News

IT for government and public sector

• January 11, 2013 11 Jan'13

  Disable Java to protect from latest zero-day

  Security researchers are warning of a zero-day vulnerability in all versions of Java, including the latest Java 7 update 10

• January 10, 2013 10 Jan'13

  Government extends employer £1,500 apprenticeship grant for further 12 months

  Government and National Apprenticeship Service extend AGE 16-24 grant for further 12 months

• January 10, 2013 10 Jan'13

  Software piracy international in scope, says Fast

  The scale of software piracy is both international in scope and military in its execution, says the Federation Against Software Theft (Fast)

• January 09, 2013 09 Jan'13

  IT contractors seek to fill skills gap left by public sector cuts

  IT contractors are increasingly confident about job opportunities in the public sector due to reductions in the civil service's head count, finds research

• January 09, 2013 09 Jan'13

  UK Border Agency tenders for security systems

  The UK Border Agency (UKBA) and Border Force is tendering for an integrated border security system

• January 08, 2013 08 Jan'13

  VoIP awareness up but user numbers remain low

  A report from Ofcom claims four in five consumers know what voice over internet protocol (VoIP) is, but just 29% use the technology

• January 08, 2013 08 Jan'13

  MPs slam the award of government contracts to tax-avoiding IT firms

  MPs allege that Accenture used revenue from its deal with HMRC to reduce its tax bill

• January 07, 2013 07 Jan'13

  Ernst & Young email keyword analysis identifies fraudsters

  Fraud investigators have revealed the most common words used in email conversations by employees engaged in rogue trading and fraud

• January 04, 2013 04 Jan'13

  Executive brings own software which is adopted by business

  Rochdale Development agency (RDA) has started using cloud based Huddle collaboration software after a development officer started using it at work.

• January 03, 2013 03 Jan'13

  Immigrants wrongly told to leave UK due to inaccurate data

  Some immigrants have been accidentally contacted by Capita and told to leave the UK as a result of inaccurate data used in a government push to remove thousands of illegal immigrants

• January 03, 2013 03 Jan'13

  Ofcom proposes early exit to combat price rises

  Regulator Ofcom says users should be able to leave mobile, broadband and landline contracts without charge if their provider ups the price

• January 02, 2013 02 Jan'13

  Post Office admits that Horizon system needs more investigation

  Campaigners have forced the Post Office to look again at a computer system blamed for sub-postmasters being wrongly accused of false accounting

• December 28, 2012 28 Dec'12

  Top 10 cyber crime stories of 2012

  Ten articles that illustrate some of the major trends in cyber crime in 2012

• December 24, 2012 24 Dec'12

  Facebook pays £2.6m tax on £840m profit

  The social networking giant faces criticism for paying minimal tax by pushing all of its operations outside of the US through Ireland

• December 20, 2012 20 Dec'12

  Government to cut large frameworks following procurement review

  Government is to put an end to large ICT frameworks, following a review into the efficacy of procurement practices for SMEs

• December 20, 2012 20 Dec'12

  Essex County Council signs £81m PSN deal

  Essex County Council has signed a £81m network and telephony deal to introduce a Public Services Network (PSN) across its 200,000 users

• December 13, 2012 13 Dec'12

  Liam Maxwell named as first government chief technology officer

  Liam Maxwell becomes the first Whitehall CTO, in the latest stage of a major shake-up of the government IT leadership organisation

• December 12, 2012 12 Dec'12

  Government IT reformers criticise IT leadership shake-up

  Government IT reformers have criticised plans to give procurement chief Bill Crothers a more prominent role in the IT leadership team

• December 12, 2012 12 Dec'12

  Ghost Shell hacktivists publish over a million credentials

  The Ghost Shell group, an offshoot of the Anonymous hacking collective has published the log-in details from 1.6 million accounts

• December 10, 2012 10 Dec'12

  UK CIOs see EU regulation as key

  A third of UK CIOs are more concerned with EU regulation, such as the data protection directive, than their own local laws, a study has revealed.

• December 07, 2012 07 Dec'12

  UK government jobs website exploited by hackers

  Hackers have been able to exploit security flaws in a new government jobs website to steal personal information about job applicants

• December 06, 2012 06 Dec'12

  MPs call for wider promotion of mutuals beyond Whitehall

  Mutuals need to be effectively promoted across the whole public sector, not just Whitehall, say MPs

• December 03, 2012 03 Dec'12

  HMRC slammed for 'undue complacency' on RTI systems

  Report labels HMRC “unduly complacent” about the roll-out of the Real Time Information (RTI) system crucial to the Universal Credit programme

• November 30, 2012 30 Nov'12

  G-Cloud success depends on champions and a change in attitude

  G-Cloud director Denise McDonagh has called for public sector champions to push forward adoption of the service.

• November 28, 2012 28 Nov'12

  G-Cloud ramps up for next generation of government IT procurements

  The G-Cloud has a new framework and calls for it to become a blueprint for all government IT procurement, but what challenges lie ahead?

