News

Privacy and data protection

• September 19, 2023 19 Sep'23

  Braverman puts pressure on Meta to pause end-to-end encryption plans

  The home secretary is calling on Meta to halt its plans to introduce encrypted messaging services on Facebook and Instagram until the company puts measures in place to detect abuse

• September 19, 2023 19 Sep'23

  New revelations from the Snowden archive surface

  A decade after Snowden exposed NSA’s mass surveillance in cooperation with the British GCHQ, only about 1% of the documents have been published – but three major facts can finally be revealed thanks to a doctoral thesis in applied cryptography by ...

• September 19, 2023 19 Sep'23

  Okta confirms link to cyber attacks on Las Vegas casinos

  Okta CISO David Bradbury confirms widespread speculation about the high-profile cyber attacks on two Las Vegas casino operators, revealing that the threat actors responsible had indeed abused its services as they earlier claimed

• September 18, 2023 18 Sep'23

  Unregulated DeFi services abused in latest pig butchering twist

  Pig butchering scammers are taking advantage of the unregulated nature of DeFi crypto trading apps to siphon off even more money from their victims, according to the latest findings of an ongoing investigation

• September 18, 2023 18 Sep'23

  Government seeks industry views on cyber threat to UK CNI

  The Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee is seeking evidence from the cyber sector as it launches an inquiry into the resilience of the UK's critical national infrastructure

• September 15, 2023 15 Sep'23

  TikTok fined €345m under GDPR for failing to protect children’s privacy

  Data protection regulators warn social media companies to take all necessary measures to protect children’s privacy

• September 15, 2023 15 Sep'23

  Las Vegas mainstay Caesars Palace likely paid off ransomware crew

  Caesars Entertainment, owner of the lavish Roman Empire-themed Caesars Palace casino in Las Vegas, has revealed it also suffered a ransomware attack, and appears to have paid off its hackers

• September 15, 2023 15 Sep'23

  Manchester police data breach a classic supply chain incident

  The developing data breach at Greater Manchester Police follows a cyber attack on the systems of a key supplier of ID services to the force

• September 14, 2023 14 Sep'23

  Data on over 3,000 Airbus suppliers leaked after breach

  An emergent threat actor has leaked details of multiple sensitive Airbus suppliers after claiming to have accessed the firm’s systems having hacked customer Turkish Airlines

• September 14, 2023 14 Sep'23

  BlackCat on the hook for cyber attack that crippled Vegas casinos

  The ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware operation claimed responsibility for an attack that forced MGM Resorts to shut down systems at some of Las Vegas’ most popular gambling venues

• September 14, 2023 14 Sep'23

  Google, Microsoft and Mozilla push browser updates to foil zero-day

  A zero-day in Google’s Chrome browser was first reported by surveillance researchers at The Citizen Lab and Apple, but also affects other browsers

• September 14, 2023 14 Sep'23

  As vehicle safety regulations loom, carmakers fret over cyber risks

  Global, UN-backed car safety and security regulations come into force next year, and automotive bosses say they are not only unprepared, but “swamped” by a tide of compliance and security risks

• September 13, 2023 13 Sep'23

  GCHQ breached privacy rights of IT professional and security researcher, human rights court rules

  The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg finds UK intelligence services breached the privacy rights of two overseas nationals – an IT professional and a security researcher

• September 13, 2023 13 Sep'23

  GitHub fixes race condition that could have led to ‘repojacking’

  A subtle flaw in how GitHub handled repository creation and user renaming could have had serious consequences for the open source community, but has now been fixed. Learn more about how it worked

• September 13, 2023 13 Sep'23

  BianLian ransomware gang holds Save the Children hostage

  The dangerous and prolific BianLian ransomware gang claims to have stolen almost 7TB of data from NGO Save the Children, but thankfully the charity’s vital work on the ground appears to be unaffected

• September 12, 2023 12 Sep'23

  US casino giant MGM Resorts battles 36-hour outage after cyber attack

  Multiple systems at US hotel and casino operator MGM went down in the wake of the incident on 10 September, crippling several of Las Vegas’ most prominent casinos

• September 11, 2023 11 Sep'23

  Polish election questioned after Pegasus spyware used to smear opposition, investigation finds

  Senate committee alerts prosecutors over potential crimes by public officials involved in purchasing Pegasus spyware used to monitor and smear political opponents

• September 11, 2023 11 Sep'23

  How Culture Amp is tapping generative AI

  Australia’s Culture Amp is building a generative AI capability that summarises employee survey responses, automating a process that typically takes HR admins up to hundreds of hours to complete

• September 08, 2023 08 Sep'23

  Apple patches Blastpass exploit abused by spyware makers

  Apple has patched two vulnerabilities that formed an exploit chain which has been allegedly abused by spyware company NSO

• September 08, 2023 08 Sep'23

  Deputy PM urges UK plc not to lose focus on cyber

  In a speech at TechUK, deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden urges the cyber security community not to lose focus, and to do more to further collaboration across sectors

• September 08, 2023 08 Sep'23

  North Koreans using new zero-day to target security researchers

  A threat actor linked to the North Korean government is continuing a long-running campaign targeting legitimate security researchers, using an as-yet undisclosed zero-day vulnerability to gain access to their victims

• September 07, 2023 07 Sep'23

  UK minister fails to reassure tech companies over encryption risk

  Technology companies say reassurances by government ministers that they have no intention of weakening end-to-end encrypted communication services do not go far enough

