News

IT for government and public sector

• January 18, 2013 18 Jan'13

  Intel’s business hit by falling PC sales in 2012

  Chip maker Intel has reported fourth quarter net income of $2.47bn, down 27% compared with the same period a year ago

• January 17, 2013 17 Jan'13

  Government releases cost metrics on biggest public transactions

  The government has released data on the cost of its highest transactional public services, as part of moves to measure the progress of its ‘digital by default’ agenda

• January 17, 2013 17 Jan'13

  Met Police to equip officers with 30,000 mobile devices

  The Metropolitan Police wants to roll out 30,000 mobile and tablet devices to officers this year to give better information on the beat

• January 17, 2013 17 Jan'13

  Government CIO Andy Nelson tipped for DWP CIO

  Government chief information officer Andy Nelson has been tipped as the next CIO at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

• January 17, 2013 17 Jan'13

  Malware hits US power plants

  Malware infected two US power plants via corrupted USB sticks in recent months, the US Cyber Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) has revealed

• January 16, 2013 16 Jan'13

  Post Office wants to get to bottom of IT system allegations

  A system that set out to modernise the Post Office in 1996 is under the spotlight after claims that Horizon accounting system is error prone

• January 16, 2013 16 Jan'13

  Poor connectivity is biggest barrier to NHS mobile working

  Poor connectivity has been outlined as the biggest barrier to mobile working in the NHS, according to a study from the Department of Health

• January 16, 2013 16 Jan'13

  Cloud security key to BYOD, (ISC)2 study shows

  (ISC)2 says businesses welcome bring your own device (BYOD) policies for cost savings and user experience, but need the right security skills

• January 16, 2013 16 Jan'13

  Cambridgeshire County Council rolls out BYOD for 4,500 users

  Cambridgeshire County Council is to roll out a mobile phone 'bring your own device’ (BYOD) scheme for its 4,500 users

• January 16, 2013 16 Jan'13

  Hunt wants paperless NHS by 2018

  The NHS plans to go paperless by 2018, health secretary Jeremy Hunt will announce

• January 16, 2013 16 Jan'13

  Huge botnet infecting smartphones in China

  Security researchers say a huge botnet is running on the smartphones of more than a million mobiles in China

• January 16, 2013 16 Jan'13

  Campaigners oppose Nominet plans for secure .uk domain

  Digital rights campaigners have criticised Nominet's plans to create a secure .uk domain, saying it will create a monopoly of trust in UK domains

• January 15, 2013 15 Jan'13

  UK office workers swamped with phishing emails, study finds

  UK office workers are being swamped with phishing emails, a study from training firm PhishMe has revealed

• January 15, 2013 15 Jan'13

  Security firm Secarma recovers data from drives bought on eBay

  Formatting hard drives does not delete data, security firm Secarma has warned after recovering data from recycled drives bought on eBay

• January 14, 2013 14 Jan'13

  Researchers uncover advanced cyber espionage campaign

  An elusive cyber espionage campaign has been targeting diplomatic, governmental and scientific research organisations for several years, analysis by Kaspersky Lab has revealed

• January 14, 2013 14 Jan'13

  Welsh government invests £39m in school broadband

  The Learning in Digital Wales Grant will support government efforts to bring online learning tools to pupils across Wales

• January 14, 2013 14 Jan'13

  Why e-petitions wouldn't have happened with a system integrator

  The speed at which e-petitions was developed wouldn’t have been possible with a system integrator, says Peter Herlihy from the GDS

• January 14, 2013 14 Jan'13

  UK hackers admit stealing Michael Jackson tracks from Sony

  Two UK men have avoided jail by admitting breaking into servers at Sony Music and downloading Michael Jackson's 50,000-track back catalogue

• January 14, 2013 14 Jan'13

  G-Cloud procurement launches latest tendering process

  Government has launched the next iteration of the G-Cloud procurement process, with the framework expected to go live at the end of March

