IT operations management and IT support

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

UK second in money laundering hall of shame

Banks need to step up their anti-money laundering processes if billions of pounds’ worth of criminal activity is to be prevented Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

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

Microsoft stomps on 48 bugs in February Patch Tuesday update

It’s a light Patch Tuesday for February 2022, as Microsoft issues fixes for just 48 CVEs, including a solitary zero-day Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

How Dutch hackers are working to make the internet safe

We hear how the personal mission of a Dutch hacker grew into a serious organisation with international ambitions Continue Reading

By

• Kim Loohuis

DPD delivers swift fix for serious API flaw

API vulnerability potentially left PII on DPD Group’s customers dangerously exposed, but was rapidly fixed on disclosure Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Microsoft to start blocking macros to thwart malware

Microsoft is making changes to web macro permissions across multiple Office apps to help improve user security Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Parasol data breach: Contractors rage as fallout from umbrella cyber attack continues

Contractors working for the Parasol umbrella company are querying why it has taken so long for news of the firm's data breach, which is linked to a cyber attack on its systems five weeks ago, to come to light Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

The Security Interviews: Building the UK’s future cyber ecosystem

As the government lays out the next iteration of its Cyber Security Strategy, we speak to Plexal and Lorca’s Saj Huq about his work building a cyber ecosystem to support the UK’s future ambitions Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Right to disconnect and less monitoring key to better remote work

The World Health Organisation and International Labour Organisation warn against invasive workplace surveillance and promote right to disconnect in joint briefing on how to promote healthy and safe remote working Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Airport services firm thwarts attempted ransomware heist

Aviation services provider Swissport says its systems are mostly back up and running after a ransomware attack Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Met police deploy facial recognition in Westminster

Police facial recognition deployment resulted in four arrests, but questions remain about the necessity, proportionality and legality of the technology’s use Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Cyber attacks on European oil facilities spreading

Following a cyber attack on distribution facilities in Germany, more incidents have been reported in Belgium and the Netherlands, but it is too early to necessarily draw a link between them Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Female tech founder programme hits Helsinki

From Denmark to Finland: Helsinki’s women in tech are introduced to Tech Nordic Advocates’ International Mentoring Programme Continue Reading

By

• Matthew Staff

Cack-handed government compensation scheme prolongs suffering of Horizon scandal victims

Victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal are being denied the millions of pounds they are owed as the government delays compensation resolution Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Security Think Tank: How to build a human firewall

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

• Merry Song, Turnkey Consulting

Zero-trust to soar in 2022, but dogged by implementation challenges

IT leaders are keen to invest in zero-trust, but face issues around a lack of expertise, and selling the concept into the C-suite Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Nationwide Building Society streamlines digital onboarding through API

Building society is improving its digital onboarding process through application programming interface-based technology from a US startup Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

What neurodivergent people really think of working in cyber security

Many firms are filling cyber security skills gaps by hiring neurodivergent talent – but more support is needed for neurodivergent cyber security professionals, writes autistic tech journalist Nicholas Fearn Continue Reading

By

• Nicholas Fearn

Check Point buys Spectral to safeguard cloud development

Check Point’s latest acquisition of Israel-based startup Spectral expands its developer-centric security toolset Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

German fuel supplier taken offline in cyber attack

Cyber attack against Germany’s Oiltanking, a major fuel logistics company, affects 13 distribution terminals across Germany, in an incident with echoes of last year’s hit on Colonial Pipeline Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Dutch software engineers join campaign for research funding

Software researchers from all over Europe are sounding the alarm: to maintain a strong international competitive position, more financial resources must be committed to software research Continue Reading

By

• Kim Loohuis

Over one-fifth of ransomware attacks target financial sector

Newly published data reveals a significant uptick in cyber attacks against the financial services sector during the third quarter of 2021 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Understand your cyber training ‘need’ before committing to a programme

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

• Paddy Francis

CISOs must get out in front of Ukraine cyber crisis, says NCSC

The National Cyber Security Centre is urging UK organisations to take steps to bolster their cyber security resilience in response to the ongoing Ukraine crisis Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Novel phishing campaign highlights need for MFA, says Microsoft

Microsoft details a new multi-stage phishing campaign that only affects victims without multifactor authentication in place Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Nightmare Log4Shell scenario averted by prompt, professional action

Prompt and professional community response to the Log4Shell disclosure means the dangerous and widespread vulnerability has not been exploited to the extent many had feared Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Security Think Tank: Focus on ‘nudging’ to build effective cyber training

