Security News
A broad-based campaign group has written to UK health secretary Matt Hancock calling for greater openness in the government's embrace of private-sector tech companies contracted to provide a data store and dashboards as part of the NHS response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Campaign groups including Liberty, openDemocracy and Privacy International have now written to Hancock saying that promises of openness about the role of multiple private-sector tech firms in handling the health data of millions of UK citizens have not been fulfilled.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on Monday urged the European Union to take the lead in setting global standards for tech regulation or risk seeing countries follow China as a model. Breton, one of the EU's top officials on tech policy, said that Facebook and other big tech companies must also live up to certain values.
On Wednesday, the software exploit broker said it won't pay anything for some iOS bugs due to an oversupply. Apple's iOS 13 has been particularly buggy, enough that SVP of software engineering Craig Federighi reportedly overhauled the company's internal software testing process to avoid a repeat when iOS 14 arrives later this year.
A new email scam is making the rounds, warning recipients that someone using their Internet address has been caught viewing child pornography. The message claims to have been sent from Microsoft Support, and says the recipient's Windows license will be suspended unless they call an "MS Support" number to reinstate the license, but the number goes to a phony tech support scam that tries to trick callers into giving fraudsters direct access to their PCs. The fraudulent message tries to seem more official by listing what are supposed to be the recipient's IP address and MAC address.
What is happening during this crisis will not just change the landscape in healthcare today-it will change the way that we deliver and experience healthcare forever. So it's imperative that the technology industry come together to help healthcare meet this challenge, both to support the healthcare system when it's needed most, as well as to ensure that new digital infrastructure is implemented the best possible way.
CompTIA announced its new tech curriculum, CompTIA CyberPrep, which allows middle schools and high schools, regardless of teacher experience in technology, to give their students a tech education. Schools can get their students interested in technology, opening their eyes to tech careers, while educating and certifying them in tech skills.
While RSA Conference USA - the largest information security conference in the world - managed to take place mere weeks before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, European countries started closing borders and airlines started suspending routes and grounding planes, most infosec and tech events scheduled to take place after it were doomed. "We have found that immersive, live virtual event platforms, offer the opportunity for interacting with exhibitors, solution providers and peer-to-peer networking. Surprisingly, with respect to otherwise introverted attendees, we've found they're more likely to reach out for networking than at a physical event. While the 'happy hour' might not be quite the same, virtual event platforms have thought through almost every facet of the physical event experience."
No need to post "Boredom" as a status update on social media because you can temper a staid stay-at-home experience with free tech courses designed to address the skills gap and an increase in security threats. The tech company Fortinet is offering self-paced training for technical security and broad cyber awareness, and has started the program with three courses at no cost.
New rules that will take effect on June 1 require critical information infrastructure operators in China to conduct cybersecurity reviews when acquiring network products and services. The new rules were first mentioned in the controversial cybersecurity law adopted by China in 2017, and a dozen Chinese government agencies have now shared more information on how tech products should be analyzed.
Tech Data announced it has expanded its Cloud Solution Factory offering with the addition of Modern Workplace with Microsoft Secure Score that establishes a security baseline for Office 365 users with automated policy enforcement. "As experts in cloud and solution development, Tech Data is able to simplify the cloud configuration and deployment processes, so our channel partners can serve their customers quickly and effectively while mitigating cybersecurity risks."