Techlaw

Raids across UK in crackdown on nuisance car finance texts

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 30.07.2026

Laptops, phones and documents seized as information commissioner acts on messages about mis-selling scandalLaptops, mobile phones and documents have been seized after officials carried out search warrants in a crackdown on claims companies plaguing people with spam text messages about the car finance mis-selling scandal.The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) executed warrants at homes and businesses linked to five companies in London, Liverpool, Bolton, Burnley and Swansea on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Amazon pins multiple open source compromises on North Korea

Published in Amazon pins multiple open source compromises on North Korea on 30.07.2026

Amazon threat researchers found one threat actor behind four distinct open source compromises, including the March 2026 incident affecting the axios NPN library.

German chancellor chooses pope’s AI encyclical over pacy potboiler as holiday read

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 30.07.2026

With his popularity at a record low, Friedrich Merz packs the papal guide Magifica humanitasEurope live – latest updatesSummer is normally thought of as the time for pacy potboilers and brain-soothing page-turners – airport reads that wind up sandy and sunscreen-stained. Not so for Friedrich Merz’s holiday reading list.Germany’s embattled chancellor, who has faced one rough patch after another since taking office 14 months ago, seems to be seeking spiritual guidance this year while putting his feet up. Continue reading...

Annual search for UK’s unsung cyber heroes kicks off

Published in Amazon pins multiple open source compromises on North Korea on 30.07.2026

The organisers of the annual Security Serious Unsung Heroes Awards call for nominations for this year’s edition

Police monitored phone data of BBC security editor Brian Rowan to identify confidential sources

Published in Amazon pins multiple open source compromises on North Korea on 30.07.2026

Northern Ireland police monitored phone communications of former BBC security editor Brian Rowan after he wrote about a police and MI5 agent in Northern Ireland

Meta results reveal people are vying for its compute

Published in Amazon pins multiple open source compromises on North Korea on 30.07.2026

While it builds out its own AI infrastructure, Meta appears to be considering a new revenue stream, as a provider of processing power

The Security Interviews: Bronwyn Boyle, Cybermindz

Published in Amazon pins multiple open source compromises on North Korea on 30.07.2026

Cyber security can be a stressful career and this is becoming a growing concern for organisations. So what can be done to alleviate the pressure?

Subpostmasters anxious over Horizon replacement as it is delayed yet again

Published in Amazon pins multiple open source compromises on North Korea on 30.07.2026

Mounting delays in signing the Post Office Horizon replacement contract are fuelling widespread anxiety and uncertainty across the subpostmaster network, raising operational concerns

Elon Musk’s xAI sues Minnesota over law banning ‘nudification’ technology

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 30.07.2026

First-in-nation law sets up test on states’ power to regulate use of AI as it tries to outlaw fake nude images of real peopleElon Musk’s company xAI has sued Minnesota over the state’s first-in-the-nation law banning “nudification” technology on websites and apps, potentially providing a test for how far states can go in constitutionally regulating the use of artificial intelligence.Musk’s company sued on Monday in federal court, days before the law is set to take effect on Saturday and make Minnesota the first state to try to outlaw the increasingly proliferating technology that lets people use AI to create fake nude images of real people. The law was signed in May. Continue reading...

Meta misses earnings forecasts after Zuckerberg media push to promote AI

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 29.07.2026

Stock tumbles nearly 8% after weaker-than-expected results, despite CEO’s blitz to tout positive effects of AIMark Zuckerberg’s media spree touting the positive effects of artificial intelligence did little to cushion the blow of Meta’s second-quarter earnings, which sent its stock tumbling on Wednesday.In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published on Tuesday, the Meta chief executive expressed his optimism for a world where everyone has access to a super-intelligent machine. Continue reading...

Excessive time spent online linked to stress and worse mood – study

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 29.07.2026

German study surveyed adults who engage in gaming, pornography and online shoppingSpending excessive time online is associated with higher stress levels, worse mood, and greater neglect of other activities, according to analysis.The new study by academics at the University of Duisburg-Essen published in the journal PLOS One, surveyed 900 German adults in 2025 who reported engaging in gaming, pornography use, social network use, or online shopping at least once in the last year. Continue reading...

Atlassian tightens tracking of staff AI use as other technology firms encourage ‘tokenmaxxing’

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 29.07.2026

Some companies reportedly using leaderboards for employees who used the most AI in their workFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastSoftware firm Atlassian has sought to tighten tracking of its staff’s AI spending by introducing “wallets” with monthly caps of up $2,000 for each employee, amid an explosion in costs at other tech companies.The move by Atlassian, which recently cited AI as part of the reason behind cutting 1,600 staff, bucks the trend of others in the tech sector who encouraged employees to use as much of the technology as possible, dubbed “tokenmaxxing”. Some companies have reportedly introduced leaderboards for employees who used the most AI in their work. Continue reading...

Department for Education suffers data breach

Published in Amazon pins multiple open source compromises on North Korea on 29.07.2026

The UK’s Department for Education has disclosed a serious data breach orchestrated via a social engineering attack on its external-facing helpdesk

Laundry Bear pivots to new exploit days after Zimbra alert

Published in Amazon pins multiple open source compromises on North Korea on 29.07.2026

The NCSC and partners warned of a novel phishing technique being deployed against high-profile users of Zimbra’s Communication Suite, but the threat actor behind the campaign already seems to be moving on to new targets

Rogue OpenAI agent that hacked startup tried to attack other firms

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 29.07.2026

ChatGPT developer says activity by autonomous tool was not at severity or scale of what occurred at Hugging FaceOpenAI has revealed that a cyber-attack carried out by a rogue AI agent had more than one victim.The ChatGPT developer said the agent – an autonomous tool able to carry out sequences of commands without human help – had located and used logins to access four other unnamed “publicly-available services” in addition to the US startup Hugging Face. Continue reading...

AI tool will lead to more child refugees being treated as adults, charity warns

Published in Technology | The Guardian on 29.07.2026

‘Racist bias’ overestimating ages in Home Office’s facial-recognition software will lead to solo children being housed with adults, says Human Rights NetworkFlawed and racialised models that underpin the AI-powered age-detection systems to be introduced by the British government will endanger children, rights groups and children’s charities have warned.Urging ministers to reverse plans to introduce facial age-estimation technology to screen migrants, critics have warned that black children arriving from conflict zones are at risk of being of thrust into the adult system. Continue reading...