News

IT for government and public sector

• October 22, 2020 22 Oct'20

  Nordic countries in denial over IT industry equality

  Arriving in Denmark to find she was the only woman on a computer science master’s course was a shock to Plamena Cherneva

• October 22, 2020 22 Oct'20

  Bath and North East Somerset goes live with integrated care record

  Record system allows health and care professionals to share information across Virgin Care, local GPs, Royal United Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Bath and North East Somerset Council

• October 22, 2020 22 Oct'20

  US Justice Department files antitrust lawsuit against Google

  Lawsuit alleges Google used anticompetitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in a number of interconnected digital markets, violating US federal antitrust law

• October 21, 2020 21 Oct'20

  How Malaysia’s Selangor state is tapping cloud

  Malaysian state has built a cloud-based payment services platform for citizens and is looking to tap cloud-based analytics to upgrade its surveillance cameras, among other cloud computing initiatives

• October 20, 2020 20 Oct'20

  Hackney Council services to be disrupted ‘for some time’

  Inability to make housing benefit payments is likely to sting some tenants as Hackney cyber attack drags on

• October 20, 2020 20 Oct'20

  Police given access to self-isolation data

  NHS Test and Trace self-isolation data will be made available to police after new guidance changes data-sharing rules

• October 20, 2020 20 Oct'20

  MoD launches science and technology strategy

  Strategy sets out how the department will find and fund technological breakthroughs, focus on data and deliver next-generation military hardware

• October 20, 2020 20 Oct'20

  Labour shares concerns over ‘whitewash’ Horizon IT inquiry

  Labour MPs write to postal affairs minister expressing fears that the inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal does not guarantee cooperation from the Post Office, Fujitsu and government

• October 20, 2020 20 Oct'20

  Making Tax Digital could impose unreasonable costs on taxpayers, says PAC

  Public Accounts Committee calls on HMRC to assess whether the administrative burden placed on taxpayers through its Making Tax Digital programme is reasonable before continuing to roll it out

• October 19, 2020 19 Oct'20

  Scottish Borders extends CGI outsourcing contract until 2040

  CGI will continue to provide the Scottish council’s end-to-end managed IT services until 2040, making it one of the longest extensions in the company’s history

• October 19, 2020 19 Oct'20

  UK Space Agency funds three Covid-19 tech projects

  Projects include drones to carry coronavirus tests and samples, a mobile app using satellite technology to provide access to community transport, and e-learning courses in Earth observation data analysis

• October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20

  UK announces proposals to protect cash amid evolution of digital payments

  Government wants to ensure access to physical currency by consumers at retailers of all sizes

• October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20

  Serco and Sitel contact-tracing contracts agreed to be penalty-free for underperformance

  Penalties for underperformance were not included in NHS contact-tracing contracts with Serco and Sitel, it has emerged from questions to the Department of Health by Conservative MP David Davis

• October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20

  UK government aims to prioritise future innovations

  Government research has been published to enable evidence-based recommendations on emerging technology with greatest impact

• October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20

  Welsh shared electronic record project is far from realising ambition, says auditor

  Welsh Community Care Information System roll-out, originally due in 2018, is taking longer and costing more than expected, and the prospect of a full take-up among local organisations is still uncertain

• October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20

  Spanish court to question witnesses over ‘illegal surveillance’ of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

  The Spanish National Court in Madrid is to hear evidence from information security expert Andy Müller-Maguhn and two lawyers who were subject to ‘illegal surveillance’  of their meetings with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London

• October 16, 2020 16 Oct'20

  Services Australia taps AI in document processing

  Services Australia and Capgemini have developed an AI engine to classify and extract information from claim documents in a pilot project

• October 15, 2020 15 Oct'20

  UK regulators lack the skills and expertise to cope with increasing use of algorithms

  MPs told that multiple regulators will be needed to govern the ever-growing use of algorithmic systems in all areas of the economy and public sector

• October 15, 2020 15 Oct'20

  Emerging tech can improve regulatory processes, says BEIS report

  Regulators should take a best-practice approach to the use of emerging technologies but need to be aware of the challenges, according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

• October 15, 2020 15 Oct'20

  Post Office races to solve IT error under gaze of public and banks

  The Post Office is focusing urgently on fixing an IT error suffered by a subpostmaster amid the ongoing IT scandal

• October 15, 2020 15 Oct'20

  Hackney services still offline in ongoing cyber attack

  Services remain disrupted two days after council was hit by a serious incident, as residents are warned to be on their guard

