News

IT for government and public sector

• February 08, 2021 08 Feb'21

  Data of thousands of Dutch citizens leaked from government Covid-19 systems

  Weak access controls and outdated systems blamed for leaking of the personal details of thousands of Dutch citizens tested for Covid-19

• February 05, 2021 05 Feb'21

  EncroChat: Appeal court finds ‘digital phone tapping’ admissible in criminal trials

  Appeal Court decides EncroChat-encrypted phone records can be used in criminal trials. Critics say the decision means phone tapping no longer has a ‘clear meaning in the digital age’

• February 05, 2021 05 Feb'21

  Mayor of London launches digital inclusion initiative

  Taskforce focused on increasing digital inclusion in London will promote digital skills and increase access to devices and connectivity

• February 05, 2021 05 Feb'21

  Government R&D funding fails to maximise ‘catapult’ potential

  Barriers in the UK’s research and development funding system mean technology and innovation centres, also known as catapults, are prevented from maximising their potential economic impact

• February 05, 2021 05 Feb'21

  Financial regulatory body bombarded with malicious emails

  New disclosures reveal the FCA’s systems bounced almost a quarter of a million malicious emails in a three-month period

• February 05, 2021 05 Feb'21

  Security firm Stormshield loses source code in cyber attack

  Source code from two products developed by French cyber security firm was compromised in a December 2020 incident

• February 04, 2021 04 Feb'21

  UKRI should speed up Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund approval processes, says NAO

  Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund’s lengthy approval process leads to delays in funding projects and could be a deterrent, according to the National Audit Office

• February 04, 2021 04 Feb'21

  CCS goes live with £800m NHS IT framework

  Digital Capability for Health framework covers development and IT management services for health and social care organisations

• February 04, 2021 04 Feb'21

  CDEI: Local government data use must keep up Covid momentum

  The Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation says momentum in local authority data use during the Covid-19 pandemic is in danger of being dissipated without central government investment and support for data skills development

• February 03, 2021 03 Feb'21

  Venture capital trusts lobby for relaxed state aid rules

  Venture Capital Trust Association chair speaks to Computer Weekly about how the UK’s exit from the EU means state aid rules can be rewritten to allow for the expansion of funding mechanisms used by tech startups

• February 03, 2021 03 Feb'21

  Google grows cloud sales as parent’s profits top $40bn

  Alphabet announces massive overall profits and increased Google cloud sales

• February 03, 2021 03 Feb'21

  ‘Classic’ Cerber ransomware targets health sector in high volumes

  Cerber ransomware-as-a-service seems to have re-emerged as one of the most critical cyber threats facing healthcare organisations, reports VMware Carbon Black

• February 02, 2021 02 Feb'21

  Ten startups graduate from virtual reality-focused accelerator

  Startups focusing on building new immersive technology products have completed Digital Catapult’s Augmentor accelerator programme

• February 02, 2021 02 Feb'21

  Nordic region provides autonomous vehicle test bed

  Nordic region has the suppliers, environment and appetite for pioneering the development of autonomous vehicles

• February 02, 2021 02 Feb'21

  Liverpool City Council upgrades to cloud-based contact centre

  An 8x8 integrated cloud PaaS contact centre with voice, team chat and meetings support is helping to drive the council’s digital agenda

• February 01, 2021 01 Feb'21

  West Midlands refreshes digital strategy

  Combined authority’s 2021-2026 digital roadmap aims to address the digital divide and make the West Midlands the most digitally connected region in the country

• February 01, 2021 01 Feb'21

  UKRI suspends services after ransomware attack

  UK Research and Innovation was hit by an undisclosed strain of ransomware at the end of January

• February 01, 2021 01 Feb'21

  ‘Victory for free speech and openness’ after tribunal confirms no territorial restrictions to FOIA

  Freedom of information tribunal rules that investigative journalists and others can use the Freedom of Information Act if they live outside the UK or are not British citizens

• January 29, 2021 29 Jan'21

  Biometrics ethics group addresses public-private use of facial recognition

  Home Office’s Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group releases briefing note on the use of live facial recognition in public–private collaborations following a year-long investigation

• January 29, 2021 29 Jan'21

  Revealed: Brits who fuelled ‘vicious’ conspiracy theory by Trump supporters

  Trump supporters have apologised and paid millions in damages to the family of murdered Democratic Party staffer Seth Rich for promoting false allegations that Rich – not Russian agents – stole emails from the Democratic National Committee

• January 26, 2021 26 Jan'21

  Conservatives broke data law to racially profile millions

  The Conservative Party acted illegally in collecting data that inferred voters’ ethnicity and religious background, a Select Committee has heard

• January 26, 2021 26 Jan'21

  Cyber fraud a national security issue, says Rusi report

  A report from the Rusi think tank calls for fresh approaches to how we think about fighting fraud

• January 25, 2021 25 Jan'21

  Department for International Trade signs £2.6m deal with Capita

  Deal will see department deploy a digital platform to distribute grants to small and medium-sized enterprises

• January 22, 2021 22 Jan'21

  Sepa data leaks as agency resists ransom demands

  The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is resisting extortion demands from a ransomware gang, but has suffered a data leak in retaliation

• January 21, 2021 21 Jan'21

  Immigration exemption in data protection law faces further legal challenge

  Human rights groups set to take legal challenge against immigration exemption to Court of Appeal on the basis that everyone, regardless of their nationality or residence, should have their fundamental rights and freedoms protected as stated in the ...