• January 14, 2013 14 Jan'13

  Anonymous uses Aaron Swartz suicide to call for copyright reform

  At least two MIT websites have been replaced with a political message in memory of digital activist and pioneer Aaron Swartz, who hanged himself

• January 14, 2013 14 Jan'13

  Post Office announces amnesty for Horizon evidence

  The Post Office is calling for evidence from people who have used the Horizon IT system which some have blamed for accounting discrepancies

• January 14, 2013 14 Jan'13

  Oracle rushes out patches for Java zero days

  Oracle has released two out-of-band security updates for the latest zero day vulnerabilities in Java

• January 11, 2013 11 Jan'13

  Schools to save £10m in Microsoft licensing costs, claims DfE

  An updated agreement between Microsoft and the Department for Education means UK schools will benefit from new licensing discounts

• January 11, 2013 11 Jan'13

  European Cybercrime Centre opens in The Hague

  Cecilia Malmström, EU commissioner for home affairs, has opened the European Cybercrime Centre (EC³) at Europol in The Hague

• January 11, 2013 11 Jan'13

  Disable Java to protect from latest zero-day

  Security researchers are warning of a zero-day vulnerability in all versions of Java, including the latest Java 7 update 10

• January 11, 2013 11 Jan'13

  Google faces tough EU stance, says Joaquin Almunia

  Google faces a tougher stance on market position abuse in Europe than in the US, says EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia

• January 10, 2013 10 Jan'13

  Government extends employer £1,500 apprenticeship grant for further 12 months

  Government and National Apprenticeship Service extend AGE 16-24 grant for further 12 months

• January 10, 2013 10 Jan'13

  Ruby on Rails flaws expose thousands of websites to attack

  More than 240,000 websites that use Ruby on Rails web applications are at risk of being exploited by attackers

• January 10, 2013 10 Jan'13

  Fashion Retail Academy boosts Wi-Fi with Networks First

  The Fashion Retail Academy (FRA) has worked with Networks First to bring improved Wi-Fi connectivity to its staff and students

• January 10, 2013 10 Jan'13

  Software piracy international in scope, says Fast

  The scale of software piracy is both international in scope and military in its execution, says the Federation Against Software Theft (Fast)

• January 10, 2013 10 Jan'13

  Software development key reason for £468m MoD overspend, says NAO

  Software development problems have been cited as a key reason for forecast overspend of £468m at the Ministry of Defence over the past year

• January 10, 2013 10 Jan'13

  Drive-by and XXS attacks will increase in 2013 – but why?

  Drive-by download and cross-site scripting attacks (XSS) will remain top hacking methods in 2013. But what is their enduring appeal for hackers?

• January 10, 2013 10 Jan'13

  Internet firms concerned over EU data protection proposals

  Internet firms such as Facebook may have to get permission to use data if the EU adopts proposals giving users more control over personal data

• January 09, 2013 09 Jan'13

  IT contractors seek to fill skills gap left by public sector cuts

  IT contractors are increasingly confident about job opportunities in the public sector due to reductions in the civil service's head count, finds research

• January 09, 2013 09 Jan'13

  EC welcomes reports on proposed data protection reform

  The European Commission (EC) has welcomed support for data protection laws by rapporteurs of two European parliamentary committees

• January 09, 2013 09 Jan'13

  UK Border Agency tenders for security systems

  The UK Border Agency (UKBA) and Border Force is tendering for an integrated border security system

• January 09, 2013 09 Jan'13

  Google offers free Wi-Fi in New York

  Google is to create a public outdoor wireless network in New York to provide free internet access in the Chelsea area where it has offices

• January 09, 2013 09 Jan'13

  US military gets new software testing rules

  The US has introduced new policies for military software engineers aimed at pre-empting software supply chain attacks

• January 09, 2013 09 Jan'13

  UK military at risk of cyber attack, warn MPs

  UK military reliance on technology could leave it fatally compromised by cyber attack, says the parliamentary defence select committee

• January 08, 2013 08 Jan'13

  Network Rail to invest extra £333m in IT over five years

  Network Rail is to invest an additional £333m in IT, as part of the body's £37.5bn railway investment plan for 2014-2019

