News

IT for government and public sector

• March 16, 2023 16 Mar'23

  BEC attacks doubled in 2022, outstripping ransomware

  Massive growth in the volume of Business Email Compromise or BEC attacks was linked to a surge in successful phishing campaigns, according to data from Secureworks

• March 16, 2023 16 Mar'23

  Vallance review advocates light-touch regulation for emerging technologies

  Patrick Vallance, the outgoing government chief scientific adviser, has seen his light-touch emerging technologies regulation advice accepted by the government lock, stock and barrel

• March 16, 2023 16 Mar'23

  TikTok banned on UK government devices

  The UK government has followed in the footsteps of its US and European counterparts and banned the use of Chinese social media app TikTok on official devices

• March 16, 2023 16 Mar'23

  Budget 2023: startups extra funding via R&D relief and pensions

  UK government aims to promote increased investment in research and development-intensive startups through tax relief measures, relaxed pension rules, and new investment zones

• March 16, 2023 16 Mar'23

  Mandiant: Dangerous MS Outlook zero-day widely used against Ukraine

  A zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook that was fixed in the March Patch Tuesday update has likely been actively exploited by Russian actors for a year or more, and its use will now spread rapidly

• March 15, 2023 15 Mar'23

  Budget 2023: Chancellor affirms tax relief for IT investment

  Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget makes IT investment tax expendable for three years and announces support for artificial intelligence companies, including annual £1m ‘Manchester Prize’

• March 15, 2023 15 Mar'23

  Chinese Silkloader cyber attack tool falls into Russian hands

  A loader tool used by Chinese cyber criminals seems to have been enthusiastically taken up in recent weeks by Russian ransomware operators

• March 15, 2023 15 Mar'23

  Microsoft patches Outlook zero-day for March Patch Tuesday

  A highly dangerous privilege escalation bug in Outlook is among 80 different vulnerabilities patched in Microsoft’s March Patch Tuesday update

• March 14, 2023 14 Mar'23

  Central bank digital currency use set to soar over next seven years

  The use of central bank-backed digital currencies is set to explode over the next seven years as governments drive adoption to increase financial inclusion

• March 14, 2023 14 Mar'23

  AI interview: Elke Schwarz, professor of political theory

  Elke Schwarz speaks with Computer Weekly about the ethics of military artificial intelligence and the dangers of allowing governments and corporations to push forward without oversight or scrutiny

• March 13, 2023 13 Mar'23

  Subpostmaster demands names of Post Office executives who crushed him to suffocate truth

  One Post Office scandal victim was deliberately destroyed by the Post Office to deter other subpostmasters from challenging the integrity of its core computer system

• March 13, 2023 13 Mar'23

  MI5 to oversee new National Protective Security Authority

  The new National Protective Security Authority will address various national security threats including state-sponsored cyber espionage against UK targets

• March 13, 2023 13 Mar'23

  Government expects to save £1.8bn from back-office systems overhaul

  Whitehall announces it expects to save £1.8bn over a 15-year period by delivering shared back-office services, three months after a National Audit Office (NAO) report concluded the financial benefits of the plan remain unclear

• March 13, 2023 13 Mar'23

  HSBC buys Silicon Valley Bank UK arm for £1 following collapse

  UK tech ecosystem welcomes government intervention to facilitate HSBC purchase after the collapse of SVB left many UK startups unable to access their deposits

• March 10, 2023 10 Mar'23

  Technology minister Michelle Donelan defends data reforms

  Secretary of state Michelle Donelan has defended the government’s new data reforms as providing certainty for businesses while simultaneously retaining high standards of data protection, but industry figures are having mixed reactions

• March 10, 2023 10 Mar'23

  Government departments need to better understand digital transformation or efforts will ‘peter out’

  National Audit Office report says that the people making digital transformation decisions in government don't properly understand the challenges

• March 08, 2023 08 Mar'23

  UK government introduces revised data reform bill to Parliament

  Designed in close collaboration with technology businesses, the UK government is re-introducing an updated version of its Data Protection and Digital Information Bill to Parliament, which civil society groups say upends key safeguards

• March 07, 2023 07 Mar'23

  IT worker evidence reveals a toxic Post Office IT helpdesk that discriminated against subpostmasters

  IT worker tells public inquiry that the Post Office Horizon helpdesk was toxic, rudderless and racist

• March 07, 2023 07 Mar'23

  Spring Budget 2023: Campaign calls on government to ‘fix or ditch’ IR35

  Ahead of next week’s Spring Budget, contracting authority ContractorCalculator is calling on freelance IT workers to join campaign centred on getting government to ‘fix or ditch’ IR35 tax rules

• March 06, 2023 06 Mar'23

  Lords Committee to investigate use of AI-powered weapons systems

  House of Lords to investigate the use of artificial intelligence in weapons systems, following UK government publication of AI defence strategy in June 2022

• March 06, 2023 06 Mar'23

  Government announces Science and Technology framework

  The government has announced the first major work completed by its recently launched Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

• March 03, 2023 03 Mar'23

  White House unveils National Cybersecurity Strategy

  The strategy will focus on ensuring closer collaboration on cyber security between government and industry, while giving software and other tech companies a bigger role in combatting threats due to their resources and expertise

• March 03, 2023 03 Mar'23

  Newham Council expands on data economy plans unveiled in 2021

  Newham Council plans to set up a ‘data campus’ at East Ham Town Hall to continue the data economy development vision it announced at London Tech Week in 2021

• March 02, 2023 02 Mar'23

  AI interview: Michael Osborne, professor of machine learning

  Artificial intelligence researcher speaks with Computer Weekly about the implications of a market-driven AI arms race and the overwhelming dominance of the private sector over the technology

• March 02, 2023 02 Mar'23

  UK government migration scheme to boost tech ties with India

  The UK has agreed to allow thousands of young Indian professionals to work for two years in the UK as part of a migration exchange

• March 02, 2023 02 Mar'23

  Genomics England to use Sectra imaging system for cancer data programme

  Genomics England has deployed an enterprise imaging system from supplier Sectra to link radiology and pathology images with whole genome sequencing data

• February 28, 2023 28 Feb'23

  Post Office’s most senior executives hushed up Horizon errors, public inquiry told

  The Post Office messaging strategy was designed to reassure staff that the Horizon accounting system was robust after Computer Weekly first revealed problems in 2009

• February 28, 2023 28 Feb'23

  Government announces national fintech hub

  The UK Treasury has announced a centre for fintech innovation, two years after a major report recommended one

• February 27, 2023 27 Feb'23

  Scotland launches data strategy for health and social care

  The five-year strategy aims to make it easier for people to access their own health and social care data, improve data flows between organisations, and transform the way data is used to enhance services

• February 24, 2023 24 Feb'23

  UK police have ‘culture of retention’ around biometric data

  A culture of retention around biometric data in UK policing is damaging public trust, says UK biometrics commissioner, who is calling for clear regulation to govern police use of biometric technologies

• February 24, 2023 24 Feb'23

  HMCTS Common Platform roll-out put ‘avoidable pressure’ on courts

  The digital case management system was rolled out without adequate assurance it was robust enough to be deployed, and is having a ‘detrimental impact on courts’, the National Audit Office has found

• February 23, 2023 23 Feb'23

  WithSecure proposes ‘undo’ button for ransomware

  WithSecure’s Activity Monitor technology supposedly overcomes the shortcomings of sandbox test environments, and may be able to stop ransomware attacks from ever happening

• February 22, 2023 22 Feb'23

  UK HSE to launch regulatory sandbox for industrial safety tech

  The sandbox will see the regulator work with industry and tech startups to accelerate the development and adoption of a range of safety-related technologies, with a particular emphasis on data and analytics

• February 22, 2023 22 Feb'23

  Tony Blair and William Hague call for a remade strategic state to stoke UK innovation

