News

IT governance

• November 22, 2021 22 Nov'21

  Upcoming holidays prompt ransomware warning from authorities

  Ransomware gangs know how calendars work, and may target their attacks around major holidays to take advantage of more people being off work, according to a new alert

• November 22, 2021 22 Nov'21

  Black Friday cyber warning for 4,000 card-skimming victims

  NCSC warns thousands of small retailers that their websites are being exploited to steal customer data

• November 19, 2021 19 Nov'21

  Why is Emotet back, and should we be worried about it?

  The sudden reappearance of Emotet this week has security teams on high alert, but do we need to be worried about its return, and what should we be doing about it?

• November 19, 2021 19 Nov'21

  UK government announces safety tech challenge fund winners

  The Safety Tech Challenge Fund winners will now develop technologies to limit the spread of child abuse material in encrypted environments, which the government has claimed will not be repurposed for other uses

• November 19, 2021 19 Nov'21

  GCHQ, NSA chiefs recommit to counter cyber threats

  UK and US intelligence services reaffirm a joint commitment to disrupt and deter new and emerging cyber threats

• November 18, 2021 18 Nov'21

  UK government enshrines law to strip out ‘high-risk’ suppliers’ tech from networks

  UK Telecommunications (Security) Act receives Royal Assent, mandating stronger legal duties on telecoms firms to protect the UK’s networks and giving the government new powers to control use of high-risk suppliers

• November 18, 2021 18 Nov'21

  Memento ransomware gang quick to retool for ‘optimum’ outcome

  The operators of a new ransomware called Memento are quick to retool for ‘success’ if they run up against a competent defender, says Sophos

• November 18, 2021 18 Nov'21

  Sky ECC provided free cryptophones to a Canadian police force

  Internal emails disclosed in a US court show how Sky Global supplied sample encrypted phones to a Canadian police force before its phone users became subject to an international police investigation

• November 18, 2021 18 Nov'21

  AstraZeneca looks at the bigger picture in enterprise social media

  How do you work with people in different time zones and from different cultures and what happens when people leave the company?

• November 18, 2021 18 Nov'21

  Cryptophone supplier Sky Global takes legal action over US government website seizures

  Canadian tech company Sky Global has filed a legal motion claiming that the US government unlawfully seized the company’s internet sites following police investigations into the use of its cryptophones by organised crime

• November 17, 2021 17 Nov'21

  Security startups line up on Cyber Runway

  Some 108 cyber security startups representing the UK’s most cutting-edge innovators are to join Plexal’s Cyber Runway accelerator

• November 17, 2021 17 Nov'21

  Zero-days: The next element of the service-based cyber economy?

  Digital Shadows researchers have reported on the emergence of zero-days as a service, which could be the next big thing in the cyber criminal underworld

• November 17, 2021 17 Nov'21

  GovTech to enhance Government on Commercial Cloud

  GCC 2.0 will include improvements in user onboarding and provide single credential access to public cloud services and engineering tools, among other areas

• November 16, 2021 16 Nov'21

  One-fifth of NCSC-supported cyber incidents linked to Covid-19

  National Cyber Security Centre has helped to thwart multiple cyber incidents that could have seriously disrupted the UK’s response to the pandemic

• November 15, 2021 15 Nov'21

  UK government proposes new rules for digital supply chain security

  Proposals could see IT service providers legally required to adhere to the NCSC’s Cyber Assessment Framework, among other things

• November 12, 2021 12 Nov'21

  New law needed to rein in AI-powered workplace surveillance

  MPs and peers call for new legislation to regulate the growing use of artificial intelligence in the workplace, which is being used to surveil workers’ performance and behaviour

• November 12, 2021 12 Nov'21

  Oversight of biometrics and surveillance should not go to ICO

  Biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner Fraser Sampson has panned the UK government’s proposed plan to absorb the functions of those roles under the remit of the information commissioner

• November 12, 2021 12 Nov'21

  BT applies Covid-19 R number modelling to threat response

  A prototype cyber security tool developed at BT uses epidemiological principles to detect and respond to cyber threats

• November 11, 2021 11 Nov'21

  HPE’s Aruba networking unit hit by cyber attack

  Undisclosed threat actor compromised data buckets used to run the Aruba Central cloud environment using a stolen access key

• November 11, 2021 11 Nov'21

  Finance ombudsman overturns more than three-quarters of bank decisions on APP fraud

  The financial services ombudsman is siding with customers in over 75% of complaints against banks that refuse to repay losses to authorised push payment fraud

• November 11, 2021 11 Nov'21

  Scale of crime-as-a-service economy a growing concern, say researchers

  The cyber criminal underground continues its evolution towards a service-based economy

• November 11, 2021 11 Nov'21

  Bank of England loses 161 computing devices in three years

  Bank cannot account for phones, laptops and tablets that have gone missing over the past three years

• November 11, 2021 11 Nov'21

  Lloyd v Google Supreme Court verdict brings end to privacy class actions against big tech in UK

  A ruling by the Supreme Court has left it financially unviable for individuals to bring class actions in the UK against big tech companies for privacy breaches

• November 10, 2021 10 Nov'21

  November Patch Tuesday drop fixes bugs in Excel, Exchange Server

  Another relatively light Patch Tuesday drop from Microsoft addresses 55 vulnerabilities, two of them already being exploited

• November 10, 2021 10 Nov'21

  EU artificial intelligence regulation risks undermining social safety net

  Europe’s proposed artificial intelligence regulation will not adequately protect people from European governments' increasing use of the technology in social security decisions and resource allocation, says Human Rights Watch