• January 08, 2013 08 Jan'13

  Online growth buoys retailers over Christmas

  Strong e-commerce growth kept retailers' heads above water during flat Christmas trading, with sales up 17.8% compared with December 2011

• January 08, 2013 08 Jan'13

  Businesses overconfident about cyber security, says Deloitte

  Businesses are overconfident about cyber security and should treat security breaches as inevitable, says business advisory firm Deloitte

• January 08, 2013 08 Jan'13

  VoIP awareness up but user numbers remain low

  A report from Ofcom claims four in five consumers know what voice over internet protocol (VoIP) is, but just 29% use the technology

• January 08, 2013 08 Jan'13

  MPs slam the award of government contracts to tax-avoiding IT firms

  MPs allege that Accenture used revenue from its deal with HMRC to reduce its tax bill

• January 07, 2013 07 Jan'13

  Government broadband policy must refocus on business

  Policy Exchange claims Whitehall has focused for too long on consumer and retail broadband and needs to give the enterprise equal attention

• January 07, 2013 07 Jan'13

  Ernst & Young email keyword analysis identifies fraudsters

  Fraud investigators have revealed the most common words used in email conversations by employees engaged in rogue trading and fraud

• January 07, 2013 07 Jan'13

  Dutch government publishes security flaw disclosure guide

  The Netherlands has published guidelines to encourage the responsible release of security flaws

• January 07, 2013 07 Jan'13

  German state accuses Facebook of violating privacy

  A German state claims Facebook is violating local privacy laws by not allowing users of the social network to use pseudonyms

• January 04, 2013 04 Jan'13

  Executive brings own software which is adopted by business

  Rochdale Development agency (RDA) has started using cloud based Huddle collaboration software after a development officer started using it at work.

• January 04, 2013 04 Jan'13

  Microsoft Patch Tuesday offers no easy start to 2013

  The first Microsoft monthly security update for 2013 contains seven bulletins covering a wide variety of software

• January 03, 2013 03 Jan'13

  Immigrants wrongly told to leave UK due to inaccurate data

  Some immigrants have been accidentally contacted by Capita and told to leave the UK as a result of inaccurate data used in a government push to remove thousands of illegal immigrants

• January 03, 2013 03 Jan'13

  Ofcom proposes early exit to combat price rises

  Regulator Ofcom says users should be able to leave mobile, broadband and landline contracts without charge if their provider ups the price

• January 03, 2013 03 Jan'13

  Government targets £600m savings through shared services

  The government aims to save £600m per year through its Next Generation Shared Services Strategic Plan

• January 03, 2013 03 Jan'13

  UK to launch public cyber security awareness campaign

  The UK government is to launch a public cyber security awareness programme early this year aimed at consumers and small businesses

• January 02, 2013 02 Jan'13

  DWP CIO Philip Langsdale has passed away

  Philip Langsdale, CIO at the Department for Work and Pensions, has passed away.

• January 02, 2013 02 Jan'13

  Israel launches cyber warfare training programme

  Israel has launched a national initiative to train young people for cyber warfare

• January 02, 2013 02 Jan'13

  UK amateur is top civilian in international cyber challenge

  A 26-year-old Essex software developer has finished as the highest-ranked civilian and second overall in the 2012 DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge.

• January 02, 2013 02 Jan'13

  Post Office admits that Horizon system needs more investigation

  Campaigners have forced the Post Office to look again at a computer system blamed for sub-postmasters being wrongly accused of false accounting

• January 02, 2013 02 Jan'13

  Microsoft issues quick fix for IE zero-day vulnerability

  Microsoft has released a workaround for a zero-day vulnerability in older versions of its Internet Explorer browser that is being exploited by attackers.

