News

IT for government and public sector

• February 11, 2025 11 Feb'25

  AI Action Summit: European AI investment ramps up

  A number of private companies and European governments have announced large-scale investments in artificial intelligence during the two-day AI Action Summit in Paris

• February 11, 2025 11 Feb'25

  AI projects get £85m funding to improve NHS diagnostics and drugs

  The funding pot is being distributed between three projects, aiming to establish new ways of researching how artificial intelligence can be used to target hard-to-treat diseases and develop medicines

• February 10, 2025 10 Feb'25

  Apple: British techies to advise on ‘devastating’ UK global crypto power grab

  A hitherto unknown British organisation – which even the government may have forgotten about – is about to be drawn into a global technical and financial battle, facing threats from Apple to pull out of the UK

• February 10, 2025 10 Feb'25

  Natural England clears clouds with machine learning

  Earth observation images from satellites can be blotted by cloud cover, but Natural England has cleared the sky using artificial intelligence

• February 10, 2025 10 Feb'25

  Google drops pledge not to develop AI weapons

  Google has dropped an ethical pledge to not develop artificial intelligence systems that can be used in weapon or surveillance systems

• February 09, 2025 09 Feb'25

  Government opens up bidding for AI growth zones

  As part of its AI opportunities action plan, the government is encouraging local authorities to put in bids for AI growth zones

• February 09, 2025 09 Feb'25

  HMRC spends £785m a year on running digital tax systems

  Beyond £785m spend, HMRC also spent £482m on upgrading legacy systems and introducing new digital systems, as it continues to fall behind its plans to become one of the most digitally advanced tax authorities in the world

• February 07, 2025 07 Feb'25

  Tech companies brace after UK demands backdoor access to Apple cloud

  The UK has served a notice on Apple demanding backdoor access to encrypted data stored by users anywhere in the world on Apple’s cloud service

• February 07, 2025 07 Feb'25

  US lawmakers move to ban DeepSeek AI tool

  US politicians have introduced a bill seeking to ban the use of the DeepSeek AI tool on government-owned devices, citing national security concerns due to its alleged links to the Chinese state

• February 07, 2025 07 Feb'25

  Ransomware payment value fell over 30% in 2024

  Several factors, including the impact of law enforcement operations disrupting cyber criminal gangs and better preparedness among users, may be behind a significant drop in the total value of ransomware payments

• February 06, 2025 06 Feb'25

  UK’s Cyber Monitoring Centre begins incident classification work

  The Cyber Monitoring Centre will work to categorise major incidents against a newly developed scale to help organisations better understand the nature of systemic cyber attacks and learn from their impact

• February 05, 2025 05 Feb'25

  Malaysian public sector embraces generative AI

  Nearly half a million civil servants set to get access to Google Workspace with Gemini to improve delivery of public services

• February 05, 2025 05 Feb'25

  Met Police spied on BBC journalists’ phone data for PSNI, MPs told

  The Metropolitan Police monitored the phones of 16 BBC journalists on behalf of police in Northern Ireland, a cross-party group of MPs heard

• February 05, 2025 05 Feb'25

  State of Open Con 25: Why public sector needs an open approach

  Openness, open source and open data were among the topics discussed at OpenUK’s State of Open Con 25 in London

• February 05, 2025 05 Feb'25

  Youth activists protest Meta over mental health impacts

  Protest outside Meta’s London offices marks launch of Mad Youth Campaign, an effort by activists to challenge the ways in which corporate power negatively shapes the conditions young people live under

• February 05, 2025 05 Feb'25

  MoD set to develop £50m data analytics platform with Kainos

  The Ministry of Defence has chosen IT services provider Kainos to develop its £50m data analytics platform across all armed services, over a three-year programme

• February 04, 2025 04 Feb'25

  DSIT issues guidance to support public sector hosting of cloud workloads in overseas datacentres

  The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has issued guidance to support public sector organisations that want to host workloads and applications in overseas datacentres for cost and resilience reasons

• February 03, 2025 03 Feb'25

  Government sets out cyber security practice code to stoke AI growth

  The government has set out a cyber security code of practice for developers to follow when building AI products

• February 03, 2025 03 Feb'25

  Disjointed industrial strategy a barrier to UK scaleup success

  The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee calls on Labour to join-up piecemeal initiatives and cut bureaucracy

• February 03, 2025 03 Feb'25

  Government failed to provide accurate cost of Post Office scandal compensation

  Limited information is likely to lead to significantly inaccurate assumptions on the cost of Post Office scandal compensation schemes

• February 03, 2025 03 Feb'25

  DSIT permanent secretary says more AI transparency needed

  The government must improve transparency around the use of artificial intelligence systems throughout the public sector if it is going to gain and retain trust in how the technology is being deployed

• January 31, 2025 31 Jan'25

  Police swoop on Sky ECC cryptophone distributors in Spain and Holland

  Dutch and Spanish police have arrested four people accused of making millions of euros by distributing Sky ECC encrypted phones to criminal organisations

• January 30, 2025 30 Jan'25

  Major obstacles facing Labour’s AI opportunity action plan

  Skills, data held in legacy tech and a lack of leadership are among the areas discussed during a recent Public Accounts Committee session

• January 30, 2025 30 Jan'25

  First international AI safety report published

  A global cohort of nearly 100 artificial intelligence experts publish first international AI safety report ahead of the third AI summit, outlining an array of challenges posed by the technology that will be used to inform upcoming discussions

• January 30, 2025 30 Jan'25

  Transparency on public sector AI use fosters trust, says AI minister Feryal Clark

  The government’s decision to publish a batch of algorithmic transparency records signals its latest effort in showing potential opportunities AI and technology could provide

• 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