News

IT for government and public sector

• January 22, 2024 22 Jan'24

  Chat control: Tech companies warn ministers over EU encryption plans

  Tech companies have written to EU ministers to urge them to back the European Parliament, rather than the European Commission, over proposed regulations to police child abuse

• January 22, 2024 22 Jan'24

  Urgent question asks which ministers knew of Post Office’s shocking plan to remove judge

  Labour peer uses urgent question to uncover who, if anyone, in government was aware of the Post Office’s attempts to remove judge as it became clear it was losing

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  ICO prompts confusion over police cloud legality

  The UK data regulator has suggested that, despite major data protection concerns, it is likely to greenlight police cloud deployments because of an information-sharing agreement with the US government

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  MPs flag similarities between HMRC's treatment of Loan Charge contractors and Post Office scandal

  The fallout from HMRC's controversial disguised remuneration clampdown, the Loan Charge policy, has been likened to the Post Office Horizon scandal during a House of Commons debate

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  Fujitsu boss admits to missed opportunities to prevent miscarriages of justice

  Concerns of an expert witness in subpostmaster trials were ignored by Fujitsu

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  Neighbouring Kent councils hit by simultaneous cyber attacks

  Canterbury, Dover and Thanet Councils in Kent have all been struck by simultaneous cyber attacks knocking systems offline, with indications of a link between all three

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  Cabinet Office publishes 10-point generative AI guidance

  Cabinet Office’s framework, which will evolve as the technology moves forward, sets out 10 principles for the government's use of generative AI systems

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  Fujitsu boss describes Post Office behaviour as 'shameful and appalling'

  The UK head of Fujitsu said he does not know why the Post Office did not reveal information about Horizon software errors to defendants during prosecutions

• January 18, 2024 18 Jan'24

  Anger sparked by TV drama forces Fujitsu to put public sector contract bidding on hold

  It is not just the UK government that has been forced to act quickly amid public anger, as a wounded Fujitsu stalls government contract bidding

• January 18, 2024 18 Jan'24

  PSTN switch-off threatens access to adult social care services

  The Public Switched Telephone Network switch-off is threatening vulnerable Londoners access to adult social care and other vital services, as councils are left to manage the cost without financial support from the centre, says London chief digital ...

• January 18, 2024 18 Jan'24

  More than 900 subpostmaster convictions wouldn’t have happened without Post Office-backed law change

  IT expert says it cannot be the case that computer evidence is treated as accurate in court, without investigation into surrounding circumstances

• January 18, 2024 18 Jan'24

  Tech firms: Investigatory Powers review will undermine privacy of UK citizens

  Trade group TechUK argues in a briefing sent to the Home Office that proposed amendments to the Investigatory Powers Bill could have a far-reaching impact on privacy and security

• January 17, 2024 17 Jan'24

  NCSC invites security pros to join the big leagues

  The NCSC is inviting security pros from across the UK to sign up to work with its experts on an intelligence-sharing initiative

• January 17, 2024 17 Jan'24

  Victims of 2023 Capita data breaches head to High Court

  More than 5,000 people impacted by data breaches arising from two cyber incidents affecting outsourcer Capita have joined a group action lawsuit

• January 17, 2024 17 Jan'24

  Michelle Donelan aims high on tech innovation growth

  The science, innovation and technology secretary wants the UK to match US VC investment as a proportion of GDP

• January 16, 2024 16 Jan'24

  Fujitsu ‘morally obliged’ to contribute to subpostmaster financial redress amid ‘insane’ delays

  Fujitsu has apologised for its role on the Post Office scandal and said it is ‘morally obliged’ to contribute to the financial redress of victims

• January 16, 2024 16 Jan'24

  Republic of Ireland publishes progress update on digital strategy

  Update reveals 2.3 million people in Ireland now have MyGovID accounts, and the Irish government plans to launch a new digital portal for businesses, as well as establishing an AI advisory council imminently

• January 16, 2024 16 Jan'24

  NAO head calls for clean data and modern government IT

  Better IT procurement, better IT systems and better data are among the recommendations Gareth Davies is giving to Parliament

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  British Library catalogues back online after ransomware attack

  The British Library has restored online access to its main catalogue of nearly 40 million items on a limited basis as it continues the long and arduous process of recovering from a ransomware attack

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  AI likely to worsen economic inequality, says IMF

  While artificial intelligence will replace some jobs and complement others, the International Monetary Fund says that, in most of the scenarios it envisages, the technology will likely deepen macro-economic inequalities

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  Russia hacked ex-MI6 chief’s emails – what they reveal is more Dad’s Army than deep state

  A Russian hacking group that published emails of ex-MI6 chief Richard Dearlove claimed to have uncovered a conspiracy, but it was more Dad’s Army than the ‘deep state’, Computer Weekly and Byline Times reveal

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  How legal disclosure failures disrupted the Post Office Horizon inquiry

  From overly narrow search terms, overzealous deduplication of documents and failed email migrations, poor management of legal discovery has delayed justice for postmasters in the Horizon inquiry  

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  IT failure caused weekend chaos at Sussex hospitals

  The critical incident at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, caused by IT issues on Sunday night, has now been resolved

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  NCA director sacked after WhatsApp and email security breaches

  Nikki Holland, former director of investigations at the NCA, was sacked for “misconduct” after sending sensitive NCA information over personal email and WhatsApp

• January 12, 2024 12 Jan'24

  Post Office scandal inquiry hits mainstream after dramatic start to year

  Long-running statutory public inquiry restarts with hugely increased interest following ITV’s dramatisation of the two decades-long scandal

