Security News

Australia, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom have signed a new defence and technology-sharing pact. Dubbed AUKUS, the headline item of the pact is assistance from the UK and US to help Australia build nuclear-powered submarines that are interoperable with their own fleets.

Brits are too polite to tell phone scammers to "Get stuffed", "Take a hike" or "Sling yer 'ook" when they impersonate so-called "Trusted organisations" such as banks. That's according to the trade association UK Finance, which found that the number of "Impersonation scam cases" more than doubled in the first half of 2021 to 33,115 - up from 14,947 during the same period last year.

Japanese technology giant Olympus is currently investigating a cyber incident on its EMEA IT systems that happened earlier this month that sources said is the result of a BlackMatter ransomware attack. It appears Olympus was the victim of the BlackMatter ransomware group, one of the cybercriminal organizations that's risen to prominence after other purveyors of ransomware like DarkSide, REvil and Ragnarok shut down operations, according to a report in TechCrunch.

UK-headquartered Kape Technologies announced on Monday it has acquired ExpressVPN in a $936m cash and stocks deal, a move it claims will double its customer base to at least six million. In a canned statement, Kape said combining the two companies would "Create a premium consumer privacy and security player," and that the acquisition "Further positions Kape to define the next generation of privacy and security protection tools and services to return greater control over the digital sphere to consumers."

A new analysis shows that infosec analysts, sysadmins and network architects have the most potential for growth in pay over the next decade. People in health, science and tech jobs will have the best chance at finding a job and making good money in the next decade, according to a new analysis.

In a meeting with President Biden at the White House on Wednesday, Apple, Google, Microsoft and other companies announced their intentions to devote money and training toward strengthening U.S. cybersecurity. As one step, the White House said that the National Institute of Standards and Technology will work with businesses to improve the security of the technology supply chain.

A company is suing the Police Digital Service over a framework worth up to £18m after losing a bid to provide a mass surveillance platform, claiming police managers broke laws on the awarding of public contracts. Excession Technologies Ltd is suing the organisation formerly known as the Police ICT Company on the grounds that it broke the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations after allegedly misunderstanding Excession's platform was capable of doing.

US President Joe Biden staged a cyber security summit at the White House, and it's produced quick results in the form of big tech making vague promises about stuff they think will improve the nation's security. The premise of the event was Biden's belief that America can't go on being hurt by ransomware, state-backed disinformation naughtiness, and other forms of infosec-driven attacks, but can only sort it out with the help of private enterprise because the government can't address security alone.

Survey by EY finds that board members are interested in spending more money on technology and data analytics for risk management. TechRepublic's Karen Roby spoke with Tonny Dekker, global enterprise risk consulting leader at EY, about how boards feel about investing in technology for risk management.

Tom Merritt tells us his top five annoyances in tech and why they are frustrating. I did an informal poll of my friends in tech to find out what they find most annoying about tech these days.