IT security

Top lessons learned from cyber attacks

Cyber security experts weigh in on lessons learned from cyber attack experiences, underlining that recovery capability is as important as defence Continue Reading

Nurturing innovation at DWP

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we find out about the Department for Work and Pensions’ Innovation Dojo and how it’s helping to try out new digital ideas. We look at Anthos, Google’s new multicloud platform which the supplier claims will redefine enterprise IT. And we report from the NCSC cyber security conference, where experts discussed the lessons learned from recent high-profile attacks. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

HMRC begins deleting unlawful voice biometric data

HM Revenue and Customs is to forge ahead with Voice ID despite beginning to delete the largest state-held voice biometric database gathered without consent after UK privacy and data protection watchdog issues order Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

AWS to power Australia’s 2021 online census

PwC Australia, one of two firms appointed by the government to run the next Census, will build and operate an online form and a website on Amazon Web Services Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Zero trust: A 21st century security model

Traditional corporate security models date back to a time when there were fewer, lower-level threats, but a zero trust model is better suited to the 21st century, according to the originator of the idea Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Norsk Hydro urges caution as it counts cost of cyber attack

Norwegian aluminium giant Norsk Hydro is urging partners to be cautious in the wake of a damaging ransomware attack in March as financial impact estimates come in above initial estimates Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Police down two dark web markets

Europol-supported coordinated law enforcement approach across Europe and the US was key to operations’ success Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Singapore rolls out blockchain platform for verifying educational certificates

Employers in the city-state can now use the OpenCerts platform to verify the qualifications of employees and new hires Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Firms urged to embrace positive security trends to win cyber war

Modern cyber security challenges overshadow the information security successes of the past, but several positive trends are emerging as defenders come to grips with new threats, says Deloitte Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Huawei furore leads inevitably to a global polarisation of the tech sector

The sacking of defence minister Gavin Williamson is another indication of how technology is influencing politics, and vice versa. While his crime was to leak details from a national security ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Microservices introduce hidden security complexity, analyst warns

Microservice architecture – an approach to application development in which applications are built as a suite of modular services – simplifies development but complicates security, says KuppingerCole Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Businesses unprepared for cyber breaches

Study shows many organisations lack IT security and operations basics, including visibility across their IT operations Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Why IT departments miss basic IT security hygiene

IT departments are failing to patch security holes in software because of a disconnect between security and operations teams, survey finds Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Defence secretary sacked over Huawei leak

Defence secretary Gavin Williamson has been sacked after leaking confidential discussions over the use of Huawei networking equipment Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

BSA releases framework for secure software

Software industry advocacy group releases framework to facilitate flexible and comprehensive software security assessments Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Get more proactive on cyber security, says ex Europol chief

Business needs to get more proactive, collaborative, resilient and analytical to manage cyber risks posed by cyber criminals down to acceptable levels, says former Europol chief Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Protecting your digital assets: Why it pays to invest in cyber insurance

Cyber insurance offers financial protection against the worst happening to a company’s data and digital assets, and is something few businesses can afford to be without Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Burns

UK gears up for new laws on IoT security

The UK plans to introduce measures to require that basic cyber security features are built into internet-connected devices Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Cyber criminals increase use of fileless attacks

Fileless attacks are increasingly popular with cyber criminals, while Russia and China top the league of nation state data exfiltrators, threat data shows Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Inside Huawei

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we visit the new campus of Chinese networking supplier Huawei to find out what the firm thinks of the controversy raging about the security of its products. Our latest buyer’s guide examines the technologies and best practices in storage optimisation. And we look at the latest opportunities for making the most of technology in schools. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Most businesses vulnerable to supply chain cyber attacks

UK firms trail the leaders US and Germany in knowing the most about their partners’ cyber security practices, but most companies globally are in the dark about this growing source of vulnerabilities Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 13

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, the team are joined by security editor Warwick Ashford to talk about his time at the CyberUK conferences, as well as connected cars, education in the UK, and Brian McKenna’s trip to China Continue Reading

By

• Computer Weekly Staff

Nearly half of UK IT pros report serious data breaches

Integration of security systems and employee training recognised as key ways to reduce the growing severity of data breaches Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Privacy and data protection an opportunity, says entrepreneur

Organisations should see data protection and privacy compliance as an opportunity to build trust with customers, according to startup One.Thing.Less Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Fix the basics first, then worry about AI, advise experts

The freedom of the internet is at risk, with the cyber arms race and the industrialisation of hacking are set to continue as attackers move up the value chain to target trust mechanisms, threat experts predict Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Australians lost half a billion dollars to scams in 2018

Most of the losses went to investment scams as tricksters found innovative ways to dupe victims into parting with their money Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Facebook faces fresh privacy actions from regulators

