News

IT for government and public sector

• February 02, 2016 02 Feb'16

  Portsmouth uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to ease traffic woes

  City council manages traffic flow and eases congestion with a wireless, Bluetooth IoT sensor network

• February 02, 2016 02 Feb'16

  CIO interview: James Findlay, HS2

  The man in charge of the tech behind the UK’s new high-speed railway talks about infrastructure, open data and working with SMEs

• February 02, 2016 02 Feb'16

  G-Cloud 6 wins six-month extension as government preps next-gen framework

  G-Cloud suppliers claim the extension could be a sign of bigger and better things to come in eighth version of the public sector procurement framework

• February 01, 2016 01 Feb'16

  Boeing plugs ViaSat into new AH-64E Apache helicopters

  Boeing awards satellite broadband supplier ViaSat a contract to supply connectivity for its AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters

• February 01, 2016 01 Feb'16

  Winners announced for UK Games Fund as government ramps up creative industries

  The Department of Culture Media and Sport has announced the winners of the first round of its UK Games Fund designed to promote growth in UK creative industries

• February 01, 2016 01 Feb'16

  TfL shifts corporate archive to AWS public cloud in digital preservation push

  London transport authority has begun moving its first 3TB of corporate archive data to the AWS cloud with the help of Preservica

• February 01, 2016 01 Feb'16

  Oracle to build cloud datacentre in Abu Dhabi

  Move seen as acknowledgement that local presence is required for increased cloud growth

• February 01, 2016 01 Feb'16

  Cyber extortion is a growing, but largely hidden threat

  Security industry warns of increasing cyber extortion attacks as Lincolnshire County Council is hit by a ransomware demand

• February 01, 2016 01 Feb'16

  EE to retain brand, network and shops, says BT

  BT has announced a new organisational structure to come into effect in April, following its acquisition of mobile operator EE

• February 01, 2016 01 Feb'16

  Microsoft Office 365 is beating Google Apps in enterprise adoption – Gartner research

  Gartner’s take on the use of cloud email tools within the enterprise shows that Microsoft Office 365 is leading the way

• February 01, 2016 01 Feb'16

  UK surveillance bill could hurt tech sector, warn MPs

  Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee says government's planned surveillance bill is too vague and needs to be redrafted to avoid economic damage

• January 29, 2016 29 Jan'16

  BT signs £7.4m health and care integration contract with Islington

  BT is set to develop an integrated digital care record, pulling information from both health and social care systems in Islington

• January 29, 2016 29 Jan'16

  MPs call for guarantee of no rural payments IT fiasco this year

  MPs have criticised the rural payments digital service and want assurances that there will be no return this year to paper forms when farmers claim their EU subsidies

• January 28, 2016 28 Jan'16

  Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust goes for Servelec RiO EPR

  Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust has finally chosen an electronic patient record system – 18 months after first going out to tender

• January 27, 2016 27 Jan'16

  Police spending too much on outdated IT systems, Theresa May says

  Police ICT reform is “gritty and unglamorous” but necessary to tackle crime, according to home secretary Theresa May

• January 27, 2016 27 Jan'16

  New government plan to support cyber security startups

  Government has announced a £250,000 programme to increase the rate of cyber security startup development in the UK

• January 27, 2016 27 Jan'16

  Government may consider state-owned broadband provider

  A public sector-owned broadband infrastructure provider is one option on the table as DCMS consults on the future of the £1.7bn BDUK scheme

• January 26, 2016 26 Jan'16

  Cabinet Office looks for temporary staff sourcing replacement worth up to £5bn

  The Cabinet Office has begun looking for a replacement for its controversial contract for sourcing temporary staff in government

• January 26, 2016 26 Jan'16

  Costain opts for hybrid cloud and hosted bare metal from Navisite

  Construction and civil engineering group Costain gets mix of pure cloud and bare metal hosted at Navisite datacentres as it tools up to provide key highways infrastructure systems

• January 26, 2016 26 Jan'16

  Blue light services should share control rooms and IT, Home Office says

  The Home Office plans to make emergency services collaboration mandatory and to join up back-office IT and control rooms

