Opinion

Opinion

• Assessing the aims of the Government Cyber Security Strategy

  The clear aims of the Government Cyber Security Strategy are welcome, but are they realistic or achievable?  Continue Reading

• Universities need better protection from email-based cyber attacks

  The need to educate university staff and students on avoiding email-based cyber attacks is more acute than ever, says Proofpoint’s Adenike Cosgrove  Continue Reading

• Why training alone is not enough

  Among the difficulties IT leaders face is how best to combat the skills crisis and where and when to train internal teams  Continue Reading

• Server virtualisation is far from dead

  Server virtualisation must be looked upon with an expanded and fresh perspective amid the growing adoption of containers and Kubernetes. Here are seven server virtualisation trends to watch  Continue Reading

• The UK’s cyber security sector is thriving, but our work has only just begun

  The government’s Annual Cyber Sector Report painted a positive picture of the UK security industry. CIISec’s Amanda Finch thinks we can go further in developing cyber talent and opening up the sector  Continue Reading

• The complementary strengths of AI and human intelligence

  Kathy Peach, director at Nesta’s Centre for Collective Intelligence Design, describes projects the organisation supports that explore the interaction between artificial and human intelligence  Continue Reading

• Minding the gap between data and understanding

  An irony about the expression ‘information technology’ is that in recent years, although we have more data, it can feel like we lack information  Continue Reading

• Gartner: How to overcome a lack of cloud skills in your organisation

  IT chiefs are struggling to tackle cloud skills shortages across their organisations. Here are five key steps to overcome this challenge  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Good training is all about context

  In-house or outsourced? What makes a good security training programme, and what questions should buyers ask when procuring training as a service?  Continue Reading

• Technology is the key to the door of levelling up the UK

  We finally have a better idea of what the government’s ‘levelling-up’ policy means in practice – but national progress on digital adoption will be a key measure of its success  Continue Reading

• Why culture is critical for data integration

  For data integration to succeed, the business needs to foster a culture of data sharing and collaboration  Continue Reading

• Phishing tests are a useful exercise, but don’t overdo it

  The vast majority of cyber attacks start with a phish, so it’s not surprising that phishing tests form part of cyber training plans. But sometimes these tests go too far. Cyberis’ Gemma Moore looks at how to avoid the pitfalls  Continue Reading

• Tech sector can lead the fight against climate change

  The technology and telecoms sector has a dual role to play in sustainability – to transform its own organisation and ecosystems, and to use its role as a digital enabler to drive sustainability for its customers  Continue Reading

• Five key tech trends for digital leaders in 2022

  The past two years have seen a surge in investment that will bring new challenges to digital leaders over the next year  Continue Reading

• Why data integration is a business and CIO opportunity

  With a focus an agile approach and continuous learning and improvement, data integration has proven integral to end-to-end digital transformation  Continue Reading

• Data integration remains essential for AI and machine learning

  As our artificial intelligence algorithms continue to struggle with metacognition and causal inference, it is essential that we feed them the right data  Continue Reading

• The UK-Australia FTA shows the UK means business on digital trade policy

  The new free-trade agreement with Australia could be setting the precedents for what a modern digital trade policy will look like for the UK  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: How to build a human firewall

  In-house or outsourced? What makes a good security training programme, and what questions should buyers ask when procuring training as a service?  Continue Reading

• How apprenticeships are helping bridge the digital skills gap

  Apprenticeships are not only for young people – they can help make IT departments more diverse and inclusive, as well as plugging skills gaps, as DWP Digital has proved  Continue Reading

• Understand your cyber training ‘need’ before committing to a programme

  In-house or outsourced? What makes a good security training programme, and what questions should buyers ask when procuring training-as-a-service?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Focus on ‘nudging’ to build effective cyber training

  In-house or outsourced? What makes a good security training programme, and what questions should buyers ask when procuring training-as-a-service?  Continue Reading

• Hybrid cloud storage: The devils are in the details

  When it comes to storage, one thing is clear – cloud does not change everything  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Cyber training is useless without staff empowerment

  In-house or outsourced? What makes a good security training programme, and what questions should buyers ask when procuring training as a service?  Continue Reading

• How digital-twin technology could revolutionise the healthcare industry

  Digital-twin technology is not new, but in many industries it is still regarded as novel and is often misunderstood  Continue Reading

• Need rapid networked storage? Take a look at NVMe-over-TCP

  Lightbits helped develop NVMe-over-TCP to provide shared NVMe storage capacity over existing TCP-based networks  Continue Reading

• Avoid complexity in data storage decisions

  With more options for on- and off-premise data storage, the need for simplicity is greater than ever  Continue Reading

• Vulnerabilities to fraud are increasing across the board

  As the pandemic continues to affect how we work, socialise, shop and conduct business, so it has increased opportunities for digital fraud and cyber crime. Jason Lane-Sellers explores the latest LexisNexis Risk Solutions ‘Cybercrime report’  Continue Reading

• A trial relying on computer evidence should start with a trial of the computer evidence

  Learning from the Post Office Horizon scandal - the most widespread miscarriage of justice in recent British legal history  Continue Reading

• How can you balance security with growth?

