News

IT for government and public sector

• July 17, 2014 17 Jul'14

  Drip bill could put data at greater risk, warns (ISC)²

  The emergency surveillance bill being rushed through parliament could put personal data at greater risk, says (ISC)²

• July 17, 2014 17 Jul'14

  Zayo swoops on defunct South Yorkshire fibre network

  US fibre optic network owner Zayo has bought the defunct fibre assets of Digital Region in South Yorkshire

• July 16, 2014 16 Jul'14

  NAO criticises GDS IT savings method

  The National Audit Office (NAO) has criticised the Government Digital Service over its approach to calculating public IT savings

• July 16, 2014 16 Jul'14

  Shropshire primary school claims first all-802.11ac Wi-Fi network

  Windmill Primary School in Telford is the site of the first 802.11ac Wi-Fi network in a UK primary school as it prepares for a major mobile device deployment

• July 16, 2014 16 Jul'14

  Total internet failure: are you prepared?

  A total internet failure could stop any business in its tracks, yet few are preparing for this possibility, KPMG has warned

• July 16, 2014 16 Jul'14

  CIPD ditches 20-a-day tape habit for Exagrid data deduplication

  HR professionals organisation the CIPD replaces tape backup with disk-based data deduplication backup hardware from Exagrid

• July 16, 2014 16 Jul'14

  Ed Vaizey gets digital industries role in Cabinet reshuffle

  Culture minister Ed Vaizey has been promoted to the post of minister for digital industries in this week’s Cabinet reshuffle

• July 16, 2014 16 Jul'14

  What does the IT industry want as future digital government policy?

  Labour Party asks suppliers to share their top public sector technology priorities

• July 16, 2014 16 Jul'14

  New data law a serious expansion of surveillance, say law experts

  The emergency surveillance legislation being rushed through parliament could be in breach of European law, 15 technology law experts have warned

• July 15, 2014 15 Jul'14

  No skills follow-through for IT transformation of public services

  Only a quarter of local government authorities consider investing in people to be a high priority, according to research from BT

• July 15, 2014 15 Jul'14

  Microsoft tells Labour not to mandate a single open standard for documents

  Microsoft has told the Labour Party not to mandate a single standard for open documents

• July 15, 2014 15 Jul'14

  HP staff refuse to cooperate in knowledge transfer

  HP staff working on contracts with the Department of Work and Pensions and the Ministry of justice will refuse to cooperate in move

• July 15, 2014 15 Jul'14

  Atos continues to supply IT to disability tests

  Atos will continue to supply IT to the DWP’s disability testing despite paying compensation to step down as the main supplier

• July 15, 2014 15 Jul'14

  Security industry welcomes £1.1bn government fund to fight terror and cyber threats

  The UK government has granted the information security industry a £1.1bn defence fund that includes initiatives aimed at fighting cyber threats

• July 15, 2014 15 Jul'14

  ICO calls for better funding and more powers

  The Information Commissioner’s Office calls for better funding and greater powers as it faces record workload

• July 15, 2014 15 Jul'14

  Dotforge launches in Leeds as UK’s first regional fintech accelerator

  Leeds has become home to Dotforge, the first financial services technology (fintech) accelerator outside London

• July 14, 2014 14 Jul'14

  Lloyds Bank strives to boost digital skills for SMEs and charities

  Lloyds Banking Group pushes ahead with government-led initiative to increase digital capability of UK SMEs and charities

• July 14, 2014 14 Jul'14

  Snowden slams UK emergency surveillance legislation

  NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has condemned the UK’s emergency surveillance legislation being rushed through parliament

• July 14, 2014 14 Jul'14

  Legal challenge to UK surveillance set to kick off at Investigatory Powers Tribunal

  The biggest legal challenge to government’s powers to conduct mass internet surveillance takes place 14-18 July

• July 11, 2014 11 Jul'14

  Transparency promise delivers emergency surveillance law deal

  The government’s promise to increase transparency and oversight has secured a political deal to pass emergency surveillance legislation

• July 10, 2014 10 Jul'14

  UK leads international partnership to fight financial malware

  The UK National Crime Agency is leading international collaboration between law enforcement and the private sector to fight bank theft malware

• July 10, 2014 10 Jul'14

  Home Office seeks new CTO and CDO as G-Cloud pioneer Denise McDonagh prepares to retire

  The Home Office is recruiting a new chief technology officer and a chief digital officer prior to CTO Denise McDonagh's retirement

• July 10, 2014 10 Jul'14

  US government network hacked by Chinese cyber criminals

  Chinese hackers broke into a network of the US government agency that stores personal information on all federal employees

• July 10, 2014 10 Jul'14

  UK emergency surveillance legislation expected soon

  The government is expected to rush through emergency legislation to force UK communications providers to store customer data

