News

IT for government and public sector

• March 05, 2026 05 Mar'26

  Sweden recommends citizens keep £81 in cash per adult in case of payment system crash

  The central bank of Sweden says rapid digitisation could cause vulnerabilities in payment systems

• March 05, 2026 05 Mar'26

  Spyware suppliers exploit more zero-days than nation states

  Exploitation of zero-days by commercial surveillance and spyware developers outpaced exploitation by nation-state actors last year, according to a report

• March 05, 2026 05 Mar'26

  Capita secures decade-long government contract amid failure in public sight

  Outsourcing firm has won 10-year contract to supply government departments with tech-enabled business services

• March 05, 2026 05 Mar'26

  Government wants to build digital ID system in-house

  The Home Affairs Committee hearing on digital ID reveals consultation is due next week; there will be no central database; and while government wants to build the system in-house, it will not replace private digital ID providers

• March 05, 2026 05 Mar'26

  Scandal victim gets leave to appeal decision to split case against Post Office and Fujitsu

  Prominent scandal victim given leave to appeal High Court decision in his legal action against the Post Office and Fujitsu

• March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26

  Iranian hacktivists muster their forces but state APTs lay low

  Hacktivist activity surrounding the Iran war is sky-high but Iran’s state-backed cyber espionage actors have yet to show their hands, giving security teams a valuable window of time to shore up their defences

• March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26

  Zero-day in Android phone chips under active attack

  Google and Qualcomm have tag-teamed a serious vulnerability in the chipsets used in Android mobile devices, which has been exploited in the wild as a zero-day

• March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26

  Tycoon2FA phishing platform dismantled in major operation

  A Europol-led sting against the infamous Tycoon2FA MFA bypass phishing service has been successful, with operations disrupted and ringleaders and cyber criminal users identified

• March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26

  UK lab gets funding to drive foundational AI research

  The government is providing six years of funding worth up to £40m in a bid to support UK researchers developing artificial intelligence models

• March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26

  Landmark legal challenge against Home Office eVisa system heard

  The UK High Court will examine whether the Home Office policy of refusing to issue alternative proof of immigration status outside of its electronic visa system is lawful

• March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26

  Civil service veteran ‘incandescent’ as wait for pension hits four months amid outsourcing mess

  Public servant of over 40 years, who has been waiting four months for pension payments to begin, says government has lost control

• March 04, 2026 04 Mar'26

  Transnational AI regulation needed to protect human rights in the UK

  Tech companies have told MPs and Lords they would welcome greater harmonisation in regulatory standards at a global level

• March 03, 2026 03 Mar'26

  NHS SBS launches £250m patient communication framework

  The procurement framework aims to help NHS organisations buy products and services to help communicate with patients more efficiently

• March 03, 2026 03 Mar'26

  NCSC: No increase in cyber threat from Iran, but be prepared

  While cyber threat levels remain stable following the outbreak of war in the Middle East at the weekend, at-risk organisations in the UK should take steps to ward off potential reprisals from Iran-linked threat actors

• March 03, 2026 03 Mar'26

  NS&I seeks Bank of England counsel over project disaster

  The Bank of England’s successful IT transformation, praised by the National Audit Office, is being used as a model for government departments, including NS&I, which faces a failing IT project

• March 03, 2026 03 Mar'26

  MPs launch inquiry into use of tech in education

  The use of tech and artificial intelligence has the potential to help delivery of education in the UK, so a committee of MPs has launched an inquiry into its opportunities and challenges

• March 02, 2026 02 Mar'26

  UK government consults on social media ban for under-16s  

  A UK government consultation launched today asks whether under-16s should be banned from social media, and age restrictions introduced for VPNs and chatbots

• February 27, 2026 27 Feb'26

  Australia inks five-year deal with Microsoft to drive AI and cloud adoption

  The Digital Transformation Agency’s new agreement promises cost certainty, improved discounts, and a skills fund to support the government’s digital transformation agenda

• February 26, 2026 26 Feb'26

  Qilin crew continues to dominate ransomware ecosystem

  The Qilin ransomware gang remained ‘top dog’ in January 2026, with over 100 observed cyber attacks to its name, amid a rapidly evolving and fragmenting cyber criminal ecosystem

• February 26, 2026 26 Feb'26

  India AI Impact Summit: Open source gains ground, but sovereignty tensions persist

  While open source artificial intelligence gained unprecedented recognition during the latest global AI summit, divisions over governance, market concentration and regulatory power cast doubt on whether the technology will benefit society as a whole

• February 26, 2026 26 Feb'26

  Deputy prime minister vows to reform justice system with AI

  Initiatives to transform UK courts include launching a justice AI academy, an AI listing assistant and a new High Court digital system

• February 26, 2026 26 Feb'26

  US artificial intelligence developers accuse Chinese firms of stealing their data

  Artificial intelligence developers are accusing Chinese firms of stealing their intellectual property following a spate of ‘distillation attacks’, despite their own alleged theft of training data

• February 25, 2026 25 Feb'26

  The UK’s proposed social media ban explained

  The UK government will use new legal powers to lay the groundwork for an under-16 social media ban after its consultation on children’s digital well-being, but opponents warn the measures being considered will only treat the symptoms of the problem ...

