News

IT governance

June 19, 2020 19 Jun'20
Technology firms come under scrutiny for ties to law enforcement

Three major technology companies have committed to not selling facial-recognition tech to law enforcement, but remain silent on how other technologies can be used to fuel racial injustice and discriminatory policing
June 19, 2020 19 Jun'20
AI bias and privacy issues require more than clever tech

The new AI Barometer report from the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation has assessed the threats and opportunities of artificial intelligence in the UK
June 19, 2020 19 Jun'20
Facebook allows US users to disable political ads

Users of the social media platform will soon be able to opt out of seeing politically motivated posts
June 18, 2020 18 Jun'20
Zoom U-turns on end-to-end encryption

Embattled video-conferencing provider Zoom backtracks on previous refusals to provide end-to-end encryption to free users

June 17, 2020 17 Jun'20
Cosmetics company Avon offline after cyber attack

Representatives left unable to place orders after company’s back-end systems went offline over a week ago
June 17, 2020 17 Jun'20
Coronavirus: 50% of security pros had no pandemic contingency plan

A survey of security professionals conducted on behalf of Bitdefender reveals the lack of forward planning for events such as the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic
June 16, 2020 16 Jun'20
UK-US data deal puts Brexit data adequacy pact at risk

European Data Protection Board writes to MEPs saying the UK is at risk of failing to strike a post-Brexit data adequacy accord if its data protection agreements with the US don’t strike the right note
June 16, 2020 16 Jun'20
Activists call on Zoom to implement encryption for all

A coalition of tech organisations and nonprofits have urged Zoom CEO Eric Yuan to make end-to-end encryption available to all users
June 12, 2020 12 Jun'20
NHS email service users ensnared in phishing attack

More than 100 accounts on the NHSmail service were affected by attack, but health service says no patient data was accessed
June 12, 2020 12 Jun'20
Subpostmasters will not cooperate with government review into IT scandal

A group of subpostmasters who suffered at the hands of the Post Office’s error-prone IT system refuse to participate in a government review into the scandal, describing it as a sham

June 11, 2020 11 Jun'20
Tech firms respond to Nordic government calls

Nordic firms are working with tech suppliers to help them get back up and running after Covid-19
June 11, 2020 11 Jun'20
Amazon bans police use of its facial-recognition technology for a year

Tech giant claims it has been an advocate for stronger government regulation on the ethical use of facial recognition
June 10, 2020 10 Jun'20
IBM divests from facial-recognition market

IBM’s CEO writes to US congress about decision to stop using and selling facial-recognition technology, and says we should re-evaluate whether it should be sold to law enforcement agencies
June 10, 2020 10 Jun'20
CogX 2020: Matt Hancock on tech during Covid-19

Health secretary Matt Hancock says technology companies have been vital in dealing with the pandemic, and praises UK for testing more people “than almost anywhere in the world.”
June 10, 2020 10 Jun'20
CogX 2020: Rethinking technological innovation

Innovation processes and relationships must be fundamentally restructured to bring in more stakeholders, and spread the benefits of technological change as far as possible
June 10, 2020 10 Jun'20
Virtual GP practice accidentally exposes patient video calls

A small number of users of Babylon’s GP at Hand service were briefly able to view other patients’ video GP consultations thanks to a bug in a new software feature
June 10, 2020 10 Jun'20
Nasty surprises lurking in furloughed employees’ inboxes

Research conducted by KnowBe4 points to a looming email security problem as furloughed employees head back to work
June 09, 2020 09 Jun'20
Cyber security needs more women role models, says report

A report compiled by security assurance organisation Crest highlights the progress made on gender diversity in cyber security, and offers pointers for next steps
June 05, 2020 05 Jun'20
Police chiefs working with Public Health England on contact-tracing security

Police force representatives are in talks with Public Health England over operational security concerns arising from the NHS Test and Trace coronavirus contact-tracing scheme
June 05, 2020 05 Jun'20
Ministry of Defence forms new cyber security regiment

The 13th Signal Regiment brings together personnel from across the armed forces to provide specialist security services
June 04, 2020 04 Jun'20
Government evades being pinned to a date for online harms legislation

MPs challenge government on online harms bill timetable, but have to settle for “clear assurances” that it will brought to parliament before the end of the session
June 04, 2020 04 Jun'20
The Security Interviews: How the BSI protects the IoT from itself

David Mudd of the BSI reveals how a pragmatic and realistic approach to security vulnerabilities underpins its internet of things kitemark, helping give users the confidence to buy smart devices safely
June 04, 2020 04 Jun'20
Malaysian minister backtracks on spectrum allocation decision

Amid reports of a surreptitious decision to allocate spectrum to five Malaysian operators, the communications minister rescinds his own order, calling for a more transparent review of the allocation process
June 03, 2020 03 Jun'20
Security procurement framework goes live for NHS and public sector

Cyber Security Services Framework, developed by NHS Shared Business Services, has formally launched
June 03, 2020 03 Jun'20
Infosec 2020: Covid-19 an opportunity to change security thinking

The annual Infosecurity Europe is being held virtually this year, and speakers at an online panel session have been considering the impact of the pandemic on security awareness
June 02, 2020 02 Jun'20
NIS security regulations proving effective, but more work to do

