News

IT for government and public sector

• February 15, 2022 15 Feb'22

  China emerges as leader in vulnerability exploitation

  Threat actors linked to China are emerging as a significant force in the weaponisation of newly discovered CVEs

• February 11, 2022 11 Feb'22

  UK government publishes plans to improve health and social care integration

  A white paper outlines measures including digital care records under move to help individuals receive “better, more joined-up care”

• February 11, 2022 11 Feb'22

  Why security professionals should pay attention to what Russia is doing

  Even though the average organisation is an unlikely target for a Russian state cyber attack, here's why security teams still need to watch what Russian threat groups are up to

• February 11, 2022 11 Feb'22

  Lords to scrutinise UK plans to become a science and tech ‘superpower’

  House of Lords Science and Technology Committee inquiry will investigate the government’s strategy to advance its science and tech ambitions, how it will be delivered and its feasibility

• February 11, 2022 11 Feb'22

  The birth of Estonia’s digital civil servant

  As Estonia finalises the initial version of its government services digital assistant for launch later this year, the man heading the project describes the birth of Bürokratt and beyond

• February 11, 2022 11 Feb'22

  Hackney Council could be forced to answer questions about IT security training after Psya ransomware

  Council is negotiating with the information commissioner after refusing to reply to questions under the Freedom of Information Act about staff IT and security training during the pandemic

• February 10, 2022 10 Feb'22

  UK government starts search for new chief digital officer

  £190,000 job will lead digital, data and technology policy across Whitehall, in charge of the 200-strong Central Digital and Data Office

• February 10, 2022 10 Feb'22

  IR35 reforms: HMRC slammed for ‘over-collecting tax’ from non-compliant public sector bodies

  HMRC has moved to play down claims it is collecting more tax than it is due when tackling non-compliance with the IR35 reforms in the public sector

• February 10, 2022 10 Feb'22

  How diplomatic immunity silenced the prosecutor who coordinated Sweden’s EncroChat probe

  Defence lawyers claim Swedish court decision not to hear evidence from a Swedish prosecutor leaves important legal questions unanswered over international police operation to hack EncroChat cryptophone network

• February 10, 2022 10 Feb'22

  Interview: Eddie Copeland, director, London Office of Technology and Innovation

  The leader of the London Office of Technology and Innovation discusses local government’s response to the pandemic and its priorities for collaborative work around data and innovation in 2022

• February 10, 2022 10 Feb'22

  Government earmarks £23m for 2,000 AI scholarships in England

  The DCMS has confirmed £23m government funding for 2,000 scholarships in England for AI and data science Masters degree conversion courses

• February 09, 2022 09 Feb'22

  Minister defends digital economy legislation before Lords

  A digital minister has said that the UK’s forthcoming digital markets legislation is ‘superior’ to similar efforts in the EU, but could not commit to a specific time frame for when it will be introduced to Parliament

• February 09, 2022 09 Feb'22

  Linux-based clouds an open door for attackers, says VMware

  Its prevalence as a cloud operating system means Linux is becoming a meal ticket for malicious actors, but the security industry does not seem to have cottoned on to this yet, says VMware

• February 09, 2022 09 Feb'22

  Ransomware ever more sophisticated and impactful, warns NCSC

  UK’s National Cyber Security Centre teams up with US and Australian partners in a joint advisory warning organisations of the increasing sophistication exhibited by criminal ransomware gangs

• February 09, 2022 09 Feb'22

  Data strategy highlights geospatial data challenges

  A new assessment discusses the importance of data sharing, a lack of standards and the skills gap

• February 09, 2022 09 Feb'22

  Microsoft stomps on 48 bugs in February Patch Tuesday update

  It’s a light Patch Tuesday for February 2022, as Microsoft issues fixes for just 48 CVEs, including a solitary zero-day

• February 09, 2022 09 Feb'22

  Tech companies risk being compelled by law to protect children, says online safety expert

  John Carr, a child safety campaigner backing a government-funded campaign on the dangers of end-to-end encryption to children, says tech companies have no choice but to act

• February 09, 2022 09 Feb'22

  Post Office scandal victims to tell their stories in public

  Victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal are due to tell their devastating stories to the statutory inquiry

• February 08, 2022 08 Feb'22

  Microsoft to start blocking macros to thwart malware

  Microsoft is making changes to web macro permissions across multiple Office apps to help improve user security

• February 08, 2022 08 Feb'22

  The Security Interviews: Building the UK’s future cyber ecosystem

  As the government lays out the next iteration of its Cyber Security Strategy, we speak to Plexal and Lorca’s Saj Huq about his work building a cyber ecosystem to support the UK’s future ambitions

• February 08, 2022 08 Feb'22

  Porn sites will be legally required to verify users’ ages

  Porn sites could be legally obliged to verify that their users are 18 or over under proposed online safety rules, in UK government’s second attempt to prevent children from accessing pornography online

• February 08, 2022 08 Feb'22

  Nvidia’s Arm deal is dead

  ‘Significant regulatory challenges’ have prevented Nvidia in its $31bn attempt to purchase chipmaker Arm

• February 07, 2022 07 Feb'22

  Global IT companies ready to fight for Russian market

  International IT firms have begun the process of complying with the latest regulations imposed on them by the Russian government

• February 07, 2022 07 Feb'22

  Met police deploy facial recognition in Westminster

  Police facial recognition deployment resulted in four arrests, but questions remain about the necessity, proportionality and legality of the technology’s use