Facebook faces legal action from Canada after it dismissed regulators’ findings that it failed to protect customer privacy. The firm has set aside $5bn to settle a privacy action in the US and faces a new investigation in Ireland Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Security Think Tank: Surviving the existential cyber punch part 2

How should businesses plan to survive a potential cyber attack extinction event? Continue Reading

By

• Gregory Touhill, ISACA

Top lessons from cyber attacks

Cyber security experts weigh in on lessons learned from cyber attack experiences, underlining that recovery capability is as important as defence Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Huawei leak inquiry launched

Cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill has instituted an inquiry aimed at discovering who leaked confidential discussions about UK mobile operators’ use of Huawei in their future 5G networks to the press Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

GDPR cases drive bigger budgets for Nordic regulators

High-profile General Data Protection Regulation cases in Finland and Sweden have increased the workload for regulators, which are to receive an increase in funding Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Public becoming more aware of privacy abuses and unethical tech

Widespread abuses of privacy, biometric information and artificial intelligence mean the internet is in poor health, but growing popular awareness of its problems gives some cause for hope, says the Mozilla Foundation Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

UK up for cyber challenge but work to be done, says minister

Lidington says National Cyber Security Strategy has “revolutionised the UK’s fight against cyber threats” Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

NCSC and ICO pledge to support data breach victims

The UK’s cyber security agency and privacy watchdog have agreed to work together to improve support for data breach victims and enhance cyber guidance Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

European Union to create central biometrics database

New rules will see the introduction of a repository of personal data from hundreds of millions of citizens to support law enforcement across member states Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

No final decision taken on Huawei 5G ban, government claims

Culture secretary tells MPs that a final decision on use of Huawei in UK 5G networks has not been taken, and says government is taking the leak of confidential discussions at the National Security Council very seriously Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cabinet Office addresses 5G security issue

Cabinet Office uses NCSC conference to lay out government’s approach to the security of 5G networks, as controversy grows around using equipment from Chinese supplier Huawei Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

NCSC looks to industry to scale Active Cyber Defence

The national cyber security agency is calling on wider government organisations as well as industry to help scale automated cyber attack blocking systems country-wide Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

NCSC to scale up intelligence sharing, says GCHQ director

The GCHQ director has outlined the agency’s cyber security mission in the third decade of the internet age at CyberUK, promising to scale up the sharing of declassified cyber intelligence with industry Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

PM May approves Huawei for use in 5G networks despite opposition

The UK’s National Security Council has approved the use of Huawei’s networking equipment in parts of the country’s 5G mobile networks in spite of widespread opposition Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Global intelligence agencies share UK stage for first time

Representatives of intelligence agencies from the Five Eyes alliance are to share a public platform in the UK for the first time at this year’s NCSC CyberUK conference Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Casual collaboration comms pose security risk, survey shows

UK employees have a worryingly casual attitude to workplace communications, underling the need for employers to take steps to counter related cyber attack vulnerabilities Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

WannaCry hero pleads guilty, urges others to stay on ‘good side’

Briton hailed as WannaCry hero finally pleads guilty to charges of writing and distributing malware, but urges security researchers to stay away from the “dark side” Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

APAC set for blockchain boom

Led by China, spending on blockchain technology in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan will surpass $2bn by 2022 Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

NCSC urges better online security practices

UK cyber security agency is urging citizens to improve online safety and password security after research reveals most-hacked passwords and a survey exposes gaps in online security Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Facebook leaks: Zuckerberg turned data into dollars in ruthless battle with competitors

Facebook’s CEO ruthlessly exploited personal data shared by its users to turn Facebook into the biggest social network, but internal documents show that privacy appeared to be an afterthought for executives Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Sebastian Klovig Skelton and Duncan Campbell

20 firms join Tech Nation’s cyber security scale-up programme

Tech Nation scale-up programme is designed to boost the UK’s cyber sector, accelerate the growth of its top companies and build a robust, cross-industry network Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

State-sponsored hackers are hijacking DNS, researchers warn

A DNS-hijacking campaign targeting the Middle East and Africa may lead to actors more broadly attacking the global DNS system Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

UK government to introduce online porn age checks

World-first regulations will see age verification introduced in July and enforced by the British Board of Film Classification. Non-compliant sites risk withdrawal of payment services or being blocked Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Nearly a quarter of tech firms do not security check products

Nearly a quarter of organisations polled do not run security checks on products, and nearly a third admitted to shipping products with known security vulnerabilities, a survey shows Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Politics, privacy and porn: the challenges of age-verification technology

The age-verification requirements of the Digital Economy Act are to come into force in July this year, but registering people’s personal details for accessing age-restricted content carries significant risks and challenges Continue Reading

