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IT security

January 17, 2021 17 Jan'21
NCSC CyberFirst Girls 2021 contest kicks off

UK’s national cyber agency says it has already had hundreds of entrants in spite of the challenges presented by the pandemic
January 15, 2021 15 Jan'21
150,000 records accidentally wiped from police systems

Home Office claims data wiped from national police systems only relates to people who have never been convicted of a crime or had further police action taken against them following an arrest
January 15, 2021 15 Jan'21
US cyber security agencies get $9bn in Biden plan

New funding proposals come as US government reels from the impact of the December 2020 SolarWinds attack
January 15, 2021 15 Jan'21
Coalition proposes secure standard model for Covid-19 passports

Vaccination Credential Initiative is working to ensure that people vaccinated against Covid-19 can access their records in a secure, verifiable and privacy-preserving way

January 14, 2021 14 Jan'21
All EU states can take data protection cases against Facebook, says EU court

An opinion from the European Court of Justice has the potential to lead to a flood of privacy complaints against Facebook if upheld
January 14, 2021 14 Jan'21
Experian calls for less bureaucratic data regulations

Open banking requires cross-industry collaboration, but sharing personal data requires explicit consent, which can become a bottleneck
January 14, 2021 14 Jan'21
Old, on-premise systems targeted in Hackney ransomware attack

Council reveals some more insight into how the Pysa ransomware gang infiltrated its systems by exploiting legacy technology
January 14, 2021 14 Jan'21
Unforeseen consequences of new technologies put UK at risk

Lords committee told that the risks associated with various emerging digital technologies must be assessed together, with input from UK citizens, if the government is to avoid ‘siloisation’ of fundamentally interconnected problems
January 14, 2021 14 Jan'21
APAC firms grapple with cyber security amid pandemic

Some aspects of cyber security have taken a backseat as companies across the Asia-Pacific region rush to shore up their infrastructure to cope with the demands of remote work
January 13, 2021 13 Jan'21
Court to rule on Facebook data sharing after Schrems drops legal challenge against Irish regulator

Irish High Court says it will issue a judgment as soon as possible over a draft decision by Ireland’s data protection commissioner to order Facebook to stop the transfer of data about EU citizens to datacentres in the US

January 13, 2021 13 Jan'21
Three-quarters of finance firms report more potentially criminal activity in their networks

Fears of failing to comply with strict regulations grow as financial services firms identify more suspicious financial activity on their networks
January 13, 2021 13 Jan'21
World’s largest dark web market disrupted in major police operation

Coordinated international operation including Europol and the UK’s National Crime Agency has successfully taken DarkMarket offline
January 13, 2021 13 Jan'21
Covid-19 immunity passport tests to begin in UK

A Covid-19 immunity and vaccination passport developed by two UK firms and backed by Innovate UK has entered the live testing phase
January 13, 2021 13 Jan'21
Stolen Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine data leaked

Data dump understood to include screenshots of emails, peer review information, PDFs and PowerPoint presentations
January 13, 2021 13 Jan'21
Critical zero-day features in first Patch Tuesday of 2021

Microsoft releases fixes for 84 bugs on the first Patch Tuesday of 2021, including a critical zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Defender
January 12, 2021 12 Jan'21
Palo Alto Networks opens Australia cloud location

The cyber security company’s Australia cloud location will address data localisation requirements amid growing adoption of cloud-based security services
January 12, 2021 12 Jan'21
Mimecast latest security firm to be compromised

Users of a specific Mimecast certificate used to authenticate services to Microsoft Office 365 may be at risk of compromise in an attack that may relate to the ongoing SolarWinds incident
January 12, 2021 12 Jan'21
Parler collapse opens door to phishing attacks

The shutdown of controversial social media site Parler, and the publication of huge amounts of user data scraped by ethical hackers, is giving cyber crime experts cause for concern
January 12, 2021 12 Jan'21
Former ministers speak out on Mike Lynch extradition

As Mike Lynch, founder and former CEO of Autonomy, awaits his US extradition hearing, several former Tory MPs have expressed their concerns
January 12, 2021 12 Jan'21
Early stage UK security startups face funding crisis

Overall cyber security funding since the advent of the pandemic is well up, but investment is dominated by safe, later-stage firms while those raising capital for the first time fall away
January 11, 2021 11 Jan'21
New SolarWinds CEO sets out rescue plan

Customers can expect to see more regular and thorough checks on SolarWinds products, alongside greater engagement with the security community
January 11, 2021 11 Jan'21
Kaspersky claims link between Solorigate and Kazuar backdoors

Researchers say they have found specific code similarities between the Solorigate/Sunburst malware and the Kazuar backdoor, suggesting some relationship
January 11, 2021 11 Jan'21
New Zealand central bank IT system breached in cyber attack

Bank is responding to a cyber attack after hackers breached the system of a third-party supplier
January 08, 2021 08 Jan'21
Government use of 'general warrants' to authorise computer and phone hacking is unlawful