• February 04, 2022 04 Feb'22

  Cyber attacks on European oil facilities spreading

  Following a cyber attack on distribution facilities in Germany, more incidents have been reported in Belgium and the Netherlands, but it is too early to necessarily draw a link between them

• February 03, 2022 03 Feb'22

  EC proposes new directive to improve gig economy work conditions

  Gig economy workers in Europe could be entitled to more rights and better workplace protections under a directive proposed by the European Commission

• February 03, 2022 03 Feb'22

  Cack-handed government compensation scheme prolongs suffering of Horizon scandal victims

  Victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal are being denied the millions of pounds they are owed as the government delays compensation resolution

• February 03, 2022 03 Feb'22

  French Supreme Court raises constitutional questions over EncroChat hacking secrecy

  Conseil Constitutionnel to decide whether ‘defence secrecy’ over state EncroChat cryptophone hacking breaches French constitution

• February 03, 2022 03 Feb'22

  Australia’s cloud market tipped to surpass $14bn in 2025

  The growth will be led by growing demand for software-as-a-service offerings as Aussie firms look to tap cloud services in their digital transformation efforts

• February 02, 2022 02 Feb'22

  Zero-trust to soar in 2022, but dogged by implementation challenges

  IT leaders are keen to invest in zero-trust, but face issues around a lack of expertise, and selling the concept into the C-suite

• February 02, 2022 02 Feb'22

  Reforms needed to tackle economic crime, says Treasury Committee

  The Treasury Committee is disappointed at progress towards tackling economic crime and fraud in both the online and offline worlds, and is calling for more action

• February 02, 2022 02 Feb'22

  MPs call on government to ‘push harder’ and ‘act faster’ amid online fraud epidemic

  MPs on the Treasury Committee want the government to act quickly to reduce the amount of money being stolen through online fraud

• February 02, 2022 02 Feb'22

  British Council data exposed by third-party cyber failure

  The British Council entrusted confidential data on its students to a third-party and was let down

• February 02, 2022 02 Feb'22

  Saudi Arabia to invest billions of dollars in technology and startups

  Saudi Arabia announces $6.4bn investment in its tech sector as part of plans to diversify its economy

• February 01, 2022 01 Feb'22

  Check Point buys Spectral to safeguard cloud development

  Check Point’s latest acquisition of Israel-based startup Spectral expands its developer-centric security toolset

• February 01, 2022 01 Feb'22

  UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency appoints first CEO

  The government has named the first CEO of the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency

• February 01, 2022 01 Feb'22

  Met Police faces legal action over Gangs Matrix

  Campaign group Liberty is taking legal action against the Met over its use of the Gangs Matrix, claiming it is driven by racial stereotypes and disproportionately affects people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds

• January 31, 2022 31 Jan'22

  UK has record year for tech IPOs in 2021

  Tech companies represented 29% of all UK initial public offerings last year, raising a record $6.6bn

• January 31, 2022 31 Jan'22

  Data on children of armed forces personnel exposed in breach

  Data on 4,142 children of serving armed forces personnel was exposed in a data breach at the Ministry of Defence

• January 28, 2022 28 Jan'22

  Cyber skills gap affecting data privacy practice, finds ISACA

  Organisations are struggling to fill both legal and technical privacy roles, with potentially damaging consequences, according to a report

• January 27, 2022 27 Jan'22

  CISOs must get out in front of Ukraine cyber crisis, says NCSC

  The National Cyber Security Centre is urging UK organisations to take steps to bolster their cyber security resilience in response to the ongoing Ukraine crisis

• January 27, 2022 27 Jan'22

  Novel phishing campaign highlights need for MFA, says Microsoft

  Microsoft details a new multi-stage phishing campaign that only affects victims without multifactor authentication in place

• January 27, 2022 27 Jan'22

  Nightmare Log4Shell scenario averted by prompt, professional action

  Prompt and professional community response to the Log4Shell disclosure means the dangerous and widespread vulnerability has not been exploited to the extent many had feared

• January 26, 2022 26 Jan'22

  More intel emerges on WhisperGate malware that hit Ukraine

  Security experts have been poring over the WhisperGate malware with which alleged Russia-backed entities targeted Ukrainian government websites

• January 26, 2022 26 Jan'22

  PwnKit bug endangers Linux distributions worldwide

  Qualys researchers share intel on a memory corruption vulnerability in a program installed by default on every major Linux distribution

• January 26, 2022 26 Jan'22

  Demands on Fujitsu to contribute to £1bn Horizon scandal compensation costs

  Fujitsu cannot hide away as taxpayers pick up the bill for the Post Office scandal triggered by its IT system, say peers

• January 25, 2022 25 Jan'22

  Prepare, but don’t panic, over supposed Russian cyber threat

  A fresh alert from the US Department of Homeland Security may have IT security teams jumpy over the possibility that their organisations could be targeted by Russian state actors

• January 25, 2022 25 Jan'22

  Cyber Essentials programme gets biggest update since launch

  NCSC implements a thorough revision of its Cyber Essentials scheme to reflect the changing security landscape

• January 25, 2022 25 Jan'22

  UK launches international data transfer council

  Businesses, academics and trade bodies convene to help the UK seize data-sharing opportunities

• January 25, 2022 25 Jan'22

  Subpostmaster campaign group to meet government over unfair compensation settlement

  A group of subpostmasters excluded from fair compensation in the Horizon scandal is to meet government department to discuss their demands