News

IT for government and public sector

• January 29, 2025 29 Jan'25

  How government hackers are trying to exploit Google Gemini AI

  Google’s threat intel squad has shared information on how nation state threat actors are attempting to exploit its Gemini AI tool for nefarious ends

• January 29, 2025 29 Jan'25

  Chancellor backs plans to boost Oxford-Cambridge growth

  To build a UK Silicon Valley between Oxford and Cambridge, boosting the region’s tech capabilities, requires more trains, more roads and more houses

• January 29, 2025 29 Jan'25

  Vallance rejects latest charge to reform UK hacking laws

  Science minister Patrick Vallance rejects proposed amendments to the Computer Misuse Act, arguing that they could create a loophole for cyber criminals to exploit

• January 28, 2025 28 Jan'25

  NAO: UK government cyber resilience weak in face of mounting threats

  The National Audit Office has found UK government cyber resilience wanting, weakened by legacy IT and skills shortages, and facing mounting threats

• January 28, 2025 28 Jan'25

  Over 40 journalists and lawyers submit evidence to PSNI surveillance inquiry

  Angus McCullough, who is leading a review into the police surveillance of journalists and lawyers in Northern Ireland, says victims will be informed if they were unlawfully spied on – subject to ‘legal constraints’

• January 27, 2025 27 Jan'25

  Cyber incident that closed British Museum was inside job

  An IT incident that disrupted visitor access to the British Museum last week was the work of a disgruntled contractor who had been let go

• January 27, 2025 27 Jan'25

  Interview: Feryal Clark, AI and digital government minister, DSIT

  Computer Weekly talks to the parliamentary under-secretary about digital identity, the importance of trust and utilising the power of artificial intelligence

• January 24, 2025 24 Jan'25

  MPs and peers start inquiry into Russian and Chinese sabotage threats to subsea internet cables

  MPs and Lords on the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy have begun an inquiry into the resilience of UK internet cables, following heightened threats of Russian and Chinese sabotage

• January 24, 2025 24 Jan'25

  Loan Charge under review: MPs brand latest independent inquiry into controversial policy ‘a farce’

  Details of the government’s highly anticipated independent review into the loan charge have emerged, and MPs claim it falls way short of what is needed to resolve the financial and mental health damage the policy has caused to those in-scope of it

• January 24, 2025 24 Jan'25

  Labour’s first digital government strategy: Is it déjà vu or something new?

  Labour won the 2024 general election on a platform of change – and its technology cheerleader insists the new digital government strategy is all about change. Have we heard it all before or is this time really different?

• January 24, 2025 24 Jan'25

  Review of legal rule on computer evidence long overdue, say Post Office scandal victims

  Computer Weekly talks to people who suffered miscarriages of justice at the hands of flawed computer evidence, as well as to experts in law and IT, as the government commits to review the legal presumption that computers work all the time

• January 23, 2025 23 Jan'25

  NAO flags shortcomings in government preferential pricing deals with big tech suppliers

  Shortcomings in the UK government’s tech buying power have been highlighted in separate reports in recent days by the National Audit Office and The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

• January 23, 2025 23 Jan'25

  UK eVisa system problems persist despite repeated warnings

  Travellers are already having issues boarding UK-bound flights, while refugees have been left with no way to prove their immigration status in the UK, just two weeks after the Home Office transitioned to electronic visas

• January 22, 2025 22 Jan'25

  Privacy professionals expect budget cuts, lack confidence

  Over 50% of privacy professionals in Europe expect to see less money earmarked for data security initiatives in 2025, and many don’t have faith their organisations are taking the issue seriously, according to an ISACA report

• January 22, 2025 22 Jan'25

  Funksec gang turned up ransomware heat in December

  The criminal ransomware fraternity was hard at work over the festive period, with attack volumes rising and a new threat actor emerging on the scene

• January 22, 2025 22 Jan'25

  Europol seeks evidence of encryption on crime enforcement as it steps-up pressure on Big Tech

  Europol wants examples of police investigations hampered by end-to-end encryption as it pressures tech companies to provide law enforcement access to encrypted messages