• July 09, 2014 09 Jul'14

  Google I/O: Extending Google's enterprise reach

  At its annual developer conference last month, Google extended its enterprise portfolio boosting its security, storage and MDM products

• July 09, 2014 09 Jul'14

  Cyber Essentials ensures SMEs protected, says Databarracks

  The government’s Cyber Essentials Scheme protects SMEs from cyber threats in a practical way, says IT services firm Databarracks

• July 09, 2014 09 Jul'14

  Organisations fail to encrypt sensitive data, shows Infosecurity Europe survey

  More than a third of all organisations are failing to encrypt sensitive data sent outside their own systems, reveals a survey at Infosecurity Europe

• July 09, 2014 09 Jul'14

  Labour will aim to reduce dominance of big suppliers in government IT

  The Labour Party will aim to reduce the dominance of large IT suppliers in government should it win next year’s general election

• July 09, 2014 09 Jul'14

  Why using voice biometrics is a good idea

  Banks and other organisations are turning to voice biometrics, but why do they believe the technology is good idea?

• July 09, 2014 09 Jul'14

  Italian telco calls for EU action on single digital market

  CEO of Italtel calls for concerted action to create a single digital market in the EU to stimulate investment in next-gen networks, and meet the goals of the European Digital Agenda

• July 09, 2014 09 Jul'14

  Prominent muslim US citizens targeted by NSA spying, Snowden files show

  The NSA Prism surveillance programme targeted prominent muslim US citizens, shows a document leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden

• July 08, 2014 08 Jul'14

  Enisa gears up to focus on economic benefits of cyber security

  Enisa, plans to re-focus its efforts with a new strategy to put economic benefits at the forefront of all its activities

• July 08, 2014 08 Jul'14

  Government invites tenders for Emergency Services Network

  Incumbent Airwave Solutions among several businesses invited to tender on the four lots of the new Emergency Services Network

• July 08, 2014 08 Jul'14

  Top hardware firms join forces on IoT standards

  Top hardware firms join forces to establish secure and reliable connectivity standards for the internet of things

• July 07, 2014 07 Jul'14

  No return to snooper’s charter under emergency surveillance law

  Calls for emergency legislation to force phone and internet providers to keep usage records have renewed debate over snooper’s charter

• July 07, 2014 07 Jul'14

  Smart light bulbs get security update

  Smart light bulb maker LIFX has issued a firmware update after security researchers exposed a security weakness

• July 07, 2014 07 Jul'14

  Most NSA spy data relates to innocent internet users, report shows

  Study shows NSA's internet surveillance collects more data from ordinary internet users than legitimate targets

• July 07, 2014 07 Jul'14

  Public sector outspends private sector on outsourcing by 70%

  The UK public sector spent about 70% more than UK businesses on IT and business process outsourcing over the last two years, according to Information Services Group (ISG)

• July 07, 2014 07 Jul'14

  Five arrested in crackdown on bogus UK government websites

  The National Trading Standards eCrime Team arrests five people in a crackdown on bogus government websites

• July 07, 2014 07 Jul'14

  Flat mobile batteries banned from US-bound flights

  UK Department for Transport has announced that mobile devices with flat batteries will not be permitted on flights to the US amid new terrorism fears

• July 04, 2014 04 Jul'14

  Crest welcomes Barclays CES certification

  Security certification body Crest has welcomed the first certification by a major organisation under the government’s new Cyber Essentials Scheme

• July 04, 2014 04 Jul'14

  Security Think Tank: The dos and don’ts of a good incident response plan

  What does a good information security incident response plan look like?

• July 04, 2014 04 Jul'14

  What IT challenges would an independent Scotland face?

  If Scotland votes ‘Yes’ for independence in September, what are the costs and challenges of building new government IT systems?

• July 04, 2014 04 Jul'14

  Google accused of censorship as it struggles with takedown requests

  Google has come under fire over some of the search links it is removing in Europe as it struggles to cope with the high volume of takedown requests

• July 04, 2014 04 Jul'14

  UK cloud adoption swells by 61% in four years

  Some 78% of UK organisations have formally adopted at least one cloud-based service, giving cloud a mainstream deployment status

• July 04, 2014 04 Jul'14

  Cyber fraudsters net up to $3.75bn in Brazil

  Cyber criminals are thought to have stolen up to $3.75bn in a malware-based fraud operation targeting online payments in Brazil

• July 04, 2014 04 Jul'14

  NHS Stockport CCG joins Huddle to combine health and social care

  The NHS Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is using Huddle cloud collaboration software to deliver more joined up health and social care

• July 03, 2014 03 Jul'14

  Integrating intelligence key to better security, says FireEye

  Security threat intelligence is vital, but challenging to implement, says FireEye

• July 03, 2014 03 Jul'14

  Bristol City Council launches open data initiative

  Bristol has launched an open data initiative to encourage citizens to build services using local data.

