IT operations management and IT support

Campaigners lament lack of movement on Computer Misuse Act reform

Westminster has opened a new consultation on proposed reforms to the Computer Misuse Act of 1990, but campaigners who want the law changed to protect cyber professionals have been left disappointed Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Benelux CIO interview: Marijn Grevink, leader of digital transformation, Mars

In an interview with Computer Weekly, the digital head at Mars, Marijn Grevink, takes the wrapper off digital transformation at the company in the Netherlands Continue Reading

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

TSB pilots pods as branch replacements

TSB joins Barclays in adopting banking pods to ensure customers have access to physical banking services as the number of high street branches declines Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

The Security Interviews: How to overcome data protection compliance challenges

Complying with the vast swathe of data protection legislation around the world is complex, especially for smaller organisations without the necessary expertise. Could the compliance process be simplified, and if so, how? Continue Reading

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• Peter Ray Allison

Security Think Tank: In 2023, we need a new way to cultivate better habits

Regular, small adjustments to behaviour offer a better way to keep employees on track and cultivate a corporate culture of cyber awareness, writes Elastic’s Mandy Andress Continue Reading

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• Mandy Andress, Elastic

Security Think Tank: Getting the training and development mix right

Rob Dartnall, CEO at SecAlliance and chair of Crest’s UK Council, describes the need for formal, varied and continuous development in the cyber security sector Continue Reading

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• Rob Dartnall, SecAlliance

North Korea’s Lazarus gang exposes itself in opsec failure

WithSecure researchers linked a campaign of cyber attacks targeting medical research and energy firms to North Korea’s infamous Lazarus APT after a group member accidentally screwed up Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Suspected LockBit ransomware attack causes havoc in City of London

A suspected LockBit ransomware attack on trading software firm Ion has caused chaos for City of London traders Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cisco fixes two bugs that could have led to supply chain attacks on users

Two vulnerabilities uncovered in Cisco hardware could have opened the door to serious supply chain cyber attacks, according to the Trellix researchers who found them Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Malware variant can block contactless payments

Kaspersky warns that the latest variant of the Prilex malware can block contactless payments to force people to insert cards, enabling criminals to steal money Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

UK Cyber Council and ISACA launch audit, assurance programme

The UK Cyber Security Council has teamed up with ISACA to partner on a new audit and assurance programme for security pros Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cyber training firm launches £20k data protection scholarship

Training specialist Freevacy has launched a £20,000 scholarship fund to train data privacy and protection professionals Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Russian DDoS hacktivists seen targeting western hospitals

A swathe of attacks by the Putin-supporting DDoS operation known as Killnet has targeted hospitals and other infrastructure in several Nato countries, with the UK thought to be at risk Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

GitHub warns Desktop, Atom users after code-signing certificates pinched

Threat actors stole encrypted code-signing certificates for GitHub’s Desktop and Atom applications in December 2022, prompting warnings for users Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Three outsourcing trends to look out for in 2023

ISG's Andreas Fahr outlines three IT sourcing trends to look out for in the coming year. Continue Reading

By

• Andreas Fahr

Digital banking changing the high street forever as banks close branches and open alternatives

Banks are reshaping their channels as customers move to digital services, with physical innovation complementing digital strategies Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Royal Mail recovers more International Tracked services

Royal Mail is making further progress in recovering IT systems hit by a ransomware attack, and has re-enabled another tranche of international export services Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

chief operating officer (COO)

A chief operating officer (COO) is the corporate executive who oversees ongoing business operations within the company. Continue Reading

By

• Nick Barney, Technology Writer
• Nicole Laskowski, Senior News Director

Former Fujitsu staff under police investigation to face Post Office IT scandal inquiry

Two former Fujitsu IT professionals being investigated for potential perjury will face Post Office Horizon public inquiry in May Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Noventiq eyes APAC IT services market

IT services provider Noventiq has been expanding its presence in APAC through several acquisitions in India, and is eyeing a bigger slice of the region’s IT services pie Continue Reading

