News

IT for government and public sector

• December 06, 2013 06 Dec'13

  Microsoft leads major disruption of ZeroAccess botnet

  Microsoft, the FBI and Europol's European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) have disrupted ZeroAccess, one of the world’s largest botnets

• December 05, 2013 05 Dec'13

  Government Digital Service no longer involved with Universal Credit IT development

  The Government Digital Service ends direct involvement in the development of the “enhanced IT” for the Universal Credit sheme

• December 05, 2013 05 Dec'13

  Skills and supporting businesses top Autumn Statement 2013 agenda

  Supporting young businesses and fixing the skills gap was a recurring theme during today’s Autumn Statement in the House of Commons

• December 05, 2013 05 Dec'13

  Government begins selection of open standards for documents

  The government has begun the process to select open standards for documents

• December 05, 2013 05 Dec'13

  DCMS puts transparency before BT’s commercial interests

  The head of telecommunications policy at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport claims the need for transparency in the BDUK roll-out is more important than BT’s commercial interests, but admits government needs to do better in pushing for more...

• December 05, 2013 05 Dec'13

  Automation key to balancing agility and security, says AlgoSec

  Automated critical business application management enables a more agile business and enhances security, says security policy management firm AlgoSec

• December 05, 2013 05 Dec'13

  Norfolk and Suffolk police outsource back-office systems

  Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies are outsourcing ERP and duty management systems to Capgemini in a seven-year deal worth £3.75m

• December 05, 2013 05 Dec'13

  700,000 benefit claimants miss out on Universal Credit deadline

  The secretary for work and pensions has admitted the Universal Credit benefit scheme will miss its 2017 deadline

• December 05, 2013 05 Dec'13

  Google robotics project sparks speculation

  Google has revealed it has acquired seven robotics companies in the past six months, sparking speculation about what it plans to develop

• December 05, 2013 05 Dec'13

  UK citizen sues Microsoft over Prism private data leak to NSA

  A court action brought in the UK will test Microsoft's legal right to disclose private data on UK citizens to US intelligence services

• December 05, 2013 05 Dec'13

  Hackers post millions of stolen passwords online

  Security researchers have discovered more than two million stolen passwords for Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn and other online services

• December 05, 2013 05 Dec'13

  NSA tracks 5 billion phone records daily, Snowden docs show

  The NSA tracks nearly 5 billion mobile phone records a day, according to the latest documents revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden

• December 04, 2013 04 Dec'13

  VillageBroadband brings superfast Wi-Fi to rural Northamptonshire

  The community project turned company serves up 10-15Mbps Wi-Fi to 3,500 residents in rural parts of the East Midlands county

• December 04, 2013 04 Dec'13

  Proof-of-concept malware jumps air gap with sound card

  Researchers demonstrate proof-of-concept malware exfiltrating data using high-frequency transmissions inaudible to humans

• December 04, 2013 04 Dec'13

  University tiers HPC cloud with HDS, Spectra Logic and QStar

  Oslo University builds academic cloud for research data scalable to exabytes with HDS disk, Spectra Logic tape and QStar archive

• December 04, 2013 04 Dec'13

  Councils threatened with disconnection from PSN in escalating security row

  A London council was hours away from being disconnected from the public sector network, in an row between central and local government over security compliance

• December 04, 2013 04 Dec'13

  The Guardian denies Snowden stories damaged national security

  Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger defends decision to publish stories on documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden

• December 04, 2013 04 Dec'13

  Insurance firms invest £25bn in UK infrastructure

  UK’s biggest insurance firms will invest £25bn into infrastructure projects including broadband roll-out and railway networks

• December 04, 2013 04 Dec'13

  UK proposes formal talks on cyber security with China

  Prime minister David Cameron has called on China to be more open about cyber security

• December 03, 2013 03 Dec'13

  UK mobile operators to scrap roaming charges by 2016

  The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has signed an agreement with EE, Three, Virgin Media and Vodafone to end roaming charges by 2016

