News

Managing IT and business issues

• July 31, 2020 31 Jul'20

  Labour Party is latest victim of Blackbaud ransomware attack

  Widening Blackbaud data breach ensnares the Labour Party as the cloud software firm continues to duck questions about its behaviour

• July 31, 2020 31 Jul'20

  Twitter confirms it was hit by targeted spearphishing attack

  Investigation into 15 July 2020 hack of a number of high-profile accounts by cryptocurrency scammers has found evidence of a targeted spearphishing incident

• July 31, 2020 31 Jul'20

  EU sanctions China and Russia over cyber attacks

  The EU is applying restrictive measure to six individuals and three entities accused of conducting disruptive cyber attacks in Europe, including the Russian GRU

• July 30, 2020 30 Jul'20

  Barclays CEO says Canary Wharf office set to stay despite home working success

  Barclays chief says the success of home working during the Covid-19 pandemic has taught the banks lessons, one of which is that major centres like Canary Wharf will remain

• July 30, 2020 30 Jul'20

  List of Blackbaud breach victims tops 120

  More than 120 education and third-sector organisations may have had their data compromised through the breach of Blackbaud’s cloud platform

• July 29, 2020 29 Jul'20

  Serious BootHole vulnerability puts millions of systems at risk

  BootHole is a GRUB2 bootloader vulnerability and puts millions of PCs, servers and other devices at risk of compromise

• July 29, 2020 29 Jul'20

  Majority of organisations at risk of cloud data exposure

  Report casts doubt on the effectiveness of the shared responsibility model of cloud security

• July 29, 2020 29 Jul'20

  Schrems steps up pressure on Irish data protection commissioner on Facebook’s data sharing with US

  Austrian lawyer is considering ‘other’ options if the Irish data protection commissioner does not make a decision by October on his seven-year-old complaint against Facebook

• July 29, 2020 29 Jul'20

  Cosmetics firm Avon faces new cyber security incident

  Technical information relating to Avon’s web and mobile sites was inadvertently left exposed on an unsecured Microsoft Azure server

• July 28, 2020 28 Jul'20

  Why supply chain visibility is key to APAC retailers

  Having complete visibility over the supply chain will enable retailers to tide over the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic and transform their businesses

• July 28, 2020 28 Jul'20

  De Montfort, KCL, Newcastle universities join list of Blackbaud victims

  Embattled cloud services provider now has big questions to answer over its handling of data belonging to UK universities and charities

• July 28, 2020 28 Jul'20

  Garmin may have paid hackers ransom, reports suggest

  Garmin’s services are coming back online, but the company remains tight-lipped about what exactly happened to it

• July 28, 2020 28 Jul'20

  NCSC names national security expert Lindy Cameron as new CEO

  New National Cyber Security Centre head joins from the Northern Ireland Office and has spent 20 years in government at home and abroad

• July 28, 2020 28 Jul'20

  Scotland’s security resilience centre concept goes national

  Based on the success of the Scottish Business Resilience Centre, a series of regional Cyber Resilience Centres are now launching across the rest of the UK

• July 28, 2020 28 Jul'20

  NCSC inducts six security startups to Cyber Accelerator

  10-week programme will guide some of the UK’s most innovative security startups as they scale their businesses for future growth

• July 28, 2020 28 Jul'20

  Vector and AWS team up on ‘new energy platform’

  New Zealand-based energy supplier Vector partners AWS to develop an IoT and analytics platform to speed up processing of smart meter data and to tailor products and pricing for customers

• July 27, 2020 27 Jul'20

  IT expertise in banking boardrooms reduces risk, finds Europe’s central bank

  Banks with more IT knowledge in the boardroom are more realistic about risk, according to Europe’s banking regulator

• July 24, 2020 24 Jul'20

  Garmin outage prompts ransomware attack speculation

  Details are thin on the ground following a major service outage at Garmin, prompting industry speculation that the firm has fallen victim to a ransomware attack

• July 24, 2020 24 Jul'20

  Investment in neurodiverse talent a win-win for security

  Current careers guidance and recruitment processes for security jobs are not working for people with ADHD, autism, dyslexia and dyspraxia, but the problem is fixable with a little attention to detail

• July 24, 2020 24 Jul'20

  Loan charge: HMRC's plans to clampdown on loan-scheme promoters slammed by IT contractors

  HMRC is seeking feedback on its plans to tackle tax-avoidance scheme promoters, in the wake of criticism over its past enforcement of the loan-charge policy

• July 24, 2020 24 Jul'20

  A question of trust: University and supplier on the hook for data breach

  Data on students at the University of York was stolen in a ransomware attack on a supplier two months ago, and the response of both parties raises serious questions

• July 24, 2020 24 Jul'20

  China doubles up on ‘new infrastructure’ investments

  China is shoring up investments in cloud computing, datacentres and the internet of things, among other areas, to ready itself for the post-Covid-19 world

• July 23, 2020 23 Jul'20

  Post-Privacy Shield, what chance for a Brexit data adequacy deal?

