The UK government has directly accused Russia of being behind the so called NotPetya ransomware attack last year — which quickly spread around the globe, including affecting businesses in Spain, France and India, demanding payment in Bitcoin to unlock infected machines. Read More
Category: United Kingdom
Cryptojacking attack hits ~4,000 websites, including UK’s data watchdog
An attacker injected a crypto mining script into a web plugin’s JavaScript library, and some 4,000 websites — a large number of them taxpayer funded — were co-opted into illegal crypto mining… oopsie… Read More
UK outs plan to bolster gig economy workers rights
The UK government has announced a package of labor market reforms to respond to changes in working patterns including those driven by the rise of gig economy platforms and apps like Uber and Deliveroo. Read More
View More UK outs plan to bolster gig economy workers rightsTwitter accused of dodging Brexit botnet questions again
Once again Twitter stands accused of dodging questions from a parliamentary committee that’s investigating Russian bot activity during the UK’s 2016 Brexit referendum. Read More
Uber’s wrongs show we need better workers’ rights, says UK PM
A backhanded compliment for Uber snuck into UK prime minister Theresa May’s speech to the World Economy Forum in Davos this afternoon — when she said the company’s behavior had made the case for laws being strengthened to stop gig economy workers from being exploited by overly powerful tech platforms. Read More
UK to set up security unit to combat state disinformation campaigns
The UK government has announced plans to set up a dedicated national security unit to combat state-led disinformation campaigns — raising questions about how broad its ‘fake news’ bullseye will be. Read More
Facebook expands ‘Community Boost’ digital skills training program to Europe
Facebook has announced it’s expanding a free training program that teaches Internet-skills, media literacy and online safety to Europe. It says its “ambition” is to train 300,000 people across six EU countries by 2020 — specifically in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Poland. Read More
Uber announces “safety” cap on UK driver hours
Uber has confirmed it will cap the amount of hours drivers on its platform in the UK can be logged in to accept trips. After ten hours the new policy will require drivers take an uninterrupted six hour break before they can log back into the app …
View More Uber announces “safety” cap on UK driver hoursConcerns raised over new ethics regime for UK public sector data processing
Health data privacy advocacy group MedConfidential believes ministers are trying to sneak in a data protection law carveout, in order to hand politicians the power to judge the ethics of — for example — applying AI to taxpayer funded medical data-sets. Read More
UK eyeing ‘extremism’ tax on social media giants
The UK government has kicked off the new year with another warning shot across the bows of social media giants. Read More
View More UK eyeing ‘extremism’ tax on social media giantsThe UK calls internet access a ‘legal right’ like water and power
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The week after the Federal Communications Commission nixed net neutrality rules in the United States, the United Kingdom decided that all 65 million of its inhabitants have a “legal right” to fast, reliable internet connectivity.
The UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport announced the decision on Dec. 20, noting that the government will require internet providers to give “everyone access to high speed broadband by 2020” — much like an electric or water utility.
“We know how important broadband is to homes and businesses and we want everyone to benefit from a fast and reliable connection,” Culture Secretary Karen Bradley said in a statement. “This is all part of our work on ensuring that Britain’s telecoms infrastructure is fit for the future and will continue to deliver the connectivity that consumers need in the digital age.” Read more…
More about United Kingdom, Net Neutrality, Internet Speed, Internet Access, and Federal Communications Commission
YouTube: More AI can fix AI-generated “bubbles of hate”
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter faced another online hate crime grilling today by UK parliamentarians visibly frustrated at their continued failures to apply their own community guidelines and take down reported hate speech. Read More