News

IT for government and public sector

• July 24, 2024 24 Jul'24

  WhatsApp and Signal messages at risk of surveillance following EncroChat ruling, court hears

  Defence lawyers seek leave to appeal a decision by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal that the National Crime Agency lawfully obtained warrants to intercept messages sent over an encrypted phone network

• July 23, 2024 23 Jul'24

  NCA seizes thousands of social media accounts used by people smugglers

  A three-year campaign has seen thousands of social media posts and accounts used to advertise the services of illegal people smugglers taken down

• July 23, 2024 23 Jul'24

  Former minister felt she was fighting department over Post Office controversy

  Former government minister was fighting with Shareholder Executive officials as she probed for information following allegations brought to her by MPs

• July 22, 2024 22 Jul'24

  NCSC: Beware of criminal CrowdStrike opportunists

  Financially motivated cyber criminals are already conducting opportunistic attacks on organisations that leverage the CrowdStrike incident, and more targeted attacks are sure to follow

• July 22, 2024 22 Jul'24

  CrowdStrike chaos shows risks of concentrated ‘big IT’

  The concentration of so much mission-critical technology in the hands of a few large suppliers makes incidents like the Microsoft-CrowdStrike outage all the more dangerous

• July 22, 2024 22 Jul'24

  Ed Davey and Jo Swinson ‘handled’ by civil servants in Post Office cover-up, says Sir Alan Bates

  Evidence in public inquiry revealed how ministers in charge of Post Office were left in the dark at a time when campaigners, MPs and journalists were looking for answers

• July 19, 2024 19 Jul'24

  Global Microsoft outage hits NHS GP IT system

  The Emis Web IT system used by more than half of GP practices in the UK is down, following the worldwide Microsoft outage

• July 18, 2024 18 Jul'24

  Lawyers and journalists seeking ‘payback’ over police phone surveillance, claims former detective

  Former Durham detective will be required to give evidence to a tribunal investigating allegations that police unlawfully monitored journalists’ phones

• July 18, 2024 18 Jul'24

  Government trusted ‘abuser’ over the abused on Post Office scandal

  The government referred allegations about subpostmasters’ mistreatment by the Post Office to the alleged abuser itself

• July 18, 2024 18 Jul'24

  Glasgow’s digital strategy highlights digital rights for citizens

  The strategy aims to create organisational change, equipping Glasgow to reap the benefits of digital and protect its citizens’ rights

• July 17, 2024 17 Jul'24

  UK Cyber Bill teases mandatory ransomware reporting

  In the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill introduced in the King's Speech, the UK's new government pledges to give regulators more teeth to ensure compliance with security best practice and to mandate incident reporting

• July 17, 2024 17 Jul'24

  Hackney Council reprimanded over 2020 ransomware attack

  The London Borough of Hackney has been reprimanded by the ICO over a series of failures that led to a devastating cyber attack, but at the same time, the regulator praised the local authority for its response and commitment to making improvements

• July 17, 2024 17 Jul'24

  Police Digital Service CEO Ian Bell resigns as company director following news of staff arrests

  Two weeks after news emerged that two employees of the Police Digital Service had been arrested on suspicion of bribery, fraud and misconduct, Companies House confirms PDS CEO Ian Bell has resigned as company director

• July 17, 2024 17 Jul'24

  Labour government plans new laws around cyber security, data sharing and skills

  The King's Speech outlined the legislative agenda for the new Parliament, including several bills that will impact the tech community

• July 16, 2024 16 Jul'24

  Strategic Defence Review must emphasise cyber security, says industry

  Cyber security leaders say the new government's Strategic Defence Review needs to put digital security front and centre

• July 16, 2024 16 Jul'24

  Fujitsu analyst gave witness statements when more qualified colleagues refused

  Fujitsu employee provided witness statements to courts in cases against subpostmasters despite not understanding the evidence, after qualified IT experts refused