• October 14, 2020 14 Oct'20

  Public sector security failings leave UK at risk, says think tank

  Reform report urges adoption of new policies in the next version of the UK’s National Cyber Security Strategy

• October 14, 2020 14 Oct'20

  Unions urge government to improve conditions for Amazon workers

  Unions have urged the UK government to leverage its position as a client of Amazon to improve conditions for workers

• October 14, 2020 14 Oct'20

  US Elections: Malicious internet domains spike as campaigns heat up

  Internet domains related to the US presidential election are 56% more likely to be malicious than regular ones

• October 13, 2020 13 Oct'20

  GMB Union boss calls for Dido Harding to resign from NHS Test and Trace

  Following the news that a technical glitch caused 16,000 coronavirus cases to go unreported, the GMB Union has called for Test and Trace chair Dido Harding to quit

• October 13, 2020 13 Oct'20

  Government minister’s plea for subpostmasters to take part in review of IT scandal rejected

  Government minister met with former subpostmaster online in an attempt to get victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal involved in government review

• October 13, 2020 13 Oct'20

  Hackney Council services offline after ‘serious’ cyber attack

  Services to residents of the London borough of Hackney are being disrupted by a cyber attack

• October 13, 2020 13 Oct'20

  HMRC signs five-year £169m contract with Fujitsu for VME platform

  Supplier will host 13 HMRC applications on its virtual managed environment platform, following its role as an incumbent provider to the department under two different contracts

• October 12, 2020 12 Oct'20

  UK economy could see blockchain boost worth £57bn by 2030

  Blockchain could provide major economic benefits by being used to track and trace products and services

• October 12, 2020 12 Oct'20

  Regional Covid-19 lockdowns will leave digitally excluded ‘stranded’

  Charity calls on government to do more to level up digital skills as it warns that tougher regional lockdowns in the Midlands and the North will hit digitally excluded people the hardest

• October 12, 2020 12 Oct'20

  Government gives update on post-Brexit customs systems

  Cabinet Office’s Border and Protocol Delivery Group provides further clarity on the readiness of the UK’s post-Brexit border IT systems

• October 08, 2020 08 Oct'20

  Edinburgh sets out plans to become a smart city

  Three-year digital plan includes empowering people to become ‘smart citizens’, introducing sensor technology, 5G and smart public transport, and moving most of the council’s systems to the cloud

• October 08, 2020 08 Oct'20

  Crown Prosecution Service suffers 1,600 data breaches in 12 months

  CPS sees a spike in data security incidents, many of them serious enough to be reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office

• October 07, 2020 07 Oct'20

  Department for Education failed to protect data on millions of children, says ICO

  The Department for Education’s National Pupil Database, which contains millions of items of data on the UK’s schoolchildren, was found to be non-compliant with data protection regulations across the board

• October 06, 2020 06 Oct'20

  Government to provide 100,000 devices for remote learning

  The Department for Education is offering education providers access to additional devices to help with remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic

• October 06, 2020 06 Oct'20

  Government deaf to loud calls for statutory public inquiry into Post Office scandal

  MPs are demanding the government holds a full statutory public inquiry into the Post Office IT scandal

• October 06, 2020 06 Oct'20

  Scotland seeks views on digital government

  Scottish government consults on how to build a digital Scotland, ahead of plans to deliver a new digital strategy for the country

• October 06, 2020 06 Oct'20

  Scotland digital identity prototype pilot successful

  Digital Identity Scotland’s 10-week test of its digital identity prototype finds that users understand the concept of two-factor authentication and using the same credentials across services

• October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20

  Facebook critics launch ‘Real Facebook Oversight Board’

  Organisation formed as an ‘emergency response’ to address the ‘immediate risk’ posed by Facebook’s role in the US election

• October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20

  HMRC warns locked-down freshers of ‘wave’ of tax scams

  New university intake may be being targeted by cyber criminals amid Covid-19 confusion

• October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20

  Regulator wants fintechs to address pandemic financial challenges

  UK financial services regulator is supporting fintechs in addressing some of the challenges consumers and small businesses face amid the current pandemic

• October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20

  FBI seized ‘legally privileged’ material from Ecuador Embassy, claims Julian Assange’s lawyer

  The US struck a secret deal with Ecuador to seize WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s property from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London days before his arrest. The haul included legally privileged documents, says his solicitor

• October 05, 2020 05 Oct'20

  Technical glitch causes nearly 16,000 Covid-19 cases to go unreported

  According to Public Health England, a technical glitch led to 15,841 positive results between 25 September and 2 October not being included in reported coronavirus cases

• October 02, 2020 02 Oct'20

  WikiLeaks led the way for newsrooms to use encryption to protect sources, says Italian journalist

  Stefania Maurizi says in written evidence that Julian Assange pioneered the use of encryption by journalists to protect sources. Her work shows that the US put pressure on Italy to stop the extradition and prosecution of CIA officers responsible for...