• July 03, 2014 03 Jul'14

  UK internet porn filters a failure, says Open Rights Group

  The Open Rights Group reveals UK ISP internet porn filters are blocking nearly one in five legitimate websites, including political commentary

• July 03, 2014 03 Jul'14

  Facebook apologises over psychological experiments

  Facebook has apologised over the controversial psychological experiments carried out on 689,000 users without their consent in 2012

• July 02, 2014 02 Jul'14

  FireEye warns of new breed of Android malware

  Security researchers have discovered a new breed of mobile banking Android malware

• July 02, 2014 02 Jul'14

  Symantec exposes hackers targeting power grids

  More than 1,000 energy companies have been compromised by an Eastern European hacking collective, says Symantec

• July 02, 2014 02 Jul'14

  Care.data will remain opt-out model, says NHS director Tim Kelsey

  The NHS Care.data programme will continue as an opt-out scheme despite calls for users to have to explicitly opt in to the data-sharing initiative

• July 02, 2014 02 Jul'14

  ICO probes Facebook over psychology experiment data protection fears

  The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) investigates fears Facebook broke data protection laws with a psychology experiment on users

• July 02, 2014 02 Jul'14

  Microsoft under fire over disruptive anti-crime operation

  Microsoft has come under fire after an operation aimed at taking down a criminal botnet disrupted traffic to millions of legitimate servers

• July 01, 2014 01 Jul'14

  Home Office encourages SMEs to help with IT overhaul

  The Home Office announces plans to abandon its old outsourcing mega-deals and procure future IT services through G-Cloud

• July 01, 2014 01 Jul'14

  Most people keen to share biometric data for smoother travel

  A study has revealed that 89% of citizens agree with the use of biometric identification to aid travel

• July 01, 2014 01 Jul'14

  Government should consult more widely on cyber security, says NSSC

  Goverment should consult more widely on cyber security, says parliament's National Security Strategy Committee

• July 01, 2014 01 Jul'14

  Industrial control systems increasingly under attack, says Kaspersky

  Targeted attacks on industrial control systems take place on a regular and increasing basis, says Kaspersky Lab

• July 01, 2014 01 Jul'14

  Google loses US appeal over Street View data collection

  Failure of appeal leaves Google facing legal action over Street View data collection programme

• June 30, 2014 30 Jun'14

  Government can learn from private sector cyber security, says EY

  UK government could learn from the private sector’s approach to cyber security, says EY

• June 30, 2014 30 Jun'14

  MoJ writes off £56m from duplicate shared services programme

  The Ministry of Justice has been forced to write off £56.3m from its shared Shared Services Programme

• June 30, 2014 30 Jun'14

  DDoS attacks a growing concern for UK, BT study shows

  DDoS attacks are a growing concern for UK organisations, a study has revealed

• June 30, 2014 30 Jun'14

  Efforts to detect terrorism hampered by mass surveillance, says former NSA technical director

  US at risk of missing terrorist threats under huge volume of surveillance data, says former NSA technical director

• June 30, 2014 30 Jun'14

  Facebook under fire over secret experiment on users

  Facebook has come under fire for conducting a psychology experiment on 689,000 users without their consent

• June 27, 2014 27 Jun'14

  Government behind UK cyber security economy

  The government says ensuring the UK has the cyber security skills it needs is about defence and economic growth

• June 27, 2014 27 Jun'14

  Wearable tech must comply with privacy laws, warns ICO

  Wearable technology must comply with UK data privacy laws, warns the ICO

• June 27, 2014 27 Jun'14

  Google begins complying with European takedown requests

  Google has begun removing search results in response to takedown requests from European citizens

• June 27, 2014 27 Jun'14

  German government terminates Verizon contract over NSA snooping fears

  The German government has terminated a contract with Verizon over concerns of snooping by the National Security Agency (NSA)

• June 26, 2014 26 Jun'14

  Child maintenance IT system costs still rising, says NAO

  The costs of setting up a new IT system for child maintenance have risen again – to £352m

• June 26, 2014 26 Jun'14

  Big IT suppliers top government spending on contracts

  IT firms are earning the most from government contracts, with HP alone earning more than £1.7bn a year

• June 26, 2014 26 Jun'14

  NAO confirms plan to review Universal Credit again this year

  The National Audit Office announces it will conduct a second investigation into the DWP's Universal Credit project this year

• June 25, 2014 25 Jun'14

  BMA votes for Care.data to be explicitly opt-in

  The British Medical Association (BMA) has voiced concerns that the Care.data programme should be explicitly opt-in

• June 25, 2014 25 Jun'14

  Cloud access brokers top security technology, says Gartner

  Cloud access security brokers are the top security technology trend for 2014, according to Gartner