  The striking down of Privacy Shield has been hailed as a victory for digital rights and privacy campaign groups, but it will have consequences that go beyond transatlantic data transfers

• July 23, 2020 23 Jul'20

  APAC firms in early stages of digital transformation

  More than three-quarters of APAC firms struggle to revise their financial plans amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with many still lacking agile systems and processes, a new study finds

• July 22, 2020 22 Jul'20

  NCSC reveals scale of cyber attacks on UK sports industry

  The UK’s sports industry is under near constant cyber attack, according to new statistics from the National Cyber Security Centre

• July 22, 2020 22 Jul'20

  Lloyds bank buys into cloud-native payments

  Lloyds Banking Group continues its digital journey by investing in and investigating a cloud-based payments service

• July 22, 2020 22 Jul'20

  New opportunities for Nordic startups post-Covid-19 as virtual offices become the norm

  As companies adjust to digital office life in the pandemic era, a host of Nordic startups are already helping them convert these short-term fixes into long-term strategy

• July 22, 2020 22 Jul'20

  No let-up in cyber attacks as lockdown eases

  Cyber attacks are up by one-third as the coalescence of cyber activity and nation state-linked threats around the pandemic bears fruit for bad actors

• July 22, 2020 22 Jul'20

  US charges Chinese nationals with Covid-19 research hacking

  The two hackers allegedly worked with the Chinese Ministry of State Security, targeting intellectual property and confidential business information

• July 22, 2020 22 Jul'20

  BNP Paribas joins IBM financial services cloud project

  IBM’s financial services cloud is gathering steam as more banks join its public cloud ecosystem of finance firms and developers

• July 22, 2020 22 Jul'20

  Privacy Shield: Companies face new hurdles to legally transfer data to the US

  Businesses will have to conduct legal assessments to ensure they can transfer data from the EU to the US and other countries, following a European Court of Justice ruling

• July 22, 2020 22 Jul'20

  Inside Intel’s transition into an enterprise tech company

  Computing giant Intel is pushing deeper into the enterprise with investments in data-centric and emerging technologies along with partnerships with local firms to develop new solutions

• July 21, 2020 21 Jul'20

  Coronavirus: Government drags its feet on online misinformation

  Online misinformation about Covid-19 continues to spread unchecked, according to a DCMS committee report which has accused the government of dragging its feet over online harms

• July 21, 2020 21 Jul'20

  Russia Report reveals long-running cyber warfare campaign against UK

  Russia has been hacking the UK for years and the British government has also known about it for years, according to the Intelligence and Security Committee’s report

• July 20, 2020 20 Jul'20

  ICO hails transformative year as average fine trebles

  Information Commissioner’s Office annual report reflects on a busy period, during which it levied two of the largest fines so far seen under the GDPR

• July 17, 2020 17 Jul'20

  BBVA explores quantum computing for banking

  Early results from BBVA's research into quantum computing shows that the technology's application in complex computational tasks in banking is not far away

• July 17, 2020 17 Jul'20

  Twitter hack fallout: Investigators on trail of cyber criminals

  Investigators are hunting the cyber criminals who broke into Twitter’s systems to hijack prominent accounts, amid concerns that more attacks may come

• July 17, 2020 17 Jul'20

  Nordic CIO interview: Brede Nielsen, Avinor

  The Covid-19 pandemic put Avinor’s IT head at the centre of the airport operator's response

• July 16, 2020 16 Jul'20

  Russian state hackers attacking Covid-19 researchers

  Kremlin-linked APT29 group, also known as Cozy Bear, is conducting a campaign against Covid-19 researchers around the world

• July 16, 2020 16 Jul'20

  Schrems v Facebook: European court strikes down EU-US Privacy Shield agreement

  The European Court of Justice has struck down Privacy Shield, the EU-US data-sharing agreement, creating uncertainty for European countries that share data with the US and pressuring the US to reform surveillance laws

