News

IT legislation and regulation

• March 20, 2025 20 Mar'25

  Ofcom outlines plans to take UK full-fibre roll-out into ‘final phase’

  UK communications regulator sets out plans that will help full-fibre gigabit broadband reach almost all UK homes and businesses over the next two years

• March 19, 2025 19 Mar'25

  Former subpostmaster to sue Post Office and Fujitsu for judgment ‘obtained by fraud’

  Lee Castleton, one of a group of seven former subpostmasters who began the fight against the Post Office in 2009, triggers ‘seismic’ shift in Post Office scandal

• March 18, 2025 18 Mar'25

  IR35: Research highlights rise in outside IR35 engagements among contractors

  Qdos research shows 'tide is turning' on company attitudes towards hiring outside IR35 contractors

• March 17, 2025 17 Mar'25

  PSNI’s ‘ridiculous’ withholding of evidence in spying operation delayed court hearings 

  Landmark ruling by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal will decide whether the surveillance court can award costs against government bodies accused of unreasonable behaviour 

• March 17, 2025 17 Mar'25

  Online Safety Act measures come into effect

  Regulator Ofcom is now able to take enforcement action against platforms under the Online Safety Act if they fail to proactively safeguard against content such as terrorist or child sexual abuse material

• March 17, 2025 17 Mar'25

  Who takes responsibility? Birmingham’s ERP extraordinary meeting

  Council members took the opportunity to raise their concerns during the Birmingham City Council ERP meeting, which took place on 11 March

• March 14, 2025 14 Mar'25

  AI Action Summit review: Differing views cast doubt on AI’s ability to benefit whole of society

  Governments, companies and civil society groups gathered at the third global AI summit to discuss how the technology can work for the benefit of everyone in society, but experts say competing imperatives mean there is no guarantee these visions will...

• March 14, 2025 14 Mar'25

  Will Whitehall withstand Starmer’s AI revolution?

  As the prime minister sets out plans for the use of artificial intelligence to take over civil service tasks, Computer Weekly looks at potential challenges and concerns around the decision

• March 13, 2025 13 Mar'25

  Starmer to send AI tech teams into government departments

  In his plans to reform the state, the prime minister is pushing for artificial intelligence to take on tasks for civil servants and calling time on NHS England

• March 13, 2025 13 Mar'25

  Government announces inevitable end to Payments Services Regulator

  The government has abolished the Payments Services Regulator and will move responsibilities to Financial Conduct Authority

• March 13, 2025 13 Mar'25

  Driving licence data could be used for police facial recognition

  The government’s Crime and Policing Bill could allow police to access the UK driving licence database for use in facial recognition watchlists, but the Home Office denies biometric data would be repurposed in this way

• March 12, 2025 12 Mar'25

  Apple slated in CMA mobile browser investigation

  Apple policies are main focus, but Google doesn’t escape the regulator’s scrutiny either, with its business practices to promote Chrome coming under fire

• March 11, 2025 11 Mar'25

  Dutch police disrupt half of ransomware operations, finds embedded PHD student

  Dutch PhD study reveals the impact of centralised intelligence and strategic interventions in the fight against ransomware

• March 07, 2025 07 Mar'25

  UK altnets call for full-fibre broadband to be prioritised in industrial strategy

  Independent Networks Cooperative Association outlines plan for cross-UK campaign to promote full-fibre broadband adoption and the establishment of a digital infrastructure cross-departmental working group

• March 05, 2025 05 Mar'25

  IR35: Government outlines two-pronged approach to umbrella company regulation

  The government looks set to deliver on its long-promised vow to roll out regulation for umbrella companies

• March 04, 2025 04 Mar'25

  Canadian businessman remains in French jail, accused of distributing Sky ECC cryptophones

  Canadian businessman Thomas Herdman has been held in pre-trial detention without trial for nearly four years – he has once again been refused bail

• February 27, 2025 27 Feb'25

  MPs grill X, TikTok and Meta about online misinformation

  Representatives from the social media firms said that while the scale of their platforms makes content moderation difficult, they are effectively dealing with the vast majority of misinformation