• December 02, 2013 02 Dec'13

  90% of Universal Credit claims in pilot projects submitted online

  Nine out of 10 benefit claimants in a pilot project for Universal Credit submitted their claims online, according to a government survey

• December 02, 2013 02 Dec'13

  Case study: Oxford Brookes revamps network with Juniper

  Oxford Brookes University signs Juniper Networks to overhaul its infrastructure and modernise services for students and staff

• December 02, 2013 02 Dec'13

  Interview: Steve Furber on UK chip innovation

  ARM chip designers Stephen Furber and Sophie Wilson will be honoured at the Economist Innovation awards on 3 December 2013

• December 02, 2013 02 Dec'13

  CIO interview: Peter O’Rourke, director of IT, University Campus Suffolk

  Peter O’Rourke, IT director at University Campus Suffolk, is looking to students to shape the university’s IT infrastructure

• November 29, 2013 29 Nov'13

  FSA split involved more than 100 IT projects

  A Fujitsu project to support the FSA's split in to two separate organisations involved 100 IT projects and the migration of 1,300 users

• November 29, 2013 29 Nov'13

  Martha Lane Fox resigns as UK Digital Champion

  The government has announced the resignation of Baroness Martha Lane Fox as UK Digital Champion

• November 29, 2013 29 Nov'13

  Google could face Dutch fine over privacy policy

  Google could face a fine after Dutch authorities find the firm’s 2012 privacy policy violates local data protection law

• November 29, 2013 29 Nov'13

  US admits pirating military software

  The US government has agreed to pay a $50m copyright infringement settlement to a logistics software firm

• November 28, 2013 28 Nov'13

  Global real estate firm gets edge with cloud and mobile upgrade

  Real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield has achieved competitive advatage by embracing cloud and mobility

• November 28, 2013 28 Nov'13

  BT ensures Rothbury broadband project goes ahead

  While alternative operators in rural locations have to wait for locations before getting RCBF funding and starting their broadband roll-outs, BT is a step ahead in Rothbury

• November 28, 2013 28 Nov'13

  EU calls on US to rebuild trust in post-Snowden era

  The EC has called on the US to provide guarantees to restore trust in the wake of spying revelations

• November 28, 2013 28 Nov'13

  Commons speaker John Bercow sets committee to review online voting

  House of commons speaker, John Bercow, has announced a commission on digital democracy to investigate the use of modern technology within parliament

• November 28, 2013 28 Nov'13

  NSA planned to discredit Islamist radicals with porn web history

  US authorities considered exposing details of visits to online porn sites to discredit prominent Islamist radicals, according to latest Snowden document

• November 28, 2013 28 Nov'13

  University boosts VDI IOPS by 70% with Nimble hybrid flash array

  The University of Wolverhampton chose Nimble hybrid flash over all-flash from Violin and Fusion-io to boost IOPS for persistent desktops in a staff VDI roll-out

• November 28, 2013 28 Nov'13

  UK set to announce plans to tackle extremism online

  The government plans to order broadband providers to block extremist websites identified by a specialist unit set

• November 27, 2013 27 Nov'13

  Government department signs CGI for service integration

  The DECC has signed a desktop services and support contract with CGI for cloud-based services

• November 27, 2013 27 Nov'13

  Many enterprises not getting value of consumerisation, says IDC

  There is still a wide variety of approaches to mobility and consumerisation within the enterprise, says IDC

• November 26, 2013 26 Nov'13

  NCA changed UK cyber crime fighting, says NCCU head

  The NCA has changed the UK law enforcement landscape, says Andy Archibald, head of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit

• November 26, 2013 26 Nov'13

  Janet6 ‘offers the future’ for research networking needs

  Jisc takes back the network from a managed service provider to light up its own fibre and offer a future proofed service to researchers, universities, colleges and schools across the UK

• November 26, 2013 26 Nov'13

  Government lays out 2014 cyber security agenda

  The UK government has reiterated its commitment to addressing cyber security and laid out some plans for 2014 at the Cyber Security Summit 2013

