News

Managing IT and business issues

• August 23, 2023 23 Aug'23

  Cyber attacks in 2023 develop quicker as average dwell times plummet

  The median attacker dwell time shrunk from 10 to eight days in the first seven months of 2023, and in the case of ransomware attacks it is down to just five days

• August 23, 2023 23 Aug'23

  Innovative UK SMEs spend half of turnover on tech

  UK SMEs are increasing spending on technology, with dedicated IT teams set up to enable them to keep pace with tech change

• August 22, 2023 22 Aug'23

  Met Police data platform £64m over budget

  A freedom of information request has revealed that the Met’s Connect integrated record management system is running tens of millions over budget, and has already generated more than 25,000 support requests so far

• August 22, 2023 22 Aug'23

  IBM uses generative AI to modernise mainframe Cobol

  In combination with code discovery, IBM plans to offer artificial intelligence-based Cobol to Java application modernisation

• August 22, 2023 22 Aug'23

  Clop’s MOVEit attacks drive ransomware volumes to record high

  Such has been the scope of Clop’s activity since May that ransomware attack volumes have more than doubled year on year, according to the latest data

• August 21, 2023 21 Aug'23

  Cyber attack on Aussie energy services firm may hit UK CNI

  Energy One, an Australia-based supplier of tech services to the energy sector, is investigating the possibility that some UK customers may have been caught up in an ongoing cyber attack on its systems

• August 21, 2023 21 Aug'23

  Cyber Explorers programme reaches 50,000 11-14 year olds in 18 months

  The government-backed Cyber Explorers programme has reached 50,000 students in its first 18 months, and more schools are being invited to sign up for the Autumn Term

• August 18, 2023 18 Aug'23

  BSI launches sustainability-focused startup accelerator

  Startups selected to participate in the BSI and Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership’s joint sustainability startup accelerator are working in a diverse range of areas and using a variety of technologies to positively affect society

• August 18, 2023 18 Aug'23

  More than 400 Liberty Global IT staff move to Infosys as part of €1.5bn contract

  TV and broadband giant outsources the build and operation of its entertainment and connectivity platforms to Indian supplier in five year deal

• August 17, 2023 17 Aug'23

  Researchers demo fake airplane mode exploit that tricks iPhone users

  Exploit chain that tricks a victim into believing their iOS device is offline in airplane mode when it is not could open the door to grave privacy concerns

• August 17, 2023 17 Aug'23

  NUHS taps LLM to boost productivity, patient care

  Healthcare professionals at Singapore’s National University Health System can now summarise patient case notes and predict patient healthcare journeys using a large language model trained by a supercomputer

• August 17, 2023 17 Aug'23

  Top marks for graduates of CIISec vocational cyber course

  132 young people who sat the UK’s first Extended Project Qualification in Cyber Security have received their results today

• August 16, 2023 16 Aug'23

  NCSC expands Cyber Incident Response service more widely

  The NCSC has added a level to its CIR programme to enable more cyber attack victims to take advantage of the service, which offers access to assured incident response specialists

• August 16, 2023 16 Aug'23

  ITAM influence on cyber risk becoming a factor in credit ratings

  Credit agency S&P Global Ratings warns that organisations that pay inadequate attention to IT asset management as a factor in their cyber risk management processes may find their creditworthiness takes a dive

• August 15, 2023 15 Aug'23

  Biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner resigns

  Dual biometrics and surveillance camera watchdog will step down at the end of October 2023, noting that while he agreed to stay on until the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill received royal assent, continuing delays to its passage means ...

