IT suppliers

How the tech sector is supporting Ukraine

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine the global tech sector response to the invasion of Ukraine, and how hackers are responding to calls for an IT army to target Russia. Our latest buyer’s guide looks at cloud-based ERP and other business applications. And IBM’s UK chief tells us how Big Blue is reinventing itself. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Ukraine: Cyber warfare and IT industry boycott of Russia – Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast

Alex Scroxton joins the team to discuss the cyber war dimension of the conflict arising from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the IT industry’s response to Putin’s war Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor
• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications
• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

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

AWS launches its first UK healthtech accelerator

A cohort of 12 startups will use AWS resources to accelerate their technology and business development, with opportunities to sell to public sector healthcare organisations at the end Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Kaspersky forced to deny source code leak

Kaspersky says an alleged leak of its source code was in fact material anyone could have gleaned from its public servers Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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

The global IT community supports the people of Ukraine

The crisis in Ukraine shines a spotlight on the interconnected global village. IT is a worldwide community of people who want to make a difference. We are all concerned for the safety of relatives, ... Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

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

Government to force tech firms to stop fraudsters using their platforms for scams

Changes to legislation will make social media and search engine firms responsible for preventing fraudsters using their platforms to commit crimes Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

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

Five key points on file locking vs object locking

We look at file vs object storage locking mechanisms, how different forms of storage ensure data consistency, and especially how object storage is tackling the challenge Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Using technology to protect human rights

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we investigate how technology is being used to tackle human rights abuses worldwide. We offer a step-by-step guide to disaster recovery in the cloud era. And we examine the vital, and successful, role of digital and data in the UK Covid-19 vaccine roll-out. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Micron 7450 aims its 176 TLC layers at QLC flash use cases

New 176-layer tech brings densely packed flash cells in drives that come in 2.5”, M.2 and EDSFF form factors, aimed at datacentre workloads from archive to database storage Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Microsoft stops sales of products and services to Russia

Citing sanctions and cyber security concerns, Microsoft has become the latest company to withdraw from the Russian market Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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

English Channel surveillance used ‘to deter and punish migrants’

Instead of opening safe and legal routes to the UK, the country’s border control ecosystem is deploying surveillance technologies in the English Channel to deter migrant crossings, it is claimed Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

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

Ban predictive policing systems in EU AI Act, says civil society

A coalition of civil society groups has called on European lawmakers to use the upcoming Artificial Intelligence Act as an opportunity to ban predictive policing systems Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Software firm saves storage array costs with Nutanix hyper-converged

Banking SaaS provider Vialink needed more IOPS when its NetApp arrays slowed up, but Nutanix hyper-converged proved a better package than Pure Storage and Dell EMC, too Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Workplace surveillance ‘spiralling out of control’, says TUC

Trade union body pushes for workers to be consulted on the implementation of new technologies at work, warning that invasive surveillance practices are getting out of hand Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Zopa Bank to sponsor 50 Ukrainian tech professionals with visa offer

IT companies are reaching out to IT professionals in the Ukraine with offers of support for those looking to work in the UK Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

EU big tech laws put in context by Russian invasion of Ukraine

Pressure is mounting on EU institutions to cut back regulations they are preparing to impose on US big tech firms while forming laws to create a single digital market Continue Reading

By

• Mark Ballard

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

Cloud storage cost challenges and how to tackle them

We look at cloud capacity procurement pitfalls, forecasting challenges, the danger of over-buying, supplier lock-in, deciphering billing and resizing capacity when projects finish Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Define RPO and RTO tiers for storage and data protection strategy

We look at RPO and RTO in defining data protection and disaster recovery strategies and how to specify tiers that reflect the importance of different systems in your organisation Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

Police forces ‘must’ do data protection due diligence checks before using PDS-backed AWS cloud

Police forces across England and Wales are being reminded not to overlook their data protection-related compliance responsibilities when making use of the Police Digital Service’s Amazon-powered cloud platform Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

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

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

Hammerspace offers follow-the-sun access to on-prem and cloud storage

Startup aims to succeed where others have failed and present file, block and object storage data from any and multiple locations as if it were local to the user Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage 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)

Backup heads to cloud as ransomware hits 76% and RTOs/RPOs fail

Veeam survey finds most can’t recover the data they want or do it in time, ransomware is now a ‘disaster’, use of the cloud is increasing, but the datacentre is still very important Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

Open banking surpasses five million UK customers

Upwards of five million people in the UK are using open banking services as the financial sector’s fintech revolution gathers pace Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

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

How Signify accelerated automation projects as pandemic challenges mounted

Dutch lighting manufacturer used robotic process automation technology to help it address Covid-19-inflicted disruption Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

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

Interview: How do you define IBM?

