Articles about UK

Almost half (48 percent) of small and medium-sized businesses in the UK have lost, or lost access to, company or customer data in the last five years.

Research, carried out by Censuswide for business ISP Beaming, shows businesses with between 10 and 250 staff have borne most of the data loss, which has cost UK companies more than £5.3 billion since 2019.

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Open Source contributed 27 percent of the UK tech sector's Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2022, according to a new report from OpenUK, the non-profit organization representing the UK’s open technology sector.

The report finds that there are 3.2 million GitHub accounts in the UK and 8,200 UK contributors to open source projects in the past year. There have also been1,700 new contributors to open source projects in the last 12 months, representing 20.7 percent growth.

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In the wake of the MOVEit vulnerability, which affected an estimated 40 million people around the world, businesses are stepping up their investment in ransomware protection.

A new study carried out by Censuswide for Veeam Software surveyed 100 directors of UK companies with over 500 employees who had suffered a ransomware attack in the past 18 months and finds 24 percent report they are significantly more anxious about ransomware attacks as a direct result of the MOVEit breach.

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With the UK's national 'Stop Sell' having commenced in September this year and the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) switch off due by December 2025, business owners need to have all the facts and critical information that they need to act fast and confidently to make the right decisions about their digital alternatives.

With the switch off deadline looming how can businesses in the UK ensure that they are prepared for these significant, but exciting changes to communications?

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The UK cybersecurity workforce gap has reached a record high, with 73,439 professionals needed to adequately safeguard digital assets, representing a 29.3 percent increase over 2022.

Research by security professionals organization ISC2 shows the UK cybersecurity workforce has reached 367,300 people, an 8.3 percent increase from 2022, representing more than 28,000 new jobs.

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A new study shows nine in 10 British businesses plan to invest in new technology including adaptive AI, sustainable tech, neurotech, applied observability and digital immune systems, in the next 12 months.

The report from software and services company Advanced shows that 70 percent of businesses are either already using or researching ways to bring adaptive AI into their working practices, even though almost 50 percent of business owners are concerned about the risks of doing so.

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New research to coincide with Cybersecurity Awareness Month finds that 34 percent of Brits admit that they have given up following cybersecurity best practice because it feels like an impossible task.

The study from Thales surveyed over 2,000 UK citizens and finds an alarming level of consumer apathy when it comes to keeping themselves safe online.

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The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching a market investigation into the supply of public cloud infrastructure services in the UK. Between them, Amazon and Microsoft enjoy a combined market share of 60-70 percent of Britain's cloud computing industry.

This follows a referral by telecoms regulator Ofcom which has expressed concerns around egress fees, discounts -- which may incentivize customers to use only one cloud provider, and technical barriers to switching.

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UK businesses have experienced on average 30 cyber incidents over the last twelve months, marking a 25 percent increase compared to last year.

But a new report from iomart and Oxford Economics finds that 27 percent of organizations think their cyber security budget is inadequate to fully protect them from growing threats. This is despite spending more than £40,000 ($48,000) a year on cyber protection such as vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and red team engagements.

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According to a new survey from Censuswide for Veeam Software, UK business leaders rate ransomware as a more significant threat to their organization (43 percent) than the economic crisis (41 percent), skills shortages (34 percent), political uncertainty (31 percent), and Brexit (30 percent).

The survey 100 directors of UK companies with over 500 employees who had suffered a ransomware attack in the past 18 months finds 61 percent are anxious about the prospect of another attack.

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Over half of the UK population (53 percent) would be supportive of the UK government and its allies breaking international cybersecurity law.

A new survey by Censuswide, on behalf of International Cyber Expo, also shows 45 percent have admitted they would be supportive of, or engage in online cybercriminal activity themselves, in the right circumstances.

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As students at schools and colleges in the UK begin to return after the summer break, new research shows that 96 percent of the top 50 state secondary schools, 92 percent of the top 50 sixth-form colleges and 80 percent of the top 50 universities in the UK are lagging behind on basic cybersecurity measures, leaving students, staff and partners at risk of email-based impersonation attacks.

The research from cybersecurity company Proofpoint is based on an analysis of DMARC adoption and reveals that 70 percent of UK schools are currently taking no steps to protect themselves from domain impersonation by having no published DMARC record.

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Data privacy regulation, GDPR, has been in force for five years but it will soon be superseded by UK GDPR. The Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, now wending its way through parliament, will see organisations move to a UK equivalent following the country's withdrawal from the EU. But what will the change mean in practice?

We spoke to Jon Fielding, managing director of EMEA at Apricorn, to find out how UK GDPR will affect businesses and how they handle and protect data.

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Earlier this year, Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, announced his desire to cement the UK as an AI superpower. And it has been all hands on deck since then with an AI summit set to take place in November, government funds being channeled into research, and ongoing discussions around regulation. The UK is certainly determined to secure a podium position in the AI race.

It isn't difficult to understand why such high importance is being placed on AI at a governmental level. Predicted to increase UK GDP by up to 10.3 percent by 2030 -- the equivalent of an additional £232 billion -- embracing AI could hugely benefit the economy, whilst also boosting productivity and efficiency for businesses of all sizes and sectors. In the current economic climate, when all budgets are squeezed and workforces are stretched, AI has the potential to be hugely transformative. As Plamen Minev, Technical Director, AI and Cloud at Quantum, explains:

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Systems at the Electoral Commission, the body which oversees elections in the UK, have suffered a breach exposing electoral registers which hold the data of anyone registered to vote between 2014 and 2022. The Commission’s email system was also exposed in the breach.

In a statement on its website the Commission says it identified the incident in October last year but that systems were accessed as long ago as August 2021.

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