• August 15, 2023 15 Aug'23

  Norfolk and Suffolk police hit by FoI-linked data breach

  Latest UK police data breach relates to crime suspects, victims and witnesses across East Anglia, and comes just days after a similar incident at the Northern Irish service

• August 15, 2023 15 Aug'23

  Bank of England core system experiences outage

  The “beating heart” of the UK financial system stopped after a technical issue

• August 15, 2023 15 Aug'23

  Online safety message failing to get through to women

  The security community could be doing a lot more to make its advice and guidance more accessible to women, according to a study

• August 14, 2023 14 Aug'23

  US Cyber Board to probe cloud security after latest Exchange hack

  CSRB review of cloud security comes in the wake of a major Chinese cyber attack on US government bodies orchestrated through Microsoft’s cloud services

• August 12, 2023 12 Aug'23

  Datacentre management vulnerabilities leave public clouds at risk

  At the annual DEF CON hacking convention, researchers from Trellix have disclosed multiple vulnerabilities in key datacentre products underpinning the world’s public cloud infrastructure

• August 11, 2023 11 Aug'23

  Google Help workers claim layoffs are retaliation for unionising

  More than 100 Google Help workers claim that Google and Accenture’s decision to layoff two-thirds of the team was done in retaliation for their attempts to form a union, while companies claim decision was made well in advance of unionisation attempt

• August 11, 2023 11 Aug'23

  Biden administration bans investment in Chinese high tech

  Executive Order prohibits investment firms from supporting Chinese firms specialising in AI, quantum and advanced semiconductors

• August 10, 2023 10 Aug'23

  Google speeds up security update frequency for Chrome

  Changes to Google’s security update policy are supposed to help close the gap in which cyber criminals can exploit n-day vulnerabilities

• August 10, 2023 10 Aug'23

  Cisco: Hybrid work needs to get better

  Cisco’s head of collaboration and security talks up the state of hybrid work and calls for organisations to create magnets rather than mandates for workers to collaborate in the workplace

• August 09, 2023 09 Aug'23

  AI interview: Krystal Kauffman, lead organiser, Turkopticon

  Remote Mechanical Turk workers are responsible for training artificial intelligence algorithms and completing other data-related business processes - we hear about the workplace issues they face

• August 09, 2023 09 Aug'23

  Microsoft addresses Office vulnerability attacked by Russian spooks in latest update

  Microsoft has issued fixes for over 70 vulnerabilities in its August Patch Tuesday drop, including remedies for CVE-2023-36884, which was disclosed without a fix in July and has been the subject of Kremlin-backed cyber attacks

• August 09, 2023 09 Aug'23

  Northern Irish police expose staff data in botched FoI response

  Human error is being blamed for the leak of personally identifiable information on all serving officers and civilian staff at the Police Service of Northern Ireland

• August 08, 2023 08 Aug'23

  UK voter data hacked in cyber attack on election watchdog

  An unknown threat actor who attacked the UK’s Electoral Commission had access to data on millions of UK voters for over a year, the watchdog has revealed

• August 08, 2023 08 Aug'23

  Black Basta, Hive and Royal ransomware gangs may share real-world connection

  At Black Hat USA, Sophos X-Ops researchers share data revealing potential connections between three active ransomware crews

• August 08, 2023 08 Aug'23

  Workplace monitoring needs worker consent, says select committee

  Employers looking to monitor their employees through connected devices should only to so with the consent of those affected due to negative impacts such surveillance can have on work intensification and mental health

• August 08, 2023 08 Aug'23

  Many UK organisations considering ChatGPT bans on employee devices

  More than 60% of organisations in the UK have either banned, or are considering banning, the use of generative AI tools on employee- or business-owned devices

• August 07, 2023 07 Aug'23

  Microsoft fixes Azure flaw that was subject of researcher criticism

  Microsoft has confirmed a potentially-dangerous flaw in the Azure platform has now been fully fixed, and moved to reassure customers that despite criticism it is committed to responsible disclosure and timely fixes

• August 07, 2023 07 Aug'23

  Rise in fraudsters spoofing the websites of leading UK banks

  Despite safeguards to protect customers from scams, UK retail banks are still seeing high volumes of fake phishing websites exploiting their brands, and the problem seems to be increasing in scope and scale

• August 04, 2023 04 Aug'23

  SAP called out by German user group for Rise U-turn

  German SAP user group Deutschsprachige SAP-Anwendergruppe calls on SAP for clarity around on-premise S/4Hana product enhancements