• November 28, 2012 28 Nov'12

  Capita set to win £1.7bn Staffordshire outsourcing deal

  Capita has been named preferred bidder in an educational support services joint venture with Staffordshire County Council, in a deal worth £1.7bn over 20 years.

• November 27, 2012 27 Nov'12

  Zero-day exploit for Yahoo Mail goes on sale

  Hacker sells $700 zero-day exploit for Yahoo Mail that allows attacker to use cross-site scripting vulnerability to steal cookies and hijack accounts

• November 26, 2012 26 Nov'12

  Security needs to be integral part of life, says McAfee

  The world is becoming increasingly connected and security and privacy are integral to modern society, says Raj Samani, CTO of McAfee Europe

• November 22, 2012 22 Nov'12

  UKtech50 2012 - The most influential people in UK IT

  Computer Weekly has announced the third UKtech50, our annual definitive list of the real movers and shakers in UK IT

• November 19, 2012 19 Nov'12

  Cyber criminals target Skype, Facebook and Windows users

  Cyber criminals targeted users of Skype, Facebook and Windows using multiple Blackhole exploits in October, according to security firm GFI Software

• November 16, 2012 16 Nov'12

  Government wants suppliers to reveal UK taxes

  Government officials are considering the viability of ordering suppliers bidding for contracts to disclose the tax they pay relative to UK sales

• November 16, 2012 16 Nov'12

  Birmingham Metropolitan College cuts IT procurement time and cost

  Birmingham Metropolitan College uses cloud-based procurement to reduce the cost and time it takes to buy IT equipment

• November 16, 2012 16 Nov'12

  Nasa to encrypt data after latest breach

  Nasa is to encrypt all its mobile computers after the loss of a laptop containing personal information about more than 10,000 staff

• November 15, 2012 15 Nov'12

  First departmental sites move to Gov.uk

  Two government departments have migrated onto the Gov.uk site, as part of the first moves to bring all departmental information under a single domain.

• November 14, 2012 14 Nov'12

  NHS reiterates commitment to digitise patient records by 2015

  The Department of Health has reiterated its commitment to get all patient records online by 2015

• November 13, 2012 13 Nov'12

  DWP CIO Philip Langsdale oversees Universal Credit overhaul

  The Department for Work and Pensions CIO Philip Langsdale oversees an overhaul of the DWP’s flagship Universal Credit programme

• November 13, 2012 13 Nov'12

  Many UK firms underestimate cost of data breaches, study finds

  Many UK organisations are still failing to understand the implications and costs of data breaches, a study has revealed

• November 12, 2012 12 Nov'12

  Hacking attempts to top one billion in Q4, predicts NCC Group

  One billion hacking attempts will be made globally in the final quarter of 2012, according to information assurance firm NCC Group

• November 12, 2012 12 Nov'12

  Software issues risk delaying Universal Credit by one year, according to reports

  The IT underpinning the government’s flagship £2.2bn Universal Credit programme is again being called into question

• November 09, 2012 09 Nov'12

  Twitter apologises for unnecessary hacking warnings

  Twitter has apologised after telling members their accounts had been hacked and forcing them to reset their passwords

• November 09, 2012 09 Nov'12

  Stuxnet hit Chevron’s systems, the energy giant admits

  US energy giant Chevron has revealed that it was hit by the Stuxnet virus in 2010

• November 07, 2012 07 Nov'12

  Government departments get go-ahead to use iPhones for sensitive data

  Government departments have been given the go-ahead to use iPhones to send and receive sensitive emails

• November 07, 2012 07 Nov'12

  Police arrest man for DDoS attacks on Theresa May sites

  Police have arrested a 41-year-old man in connection with a cyber attack on websites connected to home secretary Theresa May

• November 06, 2012 06 Nov'12

  Universal Credit programme director Malcolm Whitehouse steps down

  Malcolm Whitehouse, programme director for the government's £2.2bn Universal Credit project, has stepped down

• November 01, 2012 01 Nov'12

  Parliamentary committee joins criticism of draft communications data bill

  Home secretary Theresa May faced stern criticism before a Parliamentary committee hearing evidence on the Draft Communications Data Bill

• October 31, 2012 31 Oct'12

  Government dips toe in water for single ERP

  The government is to test the feasibility of moving to a single enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform across Whitehall

• October 31, 2012 31 Oct'12

  Apple squashes BlackBerry as Brent Borough deploys iPads

  Brent Borough Council replaces BlackBerry and deploys MobileIron to securely manage almost 3,000 iPads and iPhones

• October 31, 2012 31 Oct'12

  Free mobile apps a threat to privacy, study finds

  Free mobile apps pose a serious threat to privacy because of their ability to capture large amounts of user information

• October 30, 2012 30 Oct'12

  IT security budgets mismatched to hacker targets, study shows

  IT security budgets are not being used to provide defence technologies in some areas most likely to be targeted by hackers, a study shows

• October 29, 2012 29 Oct'12

  Cheshire Constabulary polices network with SolarWinds

  Police force in Cheshire uses SolarWinds’ infrastructure monitoring tools to keep its IT out of trouble