• October 02, 2020 02 Oct'20

  Honesty is the best policy: Forging a security culture in the NHS

  Clinician and technologist Sam Shah helped set up NHSX in 2019. Now he’s helping advance digital transformation in healthcare from the outside, and a big part of that is addressing security in the sector

• October 02, 2020 02 Oct'20

  Future UK-EU data sharing put at risk by Brexit legislation

  When the Brexit transition period ends, UK ministers will have the power to forge new data-sharing arrangements that risk undermining the viability of future data transfers with the European Union

• October 02, 2020 02 Oct'20

  Justice for subpostmasters as wrongful criminal convictions are set to be quashed

  The Post Office has chosen not to contest 44 out of 47 appeals, meaning most are likely to have their names cleared, but others still face a Court of Appeal battle for justice

• October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20

  Judge to give verdict on Julian Assange’s extradition after Christmas

  Judge Vanessa Baraitser said today that she would make a ruling in early January on whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the US

• October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20

  WikiLeaks revelations ‘shed light of truth’ on war on terror, court hears

  WikiLeaks disclosures led to ‘revelations of extraordinary journalistic importance’ about detention in Guantamo Bay and civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan

• October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20

  Government on the hunt for GDS CEO

  Whitehall is recruiting for a Government Digital Service CEO who will report to the government chief digital officer, offering £168,000 a year for the role

• October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20

  Most people are happy to see their GP virtually, survey shows

  Research from healthtech company Visionable finds there has been a significant rise in GP video consultations, and that attitudes to communication technology have changed during the pandemic

• October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20

  Trust in government technology is key to adoption

  Panellists at GovTech Summit 2020 speak about the need to build trust in government digital services, as the pandemic has created room for increased use of technology in the public sector

• October 01, 2020 01 Oct'20

  Blackbaud admits hackers stole banking details, passwords

  Software firm paid off a ransomware gang, believed its hackers when they said they had destroyed the data, and has now discovered the cyber criminals accessed even more sensitive information than it thought

• September 30, 2020 30 Sep'20

  ‘American friends’ spied on Julian Assange in Ecuadorian Embassy, court hears

  Two former employees of UC Global, which provides security services to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, claim the company shared surveillance footage with the US of the WikiLeaks founder meeting with lawyers and other visitors

• September 30, 2020 30 Sep'20

  Norway leaves door open to Huawei

  Government gives telecoms companies responsibility to choose their equipment suppliers, which could include Huawei

• September 29, 2020 29 Sep'20

  Julian Assange would be held with convicted terrorist Abu Hamza in supermax prison, court hears

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would be held alongside convicted terrorist Abu Hamza in a supermax federal prison in Colorado, isolated from other prisoners, if he is extradited to the US, Old Bailey told

• September 29, 2020 29 Sep'20

  Coronavirus has changed perception of healthtech, say ministers

  German health minister Jens Spahn and UK health secretary Matt Hancock say Covid-19 has accelerated healthcare technology adoption across Europe and changed attitudes towards tech in the healthcare system

• September 29, 2020 29 Sep'20

  Subpostmasters still in the dark about live Horizon errors

  Subpostmasters still not being told about all the known errors in the controversial Post Office branch accounting and retail system that they use

• September 29, 2020 29 Sep'20

  Universal Credit algorithm fails people in need, says Human Rights Watch

  The human rights charity says the government’s flagship benefits system is “flawed” and that the means-testing algorithm used causes “irrational fluctuations and reductions in how much benefit” claimants receive each month

• September 28, 2020 28 Sep'20

  Julian Assange would be held in ‘solitary confinement’ in US jail

  WikiLeaks founder would be held in a cell the size of a parking space for 22 or 23 hours a day without contact with other inmates before trial

• September 28, 2020 28 Sep'20

  UK and US marked down on responsible AI

  The UK and US have been rated as leaders in government use of artificial intelligence, but the Nordics and Baltics attained the highest scores for responsible AI

• September 28, 2020 28 Sep'20

  Government updates data ethics framework

  The new data ethics framework was created to better reflect how projects are run in practice after finding there was “little awareness” of the previous framework across the public sector

• September 28, 2020 28 Sep'20

  Police Scotland to set up new cyber crime centre

  National Centre of Excellence will employ specially trained officers to tackle a vertiginous rise in cyber crime

• September 25, 2020 25 Sep'20

  Forensic expert questions US claims that Julian Assange conspired to crack military password

  Forensic computer expert Patrick Eller told the Old Bailey that US allegations that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange attempted to decrypt a password to help former soldier Chelsea Manning leak sensitive government documents anonymously do not fit ...

• September 25, 2020 25 Sep'20

  Government on the hunt for telexistence tech

  Defence and Security Accelerator wants several technology innovations that can help people operate in dangerous environments without being physically present – with £500,000 funding available

• September 24, 2020 24 Sep'20

  Government blasted over ‘reckless’ contact-tracing security

  The Open Rights Group and Big Brother Watch accuse the government of endangering public health with a reckless attitude to contact-tracing data security

• September 23, 2020 23 Sep'20

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has Asperger syndrome and depression, court hears

  Julian Assange is on the autistic spectrum and has a history of depression that would put him at risk of suicide if he is extradited to a US prison, psychiatrists tell the court

• September 23, 2020 23 Sep'20

  Over half of firms intend to continue US data transfers despite Schrems II

  Survey shows many organisations do not intend to significantly change their data-sharing practices, at least until there is more guidance from regulators or governments

• September 23, 2020 23 Sep'20

  MoD Defence Digital adds Oracle Cloud to MODCloud list of assured providers

  Database giant Oracle has been added to the list of providers the Ministry of Defence has endorsed for use by the UK defence community

• September 23, 2020 23 Sep'20

  US agencies warn of election disinformation and cyber attacks

  Federal agencies are warning of heightened disinformation as the crucial 2020 presidential election nears

• September 22, 2020 22 Sep'20

  Wielding influence: The challenges CIOs face under Covid-19

  IT decision-makers are more necessary than ever, but their skills are being put to the test as the implications of the pandemic and the role of technology in the business evolves, according to the 2020 global CIO survey by Harvey Nash and KPMG

• September 22, 2020 22 Sep'20

  GDS reviewing Cloud First policy post-Schrems II

  Review seeks to determine the future of government engagement with cloud hosting services as they relate to cross-border data flows

• September 21, 2020 21 Sep'20

  WikiLeaks cables showed US interfered in German torture investigation

  Khalid El-Masri, a German citizen who was kidnapped and tortured by the CIA in a case of mistaken identity, told a court that disclosures by WikiLeaks showed that the US had intervened in a German judicial investigation into his treatment

• September 21, 2020 21 Sep'20

  NHS tech bosses outline cost of coronavirus app development

  The government is forecasting spend to exceed £35m in the controversial contact-tracing app, a Public Accounts Committee on digital transformation in the NHS has heard

• September 18, 2020 18 Sep'20

  Outgoing NCSC CEO: Ransomware threat kept us up at night

  Former NCSC CEO Ciaran Martin sheds some light on some of the biggest cyber threats currently facing the UK

• September 18, 2020 18 Sep'20

  Congressman offered Julian Assange a ‘win-win’ deal that would help President Trump

  Details have emerged of US congressman Dana Rohrabacher’s offer of a pardon to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a ‘win-win deal that would benefit US President Donald Trump

• September 18, 2020 18 Sep'20

  Open Data Institute explores diverse range of data governance structures

  Unlocking the economic and social potential of data will require a diverse range of governance structures to meet the needs of different contexts, use cases and stakeholders

• September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20

  Government IT leaders on how Covid crisis will shape future delivery

  At a TechUK Building the Smarter State event, government IT leaders shared their experience of the coronavirus crisis, and their thinking about how future service delivery will aim to be more joined-up for citizens

• September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20

  WikiLeaks partners developed software to redact 400,000 Iraq War Logs

  Psychologist and co-founder of NGO the Iraq Body Count told a court that Julian Assange insisted on stringent redaction of hundreds of thousands of documents which revealed civilian deaths in the Iraq war

• September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20

  DWP accelerates digital transformation amid Covid-19 crisis

  The Department for Work and Pensions has released an update of the efforts made in the past six months across key digital services, with progress accelerating due to the pandemic

