AI safety rules are under the spotlight after Microsoft vice chair Brad Smith warned that your washing machine is subject to more safety rules than many AI systems, and called for more AI kill switches along with clearer regulation, saying the UK is well positioned to lead on this. If you are testing or rolling out AI in the business, this is a good moment to review where you would pull the plug if a model behaves badly and to track how UK rules may change your risk and compliance work.
Google and others are pushing a new security idea called Beyond Zero, which builds on Zero Trust but responds to experts who worry we need something more in the AI era. For a small IT team, this is a nudge to check whether your current Zero Trust plans really cover AI services, machine identities, and data flows, not just user logins.
Fresh data from Cohesity shows that just two ransomware groups account for a third of UK attacks and that Europe has become a primary target as the number of US attacks falls, with AI making attacks easier to scale and harder to predict. If you look after UK sites, this is a warning to tighten basics like tested backups, phishing training, and incident playbooks, because you are now in the main firing line.
Six UK organisations are sharing a £50m funding boost from UK Research and Innovation to help develop new quantum products. This is long term, but it is a reminder to keep an eye on quantum safe encryption plans, especially for data you need to protect for many years.
The fallout from the Capita Civil Service Pension Scheme incident continues as a campaign group submits evidence to two probes and one scheme member has reportedly had to turn to a food bank due to payment problems. If you rely on large outsourcers for critical services, this is a prompt to revisit your exit plans, data access, and business continuity assumptions if they suffer a major failure.
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