News

Privacy and data protection

• August 02, 2021 02 Aug'21

  Government publishes second version of digital identity trust framework

  The second iteration of the framework, still in alpha version, sets out how organisations can become certified digital identity service providers

• July 29, 2021 29 Jul'21

  Investigatory Powers Tribunal finds UK spy agencies unlawfully collected personal data

  Campaign groups Privacy International and Liberty are gearing up to bring further legal action after a court found that UK spy agencies unlawfully collected phone and internet records

• July 28, 2021 28 Jul'21

  Almost half unaware of GP data-sharing plans

  Around half of adults in England – approximately 20 million people – remain unaware of the scope of the NHS GPDPR programme, prompting calls for a public education campaign

• July 27, 2021 27 Jul'21

  ICO ends its involvement in dispute between NatWest Bank and data breach whistleblower

  The Information Commissioner’s Office has ended its involvement in a dispute between a data breach whistleblower and NatWest bank

• July 27, 2021 27 Jul'21

  US lawmakers call for probe into ‘arrogant’ spyware firm

  US members of Congress have called for an investigation into NSO Group, the spyware supplier at the centre of a massive surveillance scandal

• July 27, 2021 27 Jul'21

  TikTok sets up cyber security hub in Dublin

  Dublin-based cyber centre will oversee the security of TikTok’s users across Europe

• July 27, 2021 27 Jul'21

  How IBM is solving the data privacy problem

  IBM’s fully homomorphic encryption technology lets enterprises apply analytics and machine learning to encrypted data without compromising data privacy

• July 26, 2021 26 Jul'21

  No More Ransom initiative saves £850m over five years

  Initiative’s free ransomware decryption tools have been used by more than six million people since 2016

• July 25, 2021 25 Jul'21

  Tokyo 2020 hit by data breach

  The user names and passwords of Tokyo 2020 ticket holders and event volunteers were reportedly compromised, but government official claims the data leak was not large

• July 25, 2021 25 Jul'21

  OAIC: Uber failed to protect personal data of Australians

  Uber did not take reasonable steps to protect Australians’ personal information from unauthorised access, says Australia’s national privacy watchdog

• July 21, 2021 21 Jul'21

  France’s Macron among alleged Pegasus targets

  Data relating to devices used by French president Emmanuel Macron and the head of the World Health Organization, among others, has been uncovered in a dataset linked to government use of spyware

• July 20, 2021 20 Jul'21

  NCSC’s Cameron urges deeper cyber alliance-building

  Speaking to an event in Israel, NCSC CEO Lindy Cameron has praised joint UK-Israeli efforts on security collaboration

• July 20, 2021 20 Jul'21

  NHS Digital tightens rules for GPDPR data scrape

  The proposed collection of patient data held by GPs will now only commence when three key criteria have been fulfilled, says NHS Digital

• July 19, 2021 19 Jul'21

  UK, US confirm Chinese state backed MS Exchange Server attacks

  UK and US governments, alongside the EU and Nato, have formally attributed the March 2021 Microsoft Exchange Server attacks to Chinese state-backed actors

• July 19, 2021 19 Jul'21

  Pegasus mobile RAT abused to monitor journalists and activists

  Israel-based surveillance specialist NSO Group is facing renewed pressure after it emerged its Pegasus mobile surveillance tool may be being widely abused by repressive regimes

• July 19, 2021 19 Jul'21

  Privacy Shield: One year on and companies are still grappling for answers

  Activist lawyer Max Schrems and Eduardo Ustaran, partner at Hogan Lovells, look for common ground in a problem with no easy answers

• July 15, 2021 15 Jul'21

  Lawyers take EncroChat hacking operation to French supreme court

  Lawyers head to French supreme court after appeals court finds EnroChat inception legal under French law

• July 15, 2021 15 Jul'21

  Privacy Shield: US surveillance law reforms essential for EU-US data, says EU parliamentary study

  EU Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs study calls for major reforms of US spying laws to enable an EU-US data-sharing agreement to replace Privacy Shield

• July 15, 2021 15 Jul'21

  Singapore to invest S$50m in ‘digital trust’ capabilities

  The Singapore government is pumping in S$50m to bolster research in technologies that will foster digital trust in areas such as privacy protection and identity management

• July 14, 2021 14 Jul'21

  REvil ransomware crew drops offline, reasons murky

  The REvil ransomware operation appears to have gone dark, but claims about its demise are almost certainly exaggerated

• July 13, 2021 13 Jul'21

  Secureworks sets up in EU datacentre for XDR services

  New datacentre location helps Secureworks’ customers meet EU data residency requirements

• July 13, 2021 13 Jul'21

  Dutch prosecutor ordered to give evidence on EncroChat hack

  Netherlands court rules that a public prosecutor should give evidence about the role of the Dutch in the EncroChat cryptophone hack which has led to arrests of organised gangs worldwide

• July 12, 2021 12 Jul'21

  NSW department of education hit by cyber attack

  Australia’s New South Wales department of education takes some systems offline as a precautionary measure in response to a cyber attack last Thursday

• July 09, 2021 09 Jul'21

  Met Police should release information on British WikiLeaks journalists passed to US, tribunal told

  The Metropolitan Police should release correspondence with the US Department of Justice about three UK based WikiLeaks journalists, despite national security claims, a tribunal heard

• July 07, 2021 07 Jul'21

  US government given permission to appeal UK’s decision to not extradite Julian Assange

