Royal Mint NFT
The UK government plans to mint its own NFTs. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has asked the Royal Mint, the government-owned body that mints coins for the UK, to create an NFT by this summer.
Digital Markets Act (DMA)
In an agreement brokered Thursday evening, negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council reached a political agreement on the Digital Markets Act, which establishes a series of prohibitions and obligations for companies including Apple, Google, Meta and Amazon, and a number of smaller platforms.
Emergency Alerts Reading
Back in May of this year, the UK Government announced plans to launch a UK Emergency Alerts warning service. Ahead of introduction a series of public trials were to take place. Following a successful test in East Suffolk on the 25th May 2021, the second test will take place in Reading on the 29th June 2021, 1-2pm.
Huawei
A U.S. federal appeals court has Friday to hear Huawei's request to throw out a rule used to bar rural phone carriers on national security grounds from using government funds to purchase its equipment. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Federal Communications Commission was fully within its power and competence to issue the rule barring “Universal Service Fund” subsidies recipients from buying equipment or services from companies deemed national security risks.
Digital Identity
Software consultancy Scott Logic has been awarded a new contract to act as implementation and development partner on the Scottish Government's digital identity programme, part of the Scottish Government's Digital Strategy actions to build a suite of common platforms to be adopted across the public sector, transforming government. The commitment is to introduce a digital identity service for users: to develop and establish a trusted and secure service for users to prove who they are, and that they are eligible for a service.
Emergency Alerts East Suffolk
The UK Government plans to launch a UK Emergency Alerts warning service. Ahead of introduction a series of public trials will take place, with the first in East Suffolk on the 25th May 2021 where residents will receive a test alert message. Should the tests prove successful the capability will be made available for use across the whole of the UK later this year.
Online Safety Bill
The UK Government has today published its draft Online Safety Bill, granting Ofcom new responsibilities that will help to keep people safe when they are online. Under the draft bill, search services, social media platforms, and other online services that enable user-generated content to be shared between users must mitigate the risk of harm arising from illegal content.
5G
Romania’s centrist government has approved a United States-backed bill that effectively bars China and Huawei from taking part in development of its 5G network. Europe has emerged as a battleground in the technology ‘Cold War’ playing out between China and Washington
TikTok
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced Friday morning that downloads of video app TikTok and messaging app WeChat will be banned in the U.S. from Sunday (Sept 20). If a deal is not struck by 12 November, the app will be fully banned, and using as well as downloading the app will be illegal.
SliceTech and BlackBerry
Sliced Tech has partnered with BlackBerry in Australia to host its secure communications portfolio, SecuSuite for Government. The partnership allows BlackBerry to offer a locally-hosted managed service to Australian government agencies and address data sovereignty concerns.
TikTok
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on August 6 that would ban the TikTok app from the U.S by mid-September. TikTok has now officially filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, saying the order violates due process and exceeds the scope of sanction rules.
Donald Trump
The Trump administration is further tightening restrictions on China's Huawei, seeking to starve it of crucial components by cutting off all access to U.S. technology.
Pompeo and Raab
The UK and the US put on a show of unity against Huawei on Tuesday, as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered stinging criticism of Beijing’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and urged like-minded nations to “push back” together against China’s threatening behaviour.
5G
After doing a massive U-turn and banning Huawei’s 5G equipment for deployment on nationwide networks, with a goal of completely eradicating the telecom operator from the country by 2027, the UK government is looking for substitutes, and has reportedly contacted Japan.
Huawei 5G London
British security officials have told UK telecom operators to ensure they have adequate stockpiles of Huawei equipment due to fears that new US sanctions will disrupt the Chinese firm's ability to maintain critical supplies.
BlackBerry AtHoc
BlackBerry today announced that its FedRAMP-authorized BlackBerry AtHoc crisis communication system continues to expand on its leading position within the U.S. Federal Government with the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) using BlackBerry AtHoc for secure crisis response.
Huawei
A US federal judge has rejected Huawei's constitutional challenge to a US law that restricted its ability to do business with federal agencies and their contractors, ruling that Huawei does not have grounds to sue the U.S. government.
Huawei
The UK Government is due to make their decision on 5G this week and the US has intensified the pressure as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said that the UK's sovereignty is at risk if Huawei is allowed to develop 5G infrastructure in the country.
Huawei today mounted a legal challenge to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), seeking the court to overturn what they claim to be an an unlawful order passed by the FCC on Nov. 22. The order bans carriers in rural America from tapping the Universal Service Fund (USF) to purchase Huawei equipment.
microsoft
Microsoft has been granted a license from the U.S. government to export software to Huawei. The Donald Trump Administration on Wednesday gave Huawei its second 90 day reprieve this week, allowing some suppliers to restart sales to Huawei after it was placed on a trade blacklist over national security concerns six months ago.
The decision on whether to allow Huawei to play a role in constructing the UK’s 5G network has been delayed until after the general election. Outgoing culture secretary, Nicky Morgan, confirmed the decision would now be made after the general election on 12 December.
malware
Mobile threats have been around nearly as long as the mobile phone, but they continue to increase in number and complexity as mobile devices become more embedded in, and critical to, our everyday lives. What started out as a somewhat limited attack surface more than a decade ago has grown into a vast landscape of devices utilising the iOS and Android operating systems.
Huawei
Huawei’s founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei has proposed selling the company’s current 5G know-how to a Western company as a way to address security concerns by the U.S. and other Western countries.
Huawei UK
US government agencies will be banned from buying Huawei equipment after the Trump administration implemented a congressional measure to crack down on Chinese companies seen as security threats. A rule issued by the administration bans Huawei and other Chinese groups from supplying the federal government.
Huawei UK
A final decision on the role Huawei can play in building Britain’s 5G mobile networks has been left to the new prime minister. Culture secretary and digital minister Jeremy Wright said it would be wrong to make specific decisions on Huawei while the US position on the Chinese company remained unclear.
France has approved a 3 percent Digital Services Tax (DST) on revenues that large tech companies, particularly those in the digital advertising and e-commerce industries, earn from providing digital services to French customers.
Huawei
It has been hard to miss but back in May the US commerce department added trade restrictions on Huawei and discontinued its business with American firms, and now the Trump government’s acting chief is asking for a postpone in restrictions on Huawei’s products.
The US Department of Commerce has issued a licence allowing US companies to keep doing business with Huawei for the next three months. The company now has a Temporary General License to engage with U.S. vendors on a limited basis.
President Trump has issued an executive order giving his administration sweeping powers to block Huawei and other foreign communications firms from doing business in the United States.