News

IT legislation and regulation

• 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

• November 10, 2020 10 Nov'20

  Border technologies largely fail to respect human rights

  AI-powered border technologies used to ‘manage’ migration frequently make the process more arbitrary, discriminatory and unjust, says human rights group

• November 10, 2020 10 Nov'20

  Leaky AWS S3 bucket once again at centre of data breach

  Prestige Software exposed millions of records after failing to pay attention to the security of its cloud instances

• November 06, 2020 06 Nov'20

  Lockdown 2: Balancing job retention with automation

  As the UK enters its second coronavirus lockdown, experts have questioned the funds that governments across Europe have put aside to support businesses

• November 06, 2020 06 Nov'20

  ICO sued over ‘failure’ to address ad industry practices

  Privacy campaigner the Open Rights Group claims the advertising technology industry is systematically breaching the GDPR, and the ICO is doing nothing about it

• November 06, 2020 06 Nov'20

  Finger pointed at Fujitsu as Post Office Horizon system crashes nationally

  Post Office branches offline during busy business hours after suffering an IT error that the Post Office said related to IT from supplier Fujitsu

• November 05, 2020 05 Nov'20

  GSMA calls for whole-of-government approach to digital societies

  Asia-Pacific countries need to take a whole-of-government approach and not regulate the telecoms industry in isolation to advance their digital societies

• November 04, 2020 04 Nov'20

  Contractors claim IR35 reforms pose ‘bigger threat’ to their livelihoods than Covid-19 or Brexit

  Latest poll by contractor tax consultancy Qdos suggests freelancers are less concerned about the threat the coronavirus and Brexit pose to their businesses than the havoc the IR35 private sector reforms might cause

• November 04, 2020 04 Nov'20

  EU to introduce data-sharing measures with US in weeks

  The European Commission is to issue updated standard contractual clauses (SCCs) that will allow organisations in the EU to exchange data with the US, but they may arrive too late to incorporate into UK law

• October 30, 2020 30 Oct'20

  ICO slashes Marriott breach fine to £18.4m

  Reduced fine reflects both improvements made to hotel group’s cyber security and impact of coronavirus on the travel and hospitality sector

• October 28, 2020 28 Oct'20

  Finnish therapy centre accused of covering up cyber attack

  Private therapy practice Vastaamo faces questions over its security and business practices in the months leading up to one of the biggest data breaches in Finland’s history

• October 28, 2020 28 Oct'20

  Privacy and online safety are focus of new UKRI research funding

  Online safety research centre of excellence will look into technology to boost privacy and tackle disinformation, fake news, conspiracies and other online harms

• October 27, 2020 27 Oct'20

  ICO slams Experian over ‘invisible’ data processing

  Data processing practices used by Experian broke data protection law, says Information Commissioner’s Office

• October 27, 2020 27 Oct'20

  Not enough time to get software ready for end of Brexit transition period, warns industry

  Software suppliers are concerned they don't have enough time or information to help businesses be ready on time for the end of the Brexit transition period

• October 27, 2020 27 Oct'20

  Calls for clarity over Amazon insider breach

  Security experts call for more clarity from Amazon over an apparent leak of customer data

• October 26, 2020 26 Oct'20

  Forrester: CIOs must prepare for Brexit data transfer

  With the end of the Brexit transition period just weeks away, multi-national organisations will need to re-evaluate how intercompany data is transmitted

• October 26, 2020 26 Oct'20

  Policy Exchange calls on government to publish digital ID strategy

  The lack of reliable digital ID services in the UK is limiting the country’s digital infrastructure potential, according to a report on digital identity, which also recommends the government to clarify the future of Gov.uk Verify

• October 22, 2020 22 Oct'20

  US Justice Department files antitrust lawsuit against Google

  Lawsuit alleges Google used anticompetitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in a number of interconnected digital markets, violating US federal antitrust law

• October 22, 2020 22 Oct'20

  IR35: Former Treasury secretary Mel Stride calls for ‘dreaded’ off-payroll rules to be ‘abolished’

  While chairing a Treasury Committee session on how the UK tax landscape must change to cover the costs of the coronavirus pandemic, ex-Treasury secretary Mel Stride backed calls for the IR35 rules to be abolished

• October 21, 2020 21 Oct'20

  Charities warned over ‘Robin Hood’ cyber criminals

  Accepting donations from cyber criminal groups could be deemed as profiting from crime, money laundering or handling stolen goods – so don’t do it