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• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

UK local authorities reveal connectivity priorities, challenges

Study examining topics ranging from gigabit-capable broadband to 5G, smart places, telecoms and net-zero finds progress being made in UK local government, but challenges remain in the drive to improve digital connectivity Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

Hive ransomware gang taken down after FBI hacks back

The FBI hacked into Hive’s servers, stole its decryption keys and then took down its servers in a major action that has successfully disrupted a prolific and dangerous ransomware operation Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Leeds Building Society uses AIops in Dynatrace to improve observability

Automation and AI is improving how the service delivery team assesses the business impact of an IT service degradation Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Arnold Clark cyber attack claimed by Play ransomware gang

A cyber attack that struck car dealer Arnold Clark prior to Christmas has been claimed as the work of the Play ransomware cartel Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Boards struggle to resolve cyber risk in digital supply chains

Accelerated digitisation of supply chains is introducing more cyber risk for which many organisations seem unprepared, according to the BSI’s annual report on supply chain risk Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Green storage: Savings to be made but tricky to achieve

Storage upgrades can bring energy savings. New hardware, the cloud and as-a-service procurement models all cut costs, but can need careful tweaking to get right Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

IT’s shift to the cloud: Veeam’s data protection report in detail

With half of servers in the cloud, most backup and nearly all disaster recovery cloud-centric, the shift to the cloud is significant – but container backup is one area that is yet to settle down Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Nationwide Building Society CIO to join Co-operative Bank

Gary Delooze to join Co-operative Bank as CIO after six years heading up Nationwide Building Society’s IT department Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

SSRF attacks hit 100,000 businesses globally since November

There has been a dramatic increase in attacks exploiting the ProxyNotShell/OWASSRF exploit chains to target Microsoft Exchange servers Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

SMEs keen on embedded finance, but more choice needed to increase take-up

Suppliers to small and medium-sized enterprises need to offer more choice when embedding financial products in their services if take-up is to increase Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Trellix automates patching for 62,000 vulnerable open source projects

Since revealing startling statistics about the prevalence of a 15-year-old Python vulnerability, Trellix says it has helped fix almost 62,000 vulnerable projects in the past four months Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

NCSC warning over cyber risk to charity sector

Cash-strapped charities without the resource to tackle their resilience deficit are increasingly at risk from malicious actors, says the NCSC Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

More than 1,000 tech roles chopped at Capital One

US bank makes tech job cuts as its digital transformation moves into a new phase Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

CW APAC January 2023 – Trend Watch: CIO Trends

As we enter a new year, it remains vital for IT leaders to keep track of the latest developments across the industry. In this handbook, focused on CIO trends in the Asia-Pacific region, Computer Weekly looks at predictions for 2023, how the Australian Red Cross managed a donation surge, Mondelez’s digital transformation and Singapore’s public sector IT strategy Continue Reading

UK seeks to ban sharing ‘positive’ Channel crossing videos online

Under UK government amendments to the Online Safety Bill, video footage that shows people crossing the Channel in a ‘positive light’ could be added to a list of illegal content that all tech platforms must proactively prevent from reaching users, while senior managers could face further criminal sanctions Continue Reading

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• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Outdated IT infrastructure poses growing risk to UK Security Vetting

Delays to UKSV’s important work in safeguarding the country’s national security are in part down to a legacy IT estate in dire need of modernisation, says the NAO Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Ukraine cyber teams responded to more than 2,000 attacks in 2022

The Ukrainian authorities responded to more than 2,000 major cyber incidents during 2022, and are blocking thousands more potential attacks every day Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Advisory board goal for Post Office scandal victims to be returned to rightful financial position

The board set up to monitor the compensation scheme for Post Office scandal victims agrees goal of returning them to the financial position they would be in had the scandal never happened Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Benelux CIO interview: Richard Ventre, SHV Holdings