By

• Peter Ray Allison

TfL suspends Wi-Fi service as Extinction Rebellion spreads

Transport for London has cut off its public Virgin Media Wi-Fi service to disrupt climate change protests Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Morrisons to launch fresh appeal against breach liability ruling

Supermarket chain Morrisons is to launch a second appeal against a High Court ruling that found it liable for a data leak by a former employee Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Wipro admits to potential breach to employee accounts by phishing attack

Indian IT services company Wipro is investigating a phishing attack, which hit some staff email accounts and launched attacks on customer environments Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Singtel and NUS claim quantum breakthrough

Researchers from Singtel and the National University of Singapore have succeeded in coordinating the paths of photons across a fibre network to drive wider adoption of quantum key distribution Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Security Think Tank: Surviving the existential cyber punch

How should businesses plan to survive a potential cyber attack extinction event? Continue Reading

By

• Gregory Touhill, ISACA

Huawei cyber security chief John Suffolk: It’s not our culture to be aggressive

John Suffolk, global cyber security and privacy officer at China-based telecoms equipment supplier Huawei, tells Huawei Analyst Summit growth is the best answer to US criticism Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Energy industry needs to up cyber defences, warns report 

Cyber threat actors are advanced and persistent, but firms in the energy industry are using outdated systems and technology to save money, putting them at risk of cyber attacks, warns F-Secure report Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

NatWest eases business payments with biometric authentication on mobile

NatWest is making it easier and safer for businesses to make payments of any size via a mobile app using biometric authentication technology Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

How Palo Alto Networks fends off its cyber adversaries

Palo Alto Networks CIO Naveen Zutshi talks up the company’s approach in keeping threat actors at bay Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Facebook takes extraordinary legal steps to contain document leak

Facebook targets journalists and news organisations for computer searches Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Zero trust is about more than products

The zero trust security model is more than just products and network segmentation, it’s an architectural design principle with identity at its core that needs to be applied enterprise-wide, says KuppingerCole Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Security Think Tank: Seven steps to manage risk of catastrophic cyber attack

How should businesses plan to survive a potential cyber attack extinction event? Continue Reading

By

• Simon Persin, Turnkey Consulting

Automation will bring job security, say most IT security pros

Most security professionals believe that although automation can support humans, it will not result in a reduction in job opportunities, a study shows Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

NCSC seeks new breed of cyber security startups

The UK intelligence community is seeking to promote a new breed of technology startup to help detect, respond to and facilitate rapid recoveries from cyber attacks on the UK Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

How botnets pose a threat to the IoT ecosystem

While connected devices are transforming our personal and working lives in a multitude of ways, they are also a growing security risk – attackers are hijacking these devices and turning them into internet of things botnets Continue Reading

By

• Nicholas Fearn

Security Think Tank: Cyber attack survival not a matter of luck

How should businesses plan to survive a potential cyber attack extinction event? Continue Reading

By

• Paddy Francis

Bounty UK fined £400,000 for sharing personal data unlawfully

UK pregnancy and parenting club fined for “unprecedented” level of unauthorised sharing of personal data by operating as a data broking service Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Police local cyber crime units get multimillion pound boost

UK policing marks the completion of the local phase of a national cyber crime programme to complement regional and national response capabilities Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Government breach data highlights cyber skills misconception

Results of a government-sponsored survey highlight a dangerous misconception around cyber skills, according to a former GCHQ trainer Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Security Think Tank: Aim for integrated resilience, continuity and recovery

How should businesses plan to survive a potential cyber attack extinction event? Continue Reading

By

• Mike Gillespie

Most organisations still lack incident response plans

Most companies lack incident response plans, others fail to test them and nearly half are not GDPR compliant, but some report improved security through automation, a study shows Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Triton industrial malware group still active, researchers warn

Security researchers have found traces of a Russian-linked cyber attack group in another critical infrastructure facility, prompting calls for increased diligence around industrial cyber security Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

CW Middle East: Visibility and security of networks are top IT priorities

The 2019 Computer Weekly/TechTarget IT Priorities survey shows that enterprise buyers in the Middle East, like those in the UK and Europe, are looking to lock down their networks in the face of an almost constant barrage of threats and malicious actors. Also read how Facebook planned to use its Android app to track the location of its customers and to allow advertisers to send political advertising, and what further details operator O2 has revealed about how it is planning for the advent of 5G. Continue Reading

ANZ business users calling the shots in ICT decisions

Business users in ANZ firms have more sway about technology decisions, but it is not always a case of shadow IT Continue Reading

By

• Beverley Head

Security Think Tank: Incident response vital to guard against catastrophic cyber attack

