06 July 2022

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is to scale back fines for public bodies after admitting that users of services often suffer the consequences of the financial punishments imposed.

Although the UK's data watchdog said it will continue to issue fines for the most serious cases of data breaches in the public sector, it will use other powers within its remit such as warnings, reprimands and enforcement notices.

“Fines do not impact shareholders or individual directors in the same way as they do in the private sector but come directly from the budget for the provision of services,” information commissioner John Edwards, wrote in an open letter.

09 June 2022

By Heather Hinton, chief information security officer, RingCentral

We have passed the two year anniversary of Covid-related lockdowns in the UK and businesses have continued operating through a hybrid working environment. Many companies are going back to a full in-the-office mode, while Apple for example announced that employees will return to the office three days a week from April. Cybersecurity issues remain a key focus for all businesses, with increased emphasis for those businesses that will operate partially remotely. Before the pandemic, most workers were on a corporate network, with limited access from a home or public network; during the pandemic, almost all users were on a home network. Now, businesses will have to deal with an almost even split of network access: home, public and corporate. However, when we look at the cybersecurity industry as a whole, the ongoing talent shortage continues to threaten efficient protection for businesses. In fact, according to recent research, cybersecurity reported its highest skills shortage on record in 2021, not to mention that there was a reported shortfall of 10,000 people a year in the UK’s cybersecurity talent pool alone.