News
IT legislation and regulation
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October 27, 2023
27
Oct'23
Germany: European Court opinion kicks questions over EncroChat back to national courts
Germany lawfully obtained data on German EncroChat users from France, but whether the evidence is legally admissible is a matter for national courts
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October 26, 2023
26
Oct'23
ChatGPT, Bard, lack effective defences against fraudsters, Which? warns
Consumer advocacy Which? warns that popular generative AI tools are vulnerable to loopholes that render existing protections against malicious usage easily bypassed
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October 26, 2023
26
Oct'23
Sunak sets scene for upcoming AI Safety Summit
Prime minister Rishi Sunak has outlined how the UK will approach making AI safe, but experts say there is still too big a focus on catastrophic but speculative risks over real harms the technology is already causing
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October 26, 2023
26
Oct'23
Boardrooms losing control in generative AI takeover, says Kaspersky
C-suite executives are increasingly fretful about what they perceive as a ‘silent infiltration’ of generative AI tools across their organisations
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October 25, 2023
25
Oct'23
UK Finance paints mixed picture of fraud as losses top £500m
UK losses to fraud in the first six months of the year topped £500m, but a slight decline in overall crime rates was observed, according to UK Finance’s latest data
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October 24, 2023
24
Oct'23
Kaspersky opens up over spyware campaign targeting its staffers
Kaspersky has shared more details of the TriangleDB spyware that was used against its own workforce by an unknown APT group
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October 19, 2023
19
Oct'23
Nuclear regulator raps EDF over cyber compliance
The Office for Nuclear Regulation says EDF has come up short on needed measures to improve cyber security standards at several critical UK nuclear facilities
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October 19, 2023
19
Oct'23
Need for ‘significant’ public and private investment in UK infrastructure
Second long-term review sets out role of digital infrastructure in supporting economic growth in UK, but stresses importance of government continuing to support network competition and market deployment
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October 19, 2023
19
Oct'23
Sellafield local authority unsure if data was stolen six years on from North Korea ransomware attack
Senior managers at an ‘Achilles heel’ local authority for Europe’s biggest nuclear site ‘still don’t know what was lost’ in a 2017 cyber attack, according to a council source
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October 12, 2023
12
Oct'23
Scottish biometrics watchdog outlines police cloud concerns
Police Scotland’s response to the biometrics commissioner’s formal information notice ‘did not ameliorate’ his concerns about the sovereignty and security of the sensitive biometric information being uploaded to cloud infrastructure that is subject ...
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October 05, 2023
05
Oct'23
Policing minister wants to use UK passport data in facial recognition
The policing minister’s plans to integrate the UK’s passport database with police facial-recognition systems have been met with criticism from campaigners, academics, and the biometrics commissioner for England and Wales
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October 04, 2023
04
Oct'23
IR35: HMRC completes first phase of CEST upgrades with Ocelot platform migration
HMRC has confirmed that its online IR35 status checker tool has completed its migration to a new platform, as the government tax collection agency’s revamp of the service continues apace
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October 04, 2023
04
Oct'23
UK emphasises EU split by kicking digital trade scheme into long grass
Former Gaia-X CEO talks exclusively to Computer Weekly about UK inertia on cross-border data tech
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October 04, 2023
04
Oct'23
ICO issues guidance on workplace surveillance
Guidance on employee monitoring covers how employers can conduct their digital surveillance lawfully, transparently and fairly, and warns against businesses intruding on their workers’ private lives
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October 03, 2023
03
Oct'23
Cyber experts urge EU to rethink vulnerability disclosure plans
The European Union’s proposed cyber security vulnerability disclosure measures are well-intentioned but ultimately counterproductive, as making unmitigated vulnerabilities public knowledge increases the risk of their exploitation by various actors, ...
