News

IT for government and public sector

October 26, 2012 26 Oct'12
ACPO use online crime reporting company

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and charity Crimestoppers is using online self-reporting platform Facewatch, designed to reduce low-level crime.
October 26, 2012 26 Oct'12
Second G-cloud framework goes live with double number of suppliers

The government's second G-Cloud framework has gone live, with twice the number of original suppliers
October 25, 2012 25 Oct'12
Windows 8 OS is available now – but is it the right choice for your business?

Windows 8 combines a desktop operating system (OS) with tablet-touch functionality, which will bring benefits to some organisations - but not all
October 25, 2012 25 Oct'12
Government expected to unveil eight IDA suppliers for online services

The government is to announce suppliers – including PayPal, BT and the Post Office – to provide identity assurance (IDA) for online public services

October 25, 2012 25 Oct'12
ICO hits Stoke-on-Trent City Council with £120,000 fine

Stoke City Council has breached the Data Protection Act, for the second time in two years, after details of a child protection legal case were emailed to the wrong person.
October 25, 2012 25 Oct'12
UK public sector contracts keep Atos Origin Q3 results buoyant

Large public sector contracts buoy IT services company Atos Origin, which has reported double-digit growth in the UK for its third quarter
October 24, 2012 24 Oct'12
McAfee Focus 2012: McAfee to help secure nuclear plants

Westinghouse Electric Company and McAfee have announced a partnership around information security for nuclear power plants
October 24, 2012 24 Oct'12
McAfee Focus 2012: One fifth of corporate network devices unknown

At least 20% of the devices on corporate networks are not known to the organisation, says security company McAfee
October 24, 2012 24 Oct'12
McAfee Focus 2012: McAfee evolves to enable orchestrated defence

Today’s security systems are not ready for an always-on, always-connected world, says McAfee CTO Michael Fey
October 24, 2012 24 Oct'12
McAfee Focus 2012: Xerox, McAfee partner on embedded security threat

Only around 13% of organisations are aware that printers and multi-function devices represent a threat to information security, says Xerox

October 24, 2012 24 Oct'12
McAfee Focus 2012: Endpoint security key to Security Connected strategy

Security firm McAfee has announced four enhancements of endpoint security as part of its Security Connected strategy at McAfee Focus 2012
October 24, 2012 24 Oct'12
Government could shelve £1bn IT procurement due to faulty technology

The government has put a £1bn tender for IT services on ice because of hardware problems with the procurement
October 24, 2012 24 Oct'12
McAfee Focus 2012: Brighter future for cyber defenders, says DeCesare

The security industry looks to the future with a sense of hope, says Michael DeCesare, co-president of Intel-owned security firm McAfee
October 24, 2012 24 Oct'12
McAfee Focus 2012: NAC supplier ForeScout joins McAfee SIA scheme

McAfee does not want to be all things to all people when it comes to security, but its leadership is aiming to provide the platform that will enable better data protection
October 23, 2012 23 Oct'12
CSC struggling to make a profit from Royal Mail outsourcing deal

CSC has stemmed losses in its 10-year outsourcing deal with Royal Mail through job cuts, tax breaks and relief payments, according to accounts
October 23, 2012 23 Oct'12
Fife Council to slash £2.4m with PSN

Fife Council will slash £2.4m from its network infrastructure costs over the next four years by moving to a public services network (PSN)
October 23, 2012 23 Oct'12
Cornwall Council puts outsourcing move on hold after landslide vote

Cornwall Council has frozen a plan to outsource public services after a near-unanimous vote to suspend the authority's outsourcing programme
October 22, 2012 22 Oct'12
Government announces £7m 3D printing pot

The government is to invest £7m of research and development funding into 3D printing
October 22, 2012 22 Oct'12
XSS attacks remain top threat to web applications

Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks remain the top threat to web applications, databases and websites, a study from FireHost reveals
October 22, 2012 22 Oct'12
Attackers besiege Google Android OS, Trend Micro reveals

Google’s Android mobile OS is under siege by attackers, as malware and data-stealing adware rose 483% in the last quarter, says Trend Micro
October 22, 2012 22 Oct'12
Interview: Dries Buytaert, founder of Drupal

Dries Buytaert, founder of open source content management system Drupal and distributor Acquia, on ambitions to run a $100m business
October 22, 2012 22 Oct'12
Windows 8 security: how does it measure up?

