News

IT for government and public sector

• May 30, 2013 30 May'13

  Kroes pledges telecoms legislation for 2014

  The vice president of the European Commission responsible for the digital agenda wants an end to mobile roaming and a guarantee of net neutrality in legislation before the next European Parliament elections

• May 30, 2013 30 May'13

  London trusts adopt BT electronic health records

  BT and CSE Healthcare roll out RiO electronic patient record system to 62 community and mental health trusts in London and south England

• May 30, 2013 30 May'13

  Microsoft and trustworthy computing – not a paradox

  Behind the scenes, Microsoft’s TwC group does a lot of work across security, cyber crime, threat intelligence and malware protection

• May 30, 2013 30 May'13

  Case Study: US supermarket chain solves security challenge virtually

  A US supermarket chain has implemented an endpoint security system to secure legacy applications and to save additional development

• May 30, 2013 30 May'13

  Drupal resets passwords after hacker breach

  Open source content management platform Drupal has reset the passwords for almost one million accounts after hackers breached its systems

• May 30, 2013 30 May'13

  More than half UK citizens worried about nation-state cyber attacks

  A survey has revealed that 53% of UK citizens are concerned about other countries launching damaging cyber attacks against the UK

• May 29, 2013 29 May'13

  Attackers exploit Ruby on Rails flaw, despite warnings and patch

  Attackers are exploiting a vulnerability in the Ruby on Rails web application framework to hijack servers for botnets four months after a patch was released

• May 29, 2013 29 May'13

  BIS awards Thales five-year PSN contract

  Thales will provide secure network services to The Insolvency Service for its headquarters, regional offices and datacentres

• May 29, 2013 29 May'13

  NHS publishes £1.2bn GP IT framework

  The Department of Health has announced a £1.2bn framework for GP Systems of Choice, offering central funding of GP IT systems

• May 29, 2013 29 May'13

  CERN uses ITIL to rethink facilities management

  CERN, the particle physics laboratory, is using IT service management to support operations outside the IT function

• May 29, 2013 29 May'13

  Google may have to revise proposals to EU competition authorities yet again

  Google may have to revise its proposals yet again to allay European concerns about its business practices

• May 29, 2013 29 May'13

  EU investigates Apple’s iPhone sales strategy

  The European Commission’s competition division confirms it is looking into the distribution practices of Apple when it comes to its flagship smartphone

• May 29, 2013 29 May'13

  Stratfor hacker pleads guilty

  US hacktivist Jeremy Hammond pleads guilty to accessing computers of law enforcement agencies and government contractors illegally

• May 29, 2013 29 May'13

  China plans first digital war games

  China’s state media say the country’s military plans to hold its first digital war games

• May 29, 2013 29 May'13

  US anti-piracy group proposes locking infringing computers

  The Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property has proposed pre-installing software on computers to identify copyright-violating activity

• May 29, 2013 29 May'13

  UK masters students to help build online security and trust

  The UK national Cyber Security Challenge and 15 UK universities are calling on masters students for ideas on improving online security and trust

• May 29, 2013 29 May'13

  Syrian hackers deface Sky Android apps

  Syrian hackers have defaced several of Sky’s Android apps, forcing the broadcaster to remove them temporarily from the Google Play store

• May 29, 2013 29 May'13

  Chinese hackers accessed US weapons designs, says Pentagon

  Hackers are feared to have accessed more than 20 designs for advanced US weapons systems, according to a Pentagon report

• May 24, 2013 24 May'13

  Government reveals failing projects

  Government has published a report detailing the status of 191 major projects worth £353bn, in which eight projects were red flagged

• May 24, 2013 24 May'13

  Bolton and Wigan get PSN in £47m outsourcing deal

  Bolton and Wigan councils have signed a seven-year £47m outsourcing contract, which will deliver a ‘PSN ready’ network to the region.

• May 24, 2013 24 May'13

  BT and Intel invest in lab to research into future cities and telecoms technologies

  A research laboratory has been launched by BT and Intel to develop networking technologies and smart city capabilities.

• May 24, 2013 24 May'13

  BBC cans £98m Digital Media Initiative and suspends CTO

  The BBC has canned its £98m Digital Media Initiative (DMI) and suspended project head and CTO John Linwood

• May 23, 2013 23 May'13

  Economic future depends on e-ID, says Security Identity Alliance

  The digital economies of Europe could comprise 28% of GDP by 2020 but only with secure electronic IDs, says the Secure Identity Alliance (SIA)

• May 23, 2013 23 May'13

  Interview: Government CTO Liam Maxwell

  Government CTO Liam Maxwell has driven Whitehall’s IT agenda for years, previously as deputy government CIO and director of ICT futures

• May 23, 2013 23 May'13

  UCL turns to private cloud to solve its data storage woes

  University College London is building a storage infrastructure in the cloud that will scale up to 100PB