How should businesses plan to survive a potential cyber attack extinction event? Continue Reading

By

• Maxine Holt, Omdia

A quarter of phishing emails bypass Office 365 security

Cloud-based email is leaving enterprises vulnerable to phishing attacks capable of giving cyber criminals access to a wide range of critical data, warn security researchers Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Why cyber security needs to be prioritised at board level

Despite the rising number of headline-grabbing security breaches, many company executives are still not prioritising cyber security in the boardroom Continue Reading

By

• Tom Kranz, Cyber Lab

Digital doppelgangers for sale to defeat anti-fraud tech

Security researchers have uncovered an online market selling digital identities to help cyber criminals to defeat anti-fraud technologies, as financial cyber crime becomes a bigger threat than ever before Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

UK councils team up to boost cyber security

Three UK councils and data analysis firm Splunk have teamed up to improve cyber defence capabilities and maintain their security systems Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

How simulated disaster management can help tackle security skills gap

With the increasing need for cyber security professionals, organisations are turning to new ways to address the skills gap facing the security sector Continue Reading

Using data science at Sainsbury’s

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to one of the UK’s leading retailers, Sainsbury’s, about its data science strategy and how it helps the firm to better understand customers. We take a detailed look at the evolution of the business intelligence market and the impact of big data. And we find out how simulated disaster management can tackle the security skills gap. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Security Think Tank: BC/DR plan key to cyber attack survival

How should businesses plan to survive a potential cyber attack extinction event? Continue Reading

By

• Petra Wenham

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 11

In this week’s episode of The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, the team discuss Google’s forthcoming cloud conference, how tech can be used to boost social inclusion, while data analytics is being hailed as a means of assisting MI5 with with its terrorism detection work Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

GCHQ cyber courses for teens recognised by qualification board

The Scottish Qualifications Authority has accredited courses pioneered by GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre to teach teenagers about cyber security Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Ransomware getting more targeted, warns Flashpoint

Ransomware attacks are becoming more targeted and designed to infect different sized organisations in specific industries and regions, say security researchers Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

GDPR at a critical stage, says information commissioner

The ICO is calling on data protection officials to help kick off the next phase of the GDPR by embedding sound data governance at its annual conference, where another DPO was recognised for excellence Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

How APAC firms can tame the data beast

Companies and data management experts across Asia-Pacific reveal how they are tackling data management challenges that have been compounded by growing cloud usage and compliance requirements Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

UK plans for online safety laws not enough, says BCS

Government plans for online safety laws need to be complemented with a national cyber safety programme in schools, according to IT and computer science professional and educational body Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Security Think Tank: How to reduce the impact of a potential cyber extinction event

How should businesses plan to survive a potential cyber attack extinction event? Continue Reading

By

• Andy Jones, Information Security Forum (ISF)

Critical infrastructure under relentless cyber attack

A lack of visibility into the attack surface, inadequate security staffing and reliance on manual processes undermine operational technology security capabilities, a study reveals Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

London council fined by the ICO for disclosing personal information held on Met Police Gangs Matrix

The London Borough of Newham has been fined for disclosing the sensitive personal information of more than 200 individuals that police held information on Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

European firms see value in ‘known good’ approach to security

European data protection regulations are driving enterprise interest in an approach to security being championed by virtualisation software maker VMware, says the company’s security lead Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Huawei ban will cost UK plc £6.8bn, delay 5G

If the UK government decides to impose tighter restrictions, or an outright ban on the use of Huawei in national 5G networks, the country faces severe consequences, according to a report Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

The rise of digital workers and the bot economy

Automation Anywhere’s booming business, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, is a sign of things to come in the new world of work where digital workers can be hired from a bot store Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Enhanced Wi-Fi cuts costs to maximise efficiency at Dorset school

The need for cost-effective, manageable wireless infrastructure without additional annual licence fees drove Lytchett Minster School’s decision to upgrade its on-site network with TP-Link Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Researchers uncover US-based malware distribution centre

More than a dozen US-based web servers are operating as the malware equivalent of an Amazon fulfilment centre to target businesses, security researchers have found Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Document-based malware on the rise, businesses warned

Document-based malware spiked in the first quarter of the year, building on a gradual rise in the past year, warn researchers Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Third-party Facebook apps expose 540 million users’ details

Researchers have discovered another trove of Facebook users’ details, showing there is still no control over data shared with third parties, potentially exposing Facebook to more regulatory and legal action Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Fresh approach needed to reap cloud security benefits

Transitioning to cloud-based services offers businesses an opportunity to improve security capabilities, but only if they adopt a proactive cloud-native approach, says Palo Alto Networks cloud security expert Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst