GDPR’s impact: The first six months
GDPR is now six months old – it’s time to take an assessment of the regulation’s impact so far. At first blush it would appear very little has changed. There are no well-publicized actions being taken against offenders. No large fines levied. So does this mean its yet another regulation that will be ignored? Actually…
Less than a third of companies have dedicated cybersecurity insurance
Only one third of senior executives in UK organisations admit their company insurance currently covers them for a security breach and for the financial impact of data loss, despite the fact that 81 percent agree that it is ‘vital’ their organisation is insured against information security breaches. This is according to the Risk:Value report from…
Unrestricted access to systems and files exposes organizations to cybercrime
UK organisations are leaving themselves vulnerable to cybercrime with over a third of 18-24-year-olds able to access any files on their company network, and only one in five having to request permission to access specific files. Less than half (43%) are restricted to accessing only the files that are relevant to their work. This is…
Organisations across the UK are still struggling with ransomware
A year after the WannaCry ransomware attack impacted an estimated 200,000 victims, new research has revealed that organizations across the UK are still struggling to deal with ransomware. Webroot surveyed over 400 IT decision makers at UK businesses and found that 45 percent of those surveyed had suffered a ransomware attack, with nearly a quarter (23 percent) actually paying the ransom….
UK Spy Agency Warns of State-sponsored Hackers Targeting Critical Infrastructure
The U.K. Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain’s secret eavesdropping agency, warns that ‘a number of [UK] Industrial Control System engineering and services organisations are likely to have been compromised’ following the discovery of ‘connections from multiple UK IP addresses to infrastructure associated with advanced state-sponsored hostile threat actors.’ The warning comes from a National Cyber Security Centre…
45% of large British businesses sustained a successful ransomware attack
Over a third of British businesses (36 percent) are not very confident that efforts to completely eradicate a recent ransomware attack from work systems have been successful. The research, carried out by One Poll, quizzed 500 IT decision makers in companies with 250 or more employees across the UK to uncover the extent to which…
UK follows US ban of electronic devices in cabins on some flights
The U.K. is joining the U.S. in its ban restricting passengers from bringing some electronic devices onto flights from the Middle East. Phones, laptops, and tablets that are larger than 16 cm (6.3 inches) in length and wider than 9.3 cm will no longer be allowed in the cabin on select flights coming from several…
Fighting Cyber Security F.U.D. and Hype
Dr. Ian Levy is technical director at the UK’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), which is part of GCHQ. It is fair to say that the NCSC will play a major part in defining and delivering the UK government’s cyber security policy over the next few years. In October 2016, Ian Levy reportedly made an…