• November 26, 2013 26 Nov'13

  IT suppliers relaxed about contract visibility

  IT and BPO suppliers Atos and Capita say they are relaxed about being more open about the often obscured details of large government contracts, as outsourcing giants are put under pressure by MPs to open up to public scrutiny

• November 26, 2013 26 Nov'13

  Spanish health authority cuts costs with Xbox consultations

  Accenture has been working with the health authorities in Spain’s Basque Country to reduce healthcare costs through technology

• November 26, 2013 26 Nov'13

  White hat Wi-Fi hacking shows vulnerability of business data

  Whitehat hackers have shown that senstitive data can be sniffed easily from public Wi-Fi hotspots

• November 26, 2013 26 Nov'13

  FTSE 350 firms complete cyber risk assessment

  Most FTSE 350 companies put cyber risk on the board agenda, but many need to improve how they manage that risk

• November 25, 2013 25 Nov'13

  Global public sector outsourcing far outstrips private sector

  Global public sector organisations spent €7.4bn in the third quarter on IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing (BPO), compared with €4.6bn in the private sector.

• November 25, 2013 25 Nov'13

  Twitter increases protection from government snooping

  Twitter has announced moves to protect users' data from snooping by government intelligence agencies

• November 25, 2013 25 Nov'13

  150 subpostmasters file claims over 'faulty' Horizon accounting system

  About 150 subpostmasters have filed claims to the investigation into the allegedly faulty Post Office accounting system used by thousands of subpostmaters

• November 25, 2013 25 Nov'13

  Racing Post warns users of website breach

  The Racing Post is advising users of its website to change their passwords for other sites if they use the same one in case hackers break the encryption

• November 22, 2013 22 Nov'13

  UK CERT moves to next phase with director Chris Gibson

  Chris Gibson has been confirmed at the director of the UK’s new national computer emergency response team

• November 22, 2013 22 Nov'13

  Is this the future for local government IT?

  Pioneering councils are moving to the public cloud and aiming to deliver 'government as a platform' through componentised IT services

• November 22, 2013 22 Nov'13

  Banks and governments targeted by invisible hijacking attacks

  Net monitoring firm Renesys says it has uncovered evidence of mass hijackings of network traffic

• November 22, 2013 22 Nov'13

  Samsung gets $160m off patent damages to Apple

  A California court has ordered Samsung to pay a further $290m to Apple for infringing payments, taking the total in damages to $840m

• November 22, 2013 22 Nov'13

  Tim Berners-Lee calls for protection of basic rights online

  Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee has called for bold steps to protect basic human rights online

• November 21, 2013 21 Nov'13

  Scientists banish NAS sprawl with Red Hat scale-out NAS software

  Reading University meteorology department tackles NAS sprawl with Red Hat open source storage software to build scale-out NAS cluster on commodity x86 server hardware

• November 21, 2013 21 Nov'13

  CSA appoints Microsoft’s Adrienne Hall to board

  The CSA has appointed Adrienne Hall, from Trustworthy Computing at Microsoft, to its board of directors

• November 21, 2013 21 Nov'13

  McAfee finds code-validation dodging Android malware

  Cyber attackers are using malware to circumvent digital signature app validation on Android and PCs, says McAfee

• November 21, 2013 21 Nov'13

  ICO investigates claims of data breach by LG smart TVs

  The ICO is investigating claims that some LG TVs are reporting viewing habits even if privacy settings are activated

• November 21, 2013 21 Nov'13

  Pegasystems CEO Alan Trefler plans his next move for the $500m software company

  Alan Trefler discusses his plans for Pegasystems, the BPM and CRM specialist that has grown into a $500m a year company

• November 21, 2013 21 Nov'13

  NSA analysed UK data in secret deal, says Snowden

  The NSA analysed phone, internet and email records of UK citizens under a secret deal with UK counterparts, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden

• November 20, 2013 20 Nov'13

  Case study: McGraw-Hill Education mobilises with Salesforce

  The educational resources provider utilises Salesforce to develop a mobile app and get its sales reps selling more on campus

• November 20, 2013 20 Nov'13

  Report highlights poor UK attitudes to mobile security

  Businesses should note that many UK mobile users do not take security precautions and do not know how to guard against data theft

• November 20, 2013 20 Nov'13

  SMEs failing to prioritise cyber security, study shows

  Senior managers at SMEs are failing to prioritise cyber security, a study reveals

• November 20, 2013 20 Nov'13

  US mobile carriers accused of choosing profit over security

  US mobile phone carriers have been accused of choosing profits over security by rejecting Samsung’s offer of a kill switch to disable lost or stolen devices

• November 20, 2013 20 Nov'13

  Yahoo to encrypt user data

  Yahoo is to encrypt all user data that moves between its datacentres by April 2014 in a bid to regain trust

• November 19, 2013 19 Nov'13

  Avoid BYOD pitfalls to ensure business benefit, says Amtel

  As companies embrace BYOD plans, the same mistakes continue to be made, says PJ Gupta, CEO of Amtel

• November 19, 2013 19 Nov'13

  Campaigners angry over Microsoft, Skype privacy ruling

  Campaign group Europe v Facebook has criticised the decision by Luxembourg’s data protection authorities to clear Microsoft and its Skype division of privacy violations

• November 19, 2013 19 Nov'13

  PM says dark web can be policed

  David Cameron says UK and US intelligence agencies will help fight child abuse images on the dark web

• November 19, 2013 19 Nov'13

  Twitter introduces “life-saving” alert service

  Twitter has introduced an alert service for emergency services and government agencies in the UK and Ireland

• November 19, 2013 19 Nov'13

  Google reaches $17m multi-state settlement over Safari snooping

  Google has reached a $17m settlement agreement with 10 US states for bypassing Apple Safari privacy settings

• November 18, 2013 18 Nov'13

  Scottish environment agency cuts carbon through desktop virtualisation

  A quarter of staff at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) are accessing applications via Citrix

• November 18, 2013 18 Nov'13

  APIs key to security of internet of things, says Axway

  The internet of things has raised security and privacy concerns, but there is a way to take control, says data management firm Axway.

• November 18, 2013 18 Nov'13

  UK police warn of malware campaign targeting mainly SMEs

  UK police warn of a mass email-borne malware campaign aimed mainly at SMEs

• November 18, 2013 18 Nov'13

  Google and Microsoft to block searches for child porn

  Google and Microsoft have announced measures to make it more difficult to find child abuse images online

• November 15, 2013 15 Nov'13

  First UK Certified Incident Response firms named

  Five consultancies have been named in the government's Certified Incident Response scheme

• November 15, 2013 15 Nov'13

  Cyber collateral damage a concern for all, says Lancope

  All organisations could be affected by cyber attack collateral damage, says network security firm Lancope

• November 15, 2013 15 Nov'13

  uMotif wins Cisco Big Awards 2013

  Digital health startup uMotif has won first place at the Cisco Big Awards 2013

• November 15, 2013 15 Nov'13

  Google book scanning plan gets green light

  Google's controversial plan to scan millions of books and sell them online has finally been given the green light by a New York court

• November 15, 2013 15 Nov'13

  Microsoft unveils state-of-the-art Cybercrime Center

  Microsoft has opened a Cybercrime Center that combines legal and technical expertise, tools and technology, with cross-industry expertise

• November 14, 2013 14 Nov'13

  Mobile malware infections relatively low, study shows

  Malware targeting Google’s Android operating system is not yet as big a problem as some security suppliers claim, study reveals

• November 14, 2013 14 Nov'13

  Europe to follow US clearance of mobile devices on flights

  The European aviation regulator is to follow the US lead in easing restrictions on the use of mobile electronic devices during flights

