News

IT for government and public sector

• April 02, 2013 02 Apr'13

  Security incident response below par at most firms, says Guidance Software

  Most organisations are not as prepared as they should be for responding to cyber attacks, says Guidance Software

• April 02, 2013 02 Apr'13

  Government seeks partner for £2bn shared services centre deal

  Government is seeking a private sector partner to deliver its second shared services centre in a deal worth around £2bn

• April 02, 2013 02 Apr'13

  Cyberbunker’s Sven Kamphuis denies unleashing DDoS attacks on Spamhaus

  The internet activist accused of being behind one of the biggest distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to date claims he is the victim of an establishment conspiracy.

• March 28, 2013 28 Mar'13

  Patients and doctors must push for a paperless NHS, says Intellect report

  IT trade body Intellect says patients and doctors must undergo cultural change to realise government's ambition of a paperless NHS by 2018

• March 28, 2013 28 Mar'13

  Somerset council settles out of court with service provider Southwest One

  Somerset County Council has settled a dispute out of court with its outsourced service provider Southwest One

• March 28, 2013 28 Mar'13

  Government must address digital divide, says NAO

  Despite the public appetite for greater digital public services, government must start putting its plans into action to address the ‘digital divide’, according to a National Audit Office report.

• March 28, 2013 28 Mar'13

  Activists unleash biggest DDoS cyber attack to date

  Activists unleash a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack in support of a web hosting firm, Cyberbunker, blacklisted by an anti-spam website

• March 27, 2013 27 Mar'13

  Demos urges police to gather intelligence from social media

  Think tank Demos urges UK police forces to appoint a senior officer to take charge of gathering intelligence from social media

• March 27, 2013 27 Mar'13

  Home Office needs to boost capability to fix UKBA IT

  The Home Office must improve its internal capability to fix the siloed IT systems behind the soon-to-be-scrapped UK Border Agency

• March 27, 2013 27 Mar'13

  UK government launches cyber threat data-sharing partnership

  The UK government has announced a partnership with industry to share information and intelligence on cyber security threats

• March 27, 2013 27 Mar'13

  EC proposes broadband installation savings

  European Commission (EC) proposes to cut costs of installing fibre broadband by 30% to address the lack of standards across Europe

• March 27, 2013 27 Mar'13

  UK government sets up cyber security fusion cell

  A cyber security “fusion cell” for cross-sector threat data sharing aims to put government, industry and information security analysts side-by-side

• March 26, 2013 26 Mar'13

  Fujitsu HQ shows confidence in UK operation

  Fujitsu Japan has revealed its confidence in its UK operation with an £800m investment which will plug a pensions gap and free up capital to invest in the UK business.

• March 26, 2013 26 Mar'13

  Police national procurement hub failing to deliver

  Savings estimated to be made through a police national procurement hub set up in 2011 have fallen ‘well short’ of expectations, according to a National Audit Office report.

• March 26, 2013 26 Mar'13

  Employees ignore security rules, say infosec pros

  Most information security professionals believe corporate employees wilfully ignore security rules, survey at RSA Conference 2013 reveals

• March 25, 2013 25 Mar'13

  Cloud security still top concern for UK CIOs, survey shows

  Data security in the cloud is still a top concern for UK companies, a survey of 250 IT decision makers has revealed

• March 25, 2013 25 Mar'13

  Web and FTP top malware risks, study finds

  Study finds traditional antivirus solutions not identifying the majority of malware infecting networks via real-time applications such as browsing

• March 25, 2013 25 Mar'13

  Study casts doubts on cost-effectiveness of telehealth

  Telehealth is not a cost-effective treatment, according to an in-depth study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ)

• March 25, 2013 25 Mar'13

  Hackers used stolen credentials to attack South Korea, say researchers

  Cyber attacks that shut down computers at banks and broadcasters in South Korea used stolen user IDs and passwords, say researchers

• March 25, 2013 25 Mar'13

  Malware in counterfeit software to cost business $114bn in 2013

  Dealing with malware in counterfeit software will cost global enterprises an estimated $114bn in 2013, says research firm IDC

