News

Privacy and data protection

March 16, 2026 16 Mar'26
Companies House restarts online services following cyber breach

Companies House was forced to pull its WebFiling service offline at the weekend after it emerged that a flawed update was putting data at risk of exposure
March 16, 2026 16 Mar'26
Revealed: How HMRC has been quietly building surveillance capabilities

HMRC has bought phone scanning equipment and analysis software capable of extracting data from mobile devices as it steps up its electronic intelligence gathering capabilities, an investigation by Computer Weekly reveals
March 11, 2026 11 Mar'26
Iran war a melting pot for other cyber threats

State-backed cyber threat actors from non-combatant states are taking advantage of the Israeli-US war on Iran to fulfil their own goals, according to Proofpoint analysts
March 11, 2026 11 Mar'26
Salesforce tracks possible ShinyHunters campaign targeting its users

Salesforce warns users of an uptick in malicious activity targeting Experience Cloud customers with misconfigured user settings via an open source tool

March 11, 2026 11 Mar'26
Child rapist could have profiled victims through unaudited access to NHS databases

NHS analyst’s conviction for child sexual abuse offences raises concerns over unaudited access to patient data
March 10, 2026 10 Mar'26
WA auditor general flags weak Microsoft 365 security controls across state entities

Western Australia’s Office of the Auditor General has uncovered weaknesses in M365 configurations across seven government agencies, leading to compromised accounts and data breaches
March 09, 2026 09 Mar'26
UK to launch cyber fraud squad in April

The UK’s Online Crime Centre, launching next month, will bring together government, police, intelligence agencies, banks, mobile networks and tech firms to take coordinated action against cyber fraud
March 09, 2026 09 Mar'26
Trump looks to power up post-quantum, AI security

The US has unveiled a six-pillar national cyber security strategy, with developing technological areas such as post-quantum cryptography and artificial intelligence front and centre
March 06, 2026 06 Mar'26
Scattered Spider attack on TfL affected 10 million people

The 2024 Scattered Spider attack on Transport for London affected approximately 10 million people, many of whom remain blissfully unaware their data was compromised
March 05, 2026 05 Mar'26
Government wants to build digital ID system in-house

The Home Affairs Committee hearing on digital ID reveals consultation is due next week; there will be no central database; and while government wants to build the system in-house, it will not replace private digital ID providers

March 05, 2026 05 Mar'26
Police do not have to explain to lawyer Fahad Ansari why they seized his phone data, says court

A high court judge has ruled that police do not have to give reasons to lawyer, who acts for Hamas, why they seized his mobile phone data
March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26
Iranian hacktivists muster their forces but state APTs lay low

Hacktivist activity surrounding the Iran war is sky-high but Iran’s state-backed cyber espionage actors have yet to show their hands, giving security teams a valuable window of time to shore up their defences
March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26
Zero-day in Android phone chips under active attack

Google and Qualcomm have tag-teamed a serious vulnerability in the chipsets used in Android mobile devices, which has been exploited in the wild as a zero-day
March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26
Tycoon2FA phishing platform dismantled in major operation

A Europol-led sting against the infamous Tycoon2FA MFA bypass phishing service has been successful, with operations disrupted and ringleaders and cyber criminal users identified
March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26
Landmark legal challenge against Home Office eVisa system heard

The UK High Court will examine whether the Home Office policy of refusing to issue alternative proof of immigration status outside of its electronic visa system is lawful
February 25, 2026 25 Feb'26
The UK’s proposed social media ban explained

The UK government will use new legal powers to lay the groundwork for an under-16 social media ban after its consultation on children’s digital well-being, but opponents warn the measures being considered will only treat the symptoms of the problem ...
February 25, 2026 25 Feb'26
Police created ‘intelligence profile’ of BBC journalist subject to phone surveillance

Police and MI5 conducted seven unlawful operations to obtain phone data relating to former BBC journalist Vincent Kearney, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal heard today
February 23, 2026 23 Feb'26
Innovate UK cyber startup programme gets £10m funding booster

Graduates of DSIT and Innovate UK's CyberASAP scheme to commercialise cutting-edge cyber research projects have raised nearly £50m in the past decade
February 23, 2026 23 Feb'26
Why crypto agility is key to quantum readiness

With quantum computing threatening current encryption standards, experts call for organisations to achieve crypto agility by managing the lifecycle of certificates and cryptographic keys through automation
February 19, 2026 19 Feb'26
ICO wins appeal over data protection obligations in Currys cyber attack

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office has won an important appeal relating to data protection obligations arising from a 2017-18 cyber attack at electronics retailer Currys PC World
February 19, 2026 19 Feb'26
PromptSpy Android malware may exploit Gemini AI

A newly uncovered malware targeting the Android operating system seems to exploit Google’s Gemini GenAI tool to help it maintain persistence
February 17, 2026 17 Feb'26
Businesses may be caught by government proposals to restrict VPN use

Labour proposals to restrict social media use to people aged 16 and under could have unintended consequences for businesses using virtual private networks
February 17, 2026 17 Feb'26
Government wages cyber campaign as half the UK’s SMEs are breached

UK government says half of all small businesses have been cyber breached in the recent past as it urges them to ‘lock the door’
February 17, 2026 17 Feb'26
British Transport Police start using live facial recognition

British Transport Police will deploy facial recognition for six months despite calls for the government to halt its rapid expansion of the technology
February 12, 2026 12 Feb'26
European Commission: TikTok’s addictive design breaches EU law

In a preliminary ruling, European Commission says TikTok’s additive design features are in breach of laws designed to create safer digital spaces
February 09, 2026 09 Feb'26
UAE’s TII challenges big tech dominance with open source Falcon AI models

Through its Falcon models and an open, efficiency-driven research strategy, the Technology Innovation Institute is positioning the UAE as a producer of foundational AI, not merely a consumer of global platforms
February 09, 2026 09 Feb'26
US bid for Dutch ID infrastructure raises sovereignty concerns

Kyndryl’s proposed takeover shows how critical systems become exposed to foreign control without an overarching policy decision
February 04, 2026 04 Feb'26
UK government must get its hands dirty on security, report says

As the UK government develops its National Cyber Action Plan, a report from the Rusi think tank urges Westminster to take a more interventionist approach
February 03, 2026 03 Feb'26
Infosecurity Europe launches cyber security startups stream

Infosecurity Europe 2026 will feature a cyber security startup exhibition zone and a competition for business support, in conjunction with the UK Cyber Flywheel organisation
February 03, 2026 03 Feb'26
Banks on the hook for £173m in APP fraud reimbursement

Banks paid 88% losses claimed by customers that fell victim to authorised push payment fraud last year
February 02, 2026 02 Feb'26
Canva uses 1Password to secure ID during growth phase

As it underwent a growth spurt in the early 2020s, graphic design platform Canva turned to 1Password to manage identity across its expanding organisation
January 30, 2026 30 Jan'26
Home Office announces sweeping police technology plans

The Home Office plans to ramp up its deployment of artificial intelligence and facial-recognition technologies under wide-ranging reforms to UK policing
January 27, 2026 27 Jan'26
Saudi Arabia ordered to pay £3m to UK dissident targeted with Pegasus spyware

A court has found that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia subjected a London-based human rights activist to abuse and physical violence after infecting his phone with Pegasus spyware
January 23, 2026 23 Jan'26
Singapore debuts world’s first governance framework for agentic AI

The Infocomm Media Development Authority has released a guide to help enterprises deploy artificial intelligence agents safely and address specific risks such as unauthorised actions and automation bias
January 22, 2026 22 Jan'26
Sportswear firm Under Armour falls victim to data breach

Details of over 70 million customers of US sportswear giant Under Armour were leaked following a supposed ransomware attack by the Everest gang
January 21, 2026 21 Jan'26
UK and China reach out across cyber no-man's land

London and Beijing have supposedly conducted high-level talks seeking to establish a joint security forum to help de-escalate potential cyber flashpoints, according to reports
January 21, 2026 21 Jan'26
AI slop pushes data governance towards zero-trust models

Organisations are implementing zero-trust models for data governance thanks to the proliferation of poor quality AI-generated data, often known as AI slop
January 15, 2026 15 Jan'26
Zoho opens its first UAE datacentres to boost cloud adoption

New Dubai and Abu Dhabi facilities support data sovereignty, providing CIOs with local access to more than 100 Zoho and ManageEngine cloud services
January 13, 2026 13 Jan'26
Microsoft patches 112 CVEs on first Patch Tuesday of 2026

January brings a larger-than-of-late Patch Tuesday update out of Redmond, but an uptick in disclosures is often expected at this time of year
January 13, 2026 13 Jan'26
‘Dual-channel’ attacks are the new face of BEC in 2026

Business email compromise remains a significant threat as cyber fraudsters deploy a more diverse range of tactics against their potential victims, according to a report
January 12, 2026 12 Jan'26
Business leaders see AI risks and fraud outpacing ransomware, says WEF

C-suite executives are more concerned with risks arising from AI vulnerabilities and cyber fraud than ransomware, according to the World Economic Forum
January 12, 2026 12 Jan'26
Ofcom begins investigation of explicit image generation on Grok

Elon Musk’s Grok image generator, from parent company X, is being investigated by the UK regulator under the Online Safety Act
January 12, 2026 12 Jan'26
Intersec Dubai highlights why AI has become critical in the race against cyber attackers

Cigna Healthcare’s Jean Wiles warns that healthcare security teams must act faster without sacrificing accuracy or compliance as threats driven by artificial intelligence scale
January 08, 2026 08 Jan'26
Like it or not, AI will transform cyber strategy in 2026

Bubble or no bubble, from cyber skills to defensive strategies to governance, risk and compliance, artificial intelligence will remake the cyber world in 2026
January 06, 2026 06 Jan'26
Privacy will be under unprecedented attack in 2026

The UK and Europe are ramping up opposition to encryption and stepping up surveillance of private communications. Here is what to expect this year
December 31, 2025 31 Dec'25
Top 10 surveillance, journalism and encryption stories of 2025

A transatlantic row between the UK and the Trump administration erupted after the UK attempted to force Apple to break its advanced encryption. That was just one of a series of stories reporting on the tension between state surveillance and privacy ...
December 30, 2025 30 Dec'25
Top 10 technology ethics stories of 2025

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 tech ethics stories of 2025
December 29, 2025 29 Dec'25
Top 10 cyber security stories of 2025

AI dominated all tech conversations this year, but the concerns of cyber security professionals extend far beyond. From remote work to supply chains, quantum to identity, there were plenty of other topics for the industry to chew over in 2025.
December 24, 2025 24 Dec'25
Top 10 cyber crime stories of 2025

In many regards, 2025 proved to be a relatively normal year for the cyber security world as threat actors and security pros continued their long-running cat-and-mouse game, but it was also a stand-out year that saw some of the largest cyber attacks ...
December 19, 2025 19 Dec'25
European Commission renews UK data adequacy agreement, ensuring continued free flow of data

Despite calls from some data protection campaigners, the UK's agreement to allow data movement with European Economic Area countries is extended until 2031