IT for retail and logistics

A prescription for digital accessibility at Boots

In this week’s Computer Weekly, millions of people have difficulties when using websites – we find out how Boots is making its e-commerce offering fully accessible. Our new buyer’s guide examines communications as a service. And we talk to Trainline’s CTO about how the rail app provider survived and thrived post-pandemic. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

net price

The net price is the value at which a product or service is sold after all taxes and other costs are added and all discounts subtracted. Continue Reading

By

• Katie Terrell Hanna

Electric vehicle transition comes with uneven costs

Governments, car makers and tech companies are promoting electric vehicles, but are they considering the uneven social and environmental costs from extracting the critical minerals needed to make batteries? Continue Reading

By

• Patrick Elliot

Ransomware recovery costs dwarf actual ransoms

The cost of recovering from a ransomware attack far outweighs the ransoms now being demanded by cyber criminals, according to recent data Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Sanders calls on Biden to cut off federal contracts with Amazon

In an open letter, senator Bernie Sanders urges the US president to fulfil a campaign promise to stop union-busting companies from winning federal government contracts Continue Reading

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• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Log4Shell, ProxyLogon, ProxyShell among most exploited bugs of 2021

These 15 CVEs were the most commonly exploited last year, and if you haven’t mitigated against them, now is the time Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Ransomware victims paying out when they don’t need to

Sophos’s annual State of Ransomware report shows dramatic increases in the impact of ransomware attacks, but also finds many organisations are paying ransoms when they don’t need to Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Government digital ignorance puts Dutch economy at risk

In this interview, Michiel Steltman, managing director of Digital Infrastructure Netherlands, tells Computer Weekly why the Dutch digital economy is at risk due to a lack of knowledge and understanding at government level Continue Reading

By

• Kim Loohuis

Police question former Fujitsu worker again in Post Office scandal perjury investigation

Police have interviewed a former Fujitsu employee for the third time in the investigation into potential perjury during trials of wrongfully convicted subpostmasters Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

BCS passes defiant Ukrainian tech industry message to its members

BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, has passed on a message from Ukrainian IT suppliers that the country is open for, and in need of, business Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Emotet tests new tricks to thwart enhanced security

The operators of the Emotet botnet seem to be trying to find a way to get around recent changes made by Microsoft to better protect its users Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

How the e-commerce boom is transforming store tech

GUEST BLOG: In this contributed blog post, VP of strategy at Aptos, Nikki Baird, explains the ways in which e-commerce is transforming in-store tech and disrupting point of sale (POS).  Here are ... Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Post Office scandal victims still waiting for compensation a year after convictions overturned

Former subpostmasters at the centre of one of biggest miscarriage of justice in modern history are still waiting for compensation a year after their wrongful convictions were overturned Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Asda adopts Workday as part of digital transformation

As Asda undergoes a digital transformation as part of its separation from Walmart, the supermarket has adopted Workday to manage its 140,000 employees Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Tech to account for over half of regulatory compliance spending

By 2026, regtech will account for more than half of the money that businesses spend on compliance with regulations Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

More Scottish subpostmaster conviction reviews expected as part of Post Office scandal

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission expects more subpostmasters with potential wrongful convictions to come forward Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

How Veeam helped grocery chain Franprix escape its backup hell

French supermarket chain had backup windows that ran well into the next working day and restoring deleted files could take days. It chose Veeam in a contest with Cohesity Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

WatchGuard firewall users urged to patch Cyclops Blink vulnerability

The US authorities have seen fit to add the WatchGuard vulnerability used by Sandworm to build the Cyclops Blink botnet to its list of must-patch vulnerabilities Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Microsoft patches two zero-days, 10 critical bugs

Patch Tuesday is here once again. This month, security teams must fix two privilege escalation zero-days in the Windows Common Log File System Driver and the Windows User Profile Service Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Using technology to reinvent stores

