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IT security

June 07, 2021 07 Jun'21
IBM pushes back against US government data requests

Technology giant IBM says the US government has ‘no jurisdiction’ to request data from its European entities
June 07, 2021 07 Jun'21
Campaigners plan legal action over NHS data sharing

Privacy coalition aims to force NHS Digital to push back its plans to scrape medical information on millions of patients into a central database
June 07, 2021 07 Jun'21
Updated standard contractual clauses will provide ‘legal certainty’ for transfer of data

Organisations have 18 months to update data transfer agreements, known as standard contractual clauses, or SCCs, to continue sharing data outside the European Union
June 07, 2021 07 Jun'21
DNS attacks on the rise in APAC

Attacks on the domain name system in Asia-Pacific grew by 15% last year, with Malaysian organisations seeing the sharpest rise in damages among countries in the region

June 04, 2021 04 Jun'21
HSBC offers all businesses scam awareness app

HSBC is sharing information on the latest scams and how to defend against them thorough its latest app, available to all businesses
June 04, 2021 04 Jun'21
BCS: Lack of communication over NHS GPDPR ‘astonishing’

The Chartered Institute for IT has warned that millions of people are not being properly informed of NHS Digital plans to harvest their data
June 04, 2021 04 Jun'21
Secrecy around EncroChat cryptophone hack breaches French constitution, court hears

French lawyers claim that investigators are unlawfully withholding details of a cryptophone hacking operation in a case that could impact UK prosecutions
June 04, 2021 04 Jun'21
Government action on ransomware epidemic gathers pace

The US government steps up action against ransomware operators, while the UK’s NCSC publishes guidance on preparing to deal with a ransomware attack
June 03, 2021 03 Jun'21
Reports raise alarm over Huawei access to Dutch networks

Espionage accusations raise security questions for Netherlands organisations using Chinese supplier’s equipment and services
June 03, 2021 03 Jun'21
Norway’s auditor general lifts lid on energy industry’s cyber security risks

Auditor General’s Office questions the security posture of Norway’s energy industry

June 03, 2021 03 Jun'21
Tories fined over email data protection breaches

The Conservative Party broke the law by failing to properly keep records of who had unsubscribed from its mailing list
June 03, 2021 03 Jun'21
FireEye sold to private equity, Mandiant regains independence

FireEye has agreed to sell its products business and name to a private equity consortium, while Mandiant will spin out as an independent threat intel business
June 03, 2021 03 Jun'21
Pandemic a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ chance to reshape security

The volume of remote working has made it hard to paint an accurate picture of the true state of enterprise cyber security, but it presents an opportunity to change things up
June 02, 2021 02 Jun'21
Scottish businesses missing out on Cyber Essentials benefits

More than a third of Scottish businesses do not believe they are adequately prepared to deal with a cyber security incident
June 01, 2021 01 Jun'21
European-led consortium investigates quantum cryptography

The arms race to a quantum internet is under way – the European Commission is looking at secure critical national infrastructure and member state comms
June 01, 2021 01 Jun'21
Exagrid pays $2.6m to Conti ransomware attackers

Backup appliance specialist hit by Conti ransomware in May with cyber criminals downloading employee and customer data, confidential contracts and source code
June 01, 2021 01 Jun'21
Ex-IT manager stole over £800,000 from NHS trust

A former senior IT manager at an Essex NHS trust has pleaded guilty to defrauding his employer out of more than £800,000
May 31, 2021 31 May'21
Microsoft brings APAC policymakers together in security council

Microsoft’s APAC public sector security council will meet once a quarter to share threat intelligence and best practices for combating cyber threats
May 28, 2021 28 May'21
Privacy experts concerned over NHS data collection plans

Security and data privacy experts warn NHS Digital that its data collection plans could increase risk and cause a public backlash
May 27, 2021 27 May'21
Loss of 150,000 police records made worse by management failures

The loss of 150,000 records from a number of national policing systems was caused by a human coding error, but made worse by process and management failures
May 27, 2021 27 May'21
Security ops teams struggle to switch off at home