In his role at Netherlands-based SHV Holdings, Richard Ventre is tackling the challenge of enabling a diverse set of digital transformations across a range of industries Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Crest throws support behind CyberUp CMA reform campaign

Cyber accreditation association Crest International has lent its support to the CyberUp campaign for reform to the Computer Misuse Act of 1990 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Royal Mail promises ‘workarounds’ to restore services after ransomware attack

Royal Mail CEO Simon Thompson apologises to customers whose businesses are being disrupted by a ransomware attack and promises a ‘workaround’ will be in place in the near future Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

LockBit cartel suspected of Royal Mail cyber attack

The still-developing cyber incident at Royal Mail may be the work of the infamous LockBit ransomware operation Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

BBC assures UK Parliament that digital transformation plans are on track

UK Parliamentary accounts watchdog probes British Broadcasting Corporation senior management regarding plans to reconstruct organisation to be fit for purpose in modern media industry and satisfy multiplatform needs of licence fee payers Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

Europe’s cyber security strategy must be clear about open source

Europe’s cyber security policy on open source is lagging behind the US, and despite growing government awareness of the issues, that poses a problem Continue Reading

By

• Ilkka Turunen

Guardian confirms Christmas 2022 cyber attack was ransomware

Guardian Media Group bosses confirm the 20 December cyber attack that left staff locked out of its London office and disrupted several key systems was an untargeted ransomware attack Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

How Indian banks can drive automation in corporate banking

Banks should prioritise their processes for automation based on the level of human intervention, understand their processes thoroughly and put employees at the centre of their automation efforts Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Royal Mail services hit by major cyber attack

UK postal service Royal Mail is asking customers not to send any overseas letters or parcels while it deals with the impact of an ongoing cyber attack Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Should we be worried about malicious use of AI language models?

WithSecure research into GPT-3 language models, used by the likes of ChatGPT, surfaces concerning findings about how easy it is to use large language models for malicious purposes. Should security teams be concerned? Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Microsoft fixes EoP zero-day on January Patch Tuesday

On the first Patch Tuesday of 2023, Microsoft fixed an elevation of privilege vulnerability in Windows Advanced Local Procedure Call, which has been actively exploited in the wild and may be co-opted into ransomware campaigns Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Latest Innovate Finance report reveals decrease in UK fintech investment, but like-for-like increase

Innovate Finance’s latest figures on fintech investment show reduction in UK, but report methodology leaves this open to change Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Tech firms failing to address forced labour in supply chains

Subpar due diligence processes in the tech sector – including poor purchasing practices, sparsely implemented collective bargaining coverage, and a lack of redress for workers – is leaving supply chain workers open to abuse, says KnowTheChain Continue Reading

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• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Vulnerable organisations to get free Cyber Essentials support

Charities and legal aid firms are among those to be offered free security checks and certifications from the National Cyber Security Centre Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Vice Society cyber gang targeted multiple UK schools

The Vice Society ransomware gang has made a habit of attacking educational institutions, and now appears to have struck multiple schools, colleges and universities in the UK Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cyber gang abused free trials to exploit public cloud CPU resources

A South Africa-based cyber crime gang exploited free trials and introductory offers to run cryptominers via public cloud services, then did a runner without paying Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Warning over ransomware attacks spreading via Fortinet kit

Following the disclosure of a critical vulnerability in October 2022, Fortinet VPN devices were exploited in two known ransomware attacks, with access likely sold on the dark web Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Fallout from Guardian cyber attack to last at least a month

The Guardian newspaper’s offices remained shut into the New Year following a supposed ransomware attack, with disruption likely to last some time Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Traditional banking under threat from platform-based alternatives

Banking as a service embedded in non-banking business offerings will take large chunks from traditional banks Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

High tech meets agriculture in Denmark

Thanks to a few strategic investments, Denmark may one day become a major exporter of farming technology Continue Reading

By

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

Cyber security professionals share their biggest lessons of 2022

In the run-up to 2023, cyber security professionals are taking the time to reflect on the past few months and share their biggest lessons of 2022 Continue Reading

By

• Nicholas Fearn

Top 10 Nordic IT stories of 2022

Here are Computer Weekly's top 10 Nordic IT articles of 2022 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

How does red teaming test the ultimate limits of cyber security?

