News

IT legislation and regulation

• May 18, 2021 18 May'21

  Irish High Court dismisses legal bid by Facebook over EU-US data transfers

  Latest twist in long-running legal battle sees Facebook lose legal bid to prevent the Irish Data Protection Commissioner suspending its transfer of data about European citizens to the US

• May 17, 2021 17 May'21

  IR35 reforms: Government gifted roadmap to umbrella regulation by ex-senior policy adviser

  Rebecca Seeley Harris, a former senior policy adviser to the Office of Tax Simplification, has joined forces with Offpayroll.org founder James Poyser to pen a draft policy to help the government fast-track its umbrella market regulation plans

• May 14, 2021 14 May'21

  Dutch police used deep learning model to predict threats to life

  Dutch police developed a deep learning model in their EncroChat investigation to predict which messages contain serious threats to life

• May 13, 2021 13 May'21

  Too many disconnected systems in government, says minister

  Cabinet Office minister Julia Lopez wants to address issues with legacy systems, improve digital skills across government and improve department collaboration, including in procurement

• May 13, 2021 13 May'21

  Biden beefs up public-private security cooperation

  Joe Biden has signed a new Executive Order to harden US cyber security and government networks, with an emphasis on information sharing

• May 13, 2021 13 May'21

  Verizon DBIR underscores year of unprecedented cyber challenge

  Verizon 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report draws predictable conclusions as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic continues to be felt

• May 12, 2021 12 May'21

  UK government publishes Online Safety Bill draft

  Bill builds on previous commitments by the government, which has added new measures to uphold democracy and freedom of speech while making tech giants more accountable

• May 12, 2021 12 May'21

  Openreach extends analogue switch-off to further 700,000 homes and businesses

  UK broadband provider ramps up the pace of its plan to stop selling copper-based broadband and traditional voice services across the UK by 2025

• May 12, 2021 12 May'21

  UK to fund national cyber teams in Global South

  Government will commit millions of pounds to supporting vulnerable countries in establishing cyber capacity

• May 11, 2021 11 May'21

  Government to reform Computer Misuse Act

  Home secretary Priti Patel will explore reforming the Computer Misuse Act as calls mount for the 31-year-old law to be updated to reflect the changed online world

• May 11, 2021 11 May'21

  SolarWinds CEO calls for collective action against state attacks

  SolarWinds CEO tells NCSC’s CyberUK conference he is exploring the possibility of collaborating with other companies on collective cyber action against attacks backed by nation states

• May 11, 2021 11 May'21

  Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack has grave consequences

  The ramifications of a major ransomware attack against a US fuel pipeline operator could spread far and wide

• May 10, 2021 10 May'21

  HMRC facing calls to do more to tackle mini umbrella fraud in wake of BBC investigation

  Contracting stakeholders are calling on HMRC to take more ‘visible action’ against mini umbrella companies, after a BBC Radio 4 File on 4 report claimed the UK is losing ‘hundreds of millions’ in tax each year through these firms

• May 10, 2021 10 May'21

  NCSC Active Cyber Defence blocks surge of pandemic scams

  The NCSC responded to a surge in online scams last year as it moved to protect both the general public and critical national services during the pandemic

• May 07, 2021 07 May'21

  NCSC publishes smart city security guidelines

  Guidance for local authorities, IT and cyber professionals aims to ensure the security of connected, smart city projects

• May 07, 2021 07 May'21

  Cyber accreditation to improve legal standing of security pros

  Institute of Cyber Digital Investigations Professionals will help incident responders and cyber investigators get the professional recognition they deserve

• May 06, 2021 06 May'21

  Government urged to add scam protections to Online Safety Bill

  Group of organisations calls for the government to use the Online Safety Bill to protect people from cyber scams

• May 06, 2021 06 May'21

  Scammers accidentally reveal fake Amazon review data

  More than 13 million records relating to an organised fake review scam have been found on an unsecured ElasticSearch database, implicating hundreds of thousands of people in unethical behaviour

• May 05, 2021 05 May'21

  Why ITAM can aid IT-fuelled business recovery

  As a sense of normality returns, we look at why IT asset management is the stealth tool for clearing a path towards greater digitisation

• April 30, 2021 30 Apr'21

  MPs accuse government of unduly interfering in information commissioner appointment

  Cross-party group of MPs says government is influencing the appointment of a new information commissioner by explicitly seeking a candidate who will support its policy agenda, rather than regulate independently

• April 30, 2021 30 Apr'21

  Government gets updated powers to intervene on tech-related M&A deals on national security grounds

  The National Security and Investment Bill has secured royal assent, giving the government the legislative support it needs to intervene on business transactions in a variety of tech-related industries on national security grounds

• April 29, 2021 29 Apr'21

  G7 countries to cooperate on digital regulation

  Digital and technology ministers outline their agenda for how technology can be used to facilitate the post-Covid recovery, signalling closer collaboration in key areas of the digital economy

• April 28, 2021 28 Apr'21

  Covid-19 security challenges leave bank customers at risk

  Challenges arising from the pandemic have left gaping holes in banking security, putting consumers at risk of fraud

• April 28, 2021 28 Apr'21

  NHS App to serve as vaccine passport for foreign holidays

  Existing NHS App will have vaccine passport functionality added to it, transport secretary confirms

• April 27, 2021 27 Apr'21

  UK supermarkets to trial age estimation tech for alcohol purchases

  Biometric age estimation technology developed by Yoti to be tested in UK supermarkets for alcohol purchases as part of government-led digital identities initiative