A court has ruled that the security and intelligence services can no longer rely on ‘general warrants’ to authorise the hacking of large numbers of computers and phones belonging to UK citizens
January 08, 2021 08 Jan'21
Which? online banking investigation reveals ‘worrying gaps’ in security

Consumer rights organisation has ranked the security of UK online current account providers
January 07, 2021 07 Jan'21
Biden picks cyber veteran to reinvigorate security response

Appointment of career intelligence operative Anne Neuberger signals refreshed security approach for the US government under Joe Biden's administration
January 07, 2021 07 Jan'21
Trump bans Chinese payment apps

US president signs executive order banning the use of Chinese payments app, citing national security risks
January 07, 2021 07 Jan'21
Hackney Council data leaked by Pysa ransomware gang

Council data stolen in October is leaked online in a double extortion attack
January 06, 2021 06 Jan'21
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to remain in prison despite winning extradition battle

Judge cites Assange’s support of NSA whistleblower as one of the reasons for him being at high risk of absconding. He will remain in Belmarsh prison until the US government completes its appeal
January 06, 2021 06 Jan'21
SolarWinds attack almost certainly work of Russian spooks

Investigations into the far-reaching SolarWinds Solorigate attack did not let up during the holidays
January 05, 2021 05 Jan'21
Scammers impersonating the ACSC on the prowl

The Australian Cyber Security Centre warns of scammers who are using its name to gain control of personal computers and trick users into revealing personal information
January 05, 2021 05 Jan'21
Banking trade body calls for increased contactless payment limit

UK Finance proposes an increase in the limit on spending using contactless cards
January 04, 2021 04 Jan'21
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange cannot be extradited to face charges in US, court rules

Court rules it would be oppressive to send Julian Assange to the US to face trial after finding he is at high risk of suicide. US government says it will appeal
January 04, 2021 04 Jan'21
Journalists’ FOI bids stayed as court reconsiders freedom of information rights of people outside UK

Tribunal questions whether people without a British passport or Britons living overseas are eligible to use the UK’s Freedom of Information Act
December 31, 2020 31 Dec'20
Top 10 networking stories of 2020

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 networking stories of 2020
December 31, 2020 31 Dec'20
Top 10 investigations and national security stories of 2020

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 investigations and national security stories of 2020
December 31, 2020 31 Dec'20
Top 10 technology and ethics stories of 2020

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 technology and ethics stories of 2020
December 30, 2020 30 Dec'20
Top 10 ASEAN IT stories of 2020

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 ASEAN IT stories of 2020
December 30, 2020 30 Dec'20
UK-EU Brexit deal passes Commons with six-month data adequacy bridge

IT industry trade body TechUK has welcomed a six-month data adequacy bridge, in the wake of the EU-UK trade deal that the House of Commons has voted for
December 24, 2020 24 Dec'20
Top 10 cyber crime stories of 2020

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 cyber crime stories of 2020
December 23, 2020 23 Dec'20
Top 10 cyber security stories of 2020

Here are Computer Weekly’s 10 top cyber security stories of 2020
December 22, 2020 22 Dec'20
Ministry of Justice in the dock for catalogue of serious data breaches

Annual report reveals major incidents of personal data loss affecting 121,355 people and including misplaced, unencrypted USB stick containing documents from a trial, accidental disclosure of identities, and staff files made visible to ...
December 22, 2020 22 Dec'20
Top 10 end-user computing stories of 2020

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 end-user computing stories of 2020
December 18, 2020 18 Dec'20
Finnish government tables laws to protect data from cyber criminals

Government is strengthening its legal framework to protect data from hackers in the wake of a massive breach at a psychotherapy centre
December 18, 2020 18 Dec'20
Utility supplier People’s Energy has entire customer list stolen

All 270,000 customers of People’s Energy, a renewable energy startup, have had their details compromised in a major data breach incident
December 18, 2020 18 Dec'20
SolarWinds cyber attack is ‘grave risk’ to global security

More victims of the SolarWinds Orion Sunburst cyber attack are being identified as the massive scale of the Russia-linked cyber espionage campaign becomes more clear
December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20
Dodgy browser extensions put social media users at risk

More than three million users of third-party browser extensions for Instagram, Facebook, Vimeo and others have been infected with malware, according to Avast
December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20
EU security strategy a ‘step up’ on cyber leadership, says Brussels

The EU’s new cyber security strategy forms a key component of Shaping Europe’s Digital Future, the Recovery Plan for Europe, and the EU Security Union Strategy
December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20
NHS Scotland taps Check Point to secure Covid-19 data

NHS National Services Scotland is working with security firm Check Point to safeguard its sensitive data in the cloud and support its work on the coronavirus
December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20
FireEye and partners release SolarWinds kill-switch

A so-called kill-switch for the dangerous SolarWinds Sunburst attack should allay some user fears, but is not a full fix for the issue