  Former Labour prime minister and former Conservative Party leader argue for a remaking of the British state to capitalise on artificial intelligence, biotech and climate tech, and reverse the country’s decline

• February 22, 2023 22 Feb'23

  UK forces lead live-fire cyber war exercise

  The seven-day Defence Cyber Marvel 2 exercise put cyber responders from 11 countries through their paces

• February 22, 2023 22 Feb'23

  Researchers find new bug ‘class’ in Apple devices

  A group of vulnerabilities in Apple products that stem from the ForcedEntry exploit used by spyware firm NSO constitutes a whole new class of bug, say researchers at Trellix

• February 22, 2023 22 Feb'23

  Dutch cyber security professionals experience stress akin to soldiers in war zone, claims expert

  Cyber attacks are taking a heavy toll on Dutch IT professionals, with over a third reporting that their mental health suffers as a result

• February 22, 2023 22 Feb'23

  Half of cyber leaders to switch jobs by 2025, citing stress

  A substantial number of cyber security leaders are plotting their great escape, saying the industry is leaving them too stressed to go on, according to a study

• February 22, 2023 22 Feb'23

  Institute for Government cautions government to draw right lessons from pandemic

  The Institute for Government has published a policy document warning government not to draw wrong lessons from data sharing during pandemic

• February 21, 2023 21 Feb'23

  US government Strike Force aims to prevent adversaries from accessing disruptive tech

  The US Strike Force law enforcement initiative will target rogue nation-states that pose a national security threat

• February 21, 2023 21 Feb'23

  HMRC slammed for ‘needlessly’ pursuing CEST-assured outside-IR35 contractor

  HMRC stands accused of needlessly drawing out an IR35-related investigation into an engineering contractor’s tax affairs by ignoring the findings of its own Check Employment Status for Tax tool

• February 16, 2023 16 Feb'23

  Mock crime prediction tool profiles MEPs as potential criminals

  Developed by Fair Trials, the example crime prediction tool uses the same information as police systems to assess the likelihood of someone committing a crime in the future

• February 15, 2023 15 Feb'23

  Home Office partners with BAE Systems on border analytics

  BAE Systems wins three-year contract worth £38m to help Home Office develop Cerberus, a project to secure UK borders through advanced data systems and analytics

• February 15, 2023 15 Feb'23

  Multi-purpose malwares can use more than 20 MITRE ATT&CK TTPs

  Report warns of the development of increasingly sophisticated, multi-purpose malwares, and calls on defenders to play close attention to the MITRE ATT&CK framework to ward them off

• February 15, 2023 15 Feb'23

  Microsoft fixes three zero-days in February update

  February’s Patch Tuesday update contains fixes for three previously unpublicised zero-days in Microsoft Office, Windows Graphics Component and Windows Common Log File System Driver

• February 14, 2023 14 Feb'23

  Vidar, nJRAT re-emerge as prominent malware threats in January

  Trojans and infostealers once again dominate the list of most commonly observed threats, according to Check Point’s latest telemetry

• February 14, 2023 14 Feb'23

  ‘Buy now, pay later’ crackdown in the making

  The finance regulator has proposed bringing ‘buy now, pay later’ providers within its regulatory remit

• February 13, 2023 13 Feb'23

  Russian spear phishing campaign escalates efforts toward critical UK, US and European targets

  Russian hacking group Seaborgium refines its tactics in a continuation of attacks against targets including not-for-profit organisations with geopolitical affiliations

• February 13, 2023 13 Feb'23

  KPMG launches metaverse and digital twin hub in Saudi Arabia

  The Saudi Arabian government’s commitment to investing in metaverse technology has attracted a KPMG centre of excellence to its shores

• February 13, 2023 13 Feb'23

  Investigatory Powers Act: Home Office proposes rethink of safeguards on bulk data collection

  David Anderson KC will review the safeguards on intelligence service and police use of bulk datasets following a Home Office assessment that they are 'disproportionate'.