News

Managing IT and business issues

September 24, 2020 24 Sep'20
Government blasted over ‘reckless’ contact-tracing security

The Open Rights Group and Big Brother Watch accuse the government of endangering public health with a reckless attitude to contact-tracing data security
September 24, 2020 24 Sep'20
Race to patch as Microsoft confirms Zerologon attacks in the wild

Don’t be the organisation that made the headlines because it failed to patch. Microsoft says it is seeing cyber attacks ramping up around the Zerologon CVE-2020-1472 bug
September 24, 2020 24 Sep'20
Australians want more control over privacy

Nearly nine in 10 Australians want more control and choice over the collection and use of their personal information amid declining trust in how organisations handle personal data, survey finds
September 23, 2020 23 Sep'20
Public admires security professionals, but doesn’t want their jobs

(ISC)² research finds attitudes towards security roles are increasingly positive, but not many people fancy joining the fight against cyber crime

September 23, 2020 23 Sep'20
Video gamers barraged with cyber attacks

From credential stuffing to SQL injection and DDoS, video game producers and players are seeing massive volumes of cyber attacks
September 23, 2020 23 Sep'20
US agencies warn of election disinformation and cyber attacks

Federal agencies are warning of heightened disinformation as the crucial 2020 presidential election nears
September 22, 2020 22 Sep'20
The inside story of Taiwan’s AI whizz

Not content with his stellar achievements in artificial intelligence, Chih-Han Yu wanted to create an impact with his work and formed one of Taiwan’s most important unicorns
September 22, 2020 22 Sep'20
Activision shoots down data breach claims

Gaming company denies there has been any data breach after up to 500,000 accounts appeared to have been compromised, but evidence mounts that credential stuffing attacks are to blame
September 22, 2020 22 Sep'20
GDS reviewing Cloud First policy post-Schrems II

Review seeks to determine the future of government engagement with cloud hosting services as they relate to cross-border data flows
September 21, 2020 21 Sep'20
NBN Co pumps in A$700m to shore up business connectivity

Australia’s national wholesale broadband provider is creating up to 240 business fibre zones across the country to provide businesses with access to its enterprise ethernet service

September 21, 2020 21 Sep'20
Big questions to be answered over TikTok and WeChat reprieve

TikTok and WeChat seem to have received a stay of execution, but big questions and contradictions remain
September 21, 2020 21 Sep'20
DBS taps AI and data analytics in intelligent banking move

Singaporean bank has started using artificial intelligence and analytics to provide customers with hyper-personalised insights and recommendations, to win more market share
September 18, 2020 18 Sep'20
Ex-NCSC boss Ciaran Martin joins cyber venture capital outfit

Outgoing NCSC CEO Ciaran Martin is to take up a new role guiding new investments in cyber security
September 18, 2020 18 Sep'20
Outgoing NCSC CEO: Ransomware threat kept us up at night

Former NCSC CEO Ciaran Martin sheds some light on some of the biggest cyber threats currently facing the UK
September 18, 2020 18 Sep'20
US government deplatforms TikTok and WeChat

The Commerce Department of the US government has banned new downloads of TikTok and WeChat in the US, and announced new prohibitions on doing business with them
September 18, 2020 18 Sep'20
German authorities probe ransomware hospital death

Hackers failed to extort a ransom from University Hospital Düsseldorf, but indirectly caused the death of a patient
September 18, 2020 18 Sep'20
Rampant Kitten spent six years hacking Iranian dissidents

Details emerge of an ongoing campaign by Tehran-backed threat actors targeting dissidents and activists
September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20
Maze ransomware borrows Ragnar Locker tactics to sneak past defences

New research from the Sophos threat response team has found the Maze ransomware gang has adopted techniques pioneered by the cyber criminals behind Ragnar Locker
September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20
What are the habits of highly effective CISOs?