• July 16, 2024 16 Jul'24

  CMA looks deeper into Microsoft’s AI hirings

  Microsoft recently hired two former co-founders of AI specialist Inflection AI, and signed a deal to host the company’s AI model on Azure

• July 16, 2024 16 Jul'24

  Labour government begins to dish out digital responsibilities

  As the new government begins to settle in, ministers with technology remits begin to emerge as DHSC and others declare which ministers will have digital responsibilities

• July 15, 2024 15 Jul'24

  NHS Trusts cancelled over 6,000 appointments after Qilin cyber attack

  The two NHS Trusts most heavily impacted by the Qilin ransomware attack on pathology services provider Synnovis have cancelled over 6,000 appointments and procedures in the past five weeks

• July 15, 2024 15 Jul'24

  Schools hit with cost hike as free Microsoft licences end

  The A1 Plus academic licence, which gave teachers and pupils access to the Microsoft productivity suite, stops in August

• July 15, 2024 15 Jul'24

  DACH education ‘ready for AI’ as parents call for next phase of innovation

  A rallying cry for digital intervention in the sector across the DACH region could set the tone for a continental shift towards more dynamic and intuitive learning in the years to come

• July 15, 2024 15 Jul'24

  WHO launches digital health collaboration network

  The World Health Organisation’s network, which includes 53 member states alongside data and digital health partners, will tackle digital transformation issues in healthcare

• July 15, 2024 15 Jul'24

  Civil servant said subpostmasters’ threat of legal action was ‘sabre-rattling’

  Post Office scandal public inquiry hears damning evidence capping off a bad week for the reputation of high-profile civil servants

• July 11, 2024 11 Jul'24

  Life sciences, medtech and the NHS must marry, says health secretary

  Health secretary Wes Streeting wants the UK to be an international powerhouse for life sciences and medtech, and plans to turn the Department for Health and Social Care into a ‘public growth department’

• July 11, 2024 11 Jul'24

  ITER workshop highlights the role of computing technology in nuclear fusion

  One of the themes from the private sector workshop run in France this May is that information technology remains a key enabler for nuclear fusion

• July 11, 2024 11 Jul'24

  Dutch research firm TNO pictures the SOC of the future

  In only a few years, security operations centres will have a different design and layout, and far fewer will remain

• July 11, 2024 11 Jul'24

  Challenges of deploying AI to run public services more efficiently

  A report from an organisation headed by former prime minister Tony Blair has set an AI challenge for the Labour government

• July 11, 2024 11 Jul'24

  GDS appoints Christine Bellamy as CEO

  The former head of Gov.uk has taken over as CEO of the Government Digital Service following the departure of Tom Read in June

• July 10, 2024 10 Jul'24

  Civil servant was lone voice on Post Office board to query legal plan that blew taxpayers' cash

  Government representative felt he was 'in a minority of one' on the Post Office board of directors in questioning the handling of a High Court battle with subpostmasters that cost £100m

• July 09, 2024 09 Jul'24

  Hyper-V zero-day stands out on a busy Patch Tuesday

  Microsoft has fixed almost 140 vulnerabilities in its latest monthly update, with a Hyper-V zero-day singled out for urgent attention

• July 09, 2024 09 Jul'24

  Chinese spies target vulnerable home office kit to run cyber attacks

  China’s APT40 is ramping up targeting of victims using vulnerable small and home office networking kit as command and control infrastructure, according to an international alert

• July 09, 2024 09 Jul'24

  Government left monitoring of Post Office to ‘luck’

  If the Post Office board failed to spot bad faith within its management, it would be down to ‘luck’ for the government to find out

• July 09, 2024 09 Jul'24

  Lessons from war: How Israel is fighting Iranian state-backed hacking

  The general director of the Israel National Cyber Directorate talks about the rise in cyber attacks and what lessons the country has gleaned to defend against hacking from foreign parties

