News

IT for government and public sector

• July 24, 2025 24 Jul'25

  US seeks ‘unquestioned’ AI dominance

  US AI Action Plan sets out plans to expand American dominance in the world of artificial intelligence

• July 24, 2025 24 Jul'25

  SharePoint users hit by Warlock ransomware, says Microsoft

  Microsoft’s security analysts confirm a number of cyber attacks on on-premise SharePoint Server users involve ransomware

• July 24, 2025 24 Jul'25

  Dutch researchers use heartbeat detection to unmask deepfakes

  Dutch method to counter deepfakes analyses blood flow patterns in faces that current deepfake generation tools cannot yet replicate

• July 23, 2025 23 Jul'25

  WhatsApp is refused right to intervene in Apple legal action on encryption ‘backdoors’

  Investigatory Powers Tribunal to hear arguments in public over lawfulness of secret UK order requiring Apple to give UK law enforcement access to users’ encrypted data stored on the Apple iCloud

• July 22, 2025 22 Jul'25

  Microsoft confirms China link to SharePoint hacks

  Microsoft confirms two known China-nexus threat actors, and one other suspected state-backed hacking group, are exploiting vulnerabilities in SharePoint Server

• July 22, 2025 22 Jul'25

  Chinese cyber spies among those linked to SharePoint attacks

  Exploitation of the ToolShell RCE zero-day in Microsoft SharePoint continues to gather pace, with evidence emerging of exploitation by nation state-backed threat actors

• July 22, 2025 22 Jul'25

  UK government to bring in ransomware payment ban

  Critical infrastructure operators, hospitals, local councils and schools will be among those banned from giving in to cyber criminal demands as the UK moves forward with proposals to address the scourge of ransomware

• July 22, 2025 22 Jul'25

  UK government signs partnership with OpenAI

  Deal sees firm behind ChatGPT collaborate with government on AI security research to explore investment opportunities

• July 22, 2025 22 Jul'25

  The Bank of England’s quiet ‘Big Bang’

  The Bank of England has completed its generational project to replace part of the UK’s critical infrastructure, which went unnoticed beyond the sector it underpins

• July 22, 2025 22 Jul'25

  Fresh allegations of ‘sustained’ police and MI5 surveillance against BBC reporters

  The Investigatory Powers Tribunal is investigating claims that police spied on the phone of investigative journalist Chris Moore amid further claims of a sustained monitoring operation against BBC reporters in Northern Ireland between 2006 and 2022

• July 21, 2025 21 Jul'25

  UK may be seeking to pull back from Apple encryption row with US

  UK government officials say that attempts by the Home Office to require Apple to introduce ‘backdoors’ to its secure encrypted storage service will cross US red lines

• July 21, 2025 21 Jul'25

  Patch ToolShell SharePoint zero-day immediately, says Microsoft

  The active exploitation of a dangerous zero-day vulnerability chain in Microsoft SharePoint – which was disclosed over the weekend – is underway. Immediate action is advised

• July 21, 2025 21 Jul'25

  The Security Interviews: Jason Nurse, University of Kent

  Jason Nurse, reader in cyber security at the University of Kent, discusses the psychological side of cyber and online safety, why placing blame on users as ‘the weakest link’ is wrong – and why security pros should think about user needs more

• July 21, 2025 21 Jul'25

  Government consults public on self-driving vehicles

  The consultation will inform the creation of laws and regulations for autonomous vehicles as the government aims to begin piloting self-driving taxis in spring 2026

• July 18, 2025 18 Jul'25

  NCSC exposes Fancy Bear's Authentic Antics malware attacks

  Amid a new round of UK government sanctions targeting Moscow's intelligence apparatus, the NCSC has formally attributed attacks orchestrated with a cleverly-designed malware to the GRU's Fancy Bear cyber unit

• July 18, 2025 18 Jul'25

  DWP accused of shielding AI deployments from public scrutiny

  Amnesty International and Big Brother Watch say Department for Work and Pensions’ ‘unchecked’ and opaque use of AI in the UK benefits system treats claimants as suspicious and is shielded from public scrutiny

• July 18, 2025 18 Jul'25

  Is history repeating itself with the government’s push to open public sector cloud deals to SMEs?

