News

IT for government and public sector

• March 20, 2026 20 Mar'26

  Scotland launches five-year AI strategy

  Scottish deputy first minister says the country aims to become a leader in AI through responsibly harnessing the economic and social benefits of the technology

• March 20, 2026 20 Mar'26

  Essex Police halts live facial recognition over bias and accuracy risks

  LFR deployments by Essex Police will not continue until risks associated with bias and inaccuracy have been reduced

• March 19, 2026 19 Mar'26

  Cisa tells US organisations to harden endpoint management after Stryker attack

  Last week’s cyber attack on the systems of a US medical services company by Iranian hacktivists has prompted an alert from Cisa, urging organisations to reinforce their defensive posture

• March 19, 2026 19 Mar'26

  UK government puts brakes on opt-out copyright exemption for AI

  The UK government has ruled out forcing creatives to opt out of their intellectual property being used by artificial intelligence developers as its preferred solution to the AI-copyright controversy, but may still implement copyright exemptions later

• March 19, 2026 19 Mar'26

  AI makes debut in Bridewell cyber security in CNI report

  Regulation has superseded cyber threats as the main driver of cyber security spending, and AI has made its debut for attack and defence, according to a CNI-focused report from Bridewell

• March 19, 2026 19 Mar'26

  NHS digital ambition needs reality check amid frontline work pressures

  The NHS 10-year plan is ambitious and brave. However, Cheshire and Merseyside GP Tom Micklewright says limited funding flexibility and pressure on primary care are among the issues hindering success

• March 19, 2026 19 Mar'26

  Government announces redress scheme for families of Post Office scandal victims

  Government offers two routes to financial redress for the families of victims of the Post Office scandal

• March 19, 2026 19 Mar'26

  Apple issues first Background patch for WebKit browser flaw

  Apple’s first ever Background Security Update fixes a WebKit browser engine bug that could enable threat actors to see and steal important data from their victims

• March 18, 2026 18 Mar'26

  UK MoD awards more than two dozen contracts for AI targeting systems

  The UK Ministry of Defence is ramping up its investment into military artificial intelligence in a bid to increase the ‘lethality’ of the British armed forces

• March 17, 2026 17 Mar'26

  AI tools offer ‘near-real-time’ analysis of data from seized mobile phones and computers

  Cellebrite demonstrates how AI tools are able to analyse the contents of mobile phones and computers during crime investigations

• March 17, 2026 17 Mar'26

  Digital IDs edge closer to practical reality for UK businesses

  Industries and policymakers are strongly aligned on the need for digital company IDs for UK businesses, as progress is made towards the implementation of a practical standard

• March 17, 2026 17 Mar'26

  Technology accelerating crime, boosts case for national police service, says NCA chief

  NCA director general Graeme Biggar says technology has helped criminals get smarter, faster and more connected, boosting case for National Police Service

• March 17, 2026 17 Mar'26

  Contactless payment limit removal will happen overnight, but change won’t

  Banks will be able to set their own contactless card payment limits from 19 March, following rule change by Financial Conduct Authority

• March 17, 2026 17 Mar'26

  Health workers call for Palantir to be booted from NHS contracts

  Health justice charity Medact warns that Palantir’s involvement in NHS data systems is a threat to patients and healthcare organisations

• March 16, 2026 16 Mar'26

  Companies House restarts online services following cyber breach

  Companies House was forced to pull its WebFiling service offline at the weekend after it emerged that a flawed update was putting data at risk of exposure

• March 16, 2026 16 Mar'26

  Whitehall unable to reduce consultancy spend amid digital skills shortages

  Digital transformation projects rely heavily on external consultants, and while government aims to reduce costs, it holds no accurate data on how much it spends on consultancy services

• March 16, 2026 16 Mar'26

  Cyber flywheel aims to kick-start UK cyber security startups

  Company founder rallies CISOs, venture capital funders and government leaders to back startups in cyber security

• March 16, 2026 16 Mar'26

  Revealed: How HMRC has been quietly building surveillance capabilities

  HMRC has bought phone scanning equipment and analysis software capable of extracting data from mobile devices as it steps up its electronic intelligence gathering capabilities, an investigation by Computer Weekly reveals

• March 13, 2026 13 Mar'26

  UK falls behind on supercomputing amid slow investment, NAO warns

  While UKRI has improved its oversight of research and innovation, funding remains fragmented and has been too slow to replace supercomputers

• March 12, 2026 12 Mar'26

  MP report calls for legislation to overturn Post Office Capture convictions

  Report from MPs warns of unknown number of unsafe subpostmasters convictions based on multiple pre-Horizon systems

• March 12, 2026 12 Mar'26

  UK government ‘flying blind’ with poor data in charting regional growth

  The government is being impeded in its bid to stoke economic growth across the regions, according to the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee

• March 12, 2026 12 Mar'26

  The UK government’s digital identity scheme: Dystopian nightmare or modernised public services?

  Critics and supporters of digital ID are honing their arguments for the government’s consultation – but it’s the public that will decide. How should you choose?

