News

IT legislation and regulation

• January 04, 2021 04 Jan'21

  Journalists’ FOI bids stayed as court reconsiders freedom of information rights of people outside UK

  Tribunal questions whether people without a British passport or Britons living overseas are eligible to use the UK’s Freedom of Information Act

• December 31, 2020 31 Dec'20

  Top 10 investigations and national security stories of 2020

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 investigations and national security stories of 2020

• December 31, 2020 31 Dec'20

  Top 10 technology and ethics stories of 2020

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 technology and ethics stories of 2020

• December 30, 2020 30 Dec'20

  UK-EU Brexit deal passes Commons with six-month data adequacy bridge

  IT industry trade body TechUK has welcomed a six-month data adequacy bridge, in the wake of the EU-UK trade deal that the House of Commons has voted for

• December 30, 2020 30 Dec'20

  Top 10 Benelux IT stories of 2020

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 Benelux IT stories of 2020

• December 24, 2020 24 Dec'20

  Top 10 Middle East stories of 2020

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 Middle East stories of 2020

• December 22, 2020 22 Dec'20

  Ministry of Justice in the dock for catalogue of serious data breaches

  Annual report reveals major incidents of personal data loss affecting 121,355 people and including misplaced, unencrypted USB stick containing documents from a trial, accidental disclosure of identities, and staff files made visible to ...

• December 21, 2020 21 Dec'20

  Nordic CIO interview: Åsa Melvanius, Lund municipality

  For Åsa Melvanius, CDO at the Swedish municipality of Lund, created a “robot factory” that has saved the city more than 6,500 hours by automating routine processes

• December 21, 2020 21 Dec'20

  Top 10 enterprise IT in the Nordics stories of 2020

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 Nordic enterprise IT stories of 2020

• December 18, 2020 18 Dec'20

  SolarWinds cyber attack is ‘grave risk’ to global security

  More victims of the SolarWinds Orion Sunburst cyber attack are being identified as the massive scale of the Russia-linked cyber espionage campaign becomes more clear

• December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20

  Post Office suffers latest court defeat in Horizon IT scandal

  Court of Appeal indicates subpostmasters can pursue appeal route that could do more damage to Post Office’s reputation

• December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20

  EU security strategy a ‘step up’ on cyber leadership, says Brussels

  The EU’s new cyber security strategy forms a key component of Shaping Europe’s Digital Future, the Recovery Plan for Europe, and the EU Security Union Strategy

• December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20

  UK police unlawfully processing over a million people’s data on Microsoft 365

  The roll-out of Microsoft 365 to dozens of UK police forces may be unlawful, because many have failed to conduct data protection checks before deployment and hold no information on their contracts

• December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20

  Danske Bank fights money laundering with AI

  Danske Bank is using artificial intelligence to help it prevent a repeat of the huge money laundering scandal that hit one of its operations in Estonia

• December 15, 2020 15 Dec'20

  UK government unveils details of upcoming online harms rules

  Online Harms Bill due early 2021 will introduce GDPR-style fines for technology companies that breach online duty of care rules

• December 15, 2020 15 Dec'20

  Air purifier manufacturer creates IoT service in the cloud

  Sweden’s Blueair introduces new functionality for customers through a cloud-based internet of things platform

• December 14, 2020 14 Dec'20

  FireEye identifies flaw in networking monitoring software as US agencies attacked

  Cyber security company says investigations have revealed security breach occurred because of a flaw in a network monitoring software

• December 14, 2020 14 Dec'20

  Digital Ethics Summit 2020: governance key to inclusive post-Covid economic recovery

  Pluralism key to developing and deploying technologies for an inclusive post-Covid economic recovery, according to a panel at Digital Ethics Summit 2020

• December 11, 2020 11 Dec'20

  HMRC data shows online IR35 status check tool does not return a result in nearly 20% of cases

  Figures released by HMRC to show how many times its online IR35 tax status checker tool has been used reveal shortcomings in its ability to reach a conclusion in nearly 20% of cases

• December 10, 2020 10 Dec'20

  French regulators fine Google and Amazon over cookie policies

  Google and Amazon rapped over their use of advertising cookies by the French data protection authorities

• December 10, 2020 10 Dec'20

  Cyber Helpline awarded lottery funding to support victims

  The Cyber Helpline, a UK charity that provides emergency support to victims of cyber crime and online stalking, is to receive funding from the National Lottery

• December 09, 2020 09 Dec'20

  Calls for Facebook break up as US issues lawsuits for anti-competitive behaviour

  Antitrust lawsuits issued by the US Federal Trade Commission and 48 attorneys general call for the breakup of Facebook following 10 years of anti-competitive behaviour

• December 07, 2020 07 Dec'20

  Met Police failed to clear backlog of subject access requests

  Metropolitan Police failed to comply fully with an enforcement notice issued by the Information Commissioner, and despite hundreds of overdue subject access requests the regulator did not take further action

• December 07, 2020 07 Dec'20

  HMRC referred 11 data security incidents to ICO in 2019-20

  HM Revenue & Customs shares details of a number of data security incidents that occurred during the 2019-20 financial year in its annual report

• December 04, 2020 04 Dec'20

  FTTH Council Europe slams misleading advertising for fibre networks

  Fibre broadband trade body study shows consumers are confused about marketing and performance of broadband-access technologies, recommending a ‘fibre-ready’ label should be introduced for new buildings and major renovations

