Computer Shopper - UK (2020-10)

ISSUE392|COMPUTER SHOPPER|OCTOBER 2020 13

WHILEOBVIOUSLYBADnews forHuawei,
the UK government’s decision could also have
consequences forconsumers andbusinesses
across the country.
The most obvious repercussionofthe
Huawei ban willbeadelay to the rollout of 5G
across the UK, as well as ameasured costto
the British economy.Most telecoms companies
have reliedonHuaweinetworking equipment
to someextent, either in part or in whole,and
mayneed time to procure the necessary
technology fromalternative sources.
Vodafone,for example, is heavily reliant
on Huawei technologies, and has issued a
warning that the ban “will add delaytothe
rollout of 5G in theUKand willresult in
additional costs forthe industry”.
BT currently uses Huawei equipment in its
5G infrastructure,but has said that while the
ban will have ‘logisticaland costimplications’, it
remainsconfident it willbeable to stick to its
current timescales “without impacting the
coverageorresilience of our existing networks”.

SOWHAT?

Covidapp breachesGDPR

The UK government has

admitted its contact-tracing

programme has been

operating unlawfully since

its 28th Maylaunch. NHS

Track and Tracewas not

subject to afulldata protection impact

assessment before it launched

Googly eyes

Google has been hit with alawsuit that

alleges the company has been monitoring

users’ behaviour on mobile apps even if

they’ve opted out of the firm’s tracking

IBM ad slip-up

IBM put out ajob advert calling fora

candidatewith 12 years of experience

with Kubernetes, despitethe fact that

the system has only existed forsix years

Cam-breach-shire

Cambridgeshire has been named the

UK’s data breach capital after

cybercrime in the city soared by 49%

between 2016 and 2018. ONS data

shows the number of offencesrose

from 2,789 to 4,155 in the period

GreenApple

Appleistobecomecarbonneutral

acrossitsentirebusiness,manufacturing

supplychainandproductlifecycleby

2030.Thisnewcommitmentmeansthat

by 2030, every Apple device sold will

have net-zero climateimpact

Super PC, man

Man of Steeland self-

confessed gamer Henry

Cavill has built abrand-new

gaming PC. Thankfully,he

filmed theentireprocess for

a, er,wholesome and

educational Instagram video

Vodafone claims 5G first

Vodafone has become the first UK

network to showcase the next phase of

5G technology by building anew 5G

network forCoventry University.

‘Standalone’5Gmeans the network will

be in no wayreliant on 4G

Thunderbolt andlightning

Intel has detailed Thunderbolt 4, and

it’s promising that the upcoming USB

standard will double the video output

capacity of its predecessor

THETWITTERHACKwill go down as oneof
the mosthigh-profile in history in terms of its
victims, and alsohighlights amajor flaw with
the platform that millions of people have come
to rely on as an essential communications tool.
Although thesocial network has vowed to
add moresecurity measures in light of the
attack, it has prompted concern among
politicians, cyber-security expertsand everyday
users of Twitter that socialmedia sites can’t
adequately securetheir privateinformation.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
has been quick to lash out at Twitter’s lax
security practices.The non-profit digital
rightsgroup is callingonthe firmtoroll out
end-to-end encryption, asecuritymeasure used
by the majority of major messaging platforms
including Facebook, iMessage and Signal, which
ensures users’ sensitive communications
remainprotected, even if stolen in abreach.
At present –and somewhat alarmingly –
Twitter directmessages are unencrypted
insideTwitter’snetwork and readily available
forhackers to access. Shouldthe Twitter

hackers have obtained the messagesofits

high-profile targets–presidential candidateJoe

Biden, forexample –itwouldhavebecome an

issue of national security.

“Users cannot avoid ahacklikethisby

strengthening their password or using

two-factor authentication (though you should

stilltake those steps to protect against other,

much more common attacks),”the EFF said.

“Instead, it’s Twitter’s responsibility to

provide robustinternal safeguards. Even with

Twitter’s strong security team, it is almost

impossible to defend againstall insider threats

and social engineering attacks, so these

safeguardsmust prevent even an insiderfrom

getting unnecessary access.”

The hackers that targeted Twitter weren’t

particularly sophisticated, and that’s the most

worrying thing about this attack. Hopefully,this

incident willserveasawake-up call to the

social network; to begin to regain trust, the

company will have to clarify what happened

and explain what thecompany will do to

mitigatesuch an attack in the future.

SOWHAT?

AsforhowmuchtimetheHuaweibancould

set back the UK’s5Grollout, this is yet to be

determined,although Dowden suggested a

period of two to three years. Roughly in line

with the culture secretary’s assessment, a

report published last year found Huawei

restrictions could meanthe UK would needa

replacement programme that could take

between 18 and 24 months to complete.

This hold-up is likely to affectsome areas

worse than others. With big cities such as

London andBirmingham alreadybenefiting

from 5G, afurther delaycouldmeanwidening

the gap,and extending theadvantagethese

urban areas enjoyover their rural counterparts.

The government maybeforced,asthe gap

widens, to reconsiderinitiatives such as ‘5G

roaming’ enabled through network sharing,

which DCMS officials previously rebuffed.

And with Chinainterpreting the

government’sdecision as amovemotivated by

politics, rather than security,the chances are

its governmentwill retaliateagainstUKfirms.