News

IT legislation and regulation

• 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’ ...

• January 23, 2025 23 Jan'25

  ICO launches major review of cookies on UK websites

  ICO sets out 2025 goals, including a review of cookie compliance across the UK’s top 1,000 websites, as it seeks to achieve its ultimate goal of giving the public meaningful control over how their data is used

• January 23, 2025 23 Jan'25

  UK eVisa system problems persist despite repeated warnings

  Travellers are already having issues boarding UK-bound flights, while refugees have been left with no way to prove their immigration status in the UK, just two weeks after the Home Office transitioned to electronic visas

• January 22, 2025 22 Jan'25

  Privacy professionals expect budget cuts, lack confidence

  Over 50% of privacy professionals in Europe expect to see less money earmarked for data security initiatives in 2025, and many don’t have faith their organisations are taking the issue seriously, according to an ISACA report

• January 21, 2025 21 Jan'25

  Greek authorities subject refugees to invasive surveillance

  Greek border authorities are subjecting asylum seekers to invasive phone confiscations and artificial intelligence-powered surveillance, in another potential violation of European data protection laws

• January 20, 2025 20 Jan'25

  Government calls for expert views on computer evidence to learn lesson from Post Office scandal

  The government is calling for evidence from experts in computing and law to help it ensure no repeat of the miscarriages of justice in the Post Office scandal

• January 20, 2025 20 Jan'25

  Labour announces plans to overhaul digital government

  The Government Digital Service will be expanded along with changes to the way technology is funded, built and delivered across the public sector, as Labour aims for improvements previous administrations struggled to achieve

• January 17, 2025 17 Jan'25

  US Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban

  The US Supreme Court has upheld a legal ban on TikTok, meaning that the video-sharing application will be shut down from midnight on Sunday 19 January

• January 17, 2025 17 Jan'25

  Lords debate government approach to automated decision-making

  During the second reading debate of a Lords private members’ bill seeking to better regulate public sector algorithms, the government argued existing measures were sufficient to protect the public

• January 16, 2025 16 Jan'25

  Biden signs new cyber order days before Trump inauguration

  With days left in the White House, outgoing US president Joe Biden has signed a wide-ranging cyber security executive order with far-reaching implications

• January 16, 2025 16 Jan'25

  Fujitsu staff at HMRC to strike for two days over pay

  More public image woes for Fujitsu as hundreds of staff to strike after colleagues at HMRC get significantly bigger pay rise

• January 16, 2025 16 Jan'25

  Almost half of UK banks set to miss DORA deadline

  A significant minority of financial services organisations in the UK will not be fully compliant with the EU’s DORA cyber and risk management regulation when it comes into force on 17 January

• January 16, 2025 16 Jan'25

  Bank of England and New York counterpart exchange puts technology cooperation into 3D

  A staff exchange between regulators will see US and UK financial technology experts cross the Atlantic

• January 16, 2025 16 Jan'25

  Davos 2025: Digital supply chains at risk as world faces two years of turbulence

  World Economic Forum urges digital business leaders to build the resilience of supply chains, improve cyber defences and develop contingency plans

• January 15, 2025 15 Jan'25

  Users protest, flee TikTok as clock ticks on US ban

  As the US Supreme Court prepares to rule on the future of TikTok, rumours of a sale are swirling around Washington DC while panicked users make plans for an exodus

• January 14, 2025 14 Jan'25

  CMA kicks off investigation into Google search engine dominance

  The Competition and Markets Authority is using powers that came into force at the start of the year to assess Google’s reach

• January 13, 2025 13 Jan'25

  UK government plans to extend ransomware payment ban

  A ban on ransomware payments by UK government departments will be extended to cover organisations such as local councils, schools and the NHS should new government proposals move forward

• January 13, 2025 13 Jan'25

  Metro mayors face similar digitisation challenges to banks, but lack their resources

  UK regional leaders want to be independent of central government when it comes to digital transformation decision-making, but don’t fully understand what’s ahead

• January 13, 2025 13 Jan'25

  CNI operators should ask these 12 questions of their OT suppliers

  The NCSC, CISA and others have set out 12 cyber security considerations CNI organisations and other users of operational technology should incorporate into their buying processes to force their suppliers to do better

• January 13, 2025 13 Jan'25

  Experts say ‘something has to break’ before banks slow IT-driven cost-cutting measures

  Banks will cut costs until something breaks and they are forced to scale back, according to industry experts

• January 13, 2025 13 Jan'25

  Virgin Media O2 to begin 3G switch-off in April 2025

  City of Durham to become first part of operator’s plan to focus on 4G and 5G, and deliver faster and more reliable connectivity for customers by moving away from legacy mobile