• February 26, 2025 26 Feb'25

  Scottish police fail to record ethnicity in DNA database

  Scottish policing bodies are failing to properly record and publish data on the ethnicity of arrested people, making it impossible to determine whether they are discriminating against certain sections of the population

• February 26, 2025 26 Feb'25

  IoT and SaaS will underpin government legislation introduced to protect rivers

  Tech platform will enable water companies, regulators and the public to monitor pollution levels in rivers

• February 26, 2025 26 Feb'25

  Lord Holmes warns of increasingly ‘urgent’ need to regulate AI

  The real-world negative impacts of artificial intelligence will only get worse if the UK does not move to regulate the technology in a way that centres on accountability, trust and public participation, says Lord Holmes

• February 24, 2025 24 Feb'25

  European Union calls for more cyber data-sharing with Nato

  Updates to the EU’s Cyber Blueprint, establishing best practice for multilateral security incident response in Europe, include calls for more collaboration with Nato member states, as the geopolitical environment becomes ever more fractious

• February 21, 2025 21 Feb'25

  UK police forces ‘supercharging racism’ with predictive policing

  Amnesty International says predictive policing systems are ‘supercharging racism’ in the UK by taking historically biased data to further target poor and racialised communities

• February 21, 2025 21 Feb'25

  A landscape forever altered? The LockBit takedown one year on

  The NCA-led takedown of the LockBit ransomware gang in February 2024 heralded a transformative year in the fight against cyber crime. One year on, we look back at Operation Cronos and its impact

• February 19, 2025 19 Feb'25

  CaixaBank outlines artificial intelligence intentions in €5bn plan

  Spanish bank announces Cosmos, an investment in its processes and technology that sits within its €5bn strategic plan

• February 13, 2025 13 Feb'25

  Baltic skills programme to help reduce European skills gap via Africa

  Lithuanian project sets out to connect professionals in Africa with European businesses in need of skills

• February 12, 2025 12 Feb'25

  AI Action Summit: UK and US refuse to sign inclusive AI statement

  The UK and US governments’ decisions not to sign a joint declaration has attracted strong criticism from a range of voices, especially in the context of key political figures calling for AI ‘red tape’ to be cut

• February 12, 2025 12 Feb'25

  AI at Leap 2025: Huge potential but a threat to the fabric of society?

  Thought leaders in artificial intelligence gathered at Saudi Arabia’s Leap 2025 tech show to set out the next steps for enterprise AI and agentic AI, but also AI’s potential danger to human society

• February 12, 2025 12 Feb'25

  Cisco: We will get better on AI power consumption

  At Cisco Live EMEA in Amsterdam, Cisco execs shared their thoughts on the developing issues around how artificial intelligence is affecting datacentre power consumption

• February 11, 2025 11 Feb'25

  Fujitsu public sector boss says supplier has advantage in HMRC bid despite Post Office scandal

  Fujitsu public sector boss is banking on huge deals with HMRC despite Post Office scandal, after another lucrative year

• February 11, 2025 11 Feb'25

  Saudi puts $15bn into AI as experts debate next steps

  The kingdom’s Leap 2025 tech show is the backdrop for huge investment, plus debate over the future of artificial intelligence as a productivity tool but which can also potentially undermine human society

• February 07, 2025 07 Feb'25

  US lawmakers move to ban DeepSeek AI tool

  US politicians have introduced a bill seeking to ban the use of the DeepSeek AI tool on government-owned devices, citing national security concerns due to its alleged links to the Chinese state

• February 07, 2025 07 Feb'25

  Ransomware payment value fell over 30% in 2024

  Several factors, including the impact of law enforcement operations disrupting cyber criminal gangs and better preparedness among users, may be behind a significant drop in the total value of ransomware payments

• February 06, 2025 06 Feb'25

  UK’s Cyber Monitoring Centre begins incident classification work

  The Cyber Monitoring Centre will work to categorise major incidents against a newly developed scale to help organisations better understand the nature of systemic cyber attacks and learn from their impact

• February 05, 2025 05 Feb'25

  Crowd-source testing helps drive Webex accessibility

  Conferencing software Webex has a number of accessibility features built-in and has worked with Applause to test how well these work

• February 05, 2025 05 Feb'25

  MPs to scrutinise use of artificial intelligence in the finance sector

  MPs launch inquiry into the use of artificial intelligence technologies in the financial services sector

• February 05, 2025 05 Feb'25

  Youth activists protest Meta over mental health impacts

  Protest outside Meta’s London offices marks launch of Mad Youth Campaign, an effort by activists to challenge the ways in which corporate power negatively shapes the conditions young people live under

• February 03, 2025 03 Feb'25

  Government failed to provide accurate cost of Post Office scandal compensation

  Limited information is likely to lead to significantly inaccurate assumptions on the cost of Post Office scandal compensation schemes

• February 03, 2025 03 Feb'25

  DeepSeek-R1 more readily generates dangerous content than other large language models

  Research scientists at cyber firm Enkrypt AI publish concerning findings from a red team exercise conducted against DeepSeek, the hot new generative AI tool

• January 31, 2025 31 Jan'25

  AI jailbreaking techniques prove highly effective against DeepSeek

  Researchers at Palo Alto have shown how novel jailbreaking techniques were able to fool breakout GenAI model DeepSeek into helping to create keylogging tools, steal data, and make a Molotov cocktail

• January 30, 2025 30 Jan'25

  Transparency on public sector AI use fosters trust, says AI minister Feryal Clark

  The government’s decision to publish a batch of algorithmic transparency records signals its latest effort in showing potential opportunities AI and technology could provide

• January 30, 2025 30 Jan'25

  Neos Networks leads £1.2m UK Midlands broadband project

  Leading UK business-dedicated network appointed by council to lead D2N2 Gigahubs initiative aimed at bringing gigabit broadband to rural communities in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire

• January 29, 2025 29 Jan'25

  How government hackers are trying to exploit Google Gemini AI

  Google’s threat intel squad has shared information on how nation state threat actors are attempting to exploit its Gemini AI tool for nefarious ends

• January 29, 2025 29 Jan'25

  Chancellor backs plans to boost Oxford-Cambridge growth

  To build a UK Silicon Valley between Oxford and Cambridge, boosting the region’s tech capabilities, requires more trains, more roads and more houses

• January 29, 2025 29 Jan'25

  Vallance rejects latest charge to reform UK hacking laws

  Science minister Patrick Vallance rejects proposed amendments to the Computer Misuse Act, arguing that they could create a loophole for cyber criminals to exploit

• January 27, 2025 27 Jan'25

  Three sentenced over OTP.Agency MFA fraud service

  Three men have been sentenced over their role in a cyber criminal subscription service that offered access to online accounts using illicitly obtained one-time passcodes

• January 27, 2025 27 Jan'25

  Cyber incident that closed British Museum was inside job

  An IT incident that disrupted visitor access to the British Museum last week was the work of a disgruntled contractor who had been let go

• January 24, 2025 24 Jan'25

  Loan Charge under review: MPs brand latest independent inquiry into controversial policy ‘a farce’

  Details of the government’s highly anticipated independent review into the loan charge have emerged, and MPs claim it falls way short of what is needed to resolve the financial and mental health damage the policy has caused to those in-scope of it

• January 24, 2025 24 Jan'25

  Labour’s first digital government strategy: Is it déjà vu or something new?

  Labour won the 2024 general election on a platform of change – and its technology cheerleader insists the new digital government strategy is all about change. Have we heard it all before or is this time really different?

• January 24, 2025 24 Jan'25

  Review of legal rule on computer evidence long overdue, say Post Office scandal victims

  Computer Weekly talks to people who suffered miscarriages of justice at the hands of flawed computer evidence, as well as to experts in law and IT, as the government commits to review the legal presumption that computers work all the time

• January 24, 2025 24 Jan'25

  High Court: Sky Betting ‘parasitic’ in targeting problem gambler

  UK High Court rules that Sky Betting acted unlawfully after breaching a customer’s data protection rights when it obtained his personal data through cookies and used it to profile him for the purposes of direct marketing, despite his ‘impaired’ ...