The names, dates of birth and National Insurance numbers of thousands of NHS workers in Wales have been stolen in a massive data breach affecting an IT supplier. More than 1,000 staff - including cleaners, radiographers and students - at two NHS organisations, Velindre NHS Trust and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, were targeted in the attack, which did not jeopardise patient information.
Most businesses will be using data analytics within just three years as they look to use data to get better business insights, according to a new report from Forrester. The poll of 580 business and IT leaders from around the world found 90 per cent of firms will have formally adopted data by 2020, IT Pro reported.
British retailers are set to be armed with a new toolkit to help them manage the risk of cyber attacks and better-respond to them. The British Retail Consortium, the trade body that represents the UK’s retail industry, says its Cyber Security Toolkit will help retailers “of all sizes” prevent and manage online threats and protect their customers’ data.
Personal details of around one million Coachella attendees have been leaked, promoters of the US music festival have confirmed. While personal details were stolen, financial information is safe, Coachella said. Motherboard reported that information of some festival-goers was available for sale on the dark web for $300.
Hyperscale datacentres, cloud and virtualisation are proving more popular with companies than servers when it comes to leveraging their applications, according to new research from Gartner. Research from the IT firm shows that a downturn in server sales is continuing, with all regions (with exception of Asia-Pacific) showing a decline.
The government has published its plan to keep the UK at the head of the digital sphere after it leaves the EU. The Digital Strategy includes plans to offer digital skills to millions of people, businesses and charities by 2020 and create five international technology hubs in emerging markets, allowing UK firms to maintain their global reach.
A record number of British tech companies are attending Mobile World Congress (MWC), the world’s biggest showcase for mobile devices and technology. Some 167 British firms pitched up at the show, held in Barcelona, in a sign the government said was an example of “growing tech appetite for Silicon UK”.
The government is to announce a funding boost of £17.3 million to support the development of new robotics and artificial intelligence technologies at UK universities.
Just four per cent of cyber crime professionals are happy with their enterprise’s cyber security investments as they express concerns that firms must do more to properly manage critical business data.
There was a 140 per cent spike in major distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks in the last three months of 2016, driven by unsecured Internet of Things (IoT) devices, according to new research by Akamai.
The global business intelligence (BI) and analytics software market is set to grow to $22.8 billion in the space of just three years, new research from IT experts Gartner suggests. This year alone, BI and analytics will grow to $18.3 billion, an increase of 7.3 per cent from 2016, as modern BI and analytics continues to expand “more rapidly” than the overall market.
The average UK technology worker’s salary is £56,000, double that of the national average of £28,000, according to a new report. However, the research from Hired shows that while UK tech workers are fairly well rewarded, their wages are some way below their counterparts around the world. In fact, they are among the lowest in the world.
The Queen has formally opened the UK’s new National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is tasked with defending the country against cyber attacks. The centre, officially part of GCHQ, replaces a range of other government agencies that had cyber security responsibility, including the CCA, CESG, CERT UK and more.
Two-thirds of websites are leaving themselves vulnerable to a hacking attack, new research suggests. A study by security firm Rapid7 found only 33 per cent of sites its researchers tested had no vulnerabilities, highlighting how important it is for firms to look at their online security.
Large firms are split on who should deal with the aftermath of a cyber attack, with a study by BAE Systems showing senior managers think IT staff should deal with data breaches but IT bosses thinking the responsibility should lie with board members.
Bristol University, King’s College London and the University of Surrey are thought to be among the institutions vying to be ‘test beds’ for the development of new 5G technology.
Retailer Sports Direct has revealed that personal data for 30,000 of its employees were stolen in a data breach - although it waited until this year to tell affected staff. Hackers broke into the company’s systems last September, stealing names, email addresses and phone numbers by exploiting a vulnerability in its DNN platform.
Companies are losing 20 per cent of their revenues and missing out on new business because they can’t adequately manage all the security issues affecting their operations, new research suggests.
A lack of investment and a skills shortage is causing serious concern in the global technology industry, new research shows. A study by technology recruiter Networkers found that among both private and public sector organisations there isn’t the sufficient resource to generate growth.
Businesses are being urged to fully prepare for the threat presented by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks - they are set to get worse in scope and scale, Deloitte says.
A “disorderly” Brexit would be “highly disruptive” for the UK’s tech sector, industry body techUK has said as it outlined recommendations for the government’s negotiations over the exit from the UK.
Lloyds Banking Group experienced a 48-hour distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack this month as cyber criminals attempted to block access to millions of accounts, demanding a large ransom to end the onslaught.
New research places a link between business revenue and the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) - with a few reservations, of course. A report by technology consultancy Infosys, who polled 1,600 business decision-makers around the world, found that those who have implemented AI technology forecast a 39 per cent increase in revenue by 2020, alongside a 37 per cent drop in costs.
Online fraud is now the most common crime in the country with new figures showing one in ten people have fallen victim to it. Data from the annual Crime Survey of England and Wales shows more than five-and-a-half million cyber offences take place each year - nearly 50 per cent of all crime in the country.