• January 12, 2024 12 Jan'24

  UK government seeks public views on impacts of AI-generated porn

  The government’s Pornography Review will look in part at the use of AI throughout the industry to generate sexually explicit content without people’s consent

• January 11, 2024 11 Jan'24

  MHRA launches roadmap for medtech regulations

  The roadmap covers plans for regulations on medical technologies, including implantable devices, artificial intelligence and healthcare software, with core elements of a new framework to be in place by 2025

• January 11, 2024 11 Jan'24

  Cisco fixes high-impact flaw in unified comms platform

  Cisco unified comms customers are urged to patch a critical vulnerability in Unity Connection, a messaging and voicemail product

• January 10, 2024 10 Jan'24

  Hundreds of subpostmasters to have convictions quashed in blanket exoneration

  The government has chosen to introduce legislation that will enable it to exonerate hundreds of subpostmasters as a group

• January 10, 2024 10 Jan'24

  Windows Kerberos, Hyper-V vulns among January Patch Tuesday bugs

  Microsoft starts 2024 right with another slimline Patch Tuesday drop, but there are some critical vulns to be alert to, including a number of man-in-the-middle attack vectors

• January 10, 2024 10 Jan'24

  Scotland ‘sleepwalking’ to mass surveillance with DPDI Bill

  The independent checks and balances over biometrics and biometric-enabled surveillance must be strengthened to prevent Scotland from sliding into a surveillance state along with the rest of the UK

• January 09, 2024 09 Jan'24

  Babuk Tortilla ransomware decryptor made available

  A joint effort between Cisco Talos, Avast and the Dutch police will bring relief to many victims of a variant of the Babuk ransomware known as Tortilla

• January 09, 2024 09 Jan'24

  Study reveals cyber risks to US elections

  With the 2024 US presidential election cycle beginning, a study produced by Arctic Wolf has highlighted big gaps in preparedness and resourcing at government bodies across the US

• January 09, 2024 09 Jan'24

  Former Post Office CEO hands back CBE amid public backlash

  Former Post Office CEO hands back her CBE after public backlash following dramatisation of her role in Post Office Horizon scandal

• January 09, 2024 09 Jan'24

  ‘Hero’ subpostmaster accuses government of diversion tactics through ‘weaselly’ statistics

  Campaigning subpostmaster calls out government’s use of ‘weaselly’ statistics to hide its slow progress

• January 09, 2024 09 Jan'24

  Fujitsu gets stay of execution as MPs support exoneration of wrongfully convicted subpostmasters

  Fujitsu will have to wait until the end of the Post Office Horizon scandal public inquiry to hear how MPs will punish it

• January 08, 2024 08 Jan'24

  Government to push NHS roll-out of digital pathology

  Department for Health and Social Care wants to increase use of digital pathology in cancer screening, following a recommendation by the UK National Screening Committee

• January 08, 2024 08 Jan'24

  British Library ransomware attack could cost up to £7m

  The cost of recovering the British Library’s ransomware-stricken IT systems could be up to £7m, it has emerged

• January 08, 2024 08 Jan'24

  Post Office scandal furore is moment to change digital evidence rules

  The current rules around digital evidence are partly to blame for the widest miscarriage of justice in UK history

• January 08, 2024 08 Jan'24

  Inside the Met Police’s investigation into EncroChat crime gangs

  The Met’s senior investigating officer responsible for investigating criminals using the EncroChat encrypted phone network tells the inside story of the UK’s biggest organised crime bust in a BBC podcast series released this week

• January 07, 2024 07 Jan'24

  Metropolitan Police launches second criminal investigation in Post Office scandal

  New investigation will examine potential crimes by the Post Office in its recovery of money from subpostmasters accused of theft and false accounting

• January 05, 2024 05 Jan'24

  Information Commissioner questions DWP plan to monitor bank accounts of benefit claimants

  The Information Commissioner has warned that legislation to give new powers to the Department of Work and Pensions to check bank accounts of benefit claimants for indications of fraud lacks appropriate safeguards

• January 03, 2024 03 Jan'24

  Artificial intelligence to the front in Sweden’s National Technology Strategy

  Sweden focuses in on artificial intelligence in its latest far-reaching national IT strategy

• January 02, 2024 02 Jan'24

  China’s UNC4841 pivots to new Barracuda ESG zero-day

  The Chinese state threat actor behind a series of cyber attacks on Barracuda Networks customers embarked on a campaign targeting the supplier’s email security products in the run-up to Christmas

• December 29, 2023 29 Dec'23

  Top 10 investigations and national security stories of 2023

  From a secret campaign by right-wing Brexit supporters against science journal Nature to Investigatory Powers Act 2016 revisions that will make it easier for police and intelligence agencies to access databases on the population, here are Computer ...

• December 29, 2023 29 Dec'23

  Top 10 AI regulation stories of 2023

  From the UK government’s publication of its long-awaited AI whitepaper to its convening of the world’s first AI Safety Summit, here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 AI regulation stories of 2023

• December 28, 2023 28 Dec'23

  Top 10 technology and ethics stories of 2023

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 technology and ethics stories of 2023

• December 27, 2023 27 Dec'23

  Top 10 police technology stories of 2023

  Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 police technology stories of 2023

• December 22, 2023 22 Dec'23

  Top 10 government IT stories of 2023

  In the year that gave life to four new government departments, Whitehall bosses have continued to fly the flag for technology, with mixed results and success. Here are the stories that made waves in 2023

• December 22, 2023 22 Dec'23

  Top 10 Middle East stories of 2023

  Middle Eastern countries are on digital journeys, with many pinning their futures on expertise in advanced technologies