Spiralling stress levels among SOC and IT security teams can be attributed mainly to alert overload, says Trend Micro
May 27, 2021 27 May'21
NGOs file complaints against Clearview AI in five countries

Privacy and human rights organisations have asked data protection regulators in the UK, France, Austria, Italy and Greece to investigate controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI
May 26, 2021 26 May'21
More data stolen in January 2021 than in all of 2017, says report

The volume of data being stolen through breaches is growing steadily and shows no sign of slowing, according to a report from Imperva
May 26, 2021 26 May'21
Millions of pounds lost to crypto fraud on social media

More than £63m has been lost nationally by victims of investment fraud via a social media platform, says Action Fraud
May 25, 2021 25 May'21
GCHQ bulk interception programme breached privacy rights, Strasbourg court rules

European Court of Human Rights finds that the UK’s bulk surveillance programme breached citizens’ privacy rights
May 25, 2021 25 May'21
CyberSprinters game gives kids a head start, says NCSC

An online game for primary schools, clubs and youth organisations will teach children aged seven to 11 the fundamentals of staying safe online
May 25, 2021 25 May'21
Threat of group GDPR legal action haunts CISOs

The vast majority of security leaders questioned for a new report say they are concerned about the possibility of group legal settlements against them following a serious data breach
May 25, 2021 25 May'21
McAfee to change terms of auto-renewing consumer plans

Consumers who found their McAfee antivirus contracts auto-renewed will be able to get out of their contracts and get their money back
May 25, 2021 25 May'21
Industry reflects on three years of GDPR

Looking back on 12 tumultuous months, we assess how GDPR has weathered the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit, and consider what the coming year may hold for data protection
May 25, 2021 25 May'21
Legacy vulnerabilities may be biggest enterprise cyber risk

While high-profile cyber attacks and zero-days grab headlines, statistics gathered by network security specialists Cato suggest CISOs should be addressing legacy threats
May 24, 2021 24 May'21
Air India is latest victim of Sita hack

Data on millions of people who flew with Air India between 2011 and 2021 appears to have been compromised in the recent Sita supply chain attack
May 24, 2021 24 May'21
Dutch researchers build security software to mimic human immune system

Software could help IT systems develop immunity to some cyber attacks in a similar way to how the body fights infection
May 24, 2021 24 May'21
MEPs urge European Commission to revise UK adequacy decisions

Members of the European Parliament are calling for the European Commission to ensure EU citizens have greater privacy rights
May 24, 2021 24 May'21
Why the security stack needs to move to the edge

Akamai’s chief technology officer Robert Blumofe makes the case for a decentralised security model to address cyber threats that are emanating from the network edge
May 21, 2021 21 May'21
Lack of developer attention to cloud security prompts alerts

The personal data of over 100 million Android users may have been put at risk through a variety of cloud service misconfigurations
May 20, 2021 20 May'21
Pandemic tech use heightens consumer privacy fears

Report on consumer attitudes to privacy finds evidence of a “heightened sense of fear” as digital footprints expand inexorably
May 20, 2021 20 May'21
Malicious scans for at-risk systems start minutes after disclosure

Statistics collated by Palo Alto Networks reveal malicious actors begin scanning the internet for systems at risk of new CVEs within minutes
May 20, 2021 20 May'21
HP taps micro virtual machines in endpoint security

HP’s Wolf Security technology stack uses an endpoint security controller to run computing tasks in micro virtual machines so that any potential malware can be isolated and contained
May 20, 2021 20 May'21
UK government publishes framework on automated decision-making

The framework focuses on making the use of algorithms and automated decision-making systems within the public sector more ethical, transparent and accountable
May 19, 2021 19 May'21
Reports of stolen Irish health service data being leaked online

Leaking of deeply confidential and personal information on patient healthcare marks a new low for the criminal Conti gang
May 19, 2021 19 May'21
Barclays first bank to publish online scam refund details

All banks must be transparent about the proportion of victims of authorised push payment fraud they refund, says consumer rights organisation Which?
May 19, 2021 19 May'21
Flexxon bakes AI into SSDs to fight unknown threats

