Weekly News Highlights | hackers for hire are a cause for concern, EU eyes AI regulations, experts condemn the Online Safety Bill

Hackers for hire are a cause for concern

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has released a report highlighting the growing number of "hackers for hire" as a major cause for concern.

The report was published to coincide with CYBERUK 2023, the UK's flagship cyber security event, and at a panel the NCSC Director of Resilience and Future Tech, Jonathon Ellison, commented:

“Over the next five years, the proliferation of cyber tools and services will have a profound impact on the threat landscape, as more state and non-state actors obtain capabilities and intelligence not previously available to them.

“Our new assessment highlights that the threat will not only become greater but also less predictable as more hackers for hire are tasked with going after a wider range of targets and off-the-shelf products and exploits lower the barrier to entry for all."

Read more here.

EU eyes AI regulations

Towards the end of last year the EU had announced that they were looking towards regulating the generative AI space. Working as a bloc, the EU's job was harder than most, but now some progress is finally being made.

According to reports, the EU is likely to adopt a tiered approach that they are hopeful would cover the broad spectrum of AI use-cases.

Read more here.

Experts condemn the Online Safety Bill

The UK Government's proposed Online Safety Bill has been repeatedly criticised for its potential to undermine the security of end-to-end encryption as well as the privacy of online users.

Now operators of encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Signal, and others have come together to sign an open letter decrying the bill and urging the government to reconsider.

Read more here.