Articles about UK

A new report shows that 52 percent of UK SMEs are already using or plan to adopt AI tools within the next 12 months.

The study, from fintech company SumUp, is based on a survey of 750 business owners and decision makers within small UK businesses and finds that 27 percent see AI mostly as an opportunity, highlighting its potential to drive growth or increase efficiency.

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New research reveals that insecure code is behind a shocking number of cyber breaches in the UK, with two-thirds of tech leaders admitting their organization suffered an incident in the past year.

The study from SecureFlag, of 100 UK C-suite and tech leaders, shows that despite the risks, many companies are still failing to train developers properly, leaving a gap that attackers are exploiting.

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A High Court ruling has ended Wikipedia’s attempt to overturn part of the UK’s divisive new Online Safety Act, but the legal fight over its application may not be quite over. Judges dismissed the Wikimedia Foundation’s challenge to rules that could place the encyclopaedia under the law’s strictest category of regulation.

The organization behind Wikipedia says the framework risks forcing it to verify the identities of its volunteer editors, undermining both their privacy and the way the site operates. It argues that the model, in which anyone can contribute without registering personal details, is central to the platform’s reliability and breadth of coverage.

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As we’ve been reporting over the past week interest in VPN use in the UK has spiked following concerns about the Online Safety Act and its age verification rules.

Inevitably the government has noticed the surge in VPN use and while it insists it has no plans to ban their use the science secretary, Peter Kyle, says it will be looking “very closely” at how they’re being employed.

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As we reported earlier this week, the UK’s new Online Safety Act has seen a surge in interest in the use of VPNs and an online petition for its repeal has been signed by over 400,000 people.

An article published yesterday by The Critic argues that the legislation is badly drafted. Industry figures too are raising doubts about the effectiveness of the act, its likely wider impact on cybersecurity and its potential for overreach.

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The UK’s new Online Safety Act came into force this week, aimed at protecting youngsters with age verification to access adult and harmful content. However, it’s seen other material being blocked and sparked concern among free speech campaigners about government censorship.

It’s not too surprising then that there’s been a lot of interest in VPNs since the act came into force. VPNMentor has seen a 6,430 percent peak surge in VPN demand since the act’s introduction.

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A new ‘innovator passport’ -- set to be introduced over next two years -- will allow new technology that has been robustly assessed by one part of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to be more easily rolled out to others.

Healthcare innovations need to be thoroughly tested before being widely adopted, but of course this can slow down potentially life saving innovations from reaching the people who would benefit from them.

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New research reveals a surge in interest in data sovereignty among UK IT leaders since the implementation of the United States government's historic raft of tariffs in April.

The study from Civo, of over 1,000 UK-based IT leaders, shows more than 60 percent now feel that the UK government’s use of US cloud services exposes the country's digital economy to significant risks, damages its domestic industry, and threatens data security.

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Fans of the 1980s British sitcom 'Yes Minister' will know the character Sir Humphrey -- a senior civil servant whose main role seemed to be to prevent ministers from implementing their policies. You may also know that Humphrey is the name of the Downing Street cat.

With its tongue firmly in its cheek then, the UK government is introducing 'Humphrey', a bundle of AI tools designed to speed up the work of civil servants and cut back time spent on admin, and money spent on contractors.

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IT and business leaders from UK mid-market organizations have conflicting views on the role of AI in enabling growth and driving productivity, according to new research.

The report from Node4, based on responses from over 600 IT and business leaders across multiple sectors, shows IT leaders rank investment in AI in their top two strategies for improving productivity and efficiency, but it only just makes business leaders' top five.

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Apple's Advanced Data protection allows the data that its users store in iCloud to be end-to-end encrypted. On Friday of last week the company announced that it would be removing this tool from users in the UK.

The move follows a demand from the UK government to allow 'backdoor' access into data in order to investigate crime. The problem is that even Apple can't access ADP protected data and the company argues that a backdoor would be exploited by attackers.

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New research from Orange Cyberdefense shows that 58 percent of large UK financial services firms suffered at least one third-party supply chain attack in 2024, with 23 percent being targeted three or more times.

The research suggests that firms must re-evaluate how they assess third-party risk. 44 percent of FS institutions only assess third-party risk during the initial supplier onboarding stage, while a similar proportion (41 percent) perform periodic risk assessments. Crucially, just 14 percent follow the gold standard of continuously assessing risk and using dedicated third-party risk management tools.

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Analysis by NetDocuments of information collected by the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) reveals a sharp increase in data breaches across the UK legal sector.

The report shows that in the period between Q3 2023 and Q2 2024, the number of identified data breaches in the UK legal sector rose by 39 percent (2,284 cases were reported to the ICO, compared to 1,633 the previous year).

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The UK government is considering introducing an additional tax for subscribers of streaming services such as Disney+ and Netflix. The money raised in this way could be used to help fund the BBC, which has been struggling financially for some time.

Several ideas are being floated to try to top up the coffers of the public service broadcaster which is largely funded through the television license fee. With the license fee already somewhat controversial, the idea of charging users of non-BBC related streaming services is likely to provoke angry reactions.

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Hot on the heels of its plans to turbocharge AI usage, the UK government has today announced that it wants to introduce a new GOV.UK Wallet, a digital wallet that will hold official documents.

Starting with Veteran Cards and Driving Licenses this year, it will expand to take in things like Blue Badges for disabled drivers, Personal Independence Payment (PIP) letters, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks and every other credential issued by the government.

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