• July 09, 2024 09 Jul'24

  Room to grow in UK for Tata Consultancy Services after half a century

  Indian-headquartered IT giant has built a large UK footprint as part of its global network, a commitment which is helping it increase its business in the UK’s public sector

• July 09, 2024 09 Jul'24

  Revamped DSIT to transform digital public services, says government

  The incoming government sets out preliminary plans to conduct a major revamp and relaunch of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

• July 08, 2024 08 Jul'24

  Synnovis attack highlights degraded, outdated state of NHS IT

  More cyber attacks against the health service are likely, and will succeed if something isn’t done to address the increasingly elderly NHS IT estate, experts are warning

• July 08, 2024 08 Jul'24

  Sir Alan Bates welcomes MP’s elevation to House of Lords

  Former Labour MP has moved to the House of Lords where he will continue campaigning for justice for victims of the Horizon scandal

• July 04, 2024 04 Jul'24

  UK data regulator should investigate police cloud deployments

  The Scottish biometrics commissioner has called for the UK Information Commissioner’s Office to formally investigate whether Police Scotland’s cloud-based evidence sharing system is fully compliant with data protection laws

• July 03, 2024 03 Jul'24

  NCA’s Operation Morpheus targets illicit Cobalt Strike use

  International law enforcement operation targets cyber criminals using the Cobalt Strike penetration testing framework for dodgy purposes

• July 03, 2024 03 Jul'24

  Former Post Office chair 'regrets' keeping critical Horizon report secret

  Tim Parker, chairman of the Post Office from 2015 to 2022, admits he should not have accepted legal advice to prevent release of a review that could have supported victims of the Horizon scandal

• July 03, 2024 03 Jul'24

  UK must push forward greater use of open tech

  OpenUK is calling on policymakers to put more effort into building the UK’s open source capabilities

• July 03, 2024 03 Jul'24

  Police Digital Service employees arrested on suspicion of fraud, bribery and misconduct

  The Police Digital Service has confirmed an internal review of its processes will be undertaken in the wake of staff arrests

• July 03, 2024 03 Jul'24

  Tech leaders recognised for social, cultural and economic innovations

  TechUK President's Awards highlight the contribution of the IT community to improving society through digital innovation

• July 01, 2024 01 Jul'24

  Diana project provides Nato tech dividend to Finland

  Finnish tech sector to receive a boost following the country’s decision to join Nato

• June 28, 2024 28 Jun'24

  Former Fujitsu engineer says Post Office ‘trapped’ him into giving incomplete evidence

  Gareth Jenkins turned his fire on the Post Office on the final day of his marathon evidence session at the Post Office public inquiry

• June 27, 2024 27 Jun'24

  UKtech50 winner interview: Alan Bates, Post Office Horizon scandal campaigner

  UKtech50 winner Alan Bates talks to Computer Weekly about why the Post Office needs to be modernised, how to deploy an IT system the right way and his plans to write a book

• June 27, 2024 27 Jun'24

  UKtech50 2024: The most influential people in UK technology

  Computer Weekly has announced the 14th annual UKtech50 – our definitive list of the movers and shakers in the UK tech sector

• June 27, 2024 27 Jun'24

  IT giant Atos faces collapse if restructuring talks fail

  French IT giant Atos is facing financial problems that could affect the ability of its UK arm to deliver key government contracts, including those related to NHS records in hospitals

• June 27, 2024 27 Jun'24

  Wales partners with OpenAI to improve Welsh language tech

  The Welsh government’s data partnership with the company behind ChatGPT aims to improve how artificial intelligence technologies work in the Welsh language

• June 27, 2024 27 Jun'24

  Experts shocked by ‘extraordinary’ claim made by Post Office IT expert witness

  A former Fujitsu engineer made an ‘unbelievable’ claim about evidence he gave in witness statements when acting as an expert witness during Post Office prosecutions of subpostmasters