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Police monitored BBC security editor’s phone data to identify confidential sources Police in Northern Ireland monitored the phone communications data of BBC's former security editor Brian Rowan in an attempt to identify his confidential sources. The surveillance, known as Operation Mally, revealed by BBC Spotlight, was launched after Rowan reported on the murder of Denis Donaldson, an MI5 and Special Branch agent killed in 2006. The PSNI monitored Rowan's phone data for contact with police numbers and later expanded the operation in 2007 to compile lists of journalists, including mobile numbers, home landlines, email addresses and home addresses. Rowan believes the surveillance may have extended beyond phone data to include listening to his conversations, after being warned by a police officer in 2002 that his "phone might be on" and later told that MI5 had critiqued a phone conversation about the Donaldson story. Why it matters 🚩 This case falls outside the scope of an independent review by Angus McCullough KC, which investigated police surveillance of journalists and lawyers between 2011 and 2024, suggesting the practice may have deeper historical roots. 👉 The PSNI made 21 applications for communications data to identify journalists' sources without recognizing the "overriding public interest" in protecting their confidentiality, according to McCullough's September 2025 report. ✓ The police force maintained a secret register containing phone numbers of more than 1,000 journalists as part of a "defensive operation" to identify PSNI staff who had spoken to journalists, a practice that PSNI chief Jon Boutcher has now ended. 👉 The latest revelations follow the Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruling in favor of journalist Vincent Kearney last week, marking the first time MI5 has been ordered to pay compensation to a journalist for unlawfully monitoring their phone data. ✓ PSNI chief Jon Boutcher QPM Mst (Cantab) FRSA stated that significant changes to practice and policy have been implemented since 2014, with no further breaches of the code authorized by the PSNI since that time.

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

Post Office Pushes Back Horizon Replacement Contract for 6th Time — Subpostmasters Say Fujitsu Has "Taken Its Foot Off the Pedal" 🚨⏳ The Post Office has pushed back the signing of the Horizon software replacement contract for the sixth time, with sources claiming the award is being challenged by the losing bidder. Meanwhile, subpostmasters have accused Fujitsu of "taking its foot off the pedal" after it lost the contract but retained the role in the interim. The Challenge: One source said the contract is being challenged by the unsuccessful bidder shortlisted for the contract, Escher. Escher has history with the Post Office — as part of the controversial Horizon system, the Post Office used middleware from Escher, known as Riposte, which the Fujitsu-designed software was written onto. Read full story here: https://lnkd.in/dxG3FeH8

The reality of the AI-orchestrated cyber attack on Hugging Face is rather more complicated, and much more worrying, than it might appear at face value.

A global coordination gap is slowing the shift to quantum-safe security 💡 Google and Cloudflare have set 2029 as their target for full post-quantum security across infrastructure, signalling a major industry shift ⚡ GCHQ director Anne Keast-Butler warns of a "narrowing window" for the UK and allies to maintain technological advantage as quantum computing advances 🎯 Organizations can begin their quantum-safe transition today by integrating post-quantum readiness into existing IT refresh cycles and infrastructure upgrades Why it matters 🚩 Waiting for perfect solutions creates unnecessary delay, while folding post-quantum readiness into planned upgrades is cheaper and less disruptive than retrofitting later under tighter deadlines 👉 Success comes from focusing on systems that matter most, dependencies that are hardest to replace, and points where delay would create the biggest operational and security risk ✓ Organizations making progress today are treating post-quantum readiness as a resilience requirement within existing change cycles, not as a separate initiative competing for attention and budget Great practical insight and advice for IT leaders from Ben Packman, Chief Strategy Officer at PQShield. Link to article below in ComputerWeekly.com

I've been researching UK police's plans to introduce a framework for intelligence-sharing across the country. The National Data Integration and Exploitation Service will gather local police intelligence and digital forensics data under a single roof, making a huge volume of information accessible to as many law enforcement authorities as possible. Not only that, but analytical tools focused on exploiting digital forensics data appear primed to "plug into" datasets composed of personal information, policing intelligence, and more. One of these tools, 'Prometheus', has been created by the police, Home Office, and the security bodies, and lets investigators scan and analyse masses of forensically extracted digital device data. Five police forces are using the software, but the NPCC has kept their identities firmly under wraps. Police ambitions are for a national rollout of this tool. Another tool developed by the Silicon Valley data analytics firm Palantir has been trialled by Bedfordshire Police and several other forces. 'Nectar' applies AI-analytics to existing police data to generate new leads in investigations. Some of its use-cases include retrospectively monitoring peoples' locations based on extracted mobile phone data; and processing sensitive personal information (i.e. race, religion, political opinions, sexual orientation, and more) which critics say is "exploiting deeply intrusive data about individuals". Internal memos expose how police forces have failed to mitigate the risks of unnecessary and disproportionate processing within Palantir Nectar. Likewise, one of the data sources feeding the system contains countless records for people who haven't been charged with crimes, meaning data on innocent people could be processed by its AI. I've included a link to my full article for ComputerWeekly.com in the comments, alongside links to the documents I've obtained on Palantir for other journos / researchers to make use of. Thanks also to Privacy International and Statewatch for providing insightful analysis into the risks that the public face when it comes to law enforcement data.

Spoke to Computer Weekly recently and thought it would be great to share here. Hope you enjoy the article https://lnkd.in/gJvp7cEx

It’s been a week since the axe fell on the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). What have we learned and, critically, are all things tech policy and delivery in a better place now than they were before the new prime minister’s cull?

95% of Daily Mail Readers Say Fujitsu Should Be Blacklisted — Yet Government Keeps Handing It Contracts 🚨💷 The public mistrust Fujitsu following its role in the Post Office scandal, but the government continues to hand it contracts and include it in huge procurement frameworks. Daily Mail Morning Poll (July 2026): 📊 95% agreed Fujitsu should be banned because it cannot be trusted 📊 1% said it should be given a second chance 📊 4% said it should not be banned, but closely monitored Red more here: 95% of Daily Mail Readers Say Fujitsu Should Be Blacklisted — Yet Government Keeps Handing It Contracts 🚨💷 The public mistrust Fujitsu following its role in the Post Office scandal, but the government continues to hand it contracts and include it in huge procurement frameworks. Daily Mail Morning Poll (July 2026): 📊 95% agreed Fujitsu should be banned because it cannot be trusted 📊 1% said it should be given a second chance 📊 4% said it should not be banned, but closely monitored Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dRX8gr2U

UK Supreme Court - Bahrain cannot hide behind sovereign immunity in spyware case The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the Kingdom of Bahrain cannot claim sovereign immunity in a case brought by two dissidents who allege their computers were infected with FinFisher spyware while living in London in 2011. The 3-2 majority decision establishes that foreign states conducting remote surveillance operations against UK residents can be held accountable in British courts. Why it matters 🚩 The ruling sets a precedent that overseas states using intrusive surveillance technology against activists in the UK will face justice in the courts, regardless of where the attack originates. 👉 Modern technology enables remote surveillance that infringes on UK territorial sovereignty, meaning physical presence in the UK is not required for legal accountability. ✅ The decision shifts the balance of power, allowing victims of transnational repression to pursue legal action against authoritarian regimes that target them beyond their own borders. https://lnkd.in/eHdJqU_w Ida Aduwa (Solicitor, Leigh Day), Saeed Shehabi (Journalist and founder of Al Wefaq), Moosa Mohammed (Pro-democracy activist), Martyn Day (Senior Partner, Leigh Day) ComputerWeekly.com