• January 25, 2016 25 Jan'16

  Industry leaders call on next London Mayor to prioritise technology

  Ahead of the mayoral election, Tech London Advocates, techUK and Centre for London produce a manifesto lobbying for “a truly digital city”

• January 22, 2016 22 Jan'16

  Irish sites downed by DDoS attacks

  A series of DDoS attacks in Ireland has disrupted government services

• January 22, 2016 22 Jan'16

  GDS to launch mentoring scheme for schools and colleges

  Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock has announced plans for a GDS mentoring scheme, partnering with local schools and colleges

• January 22, 2016 22 Jan'16

  Crunch time for Australian CIOs as analytics platforms drive strategy in 2016

  CIOs in Australia and elsewhere will be expected to deploy technologies that promise to help them get more from the information they own

• January 21, 2016 21 Jan'16

  Norfolk County Council embarks on £20m network and mobile upgrade

  Norfolk County Council has awarded Capita-owned public services network supplier Updata a £20m framework agreement to upgrade its network infrastructure

• January 21, 2016 21 Jan'16

  New wave of cyber attacks hit Ukrainian power firms

  Security researchers have uncovered emails sent to Ukrainian power companies with links to malware for creating backdoor access to IT systems

• January 21, 2016 21 Jan'16

  Digital methods will improve government projects, says civil service chief

  Civil service CEO John Manzoni tells MPs that lessons learned from digital technologies will help improve the track record of all major projects in government

• January 20, 2016 20 Jan'16

  Security will be key public sector cloud adoption driver by 2018, predicts Gartner

  Gartner predicts that by 2018 government agencies will be citing security as a reason to move to public cloud rather than to stay away from it

• January 20, 2016 20 Jan'16

  Bournemouth Council considers bringing IT back in-house

  Bournemouth Council could bring IT and other services back in-house to gain more control over its budget and meet tough cost-cutting targets

• January 20, 2016 20 Jan'16

  Met Police appoints Angus McCallum as CIO

  BG Group’s Angus McCallum is the Metropolitan Police’s CIO, heading up its Digital Policing arm and serving on the management board

• January 20, 2016 20 Jan'16

  NHS 24 admits ‘systematic failure’ of £117m IT project

  NHS 24 has admitted that a “systematic failure around project governance” was the cause of its major IT transformation project disaster

• January 20, 2016 20 Jan'16

  Government drafts in civilians to fight cyber crime

  The government plans to bolster police capacity to fight cyber crime by approving measures to give powers to volunteers with specialist knowledge

• January 20, 2016 20 Jan'16

  PwC acquires Polish cloud consultancy for European operation

  PwC is buying Poland-based IT services firm Outbox to build its cloud skills and resources across Europe

• January 20, 2016 20 Jan'16

  Microsoft to donate $1bn worth of cloud computing resources

  Microsoft's $1bn cloud computing donation is aimed at helping NGOs, academic research and developing countries

• January 19, 2016 19 Jan'16

  Digital Single Market must be adopted without delay, says EU parliament

  MEPs pass resolution urging the EU to adopt Digital Single Market proposals and enact new protections for consumers as soon as possible

• January 19, 2016 19 Jan'16

  Staffordshire Police picks Boeing as its strategic IT partner

  The police and crime commissioner for Staffordshire plans to sign a strategic IT partnership contract with Boeing, worth more than £100m over the next 10 years

• January 19, 2016 19 Jan'16

  UK IT and business process outsourcing plummeted in 2015, show ISG figures

  The amount of money UK organisations spent on IT and business process outsourcing fell sharply in 2015, compared to the previous year

• January 19, 2016 19 Jan'16

  Cornwall Council transfers 270 staff back in-house as BT deal ends

  Cornwall Council’s £160m outsourcing deal with BT has officially come to an end as the council transfers 270 staff back in-house

• January 19, 2016 19 Jan'16

  Government should exploit blockchain technology, says chief scientist Mark Walport

  Distributed ledgers – the technology behind systems such as bitcoin – could transform public services, says government chief scientist Mark Walport

• January 19, 2016 19 Jan'16

  Migration recommendations could hike the cost of Indian IT services

  Government recommendations to tighten up the rules around overseas workers in the UK could increase IT costs for businesses

• January 19, 2016 19 Jan'16

  Sigfox brings the internet of things to Antarctica

  Connectivity provider teams up with GPS supplier Sensolus and Belgian government to use the IoT to support climate change researchers

• January 19, 2016 19 Jan'16

  Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull calls for free, open and secure internet

  International norms of behaviour should prohibit states from conducting cyber intellectual property theft, says Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull

• January 18, 2016 18 Jan'16

  Scotland needs a chief digital officer, says SCDI

  The Scottish Council for Development and Industry, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and BT Scotland have called on the government to create a new role to drive digital transformation

• January 18, 2016 18 Jan'16

  Irish Tax Institute accelerates tax database search with MarkLogic

  The Irish Tax Institute has opted for MarkLogic for its TaxFind database service, with a system that pools a range of data types

• January 18, 2016 18 Jan'16

  Data standards ‘should be led by market, not European Commission’, says UK government

  In its response to the EU consultation on a single digital market, UK government highlights the need for healthy competition and transparency

• January 18, 2016 18 Jan'16

  Chinese university targeted by Islamic State hacktivist

  Beijing’s Tsinghua University is the latest organisation to be attacked by hackers with a social or political agenda

• January 15, 2016 15 Jan'16

  Lords urge government to reconsider national ID card

  The House of Lords debates the use of ID cards to tackle identity assurance, fraud, terrorism and crime – and urges government to review the issue

• January 15, 2016 15 Jan'16

  Government reviews IT contract strategy as ‘opaque’ outsourcing deals are set to expire

  Project dubbed ‘Ocean liner’ looks at how to move away from existing outsourcing contracts, citing poor value for money and supplier criticisms

• January 15, 2016 15 Jan'16

  Countries underestimate risk of cyber attack, says WEF

  Cyber attacks are one of the most serious risks facing global economies, according to the World Economic Forum's 2016 risk report

• January 14, 2016 14 Jan'16

  Southend-on-Sea Council embarks on £1.5m hybrid cloud datacentre refresh

  Local authority says hybrid cloud datacentre plans will pave the way for greater use of services offered via G-Cloud framework

• January 13, 2016 13 Jan'16

  IT specialists account for 25% of government spend on temps

  A National Audit Office report into government use of consultants and temporary staff shows that IT and project management staff account for the majority of the government's total spend in a bid to tackle the skills gap

• January 13, 2016 13 Jan'16

  NHS Scotland lets clinicians discover patterns in data with Tableau

  The NHS in Scotland is using data visualisation from Tableau to level up health outcomes across the country

• January 13, 2016 13 Jan'16

  NHS England launches hunt for ‘CI&TO’ to replace Kelsey

  NHS England seeks chief information and technology officer to take over from director for patients and information Tim Kelsey, who left late last year

• January 13, 2016 13 Jan'16

  Prisons and detention centres to get new health IT system

  NHS England will roll out new health and justice information system across prisons, immigration removal centres, youth institutes and secure children’s homes

• January 13, 2016 13 Jan'16

  Scottish Power picks Vodafone to manage smart electricity grid

  Four-year contract will see mobile operator manage performance monitoring and fault identification systems as energy supplier transitions to smart grid technologies

• January 13, 2016 13 Jan'16

  Watchdog urges US nuclear agency to close cyber security gaps

  An audit report has called on the US nuclear agency to revise its IT contracts to ensure better cyber security

• January 13, 2016 13 Jan'16

  Firms can monitor employees’ online chats, EU court rules

  Human rights court says it is not unreasonable for employers to want to verify that staff are completing their professional tasks during working hours

• January 12, 2016 12 Jan'16

  More endpoints managed is security concern, say IT services firms

  The rising number of devices connected to corporate networks is a security challenge for the IT services firms managing these endpoints

• January 12, 2016 12 Jan'16

  European Commission awards cloud contracts worth €24m to BT

  BT secures deals that will see it provide public and private cloud services to 52 European Commission agencies and bodies

• January 12, 2016 12 Jan'16

  Law should force companies to reveal cyber attacks, says Liam Fox

  Government should introduce legislation forcing firms to inform shareholders when they have been hacked, says Tory backbench MP Liam Fox

• January 11, 2016 11 Jan'16

  EU data protection rules affect everyone, say legal experts

  The EU's new data protection rules will impact every entity that holds or uses European personal data both inside and outside of Europe, according to legal experts

• January 11, 2016 11 Jan'16

  ICO reiterates call for stronger sentences for data theft

  The information commissioner (ICO) reiterates his call for stronger sentences for data theft after a court fined a woman just £1,000 for selling 28,000 customer records

• January 11, 2016 11 Jan'16

  Jeremy Corbyn’s team quickly regains control of hacked Twitter account

  A hacker gained control of Jeremy Corbyn' s Twitter account, but managed to publish only four posts before control was taken back and the posts deleted

• January 11, 2016 11 Jan'16

  Top priorities for Nordic CIOs in 2016

  What are the main priorities for CIOs in the Nordic region this year? Computer Weekly asks some of the region’s experts

• January 08, 2016 08 Jan'16

  IT procurement lead Sarah Hurrell to leave Crown Commercial Service

  Government purchasing agency’s commercial director for technology will depart to take up a job in the private sector

• January 08, 2016 08 Jan'16

  Blackpool becomes third NHS trust to get open-source EPR

  Open-source electronic patient records continue to gain traction in the NHS as Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust signs up

• January 08, 2016 08 Jan'16

  US officials to meet tech firms about countering Islamic State

  Discussions will cover ways of making it more difficult for extremist groups to use online services to further their aims

• January 08, 2016 08 Jan'16

  Tech firms critical of UK draft Investigatory Powers Bill

  Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo say they are particularly concerned about six key aspects of the UK's draft Investigatory Powers Bill

• January 07, 2016 07 Jan'16

  Gov.uk notifications platform to begin sending texts and emails

  Latest project in government-as-a-platform strategy aims to make it easier to keep individuals informed about applications and services

• January 07, 2016 07 Jan'16

  French intelligence ‘could have prevented Paris attacks'

  A former US intelligence director turned whistleblower tells MPs and peers that bulk collection of internet and phone data is putting lives at risk

• January 07, 2016 07 Jan'16

  UK interception powers need regular review, says privacy watchdog

  UK information commissioner Christopher Graham has called for a regular review of interception powers and greater audit powers

• January 06, 2016 06 Jan'16

  Italy wakes up to new IoT opportunities

  Organisations in Italy are investing in internet-connected technologies, with infrastructure providers building the underpinning networks

• January 06, 2016 06 Jan'16

  EU privacy watchdog to set up ethics advisory group

  The EU data protection supervisor plans to encourage a discussion on the ethics of future technologies to prevent individuals being reduced to mere data subjects

• January 06, 2016 06 Jan'16

  Government has poor track record in delivering major projects, says NAO

  Out of 149 major government projects with total lifetime costs of £511bn, including 40 ICT projects, a third is rated red or amber-red, the National Audit Office has found

• January 05, 2016 05 Jan'16

  Security experts support Dutch stance on encryption

  Security experts have come out in support of a Dutch government statement against weakening encryption for the purposes of law enforcement and intelligence agencies

• January 05, 2016 05 Jan'16

  Fears of software skills shortage in Germany and the Netherlands

  Organisations in Germany and the Netherlands are struggling to fill positions for software developers as they digitise

• January 05, 2016 05 Jan'16

  Bristol opens up transport data to app developers

  Bristol City Council offers free access to transport data to encourage the development of mobile technology systems

• January 05, 2016 05 Jan'16

  Free public communications network rolls out in New York City

  Communication hubs will provide free public Wi-Fi, voice and video calls, device charging and tablets for internet browsing, access to city services, maps and directions

• January 05, 2016 05 Jan'16

  Surveillance tribunal refers child privacy claim to information commissioner

  The Investigatory Powers Tribunal has referred a complaint to the UK information commissioner that the US National Security Agency is intercepting children's internet activities

• January 04, 2016 04 Jan'16

  IT security predictions for Australian organisations in 2016

  What IT security challenges should Australian organisations expect in the new year?