• July 16, 2020 16 Jul'20

  Bazar malware may be new tool in Trickbot arsenal

  Cybereason’s Nocturnus research team uncovers new Bazar malware, which shares some similarities with other varieties

• July 16, 2020 16 Jul'20

  Cryptocurrency scammers attack Twitter in insider breach

  Apparent insider breach at Twitter saw so-called “blue tick” accounts of business people, politicians and celebrities hijacked to promote a Bitcoin scam

• July 15, 2020 15 Jul'20

  Overseas IT directors could need salary of £56,100 to work in the UK

  The government has confirmed the salaries it considers as the ‘going rate’ for tech professions, which overseas applicants will need to earn to gain immigration points

• July 15, 2020 15 Jul'20

  Warning over security holes in fake Cisco kit

  Two counterfeit Cisco Catalyst 2960-X switches were only found after a software update caused them to stop working

• July 15, 2020 15 Jul'20

  Patch Tuesday: Microsoft fixes 123 bugs in July 2020 update

  The bugs start coming and they don’t stop coming; Microsoft has issued yet another bumper Patch Tuesday update

• July 15, 2020 15 Jul'20

  Video providers slammed by credential stuffing attacks

  Attacks on the media sector are spiking as cyber criminals try to gain access to valuable consumer accounts

• July 14, 2020 14 Jul'20

  Check Point unearths critical SigRed bug in Windows DNS

  SigRed vulnerability is highly dangerous, but is being fixed as part of the July 2020 Patch Tuesday update

• July 14, 2020 14 Jul'20

  European court to decide legality of EU-US data sharing in dispute between Schrems and Facebook

  A ruling by the European Court of Justice will have ramifications for hundreds of thousands of companies that share data with the US. The case aims to balance US surveillance laws with the rights of EU citizens to keep their data private

• July 14, 2020 14 Jul'20

  Standard Chartered latest bank to explore quantum computing

  Standard Chartered is working with researchers to establish use cases for quantum computing in the banking sector

• July 14, 2020 14 Jul'20

  CISOs undervalued, overworked, burning out, warns CIISec

  The vast majority of security professionals say they are under immense pressure, according to a report

• July 14, 2020 14 Jul'20

  Recon vulnerability puts thousands of SAP customers at risk

  Users of multiple SAP products including S4/HANA should apply the security update as soon as possible to protect their systems

• July 14, 2020 14 Jul'20

  ‘Name-and-shame’ ransomware attacks increasing in prevalence

  Since emerging at the tail-end of 2019, double extortion, or exfiltration and encryption, ransomware attacks have become highly popular, and now account for a significant number of incidents, according to Emsisoft research

• July 13, 2020 13 Jul'20

  Gartner: Remote working shifts CIO priorities

  Business recovery from the coronavirus pandemic will lead to changes in the projects IT leaders focus on

• July 13, 2020 13 Jul'20

  NCSC launches pen testing service for remote workers

  An expansion to the successful Exercise in a Box toolkit will enable SMEs to probe the cyber security defences of remote workers

• July 13, 2020 13 Jul'20

  Zoom zero-day a reminder to stop using Windows 7

  Researchers have disclosed a newly discovered zero-day vulnerability to videoconferencing service Zoom, which only affects users of Windows 7 systems

• July 13, 2020 13 Jul'20

  How SingEx is bracing itself for disruption

  Singapore’s SingEx started its digital transformation journey a few years ago and has already pivoted its approach to cope with new challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic

• July 09, 2020 09 Jul'20

  HSBC customers targeted in new smishing scam

  SMS phishing scam is targeting HSBC customers in the UK to trick them into handing over their bank account details

• July 09, 2020 09 Jul'20

  Majority of security pros fed up with alert fatigue

  A vast majority of security professionals say they experience alert fatigue, and 88% are facing challenges with their current SIEM setup, according to a report

• July 09, 2020 09 Jul'20

  Locked-down Nationwide staff make 2.5 million video calls in June

  Home-working technologies are no longer just a contingency for large companies, with future working practices set to change

• July 09, 2020 09 Jul'20

  Clearview AI faces ICO investigation over facial recognition

  Controversial company that scraped data from the public internet to build its facial recognition algorithm faces a joint UK-Australian investigation into its practices

