News

IT for government and public sector

• December 13, 2022 13 Dec'22

  EU issues draft data adequacy decision in favour of US

  The European Commission has concluded that the United States does ensure an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the European Union and will now launch the process towards the adoption of an adequacy decision

• December 13, 2022 13 Dec'22

  The nature of the CISO role will be in flux in 2023

  As cyber risk outpaces organisational defences, and cyber attacks and breaches cause more and more damage, the nature of the CISO role is entering a state of flux, according to a report

• December 12, 2022 12 Dec'22

  Cloud-based fingerprint system for UK police nears completion

  Police Digital Service announces that a new cloud-based fingerprint system developed under its Transforming Forensics programme is nearly complete, but data protection concerns around the use of US-based cloud providers remain

• December 12, 2022 12 Dec'22

  IR35: HMRC claims ‘potential’ legislative change in pipeline to address settlement offset issue

  HMRC claims work on a ‘potential legislative solution’ is underway to ensure it does not collect more tax than is due when end-user organisations are found to have made errors in determining the IR35 status of their contractors

• December 09, 2022 09 Dec'22

  Labour unveils plans to make UK global startup hub

  The Labour Party has published a review into the UK startup landscape, which calls for a number of changes to help make the country a more attractive place for startups

• December 09, 2022 09 Dec'22

  Iranian APT seen exploiting GitHub repository as C2 mechanism

  A subgroup of the Iran-linked Cobalt Mirage APT group has been caught taking advantage of the GitHub open source project as a means to operate its latest custom malware

• December 09, 2022 09 Dec'22

  Online Safety Bill returns to Parliament

  MPs and online safety experts have expressed concern about encryption-breaking measures contained in the Online Safety Bill as it returns to Parliament for the first time since its passage was paused in July

• December 09, 2022 09 Dec'22

  IT system limitations a factor in passport delays

  Limitations in the UK’s passport office IT system led to delays in applicants receiving their documents during a recent period of high demand

• December 08, 2022 08 Dec'22

  Apple to tap third party for physical security keys

  Apple is launching a number of new security protections, including the addition of third-party-provided hardware security keys

• December 07, 2022 07 Dec'22

  Google, MS, Oracle vulnerabilities make November ’22 a big month for patching

  Vulnerabilities affecting the likes of Google, Microsoft and Oracle proved particularly troublesome in November

• December 07, 2022 07 Dec'22

  Post Office scandal – “cock-up or cook-up”?

  The second phase of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal raised more questions over who did what, when and where, with shocking revelations at every turn

• December 06, 2022 06 Dec'22

  Legacy IT magnifies cyber risk for Defra, says NAO

  Some 30% of Defra’s applications are currently unsupported, magnifying cyber risk as the government department struggles to make progress on a digital transformation programme

• December 06, 2022 06 Dec'22

  EU fails to protect human rights in surveillance tech transfers

  Transfers of surveillance technology from the European Union to African governments are carried out without due regard for the human rights impacts, the European Ombudsman has found after a year-long investigation into the European Commission’s ...

• December 06, 2022 06 Dec'22

  Don’t become an unwitting tool in Russia’s cyber war

  Researchers have turned up evidence that enterprise networks are being co-opted by Russian threat actors to launch attacks against targets in Ukraine. How can you avoid becoming an unwitting tool in a state-backed attack?

• December 02, 2022 02 Dec'22

  Civil servants want more digital skills training, survey finds

  Civil servants are keen to learn more about how to use technology, including artificial intelligence (AI) to improve public services, yet only 5% have received AI training

• December 02, 2022 02 Dec'22

  Post Office boosted its ‘coffers’ as Horizon system threw up unexplained shortfalls, inquiry told

  The Post Office was ‘keen’ to make subpostmasters cover unexplained accounting shortfall as its business struggled, public inquiry hears

• December 01, 2022 01 Dec'22

  MI6 chief’s hacked emails attacked MI5 and betrayed British spy operations in China

