News

IT for government and public sector

• October 24, 2024 24 Oct'24

  Data bill will boost NHS and police access to data, says government

  The Data Use and Access Bill will pave the way for sharing medical records across the NHS and give police the ability to access databases without having to manually log the reasons for their use

• October 24, 2024 24 Oct'24

  Warning shots fired as former subpostmasters have ‘useful’ meeting with Post Office CEO

  Acting CEO meets two campaigning former subpostmasters emphasising need for their input into the Post Office’s future direction, including its branch system development

• October 23, 2024 23 Oct'24

  Federation requests government investigation into third Post Office branch system

  Following public anger over the Horizon scandal and the subsequent unravelling of the controversial Capture system, subpostmaster federation wants third branch IT system to be reviewed

• October 23, 2024 23 Oct'24

  Democracy campaigner to sue Saudi Arabia over Pegasus and QuaDream spyware in UK court

  Pro-democracy campaigner Yahya Assiri given permission to file legal action in London court against Saudi Arabia over its use of Israeli spyware

• October 22, 2024 22 Oct'24

  Government ‘resets’ pension dashboard programme

  Following a National Audit Office report highlighting failings in the project, the government has set out a revised plan

• October 22, 2024 22 Oct'24

  Change to rules on computer evidence will be an ‘outcome’ of Post Office scandal

  The executive currently heading up the Post Office’s investigations department has told public inquiry that rules on computer evidence have to change

• October 22, 2024 22 Oct'24

  Danish government reboots cyber security council amid AI expansion

  Denmark’s government relaunches digital security initiative to protect business sectors and society at large

• October 22, 2024 22 Oct'24

  Former Post Office IT boss alleged to have misrepresented alternative to in-house build

  Internal Post Office document reveals allegations that former transformation boss misrepresented off-the-shelf option to replace Horizon

• October 21, 2024 21 Oct'24

  Labour signs up to five years of Microsoft AI

  The UK government has signed a deal with Microsoft to reduce the cost of running public sector services using the supplier’s cloud and artificial intelligence technologies

• October 21, 2024 21 Oct'24

  Post Office worker who allegedly told staff to destroy evidence could return, as police investigate

  Post Office to allow employee, who allegedly told staff to destroy evidence of possible interest to public inquiry, to return to work during police investigation

• October 21, 2024 21 Oct'24

  Review of late evidence doesn’t change Post Office Capture system report

  Conclusions reached in government-commissioned report into pre-Horizon software are unchanged after late evidence reviewed

• October 17, 2024 17 Oct'24

  Met Police investigating senior Post Office worker over evidence destruction allegation

  Public inquiry evidence confirms that the Metropolitan Police are investigating a senior Post Office staff member regarding instructions to destroy evidence

• October 17, 2024 17 Oct'24

  NCSC chief warns of gap in cyber threats and defence capabilities

  The UK and its allies must take collective action to improve their cyber resilience and repel the increasing volume of severe cyber attacks, says NCSC chief

• October 17, 2024 17 Oct'24

  Sir Alan Bates tells Prime Minister to guarantee Post Office scandal victim redress by March 2025

  Campaigner tells Keir Starmer to finalise full and final financial redress to victims of the Post Office scandal by March next year, or face legal action

• October 17, 2024 17 Oct'24

  EU cyber security bill NIS2 hits compliance deadline

  The EU’s NIS2 bill will harmonise how companies and member states approach cyber security, but its success will depend on how well it is implemented and enforced

• October 16, 2024 16 Oct'24

  Philippines leaps forward in e-government with cloud-first strategy

  A common infrastructure and a ‘once-only’ principle have propelled the Philippines up the UN’s E-Government Development Index, streamlining services and bolstering data sovereignty

• October 16, 2024 16 Oct'24

  Digitisation forum launched ahead of Norway’s digital strategy

  Norway's government is preparing itself for the future by establishing an advisory hub to support its digital strategies

• October 16, 2024 16 Oct'24

  Former police officer heading Post Office operations did nothing to help innocent subpostmasters

  Former chief operating officer did nothing when action could have put a stop to the Post Office wrongful prosecutions

• October 15, 2024 15 Oct'24

  Tech and digital skills key to improving police productivity

  The Policing Productivity Review sees data and technology as a way of improving productivity and outcomes, as well as a potential means of restoring diminishing legitimacy, but warns there needs to be a revamp in digital skills, investment and ...