• March 11, 2026 11 Mar'26

  Met Office ‘supercomputing as a service’ one year old

  Artificial intelligence is not key to the weather picture, as the forecasting and climate prediction agency lauds the benefits of moving from on-site supercomputers to cloud computing for scientific modelling

• March 11, 2026 11 Mar'26

  UK government announces package to get more women in tech

  The UK government aims to add billions of pounds to the economy through getting more women into the tech sector

• March 11, 2026 11 Mar'26

  Cyber industry welcomes women, but challenges persist

  Three-quarters of women working in security say they feel comfortable in the field, but women are still much more likely to be laid off and face persistent challenges around career advancement, according to a report

• March 11, 2026 11 Mar'26

  Salesforce tracks possible ShinyHunters campaign targeting its users

  Salesforce warns users of an uptick in malicious activity targeting Experience Cloud customers with misconfigured user settings via an open source tool

• March 11, 2026 11 Mar'26

  Child rapist could have profiled victims through unaudited access to NHS databases

  NHS analyst’s conviction for child sexual abuse offences raises concerns over unaudited access to patient data

• March 10, 2026 10 Mar'26

  Microsoft patches zero-days in .NET and SQL Server

  Zero-days in .NET and SQL Server, and a handful of critical RCE bugs, form the nucleus of Microsoft’s March Patch Tuesday update

• March 10, 2026 10 Mar'26

  Whitehall launches digital ID consultation

  Eight-week consultation aims to get the public’s view on how the proposed digital ID system would work, and contemplates introducing a universal unique identifier linked to the ID

• March 10, 2026 10 Mar'26

  Met Police to ‘trial’ handheld facial recognition tech

  London Mayor Sadiq Khan reveals in a scrutiny session with London Assembly members that the Met is set to trial a facial recognition phone app for police officers

• March 10, 2026 10 Mar'26

  Open banking presents £43bn opportunity for UK economy if warnings are heeded

  Open banking has already delivered billions of pounds to the UK economy and has huge future potential, but industry leaders warn against complacency

• March 10, 2026 10 Mar'26

  AI chooses nuclear escalation in 95% of simulated crises

  With artificial intelligence increasingly deployed in analysis and decision-making in armed conflict, research shows AI systems will not naturally default to ‘safe’ outcomes in nuclear crises

• March 09, 2026 09 Mar'26

  UK to launch cyber fraud squad in April

  The UK’s Online Crime Centre, launching next month, will bring together government, police, intelligence agencies, banks, mobile networks and tech firms to take coordinated action against cyber fraud

• March 09, 2026 09 Mar'26

  Trump looks to power up post-quantum, AI security

  The US has unveiled a six-pillar national cyber security strategy, with developing technological areas such as post-quantum cryptography and artificial intelligence front and centre

• March 09, 2026 09 Mar'26

  IBM takes a second shot at Post Office contract to replace Horizon

  The US tech giant is bidding for a £323m contract to replace the Post Office’s flawed Horizon IT system, a decade after its previous attempt was abandoned due to complexities

• March 06, 2026 06 Mar'26

  Regulate AWS and Microsoft, says UK cloud provider survey

  Open Cloud Coalition survey, commissioned ahead of the CMA’s decision on measures against the two hyperscale giants, finds competing cloud providers demand regulation

• March 06, 2026 06 Mar'26

  Norway braced for foreign AI cyber attacks on vital petroleum computing

  Nordic petrostate is preparing for war and turning the spotlight on vulnerabilities in its critical industries, as adversaries look for ways to damage the most important oil and gas producer to the EU

• March 06, 2026 06 Mar'26

  Nordics ally with Baltics to accelerate digital wallet roll-out

  Baltic and Nordic countries work together on a common certification system to support digital wallet applications

• March 05, 2026 05 Mar'26

  Quarter of social care staff don’t use technology to deliver care

  Government-commissioned survey finds 27% of care providers do not use any technology to provide care for patients

• March 05, 2026 05 Mar'26

  UK government departments not sold on shared services strategy, NAO report finds

  Eight years on from the launch of the government’s shared services strategy, there is no clear ownership, funding remains uncertain and some departments are yet to fully commit

• March 05, 2026 05 Mar'26

  Sweden recommends citizens keep £81 in cash per adult in case of payment system crash

  The central bank of Sweden says rapid digitisation could cause vulnerabilities in payment systems

• March 05, 2026 05 Mar'26

  Spyware suppliers exploit more zero-days than nation states

  Exploitation of zero-days by commercial surveillance and spyware developers outpaced exploitation by nation-state actors last year, according to a report

• March 05, 2026 05 Mar'26

  Capita secures decade-long government contract amid failure in public sight

  Outsourcing firm has won 10-year contract to supply government departments with tech-enabled business services

• March 05, 2026 05 Mar'26

  Government wants to build digital ID system in-house

  The Home Affairs Committee hearing on digital ID reveals consultation is due next week; there will be no central database; and while government wants to build the system in-house, it will not replace private digital ID providers

• March 05, 2026 05 Mar'26

  Scandal victim gets leave to appeal decision to split case against Post Office and Fujitsu

  Prominent scandal victim given leave to appeal High Court decision in his legal action against the Post Office and Fujitsu

• March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26

  Iranian hacktivists muster their forces but state APTs lay low

  Hacktivist activity surrounding the Iran war is sky-high but Iran’s state-backed cyber espionage actors have yet to show their hands, giving security teams a valuable window of time to shore up their defences

• March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26

  Zero-day in Android phone chips under active attack

  Google and Qualcomm have tag-teamed a serious vulnerability in the chipsets used in Android mobile devices, which has been exploited in the wild as a zero-day

• March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26

  Tycoon2FA phishing platform dismantled in major operation

  A Europol-led sting against the infamous Tycoon2FA MFA bypass phishing service has been successful, with operations disrupted and ringleaders and cyber criminal users identified

• March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26

  UK lab gets funding to drive foundational AI research

  The government is providing six years of funding worth up to £40m in a bid to support UK researchers developing artificial intelligence models

• March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26

  Landmark legal challenge against Home Office eVisa system heard

  The UK High Court will examine whether the Home Office policy of refusing to issue alternative proof of immigration status outside of its electronic visa system is lawful