Microsoft's Windows 8 is seen by many as representing an evolutionary jump for the operating system, but what about security?
October 22, 2012 22 Oct'12
BT and Virgin Media slam Birmingham broadband plans

BT and Virgin Media have complained to the EC about a state-funded broadband network in Birmingham that will overlap with areas already covered by their fibre
October 22, 2012 22 Oct'12
Suffolk Coastal Port Health Authority upgrades storage for database

Suffolk Coastal Port Health Authority upgrades its storage infrastructure for web-based data-management system Philis
October 22, 2012 22 Oct'12
Tech City names Facebook executive Joanna Shields as CEO

Joanna Shields has resigned as European boss of Facebook to become CEO of the Tech City Investment Organisation (TCIO)
October 19, 2012 19 Oct'12
Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton calls for open technology

Raspberry Pi co-founder Eben Upton calls on students and engineers to make technology more open and accessible to fill the skills gap
October 19, 2012 19 Oct'12
Lost devices access work email, says Sophos

A fifth of lost electronic devices have access to work email, exposing confidential corporate data, a survey from Sophos has revealed
October 19, 2012 19 Oct'12
Teacher training registry at standstill amid technical problems

Potential teachers are unable to apply for training courses because of problems with the Graduate Teacher Training Registry
October 19, 2012 19 Oct'12
HSBC back online after DDoS attack

HSBC has restored its online banking services after a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack prevented customers using online services
October 19, 2012 19 Oct'12
UK looks to young innovators to fight cyber crime

The UK is to offer 18-year-olds training in advanced IT skills to bolster the expertise of intelligence agencies in fighting cyber crime
October 18, 2012 18 Oct'12
Gary McKinnon decision could be bad news for cyber prosecutions, says lawyer

The UK government’s decision to enable self-confessed hacker Gary McKinnon to avoid extradition to face trial for breaking into US government and military computers could set a dangerous precedent
October 18, 2012 18 Oct'12
Citrix debuts mobile virtual apps as analysts warn of obsolescence

Citrix debuts cloud and mobility releases, but analysts warn they may soon be left behind in an increasingly competitive and evolving market
October 17, 2012 17 Oct'12
Case Study: Disaster recovery boosts business continuity

A review of disaster recovery capabilities has made multinational recruitment firm Hudson more resilient in its day-to-day business
October 17, 2012 17 Oct'12
The Government Digital Service (GDS) launches Gov.uk website

Gov.uk is intended to become a single domain for online public services replacing hundreds of departmental sites
October 17, 2012 17 Oct'12
IBM reports flat net profits for third quarter

IBM has reported flat net profits of $3.8bn as demand for its software services and tight cost management offset the effect of a stronger dollar
October 17, 2012 17 Oct'12
Draft Communications Bill will be ineffective, says ICO

The Draft Data Communications Bill will only catch the most incompetent criminals, says Information Commissioner Christopher Graham
October 16, 2012 16 Oct'12
Cornwall Council axes leader Alec Robertson in outsourcing controversy

Cornwall Council leader Alec Robertson has lost a confidence vote and will step down following a controversial plan to outsource council services
October 16, 2012 16 Oct'12
Theresa May: Hacker Gary McKinnon to stay in UK

Hacker Gary McKinnon will stay in UK, home secretary Theresa May has told MPs
October 16, 2012 16 Oct'12
Police need to go digital to improve communication with citizens