• October 15, 2024 15 Oct'24

  UK government unveils AI safety research funding details

  Through its AI Safety Institute, the UK government has committed an initial pot of £4m to fund research into various risks associated with AI technologies, which will increase to £8.5m as the scheme progresses

• October 15, 2024 15 Oct'24

  Hillingdon Council commits £9m to tech revamp in digital strategy

  Hillingdon’s three-year digital strategy will see the council fund attempts to modernise its systems and infrastructure, change how residents interact with the local authority and make better use of data

• October 15, 2024 15 Oct'24

  NCSC expands school cyber service to academies and private schools

  The National Cyber Security Centre is expanding its PDNS for Schools service to encompass a wider variety of institutions up and down the UK

• October 15, 2024 15 Oct'24

  UK sees over £6bn boost in datacentre investments

  Following moves to classify datacentres as critical national infrastructure, a number of US tech providers have announced new UK investments

• October 11, 2024 11 Oct'24

  Post Office believes it took £36m from subpostmasters with unexplained losses

  The Post Office wrongly blamed subpostmasters for unexplained account shortfalls and made them cover losses out of their own pockets - then banked the money itself

• October 11, 2024 11 Oct'24

  Post Office set to axe in-house-developed New Branch IT software

  Troubled business may ditch its plan to build a new core branch system in-house and buy an off-the-shelf alternative

• October 10, 2024 10 Oct'24

  Government launches cyber standard for local authorities

  Local government bodies are being invited to take advantage of a new NCSC-derived Cyber Assessment Framework to help enhance their resilience and ward off cyber attacks

• October 10, 2024 10 Oct'24

  How Recorded Future finds ransomware victims before they get hit

  Threat intel specialists at Recorded Future have shared details of newly developed techniques they are using to disrupt Rhysida ransomware attacks before the gang even has a chance to execute them

• October 10, 2024 10 Oct'24

  UK and US pledge closer working on children’s online safety

  In their first agreement on the subject of children’s online safety, the UK and US governments have said they will create a new working group to boost cooperation

• October 10, 2024 10 Oct'24

  Post Office dragging its feet getting rid of tainted staff, despite government ‘green light’

  Former minister gave Post Office ‘green light’ to take robust action against existing staff with links to Post Office scandal wrongdoing

• October 09, 2024 09 Oct'24

  Under-fire Nick Read was unprepared for Post Office challenge

  Post Office boss Nick Read was not prepared for the task ahead of him when he joined the organisation as CEO in 2019

• October 09, 2024 09 Oct'24

  Five zero-days to be fixed on October Patch Tuesday

  Stand-out vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s latest Patch Tuesday drop include problems in Microsoft Management Console and the Windows MSHTML Platform

• October 08, 2024 08 Oct'24

  Secureworks: Ransomware takedowns didn’t put off cyber criminals

  The number of active cyber criminal ransomware gangs has surged by almost a third in the space of 12 months, according to the latest intelligence from Secureworks

• October 08, 2024 08 Oct'24

  Post Office IT transformation project was ‘set up to fail’, chairman tells inquiry

  Post Office interim chairman tells Horizon public inquiry that the Post Office needs to reset New Branch IT project

• October 08, 2024 08 Oct'24

  UK’s cyber incident reporting law to move forward in 2025

  The UK government says that enforced cyber incident and ransomware reporting for critical sectors of the economy will help to build a better picture of the threat landscape and enable more proactive and preventative responses

• October 08, 2024 08 Oct'24

  DWP CIO Rich Corbridge leaving to join property developer

  The digital chief at the Department for Work and Pensions is moving on only 18 months after starting his role in the civil service

• October 08, 2024 08 Oct'24

  Can the Post Office project to replace Horizon be rescued?