Data crunched by Gartner analysts reveals the behaviours that differentiate the top-performing chief information security officers from the pack
September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20
Swedish bank cuts branches and jobs, increases IT spend

Swedish bank is increasing investment IT to improve digital banking as it reduces its branch network
September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20
Seven charged in connection with Chinese state-backed cyber attacks

Attacks by APT41, or Wicked Panda, targeted hundreds of organisations, including the UK government
September 16, 2020 16 Sep'20
NCSC steps up ransomware support for schools and universities

New alert and updated guidance comes after several academic institutions were targeted in ransomware attacks
September 16, 2020 16 Sep'20
Retailers urged to get to grips with Magento as attacks spike

A huge spike in online retailers being hacked with Magecart credit card skimmers is being blamed on unsupported versions of Adobe Magento
September 16, 2020 16 Sep'20
Banks report surge in impersonation scams

Fraudsters are using the Covid-19 crisis to trick people into transferring money to them
September 16, 2020 16 Sep'20
Lorca security scaleups to get Splunk data expertise

Lorca inducts Splunk onto its co-marketing programme, giving security scaleups access to new data expertise
September 16, 2020 16 Sep'20
Western Australia government goes all-in on Microsoft

State agencies in Western Australia will be able to tap Azure cloud services and cloud applications through a new Microsoft agreement
September 15, 2020 15 Sep'20
Gartner Security Summit: Covid-19 brings agile security to the fore

The evolving threat landscape is the top driver impacting cyber security during the next three to five years, and Covid-19 has accelerated the trend towards more agile security deployments
September 15, 2020 15 Sep'20
Risky development practice leaves company access keys exposed

Database stores, cloud storage and myriad other services are being put at risk by the accidental exposure of company access keys during development
September 15, 2020 15 Sep'20
Data of every Welsh Covid-19 patient leaked online

Data on all 18,105 people in Wales who have received positive tests for the coronavirus was uploaded to a public-facing web server in error
September 15, 2020 15 Sep'20
Nutanix bolsters Kubernetes playbook with managed service

Karbon Platform Services claims to ease container deployments in public and hybrid cloud environments in the emerging Kubernetes platform war
September 14, 2020 14 Sep'20
Microsoft drops out of TikTok talks, paves way for Oracle partnership

Microsoft confirms it is dropping out of the running to acquire the US operations of TikTok, leaving the way clear for an imminent partnership deal with Oracle
September 11, 2020 11 Sep'20
Government 'making progress' on Smart Freight System prep ahead of Brexit transition deadline

The government appears to be heeding warnings about the readiness of the Smart Freight border IT system, as the January 2021 Brexit transition deadline looms large
September 11, 2020 11 Sep'20
Travel industry websites are laughably insecure, claims Which?

The travel industry is failing to take the data security of its customers seriously, according to a Which? investigation
September 11, 2020 11 Sep'20
Zoom adds two-factor authentication for all users

Latest enhancements to Zoom security make it easier for organisations to protect users and prevent breaches and unauthorised meeting access
September 11, 2020 11 Sep'20
Russian interference in US elections ramps up on schedule

With the critical US 2020 presidential election looming, Russian-state backed hackers are once again after organisations directly involved in political elections, launching thousands of targeted attacks
September 10, 2020 10 Sep'20
Lorca security scaleups hit funding milestone

£153m of investment has been raised by Lorca cohort companies in just two years, almost four times the original target
September 10, 2020 10 Sep'20
Datacentre firm Equinix investigating ransomware attack

A number of internal systems at cloud and datacentre firm Equinix have been affected by a ransomware attack
September 10, 2020 10 Sep'20
Government launches £500k healthcare security plan

A £500,000 funding pot from the government aims to help support small and mid-sized healthcare firms during the pandemic
September 10, 2020 10 Sep'20
Nordic CIO interview: Maria Lundberg, ICA Gruppen

The CIO of Swedish retail giant ICA Gruppen, Maria Lundberg, who is overseeing the digitisation of four retail sectors, tells Computer Weekly about the challenges of providing shared IT services for localised needs
September 09, 2020 09 Sep'20
Coronavirus: APAC organisations speed up innovation

Innovation has become easier than before, with the most innovative organisations expecting to recover from the impact of the pandemic in less than six months, new Microsoft-commissioned study finds
September 09, 2020 09 Sep'20
September’s Patch Tuesday heavy on RCE vulnerabilities

Microsoft’s September update contains patches for 129 common vulnerabilities and exposures, including a high number of remote code execution issues
September 08, 2020 08 Sep'20
Post Office Horizon IT scandal victims face further battles as government digs heels in

The government repeats that it won’t pay victims’ legal costs and confirms review into the scandal will not have the power to call witnesses
September 07, 2020 07 Sep'20
Government DPOs challenged by volume of GDPR work

Data protection officers working across the UK government are finding it tough to keep up with the increased workload generated by GDPR, according to a report
September 07, 2020 07 Sep'20
Artificial intelligence keeps HSBC ATMs stocked with cash

HSBC is using artificial intelligence technology developed in-house to help it make sure ATMs are appropriately stocked with cash
September 03, 2020 03 Sep'20
Phishing scam targets Lloyds Bank customers

Bank customers warned of emails and SMS messages that direct them to a fraudulent site and then request account log-in details
September 03, 2020 03 Sep'20
How Certis is digitising security operations

Certis has developed more than 50 applications in a year to help employees do their jobs better and has set up an AI centre to tap the potential of robotics and video analytics in security
August 28, 2020 28 Aug'20
University of Staffordshire recruits robots to get more out of its people

University staff were bogged down with administrative work, but will now have time to be creative
August 28, 2020 28 Aug'20
New Zealand activates security services as DDoS outage enters fourth day

New Zealand government calls in its national cyber security agencies to help investigate a continuing cyber attack on the country’s financial systems
August 28, 2020 28 Aug'20
Machine learning wards off threats at TV studio Bunim Murray

TV studio behind reality hits including The Real World and Keeping Up With The Kardashians turned to Darktrace’s Antigena email protection service to keep its people safe from Covid-19 threats
August 28, 2020 28 Aug'20
Benefit fraud: Underground trade in stolen identities revealed

A roaring underground trade in stolen identities is undermining the Universal Credit system and could potentially defraud it out of millions of pounds
August 27, 2020 27 Aug'20
Financial services business leaders and CIOs disagree on IT infrastructure

IT leaders and senior business executives need to align their technology infrastructure priorities as businesses attempt to emerge from the Covid-19 crisis
August 27, 2020 27 Aug'20
CTO interview: David Rafalovsky, Sberbank Group

Russia’s Sberbank is well into its digital transformation journey, with artificial intelligence and supercomputing now at the centre of its plans
August 27, 2020 27 Aug'20
TikTok CEO clocks off

TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer has resigned from the firm after just three months
August 26, 2020 26 Aug'20
Ministers urge local councils to lead on broadband and mobile

Digital minister Matt Warman and local government minister Simon Clarke want local councils to do their bit to help ensure better access to connectivity during the Covid-19 recovery
August 26, 2020 26 Aug'20
Avaddon ransomware operators having a go at double extortion

The operators of the Avaddon ransomware seem to be tooling up to leak the data of their victims in addition to holding it to ransom, Cofense researchers confirm
August 25, 2020 25 Aug'20
Covid-19, demographic shifts to drive automation

Businesses will need to shore up their productivity through technology and automation to cope with the pandemic and a shrinking workforce, says an industry expert
August 25, 2020 25 Aug'20
North Korea’s Lazarus targets cryptocurrency vertical

APT group behind the infamous WannaCry incident is targeting cryptocurrency operators, according to new research
August 25, 2020 25 Aug'20
TikTok takes Trump to court

Under-fire video app TikTok files a formal complaint in the federal courts challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to ban it in the US
August 21, 2020 21 Aug'20
Loan charge: Tax compliance charity demands criminal fraud investigation into scheme promoters

Tax compliance think tank TaxWatch is calling for a criminal fraud investigation to be launched into the promoters of disguised remuneration schemes to curb the continued proliferation of new tax avoidance arrangements
August 21, 2020 21 Aug'20
TikTok’s GDPR compliance probed amid accusations of data misuse

Dutch privacy organisation SOMI claims TikTok falls short in protecting young users, and that it is likely violating GDPR
August 20, 2020 20 Aug'20
UKAS rejects ISO certification concerns

UK’s certification body says refreshed guidance is in place to cover the possibility of lapsed ISO certifications
August 20, 2020 20 Aug'20
Social media data leak highlights murky world of data scraping

A data brokerage left its database of 235 million Instagram, TikTok and YouTube profiles exposed to anybody who cared to access it
August 19, 2020 19 Aug'20
HMRC investigates over 10,000 Covid-19 phishing reports

HM Revenue & Customs received thousands of reports of coronavirus phishing scams exploiting its name during April, May and June
August 19, 2020 19 Aug'20
Coronavirus: Thousands of ISO certifications set to lapse

Delays and postponements in the auditing process are putting hard-earned security and data protection certifications at risk of lapsing
August 19, 2020 19 Aug'20
Marriott slapped with class action lawsuit over 2018 breach

Group action brings together millions of victims who stayed at the Starwood hotel chain over a four-year period
August 19, 2020 19 Aug'20
Loan charge MPs urge chancellor to get HMRC to soften contractor settlements

Co-chairs of Loan Charge All Party Parliamentary Group write to Rishi Sunak to seek a fairer deal for contractors caught by HMRC’s disguised remuneration policy
August 18, 2020 18 Aug'20
Carnival cruise lines hit by ransomware, customer data stolen

Cruise ship operator is likely to be the victim of a major data breach after customer information is apparently stolen in a ransomware attack
August 18, 2020 18 Aug'20
Reports Oracle to enter TikTok bidding war

Oracle may be about to make a bid to acquire the US operations of TikTok from its Chinese parent ByteDance, according to the FT
August 17, 2020 17 Aug'20
The Security Interviews: How Crest is remaking the future of consultancy

Crest president Ian Glover taught himself cyber security while working on government computing systems in the 1970s and 1980s. Now he is on a decade-spanning mission to change security consultancy models
August 14, 2020 14 Aug'20
ICO acknowledges GDPR concerns over A-level results scandal

Information Commissioner’s Office says it has engaged with exams regulator Ofqual after its use of an algorithm to calculate A-level grades backfired
August 14, 2020 14 Aug'20
Russia’s Fancy Bear targets Linux environments with Drovorub malware

The Russian intelligence-linked Fancy Bear group is deploying a new malware called Drovorub against Linux environments as part of a cyber espionage operation, according to US warnings
August 14, 2020 14 Aug'20
Oracle and Salesforce sued over online ad tracking

Class action lawsuits filed in Amsterdam and London will accuse Oracle and Salesforce of breaching GDPR in their processing and sharing of personal data to sell online advertising
August 13, 2020 13 Aug'20
Ed Sheeran is not promoting investment opportunities, says NCSC

The National Cyber Security Centre has issued a new warning after uncovering a series of online scams promoting fraudulent celebrity-endorsed investment opportunities
August 12, 2020 12 Aug'20
How Dharma ransomware became an effective services business

New research looks under the bonnet of a Dharma ransomware attack, with the ransomware's ease of use being particularly dangerous for small to medium-sized enterprises
August 12, 2020 12 Aug'20
CIOs raise IT budgets as increased remote working drives security concerns

Research finds that as the pandemic forces companies to accept the idea of permanent massed remote working, CIOs are waking up to the threat of increased cyber attacks
August 12, 2020 12 Aug'20
Microsoft patches two zero-days with active exploits

Microsoft drops another major Patch Tuesday update, including fixes for two zero-day exploits that are already being exploited by cyber criminals
August 12, 2020 12 Aug'20
Security training body Sans Institute hit by data breach

Around 28,000 items of personally identifiable data were lost in a phishing attack on Sans, proving that even the professionals can be caught out
August 11, 2020 11 Aug'20
NHS hit by thousands of malicious emails at height of pandemic

The NHS received nearly 30,000 malicious emails at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in March and April
August 11, 2020 11 Aug'20
Citrix users urged to patch five XenMobile CVEs

