News

IT for government and public sector

• September 14, 2023 14 Sep'23

  Government appoints Dave Smith as UK national tech adviser

  The former Rolls-Royce technology director will take over the role of UK national technology adviser, following government recruitment campaign for the role in the wake of former tech adviser Patrick Vallance’s departure

• September 13, 2023 13 Sep'23

  GCHQ breached privacy rights of IT professional and security researcher, human rights court rules

  The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg finds UK intelligence services breached the privacy rights of two overseas nationals – an IT professional and a security researcher

• September 13, 2023 13 Sep'23

  Patch Tuesday: Microsoft fixes zero-days in Word and Streaming Service

  September 2023 brings a light Patch Tuesday, with two zero-days and five critical vulnerabilities listed in the latest release

• September 12, 2023 12 Sep'23

  Ancient MoD IT systems could cause supply issues for frontline troops

  Deliveries of inventory to the front line are being put at risk due to legacy IT systems and poor data, according to the National Audit Office

• September 12, 2023 12 Sep'23

  Whitehall only capable of ‘piecemeal’ digital transformation, says PAC

  The Public Accounts Committee is unconvinced government will achieve its digital transformation ambitions as progress is thwarted by staff shortages and a lack of senior leadership engagement

• September 12, 2023 12 Sep'23

  European enterprises to spend more on generative IT to close gap on US

  European organisations are upping their spending on generative AI innovation, but face challenges recruiting the right people to support this

• September 11, 2023 11 Sep'23

  University of Glasgow launches Centre for data science and AI

  Scottish university will apply artificial intelligence and data science to help solve some of the world's biggest challenges

• September 11, 2023 11 Sep'23

  Polish election questioned after Pegasus spyware used to smear opposition, investigation finds

  Senate committee alerts prosecutors over potential crimes by public officials involved in purchasing Pegasus spyware used to monitor and smear political opponents

• September 11, 2023 11 Sep'23

  IR35: HMRC reportedly working to April 2024 start date for settlement offsets fix

  HMRC is reportedly planning to roll out its fix for the double-taxation issue affecting IR35 compliance cases by April 2024

• September 08, 2023 08 Sep'23

  Deputy PM urges UK plc not to lose focus on cyber

  In a speech at TechUK, deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden urges the cyber security community not to lose focus, and to do more to further collaboration across sectors

• September 08, 2023 08 Sep'23

  HGS to provide contact centre support for One Login

  The partnership between the Government Digital Service and Hinduja Global Solutions will see the supplier provide contact centre services for the digital identity platform

• September 07, 2023 07 Sep'23

  UK minister fails to reassure tech companies over encryption risk

  Technology companies say reassurances by government ministers that they have no intention of weakening end-to-end encrypted communication services do not go far enough

• September 07, 2023 07 Sep'23

  Kent Digital tackles digital divide with refurbished laptops

  The council has begun working with Circular Computing to support people who do not have access to laptop devices

• September 07, 2023 07 Sep'23

  Government AI taskforce appoints new advisory board members

  An initial progress report published by the Taskforce provides detail on new appointments to its external advisory board as well as rebrand to focus on “frontier” artificial intelligence

• September 06, 2023 06 Sep'23

  French supreme court dismisses legal challenge to EncroChat cryptophone evidence

  Defence lawyers plan to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights after the French supreme court disallowed an appeal over the legality of EncroChat evidence

• September 06, 2023 06 Sep'23

  German court unclear whether intercepted EncroChat cryptophone messages are legally admissible

  Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court is waiting to hear five complaints that could decide whether data from the hacked EncroChat phone network can be lawfully used in German courts, but situation remains unclear for now

• September 05, 2023 05 Sep'23

  Hacked Electoral Commission failed Cyber Essentials audit

  The Electoral Commission failed an NCSC Cyber Essentials audit on multiple counts at about the same time as cyber criminals breached its systems in 2021, it has emerged

• September 05, 2023 05 Sep'23

  Government pumps £18.5m into autonomous vehicles

  Government’s funding is part of a £50m pot going to 30 different ‘cutting-edge’ manufacturing projects, with the aim of boosting green technology innovation

• September 05, 2023 05 Sep'23

  NCSC names ex-NCC man as new CTO

  New NCSC CTO Ollie Whitehouse joins from NCC Group, having also worked at BlackBerry and Symantec

• September 05, 2023 05 Sep'23

  Plymouth Uni spearheads research into wind farm cyber resilience

  Project hosted at the University of Plymouth in Devon aims to develop cyber security measures to protect the UK’s increasingly important offshore wind farm assets

• September 04, 2023 04 Sep'23

  TUC launches AI taskforce for workers’ rights and societal benefit

  The Trades Union Congress has launched what it calls an AI ‘taskforce’ to draft an AI and Employment Bill, aimed at safeguarding workers’ rights, early in 2024

• September 04, 2023 04 Sep'23

  LockBit ransomware gang allegedly leaks MoD data after hit on supplier

  The UK government appears to have become entangled in a LockBit ransomware attack after data was leaked from a third-party supplier online

• September 01, 2023 01 Sep'23

  Police Scotland five-year digital strategy approved

  Police Scotland’s new strategy outlines how the force will approach and invest in its digital transformation over the next five years, but notes its ability to achieve its ambitions is subject to the availability of funding

• September 01, 2023 01 Sep'23

  IT experts issue new warnings over Online Safety Bill plans to weaken end-to-end encryption

  BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, argues the government is seeking a technical fix to terrorism and child abuse without understanding the risks and implications

• August 31, 2023 31 Aug'23

  Border Target Operating Model gives update on digital border plans

  The model aims to make smarter use of data and technology at the border, including a digital gateway for users to provide data and apply for licences and authorisations

• August 31, 2023 31 Aug'23

  Home Office and MoD seeking new facial-recognition tech

  The UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator is running a ‘market exploration’ exercise on behalf of the Home Office to identify new facial-recognition capabilities for security and policing bodies in the UK

• August 31, 2023 31 Aug'23

  Post Office to provide in-person identity checks for One Login

  Partnership between the Government Digital Service and the Post Office will see postmasters and staff provide face-to-face identity checks for those unable to use the One Login app or website

• August 31, 2023 31 Aug'23

  GenAI outranks cloud as business IT strategic priority

  Enterprise Strategy Group research on the use cases for generative AI shows it as strategic for corporate IT, with impacts on customer experience, software development and IT Ops

• August 31, 2023 31 Aug'23

  MPs say UK at real risk of falling behind on AI regulation

  MPs in charge of scrutinising the UK government’s proposals for regulating artificial intelligence have warned that time is running out for the introduction of new AI legislation before 2025

• August 30, 2023 30 Aug'23

  Met police data platform deployed with data protection issues

  Met Police deploys integrated record management system despite data protection ‘compliance issues' that would inhibit its ability to retrieve data, meet its statutory logging requirements, and respond to subject access requests

• August 29, 2023 29 Aug'23

  Zero-day that forced Barracuda users to bin kit was exploited by China

  Mandiant has published details of how a Chinese threat actor targeted high-profile users of Barracuda Networks' Email Security Gateway appliances, including government agencies of interest to Beijing's intelligence goals

• August 29, 2023 29 Aug'23

  Nats resorts to fail-safe manual process after technical hitch

  Just a few hours of manual processing has resulted in a massive backlog in flights

• August 29, 2023 29 Aug'23

  Top-performing CISOs reserve time for professional development

  Survey of chief information security officers conducted by Gartner sheds light on habits shared by the top-performing members of the profession

• August 24, 2023 24 Aug'23

  Bletchley Park to host UK government AI safety summit

  An international collaboration event on artificial intelligence safety is being run at the site that was home to the world’s first programmable computer

• August 24, 2023 24 Aug'23

  NHS SBS to launch £1.5bn digital workplace solutions framework

  NHS Shared Business Services is planning on a second iteration of its digital workplace solutions framework before the current one expires in August 2024

• August 24, 2023 24 Aug'23

  NHS England calls on NHS organisations to take part in wireless trials

  NHS organisations are encouraged to apply for funding for the wireless trials programme, which aims to explore how cutting-edge tech can improve patient care

• August 24, 2023 24 Aug'23

  AWS debuts Dedicated Local Zones with Singapore government as first customer

  The new offering will be fully managed by AWS, built for exclusive use by a customer or community, and placed in a customer-specified location or datacentre

• August 23, 2023 23 Aug'23

  Six subpostmaster appeals to be heard in Scottish court

  Scottish court will hear appeals against the convictions of six former subpostmasters based on evidence from a Post Office computer system

• August 23, 2023 23 Aug'23

  St Helens Council in Merseyside hit by ransomware attack

  St Helens Borough Council is investigating a suspected ransomware incident targeting its systems, and is advising residents to be on the alert for follow-on phishing attacks

• August 23, 2023 23 Aug'23

  Cyber attacks in 2023 develop quicker as average dwell times plummet

  The median attacker dwell time shrunk from 10 to eight days in the first seven months of 2023, and in the case of ransomware attacks it is down to just five days

• August 22, 2023 22 Aug'23

  Met Police data platform £64m over budget

  A freedom of information request has revealed that the Met’s Connect integrated record management system is running tens of millions over budget, and has already generated more than 25,000 support requests so far

• August 17, 2023 17 Aug'23

  NUHS taps LLM to boost productivity, patient care

  Healthcare professionals at Singapore’s National University Health System can now summarise patient case notes and predict patient healthcare journeys using a large language model trained by a supercomputer

• August 17, 2023 17 Aug'23

  MP calls for review of computer evidence rule which led to subpostmasters being wrongly convicted

  MP writes to minister in charge of courts requesting he looks at the controversial rules on the use of computer evidence in court

• August 16, 2023 16 Aug'23

  Accenture’s Brussels AI lab to focus on European public sector and health

  Accenture will use its Brussels AI lab to test AI and generative AI's application in the European public sector

• August 15, 2023 15 Aug'23

  Biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner resigns

  Dual biometrics and surveillance camera watchdog will step down at the end of October 2023, noting that while he agreed to stay on until the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill received royal assent, continuing delays to its passage means ...

• August 15, 2023 15 Aug'23

  Norfolk and Suffolk police hit by FoI-linked data breach

  Latest UK police data breach relates to crime suspects, victims and witnesses across East Anglia, and comes just days after a similar incident at the Northern Irish service

• August 14, 2023 14 Aug'23

  CMA provisionally clears US healthcare giant’s purchase of GP IT supplier EMIS

  US company UnitedHealth is looking to buy UK healthcare technology firm EMIS in a £1.2bn deal

• August 11, 2023 11 Aug'23

  Biden administration bans investment in Chinese high tech

  Executive Order prohibits investment firms from supporting Chinese firms specialising in AI, quantum and advanced semiconductors

• August 10, 2023 10 Aug'23

  DWP accounts highlight decline in outside IR35 workers in wake of department’s £87.9m tax bill

  The Department for Work and Pensions has seen a marked decline in the number of outside IR35 contractors it engages since the department was hit with a £87.9m tax bill several years ago, its accounts show

• August 10, 2023 10 Aug'23

  Babylon Health faces downfall

  GP at Hand provider once hailed by Matt Hancock looking to sell UK business after merger plans collapse