• September 07, 2023 07 Sep'23

  Honeywell goes quantum to protect utilities from future threats

  Honeywell and quantum computing specialist Quantinuum will integrate quantum-hardened encryption keys into future smart meters

• September 07, 2023 07 Sep'23

  UK and US slap fresh sanctions on Conti ransomware crew

  London and Washington DC have imposed sanctions on 11 more members of the cyber criminal gang behind the Conti ransomware attacks

• September 06, 2023 06 Sep'23

  Meet the professional BEC op that targeted Microsoft 365 users for years

  The so-called W3LL cyber crime operation ran a phishing empire that has played a large role in compromising Microsoft 365 accounts for years. Its activities are now coming to light thanks to Group-IB researchers

• September 05, 2023 05 Sep'23

  Researchers find flaw in Mend.io security platform

  WithSecure’s research team uncovered an authentication flaw in an application security platform developed by Mend.io, which has now been fixed

• September 05, 2023 05 Sep'23

  Law firm Fieldfisher launches data breach management tool

  UK and European data breach law specialist Fieldfisher has enlisted legal tech specialist Lawcadia to supply a 24-hour data breach notification assessment platform

• September 05, 2023 05 Sep'23

  NCSC names ex-NCC man as new CTO

  New NCSC CTO Ollie Whitehouse joins from NCC Group, having also worked at BlackBerry and Symantec

• September 05, 2023 05 Sep'23

  Plymouth Uni spearheads research into wind farm cyber resilience

  Project hosted at the University of Plymouth in Devon aims to develop cyber security measures to protect the UK’s increasingly important offshore wind farm assets

• September 04, 2023 04 Sep'23

  LockBit ransomware gang allegedly leaks MoD data after hit on supplier

  The UK government appears to have become entangled in a LockBit ransomware attack after data was leaked from a third-party supplier online

• September 01, 2023 01 Sep'23

  Police Scotland five-year digital strategy approved

  Police Scotland’s new strategy outlines how the force will approach and invest in its digital transformation over the next five years, but notes its ability to achieve its ambitions is subject to the availability of funding

• September 01, 2023 01 Sep'23

  IT experts issue new warnings over Online Safety Bill plans to weaken end-to-end encryption

  BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, argues the government is seeking a technical fix to terrorism and child abuse without understanding the risks and implications

• August 31, 2023 31 Aug'23

  Sandworm attacks Ukraine with Infamous Chisel malware

  The UK and its allies have attributed a novel malware campaign against Ukrainian state targets to the Russian intelligence-backed Sandworm APT

• August 31, 2023 31 Aug'23

  Ducktail social media marketing malware rears its head again

  Use of the Ducktail infostealer, which first popped up in 2022 targeting Meta Business accounts, seems to be increasing

• August 31, 2023 31 Aug'23

  Home Office and MoD seeking new facial-recognition tech

  The UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator is running a ‘market exploration’ exercise on behalf of the Home Office to identify new facial-recognition capabilities for security and policing bodies in the UK

• August 30, 2023 30 Aug'23

  Cyber world hails downfall of Qakbot trojan

  A multinational law enforcement hacking operation disrupted the botnet infrastructure used to distribute the Qakbot trojan at the weekend, in a major setback for the cyber criminal underworld

• August 30, 2023 30 Aug'23

  NCSC warns over possible AI prompt injection attacks

  The UK’s NCSC says it sees alarming potential for so-called prompt injection attacks driven by the large language models that power AI chatbots

• August 24, 2023 24 Aug'23

  Google bets on AI-backed cyber controls for Workspace users

  Zero-trust and digital sovereignty controls are the focus of a series of enhancements being made for Google Workspace users

• August 23, 2023 23 Aug'23

  St Helens Council in Merseyside hit by ransomware attack

  St Helens Borough Council is investigating a suspected ransomware incident targeting its systems, and is advising residents to be on the alert for follow-on phishing attacks

• August 22, 2023 22 Aug'23

  Singapore to bolster OT security capabilities

  Cyber Security Agency of Singapore teams up with Dragos and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to bolster the country’s OT security capabilities

• 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 16, 2023 16 Aug'23

  CyberArk eyes growth beyond PAM

  CyberArk is seeing exponential growth in the broader identity security market as the company expands its capabilities beyond privileged access management

• August 16, 2023 16 Aug'23

  AI is the most hyped technology of 2023

  Gartner's 2023 hype cycle puts generative AI at the peak of inflated expectations in its latest analysis of emerging tech trends

• 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

  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

  NatWest offers compensation to customer affected by data breach exposed by whistleblower

  NatWest bank has offered compensation to a former customer affected by a data breach alongside around 1,600 other former and current customers

• August 10, 2023 10 Aug'23

  A non-conventional career journey into IT security

  GCSEs and A-levels are not the only route to higher education. We speak to an IT security expert who left school with no formal qualifications

• August 10, 2023 10 Aug'23

  PSNI investigating second breach after laptop stolen

  Just hours after accidentally disclosing the personal details of 10,000 personnel, the Police Service of Northern Ireland has notified a second data breach after a police issue laptop and documents were stolen from a parked car

• 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

  MPs warn about growing prevalence of tech-enabled domestic abuse

  The UK government must take action to prevent perpetrators from being able to use connected or smart technologies to conduct their domestic abuse, a select committee has warned