Articles about UK

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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The EU's Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) comes into force tomorrow (Jan 17th) but new research shows that 43 percent of the UK's financial organizations are set to miss the deadline for compliance, with 20 percent expecting to do so by at least four months.

Although the UK is outside the EU its strong financial ties with Europe mean firms operating in or interacting with EU markets will need to align with DORA standards to continue their business relationships.

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Almost every single organization, large or small, is acutely aware of the need to implement robust security measures. However, this is easier said than done. As the threat landscape continues to evolve, only heightened by tools such as AI, it can be difficult to stay ahead and ensure appropriate security measures are in place. There are a lot of security tools out there, and many organizations have tried to implement security measures and are now overwhelmed with an influx of information trying to figure out how best to manage it.

However, though it may not be the easiest task, it’s certainly one worth doing right. So, as we move into 2025, what are the main trends that organizations need to be aware of and how can they use this knowledge to stay protected?

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Smaller businesses are just as vulnerable to cybersecurity issues as larger ones, more so in some cases as they have fewer resources to devote to protection.

New research from UK cloud services firm Six Degrees looks at the concerns of UK SMEs. It finds 35 percent cite AI-related threats as their top concern, outranking malware (25 percent), scams and other fraud (25 percent), phishing (25 percent), and ransomware (23 percent).

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Artificial intelligence will be unleashed across the UK to deliver a decade of national renewal under a new plan announced by the government.

The Prime Minister has agreed to take forward all 50 recommendations set out in the AI Opportunities Action Plan released last year, in a plan to make the UK ‘irresistible’ to AI firms looking to start, scale, or grow their business.

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2024 has been a year of seismic change in the UK, what with a new government coming into power and a budget that will undoubtedly impact the UK’s small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in 2025. So, as we look ahead to next year, what technology trends will lead?

We see several dominant trends: a larger proportion of the workforce returning to the office, the increasing adoption of AI, and a heightened focus on security. Additionally, data sovereignty issues will come to the forefront as organizations worry about where their data resides, and ever-growing compliance requirements will become a business necessity -- no matter the organization's size.

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A new report finds that 35 percent of small business employees or owners report clicking on a phishing link via mobile.

The research, carried out by OnePoll for CyberSmart, among 250 small-medium enterprise business owners or leaders in the UK also finds 30 percent of respondents report losing or having had stolen a mobile phone containing sensitive corporate information, leaving their business more vulnerable to potential cybercriminal activity.

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A new survey from software delivery platform Harness finds that 66 percent of UK consumers think software companies releasing 'bad' code that causes mass outages is on par with, or worse than, supermarkets selling contaminated products that break laws on food safety.

The study of 2,000 UK consumers, conducted by Opinium Research, finds that 44 percent have been affected by an IT outage. 26 percent were impacted by the recent incident caused by a software update from CrowdStrike in July 2024.

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A new survey of 2,000 people in the UK for the International Cyber Expo shows that 72 percent believe that cyberwarfare is likely to be the next step in modern combat.

Over half of people (52 percent) said they believe cyberwarfare may be the next step in warfare combined with physical tactics.

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The Chartered Institute of Information Security (CIISec) is announcing the addition of artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing modules to its CyberEPQ qualification for all students from September 2024 onwards.

Available to any student over the age of 14 in the UK, the CyberEPQ (Extended Project Qualification) is aimed at bringing new and diverse talent into the industry, representing an ideal stepping stone into a cybersecurity career.

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