• July 09, 2020 09 Jul'20

  More Joker malware apps chucked off Google Play Store

  Infamous Joker billing fraud malware continues to sneak past Google’s security controls

• July 09, 2020 09 Jul'20

  Pubs and restaurants failing on cyber fraud protection

  Virtually all of the UK’s most popular restaurant and pub brands are failing to proactively block fraudulent emails from reaching their targets

• July 08, 2020 08 Jul'20

  Google commits to protecting open source projects

  Initiative to trademark projects aims to stop public cloud providers from offering their own managed service version of open source code

• July 08, 2020 08 Jul'20

  Cosmic Lynx cyber crime group takes BEC to new heights

  Newly identified Russian threat group targets large organisations with increasingly dangerous business email compromise attacks

• July 08, 2020 08 Jul'20

  Over 15 billion credentials for sale on dark web

  Research by Digital Shadows reveals the scale of the security threat facing consumers as it uncovers 15 billion usernames and passwords stolen in more than 100,000 different data breaches

• July 08, 2020 08 Jul'20

  Security funding soars despite Covid-19 slump, but problems lie ahead

  The overall cyber security funding ecosystem in the UK is healthier than ever despite Covid-19, but the figures mask stark and concerning disparities in where the money is going

• July 08, 2020 08 Jul'20

  Post Office scandal victims have days to raise thousands of pounds or perpetrators go scot-free

  Victims of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal need to raise thousands of pounds in a week or those responsible for their suffering will avoid scrutiny

• July 07, 2020 07 Jul'20

  MSP Xchanging attacked in ransomware incident

  Specialist managed services provider is restoring customer access to systems after an unspecified ransomware incident

• July 06, 2020 06 Jul'20

  Lorca scale-ups bring diverse security to the fore

  London Office for Rapid Cybersecurity Advancement announces the cyber security scale-ups that will make up its fifth cohort

• July 06, 2020 06 Jul'20

  Need to secure industrial IoT more acute than ever

  A report from the Lloyd’s Register Foundation is calling for urgent action to secure industrial infrastructure, as the IoT leaves it increasingly exposed

• July 06, 2020 06 Jul'20

  Avinor creates contactless airport check-in for Norway

  Norwegian airport operator introduces touchless travel check-in to limit the potential spread of Covid-19

• July 06, 2020 06 Jul'20

  Ferry port implements terminal operation system remotely

  UK ferry port takes advantage of suppliers remote-working capability to complete IT project during lockdown

• July 06, 2020 06 Jul'20

  North Korea behind spate of Magecart attacks

  The Magecart credit card skimmer found on the website of retailer Claire’s Accessories was likely put there by the Lazarus or Hidden Cobra North Korean APT group, reports Sansec

• July 06, 2020 06 Jul'20

  How Infor Nexus is helping to digitalise Asia’s supply chain

  Infor’s Nexus unit has been supporting digitalisation efforts in Asia’s supply chain industry before the Covid-19 pandemic, which has accelerated adoption of cloud-based offerings in the region

• July 03, 2020 03 Jul'20

  Chinese law may require companies to disclose cyber-security preparations outside China

  Companies with Chinese operations may have to disclose information about the security of their networks in other countries under China’s draft data security law

• July 02, 2020 02 Jul'20

  Loan charge MPs denied House of Commons vote on Finance Bill policy amendments

  Despite securing the support of 50 named MPs, an amendment to the forthcoming Finance Bill that could have seen thousands of people fall out of scope of the Loan Charge policy has been denied

• July 02, 2020 02 Jul'20

  Remote workforce demands ‘hybrid working’, not the end of the office in the ‘better normal’

  As lockdowns end, research shows businesses will gradually have to start shifting their focus from purely surviving, yet employees think their desire for hybrid working is out of step with that of their employer

• July 02, 2020 02 Jul'20

  IR35 private sector reforms: Finance Bill vote denies further delays to April 2021 start date

  Another push by MPs to get the start date for the IR35 private sector reforms delayed until a thorough impact assessment into the changes can be performed has failed to win the support of the House of Commons

• July 02, 2020 02 Jul'20

  Locked-down teens flock to NCSC CyberFirst training scheme

  A record number of 14 to 17-year-olds have signed up to the National Cyber Security Centre’s CyberFirst summer school