Singapore-based Flexxon has developed a solid-state drive that uses artificial intelligence to fend off malware and other unknown threats
May 18, 2021 18 May'21
Microsoft EU Data Boundary dubbed ‘smoke and mirrors’

Data protection experts claim Microsoft’s decision to create an EU Data Boundary is a tacit admission that it routinely transfers and processes the personal data of European citizens outside the bloc
May 18, 2021 18 May'21
Government response to National Data Strategy consultation depicts data as ‘asset, not threat’

Government responds to consultation with a promise of delivery, putting an emphasis on data as an asset, not a threat, and finding respondents keen on levelling up
May 18, 2021 18 May'21
Cisco acquires Kenna Security amid security expansion

Cisco announces a new acquisition alongside service enhancements around XDR and SASE in support of its security customers
May 18, 2021 18 May'21
Irish High Court dismisses legal bid by Facebook over EU-US data transfers

Latest twist in long-running legal battle sees Facebook lose legal bid to prevent the Irish Data Protection Commissioner suspending its transfer of data about European citizens to the US
May 18, 2021 18 May'21
Australian budget lends support to digital economy

Australia’s A$1.2bn Digital Economy Strategy ticks most of the right boxes, but some industry experts say areas such as broadband infrastructure and artificial intelligence are still underfunded
May 17, 2021 17 May'21
Conti ransomware syndicate behind attack on Irish health service

More details continue to emerge of the significant ransomware attack on Ireland’s HSE
May 17, 2021 17 May'21
NCSC study to probe disability and neurodiversity in cyber

National Cyber Security Centre and KPMG have launched a new diversity study aiming to capture benchmarks on disability and neurodiversity in cyber
May 17, 2021 17 May'21
Government seeks input on supply chain security

Amid concerns that too few companies are addressing vulnerabilities in their supply chain, DCMS is opening a consultation on new measures to enhance security
May 14, 2021 14 May'21
Colonial Pipeline paid $5m ransom, reports say

Colonial Pipeline may have paid a significant ransom within hours of being attacked, it has emerged, but it’s unlikely the story ends here
May 14, 2021 14 May'21
Irish health service hit by major ransomware attack

IT systems in hospitals across Ireland have been switched off following a significant ransomware attack
May 14, 2021 14 May'21
Dutch police used deep learning model to predict threats to life

Dutch police developed a deep learning model in their EncroChat investigation to predict which messages contain serious threats to life
May 14, 2021 14 May'21
Okta and Auth0 to expand APAC coverage

Okta’s acquisition of rival Auth0 will enable both companies to expand their footprint in the Asia-Pacific region as demand for identity management services soars amid the pandemic
May 13, 2021 13 May'21
NHSX data strategy due in ‘a few weeks’

NHSX director of policy and strategy Simon Madden says the long-awaited strategy is expected to “trigger huge debates” on issues such as access, choice and transparency, and will be published in draft form shortly to allow for consultation
May 13, 2021 13 May'21
Publishing exploit code does more harm than good, says report

Disclosing exploit code before patches are available gives malicious actors a ‘massive’ head-start, says Kenna Security
May 13, 2021 13 May'21
Biden beefs up public-private security cooperation

Joe Biden has signed a new Executive Order to harden US cyber security and government networks, with an emphasis on information sharing
May 13, 2021 13 May'21
Refuge launches tech safety site for domestic abuse victims

Created with the help of survivors, Refuge’s resource site offers guidance on protecting yourself from tech-enabled domestic abuse
May 13, 2021 13 May'21
CISOs weathered the pandemic well, but at personal cost

Over 80% of CISOs think their existing security capabilities stayed strong during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, but now face stress and burnout on an unheard-of scale
May 13, 2021 13 May'21
Verizon DBIR underscores year of unprecedented cyber challenge

Verizon 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report draws predictable conclusions as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic continues to be felt
May 12, 2021 12 May'21
UK government publishes Online Safety Bill draft