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

• Tom Everard

More intel emerges on WhisperGate malware that hit Ukraine

Security experts have been poring over the WhisperGate malware with which alleged Russia-backed entities targeted Ukrainian government websites Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

PwnKit bug endangers Linux distributions worldwide

Qualys researchers share intel on a memory corruption vulnerability in a program installed by default on every major Linux distribution Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

UK government launches internal cyber strategy

Multi-pronged government security strategy is designed to protect both core systems and public services Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cyber pros: Don’t revel in REvil’s downfall just yet

The arrests of REvil’s alleged kingpins is a welcome step, but as with any disruption to cyber criminal activity, it is never wise to assume law enforcement action means the threat has passed entirely Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Ransomware attacks dropped 37% in December, claims NCC

Latest monthly data reveals a significant decline in ransomware attacks at the end of 2021, but a new, emergent gang is making waves Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

CW APAC: CIO trends

IT leaders would be wise to embrace the technology expected to become prevalent in 2022. In this handbook, focused on CIO trends in the Asia-Pacific region, Computer Weekly looks at the top IT predictions for the year ahead, how India is preparing for a hybrid future, the benefits of digitising manual processes and Krungsri Bank’s reasons for adopting open APIs Continue Reading

Government ‘has nothing against’ paying 555 subpostmasters fair compensation

Government officials are open to finding a way to properly compensate victims of the Horizon scandal without setting a dangerous legal precedent Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Updated cyber security regulations proposed for managed services sector

The Network and Information Systems regulations are to be updated to include MSPs and outsourcers, following a spate of supply chain attacks Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

MoonBounce firmware bootkit shows advances in malicious implants

MoonBounce firmware bootkit shows evident technical improvements over others, making it a more dangerous threat to organisations. It is being used by Chinese state-backed actors Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Advantages of traditional banks are weakening amid digital challenge, says FCA

Weakening of the advantages enjoyed by traditional banks over the years is “driven by digital innovation and changing consumer behaviour”, says regulator Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Security Think Tank: Cyber training is useless without staff empowerment

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

• Tim Holman, 2-sec

Twelve million jobs to be lost to automation in Europe by 2040

Millions of current jobs in Europe will be carried out by robots as software robots automate processes Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

IT teams blind to Kubernetes observability

The complex nature of modern cloud environments makes it exceedingly difficult for IT admins to monitor IT infrastructure and systems effectively Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Trellix XDR platform forged out of McAfee, FireEye union

The private equity owners of McAfee Enterprise and FireEye are merging the companies into a new entity to ‘define the future’ of cyber security through XDR technology Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Nordic fintech to use Google-inspired core banking from Thought Machine

Nordic fintech Lunar is modernising its banking platform as it sets out to expand free of the limitations of its current systems Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Government widens subpostmaster miscarriage of justice compensation

Government changes its position in billion-pound Horizon scandal compensation Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Sluggish adoption of Windows 11 with more devices on unsupported OSes

With Windows 11, existing Windows 10 users have until October 2025 to update. Until they do, they will only get one OS update a year Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Parasol systems outage leaves umbrella contractors facing late payments

Multi-day outage leaves umbrella company contractors working for payroll processing firm Parasol facing late salary payments, with the firm remaining tight-lipped over the cause of its technical difficulties Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Post Office received £1bn taxpayer subsidy last year as part of IT scandal compensation

The Post Office has received over £1bn in taxpayer subsidies for its Horizon scandal compensation scheme Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Nordic companies targeted in wave of cyber attacks

After a slew of cyber attacks hit major companies in the Nordics at the end of last year, we look at how they were affected and how they have recovered Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Ikano Bank’s team of robots exceeds 2021 targets

How the Swedish bank’s robotic automation project reached its time-saving target with time to spare, automating 168 processes, creating an in-house RPA team and embedding automation in every department’s thinking Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

NCSC sounds alarm over Russia-backed hacks

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre joins US calls to be wary of Russian state interference in critical national infrastructure IT systems Continue Reading

UK government bodies challenged on secure identity

Public sector bodies in the UK recognise secure identity and access management as critical to the roll-out of digital services, but face challenges in addressing this Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

IT teams give remote tech the thumbs up, but worry about extra work

With people continuing to work from home, remote access technologies have become key tools in supporting a hybrid workforce Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Outsourced IT and business services hit record levels in 2021