Technology is becoming an important part of the shopping experience at home, in stores and in-between, so how are retailers using technology to advance the store experience? Continue Reading

By

• Glynn Davis

Disney combines digital, data and creativity to win advertising opportunities

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to the executive vice-president for client and brand solutions at Disney Advertising Sales about how it is using data to subserve story-telling excellence. We delve into how rising energy costs negatively impacted the UK arm of Sungard Availability Services. And we look at the role of infrastructure as code in edge datacentres. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

As Inflation Rages On, Retailers Turn to AI and Dynamic Pricing

GUEST BLOG: In this contributed blog post, Matt Pavich, senior director of retail innovation, Revionics, talks about how AI-driven dynamic pricing decisions can assist in a retailer’s ability to ... Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Mastercard opens European tech hub in Dublin

Mastercard is doubling its technology workforce in Dublin through a new European tech hub in the Irish capital Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Amazon workers defeat company to form first US union

Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York, have successfully formed the first union at the company, with organisers pledging to help their colleagues across the US do the same Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

European IT and BPO outsourcing off to strong start

European IT and business process outsourcing services continue to increase rapidly, with cloud-based services now more than half of the total Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Dubai’s fledgling drone programme gets another nudge

 Continue Reading

Discount retailer The Works hit by cyber attack

A small number of The Works’ bricks-and-mortar stores were forced to close amid a cyber attack of an undisclosed nature Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Triple-threat Borat malware no joke for victims

Unlike its namesake, the newly discovered Borat malware won’t raise a smile for IT security pros Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Saudi Arabian ICT sector hits $32.1bn after strong pandemic response

The Saudi Arabian IT and communications sector is recovering strongly from the Covid-19 pandemic Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Police use of AI needs overhaul to prevent abuse

In this week’s Computer Weekly, a House of Lords inquiry calls for a rethink on how police forces use AI technologies – we examine the issues. Our new buyer’s guide looks into edge datacentres. And the EU and US agree a new data protection deal to replace Privacy Shield, but will it stand up to scrutiny? Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Fujitsu bags £430m government contracts despite rising cost of Post Office Horizon scandal

Fujitsu has won two huge government IT contracts, worth over £400m, while taxpayers face footing the massive bill for the Post Office scandal caused by its software Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Environmental campaigners halt Meta datacentre construction in the Netherlands

Datacentre being built to serve ‘metaverse’ worlds would consume nearly half as much energy as all other datacentres in the country Continue Reading

By

• Mark Ballard

Four moves to ‘checkmate’ critical assets thanks to lax cloud security

Malicious actors can compromise 94% of critical assets within four steps of the initial breach point, according to a report Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Compensation goal finally in sight for 555 Post Office scandal victims

The subpostmaster campaign group which exposed the Post Office Horizon scandal could be close to achieving the objective it was established for, with fair compensation for its members in sight Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Why diversity in AI remains a challenge and how to fix it

With artificial intelligence set for a global economic explosion, its development must put diversity at its core to avoid discriminating systems Continue Reading

By

• Shawn Tan

One-third of UK firms suffer a cyber attack every week

New statistics from the annual DCMS Cyber security breaches survey reveal the extent and frequency with which UK organisations are being attacked by malicious actors Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Boots accelerates its digital accessibility journey

Boots is working with website accessibility software provider Recite Me to make its website more user-friendly and improve the customer experience Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

Recruitment risks: Avoiding the dangers of fraudulent candidates

Tech companies are seeing an increase in fraudulent job applications, with associated impacts on risk and cyber security. So how can organisations protect themselves from fraudulent applicants while ensuring they recruit the best talent? Continue Reading

By

• Peter Ray Allison

NCSC: Not necessarily wise to ditch Kaspersky

UK’s National Cyber Security Centre issues refreshed guidance on organisations’ usage of technology and services of Russian origin, but stops short of advising users to expunge all Russian products from their IT estates Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Wave of Log4j-linked attacks targeting VMware Horizon

Sophos issues a new warning to organisations that have so far failed to patch their VMware Horizon servers against Log4Shell Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Most big businesses are taking up banking as a service

API-based banking services allow corporate customers to offer financial services without the need for heavy tech development or regulatory approval Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Industry clouds are all the rage, but are they driven by marketing or customer need?