• March 25, 2013 25 Mar'13

  Carl Icahn and Blackstone fight Michael Dell for Dell PC company

  US billionaire investor Carl Icahn and private-equity group Blackstone will fight Michael Dell in a bidding war for the computer company he founded

• March 22, 2013 22 Mar'13

  Six security issues to tackle before encrypting cloud data

  Concern about security and privacy is likely to drive adoption of cloud encryption, but there are six security issues businesses should tackle

• March 22, 2013 22 Mar'13

  Barnet outsourcing: High Court decision expected after Easter

  The verdict on the case that disabled resident Maria Nash brought against Barnet Council for a judicial review of its outsourcing will come after Easter

• March 22, 2013 22 Mar'13

  Universal Credit not at odds with agile, says former chief

  Former programme director of Universal Credit, Malcolm Whitehouse, has denied the mega-project is at odds with agile development

• March 22, 2013 22 Mar'13

  Millions of vulnerable devices on the internet, researcher reveals

  A scan of the internet by an anonymous security researcher has revealed millions of IP-enabled devices protected only by default passwords.

• March 22, 2013 22 Mar'13

  Why government must boost the information economy

  Distinguished professor of technology and economics Carlota Perez on why the government needs to boost the 'information economy’

• March 22, 2013 22 Mar'13

  BBC Twitter feeds breached

  The BBC is the latest high-profile organisation to have its Twitter feed breached

• March 22, 2013 22 Mar'13

  Apple debuts two-factor authentication to protect against hackers

  Apple is introducing two-factor authentication (2FA) for iCloud and other services to protect users from hackers trying to access their accounts

• March 22, 2013 22 Mar'13

  South Korea admits mistake in linking cyber attacks to China

  Investigators admit IP address linked to cyber attack on South Korean banks and broadcasters is not Chinese, as was originally thought

• March 21, 2013 21 Mar'13

  GCHQ sets up £4.5m cyber vulnerability research institute

  GCHQ has announced a second academic research institute to find new ways of analysing software automatically to combat cyber threats

• March 21, 2013 21 Mar'13

  University shuns cloud archiving and Quantum for Spectra Logic tape

  Bristol University builds Spectra Logic tape archive with NexSan disk front-end, rejecting cloud archive due to uncertainties over data control

• March 21, 2013 21 Mar'13

  ICO calls for action on future funding

  Sorting out an acceptable system for funding the UK’s privacy watchdog needs to be tackled now, says UK information commissioner

• March 21, 2013 21 Mar'13

  Click fraud botnet costs advertisers £3.9m a month

  Security researchers find a botnet costing online display advertising £3.9m a month by simulating 14 billion clicks on at least 200 websites

• March 21, 2013 21 Mar'13

  South Korea says cyber attack came from IP address in China

  South Korea says a cyber attack that shut down thousands of computers at several major broadcasters and banks came from an IP address China

• March 21, 2013 21 Mar'13

  HP shareholders challenge directors

  HP shareholders have challenged the board with a strong protest vote against the re-election of five directors at its annual meeting

• March 20, 2013 20 Mar'13

  CESG denies BlackBerry 10 insecurities

  CESG - the the information assurance arm of GCHQ - denies reports BlackBerry’s latest OS doesn’t pass muster when it comes to security

• March 20, 2013 20 Mar'13

  IT industry slams chancellor’s “tech-light” Budget

  IT industry slams government failure to identify IT as a key economic growth driver, following George Osborne’s 2013 Budget announcement

• March 20, 2013 20 Mar'13

  South Korea computer shutdowns spark speculation of cyber-jousting

  South Korea investigates the shutdown of networks at major banks and broadcasters, amid speculation of cyber-jousting by North Korea

• March 20, 2013 20 Mar'13

  Budget 2013 round-up: What it means for IT

  Read Computer Weekly's round-up to see what George Osborne's 2013 Budget means for the technology and IT sector

• March 20, 2013 20 Mar'13

  UK public sector outsourcing is a global giant

  The UK accounts for 84% of total public sector outsourcing in Europe and the single biggest market outside the US, says ISG