Bill builds on previous commitments by the government, which has added new measures to uphold democracy and freedom of speech while making tech giants more accountable
May 12, 2021 12 May'21
Inside DarkSide: Researchers share intel on break-out cyber gang

Security researchers swap information on the newly famous DarkSide ransomware gang, the group that doesn’t appear to understand what ‘being a criminal’ actually means
May 12, 2021 12 May'21
CyberUK 2021: NCSC encourages startups to invest in cyber

National Cyber Security Centre is launching bespoke cyber security guidance aimed at the UK’s valuable startup community
May 12, 2021 12 May'21
UK to fund national cyber teams in Global South

Government will commit millions of pounds to supporting vulnerable countries in establishing cyber capacity
May 12, 2021 12 May'21
Microsoft fixes four critical bugs on lighter Patch Tuesday

Four critical RCE vulnerabilities put users of various Microsoft products at risk, and should be patched right away
May 12, 2021 12 May'21
The Security Interviews: Why helpful bots could hurt vaccine roll-outs

Earlier this year, spikes in traffic to websites containing information about Covid-19 vaccines were attributed by Imperva to automated bots scraping data. Why is that a problem?
May 11, 2021 11 May'21
UK Plc invited to sign up for Early Warning of cyber incidents

The launch of the Early Warning incident notification service is among the enhancements being made by the NCSC to its service packages
May 11, 2021 11 May'21
NCSC cyber guidance targets cloud and home working

The NCSC’s refreshed cyber security guidance for larger organisations places particular emphasis on cloud, home working and ransomware
May 11, 2021 11 May'21
Collaboration key to success of UK’s Cyber Security Council

The founders of the UK’s Cyber Security Council have been setting out their plans to professionalise the cyber sector at the NCSC’s CyberUK 2021 event
May 11, 2021 11 May'21
Government to reform Computer Misuse Act

Home secretary Priti Patel will explore reforming the Computer Misuse Act as calls mount for the 31-year-old law to be updated to reflect the changed online world
May 11, 2021 11 May'21
SolarWinds CEO calls for collective action against state attacks

SolarWinds CEO tells NCSC’s CyberUK conference he is exploring the possibility of collaborating with other companies on collective cyber action against attacks backed by nation states
May 11, 2021 11 May'21
Swedish court finds ambiguities in hacked EncroChat cryptophone evidence

Defence lawyer claims evidence obtained by hacking the EncroChat encrypted phone network has ‘no legal’ value following Swedish appeal court ruling
May 11, 2021 11 May'21
Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack has grave consequences

The ramifications of a major ransomware attack against a US fuel pipeline operator could spread far and wide
May 10, 2021 10 May'21
NCSC Active Cyber Defence blocks surge of pandemic scams

The NCSC responded to a surge in online scams last year as it moved to protect both the general public and critical national services during the pandemic
May 07, 2021 07 May'21
NCSC, CISA publish new information on Russia’s Cozy Bear

New intelligence from UK and US cyber agencies suggests that APT29, or Cozy Bear, has been switching up its tactics
May 07, 2021 07 May'21
NCSC publishes smart city security guidelines

Guidance for local authorities, IT and cyber professionals aims to ensure the security of connected, smart city projects
May 07, 2021 07 May'21
Cyber accreditation to improve legal standing of security pros

Institute of Cyber Digital Investigations Professionals will help incident responders and cyber investigators get the professional recognition they deserve
May 07, 2021 07 May'21
Reddit enlists HackerOne to run public bug bounty programme

Online community platform is opening up its HackerOne bug bounty programme to any ethical hacker who cares to have a look under the bonnet
May 07, 2021 07 May'21
Ransomware, supply chain attacks show no sign of abating

Security experts at Black Hat Asia 2021 discuss the state of ransomware and supply chain attacks, two of the most common attack vectors that offer high returns for threat actors
May 06, 2021 06 May'21
Government urged to add scam protections to Online Safety Bill

Group of organisations calls for the government to use the Online Safety Bill to protect people from cyber scams
May 06, 2021 06 May'21
Scammers accidentally reveal fake Amazon review data