Industry clouds – cloud applications designed for specific sectors – are fashionable staples of supplier marketing, but are they what corporate IT is demanding? Continue Reading

By

• Marc Ambasna-Jones

CW Innovation Awards: Tracking cargo on the road

Through Geodis APAC’s One Road platform, supply chain companies have received fewer enquiries on cargo locations and improved on-time performance using roads as an alternative way to move cargo Continue Reading

By

• Edwin Yapp

Revised scope of UK security strategy reflects digitised society

The omission of the word ‘security’ from the title of the UK government’s new National Cyber Strategy is a telling one, reflecting our increasingly digitised society, say Maximillian Brook and Arunoshi Singh of the ISF Continue Reading

By

• Maximillian Brook & Arunoshi Singh

555 subpostmasters to get fair compensation after government U-turn

Government finally agrees to pay 555 Post Office scandal victims fair compensation Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

UK Cyber Strategy a welcome injection of progress

The National Cyber Strategy should be seen as a welcome injection of both focus and investment in bettering cyber defence for everyone, says Turnkey Consulting senior consultant Louise Barber Continue Reading

By

• Louise Barber, Turnkey Consulting

Ukrainian cyber defences prove resilient

Thanks to a combination of prior experience and global support, Ukraine’s defences against cyber incidents are holding strong in the face of Russian attacks Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

National Cyber Strategy will enhance UK’s cyber power status

The UK punches above its weight when it comes to wielding cyber power around the world, but challenges to this status are clear. The National Cyber Strategy has a clear role to play in maintaining and enhancing this status, writes Paddy Francis of Airbus Cybersecurity Continue Reading

By

• Paddy Francis

Value of contactless transactions doubles in two years

Almost £166bn was spent in the UK last year using contactless technology, compared with £80.5bn in 2019 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

German authorities warn on Kaspersky but stop short of ban

Germany authorities warn Kaspersky users to consider alternatives to the firm’s flagship antivirus software, citing national security concerns and the war on Ukraine Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

How cyber security teams can conquer the four-day working week

The four-day week may be an idea whose time has come, but for always-on cyber security professionals, the impact of squeezing more work into fewer days is a tricky proposition Continue Reading

By

• Keiron Holyome

Abu Dhabi aims for a paradigm shift in drone delivery

Abu Dhabi’s drone network could become the world’s first drone platform that serves a wide variety of use cases for different industries across an entire city Continue Reading

By

• Pat Brans, Pat Brans Associates/Grenoble Ecole de Management

How can I avoid an exodus of cyber talent linked to stress and burnout?

Cyber security professionals have played a crucial role during the pandemic, yet many feel like their employers aren’t providing adequate mental health support and have considered quitting their jobs as a result. What can employers do to help them? Continue Reading

By

• Nicholas Fearn

‘Technical issues’ leave Post Office branches with ATM cash discrepancies

Discrepancies of up to £2,000 reported after an ‘IT change’ impacted more than 200 Post Office branches Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Five tips to help you deploy a successful AI initiative

Former H&M head of AI, Errol Koolmeister, discusses an approach to delivering successful artificial intelligence projects Continue Reading

By

• Errol Koolmeister

CW Innovation Awards: Weikfield bags analytics rewards

The success of Weikfield Food’s analytics initiative is underpinned by small successive deployments to overcome resistance from users and ensure requirements are met Continue Reading

By

• Eileen Yu

National Cyber Strategy misses the mark in one important way

The National Cyber Strategy is full of fine words, says Petra Wenham, but as the old expression goes, fine words butter no parsnips, and it misses the mark in one very important way Continue Reading