• May 22, 2013 22 May'13

  UK data breaches largely hidden, says Stroz Friedberg

  The true extent of UK data breaches is unknown because most companies do not report them says Stroz Friedberg

• May 22, 2013 22 May'13

  Capita upgrades Fire service system

  North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue has replaced its legacy control room technology with a Capita system, part of a 10-year outsourcing contract

• May 22, 2013 22 May'13

  Blue Coat buys big data security company Solera

  Business assurance firm Blue Coat Systems announces it will buy big data security intelligence provider Solera Networks

• May 22, 2013 22 May'13

  UK ISPs block access to pirate sites

  UK internet service providers have begun blocking access to two sites accused of breaking copyright laws

• May 22, 2013 22 May'13

  Apple calls on the US to cut corporate tax

  Apple has called on the US government to cut corporate tax rates after admitting to sheltering at least $30bn of international profits in Irish subsidiaries

• May 22, 2013 22 May'13

  Vodafone delays 4G superfast mobile internet launch

  Vodafone is to delay the launch of its 4G superfast mobile internet service until August or September to coincide with Apple’s release of a compatible iPhone 5

• May 21, 2013 21 May'13

  Departments handed manual for digital services redesign

  Government releases a manual for CTOs redesigning Whitehall digital services, as contracts with system integrators begin to expire from 2014

• May 21, 2013 21 May'13

  TfL uses Google maps to power mobile-first web refresh

  Transport for London (TfL) is revamping its web presence using HTML5 and agile development to build a mobile-first site

• May 21, 2013 21 May'13

  Microsoft and Janet deal brings cloud to millions of academics

  Microsoft and the UK’s research and education network deal gives academic institutions access to Office 365 and millions of students fast and secure access to Windows Azure cloud

• May 21, 2013 21 May'13

  Small firms lose up to £800m to cyber crime, says FSB

  Cyber crime is costing small businesses around £785m a year, according to research by the Federation of Small Businesses

• May 21, 2013 21 May'13

  Privileged accounts key to most APT attacks, says Cyber-Ark

  The theft, misuse and exploitation of privileged accounts is becoming an increasingly key tactic in advanced persistent threat attacks

• May 21, 2013 21 May'13

  Researchers uncover Indian cyber espionage network

  Researchers have uncovered a large and sophisticated cyber attack infrastructure that appears to have originated in India

• May 20, 2013 20 May'13

  Twitter uses open source to automate security

  Twitter is increasingly using open source automation tools to ensure security processes are taken care of in all the code it produces

• May 20, 2013 20 May'13

  Metropolitan Police weighs up outsourcing options

  The Met Police Service is engaging with the outsourcing industry for back-office services as it targets annual savings of £500m

• May 20, 2013 20 May'13

  Atos fights off HP and Capita to retain NS&I contract

  Treasury-backed National Savings and Investments (NS&I) has awarded Atos a seven-year IT outsourcing contract

• May 20, 2013 20 May'13

  Yahoo Japan says hack attack may have exposed 22 million users

  Yahoo Japan has warned that the identity details of up to 22 million users may have been compromised in recent hack

• May 20, 2013 20 May'13

  London Olympic Park will become home to a datacentre facility

  The London Legacy Development Corporation has signed a deal with a UK provider to develop a datacentre facility at the Olympic Park

• May 20, 2013 20 May'13

  Shanghai cyber hacking unit back in business, says US

  China’s military cyber espionage Unit 61398 is back in business, deploying different techniques, say US officials

• May 20, 2013 20 May'13

  FT is latest media group attacked by Syrian hackers

  The Financial Times has confirmed that its website and several Twitter accounts were hacked by the Syrian Electronic Army

• May 17, 2013 17 May'13

  Government spends £260m on e-prescribing

  Health secretary Jeremy Hunt commits £260m to e-prescriptions, as part of moves to make the NHS paperless by 2018

• May 16, 2013 16 May'13

  Most IT environments immature, Microsoft reveals

  Most business IT environments are immature, analysis of data from Microsoft’s Cloud Security Readiness Tool has revealed

• May 16, 2013 16 May'13

  ‘Government must be militant about interoperability standards,’ says Maude

  Government must be militant about interoperability standards, says Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude

• May 16, 2013 16 May'13

  CSC returns to profitability

  Beleaguered software firm CSC has returned to profitability in its full year results, posting operating profits of $900m (£600m) compared with losses of $1.36bn for the previous year 2011-12.

