News

IT for government and public sector

June 10, 2015 10 Jun'15
CERN picks Cisco to collaborate on advanced networking capabilities

Cisco joins CERN’s openlab industry partnership platform to help develop new computing infrastructure technology
June 10, 2015 10 Jun'15
International police operation arrests cyber fraud gang

Police in six countries have arrested 49 people suspected of committing financial fraud involving email account intrusions
June 10, 2015 10 Jun'15
Oxford and Cambridge University colleges turn to Aerohive to manage WLAN traffic

Colleges and institutions at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are attempting to mitigate the effects of the substantial demand on their wireless networks
June 10, 2015 10 Jun'15
US government websites to use encryption by 2017

A US government HTTPS-Only Standard directive requires that all federal websites accessible to the public must encrypt all data exchanges

June 09, 2015 09 Jun'15
US state of Maine turns to BPM to cut admin costs

The US state of Maine is automating a range of government processes in a bid to cut administration costs by more than 10%
June 09, 2015 09 Jun'15
UK government not doing enough to prevent cyber attacks, say CTOs

Some 60% of CTOs, 15% of CFOs and 23% of CEOs feel the government is not doing a good job educating businesses and defending them from cyber attacks
June 09, 2015 09 Jun'15
Local government blind to internet of things savings

A report from Vodafone says local councils could save billions by implementing smart city systems, but are ignorant to the possibilities
June 09, 2015 09 Jun'15
O2 pulls out of ESN mobile network bid process

O2 pulls out of the bidding process to supply the new Emergency Services Network 4G broadband voice and data network, leaving EE the presumptive provider
June 09, 2015 09 Jun'15
US Army website hacked as Obama vows to boost cyber defences

US president Barack Obama vows to boost US cyber defences as a group calling itself 'the Syrian Electronic Army' hacks the US Army's website
June 09, 2015 09 Jun'15
HMRC denies reports of Verify causing users problems

HMRC has denied that problems faced by the public attempting to claim marriage tax breaks are caused by the Gov.uk Verify scheme

June 08, 2015 08 Jun'15
Public cloud emerges as Europe's least popular off-premise IT deployment method

Easynet research investigating European IT decision-maker buying trends suggests private cloud rules the roost
June 08, 2015 08 Jun'15
Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance to get backpack comms hubs

The Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance Trust is to assist in the design and development of a backpack-mounted communications system
June 08, 2015 08 Jun'15
Digital services not saving government departments money, says NAO

Government departments are not making the savings digital services were aiming to deliver
June 05, 2015 05 Jun'15
HMRC indicates move to Google Apps

Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has indicated it will be moving away from Microsoft and towards Google Apps for document sharing and collaboration
June 05, 2015 05 Jun'15
Co-operation driving progress in fighting cyber crime, say law enforcers

Co-operation with business in the private sector is an increasingly important element in fighting crime, according to UK, US and EU law enforcement officers
June 05, 2015 05 Jun'15
GDS to completely redesign Digital Services Framework

The Digital Service Framework for services procurement will be redesigned and possibly renamed
June 05, 2015 05 Jun'15
Four million records exposed in second US agency hack in a year

Breach of four million records at US federal personal agency could be used for secondary attacks on other US government systems, security experts warn
June 04, 2015 04 Jun'15
Peer demands action over ‘illegal’ Prism programme

US technology companies are operating illegally by accessing data on UK citizens, Lord Laird tells the House of Lords
June 04, 2015 04 Jun'15
Ed Vaizey to chair Digital Infrastructure Taskforce for broadband and mobile

Digital economy minister Ed Vaizey will take charge of a Digital Infrastructure Taskforce focused on broadband, mobile and the digital economy
June 04, 2015 04 Jun'15
We are in early years of international cyber war arms race, says security expert Bruce Schneier

Countries are not attacking each other but striking at the IT infrastructure of enterprises in rival states, says security pundit Bruce Schneier
June 04, 2015 04 Jun'15
Network failure crashed frontline services at London hospital

Network problem at Hillingdon hospital meant clinical staff could not access information on computer systems
June 03, 2015 03 Jun'15
NHS Shared Business Services expands through acquisition

NHS Shared Business Services acquires to grow customer base and expand offering
June 03, 2015 03 Jun'15
HMRC looks for transformation partner ahead of Aspire end

HMRC is seeking transformational help ahead of the demise of its Aspire contract in 2017.
June 03, 2015 03 Jun'15
Law enforcement officers weigh in on encryption at Infosecurity Europe

Law enforcement officers have called for greater co-operation with the tech industry and the public to enable access to electronic communications for targeted surveillance
June 03, 2015 03 Jun'15
City of Groningen to create smart city infrastructure

Groningen in the Netherlands signs a memorandum of understanding with Huawei to develop a smart city infrastructure
June 03, 2015 03 Jun'15
Sourcing must adapt to digital business goals, says Gartner

Businesses need to change their sourcing strategies if they are to keep pace with the digital revolution, says analyst organisation Gartner
June 03, 2015 03 Jun'15
London hospital trust delays IT project completion as issues frustrate staff

London hospital delays major IT project completion due to 'teething and birthing issues'
June 02, 2015 02 Jun'15
GDS gives Box the nod for cross-department collaboration

GDS turns to cloud storage and file-sharing specialist Box to manage collaboration across UK government departments
June 02, 2015 02 Jun'15
Cyber attacks hit wide array of UK businesses, says GCHQ

UK security agency GCHQ surprised by the extent and variety of organisations subject to cyber intrusions, says director general for cyber security, Ciaran Martin
June 02, 2015 02 Jun'15
CIO interview: Dundee University CIO Paul Saunders calls for diversity in IT

Paul Saunders, director of technology at the University of Dundee, talks about the cultural differences between the US and the UK in business attitudes
June 02, 2015 02 Jun'15
ICO needs greater powers to deal with true scale of data breaches

Data obtained from a series of freedom of information requests to the ICO and UK police forces shows the ICO is not seeing 92% of potential breaches
June 01, 2015 01 Jun'15
Open data use breaks out of startups and London, says ODI

The Open Data Institute has released research showing open data is being used commercially outside London and beyond startup companies
June 01, 2015 01 Jun'15
Still a long way to go on US surveillance reform, say critics

Critics say reforms contained in the US Freedom bill do not go far enough to achieve significant surveillance reform
June 01, 2015 01 Jun'15
Telent deploys Unify Circuit to support public sector bid processes

Managed network services provider Telent deploys Unify’s Circuit unified communications system to manage a growing number of public sector bids
June 01, 2015 01 Jun'15
Most of more than 733,000 police communications data requests approved

Big Brother Watch is calling for a curb on the scale of police access to communications data and greater transparency in the use of this data
May 29, 2015 29 May'15
EU surveillance inquiry calls for stronger intelligence oversight

A European parliamentary conference has called on member states to improve the evaluation and oversight practices of their intelligence services
May 29, 2015 29 May'15
Top six enterprise IT priorities in the Nordics

The future of enterprise IT looks bright in the Nordic region, with growing focus on datacentre investments, national cloud and automatisation
May 29, 2015 29 May'15
IT problems at Central and North West London NHS Trust affect medical staff

London Hospitals are reverting to manual processes due to IT systems failure
May 28, 2015 28 May'15
Internet of things and smart cities need UK-wide consensus

At a TechUK event, delegates call for cross-body collaboration on IoT to ensure local authority CIOs get the best from the emerging technology
May 27, 2015 27 May'15
Queen’s Speech sets out plans for new snoopers' charter

The Queen’s Speech confirmed that the government will introduce legislation to modernise the law on communications data
May 27, 2015 27 May'15
TfL kicks off network tower procurement

TfL is to begin £400m network tower procurement exercise in June
May 27, 2015 27 May'15
More responsive PSN security compliance regime goes live

Following a successful public beta of the updated Public Services Network compliance regime, the process has now gone live
May 27, 2015 27 May'15
High-value personal data targeted in 100,000 US taxpayer data harvest

Hackers who harvested 100,000 US taxpayers’ personal data using data from previous breaches were targeting high-value personal data, say experts
May 26, 2015 26 May'15
City University London moves towards SDN with Avaya Fabric Connect

Avaya Fabric Connect helps City University London move towards software-defined infrastructure and streamlines its network deployment
May 26, 2015 26 May'15
Civil Servants point to lack of skills as barrier to IT procurement

Adoption of IT for public services is held back due to a lack of skills, despite civil servants agreeing IT is a necessity, according to techUK
May 26, 2015 26 May'15
Ofcom to auction MoD spectrum later in 2015

Ofcom forges ahead with plans to release spectrum for high-speed mobile broadband services
May 22, 2015 22 May'15
Government should take agile approach to policy and service delivery, says Hancock

The future of service delivery and policy making will be more focused around an agile approach, said Cabinet Office minister Matthew Hancock
May 22, 2015 22 May'15
Microsoft accused again over UK government lobbying practices

Further evidence has emerged of the extent to which Microsoft lobbied the UK government over its policy on open standards
May 22, 2015 22 May'15
EE and O2 go head-to-head to provide ESN mobile network

Home Office names EE and O2 among the preferred bidders to build the new Emergency Services Network
May 22, 2015 22 May'15
Worcestershire NHS Trust outsources to Computacenter

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is enabling its member organisations to share IT following a managed services deal with Computacenter
May 21, 2015 21 May'15
CIO interview: Austerity drives joined-up council IT with Force.com

Peterborough has become a big user of software-as-a-service for council services. We speak to its IT head
May 21, 2015 21 May'15
Telstra Pacnet hack shows telcos are a prime target, say security experts

Cyber breach of Telstra’s Asian subsidiary, Pacnet, underlines the importance of cyber defences in the telecoms industry, say security commentators
May 21, 2015 21 May'15
DD4BC cyber extortion gang targets key European sectors

A gang using DDoS attacks to extort bitcoins is now targeting high-profile organisations in key sectors in Europe
May 20, 2015 20 May'15
IT system related to subpostmaster prosecutions under review by CCRC

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) receives 20 applications from subpostmasters related to prosecutions for account shortfalls
May 20, 2015 20 May'15
Government cloud adoption hit by ongoing legacy tech investments

IT supplier Eduserv wants government departments banned from investing in legacy tech to drive up cloud adoption
May 20, 2015 20 May'15
BT and BDUK failed to make costs transparent, says report

A major report on BDUK commissioned by DCMS identifies a number of failures around the transparency of the scheme’s costs
May 20, 2015 20 May'15
US group calls to keep encryption strong as UK snoopers’ charter set to return

A coalition of top cryptologists and several large technology firms have sent a letter urging the US government to preserve strong encryption
May 19, 2015 19 May'15
GDS will not scale locally with continued bespoke approach

If the Government Digital Service (GDS) continues to develop bespoke digital services, the progress it has made to date will not scale at a local level, Eddie Copeland, head of technology at the Policy Exchange, has warned
May 19, 2015 19 May'15
ICO calls for practical approach to data protection

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has called for a more practical approach to data protection regulation
May 18, 2015 18 May'15
Socitm to launch women in IT network

Society of Information Technology Management on the hunt for partners to help launch women in IT network
May 18, 2015 18 May'15
Whitehall technology chiefs vetoed new Windows XP support deal

Government technology chiefs vetoed a new deal with Microsoft to continue Windows XP support to force laggards to move off the OS
May 15, 2015 15 May'15
UK law enforcers support snoopers’ charter

Three of the UK’s law enforcement chiefs have come out in support of a revival of the so-called snoopers’ charter to monitor electronic communications
May 15, 2015 15 May'15
IT suppliers call on new-look GDS for commitment to G-Cloud's future

In light of Francis Maude's departure from GDS, G-Cloud suppliers want assurances from the government about what's in store for the framework
May 15, 2015 15 May'15
Joanna Shields appointed junior minister

Former Tech City CEO Joanna Shields appointed parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
May 15, 2015 15 May'15
Fire services to keep Airwave Tetra radios until 2020

The Department for Communities and Local Government approves a major extension of the fire services' Firelink Tetra network to the end of 2019
May 14, 2015 14 May'15
Digital age a turning point for policing, says commissioner Leppard

Policing in the digital age will face a turning point in the next two years, according to City of London Police commissioner Adrian Leppard
May 13, 2015 13 May'15
Virgin adds Unify OpenScape UC software to public sector packages

Virgin Media Business signs an agreement to offer Unify’s OpenScape unified communciations software to public sector customers
May 13, 2015 13 May'15
Cyber threats one of top risks to financial markets, study shows

Most financial institutions cite cyber threats as a top five risk, the latest Systemic Risk Barometer Study shows
May 13, 2015 13 May'15
Ed Vaizey to continue as culture and digital economy minister

Ed Vaizey is re-appointed as minister of state for culture and the digital economy in David Cameron's post-election cabinet reshuffle
May 12, 2015 12 May'15
Matt Hancock to oversee GDS as Francis Maude steps aside

The fate of the Cabinet Office and the GDS has been decided with the appointment of two new Cabinet Office ministers
May 12, 2015 12 May'15
IT industry has positive outlook for new entrants as Conservatives begin second term

As the new government begins its term, the IT industry highlights its hopes and worries for the next five years
May 11, 2015 11 May'15
DCMS gets new boss in cabinet shuffle

John Whittingdale replaces Sajid Javid as culture secretary at DCMS as David Cameron puts together the first majority Tory cabinet in almost 20 years
May 11, 2015 11 May'15
PSNGB rebrands to drive information sharing across PSN

PSNGB, the trade association set up to promote the Public Services Network, rebrands itself as Innopsis and says its work is far from over
May 11, 2015 11 May'15
Executives fear domino effect of cyber attacks, study shows

More than half of US top executives fear the impact of cyber attacks on national infrastructure, a study shows
May 08, 2015 08 May'15
Theresa May signals Tory majority could revive snoopers’ charter

Theresa May has indicated the party could revive the so-called "snoopers’ charter" to monitor electronic communications
May 08, 2015 08 May'15
NSA phone metadata tracking ruled illegal

The US National Security Agency (NSA) bulk collection of mobile phone metadata revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013 has been ruled unlawful by a federal appeal court
May 06, 2015 06 May'15
European Commission launches 16 steps to put single digital market in motion

The European Commission has outlined 16 initiatives to get the ball rolling on its plans for a single digital market in the European Union
May 05, 2015 05 May'15
Risky Scottish rural payment system runs 74% over original estimated spend

An IT system developed by the Scottish Government providing payments to farmers is branded a risk after exceeding budget by 74%
May 05, 2015 05 May'15
Alcatel-Lucent to target enterprise UC market

Alcatel-Lucent signs collaboration agreement with OTT unified comms firm Counterpath to target enterprise and operator customers
May 01, 2015 01 May'15
Public sector IT suppliers call on government to extend G-Cloud 5

After the Crown Commercial Service said G-Cloud 5 would not close on 22 May, public sector IT suppliers ask government to extend it even further
May 01, 2015 01 May'15
Memset blasts BT over PSN Protected deployment delays at Surrey datacentre

IaaS provider turns attention to closing down more public sector deals now PSN Protected network is finally in place
April 29, 2015 29 Apr'15
Met Police offers up to almost £200,000 for CIO role

The Metropolitan Police is offering up to almost £200,000 to fill its CIO position, which has been open since February 2015
April 29, 2015 29 Apr'15
Criminal Courts Review Commission set to review subpostmasters' claims of wrongful prosecution

The Criminal Courts Review Commission (CCRC) reviews subpostmasters' claims of wrongful prosecution by the Post Office due to IT problems
April 29, 2015 29 Apr'15
CIO interview: Jos Creese, CIO, Hampshire County Council

Jos Creese has been in his position at Hampshire Council for almost 14 years, but will be stepping down in May to pursue something new
April 29, 2015 29 Apr'15
Vodafone sends network in a backpack to Nepal earthquake zone

Vodafone’s charitable arm, the Vodafone Foundation, deploys instant mini networks to help restore communications in quake-hit Nepal
April 28, 2015 28 Apr'15
2014 saw step change in anti cyber attack collaboration, says UK official

Although 2014 was marked by an increase in cyber attacks, it also saw a new level in international cooperation to combat them
April 27, 2015 27 Apr'15
Accenture and Oracle embark on enterprise cloud adoption push

Accenture and Oracle are embarking on a joint push to make it easier for public sector and financial services firms to move to cloud
April 27, 2015 27 Apr'15
Data security remains top concern for public sector cloud procurement, says Socitm

Data security is still a concern for public sector organisations planning cloud services, says the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm)
April 27, 2015 27 Apr'15
Obama’s emails accessed in White House breach, say officials

Hackers accessed confidential emails of the US president when they breached White House computer networks in late 2014
April 23, 2015 23 Apr'15
How should the next government shape the future of the IT industry?

As the election approaches and political parties are outlining plans to enhance the digital economy, the IT industry is bracing for the future
April 22, 2015 22 Apr'15
CSC staff on armed forces contract on strike

Staff at CSC working on the UK armed forces pension administration contract are on a five day strike following months of working to rule
April 22, 2015 22 Apr'15
Collaboration key to cyber security, says US homeland security chief

Collaboration between governments and with the private sector key to improving global cyber security
April 21, 2015 21 Apr'15
BT sets out ambition to become enterprise's cloud integrator of choice

BT outlines its 'Cloud of Clouds' vision to allow users to access cloud apps and services, regardless of where their systems are hosted
April 21, 2015 21 Apr'15
Huawei calls for global consensus on the future network

At its Global Analyst Summit, Huawei calls on the networking industry to collaborate to optimise the network for future demands
April 20, 2015 20 Apr'15
SNP calls for broadband service obligation in 2015 general election manifesto

The Scottish National Party (SNP) has called for a universal service obligation to cover provision of broadband across the UK
April 20, 2015 20 Apr'15
Post Office failed to investigate account shortfalls before legal action, report claims

Post Office too quick to take legal action against subpostmasters, finds independent report
April 20, 2015 20 Apr'15
UK startups facing too many challenges, say entrepreneurs

Startups need more support if London’s digital economy is to develop, according to business leaders at Westminster Policy Forum
April 16, 2015 16 Apr'15
Solihull Council's datacentre plans slammed by G-Cloud champions

Solihull Council is building a new datacentre with 10-20 years of capacity, much to the chagrin of industry watchers
April 16, 2015 16 Apr'15
Which election manifesto deserves to win the digital vote?

The three main national political parties competing for the 2015 general election have released their manifestos - but which is the most digital?
April 16, 2015 16 Apr'15
Harrow Council outsources IT to Sopra Steria

London’s Harrow Council has outsourced its IT services to Sopra Steria in a deal that will see the authority upgrade its IT