News

IT for government and public sector

• May 20, 2022 20 May'22

  Applying international law to cyber will be a tall order

  Many in the security community have voiced their support for the UK government’s ambitions to work towards agreement with other countries on the application of international law to cyber space, but not without some reservations

• May 19, 2022 19 May'22

  Defensive cyber attacks may be justified, says attorney general

  Speaking ahead of a speech at the Chatham House think tank, the UK’s attorney general has suggested defensive cyber attacks against hostile countries may be legally justifiable

• May 17, 2022 17 May'22

  Post Office scandal victim calls for government’s role in silencing victims to be investigated

  Victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal in Scotland raise further questions about Post Office and government conduct

• May 17, 2022 17 May'22

  (ISC)² to train 100,000 cyber pros in UK

  Security association (ISC)² unveils ambitious UK training programme

• May 17, 2022 17 May'22

  Controversial Post Office IT system to be replaced by 2025

  Work is ongoing by the Post Office to replace the controversial Horizon retail and accounting system used in nearly 12,000 branches

• May 16, 2022 16 May'22

  Smart traffic management offers greater emissions control

  Juniper Research has predicted that CO2 emissions could be slashed if governments fully deploy smart traffic management systems

• May 13, 2022 13 May'22

  Pro-competition data sharing will not include users’ personal info, says minister

  UK government proposals to improve competition in digital markets by making tech giants share data with smaller firms will not include consumers’ personal information, says digital minister

• May 13, 2022 13 May'22

  Government levelling up bill promotes open data-based digital planning

  The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech includes proposals for digital planning powers to be given to local government in England and Wales, based on open data

• May 11, 2022 11 May'22

  CyberUK 22: Five Eyes focuses on MSP security

  The western intelligence community has set out practical steps IT service providers and their customers can take to protect themselves

• May 11, 2022 11 May'22

  DWP partners with AI-powered career and job services

  Partnership involves a trial to see how well artificial intelligence can be used to help job seekers find work more quickly

• May 11, 2022 11 May'22

  Cyber accreditation body Crest forges new training partnerships

  Crest says partnerships with Hack The Box and Immersive Labs will enhance its members’ defensive and offensive security skills

• May 11, 2022 11 May'22

  Microsoft fixes three zero-days on May Patch Tuesday

  It’s the second-to-last Patch Tuesday as we know it, and Microsoft has fixed a total of 75 bugs, including three zero-days

• May 11, 2022 11 May'22

  Queen’s Speech: Employment Bill omission suggests further delays to umbrella market regulation

  Contracting market stakeholders were hoping for some clarification on the delivery timeline for umbrella market regulation in the Queen’s Speech, but none was forthcoming

• May 11, 2022 11 May'22

  EU plans to police child abuse raise fresh fears over encryption and privacy rights

  Draft regulation unveiled today will require internet and messaging firms to use algorithms to identify grooming and child abuse or face heavy fines

• May 10, 2022 10 May'22

  CCRC to contact 88 more former subpostmasters with potentially wrongful convictions

  The Criminal Cases Review Commission is to contact 88 more potentially wrongfully convicted Post Office workers

• May 10, 2022 10 May'22

  ‘Spy cops’ inquiry delves into police relationship with MI5

  There was ‘no filter’ on the information that undercover police officers were collecting on activists throughout the 1970s, despite senior managers and officials involved in directing the surveillance questioning the appropriateness of the ...

• May 10, 2022 10 May'22

  CyberUK 22: Cyber leaders affirm UK’s whole-of-society strategy

  On the opening day of CyberUK 2022, GCHQ director Jeremy Fleming and NCSC CEO Lindy Cameron have spoken of their commitment to the government’s ambition for a whole-of-society cyber strategy

• May 10, 2022 10 May'22

  Post Office scandal inquiry chair brings forward urgent compensation hearings

  The chair of the Post Office Horizon scandal inquiry has brought forward hearings about compensation as victims warn that at this rate “people will die” before they get anything

• May 10, 2022 10 May'22

  CyberUK 22: NCSC refreshes cloud security guidance

  The National Cyber Security Centre is revising its cloud guidance as increasing uptake of potentially vulnerable cloud services puts more organisations at risk of compromise

• May 10, 2022 10 May'22

  DWP Digital sets out three-year plan to improve data sharing and cut legacy

  In response to the pandemic, the government department aims to improve collaboration and develop a reference architecture

• May 09, 2022 09 May'22

  Post Office scandal victims in Scotland to tell their stories, raising questions of law

  Inquiry into Post Office scandal moves to Scotland, with differences in English and Scottish law raising further serious questions about subpostmaster prosecutions

• May 09, 2022 09 May'22

  Malaysian government inks agreement with Google Cloud

  The cloud framework agreement with Google will make it easier for Malaysia’s public sector agencies to access Google Cloud services through a single government contract

• May 06, 2022 06 May'22

  UK digital markets regulator to be given statutory powers

  Digital Markets Unit will be put on statutory footing by UK government to ensure technology giants do not abuse market power, but announcement comes with no clear indication of when legislation will be introduced

• May 06, 2022 06 May'22

  IT infrastructure used to launch DDoS attack on Russian targets

  Organisations could unwittingly be participating in hostile activity against the Russian government as compromised IT infrastructure is used without their knowledge to launch denial of service attacks

• May 05, 2022 05 May'22

  Five companies join NCSC for Startups to deal with ransomware

  The NCSC has invited five startups to join the NCSC for Startups programme to develop tech that can help deal with the threat of ransomware

• May 04, 2022 04 May'22

  Judicial intervention 'inevitable' as Post Office compensation valuation falls short

  Lawyer negotiating compensation for victims of Post Office scandal says the two sides are 'poles apart' on valuations

• May 03, 2022 03 May'22

  Post Office scandal CEO could be stripped of CBE

  Honours Forfeiture Committee to review Paula Vennells’ CBE in the light of Post Office scandal

• April 28, 2022 28 Apr'22

  Ransomware recovery costs dwarf actual ransoms

  The cost of recovering from a ransomware attack far outweighs the ransoms now being demanded by cyber criminals, according to recent data

• April 28, 2022 28 Apr'22

  UK regulators seek input on algorithmic processing and auditing

  Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum is inviting views on how the four UK watchdogs involved should approach regulating algorithms, following its publication of discussion papers and a 2022 workplan

• April 28, 2022 28 Apr'22

  Sanders calls on Biden to cut off federal contracts with Amazon

  In an open letter, senator Bernie Sanders urges the US president to fulfil a campaign promise to stop union-busting companies from winning federal government contracts

• April 28, 2022 28 Apr'22

  Russia plumbs new depths in cyber war on Ukraine

  Microsoft details cyber attacks on Ukrainian civilian communications, nuclear safety authorities, and the exploitation of the destruction of Mariupol in a phishing campaign

• April 28, 2022 28 Apr'22

  Scotland’s tech sector recovers pre-pandemic verve

  According to ScotlandIS research, the Scottish technology sector has recovered pre-pandemic levels of growth, and cyber security emerged as the hottest growth area from the industry body’s annual report

• April 27, 2022 27 Apr'22

  Log4Shell, ProxyLogon, ProxyShell among most exploited bugs of 2021

  These 15 CVEs were the most commonly exploited last year, and if you haven’t mitigated against them, now is the time

• April 27, 2022 27 Apr'22

  Ransomware victims paying out when they don’t need to

  Sophos’s annual State of Ransomware report shows dramatic increases in the impact of ransomware attacks, but also finds many organisations are paying ransoms when they don’t need to

• April 27, 2022 27 Apr'22

  Government digital ignorance puts Dutch economy at risk

  In this interview, Michiel Steltman, managing director of Digital Infrastructure Netherlands, tells Computer Weekly why the Dutch digital economy is at risk due to a lack of knowledge and understanding at government level

• April 27, 2022 27 Apr'22

  Police question former Fujitsu worker again in Post Office scandal perjury investigation

  Police have interviewed a former Fujitsu employee for the third time in the investigation into potential perjury during trials of wrongfully convicted subpostmasters

• April 26, 2022 26 Apr'22

  BCS passes defiant Ukrainian tech industry message to its members

  BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, has passed on a message from Ukrainian IT suppliers that the country is open for, and in need of, business

• April 26, 2022 26 Apr'22

  Emotet tests new tricks to thwart enhanced security

  The operators of the Emotet botnet seem to be trying to find a way to get around recent changes made by Microsoft to better protect its users

• April 25, 2022 25 Apr'22

  Majority of workers using umbrella companies see no benefits

  Research from trade body for independent professionals finds that most self-employed workers operating through an umbrella company think there are no advantages to the arrangement

• April 25, 2022 25 Apr'22

  Government appoints head of technology transfer unit

  Government announces a CEO to lead its initiatives around commercialising its knowledge assets

• April 25, 2022 25 Apr'22

  Post Office scandal victims still waiting for compensation a year after convictions overturned

  Former subpostmasters at the centre of one of biggest miscarriage of justice in modern history are still waiting for compensation a year after their wrongful convictions were overturned

• April 22, 2022 22 Apr'22

  EU lawmakers propose limited ban on predictive policing systems

  MEPs’ joint report on European Artificial Intelligence Act sets out limited ban on predictive policing systems alongside a raft of further amendments to improve redress mechanisms and extend the list of AI systems deemed high-risk

• April 21, 2022 21 Apr'22

  Five Eyes in new Russia cyber warning

  Latest cross-body alert warns of Russian threat to utilities and other core elements of national infrastructure

• April 21, 2022 21 Apr'22

  European cities moving fast to change business of parking

  German cities are using the latest smart parking technology to reduce traffic and car pollution while collecting more fees for parking

• April 21, 2022 21 Apr'22

  Dutch schools struggle with digitisation

  Now is the time for schools in the Netherlands to determine how the opportunities of distance and digital learning resources can be made to work and how the risks involved can be mitigated

• April 21, 2022 21 Apr'22

  More Scottish subpostmaster conviction reviews expected as part of Post Office scandal

  The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission expects more subpostmasters with potential wrongful convictions to come forward

• April 20, 2022 20 Apr'22

  Home secretary Priti Patel to decide whether to extradite Assange

  Home secretary will decide in four weeks whether to approve Julian Assange’s extradition to the US, where he faces espionage and hacking charges

• April 20, 2022 20 Apr'22

  NSO Group faces court action after Pegasus spyware used against targets in UK

  Three human rights activists whose phones were targeted by spyware traced to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have begun legal action against both countries and Israel’s NSO Group Technologies

• April 20, 2022 20 Apr'22

  Financial Ombudsman Service chooses TCS as digital transformation partner

  Tata Consultancy Services will build and implement key systems as part the Financial Ombudsman Service’s digital transformation

• April 19, 2022 19 Apr'22

  ODI data literacy report laments technical skills inflation in government data strategy

  An Open Data Institute report on data literacy and UK government data strategy sees a lack of clarity in definition, fragmentation of responsibility, and a disconnect between government and citizens