By

• Petra Wenham

Open banking’s next big thing could replace direct debits

Variable recurring payments could fuel the next stage of open banking take-up in the UK Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Tech brands sign on to HackerOne responsible security drive

Tech companies sign HackerOne’s new corporate security responsibility pledge to bring cyber out of the shadows and promote effective, secure development practices Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

China’s APT41 exploited Log4j within hours

APT41 compromised multiple government organisations via the Log4Shell exploit within hours of its initial disclosure, Mandiant claims Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Microsoft serves up three zero-days on March Patch Tuesday

Three zero-days pop up in Microsoft’s March update, along with a number of other noteworthy concerns for defenders Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Subpostmasters won their David and Goliath battle, but initial goal still not reached

Despite exposing the Post Office Horizon scandal, Alan Bates, the former subpostmaster who drove the campaign for the truth, says the goal of repaying people what they lost has not yet been achieved Continue Reading

By

• Alan Bates

Amazon resists independent audit of warehouse working conditions

Two shareholder proposals pushing for an independent audit of working conditions at Amazon are being challenged by the ecommerce giant, which claims it is a matter for management rather than shareholders Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Horizon inquiry hearing sheds light on subpostmaster federation’s role in hushing up IT problems

A National Federation for Subpostmasters official had huge unexplained loss written off by Post Office despite many in the same position being convicted for crimes they didn't commit Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

When to pull the plug on an ecommerce site

Distributed denial of service and other attacks on websites have the potential to leak personally identifiable information Continue Reading

By

• Danny Lopez

Boardroom does not see ransomware as a priority

Less than a quarter of company directors think ransomware is a top priority for their security teams, according to Egress Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Post Office warned of software flaw in 2006, but failed to alert subpostmaster network

The Post Office and Fujitsu failed to alert subpostmasters to a software error that caused them to be wrongly blamed for accounting shortfalls Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Gothenburg University makes breakthrough in energy efficient computers

Swedish and Japanese universities make advancement in the development of computers that can work as energy efficiently as a brain Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Middle East IT spending to recover to at least pre-pandemic levels

Middle East IT leaders expect budgets to increase this year, with spending to match or exceed pre-Covid levels Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Ship from store: A pandemic retail trend that’s here to stay?

Shipping online orders from bricks and mortar stores looks set to be a pandemic trend that will stick around to form part of retail’s new normal Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

Toyota production to resume after supply chain attack

Toyota production has been set back by over 10,000 vehicles following a cyber attack on a critical components supplier in Japan Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Retailers get business-critical IT and data management in order

Decathlon and Toolstation are among the retailers investing in new technology to support business-critical applications and better data management Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

Ukraine cyber attacks seen spiking, but no destructive cyber war yet

While cyber attacks linked to Russia’s war on Ukraine are taking place, they are having little impact beyond the region Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Government set to backtrack on untenable position on subpostmaster compensation

The government looks set to backtrack on its previous stance and outline a means of providing fair compensation to a group of Post Office Horizon scandal victims so far left out of compensation schemes Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

H&M scheme looks to tackle issues affecting D&I in STEM

Retailer H&M launches its first ever STEM programme in the UK in a move to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation – and to tap into future tech talent Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

KnowBe4 cyber drama tackles Colonial Pipeline in fourth season

KnowBe4’s ongoing cyber security training drama, The Inside Man, reaches its fourth season with a plot drawing inspiration from one of the most impactful cyber attacks of 2021 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Russia behind dangerous Cyclops Blink malware

Joint NCSC CISA advisory attributes a dangerous malware, dubbed Cyclops Blink, to Russia’s Sandworm APT, likely a GRU unit, with WatchGuard users at particular risk Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Backups ‘no longer effective’ for stopping ransomware attacks

Traditional methods of mitigating ransomware are less efficacious thanks to the rise in double and triple extortion techniques Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Microsoft extends Defender umbrella to Google Cloud Platform