More than 13 million records relating to an organised fake review scam have been found on an unsecured ElasticSearch database, implicating hundreds of thousands of people in unethical behaviour
May 06, 2021 06 May'21
Google to introduce mandatory MFA for users

In future, holders of Google accounts will have no option but to use multifactor authentication if they want to use the firm’s services
May 06, 2021 06 May'21
HSBC blocks £249m in UK fraud with voice biometrics

HSBC voice recognition technology has reduced telephone banking fraud as demand for the channel increases
May 05, 2021 05 May'21
Why ITAM can aid IT-fuelled business recovery

As a sense of normality returns, we look at why IT asset management is the stealth tool for clearing a path towards greater digitisation
May 05, 2021 05 May'21
Dysfunctional cyber, network teams disrupt digital transformation

Despite shared goals, combative and dysfunctional relationships within specialist tech teams are putting digital transformation projects at risk, according to a report
May 05, 2021 05 May'21
Sophos: How timely intervention stopped a ProxyLogon attack

A recent incident at an undisclosed customer sheds new light on how malicious actors exploit unpatched Microsoft Exchange servers
May 04, 2021 04 May'21
Half of organisations breached via a third party in 12 months

New report highlights the risks of outsourcing key business processes without paying due care and attention to your service provider’s security
May 03, 2021 03 May'21
New standard to simplify IoT device onboarding

Fido Alliance’s device onboarding protocol will automate the process of connecting internet-of-things devices to device management platforms while improving security
April 30, 2021 30 Apr'21
EncroChat: Top lawyer warned CPS of risk that phone hacking warrants could be unlawful

Lord David Anderson QC warned prosecutors that there were formidable arguments against the lawfulness of a police operation to infiltrate the encrypted phone network, EncroChat
April 30, 2021 30 Apr'21
MPs accuse government of unduly interfering in information commissioner appointment

Cross-party group of MPs says government is influencing the appointment of a new information commissioner by explicitly seeking a candidate who will support its policy agenda, rather than regulate independently
April 30, 2021 30 Apr'21
End of support for Build 1909 leaves some Windows open to attack

Biannual Windows updates free IT staff from major updates, but some people prefer older builds of Windows, which leaves a gaping security hole
April 29, 2021 29 Apr'21
G7 countries to cooperate on digital regulation

Digital and technology ministers outline their agenda for how technology can be used to facilitate the post-Covid recovery, signalling closer collaboration in key areas of the digital economy
April 29, 2021 29 Apr'21
Northern Ireland pilots security training plan for 16-25s

Pilot scheme in Northern Ireland aims to widen access to cyber security careers
April 28, 2021 28 Apr'21
Covid-19 security challenges leave bank customers at risk

Challenges arising from the pandemic have left gaping holes in banking security, putting consumers at risk of fraud
April 28, 2021 28 Apr'21
Recruiters can’t afford to hold out for cyber ‘unicorns’

The perfect security candidate is hard to find, so hiring policy needs to be more pragmatic
April 28, 2021 28 Apr'21
Office 365 compromise likely led to Merseyrail ransomware attack

Compromise of Merseyrail employee data seems to have begun after a key email account was hacked
April 28, 2021 28 Apr'21
NHS App to serve as vaccine passport for foreign holidays

Existing NHS App will have vaccine passport functionality added to it, transport secretary confirms
April 27, 2021 27 Apr'21
UK supermarkets to trial age estimation tech for alcohol purchases

Biometric age estimation technology developed by Yoti to be tested in UK supermarkets for alcohol purchases as part of government-led digital identities initiative
April 27, 2021 27 Apr'21
Total cost of ransomware attack heading towards $2m

Sophos’ latest study finds that ransomware attacks are proving increasingly disruptive to their victims’ finances
April 27, 2021 27 Apr'21
Leaky Azure storage account puts software developer IP at risk

Source code for multiple products was left exposed in an unsecured Microsoft Azure cloud storage account, say researchers, but attributing responsibility for the error has proved difficult