  The UK government wants to help public sector IT buyers do away with legacy tech and migrate to the cloud, with the help of a soon-to-be-launched procurement marketplace. But haven’t we heard all this before?

• July 18, 2025 18 Jul'25

  Peer warns IT suppliers against partnering with Fujitsu in government contracts

  According to publicly available figures, Fujitsu has won over half a billion pounds in government business as prime contractor since January 2024, but there is more than what has been reported

• July 18, 2025 18 Jul'25

  First Post Office Capture conviction referred to Court of Appeal

  A former Capture software user’s 1998 theft conviction is the first to be referred to the Court of Appeal

• July 17, 2025 17 Jul'25

  UK government plans to ramp up sovereign computer capacity

  Isambard-AI and Dawn are two of the supercomputers that mark the beginning of the UK’s goal to deliver 420 Exaflops of computer by 2030

• July 17, 2025 17 Jul'25

  Fujitsu outage crashes Post Office Horizon system

  Japanese IT giant’s time serving the Post Office is due to end next year, but problems persist

• July 17, 2025 17 Jul'25

  Terrorist potential of generative AI ‘purely theoretical’

  UK terror legislation advisor takes stock of the potential for generative artificial intelligence systems to be adopted by terrorists, particularly for propaganda and attack planning purposes, but acknowledges the impact may be limited

• July 16, 2025 16 Jul'25

  Scattered Spider playbook evolving fast, says Microsoft

  Microsoft warns users over notable evolutions in Scattered Spider’s attack playbook, and beefs up some of the defensive capabilities it offers to customers in response

• July 16, 2025 16 Jul'25

  UK government to invest £1m in building out regional tech clusters

  The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is leading a push to make the UK tech sector less London-centric

• July 15, 2025 15 Jul'25

  UKtech50 2025: The most influential people in UK technology

  Computer Weekly has announced the 15th annual UKtech50 – our definitive list of the movers and shakers in the UK tech sector

• July 15, 2025 15 Jul'25

  Current approaches to patching unsustainable, report says

  Organisations are struggling to prioritise vulnerability patching appropriately, leading to situations where everything is a crisis, which helps nobody, according to a report

• July 15, 2025 15 Jul'25

  MoD cyber breach put thousands of Afghan lives at risk

  More than 18,000 Afghan citizens eligible to relocate to the UK under a government programme to protect them from the Taliban were put at risk in a heretofore unreportable data breach

• July 15, 2025 15 Jul'25

  Ada Lovelace: using market forces to professionalise AI assurance

  The Ada Lovelace Institute examines how ‘market forces’ can be used to drive the professionalisation of artificial intelligence assurance in the context of a wider political shift towards deregulation

• July 14, 2025 14 Jul'25

  Brits clinging to Windows 10 face heightened risk, says NCSC

  Businesses and consumers alike may not feel the need to upgrade to Windows 11 as its predecessor approaches end-of-life, but they are putting their own security at risk, says the NCSC

• July 14, 2025 14 Jul'25

  Home Office dumps Fujitsu from IT services contract

  Home Office to take IT service desk contract in-house, with staff set to transfer from Fujitsu

• July 14, 2025 14 Jul'25

  Technology fuels successful FCA fight against unauthorised financial services

  The UK finance regulator is using data and technology to identify websites and apps that could cause financial harm

• July 11, 2025 11 Jul'25

  MoD supply chain cyber scheme gets up and running

  The Ministry of Defence and IASME have launched a certification scheme for organisations working in the UK defence supply chain, with construction firm Morgan Sindall the first business to achieve compliance

• July 11, 2025 11 Jul'25

  Meta and Alan Turing Institute back open source AI fellowship

  Labour’s AI fellowship will see experts use open source AI tools in a bid deliver better public services at lower cost