UK citizens believe digital communications technology such as social media would help police connect with the population and put them in a stronger position to fight crime
October 16, 2012 16 Oct'12
Network health puts sector off mobile working

Healthcare organisations are embracing mobile working like never before, but the issue around network coverage is causing concern
October 16, 2012 16 Oct'12
Security remains a barrier to mobility, study finds

Security, potential loss of data and compliance remain key concerns in using mobile enterprise apps, a study has revealed
October 16, 2012 16 Oct'12
Organisations need alternative data protection as security models fail

Organisations' security models are failing - so could it be time to adopt an intelligence-led approach to data protection and fighting cyber crime?
October 16, 2012 16 Oct'12
EU advises Google to rethink privacy policy

The EU is to tell Google to change the way it gathers information on users to reduce the risk of infringing on their privacy
October 16, 2012 16 Oct'12
Home secretary Theresa May rules on hacker Gary McKinnon’s US extradition

Home secretary Theresa May is to rule on self-confessed computer hacker Gary McKinnon's extradition to the US
October 15, 2012 15 Oct'12
Austrian hospital improves access to patient data with Imprivata

Klinikum Wels-Grieskirchen hospital in Austria explains how it improved speed of access and security to its works stations.
October 15, 2012 15 Oct'12
Cookie law needs more than ‘do not track’, says Neelie Kroes

Website owners still need consent to use cookies even if web users' browsers offer 'do not track' (DNT), says EC vice-president Neelie Kroes
October 15, 2012 15 Oct'12
AMD cuts 20% of workforce

Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) plans to cut as many as 2,340 jobs, or about 20% of its workforce
October 15, 2012 15 Oct'12
US prepares cyber offensive capability

The US admits to preparing cyber offensive capabilities amid growing evidence that Iran conducted cyber attacks on the Saudi oil industry
October 12, 2012 12 Oct'12
Mozilla fixes security flaw in latest Firefox

Mozilla has released a fix for the latest version of its Firefox browser after withdrawing it the day before after identifying a security flaw
October 12, 2012 12 Oct'12
US lifts ban on Samsung Galaxy Nexus

The US Court of Appeals has overturned a ban on sales of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus phone
October 12, 2012 12 Oct'12
Draft Data Communications Bill a security risk, says Jimmy Wales

The UK’s Draft Data Communications Bill will be useless and quite dangerous, says Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
October 11, 2012 11 Oct'12
CERN sees surge in job applicants after turning to social media

CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), has seen a surge in job applicants for hard-to-fill vacancies, after using social media to recruit
October 11, 2012 11 Oct'12
Parliament to look at UK involvement of Huawei

A parliamentary select committee is looking into Huawei’s operations in the UK following controversy around the safety of using the firm’s technology
October 11, 2012 11 Oct'12
RSA Europe: Thousands of unprotected virtual servers exposed to the web

Organisations are failing to protect data in virtual environments, says Jason Hart, vice-president cloud solutions, SafeNet
October 11, 2012 11 Oct'12
RSA Europe: Security must take human factor into account

Security needs to start taking into account the differences in users, says Hugh Thompson, RSA Conference programme committee chair
October 11, 2012 11 Oct'12
Patchy uptake hinders Public Service Network roll-out

Key players involved in deploying the Public Service Network (PSN) say progress is being made, but different approaches are slowing it down
October 11, 2012 11 Oct'12
Job prospects improving for IT graduates, says HECSU report

Job prospects for IT graduates have improved for the first time during the recession, says the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU)
October 11, 2012 11 Oct'12
RSA Europe: Security concerns whole supply chain, says Misha Glenny

Targeted attacks affect the whole supply chain, not just big corporations, author Misha Glenny tells RSA Conference Europe 2012 attendees
October 10, 2012 10 Oct'12
RSA Europe: Cloud key to future information security, says Qualys

