18 Aug'23

  BSI launches sustainability-focused startup accelerator

  Startups selected to participate in the BSI and Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership’s joint sustainability startup accelerator are working in a diverse range of areas and using a variety of technologies to positively affect society

• August 17, 2023 17 Aug'23

  Researchers demo fake airplane mode exploit that tricks iPhone users

  Exploit chain that tricks a victim into believing their iOS device is offline in airplane mode when it is not could open the door to grave privacy concerns

• August 16, 2023 16 Aug'23

  NCSC expands Cyber Incident Response service more widely

  The NCSC has added a level to its CIR programme to enable more cyber attack victims to take advantage of the service, which offers access to assured incident response specialists

• August 16, 2023 16 Aug'23

  ITAM influence on cyber risk becoming a factor in credit ratings

  Credit agency S&P Global Ratings warns that organisations that pay inadequate attention to IT asset management as a factor in their cyber risk management processes may find their creditworthiness takes a dive

• August 15, 2023 15 Aug'23

  Biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner resigns

  Dual biometrics and surveillance camera watchdog will step down at the end of October 2023, noting that while he agreed to stay on until the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill received royal assent, continuing delays to its passage means ...

• August 15, 2023 15 Aug'23

  Norfolk and Suffolk police hit by FoI-linked data breach

  Latest UK police data breach relates to crime suspects, victims and witnesses across East Anglia, and comes just days after a similar incident at the Northern Irish service

• August 14, 2023 14 Aug'23

  US Cyber Board to probe cloud security after latest Exchange hack

  CSRB review of cloud security comes in the wake of a major Chinese cyber attack on US government bodies orchestrated through Microsoft’s cloud services

• August 11, 2023 11 Aug'23

  Google Help workers claim layoffs are retaliation for unionising

  More than 100 Google Help workers claim that Google and Accenture’s decision to layoff two-thirds of the team was done in retaliation for their attempts to form a union, while companies claim decision was made well in advance of unionisation attempt

• August 11, 2023 11 Aug'23

  Biden administration bans investment in Chinese high tech

  Executive Order prohibits investment firms from supporting Chinese firms specialising in AI, quantum and advanced semiconductors

• August 10, 2023 10 Aug'23

  Google speeds up security update frequency for Chrome

  Changes to Google’s security update policy are supposed to help close the gap in which cyber criminals can exploit n-day vulnerabilities

• August 10, 2023 10 Aug'23

  PSNI investigating second breach after laptop stolen

  Just hours after accidentally disclosing the personal details of 10,000 personnel, the Police Service of Northern Ireland has notified a second data breach after a police issue laptop and documents were stolen from a parked car

• August 09, 2023 09 Aug'23

  AI interview: Krystal Kauffman, lead organiser, Turkopticon

  Remote Mechanical Turk workers are responsible for training artificial intelligence algorithms and completing other data-related business processes - we hear about the workplace issues they face

• August 09, 2023 09 Aug'23

  Microsoft addresses Office vulnerability attacked by Russian spooks in latest update

  Microsoft has issued fixes for over 70 vulnerabilities in its August Patch Tuesday drop, including remedies for CVE-2023-36884, which was disclosed without a fix in July and has been the subject of Kremlin-backed cyber attacks

• August 09, 2023 09 Aug'23

  Northern Irish police expose staff data in botched FoI response

  Human error is being blamed for the leak of personally identifiable information on all serving officers and civilian staff at the Police Service of Northern Ireland

• August 08, 2023 08 Aug'23

  UK voter data hacked in cyber attack on election watchdog

  An unknown threat actor who attacked the UK’s Electoral Commission had access to data on millions of UK voters for over a year, the watchdog has revealed

• August 08, 2023 08 Aug'23

  Workplace monitoring needs worker consent, says select committee

  Employers looking to monitor their employees through connected devices should only to so with the consent of those affected due to negative impacts such surveillance can have on work intensification and mental health

• August 08, 2023 08 Aug'23

  Many UK organisations considering ChatGPT bans on employee devices

  More than 60% of organisations in the UK have either banned, or are considering banning, the use of generative AI tools on employee- or business-owned devices

• August 07, 2023 07 Aug'23

  NHS trust suspends two governors as whistleblower email dispute continues

  Governors at an NHS trust have been suspended after asking questions about emails used to bring a General Medical Council investigation against a whistleblower

• August 07, 2023 07 Aug'23

  Microsoft fixes Azure flaw that was subject of researcher criticism

  Microsoft has confirmed a potentially-dangerous flaw in the Azure platform has now been fully fixed, and moved to reassure customers that despite criticism it is committed to responsible disclosure and timely fixes

