News

IT security

• February 15, 2024 15 Feb'24

  Security-by-design push prompts new ISC2 accreditations

  Security-by-design has become a hot-button regulatory issue. ISC2 has decided now is the time to upskill cyber pros around these vital software and hardware development principles

• February 14, 2024 14 Feb'24

  Microsoft: Nation-state hackers are exploiting ChatGPT

  Threat actors from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia have all been probing use cases for generative AI service ChatGPT, but have yet to use such tools in a full-blown cyber attack

• February 14, 2024 14 Feb'24

  Dutch Supreme Court approves use of EncroChat evidence

  Defence lawyers plan appeal to European Court of Human Rights after Supreme Court upholds a conviction based on intercepted messages from the EncroChat encrypted phone network

• February 14, 2024 14 Feb'24

  Southern Water customer data was taken in ransomware attack

  Southern Water has started to contact customers whose data was stolen in a January 2024 ransomware attack on its systems

• February 14, 2024 14 Feb'24

  Met Police to scrap and replace ‘racist’ Gangs Violence Matrix

  A database used by the Metropolitan Police to identify and track people linked with gang violence is being decommissioned and replaced. The decision follows a long-running controversy over its discriminatory impacts on young black people, but ...

• February 14, 2024 14 Feb'24

  Microsoft patches two zero-days for Valentine’s Day

  Two security feature bypasses impacting Microsoft SmartScreen are on the February Patch Tuesday docket, among more than 70 issues

• February 14, 2024 14 Feb'24

  Security experts: Investigatory powers plans will delay security updates

  Cyber security experts warn that government proposals to amend the Investigatory Powers Act will limit tech companies’ ability to respond to security threats and could hamper the use of end-to-end encryption

• February 13, 2024 13 Feb'24

  New variants of Qakbot malware under development

  Despite its infrastructure having been taken down by the FBI last year, someone appears to be actively working on a new and improved version of the infamous Qakbot malware

• February 13, 2024 13 Feb'24

  Hunter-killer malware volumes seen surging

  Latest Picus Security report on malware tactics, techniques and procedures reveals an increasing focus on disabling security defences

• February 13, 2024 13 Feb'24

  What will result from Cohesity’s Veritas acquisition?

  The $7bn backup giant will leverage huge assets in enterprise customer base, compliance and governance intelligence, AI, R&D, and Kubernetes backup and storage

• February 09, 2024 09 Feb'24

  Amazon defends facial-recognition tech sale to FBI despite moratorium

  The FBI has confirmed it is using Amazon’s Rekognition image and video analysis software, but Amazon says it is ‘false’ to suggest this violates the company’s self-imposed moratorium on selling facial-recognition technology to US police

• February 09, 2024 09 Feb'24

  MoD ethical hacking programme expands after initial success

  The Ministry of Defence has expanded the scope of its defensive security partnership with HackerOne

• February 08, 2024 08 Feb'24

  Why open data is needed in the battle to address homelessness

  Centrepoint needed to send FOIs to more than 300 local authorities in England to access required information

• February 08, 2024 08 Feb'24

  CIO interview: Sandy Venugopal, SentinelOne

  We speak to the former CIO of Uber and LinkedIn, current CIO of SentinelOne, about how artificial intelligence should be deployed in business

• February 08, 2024 08 Feb'24

  Executive alleged to be behind EncroChat encrypted phone network arrested

  A businessman allegedly behind EncroChat, an encrypted phone network that was used by organised crime groups, has been extradited from the Dominican Republic to France

• February 07, 2024 07 Feb'24

  NCSC warns CNI operators over ‘living-off-the-land’ attacks

  Malicious, state-backed actors may well be lurking in the UK’s most critical networks right now, and their operators may not even know until it is too late, warn the NCSC and its partners

• February 07, 2024 07 Feb'24

  Dozens of surveillance companies are supplying spyware to governments, says Google

  Google’s Threat Analysis Group has identified 40 companies involved in selling and supplying security exploits and spyware services to governments

• February 07, 2024 07 Feb'24

  How Iranian cyber ops pivoted to target Israel after 7 October attacks

  Microsoft has shared new intelligence on how Iranian government-aligned threat actors have turned their fire on Israel over the past four months

• February 07, 2024 07 Feb'24

  South Staffs Water faces group action over Clop ransomware attack

  South Staffordshire Plc, the parent company of South Staffordshire and Cambridge Water, is facing legal action from customers whose data was compromised in a 2022 Clop ransomware attack

• February 07, 2024 07 Feb'24

  AI ID specialist Onfido in talks to be bought by Entrust

  UK-based cyber unicorn Onfido agrees to enter talks to be acquired by Entrust

• February 06, 2024 06 Feb'24

  UK’s McPartland Cyber Review to probe trust in technology

  The UK government has launched a cyber security review that will investigate how best to give businesses the confidence they need to use new technologies

• February 06, 2024 06 Feb'24

  Inquiry to explore cyber risk to Sunak-Starmer showdown

  The UK’s Joint Committee on National Security Strategy is opening an inquiry into securing the democratic process ahead of the next general election

• February 06, 2024 06 Feb'24

  UK and France push for international agreement on spyware

  The UK and France are hosting diplomats, big tech companies and civil society groups, in a two-day conference in London targeting the proliferation of spyware tools and ‘hackers for hire’

• February 05, 2024 05 Feb'24

  Blackbaud blasted for failing to prevent customer breaches

  A supply chain attack at software supplier Blackbaud in 2020 saw data on multiple UK organisations compromised. The US authorities are now taking steps to ensure it can’t happen again