• July 11, 2025 11 Jul'25

  Former Post Office staff in Horizon replacement bid team

  Escher, which supplied middleware in the Post Office Horizon system, is eyeing up the contract to replace the controversial software

• July 11, 2025 11 Jul'25

  UK to create ‘governance framework’ for police facial recognition

  Home secretary Yvette Cooper has confirmed UK will regulate police facial recognition, citing police reticence to deploy systems without proper governance, but declined to say if any new framework will be statutory

• July 11, 2025 11 Jul'25

  UK online safety regime ineffective on misinformation, MPs say

  A report from the Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee outlines how the Online Safety Act fails to deal with the algorithmic amplification of ‘legal but harmful’ misinformation

• July 11, 2025 11 Jul'25

  European Commission accused of rigging data watchdog appointment

  The European Commission has been accused of rigging the selection process for the next European Data Protection supervisor

• July 10, 2025 10 Jul'25

  UK and France forge closer cyber, tech research ties

  The navigation and timing systems used by power suppliers and emergency services to run their operations will fall in scope of an Anglo-French research pact that will also foster development in AI and supercomputing

• July 09, 2025 09 Jul'25

  NAO says government should employ data analytics to tackle fraud

  The National Audit Office recommends public bodies share and manage data in a way that prevents fraud and saves taxpayers’ money

• July 09, 2025 09 Jul'25

  Accounting watchdog ‘disclaims’ College of Policing financial accounts after serious IT failures

  The professional body for policing in England and Wales failed to properly manage its transition to new accounting and payroll systems

• July 08, 2025 08 Jul'25

  July Patch Tuesday brings over 130 new flaws to address

  Microsoft patched well over 100 new common vulnerabilities and exposures on the second Tuesday of the month, but its latest update is mercifully light on zero-days

• July 08, 2025 08 Jul'25

  Liverpool launches community AI charter

  The charter, which was created by a residents’ assembly, outlines public data sharing principles and supports the use of AI for public benefit

• July 08, 2025 08 Jul'25

  Post Office inquiry chair 'cannot rule out' scandal caused 13 suicides

  Post Office scandal public inquiry publishes its first report after three years of gathering and analysing evidence, examining the human impact on victims and the compensation process

• July 08, 2025 08 Jul'25

  NHS trust accused of ‘at best cavalier, at worst deceitful’ behaviour after deleting emails

  A London hospital trust faces allegations it withheld key evidence from a tribunal hearing after one of its directors attempted to destroy more than 90,000 emails

• July 07, 2025 07 Jul'25

  Tech firms complicit in ‘economy of genocide’, says UN rapporteur

  A UN special rapporteur has called for technology firms operating in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to immediately halt their activities, in wider report about the role corporate entities have played in the Israeli state’s ongoing ‘...

• July 04, 2025 04 Jul'25

  NHS to be ‘digital by default’

  Single Patient Records, a digitally enabled neighbourhood health service, and the NHS App becoming a ‘doctor in your pocket’ are all part of the government’s 10-year plan for the NHS

• July 02, 2025 02 Jul'25

  US CISA agency extends Iran cyber alert, warns of CNI threat

  The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency reiterates guidance for operators of critical national infrastructure as it eyes the possibility of cyber attacks from Iran

• July 02, 2025 02 Jul'25

  Google fixes type confusion flaw in Chrome browser

  An actively exploited type confusion vulnerability in the Google Chrome web browser needs immediate attention from users

• July 02, 2025 02 Jul'25

  Law professor urges CMA to take swift and urgent action over Microsoft cloud licensing

  University of Leeds law professor has published an academic paper calling on the UK Competition and Markets Authority not to drag its heels on correcting Microsoft’s controversial cloud licensing habits

• July 02, 2025 02 Jul'25

  Dutch study uncovers cognitive biases undermining cyber security board decisions

  Dutch research reveals how cognitive biases can lead to catastrophic security decisions