News

IT for government and public sector

• March 16, 2022 16 Mar'22

  Two men convicted after using EncroChat cryptophones to plot killing

  Evidence from the encrypted phone network EncroChat led to the conviction of two men for conspiracy to murder

• March 16, 2022 16 Mar'22

  UCL report projects 5,500 ‘open data’ jobs in Newham by 2035

  Report from University College London’s Institute for Global Prosperity says London borough is ‘uniquely placed to seize the data opportunity’

• March 16, 2022 16 Mar'22

  German authorities warn on Kaspersky but stop short of ban

  Germany authorities warn Kaspersky users to consider alternatives to the firm’s flagship antivirus software, citing national security concerns and the war on Ukraine

• March 15, 2022 15 Mar'22

  Cross-party group of MPs calls on Loan Charge contractors to participate in call for evidence

  The Loan Charge and Taxpayer Fairness All Party Parliamentary Group is seeking input from contractors about the real-world toll the loan charge policy is having on them

• March 15, 2022 15 Mar'22

  IR35 private sector reforms one year on: Assessing the impact on the UK’s tech talent pool

  With the first anniversary of the IR35 reforms taking effect in the private sector fast approaching, IT contractors set out how the changes have affected their ability to find work in the UK

• March 15, 2022 15 Mar'22

  Supreme Court refuses Julian Assange extradition appeal

  The case will be referred to the home secretary Priti Patel to make a decision. The WikiLeaks founder has yet to say whether he will file further appeals

• March 14, 2022 14 Mar'22

  ‘Technical issues’ leave Post Office branches with ATM cash discrepancies

  Discrepancies of up to £2,000 reported after an ‘IT change’ impacted more than 200 Post Office branches

• March 11, 2022 11 Mar'22

  Majority of UK adults support legal right to disconnect

  The introduction of ‘right to disconnect’ legislation to stop employees having to engage in work-related electronic communications outside their normal hours remains popular in the UK

• March 11, 2022 11 Mar'22

  Police EncroChat cryptophone hacking implant did not work properly and frequently failed

  Surveillance operation against EncroChat encrypted phone network had repeated technical failures

• March 11, 2022 11 Mar'22

  Government launches outcome of digital ID consultation

  Government document includes the launch of the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes, and a pledge that ID cards will not be introduced

• March 10, 2022 10 Mar'22

  Tech brands sign on to HackerOne responsible security drive

  Tech companies sign HackerOne’s new corporate security responsibility pledge to bring cyber out of the shadows and promote effective, secure development practices

• March 10, 2022 10 Mar'22

  Government to force tech firms to stop fraudsters using their platforms for scams

  Changes to legislation will make social media and search engine firms responsible for preventing fraudsters using their platforms to commit crimes

• March 09, 2022 09 Mar'22

  Paid-for advertising measures included in Online Safety Bill

  New measures to deal with fraudulent paid-for advertising have been included in the government’s draft Online Safety Bill, marking the fourth extension in two months

• March 09, 2022 09 Mar'22

  Strategic Review of Policing: Police tech needs better ethical scrutiny

  The Strategic Review of Policing confirms the central role that tech will be playing going forward, but warns of the need for greater ethical scrutiny to ensure public trust

• March 09, 2022 09 Mar'22

  China’s APT41 exploited Log4j within hours

  APT41 compromised multiple government organisations via the Log4Shell exploit within hours of its initial disclosure, Mandiant claims

• March 09, 2022 09 Mar'22

  Microsoft serves up three zero-days on March Patch Tuesday

  Three zero-days pop up in Microsoft’s March update, along with a number of other noteworthy concerns for defenders

• March 08, 2022 08 Mar'22

  Horizon inquiry hearing sheds light on subpostmaster federation’s role in hushing up IT problems

  A National Federation for Subpostmasters official had huge unexplained loss written off by Post Office despite many in the same position being convicted for crimes they didn't commit

• March 08, 2022 08 Mar'22

  Government publishes update on plan to tackle legacy IT

  A Cabinet Office report outlines progress around areas such as new structures and leadership to address the issue of legacy IT

• March 07, 2022 07 Mar'22

  Ukraine joins Nato cyber knowledge hub

  Ukraine is to become a contributing participant in Nato’s Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence

• March 04, 2022 04 Mar'22

  Scrapping NHS Digital a backward step for patient data rights

  Former NHS Digital chair Kingsley Manning has spoken out over proposals to fold NHS Digital into NHS England, saying that more oversight is needed to safeguard patient data in light of recent events

• March 04, 2022 04 Mar'22

  Diversity and inclusion in STEM – data, culture and social benefit

  In a recent government Science and Technology Committee meeting, a number of experts shared their opinions on the current barriers to increasing diversity in STEM, as well as ways the sector can move past them

• March 03, 2022 03 Mar'22

  SAP and Oracle express solidarity with Ukraine against Russia

  SAP and Oracle suspend operations in the Russian Federation after expressing solidarity with Ukraine in the face of the war against it being conducted by Russia

• March 03, 2022 03 Mar'22

  Boardroom does not see ransomware as a priority

  Less than a quarter of company directors think ransomware is a top priority for their security teams, according to Egress

• March 03, 2022 03 Mar'22

  Post Office warned of software flaw in 2006, but failed to alert subpostmaster network

  The Post Office and Fujitsu failed to alert subpostmasters to a software error that caused them to be wrongly blamed for accounting shortfalls

• March 03, 2022 03 Mar'22

  Nato Cyber Security unit tests post-quantum VPN

  Nato’s Cyber Security Centre has successfully tested secure communication flows in a post-quantum world using a UK-designed VPN

• March 02, 2022 02 Mar'22

  Gothenburg University makes breakthrough in energy efficient computers

  Swedish and Japanese universities make advancement in the development of computers that can work as energy efficiently as a brain

• March 02, 2022 02 Mar'22

  Middle East IT spending to recover to at least pre-pandemic levels

  Middle East IT leaders expect budgets to increase this year, with spending to match or exceed pre-Covid levels

• March 02, 2022 02 Mar'22

  Ban predictive policing systems in EU AI Act, says civil society

  A coalition of civil society groups has called on European lawmakers to use the upcoming Artificial Intelligence Act as an opportunity to ban predictive policing systems

• March 01, 2022 01 Mar'22

  Workplace surveillance ‘spiralling out of control’, says TUC

  Trade union body pushes for workers to be consulted on the implementation of new technologies at work, warning that invasive surveillance practices are getting out of hand

• February 28, 2022 28 Feb'22

  UK Treasury publishes consultation on online sales tax

  Online sales tax debate focuses on assessing options to “rebalance” taxation of the retail sector

• February 28, 2022 28 Feb'22

  Ukraine cyber attacks seen spiking, but no destructive cyber war yet

  While cyber attacks linked to Russia’s war on Ukraine are taking place, they are having little impact beyond the region

• February 28, 2022 28 Feb'22

  Sajid Javid outlines NHS tech targets

  Health and social care secretary Sajid Javid announces priorities around digital transformation in the health service

• February 28, 2022 28 Feb'22

  Government set to backtrack on untenable position on subpostmaster compensation

  The government looks set to backtrack on its previous stance and outline a means of providing fair compensation to a group of Post Office Horizon scandal victims so far left out of compensation schemes

• February 25, 2022 25 Feb'22

  NAO report praises NHS for data and digital leadership in Covid-19 vaccine roll-out

  The £5.6bn programme has delivered value for money to date – and ‘creative’ use of data despite complexities was among the factors that led to successful delivery, says report

• February 24, 2022 24 Feb'22

  KnowBe4 cyber drama tackles Colonial Pipeline in fourth season

  KnowBe4’s ongoing cyber security training drama, The Inside Man, reaches its fourth season with a plot drawing inspiration from one of the most impactful cyber attacks of 2021

• February 24, 2022 24 Feb'22

  Russia behind dangerous Cyclops Blink malware

  Joint NCSC CISA advisory attributes a dangerous malware, dubbed Cyclops Blink, to Russia’s Sandworm APT, likely a GRU unit, with WatchGuard users at particular risk

• February 23, 2022 23 Feb'22

  Paid-for advertising still not covered in Online Safety Bill

  Consumer group Which? calls again for government to include measures against scam paid-for advertising in the Online Safety Bill

• February 23, 2022 23 Feb'22

  European Commission opens path to a Data Act to stoke digital economy

  The European Commission has published a proposal for a Data Act that it hopes will stoke a digital economy, in part by unlocking IoT and other ‘industrial data’

• February 23, 2022 23 Feb'22

  Backups ‘no longer effective’ for stopping ransomware attacks

  Traditional methods of mitigating ransomware are less efficacious thanks to the rise in double and triple extortion techniques

• February 23, 2022 23 Feb'22

  Microsoft extends Defender umbrella to Google Cloud Platform

  Redmond says extending Defender for Cloud native capabilities to the Google Cloud Platform will help simplify security for organisations pursuing multicloud strategies by eliminating the gaps where the bad guys can get in

• February 23, 2022 23 Feb'22

  Police forces ‘must’ do data protection due diligence checks before using PDS-backed AWS cloud

  Police forces across England and Wales are being reminded not to overlook their data protection-related compliance responsibilities when making use of the Police Digital Service’s Amazon-powered cloud platform

• February 23, 2022 23 Feb'22

  No imminent cyber threat to UK from Russia

  Intelligence officials say they have no evidence or indication that Russian cyber attackers are preparing offensive assaults on infrastructure or organisations in Britain

• February 23, 2022 23 Feb'22

  Tech acquisition to be major priority for UK police

  Policing minister cites technology as major focus for future of UK police, in comments made ahead of the publication of the Strategic Review of Policing in England and Wales

• February 23, 2022 23 Feb'22

  Helsinki shares its plans to bridge post-Covid learning gap with the rest of the world

  Finnish capital is calling on global education systems to embrace technology as a facilitator of research, ideas and knowledge-sharing, not just as a new way to deliver classes

• February 22, 2022 22 Feb'22

  Gartner: Public sector must target disjointed IT strategy

  The pandemic showed how quickly public sector IT can deliver technology to support essential services – now it is time to fix scalability

• February 22, 2022 22 Feb'22

  Horizon inquiry questioning raises hopes of fair compensation for victims so far left out

  Post Office Horizon scandal victims left out of current compensation schemes have had their hopes raised that the statutory public inquiry is seriously addressing their demands for fair financial redress

• February 22, 2022 22 Feb'22

  UK organisations swift to chide phishing victims

  While UK organisations are doing better at security training, many are quick to punish employees who fall victim to phishing attacks, whether real or simulated

• February 22, 2022 22 Feb'22

  Sweden completes phase two of e-krona pilot

  Sweden’s central bank is well into its second year of testing a new digital currency, but so far, no firm decision has been made by the government to adopt it

• February 21, 2022 21 Feb'22

  UK joins US in pinning Ukraine DDoS attacks on Russia

  A series of DDoS attacks on Ukrainian defence and banking organisations last week is now being firmly attributed to Russian action

• February 18, 2022 18 Feb'22

  UK organisations untroubled by Trickbot surge

  A surge in Trickbot infections is targeting some of the world’s most prominent brands, but UK organisations seem thankfully unaffected