Cloud computing is an opportunity information security professionals should not miss, says Philippe Courtot, CEO of security firm Qualys
October 10, 2012 10 Oct'12
DWP to announce identity assurance suppliers

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is to announce the first providers in the government’s identity assurance (IDA) scheme at the end of October
October 10, 2012 10 Oct'12
Interview: Suffolk County Council CIO discusses why VDI works

Mark Adams-Wright is overseeing an IT change that is supporting a major transformation in the role of Suffolk County Council
October 09, 2012 09 Oct'12
RSA Europe: Free cloud security readiness tool from Microsoft

Microsoft has announced a free tool for organisations to assess their security readiness for cloud computing.
October 09, 2012 09 Oct'12
Government launches £100m technology pot for nurses

The government is providing £100m in technology for nurses and midwives in a move designed to free up time with patients
October 09, 2012 09 Oct'12
Telefónica launches business to sell mobile data

O2 parent company Telefónica is to offer user data from customer's mobile phones to organisations who want to analyse customer activity
October 08, 2012 08 Oct'12
Cyber crime costs UK organisations £2.1m a year

Ponemon Institute's 2012 Cost of Cyber Crime Study estimates cyber crime costs UK organisations an average of £2.1m a year each
October 08, 2012 08 Oct'12
Swedish government sites targeted by Anonymous

The websites of several Swedish government agencies were knocked offline on Friday after being targeted by hacktivist collective Anonymous
October 08, 2012 08 Oct'12
Microsoft encryption key deadline approaching

Any organisations that have not yet replaced outdated security certificates will have to act quickly to meet the Microsoft deadline
October 08, 2012 08 Oct'12
Most US citizens reject online tracking, survey finds

Most US citizens do not want any information collected about which websites they visit, according to a survey by the University of California
October 08, 2012 08 Oct'12
China’s Huawei and ZTE a security threat, says US committee

China’s leading technology firms pose a threat to national security, warns a US Congressional committee
October 05, 2012 05 Oct'12
IT contractors expect job opportunities and salaries to rise

The number of IT contractors expecting growth in public sector job opportunities has doubled since last year, a study by Giant Group has revealed
October 05, 2012 05 Oct'12
Interview: Gwyn Thomas, CIO of the Welsh Government

Gwyn Thomas, CIO of the Welsh Assembly, says a pragmatic leadership approach was key to the success of Wales's public sector IT
October 05, 2012 05 Oct'12
GLA rolls out cloud-based incident management tool

The Greater London Authority (GLA) has rolled out a cloud-based tool to record and track non-compliance issues, security threats and fraud
October 04, 2012 04 Oct'12
Government spends £2m on global cyber security centre

The government is to spend £2m a year on a cyber-security centre.
October 04, 2012 04 Oct'12
Crown Prosecution Service CIO quits to join Lockheed Martin

Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) CIO David Jones has resigned to take up a role at US defence technology firm Lockheed Martin
October 03, 2012 03 Oct'12
Indian IT giant set to win Home Office contract

Indian IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services is being awarded a contract to support the government’s Disclosure and Barring Service.
October 03, 2012 03 Oct'12
4G victory was technical, not political

Speedy execution of the digital television switchover and clearing of spectrum improved the 4G timetable, not negotiations by central government
October 03, 2012 03 Oct'12
UKtech50 2012: Who are the most influential people in UK IT?

Computer Weekly is this week launching the third UKtech50, our annual definitive list of the real movers and shakers in UK IT
October 02, 2012 02 Oct'12
HMRC deploys Becrypt off-the-shelf encryption

HMRC will use Becrypt Disk protect, which has recently been certified under the government’s Commercial Product Assurance (CPA) Scheme.
October 02, 2012 02 Oct'12
Hackers target White House military network

Hackers using computers in China have infiltrated an “unclassified” network in the US White House, believed to be used for issuing nuclear commands.
October 02, 2012 02 Oct'12
4G meeting to determine spectrum future set for today