• February 25, 2026 25 Feb'26

  Application exploitation back in vogue, says IBM cyber unit

  IBM’s X-Force unit observes an uptick in the exploitation of vulnerable public-facing software applications

• February 25, 2026 25 Feb'26

  Police created ‘intelligence profile’ of BBC journalist subject to phone surveillance

  Police and MI5 conducted seven unlawful operations to obtain phone data relating to former BBC journalist Vincent Kearney, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal heard today

• February 25, 2026 25 Feb'26

  UK government commits £483m to Post Office for IT transformation

  The UK government is to provide the next round of funding to support the Post Office’s move away from its controversial Fujitsu Horizon IT system

• February 24, 2026 24 Feb'26

  Email from 1999 reveals Post Office ECCO+ system crash problems

  ECCO+ system experienced freezes during transactions, which could have left Post Office branch account discrepancies

• February 23, 2026 23 Feb'26

  Governments urged to step up enforcement of big tech amid rush to ban social media for under-16s

  The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights says that European governments should consider better enforcement against big tech companies before banning children from social media

• February 23, 2026 23 Feb'26

  €126bn in Dutch tech projects blocked by permits and grid limits

  Ex-ASML chief Peter Wennink’s deregulation solution triggers warnings from academics and government advisors

• February 20, 2026 20 Feb'26

  UK AI alignment project gets OpenAI and Microsoft boost

  Altogether, £27m is now available to fund the AI Security Institute’s work to collaborate on safe, secure artificial intelligence

• February 19, 2026 19 Feb'26

  European politicians amplify disinformation about UN rapporteur

  Government officials from the US and Europe have condemned UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese for remarks about Israel she never made, based on a truncated clip circulating online that takes her statements out of context

• February 19, 2026 19 Feb'26

  UKRI sets out strategy to make UK an AI leader by 2031

  The strategic framework for 2031 lays out the steps the UK needs to take to drive forward innovation and academic research in artificial intelligence

• February 19, 2026 19 Feb'26

  Minister wants ‘logical conclusion’ to review of digital evidence in light of Post Office scandal

  House of Lords debate saw government minister make an ambiguous promise in regard to the treatment of computer evidence in court

• February 19, 2026 19 Feb'26

  India AI Impact Summit begins

  The summit aims to democratise AI and bridge the growing divide between countries, but critics warn that it risks becoming a mere spectacle if the technology only serves the interests of power and profit

• February 18, 2026 18 Feb'26

  Flaws in Google and Microsoft products added to Cisa catalogue

  Cisa has added six CVEs to its Kev catalogue this week, including newly disclosed issues in Google Chromium and Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines, and some older flaws as well

• February 18, 2026 18 Feb'26

  0APT ransomware crew makes embarrassing splash

  A ransomware gang called 0APT has attracted attention, but many of its victims may not even be real, and its operators are being accused of over-egging their criminal pudding

• February 18, 2026 18 Feb'26

  Eradicating Fujitsu and Horizon from the Post Office, step by step

  Post Office IT chief tells Computer Weekly about the challenges and progress in removing the controversial Horizon system from Post Office branches

• February 17, 2026 17 Feb'26

  Defence and education see big gains in public sector IT spend, Tussell report finds

  Tussell Tech200 finds big growth in IT supplier revenue in defence and education, with gains for suppliers in IT services and digital transformation

• February 17, 2026 17 Feb'26

  Artificial intelligence ‘creeping into’ high-risk stock trading

  Growing reliance on artificial intelligence is encroaching into the stock market, finds research

• February 17, 2026 17 Feb'26

  House of Lords committee concerned over digital forensics backlog

  Lords’ Science and Technology Committee warns policing and justice system is unequipped to make use of technologies such as AI, and calls on government to handle digital forensics backlog

• February 17, 2026 17 Feb'26

  Government pumps £20m into using tech to fight addiction

  Funding grants from Innovate UK will be used for medical technologies and digital tools such as artificial intelligence and wearables to reduce substance misuse and addiction

• February 17, 2026 17 Feb'26

  Government wages cyber campaign as half the UK’s SMEs are breached

  UK government says half of all small businesses have been cyber breached in the recent past as it urges them to ‘lock the door’

• February 17, 2026 17 Feb'26

  British Transport Police start using live facial recognition

  British Transport Police will deploy facial recognition for six months despite calls for the government to halt its rapid expansion of the technology

• February 16, 2026 16 Feb'26

  Noah Donohoe inquest reveals issues with police ControlWorks system

  An inquest heard that there were major issues with the system used by the Police Service of Northern Ireland to record information reported by the public

• February 16, 2026 16 Feb'26

  UK government risks ‘perpetuating’ Post Office injustice through response to Capture appeals

  Peers question government’s approach to wrongful conviction appeals from former users of Capture software

• February 13, 2026 13 Feb'26

  UK National Crime Agency seeks CDIO, offering more than £100k for the role

  The chief digital and information officer will be expected to set the National Crime Agency’s digital, data and technology sourcing strategy, secure multi-year investment and manage a £100m budget

• February 12, 2026 12 Feb'26

  Government bank digital project a ‘full-spectrum disaster’ exposing taxpayers to risk

  National Savings and Investments is unable to tell Public Accounts Committee the cost of its modernisation programme

• February 12, 2026 12 Feb'26

  Thousands of unread emails and 20 million database errors cause civil service pension hardship

  Capita is to ‘fast-track’ any technology, including artificial intelligence, that can help it clear a backlog in civil service pension work

• February 12, 2026 12 Feb'26

  Large language models provide unreliable answers about public services, Open Data Institute finds

  Research questions AI’s trustworthiness in giving people accurate information about government services

• February 12, 2026 12 Feb'26

  European Commission: TikTok’s addictive design breaches EU law

  In a preliminary ruling, European Commission says TikTok’s additive design features are in breach of laws designed to create safer digital spaces