Redmond says extending Defender for Cloud native capabilities to the Google Cloud Platform will help simplify security for organisations pursuing multicloud strategies by eliminating the gaps where the bad guys can get in Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

No imminent cyber threat to UK from Russia

Intelligence officials say they have no evidence or indication that Russian cyber attackers are preparing offensive assaults on infrastructure or organisations in Britain Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Horizon inquiry questioning raises hopes of fair compensation for victims so far left out

Post Office Horizon scandal victims left out of current compensation schemes have had their hopes raised that the statutory public inquiry is seriously addressing their demands for fair financial redress Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

UK organisations swift to chide phishing victims

While UK organisations are doing better at security training, many are quick to punish employees who fall victim to phishing attacks, whether real or simulated Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Security Think Tank: Good training is all about context

In-house or outsourced? What makes a good security training programme, and what questions should buyers ask when procuring training as a service? Continue Reading

By

• Emma Bickerstaffe, Information Security Forum (ISF)

Storage and 5G: Big impacts likely as wide-area topologies evolve

Enterprise 5G will boost the need for storage generally. It will also push capacity needs closer to the edge and create new locations for processing and storage Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Amazon and Visa resolve UK credit card ban threat

Companies reach ‘broad, global agreement that includes the acceptance of Visa at all Amazon stores and sites’ Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

January 2022 saw low growth in online sales

Slow start to the year with minimal growth for online sales as pandemic drop-off has more people heading back to the highstreet Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

UK organisations untroubled by Trickbot surge

A surge in Trickbot infections is targeting some of the world’s most prominent brands, but UK organisations seem thankfully unaffected Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

The British people are waking up to the scandal that happened under their noses

Victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal have been suffering in silence for many years, but the current public inquiry is giving them a voice, and people are listening Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Nvidia founder and CEO portrays AI-centricity

Earnings call for Nvidia’s fourth-quarter results offers a leading indicator of where the application of artificial intelligence may be heading Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

MPs demand urgent compensation for Post Office scandal victim group

MPs have called for the government to urgently provide fair compensation to a group of victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal who have so far been left out of compensation schemes Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

2021 another record year for UK cyber investment

Total revenue generated by the UK’s cyber sector was up 14% last year, and UK-registered security firms raised over £1bn in investment Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

BlackCat ransomware gang claims responsibility for Swissport attack

Ransomware gang is trying to offload 1.6TB of data stolen from aviation services firm Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Nordic countries lack a unified approach to AI

Nordic countries need to work together on a pan-regional artificial intelligence strategy Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

China emerges as leader in vulnerability exploitation

Threat actors linked to China are emerging as a significant force in the weaponisation of newly discovered CVEs Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

CMA secures final Privacy Sandbox guarantees from Google

The CMA has secured a final set of Privacy Sandbox commitments from Google relating to the proposed removal of third-party cookies from its Chrome browser Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Why security professionals should pay attention to what Russia is doing

Even though the average organisation is an unlikely target for a Russian state cyber attack, here's why security teams still need to watch what Russian threat groups are up to Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Retail’s staff engagement and happiness problem – can tech help?

Keeping staff engaged, motivated, connected and content is no easy task for retailers, but the industry is exploring new tools and techniques to improve the workplace Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

Phishing tests are a useful exercise, but don’t overdo it

The vast majority of cyber attacks start with a phish, so it’s not surprising that phishing tests form part of cyber training plans. But sometimes these tests go too far. Cyberis’ Gemma Moore looks at how to avoid the pitfalls Continue Reading

By

• Gemma Moore

Linux-based clouds an open door for attackers, says VMware

Its prevalence as a cloud operating system means Linux is becoming a meal ticket for malicious actors, but the security industry does not seem to have cottoned on to this yet, says VMware Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Ransomware ever more sophisticated and impactful, warns NCSC

UK’s National Cyber Security Centre teams up with US and Australian partners in a joint advisory warning organisations of the increasing sophistication exhibited by criminal ransomware gangs Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor