News

IT risk management

February 08, 2012 08 Feb'12
Web application vulnerability statistics show security losing ground

New Web application vulnerability statistics show the number of vulnerabilities is rising, despite the use of Web application development frameworks.
February 06, 2012 06 Feb'12
FBI investigates Anonymous intercept of call with Scotland Yard

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is looking into how a conference call with Scotland Yard was intercepted by a member of the activist hacking group Anonymous.
February 01, 2012 01 Feb'12
Fewer than a third of UK organisations plan mobile security projects

Despite the media hype around the adoption of mobile technologies and the need to secure them, relatively few UK organisations are planning mobile security projects, a survey has revealed
January 30, 2012 30 Jan'12
MEP quits as thousands protest ACTA signing

A European MP has resigned after thousands of people in Poland protested against the international anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA)

January 16, 2012 16 Jan'12
Rupert Murdoch attacks Barack Obama over online piracy legislation

News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch has accused Barack Obama's administration of siding with "Silicon Valley paymasters" as two anti-piracy bills go through US Congress.
January 13, 2012 13 Jan'12
NHS Trust to appeal £375k data loss penalty

An NHS Trust is to appeal against a proposed monetary penalty of £375,000 after after patient records were stolen from a hospital and sold on eBay.
January 06, 2012 06 Jan'12
Ramnit worm steals 45,000 Facebook passwords

A computer worm has begun targeting Facebook accounts and has stolen at least 45,000 login credentials from users, say security researchers.
December 16, 2011 16 Dec'11
CIOs must trade off innovation and maintenance in 2012

CIOs face major challenges in trading off stretched budgets between innovative projects and keeping the business running as usual in 2012.
December 12, 2011 12 Dec'11
Cloud leaves many firewalls wanting – but could automation prove the silver bullet?

Most companies rely on firewalls, but the IT landscape is changing and so must approaches to security. Is there a silver bullet?
December 08, 2011 08 Dec'11
Adobe to release out-of-cycle patch for latest vulnerability

Adobe has issued a security advisory about a newly discovered and still unpatched vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat which is being used in "limited, targeted attacks in the wild".

December 06, 2011 06 Dec'11
Four things the 2012 CIO will need to focus on

As 2011 winds to a close, CIOs will already have turned their attention to 2012. What will you be doing?
December 05, 2011 05 Dec'11
One in four IT security staff abuse admin rights, survey shows

At least one in four IT security staff use their privileged login rights to look at confidential information, a survey has revealed.
November 30, 2011 30 Nov'11
United Nations Development Programme investigates hacking claims

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is investigating claims from hacker group Team Poison that it extracted over 100 e-mail addresses and login details belonging to UN staff.
November 29, 2011 29 Nov'11
Framework accelerates safety-critical defence systems development

Manufacturers and academics are collaborating in a 3.5 million project to create a software modelling framework that will speed up the development and certification of safety-critical systems used in aerospace and defence.
November 17, 2011 17 Nov'11
Forensics key to effective info security, says E&Y

Intelligence-led security strategies are the most effective in eliminating vulnerabilities and preventing IP theft through enabling informed change, says consultancy firm Ernst & Young.
November 17, 2011 17 Nov'11
IT security not always part of cloud decision, says IDC

Cloud adoption is outstripping security concerns, says Eric Domage, programme manager for IDC in Europe.
November 11, 2011 11 Nov'11
EDF fined £1.3m for hacking into Greenpeace computers

A Paris court has fined French energy firm EDF £1.3m for hacking into Greenpeace computers to find out about the environmental group’s plans to block four planned nuclear power plants in the UK.
November 07, 2011 07 Nov'11
Analysis: Intelligence key to security business case

Information security is becoming an increasingly important part of any business as the value of information assets continually grow, as do the threats from cyber crime and espionage.
October 31, 2011 31 Oct'11
Japan may be facing sustained cyber attack

Japan's mapping agency is the latest in a series of government agencies to be targeted by hackers, raising fears that the breaches are part of a series of sustained attacks.
October 10, 2011 10 Oct'11
Symantec uses visual maps to identify e-mail-based targeted attacks

Symantec has developed a way of detecting targeted attacks through mapping e-mail patterns to identify single gang activity.
October 07, 2011 07 Oct'11
85 sub-postmasters seek legal support in claims against Post Office computer system

Over 80 sub-postmasters are interested in taking legal action against the Post Office in relation to an allegedly faulty computer system.
October 06, 2011 06 Oct'11
UBS systems detected $2bn rogue trader fraud, admits CEO Sergio Ermotti

UBS interim CEO Sergio Ermotti has admitted systems in the banks IT infrastructure detected the unauthorised trading of the rogue trader who cost UBS over $2bn, but nothing was done about the warning signals.
October 04, 2011 04 Oct'11
Universal Credit deadline forced DWP to use “unproven” agile development

Tight deadlines left the Department for Work and Pensions with little choice but to use "unproven" agile methods to develop its £2bn Universal Credit (UC) system, said the Cabinet Office Major Projects Authority (MPA) in a confidential report ...
October 04, 2011 04 Oct'11
GPU cracks six-character password in four seconds

A £30 nVidia GeForce GT220 graphics card is capable of cracking strong passwords in a matter of hours.
October 03, 2011 03 Oct'11
Identifying the business value of SAM best practice frameworks and standards

Businesses are cautious when it comes to taking up best practice frameworks and standards that could help them manage their software assets more effectively.
September 29, 2011 29 Sep'11
IBM signs £525m DWP contract to provide Universal Credit systems