  US offers assurances that Assange could serve time in his home country of Australia if convicted

• July 07, 2021 07 Jul'21

  ICO to probe Hancock over private email use

  Former health secretary faces an investigation by the UK’s data protection watchdog over his use of private email to conduct government business

• July 07, 2021 07 Jul'21

  How the UK Cyber Security Council plans to professionalise security

  As chair of the new UK Cyber Security Council, Claudia Natanson is in a superb position to develop professional standards in IT security and she intends to fundamentally reimagine what a security job actually is

• July 07, 2021 07 Jul'21

  Opportunists seen targeting Kaseya REvil victims

  Malwarebytes researchers highlight new spam campaign targeting businesses impacted by the ongoing Kaseya REvil ransomware incident

• July 06, 2021 06 Jul'21

  About 60 Kaseya customers hit by REvil

  Kaseya has revised upward the number of managed service providers compromised by the REvil ransomware gang in a supply chain attack at the weekend

• July 06, 2021 06 Jul'21

  Cyber insurance costs up by a third

  The frequency and severity of ransomware attacks is a leading factor behind a substantial increase in the cost of obtaining cyber security insurance

• July 06, 2021 06 Jul'21

  BA reaches settlement in data breach group action

  A group action against BA following its 2018 data breach has been successfully settled

• July 05, 2021 05 Jul'21

  REvil crew wants $70m in Kaseya ransomware heist

  Two days after one of the largest ransomware attacks in history by the REvil/Sodinokibi gang, the security community is assessing its next moves, while over 1,000 victims remain in limbo

• July 03, 2021 03 Jul'21

  Berlin court finds EncroChat intercept evidence cannot be used in criminal trials

  In a major setback for police hacking operations, Berlin’s regional court has decided that intercepted data from the EncroChat phone network should not be used in criminal prosecutions

• July 02, 2021 02 Jul'21

  Cyber attackers up the ante on embattled IT teams

  Opportunistic threat actors are pouncing on embattled IT teams that are under pressure to expand remote work arrangements

• July 01, 2021 01 Jul'21

  Cyber espionage campaign targeted central Asian states

  The Afghan, Kyrgyz and Uzbek governments are all thought to have been targeted by the same APT

• July 01, 2021 01 Jul'21

  NHS IT fraudster Barry Stannard sentenced to five years in prison

  Stannard used his position as head of unified communications at an Essex NHS Trust to cheat the taxpayer of more than £800,000

• July 01, 2021 01 Jul'21

  Nominations open for 2021 Security Serious Unsung Heroes Awards

  Nominations are now open for this year’s edition of the Unsung Heroes Awards for cyber professionals and educators

• June 30, 2021 30 Jun'21

  Half of mobile phones sold in the UK at risk of security issues

  Lengthy mobile phone contracts leave buyers at risk of their devices losing support for security updates

• June 30, 2021 30 Jun'21

  REvil affiliates offer hefty ransom discounts, data reveals

  REvil or Sodinokibi ransomware activity is higher than ever, but its success appears to be relative, with some affiliates prepared to dramatically cut their prices

• June 30, 2021 30 Jun'21

  LinkedIn denies exposure of 700 million user records is a data breach

  Data relating to 700 million users of the LinkedIn networking platform has appeared for sale, but the firm says it is the victim of data scraping, not a security breach

• June 30, 2021 30 Jun'21

  Cops seize criminal VPN used by ransomware gangs

  A coordinated sting has ended the operations of the DoubleVPN service, the owners of which are accused of harbouring cyber criminal activity

• June 29, 2021 29 Jun'21

  EU recognises UK data protection adequacy but warns against divergence

  The European Commission has granted the UK data adequacy, allowing data sharing between the EU and the UK, but warns it may yet be revoked

• June 29, 2021 29 Jun'21

  Video game industry under relentless cyber attacks

  Web application attacks against the global video game industry grew by 340% in 2020 as more people turn to gaming during pandemic lockdowns

• June 28, 2021 28 Jun'21

  UK’s FCA bans crypto exchange Binance as crackdown spreads

  Ban on Binance Markets comes amid a wider global crackdown on the largely unregulated global market for cryptocurrencies and related assets.

• June 28, 2021 28 Jun'21

  HMRC-branded phishing scams surge despite protections

  The number of HMRC-branded phishing scams surged 87% in the past 12 months, according to latest revealed figures

• June 28, 2021 28 Jun'21

  Lazada rolls out public bug bounty programme

  Regional e-commerce giant Lazada is looking to uncover more vulnerabilities that could compromise data security in a public bug bounty programme that offers up to $10,000 per bounty

• June 25, 2021 25 Jun'21

  NCSC CEO: UK-Ireland collaboration crucial to stop cyber threats

  Speaking at a conference in Dublin, NCSC Lindy Cameron is highlighting the importance of continued collaboration between the UK and Ireland to protect shared interests and counter security threats

• June 25, 2021 25 Jun'21

  Anglesey schools offline after cyber attack

  Isle of Anglesey County Council is investigating a cyber attack that has forced it to shut down systems at all five secondary schools on the island

• June 25, 2021 25 Jun'21

  CMA to probe Amazon and Google over fake reviews

  The CMA has opened an investigation into Amazon and Google over possible breaches of consumer protection law

• June 24, 2021 24 Jun'21

  Google hands third-party cookies a stay of execution

  Google’s proposed Privacy Sandbox initiative – which will see third-party cookies phased out in the Chrome web browser – has been pushed back to 2023