All news with #regulatory action tag

NCSC urges better observability, threat hunting in UK

🔍 The NCSC, led by CTO Ollie Whitehouse, has urged UK organisations to strengthen observability and threat-hunting capabilities to improve national cyber resilience. It warns many lack comprehensive visibility across accounts, devices, networks, applications and cloud services, and often cannot apply advanced analytics. The centre advises maximising cross-asset visibility, pressing vendors to build monitorable systems, and moving beyond simple IOCs to detect TTPs. It also recommends the NCSC Assured incident response list and CyAS for validation.

Why Successful Businesses Are Built on Cyber Protection

🔒 Company leaders must treat cyber risk as a strategic priority rather than a discretionary cost. The piece highlights a persistent budget-perception gap between CISOs and boards and notes SMBs often remain reactive, prioritizing firefighting over prevention. It cites high-profile breaches and the IBM Cost of a Data Breach to quantify losses and recommends technologies such as SIEM and SOAR, alongside governance measures like board oversight and appointed CISOs. Practical advice stresses framing security as business risk, using financial metrics, and reporting regularly to embed security-by-design.

Europol Urges Stronger EU Data Laws to Aid Investigations

🔐 At Europol’s 4th Annual Cybercrime Conference in The Hague, officials warned that criminals are exploiting encryption, anonymization and emerging technologies faster than law enforcement and regulators can adapt. Speakers including Europol executive director Catherine De Bolle and European commissioner Magnus Brunner urged stronger cooperation, updated laws and enhanced cross-border data-sharing to ensure lawful access to digital evidence while respecting privacy.

Five Critical Questions for Selecting AI-SPM Solutions

🔒 As enterprises accelerate AI and cloud adoption, selecting the right AI Security Posture Management (AI-SPM) solution is critical. The article presents five core questions to guide procurement: does the product deliver centralized visibility into models, datasets, and infrastructure; can it detect and remediate AI-specific risks like adversarial attacks, data leakage, and bias; and does it map to regulatory standards such as GDPR and NIST AI? It also stresses cloud-native scalability and seamless integration with DSPM, DLP, identity platforms, DevOps toolchains, and AI services to ensure proactive policy enforcement and audit readiness.

AI's Role in the 2026 U.S. Midterm Elections and Parties

🗳️ One year before the 2026 midterms, AI is emerging as a central political tool and a partisan fault line. The author argues Republicans are poised to exploit AI for personalized messaging, persuasion, and strategic advantage, citing the Trump administration's use of AI-generated memes and procurement to shape technology. Democrats remain largely reactive, raising legal and consumer-protection concerns while exploring participatory tools such as Decidim and Pol.Is. The essay frames AI as a manipulable political resource rather than an uncontrollable external threat.

US Government Shutdown Threatens Federal Cybersecurity

⚠️ The US government shutdown will sharply reduce federal cybersecurity capacity, with CISA set to furlough approximately 1,651 of its 2,540 staff (about 65%), leaving only 889 employees, and NIST estimated to retain roughly 34% of its workforce. Core functions such as vulnerability management, guidance, the CVE program and website operations will be curtailed until appropriations resume. The pause raises immediate operational risks, complicates incident response and increases opportunities for threat actors and fraud.

Expiry of CISA 2015 Leaves US Intelligence Sharing Exposed

🔒 The 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA 2015) has expired after lawmakers failed to extend legal safe-harbors for voluntary threat sharing via the Automated Indicator Sharing program (AIS). Amid a congressional funding standoff and a resulting partial government shutdown, industry leaders warn the lapse exposes companies to litigation and may deter intelligence exchange. Security executives say reduced sharing could create blind spots, elevate software supply-chain risk and slow development of AI-driven defenses.

ICO: Imgur UK Exit Will Not Stop Potential Regulatory Fine

⚖️ The ICO has confirmed that Imgur’s decision to block UK access does not absolve the company from scrutiny over alleged past data protection breaches. The regulator issued a notice of intent to fine parent company MediaLab on 10 September and says its findings are provisional while the investigation continues. The concerns relate to potential breaches of the Age Appropriate Design Code, including failures to request or verify ages, lack of high-privacy defaults for children, and serving targeted adverts to minors. The ICO stressed that exiting the UK market is a commercial choice and does not prevent regulatory action for prior infringements.

Government Shutdown Deepens US Cybersecurity Risks

⚠️ The US government shutdown that began on Sept. 30 deepens federal cyber risk by compounding prior spending cuts and workforce reductions. Significant cuts — including roughly $1.23 billion trimmed from civilian cyber budgets and about 1,000 CISA staff fired earlier in July — have already weakened defenses. Agencies have issued contingency plans and will exempt some critical SOCs and intelligence functions, but contractors and broader response capacity face disruption. Adversaries are likely monitoring for opportunities, and the effects will persist even after funding resumes.

CISA 2015 Expires Amid Government Shutdown, Hurdles Loom

🔒 Congress allowed CISA 2015 to lapse on Sept. 30, 2025 amid a US government shutdown, removing statutory liability shields for private-sector cyber threat information sharing. The expiration reduces government visibility into corporate threat data and is likely to make companies and CISOs more cautious about exchanging indicators and defensive measures. Experts urge immediate legal review and expect Congress may pursue a temporary reauthorization, though the timing and duration remain uncertain.

