Tag: Data Protection
UK firms under threat from foreign hackers.
The country’s head of cyber security has warned that British companies are being put out of business and coasting the economy £27 billion because of hacking undertaken by foreign governments and corporations. Major General Jonathan Shaw, the head of the Ministry of Defence’s Cyber Security Programme, stated that cyber-attacks are the biggest threat to national security. The main reason for this is that foreign competitors are stealing valuable information from …
ICO warns UK businesses: New EU cookies law must be followed
Monday night saw a warning to all business from the Information Commissioner’s Office that they must “wake up” and take action to a new law, which will be enforced on the 25th May 2011. This law changes the EU’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive. The change will require business to obtain website visitors permission to store and retrieve usage information from users’ computers. A cookie is a piece of text …
ICO praises calls for expanding Freedom of Information powers
Reforms to the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, which are being discussed by the government, have been given the thumbs up by data protection watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which believes greater transparency will ensure greater fairness in the future. One of the biggest changes that will be made in the first slew of reforms will reduce the amount of time that data can be withheld from the National …
DPA breach by Scottish Court Service investigated by ICO
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has become involved in an investigation into an alleged breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA) by the Scottish Court Service. Private data contained within court documents was improperly disposed of at a recycling centre in Glasgow, according to reports, which has led to the ICO confronting the organisation with a formal undertaking. The initial data loss was discovered in September last year when a …
Political hacking to define 2011, McAfee predicts
Security experts at McAfee have stated that the coming year will bring significant problems to those who are charged with protecting data and retaining the integrity of corporate systems, although this time there will be political motivations behind the actions of so-called hacktivists. In the past cybercriminals have worked purely for financial gain, but since the Wikileaks scandal and the rise of the Anonymous hacktivist group, many public and private …
Data security to be tackled via crowd sourcing, EU claims
The future of data protection and IT security could be handled collectively by users from around the world, as the European Union announces plans to look into using crowd sourcing techniques to develop defences over the coming years. In essence, the proposal made by Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, is the first step towards the creation of a central body to which anyone will be able to report cybercrimes, scams, …
Business smartphones suffer from data encryption deficit
A new study has found worrying evidence that a majority of smartphones used by businesses do not have any kind of encryption protecting the sensitive data which they store, leaving the door open for malicious parties to steal and corrupt corporate details and private information. Seventy per cent of respondents to a survey carried out by security firm Check Point, said that the smartphones issued by their employers had no …
Hackers supporting Wikileaks distribute phoney MasterCard details
The deepening conflict between the activists who are hacking various major corporate websites and the authorities has taken a troubling turn, as it was announced that payment card details were stolen and then published. Over 10,000 users of MasterCard were allegedly affected by the data theft, although the veracity of the published details was quickly denied by a spokesperson for the payment card firm, who claimed that the group of …
UK fares well in data protection study
A study conducted by Ernst & Young has looked at the state of preparedness amongst businesses from around the world when it comes to dealing with the next generation of threats to IT security and data protection, with UK firms coming off better than their international counterparts. As part of the Global Information Security Survey, it was discovered that, on average, just a tenth of businesses are prepared to invest …
UK government to reappraise data security after WikiLeaks controversy
The government is looking to secure its digital borders and make sure that all departments practice the same rigours when it comes to data protection, as a result of the leaked diplomatic messages which were published by the controversial WikiLeaks website last week. Every department is going to have to liaise with Peter Ricketts, the national security advisor, in order to show that they are acting in a manner which …
