News

IT for government and public sector

• 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

• April 14, 2022 14 Apr'22

  Lack of expertise hurting UK government’s cyber preparedness

  UK government bodies and critical infrastructure owners cite a lack of staff resources, and internal and external expertise, as hampering factors when it comes to cyber readiness, according to a report

• April 14, 2022 14 Apr'22

  Zhadnost DDoS botnet deployed against Finland

  A coordinated DDoS attack hit two government ministries in Finland at the same time as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a virtual address to the Finnish parliament

• April 14, 2022 14 Apr'22

  Government agrees bulk surveillance powers fail to protect journalists and sources

  Campaign group Liberty to launch legal appeal that will call for journalists to receive stronger legal protections from state surveillance

• April 13, 2022 13 Apr'22

  WatchGuard firewall users urged to patch Cyclops Blink vulnerability

  The US authorities have seen fit to add the WatchGuard vulnerability used by Sandworm to build the Cyclops Blink botnet to its list of must-patch vulnerabilities

• April 13, 2022 13 Apr'22

  Microsoft patches two zero-days, 10 critical bugs

  Patch Tuesday is here once again. This month, security teams must fix two privilege escalation zero-days in the Windows Common Log File System Driver and the Windows User Profile Service

• April 12, 2022 12 Apr'22

  AI researcher says police tech suppliers are hostile to transparency

  Expert witness in Lords police tech inquiry welcomes committee’s findings but questions whether its recommendations on how to end the ‘Wild West’ of police artificial intelligence and algorithmic technologies in the UK would be implemented

• April 11, 2022 11 Apr'22

  Border IT system fixed after 10-day outage

  Post-Brexit border IT system failure fixed after going down at the start of April, allowing traders to once again file customs documents electronically rather than by hand

• April 08, 2022 08 Apr'22

  EncroChat: France says ‘defence secrecy’ in police surveillance operations is constitutional

  Constitutional court finds that invoking ‘defence secrecy’ to withhold information about the state hacking of EncroChat cryptophones is constitutional. Defence lawyers now head for the supreme court

• April 07, 2022 07 Apr'22

  Goldacre review outlines recommendations on safer use of health data

  The findings of an investigation into use of health data for research and analysis includes a number of proposals to improve innovation in the NHS

• April 07, 2022 07 Apr'22

  MPs and editors sound alarm over threat to Freedom of Information

  Government secrecy and trend for departments to block Freedom of Information requests pose a long-term risk to accountability

• April 07, 2022 07 Apr'22

  Amazon workers defeat company to form first US union

  Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York, have successfully formed the first union at the company, with organisers pledging to help their colleagues across the US do the same

• April 07, 2022 07 Apr'22

  European IT and BPO outsourcing off to strong start

  European IT and business process outsourcing services continue to increase rapidly, with cloud-based services now more than half of the total

• April 06, 2022 06 Apr'22

  IR35 reforms: Private sector warned HMRC's 12-month 'light-touch' enforcement period is ending

  HMRC confirmed, in the lead up to the IR35 reforms coming into force in the private sector in April 2021, that it would be taking a ‘light-touch’ approach to enforcing the rules for 12 months. And that grace period ends today

• April 05, 2022 05 Apr'22

  Secrecy over police EncroChat hacking is unconstitutional, defence lawyers tell top French court

  France’s constitutional court, the Conseil Constitutionnel, has heard arguments that the use of ‘defence secrecy’ to withhold information about police surveillance operations breaches the French constitution

• April 05, 2022 05 Apr'22

  Triple-threat Borat malware no joke for victims

  Unlike its namesake, the newly discovered Borat malware won’t raise a smile for IT security pros

• April 05, 2022 05 Apr'22

  Saudi Arabian ICT sector hits $32.1bn after strong pandemic response

  The Saudi Arabian IT and communications sector is recovering strongly from the Covid-19 pandemic

• April 05, 2022 05 Apr'22

  UCL and AWS team up for health tech-focused startup accelerator

  AWS is lending its cloud expertise to UCL’s startup accelerator programme, which is geared towards helping health and education organisations address global health issues

• April 04, 2022 04 Apr'22

  Fujitsu bags £430m government contracts despite rising cost of Post Office Horizon scandal

  Fujitsu has won two huge government IT contracts, worth over £400m, while taxpayers face footing the massive bill for the Post Office scandal caused by its software

• April 04, 2022 04 Apr'22

  Environmental campaigners halt Meta datacentre construction in the Netherlands

  Datacentre being built to serve ‘metaverse’ worlds would consume nearly half as much energy as all other datacentres in the country

• April 01, 2022 01 Apr'22

  Four moves to ‘checkmate’ critical assets thanks to lax cloud security

  Malicious actors can compromise 94% of critical assets within four steps of the initial breach point, according to a report

• April 01, 2022 01 Apr'22

  TechUK calls on government to seize post-Brexit data opportunities

  Ahead of the government’s reply to its late 2021 consultation about proposed post-Brexit reforms to the data protection regime, TechUK has published a paper declaring six data governance principles

• March 31, 2022 31 Mar'22

  EU Act ‘must empower those affected by AI systems to take action’

  Ada Lovelace Institute publishes recommendations on how European institutions can improve the Artificial Intelligence Act by establishing a ‘comprehensive remedies framework’ around those affected by the deployment of AI systems

• March 31, 2022 31 Mar'22

  Global upheaval shows cyber security isn’t good enough, says GCHQ director

  Generational global upheaval has laid bare significant gaps in national cyber strategies, GCHQ chief Jeremy Fleming has said in a speech

• March 30, 2022 30 Mar'22

  Compensation goal finally in sight for 555 Post Office scandal victims

  The subpostmaster campaign group which exposed the Post Office Horizon scandal could be close to achieving the objective it was established for, with fair compensation for its members in sight

• March 30, 2022 30 Mar'22

  One-third of UK firms suffer a cyber attack every week

  New statistics from the annual DCMS Cyber security breaches survey reveal the extent and frequency with which UK organisations are being attacked by malicious actors

• March 29, 2022 29 Mar'22

  Overhaul of UK police tech needed to prevent abuse

  Lords inquiry finds UK police are deploying artificial intelligence and algorithmic technologies without a thorough examination of their efficacy or outcomes, and are essentially ‘making it up as they go along’

• March 29, 2022 29 Mar'22

  NCSC: Not necessarily wise to ditch Kaspersky

  UK’s National Cyber Security Centre issues refreshed guidance on organisations’ usage of technology and services of Russian origin, but stops short of advising users to expunge all Russian products from their IT estates