• March 20, 2013 20 Mar'13

  IT security professionals break USB stick virus rules

  Most IT security professionals polled at RSA Conference 2013 admitted to picking up and plugging in USB flash drives they found lying around

• March 20, 2013 20 Mar'13

  High court hears evidence against legality of Barnet outsourcing

  Barnet council faces potential judicial review as resident's case alleges the public was not properly consulted on a £320m outsourcing deal

• March 20, 2013 20 Mar'13

  IDL activates ‘cat-signal’ to protest against Cispa

  Activists use an internet signalling system to co-ordinate protests against the proposed US Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa)

• March 20, 2013 20 Mar'13

  The tech sector's Budget wish list

  The technology industry tells us the key budgetary measures it wants enacting to stimulate the IT sector and get UK plc back on its feet, ahead of chancellor George Osborne’s Budget

• March 20, 2013 20 Mar'13

  CESG says BlackBerry’s new BB10 software not secure enough

  The government's technical security advisor CESG says BlackBerry's new BB10 software is not secure enough for essential work

• March 20, 2013 20 Mar'13

  ARM will remain independent, says incoming CEO Simon Segars

  ARM president Simon Segars has vowed to maintain the chip designer’s independence when he takes over from outgoing CEO Warren East

• March 19, 2013 19 Mar'13

  US DHS cyber security head to join Chertoff Group

  Mark Weatherford, a top cyber official in the US department of homeland security (DHS) has announced he is to join the private sector

• March 19, 2013 19 Mar'13

  Cyber attacks must avoid civilian targets, says Nato manual

  State-sponsored cyber attacks must avoid sensitive civilian targets such as hospitals, dams and nuclear power stations, according to an advisory manual on cyber warfare compiled for Nato

• March 19, 2013 19 Mar'13

  RAF Operations Wing pilots iPads

  The Operations Wing of RAF Brize Norton is using 20 iPads and five iPad minis as part of a trial to evaluate flight management technologies

• March 19, 2013 19 Mar'13

  Easynet opts for HP compute/storage with SSD tier for Agile Platform

  Managed services provider Easynet shuns point solutions for HP compute and storage with SSD tier for Agile Platform end-to-end services

• March 19, 2013 19 Mar'13

  Government develops single registration system to attract SME suppliers

  Government Procurement Service develops Single Supplier Registration – so suppliers need only register once – to attract more SMEs

• March 19, 2013 19 Mar'13

  US hacker jailed for 3.5 years over AT&T breach

  US hacker Andrew Auernheimer has been imprisoned for obtaining the email addresses of iPad users from AT&T's website

• March 19, 2013 19 Mar'13

  Norway’s Telenor hit by cyber espionage campaign

  Attackers stole files and emails from unnamed executives at Norwegian telecoms provider Telenor

• March 18, 2013 18 Mar'13

  Nominet to join new government cyber crime reduction partnership

  Nominet, which runs the .uk registry is to join the government’s recently announced Cyber Crime Reduction Partnership.

• March 18, 2013 18 Mar'13

  Fujitsu pulls out of BDUK

  Fujitsu, BT’s only rival in BDUK – the government-funded roll-out of superfast broadband – has withdrawn from the process

• March 18, 2013 18 Mar'13

  Reuters journalist charged with Anonymous hacking professes innocence

  A Reuters journalist charged with helping Anonymous hack the LA Times website maintains he is innocent

• March 18, 2013 18 Mar'13

  Court rules FBI access to private data unconstitutional

  A US court has ruled that “national security letters” to obtain citizens’ private data are a breach of the constitution’s first amendment

• March 15, 2013 15 Mar'13

  Government mandates 'preference' for open source

  The government has, for the first time, mandated a preference for using open source for future developments

• March 15, 2013 15 Mar'13

  Reuters journalist charged in Anonymous hacking

  Reuters journalist charged with conspiring to help members of the Anonymous hacktivist collective to break into LA Times' website in 2010

• March 15, 2013 15 Mar'13

  North Korea accuses US of cyber attacks

  North Korea has accused the US of carrying out cyber attacks against its internet servers, blocking access to some websites

