The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster City council, which share some IT infrastructure, said a number of systems had been affected across both authorities, including phone lines. The councils, which provide services for 360,000 residents, shut down several computerised systems as a precaution to limit further possible damage. Engineers at RBKC worked through the night on Monday, when the incident occurred, and Tuesday.
The digital learning revolution has transformed education, making it accessible to millions worldwide. From primary schools to corporate training, eLearning platforms have become essential infrastructure for knowledge sharing. However, this rapid digitization comes with significant security challenges. As educational institutions handle increasingly sensitive data, from student records to payment information, they've become prime targets for cybercriminals seeking valuable personal data, making data safety practices essential to implement.
The narrow win will come as a relief to Switzerland's main political parties, which had mostly supported plans for the e-ID. Both houses of the Swiss parliament had backed the measure with large majorities and the government had recommended a yes vote. But voters rejected an earlier version of the e-ID in 2021, largely over objections to the role of private companies in the system.
The ICO said the use of what it calls "robo call technology" - avatar software that allows callers to present themselves as people they are not - is making it more difficult to discern genuine calls from those made by predatory marketeers. It said the telltale signs of such calls include slight pauses before responses (indicating call handlers selecting recordings to play), limited flexibility to answer offbeat questions, identical voices and tones, and no background noise or natural breaks in speech.
We have been concerned about the expansion of EdTech includes a wide range of tools that enable the surveillance of students and academic staff, often facilitating monitoring by both public authorities and private entities. We brought our concerns responding to the UN Special Rapporteur on education call for contributions on safety as an element of the right to education and a precondition for its full realization.
Bossware systems typically allow employers to track everything from idle time and log-in activity to the use of social media or AI tools. Some go further, offering real-time screenshots, keystroke tracking and app usage analysis. Proponents argue such systems can help prevent insider threats, protect sensitive information and identify productivity issues. But the practice is proving divisive. The CMI found a large minority of managers believe digital snooping undermines trust with staff and risks intruding on personal privacy.
A national digital ID could hand the government the tools for population-wide surveillance - and if history is anything to go by, ministers probably couldn't run it without cocking it up. That's the warning from Big Brother Watch in its new " Checkpoint Britain" report, published just days after Keir Starmer confirmed the government is considering a national digital identity scheme to tackle illegal immigration.
The legal industry has been in full embrace mode when it comes to cloud computing. Data from the American Bar Association and reported in 2023 for example showed cloud usage among lawyers jumped from 60% to 70% overall, with solo practitioners leading the charge, going from 52% to 84% adoption in just one year. The legal tech press has been enthusiastically covering this "digital transformation," with publications like Legal Futures touting how "cloud-first strategy" is proving particularly popular among law firms.
SLAs typically cover metrics like uptime, support response times and service performance, but often overlook critical elements such as data protection, breach response and regulatory compliance. This creates a responsibility gap, where assumptions about who is accountable can lead to serious blind spots. For instance, a customer might assume that the cloud provider's SLA guarantees data protection, only to realise that their own misconfigurations or weak identity management practices have led to a data breach.
What began as an isolated incident, which the Ministry of Defence initially sought to keep from public view, has now escalated into a series of catastrophic failings. "We urge the Ministry of Defence to be fully transparent with both those affected and the wider public. Victims should not be forced to learn the truth through legal action or news reports."
Immutable backups prevent ransomware and ensure data integrity, meeting compliance needs with secure, tamper-proof cloud data protection. They safeguard critical data effectively.
"In 2025, surveillance is everywhere. From how we move through the city to how we use our phones, nearly every action leaves a digital trace," Gutiérrez said in a statement. "Right now, the city can collect and share information about how you walk, type or browse - without treating it as sensitive. That needs to change."