  As businesses focus on recovery and growth, CISOs must deal with today’s challenges while also planning for tomorrow - how can they achieve both safety and success?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Reframing CISO-boardroom relations

  Security learning is a career-long process, so as 2021 draws to a close, participants in the Computer Weekly Security Think Tank sum up the most important cyber lessons they’ve taken away from the past 12 months  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: When will they ever learn?

  Security learning is a career-long process, so as 2021 draws to a close, participants in the Computer Weekly Security Think Tank sum up the most important cyber lessons they’ve taken away from the past 12 months  Continue Reading

• Enabling secure remote working is once again a top priority

  The pandemic has bought many new security risks, particularly around remote working. As the UK government once again urges people to work from home under its Plan B restrictions, these risks must be tackled as a priority  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Get to know your personal threat landscape

  Security learning is a career-long process, so as 2021 draws to a close, participants in the Computer Weekly Security Think Tank sum up the most important cyber lessons they’ve taken away from the past 12 months  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: We are failing to get the cyber message across to users

  Security learning is a career-long process, so as 2021 draws to a close, participants in the Computer Weekly Security Think Tank sum up the most important cyber lessons they’ve taken away from the past 12 months  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: There’s much more to do to secure hybrid workers

  Security learning is a career-long process, so as 2021 draws to a close, participants in the Computer Weekly Security Think Tank sum up the most important cyber lessons they’ve taken away from the past 12 months  Continue Reading

• The power of AI can be unleashed with a focus on ethics

  An EY survey reveals the public’s concerns around the growing use of artificial intelligence – but also the opportunities for organisations that take the right ethical approach  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Good documentation could save your bacon

  Security learning is a career-long process, so as 2021 draws to a close, participants in the Computer Weekly Security Think Tank sum up the most important cyber lessons they’ve taken away from the past 12 months  Continue Reading

• Ready for Oracle E-Business Release 12.2 by new year 2022?

  Date for the end of Premier Support for Release 12.1 of Oracle E-Business Suite is 31 December 2021  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Attackers leveraging the supply chain

  Security learning is a career-long process, so as 2021 draws to a close, participants in the Computer Weekly Security Think Tank sum up the most important cyber lessons they have taken away from the past 12 months  Continue Reading

• Gartner: Four ways women can drive a more inclusive workplace

  Tips to help women committed to developing their own IT careers, as well as pathways for anyone in a segment that is under-represented in IT  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Think people, processes and systems

  Security learning is a career-long process, so as 2021 draws to a close, participants in the Computer Weekly Security Think Tank sum up the most important cyber lessons they’ve taken away from the past 12 months  Continue Reading

• A ‘whole of society’ approach to cyber may be on the horizon

  Nominet Cyber managing director David Carroll reflects on the NCSC’s latest annual review amid 2021’s fast-evolving threat landscape  Continue Reading

• The way we talk and think about tech is crucial to helping solve the skills shortage crisis

  Companies are looking to short-term fixes to find IT specialists, but there is still a need for long-term solutions  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: In the cloud, anti-human approaches set us up to fail

  Security learning is a career-long process, so as 2021 draws to a close, participants in the Computer Weekly Security Think Tank sum up the most important cyber lessons they’ve taken away from the past 12 months  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Dissecting the true value of SASE is a challenge

  As a relatively nascent technology that is getting a lot of publicity, dissecting the true value of SASE is still a difficult proposition, for now  Continue Reading

• Computing at the edge: Let’s get on board

  With the increasing complexity of networks today, whether it’s hybrid cloud infrastructure or time-sliced 5G, somehow we’ve got to manage it  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: SASE will become operational reality

  While still considered very much a buzzword, the pace of change in corporate networks and operational technology means secure access service edge (SASE) is becoming reality for many  Continue Reading

• Harness data to make better business conversations

  Productive business conversations require a data culture underpinned by data literacy and balanced by humanistic values  Continue Reading

• The value of open source in Europe

  Open source offers immense benefits across the private and public sector and enables organisations to tap into world-class expertise  Continue Reading

• Men’s Mental Health Month: How fintech can reduce anxiety around debt

  Umer Suleman of ethical investment firm Wahed explains how financial technology can reduce anxieties associated with debt  Continue Reading

• Lessons from Lisbon: Reflections on a week at Web Summit

  Russ Shaw, founder and CEO of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates, assesses the key takeaways of Web Summit 2021  Continue Reading

• How software development will change in 2022

  Businesses need a pipeline of software-enabled functionality that has to be delivered quickly and reliably without overworking software teams  Continue Reading

• How can specialist retailers get closer to their customers?