• March 15, 2013 15 Mar'13

  Terror groups lack cyber skills to disrupt critical services, says academic

  Terror groups do not currently have the expertise required to disrupt key public services such as water and electricity, an academic has told MPs

• March 15, 2013 15 Mar'13

  UK government announces Cyber Crime Reduction Partnership

  Government announces another initiative of the national cyber security strategy, to co-ordinate the efforts of police, experts and academics

• March 15, 2013 15 Mar'13

  Cabinet Office to axe government CIO and boards in governance shake-up

  The Cabinet Office is to axe the government CIO role in a governance shake-up that will put digital leaders at the heart of technology change

• March 14, 2013 14 Mar'13

  IDA services put on ice for Universal Credit delivery

  The DWP's Universal Credit programme is unlikely to use identity assurance services

• March 14, 2013 14 Mar'13

  Cornwall Council finally signs off outsourcing deal with BT

  Cornwall Council has awarded a £14m outsourcing deal to BT, ending months of often heated debate and major changes to its scope

• March 14, 2013 14 Mar'13

  eBay study highlights big problem for search advertising

  A study by online auction company eBay has revealed that paying for keywords to boost rankings by search engines has little effect on sales

• March 13, 2013 13 Mar'13

  Spectrum auction and HS2 funding should go to broadband

  The money from the 4G auction should go back into connectivity, while funding for HS2 should be redirected to digital infrastructure, say parliamentarians

• March 13, 2013 13 Mar'13

  Software suppliers have local authorities over a barrel, says CIO

  Local authorities are faced with a choice of either forking out for costly software licence upgrades or keeping staff, says Geoff Connell, CIO

• March 13, 2013 13 Mar'13

  Case Study: Telestroke Network hastens stroke treatment

  The public sector winner of our European User Awards for Networking worked with Virgin Media to bring treatment to stroke patients

• March 13, 2013 13 Mar'13

  PayPal CISO Michael Barrett bullish on password alternative standard

  An alliance of technology firms, including PayPal and Lenovo, says it can provide alternatives to passwords to authenticate users for online services.

• March 13, 2013 13 Mar'13

  UK start-ups lack government support, say MPs

  The government is failing to secure financial funding for UK start-up companies, warns the Science and Technology Select Committee

• March 13, 2013 13 Mar'13

  Google Android OS tablet sales will overtake iPads in 2013, says IDC

  Sales of Google Android operating system (OS) tablets will overtake Apple iPad sales for the first time in 2013, says research company IDC

• March 13, 2013 13 Mar'13

  Virgin Media and Which? partner with the Open Data Institute

  Virgin Media and consumer watchdog Which? have become the first major private-sector collaborators of the Open Data Institute (ODI)

• March 13, 2013 13 Mar'13

  Making agile software development fit for business

  The idea of daily scrums is not for everyone, so how are organisations adapting agile software development to improve project management?

• March 13, 2013 13 Mar'13

  US authorities investigate hack of Michelle Obama and other high-profile people

  US authorities are investigating hackers who allegedly stole financial information belonging to US first lady Michelle Obama

• March 13, 2013 13 Mar'13

  Google to pay $7m fine for harvesting wireless data in the US

  Google has agreed to pay a $7m fine in the US for intercepting private Wi-Fi data without authoritsation using its Street View vehicles.

• March 12, 2013 12 Mar'13

  Security company Tripwire buys risk management business nCircle

  Security firm Tripwire announces its intention to buy nCircle, a provider of information risk and security performance management systems

• March 12, 2013 12 Mar'13

  UK’s million missing laptops a data time bomb, says report

  The million laptops that have gone missing in past year are a business data time bomb, says Sony’s VAIO Digital Business report 2013

• March 12, 2013 12 Mar'13

  US billionaire investor Carl Icahn reviews Dell’s books

  Billionaire investor Carl Icahn says he will review the books of PC maker Dell as he tries to prevent its sale to founder Michael Dell

• March 12, 2013 12 Mar'13

  Warwickshire Council adopts Gmail

  Warwickshire County Council is to complete a full Gmail roll-out across its 4,500 users next month, in a move that will deliver £250,000 in savings

• March 11, 2013 11 Mar'13

  Phishing emails sent in pairs to lend authenticity, says training company

  Phishing emails are now being deployed in pairs to create the illusion of authenticity, says security awareness training company PhishMe

• March 11, 2013 11 Mar'13

  Microsoft releases four critical security updates

  Microsoft is to release four “critical” patches in its monthly Patch Tuesday security update, according to the advance notice.