• April 27, 2021 27 Apr'21

  Apple OS updates patch multiple security holes

  The much-heralded release of the privacy-centric iOS 14.5 also brings patches for multiple CVEs, and users of Apple smartphones, tablets and notebooks are best advised to update as soon as possible

• April 23, 2021 23 Apr'21

  HMRC downplays significance of CEO email ‘questioning’ legal basis of loan charge policy

  A document dump of emails shared between HMRC officials has prompted loan charge campaigners to further question the legal footing of the government’s controversial disguised remuneration policy

• April 22, 2021 22 Apr'21

  GCHQ: Cyber investment a guarantor of UK’s global status

  GCHQ director Jeremy Fleming sets out a vision for the UK’s cyber security future

• April 22, 2021 22 Apr'21

  Researchers shed more light on APT29 activity during SolarWinds attack

  RiskIQ’s Atlas threat intel team uncovers new patterns and threat infrastructure used in the SolarWind’s attacks

• April 21, 2021 21 Apr'21

  NCSC offers teachers free cyber security training

  The NCSC’s latest security training offer builds on a package of measures designed to protect schools from cyber attack

• April 21, 2021 21 Apr'21

  EU lays out plans to regulate AI development

  Proposal aims to encourage the development of ethical artificial intelligence systems that do not infringe the human rights of EU citizens

• April 20, 2021 20 Apr'21

  Health app myGP adds Covid-19 vaccine passport function

  The new feature is described as the UK’s first NHS-assured Covid-19 certification feature

• April 20, 2021 20 Apr'21

  UK’s proposed IoT cyber security law gathers momentum

  New statistics appear to vindicate UK government proposals to force suppliers to be upfront about IoT security

• April 15, 2021 15 Apr'21

  Biden sanctions Russia over SolarWinds cyber attacks

  US president imposes new sanctions on Russia following malicious cyber attacks against the US and allies

• April 15, 2021 15 Apr'21

  Ireland’s DPC launches probe into Facebook leak

  The Irish Data Protection Commission has launched an ‘own volition’ inquiry into the leak of data from 500 million Facebook profiles

• April 14, 2021 14 Apr'21

  CMA provisionally clears merger of Virgin and O2

  Six months after being requested to review joint venture that could transform UK’s wired and wireless communications provision, UK competition watchdog CMA removes potential major hurdle to Virgin and O2 merger

• April 14, 2021 14 Apr'21

  FBI accesses ProxyLogon target servers to disrupt cyber criminals

  US Justice Department reveals successful court-authorised effort to clamp down on ProxyLogon exploitation

• April 14, 2021 14 Apr'21

  Remote workers largely supportive of a UK right to disconnect

  The introduction of a “right to disconnect” in the UK is popular among workers and has backing from trade unions

• April 14, 2021 14 Apr'21

  EU set to tilt AI balance in favour of citizen rights

  New draft EU regulations aim to protect people from biased decision-making

• April 13, 2021 13 Apr'21

  EncroChat lawyers raise questions over use of PII secrecy orders on UK decryption capabilities

  Lawyers claim that public interest immunity certificates may have been used to withhold information on UK intelligence agencies’ ability to decrypt encrypted communications

• April 09, 2021 09 Apr'21

  Egypt, Italy and US most affected in Facebook leak

  Researchers at VPN firm Surfshark have been analysing data on 533 million people leaked from Facebook

• April 09, 2021 09 Apr'21

  Loan Charge Group MPs demand IR35 shake-up to stop contractors becoming ‘zero-rights employees’

  Inquiry by Loan Charge All-Party Parliamentary Group calls on government to tweak IR35 legislation during passage of next Finance Bill

• April 08, 2021 08 Apr'21

  Nation-state cyber attacks double in three years

  Cyber attacks backed by nation states are becoming more frequent and varied, moving the world closer to a point of ‘advanced cyber-conflict’, according to a University of Surrey research project

• April 07, 2021 07 Apr'21

  Facebook ducks calls to apologise over huge data leak

  Facebook gives its side of the story as data on millions of its users leaks, but is yet to apologise for security lapses that put half a billion people at risk of compromise

• April 07, 2021 07 Apr'21

  Digital Markets Unit starts work on codes of conduct for tech giants

  Digital markets regulator officially launched to ensure tech giants such as Facebook and Google cannot exploit their market dominance to crowd out competition and stifle innovation online

• April 07, 2021 07 Apr'21

  Irish employees’ ‘right to disconnect’ enshrined in code of practice

  A code of practice giving employees the ‘right to disconnect’ from work and not engage in electronic communications outside of their normal hours has come into effect in Ireland

• April 06, 2021 06 Apr'21

  Facebook data leak could be outside scope of GDPR

  Regulators may be unable to do much about leaked data on 533 million Facebook users, as it seems to have been stolen before GDPR came into force

• April 06, 2021 06 Apr'21

  US court issues Google API with Java ruling

  US Supreme Court rules that specifying an API function call to enable third-party developers to access functionality should not be copyrighted

• April 06, 2021 06 Apr'21

  IR35 reforms: Private sector start date prompts mixed picture of predictions for contracting market

  The IR35 tax avoidance reforms take hold in the private sector, prompting a mixed picture of predictions from stakeholders about what the future holds for contractors in the UK

• April 01, 2021 01 Apr'21

  Clearer service information could add 1.6 million full-fibre homes by 2025

  Report finds that the speed at which Britain could benefit from the economic and social impact of billions of pounds of full-fibre infrastructure investment could be improved by clear labelling and information on broadband services