• October 20, 2020 20 Oct'20

  Police given access to self-isolation data

  NHS Test and Trace self-isolation data will be made available to police after new guidance changes data-sharing rules

• October 20, 2020 20 Oct'20

  Six Russians charged over NotPetya and other attacks

  Six members of the APT group known as Sandworm have been charged in the US over a series of attacks including the destructive NotPetya incident

• October 20, 2020 20 Oct'20

  IR35 reforms: Contractors weigh up post-April 2021 employment options

  IR35 compliance firm Qdos polls contractors to find out what they think the future holds for their job prospects once the reworked off-payroll rules come into force in the private sector from April 2021

• October 19, 2020 19 Oct'20

  Estonian rude awakening spurs tech startup activity

  Money laundering scandal in Estonia has sparked tech startup activity in the Baltic country as banks look for answers

• October 19, 2020 19 Oct'20

  IR35 reforms: HMRC urged to correct clause in off-payroll rules that could ‘kill off’ umbrella firms

  An ‘errant clause’ within the forthcoming off-payroll legislation could cause serious disruption to the IT contractor community if left unchanged, experts have warned

• October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20

  BA argues ICO data breach fine down to £20m

  Information Commissioner’s Office levies fine of £20m on British Airways for failing to protect the personal data of hundreds of thousands of passengers – a vast reduction on the initial £183m penalty

• October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20

  Spanish court to question witnesses over ‘illegal surveillance’ of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

  The Spanish National Court in Madrid is to hear evidence from information security expert Andy Müller-Maguhn and two lawyers who were subject to ‘illegal surveillance’  of their meetings with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London

• October 15, 2020 15 Oct'20

  Arrests and indictments made in cyber money laundering ring

  The NCA has revealed six men were arrested in the UK as part of an international investigation into a money laundering network which handled transactions for some of the world’s most prolific cyber criminal groups

• October 15, 2020 15 Oct'20

  Cloud data protection keeps the Crick’s medical research Covid-secure

  Cloud data management services from Rubrik gave the Francis Crick Institute a data protection edge and have helped keep its vital work going through the pandemic

• October 15, 2020 15 Oct'20

  UK regulators lack the skills and expertise to cope with increasing use of algorithms

  MPs told that multiple regulators will be needed to govern the ever-growing use of algorithmic systems in all areas of the economy and public sector

• October 14, 2020 14 Oct'20

  Public sector security failings leave UK at risk, says think tank

  Reform report urges adoption of new policies in the next version of the UK’s National Cyber Security Strategy

• October 14, 2020 14 Oct'20

  US Elections: Malicious internet domains spike as campaigns heat up

  Internet domains related to the US presidential election are 56% more likely to be malicious than regular ones

• October 14, 2020 14 Oct'20

  Public data should not be held by US tech giants

  One-off evidence sessions to follow up on the recommendations of the House of Lords AI Committee revisit the data and ethics debate

• October 14, 2020 14 Oct'20

  Fintech ‘unicorn’ Klarna probed over data misuse

  Online bank blames misuse of user data on human error as Information Commissioner’s Office weighs in

• October 12, 2020 12 Oct'20

  Challenger bank accessing latest anti-money laundering technology through fintech

  Challenger banks works with fintech to support its anti-money laundering efforts

• October 12, 2020 12 Oct'20

  Trickbot forced offline in major cyber security victory

  Coalition led by Microsoft obtained a court order enabling them to take down the infamous Trickbot botnet’s back-end server infrastructure

• October 12, 2020 12 Oct'20

  Five Eyes spy group again demands access to private messages

  Spooks are once again calling for the tech industry to break end-to-end encryption in messaging platforms

• October 09, 2020 09 Oct'20

  CMA asks for right to probe O2/Virgin merger

  Competition and Markets Authority requests right to probe potentially game-changing joint venture that could transform UK’s wired and wireless communications provision

• October 08, 2020 08 Oct'20

  Coronavirus face mask spammer fined by ICO

  The director of software company Studios MG spammed members of the public at the height of the pandemic as one of its directors tried to shift a job lot of face masks

• October 08, 2020 08 Oct'20

  Crown Prosecution Service suffers 1,600 data breaches in 12 months

  CPS sees a spike in data security incidents, many of them serious enough to be reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office

• October 08, 2020 08 Oct'20

  Threat of GDPR fines increasingly driving security buying decisions

  Scaring the people who hold the purse strings may be the best option for CISOs who need a little extra budget