• December 31, 2012 31 Dec'12

  IT gets honours in New Year list

  Olympic CIO Gerry Pennell and Lastminute.com co-founder Martha Lane Fox are included in this year’s New Year honours list

• December 28, 2012 28 Dec'12

  Top 10 CIO interviews of 2012

  The top IT leaders in the UK talked to Computer Weekly throughout 2012 to share their opinions and experiences

• December 28, 2012 28 Dec'12

  Top 10 cyber crime stories of 2012

  Ten articles that illustrate some of the major trends in cyber crime in 2012

• December 28, 2012 28 Dec'12

  Hospitals to implement child protection database to log children who visit A&E

  The Department of Health is introducing a £9m child protection information system to log children who visit A&E in hospitals

• December 28, 2012 28 Dec'12

  US Department of Justice is investigating allegations of accounting fraud at Autonomy

  HP has revealed that the US Department of Justice has been investigating fraud allegation at Autonomy since last month.

• December 27, 2012 27 Dec'12

  Top 10 broadband stories of 2012

  We give a run down the top 10 broadband stories throughout 2012

• December 24, 2012 24 Dec'12

  Facebook pays £2.6m tax on £840m profit

  The social networking giant faces criticism for paying minimal tax by pushing all of its operations outside of the US through Ireland

• December 24, 2012 24 Dec'12

  Top 10 IT security stories of 2012

  Ten articles that illustrate some of the key challenges and strategies around information security for governments, businesses and individuals

• December 21, 2012 21 Dec'12

  Suffolk cuts costs by 30% with PSN-ready network

  Suffolk County Council has rolled out a next generation network, which it expects will cut costs by up to 30%.

• December 21, 2012 21 Dec'12

  BT wins BDUK broadband contract in Norfolk

  Over £40m of funding from both the public and private sector will see 80% of the county have access to superfast broadband by 2015

• December 21, 2012 21 Dec'12

  First wave of government services to go digital

  The government has named the first public services to go digital, following the publication of 18 individual departmental digital strategies outlining moves to digital by default public services.

• December 20, 2012 20 Dec'12

  Government to cut large frameworks following procurement review

  Government is to put an end to large ICT frameworks, following a review into the efficacy of procurement practices for SMEs

• December 20, 2012 20 Dec'12

  BT bids in Ofcom 4G spectrum auction

  BT sets up a specialist company – Niche Spectrum Ventures – to bid for 4G spectrum, despite claims it is uninterested in the mobile market

• December 20, 2012 20 Dec'12

  Essex County Council signs £81m PSN deal

  Essex County Council has signed a £81m network and telephony deal to introduce a Public Services Network (PSN) across its 200,000 users

• December 20, 2012 20 Dec'12

  Australian University to give Freshers iPads

  The University of West Sydney is planning to distribute 11,000 iPads to students that enroll next year

• December 18, 2012 18 Dec'12

  Forestry Commission uses the cloud to fight tree disease

  The Forestry Commission has used Huddle’s cloud collaboration services in a project to control the spread of a tree disease known as ash dieback.

• December 17, 2012 17 Dec'12

  MoD to sell military spectrum for 4G

  The Ministry of Defence (MoD) will auction off public services spectrum to help the government free up the airwaves for commercial purposes

• December 17, 2012 17 Dec'12

  Virgin Media targets Wi-Fi at 30 UK super-connected cities

  Virgin Media plans to wholesale small-cell technology to mobile operators to bring in funding for local fibre-based Wi-Fi networks in 30 UK cities

• December 14, 2012 14 Dec'12

  McKinnon will not face UK trial

  Computer hacker Gary McKinnon will not face trial in the UK after US authorities refuse to share witnesses or transfer intelligence to the CPS

• December 14, 2012 14 Dec'12

  ITU internet regulation blocked by UK and US

  The International Telecoms Union (ITU) has failed to gain consensus on new rules that would give more power to states to regulate the internet

• December 14, 2012 14 Dec'12

  DoH awards £2.2m information sharing challenge funding

  Over 40 NHS Trusts will receive funding from the Department of Health to develop new digital services and improve patient information sharing

• December 13, 2012 13 Dec'12

  Liam Maxwell named as first government chief technology officer

  Liam Maxwell becomes the first Whitehall CTO, in the latest stage of a major shake-up of the government IT leadership organisation

• December 13, 2012 13 Dec'12

  PCeU arrests three suspected ransomware blackmailers

  The UK Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) has arrested three people in connection using ransomware, which security experts say poses a threat to businesses as well as consumers.