Patches are available for CVEs 2020-8208 through 8212 and should be installed as soon as possible
August 11, 2020 11 Aug'20
Coronavirus: Phishing lures pivot to exploit vaccine hopes

Phishing emails are increasingly luring in victims with subject lines relating to the development of a vaccine for Covid-19
August 11, 2020 11 Aug'20
Hospitality sector is failing on contact-tracing obligations

Cyber security experts urge the government to do more to help small hospitality businesses improve their contact-tracing data-handling practices
August 10, 2020 10 Aug'20
Retailer Monsoon allegedly exposing data via Pulse Connect server

A researcher has found a critically insecure Pulse Connect Secure VPN version belonging to UK retailer Monsoon Accessorize, but claims the firm is ignoring his disclosures
August 10, 2020 10 Aug'20
Security teams struggle to keep pace with cloud threats

Security professionals face challenges in keeping pace with cloud deployments and migrations, and the additional security threats they open up
August 07, 2020 07 Aug'20
Virgin Media customers targeted in Twitter phish

Customers seeking help from the ISP are being targeted by a scam Twitter account
August 07, 2020 07 Aug'20
TikTok to be banned in US in 45 days

Trump says his Executive Orders against Chinese mobile apps are in the interests of dealing with a national emergency
August 07, 2020 07 Aug'20
India’s software industry calls for cuts to red tape

Software industry lobby group iSpirt has called on the Indian government to ease the administrative burden of complying with rules related to taxes and trade
August 06, 2020 06 Aug'20
Qualcomm chip vulnerability puts millions of phones at risk

Qualcomm has patched multiple vulnerabilities in its chip hardware that left hundreds of millions of smartphones open to compromise by malicious actors
August 06, 2020 06 Aug'20
Canon said to be latest Maze ransomware victim

Canon may have had up to 10TB of its data exfiltrated by the Maze ransomware gang
August 06, 2020 06 Aug'20
Coronavirus: IT contractors cite lack of government support during Covid-19 as source of stress

ContractorCalculator research highlights the mental health toll the pandemic is taking on IT contractors
August 06, 2020 06 Aug'20
GCHQ seeks researchers to tackle deep fakes and misinformation

A GCHQ research fellowship based at its Manchester office will explore various national security priorities such as deep fakes, fake news and the impact of AI
August 06, 2020 06 Aug'20
Spurring digitalisation in Singapore’s tourism sector

The Singapore Tourism Board has developed a digital pass and an analytics service, among other initiatives, to digitalise the city-state’s embattled tourism industry
August 05, 2020 05 Aug'20
Seven questions you need to ask when buying security insurance

Find out what you need to ask to make an informed decision on cyber security insurance with new help from the UK’s NCSC
August 05, 2020 05 Aug'20
Second wave of Covid-19 cyber attacks locked in

More cyber attacks exploiting the pandemic seem likely, says Interpol
August 05, 2020 05 Aug'20
Inside Juniper’s radical IT transformation

Western Australia’s aged care provider Juniper embarked on an aggressive strategy to completely transform its IT operations in just two years
August 04, 2020 04 Aug'20
Google links with eight US banks for current accounts

Tech giant works with banks to layer digital services on top of secure and regulated banking infrastructures
August 04, 2020 04 Aug'20
Five signs you’re about to get hit with ransomware

A series of Sophos reports on the ransomware threat landscape shows how security professionals can sniff out a potential ransomware attack before it happens
August 04, 2020 04 Aug'20
Nordic enterprises look for SAP price reductions as they navigate Covid-19

Businesses in the Nordics are using SAP Cloud Platform to address Covid-19 challenges and are also seeking price reductions
August 04, 2020 04 Aug'20
Liam Fox hack raises questions over government security

The hack of a former cabinet minister’s emails casts doubt over the effectiveness of safeguards and security training processes at the highest levels of the British government
August 03, 2020 03 Aug'20
Microsoft offers way out of TikTok impasse

Microsoft offers to buy TikTok from its Chinese parent to ease security fears in the US
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