Posts Tagged ‘UK’
A Quarter Of Councils Have Been Hacked
A freedom of information request by privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch has revealed the shocking statistic that a quarter of all UK councils have had their IT systems breached in the past five years. 37 Attempted Cyber Attacks Every Minute The ‘Cyber Attacks In Local Authorities’ report from Big Brother Watch shows that local governments are…
Read MorePostcards To Combat Election Interference
Following disclosures of how Facebook was used by advertisers who may have been seeking to influence the US election result, Facebook has suggested that in future in the US, those backing candidates with advertising campaigns will receive a ‘snail mail’ postcard sent by Facebook with a verification code. Ads Mentioning A Candidate The measure is…
Read MoreUK Government Unveils Online Extremism Blocker
Home Secretary Amber Rudd has unveiled the UK government’s new tool for detecting and blocking online extremist and jihadist content. Publicly Funded The new tool was developed by artificial intelligence company ‘ASI Data Science’ based in London, and was funded using £600,000 of public funds. Tackling A Growing Problem The tool was developed to tackle…
Read MoreFacial Recognition Arrest Claims Via Twitter
South Wales Police have taken to social media to announce news of the latest arrests made using Automated Facial Recognition (AFR) technology. First Used At Champions League Finals Week The AFR system was first used by South Wales Police last June at the Champions League final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. AFR incorporates facial…
Read MoreFirefox Users Advised To Update
Cisco’s security team has advised Firefox users to install Mozilla’s latest update for its web browser after a potentially serious security vulnerability was discovered. Malicious Code Danger According to Cisco’s researchers (and confirmed by Mozilla), the vulnerability has been caused by “insufficient sanitization of HTML fragments in chrome-privileged documents by the affected software”. This means…
Read MoreUK Most Targeted Region For Cyber Threats
The Malwarebytes annual State of Malware report has revealed that the UK is now the most targeted region in the world for cyber threats. Big Rises The UK has been elevated to the unenviable position at the top of the targets table after a huge 165% increase in UK bound ransomware was recorded, and after…
Read MoreUK’s Digital Snooping Powers Illegal
A legal challenge by Labour MP Tom Watson against the UK government’s own digital mass surveillance legislation laws introduced in 2014 has led to a court deciding that the laws were illegal. Legislation The legislation that was successfully challenged in court was the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act (DRIPA), which was actually replaced at…
Read MoreNominet To Walk Away From Own Charitable Trust
Questions about Nominet Trust’s direction and accountability have led to Nominet announcing that it is withdrawing from its own charitable foundation that it set up over a decade ago. What Is Nominet Trust? Nominet Trust is the charitable foundation that was set up by Nominet, the UK’s domain-name registry, as a way of dealing with…
Read MoreAmazon’s ‘No Checkout’ Grocery Store Opens
Amazon has opened a revolutionary checkout-free, bricks-and-mortar grocery store called ‘Amazon Go’ in Seattle, after more than a year of testing. How Can It Have No Checkouts? The Amazon Go store uses infra-red ceiling-mounted cameras and electronic sensors to track what shoppers remove from the shelves (which have weight sensors), and what they put back.…
Read MoreWhatsApp For Business Launches in UK
The new business-focused version of WhatsApp for Android is now available for download in the UK. Small Business Needs The new WhatsApp Business can be downloaded for free at Google Play, and is specifically aimed at the needs of small businesses, which account for 99.3% of all private sector businesses in the UK (FSB). Facebook-owned…
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