• August 07, 2023 07 Aug'23

  Rise in fraudsters spoofing the websites of leading UK banks

  Despite safeguards to protect customers from scams, UK retail banks are still seeing high volumes of fake phishing websites exploiting their brands, and the problem seems to be increasing in scope and scale

• August 04, 2023 04 Aug'23

  Log4Shell, ProxyShell still among most widely exploited flaws

  Statistics released by the collective Five Eyes cyber agencies reveals insight into the most exploited vulnerabilities of 2022, and unsurprisingly there are some old ‘friends’ on the list

• August 04, 2023 04 Aug'23

  Biden’s SBOM mandate a ‘shot heard around the world’, report says

  Two years and three months after Joe Biden mandated new standards in supply chain security, over 40% of UK respondents to a survey say they have implemented new SBOM policies in direct response

• August 03, 2023 03 Aug'23

  Scottish NHS trust ducks fine after staff shared patient data via WhatsApp

  NHS Lanarkshire has been issued a formal reprimand by the ICO after staff members used WhatsApp to share patients’ personal data with one another

• August 03, 2023 03 Aug'23

  Microsoft attacked over ‘grossly irresponsible’ security practice

  The CEO of Tenable has launched a scathing attack on Microsoft, asserting that the organisation is deliberately keeping its Azure cloud customers in the dark about dangerous vulnerabilities and accusing it of a culture of ‘toxic obfuscation’

• August 02, 2023 02 Aug'23

  Ivanti MDM users told to patch against two dangerous flaws

  Users of Ivanti’s mobile device management platform have been warned to act now to patch two vulnerabilities that were chained by a threat actor in a series of cyber attacks on the Norwegian government

• August 02, 2023 02 Aug'23

  Improved rural connectivity could add £65bn to UK economy

  Study from leading operator and economic consultancy points to potential massive economic boost to UK rural communities through increased digital connectivity and if long-standing obstacles are removed

• July 28, 2023 28 Jul'23

  Risks of opening up AI

  Meta has annouced that its Llama 2 large language model will be freely available under a community licence with certain restrictions

• July 28, 2023 28 Jul'23

  Scottish university hit by Rhysida ransomware gang

  Data allegedly stolen from the University of Western Scotland has been put up for sale on the dark web by a ransomware gang going by the name Rhysida

• July 27, 2023 27 Jul'23

  European Commission starts investigation into Microsoft Teams bundling

  The commission will investigate if the bundling of Microsoft’s collaboration software with its office productivity suite breaks competition rules

• July 27, 2023 27 Jul'23

  Cyber criminals pivot away from ransomware encryption

  Cyber breaches that saw data theft and extortion without an encryption or ransomware component account for more and more incidents, in a possible indication that ransomware gangs are changing up their business models

• July 27, 2023 27 Jul'23

  US cyber breach reporting rules to have global impact

  Organisations that operate as Foreign Private Issuers in the US will have to get to grips with strict new cyber breach reporting regulations handed down by the SEC in Washington

• July 27, 2023 27 Jul'23

  Meta results show impact of data fines and datacentre upgrade strategy

  The owner of Facebook is battling with regulators over transferring EU data to the US. It is also seeing less improvements on CPUs

• July 25, 2023 25 Jul'23

  Cisco, BT and others launch network security coalition

  Network Resilience Coalition focuses on bringing together global expertise to improve data and network security

• July 25, 2023 25 Jul'23

  Tetra radio users’ comms may have been exposed for years

  A number of flaws in the encryption algorithms used in the secure Tetra radio communications standard have potentially left users exposed to snooping

• July 24, 2023 24 Jul'23

  Citrix NetScaler users told to patch new zero-day urgently

  A vulnerability disclosed and patched last week by Citrix appears to be being exploited by China-backed threat actors as a zero-day, prompting warnings from government cyber bodies

• July 24, 2023 24 Jul'23

  Tribunal investigates complaint that journalists’ phones were unlawfully monitored

  The Investigatory Powers Tribunal has agreed to investigate complaints by Northern Ireland investigative journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey that they were unlawfully placed under surveillance

• July 24, 2023 24 Jul'23

  Bank of England’s project to replace ‘beating heart’ is foundation for continuous development

  The Bank of England has reached a major milestone in its core system replacement programme, with next landmark in sight

• July 24, 2023 24 Jul'23

  Security AI and automation may reduce cost of data breaches

  Organisations that go all in on security AI and automation tend to incur lower financial costs when they experience a data breach incident, according to an IBM report