• November 14, 2013 14 Nov'13

  US teen hacker pleads guilty to webcam blackmail

  A US teenager pleads guilty to hacking computer webcams to take photos of women in the US and Ireland to blackmail them

• November 14, 2013 14 Nov'13

  Facebook adds security test for Adobe hacking victims

  Facebook identifies users compromised by the theft of Adobe credentials with security questions before granting them access

• November 13, 2013 13 Nov'13

  Conservative Party slammed for erasing its internet history

  The Conservative Party has been widely criticised after Computer Weekly revealed it removed all its pre-General Election speeches from the web

• November 13, 2013 13 Nov'13

  Peterborough becomes ‘gigabit city’ after council inks fibre network deal

  Peterborough City Council signs CityFibre for a privately funded fibre network offering 1Gbps to 80% of its businesses by 2015

• November 13, 2013 13 Nov'13

  Disruption key to data protection, says HP

  Enterprise information security needs to go beyond traditional ways of thinking, according to Hewlett Packard

• November 13, 2013 13 Nov'13

  More than half top bank websites hacked, study shows

  More than half of the world’s 50 biggest bank websites have been hit by security incidents, a study has revealed

• November 13, 2013 13 Nov'13

  English patients want electronic access to their records

  English patients are willing to change doctors to access to Electronic Medical Records (EMR), but only 16% of them currently have access, according to Accenture

• November 13, 2013 13 Nov'13

  Microsoft IE zero-days top November’s security priorities

  Microsoft has published eight security bulletins for the November 2013 Patch Tuesday monthly security update, addressing 19 vulnerabilities

• November 13, 2013 13 Nov'13

  MacRumors fears user database was hacked

  Subscribers to MacRumors user forums have been advised to change passwords because of a suspected data breach after site was hacked

• November 13, 2013 13 Nov'13

  CIO interview: John Finch, CIO, Bank of England, on the IT behind UK monetary policy

  UK monetary forecasts are underpinned by data and analytics from the Bank of England

• November 12, 2013 12 Nov'13

  UK government digital services framework goes live

  A digital services framework designed to give the public sector access to suppliers to help them design and build public services has gone live

• November 12, 2013 12 Nov'13

  Operation Waking Shark 2 is good, but is it enough?

  The information security industry has widely welcomed Operation Waking Shark 2, but some have also raised some concerns

• November 12, 2013 12 Nov'13

  National Audit Office reports concerns over government supplier dominance

  The National Audit Office (NAO) reports the public sector spent £6.6bn on four outsourced service providers, including IT service providers

• November 12, 2013 12 Nov'13

  Mass surveillance a bad idea, says Information Commissioner Christopher Graham

  Information Commissioner Christopher Graham says issues of national security must not overshadow concerns of legitimate public interest

• November 12, 2013 12 Nov'13

  Web surveillance not a good idea, says Info Commissioner

  Information Commissioner Christopher Graham says issues of national security cannot be allowed to overshadow concerns of legitimate public interest

• November 11, 2013 11 Nov'13

  EE criticises government for being fixed on fixed-line broadband

  As EE launches 4G Wi-Fi services across rural Cumbria, the operator’s CEO criticises the government for focusing too heavily on fixed broadband infrastructure

• November 11, 2013 11 Nov'13

  BT backtracks on broadband postcode publication

  BT tells Computer Weekly local councils' BDUK broadband data is too commercially sensitive to publish

• November 11, 2013 11 Nov'13

  FireEye security researchers unearth two IE zero-days

  Researchers at security firm FireEye have identified two new Microsoft Internet Explorer zero-day exploits

• November 11, 2013 11 Nov'13

  Security experts welcome UK banking cyber attack test

  Security experts welcome a cyber threat exercise to test the resilience of the financial infrastructure to withstand cyber attacks

• November 08, 2013 08 Nov'13

  Mobile malware threats jump 26% in third quarter

  The number of mobile malware threat families increased by 26% in the third quarter of 2013 to 259, according to F-Secure.