Makers of phones, TVs and smart doorbells legally required to protect devices against access by cybercriminals
Tech that comes with weak passwords such as “admin” or “12345” will be banned in the UK under new laws dictating that all smart devices must meet minimum security standards.
Measures to protect consumers from hacking and cyber-attacks come into effect on Monday, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said.
Continue reading...Message comes as pressure builds on Tories to take disciplinary action against MP William Wragg
Downing Street has urged MPs to be cautious when responding to unsolicited messages, after the “spear-phishing” attack that targeted more than a dozen MPs, staff and journalists working in Westminster.
Number 10 issued the warning on Monday morning, days after two police forces launched an investigation into what is being described as an attempted “honeytrap”.
Continue reading...Evans says he was first to alert authorities after receiving messages in what is suspected to be part of wider attempt to target MPs
A Conservative MP has revealed that he was targeted in the Westminster sexting scandal and was the MP that first alerted the authorities.
Luke Evans said he was messaged in what is suspected to be part of a wider attempt to target MPs.
Continue reading...William Wragg says he was pressed for colleagues’ details after sharing compromising photos of himself
A senior Conservative MP has reportedly admitted to giving out the personal phone numbers of colleagues to a person he met on a dating app.
William Wragg told the Times that he gave the information after he had sent intimate pictures of himself, saying he was “scared” and “mortified”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: £10m needed for regulator charged with developing tools to thwart financial crime and protect consumers
Banks are under pressure to stump up millions of pounds in interim funding for the organisation that polices open banking, with regulators saying the new money is needed to prevent financial crime and protect consumers if things “go wrong”.
Large banks including NatWest, HSBC, Lloyds and Santander UK were among more than 40 City firms summoned by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) last week to discuss a cash injection into Open Banking Limited (OPL), the body that oversees innovation in this area.
Continue reading...Findings suggest Jordan is relying on cyberweapon to quash dissent and its use is ‘staggeringly widespread’
About three dozen journalists, lawyers and human rights workers in Jordan have been targeted by authorities using powerful spyware made by Israel’s NSO Group amid a broad crackdown on press freedoms and political participation, according to a report by the lobbying group Access Now.
The information suggests the Jordanian government has used the Israeli cyberweapon against members of civil society, including at least one American citizen living in Jordan, between 2019 and September 2023.
Continue reading...Owner of RingGo and ParkMobile says data including parts of credit card numbers taken in cyber-attack
Europe’s largest parking app operator has reported itself to information regulators in the EU and UK after hackers stole customer data.
EasyPark Group, the owner of brands including RingGo and ParkMobile, said customer names, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses and parts of credit card numbers had been taken but said parking data had not been compromised in the cyber-attack.
Continue reading...Poll finds 28 of 30 economists expect central bank to keep cash rate steady at 4.35%. Follow the day’s news live
Good morning, and happy Tuesday.
I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be with you on the blog today – many thanks to Martin for kicking things off.
Continue reading...Follow the day’s news live
And here is the standard of some of the “debate” among senior parliamentarians.
Meanwhile, Australia’s sense of social cohesion is at its lowest recorded ebb.
Continue reading...Details of thousands of officers may have been taken in ransomware attack on third-party supplier
The personal details of tens of thousands of public sector workers could have been breached in a cyber-attack that has hit two of Britain’s biggest police forces, an expert has said.
More than 12,500 Greater Manchester police (GMP) officers and staff were put on alert on Thursday that their private data had been compromised in a hack that also hit the Metropolitan police last month.
Continue reading...Almost one in three people aged 18-34 have been messaged by staff after giving personal details to a business
Almost one in three people aged 18-34 have received unwanted romantic contact after giving their personal information to a business, a UK poll has shown.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has called for recipients of such texts to come forward to help the regulator gather evidence of the impact of this phenomenon.
The ICO has an online form for people who want to report an experience of unwanted contact.
Continue reading...Information about victims of crime, witnesses and suspects included with freedom of information responses, forces say
Two police forces in England have admitted mishandling the sensitive data of victims, witnesses and suspects in cases including domestic abuse incidents, sexual offences, assaults, thefts and hate crime.
Norfolk and Suffolk police said the data of 1,230 people was included in files responding to freedom of information requests and apologised.
Continue reading...Force’s chief constable believes thousands of officers’ personal details are in paramilitary hands
Republican paramilitaries have obtained the information that leaked in a Police Service of Northern Ireland data breach, according to the force’s chief constable.
Simon Byrne said on Monday that he believed dissident republicans had the dataset that mistakenly disclosed the personal details of more than 10,000 officers and staff last week.
Continue reading...Data from Electoral Commission breach could allow rogue actors to create AI-generated messages in effort to manipulate elections
Data accessed in the Electoral Commission hack could help state-backed actors target voters with AI-generated disinformation, experts have warned.
The UK elections watchdog revealed on Tuesday that a hostile cyber-attack had been able to access the names and addresses of all voters registered between 2014 and 2022.
Continue reading...Shadow minister says leak of ‘sensitive’ information after research into the Optus and Medibank hacks was ‘deeply ironic’
The home affairs department exposed the personal information of more than 50 small business survey participants who were sought for their views on cybersecurity, Guardian Australia can reveal.
The names, business names, phone numbers and emails of the participants in the survey were published on the parliament website in response to a question on notice from May’s Budget estimates hearing.
Continue reading...State’s chief information security officer says information from Victorian departments and agencies was accessed
Highly sensitive legal documents from the Victorian government have been published on the dark web by cybercriminals, with Queensland also confirming files from at least one of its departments are included in the breach.
The breach is connected to data that was stolen from the law firm HWL Ebsworth in April by a Russian-linked ransomware gang, known as ALPHV/Blackcat, and posted online.
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Continue reading...Real Estate Institute of Australia president says additional layer of responsibility could force smaller agencies to close down
Real estate agents are pushing back against proposed privacy law changes, saying small businesses should not face more red tape to keep customer and tenant data safe.
The Real Estate Institute of Australia president, Hayden Groves, said that an “additional layer of responsibility is really not necessary” on top of agents’ existing duties, saying that increased regulatory risks could be “the last straw” for smaller agencies which may shut up shop.
Continue reading...CMA to look at underlying systems of artificial intelligence tools amid concerns over false information
The UK competition watchdog has fired a shot across the bows of companies racing to commercialise artificial intelligence technology, announcing a review of the sector as fears grow over the spread of misinformation and major disruption in the jobs market.
As pressure builds on global regulators to increase their scrutiny of the technology, the Competition and Markets Authority said it would look at the underlying systems, or foundation models, behind AI tools such as ChatGPT. The initial review, described by one legal expert as a “pre-warning” to the sector, will publish its findings in September.
Continue reading...Investment fraud amounts for biggest share at $1.5bn, followed by remote access and payment redirection rorts
Australians lost a record amount of more than $3.1bn to scams in 2022, up from the $2bn lost in 2021, a new report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has revealed.
The Targeting Scams report, which compiles data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, major banks and money remitters, was based on an analysis of more than 500,000 reports.
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Continue reading...With government concerns over national security growing, Beijing’s influence over platforms such as WeChat and Shein could come under scrutiny
As TikTok, the world’s most popular app, comes under increasing scrutiny in response to data privacy and security concerns, lawmakers in the west may soon set their sights on other Chinese platforms that have gone global.
TikTok was built by ByteDance as a foreign version of its popular domestic video-sharing platform, Douyin. But it is far from being ByteDance’s only overseas moneymaker. The Chinese company owns dozens of apps that are available overseas, many of them English-language versions of Chinese offerings.
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