Sources say the meeting between mobile operators, Ofcom and minister for media, culture and sport, Maria Miller, will happen this afternoon
October 01, 2012 01 Oct'12
Shared services proposal splits Cornwall Council

Councillors in Cornwall are calling for the removal of council leader Alec Robinson as the cabinet debates a proposal for shared services
September 28, 2012 28 Sep'12
Phishing attacks cast wider nets in businesses

Phishing attacks are moving from targeting a few key employees to much wider groups, says security awareness training company PhishMe
September 28, 2012 28 Sep'12
iCreate to encourage generation of young coders

Education firm iCreate builds prototype aimed at teaching children to understand and use code from a young age
September 28, 2012 28 Sep'12
RIM posts another quarterly loss - but it could have been worse

BlackBerry-maker RIM has posted another quarterly loss, but not as bad as investors expected, with revenues 16% above analysts’ forecasts
September 27, 2012 27 Sep'12
ICO publishes cloud data guidelines

The ICO has published new guidelines that underline businesses’ sole responsibility for the protection of data
September 27, 2012 27 Sep'12
Information security: Technical skills highest in demand

Salaries for most information security professionals are continuing to trend upward as demand increases, particularly for technical skills.
September 27, 2012 27 Sep'12
EC sets out strategy for EU cloud data and standards

The European Commission (EC) has unveiled a strategy for standards and a legal framework for cloud computing in European Union (EU) states
September 27, 2012 27 Sep'12
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam hackers launch cyber attack on US bank Wells Fargo

A hacker group connected to Hamas says it attacked US bank Wells Fargo in reaction to the video 'Innocence of Muslims' posted on YouTube
September 27, 2012 27 Sep'12
Java flaw allows attackers to bypass sandbox defences

Security researchers have discovered a vulnerability in all supported versions of Oracle Java allowing attackers to bypass sandbox defences
September 27, 2012 27 Sep'12
UK ranks only eighth in world internet freedoms

The UK has fewer internet freedoms than seven other countries, including Estonia and the Philippines a report has revealed
September 26, 2012 26 Sep'12
Community special school rolls out touchscreens for SEN pupils

Henry Tyndale School, which caters for pupils with special educational needs (SEN), has rolled out touchscreen devices for its 120 students
September 26, 2012 26 Sep'12
HMRC becomes first major department to use G-Cloud

HMRC is the first major government department to procure through the G-Cloud in a deal with Skyscape for centralised data storage.
September 26, 2012 26 Sep'12
Move to cloud still all about security for UK firms, survey shows

Security and data privacy are still the top concerns for UK businesses adopting cloud-based services, research shows
September 26, 2012 26 Sep'12
Samsung faces call for Galaxy S3 security update

Samsung is facing calls to issue a security update for the Galaxy S3 smartphone to address a serious vulnerability
September 25, 2012 25 Sep'12
How agile is Universal Credit?

The DWP claims the IT for its flagship Universal Credit project is developed using agile principles. But how agile is a seven-year £2.2bn project?
September 25, 2012 25 Sep'12
Security concerns hold back mobile banking adoption

More than two-thirds of smartphone owners have not yet adopted mobile banking apps because of security concerns, a survey has revealed
September 25, 2012 25 Sep'12
Government strategies for increasing SME procurement

Deputy CIO Liam Maxwell and SMEs discuss strategies for breaking the IT oligopoly stranglehold in government
September 25, 2012 25 Sep'12
Iran blocks access to Google search and Gmail

Iran has blocked access to Google search and Gmail in a move officials say is aimed at improving cyber security
September 24, 2012 24 Sep'12
Businesses need to tackle threat of compromised websites

UK domain registrar 123-reg is helping combat the trend of spreading malware through legitimate sites
September 24, 2012 24 Sep'12
Southwest One losses obscured by 'shambolic' accounting

Outsourcing venture Southwest One obscured the extent of its losses with an unusual combination of understated costs and post-dated credits