  In many cases, a customer needs more than just picking an item off the shelf or opening a box left on the doorstep – they need domain expertise  Continue Reading

• Back to the past with government identity

  The UK government plans to spend up to £400m developing yet another digital identity system – why is taxpayer money going into a time warp when there is surely a better and cheaper way?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: SASE – more than the sum of its parts?

  Airbus Cybersecurity’s Paddy Francis asks what makes an integration of the various components of SASE more the sum of their parts, and what are the benefits and pitfalls?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: What to find out before investing in SASE

  Petra Wenham of the BCS shares her thoughts on what organisations need to consider as they investigate whether or not to invest in secure access service edge technology  Continue Reading

• Flexible working hours the key for increased productivity

  With flexible working shifting from being a privilege to a necessity, company leaders must ensure their workers have a high-quality network service, efficient resources, hardware and cloud services, says Whit Andrews, distinguished research ...  Continue Reading

• How the tech sector can lead the green revolution

  Tech has often been highlighted as a contributor to climate change, but technology innovation will be central to achieving a net-zero economy  Continue Reading

• Building bridges to better diversity

  Tibco CIO Rani Johnson describes how the C-suite need to make themselves uncomfortable if they are to increase diversity in their organisations  Continue Reading

• The ICO is right to push back against government meddling

  Some criticisms of the ICO are justified, but the answer to that is not to give Whitehall more oversight over the data protection regulator, argues legal expert Edward Machin  Continue Reading

• Zero trust: Now is the time

  The cyber security industry has been talking about a zero-trust approach to security for just over a decade, but now it’s time to move towards full implementation because it is more appropriate than ever, and it is rapidly gaining support from ...  Continue Reading

• The Secret IR Insider’s Diary – this is not a fashion show

  In the latest pages taken from their diary, the Secret IR Insider reveals why organisations should be worried about every threat, not just the latest and greatest  Continue Reading

• Watching me, watching you – challenging the rise of digital surveillance at work

  Unprecedented levels of digital monitoring at work is embedding a culture of surveillance, despite workers’ opposition to the practices, says Prospect Union  Continue Reading

• Reaching the data gold standard: dream or reality?

  The pandemic has forced businesses to adopt digital technology at a record pace but most organisations find themselves at the beginning of a long journey towards making the most of their data  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: SASE – marketing buzz or the future of security?

  SASE architectures promise to prevent multiple types of cyber attacks, but deciding whether SASE is right for your organisation will require understanding whether SASE is a fit for your use cases in IT  Continue Reading

• How tech can help companies make bigger strides towards sustainability

  Sustainability must be at the centre of a digital strategy – not a sideshow or an afterthought  Continue Reading

• Is SASE mere vendor hype? It’s more nuanced than that

  There’s no doubt that SASE is being overhyped, but nevertheless the concept holds value that security teams should not discount, according to PA Consulting analysts  Continue Reading

• Changing the rules against cyber attacks

  UKRI’s John Goodacre reveals how projects supported by the Digital Security by Design Challenge aim to improve cyber security resilience, beginning with the very fundamentals of computing  Continue Reading

• Building better data foundations to make the most of AI

  The UK government's national artificial intelligence strategy relies on businesses putting in place the foundations for better use of data – EY research highlights the challenges ahead  Continue Reading

• The future is digital, so why is Britain’s national strategy waterfall?

  UK government policy is dominated by old, traditional attitudes – rather like the waterfall approach to IT projects. Unless policymaking adopts digital-style approaches, the UK is doomed to long-term decline  Continue Reading

• Six strategic plays for UK government IT initiatives and their implications for policy

  The UK government needs to decide what being digital means – and there are a number of options to consider. Policymakers have to choose, if the benefits of transformation are to be achieved  Continue Reading

• No easy fix for vulnerability exploitation, so be prepared

  Vulnerability management and disclosure is a tricky business with ethical and business ramifications for software vendors, CISOs and ethical hackers alike – and CISOs sit right in the middle of this  Continue Reading

• Doing the right thing: How CISOs should approach responsible disclosure

  Owen Wright, responsible for penetration testing and adversary simulation at Context, part of Accenture Security, advises how CISOs should approach responsible disclosure  Continue Reading

• Encryption protects the marginalised – and it’s under threat

  Encryption keeps marginalised groups connected and safe, but new regulatory attempts to break it put them at risk  Continue Reading

• How to prevent developer burnout

  The pandemic has led to more pressure on software developers, many of whom have reported increased levels of stress and anxiety  Continue Reading