• January 08, 2025 08 Jan'25

  German court finds hacked EncroChat phone evidence inadmissible

  The Berlin Regional Court has found that evidence obtained by a joint French and Dutch operation to hack the EncroChat encrypted mobile phone network is legally inadmissible, raising questions about its use in other European countries

• January 07, 2025 07 Jan'25

  Saudi Arabia calls for humanitarian AI after tightening screws on rights protesters

  Oppressive state wants global digital identity system at the heart of all AI, to make it trustworthy and prevent it being used for ‘unauthorised surveillance’

• January 03, 2025 03 Jan'25

  Corporate cover-up behind world-beating cyber security record in Middle East

  Report ranking Gulf corporations ahead of US and EU counterparts for cyber security has sparked debate about the region’s tendency for secrecy and state control

• December 31, 2024 31 Dec'24

  Top 10 surveillance, journalism and encryption stories of 2024

  Revelations of covert and unlawful monitoring of journalists and their confidential sources by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Metropolitan Police attracted a huge amount of attention this year

• December 30, 2024 30 Dec'24

  Top 10 government IT stories of 2024

  The past year has provided one of the biggest changes in government for 14 years, with Labour coming to power. With it, the new government has brought plenty of tech promises

• December 30, 2024 30 Dec'24

  Top 10 financial services stories of 2024

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 financial services stories of 2024

• December 24, 2024 24 Dec'24

  Top 10 police technology stories of 2024

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 police technology stories of 2024

• December 24, 2024 24 Dec'24

  Top 10 EMEA stories of 2024

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 Europe, Middle East and Africa stories of 2024

• December 20, 2024 20 Dec'24

  Interview: How Green Cargo’s IT switched tracks to logistics success

  Green Cargo CIO Ingo Paas took a few turns to establish his company as a composable enterprise able to flex and react quickly

• December 20, 2024 20 Dec'24

  Top 10 data and ethics stories of 2024

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 data and ethics stories of 2024

• December 19, 2024 19 Dec'24

  LockBit ransomware gang teases February 2025 return

  An individual associated with the LockBit ransomware gang has broken cover to tease details of a new phase of the cyber criminal operation's activity, which they claim is set to begin in February 2025

• December 19, 2024 19 Dec'24

  Project Gigabit makes further gains in UK Midlands

  Latest work in £5bn infrastructure scheme begins in Leicestershire and Warwickshire to connect rural areas to full-fibre broadband

• December 19, 2024 19 Dec'24

  Latest attempt to override UK’s outdated hacking law stalls

  Amendments to the Data Bill that would have given the UK cyber industry a boost by updating restrictive elements of the Computer Misuse Act have failed to progress beyond a Lords committee

• December 18, 2024 18 Dec'24

  The Security Interviews: Martin Lee, Cisco Talos

  Threat intel expert and author Martin Lee, EMEA technical lead for security research at Cisco Talos, joins Computer Weekly to mark the 35th anniversary of the first ever ransomware attack

• December 18, 2024 18 Dec'24

  Top 10 cyber security stories of 2024

  Data breaches, data privacy and protection, and the thorny issue of open source security were all hot topics this year. Meanwhile, security companies frequently found themselves hitting the headlines, and not always for good reasons. Here are ...

• December 18, 2024 18 Dec'24

  Top 10 cyber crime stories of 2024

  From ransomware targeting the NHS to nation-state-backed intrusions, 2024 was another big year for cyber criminals and cyber spooks alike, but they didn't have it all their own way as the good guys fought back

• December 18, 2024 18 Dec'24

  Axon still in possession of Police Scotland encryption keys

  Supplier’s possession of encryption keys for Police Scotland data sharing system opens potential for access and transfer of sensitive data without the knowledge or consent of the force

• December 17, 2024 17 Dec'24

  Ofcom publishes Illegal Harms Codes of Practice

  The codes of practice and guidance from Ofcom outline the steps online services providers can take to protect their users from illegal harms

• December 17, 2024 17 Dec'24

  Digital Ethics Summit 2024: recognising AI’s socio-technical nature

  At trade association TechUK’s eighth annual Digital Ethics Summit, public officials and industry figures and civil society groups met to discuss the ethical challenges associated with the proliferation of artificial intelligence tools globally and ...

• December 17, 2024 17 Dec'24

  UK government looks to rewrite copyright rules for AI training

  Labour has begun a consultation looking at how creators of original content can be compensated for AI training that uses their work