A report from the Cyber Security Research Group and the Policy Institute at King’s College London, has suggested that the government could help combat high cyber-crime levels by naming (and shaming) companies with poor cyber-security. Who? The Cyber Security Research Group at King’s College London brings together experts with backgrounds in international relations, security studies, strategic studies, intelligence, public policy, informatics and computer science in order to promote better research into cyber-security.  The other research partner in this case, the Policy Institute at King’s College London is an independent research institute focusing on using evidence and expertise to tackle societal challenges. Cyber-crime Levels The [...]

Google has been fined a massive 50 million euros (£44m) for breach of GDPR dating back to May 2018 and relating to how well people were informed about how Google collected data to personalise advertising and the matter of consent. Who? Google (Alphabet Inc) has been fined £44 million by the French data regulator CNIL.  The two complaints that brought about the investigation and the fine were filed in 2018 by privacy rights groups noyb and La Quadrature du Net (LQDN). Even though the fine is eye-wateringly large, the maximum fine for large companies like Google under GDPR could have [...]

Password-based authentication has long been known to be less secure than other methods such as multi-step verification or biometrics, but a massive leak of a staggering 87GB of 772.9 million emails, 21.2 million passwords and 1.1 billion email address and password combinations recently shared on hacking forums has brought the inherent weaknesses of password authentication into sharp focus. What Leak? The massive leak of 2.6 billion rows of data from 12,000 files dubbed Collection #1 onto hacking forums was revealed in a blog post by security researcher Troy Hunt, who is most well-known for managing the ‘Have I Been Pwned’ service. In his [...]

In a Westminster eForum event on GDPR practice in London, the director of strategic policy at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Jonathan Bamford, is reported to have urged businesses to prepare for a no-deal Brexit in terms of planning to stop interruption in data flows from Europe. Why? As explained by parliament.uk, three-quarters of the UK’s cross border data flows are with EU countries, and when the UK leaves the EU, it will leave the legal framework for moving data between the UK and the EU. This means that businesses may need to act to make sure that data flows can continue [...]

Microsoft has formally announced on its support pages that, as of December 10th 2019, Windows 10 Mobile users can no longer expect security updates and support, and Microsoft recommends that customers then move to a supported Android or iOS device. Windows 10 Mobile Windows 10 Mobile is a mobile OS that was released in 2015 as the successor of Windows Phone 8.1 and is essentially an edition of Windows 10 running on devices that have less than a 9-inch screen.  The end of Windows 10 Mobile support comes just over four years after Microsoft’s failed acquisition of Nokia’s devices and [...]

Identifying a phishing attempt may be harder than you think and being able to spot one is an important part of maintaining your cybersecurity defences in the modern business environment.  Here’s a little phishing quiz from Google that can help you to spot the signs that can enable you to tell a real email from a phishing email. Go to https://phishingquiz.withgoogle.com/ Click on ‘Take The Quiz’.

SCL Elections, the parent company of the now defunct Cambridge Analytica which was famously involved in the Facebook profile harvesting scandal, has been fined £15,000 for failing to respond to a data access request from a US citizen, and for ignoring an enforcement notice by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Data Protection Act The fine was made for a breach of the Data Protection Act which was in force for all at the time of the data request, which was originally made back in 2017.  GDPR, which came into force on 25th May 2018 (to replace the Data Protection [...]

London-based, registered charity ‘Full Fact’ will now be working for Facebook, reviewing stories, images and videos, in an attempt to tackle misinformation that could “damage people's health or safety or undermine democratic processes”. Why? The UK Brexit referendum, the 2017 UK general election, and the U.S. presidential election were both found to have suffered interference in the form of so-called ‘fake news’ / misinformation spread via Facebook which appears to have affected the outcomes by influencing voters. For example, back in 2018, it was revealed that London-based data analytics company, Cambridge Analytica, which was once headed by Trump’s key adviser Steve [...]

Online community Reddit shut some users out of their accounts and forced password resets due to “unusual activity” which may have been a ‘credential stuffing’ attempt by hackers. Reddit California-based Reddit, founded in 2005, is a kind social network / online community.  Reddit, which is the fifth most popular site in the United States (Alexa figures), is split into over a million communities called “subreddits,” each one covering a different topic.  Reddit allows registered members to submit content to the site, and that content is voted up and down by other members. What Happened With The Lockdown? According to Reddit’s [...]

Just after the January update on 8th January, Windows 7 users began to experience activation errors, but Microsoft put the issues down to coincidence, despite admitting that it had reverted changes made to activation servers in the update in order to fix the problem. What Is An Activation Error? Windows Activation Technologies are used by Microsoft to help confirm that the copy of Windows 7 that is a user is running on their computer is genuine.  For example, the activation key is a 25-character code that is located on the Certificate of Authenticity label or on the proof of license [...]