News

IT governance

• February 06, 2024 06 Feb'24

  Inquiry to explore cyber risk to Sunak-Starmer showdown

  The UK’s Joint Committee on National Security Strategy is opening an inquiry into securing the democratic process ahead of the next general election

• February 06, 2024 06 Feb'24

  CIO interview: Stuart Birrell, chief data and information officer, EasyJet

  The short-haul airline fills an aircraft every 10 seconds through its e-commerce operation – all while transforming its booking systems and migrating its IT estate to the cloud

• February 05, 2024 05 Feb'24

  Blackbaud blasted for failing to prevent customer breaches

  A supply chain attack at software supplier Blackbaud in 2020 saw data on multiple UK organisations compromised. The US authorities are now taking steps to ensure it can’t happen again

• February 05, 2024 05 Feb'24

  US sanctions Iranians behind CNI cyber attacks

  US government issues new sanctions against six Iranians suspected of being behind a series of cyber attacks targeting critical national infrastructure, notably water supply systems

• February 01, 2024 01 Feb'24

  AI: House of Lords focuses on copyright and transparency

  Large language models promise to boost UK productivity, but the tech needs greater scrutiny and questions remain over intellectual property

• February 01, 2024 01 Feb'24

  Welsh workers’ AI experiences shaped by uneven power dynamics

  Workers in Wales are being negatively affected by the unregulated introduction of artificial intelligence into workplaces due to asymmetric power dynamics

• February 01, 2024 01 Feb'24

  UK ranks third in OECD Digital Government Index

  The UK has dropped from overall second to third place in the international digital government survey, but fails to feature in the top 10 countries when it comes to having a data-driven public sector

• January 30, 2024 30 Jan'24

  We need backup! Pennsylvania police data loss shows why

  Police evidence systems data was lost during ‘routine maintenance’, with human error blamed – the case clearly illustrates why data protection can’t be left to chance

• January 29, 2024 29 Jan'24

  Lords question legality of police facial recognition

  Lords committee ‘deeply concerned’ about the rapid expansion of live facial recognition by UK police, which it says is progressing without any real oversight or accountability

• January 26, 2024 26 Jan'24

  GenAI tools ‘could not exist’ if firms are made to pay copyright

  AI firm Anthropic hits out at copyright lawsuit filed by music publishers, claiming the content ingested into its models falls under ‘fair use’ and that any licensing regime would be too complex and costly

• January 26, 2024 26 Jan'24

  Akira ransomware gang claims Lush cyber attack

  The Akira ransomware gang claims to have stolen over 100GB of data from cosmetics manufacturer and retailer Lush

• January 26, 2024 26 Jan'24

  UK government consults on age verification tech in alcohol sales

  The government has said it wants to allow the use of digital identities and various age-verification technologies in alcohol sales

• January 26, 2024 26 Jan'24

  Expert IT witness outsmarted an ‘aggressive’ Post Office to get to truth after inspection ‘madness’

  The Post Office’s attempts to protect the Horizon system are well known, in light of the public inquiry and a recent TV drama, but Computer Weekly can reveal how an IT expert was treated during his investigation of Horizon

• January 25, 2024 25 Jan'24

  Bugcrowd sees surge in vulnerability submissions, led by public sector

  Crowdsourced vulnerability disclosure and bug bounty platform Bugcrowd says it saw a 151% uptick in submissions related to government and public sector organisations in 2023

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  Southern Water confirms cyber attack after Black Basta claims

  Southern Water, which supplies millions of customers in southeast England, has confirmed it has fallen victim to a cyber attack, although its services appear to be running normally

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  AI will heighten global ransomware threat, says NCSC

  The benefits of artificial intelligence to cyber criminals being well-known, the NCSC now assesses it’s likely AI will soon be widely used to enhance ransomware attacks

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  Salesforce’s bug bounty programme paid out $3m in 2023

  Ethical hackers disclosed more than 4,000 vulnerabilities to Salesforce last year through its bug bounty programme, and received over $3m in rewards

• January 23, 2024 23 Jan'24

  Treat cyber risk like financial or legal issue, says UK government

  UK government and NCSC launch proposed code of practice on cyber security governance to help directors and business leaders toughen their defences

• January 23, 2024 23 Jan'24

  Leak of 26 billion records may prove to be ‘mother of all breaches’

  The discovery of a dataset comprising 26 billion stolen records may prove to be record-breaking in both its size and the danger it poses to ordinary people

• January 23, 2024 23 Jan'24

  UN chief blasts AI companies for reckless pursuit of profit

  The United Nations general secretary has blasted technology companies and governments for pursuing their own narrow interests in artificial intelligence without any consideration of the common good, as part of wider call to reform global governance

• January 23, 2024 23 Jan'24

  SEC bitcoin hack was result of SIM-swapping

  A cyber attack on the US financial regulator earlier in January 2024 occurred after hackers took over one of its mobile phone accounts in a so-called SIM-swapping attack

• January 22, 2024 22 Jan'24

  SolarWinds hackers attack Microsoft in apparent recon mission

  Russian-backed threat actor behind infamous 2020 SolarWinds Sunburst intrusion hacked into Microsoft’s systems, apparently in an attempt to get hold of intel on themselves

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  ICO prompts confusion over police cloud legality

  The UK data regulator has suggested that, despite major data protection concerns, it is likely to greenlight police cloud deployments because of an information-sharing agreement with the US government

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  Fujitsu boss admits to missed opportunities to prevent miscarriages of justice

  Concerns of an expert witness in subpostmaster trials were ignored by Fujitsu

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  Neighbouring Kent councils hit by simultaneous cyber attacks

  Canterbury, Dover and Thanet Councils in Kent have all been struck by simultaneous cyber attacks knocking systems offline, with indications of a link between all three

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  Cabinet Office publishes 10-point generative AI guidance

  Cabinet Office’s framework, which will evolve as the technology moves forward, sets out 10 principles for the government's use of generative AI systems

• January 18, 2024 18 Jan'24

  PSTN switch-off threatens access to adult social care services

  The Public Switched Telephone Network switch-off is threatening vulnerable Londoners access to adult social care and other vital services, as councils are left to manage the cost without financial support from the centre, says London chief digital ...

