Security News
UK Research and Innovation, the British government's science and research organisation, has temporarily turned off a couple of its web-facing services after an apparent ransomware attack. In a statement issued last week while everyone was gazing goggle-eyed at the European Union's vaccine export struggles, UKRI said data from its Brussels-based UK Research Office and an extranet service had been "Encrypted by a third party".
The UK Research and Innovation is dealing with a ransomware incident that encrypted data and impacted two of its services, one offering information to subscribers and the platform for peer review of various parts of the agency. UKRI is a public body of the Government of the United Kingdom, tasked with investing in science and research.
The British government has denied being "Complacent" over the Solarwinds hack as a fed-up peer of the realm urged a minister to "Answer the question". Lord True, the government's Cabinet Office spokesman in the House of Lords, described the attack as "a complex and global cyber incident" and said UK.gov was "Working with international partners to fully understand its scale and any UK impact."
A very active phishing campaign is underway pretending to be from the UK's National Health Service, alerting recipients that they are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The phishing email, shown below, asks the recipient if they want to accept or decline the invitation to schedule their COVID-19 vaccination.
A very active phishing campaign is underway pretending to be from the UK's National Health Service, alerting recipients that they are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The phishing email, shown below, asks the recipient if they want to accept or decline the invitation to schedule their COVID-19 vaccination.
A 28-year-old has been arrested after allegedly carrying out what police have labelled a "Sophisticated cyber attack" on a school. A police spokesman told a local news website: "Officers received a report of a major IT outage at the school on Monday, January 18, that prevented the school from delivering remote learning and accessing material to support the children of keyworkers and vulnerable children who are attending school."
By distributing malware-ridden laptops to the most vulnerable and needy schoolkids, the Department for Education is guilty of an astonishing breach of responsibility. It turns out that "We want to run our software on your kids phones and teach them cybersecurity through surprising stuff" is a fun thing to say to educators, governments, and funding bodies.
Some of the laptops distributed by the UK Department for Education to vulnerable students have been found to be infected with malware as reported by the BBC. The devices are given out for free by the government to support disadvantaged students unable to access remote education during the COVID-19 pandemic, including children and young people who have no digital devices, have only a smartphone, or share a single device with other family members. Infection is not widespread. However, as revealed by Bradford Schools teachers, some of the files found on the government-provided Windows laptops were infected with malware as discovered while preparing the devices for delivery to students.
The UK's Information Commissioner's Office needs to update its Code of Employment Practices to tackle workplace spying by bosses, the Prospect trade union and the Labour Party have said. The call for more regulation of workplace surveillance comes after recent reports of new gadgets designed to tell bosses whether their toiling underlings are happy or sad. It also echoes previous calls by Prospect for stronger regulation of workplace surveillance tech.
The Ministry of Defence's multibillion budget overrun has been caused in part because of its spending splurge on flashy new "Cyber" capabilities, according to the National Audit Office. The MoD faces a budget black hole measured in billions thanks to its profligacy - and even the announcement of a cash top-up of £4bn per year between now and 2024, on top of its £41.2bn annual budget, won't be enough to plug it, according to the auditors.