Five Key Takeaways From The Russia Report

The UK Parliament’s Intelligence & Security Committee found “Russia has sought to employ organised crime groups to supplement its cyber skills” This is pivotal, as it makes attribution much, much harder. Using crime groups, or just co-opting their tools and software, makes it easier for states such as Russia to hide their cyber activities. It’s…

What UK Government is – and isn’t – saying about coronavirus vaccine hacking

There was a predictably pusillanimous BBC interview by Security Minister James Brokenshire on Friday regarding allegations that Russian state hackers attacked companies working on coronavirus vaccines. Brokenshire didn’t name the companies involved, nor did he confirm whether the hacks were successful. This is pretty typical of cybersecurity announcements: they flag up the threat, and provide…

Lockdown sexting rates rocket – but is it grooming?

As schools closed during the coronavirus lockdown, disturbing headlines emerged: 300,000 UK paedophiles were potentially ready to exploit the disruption to target children. With millions of kids at home, bored and often glued to their mobiles and tablets, it seemed reasonable to fear an increase in online grooming. But is it happening? The 300,000 figure…

Economic effects

This is one of a series of personal blogs I’ve written about coronavirus. They are not a pieces of journalism, and are not like the investigative work I do for major publishers. They are my personal reflections, in attempt to make sense of the situation. I am, effectively, a small business dealing with coronavirus. I’m…

“Panic” buying

This is one of a series of personal blogs I’ve written about coronavirus. They are not a pieces of journalism, and are not like the investigative work I do for major publishers. They are my personal reflections, in attempt to make sense of the situation. Visiting the supermarket has become a bleak, tense experiment in…

Ad tech firms grapple with new rules

Online advertising giants have promised to rein in the sharing of sensitive personal data for targeted ads, but some still doubt they can comply with tough new data protection rules. At a conference organised by the Information Commissioner’s Office this week, two of the biggest names in ad tech outlined moves to restrict the amount…