• February 05, 2024 05 Feb'24

  US sanctions Iranians behind CNI cyber attacks

  US government issues new sanctions against six Iranians suspected of being behind a series of cyber attacks targeting critical national infrastructure, notably water supply systems

• February 01, 2024 01 Feb'24

  AI: House of Lords focuses on copyright and transparency

  Large language models promise to boost UK productivity, but the tech needs greater scrutiny and questions remain over intellectual property

• February 01, 2024 01 Feb'24

  US government disrupts Chinese botnet containing hundreds of end-of-life Cisco and Netgear routers

  The US government has succeeded in halting a botnet comprised of hundreds of end-of-life routers that posed a threat to critical national infrastructure (CNI) organisations in multiple countries

• February 01, 2024 01 Feb'24

  Welsh workers’ AI experiences shaped by uneven power dynamics

  Workers in Wales are being negatively affected by the unregulated introduction of artificial intelligence into workplaces due to asymmetric power dynamics

• February 01, 2024 01 Feb'24

  Defra legacy IT: 180 applications refreshed, over 1,500 remain

  The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has a 10-year plan to update technology. So far, 180 have been replaced or updated

• January 30, 2024 30 Jan'24

  We need backup! Pennsylvania police data loss shows why

  Police evidence systems data was lost during ‘routine maintenance’, with human error blamed – the case clearly illustrates why data protection can’t be left to chance

• January 29, 2024 29 Jan'24

  Lords question legality of police facial recognition

  Lords committee ‘deeply concerned’ about the rapid expansion of live facial recognition by UK police, which it says is progressing without any real oversight or accountability

• January 26, 2024 26 Jan'24

  GenAI tools ‘could not exist’ if firms are made to pay copyright

  AI firm Anthropic hits out at copyright lawsuit filed by music publishers, claiming the content ingested into its models falls under ‘fair use’ and that any licensing regime would be too complex and costly

• January 26, 2024 26 Jan'24

  Akira ransomware gang claims Lush cyber attack

  The Akira ransomware gang claims to have stolen over 100GB of data from cosmetics manufacturer and retailer Lush

• January 26, 2024 26 Jan'24

  UK government consults on age verification tech in alcohol sales

  The government has said it wants to allow the use of digital identities and various age-verification technologies in alcohol sales

• January 25, 2024 25 Jan'24

  Bugcrowd sees surge in vulnerability submissions, led by public sector

  Crowdsourced vulnerability disclosure and bug bounty platform Bugcrowd says it saw a 151% uptick in submissions related to government and public sector organisations in 2023

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  WebKit vulnerability sparks Apple’s first major security update of 2024

  A zero-day in the open source WebKit browser engine that powers Safari has sparked Apple’s first major patch roll-out of the new year

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  Southern Water confirms cyber attack after Black Basta claims

  Southern Water, which supplies millions of customers in southeast England, has confirmed it has fallen victim to a cyber attack, although its services appear to be running normally

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  Inside Cisco’s security platform strategy

  Raj Chopra, senior vice-president of Cisco’s security business, outlines the company’s security platform strategy and how it brought different products together into a single platform

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  Critical vulnerability exposes Fortra GoAnywhere users

  Fortra GoAnywhere MFT users must take steps to address a newly disclosed zero-day vulnerability without delay

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  AI will heighten global ransomware threat, says NCSC

  The benefits of artificial intelligence to cyber criminals being well-known, the NCSC now assesses it’s likely AI will soon be widely used to enhance ransomware attacks

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  Salesforce’s bug bounty programme paid out $3m in 2023

  Ethical hackers disclosed more than 4,000 vulnerabilities to Salesforce last year through its bug bounty programme, and received over $3m in rewards

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  Cato claims world’s first SASE-based XDR

  Generative AI, detection and response, endpoint protection and new incident response tools headline expansion of core secure access service edge platform beyond networking, threat prevention and data protection

• January 23, 2024 23 Jan'24

  Treat cyber risk like financial or legal issue, says UK government

  UK government and NCSC launch proposed code of practice on cyber security governance to help directors and business leaders toughen their defences

• January 23, 2024 23 Jan'24

  Leak of 26 billion records may prove to be ‘mother of all breaches’

  The discovery of a dataset comprising 26 billion stolen records may prove to be record-breaking in both its size and the danger it poses to ordinary people

• January 23, 2024 23 Jan'24

  SEC bitcoin hack was result of SIM-swapping

  A cyber attack on the US financial regulator earlier in January 2024 occurred after hackers took over one of its mobile phone accounts in a so-called SIM-swapping attack

• January 22, 2024 22 Jan'24

  SolarWinds hackers attack Microsoft in apparent recon mission

  Russian-backed threat actor behind infamous 2020 SolarWinds Sunburst intrusion hacked into Microsoft’s systems, apparently in an attempt to get hold of intel on themselves

• January 22, 2024 22 Jan'24

  PAC calls on MoD to fix inventory management IT

  The Public Accounts Committee is concerned that the ageing and fragmented IT systems used in the MoD’s inventory management puts front-line forces at significant risk

• January 22, 2024 22 Jan'24

  Chat control: Tech companies warn ministers over EU encryption plans

  Tech companies have written to EU ministers to urge them to back the European Parliament, rather than the European Commission, over proposed regulations to police child abuse

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  ICO prompts confusion over police cloud legality

  The UK data regulator has suggested that, despite major data protection concerns, it is likely to greenlight police cloud deployments because of an information-sharing agreement with the US government

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  Neighbouring Kent councils hit by simultaneous cyber attacks

  Canterbury, Dover and Thanet Councils in Kent have all been struck by simultaneous cyber attacks knocking systems offline, with indications of a link between all three