News

Privacy and data protection

• January 12, 2021 12 Jan'21

  Early stage UK security startups face funding crisis

  Overall cyber security funding since the advent of the pandemic is well up, but investment is dominated by safe, later-stage firms while those raising capital for the first time fall away

• January 11, 2021 11 Jan'21

  Kaspersky claims link between Solorigate and Kazuar backdoors

  Researchers say they have found specific code similarities between the Solorigate/Sunburst malware and the Kazuar backdoor, suggesting some relationship

• January 08, 2021 08 Jan'21

  Government use of 'general warrants' to authorise computer and phone hacking is unlawful

  A court has ruled that the security and intelligence services can no longer rely on ‘general warrants’ to authorise the hacking of large numbers of computers and phones belonging to UK citizens

• January 07, 2021 07 Jan'21

  Biden picks cyber veteran to reinvigorate security response

  Appointment of career intelligence operative Anne Neuberger signals refreshed security approach for the US government under Joe Biden's administration

• January 07, 2021 07 Jan'21

  Hackney Council data leaked by Pysa ransomware gang

  Council data stolen in October is leaked online in a double extortion attack

• January 06, 2021 06 Jan'21

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to remain in prison despite winning extradition battle

  Judge cites Assange’s support of NSA whistleblower as one of the reasons for him being at high risk of absconding. He will remain in Belmarsh prison until the US government completes its appeal

• January 06, 2021 06 Jan'21

  SolarWinds attack almost certainly work of Russian spooks

  Investigations into the far-reaching SolarWinds Solorigate attack did not let up during the holidays

• January 05, 2021 05 Jan'21

  Scammers impersonating the ACSC on the prowl

  The Australian Cyber Security Centre warns of scammers who are using its name to gain control of personal computers and trick users into revealing personal information

• January 04, 2021 04 Jan'21

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange cannot be extradited to face charges in US, court rules

  Court rules it would be oppressive to send Julian Assange to the US to face trial after finding he is at high risk of suicide. US government says it will appeal

• January 04, 2021 04 Jan'21

  Journalists’ FOI bids stayed as court reconsiders freedom of information rights of people outside UK

  Tribunal questions whether people without a British passport or Britons living overseas are eligible to use the UK’s Freedom of Information Act

• December 31, 2020 31 Dec'20

  Top 10 investigations and national security stories of 2020

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 investigations and national security stories of 2020

• December 31, 2020 31 Dec'20

  Top 10 technology and ethics stories of 2020

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 technology and ethics stories of 2020

• December 30, 2020 30 Dec'20

  UK-EU Brexit deal passes Commons with six-month data adequacy bridge

  IT industry trade body TechUK has welcomed a six-month data adequacy bridge, in the wake of the EU-UK trade deal that the House of Commons has voted for

• December 24, 2020 24 Dec'20

  Top 10 cyber crime stories of 2020

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 cyber crime stories of 2020

• December 23, 2020 23 Dec'20

  Top 10 cyber security stories of 2020

  Here are Computer Weekly’s 10 top cyber security stories of 2020

• December 22, 2020 22 Dec'20

  Ministry of Justice in the dock for catalogue of serious data breaches

  Annual report reveals major incidents of personal data loss affecting 121,355 people and including misplaced, unencrypted USB stick containing documents from a trial, accidental disclosure of identities, and staff files made visible to ...

• December 18, 2020 18 Dec'20

  Utility supplier People’s Energy has entire customer list stolen

  All 270,000 customers of People’s Energy, a renewable energy startup, have had their details compromised in a major data breach incident

• December 18, 2020 18 Dec'20

  SolarWinds cyber attack is ‘grave risk’ to global security

  More victims of the SolarWinds Orion Sunburst cyber attack are being identified as the massive scale of the Russia-linked cyber espionage campaign becomes more clear

• December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20

  Dodgy browser extensions put social media users at risk

  More than three million users of third-party browser extensions for Instagram, Facebook, Vimeo and others have been infected with malware, according to Avast

• December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20

  EU security strategy a ‘step up’ on cyber leadership, says Brussels

  The EU’s new cyber security strategy forms a key component of Shaping Europe’s Digital Future, the Recovery Plan for Europe, and the EU Security Union Strategy

• December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20

  NHS Scotland taps Check Point to secure Covid-19 data

  NHS National Services Scotland is working with security firm Check Point to safeguard its sensitive data in the cloud and support its work on the coronavirus

• December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20

  UK police unlawfully processing over a million people’s data on Microsoft 365

  The roll-out of Microsoft 365 to dozens of UK police forces may be unlawful, because many have failed to conduct data protection checks before deployment and hold no information on their contracts

• December 17, 2020 17 Dec'20

  AWS brings disaster recovery programme to Australia

  Project Resilience will offer up to $5,000 worth of credits to public sector and community organisations to offset the cost of storing data on Amazon Web Services

• December 16, 2020 16 Dec'20

  Lancashire police integrate body-worn video into digital policing app

  Body-worn video integration will transform Lancashire police’s time-consuming and manual procedures into an efficient digital workflow, but claims that BMV will increase transparency and accountability are not backed by the evidence

• December 15, 2020 15 Dec'20

  SolarWinds cyber attack: How worried should I be, and what do I do now?

  Security teams across the world are on high alert as more details emerge of the widespread SolarWinds ‘Sunburst’ attack. What do defenders need to do next?

• December 15, 2020 15 Dec'20

  Cyber crime victims in the Netherlands not reporting offences

  Dutch victims of online crime rarely report it to the police and when they do, they are often dissatisfied

• December 11, 2020 11 Dec'20

  The week in ransomware: Foxconn and Randstad are high-profile victims

  Foxconn and Randstad are laid low by cyber criminals, while Sophos spills on Egregor, and prognosticators turn to their crystal balls to divine how ransomware will develop in the next 12 months

• December 11, 2020 11 Dec'20

  Disputed PostgreSQL bug exploited in cryptomining botnet

  PGMiner cryptomining botnet remained unnoticed by exploiting a disputed CVE in PostgreSQL

• December 11, 2020 11 Dec'20

  Surge in Covid-19 vaccine phishing scams reported

  Check Point and KnowBe4 share details of a growing number of phishing campaigns using the prospect of a Covid-19 vaccine as a lure

• December 10, 2020 10 Dec'20

  French regulators fine Google and Amazon over cookie policies

  Google and Amazon rapped over their use of advertising cookies by the French data protection authorities

• December 10, 2020 10 Dec'20

  Cyber Helpline awarded lottery funding to support victims

  The Cyber Helpline, a UK charity that provides emergency support to victims of cyber crime and online stalking, is to receive funding from the National Lottery

• December 10, 2020 10 Dec'20

  After critical year, Vodafone trains security sights on CNI market

  Vodafone’s security head Steve Knibbs explains how he plans to bring the lessons of a transformative few years in cyber security to bear on new markets

• December 10, 2020 10 Dec'20

  Data on Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine stolen in cyber attack

  The European Medicines Agency has launched a full investigation into an apparent security incident that has seen documents on the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine stolen

• December 10, 2020 10 Dec'20

  Alan Turing Institute appoints global advisory board to aid digital identity schemes project

  The Alan Turing Institute announces an international advisory board for a project investigating digital identity schemes, with a view to building the technology and organisational infrastructure to sustain them as trustworthy

• December 09, 2020 09 Dec'20

  Amnesia:33 IoT flaws dangerous and patches unlikely, say experts

  The disclosure of multiple flaws by Forescout has raised big questions for the developers of connected products, and for their users

• December 09, 2020 09 Dec'20

  FireEye’s ethical hacking tools stolen in state-backed attack

  Hacking tools used to conduct red team penetration testing were stolen in the state-backed attack on security firm FireEye

• December 07, 2020 07 Dec'20

  Met Police failed to clear backlog of subject access requests

  Metropolitan Police failed to comply fully with an enforcement notice issued by the Information Commissioner, and despite hundreds of overdue subject access requests the regulator did not take further action

• December 07, 2020 07 Dec'20

  HMRC referred 11 data security incidents to ICO in 2019-20

  HM Revenue & Customs shares details of a number of data security incidents that occurred during the 2019-20 financial year in its annual report

• December 07, 2020 07 Dec'20

  Singapore government to boost blockchain adoption

  Singapore government unveils S$12m programme to promote development and adoption of blockchain applications beyond financial services

• December 07, 2020 07 Dec'20

  A trillion dollars lost to cyber crime every year

  Data collated by McAfee and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies highlights the growing impact of cyber crime

• December 06, 2020 06 Dec'20

  China lags US in computer vision

  China trails the US in the field of computer vision despite making inroads in computing and research, new report finds

• December 04, 2020 04 Dec'20

  Avast and Borsetta to support Intel’s AI security project

  Security firm Avast and AI security specialist Borsetta have signed up to support an Intel-led artificial intelligence security research project

• December 03, 2020 03 Dec'20

  Cyber Aware campaign to help safeguard Christmas shoppers

  New government campaign sets out to raise awareness of online shopping fraud in the run-up to Christmas

• December 03, 2020 03 Dec'20

  Lax Android app developers putting millions of users at risk

  Eight months after Google patched a critical vulnerability, developers have failed to update their apps, putting millions of users of apps such as dating services Bumble and Grindr at risk

• December 02, 2020 02 Dec'20

  Covid-19: Cyber criminals will target vaccine programmes

  Interpol issues a global alert to law enforcement as the UK becomes one of the first countries to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for use

• December 02, 2020 02 Dec'20

  Singapore government remains ‘juicy target’ for cyber attackers

  The government is baking security into the design and implementation of its IT systems and looking to increase bug bounties to fend off cyber threats

• December 01, 2020 01 Dec'20

  DHL, Amazon and FedEx are most phished delivery services

  DHL has emerged as the most imitated delivery brand in Europe, accounting for 77% of the total volume of phishing emails received in November 2020

• December 01, 2020 01 Dec'20

  22,000 malicious .uk domains suspended in past year

  Nominet has suspended just over 22,000 domains in the 12 months to 31 October 2020, continuing a downward trend, and with less impact from Covid-19 than might be expected

• November 30, 2020 30 Nov'20

  MI5 accused of withholding surveillance compliance failures from cabinet minister

  MI5 withheld high-risk concerns about its ability to comply with legislation from the home secretary when it submitted applications for surveillance warrants, NGOs Privacy International and Liberty claimed last week

• November 27, 2020 27 Nov'20

  UK government ramps up efforts to regulate tech giants

  The Digital Markets Unit of the Competitions and Markets Authority aims to protect consumer privacy and lower barriers to entry for businesses