• Addressing the backup dilemma to ransomware recovery

  Everyone knows good backups are essential if one is to recover from a ransomware attack, but using them effectively poses challenges that IT teams need to know about  Continue Reading

• Open source for good

  Imagine volunteering to build a home for a struggling family and the entire community shows up to help – that is what open source is all about  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Responsible vulnerability disclosure is a joint effort

  By working hand-in-hand, developers and security researchers can both play a vital role in ensuring newly-discovered vulnerabilities are addressed appropriately, writes Paddy Francis of Airbus CyberSecurity  Continue Reading

• Five tips to bridge application management service gaps

  The watermelon effect is defined in the ITIL 4 Foundation guide as a breakage between the SLA client wants and what the service provider delivers  Continue Reading

• New strategies needed to close the cyber security skills gap

  Teaching cyber security in schools is a long-term solution to a present-day problem  Continue Reading

• Invest in cyber security with confidence using a structured approach

  Cyber security has never been more challenging or important in rapidly changing business, regulatory, IT and threat environments. There is a need for a more structured approach to investment  Continue Reading

• Britain needs its amazing migrants

  Fintech entrepreneur Michael Kent explains why Britain needs migrants and why government policy and media horror stories will damage the UK’s economy and reputation  Continue Reading

• Keeping the UK in the global race to adopt digital identity

  The UK government’s proposed digital ID trust framework is a step in the right direction, but more is needed to ensure the successful adoption of digital identity across the economy  Continue Reading

• ICO cookie consent: How will the plan affect businesses?

  A data privacy and compliance expert considers what the ICO’s proposals for an overhaul of cookie consent procedures could mean for businesses  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Embracing vulnerability management for the greater good

  When it comes to vulnerability management, CISOs should define a responsible disclosure policy so that they can receive and manage identified vulnerabilities transparently, practically and collaboratively, says Paul Watts of the ISF  Continue Reading

• Local Digital Capital Index: A framework for levelling up

  How can the tech sector ensure digital equality across the UK in support of the government's levelling-up agenda? TechUK is trying to set the benchmarks  Continue Reading

• UK AI strategy focused on economic growth, resilience and ethics

  Chris Eastham of law firm Fieldfisher looks at the government’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, and the merits of the 10-year plan and its approach  Continue Reading

• Will the end of furlough help fill tech vacancies?

  The closure of the government’s furlough scheme may not help the tech sector fill the most technical vacancies, but it could bolster available talent for the longer term  Continue Reading

• Rebooting the hospitality sector with technology

  Technology is playing a crucial role as the hospitality sector rebounds after the coronavirus pandemic  Continue Reading

• Why UK firms should reconsider jurisdiction in technology contracts after Brexit

  UK companies may need to reconsider how they draft some IT contracts with suppliers since the country left the European Union  Continue Reading

• Facial recognition cannot be a standalone authentication method

  As more organisations look to facial recognition to improve their digital identity practices, they must remember that it cannot stand in isolation  Continue Reading

• UK data plans aim to boost growth but will they isolate the UK from its international friends?

  The UK government has made strong statements about the nation’s post-Brexit data strategy but must be careful not to undermine its global credibility  Continue Reading

• Managing cyber risk through integrated supply chains

  High-profile supply chain cyber attacks have caused huge disruption this year. PA Consulting’s Carl Nightingale considers key questions business leaders should be asking of their organisations  Continue Reading

• Dear Chancellor: Unlocking private sector collaboration is the key to tech growth

  Chancellor Rishi Sunak asked the tech sector for ideas to promote growth – startup hub Plexal makes its case in response  Continue Reading

• Putting data at the heart of policymaking will accelerate London’s recovery

  A new initiative to encourage better data sharing between London’s private and public sectors can play an important role in recovering from the pandemic  Continue Reading

• IR35 reforms: Tech firms warned off relying on high-risk compliance workarounds

  Several months have passed since the onset of the IR35 reforms in the private sector, but compliance with the rules remains an ongoing process, warns Brookson Legal’s Matt Fryer  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Optimising privacy, post-GDPR

  Airbus CyberSecurity CTO Paddy Francis explores the impact of regulation on data protection, and how it has changed how one goes about optimising data privacy in the enterprise  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: A response to planned data protection changes

  The ISF’s Emma Bickerstaffe assesses how organisations might respond to proposed changes to the UK’s data protection regime  Continue Reading

• The rise of the chief risk officer

  The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has seen chief risk officers take their rightful place in the boardroom  Continue Reading

• UK’s new data protection strategy risks costing business more than it gains

  The apparent business benefits of pursuing data adequacy agreements around the world may not be as enticing as they at first appear  Continue Reading