IT Essentials: Chaos in the cloud, caution in Brussels

As the internet trips up – again – Europe beats a new trail

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Cloud infrastructure needs a rethink

It seems far too soon to talk about another global outage, but here we are.

So, we’re back again like Eminem: A fault at a single vendor taking down a sizeable part of the global internet, albeit only for a few hours.

This week’s Cloudflare outage affected services from ChatGPT and Spotify to X (did anyone notice?) and Computing itself. Even DownDetector was affected, somewhat ironically.

The root cause was internal – Cloudflare effectively DDOSed itself – and so has striking similarities with last month’s AWS outage. So many, in fact, that I’m not even going to write another editorial about the need for resilience and diversified infrastructure; just go back and read my last one from three weeks ago.

Not all the news this week was retreading old ground. The EU is actually breaking a new trail by considering proposals to loosen the GDPR’s strict requirements, for the first time since it introduced the regulation in 2018.

That’s a big step for a law that has redefined data protection worldwide. Most of the GDPR has been well received, especially by consumer groups, but there are definitely areas that add needless complexity for businesses. If the EU is open to pruning those and making the law more efficient by listening to real industry experts, not just lobbyists, the GDPR could become the global standard. I argued for something similar in the UK last week.

But the proposed changes also affect the AI Act, and that’s where the controversy comes in. While China has scale in AI, the USA has innovation, and both are aiming for speed, the EU leads in regulation and safety. If it softens that approach, it risks losing its only competitive advantage.

The EU has been one of the few regions worldwide to put the interests of people above companies in the AI race. It should seek to simplify the AI Act’s provisions, yes, but it must do so without risking harm to consumers.

It’s been a busy week for the Computing team. To start we've got coverage from various events, including a report on National Grid’s AI adoption to ditch legacy tech, and from BBC CISO Helen Rabe on the principles that anchor her security leadership.

Staying with security, CISOs Bronwyn Boyle and Don Gibson joined the latest episode of our Ctrl Alt Lead podcast, where they talked about the psychological strain inherent in modern cyber defence.

Also on security, Penny Horwood has dug into the Cybersecurity and Resilience Bill’s proposed ransomware payment ban, talking to leading lawyers for a legal perspective. The argument that retaining the ability to pay a ransom is a necessary tool is a long cry from the days where we didn’t negotiate with criminals.

Finally, make sure you sign up to Computing Wrapped on 3rd December: a review of IT’s year from Computing’s veteran editorial team. We’ll dig into the major stories of 2025, including the biggest cyberattacks, fragile infrastructure, and the hype vs reality of AI used at the coalface.