Gareth Corfield

A US state that was struck by a ransomware attack last year is now proposing a local law that would ban possession of malicious software. Local news website the Baltimore Fishbowl reported that Maryland's Senate heard arguments on Senate Bill SB0030, a proposition that would "label the possession and intent to use ransomware …

Autonomy trialHPE's accounting expert told the High Court that making "significant sales of hardware" and burying them in its accounts meant Mike Lynch's Autonomy may have given "the impression" sales growth "was in its core software business". As the dust settles from the Autonomy trial itself, The Register has taken a look at the expert …

The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) has told members that "an unauthorised party" may have pilfered a database containing personal information from 2015. A statement issued by the boating organisation, which awards sailing qualifications and safety training to the Great British Public, said it had spotted the breach just over …

In depthLondon's Metropolitan Police is to start routinely deploying facial-recognition tech across the English capital despite legal and public opinion challenges, the force declared this morning. The so-called AFR (Automated Facial Recognition) technology, supplied by NEC Global, will be deployed on London's streets to monitor …

Ex-Cabinet minister David Davis has called for former Autonomy exec Mike Lynch's potential US extradition to be halted – at least until judgment in the lengthy UK civil case brought against him by HPE. Lynch and HPE have also spent £40m on his civil legal defence in the High Court, the MP for Haltemprice and Howden told …

The Government Reviewer of Terrorism Laws has declared that safeguards protecting Britons from police workers demanding passwords for their devices must be watered down. In a speech delivered to conservative think tank the Henry Jackson Society yesterday, Jonathan Hall QC, the "Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation"* …

New tech-driven Six Nations stats will "show you which teams are really clinical" at making line breaks inside the opposition's 22, England rugby legend Will Carling has told The Register. The 59-time England captain spoke to El Reg at the launch of the Guinness Six Nations, the premier international tournament in Northern …

Britain's main anti-hacker law, the Computer Misuse Act 1990, is "confused", "outdated" and "ambiguous", according to a group of pro-reform academics. A report launched this morning by the Criminal Law Reform Now Network (CLRNN) described a "range of measures to better tailor existing offences in line with our international …

In a long-running spat, British insurer Co-Op Insurance is suing IBM for £155m over what it claims is Big Blue's "deliberate" failure to deliver a new IT platform for the British financial services provider. In legal arguments shown to London's High Court this week, CIS General Insurance Ltd (CISGIL) – the insurance arm of the …

Citrix has rushed out official fixes for the well-publicised vuln in some of its server products after miscreants were seen deploying their own custom patches that left a backdoor open for later exploitation. As previously reported, vulnerabilities in Citrix Application Delivery Encoder and Citrix Gateway could allow remote …

A Stoke-on-Trent hospital administrator has avoided prison after hacking his NHS trust and helping himself to almost 9,000 heart scan images. Daniel Moonie, a 27-year-old of Waterlily Close, Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, was cautioned by police in 2017 after he was caught remotely accessing the internal network of the Royal Stoke …

The EU plans to force manufacturers to use a common connector – the happily symmetrical USB-C – for all mobes, fondleslabs, e-readers and similar electronic tat. With the mobile industry merrily galloping through successions of “standard” charger every few years (remember mini-USB?), particularly on Android devices, the EU …

Two men have been arrested after Britain’s National Crime Agency and its international pals claimed the takedown of breached credentials-reselling website WeLeakInfo. In a collaboration between British, Northern Irish, German, US and Dutch police agencies WeLeakInfo was taken offline yesterday with two 22-year-olds alleged to …

The US military is dumping its Autonomous Logistics Information System (ALIS) in favour of ODIN as it tries to break with the complex past of its ailing F-35 fighter jet maintenance IT suite. ALIS is the software suite that comes bundled with the F-35 fighter jet. A Lockheed Martin product, ALIS is intended to be a proactive …

An Azure consultant has lost his bid to sue Google for copyright infringement over search results that sent web users to a website run by a hotlinker who was displaying one of his photos. Christopher Wheat had previously appealed against an earlier High Court decision to throw out his claim against the American adtech monolith …

Autonomy TrialAfter 93 days in the courtroom, the $5bn Autonomy Trial has reached its end, with Mike Lynch's lawyers urging the judge to dismiss all of HPE's claims against the British software firm's former CEO. Ending with a drawn-out whimper rather than a big bang, the Autonomy trial was brought over claims by Hewlett Packard Enterprise …

Autonomy TrialKey witnesses in the Autonomy Trial testified against Mike Lynch and Sushovan Hussain to save their own skins from US prosecutors, Hussain's barrister told London's High Court. Summing up the case for his client, Paul Casey told trial judge Mr Justice Hildyard yesterday that former Autonomy head of US sales Christopher " …

Boeing's deliveries of new airliners have slumped to a reported 11 year low following the 737 Max software flaw which caused two fatal crashes. The US company has also lost its title as the world's largest planemaker after net orders (after cancellations) last year came to just 54 aircraft. The BBC reported that in 2018 Boeing …

It would be "nothing short of madness" to use Huawei gear in Britain's 5G mobile networks, an American national security adviser has reportedly told UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. As reported this morning, a US delegation consisting of deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger, junior foreign minister Chris Ford, …

The head of Britain's domestic spy agency, MI5, has declared that he has "no reason to think" that his country's impending decision to use Huawei in the core of 5G mobile networks will harm UK-US relations. The Financial Times interviewed the super-snoop, publishing his comments this morning. While Sir Andrew Parker is said to …

The managing director of a Manchester-based infosec firm has been fined for flying his helicopter into an air traffic control zone without permission – having first launched a rant at tower controllers. Joel Tobias, a helicopter owner and pilot who was described by the Manchester Evening News as a “wealthy businessman”, was …

The UK Information Commissioner's Office has kicked £280m in data breach fines against British Airways and US hotel chain Marriott into the long grass. As spotted by City law firm Mishcon de Reya, the ICO has extended the time before it will fine the two companies what it claimed would be a total of £282m, split between BA's £ …

A Londoner who hacked the National Lottery using Sentry MBA and made off with just £5 will spend up to nine months in prison for his crimes. Anwar Batson, 29, of Lancaster Road in London's Notting Hill, was part of a group of miscreants who hacked into the National Lottery website in 2016. Batson, Crown prosecutor Suki Dhadda …

TikTok, a mobile video app popular with teens, was vulnerable to SMS spoofing attacks that could have led to the extraction of private information, according to infosec researchers. The app is used mainly by the youth of today to share and save short videos of themselves and friends, often set to a popular music track, with an …

A civil servant who stole £1.7m from the UK's Ministry of Justice through a fake "IT services contract" has been jailed for three-and-a-half years. Allan Williams, 37, formerly a manager in the London-based ministry's commercial and financial control department, set up a £7m purchase order for an "IT services contract" with …