• January 21, 2021 21 Jan'21

  Hackney Council tenders for cyber security upgrade

  Suppliers are being invited to tender for enhanced cyber security capabilities at ransomware victim Hackney Council

• January 21, 2021 21 Jan'21

  Gamarue malware found on government-issued school laptops

  Devices handed out by the government to support vulnerable children contain malware that appears to be contacting C2 infrastructure in Russia

• January 21, 2021 21 Jan'21

  UKtech50 2021: Vote for the most influential person in UK technology

  Our judges have picked a shortlist, and now we invite readers to tell us who should be chosen as the most influential person in the UK tech scene for 2021 – submit your vote now

• January 21, 2021 21 Jan'21

  Interview: Tony Porter, chief privacy officer, Corsight AI

  Tony Porter speaks to Computer Weekly about the changes in facial-recognition during his time as surveillance camera commissioner, the ethics of using the technology, and his new role as chief privacy officer at Corsight AI

• January 21, 2021 21 Jan'21

  NHS Business Services Authority launches digital strategy

  NHS body’s digital strategy aims to change culture, practices and processes to create an environment where people can do their best

• January 21, 2021 21 Jan'21

  Government needs to ‘take stock’ of digital progress, says Reform

  Think-tank says Covid-19 has shown the importance of a ‘digitally enabled’ public sector, but there is still a long way to go to realise the full potential of technology

• January 21, 2021 21 Jan'21

  Digital knowledge must be integral part of Dutch police training

  Research reveals gaps in digital knowledge among Netherlands police, with calls for a training ‘roadmap’ to get officers up to speed to tackle cyber crime

• January 20, 2021 20 Jan'21

  More subpostmasters’ prosecutions sent to appeal for wrongful conviction

  Four more subpostmasters are to have their appeals against criminal convictions heard in the appeal courts

• January 20, 2021 20 Jan'21

  PAC demands rejigged IT investment action plan from HMRC by end of March 2021

  A report by the Public Accounts Committee confirms HMRC is spending too much money on patching legacy IT systems, and needs to prioritise investing in the modernisation of its digital estate

• January 20, 2021 20 Jan'21

  IT scandal exposes legal rule that made it easy for Post Office to prosecute the innocent

  Lawyers call for changes to digital evidence rule that made it easier for the Post Office to ‘bamboozle courts’ and make subpostmasters pay a heavy price for its IT failings

• January 18, 2021 18 Jan'21

  MoD reports 18% rise in data loss incidents

  The Ministry of Defence reported more than five hundred data security incidents in 2019-20, with seven serious enough to warrant disclosure to the ICO

• January 18, 2021 18 Jan'21

  Nottinghamshire uses citizen engagement tools to inform residents

  Nottinghamshire Council is seeking to expand Granicus integrations after success in using its communications services to keep citizens informed during pandemic

• January 18, 2021 18 Jan'21

  UKtech50: The 2021 longlist

  Each year, Computer Weekly launches its annual search for the most influential people in UK IT, where the tech industry nominates who it thinks should be in the top 50 – here is the longlist for 2021

• January 18, 2021 18 Jan'21

  Community Fibre to supply free 50Mbps broadband for vulnerable London households

  Fibre altnet looks to address growing problem of the digital divide and ensure continuity of education in UK capital

• January 17, 2021 17 Jan'21

  NCSC CyberFirst Girls 2021 contest kicks off

  UK’s national cyber agency says it has already had hundreds of entrants in spite of the challenges presented by the pandemic

• January 15, 2021 15 Jan'21

  150,000 records accidentally wiped from police systems

  Home Office claims data wiped from national police systems only relates to people who have never been convicted of a crime or had further police action taken against them following an arrest

• January 15, 2021 15 Jan'21

  US cyber security agencies get $9bn in Biden plan

  New funding proposals come as US government reels from the impact of the December 2020 SolarWinds attack

• January 15, 2021 15 Jan'21

  Coalition proposes secure standard model for Covid-19 passports

  Vaccination Credential Initiative is working to ensure that people vaccinated against Covid-19 can access their records in a secure, verifiable and privacy-preserving way

• January 15, 2021 15 Jan'21

  Tech partnership to drive Finland’s quantum computing project

  Organisations in Finland are developing quantum computing capabilities through a state and private sector partnership

• January 15, 2021 15 Jan'21

  UK government urged to implement cloud-centric transformation plan

  The approach to digital public services needs to be reinvented to catch up with global leaders, according to new research

• January 14, 2021 14 Jan'21

  Etive to create digital identity trust scheme for residential property market

  The tech company has received funding from Innovate UK to create a digital identity trust scheme, aiming to improve identity verification in the residential property sector

• January 14, 2021 14 Jan'21

  Scottish councils need better digital skills, report finds

  Councils in Scotland still suffer from a lack of digital skills among staff despite progress during the pandemic, and the Scottish Local Government Digital Office has failed to deliver its goal of common platforms and joint procurement, according to...

• January 14, 2021 14 Jan'21

  Old, on-premise systems targeted in Hackney ransomware attack

  Council reveals some more insight into how the Pysa ransomware gang infiltrated its systems by exploiting legacy technology

• January 14, 2021 14 Jan'21

  Unforeseen consequences of new technologies put UK at risk

  Lords committee told that the risks associated with various emerging digital technologies must be assessed together, with input from UK citizens, if the government is to avoid ‘siloisation’ of fundamentally interconnected problems

• January 13, 2021 13 Jan'21

  Covid-19 immunity passport tests to begin in UK

  A Covid-19 immunity and vaccination passport developed by two UK firms and backed by Innovate UK has entered the live testing phase