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October 03, 2023
03
Oct'23
Public sector needs systemic reform of capacity to innovate
Improving the public sector’s capacity to innovate requires a culture of innovation underpinned by people, skills and new ways of working with the private sector
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October 03, 2023
03
Oct'23
Top science journal faced secret attacks from Covid conspiracy theory group
A conspiratorial group of extreme Brexit lobbyists mounted an extraordinary campaign against one of the world’s most prestigious science journals – part of a series of joint investigations between Byline Times and Computer Weekly
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September 29, 2023
29
Sep'23
UK tech sector ‘let down’ and ‘betrayed’ over Rishi Sunak’s net-zero policy tweaks
Now the dust has settled on the news Rishi Sunak is tweaking several of the policies underpinning the government’s net-zero goal, the UK tech industry has hit back at the news
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September 29, 2023
29
Sep'23
Scottish watchdog urges wider biometric oversight
Scotland’s biometrics watchdog urges Scottish Parliament to extend oversight of biometric information to include the entire criminal justice system, not just police
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September 28, 2023
28
Sep'23
Strasbourg court condemns Turkey for jailing teacher for using ByLock encrypted messaging app
The case is expected to have implications for the use of digital evidence in prosecutions against users of other encrypted phone apps
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September 26, 2023
26
Sep'23
UK government quietly disbands data ethics advisory board
The government has disbanded its Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation’s advisory board in favour of pulling the relevant artificial intelligence (AI) and data knowledge from a pool of external experts
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September 26, 2023
26
Sep'23
IT contractors ‘forced against their will’ to work for umbrella companies, survey finds
Research conducted by contracting authority ContractorCalculator paints a bleak picture of the plight of IT contractors ‘forced’ to provide their services through umbrella firms
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September 26, 2023
26
Sep'23
Cover-ups still the norm in the wake of a cyber incident
Almost half of organisations that have experienced a cyber incident did not report it to the appropriate authorities, according to a report
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September 26, 2023
26
Sep'23
HMRC names and shames non-compliant umbrella firms for running tax avoidance schemes
The government tax collection agency is stepping up its efforts to prevent contractors falling victim to non-compliant umbrella firms with three new names added to its list of known tax avoidance schemes
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September 25, 2023
25
Sep'23
Apple fixes three vulnerabilities found by spyware researchers
Apple has patched three more vulnerabilities uncovered by spyware and surveillance researchers at The Citizen Lab
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September 22, 2023
22
Sep'23
CMA unblocks Microsoft/Activision deal without cloud gaming
Microsoft’s Activision buy looks set to get the thumbs-up after a deal that stops the two companies from distributing cloud gaming to UK consumers
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September 22, 2023
22
Sep'23
UK-US data bridge to open to traffic on 12 October
Government forges ahead with the implementation of the UK-US data bridge, which will come into effect for real just under three weeks from now
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September 22, 2023
22
Sep'23
Cyber experts set out plan to secure future US elections
A group of experts are setting out to enhance election cyber security in the United States, and restore public faith in a process tainted by interference and misinformation in the past
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September 20, 2023
20
Sep'23
Organisations failing to proactively address insider cyber risk
Organisations are spending less than 10% of their annual security budgets on trying to solve one of the costliest problems in cyber: insider risk
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September 20, 2023
20
Sep'23
Multi-agency pilot aims to help innovators navigate regulatory landscape
Regulators join forces in pilot scheme to help businesses deploy new technologies in a way that complies with cross-industry regulations
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September 19, 2023
19
Sep'23
Braverman puts pressure on Meta to pause end-to-end encryption plans
The home secretary is calling on Meta to halt its plans to introduce encrypted messaging services on Facebook and Instagram until the company puts measures in place to detect abuse
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September 18, 2023
18
Sep'23
Unregulated DeFi services abused in latest pig butchering twist
Pig butchering scammers are taking advantage of the unregulated nature of DeFi crypto trading apps to siphon off even more money from their victims, according to the latest findings of an ongoing investigation
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September 18, 2023
18
Sep'23
Government seeks industry views on cyber threat to UK CNI
The Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee is seeking evidence from the cyber sector as it launches an inquiry into the resilience of the UK's critical national infrastructure
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September 15, 2023
15
Sep'23
TikTok fined €345m under GDPR for failing to protect children’s privacy
Data protection regulators warn social media companies to take all necessary measures to protect children’s privacy
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September 15, 2023
15
Sep'23
Manchester police data breach a classic supply chain incident
The developing data breach at Greater Manchester Police follows a cyber attack on the systems of a key supplier of ID services to the force
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September 14, 2023
14
Sep'23
Google, Microsoft and Mozilla push browser updates to foil zero-day
A zero-day in Google’s Chrome browser was first reported by surveillance researchers at The Citizen Lab and Apple, but also affects other browsers
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September 14, 2023
14
Sep'23
As vehicle safety regulations loom, carmakers fret over cyber risks
Global, UN-backed car safety and security regulations come into force next year, and automotive bosses say they are not only unprepared, but “swamped” by a tide of compliance and security risks
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September 13, 2023
13
Sep'23
GCHQ breached privacy rights of IT professional and security researcher, human rights court rules
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg finds UK intelligence services breached the privacy rights of two overseas nationals – an IT professional and a security researcher
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September 13, 2023
13
Sep'23
Altnet trade body slams regulator for spiking UK broadband prices
Association of UK independent broadband providers criticises national comms regulator’s “failure” to recognise cost to consumers of lack of market competition and contribution of altnets in market
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September 13, 2023
13
Sep'23
NCSC and ICO sign MoU to forge deeper collaborative links
The scope of the MoU signed by the NCSC and the ICO includes collaboration on new cyber regulations and guidance, and how to support cyber attack victims appropriately and minimise regulatory penalties
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September 12, 2023
12
Sep'23
European fintech investment plummets, but more sustainable future lies ahead
Investment in European fintechs has seen a dramatic drop, but a more sustainable sector will result from investment discipline
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September 11, 2023
11
Sep'23
Brits happy to break cyber law if the price is right
A study conducted ahead of an upcoming security trade fair reveals a slim majority of Brits would come out in favour of offensive government security ops and even engage in cyber criminality themselves in the right circumstances
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September 08, 2023
08
Sep'23
Virgin Media O2 to begin switching off 3G network in 2025
As its network evolves and looking to enhance customer experience and improve services, VMO2 announces plans to pull plug on legacy mobile network to focus on upgrading faster, more reliable and energy-efficient infrastructure
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September 08, 2023
08
Sep'23
Sensitive NatWest customer files set to be returned after High Court agreement
Sensitive NatWest customer files set to be secured by bank after years in the home of a data breach whistleblower
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September 07, 2023
07
Sep'23
UK minister fails to reassure tech companies over encryption risk
Technology companies say reassurances by government ministers that they have no intention of weakening end-to-end encrypted communication services do not go far enough
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September 07, 2023
07
Sep'23
Government AI taskforce appoints new advisory board members
An initial progress report published by the Taskforce provides detail on new appointments to its external advisory board as well as rebrand to focus on “frontier” artificial intelligence
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September 05, 2023
05
Sep'23
Law firm Fieldfisher launches data breach management tool
UK and European data breach law specialist Fieldfisher has enlisted legal tech specialist Lawcadia to supply a 24-hour data breach notification assessment platform
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September 01, 2023
01
Sep'23
Police Scotland five-year digital strategy approved
Police Scotland’s new strategy outlines how the force will approach and invest in its digital transformation over the next five years, but notes its ability to achieve its ambitions is subject to the availability of funding
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August 30, 2023
30
Aug'23
Cyber world hails downfall of Qakbot trojan
A multinational law enforcement hacking operation disrupted the botnet infrastructure used to distribute the Qakbot trojan at the weekend, in a major setback for the cyber criminal underworld
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August 30, 2023
30
Aug'23
Met police data platform deployed with data protection issues
Met Police deploys integrated record management system despite data protection ‘compliance issues' that would inhibit its ability to retrieve data, meet its statutory logging requirements, and respond to subject access requests