News

IT for government and public sector

• March 13, 2018 13 Mar'18

  Hammond delivers tech-positive Spring Statement

  Delivering his Spring Statement, the chancellor bangs the drum for UK tech businesses, confirms £25m for 5G testbeds, allocates full-fibre funding and highlights the need for digital skills

• March 13, 2018 13 Mar'18

  Government pumps £300m into tech and innovation for ageing society

  Business secretary Greg Clark announces plans to use £300m from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund for new technology and research, such as artificial intelligence and genome sequencing

• March 13, 2018 13 Mar'18

  Public sector organisations ill-prepared for GDPR

  Public sector organisations in the UK need to do much more to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation rule on providing information to citizens about details held about them

• March 13, 2018 13 Mar'18

  Singapore tops global rankings on smart cities

  The city-state of Singapore was lauded for its efforts in tapping the internet of things to improve public infrastructure and services in a global study by Juniper Research

• March 12, 2018 12 Mar'18

  Digital for rural areas worth up to £26bn to UK economy

  A study commissioned by Amazon has posited that greater use of digital tools and services could be worth between £12bn and £26bn per annum to the UK economy

• March 12, 2018 12 Mar'18

  Eight new cyber threats a second in Q4 2017, McAfee report reveals

  There was an increase in cyber attacks on healthcare organisations, the use of fileless malware and cryptocurrency mining in the last three months of 2017, with eight new threats a second

• March 12, 2018 12 Mar'18

  Scottish government to spend £25m to fill 4G coverage gaps

  The Scottish government has announced a £25m programme to infill gaps in 4G mobile network coverage across Scotland

• March 12, 2018 12 Mar'18

  Politicians need to be more involved in tech, says Sadiq Khan

  Flying the flag for the UK capital at the SXSW festival in Texas, London mayor Sadiq Khan says government should “do more” for technology, as well as mitigate the risks that come with it, and calls on social media firms to take responsibility for ...

• March 12, 2018 12 Mar'18

  Regulator takes tougher line than expected on surveillance warrants

  The Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office has signalled to government that it will take a tough line when scrutinising surveillance warrants under the controversial Investigatory Powers Act

• March 12, 2018 12 Mar'18

  UK leads global upward trend in SOC maturity

  The UK is leading the way towards more efficient security operations centres, but many still continue to operate with serious gaps in security, a report reveals

• March 09, 2018 09 Mar'18

  Government reveals winners of 5G mobile competition

  The government has unveiled the winners of a multimillion-pound competition to create 5G mobile network testbeds around the UK

• March 09, 2018 09 Mar'18

  Universal Credit project warned over Gov.uk Verify performance in 2015

  Government project management experts warned as long ago as 2015 that a problem with GDS's Verify online identity system could undermine the Universal Credit business plan

• March 09, 2018 09 Mar'18

  Cooperation and exercises key to cyber defence, says Nato centre

  International cooperation and regular tabletop exercises are essential to ensure effective cyber defence, according to the Nato cyber defence centre

• March 09, 2018 09 Mar'18

  Cryptojacking cyber criminals up their game

  Cyber criminals hijacking computing resources to mine for cryptocurrencies are raising their efforts to bypass enterprise security controls, researchers have found

• March 08, 2018 08 Mar'18

  DWP to publish key documents on Universal Credit

  The government will finally publish internal assessment reviews of the controversial Universal Credit programme under Freedom of Information laws, after years of refusing to do so

• March 07, 2018 07 Mar'18

  Government to help cultural sectors take advantage of digital

  Arts and culture organisations will be given help to access new technologies and digital skills as part of a government plan to “support the whole digital culture ecology”

• March 07, 2018 07 Mar'18

  Cyber security is a team sport, says NCSC

  The UK’s national cyber security agency aims to help organisations understand the need to act collaboratively and collectively against the cyber threat, urging them to raise the bar

• March 06, 2018 06 Mar'18

  G-Cloud 10 launch date confirmed for June 2018

  The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) confirms it will start accepting new bids from suppliers wanting to join the tenth iteration of the G-Cloud framework from April 2018, in anticipation of the next version going live in June

• March 06, 2018 06 Mar'18

  US defence chiefs cut $1bn cloud contract with AWS partner amid anti-trust complaints

  The US Department of Defense confirms it is revising down the cost and scope of a billion dollar cloud deal awarded to an AWS partner, after critics picked holes in the procurement process

• March 06, 2018 06 Mar'18

  Essex, Herts Councils expand smart city pilot scheme

  Essex and Hertfordshire County Councils have joined forces to run a number of pilots assessing the socioeconomic benefits of smart city technologies

• March 06, 2018 06 Mar'18

  Local councils call for government funding for GDPR compliance

  National Association of Local Councils is concerned complying with GDPR puts financial strain on local authorities and calls on government to help with funding

• March 06, 2018 06 Mar'18

  Microsoft courts US government cloud users with Azure Stack integration promise

  Microsoft is stepping up its efforts to get the US government using its cloud in anger, with the promise of a forthcoming Azure Stack integration and new datacentre regions to house “secret” classified data

• March 05, 2018 05 Mar'18

  Government aims to complete genome sequencing project by end of 2018

  The government-funded 100,000 Genomes Project, originally due to be completed by the end of 2017, has reached the halfway point and aims to have mapped 100,000 genomes by the end of the year