Spending on IT and business process outsourcing services in Europe hits highest ever level in 2021, with cloud service spending continuing to grow rapidly Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Microsoft fixes six zero-days in January Patch Tuesday update

A larger than of late Patch Tuesday update from Microsoft comes as defenders continue to grapple with Log4Shell Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Dutch cyber volunteers receive major funding boost

The Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure has received a $100,000 donation to expand the scope of its work Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Dispelling the top five myths of modern infrastructure

Modern infrastructure is agile, flexible and scalable. It is at the forefront of every CIO’s digital strategy – and it's everywhere. But with the multitude of choices comes complexity Continue Reading

By

• Paul Delory, Gartner

Almost half of Log4j downloads still dangerously exposed

Whether by error or design is unclear, but a great many IT teams are still exposing themselves by downloading outdated, insecure versions of Apache Log4j Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Post Office can’t access records of all money paid to it by victims of the Horizon scandal

A parliamentary select committee was told that the Post Office is unable to access information to accurately calculate compensation for some Horizon scandal victims Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Inside Kyndryl’s Southeast Asia playbook

Kyndryl will focus on building local partnerships and tapping opportunities in managed cloud services, among other areas, to stake a claim on the region’s managed services space Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Public sector IT and communications spend down 4% last year

Public sector spending on IT and communications was down in 2021, but some departments bucked the trend with major investments Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Ministry of Justice caught up in multiple cyber incidents

Besides multiple disclosed data breaches, department was also affected by two ransomware attacks Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

MPs call for fair compensation for excluded victims of Post Office scandal

Almost 100 MPs have backed a call for the government to reverse its decision to exclude 555 subpostmasters from fair compensation for their suffering and losses as a result of the Post Office Horizon scandal Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Avoid complexity in data storage decisions

With more options for on- and off-premise data storage, the need for simplicity is greater than ever Continue Reading

By

• Junade Ali

Google buys Siemplify in first phase of cyber investment

Once integrated into Google Cloud, Siemplify’s platform will serve as the basis for deeper security development at Google Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Fintech players get cosy in Luxembourg

Luxembourg aims to play a larger role in the rapidly growing global fintech market Continue Reading

By

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

Melbourne’s InnerVision ups ante in smart parking

InnerVision Engineering’s smart parking solution uses machine vision and other technologies to deliver a frictionless parking experience for drivers in Australia Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Top 10 Nordic IT stories of 2021

Computer Weekly selects some of the biggest Nordic tech stories of 2021 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Top 10 Benelux stories of 2021

Computer Weekly looks at the top IT stories from the Benelux region in the past year Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Renault, Dassault Systèmes strengthen partnership to accelerate car manufacturing

Leading car manufacturer is adopting 3DEXPERIENCE on the cloud globally to power the next phase of its mobility journey and develop programmes for new vehicles and mobility services Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

Top 10 Middle East IT stories of 2021

The Middle East is about more than oil these days, with advanced technology industries developing across the region. Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 Middle East IT stories of 2021 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Is the IT sector beset by fear-mongering?

The arms race between hackers and security teams has led to a plethora of new technologies, but it can be hard to differentiate between sensible cyber purchases and those that are promoted by exaggerating risk Continue Reading

By

• Peter Ray Allison

A trial relying on computer evidence should start with a trial of the computer evidence

Learning from the Post Office Horizon scandal - the most widespread miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Castell

Top 10 financial services and fintech stories of 2021

Computer Weekly selects 10 key stories from the financial services IT sector over the past year Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Large organisations turning to digital currencies for stored value

Gartner predicts a major acceleration in the use of digital currencies over the next couple of years Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

UK tech startups raise almost £30bn in record year

The UK tech sector has achieved record growth in the past 12 months after the Covid pandemic paused investment Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Finnish government launches digital economy transformation projects

The Finnish government launches two transformation projects as part of the country’s mission to pioneer a digital economy Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Top 10 artificial intelligence stories of 2021

This year, artificial intelligence has moved to operationalisation, explainability and regulatory frameworks. Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 artificial intelligence stories for 2021 Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Security Think Tank: Reframing CISO-boardroom relations

Security learning is a career-long process, so as 2021 draws to a close, participants in the Computer Weekly Security Think Tank sum up the most important cyber lessons they’ve taken away from the past 12 months Continue Reading

By

• Emma Bickerstaffe, Information Security Forum (ISF)

Tokopedia ups ante on observability capabilities

Indonesian e-commerce giant Tokopedia has consolidated its observability capabilities on a single cloud-based platform, enabling it to improve customer service and identify infrastructure issues Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Security Think Tank: When will they ever learn?