  Evidence from the Post Office public inquiry shows huge problems with the critical project to replace the troubled Horizon IT system – after two government-mandated reviews, is there any sign it can succeed?

• October 07, 2024 07 Oct'24

  Post Office boss Nick Read ‘inadequate, greedy and self-interested’, whistleblowers tell inquiry

  Outgoing Post Office boss Nick Read faces public inquiry for three days this week, with no shortage of questions to answer

• October 06, 2024 06 Oct'24

  Whistleblowers call out ongoing cover-up by Post Office CEO in explosive letter

  A letter from Post Office staff to MPs, statutory inquiry chair Wyn Williams and the Post Office chairman demands their intervention and an investigation into the organisation's leadership

• October 04, 2024 04 Oct'24

  NCSC celebrates eight years as Horne blows in

  Outgoing NCSC interim leader Felicity Oswald shares her thoughts on the body’s work over the past eight years as she hands over the reins to incoming CEO Richard Horne

• October 04, 2024 04 Oct'24

  Post Office senior executive suspended over allegations of destroying evidence

  Statement to public inquiry reveals that investigation is underway over allegations that a senior Post Office executive instructed staff to destroy evidence

• October 04, 2024 04 Oct'24

  Cups Linux printing bugs open door to DDoS attacks, says Akamai

  The Cups Linux printing vulnerabilities disclosed at the end of September would seem to have a nasty sting in their tail, according to researchers at Akamai

• October 04, 2024 04 Oct'24

  Post Office recruiting tech-savvy board member amid unravelling IT disaster

  Public inquiry told that the Post Office is currently recruiting a tech-savvy non-executive director

• October 04, 2024 04 Oct'24

  Late evidence in Post Office Capture investigation could not be reviewed

  Evidence failed to reach investigators in time for report into controversial pre-Horizon Post Office software

• October 04, 2024 04 Oct'24

  Data and technology key to the future of the subsurface, report says

  The report highlights the important role of the subsurface, but lack of accessible data and the likely need for new policy and regulation on the use of new technologies are barriers to future sustainable and efficient use

• October 04, 2024 04 Oct'24

  Detective wrongly claimed journalist’s solicitor attempted to buy gun, surveillance tribunal hears

  Darren Ellis, who led a surveillance operation against journalists who exposed police failures, wrongly accused a solicitor of attempting to buy arms

• October 03, 2024 03 Oct'24

  Ex-PSNI officer seeking legal advice over comments made at Investigatory Powers Tribunal

   Ex PSNI officer ‘deeply angered’ by comments made by a former detective at a tribunal investigating allegations of unlawful surveillance against journalists

• October 03, 2024 03 Oct'24

  Microsoft files lawsuit to seize domains used by Russian spooks

  Microsoft has been given permission to seize multiple domains used by the Russian state threat actor Star Blizzard as part of a coordinated disruption effort undertaken ahead of the US elections

• October 03, 2024 03 Oct'24

  SOC teams falling out of love with threat detection tools

  Security operations centre practitioners are fed up of being flooded with pointless alerts and many no longer have much confidence in their threat detection tools, according to a report

• October 03, 2024 03 Oct'24

  Local councils need ‘better support’ to buy AI responsibly

  The Ada Lovelace Institute says there is lack of adequate support on how councils can safely and responsibly procure artificial intelligence systems in the public interest

• October 03, 2024 03 Oct'24

  DSIT launches digital government panel

  The panel, which is being co-chaired by Martha Lane Fox and Paul Willmott, will help government create a 10-year vision for a ‘digital centre’