An expert ethical hacker reveals how he goes about carrying out a red team exercise Continue Reading

By

• Rob Shapland

Why the current fraud model is broken, and how to fix it

Scammers and fraudsters are catching up with the good guys; a new technological approach is needed to fight skyrocketing volumes of digital fraud, says Darwinium founder Alisdair Faulkner Continue Reading

By

• Alisdair Faulkner

Top 10 Middle East IT stories of 2022

Here are Computer Weekly's top 10 Middle East IT articles of 2022 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Top 10 Benelux IT stories of 2022

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 Benelux articles of 2022 Continue Reading

Top 10 financial services IT stories of 2022

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 financial services IT articles of 2022, looking back at the moves and changes over the past year Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Top 10 cyber security stories of 2022

The war in Ukraine loomed large over the cyber security news agenda, but 2022 also saw growing awareness of open source security, discussion around cyber insurance, and more besides Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

A sticky story: How, and why, hackers love stickers on laptops

We’ve all seen laptops adorned with security stickers and in-jokes, but how did this cyber community trend get started, what does it signify, and what does it say about the humans behind the screens? Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Four-day working week set to stay at Atom bank

Challenger bank Atom has formalised a four-day working week policy after a successful trial Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

TSB hit with huge fine after IT migration disaster

TSB has been fined nearly £50m due to failings during its IT migration catastrophe Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Dealing with the growing problem of edge and IoT sprawl

Amidst all the hype regarding the massive growth potential for IoT and for edge computing in general, there is an elephant in the room, and that’s edge sprawl. It’s as if the edge evangelists are ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

Security Think Tank: 2022 brought plenty of learning opportunities in cyber

At the end of another busy 12 months, Turnkey Consulting’s Andrew Morris sums up some of the most important takeaways for cyber pros Continue Reading

By

• Andrew Morris, Turnkey Consulting

UK unis implement new IP traffic policies to combat ransomware

Jisc will introduce new measures to protect UK universities and research institutions from ransomware attacks that exploit the Remote Desktop Protocol remote-access feature Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

How to build your tech budget for 2023

This is a guest post by Chrystal Taylor, head geek at SolarWinds As the year comes to a close, discussions about next year’s financials and budgets  are rising among business leadership. But with ... Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Digital Ethics Summit: Who benefits from new technology?

Experts at the 2022 Digital Ethics Summit say expedited development cycles and obviously over-hyped PR material, in tandem with the public’s near-total exclusion from conversations around technology, is creating distrust towards the tech sector Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Criminal Cases Review Commission calls on more convicted subpostmasters to come forward

The Criminal Cases Review Commission wants more former subpostmasters to come forward if they think they were prosecuted by the Post Office based on data from the error-prone Horizon computer system Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Ethical hackers flex their muscles in 2022

Ethical hackers working through HackerOne programmes found 21% more vulnerabilities in 2022 than in 2021 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Microsoft and London Stock Exchange agree £2.3bn 10-year cloud deal

The London Stock Exchange is building on its acquisition of financial data provider Refinitiv through a deal with Microsoft Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Microsoft fixes two zero-days in final Patch Tuesday of 2022

December’s Patch Tuesday is typically a light month for Microsoft, and this year proved no exception, but there are still several critical issues worth addressing, and two zero-days for defenders to pore over Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

NAO: BBC digital transformation plan at risk from lack of resources

Financial watchdog warns broadcaster that it may lack resources to achieve its desired digital ambitions, with particular worry over best practice in acquiring, storing and securing personal data and potential exposure to reputational risks Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

Security Think Tank: How much digital trust can you place on zero-trust?

