Security News
called for more and continued industry collaboration amongst membership and training bodies linked with cybersecurity skills and professional development. Doing so will bolster the cross-industry work that has built the new UK Cyber Security Council, as well as further collective efforts to advocate for members and greater industry awareness of cybersecurity trends and threats.
The Harris Federation, a not-for-profit charity responsible for running 50 primary and secondary academies in London and Essex, has become the latest UK education body to fall victim to ransomware. In a message to pupils and parents, the group, which is led and run by teachers, admitted that criminals had meddled with its servers.
The UK's Home Office is on the hunt for a supplier to help support applications running on its counter-terrorism data network to fulfil a contract that could be worth up to £32m. The National Communications Data Service gives security, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies legal access to communications data. In a tender document released last week, the Home Office said it was looking to engage suppliers early before it puts together a contract to "Facilitate the delivery of its communications data applications."
The UK's Government Reviewer of Terrorism Laws is again advising the removal of legal safeguards around a controversial law that allows people to be jailed if they refuse police demands for forced decryption of their devices. In what appears to be a recurring theme, Jonathan Hall QC said police should be able to threaten people arrested under terror laws with five years in prison if they don't hand over passwords on demand.
The UK's Government Reviewer of Terrorism Laws is again advising the removal of legal safeguards around a controversial law that allows people to be jailed if they refuse police demands for forced decryption of their devices. In what appears to be a recurring theme, Jonathan Hall QC said police should be able to threaten people arrested under terror laws with five years in prison if they don't hand over passwords on demand.
In a change from its recent bombastic blather, the British government has published a new Defence Industrial Strategy that looks like it wants to put the infosec industry on a gold-plated pedestal. "Government also needs to provide complementary support to industry and ensure that the public sector can access the right skills to remain an intelligent customer," said the Defence and Security Industrial Strategy whitepaper published this week.
Britain's National Cyber Security Centre has urged universities, schools, and colleges to be vigilant following an increase in ransomware attacks targeting educational institutions. The University of the Highlands and Islands was also struck earlier this month, leading the institution to shut down its campuses while beleaguered IT staff fought off the ransomware.
Britain plans to cut the size of its army and boost spending on drones, robots and a new "Cyber force" under defense plans announced by the government on Monday. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said the British Army would shrink from 76,500 soldiers to 72,500 by 2025.
CentralNic has been awarded a significant project by Jisc. The project is to supply and support registry management software to underpin the domain name infrastructure of some of the UK's most critical domain extensions, including.
The Ministry of Defence has ordered its contractors not to answer certain questions on the UK's once-in-a-decade census - despite threats of £1,000 fines being handed to people who don't complete the national survey. The Ministry of Defence has taken a curious line against the census, urging defence personnel and contractors to give incomplete answers to four questions - and to ignore one altogether.