• March 11, 2013 11 Mar'13

  FCO signs Detica as service management integrator

  Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) picks BAE Systems Detica as preferred bidder for its service management integration (SMI) framework

• March 11, 2013 11 Mar'13

  Bank fraud claims over four million victims in UK

  Nearly 4.6 million people in the UK have had their personal details stolen and their bank accounts used to buy goods or services

• March 11, 2013 11 Mar'13

  Hilary Reynolds latest universal credit programme director to move

  Universal credit programme director Hilary Reynolds has moved off after just four months, the latest senior figure to leave the programme

• March 11, 2013 11 Mar'13

  UK consumers want better personal data security, survey shows

  Banks top the list of organisations people trust least with their personal data, according to a survey of 2,000 UK consumers

• March 11, 2013 11 Mar'13

  Reserve Bank of Australia admits targeted attack

  Staff at the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) were targeted by emails linking to a malicious payload in November 2011, the bank has admitted

• March 11, 2013 11 Mar'13

  Yorkshire Water revisits agile after 10-year break

  Yorkshire Water uses a small but critical project to show senior management that agile software development can work

• March 11, 2013 11 Mar'13

  Pharma chemist crowned 2013 UK cyber security champion

  A 28-year-old pharmaceutical chemist has won the 2013 UK Cyber Security Challenge

• March 08, 2013 08 Mar'13

  Midlands health trust trials BlackBerry 10 OS on PlayBook with Z10 roll-out

  The Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust tests the Blackberry 10 operating system (OS) for a mobile fleet deployment

• March 08, 2013 08 Mar'13

  Poor management information undermines government cuts

  Departments are routinely ‘gaming’ the Treasury by withholding spending information, a Public Accounts Committee report has said

• March 08, 2013 08 Mar'13

  Half of all companies lose devices with important data

  Recent survey shows half of all firms have lost devices with important data, with security implications for more than 20% of those businesses

• March 08, 2013 08 Mar'13

  RSA reports security shift toward monitoring and response capabilities

  A big shift in security spending has begun with increasing investment in monitoring and response capabilities, says RSA's Tom Heiser

• March 08, 2013 08 Mar'13

  Aspirant UK cyber security champions prepare for battle in Bristol

  The final of the current UK national Cyber Security Challenge takes place in Bristol this weekend

• March 08, 2013 08 Mar'13

  Google’s Motorola Mobility to cut 10% of workforce

  Google’s Motorola Mobility is to cut 1,200 jobs – 10% of its global workforce.

• March 07, 2013 07 Mar'13

  EU states likely to force changes to proposed data protection rules

  A group of EU member states is likely to force the European Commission to soften proposals for tough new data protection regulations

• March 07, 2013 07 Mar'13

  UK laxity on BYOD raises data loss risk, says ICO

  YouGov survey reveals many UK employers are not providing guidance on the usage of own devices at work, putting personal information at risk

• March 07, 2013 07 Mar'13

  Dell board seeks alternative to founder’s $24bn offer

  The board of manufacturer Dell is looking for rival bids for the company amid shareholder anger over founder Michael Dell's $24bn offer

• March 07, 2013 07 Mar'13

  MP adamant Universal Credit IT suppliers told to down tools

  Universal Credit IT contractors have been told to down tools, says Stephen Timms, Labour MP for East Ham

• March 06, 2013 06 Mar'13

  Cabinet Office hands government ‘public cloud first’ mandate

  Whitehall is to adopt a ‘public cloud first' policy mandating departments to consider public cloud services the main channel for their IT spending