The majority of c-level executives say business intelligence (BI) and data analytics will be “crucial” to the future of their businesses - but many lack coherent strategies for putting such platforms into place.
US firms appear to be better prepared for managing internet disruptions than their UK peers over the pond, new research from Dyn suggests. The company’s poll of US and UK IT teams reveals that the average internet disruption takes twice as long to rectify here as it does in America.
Yahoo has plans to change its name to Altaba once its acquisition by US telecoms firm Verizon is complete - although many of its best-known products are set to keep the Yahoo brand.
The Government is turning to the Church as part of its plans to roll out faster broadband connections to remote rural areas of the UK.
The rise of the personal assistant: in three years’ time, 20 per cent of users will interact with their smartphones via Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs) like Apple’s Siri, according to new research. A study by Gartner found advances in “various technologies” will drive users to interact with their smartphones in more intuitive ways.
The government must spend its new investment in broadband infrastructure so it properly benefits companies, a business organisation has said.
Workers in France now have the legal right to not check work emails outside their working hours, under changes to employment law in the country.
Mozilla is to end support for its Firefox browser that runs in Windows XP and Windows Vista in 2017. The firm is one of the last remaining browsers that provides support for the Microsoft operating systems. In a statement Mozilla said that Windows XP and Vista users will automatically be moved to its Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) around March 2017.
Companies’ lack of cyber security skills means they’re struggling to detect, prevent and deal with cyber crime, a new research report suggests. A study by Enterprise Strategy Group and the Information Systems Security Association found:
Public sector organisations could be urged to join a scheme that would see them become ‘anchor’ tenants for faster broadband networks in parts of the country where speeds are poor, it has been reported.
A £440 million investment in broadband infrastructure will help hundreds of thousands of businesses get superfast broadband, the government says. It has unlocked funding to give business premises in hard-to-reach parts of the UK quick and reliable internet connections which are a “vital” part of modern life.
The government must “step up” and deliver a fast, quality broadband provision to the country’s small businesses, a leading business group has said.
Users running hosted VoIP services have named quality of service and edge issues as their main gripes with the unified comms product. The SIP Survey 2016 found 27 per cent of users have experienced edge issues like badly configured firewalls, NAT (network address translation) or SBC (session border controllers), Computing reported.
The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have announced plans for a €500 million (£420 million) fund for broadband infrastructure upgrades across the EU. The Connecting Europe Broadband Fund was described as an “important step” in deploying high-capacity networks necessary to drive Europe’s digital economy and society.
Smart use of office spaces to make them more conducive to productive working could boost the economy by as much as £70 million, according to new research. A poll of business leaders, property experts and academics by the Stoddart Review found only around half (53 per cent) of employees say their current working environment allows them to work productively.
Young people preparing to enter the workplace are set to abandon the traditional desktop PC and work phone as they embrace smartphones, apps and the latest technologies. New research from Fuze finds a “disconnect” between current workplace technology and the demands of young people, which it dubs the App Generation, who have grown up with the internet and evolving tech.
Desktop computers are still the most popular corporate device in the workplace, new research suggests. A study by Gartner found although 80 per cent of workers received one or more corporate-issued devices, more than half received a corporate-issued PC.
Nearly three-quarters of UK firms (74 per cent) say they are not doing anywhere near enough to protect themselves against cyber attacks and data breaches, according to a new study.
Black Friday 2016 has been judged a success with retailers and payment processing firms all reporting strong sales for the event. Barclaycard reported a record number of transactions and major retailers including Argos and John Lewis say they experienced a surge in orders. Now in its third year in the UK, Black Friday is a popular discount day event that started in the US.
Black Friday doesn’t just present an opportunity for big businesses: small firms can reap rewards too, according to a website building platform. Weebly said while Black Friday sees huge discounts from some of the biggest global brands, small online businesses are also taking full advantage of the yearly event, doubling their sales across the weekend on average.
Businesses should consider working out how much they’re spending on meetings and try and curb costs if possible, an energy expert has said.
Close to half of British firms (44 per cent) say they fear their business will not exist in its current form by 2021 because of the impact of digital disruption, according to a new study.
Employers are failing to take advantage of mobile-friendly technologies and are relying on outmoded workplace processes instead, according to a report. A study by Changepoint found that while the workforce is mobile-savvy, their employers aren’t - and they’re eager to work with new tools and platforms that suit their mobile preferences.
The cloud is IT professionals’ top investment priority for 2017, according to a poll by Information Week. Its annual survey of IT spending priorities found that cloud spending is “far and away” IT managers’ most important area of spend for the months to come, with 36 per cent citing cloud as the technology that will receive the greatest investment at their companies in 2017.
Donald Trump’s ascension to the US presidency has left tech experts worried he could abuse the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance powers, having a knock-on effect on cloud computing and digital privacy, it has been reported.
Broadband is now seen as a modern-day essential alongside things like food, housing, water and energy, new research from Which? shows. Nine in 10 of the 2,000 people polled by the consumer group rank broadband as being essential to their day-to-day lives, and more essential than mobile phones and TVs.
