News

IT legislation and regulation

• April 02, 2020 02 Apr'20

  Morrisons appeal success is cold comfort for enterprises

  The success of Morrisons’ appeal against judgments that it should be held vicariously liable for an insider data breach will be welcomed by businesses, but may be of limited comfort to them

• April 01, 2020 01 Apr'20

  Morrisons not liable for 2014 data breach, says Supreme Court

  Court allows supermarket chain’s appeal against judgments holding it liable for a 2014 insider data breach, saying previous rulings misunderstood the concept of vicarious liability

• April 01, 2020 01 Apr'20

  Swedbank to rebuild anti-money laundering systems after damning report

  Report finds that €36.7bn in transactions, all carrying a high risk for money laundering, were processed through the bank’s branch network in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

• March 31, 2020 31 Mar'20

  Marriott International hotel chain in second data breach

  Marriott International notifies customers of a major data breach that unfolded earlier in 2020 – the second it has experienced in the past two years

• March 31, 2020 31 Mar'20

  Loan charge MPs secure ‘unanimous’ support for motion to curb policy’s retrospective powers

  A motion raised by the Loan Charge All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), aimed at removing all retrospective elements of the controversial tax policy, has secured the “unanimous” support of the House of Commons

• March 27, 2020 27 Mar'20

  IR35 reforms: Chancellor slammed for dig at self-employed tax habits during coronavirus briefing

  Rishi Sunak under fire for making a veiled reference to self-employed people needing to pay their “fair share of tax” during the government’s daily coronavirus update

• March 27, 2020 27 Mar'20

  Coronavirus: Derbyshire Police deploy drones to enforce social distancing rules

  Police forces across the UK are using technology to exercise new emergency powers granted by the government this week as part of its coronavirus response

• March 27, 2020 27 Mar'20

  Coronavirus: IT contractors ‘left stranded’ by exclusion from support for self-employed

  IT contractors who provide services through their own limited companies will not be able to access government scheme to support self-employed through coronavirus outbreak

• March 25, 2020 25 Mar'20

  Almost half of UK businesses suffered a cyber attack in past year

  Latest government statistics reveal the scale of the cyber security challenge facing UK plc, but reveals some cause for optimism

• March 24, 2020 24 Mar'20

  IR35 private sector reforms: Coronavirus prompts calls for fairer deal for self-employed IT workers

  ContractorCalculator CEO Dave Chaplin says the deferral of the IR35 reforms should be upgraded to a cancellation, as the response of employers to coronavirus highlights glaring inequalities between treatment of inside IR35 contractors and employees

• March 20, 2020 20 Mar'20

  UK Coronavirus Bill relaxes restrictions on mass surveillance powers

  Emergency legislation would massively expand state surveillance and police detainment powers

• March 18, 2020 18 Mar'20

  IR35 private sector reforms: Coronavirus prompts Treasury to delay start date to April 2021

  HM Treasury confirms roll-out of IR35 reforms to the private sector will be halted for a year to ease the pressure on businesses in the face of the coronavirus outbreak

• March 17, 2020 17 Mar'20

  UN identifies tech companies working in Occupied Palestinian Territories

  United Nations Human Rights Office report names a number of technology companies that could be involved in violating human rights

• March 17, 2020 17 Mar'20

  UK makes its case for post-Brexit data adequacy decision

  Government sets out an explanatory framework as it seeks adequacy decisions from the European Commission to maintain the free flow of personal data between the European Union, the UK and Gibraltar

• March 13, 2020 13 Mar'20

  US Department of Defense requests time to re-evaluate section of AWS and Microsoft JEDI bids

  The Department of Defense is to request a resubmission of information from Microsoft and Amazon Web Services about their JEDI bids, as the long-running US cloud procurement saga drags on

• March 12, 2020 12 Mar'20

  IT Priorities 2020: Benelux organisations and budgets focused on digital transformation

  IT leaders in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg expect bigger budgets this year, with spending on digital transformation projects and related technologies being prioritised

• March 11, 2020 11 Mar'20

  Budget 2020: Omission of IR35 from chancellor's speech sparks fury from contracting groups

  Despite repeated warnings of the damage the incoming IR35 reforms stand to do to the UK economy, contracting groups hit out at the government's decision to press ahead with the changes

• March 11, 2020 11 Mar'20

  Cross-regulator taskforce on digital economy announced in 2020 Budget

  UK regulators will join forces to look at how the potential regulation of the digital platforms and advertising markets would work

• March 11, 2020 11 Mar'20

  Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s 2020 Budget pumps £22bn into R&D

  The 2020 Budget pledges to increase research and development funding to £22bn a year, £5bn for broadband roll-out and £900m to ensure UK businesses lead the way in “high-potential technologies”, but slashes tax relief for entrepreneurs

• March 10, 2020 10 Mar'20

  UK government survives rebellion on ‘high-risk’ comms tech supplier strategy

  Government fends off rebel MPs proposing an amendment that would lead to an outright ban on Huawei technology regarded as posing a direct threat to the UK’s national security

• March 09, 2020 09 Mar'20

  Bill Gates backs Crest fintech security scheme for Africa and Asia

  UK-based cyber security accreditation and certification non-profit Crest has been awarded a $1.4m grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to expand cyber security capacity for fintechs in Africa and Asia

• March 09, 2020 09 Mar'20

  UK Shared Rural Network gets official go-ahead

  UK government and leading mobile operators confirm £1bn scheme to roll out 4G coverage to 95% of UK landmass by end of 2025

• March 06, 2020 06 Mar'20

  MPs set sights on Huawei in 5G security probe

  Weeks after UK government allowed access to radio access part of mobile networks, MPs announce inquiry into the use and security of equipment supplied by foreign companies for 5G networks

• March 06, 2020 06 Mar'20

  MI5 slammed by watchdog for failing to delete intercepted phone and internet data

  The Investigatory Powers Commissioner (IPCO) has criticised MI5 for failing to report serious errors in the way it handles intercepted phone and internet data

• March 06, 2020 06 Mar'20

  London Assembly calls for ban on anonymous social media accounts

  The call to ban anonymous social media accounts follows the suicide of TV presenter Caroline Flack, but a number of Assembly Members are opposing the decision on human rights grounds

• March 05, 2020 05 Mar'20

  Huawei: MPs air concerns over security risks in code and managed contracts

  The risk Huawei poses to the UK's 5G network roll out was raised during a recent Westminster Hall debate

• March 05, 2020 05 Mar'20

  Biometrics ethics group takes evidence on public-private use of facial recognition

  Collaboration between police forces and private entities on facial recognition technology comes under scrutiny by the Home Office’s Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group

• March 05, 2020 05 Mar'20

  IR35 private sector reforms: Firms risk legal action by pushing employers’ NI onto contractors

  Largest-ever study into the impact the IR35 private sector reforms are having on contractors suggests firms are leaving themselves open to litigation by misinterpreting the new rules

• March 05, 2020 05 Mar'20

  IR35 tribunal sees Nationwide project manager lose £70,000 tax bill appeal to HMRC

  IR35 tribunal judge concludes working relationship between two parties is one of employment, with project manager Robert Lee described as ‘part and parcel’ of Nationwide’s organisation

• March 03, 2020 03 Mar'20

  MPs double down on criticism of HMRC's loan charge enforcement action report

  The war of words between the Loan Charge All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) and HMRC has deepened, as the cross-party group of MPs pens three-page letter outlining its issues with how tax agency is reporting on its enforcement activities

• March 02, 2020 02 Mar'20

  HMRC CEO denies it is ‘deliberately misleading’ public over loan scheme promoter arrests

  HMRC CEO Jim Harra has “strongly rejected” claims made on social media by the Loan Charge All Party Parliamentary Group of cross-party MPs that it is “deliberately misleading” the public about its recent loan scheme-related enforcement activities

• February 27, 2020 27 Feb'20

  WikiLeaks founder Assange is well enough to participate in extradition proceedings, says judge

  A judge dismissed claims that Julian Assange’s vulnerable psychological state would prevent him from taking part in his extradition hearing to face espionage and computer misuse charges in the US

• February 27, 2020 27 Feb'20

  Clearview hack fuels debate over facial recognition

  Customers of Clearview AI, a controversial startup that scrapes and sells billions of photos of people from social media to police forces, have found themselves at the centre of a major data breach

• February 26, 2020 26 Feb'20

  FCA data breach could happen to anybody, but easy to avoid

  Minor data breach at the Financial Conduct Authority was the result of simple human error, and highlights the need for organisations to consider a wide range of potential threats

• February 24, 2020 24 Feb'20

  Estonia to give citizens Alexa-like access to public services

  The Estonian government is working on a project that will ultimately allow citizens to ask Siri, Alexa or almost any other virtual digital assistant to interact with government departments on their behalf

• February 24, 2020 24 Feb'20

  IR35 private sector reforms: First year of enforcement won't be ‘heavy-handed’, claims chancellor

  New chancellor Rishi Sunak has moved to assure business leaders that HMRC will not be heavy-handed in enforcing the new IR35 rules

• February 21, 2020 21 Feb'20

  Labour condemns Google data plans

  Shadow digital minister Chi Onwurah challenges the government to stop Google’s plans to move UK user data out of the EU

• February 21, 2020 21 Feb'20

  F-Secure’s AI reads mean tweets to fight abuse and trolls

  Researchers working on F-Secure’s Project Blackfin have developed a model for clustering tweets to help pinpoint abuse and harassment

• February 20, 2020 20 Feb'20

  Google plans to send Brits’ data to US after Brexit

  Move puts British user data beyond the reach of the EU’s GDPR, makes it more accessible to UK and US law enforcement agencies, and has prompted anger

• February 19, 2020 19 Feb'20

  Swedish consumer-protection legislation will hit fintechs

  New financial regulation to protect consumers from agreeing to unnecessary credit will force financial technology companies to make changes to their products

• February 19, 2020 19 Feb'20

  Questions raised over Office 365 shared content policy

  Buried 300 words into Microsoft’s standard service level agreement is a clause that affects intellectual property and privacy

• February 17, 2020 17 Feb'20

  Mastercard opens European security resilience unit

  Mastercard’s European Cyber Resilience Centre will bring together its partners and other industry bodies to support enterprise resilience

• February 14, 2020 14 Feb'20

  AWS secures temporary halt to Microsoft’s work on $10bn US JEDI cloud contract

  Restraining order prevents Microsoft doing any “substantial” work on the JEDI cloud contract as Amazon’s legal action against the US government gathers pace

• February 14, 2020 14 Feb'20

  CIO Interview: Siim Sikkut, Estonian government CIO

  Siim Sikkut is one of a generation of tech native Estonians, who is turning his knowledge and experience to transforming government services

• February 13, 2020 13 Feb'20

  IR35 private sector reforms: IT contractors weigh up their post-April 2020 work options

  There are eight weeks to go until the IR35 reforms come into play for the private sector, but the IT contractor community is already feeling the effects of HMRC’s latest disguised employment clampdown

• February 12, 2020 12 Feb'20

  Communications watchdog Ofcom to gain extra powers as online harms regulator

  The government has released its initial response to 2019’s Online Harms White Paper, setting out a number of decisions about how it will regulate harmful content on the internet

• February 12, 2020 12 Feb'20

  IR35 private sector reforms: Protesters demand government halts April 2020 roll-out date

  With contractors due to stage an anti-IR35 reform protest march at the Houses of Parliament today, stakeholders pen open letter to the Chancellor outlining their concerns about how the changes are affecting the self-employed sector

• February 11, 2020 11 Feb'20

  IR35 private sector reforms: Research suggests 75% of contractors will leave posts by April 2020

  Just eight weeks before the IR35 reforms are due to be extended to the private sector, new research suggests contractors are planning to vote with their feet and leave their positions as blanket bans take hold

• February 10, 2020 10 Feb'20

  What should be in Australia’s next cyber security strategy

  The Australian government is reviewing the nation’s cyber security strategy, but is it looking at the right issues?

• February 10, 2020 10 Feb'20

  AI in public service must be accountable

  Committee on Standards in Public Life recommends that government departments make ethics a top priority when tendering artificial intelligence systems