News

IT strategy

• April 28, 2020 28 Apr'20

  Under the spotlight, video apps rush to strengthen security

  Most popular videoconferencing applications now meet Mozilla’s minimum security standards, with fierce competition and public pressure driving rapid improvement

• April 28, 2020 28 Apr'20

  Almost half of security pros being redeployed during pandemic

  Close to half of cyber security professionals say they have been taken off some or all of their security duties to focus attention elsewhere during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic

• April 28, 2020 28 Apr'20

  Black Rose Lucy ransomware now posing as FBI porn warning

  A new strain of Russian-developed ransomware impersonates US federal law enforcement to force payment, says Check Point

• April 27, 2020 27 Apr'20

  Microsoft patches .gif file vulnerability in Teams

  Vulnerability could have enabled cyber criminals to use a malicious .gif file to scrape user data and take over Teams accounts

• April 27, 2020 27 Apr'20

  UK tech companies launch online safety body

  Online Safety Tech Industry Association unites 14 technology companies to drive conversation and policy around online safeguarding

• April 27, 2020 27 Apr'20

  GP Connect to enable patient information sharing in Covid-19 outbreak

  Past and present medical details will be shared across primary care during the emergency period

• April 24, 2020 24 Apr'20

  Government urges parents to keep children safe during lockdown

  The UK government has published more guidance for parents in an attempt to limit children's exposure to cyber bullying and disinformation during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic

• April 24, 2020 24 Apr'20

  Dark data is contributing to carbon emissions

  Almost six million tonnes of carbon dioxide will be pumped into the atmosphere this year as a result of dark data, Veritas research finds

• April 23, 2020 23 Apr'20

  Ransomware-stricken Travelex up for sale

  Travelex’s parent Finablr is washing its hands of the ransomware-stricken forex provider as it struggles with the twin shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic and a developing fraud scandal

• April 23, 2020 23 Apr'20

  iOS zero-day leaves iPhone users dangerously exposed

  Researchers identify dangerous vulnerabilities in Apple’s iOS operating system that allow remote code execution on target devices

• April 23, 2020 23 Apr'20

  Zoom to roll out fresh cyber security updates

  New features include support for advanced AES 256-bit encryption

• April 23, 2020 23 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: Remote workers air long-term productivity concerns over home-working tech

  Research from managed service provider Atlas Cloud highlights concerns from remote workers that their work-from-home tech kit might not be up to the job in the long term

• April 22, 2020 22 Apr'20

  NCSC overwhelmed by response to coronavirus campaign

  The UK’s NCSC has taken down more than 80 malicious web campaigns and received 5,000 reports of suspicious emails within 24 hours of launching reporting service

• April 22, 2020 22 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: Banking and mobile sectors collaborate to stop text scams

  Initiative aims to protect 50 genuine brands and government organisations from being impersonated by cyber criminals

• April 22, 2020 22 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: Cyber criminals may be changing tactics

  Cyber criminals “may soon shift to heavier exploitation of footholds established through phishing and other scams”, warns Cyber Threat Coalition

• April 21, 2020 21 Apr'20

  Border Force awards £3.1m contract to Capita

  The contract with the Home Office's law enforcement agency will see the implementation of 4G and satellite infrastructure

• April 21, 2020 21 Apr'20

  CIO interview: Theo Blackwell, CDO for London

  Digital and data are transforming the way London runs – from transport to public services. The first ever chief digital officer for London explains how his team are going about it

• April 21, 2020 21 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: HMRC job retention scheme targeted by cyber criminals

  The UK government’s scheme to pay furloughed employees 80% of their wages is being targeted by cyber criminals

• April 20, 2020 20 Apr'20

  NCSC launches coronavirus cyber security campaign

  The National Cyber Security Centre has launched a reporting service for scam emails as part of a campaign to help people protect themselves from cyber criminals exploiting the pandemic

• April 20, 2020 20 Apr'20

  Zoom and WebEx users targeted by credential stealing attempts

  Videoconferencing apps such as Zoom and Cisco’s WebEx are being targeted by cyber criminals trying to steal users’ personal data

• April 20, 2020 20 Apr'20

  CIO interview: Jason Oliver, IT director, University of Sussex

  Imagine taking a year to formulate a digital transformation plan – then having to implement much of it in two weeks when the coronavirus hit. For the Sussex University IT chief, there’s even more to do now

• April 20, 2020 20 Apr'20

  CaixaBank uses hybrid of conventional and quantum computers to classify risk

  Spain's CaixaBank is using quantum computers as part of a project to assess risk using machine learning algorithms

• April 20, 2020 20 Apr'20

  Machine learning to help hospitals predict Covid-19 demand

  The system developed by NHS Digital and the University of Cambridge will support hospitals in England in handling upcoming demand for intensive care beds and ventilators

• April 17, 2020 17 Apr'20

  Covid-19 will leave its legacy on global IT services

  IT services buying and selling will go through a transformation during the coronavirus crisis

• April 17, 2020 17 Apr'20

  Government investigates perceptions about data sharing of health and social care

  A project has been launched to find out about citizen understanding around data uses, and how perception may have been affected after the Covid-19 outbreak

• April 17, 2020 17 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: How Nominet fights back against malicious domains

  Domain name registry has thwarted hundreds of attempts to register malicious .uk domain names during the coronavirus pandemic

• April 17, 2020 17 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: Security certification body puts exams online

  Candidates for certification by the International Association of Privacy Professionals will now be able to sit their exams remotely

• April 16, 2020 16 Apr'20

  St Albans council integrates systems in effort to streamline processes

  The council of St Albans has implemented a unified digital platform to streamline how citizens interact with its services, as well as its own decision-making processes

• April 16, 2020 16 Apr'20

  Check Point sounds alarm over double extortion ransomware threat

  Researchers say double extortion ransomware attacks are likely to increase in frequency, and warn organisations to be on guard

• April 16, 2020 16 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: India eases lockdown restrictions for IT service providers

  Indian government allows IT services firms to bring half their staff back to delivery centres

• April 16, 2020 16 Apr'20

  NHS Wales to get free security services during coronavirus pandemic

  NHS Wales Informatics Services enlists Thales to help it face down security threats and let its teams focus on the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis

• April 16, 2020 16 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: Cyber attacks on banks seen spiking, says Carbon Black

  VMware’s Carbon Black observes a spike in cyber attacks on financial services organisations

• April 15, 2020 15 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: ICO temporarily relaxes regulatory approach

  The Information Commissioner’s Office sets out a revised approach to its regulatory duties during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic

• April 15, 2020 15 Apr'20

  House of Commons reports progress on virtual Parliament

  Plans to take certain proceedings online are on track but ‘bumps along the way’ are expected, according to the Speaker of the House of Commons

• April 15, 2020 15 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: Standard Chartered bans employees from Zoom

  Standard Chartered is the first bank to have instructed its staff to refrain from using Zoom

• April 15, 2020 15 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: Researcher finds security vulnerability in Slack

  Some common assumptions about the security of cloud-based messaging platform Slack may not be entirely accurate, says an Alien Labs researcher

• April 15, 2020 15 Apr'20

  Microsoft patches 19 critical bugs in another heavy Patch Tuesday

  The volume of vulnerabilities being uncovered by Microsoft remains high, with more than 100 fixes pushed out in April’s Patch Tuesday

• April 15, 2020 15 Apr'20

  Tech firms, academia and charities unite to deliver 4G tablets to Covid-19 patients

  The Life Lines project aims to keep critically ill patients connected when they are being cared for inside intensive care units across the UK

• April 15, 2020 15 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: More than two-fifths of employees likely to continue remote working after pandemic

  Research firm Gartner offers guide to managing remote workers during Covid-19 pandemic as new normal for work emerges

• April 14, 2020 14 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: Zoom user credentials for sale on dark web

  IntSight researchers say they have found a database containing thousands of Zoom usernames and passwords being sold on the dark web

• April 09, 2020 09 Apr'20

  NHSX partners with Facebook and Accenture for video call device trial during Covid-19 crisis

  Social media firm will distribute the equipment in hospitals, care homes and other healthcare settings

• April 09, 2020 09 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: Zoom restricted or banned at multiple organisations

  Use of videoconferencing tool has been banned at Google and in parts of the German and US governments

• April 09, 2020 09 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: Amazon warehouse workers strike over concerns about workplace safety and protections

  Online retail giant Amazon has been hit by a wave of strikes as workers protest against ‘unsafe working conditions’ and ‘corporate inaction’ during the pandemic

• April 08, 2020 08 Apr'20

  Games developers join fight against coronavirus

  Sector firms will deliver health messaging to UK citizens though popular games under a partnership with the government

• April 08, 2020 08 Apr'20

  Despite coronavirus, overall cyber crime volumes hold steady

  The UK’s NCSC and the US’s CISA see little change in overall volumes of cyber crime in spite of the coronavirus crisis – for the time being

• April 08, 2020 08 Apr'20

  Coronavirus threats ramp up as more hospitals come under attack

  The Covid-19 Cyber Threat Coalition finds the majority of security pros have been targeted by cyber criminals exploiting the coronavirus pandemic, and adds to warnings of increased activity targeting the health sector

• April 08, 2020 08 Apr'20

  The growing stature of open source in APAC

  From being users of open source software to contributing their own codes to the community, enterprises in Asia-Pacific are becoming active participants in the open source ecosystem

• April 07, 2020 07 Apr'20

  Happy developers write secure code, report claims

  DevOps specialist Sonatype claims to have found a direct correlation between satisfied developers and application security hygiene

• April 07, 2020 07 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: Criminals using Zoom installer to spread cryptominer

  Videoconferencing application targeted to deliver cryptomining malware to unsuspecting victims

• April 07, 2020 07 Apr'20

  House of Commons commits to digital Parliament

  Temporary arrangements will be in place to allow MPs to work remotely, with a project involving the BBC set to implement a more robust solution

• April 06, 2020 06 Apr'20

  Two-factor authentication is broken: What comes next?

  Two-factor authentication is seen by many as a robust authentication method, but is it really as impervious as it seems?

• April 06, 2020 06 Apr'20

  BA and Marriott get GDPR fine reprieve

  Both British Airways and Marriott International have had their General Data Protection Regulation fines deferred until later in 2020

• April 06, 2020 06 Apr'20

  Zero-day exploits increasingly commodified, say researchers

  The exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities increasingly demonstrates access to cash, rather than skills

• April 06, 2020 06 Apr'20

  Government launches £20m tech fund to tackle coronavirus crisis

  The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy announced the funding to back proposals to be reviewed by Innovate UK

• April 05, 2020 05 Apr'20

  Google data shows high interest in security and remote working

  An analysis of the most Googled technology terms during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the scale of the cyber security challenge presented by the crisis

• April 03, 2020 03 Apr'20

  Speaker calls for virtual Parliament during coronavirus crisis

  Pressure mounts to build on previous virtual trials in parliamentary committee hearings and enable the House of Commons to operate remotely.

• April 03, 2020 03 Apr'20

  Use of NHS technology surges during Covid-19 outbreak

  Digital platforms provided by the health service are attracting many more users as a result of social distancing and the need to provide services remotely

• April 02, 2020 02 Apr'20

  What the Court of Appeal referrals mean to those who campaigned for justice for subpostmasters

  Former subpostmasters and their supporters describe their feelings after their appeals against convictions – some of which are nearly 20 years old – get sent to the Court of Appeal

• April 02, 2020 02 Apr'20

  Morrisons appeal success is cold comfort for enterprises

  The success of Morrisons’ appeal against judgments that it should be held vicariously liable for an insider data breach will be welcomed by businesses, but may be of limited comfort to them

• April 02, 2020 02 Apr'20

  Coronavirus: Is Zoom safe and should security teams ban it?

  Zoom’s rapid rise to prominence has highlighted a score of security problems with the service. Should CISOs try to steer their organisations away from it, or ban it outright?

• April 02, 2020 02 Apr'20

  MPs call for digital Parliament

  In a letter with more than 100 co-signatories, Labour MP Chi Onwurah calls for politicians to lead by example during the coronavirus outbreak

• April 01, 2020 01 Apr'20

  What we can learn from Marriott’s new data breach embarrassment

  Marriott International has egg on its face once again following a second data breach in as many years, but there are encouraging signs in its response that suggest it is at least trying to learn from its experiences

• April 01, 2020 01 Apr'20

  Air industry eyes £300m savings through blockchain for cargo efficiency

  Air transport alliance tests use of blockchain to transform the multibillion-pound industry that manages air cargo transportation

• April 01, 2020 01 Apr'20

  Morrisons not liable for 2014 data breach, says Supreme Court

  Court allows supermarket chain’s appeal against judgments holding it liable for a 2014 insider data breach, saying previous rulings misunderstood the concept of vicarious liability

• April 01, 2020 01 Apr'20

  Swedbank to rebuild anti-money laundering systems after damning report

  Report finds that €36.7bn in transactions, all carrying a high risk for money laundering, were processed through the bank’s branch network in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania

• March 31, 2020 31 Mar'20

  Marriott International hotel chain in second data breach

  Marriott International notifies customers of a major data breach that unfolded earlier in 2020 – the second it has experienced in the past two years

• March 31, 2020 31 Mar'20

  Loan charge MPs secure ‘unanimous’ support for motion to curb policy’s retrospective powers

  A motion raised by the Loan Charge All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), aimed at removing all retrospective elements of the controversial tax policy, has secured the “unanimous” support of the House of Commons

• March 31, 2020 31 Mar'20

  Gartner: Top-performing companies understand CX

  Those businesses that measure customer experience, either through surveys, real-time analytics or the use of artificial intelligence, are more profitable

• March 31, 2020 31 Mar'20

  Too late to protect online privacy, say Brits

  Most UK consumers are concerned about data privacy, but think it’s too late to do much about it, according to a report

• March 31, 2020 31 Mar'20

  Whitehall appoints civil service COO to replace John Manzoni

  Former CMA chief executive Alex Chisholm also takes on the roles of COO and permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office

• March 30, 2020 30 Mar'20

  Ministry of Defence releases defence data management strategy

  The report sets out how the department will improve the way it manages and uses data

• March 27, 2020 27 Mar'20

  How subpostmasters made legal history with biggest referral of potential miscarriages of justice

  Subpostmasters seeking redress of prosecutions at the hands of an IT system force the biggest ever UK referral of cases of potential miscarriages of justice to the Court of Appeal

• March 27, 2020 27 Mar'20

  IR35 reforms: Chancellor slammed for dig at self-employed tax habits during coronavirus briefing

  Rishi Sunak under fire for making a veiled reference to self-employed people needing to pay their “fair share of tax” during the government’s daily coronavirus update

• March 27, 2020 27 Mar'20

  Insurance firm Chubb may be latest Maze ransomware victim

  Maze ransomware group claims to have stolen personal data from the systems of cyber security insurance firm Chubb

• March 27, 2020 27 Mar'20

  Lorca calls on security scaleups to tackle coronavirus challenge

  Lorca innovation programme has launched an open call for its next cohort of cyber security scaleups, with a timely focus on coronavirus challenges

• March 27, 2020 27 Mar'20

  Crown Commercial Service advises on remote working tech

  Public sector organisations want to understand their options to support their workforce during the Covid-19 crisis

• March 27, 2020 27 Mar'20

  NHS rolls out video consultations at GPs to support lockdown

  Video consultation service aims to reduce face-to-face contact to protect patients and reduce infection, as well as caring for people who are mostly staying at home

• March 27, 2020 27 Mar'20

  Coronavirus: IT contractors ‘left stranded’ by exclusion from support for self-employed

  IT contractors who provide services through their own limited companies will not be able to access government scheme to support self-employed through coronavirus outbreak

• March 27, 2020 27 Mar'20

  Huawei to boost Kunpeng ecosystem in cloud play

  Chinese tech giant will shell out $200m this year to build an ecosystem around its Arm-based processor to bolster its position in the cloud computing market

• March 26, 2020 26 Mar'20

  Coronavirus: What are the latest free cyber security offers?

