Tag: london
Cybercrime Kills
A patient’s death following a cyber-attack on the UK health sector by ransomware group Qilin has now been reported. The death has been confirmed by King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. It has been attributed to a long wait for a blood test as a result of a cyber-attack on 3 June last year, which brought pathology services to a temporary standstill. IT company Synnovis, which provides blood test services primarily in southeast London, was the victim of a ransomware attack carried out by Qilin. The hospitals affected were Guy's and St Thomas', King's College, and Lewisham and Greenwich, along with primary care facilities across six London boroughs and two mental health trusts.
InfoSecurity Europe 2025 focuses on weaponized AI
InfoSecurity Europe 2025, which begins in London today, Tuesday, June 2nd, will this year be dominated by the rapidly growing threat posed by the weaponization of artificial intelligence (AI). New to the conference is an AI and cloud security stage, which will exhibit ways organizations can counter the threat posed by AI. AI-driven cybersecurity also dominated the recent RSA conference in San Francisco. Over the last 12 months, threat actors haven’t wasted a moment capitalizing on the global fascination with Artificial Intelligence. As AI’s popularity surged over the past year, cybercriminals have been quick to exploit the new technology to carry out cyberattacks on an industrial scale.
Security threat from the skies
Martin Broomhead AFC MRAeS, UK managing director of multinational drone security company D-Fend Solutions, gave an exclusive interview to Cyber Intelligence from the showground floor in London’s Olympia conference centre. He outlines the increasingly blurred line between physical security and cybersecurity, the main theme of this year’s International Cyber Expo, which combined with this year’s International Security Expo on the Olympia showground.
Cyber gets physical at Expo ‘24
Chief executives frequently vie with one another for the spotlight when delivering key speeches at major conferences. But the most-talked-about address of the day, given to a packed auditorium at the International Cyber Expo in London’s Olympia showground, forbade any recording or photographing of his talk. He also insisted he be referred to only as “Paul F”. “Paul F”’s bashfulness became understandable when he explained that the UK’s National Protective Security Authority (NPSA), where he is head of physical security, is now part of Britain’s secret intelligence service MI5. His talk neatly summed up the central theme of the show by providing evidence that the difference between cybercrime and physical crime has become blurred to the point of invisibility. He asked the very relevant question of whether a small drone spying into a City office using a telescopic lens and an 8k camera to read the staff’s log-in details through the window is a physical or a cyber-crime.
London’s transport cyber-breach is spreading fast
A cyber-attack on the London transport system earlier this month was far more serious than initially reported and is rapidly spreading across the UK. It is also now ringing loud alarm bells on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly in light of the upcoming US elections in November. Transport for London (TfL) has now admitted that over 5,000 customers’ personal details and, in many cases, their financial details have been stolen. TfL added that the breach is also rapidly starting to affect services outside London. The London Underground, the UK capital’s vast underground rail network, like most European metros, has a touchpad automatic electronic payment system using prepaid plastic cards. London also allows travelers simply to use their visa or MasterCard on the touchpads at the London underground barriers. This means that organizations such as TfL have become repositories of millions of commuters’ financial details, making them a tempting target for small-time cyber crooks.
InfoSecurity Europe 2024 – Was It All Worth It?
As the stands were being packed away on the show floor at the end of the InfoSecurity Europe 2024 conference in London this week (June 4-6), it was time for exhibitors and attendees to take stock of the three-day event. The mood among exhibitors as they packed everything away in cardboard boxes was distinctly upbeat compared to last year’s event, which was still overshadowed by two long years of lockdown. “It was great to be among people two years post-pandemic and to be able to see the whites of their eyes and the smiles on their faces. In an industry as serious as cybersecurity, it is also important to have face-to-face moments of levity and bonhomie,” said Matt Butterworth, senior account manager at data erasure specialist Blancco Technologies. Neal Smyth, of managed cloud and cybersecurity company Ekco, commented: “Our presentation was oversubscribed with standing-room only. As well as generating leads, we had more customers coming to the stand this year. For example, a representative of a government department simply turned up and asked us to tender. I also hear that other exhibitors were seeing more potential customers attending InfoSecurity this year.”