IT & Technology News

BBC News | Technology

• Plan to ban smart phones in schools scrapped by MP

  The MP behind the bill says he has altered proposals in a bid to gain government support.

• Banks to pay customers millions after month's worth of IT outages

  MPs have discovered banking services went offline for more than 800 hours over a two year period.

• Flights halted at some Florida airports over SpaceX debris

  It impacted flights in Orlando, Miami and Palm Beach after debris concerns from Starship's failed launch

• US charges Chinese hackers who targeted dissidents

  The Justice Department said Chinese agencies paid as much as $75,000 (£58,200) for each hacked email inbox.

• UK competition watchdog drops Microsoft-OpenAI probe

  Digital rights campaigners say it shows the regulator has given into Big Tech and been "defanged."

• Deep-sea mining tech advances but doubts remain

  Despite opposition investors are still looking at deep-sea mining technology.

• Apple takes legal action in UK data privacy row

  The tech giant is appealing a government order for access to customers' private data, the BBC understands.

• I wish my job didn't exist - the team that has to find child abuse images

  Mabel works for a firm that trawls the internet looking to remove the worst indecent images.

• Hellblade 2 leads the way at Bafta Games Awards

  Astro Bot, Still Wakes the Deep and Thank Goodness You're Here! complete a varied field this year.

• Hegseth orders pause in US cyber-offensive against Russia

  The reported directive from the defence secretary comes during an American push to end the war in Ukraine.

• TikTok investigated over use of children's data

  It will look into how the social media platform uses the data of 13 to 17-year-olds to recommend content.

• Crypto prices rally after Trump backs five coins for 'crypto reserve'

  Trump named five cryptocurrencies he wanted in a potential national reserve so the US could become "the Crypto Capital of the World".

• Microsoft announces Skype will close in May

  The internet chat and phone service, which is owned by Microsoft, made the announcement on X.

• WhatsApp says it has resolved technical problem

  Thousands of users reported problems on Friday, but the Meta-owned company says the issue is now resolved.

• Lloyds Bank says app issues fixed after payday IT issue

  Technical issues have affected UK banking app users on payday for the second-month running in 2025.