• December 13, 2012 13 Dec'12

  Little change to antivirus spend in 2013, survey shows

  Most organisations (71%) say spending on antivirus/antimalware technologies will not change in 2013.

• December 13, 2012 13 Dec'12

  Most IT pros do not trust cloud services with sensitive data

  Just over half of IT professionals who focus on cloud computing do not trust cloud services for any of their personal data, a survey has revealed.

• December 13, 2012 13 Dec'12

  Facebook to boost privacy controls

  Facebook is to make the biggest changes to the social networking site’s privacy controls in more than a year

• December 13, 2012 13 Dec'12

  Authorities arrest 10 suspected botnet data thieves

  Authorities in several countries have arrested a total of 10 people suspected of setting up a botnet of hijacked computers.

• December 12, 2012 12 Dec'12

  Government IT reformers criticise IT leadership shake-up

  Government IT reformers have criticised plans to give procurement chief Bill Crothers a more prominent role in the IT leadership team

• December 12, 2012 12 Dec'12

  Cornwall Council opts for IT outsourcing after rejecting BT privatisation

  Cornwall County Council has voted for an IT outsourcing and telehealth partnership with BT after rejecting a comprehensive privatisation plan

• December 12, 2012 12 Dec'12

  Ghost Shell hacktivists publish over a million credentials

  The Ghost Shell group, an offshoot of the Anonymous hacking collective has published the log-in details from 1.6 million accounts

• December 12, 2012 12 Dec'12

  CIO interview: Susan Cooklin, CIO, Network Rail

  Susan Cooklin has had an eventful 2012, delivering major technology upgrades while driving projects to help the Olympic Games run smoothly

• December 11, 2012 11 Dec'12

  European Parliament approves single EU patent system

  The European Parliament votes in a patent statute to cover the European Union (EU), but Italy and Spain stay out due to language concerns

• December 11, 2012 11 Dec'12

  Network Rail CIO takes on wider shared services role

  Network Rail chief information officer Susan Cooklin has taken on the added responsibility for finance and HR shared services

• December 11, 2012 11 Dec'12

  Housing group GreenSquare cuts costs with GIS tool

  Housing group GreenSquare has improved efficiency and cut costs by using a geographical information system (GIS)

• December 11, 2012 11 Dec'12

  MPs slam draft Communications Data Bill

  MPs have slammed plans to give the Home Secretary carte blanche to retain any type of data in the draft Communications Data Bill dubbed ‘the Snoopers’ Charter’.

• December 10, 2012 10 Dec'12

  4G application day arrives

  Mobile operators wanting to apply to take part in Ofcom’s spectrum auction have to submit their bids before the regulator kicks off the process

• December 10, 2012 10 Dec'12

  Cloud: security threat or solution?

  Can cloud computing tackle new and emerging cyber threats – or is this just a new round of security industry marketing hype?

• December 10, 2012 10 Dec'12

  CIO interview: Steve Whatson, IT director, Metropolitan Police

  Steve Whatson, director of ICT for the Olympics and Major Change at the Metropolitan Police Service, discusses the challenges of IT transformation at the Met

• December 10, 2012 10 Dec'12

  UK CIOs see EU regulation as key

  A third of UK CIOs are more concerned with EU regulation, such as the data protection directive, than their own local laws, a study has revealed.

• December 10, 2012 10 Dec'12

  Hacktivists target MP's website

  An inquiry is underway after the website of Conservative MP David Morris was hacked at the weekend.

• December 10, 2012 10 Dec'12

  Rivals square up over internet governance at WCIT

  The future of internet governance is to be decided this week as rival groups hammer out a new international telecoms treaty.