• January 21, 2025 21 Jan'25

  Government to launch Gov.uk Wallet

  The digital wallet will allow citizens to have government-issued documents, including a digital driver’s licence, on their phone, alongside a new Gov.uk app

• January 21, 2025 21 Jan'25

  Weak supplier management hinders digital government

  Procurement, legacy systems, data fragmentation and the changing IT market are among the issues highlighted in a review of digital services

• January 21, 2025 21 Jan'25

  Greek authorities subject refugees to invasive surveillance

  Greek border authorities are subjecting asylum seekers to invasive phone confiscations and artificial intelligence-powered surveillance, in another potential violation of European data protection laws

• January 20, 2025 20 Jan'25

  Government calls for expert views on computer evidence to learn lesson from Post Office scandal

  The government is calling for evidence from experts in computing and law to help it ensure no repeat of the miscarriages of justice in the Post Office scandal

• January 20, 2025 20 Jan'25

  Labour announces plans to overhaul digital government

  The Government Digital Service will be expanded along with changes to the way technology is funded, built and delivered across the public sector, as Labour aims for improvements previous administrations struggled to achieve

• January 20, 2025 20 Jan'25

  Government plans to revamp digital services to save £45bn

  Legacy IT and the use of tech contractors is costing taxpayers billions. The government aims to fix the public sector with AI and new digital services

• January 20, 2025 20 Jan'25

  Singtel’s 5G network slicing to boost Singapore’s defence and security

  Singapore’s defence and security technology agencies will leverage Singtel’s 5G network slicing technology nationwide to combat evolving security threats and enhance national security

• January 17, 2025 17 Jan'25

  Lords debate government approach to automated decision-making

  During the second reading debate of a Lords private members’ bill seeking to better regulate public sector algorithms, the government argued existing measures were sufficient to protect the public

• January 16, 2025 16 Jan'25

  Biden signs new cyber order days before Trump inauguration

  With days left in the White House, outgoing US president Joe Biden has signed a wide-ranging cyber security executive order with far-reaching implications

• January 16, 2025 16 Jan'25

  Fujitsu staff at HMRC to strike for two days over pay

  More public image woes for Fujitsu as hundreds of staff to strike after colleagues at HMRC get significantly bigger pay rise

• January 16, 2025 16 Jan'25

  Russia’s Star Blizzard pivots to WhatsApp in spear-phishing campaign

  The Russian cyber spy operation known as Star Blizzard changed tactics after a takedown operation by Microsoft and the US authorities, turning to widely used messaging platform WhatsApp to try to ensnare its targets

• January 16, 2025 16 Jan'25

  NAO calls for ‘cross-government’ revamp of IT procurement to improve ‘big tech’ project outcomes

  The National Audit Office has highlighted a series of shortcomings in the government’s approach to digital procurement

• January 16, 2025 16 Jan'25

  Davos 2025: Digital supply chains at risk as world faces two years of turbulence

  World Economic Forum urges digital business leaders to build the resilience of supply chains, improve cyber defences and develop contingency plans

• January 15, 2025 15 Jan'25

  Government, Nesta and ODI issue £600k smart data challenge to technologists

  Department for Business and Trade, Challenge Works and the Open Data Institute have issued a Smart Data Challenge to app developers and entrepreneurs with a total prize fund of £600,000

• January 15, 2025 15 Jan'25

  Biggest Patch Tuesday in years sees Microsoft address 159 vulnerabilities

  The largest Patch Tuesday of the 2020s so far brings fixes for more than 150 CVEs ranging widely in their scope and severity – including eight zero-day flaws

• January 15, 2025 15 Jan'25

  Davos 2025: Misinformation and disinformation are most pressing risks, says World Economic Forum

  World leaders, business chiefs and civil society organisations will discuss the risks posed by misinformation, disinformation and artificial intelligence at the World Economic Forum

• January 14, 2025 14 Jan'25

  Subpostmasters won’t get financial redress until mid-2027 at current rate of progress

  Campaigning former subpostmaster warns that some members of the group that took the Post Office to court might not receive financial redress until mid-2027