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has signed a seven-year contract with IBM worth £75m per year to provide systems, which will include the delivery of its flagship Universal Credit programme.
September 27, 2011 27 Sep'11
How BP made its supplier ecosystem work

Oil and gas giant BP spent 65% of its $3bn annual IT budget with 3,000 suppliers in 2008, but now it outsources to only seven and has reduced its annual IT budget by $800m as a result.
September 23, 2011 23 Sep'11
Police IT not fit for purpose, police-led ICT company needs a lot of work, says Home Office report

A Home Office report into policing has labelled police IT as not being fit for purpose and made recommendations to shake up a mess of different IT systems across 43 forces which is hindering police attempts to fight crime.
September 23, 2011 23 Sep'11
Anti-piracy group FAST applauds government business guide to navigating UK IP law

The government has published a guide to UK intellectual property law for businesses, providing information on IP policies; procurement of goods and services; reporting IP crime; and auditing IP. The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) said it ...
September 22, 2011 22 Sep'11
Government pulls plug on ailing £11bn NHS IT programme

The troubled £11bn NHS National Programme for IT is to be axed, the government is expected to announce later today.
September 22, 2011 22 Sep'11
Researchers claim to have broken SSL/TLS encryption

Two security researchers claim to have found a way of breaking the SSL/TLS encryption that is widely used to guarantee the reliability and privacy of data exchanged between web browsers and servers.
September 22, 2011 22 Sep'11
SQL injection attacks increasing in number, sophistication and potency, researchers find

The prevalence and intensity of SQL injection attacks are increasing, according to Imperva.
September 21, 2011 21 Sep'11
Gartner: Best defence against social media threats is monitoring and education

Blocking social media in the enterprise encourages bad behaviour by employees but does not prevent access, warns Gartner.
September 20, 2011 20 Sep'11
Gartner: Keep encryption simple and standardised to cut cost and complexity

Businesses should consider self-encrypting drives (SEDs) for new installations that hold significant volumes of sensitive data, says Gartner.
September 19, 2011 19 Sep'11
Defense in depth a dying philosophy: Eddie Schwartz

The approach to information security needs to evolve, says Edward Schwartz, CISO at RSA. Agility, dynamism, and fresh security paradigms a need of the hour.
September 15, 2011 15 Sep'11
Cyber attacks are becoming lethal, warns US cyber commander

Cyber attacks are escalating from large-scale theft and disruption of computer operations to more lethal attacks that destroy systems and physical equipment, according to the head of the US Cyber Command.
September 14, 2011 14 Sep'11
IT development underpinning Universal Credits comes under fire from MPs and experts

The delivery of Universal Credits is coming under fire as observers are casting an increasingly critical eye on the IT systems underpinning the politically sensitive project.
September 14, 2011 14 Sep'11
Security update: Light Microsoft Patch Tuesday with low application impact plus critical Adobe fixes

Microsoft's September Patch Tuesday security update is relatively light with only five security updates.
September 13, 2011 13 Sep'11
GlobalSign web certificate authority back online after breach by hacker

Belgian web certificate authority (CA) GlobalSign is back online after investigating claims by the hacker who breached the Dutch DigiNotar CA that its systems had also been breached.
September 08, 2011 08 Sep'11
Web security certificate breach widens

GlobalSign, the fifth largest digital certificate issuer, has suspended the issuing of authentication certificates for websites after the DigiNotar hacker claimed to have breached its systems
September 08, 2011 08 Sep'11
University challenge: using IT to improve services and reduce costs

Universities face a balancing act as they become increasingly expected to improve the experiences of more demanding students while making budgets go further, and IT is a critical tool in finding this balance.
September 08, 2011 08 Sep'11
Nike+ problems demonstrate the risk of social media success

The rewards for creating a customer-focused online community are huge. But success comes at a price, as recent issues encountered by Nike's Nike+ running site illustrate. Matt Scott investigates.
September 07, 2011 07 Sep'11
DigiNotar certificate authority breach: Why it matters

There has been much speculation around the identity and motive of the hacker who was able to breach DigiNotar and issue fraudulent digital certificates for hundreds of websites, but putting such speculation aside, what is the broader significance of...
September 02, 2011 02 Sep'11
ICO slams Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration for data breaches

The Information Commissioner's Office has criticised the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration for twice leaking sensitive personal information about young children in breach of the Data Protection Act.
August 30, 2011 30 Aug'11
Orange restores broadband customers' e-mail account access but loses data

A problem with Orange e-mail – which locked out broadband customers – has been partly fixed as access to the accounts is restored, but weeks of e-mails may be lost.
August 30, 2011 30 Aug'11
Facebook pays security bug bounty hunters $40,000 in three weeks

Facebook has revealed its security bug bounty initiative has paid out more than $40,000 in just three weeks – but has not revealed how many security vulnerabilities have been reported or how many have been fixed.
August 26, 2011 26 Aug'11
Lack of soft skills training is curbing IT career progression

Employers are failing to provide IT professionals with the business...
August 23, 2011 23 Aug'11
Why major IT projects are more likely to fail than any others

Major IT projects are 20 times more likely to fail than other business initiatives because project managers are ignoring unpredictable events, says a major research study by Oxford University.
August 22, 2011 22 Aug'11
Failed IT projects demolish big businesses and executive careers, say researchers

IT projects spinning out of control in the public and private sector are ending the careers of senior executives and causing entire businesses to collapse.
August 19, 2011 19 Aug'11
What does HP's Autonomy acquisition mean for the UK tech sector?

HP's bombshell announcement that it is to acquire Autonomy has left many questioning where this leaves the UK software industry. Computer Weekly asks the experts what the deal means for UK home-grown tech talent and what HP is likely to achieve with...