Tag: Uk

Home Secretary Calls For Government Access To WhatsApp Messages

Posted on by Ben Armytage

The discovery that last week’s London terror attacker Khalid Masood used WhatsApp’s encrypted message service minutes before the killings have led for calls, not least by Home Secretary Amber Rudd, to give the government access to the un-encrypted content of messages on the platform. whatsapp iphone

Unacceptable?

In a weekend TV interview, Home Secretary Rudd described the current situation whereby terrorists can secretly talk to each other on a formal social media messaging platform as ‘unacceptable’. Home Secretary Rudd and the government’s frustration have meant that a meeting has been set for this week with Facebook and other technology companies to try and broker a work-around. Continue reading “Home Secretary Calls For Government Access To WhatsApp Messages” →

New Government Cyber Security Unit Encourages Business Co-Operation

Posted on by Ben Armytage

After the opening of new National Cyber Security Centre in London in February (to act as part of GCHQ in Cheltenham), businesses are being encouraged to report serious data breaches to the NCSC in confidence.cyber crime anon sign

Confidential

Peter Yapp, the deputy director for the incident management directorate has been reported as telling an audience of journalists in a recent meeting that such confidential disclosures would not be passed on to the ICO, the UK’s independent body set up to uphold information rights. Continue reading “New Government Cyber Security Unit Encourages Business Co-Operation” →

£8M Funding For ‘Sell In 90 Days’ London Estate Agent

Posted on by Ben Armytage

The innovative London-based Estate Agent start-up Nested, which guarantees to sell your house within 90 days, has raised a further £8 million in funding from investors.square house modern

Launched in January last year, the company has now raised a total of £11 million thanks to backing by venture capitalist groups and individuals.

The ‘Win-Win’ USPs

The big difference between Nested’s and other estate agent’s offerings is that Nested guarantees to sell a client’s house for 95-98% of market value within 90 days. It also says that, if it does achieve a higher sale price than the one it guaranteed/offered, either before or after the 90 days, it will split the difference, up to 70/30 in favour of the property owner. Continue reading “£8M Funding For ‘Sell In 90 Days’ London Estate Agent” →

BT to Separate From Openreach

Posted on by Ben Armytage

Last week Ofcom (the telecoms regulator) announced that BT has agreed to legally separate from Openreach, which owns and operates the UK’s broadband infrastructure.

Why The Split?

Through Openreach, BT owns (and is responsible for providing) the vast majority of the UK’s telecoms network infrastructure, not just for itself, but also for any competitors such as TalkTalk, Sky, and Vodafone (and BT’s own retail arm). This has led to competition problems, and rivals have argued that, since BT has a third of the country’s broadband market, a company from its own group should not be providing the infrastructure Continue reading “BT to Separate From Openreach” →

Thousands of New UK Jobs at Amazon

Posted on by Ben Armytage

amazon, delivery, box, tapeOnline retailer Amazon has announced that is going to create 5,000 new full-time jobs in the UK this year.

The new jobs will boost Amazon’s total, permanent UK workforce to 24,000.

What Kind of Jobs?

It has been reported that Amazon is going to be hiring people in a range of roles, including anything from software developers to warehouse staff. The new UK jobs will also include hundreds of apprenticeship opportunities.

Continue reading “Thousands of New UK Jobs at Amazon” →

Sec’s Education? Kids To Now Get Cyber Security Lessons

Posted on by Ben Armytage

Scrabble TeachA 5 year pilot scheme is being introduced to English schools, which will focus on teaching children cyber security skills in a bid to fill a skills gap in this area across the UK.

Cyber Crime Now an Important National Issue.

The risk of criminals (or foreign powers) hacking into critical UK computer systems ranks as one of the top four threats to national security. The importance of combating cyber crime as a national and an international issue has been brought into sharp focus over the last year by (for example) :

 

Continue reading “Sec’s Education? Kids To Now Get Cyber Security Lessons” →

Government CyberFirst Initiative Gets A Much-Needed Supporter

Posted on by Ben Armytage

empty classroom with projectorLockheed Martin UK has announced that it is supporting the UK government’s CyberFirst initiative, designed to attract and fast-track tomorrow’s online security experts.

What Is CyberFirst?

The CyberFirst skills initiative was piloted and launched by GCHQ in May 2016, as part of a government / industry partnership.

Continue reading “Government CyberFirst Initiative Gets A Much-Needed Supporter” →

Security Companies Exaggerating Hackers Skills?

Posted on by Ben Armytage

cyber crime securityThe technical director of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has said in a security conference speech that computer security companies may be exaggerating the abilities of malicious hackers.

Exaggerating to Boost Security Sales

During a speech at the Usenix Enigma security conference, Dr Ian Levy of the National Cyber Security Centre appeared to say that computer security companies who specialise in cyber sec, may be simply playing up the abilities hackers’ as a means to boost sales of their own security hardware and services to frightened businesses.

Continue reading “Security Companies Exaggerating Hackers Skills?” →

UK Schools Targeted With Ransomware

Posted on by Ben Armytage

UK police have issued a warning to educational establishments to be vigilant, following an alert by ‘Action Fraud’ that fraudsters are targeting UK schools with ransomware in order to demand big payments.

Action Fraud AlertClassroom

The UK’s fraud and cybercrime centre ‘Action Fraud’ issued an alert recently that schools are being targeted by fraudsters using a form of malware known ‘ransomware’. Continue reading “UK Schools Targeted With Ransomware” →