• December 03, 2020 03 Dec'20

  Bank of England enlists development partner to unlock cloud

  Bank has agreed a two-year deal with a cloud development platform provider as it seeks to take its cloud journey to the next level

• December 03, 2020 03 Dec'20

  ICT disaster threatens Dutch environment law

  The Dutch government’s revamp of its construction planning law faces major IT challenges and scepticism

• December 03, 2020 03 Dec'20

  Tech and data key to achieving low-carbon economy, says Royal Society

  Report says net-zero transition should be data-led, and calls for coordination between government, regulators, industry and third sector

• December 01, 2020 01 Dec'20

  Government covers its ears as complaint by victims of Post Office abuse heads to ombudsman

  Government denies responsibility for the abuse inflicted on subpostmasters by the Post Office over faulty IT system

• November 27, 2020 27 Nov'20

  Lords propose making tech giants pay for using news

  Digital platforms such as Google and Facebook profit from running adverts alongside publishers’ content, but no financial compensation is given for carrying that content, says Lords committee

• November 27, 2020 27 Nov'20

  Algorithmic transparency obligations needed in public sector

  Public sector’s use of algorithms with social impacts needs to be more transparent to foster trust and hold organisations responsible for the negative outcomes their systems may produce, says report

• November 25, 2020 25 Nov'20

  Three cyber criminals arrested in Nigerian BEC investigation

  Prolific cyber criminal gang is thought to have compromised up to half a million victims since 2017

• November 25, 2020 25 Nov'20

  Merger of national policing systems over budget and behind schedule

  UK government effort to replace legacy IT systems suffers further delays, and will not be fully completed until 2025 at the earliest

• November 25, 2020 25 Nov'20

  Securing UK’s critical national infrastructure is a 2021 priority

  Government outlines the UK’s strategic cyber security policies for the coming 12 months, with critical national infrastructure a clear priority

• November 24, 2020 24 Nov'20

  Nominet introduces new resources for cyber scam victims

  Domain name registrar is working with law enforcement to provide new information, guidance and resources for potential victims of online scams

• November 23, 2020 23 Nov'20

  Telcos could face huge fines under new security laws

  Government boasts of unprecedented powers to boost the security standards of the UK’s critical national infrastructure

• November 23, 2020 23 Nov'20

  Manchester United praised for swift response to cyber attack

  Manchester United’s systems were attacked last week, and the club has been praised for a swift and decisive response

• November 20, 2020 20 Nov'20

  Pricing questions persist but Openreach overall observes Ofcom independence mandates

  UK communications regulator notes real progress made in implementing its requirements, but more is needed to be done to strengthen broadband provision division independence and engagement

• November 20, 2020 20 Nov'20

  Security pros fear prosecution under outdated UK laws

  CyberUp, a group of campaigners who want to reform the Computer Misuse Act, finds 80% of security professionals are concerned that they may be prosecuted just for doing their jobs

• November 18, 2020 18 Nov'20

  US cyber security chief fired for contradicting Trump

  CISA chief Chris Krebs ousted for doing his job fighting disinformation in an apparent purge of officials deemed disloyal to president Donald Trump

• November 17, 2020 17 Nov'20

  Automated image recognition: How using ‘free’ photos on the internet can lead to lawsuits and fines

  Germany-based photographer Marco Verch uses computer scripts to populate the internet with topical images and photographs. People and companies who make mistakes in following the complex licensing terms of his ‘free to share and adapt’ photographs ...

• November 16, 2020 16 Nov'20

  Privacy advocates call for European probe into Palantir

  Dutch group SOMI is trying to raise awareness of Palantir’s data privacy practices and how it works with European government agencies

• November 16, 2020 16 Nov'20

  Wireless industry warns of urgent need for more Wi-Fi spectrum

  As demand for broadband connectivity surges worldwide, bodies representing wireless companies highlight what they say is a pressing need for access to the 6GHz frequency band

• November 13, 2020 13 Nov'20

  Ticketmaster fined £1.25m by ICO for failing to protect customer data

  Ticket website’s customer data was exposed through an attack on a third-party chatbot

• November 13, 2020 13 Nov'20

  Dutch IT award recognises importance of research in the wild

  Promoter of human-centric scientific research techniques claims the prestigious 2020 Netherlands Prize for ICT Research

• November 12, 2020 12 Nov'20

  Financial Stability Board says it’s time to talk about IT outsourcing risks

  International organisation that monitors the finance sector asks for the industry to discuss the risks that IT outsourcing brings to the sector

• November 12, 2020 12 Nov'20

  Company accused of spying on Assange acted for Ecuadorian Intelligence, says ex UC Global manager

  Former operations chief of UC Global told Spanish Court the company accused of spying on Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London was acting on the orders of Ecuadorian Intelligence

• November 11, 2020 11 Nov'20

  Tim Berners-Lee startup releases decentralisation tech to enterprises

  Roll-out of Inrupt’s decentralised privacy technology to four large organisations is helping the startup to develop explicit use cases, which it hopes will prove the tech and lead to faster adoption

• November 11, 2020 11 Nov'20

  Amazon charged with breaching EU antitrust rules

  Tech giant accused of using data it collects on smaller retailers to benefit its own e-commerce business

• November 11, 2020 11 Nov'20

  EU aid funds used to train ‘unaccountable intelligence agencies’ in high-tech surveillance

  Hundreds of documents obtained by campaign group Privacy International show how the EU is supporting surveillance programmes in the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa