News

Managing IT and business issues

• September 23, 2021 23 Sep'21

  Fresh alert over Conti ransomware surge

  Conti ransomware crew appears increasingly active, prompting fresh warnings from the US authorities

• September 23, 2021 23 Sep'21

  Threat actors target VMware vCenter Server users

  Users of VMware vCenter Server are advised to patch a series of vulnerabilities post haste

• September 22, 2021 22 Sep'21

  UK pivot to hybrid tech could add £76bn to GDP

  Study shows rise in hybrid working could boost GDP by £48bn annually as part-time workers increase hours and investment in hybrid technologies could add nearly £80bn over next four years

• September 22, 2021 22 Sep'21

  JP Morgan Chase to replace core banking system with Google-inspired cloud platform

  JP Morgan Chase is the latest bank to acquire the cloud-native core banking technology of UK fintech Thought Machine

• September 22, 2021 22 Sep'21

  Mastercard invests in digital competence training for five million very small businesses

  Mastercard is working with suppliers to embed training for small businesses onto their digital platforms

• September 22, 2021 22 Sep'21

  Legacy, unautomated IT was root cause of human error in pensions underpayment

  Caseworkers at Department for Work and Pensions had to use systems dating back to 1988 and manually move data to different systems, leading to human error

• September 21, 2021 21 Sep'21

  Investigation launched after MoD email blunder

  Exposure of PII on Afghan interpreters who worked with the UK may put hundreds at risk of Taliban reprisals

• September 21, 2021 21 Sep'21

  Spanish police bust Mafia-linked phishing gang

  A joint operation between European authorities has dismantled a cyber criminal gang with links to the Italian Mafia

• September 21, 2021 21 Sep'21

  BlackMatter gang ramps up attacks on multiple victims

  A wave of new BlackMatter ransomware attacks is hitting organisations around the world, even as the US authorities mull new sanctions on ransom payment infrastructure

• September 21, 2021 21 Sep'21

  London Tech Week: London and South losing out on productivity

  There appears to be a massive gap between the most and least productive businesses, and tech and tech skills are key ingredients of productivity

• September 20, 2021 20 Sep'21

  ASEAN organisations face observability gap

  Organisations in Southeast Asia are grappling with a hodgepodge of observability tools and have some way to go before they can achieve full visibility over their technology stacks

• September 17, 2021 17 Sep'21

  Aftershock eyes corporate PC market

  Singapore-based custom PC supplier Aftershock has set up a corporate sales team and is looking to offer a desktop as a service for business customers

• September 16, 2021 16 Sep'21

  Bitdefender launches free REvil ransomware decryptor

  Working alongside law enforcement partners, Bitdefender has developed and released a tool to help REvil victims recover their data for free

• September 16, 2021 16 Sep'21

  Travel-themed phishing lures spiked this summer

  As people begin to take holidays again after more than a year of restrictions and lockdowns, opportunist cyber criminals have taken note, according to new data from Palo Alto’s Unit 42

• September 15, 2021 15 Sep'21

  Interview: Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak on supporting the UK tech sector

  Computer Weekly talked to Sunak at a Treasury event in front of an audience of tech sector leaders, investors and startups, to discuss how the government can support the digital economy

• September 15, 2021 15 Sep'21

  Microsoft patches 66 vulnerabilities in September update

  Another lighter-than-usual Patch Tuesday update includes important fixes for recently disclosed vulnerabilities, including a dangerous zero-day, and an update in the PrintNightmare saga

• September 14, 2021 14 Sep'21

  Renault set to test out Google supply chain digital twin

  Digital twin simulation of supply chain draws in disparate data sources to deliver efficiencies and prevent disruptions

• September 14, 2021 14 Sep'21

  Mass health tracker data breach has UK impact

  The leak of a database of 61 million users of health-tracking devices includes records on individuals located in the UK

• September 14, 2021 14 Sep'21

  Cost of ransomware attack in financial sector exceeds $2m

  Mid-sized financial services organisations worldwide spend an average of over $2m recovering from ransomware attacks

• September 14, 2021 14 Sep'21

  Apple patches ForcedEntry vulnerability used by spyware firm NSO

  Apple patches ForcedEntry vulnerability that was used to target political activists with spyware

• September 14, 2021 14 Sep'21

  CCRC refers six more subpostmaster convictions for appeal

  An additional six subpostmasters’ convictions have been referred for appeal in Post Office IT scandal

• September 13, 2021 13 Sep'21

  Smishing attacks up sevenfold in six months

  Scam text messages are reaching pandemic proportions, thanks in part to the pandemic

• September 13, 2021 13 Sep'21

  Olympus likely victim of BlackMatter ransomware

  Key IT systems remain shut off at Olympus, five days after what seems to have been a BlackMatter ransomware attack

• September 09, 2021 09 Sep'21

  UK GDPR faces changes under planned reforms

  DCMS is launching a major consultation on proposed changes to the UK’s data protection regime, under which several key elements of the GDPR are likely to change

• September 09, 2021 09 Sep'21

  Latest Microsoft zero-day being actively exploited

  New Microsoft zero-day CVE-2021-40444 affects multiple versions of Windows and is probably being exploited through convincing phishing attacks

• September 08, 2021 08 Sep'21

  REvil reappearance may herald new ransom campaigns

  The re-emergence of the infamous REvil ransomware gang is a likely sign that more high-profile attacks will unfold over the coming weeks

• September 08, 2021 08 Sep'21

  Covid positive for security market, but still a source of stress

  CIISec’s latest “State of the profession report” highlights both positives and challenges for cyber pros arising from the past two years

• September 06, 2021 06 Sep'21

  Saudi tourism development fund goes cloud-first with Oracle

  $4bn fund will be used to invest in developing Saudi Arabia’s tourism industry as the country reduces its economic reliance on oil and gas

• September 03, 2021 03 Sep'21

  Mandiant, Sophos detail dangerous ProxyShell attacks

  Threat researchers and incident responders continue to track threat activity around the dangerous ProxyShell Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities, including impactful ransomware hits

• September 02, 2021 02 Sep'21

  Apple workers challenge company on toxic workplace culture

  Workers participating in the #AppleToo movement say they have collected nearly 500 testimonies from employees about their experiences of discrimination, harassment and abuse at Apple

• September 02, 2021 02 Sep'21

  WhatsApp fined €225m over GDPR breaches

  Irish data protection watchdog has issued one of the largest GDPR fines to date against Facebook-owned WhatsApp

• September 02, 2021 02 Sep'21

  Finance firms faced up to £760,000 costs per DNS attack during pandemic

  Financial services firms have been the focus of attacks by cyber criminals during the Covid-19 crisis

• September 02, 2021 02 Sep'21

  The Gulf is counting on its smart cities for a sustainable and profitable future

  The countries in the Gulf region are leading the way in the development of smart cities as part of their economic diversification

• September 01, 2021 01 Sep'21

  Experts warn on Office 365 phishing attacks

  Newly observed campaign is particularly dangerous because it appears to neutralise one of the most widely known anti-phishing techniques

• September 01, 2021 01 Sep'21

  Remote workers routinely bypassed security tools during pandemic

  New data from Palo Alto Networks reveals that over 25% of UK security leaders saw their employees circumventing or switching off security measures at the height of the pandemic

• August 27, 2021 27 Aug'21

  Are proposed data protection changes a threat to UK citizens’ privacy?

  Though changes are as-yet undefined pending an upcoming consultation, concerns are already being expressed over the government’s plan to liberalise data protection laws in the service of innovation and growth

• August 26, 2021 26 Aug'21

  Tech giants commit to Biden's cyber security action plan

  Some of the world’s most prominent tech giants have made a series of commitments to enhance the US’ national cyber security posture following a high-profile meeting with president Biden

• August 26, 2021 26 Aug'21

  Government unveils post-Brexit data flow proposals

  The government will pursue data partnerships with countries including Australia, South Korea and the US as part of a post-Brexit data regime that may also see substantial changes to the UK’s data protection law

• August 26, 2021 26 Aug'21

  NZ privacy lead John Edwards named new information commissioner

  DCMS has named John Edwards, currently New Zealand privacy commissioner, to succeed Elizabeth Denham as UK information commissioner

• August 25, 2021 25 Aug'21

  Calling the cops for ransomware attacks doesn’t help, say cyber pros

  A new study for the #Ransomaware campaign reveals some insight into why so few victims report ransomware attacks

• August 25, 2021 25 Aug'21

  UK loses £1.3bn to fraud and cyber crime so far this year

  New figures from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau show a threefold spike in reported financial losses to fraud and cyber crime in the first six months of 2021

• August 24, 2021 24 Aug'21

  Two-thirds of bosses still don’t trust employees to work remotely

  Study from Ricoh Europe finds that even though the tools for supporting remote workers have proved themselves to company bosses over the past 18 months, workers have not necessarily done the same

• August 24, 2021 24 Aug'21

  13 million malware attacks on Linux seen in wild

  Cryptominers, web shells and ransomware are the most common varieties of malwares targeting Linux systems, thanks to its prevalence as the backbone of most public cloud services

• August 24, 2021 24 Aug'21

  Half of MS Exchange servers at risk in ProxyShell debacle

  Up to 50% of MS Exchange users in the UK are exposed to three vulnerabilities that are now being actively exploited

• August 24, 2021 24 Aug'21

  Over a million opt out of NHS data-sharing

  Failure to communicate benefits of data-sharing proposals and privacy concerns are prompting large numbers of people to opt out of a proposed NHS Digital scheme

• August 24, 2021 24 Aug'21

  How Zendesk is gearing up for growth in APAC

  Zendesk has its eye on Japan and the enterprise segment while building up its partner ecosystem to grow its business in the Asia-Pacific region

• August 19, 2021 19 Aug'21

  Inside Estonia’s tech startup scene

  Estonia is a Baltic tech tiger that is fast-gaining an international reputation for competently delivered government e-services at a level that surpasses most of its European and international counterparts

• August 19, 2021 19 Aug'21

  Pub apps harvesting swathes of customer data unnecessarily

  Some pub and restaurant chain apps demand data such as gender and marital status, raising eyebrows among privacy campaigners

• August 19, 2021 19 Aug'21

  IT leaders fear ‘trickle-down’ of nation-state cyber attacks

  Three-quarters of IT decision-makers are concerned that the tactics, techniques and procedures used by nation-state attackers could be used against them

• August 19, 2021 19 Aug'21

  Challenger banks make reputational gains in business banking

  The business banking sector is a big target for digital challengers and some are already building good reputations in the market

• August 18, 2021 18 Aug'21

  Adam Crozier to lead BT transformation as chairman

  Business transformation specialist and nineties and noughties UK business golden boy to take the reins as BT chairman at the end of the year

• August 18, 2021 18 Aug'21

  MoD seeks security tech to harden military systems

  The Defence and Security Accelerator has launched a programme to root out technology that will reduce the military’s exposure to cyber attacks

• August 17, 2021 17 Aug'21

  Overturned convictions of subpostmasters mount up, but 555 victims no closer to justice

  The government has failed to provide fair compensation to the subpostmasters who exposed the full extent of the Horizon scandal to the world

• August 17, 2021 17 Aug'21

  What will be the bank branch balance in the digital age?

  Will the traditional banks be permanently disadvantaged by the need to retain bank branches or could they turn it to their advantage?

• August 17, 2021 17 Aug'21

  Educational publisher Pearson fined for data breach cover-up

  Securities and Exchange Commission says publisher misled its investors over the extent of a 2018 data breach

• August 13, 2021 13 Aug'21

  Cyber Runway programme supports new security businesses

  The Cyber Runway programme is a government-backed scheme to support entrepreneurs, startups and scaleups in launching and growing new security businesses

• August 11, 2021 11 Aug'21

  Four more subpostmasters set to have convictions overturned

  A further four subpostmasters are set to have their wrongful convictions overturned in the latest development in the Post Office Horizon scandal

• August 10, 2021 10 Aug'21

  Banks could be blocked from closing branches through FCA legislation

  UK financial services regulator the Financial Conduct Authority considers legislation that could block some bank branch closures to ensure citizens have easy access to cash

• August 10, 2021 10 Aug'21

  Third of finance firms accelerate use of artificial intelligence to detect money laundering

  Financial services firms are stepping up their use of artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to fight increasing money laundering activity

• August 05, 2021 05 Aug'21

  Unit4 doubles down on APAC business

  Supplier of mid-market ERP systems Unit4 is investing in a research and development centre in Jakarta as part of efforts to win market share from established players

• August 04, 2021 04 Aug'21

  Fred IT replaces paper prescriptions with QR codes

  Fred IT’s eRX Script Exchange is now used by 21,000 doctors and 95% of Australian pharmacies, delivering more than 11 million digital prescriptions by July 2021

• August 02, 2021 02 Aug'21

  Gigabit broadband funding targets over two million homes and businesses

  Digital infrastructure upgrades planned for rural and hard-to-reach areas to support post-pandemic economic growth and improve home connectivity

• August 02, 2021 02 Aug'21

  Government publishes second version of digital identity trust framework

  The second iteration of the framework, still in alpha version, sets out how organisations can become certified digital identity service providers

• August 02, 2021 02 Aug'21

  Building supply chain resilience with cloud ERP

  Vallen Asia’s cloud enterprise resource planning system has enabled it to scale its operations across the region and made its supply chain operations more resilient amid the pandemic

• July 30, 2021 30 Jul'21

  Technical debt is holding back innovation

  Technical debt is limiting seven in 10 companies in their capacity to innovate, according to a global study

• July 29, 2021 29 Jul'21

  Technical hiccups force Babuk ransomware gang to change tactics

  The Babuk ransomware operation backed away from encrypting its victims’ files, and technical difficulties may be to blame, reports McAfee

• July 28, 2021 28 Jul'21

  Almost half unaware of GP data-sharing plans

  Around half of adults in England – approximately 20 million people – remain unaware of the scope of the NHS GPDPR programme, prompting calls for a public education campaign

• July 28, 2021 28 Jul'21

  Top vulnerabilities target perimeter devices

  The most frequently exploited CVEs of the year so far are to be found in perimeter and network access devices, according to a joint advisory from the NCSC and partners

• July 28, 2021 28 Jul'21

  Thousands wrongly given criminal convictions after computer error

  HM Courts and Tribunals Service report reveals that computer error wrongly assigned guilty pleas to more than 5,000 defendants

• July 27, 2021 27 Jul'21

  US lawmakers call for probe into ‘arrogant’ spyware firm

  US members of Congress have called for an investigation into NSO Group, the spyware supplier at the centre of a massive surveillance scandal

• July 27, 2021 27 Jul'21

  TikTok sets up cyber security hub in Dublin

  Dublin-based cyber centre will oversee the security of TikTok’s users across Europe

• July 26, 2021 26 Jul'21

  Malicious actors turn to obscure programming languages

  Using new, lesser-known or otherwise uncommon programming languages to code new malwares can help skirt cyber defences

• July 26, 2021 26 Jul'21

  No More Ransom initiative saves £850m over five years

  Initiative’s free ransomware decryption tools have been used by more than six million people since 2016

• July 26, 2021 26 Jul'21

  Legacy IT issues impacted government decision-making during Covid-19, says PAC

  The government’s ability to make well-informed decisions during the pandemic has been ‘hampered’ by data and legacy IT issues, Public Accounts Committee report finds

• July 23, 2021 23 Jul'21

  Kaseya obtains universal ransomware decryptor

  Kaseya says it obtained a ransomware decryptor key from a trusted third party, but there is no word on whether a ransom was paid

• July 23, 2021 23 Jul'21

  Can India become a global manufacturing hub?

  India can be a major player in the global manufacturing supply chain by shoring up IP protection and tapping opportunities in contract manufacturing and firmware design

• July 22, 2021 22 Jul'21

  Government to fund interim compensation of up to £100,000 for each wrongly convicted subpostmaster

  The government will pay interim compensation within weeks to subpostmasters who were wrongly convicted of crimes due to computer errors

• July 22, 2021 22 Jul'21

  Interview: Sarah Wilkinson, former CEO, NHS Digital

  In her exit interview with Computer Weekly, NHS Digital’s former CEO Sarah Wilkinson talks about the organisation’s transformation over the past few years, the Covid-19 pandemic, bureaucracy challenges and big wins

• July 22, 2021 22 Jul'21

  Lords Covid-19 Committee disappointed in government engagement

  Committee is so disappointed in the government’s lack of engagement with its inquiry into the digital impact of the pandemic that it has published a separate report criticising it

• July 22, 2021 22 Jul'21

  Respect in Security challenges abuse and harassment in cyber

  With around a third of cyber pros saying they have personally experienced harassment at work or online, a new initiative is urging organisations to pledge their support to help free the community from the scourge of abuse. We met its founders

• July 21, 2021 21 Jul'21

  Infosys to open German operation focused on automotive sector

  Infosys is establishing a centre in Germany that will focus on supporting customers in the German automotive sector

• July 21, 2021 21 Jul'21

  Government officials lack experience to lead digital transformation, says NAO

  The government needs to reskill senior decision makers and give tech leaders more influence if digital business change projects are to succeed

• July 21, 2021 21 Jul'21

  France’s Macron among alleged Pegasus targets

  Data relating to devices used by French president Emmanuel Macron and the head of the World Health Organization, among others, has been uncovered in a dataset linked to government use of spyware

• July 20, 2021 20 Jul'21

  Research and development investment programme launches in UK

  A government-backed investment programme designed to direct more capital towards research and development-intensive technology firms has opened for applications

• July 20, 2021 20 Jul'21

  NCSC’s Cameron urges deeper cyber alliance-building

  Speaking to an event in Israel, NCSC CEO Lindy Cameron has praised joint UK-Israeli efforts on security collaboration

• July 20, 2021 20 Jul'21

  Nordic banks join forces to compete with fintechs

  Collaboration will be key for traditional Nordic banks to retain business amid intense competition from tech companies

• July 19, 2021 19 Jul'21

  A dozen more subpostmaster prosecutions quashed in Horizon scandal

  Twelve more former subpostmasters have had wrongful convictions for financial crimes overturned in the Court of Appeal

• July 19, 2021 19 Jul'21

  UK, US confirm Chinese state backed MS Exchange Server attacks

  UK and US governments, alongside the EU and Nato, have formally attributed the March 2021 Microsoft Exchange Server attacks to Chinese state-backed actors

• July 19, 2021 19 Jul'21

  Pegasus mobile RAT abused to monitor journalists and activists

  Israel-based surveillance specialist NSO Group is facing renewed pressure after it emerged its Pegasus mobile surveillance tool may be being widely abused by repressive regimes

• July 16, 2021 16 Jul'21

  Legacy SonicWall kit exploited in ransom campaign

  Users of older versions of SonicWall Secure Mobile Access 100 and Secure Remote Access products are at risk from a new ransomware campaign

• July 15, 2021 15 Jul'21

  Fintech sector continues to attract investment as Revolut hits $33bn valuation

  Revolut has become the most valuable financial technology firm in the UK after its latest round of investment, with plans for a ‘superapp’

• July 15, 2021 15 Jul'21

  UAE offers ‘golden visas’ to coders as part of national IT skills programme

  The United Arab Emirates is offering visas to coders across the world as it attempts to attract talent to support its economic diversification

• July 14, 2021 14 Jul'21

  REvil ransomware crew drops offline, reasons murky

  The REvil ransomware operation appears to have gone dark, but claims about its demise are almost certainly exaggerated

• July 14, 2021 14 Jul'21

  More than half of European IT outsourcing spending will soon be on cloud services

  Cloud services will soon be the largest part of the IT services market in Europe, as enterprises invest in them as part of their Covid-19 recovery strategies

• July 14, 2021 14 Jul'21

  Multiple Microsoft bugs being actively exploited

  Microsoft’s July Patch Tuesday update fixes 117 vulnerabilities, 13 rated as critical and four already being actively exploited

• July 13, 2021 13 Jul'21

  Modipwn vulnerability puts millions of building systems at risk

  Authentication bypass vulnerability in a Schneider Electric product could lead to device takeover

• July 13, 2021 13 Jul'21

  Secureworks sets up in EU datacentre for XDR services

  New datacentre location helps Secureworks’ customers meet EU data residency requirements

• July 13, 2021 13 Jul'21

  UK Cyber Security Council calls for new push on training

  Too many companies have cut back on security training and development during the pandemic, says UK Cyber Security Council

• July 13, 2021 13 Jul'21

  IR35: Contractors demand tax and employment law alignment to protect ‘zero-rights’ workers

  Government is again facing calls to ensure contractors that pay the same amount of tax as permanent employees also receive the same workplace benefits

• July 13, 2021 13 Jul'21

  Met Police seize £180m worth of Bitcoin

  The largest ever seizure of cryptocurrency in the UK comes just weeks after a previous multi-million pound confiscation, as law enforcement clamps down on money laundering