• August 04, 2023 04 Aug'23

  Log4Shell, ProxyShell still among most widely exploited flaws

  Statistics released by the collective Five Eyes cyber agencies reveals insight into the most exploited vulnerabilities of 2022, and unsurprisingly there are some old ‘friends’ on the list

• August 04, 2023 04 Aug'23

  Biden’s SBOM mandate a ‘shot heard around the world’, report says

  Two years and three months after Joe Biden mandated new standards in supply chain security, over 40% of UK respondents to a survey say they have implemented new SBOM policies in direct response

• August 03, 2023 03 Aug'23

  Scottish NHS trust ducks fine after staff shared patient data via WhatsApp

  NHS Lanarkshire has been issued a formal reprimand by the ICO after staff members used WhatsApp to share patients’ personal data with one another

• August 03, 2023 03 Aug'23

  Microsoft attacked over ‘grossly irresponsible’ security practice

  The CEO of Tenable has launched a scathing attack on Microsoft, asserting that the organisation is deliberately keeping its Azure cloud customers in the dark about dangerous vulnerabilities and accusing it of a culture of ‘toxic obfuscation’

• August 02, 2023 02 Aug'23

  Ivanti MDM users told to patch against two dangerous flaws

  Users of Ivanti’s mobile device management platform have been warned to act now to patch two vulnerabilities that were chained by a threat actor in a series of cyber attacks on the Norwegian government

• July 28, 2023 28 Jul'23

  Lancaster Uni lends cyber support to nuclear decommissioning body

  Lancaster University’s cyber team has joined with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to help support and protect its 300-year mission, while enhancing its own capabilities in the process

• July 28, 2023 28 Jul'23

  Scottish university hit by Rhysida ransomware gang

  Data allegedly stolen from the University of Western Scotland has been put up for sale on the dark web by a ransomware gang going by the name Rhysida

• July 28, 2023 28 Jul'23

  ServiceNow Q2 2023: 23% year-on-year growth with GenAI to fore

  ServiceNow has announced second-quarter 2023 revenue of $2.15bn, up 23% on the same quarter in 2022. The digital workflows automation supplier stressed GenAI developments and partnerships

• July 27, 2023 27 Jul'23

  Cyber criminals pivot away from ransomware encryption

  Cyber breaches that saw data theft and extortion without an encryption or ransomware component account for more and more incidents, in a possible indication that ransomware gangs are changing up their business models

• July 27, 2023 27 Jul'23

  US cyber breach reporting rules to have global impact

  Organisations that operate as Foreign Private Issuers in the US will have to get to grips with strict new cyber breach reporting regulations handed down by the SEC in Washington

• July 27, 2023 27 Jul'23

  Post Office tried to convince independent IT witness that he was wrong about Horizon

  ‘Delusional’ Post Office tried to influence an expert witness and get him to change his view about IT evidence which was detrimental to its case against a subpostmaster

• July 26, 2023 26 Jul'23

  Cyber attack on IT supplier hits two major ambulance trusts

  Ambulance trusts serving millions across southern England have been hamstrung for the past week after a cyber attack took down their hosted patient records system

• July 26, 2023 26 Jul'23

  UK organisations lack confidence to carry out basic cyber tasks

  Amid a shortfall of more than 10,000 cyber pros, UK businesses are still finding it difficult to fill their cyber security skills gaps, with even those in charge of security saying they lack confidence in themselves

• July 25, 2023 25 Jul'23

  Cisco, BT and others launch network security coalition

  Network Resilience Coalition focuses on bringing together global expertise to improve data and network security

• July 25, 2023 25 Jul'23

  Tetra radio users’ comms may have been exposed for years

  A number of flaws in the encryption algorithms used in the secure Tetra radio communications standard have potentially left users exposed to snooping

• July 24, 2023 24 Jul'23

  Citrix NetScaler users told to patch new zero-day urgently

  A vulnerability disclosed and patched last week by Citrix appears to be being exploited by China-backed threat actors as a zero-day, prompting warnings from government cyber bodies