News

IT for government and public sector

• 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

• March 29, 2022 29 Mar'22

  UK tech ecosystem reaches $1tn valuation

  The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic prompted massive investment in the UK’s digital companies, which are collectively valued at $1tn

• March 29, 2022 29 Mar'22

  Wave of Log4j-linked attacks targeting VMware Horizon

  Sophos issues a new warning to organisations that have so far failed to patch their VMware Horizon servers against Log4Shell

• March 29, 2022 29 Mar'22

  Cabinet Office publishes playbook with rules for government digital projects

  Digital, Data and Technology guide outlines measures supporting overhaul intended to “get things right at the start”

• March 28, 2022 28 Mar'22

  IT professionals wary of government campaign to limit end-to-end encryption

  Members of the Chartered Institute of IT, the professional body for technology professionals in the UK, warn against limiting end-to-end encryption

• March 28, 2022 28 Mar'22

  Sajid Javid pushes digitisation of social care records

  Health secretary wants 80% of providers to abandon paper-based records by 2024 ahead of broader plans for digital health and care

• March 25, 2022 25 Mar'22

  European Commission proposes new cyber security regulations

  New cyber and information security regulations have been proposed by the European Commission to create a minimum set of standards in both areas

• March 25, 2022 25 Mar'22

  London police arrest seven in connection to Lapsus$

  Seven people arrested by London police over cyber attacks carried out by Lapsus$ group, which is responsible for a number of recent, high profile attacks

• March 25, 2022 25 Mar'22

  NHS advances digital trials with high-tech mobile health clinic

  The NHS’ Find and Treat van uses tech tools including artificial intelligence software and a tele radiology network to care for vulnerable, high-risk Londoners

• March 24, 2022 24 Mar'22

  CW Innovation Awards: Transforming Australia’s national assessment programme

  Education Services Australia has transformed the country’s national assessment programme through an online platform that has enabled teachers to design adaptive tests and improved student engagement

• March 23, 2022 23 Mar'22

  UK government promises high-speed internet for all schools by 2025

  Hot on the heels of announcing upgrades to UK mobile networks in hard-to-reach places, and as part of its latest plans to roll out gigabit broadband across the country, government turns connectivity focus on educational establishments

• March 23, 2022 23 Mar'22

  Spring Statement: Chancellor expands R&D tax relief to cloud computing and storage

  Rishi Sunak announces further measures intended to improve innnovation and tech-enabled productivity in UK businesses

• March 23, 2022 23 Mar'22

  Chinese state media use Facebook to push pro-Russia disinformation on Ukraine war

  Facebook owner Meta accused of failing to follow its own policies by not disclosing how Chinese state media were targeting Facebook users with ‘propaganda’ ads about the conflict in Ukraine

• March 22, 2022 22 Mar'22

  Biden issues warning about Russian cyber attacks

  President Biden has said that US companies running critical infrastructure should immediately harden their defences in anticipation of potential cyber attacks from Russia

• March 22, 2022 22 Mar'22

  555 subpostmasters to get fair compensation after government U-turn

  Government finally agrees to pay 555 Post Office scandal victims fair compensation

• March 21, 2022 21 Mar'22

  Siloed data holding back coordinated health responses

  Digital health experts discuss the role of data in coordinating the NHS’s pandemic response and how managing privacy and governance issues are key to further success

• March 21, 2022 21 Mar'22

  DWP Digital launches Birmingham hub

  The new space will aim to create 130 jobs and tap into the digital talent pool of the West Midlands

• March 18, 2022 18 Mar'22

  University of Reading tracks fruit tree flowering as spring breaks, with Oracle

  University is working with Oracle for research to monitor fruit trees as they blossom into spring

• March 18, 2022 18 Mar'22

  Electronic patient records key to NHS digital transformation

  Getting EPR systems rolled out across NHS organisations will help boost digital transformation efforts, and are key to fulfilling government healthcare plans

• March 18, 2022 18 Mar'22

  Ukrainian cyber defences prove resilient

  Thanks to a combination of prior experience and global support, Ukraine’s defences against cyber incidents are holding strong in the face of Russian attacks

• March 18, 2022 18 Mar'22

  Russian IT sector faces unprecedented crisis

  The Russian IT sector faces a major crisis as IT professionals and businesses flee the country after its invasion of Ukraine

• March 17, 2022 17 Mar'22

  Online Safety Bill introduced in Parliament

  The government has introduced its long-awaited Online Safety Bill in Parliament, alongside new criminal offences and sanctions for tech company execs