National Cyber Security Centre publishes design principles for cyber security
The National Cyber Security Centre has published design principles for cyber-security. The principles are intended to help ensure that the networks and technologies which underpin modern life are designed and built securely and relate to both digital systems and cyber-physical systems. They are aimed at those designing systems but can be used to assess existing systems as well as when designing and building new ones. The guidance is divided into five categories: establish the context, make compromise difficult, making disruption difficult, making compromise detection easier and reducing the impact of compromise. In addition, the NCSC has published a set of six security architecture ‘anti-patterns’. These are common system design flaws the NCSC has seen crop up often over the last decade.
OECD and partners adopt policy guidelines on developing AI systems
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, along with partner countries Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru and Romania, have adopted policy guidelines on artificial intelligence. They aim to ensure AI systems are designed to be robust, safe, fair and trustworthy. The guidelines have been produced with guidance from an expert group formed by more than 50 members from governments, academia, business, civil society, international bodies, the tech community and trade unions. They comprise five values-based principles for the responsible deployment of trustworthy AI and five recommendations for public policy and international co-operation. They aim to guide governments, organisations and individuals in designing and running AI systems in a way that puts people’s best interests first and ensuring that designers and operators are held accountable for their proper functioning.
Ofcom changes rules to promote fibre infrastructure
Ofcom has published a draft statement on its review of the physical infrastructure market. The statement also covers its regulatory decision to permit all telecoms providers access to the largest network of suitable telecoms physical infrastructure (the poles and ducts owned by BT and operated by Openreach). Ofcom’s objective is to promote telecoms network competition by making it cheaper and easier to build new high-capacity connections for homes and businesses. The decisions describe how Ofcom will regulate the physical infrastructure and business connectivity markets until April 2021. It expects to publish its final statement in June 2019.
Ofcom and ICO issue Online Nation report
Ofcom and the ICO have published their first joint Online Nation report. The report examines how people are served by websites, online content, streaming services and their attitudes towards being online. It found that the proportion of adults concerned about using the internet has risen since last year, from 59% to 78%. Similarly, 61% of adults have had a potentially harmful online experience in the past year. The figure rises to 79% among children aged 12-15. However, a majority of adults (59%) agree that the benefits of going online outweigh the risks, and 61% of children think that the internet makes their lives better.
European Commission adopts rules on drones
The European Commission has adopted a Regulation with the aim of ensuring increasing drone traffic across Europe is safe and secure for people on the ground and in the air. The rules will apply to all operators of drones, both professionals and those flying drones for leisure purposes. The European Commission and EASA intend to publish guidelines and so-called “standard scenarios” for drone operations to help drone operators to comply with the rules. The European Commission is also developing an institutional, regulatory and architectural framework for the provision of U-space services, which aim to enable complex drone operations with a high degree of automation. Finally, a systematic review of all existing EU aviation rules is progressing to identify the necessary changes to improve applicability to drone operations.