• June 25, 2014 25 Jun'14

  UK police forces fail to impress in ICO audit

  Only one out of 17 UK police forces audited by the ICO achieved the top assurance rating for compliance with data protection laws

• June 25, 2014 25 Jun'14

  Council IT chiefs aim to avoid repeat of PSN compliance debacle

  Socitm president Nick Roberts reveals how public sector IT chiefs hope to avoid a repeat of PSN compliance problems

• June 25, 2014 25 Jun'14

  Iraqis use Firechat app to bypass internet block

  Iraqis are using mesh messaging app Firechat to circumvent a government block on net access

• June 25, 2014 25 Jun'14

  Montana notifies 1.3 million residents of 11-month old data breach

  The US state of Montana has just notified 1.3 million residents of a data breach in the state health department that took place in July 2013

• June 25, 2014 25 Jun'14

  Cyber thieves tap over €500,000 from European bank

  Cyber thieves drained more than €500,000 from customers at a European bank in one week, researchers have discovered

• June 24, 2014 24 Jun'14

  Under new management: next steps for the Public Services Network

  GDS director of common technology services Andy Beale discusses future plans for the Public Services Network

• June 23, 2014 23 Jun'14

  Internet of things will put pressure on enterprise security, says Proofpoint

  The internet of things will give attackers more ways to deliver malware into the enterprise, says Proofpoint

• June 23, 2014 23 Jun'14

  Syrian hacktivists find new way to target Reuters

  Syrian hacktivists have found a new way of targeting Reuters, highlighting the need for greater supply chain security

• June 23, 2014 23 Jun'14

  Jihadists in Iraq hijack World Cup hashtags

  The militant Islamic group ISIS is hijacking Twitter hashtags for the 2014 World Cup to spread its message

• June 23, 2014 23 Jun'14

  NSA granted extension to collect phone data

  The NSA has been granted an extension of 90 days to continue collecting US phone records in bulk

• June 23, 2014 23 Jun'14

  CW500: Digital customer engagement

  The CW500 Club event in June blew away the myths around digital customer engagement

• June 20, 2014 20 Jun'14

  Concern over connectivity glitches in Whitehall IT overhaul

  Ministers have raised concerns about network connectivity after a government move to a new multi-sourcing model of IT procurement

• June 20, 2014 20 Jun'14

  Growing call for anonymity online, says Cambridge researcher

  While it is difficult to be anonymous online, new technology is making it possible to protect users' privacy better, says a Cambridge researcher

• June 20, 2014 20 Jun'14

  Government commits to greater transparency for IT contracts

  The government has committed to providing greater visibility around suppliers’ performance, costs and revenues when outsourcing services

• June 20, 2014 20 Jun'14

  UK divided on government role in cyberspace, survey shows

  UK citizens are divided on the role of government in cyberspace, a survey has revealed

• June 20, 2014 20 Jun'14

  Researchers find critical Android security problem in Google Play

  Researchers have discovered a critical security problem in Google Play, the official Android app store

• June 20, 2014 20 Jun'14

  Former UK security minister calls for tighter surveillance law

  Former security minister Pauline Neville-Jones has called for the law on internet surveillance to be tightened up

• June 20, 2014 20 Jun'14

  Android and Windows Phone to get kill switch

  Google and Microsoft are to add a kill-switch to their mobile operating systems to help reduce smartphone theft

• June 19, 2014 19 Jun'14

  BBC sets up expert group of cloud controllers

  The BBC has set up a central group of IT, security and user communities to manage its purchase and use of cloud computing

• June 19, 2014 19 Jun'14

  BDUK to grill local authorities on broadband postcode data

  New BDUK CEO Chris Townsend plans urgent review of local authorities to establish which are releasing broadband postcode data

• June 19, 2014 19 Jun'14

  Government reveals winning bids in superfast broadband trials

  Government reveals names of eight suppliers that have won a share of a £10m funding pot to trial superfast broadband in rural areas

• June 19, 2014 19 Jun'14

  Top European court to rule on NSA Facebook data privacy challenge

  Europe’s top court will rule on whether data protection authorities should audit data Facebook allegedly gives to the US National Security Agency

• June 18, 2014 18 Jun'14

  Don’t let bean counters determine your cloud strategy, says Bank of England CIO

  John Finch, the CIO of the Bank of England, warns users to be wary of financial promises made by cloud providers

• June 18, 2014 18 Jun'14

  Tesco Clubcard founder worried about Care.data

  One of Britain’s pioneers of big data has raised his concerns about NHS England’s use of data and its Care.data programme

• June 18, 2014 18 Jun'14

  Deputy mayor of London wages war on Oracle

  Deputy mayor of London for business and enterprise, Kit Malthouse, has waged war on the database giant Oracle over its licensing fees