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Global Tech Outage Demonstrates Need for Resiliency in Software Systems

By Olaf Kolkman

Principal – Internet Technology, Policy, and Advocacy

Dan York

Director, Internet Technology

Today, 19 July, the world has been hit by a tech outage causing global economic and social disruption of the worst kind. Hospitals had to cancel operations, payment systems failed, government services stopped functioning, and newsrooms went dark.  

The root cause seems to be an automatic update of a cybersecurity product from CrowdStrike that crashed Microsoft Windows systems, leaving them in an inoperable state. The company has acknowledged this issue and is in the process of deploying a fix.  … Read more ...

News

Joint submission of response to OFCOM consultation on Child Safety

The UK Chapter of the Internet Society produced a Joint Submission with the Internet Society responding to the OFCOM Consultation: Protecting children from harms online

The response, filed on 17 July 2024, reiterates the points made in past submissions to UK consultations conducted by OFCOM but also in relation to the various legislation that went through Parliament in the first part of the year. In particular, the response reiterate that End-to-end encryption (“E2EE”) is needed to safeguard privacy of data including the safety of children.… Read more ...

News, Policy

Joint cross-sectoral statement: Concerns Regarding the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill

Release Date: 22 March 2024

The UK Chapter of the Internet Society is a co-author and co-signatory of today’s Joint cross-sectoral Statement that saw Civil Society organisations work with academics and TechUK, to express concerns about a Bill that is reaching Report Stage in Parliament on Monday 25 March 2024.

The Statement was picked up on Friday 22 March 2024 by the BBC News article “‘Mass surveillance’ fears over law change plans”.

The Statement can be found here:

In parallel, the UK Chapter has been very active in corresponding with the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR).… Read more ...

News, Policy

Joint submission of Evidence to House of Commons Public Bill Committee

The Internet Society, Internet Society UK Chapter and Access Now have made a joint submission to the call for evidence made by the House of Commons Public Bill Committee which is going to consider the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill.

This joint submission was sent on 7 March 2024.

The Bill, “A Bill to amend the Investigatory Powers Act 2016; to make provision about information supplied by, or relating to, the Judicial Commissioners; and for connected purposes.” was unusually started in the House of Lords before undergoing Stages in the House of Commons.… Read more ...

News, Policy

Joint submission of Evidence to Joint Committee on Human Rights

The UK Chapter has made a joint submission with the Internet Society in response to the call for evidence that was published by the Joint Committee on Human Rights regarding the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) is a Parliamentary Joint Committee whose main function is to examine all bills and legislative instruments for compatibility with human rights, and to report to both Houses of Parliament on its findings.

The Joint Submission can be found here:

The deadline for submitting evidence was Monday 22 January 2024.… Read more ...

News

Joint Briefing on Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill [HL]

The UK England Chapter of the Internet Society has joined the Internet Society as well as Big Brother Watch, The Open Rights Group, Privacy International, Liberty and Rights & Security International in drafting a briefing that was distributed to Lords prior to the Report Hearing at the House of Lords on 23 January 2024.

The original Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA) is highly controversial in that it authorised massive, suspicionless surveillance on a scale never seen before, with few safeguards or independent oversight.… Read more ...

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