The UK’s NIS cyber security and risk regulations are proving somewhat effective, according to a government report
June 01, 2020 01 Jun'20
Employees must be consulted on technologies monitoring the return to work

Experts say the workforce must be ‘in the room’ and given a meaningful say about technologies introduced to monitor their return to work following the Covid-19 pandemic
June 01, 2020 01 Jun'20
Privacy campaigners call for radical changes to contact-tracing app

Liberty, Privacy International and the Open Rights Group join calls for the government to either put in place better data protection policies or abandon its Covid-19 contact-tracing app altogether
May 29, 2020 29 May'20
Test and Trace has not passed data protection impact assessment

Public Health England failed to complete the required impact assessment before launching the Covid-19 Test and Trace programme
May 28, 2020 28 May'20
European General Court annuls ban on proposed Three UK/O2 merger

Court reverses European Commission judgment blocking 2016 purchase of leading UK mobile providers
May 28, 2020 28 May'20
IoT buyers eye private network deployments for added security

Fully private, segregated networks for IoT deployments are becoming increasingly attractive to many organisations, according to a report
May 27, 2020 27 May'20
BCS calls for computer coding in scientific research to be more professional

BCS position paper finds the software coding practices of non-computer-science scientists to be insufficiently professional
May 27, 2020 27 May'20
Hospital uses robots to manage air supply to patients

Northampton General Hospital deploys automation to ensure oxygen is always available as demand increases amid Covid-19 crisis
May 27, 2020 27 May'20
Enterprise clouds hammered by cyber attacks during pandemic

Remote workers logging onto enterprise cloud service accounts are an easy access point for attackers, says McAfee
May 26, 2020 26 May'20
Max Schrems accuses Ireland of ‘Kafkaesque’ delay in Facebook GDPR investigation

Privacy campaigner Max Schrems has urged the European Commission to intervene after the Irish Data Protection Commission allegedly used ‘Kafkaesque’ tactics to delay investigations into Facebook’s compliance with GDPR
May 26, 2020 26 May'20
The Security Interviews: Temper tantrums ahead as GDPR enters its terrible twos?

On the General Data Protection Regulation’s second birthday, Tim Hickman, a data protection lawyer and partner at White & Case LLP, discusses the regulation’s teething troubles and assesses how best to maintain optimum compliance
May 22, 2020 22 May'20
EasyJet to be sued over customer data breach

If successful, airline’s potential liability for the loss of millions of customer records could be as high as £18bn
May 22, 2020 22 May'20
Hancock to Harman: No contact-tracing privacy law

Health secretary claims existing data protection law is good enough to guarantee the security of contact-tracing data
May 21, 2020 21 May'20
UK government spent over £50m on digital response to Covid-19 pandemic

NAO report outlines public spending on responding to the coronavirus crisis, which also includes a £1.2bn hit from delaying controversial IR35 tax reforms
May 20, 2020 20 May'20
Build 2020: How Microsoft aims to build trust in artificial intelligence

Microsoft has outlined its toolset for making AI models explainable with the InterpretML and AboutML tools
May 20, 2020 20 May'20
Serco exposes contact tracers’ data in email error

Error saw almost 300 coronavirus contact tracers’ email addresses made visible to other recipients of the message
May 19, 2020 19 May'20
Microsoft Build 2020: Focus on protecting data for AI development

Microsoft Build is always a vital event for developers across the IT industry. This year, Microsoft has expanded its AI emphasis
May 19, 2020 19 May'20
Cancelled NCSC CyberUK event gets green light for 2021

The NCSC’s popular CyberUK event has been rescheduled to next year, and will again take place in Newport in south Wales
May 19, 2020 19 May'20
GDPR wholly inappropriate to govern contact-tracing data

Human Rights Committee Chair Harriet Harman says current data protection law is not up to the job of governing the data collected by the Covid-19 contact-tracing app
May 19, 2020 19 May'20
Nine million EasyJet customer details lost in data breach

Cyber attack on EasyJet’s systems originated from a highly sophisticated source, says the airline
May 19, 2020 19 May'20
NHS trusts sign up to automation app store

Healthcare trusts extend relationships with automation supplier through access to a cloud-based marketplace of pre-baked automation
May 18, 2020 18 May'20
Privacy advocates demand clarity over Covid-19 datastore

Government and NHS face questions about the involvement of private technology companies with coronavirus datastore
May 15, 2020 15 May'20
Law firm hackers threaten to release dirt on Trump

A new ransom demand of $42m has been made against New York law firm Grubman, Shire, Meiselas and Sacks, and it may be the largest ever, say security experts
May 14, 2020 14 May'20
Harman seeks to bring private member’s bill over contact tracing

Chair of Human Rights Committee aims to put the proposed Contact Tracing (Data Protection) Bill 2020 before parliament as a private member’s bill if necessary
May 14, 2020 14 May'20
Deutsche Bank’s planned tech spend unaffected by global crisis

Deutsche bank is driving on with its ambitious IT investment plans, with the Covid-19 pandemic, if anything, adding fuel to it