• September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20

  Loan charge under review: Government’s tax policy set to be challenged under EU law

  A fresh attempt to judicially review the government’s controversial disguised remuneration policy is being launched, and its backers have already secured 85% of the £180,000 needed to test whether the loan charge breaches EU law

• September 17, 2020 17 Sep'20

  Assange revelations among most important in US history, says Daniel Ellsberg

  Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked highly classified documents that changed the course of the Vietnam War in the 1970s, says WikiLeaks exposed a serious pattern of US war crimes

• September 16, 2020 16 Sep'20

  NCSC steps up ransomware support for schools and universities

  New alert and updated guidance comes after several academic institutions were targeted in ransomware attacks

• September 16, 2020 16 Sep'20

  Banks report surge in impersonation scams

  Fraudsters are using the Covid-19 crisis to trick people into transferring money to them

• September 16, 2020 16 Sep'20

  Singapore partners Apple on LumiHealth

  Singapore’s Health Promotion Board has developed a programme with Apple to encourage healthy living following a similar partnership with Fitbit last year

• September 15, 2020 15 Sep'20

  Data of every Welsh Covid-19 patient leaked online

  Data on all 18,105 people in Wales who have received positive tests for the coronavirus was uploaded to a public-facing web server in error

• September 14, 2020 14 Sep'20

  Julian Assange faces solitary confinement if extradited, court hears

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be held under special administrative measures if extradited to the US, said Eric Lewis, a US legal expert, effectively placing him in solitary confinement

• September 14, 2020 14 Sep'20

  UK’s ‘historic’ trade deal with Japan promises advantages to tech industry, says TechUK

  TechUK was among the organisations that have welcome the ‘historic’ trade deal between the UK and Japan that is expected to boost trade by £15bn a year

• September 11, 2020 11 Sep'20

  Government 'making progress' on Smart Freight System prep ahead of Brexit transition deadline

  The government appears to be heeding warnings about the readiness of the Smart Freight border IT system, as the January 2021 Brexit transition deadline looms large

• September 11, 2020 11 Sep'20

  UK ‘future tech’ development gets government funding boost

  £65m in funding will be used to develop electric batteries, robotics and advanced healthcare treatments

• September 11, 2020 11 Sep'20

  Russian interference in US elections ramps up on schedule

  With the critical US 2020 presidential election looming, Russian-state backed hackers are once again after organisations directly involved in political elections, launching thousands of targeted attacks

• September 11, 2020 11 Sep'20

  Government funds digital manufacturing projects

  The business secretary has announced £300 million of funding for virtual assistants, augmented reality and digital supply chain innovations

• September 10, 2020 10 Sep'20

  Irish privacy watchdog orders Facebook to stop sending user data to the US

  Irish privacy watchdog orders Facebook to suspend transfers of European citizens’ data to the US after Schrems II ruling that Europeans have no effective way to challenge American government surveillance

• September 10, 2020 10 Sep'20

  HMRC signs up Fujitsu for two years of user computing support

  As it disentangles the Aspire contract, HMRC has been working directly with key IT suppliers, with this latest agreement providing managed desktop IT

• September 10, 2020 10 Sep'20

  Edinburgh council to create smart city operations centre

  Edinburgh council extends an outsourcing agreement with CGI as it steps up its smart city programme

• September 09, 2020 09 Sep'20

  London councils to share technology procurement platform

  A new technology procurement platform will help all 33 local councils in London diversify their IT supplier portfolios

• September 09, 2020 09 Sep'20

  Technology businesses vital to UK post-Covid economic recovery

  Technology firms are set to play a larger role in UK’s post-Covid economy and are being encouraged to expand overseas after a strong year for digital exports

• September 09, 2020 09 Sep'20

  Abu Dhabi government launches peer-to-peer coding campus

  Abu Dhabi government launches a specialist programming school that uses peer-to-peer teaching methods and gamification

• September 09, 2020 09 Sep'20

  Government publishes long-promised national data strategy

  The government has published a national data strategy aimed at fostering innovation and increasing economic growth. It will also appoint 10 data fellows each year to work in the orbit of Number 10, and create 500 analyst jobs by 2021

• September 08, 2020 08 Sep'20

  UK leads Europe in net zero venture capital investment

  With the UK leading venture capital investment in net zero enterprises, Tech Nation have launched a new, government-backed scaleup programme to further develop the sector