  Former UK spy boss Richard Dearlove leaked names of MI6 secret agent recruiters in China to back an aggressive right-wing US campaign against tech company Huawei. His emails were hacked and then leaked – probably by Russian intelligence

• December 01, 2022 01 Dec'22

  Financial benefits of government’s shared services strategy remain unclear, says NAO

  Cabinet Office needs to do more to avoid previous failings, as several barriers remain to a successful implementation of the strategy to deliver shared back-office services for government, according to National Audit Office report

• November 30, 2022 30 Nov'22

  Microsoft 365 banned in German schools over privacy concerns

  German schools cannot legally use Microsoft Office 365 over lack of clarity about how data is collected, shared and used, as well as the potential for unlawful transfer of European citizens’ personal data to the US

• November 30, 2022 30 Nov'22

  Subpostmaster federation deliberately kept public in dark over computer problems

  The federation representing subpostmasters deliberately suppressed information about computer errors that could have saved its members from devastating life-changing events

• November 30, 2022 30 Nov'22

  Latest LockBit ransomware versions have wormable capabilities

  Sophos researchers have reverse-engineered the Lockbit 3.0 ransomware, shedding new light on its evolving capabilities and firming up links with BlackMatter

• November 30, 2022 30 Nov'22

  NIS regulations to be extended to cover MSPs

  The UK government is moving ahead with plans to update the Network and Information Systems regulations to bring outsourcers and MSPs into scope

• November 30, 2022 30 Nov'22

  Scotland launches national digital platform for health and care

  The online platform aims to give people access to their health and social care data, as well as provide staff with access to data to inform decisions about care

• November 29, 2022 29 Nov'22

  MoD signs three-year deal with AWS to bolster defence sector’s digital skills

  UK Ministry of Defence is joining forces with Amazon Web Services to boost the defence sector’s cloud capabilities

• November 29, 2022 29 Nov'22

  ‘Legal but harmful’ clause dropped from Online Safety Bill

  Online Safety Bill’s ‘legal but harmful’ provision will be dropped by the UK government in favour of public risk assessments, tools to help users control the content they consume, and new criminal offences around self-harm

• November 29, 2022 29 Nov'22

  Government needs to do more for UK semiconductor industry, say MPs

  Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee report says the government is putting the UK chip industry at ‘significant risk’ by failing to support it sufficiently, and calls on Whitehall to publish its semiconductor strategy immediately

• November 25, 2022 25 Nov'22

  Data management, backup becoming the CISO's responsibility

  More and more CISOs are taking on responsibility for wider data management strategies, and this trend looks set to grow next year

• November 25, 2022 25 Nov'22

  Wales launches beta version of its own NHS app

  NHS Wales has begun trialling the beta version of its patient-facing app ahead of plans for a full launch next year

• November 25, 2022 25 Nov'22

  Fujitsu put pressure on UK government to sign off troubled Horizon project, public inquiry hears

  Telegram from British Embassy in Tokyo to UK government reveals pressure on ministers to sign off controversial contract

• November 23, 2022 23 Nov'22

  UK police arrest 120 in largest-ever cyber fraud crackdown

  The administrator and more than 100 users of the iSpoof.cc cyber fraud website have been arrested in a major counter-fraud operation led by the Metropolitan Police

• November 23, 2022 23 Nov'22

  South Korea data adequacy pact brings £15m Brexit bonus

  UK government finalises a data adequacy agreement with South Korea, saying it will unlock a post-Brexit business bonus of just under £15m

• November 23, 2022 23 Nov'22

  Netherlands wants watchdog to reduce bias in artificial intelligence

  Dutch government will take swift action to prevent citizens getting into trouble due to the misuse of algorithms

• November 22, 2022 22 Nov'22

  Government launches AI-focused green innovation programme

  The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy claims the programme will not only help the UK achieve its net-zero goals, but may also help bring down energy costs

• November 22, 2022 22 Nov'22

  Ducktail spins new tales to hijack Facebook Business accounts

  The increasingly active Ducktail cyber crime operation is refining its operations, seeking new methods to compromise its victims’ Facebook Business accounts

• November 22, 2022 22 Nov'22

  Killnet DDoS hacktivists target Royal Family and others

  Russia-aligned hacktivists targeted multiple UK websites, including those of the Royal Family, in a new campaign of DDoS attacks

• November 22, 2022 22 Nov'22

  Businesses must embrace digital skills and innovate, says CBI president

  Brian McBride, president of the Confederation of British Industry, says the UK is a ‘magnet for tech investment’ and calls on UK firms to step up and adapt, as tech adoption will help boost the economy

• November 22, 2022 22 Nov'22

  C-suite mystified by cyber security jargon

  Malware, supply chain attack, zero-day, IoC, TTP and Mitre ATT&CK are just some of the everyday terms that security pros use that risk making the world of cyber incomprehensible to outsiders

• November 21, 2022 21 Nov'22

  Genome lab puts Vast Data’s rapid I/O to work on patient data

  French government-backed SeqOIA ditched its Lustre-based storage after it reached performance limits and files got corrupted. That got fixed by a Vast Data QLC flash-based array

• November 21, 2022 21 Nov'22

  NHS federated data platform must avoid repeating Care.data mistakes, says national data guardian

  UK’s national data guardian agrees with the ambitions of the platform, but warns that the programme must avoid ‘common pitfalls around trust and transparency’

• November 18, 2022 18 Nov'22

  Is Elon Musk’s Twitter safe, and should you stop using it?

  With a litany of security and compliance issues exposed and in many cases caused by Elon Musk’s takeover of social media platform Twitter, some may be asking if it’s still safe or appropriate to use

• November 18, 2022 18 Nov'22

  Post Office scandal inquiry’s expert IT witness ‘troubled’ by his findings

  Controversial Post Office Horizon system lacked the integrity required to trust accounting data and contained ‘joke’ coding akin to an ‘overly engineered mousetrap’, inquiry told

• November 17, 2022 17 Nov'22

  Brexit deregulation will make UK next Silicon Valley, vows Hunt

  Chancellor vows to revolutionise how the IT industry is regulated to spur competition, investment and innovation in a technological ‘Big Bang’

• November 17, 2022 17 Nov'22

  Another Log4Shell warning after Iranian attack on US government

  The breach of a US federal body by an Iranian threat actor exploiting the Adobe Log4j Log4Shell vulnerability has prompted a fresh flurry of patching

• November 17, 2022 17 Nov'22

  Scottish government to pilot digital identity platform in early 2023

  Pilot of Scotland’s digital identity platform will be run in partnership with Disclosure Scotland, using secure sign-on and identity verification

• November 17, 2022 17 Nov'22

  NHS Digital confirms final settlement of £3.95m with HMRC following conclusion of IR35 investigation

  The health service’s digital arm has paid HMRC £3.95m in unpaid tax to cover the cost of its IR35 compliance errors

• November 17, 2022 17 Nov'22

  HMRC will begin migration from Government Gateway to One Login in summer 2023

  One Login for Government programme has the objective of simplifying access to central government, says HMRC chief technology and design officer

• November 16, 2022 16 Nov'22

  Team working on controversial Post Office Horizon EPOSS software was the ‘joke of the building’

  Former members of the ICL team developing software for the Post Office Horizon EPOSS system were unqualified and engaged in poor software development practices, public inquiry told

• November 16, 2022 16 Nov'22

  Global network fragmentation a source of increasing risk

  Risk consultancy’s report says the weaponisation of cyber space and geopolitical clashes herald a breakdown of global networks into distinct regional or national architectures

• November 15, 2022 15 Nov'22

  Post Office changed view of Horizon problems before roll-out, because of a ‘sunk cost fallacy’

  Insider tells public inquiry that the Post Office continued to roll out the controversial Horizon system despite a ‘considerable’ number of errors, because it was too committed

• November 15, 2022 15 Nov'22

  Commoditisation of NHS tech is a problem, says NHS Digital interim CEO

  NHS Digital interim CEO Simon Bolton calls for a stronger mandate from the centre around the systems in use in the NHS, with no more than four to six electronic patient record systems used across the country