• November 09, 2021 09 Nov'21

  Yoti develops age estimation algorithm for under-13s

  Age estimation technology developed by Yoti is being pitched as a way of helping social media platforms and other online businesses protect younger internet users from harm

• November 09, 2021 09 Nov'21

  Blockchain technology will help banks will cut cross-border payment costs by $10bn in 2030

  The use of blockchain technology in cross-border payments will save global banks $10bn in 2030, according to research

• November 09, 2021 09 Nov'21

  US seeks to extradite REvil affiliate who attacked Kaseya

  US Department of Justice unseals charges against a Ukrainian national accused of being behind the summer 2021 REvil ransomware attack on Kaseya

• November 08, 2021 08 Nov'21

  REvil associates arrested in international ransomware crackdown

  Two individuals suspected of conducting 5,000 REvil ransomware attacks were arrested by Romanian police last week as an international crackdown on the crime gang gathers pace

• November 08, 2021 08 Nov'21

  Gig economy workforce nearly trebles over five years

  Over four million people in England and Wales now work for gig economy platforms at least once a week, marking a nearly threefold increase since 2016

• November 08, 2021 08 Nov'21

  How cosmetics retailer Lush made over its approach to authentication

  Evolving approaches to IT at cosmetics retailer Lush meant the organisation’s previous approach to authentication was no longer up to scratch. Find out how it overcame this hurdle

• November 05, 2021 05 Nov'21

  Digital secretary calls for permanent online safety committee

  Digital secretary commits to establishing ongoing oversight of the Online Safety Bill and its implementation, and suggests the grace period on criminal liability for tech company execs should be shortened from two years to a maximum of six months ...

• November 05, 2021 05 Nov'21

  US offers $10m reward for intel on DarkSide ransomware gang

  US government puts up a $10m reward for information on the DarkSide ransomware gang, the group that attacked Colonial Pipeline six months ago

• November 03, 2021 03 Nov'21

  Spyware firm NSO and others added to US banned Entity List

  US government bans target Israeli spyware makers and cyber firms in Russia and Singapore

• November 03, 2021 03 Nov'21

  Facebook self-imposes facial recognition moratorium

  Facebook and Meta have committed to halting their use of facial recognition technology and deleting the biometric data of more than a billion people by the end of 2021, but will retain the underlying algorithms and software for potential use in ...

• November 03, 2021 03 Nov'21

  UK’s Labour Party hit by third-party data breach

  Data on Labour Party members was recently compromised in an apparent cyber attack on a third-party data processor

• November 02, 2021 02 Nov'21

  Convicted Silk Road admin stripped of £500k in crypto earnings

  Jailed Silk Road administrator Thomas White, aka Cthulhu, has been ordered to hand over more than £490,000 of illicit earnings

• November 01, 2021 01 Nov'21

  Businesses and governments urged to take action over Trojan Source supply chain attacks

  Businesses and governments have been put on alert to guard against Trojan Source hacking attacks

• November 01, 2021 01 Nov'21

  MPs and Lords grill Facebook over online safety efforts

  Facebook answers British lawmakers’ questions about the social media giant’s efforts to ensure the safety of its users, as part of legislative security of the government's proposed online safety bill

• October 28, 2021 28 Oct'21

  Illegal state surveillance in Africa ‘carried out with impunity’

  Analysis of surveillance laws and practices in six African countries finds that existing privacy laws are failing to protect citizens from illegal digital surveillance, which is being facilitated and enabled by global tech companies

• October 28, 2021 28 Oct'21

  How ransomware crews pile on the pressure to get victims to pay

  Sophos researchers share some of the more common tactics ransomware gangs use to pressurise their victims into paying up

• October 27, 2021 27 Oct'21

  Government commits millions to security investment

  Spending Review adds more than £750m of funding to improve cyber security resilience across government

• October 27, 2021 27 Oct'21

  Cyber sector growth exacerbating skills shortage

  Data from security association (ISC)² shows demand for cyber pros is still outpacing supply as the sector continues an upward growth trajectory

• October 27, 2021 27 Oct'21

  Russian IT market growing steadily after pandemic

  Russia’s enterprise IT sector is recovering steadily after a slowdown caused by Covid-19

• October 26, 2021 26 Oct'21

  Cyber experts on how to nobble a Nobelium attack

  A recent spate of attempted Nobelium cyber attacks were mostly unsuccessful, but serve as a reminder to pay attention to some more fundamental aspects of security

• October 22, 2021 22 Oct'21

  MEPs vote to expand Europol data mandate

  The European Parliament has voted in favour of expanding Europol’s mandate to process data and develop AI tools, but critics claim it contradicts a previous vote which opposed using new technologies to predict crime

• October 21, 2021 21 Oct'21

  German regulator imposes limit on number of new customers digital bank can sign each month

  BaFin limits the number of new customers that digital bank N26 can enrol until it is reassured on issues it has raised about the company

• October 20, 2021 20 Oct'21

  Police IT buyers should compel suppliers to prove AI claims

  House of Lords told that UK law enforcement bodies should use their position as buyers to compel private sector suppliers to divulge more information about how their AI-powered technologies work

• October 18, 2021 18 Oct'21

  How Samlesbury, Lancashire became the home of the National Cyber Force

  The National Cyber Force, a new branch of the military, is gearing up to fight battles in cyber space from the fields of Lancashire. Its presence is expected to bring a high-tech renaissance to the region

• October 14, 2021 14 Oct'21

  NHS Digital enhances in-house cyber awareness drive

  Keep IT Confidential campaign aims to help NHS staff understand more about security threats and learn how to reduce risk