It is the world’s oldest computer company, and it was once said you didn’t get fired for buying from Big Blue. But a lot has changed. Sreeram Visvanathan, CEO for UK&I, explains how IBM is reinventing itself Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing 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

Retrospect Backup refines anomaly detection in ransomware battle

StorCentric backup software brand allows customer fine-tuning of anomaly detection in struggle against ransomware, and adds immutable copies via object locking in Azure Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Nebulon gets Ansible collection for datacentre deployment

Provider of cloud-managed and hardware-accelerated – formerly ‘cloud-defined’ – storage makes further moves towards its smartInfrastructure vision, with Terraform support coming Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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

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

Tech sector can lead the fight against climate change

The technology and telecoms sector has a dual role to play in sustainability – to transform its own organisation and ecosystems, and to use its role as a digital enabler to drive sustainability for its customers Continue Reading

By

• Praveen Shankar, EY

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

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

Posix vs object storage: How much longer for Posix?

We look at Posix compliance in storage and why it is being challenged by object storage and the need to scale much further than Posix-oriented storage was ever intended to Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage 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

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

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Tiger offers lightweight file access for hybrid cloud

Roar data, anyone? Tiger offers local access to cloud data, with only parts of the file being worked on downloaded and file locking in cloud buckets to ensure integrity Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Porn sites will be legally required to verify users’ ages

Porn sites could be legally obliged to verify that their users are 18 or over under proposed online safety rules, in UK government’s second attempt to prevent children from accessing pornography online Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics 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

UK fintech investment sees sevenfold increase in a year

UK fintech investment rose from $5.2bn in 2020 to $37.3bn in 2021, with 603 private equity, venture capital and merger and acquisition deals Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Staff training, incident and media management

In the third in a series on cloud-era disaster recovery, we set out the key components of DR staff awareness and training programmes, as well as incident management and dealing with the media Continue Reading

By

• Paul Kirvan

Global IT companies ready to fight for Russian market

International IT firms have begun the process of complying with the latest regulations imposed on them by the Russian government Continue Reading

By

• Eugene Gerden

TV provider MediaHub boots SAN and NAS for Scality object storage

Sydney-based TV content provider MediaHub got tired of performance issues and scaling difficulties with SAN and NAS, so powered its as-a-service offer with Scality object storage Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage 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

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

UAE chooses Accenture to develop national payments platform

Consortium led by Accenture to build new payments infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates 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

By

• 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

Saudi Arabia to invest billions of dollars in technology and startups

Saudi Arabia announces $6.4bn investment in its tech sector as part of plans to diversify its economy Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

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

Nebulon SmartInfrastructure brings cloud-defined storage to datacentre

Cloud-defined storage allows customers to build private clouds on-site, with pools of storage built from commodity hardware, Nebulon PCIe cards and its browser-based console Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

UK has record year for tech IPOs in 2021

Tech companies represented 29% of all UK initial public offerings last year, raising a record $6.6bn Continue Reading

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

Cyber skills gap affecting data privacy practice, finds ISACA

Organisations are struggling to fill both legal and technical privacy roles, with potentially damaging consequences, according to a report Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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

Barclaycard customers increase contactless spending following limit rise

Barclaycard customers have increased their contactless card spending by 40% with most of their card payments using the technology Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

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

Bank account switching accelerates as consumers choose digital services

Surge in UK consumers changing current account providers is a sign that digital banking services are eating into the traditional sector Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Refrigeration firm freezes legacy backup for one Cohesity cluster

France-based Clauger had reached limits of capacity and complexity with multi-supplier legacy backup, so moved to one Cohesity cluster and gained restores that took mere minutes Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage 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

Storage tech brief: Look out for PCIe gen 5 drives in 2022

PCIe 5.0 will offer bandwidth up to 128GBps per drive. We look at what’s available and when, including in the new EDSFF form factor, as well as looking forward to PCIe gen 6 Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage 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

Demands on Fujitsu to contribute to £1bn Horizon scandal compensation costs

Fujitsu cannot hide away as taxpayers pick up the bill for the Post Office scandal triggered by its IT system, say peers Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Prepare, but don’t panic, over supposed Russian cyber threat

A fresh alert from the US Department of Homeland Security may have IT security teams jumpy over the possibility that their organisations could be targeted by Russian state actors Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

EDSFF brings built-for-NVMe connectivity to the datacentre

Aimed at enterprise use cases, EDSFF offers incredible flash density in shared storage and hyperscale deployments, but storage products that use it are still thin on the ground Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Object storage: How research institute got 850TB for €150,000

French scientific research institute had its budgets cut and to meet the new cost constraints, it settled on Swarm software-defined object storage from DataCore Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How Forensic Architecture uses tech to protect human rights

Forensic Architecture speaks to Computer Weekly about how it uses various digital technologies to investigate human rights abuses around the globe, including the pushback of migrants over the Greek border and the killing of Mark Duggan by London police Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics 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

Zopa Bank hits £1bn deposits in just 18 months

Bank has seen rapid growth since its launch and has set ambitious targets for the next 12 months Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Danish digitisation partnership delivers plan to government

Public-private collaboration submits plan setting out “how Denmark can take advantage of the opportunities presented by digitisation moving forward into the future” Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Content removal will not stop misinformation, says Royal Society

Censorship of scientific misinformation online could exacerbate feelings of distrust, so government should look at information literacy and funding fact checkers instead, says report Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Assessing risk and business impact

In the first in a series on cloud-era disaster recovery, we provide a step-by-step guide to building firm foundations for the disaster recovery plan, with risk assessment and business impact analysis Continue Reading

By

• Paul Kirvan

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