• January 14, 2025 14 Jan'25

  Government funding to help businesses discover AI value

  The government is betting the bank on the power of artificial intelligence to fix the public sector, mend roads and boost the UK economy

• January 14, 2025 14 Jan'25

  Many are called, but few are chosen: Secrets of MI5 watchers revealed

  Despite advances in electronic surveillance, security service MI5 still relies on human ‘watchers’. Government documents reveal what it takes to follow suspects without being detected

• January 13, 2025 13 Jan'25

  UK government plans to extend ransomware payment ban

  A ban on ransomware payments by UK government departments will be extended to cover organisations such as local councils, schools and the NHS should new government proposals move forward

• January 13, 2025 13 Jan'25

  Metro mayors face similar digitisation challenges to banks, but lack their resources

  UK regional leaders want to be independent of central government when it comes to digital transformation decision-making, but don’t fully understand what’s ahead

• January 13, 2025 13 Jan'25

  CNI operators should ask these 12 questions of their OT suppliers

  The NCSC, CISA and others have set out 12 cyber security considerations CNI organisations and other users of operational technology should incorporate into their buying processes to force their suppliers to do better

• January 10, 2025 10 Jan'25

  Mandiant: Latest Ivanti vulns exploited by Chinese cyber spooks

  Threat actors are once again lining up to exploit vulnerabilities in the widely used Ivanti product suite, with an apparent link to Chinese espionage activity

• January 10, 2025 10 Jan'25

  UK Defence Committee urges MoD to embrace AI

  Defence Committee outlines changes it thinks the Ministry of Defence should make to realise the battlefield advantages of artificial intelligence

• January 08, 2025 08 Jan'25

  German court finds hacked EncroChat phone evidence inadmissible

  The Berlin Regional Court has found that evidence obtained by a joint French and Dutch operation to hack the EncroChat encrypted mobile phone network is legally inadmissible, raising questions about its use in other European countries

• January 08, 2025 08 Jan'25

  Post Office scandal-stained Fujitsu orders staff to cut costs amid widening UK losses

  Japanese supplier reports a loss of £170m in the UK in its latest financial statement and orders UK staff to cut costs

• January 08, 2025 08 Jan'25

  Nato membership boosts Finnish civil and military tech startups

  Tech companies in Finland and Sweden that offer civil and military products are benefitting from Nato military alliance

• January 07, 2025 07 Jan'25

  Former subpostmasters invited to take part in Post Office Capture compensation scheme development

  Government will look at a selection of cases where subpostmasters experienced unexplained losses while using the Post Office’s pre-Horizon accounting system

• January 06, 2025 06 Jan'25

  Government develops quantum tech for military

  A high-tech atomic clock has been developed by a ‘secret lab’ and aims to decrease the reliance on GPS technology

• January 03, 2025 03 Jan'25

  US Treasury incident a clear warning on supply chain security in 2025

  A cyber incident at the US Department of the Treasury – blamed on a Chinese state actor – raises fresh warnings about supply chain risk after it was found to have originated via vulnerabilities in a remote tech support product

• January 03, 2025 03 Jan'25

  Post Office staff list 14 scandal-stained individuals who should have honours stripped

  Staff of the Post Office and Royal Mail from the past and present have written to the Forfeiture Committee requesting honours to be stripped from 14 people with links to the Horizon scandal

• January 02, 2025 02 Jan'25

  Sir Alan Bates has ‘serious concerns’ over Post Office scandal compensation budget

  Campaigning former subpostmaster welcomed ‘positive’ select committee report but voiced concern over inclusion of legal costs in compensation pot

• December 30, 2024 30 Dec'24

  Post Office scandal campaigners awarded OBEs in New Year Honours List

  Former subpostmasters and campaigners Jo Hamilton, Lee Castleton, Seema Misra and Christopher Head honoured for their part in 20-year fight against the Post Office – along with former Computer Weekly reporter Rebecca Thomson

• December 30, 2024 30 Dec'24

  Top 10 government IT stories of 2024

  The past year has provided one of the biggest changes in government for 14 years, with Labour coming to power. With it, the new government has brought plenty of tech promises