  We round up the latest free offers on cyber security products and services being made available during the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis

• March 26, 2020 26 Mar'20

  Subpostmaster prosecutions to be considered by Court of Appeal for miscarriages of justice

  The Criminal Cases Review Commission is referring 39 subpostmaster prosecutions to the Court of Appeal to review for possible miscarriages of justice, with further analysis on 22 more cases ongoing

• March 25, 2020 25 Mar'20

  Almost half of UK businesses suffered a cyber attack in past year

  Latest government statistics reveal the scale of the cyber security challenge facing UK plc, but reveals some cause for optimism

• March 25, 2020 25 Mar'20

  Smartbox move to Nutanix HCI a catalyst for IT team revamp

  Gift supplier reorganises IT team structures as Nutanix hyper-converged infrastructure helps sweep away legacy architecture for hybrid cloud and containerised operations

• March 25, 2020 25 Mar'20

  Coronavirus takes toll on IT spending in Asia

  The economic fallout from the Covid-19 outbreak is expected to slash the growth rate of the region’s IT industry to just 1.2% this year

• March 24, 2020 24 Mar'20

  IR35 private sector reforms: Coronavirus prompts calls for fairer deal for self-employed IT workers

  ContractorCalculator CEO Dave Chaplin says the deferral of the IR35 reforms should be upgraded to a cancellation, as the response of employers to coronavirus highlights glaring inequalities between treatment of inside IR35 contractors and employees

• March 24, 2020 24 Mar'20

  Legacy AV defenceless against onslaught of evasive malware

  More than two-thirds of malware detected by WatchGuard in the last three months of 2019 was able to evade signature-based antivirus products, rendering them effectively useless in most instances

• March 23, 2020 23 Mar'20

  Coronavirus: Kaspersky, Bitdefender make products free to NHS

  Kaspersky and Bitdefender have both made various products and services available free to healthcare customers as the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic intensifies

• March 23, 2020 23 Mar'20

  Coronavirus: CCRC uses Microsoft Teams to consider subpostmaster appeals

  Criminal Cases Review Commission to use Microsoft Teams to ensure review of subpostmaster prosecutions is held on time

• March 23, 2020 23 Mar'20

  Seek ditches pagers for cloud service in IT operations

  Australian employment marketplace Seek is doing away with pagers in favour of PagerDuty’s cloud-based digital operations platform to scale up its IT operations in Asia and Australia

• March 20, 2020 20 Mar'20

  Dstl launches report on the future of cities

  Dstl research aims to support decision-making of the UK military by analysing topics such as the influence of technology in urban warfare

• March 19, 2020 19 Mar'20

  IT Priorities 2020: ANZ firms to spend more on cyber security

  Over half of respondents in Australia and New Zealand plan to invest more in cyber security, especially in key areas such as data loss prevention

• March 19, 2020 19 Mar'20

  Employee computing emissions measured by only one-third of enterprises, Citrix research suggests

  Many large companies in the UK are not measuring the greenhouse gas emissions from employee computing, with just a quarter of managers viewing IT sustainability as a top priority for their organisation

• March 18, 2020 18 Mar'20

  Surrey goes live with child health system

  CSH Surrey goes live with its new platform, with the information on 440,000 children's health now consolidated onto a single platform

• March 18, 2020 18 Mar'20

  Coronavirus now possibly largest-ever cyber security threat

  The cumulative volume of coronavirus-related email lures and other threats is the largest collection of attack types exploiting a single theme for years, possibly ever

• March 18, 2020 18 Mar'20

  Prudential turns to AI to secure computer networks against cyber attacks

  Prudential, the UK’s largest listed insurer, is turning to artificial intelligence to protect its computer networks in the US, Asia and Africa from malware hackers and internal threats

• March 18, 2020 18 Mar'20

  Push for digitisation in Malaysia amid coronavirus crisis

  Event cancellations and travel bans are spurring more companies to embrace digital tools to support remote and flexible working arrangements

• March 18, 2020 18 Mar'20

  IR35 private sector reforms: Coronavirus prompts Treasury to delay start date to April 2021

  HM Treasury confirms roll-out of IR35 reforms to the private sector will be halted for a year to ease the pressure on businesses in the face of the coronavirus outbreak

• March 17, 2020 17 Mar'20

  Covid-19: NCSC issues secure remote working guidance

  With hundreds of thousands likely to be working remotely for some time, the UK’s NCSC has issued best practice guidance to enable security teams to support them

• March 17, 2020 17 Mar'20

  UK makes its case for post-Brexit data adequacy decision

  Government sets out an explanatory framework as it seeks adequacy decisions from the European Commission to maintain the free flow of personal data between the European Union, the UK and Gibraltar

• March 16, 2020 16 Mar'20

  Secret Post Office deals cause fury among Horizon IT scandal campaigners

  The Post Office has sparked anger with secret settlements with subpostmasters outside the recent legal action against it