Imgur blocks UK access after ICO signals possible fine

🔒 Imgur has geoblocked access for users in the United Kingdom after the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) issued a notice of intent on 10 September 2025 to impose a monetary penalty on Imgur's parent, MediaLab, over age-verification and children's data protections under the Online Safety Act. From 30 September 2025 UK visitors cannot log in, view, upload, or see embedded Imgur content on third-party sites. The ICO cautioned that blocking UK traffic does not absolve the company of potential fines while MediaLab may make representations.

FTC Sues Sendit for Alleged Illegal Collection of Child Data

🔔 The FTC has filed a lawsuit against Iconic Hearts Holdings Inc., the operator of Sendit, and its CEO Hunter Rice, alleging unlawful collection of personal data from users under 13 and deceptive subscription practices. The complaint claims Sendit collected phone numbers, birthdates, photos, and social media usernames without parental consent, created fake anonymous messages (some deliberately provocative), and misrepresented a paid "Diamond Membership" while imposing recurring charges. The FTC has referred the matter to the Department of Justice; the allegations remain unproven.

US Cuts Federal Funding for MS-ISAC Cyber Program Impact

🛡️ CISA has ended its cooperative agreement with the Center for Internet Security, terminating federal funding for the MS-ISAC on September 30 and placing the program's future in doubt. The MS-ISAC supports more than 18,000 state, local, territorial and tribal members with services such as advisories, secure information sharing, tabletop exercises and the Albert intrusion detection system. CIS has been temporarily subsidizing operations at over $1m per month but plans to phase out that support and is pushing members toward a paid membership model. CISA says it will move to a "new model" to support SLTT partners with tools, grant access and regional advisors.

Seven Nations Publish Unified OT Security Guidance

🛡️ National cybersecurity agencies from seven countries released unified operational technology (OT) security guidance on 29 September, aimed at practitioners who deploy or operate OT equipment and systems. The document is organised around five core principles and supplies step-by-step actions for OT security teams to strengthen resilience. It emphasises creating and maintaining a definitive record that covers asset classification, connectivity mapping, system architecture and third-party risks.

CISA Strengthens Support for SLTT Governments Nationwide

🔒 CISA announced a transition to a new support model to better equip state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments to strengthen shared responsibility nationwide. The agency's cooperative agreement with the Center for Internet Security (CIS) will end on September 30, 2025, prompting a shift to direct support. CISA will provide access to grant funding (via DHS/FEMA SLCGP and TCGP), no-cost tools such as cyber hygiene scanning and phishing assessments, regional advisors, and professional services to bolster local cybersecurity posture.

CISA Strengthens Cyber Support for State and Local Govts

🔒 CISA has transitioned to a new direct-support model to equip state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments with access to grant funding, no-cost cybersecurity tools, and hands-on expertise. The agency’s cooperative agreement with the Center for Internet Security concludes on September 30, 2025, and CISA will deliver funding via DHS/FEMA programs including SLCGP and TCGP. Offered services include cyber hygiene scanning, phishing assessments, vulnerability management, the Cybersecurity Performance Goals and Cyber Security Evaluation Tool, regional advisors and incident response coordination, while CISA continues collaboration with MS-ISAC for Albert sensor users.

EU Opens Antitrust Probe into SAP ERP Support Practices

⚖️ The European Commission has launched a formal investigation into whether SAP engaged in anti-competitive conduct in aftermarket services for its on‑premise ERP software. The probe focuses on four practices: mandatory uniform support across products, blocking termination of unused licenses, extending non‑terminable initial support terms, and charging reinstatement fees equal to prior amounts. The Commission says these practices could limit competition from third‑party support providers and amount to unfair trading conditions. SAP says its policies follow industry standards and expects no significant financial impact.

U.S. Investors to Take Over and Restructure TikTok Operations

🔐 President Trump has signed an executive order approving a plan to separate TikTok’s U.S. operations from Chinese owner ByteDance, enabling a new U.S.-based joint venture to manage the service domestically. The agreement covers TikTok and related apps such as Lemon8 and CapCut and limits ByteDance to under 20% ownership. Oracle and other American investors will control algorithms, data storage, and content moderation while security partners monitor code and data flows.

Singapore Threatens Meta With Fines Over Facebook Scams

🛡️ The Singapore Police Force has issued an implementation directive under the Online Criminal Harms Act requiring Meta to implement enhanced facial recognition for Singapore users and to prioritise review of local scam reports by September 30. The Ministry of Home Affairs said Facebook was the primary platform for government impersonation scams between June 2024 and June 2025, and the SPF disrupted about 2,000 problematic ad schemes on Meta. If Meta fails to comply without a reasonable excuse it faces a S$1m fine and daily penalties after conviction.

Qantas Docking CEO Pay Signals Cyber Accountability Shift

🔒 Qantas' board docked CEO Vanessa Hudson and other executives after a June 30 cyber incident that exposed the personally identifiable information of nearly 6 million passengers, deducting A$800,000 from bonuses and cutting annual payouts by 15 percentage points. The move is being compared to high-profile past actions, such as Yahoo's 2017 bonus denial. Security leaders say the decision reflects a broader trend of boards and regulators holding top executives personally and financially accountable for cybersecurity failures.