• January 18, 2024 18 Jan'24

  Cyber non-profit enlists ex-NCSC head as technical chair

  Founding NCSC chief exec Ciaran Martin is to join the newly launched Cyber Monitoring Centre non-profit as chair of its technical committee

• January 18, 2024 18 Jan'24

  Tech firms: Investigatory Powers review will undermine privacy of UK citizens

  Trade group TechUK argues in a briefing sent to the Home Office that proposed amendments to the Investigatory Powers Bill could have a far-reaching impact on privacy and security

• January 17, 2024 17 Jan'24

  NCSC invites security pros to join the big leagues

  The NCSC is inviting security pros from across the UK to sign up to work with its experts on an intelligence-sharing initiative

• January 17, 2024 17 Jan'24

  Victims of 2023 Capita data breaches head to High Court

  More than 5,000 people impacted by data breaches arising from two cyber incidents affecting outsourcer Capita have joined a group action lawsuit

• January 17, 2024 17 Jan'24

  Singapore proposes governance framework for generative AI

  AI Verify Foundation and Infocomm Media Development Authority have proposed a governance framework for generative AI to address the risks and concerns about the emerging technology

• January 16, 2024 16 Jan'24

  Legal cases question IP in large language model training

  Should the providers of commercial large language models licence content from content creators? The New York Times and Getty Images think so

• January 16, 2024 16 Jan'24

  Kaspersky shares Pegasus spyware-hunting tool

  Kaspersky has developed a way of easily exposing the presence of Pegasus spyware on iOS devices and believes its methodology may also help users identify other such surveillance malware

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  British Library catalogues back online after ransomware attack

  The British Library has restored online access to its main catalogue of nearly 40 million items on a limited basis as it continues the long and arduous process of recovering from a ransomware attack

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  AI likely to worsen economic inequality, says IMF

  While artificial intelligence will replace some jobs and complement others, the International Monetary Fund says that, in most of the scenarios it envisages, the technology will likely deepen macro-economic inequalities

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  Cosmetics retailer Lush dealing with mystery cyber incident

  Cosmetics retailer Lush confirms it’s investigating a cyber attack of an undisclosed nature, but key public-facing systems appear to be unaffected

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  How legal disclosure failures disrupted the Post Office Horizon inquiry

  From overly narrow search terms, overzealous deduplication of documents and failed email migrations, poor management of legal discovery has delayed justice for postmasters in the Horizon inquiry  

• January 12, 2024 12 Jan'24

  UK government seeks public views on impacts of AI-generated porn

  The government’s Pornography Review will look in part at the use of AI throughout the industry to generate sexually explicit content without people’s consent

• January 10, 2024 10 Jan'24

  Davos 2024: AI-generated disinformation poses threat to elections, says World Economic Forum

  Disinformation and misinformation are the top risks facing businesses, governments and the public over the next two years

• January 10, 2024 10 Jan'24

  SEC social media hack highlights value of MFA

  The US SEC briefly appeared to approve new bitcoin trading rules after a social media account was targeted by troublemakers, proving the value of MFA once again

• January 10, 2024 10 Jan'24

  How Fujitsu became a central part of the Post Office scandal

  As a TV drama brings the Post Office scandal to a wider audience, many are wondering how and why a Japanese IT company became embroiled in the story – we examine the troubled history behind Fujitsu’s role

• January 10, 2024 10 Jan'24

  Scotland ‘sleepwalking’ to mass surveillance with DPDI Bill

  The independent checks and balances over biometrics and biometric-enabled surveillance must be strengthened to prevent Scotland from sliding into a surveillance state along with the rest of the UK

• January 09, 2024 09 Jan'24

  Babuk Tortilla ransomware decryptor made available

  A joint effort between Cisco Talos, Avast and the Dutch police will bring relief to many victims of a variant of the Babuk ransomware known as Tortilla

• January 09, 2024 09 Jan'24

  Study reveals cyber risks to US elections

  With the 2024 US presidential election cycle beginning, a study produced by Arctic Wolf has highlighted big gaps in preparedness and resourcing at government bodies across the US

• January 08, 2024 08 Jan'24

  British Library ransomware attack could cost up to £7m

  The cost of recovering the British Library’s ransomware-stricken IT systems could be up to £7m, it has emerged

• January 07, 2024 07 Jan'24

  India firms warm to responsible AI

  Almost two-thirds of organisations said their responsible AI practices and policies were mature or they had taken steps towards responsible AI adoption, according to a Nasscom study

• January 05, 2024 05 Jan'24

  Information Commissioner questions DWP plan to monitor bank accounts of benefit claimants

  The Information Commissioner has warned that legislation to give new powers to the Department of Work and Pensions to check bank accounts of benefit claimants for indications of fraud lacks appropriate safeguards

• January 02, 2024 02 Jan'24

  China’s UNC4841 pivots to new Barracuda ESG zero-day

  The Chinese state threat actor behind a series of cyber attacks on Barracuda Networks customers embarked on a campaign targeting the supplier’s email security products in the run-up to Christmas

• December 29, 2023 29 Dec'23

  Top 10 AI regulation stories of 2023

  From the UK government’s publication of its long-awaited AI whitepaper to its convening of the world’s first AI Safety Summit, here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 AI regulation stories of 2023