• May 16, 2013 16 May'13

  Supply chain key to comprehensive security, says Cisco

  A comprehensive security strategy must include the supply chain to deliver the integrity customers demand

• May 15, 2013 15 May'13

  Accept defeat and change the battle plan, says Adobe security chief

  Security professionals are good at lying to themselves that they are evenly matched with their adversaries, says Adobe CSO Brad Arkin

• May 15, 2013 15 May'13

  Adobe uses crises to drive security change

  After hackers broke into one of Adobe's code-signing servers in 2012, CSO Brad Arkin used the crisis to drive security change and improvement

• May 15, 2013 15 May'13

  Department for Transport rolls out IP telephony

  The central government department chooses Azzurri for the new system, signing a five-year contract worth £1m

• May 15, 2013 15 May'13

  Government urged to devise national data strategy

  Government urged to devise national data strategy following launch of review into the better use of public sector information

• May 15, 2013 15 May'13

  Survey finds doctors making greater use of IT, but cost benefits in doubt

  More doctors in England use healthcare IT and over three-quarters report improvements in effectiveness, according to research from Accenture

• May 15, 2013 15 May'13

  Microsoft declares conformance with ISO 27034-1

  Microsoft has declared conformance with ISO 27034-1, the first part of an international standard for secure software development

• May 15, 2013 15 May'13

  IT pros turn a blind eye to secure coding

  Nearly two-thirds of IT professionals say their organisations do not build products and services with security in mind, a Microsoft survey reveals

• May 15, 2013 15 May'13

  SAFECode publishes free secure code training modules

  The Software Assurance Forum for Excellence in Code (SAFECode) has developed six free secure software development training modules

• May 14, 2013 14 May'13

  Digital technology firms could benefit from record Technology Strategy Board budget

  The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has £440m available to support innovative companies, including digital technology businesses

• May 14, 2013 14 May'13

  Oracle opens datacentre dedicated to G-Cloud

  Oracle is set to open a datacentre in the UK dedicated to serving government IT through G-Cloud 

• May 14, 2013 14 May'13

  Case study: Horsley ITU brings iPads to patients

  The intensive therapy unit at the Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust helps seriously ill patients communicate with consultants and relatives using tablet devices from Apple

• May 14, 2013 14 May'13

  Camden Council rolls out free Wi-Fi

  Camden London Borough Council signs a deal with Arqiva to provide free wireless connectivity to businesses, residents and visitors

• May 13, 2013 13 May'13

  Government must 'redouble' efforts to meet SME target, says enterprise advisor

  Government must raise its game to achieve its target of 25% of public sector procurements from SMEs by 2015, says Lord Young

• May 13, 2013 13 May'13

  Cyber criminals hack Washington court system

  Hackers gain access to the personal data of 160,000 US citizens after compromising Washington State court service servers

• May 13, 2013 13 May'13

  Suffolk university dumps failing IBM DS SAN and gets Fujitsu DX-80s

  University Campus Suffolk couldn’t go on when IBM “washed its hands” of a failing DS4700. After disastrous pitches from numerous storage suppliers it went with Fujitsu

• May 13, 2013 13 May'13

  Arqiva wins government rural mobile contract

  Arqiva is awarded £150m to boost mobile coverage in rural areas as part of the government’s Mobile Infrastructure Project (MIP)

• May 10, 2013 10 May'13

  Microsoft to patch IE8 zero-day

  Microsoft is to issue a security update for a zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer 8,just a week after issuing a security advisory

• May 10, 2013 10 May'13

  Case Study: Brent Council cuts costs with mobile tech

  Brent Council implements mobile technology to cut costs and involve more staff in the future running of the organisation

• May 10, 2013 10 May'13

  Eight hackers charged with $45m cyber fraud

  US federal authorities have charged eight hackers in connection with a $45m debit card fraud scheme

• May 10, 2013 10 May'13

  Carl Icahn and Southeastern join forces in fight over Dell

  Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has teamed up with Dell investor Southeastern to try to stop founder Michael Dell buying the firm

• May 09, 2013 09 May'13

  Coding essential to future curriculum, says Michael Gove

  Education secretary Michael Gove has outlined coding skills as essential to the curriculum of the future

• May 09, 2013 09 May'13

  Information assurance certification gives SMEs the edge

  IT consultancy Purple Frog Systems says the IASME information assurance standard for SMEs gives it a competitive edge

• May 09, 2013 09 May'13

  Solihull council saves time and money with BYOD

  At least one in five local authorities in the UK could allow staff to use their own devices at work, due to demand from employees

• May 09, 2013 09 May'13

  Syria back online after 19-hour blackout

  Syria is back online after a 19-hour blackout that disconnected it from internet communication with the rest of the world

• May 09, 2013 09 May'13

  UK universities get £7.5m cyber security research funding

  Oxford University and Royal Holloway, London University, will receive £7.5m government funding for cyber security research

• May 08, 2013 08 May'13

  Former Olympics CIO Gerry Pennell to take up Manchester University job

  Gerry Pennell, the former CIO for the London 2012 Olympics, has a new job – he starts as director of IT at Manchester University on 29 July