• January 04, 2016 04 Jan'16

  GP Extraction Service ‘another Whitehall failure’, says PAC

  Public Accounts Committee slams GP Extraction Service and its supplier, Atos, in a new report on the long-delayed project

• January 04, 2016 04 Jan'16

  Surrey County Council pushes for digital to improve services for residents

  Local authority is pushing open data, linking up different services and installing movement sensors in extra care housing

• December 31, 2015 31 Dec'15

  Top 10 internet of things stories of 2015

  2015 was the year the internet of things began to move from theory to widespread practice, and the fledgling industry shook off the millstone of connected kitchen appliances

• December 30, 2015 30 Dec'15

  Government calls on industry to develop UK digital strategy

  The government turns to the public and industry for ideas on how to push forward the UK’s digital transformation

• December 24, 2015 24 Dec'15

  Top 10 NHS IT stories of 2015

  From the unexpected news that NHS England’s digital chief Tim Kelsey is leaving the NHS to an unsurprising further delay of Care.data and Epic problems at Cambridge University Hospital, NHS technology has had a turbulent year

• December 23, 2015 23 Dec'15

  Top 10 APAC IT stories of 2015

  The top 10 Computer Weekly articles about enterprise IT in the Asean and ANZ regions

• December 23, 2015 23 Dec'15

  Top 10 CIO interviews of 2015

  The IT leaders in the UK and across Europe who shared their strategies and plans with Computer Weekly in 2015

• December 22, 2015 22 Dec'15

  Dorset County Council rejects outsourcing

  Council decides against outsourcing back-office services, including IT, due to a lack of flexibility

• December 22, 2015 22 Dec'15

  Top 10 public sector IT stories of 2015

  In the year the UK public voted for another five years of Tory government and Mike Bracken left the Government Digital Service (GDS), public sector IT had a turbulent ride

• December 21, 2015 21 Dec'15

  Court rules Cornwall Council can terminate BT outsourcing deal

  Cornwall Council gets the green light from the High Court to end its £160m outsourcing deal with BT and plans to give termination notice before Christmas

• December 17, 2015 17 Dec'15

  Australian corporate counsel under cyber attack but no plans to increase security spend

  Australia’s corporate counsel are suffering a high rate of data breaches compared to many regions, but do not plan to spend more on preventative security

• December 17, 2015 17 Dec'15

  DWP IP addresses ended up in hands of Daesh, hackers claim

  A number of social media accounts owned by jihadist militant group have been linked to IP addresses previously owned by the UK government

• December 17, 2015 17 Dec'15

  National security ‘not affected’ by failed e-Borders programme, says Home Office

  Despite the key Warnings Index system suffering an average of two high-priority incidents a week – such as a system component not being available – Home Office officials deny it causes risk to national security

• December 16, 2015 16 Dec'15

  Deal on EU data protection is close

  A deal to standardise data protection rules across the EU could be imminent after compromises were made

• December 15, 2015 15 Dec'15

  Will more business mean more IT adoption in post-election Myanmar?

  Myanmar is set for huge economic, social and cultural changes after the recent general election and IT has a key role to play

• December 14, 2015 14 Dec'15

  HMRC launches digital personal tax accounts

  HM Revenue & Customs has gone live with online personal tax accounts and has published a detailed plan on how to “make tax digital”

• December 14, 2015 14 Dec'15

  Somerset plans early exit from Southwest One deal

  Somerset County Council plans to pursue an early exit from its Southwest One contract and bring services back in-house in 12 months

• December 14, 2015 14 Dec'15

  GP patients in Wales will get access to medical records by 2017

  The Welsh government publishes a five-year digital health and care strategy, which includes a citizens’ portal for patients to access their GP records

• December 11, 2015 11 Dec'15

  UK hosts international cyber attack response test

  The UK has hosted an exercise to test how investigators and prosecutors across Europe and the US would work together in the event of a complex international cyber criminal incident

• December 10, 2015 10 Dec'15

  Experian chooses UK authentication startup for Gov.UK Verify

  To ensure that UK citizens using Gov.UK Verify have secure access to their online accounts, Experian is using distributed cryptography technology from MIRACL