The UK government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport has announced funding of up to £23 million for AI and data conversion courses in England. Help Underrepresented Groups To Join World-Leading Industry The government says that the funding will create (postgraduate) conversion courses that could help underrepresented groups get tech jobs, even if they have no previous experience…
Under the the draft Online Safety Bill legislation, adult websites (i.e. pornographic) site operators will be legally required to verify the age of website visitors or face tough penalties. Online Safety Bill For those who run commercial porn sites, the bill, which expected to be introduced to parliament in the next few months, looks likely to mean that: –…
Following recent announcements of a toughening-up of the (draft) Online Safety Bill, we look at what the bill is, and what its implications are. What Is The Online Safety Bill For? The UK government’s Online Safety Bill is (draft) legislation that’s designed to place a ‘duty of care’ on internet companies which host user-generated content in order to limit the…
Microsoft recently announced that it will be blocking Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros by default as a way to stop the spread of malware. Since these macros are important automation tools for Microsoft Office apps, how is this going to work? What Are Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) Macros? Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) for Office is the…
UK, US, and Australian cyber experts are warning of a “growing wave of increasingly sophisticated ransomware attacks”. Lindy Cameron, the chief executive of the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), has warned that ransomware is “a rising global threat with potentially devastating consequences”. Businesses can get advice about how to prevent and protect against ransomware at the NCSC ransomware hub…
Computer hardware company HP has announced that it has acquired ‘CHOOSE Packaging’, a packaging development company and inventor of the only commercially available zero-plastic paper bottle in the world. Paper-Based Bottles Edinburgh-based CHOOSE Packaging’s paper-based bottles are made with naturally occurring, non-toxic materials and are an alternative to single-use PET packaging plastic bottles. The paper-based bottles can hold a…
In a worrying trend, oil facilities in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands have all recently been targeted by cyber-attacks. Germany The attack on German oil, vehicle fuel and petroleum products company Oiltanking Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG happened just over a week ago. Some reports have suggested that the company’s systems were hit by ransomware, thereby seriously limiting capacity….
According to new research by a Microsoft program manager, it could take as long as 8 hours, connected to the Internet, for devices to fully download Microsoft updates. The Update Challenge – Time A blog post in Microsoft’s Tech Community by program manager David Guyer, highlighted how one important challenge for Microsoft is trying to understand why Windows devices…
In this article, we look at what disposable email addresses are, their benefits and disadvantages, and we look at a few examples of disposable email address services. What Are Disposable Email Addresses? Disposable / temporary email addresses (DEA), also known as ‘burner’ email addresses, are (mostly free) services that allow the user to set up and generate email addresses…
In this tech insight, we look at what Chrome extensions are and how to access them, then we look at 10 examples of popular and useful Chrome extensions. What Are Chrome Extensions? Extensions for Google’s Chrome browser are software programs, built using technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that give Chrome more functionality and enable the user to customise…