Security learning is a career-long process, so as 2021 draws to a close, participants in the Computer Weekly Security Think Tank sum up the most important cyber lessons they’ve taken away from the past 12 months Continue Reading

By

• Mark Raeburn, Accenture Security

HSBC fined £64m for automated transaction monitoring failures

Bank hit by multimillion-pound fine for failures related to its transaction monitoring, which failed to spot potential money-laundering activity Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Enabling secure remote working is once again a top priority

The pandemic has bought many new security risks, particularly around remote working. As the UK government once again urges people to work from home under its Plan B restrictions, these risks must be tackled as a priority Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Nationwide Building Society moves website to Azure cloud

Building society’s tech teams work with consultancy Contino to implement new website using the chaos engineering method Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Pressure on government to pay fair compensation to subpostmasters left out of current schemes

MPs demand that the subpostmasters who defeated the Post Office in court should be properly compensated for their losses and suffering Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

After Log4j, December Patch Tuesday piles on the pressure

December’s Patch Tuesday update from Microsoft contains several critical CVEs, but this month all attention is focused on the fall-out from Log4Shell, and burn-out is becoming a real issue Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Security Think Tank: Get to know your personal threat landscape

Security learning is a career-long process, so as 2021 draws to a close, participants in the Computer Weekly Security Think Tank sum up the most important cyber lessons they’ve taken away from the past 12 months Continue Reading

By

• Andrew Morris, Turnkey Consulting

Which? tells banks to stop rushing branch closures

Consumer rights protector says banks should pause branch closures until they can ensure people have access to cash and services Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Almost half of networks probed for Log4Shell weaknesses

Close to half of corporate networks have already been actively targeted by individuals seeking to exploit the critical Log4Shell Apache bug Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Security Think Tank: We are failing to get the cyber message across to users

Security learning is a career-long process, so as 2021 draws to a close, participants in the Computer Weekly Security Think Tank sum up the most important cyber lessons they’ve taken away from the past 12 months Continue Reading

By

• Chris Cooper

Government must go further after agreeing to pay compensation for wrongly convicted subpostmasters

The government has agreed to pay compensation to former subpostmasters wrongly convicted in the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, but continues to refuse to pay a significant group of victims Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

The rules for a safer internet

In this week’s Computer Weekly, as the government publishes the Online Safety Bill, we look at what the laws mean for internet services. A ransomware victim shares the insider story of the trauma of losing their corporate IT systems. And we ask, what happens when quantum computers get too powerful to verify their output? Read the issue now. Continue Reading

What is Log4Shell, and why are we panicking about it?

It’s been described as a ‘design failure of catastrophic proportions’ that threatens the very fabric of the digital world. Find out what the Log4j2 Log4Shell panic is all about, and what you should do about it Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Security Think Tank: There’s much more to do to secure hybrid workers

Security learning is a career-long process, so as 2021 draws to a close, participants in the Computer Weekly Security Think Tank sum up the most important cyber lessons they’ve taken away from the past 12 months Continue Reading

By

• Jack Chapman

SMEs dominate list of 200 fastest growing tech companies

List of 200 fastest growing companies in the public sector is made up primarily of small and medium-sized enterprises, which collectively earned £936m from government contracts in the past fiscal year Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

C-suite’s biggest ransomware fear: Post-attack regulatory sanctions

Exposure to regulatory sanctions such as fines are the biggest worry for C-suite executives in the wake of a ransomware attack Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

What are the challenges associated with the MITRE ATT&CK framework?

Businesses sometimes struggle to use the MITRE ATT&CK framework effectively. Learn more about some of the challenges, and how to overcome them Continue Reading

By

• Shannon Flynn, ReHack Magazine

2021 another record-breaker for vulnerability disclosure

More than 50 CVEs were logged every day in 2021, more than at any time since records began, while ethical hackers continue to prove their value Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Most consumers expect banks to cover losses to scams

Consumers expect banks to cover losses to cyber crime, as the number of attacks grows Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

CIO interview: Nicola Wadham, Financial Ombudsman Service

CIO Nicola Wadham brings Computer Weekly up to speed on the Financial Ombudsman Service’s IT challenges and successes Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Zopa to focus on banking after closing peer-to-peer lending

Peer-to-peer lending pioneer Zopa to focus on its banking operation after the closure of its original business Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA