Security policy and user awareness

Digital safety skills initiative launched against cyber crime

Security industry partners have launched an initiative aimed at raising individuals’ digital safety skills to enable them to protect themselves and their families from most common cyber attacks Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Organisations turn to AI in race against cyber attackers

Businesses are racing to automate their defences as hackers and nation states launch increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks Continue Reading

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• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

UK boards ignoring £30bn cyber risk

Despite the danger posed by cyber attacks to mid-sized companies, boards are not prepared to manage the risk and firms are over-confident in their cyber capabilities, report finds Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 22

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, Brian McKenna, Caroline Donnelly and Clare McDonald talk about digital transformation in the NHS, Sky’s efforts to get more women working in tech and how big businesses could be risking extinction by ignoring IT Continue Reading

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• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Symantec gearing up for future cyber security

Symantec is focusing on enabling businesses to secure data in the cloud after a string of acquisitions, but it also has its eye on the future, which will be all about empowering people, says CTO Hugh Thompson Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Facebook’s privacy game – how Zuckerberg backtracked on promises to protect personal data

Facebook promised its users privacy then quietly abandoned its promises in pursuit of profits. Now it faces antitrust regulation Continue Reading

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• Bill Goodwin and Sebastian Klovig Skelton

TIN coalition calls for industry action against cyber fraud

An industry group aimed at improving cyber security by tackling enduring challenges has called for collaboration in the fight against cyber fraud Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Hospitality industry at highest risk of phishing

Benchmarking report shows average phish-prone percentage across all industries and sizes of organisations at 29.6% – up 2.6% since 2018 Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Security Think Tank: Business needs to see infosec pros as trusted advisers

How can security professionals communicate effectively with the board and senior business leaders – what works and what doesn’t? Continue Reading

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• RV Raghu, ISACA

Inside F5’s cyber security playbook

F5 Networks' CISO talks up measures that the application delivery and security specialist is employing to fend off cyber attackers that come knocking on its doors Continue Reading

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• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

UK firms need to address risky user habits

McAfee calls for companies to ramp up their security culture and improve the integration of technical security controls to minimise exposure from workers Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Threat vs trust: the overlooked power of words

Words have power – in particular, your choice of words modifies how your readers or listeners react to what you write or say. Politicians do this sort of thing all the time, swapping one word or ... Continue Reading

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• Bryan Betts, Freeform Dynamics

Joining the dots to deliver effective cyber security

In too many organisations, cyber security is dislocated and siloed. Security chiefs need to take a more joined-up approach, but that is likely to mean a rethink of how the security team operates Continue Reading

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• Ed Tucker, Human Firewall

Making threat intelligence greater than the sum of its parts

Organisations can become more secure if they join up their varied sources of intelligence about business threats, and avoid losing valuable information within individual silos Continue Reading

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• Elliott Rose & Matthew Arnold

Businesses investing blindly in cyber security

Businesses need to find out what their real cyber risks and weaknesses are before investing in new technologies, says ethical hacker Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Passing the baton on Cybersecurity Skills

This year will be the first time I visit Infosec with no agenda. Or to be more precise I will have a Community Safety rather than a Cybersecurity Skills Agenda. This has caused me to take a cool ... Continue Reading

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• Philip Virgo, Winsafe Ltd

IT in the Tory Candidates' Manifestos

I added a comment on Dominic Rabb's inclusion of degree apprenticeships in his call for Fairness and Choice to my recent blog on the IfA apprenticeship review.  In his opening campaign letter Rory ... Continue Reading

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• Philip Virgo, Winsafe Ltd

Dutch IT security firm dumps corporate structure

Boss of Netherlands-based Computest turns to self-management model to make company more nimble Continue Reading

By

• Kin Loohuis

Planned UK age verification checks risky for internet users

Proposed controversial online age verification checks could increase the risk of identity theft and other cyber crimes, warn security experts, who advise parents to set technological boundaries and ensure their families are aware of risks Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Trump bans ‘adversary’ tech from US telecoms in blow at Huawei

US president announced ban on telecoms equipment from designated “adversary” states, including China Continue Reading

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• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Security Think Tank: Proper segregation is more important than ever

What are the security benefits and challenges of segregating IT environments, and how best are these challenges overcome? Continue Reading

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• Emma Bickerstaffe, Information Security Forum (ISF)

Implement multifactor authentication, urges expert panel

Multifactor authentication should be a top priority for organisations to defend users from cyber attacks, coupled with zero-trust architecture and artificial intelligence-based technologies, says expert panel Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

APAC firms on the back foot in cyber security

Most Asia-Pacific organisations did not consider cyber security until after their digital transformation projects had begun, new survey finds Continue Reading

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• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Key lessons from an ethical hacker

Understanding hacker techniques and processes is the best way to defend against cyber attacks, and focusing on business risks is the best way to get security budget, according to an ethical hacker Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Some Australian firms still in the dark about cyber security

A report suggesting Australian firms are experiencing fewer cyber incidents has left its co-author perplexed with the findings Continue Reading

By

• Beverley Head

Cyber criminals targeting C-suite, DBIR shows

Executives and cloud-based services are gaining popularity as targets for cyber criminals, according to the latest data breach investigations report Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Privileged access management moving to cloud

Survey shows nearly half of information security professionals are either planning to move privileged access management to the cloud or are exploring the possibility Continue Reading

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• 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

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• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

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

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

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

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• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

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

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

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• 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

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

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• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

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

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• Tom Kranz, Cyber Lab

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

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• 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

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• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

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

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Singapore government to review data security in public sector

A high-level committee comprising ministers and private sector security experts will review data security practices and recommend measures to better protect citizens’ data Continue Reading

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• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Firms urged to gear up for new malware and tactics as threats proliferate

The volume of malware attacks reached a record level in 2018, with UK and India bucking global trend of increased ransomware attacks, a study shows Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

UK police should not deploy live facial recognition technology until issues are resolved, MPs told

The Science and Technology Committee has heard from the information and biometrics commissioners about the flawed use of live facial recognition technology by UK police Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Spike in cyber attacks targeting Cisco Webex

Cyber attacks targeting a leading web conference tool have increased dramatically and sextortion is becoming more popular with attackers, according to WatchGuard Technologies Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Firms urged to protect against spear phishing

Spear phishing attacks are sophisticated, targeted, costly and increasing in popularity among cyber attackers, a report warns Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

National Cyber Security Programme at risk of missing targets

The National Audit Office has sharply criticised the Cabinet Office over failings in how it set up the National Cyber Security Programme that mean it may struggle to meet its goals Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Almost half UK firms hit by phishing attacks

Almost half of UK organisations have been compromised in the past two years using phishing attacks, despite high levels of cyber awareness and training, research shows Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Security Think Tank: Is it true you can't manage what you don't measure?

What should be the key cyber security risk indicator for any business? Continue Reading

By

• Vladimir Jirasek, Foresight Cyber

Citrix breach once again highlights password weaknesses

A reported breach of Citrix, which has potentially exposed data at hundreds of thousands of customer organisations, has once again highlighted the need for an alternative to passwords and the importance of supply chain security Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Cyber espionage group behind SingHealth attack

A cyber espionage group dubbed Whitefly has been identified as the perpetrators behind Singapore’s largest data breach to date Continue Reading

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• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Supplier consolidation tops infosec goals for 2019

Supplier consolidation, collaboration between networking and security teams, and security awareness are the top priorities for information security professionals trying to prepare for the unknown, annual benchmark study shows Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Sextortion accounts for one in 10 spear-phishing emails

Email sextortion scams have increased in frequency and scope in the past four months, as well as evolving to bypass spam filters and trick recipients into reading the messages, research shows Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Cyber criminals earn $3bn a year exploiting social platforms

Businesses urged to respond to research findings that the ready availability of hacking tools, wildfire spread of malware and proliferation of cryptocurrency mining has seen a 300-fold increase in social media-enabled cyber crimes in two years Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Facebook planned to spy on Android phone users, internal emails reveal

Facebook planned to use its Android app to track the location of its customers and to allow advertisers to send political advertising and invites to dating sites to ‘single’ people, confidential documents show Continue Reading

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• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Finding security in the cloud

When choosing a cloud security provider, enterprises will need to consider the level of data privacy and data security risk involved Continue Reading

By

• Krishna Balakrishnan

Fit for whose purpose? Submit your views on the Initial National Cybersecurity Skills Strategy

The meeting illustrated the difficulty of the task the DCMS team will have reconciling the need of MoD and GCHQ for patriotic cyberwarriors and the need of the rest of us for the skills to protect ... Continue Reading

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• Philip Virgo, Winsafe Ltd

Telegram bot gets users hooked

Popular social media service provides a rich set of features for cyber criminals, RSA warns Continue Reading

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• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

APAC healthcare providers losing $23m to cyber attacks

Healthcare organisations in the Asia-Pacific region could lose an average of $23.3m to cyber attacks, including losses from productivity and customer churn, a study finds Continue Reading

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• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

A guide to choosing cloud-based security services

Cloud-based security services can help organisations with a growing cloud footprint to reduce cost and address the manpower crunch in cyber security Continue Reading

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• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Data breaches in Australia show no sign of abating

Australia’s privacy watchdog recorded over 800 cases of data breaches, nearly one year into the country’s mandatory data breach notification regime Continue Reading

By

• Beverley Head

New stolen credentials cache puts spotlight on authentication

The discovery of billions more stolen usernames and passwords in Collections #2 to #5 have prompted fresh calls for the implementation of better authentication methods across industry Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

YouTuber impersonation scam not new, say researchers

Scam that tricked users into clicking on phishing links has affected tens of thousands of victims and has been active for several years, say security researchers Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Personal records of HIV-positive individuals in Singapore leaked online

The personal information of 14,200 people with the human immunodeficiency virus was leaked by an American who lived in Singapore Continue Reading

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• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Budding UK cyber strategists gear up for national competition 

Teams of UK university students are preparing to compete for the second time in analysing the threat of a simulated cyber attack to develop policies and strategies Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Young Dutch cyber criminals get re-education rather than jail time

Young hackers in the Netherlands are being rehabilitated through punishments that educate rather than incarcerate Continue Reading

By

• Tijs Hofmans

New Zealand faces more state-sponsored attacks

Nearly four in 10 cyber security incidents recorded by the National Cyber Security Centre were the work of state-sponsored threat actors Continue Reading

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• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Davos: World leaders need to grasp future technological risks

Technological advancement is both a benefit and risk to society, but often the risks are not identified until they are exploited Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Security Think Tank: Walk before you run

How can organisations combine software-defined networking, containerisation and encryption to prevent rogue code from running freely across a corporate network? Continue Reading

By

• Vladimir Jirasek, Foresight Cyber

The rise of DevSecOps

The increasing complexity of security threats facing enterprises is leading to DevSecOps approaches, which combine operations and development with security, so that all business units are involved in security operations Continue Reading

By

• Finbarr Toesland

AI application overlooked in cyber security research

Despite the proliferation of cyber security products and services claiming to be driven by artificial intelligence, the application of the technology is being overlooked by research, a study shows Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

UK Finance plays down fraud threat through contactless card skimming

Contactless card fraud is rising bit it is easily preventable Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Germany races to boost cyber defences after breach

Germany is scrambling to improve its cyber defences before the European parliamentary elections after a student leaked politicians’ personal data Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

2FA bypass tool highlights top business security vulnerabilities

CEOs are the most likely target of two-factor authentication phishing bypasses, demonstrated by a security researcher’s proof-of-concept attack Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Second Lorca cohort to focus on supply chain security

The second cohort of companies to benefit from the new London cyber innovation centre will focus on user-centric security and securing supply chains Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Can we live without passwords?

Can you imagine a future in which we can be secure online without having to remember an unwieldly list of passwords? Solutions are emerging that could make passwords redundant, but there will be other security problems to resolve Continue Reading

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• Bruno Halopeau & Adrien Ogee

Top 10 cyber crime stories of 2018

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 cyber crime stories of 2018 Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

APAC cyber security landscape to be more tumultuous in 2019

Amid growing cyber threats, the Asia-Pacific cyber security landscape will not get any rosier in 2019 unless organisations start shoring up their cyber hygiene Continue Reading

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• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Iranian cyber espionage highlights human element

State-backed hackers in Iran have reportedly upped efforts to compromise US officials’ email accounts using phishing scams Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Social engineering at the heart of critical infrastructure attack

Social engineering is the core technique used in a series of cyber attacks targeting government, defence, nuclear, energy and financial organisations around the world, which means people are key to defence Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Half of business leaders unaware of BPC cyber attacks

Half of management teams polled in 12 countries, including the UK, are unaware of business process compromise (BPC) attacks Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Raising security awareness through phishing simulation – how to get it right

Testing employees’ security practices by sending fake phishing emails has become commonplace, but few organisations are conducting such exercises effectively Continue Reading

By

• Ed Tucker, Human Firewall

Phishing at centre of cyber attack on Ukraine infrastructure

Phishing is one of the key tools used by cyber attackers against critical national infrastructure (CNI), as highlighted by attacks on telecommunications in Ukraine Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

The future of network-connected device security

The proliferation of poorly secured network-connected devices has prompted the UK government to publish new best practice guidelines. Do these go far enough? Continue Reading

By

• Peter Ray Allison

Security Think Tank: Combine tech, process and people to block malware comms

As attackers begin to use multiple command and control systems to communicate with backdoors and other malware, how can organisations ensure that they detect such methods and that all C&C systems are removed, including "sleepers" designed to be activated at a future date. Continue Reading

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• Maxine Holt, Omdia

120,000 police officers to receive cyber security training

Cisco is partnering with UK police forces to offer cyber security training through the Cisco Networking Academy Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

GDPR is encouraging UK IT directors to pay cyber ransoms

As predicted ahead of the General Data Protection Regulation enforcement deadline, research shows that fear of fines under the new laws is making some firms more likely to pay cyber ransoms Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Securing the SD-WAN: The next network challenge

Every time an enterprise weighs up whether or not to try SD-WAN, security is an essential part of the picture Continue Reading

By

• Christian Annesley

Keep people at the centre of risk management, says consultant

In assessing the cyber risks to a business, security professionals should start with the people in an organisation and keep them at the centre in identifying and mitigating risk, says consultant Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

DeepMind won’t share patient data with Google ‘at this stage’, says company’s health boss

Amid concerns and questions around Google’s takeover of the DeepMind’s Streams app, Dominic King, the company’s health lead, promises that ‘at this stage’, nothing will change, and it won’t share any patient data with the internet giant Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Making the UK the safest place to live and work online

Government, industry and individuals all have to play their part in enhancing cyber security practices Continue Reading

By

• Cate Pye, EY

Facebook to appeal EU-US data transfer ruling in Irish Supreme Court

Facebook will appeal a decision by the Irish High Court to refer questions over the legality of EU-US data transfers to the European Court of Justice in January, as the Dublin court rejects attempt by a UK IT expert to join the case Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Security Think Tank: A three-pronged approach to application security

What should organisations be doing to address application layer attacks and reduce the likelihood of a breach through this type of attack? Continue Reading

By

• Petra Wenham

DNS attacks cost finance firms millions of pounds a year

Average cost of recovering from a single DNS attack is $924,390 for a large financial services company, survey shows Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Belgian startup makes a game of creating secure software code

A global tech startup has placed its research and development centre in Belgium, taking advantage of regional financial support as well as cooperations with local educational organisations Continue Reading

By

• Kim Loohuis

Choose security tools wisely to gain upper hand

The cyber threat landscape is continually changing, but staying abreast of attacker and defender innovation can help business leaders gain the upper hand, says KuppingerCole Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Sibos 2018: ‘Black swan’ cyber event is inevitable

With security experts and bankers expecting a 9/11-style cyber event, deeper collaboration between companies and governments is necessary to identify emerging threats before they occur Continue Reading

By

• Beverley Head

Centralised identity risky and not web 3.0 friendly, says entrepreneur

User controlled identity is less risky than centralised identity and essential for the next evolution of the web, according to an entrepreneur and evangelist of self-sovereign identity and blockchain technologies Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

McAfee CTO raises concerns about election cyber security

The security industry needs to look at the security of election processes around the world as well as the security of voting and counting machines, says McAfee CTO Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Removable storage devices: Why are companies banning them?

IBM banned removable storage devices to encourage employees to use the company's internal file-sharing system. Learn how a ban like this can improve enterprise security. Continue Reading

By

• Nick Lewis

Learn lessons from attacks, says McAfee investigations chief

Organisations should use every cyber attack as an opportunity to learn, identify weaknesses and improve security posture, according to McAfee’s head of cyber investigations Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Best of VMworld Europe 2018 Awards nominations now open until 26 October

Read the criteria for the Best of VMworld Europe User Awards and find out how to submit your nomination Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK