News

IT for government and public sector

• January 27, 2022 27 Jan'22

  Novel phishing campaign highlights need for MFA, says Microsoft

  Microsoft details a new multi-stage phishing campaign that only affects victims without multifactor authentication in place

• January 27, 2022 27 Jan'22

  Nightmare Log4Shell scenario averted by prompt, professional action

  Prompt and professional community response to the Log4Shell disclosure means the dangerous and widespread vulnerability has not been exploited to the extent many had feared

• January 26, 2022 26 Jan'22

  More intel emerges on WhisperGate malware that hit Ukraine

  Security experts have been poring over the WhisperGate malware with which alleged Russia-backed entities targeted Ukrainian government websites

• January 26, 2022 26 Jan'22

  PwnKit bug endangers Linux distributions worldwide

  Qualys researchers share intel on a memory corruption vulnerability in a program installed by default on every major Linux distribution

• January 26, 2022 26 Jan'22

  Demands on Fujitsu to contribute to £1bn Horizon scandal compensation costs

  Fujitsu cannot hide away as taxpayers pick up the bill for the Post Office scandal triggered by its IT system, say peers

• January 25, 2022 25 Jan'22

  Prepare, but don’t panic, over supposed Russian cyber threat

  A fresh alert from the US Department of Homeland Security may have IT security teams jumpy over the possibility that their organisations could be targeted by Russian state actors

• January 25, 2022 25 Jan'22

  Cyber Essentials programme gets biggest update since launch

  NCSC implements a thorough revision of its Cyber Essentials scheme to reflect the changing security landscape

• January 25, 2022 25 Jan'22

  UK launches international data transfer council

  Businesses, academics and trade bodies convene to help the UK seize data-sharing opportunities

• January 25, 2022 25 Jan'22

  Subpostmaster campaign group to meet government over unfair compensation settlement

  A group of subpostmasters excluded from fair compensation in the Horizon scandal is to meet government department to discuss their demands

• January 24, 2022 24 Jan'22

  MPs say Online Safety Bill fails to tackle full range of harms

  A DCMS select committee has warned that the Online Safety Bill should be expanded to cover more types of harmful content, such as child abuse material designed to circumvent content removal

• January 24, 2022 24 Jan'22

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can ask Supreme Court to hear extradition appeal

  Senior judges said today that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can petition the Supreme Court to decide whether to hear an appeal against his extradition to the US

• January 24, 2022 24 Jan'22

  Outdated systems core to DWP £1bn pension underpayment blunders

  Old software is among the main reasons behind the pension errors affecting 134,000 people, says a House of Commons committee report

• January 21, 2022 21 Jan'22

  ICO criticises government-backed campaign to delay end-to-end encryption

  Data protection watchdog warns that delaying end-to-end encryption will put children at risk

• January 21, 2022 21 Jan'22

  MoJ faces ICO enforcement over subject access requests backlog

  Ministry of Justice receives enforcement notice from information commissioner over ‘substantial’ backlog of subject access requests described as being of ‘significant concern’

• January 20, 2022 20 Jan'22

  Government ‘has nothing against’ paying 555 subpostmasters fair compensation

  Government officials are open to finding a way to properly compensate victims of the Horizon scandal without setting a dangerous legal precedent

• January 20, 2022 20 Jan'22

  Data of 515,000 vulnerable people stolen in Red Cross attack

  The International Committee of the Red Cross is probing a cyber attack that has already seen the personal data of hundreds of thousands of the world’s most vulnerable people compromised

• January 20, 2022 20 Jan'22

  MoonBounce firmware bootkit shows advances in malicious implants

  MoonBounce firmware bootkit shows evident technical improvements over others, making it a more dangerous threat to organisations. It is being used by Chinese state-backed actors

• January 20, 2022 20 Jan'22

  UK SMEs to receive tech skills and software boost

  A new government scheme aimed at helping businesses improve their productivity and sales online has opened for applications

• January 19, 2022 19 Jan'22

  Government funds charity campaign to warn big tech over the risks of encryption to children

  Barnardo’s and other charities begin a government-backed PR campaign to warn of the dangers end-to-end encryption poses to child safety, which has been criticised as being ‘one-sided’

• January 19, 2022 19 Jan'22

  Danish digitisation partnership delivers plan to government

  Public-private collaboration submits plan setting out “how Denmark can take advantage of the opportunities presented by digitisation moving forward into the future”

• January 19, 2022 19 Jan'22

  Content removal will not stop misinformation, says Royal Society

  Censorship of scientific misinformation online could exacerbate feelings of distrust, so government should look at information literacy and funding fact checkers instead, says report

• January 19, 2022 19 Jan'22

  Twelve million jobs to be lost to automation in Europe by 2040

  Millions of current jobs in Europe will be carried out by robots as software robots automate processes

• January 18, 2022 18 Jan'22

  Government widens subpostmaster miscarriage of justice compensation

  Government changes its position in billion-pound Horizon scandal compensation

• January 17, 2022 17 Jan'22

  Test police algorithms in court rather than legislate, Lords told

  Police algorithms and their impacts should be tested and challenged in court, rather than controlled by new laws, says policing minister

• January 17, 2022 17 Jan'22

  ‘Russian-backed’ hackers defaced Ukrainian websites as cover for dangerous malware attack

  Kiev claims that a hacking group in Belarus – a close ally of Russia – was responsible for hacking Ukrainian government websites amid threats of military action