The events of the past couple of years have highlighted many considerations that should be taken into consideration when pursuing a zero-trust strategy, says ISACA’s Steven Sim Kok Leong Continue Reading

By

• Steven Sim Kok Leong

The nature of the CISO role will be in flux in 2023

As cyber risk outpaces organisational defences, and cyber attacks and breaches cause more and more damage, the nature of the CISO role is entering a state of flux, according to a report Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

More Uber data exposed in possible supply chain attack

A second incident affecting ride-sharing app Uber appears to have originated through a third party in a supply chain attack Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Special educational needs students use virtual reality to help navigate real world

Students on the autistic spectrum are using virtual reality to help them prepare for real-world interaction Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Security Think Tank: Embrace prioritisation, people, imperfections

Security and IT professionals should try to make peace with their imperfections in 2023, says Nominet CISO Paul Lewis Continue Reading

By

• Paul Lewis, Nominet

CIISec, DCMS to fund vocational cyber courses for A-level students

The Chartered Institute of Information Security and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport plan to fund vocational cyber qualifications for 300 teenagers Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Iranian APT seen exploiting GitHub repository as C2 mechanism

A subgroup of the Iran-linked Cobalt Mirage APT group has been caught taking advantage of the GitHub open source project as a means to operate its latest custom malware Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Digital bank to recruit 1,000 tech experts in Manchester

App-based bank Starling is adding 1,000 people to its workforce with technology professionals being recruited for its new operation in Manchester Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

IT system limitations a factor in passport delays

Limitations in the UK’s passport office IT system led to delays in applicants receiving their documents during a recent period of high demand Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Security Think Tank: 2022 changed how we thought about resilience

Increasing cyber resilience is at the heart of the people-processes-technology triangle, and 2022 saw shifts in all three of these aspects, says PA Consulting’s Sharon Shochat Continue Reading

By

• Sharon Shochat

Rackspace email outage confirmed as ransomware attack

An ongoing outage affecting Rackspace email customers is the result of a ransomware attack Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Security Think Tank: As cyber pros, we need to articulate our needs better

There is always a lot to learn about security, but one of the most important lessons may not relate to technology at all, says Petra Wenham Continue Reading

By

• Petra Wenham

Post Office scandal – “cock-up or cook-up”?

The second phase of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal raised more questions over who did what, when and where, with shocking revelations at every turn Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

EU fails to protect human rights in surveillance tech transfers

Transfers of surveillance technology from the European Union to African governments are carried out without due regard for the human rights impacts, the European Ombudsman has found after a year-long investigation into the European Commission’s management of an aid fund Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Don’t become an unwitting tool in Russia’s cyber war

Researchers have turned up evidence that enterprise networks are being co-opted by Russian threat actors to launch attacks against targets in Ukraine. How can you avoid becoming an unwitting tool in a state-backed attack? Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Finland connects a quantum computer to a supercomputer

VTT and CSC recently connected a quantum computer with Europe’s fastest supercomputer to enable a hybrid service for researchers Continue Reading

By

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

How HashiCorp is driving cloud provisioning and management

HashiCorp CEO Dave McJannet talks up how the company is supporting cloud provisioning in a hybrid environment and its investments in Asia-Pacific to capitalise on the region’s growth potential Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

French cyber consultancy Hackuity sets up UK operation

Risk-based vulnerability management company is to establish a UK base of operations in the hope of expanding its enterprise client base Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Twitter ‘replacement’ Hive Social shuts off service in privacy alert

Hive Social, a recently established social media network, has temporarily closed its servers to address deep structural privacy issues identified by ethical hackers Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Ransomware: Is there hope beyond the overhyped?

Up-and-coming cyber concepts attack surface management and security mesh architectures seem to hold some promise in tackling ransomware, but they are a little way off maturity Continue Reading

By

• Paul Lewis, Nominet

Microsoft 365 banned in German schools over privacy concerns

German schools cannot legally use Microsoft Office 365 over lack of clarity about how data is collected, shared and used, as well as the potential for unlawful transfer of European citizens’ personal data to the US Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor