News

IT legislation and regulation

• November 13, 2024 13 Nov'24

  Ex-boxer fights US government over legality of Sky ECC cryptophone intercepts

  Lawyers for former heavyweight boxer Goran Gogic argue that US prosecutors’ reliance on messages obtained by a European police hacking operation into the SKY ECC encrypted phone network breaches the US constitution

• November 12, 2024 12 Nov'24

  Police cloud project raises data protection concerns despite legal reforms

  Ongoing data protection issues with the use of hyperscale public cloud infrastructure by UK police could complicate the ambitions of nine forces to move their common records management system into the cloud

• November 08, 2024 08 Nov'24

  Loan charge under review: Second inquiry into controversial contractor tax policy announced

  Nearly five years have passed since the results of the government’s first independent review into the controversial loan charge policy surfaced, and now another one has been ordered. But will it change anything?

• November 07, 2024 07 Nov'24

  Interview: Petra Molnar, author of ‘The walls have eyes’

  Refugee lawyer and author Petra Molnar speaks to Computer Weekly about the extreme violence people on the move face at borders across the world, and how increasingly hostile anti-immigrant politics is being enabled and reinforced by a ‘lucrative ...

• November 06, 2024 06 Nov'24

  Lords shoplifting inquiry calls for facial recognition laws

  A Lords committee has expressed concern about the use of facial recognition technology by retailers to combat shoplifting, and is calling on the government to introduce new laws to ensure there are minimum standards for their deployments

• November 06, 2024 06 Nov'24

  Starmer announces tech-enabled crackdown on people smuggling

  The UK government has announced a further £75m of funding for its Border Security Command, meaning it will now have £150m over two years to spend on new technologies and staff

• November 04, 2024 04 Nov'24

  Financiers isolate Middle East over sanctions-evading paytech

  Cross-border payment system loses support of association of global central banks

• November 01, 2024 01 Nov'24

  CISA looks to global collaboration as fraught US election begins

  The US' CISA cyber agency has unveiled a two-year International Strategic Plan to advance collaboration and improve resilience against shared risks and threats

• November 01, 2024 01 Nov'24

  Outside IR35: What the Autumn Budget’s Employers’ NI changes mean for IT contractors

  The UK government used the Autumn Budget to announce an increase to the amount of Employers’ National Insurance Contributions companies will have to pay, which could have big implications for IT contractors

• November 01, 2024 01 Nov'24

  Bank of England warns against AI ‘complacency’

  UK financial services regulator wants to increase understanding of AI’s benefits and how firms are managing the risks it poses, as take-up grows and use cases increase

• October 30, 2024 30 Oct'24

  Autumn Budget 2024: Chancellor emphasises importance of tech for UK growth

  In her first budget, Rachel Reeves reiterated the vital role of technology in delivering economic growth and improving productivity and efficiency in public services

• October 30, 2024 30 Oct'24

  RedLine, Meta malwares meet their demise at hands of Dutch cops

  A multinational action led by authorities in the Netherlands has resulted in the takedown of the notorious RedLine and Meta infostealer malwares

• October 30, 2024 30 Oct'24

  No simple replacement for digital evidence rules, says Post Office Horizon trial judge

  Judge in Post Office Horizon trial says a more flexible approach to how digital evidence is used in court cases may be required as IT complexity increases

• October 29, 2024 29 Oct'24

  EMEA businesses siphoning budgets to hit NIS2 goals

  With NIS2 now in effect, European business leaders are having to divert budget from elsewhere to achieve compliance

• October 28, 2024 28 Oct'24

  UK launches cyber guidance package for tech startups

  The NCSC and NPSA, alongside agencies from the Five Eyes alliance, have issued guidance for startups on how to secure themselves against common cyber threats and targeted industrial espionage

• October 25, 2024 25 Oct'24

  Lords committee warns about risks of the UK losing its EU data adequacy

  The UK government must work with the European Commission (EC) to secure a renewal of UK’s two data adequacy statuses, says cross-party Lords committee, in stark warning about impacts of losing the ability to seamlessly exchange citizens’ personal ...

• October 25, 2024 25 Oct'24

  Dutch critical infrastructure at risk despite high leadership confidence

  Stark paradox in Dutch cyber security landscape has business leaders expressing high confidence in their IT infrastructure as cyber attacks rise

• October 24, 2024 24 Oct'24

  Data bill will boost NHS and police access to data, says government

  The Data Use and Access Bill will pave the way for sharing medical records across the NHS and give police the ability to access databases without having to manually log the reasons for their use

• October 17, 2024 17 Oct'24

  EU cyber security bill NIS2 hits compliance deadline

  The EU’s NIS2 bill will harmonise how companies and member states approach cyber security, but its success will depend on how well it is implemented and enforced

• October 16, 2024 16 Oct'24

  Digitisation forum launched ahead of Norway’s digital strategy

  Norway's government is preparing itself for the future by establishing an advisory hub to support its digital strategies

• October 15, 2024 15 Oct'24

  Tech and digital skills key to improving police productivity

  The Policing Productivity Review sees data and technology as a way of improving productivity and outcomes, as well as a potential means of restoring diminishing legitimacy, but warns there needs to be a revamp in digital skills, investment and ...

• October 15, 2024 15 Oct'24

  UK government unveils AI safety research funding details

  Through its AI Safety Institute, the UK government has committed an initial pot of £4m to fund research into various risks associated with AI technologies, which will increase to £8.5m as the scheme progresses

• October 10, 2024 10 Oct'24

  Government launches cyber standard for local authorities

  Local government bodies are being invited to take advantage of a new NCSC-derived Cyber Assessment Framework to help enhance their resilience and ward off cyber attacks

• October 10, 2024 10 Oct'24

  UK and US pledge closer working on children’s online safety

  In their first agreement on the subject of children’s online safety, the UK and US governments have said they will create a new working group to boost cooperation

• October 10, 2024 10 Oct'24

  Australia bolsters cyber defences with security bill

  Legislation tackles IoT security and establishes a Cyber Incident Review Board to bolster Australia’s cyber resilience

• October 09, 2024 09 Oct'24

  MoneyGram customer data breached in attack

  MoneyGram confirms that customer data has been stolen in an incident that appears to have started with a social engineering attack on its IT helpdesk staff

• October 08, 2024 08 Oct'24

  UK’s cyber incident reporting law to move forward in 2025

  The UK government says that enforced cyber incident and ransomware reporting for critical sectors of the economy will help to build a better picture of the threat landscape and enable more proactive and preventative responses

• October 08, 2024 08 Oct'24

  Government accepts most quantum regulation recommendations

  Three of the 14 recommendations on quantum regulations put forward by the Regulatory Horizon Council have been accepted in principle

• October 04, 2024 04 Oct'24

  NCSC celebrates eight years as Horne blows in

  Outgoing NCSC interim leader Felicity Oswald shares her thoughts on the body’s work over the past eight years as she hands over the reins to incoming CEO Richard Horne

• October 04, 2024 04 Oct'24

  Data and technology key to the future of the subsurface, report says

  The report highlights the important role of the subsurface, but lack of accessible data and the likely need for new policy and regulation on the use of new technologies are barriers to future sustainable and efficient use

• October 03, 2024 03 Oct'24

  Microsoft files lawsuit to seize domains used by Russian spooks

  Microsoft has been given permission to seize multiple domains used by the Russian state threat actor Star Blizzard as part of a coordinated disruption effort undertaken ahead of the US elections

• October 03, 2024 03 Oct'24

  Local councils need ‘better support’ to buy AI responsibly

  The Ada Lovelace Institute says there is lack of adequate support on how councils can safely and responsibly procure artificial intelligence systems in the public interest

• October 02, 2024 02 Oct'24

  UK and Singapore to collaborate on supporting ransomware victims

  At the fourth Counter Ransomware Initiative Summit in the US, both the UK and Singapore have committed to working on new guidance designed to better support victims and undermine cyber criminal business models

• October 01, 2024 01 Oct'24

  Unmasked: The Evil Corp cyber gangster who worked for LockBit

  The NCA has named and shamed a prominent member of the Evil Corp cyber crime collective who also worked as an affiliate of the LockBit ransomware gang as the UK unveils new sanctions against 16 Russian cyber criminals

• September 27, 2024 27 Sep'24

  UK on high alert over Iranian spear phishing attacks, says NCSC

  The NCSC and counterpart agencies in the US have issued a warning over enhanced Iranian spear phishing activity targeting politicians, journalists, activists and others with an interest in Middle Eastern affairs

• September 26, 2024 26 Sep'24

  Racist Network Rail Wi-Fi hack was work of malicious insider

  Police have revealed that this week’s racist cyber attack on public Wi-Fi networks at stations across the UK appears to have been the work of a malicious insider, after arresting an employee of one of the service providers

• September 25, 2024 25 Sep'24

  CrowdStrike apologises to US government for global mega-outage

  CrowdStrike executive Adam Meyers appears before a US government committee to explain the series of errors that led directly to one of the biggest IT outages in history

• September 20, 2024 20 Sep'24

  UN body urges ‘globally inclusive and distributed’ AI governance

  A United Nations body set up to investigate the international governance of AI says the nature of how the technology currently operates requires a global approach to regulation that prioritises equity and inclusion

• September 19, 2024 19 Sep'24

  HSBC tests post-quantum VPN tunnel for digital ledgers

  Encryption required for post-quantum cryptography will have a material impact on the performance of distributed ledgers

• September 19, 2024 19 Sep'24

  Post Office scandal victim becomes first to receive £600,000 under new redress scheme

  The compensation payment raises hopes that other wrongly convicted subpostmasters will receive payments far more quickly under new scheme

• September 16, 2024 16 Sep'24

  HMRC’s list of known tax avoidance schemes and non-compliant umbrellas nears 100 names

  The number of non-compliant umbrella companies and tax avoidance schemes on HMRC’s name and shame list has doubled in the past 12 months

• September 13, 2024 13 Sep'24

  Vodafone/Three merger likely to increase mobile prices, warns competition watchdog

  A Competition and Markets Authority investigation finds the proposed merger of the two mobile operators would be bad for competition – but offers companies the chance to suggest remedies

• September 12, 2024 12 Sep'24

  Teenager arrested in TfL cyber attack investigation

  New security measures following the cyber attack, which took down some of TfL’s services, have led to delays in contactless roll-out

• September 12, 2024 12 Sep'24

  Lord introduces bill to regulate public sector AI and automation

  A private members’ bill seeking to regulate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other automated technologies throughout the public sector has been brought to Parliament

• September 12, 2024 12 Sep'24

  Data sharing for immigration raids ferments hostility to migrants

  Data sharing between public and private bodies for the purposes of carrying out immigration raids helps to prop up the UK’s hostile environment by instilling an atmosphere of fear and deterring migrants from accessing public services

• September 12, 2024 12 Sep'24

  UK and others sign first ‘binding’ treaty on AI and human rights

  The UK, US and EU have all signed a treaty from the Council of Europe that aims to mitigate the threat AI poses to human rights, democracy and the rule of law, but commentators say it lacks enforcement mechanisms and creates loopholes

• September 11, 2024 11 Sep'24

  HMRC could lose millions in unpaid tax as non-compliant umbrella enters pre-pack administration

  HMRC looks set to miss out on millions of pounds in unpaid tax it is owed by a non-compliant umbrella company that slipped into administration, prompting renewed calls for the sector to be regulated

• September 10, 2024 10 Sep'24

  Ada Lovelace Institute warns NHS against deploying genomics AI

  A report has found that widespread use of artificial intelligence-powered genomic health prediction in the NHS could lead to privacy and ethical issues, discrimination and dependency on the private sector

• September 04, 2024 04 Sep'24

  Retailers question using live facial recognition for shoplifting

  Retailers praise benefits of retrospective over live facial recognition in dealing with shoplifting, but stress there are ongoing concerns around the ethical, legal and safety implications of using the technology in stores

• September 04, 2024 04 Sep'24

  Fraud and scam complaints hit highest ever level in UK

  The Financial Ombudsman Service says it recorded almost 9,000 complaints about fraud and scams from April to June, the most ever recorded