• January 14, 2022 14 Jan'22

  Nato offers tech support after 'massive cyber attack' hits Ukraine

  Speculation mounts that Russia is behind a cyber attack which defaced Ukrainian government websites amid growing international tension

• January 14, 2022 14 Jan'22

  Socitm outlines public sector digital trends for 2022

  Report identifies the key areas of focus for technology decision-makers in government in the months ahead, across areas from cyber and data to digital identity and 5G

• January 14, 2022 14 Jan'22

  Microsoft veteran turns her attention to levelling up IT industry for women

  Diversity goes beyond balancing the internal workforce and should include working with partners that also have diversity as a core objective, says Gavriella Schuster

• January 14, 2022 14 Jan'22

  Post Office received £1bn taxpayer subsidy last year as part of IT scandal compensation

  The Post Office has received over £1bn in taxpayer subsidies for its Horizon scandal compensation scheme

• January 13, 2022 13 Jan'22

  Councillors refuse public release of IT audit of Hackney Psya ransomware attack

  Hackney councillors claim an IT audit report is exempt for disclosure as it relates to action taken in relation to the prevention, investigation or prosecution of crime

• January 13, 2022 13 Jan'22

  NCSC sounds alarm over Russia-backed hacks

  The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre joins US calls to be wary of Russian state interference in critical national infrastructure IT systems

• January 13, 2022 13 Jan'22

  ICO investigates police use of app to covertly record calls from mobile phones

  Surrey and Sussex police forces call in regulators after 1,000 police officers downloaded an app to covertly record phone calls on police-issued mobile phones

• January 12, 2022 12 Jan'22

  MEPs demand EU probe into Pegasus spyware abuse

  A group of European Parliament Members has called for an EU-wide investigation into NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware after it emerged EU member states may have used it

• January 12, 2022 12 Jan'22

  UK government bodies challenged on secure identity

  Public sector bodies in the UK recognise secure identity and access management as critical to the roll-out of digital services, but face challenges in addressing this

• January 12, 2022 12 Jan'22

  Government backs Turing Institute in bid to set global AI technical standards

  The DCMS has announced an AI Standards Hub, comprising The Alan Turing Institute, the National Physical Laboratory and the British Standards Institution to set a global bar for AI technical standards

• January 12, 2022 12 Jan'22

  Microsoft fixes six zero-days in January Patch Tuesday update

  A larger than of late Patch Tuesday update from Microsoft comes as defenders continue to grapple with Log4Shell

• January 12, 2022 12 Jan'22

  Dutch cyber volunteers receive major funding boost

  The Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure has received a $100,000 donation to expand the scope of its work

• January 12, 2022 12 Jan'22

  Macquarie joins NSW government’s cloud supplier panel

  New South Wales state agencies will be able to access Macquarie’s sovereign cyber expertise and secure cloud, network and datacentre services

• January 11, 2022 11 Jan'22

  Almost half of Log4j downloads still dangerously exposed

  Whether by error or design is unclear, but a great many IT teams are still exposing themselves by downloading outdated, insecure versions of Apache Log4j

• January 11, 2022 11 Jan'22

  Post Office can’t access records of all money paid to it by victims of the Horizon scandal

  A parliamentary select committee was told that the Post Office is unable to access information to accurately calculate compensation for some Horizon scandal victims

• January 11, 2022 11 Jan'22

  NHS England urged to produce tech roadmap to cope with pandemic backlog

  Tech can help to ease the pressure on the health and care system, but basic infrastructure is lacking, a House of Commons report has found

• January 11, 2022 11 Jan'22

  Companies propose scanning content pre-encryption to fight CSAM

  Firms working on the UK government’s Safety Tech Challenge have suggested that scanning content before encryption will help prevent the spread of child sexual abuse material – but privacy concerns remain

• January 11, 2022 11 Jan'22

  Cyber security failure one of biggest risks facing countries and businesses, warns WEF

  Cyber risks are among the top five risks facing organisations and governments over the next two to five years. Digital inequality and the over-crowding of space with communication satellites present further risks 

• January 10, 2022 10 Jan'22

  Public sector IT and communications spend down 4% last year

  Public sector spending on IT and communications was down in 2021, but some departments bucked the trend with major investments

• January 10, 2022 10 Jan'22

  Ministry of Justice caught up in multiple cyber incidents

  Besides multiple disclosed data breaches, department was also affected by two ransomware attacks

• January 10, 2022 10 Jan'22

  MPs call for fair compensation for excluded victims of Post Office scandal

  Almost 100 MPs have backed a call for the government to reverse its decision to exclude 555 subpostmasters from fair compensation for their suffering and losses as a result of the Post Office Horizon scandal

• January 06, 2022 06 Jan'22

  How far has Saudi Arabia come with open data?

  While clearly on the right path, Saudi Arabia still has a lot to do before it reaps the full benefits of open data

• January 06, 2022 06 Jan'22

  Government cans electronic monitoring overhaul

  Nearly £100m of taxpayer money has been spent in tech that will not result in future benefits, according to the Ministry of Justice's annual accounts report

• January 05, 2022 05 Jan'22

  Google buys Siemplify in first phase of cyber investment

  Once integrated into Google Cloud, Siemplify’s platform will serve as the basis for deeper security development at Google

• January 05, 2022 05 Jan'22

  NHS App exceeds 22 million user mark

  Boosted by Covid-19 pass functionality, the NHS App is one of the most downloaded apps in the UK