News

IT for government and public sector

• August 01, 2014 01 Aug'14

  Cameron announces £300m big data human genome database project

  Prime Minister David Cameron has announced £300m government support for a big data human genome mapping project in England

• August 01, 2014 01 Aug'14

  HMRC’s Digital Delivery Centre in Newcastle opens for business

  HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has opened the doors to its new digital headquarters in Newcastle

• August 01, 2014 01 Aug'14

  GCHQ certifies six cyber-security masters degrees

  GCHQ has certified six masters degrees focused on cyber-security as the government attempts develop the expertise required to make the UK as part of the National Cyber Security Programme.

• August 01, 2014 01 Aug'14

  Russian blogger law comes into action

  A new information security law which places restrictions on Russian bloggers and social media users has come into force today

• July 31, 2014 31 Jul'14

  West Herts NHS Trust partners signs £25.5m IT contract with CGI

  West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust has chosen CGI to upgrade and manage its IT to improve patient care and employee working

• July 31, 2014 31 Jul'14

  £700m government hosting deal limits bidders to North-East England datacentre

  Want to win the £700m Crown Hosting Service contract? You'll need a major datacentre near Newcastle to stand any chance

• July 30, 2014 30 Jul'14

  Government drives autonomous cars onto UK roads

  The UK government has announced plans to allow driverless cars to be used on public roads from early next year

• July 29, 2014 29 Jul'14

  BlackBerry to buy anti-phone tapping specialist Secusmart

  BlackBerry to buy German voice and data encryption supplier Secusmart for an undisclosed sum

• July 29, 2014 29 Jul'14

  Joanna Shields joins the government’s digital revolution

  Chair of Tech City UK, Joanna Shields is joining the prime minister’s Digital Taskforce to represent the digital sector

• July 29, 2014 29 Jul'14

  53% of G-Cloud spend on is on SMEs

  Just over half of G-Cloud spend is with SMEs, according to June sales figures released by the Cabinet Office

• July 28, 2014 28 Jul'14

  5G network for London by 2020, says Boris Johnson

  Mayor Boris Johnson to promise 5G mobile network for London by the end of the decade

• July 28, 2014 28 Jul'14

  State security a challenge for global firms, says KPMG

  Global firms are being forced to pioneer privacy standards in the face of state data access requests, says KPMG

• July 28, 2014 28 Jul'14

  Wikipedia ban edits from US Congress

  Wikipedia has imposed a ten-day block on edits from computers within US Congress building after the latest series of rogue edits

• July 25, 2014 25 Jul'14

  G-Cloud supplier blames lack of stability for poor government spend

  G-Cloud supplier Databarracks calls for more stability and continuity, warning that lack of guidance and clarity is putting off local government

• July 25, 2014 25 Jul'14

  Five top UK tech startup clusters outside London

  Tech City UK has moved towards promoting the entire UK, rather than just the capital

• July 24, 2014 24 Jul'14

  TfL wastes millions on telecoms, says IIPAG watchdog

  Watchdog IIPAG criticises Transport for London (TfL) for its inefficient and fragmented telecoms contracts

• July 24, 2014 24 Jul'14

  Yorkshire councils upgrade networks for Tour de France

  IP telephony and Wi-Fi upgrades help North Yorkshire and Leeds City Councils meet the demands of the Tour de France

• July 23, 2014 23 Jul'14

  Skills shortages identified as key risk to government digital strategy

  Government Digital Service says skills shortage is one of the biggest risks to delivering more than £1.4bn of annual savings in Whitehall

• July 23, 2014 23 Jul'14

  PayPal offers working capital to UK small businesses

  Payments giant PayPal has announced that it will be providing online cash advances to small businesses in the UK

• July 23, 2014 23 Jul'14

  Scotland plans to issue £100m IT services tender

  The Scottish government plans to create a new IT managed services framework

• July 23, 2014 23 Jul'14

  Microsoft attacks UK government decision to adopt ODF for document formats

  Microsoft has questioned the merits of the UK government’s decision to adopt ODF - but meeting minutes show OOXML was given due consideration

• July 23, 2014 23 Jul'14

  Business Secretary calls for TSB’s funding to be doubled

  Business Secretary Vince Cable has urged the government to double the Technology Strategy Board’s (TSB) funding

• July 22, 2014 22 Jul'14

  UK government confirms ODF as standard document format, rejecting Microsoft proposals

  The government has confirmed plans to standardise document formats and has resisted Microsoft lobbying by rejecting its preferred standard

• July 22, 2014 22 Jul'14

  HMRC warned over slow progress on Aspire replacement

  The National Audit Office has warned HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) about the challenges it will face moving away from its Aspire IT contract

• July 22, 2014 22 Jul'14

  NAO reveals Home Office spent £347m on failed ICW programme

  The Home Office spent £347m closing its Immigration Case Work programme, which was supposed to replace legacy databases

• July 22, 2014 22 Jul'14

  Law should be strengthened to protect data from mass surveillance, tribunal hears

  Privacy of UK citizens' metadata may fall short of European standards

• July 22, 2014 22 Jul'14

  UK lags US in application security investment

  UK enterprises are lagging behind US enterprises in application security, a study has revealed

• July 21, 2014 21 Jul'14

  Electronic document management – a paperless cure for the NHS?

  Will the NHS meet the 2018 deadline to go paperless? Or is it more likely that the NHS will just have less paper than it did in 2013?

• July 21, 2014 21 Jul'14

  Privacy key to UK business opportunity, says KPMG

  Finding the right balance between privacy and business insight could help UK firms take the lead in innovative online services, says KPMG

• July 21, 2014 21 Jul'14

  Technical glitch hits BBC iPlayer

  BBC iPlayer was affected by technical problems over the weekend, preventing some viewers from accessing TV on demand

• July 21, 2014 21 Jul'14

  Interview: Gerard Grech, CEO, Tech City UK

  Tech City UK CEO, Gerard Grech, thinks there are other places besides London to start a digital business in the UK

• July 18, 2014 18 Jul'14

  Government tenders for £700m Crown Hosting Service deal

  The government has put out a tender to procure infrastructure for a Crown Hosting Service, which will consolidate hosting services across Whitehall departments.

• July 17, 2014 17 Jul'14

  BBC News commits to digital investment amid loss of 220 jobs

  BBC News has announced a restructure where it will invest more into digital transformation and original journalism.

• 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