• May 08, 2013 08 May'13

  Spirit of snoopers’ charter lives on in Queen’s Speech

  The draft Communications Data Bill did not make the Queen’s Speech, but there was mention of proposals for investigating cyber crime

• May 08, 2013 08 May'13

  US is real hacking empire, says China

  China rejects the first official US accusations of cyber espionage and brands the US the “real hacking empire”, accusing it of sowing discord

• May 08, 2013 08 May'13

  Adobe moves to cloud-based subscription model

  Adobe has announced that it is to introduce a cloud-based subscription model for popular applications, including Photoshop

• May 08, 2013 08 May'13

  Syria hit by another apparent internet blackout

  Monitoring services have reported that internet access to Syria appears to have been cut off, and Google says traffic has dropped off

• May 08, 2013 08 May'13

  Investors sue HP for $1bn over Autonomy deal

  HP investors have launched a class action lawsuit over the company’s botched acquisition of UK software firm Autonomy for $11.7bn in 2011

• May 07, 2013 07 May'13

  Symantec helps NHS trust cut security costs by a quarter

  The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust cut security costs by 25% in its partnership with security supplier Symantec

• May 07, 2013 07 May'13

  SME Arcus brings AWS IaaS and PaaS to public sector with G-Cloud

  UK SME Arcus Global has become the first certified Amazon Web Services reseller on the government’s third G-Cloud framework

• May 07, 2013 07 May'13

  NHS England to publish technology roadmap

  NHS England is to publish a technology roadmap for commissioners investing in IT, according to its Putting Patients First business plan

• May 07, 2013 07 May'13

  Microsoft issues security advisory on IE8 zero-day exploit

  Microsoft has published a security advisory about an exploit for zero-day vulnerability in Internet Explorer 8

• May 07, 2013 07 May'13

  McAfee to acquire Stonesoft

  Intel’s security business McAfee has announced an agreement to acquire Finnish next-generation firewall firm Stonesoft in a $389m deal

• May 07, 2013 07 May'13

  Windows 8 passes 100 million in sales

  Microsoft says Windows 8 OS has sold more than 100 million copies, roughly matching Windows 7 in the six months after launch

• May 07, 2013 07 May'13

  Government consults on mobile broadband deployment

  The government has launched a consultation to lay out its proposals for accelerating mobile broadband infrastructure deployment across the UK

• May 04, 2013 04 May'13

  Cabinet Office confirms public cloud first policy

  Cabinet Office confirms the cloud will be mandated as first choice for all new IT purchases in government to push more departments into using commodity cloud services

• May 03, 2013 03 May'13

  95% of local councils share services

  Hundreds of local councils are sharing services as government cuts force them to fund new ways of providing services

• May 03, 2013 03 May'13

  Netherlands considers hacking powers for police

  The Netherlands government considers legislation to give police powers to hack into computers, install spyware and read emails

• May 03, 2013 03 May'13

  BlackBerry 10 and Samsung Knox approved by US military

  The US Department of Defense (DoD) has approved BlackBerry and Samsung mobile devices for use on its networks

• May 02, 2013 02 May'13

  Case Study: Solihull Council picks Juniper for BYOD

  The Metropolitan Borough Council upgrades its bring your own device system and reaps the benefits of more efficient staff

• May 02, 2013 02 May'13

  University does the maths and dumps HDS for Nexenta storage software

  Greenwich university school of computing and maths opts for Nexenta storage software on commodity hardware and gains 20% savings

• May 02, 2013 02 May'13

  Training may be key to website security, study shows

  WhiteHat Website Security Statistics Report says vulnerabilities declined in the past year, but most sites had at least one vulnerability

• May 02, 2013 02 May'13

  Report into Post Office Horizon system expected in July

  The findings of an independent investigation into the Post Office's Horizon accounting system are expected to be published in July

• May 02, 2013 02 May'13

  Most UK firms lack data transfer visibility, study shows

  Four out of five UK organisations have little or no visibility of data movement, a study has revealed

• May 02, 2013 02 May'13

  Fujitsu lock-in makes DECC only Whitehall department incapable of cloud

  The Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) cannot adopt cloud computing due to lock-in with system integrator Fujitsu

• May 02, 2013 02 May'13

  MPs to recall Google executives to explain tax position

  Google is to be recalled to parliament to explain the company’s tax position following an investigation into its business practices

• May 01, 2013 01 May'13

  What’s to be done about data breach discovery?

  The time from first contact by cyber attackers to the victim learning of it is still measured in months and years, not hours and days

• May 01, 2013 01 May'13

  SMEs hampered by red tape surrounding EU innovation grants  

  British SMEs are being hampered by the time-consuming bureaucracy surrounding EU research and innovation grants