• July 02, 2020 02 Jul'20

  Sodinokibi gang begins dark web celebrity data auctions

  Group claims to be auctioning confidential legal data on pop stars Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and basketball player LeBron James

• July 01, 2020 01 Jul'20

  UK’s unsung cyber security heroes sought

  Nominations have opened for the fifth annual Security Serious Unsung Heroes Awards

• July 01, 2020 01 Jul'20

  Zoom making progress on cyber security and privacy, says CEO

  Three months after being hit by a spate of security incidents, Zoom’s CEO, Eric Yuan, has been discussing progress towards a more secure product

• July 01, 2020 01 Jul'20

  Remote workers more aware of security, but still flout the rules

  Almost three-quarters of remote workers reckon they have gained in cyber security awareness during lockdown, but don’t seem to be especially bothered about keeping themselves safe

• July 01, 2020 01 Jul'20

  Mysterious EvilQuest macOS ransomware spreads through torrents

  A new strain of ransomware, dubbed EvilQuest, is threatening Apple Mac environments, and seems to behave quite oddly

• July 01, 2020 01 Jul'20

  How Propre eases its database management woes

  Japanese supplier of global real estate data switched to Oracle’s autonomous database to reduce database management costs as it expands its global footprint

• July 01, 2020 01 Jul'20

  FakeSpy Android malware targets Royal Mail app users

  The FakeSpy malware was first identified in October 2017 but is now significantly more powerful and dangerous

• June 30, 2020 30 Jun'20

  ReversingLabs makes over 100 Yara rules publicly available

  Threat intelligence specialist is making its IP available on GitHub to support malware hunters in their work

• June 30, 2020 30 Jun'20

  Microsoft joins up LinkedIn and GitHub to support pandemic job seekers

  Millions of people have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus, and Microsoft wants to help by providing free online resources and real-time data on hot skills

• June 30, 2020 30 Jun'20

  The Security Interviews: What CISOs can learn from Covid-19

  Mike Lloyd, CTO at Redseal, holds 21 cyber security patents and a PhD in stochastic epidemic modelling from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, so is probably the man to talk to when it comes to cyber security in the world of Covid-19

• June 30, 2020 30 Jun'20

  Complex security estates hinder incident response

  The more disparate security tools in use in an organisation, the harder it becomes to mount an effective incident response

• June 29, 2020 29 Jun'20

  MPs urged to back Finance Bill amendments to loan charge policy

  Loan Charge Action Group urges its members to ask their MPs to support an amendment to the controversial loan charge policy that could see more people fall outside its scope

• June 29, 2020 29 Jun'20

  Phishing back in vogue as ransomware vector

  Researchers have observed an increase in phishing as a means to deliver ransomware payloads – and organisations don’t appear to be prepared

• June 29, 2020 29 Jun'20

  Evil Corp’s latest ransomware project spreading fast

  A new ransomware strain dubbed WastedLocker is spreading rapidly and targeting major corporations

• June 29, 2020 29 Jun'20

  Post-pandemic security market still set for growth, but slower

  Frost & Sullivan report says the global security industry will withstand the economic crash caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, but growth will be slower for a few years

• June 29, 2020 29 Jun'20

  Airports deploy thermal cameras to control Covid-19, science suggests it’s merely ‘safety theatre’

  UK airports are rolling out thermal surveillance cameras to identify people who may have coronavirus, but science says the technology is ineffective at detecting and preventing the spread of the disease

• June 26, 2020 26 Jun'20

  Standard Chartered embarks on virtual internship programme

  Bank offers 300 candidates virtual placements on internship programme

• June 26, 2020 26 Jun'20

  Coronavirus: Cyber crime landscape evolving as lockdown eases

  As some countries begin to gradually ease Covid-19 lockdown measures, cyber criminals’ tactics are changing, but the pandemic remains a tempting lure

• June 25, 2020 25 Jun'20

  Former Post Office CEO and Fujitsu play the blame game in Horizon IT scandal

  Post Office and Fujitsu blame each other for many of the failings in the Horizon IT scandal that wrecked lives

• June 24, 2020 24 Jun'20

  EU judges GDPR an overall success, but changes still needed

  Two years after its implementation, an EU report says that the GDPR is achieving what it set out to do, with a few reservations

• June 24, 2020 24 Jun'20

  Firm that investigated controversial Post Office IT system to support criminal conviction appeals

  Second Sight is working with law firm in appeals by subpostmasters against criminal convictions in Horizon IT scandal