• March 05, 2018 05 Mar'18

  Interview: Andy Street, mayor of the West Midlands

  West Midlands mayor Andy Street talks about why digital is key to the region’s economic growth, his hunt for a chief digital officer, and the importance of skills and collaboration

• March 02, 2018 02 Mar'18

  UK will need data protection agreement with EU as part of Brexit deal, says PM

  Prime minister Theresa May's Brexit speech highlights need for data protection deal with EU, “advanced” border IT systems, and re-confirms UK won’t be part of the EU digital single market

• March 02, 2018 02 Mar'18

  New privacy fears as IT challenges delay surveillance oversight body by a year

  IT challenges have delayed government plans for an independent body to authorise requests to access the public’s internet and phone records by nearly a year, raising new legal and privacy concerns

• March 01, 2018 01 Mar'18

  Contractor confidence in HMRC’s IR35 online assessment tool remains low

  Research suggests contractors still have misgivings about using HM Revenue & Customs' IR35 online assessment tool, one year on from launch

• March 01, 2018 01 Mar'18

  NHS to pilot ID verification platform this spring

  NHS roadmap for digital services sets out plans for launching a joined-up NHS app, piloting its citizen ID platform and moving across to the new NHS.uk website

• March 01, 2018 01 Mar'18

  Security fears delay roll-out of national e-voting system in Finland

  Project enters problem-solving phase to identify advanced, effective and best practice solutions to develop a secure internet-based voting system

• February 28, 2018 28 Feb'18

  Salary is not top way to attract cybersec pros, report reveals

  Salary is not the highest priority for cyber security professionals, a report on hiring and retaining top cyber security talent shows

• February 28, 2018 28 Feb'18

  Government must rewrite illegal sections of Snoopers’ Charter, court told

  A court has been asked to give ministers until July 2018 to rewrite powers to require phone and internet companies to retain data on the population. The government acknowledges parts of surveillance regime are unlawful

• February 27, 2018 27 Feb'18

  King’s College dumps legacy SAN for Nimble hybrid flash

  Cambridge college triples storage capacity for VMware virtualised environment and adds Veeam backup. Nimble hybrid flash ensures rapid data access with Sata bulk storage behind

• February 27, 2018 27 Feb'18

  Understanding the cyber threat key to UK defence, says NCSC

  Understanding cyber threats is key to defending the UK and ensuring it is a safe place to do business, says the National Cyber Security Centre

• February 26, 2018 26 Feb'18

  London councils set aside more than £1.2m for GDPR

  London councils have spent over £1.2m in preparation for new EU data protection laws, a think tank report has revealed

• February 26, 2018 26 Feb'18

  Surveillance watchdog investigates security risks of GCHQ IT contractors

  The investigatory powers commissioner is reviewing the security arrangements for IT contractors that have access to live computer systems at GCHQ holding highly sensitive records on the UK population

• February 26, 2018 26 Feb'18

  Cyber criminals catching up with nation state attacks

  The trickle-down effect of advanced “military-grade” tools is seeing the gap between cyber criminal and nation state attack capabilities closing, outpacing many organisations’ defence capabilities

• February 26, 2018 26 Feb'18

  Estonia wants to introduce special visa for digital nomads

  Baltic state’s next digital development could be a visa targeted at people who work online and are location independent

• February 26, 2018 26 Feb'18

  Legacy lock-in and lack of skills hamper public sector cloud adoption

  Migrating from legacy lock-in and the ability to manage workloads in cloud infrastructure are among the major challenges that are slowing down public sector cloud adoption

• February 23, 2018 23 Feb'18

  West Midlands Mayor on the hunt for chief digital officer

  The mayor wants to appoint a chief digital officer to drive forward the region’s digital strategy and help West Midlands grow as a leading tech hub

• February 22, 2018 22 Feb'18

  Farming gets £90m tech boost

  The government is pushing high tech into agriculture and farming as it fleshes out its Industrial Strategy

• February 22, 2018 22 Feb'18

  Emergency Services Network progress ‘deeply unsatisfactory’, says PAC

  A Home Office review of the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme will not be finished before the end of July, the Public Accounts Committee has been told

• February 22, 2018 22 Feb'18

  MPs run the rule over digital currency to identify risks and opportunities

  MPs are taking a close look at the potential opportunities and risks associated with the UK adoption of cryptocurrencies and the technology that underpins them

• February 21, 2018 21 Feb'18

  CityFibre launches consumer broadband partnership in Aberdeen

  CityFibre and Vodafone are preparing to launch a consumer FTTP broadband service in Aberdeen

• February 21, 2018 21 Feb'18

  People worried about data security in public sector, survey finds

  Majority of people are concerned with the security of the data they share with public sector organisations, according to a report

• February 21, 2018 21 Feb'18

  VX Fiber brings Swedish open access full-fibre broadband model to UK

  Flush with success in its home market, Swedish open access full-fibre broadband specialist VX Fiber is launching in the UK, with plans to shake up service delivery to users by helping local councils monetise their network assets

• February 21, 2018 21 Feb'18

  Economic impact of cyber crime is significant and rising

  Cyber attacks are becoming easier to carry out while defences remain inadequate, study shows

• February 21, 2018 21 Feb'18

  AI a threat to cyber security, warns report

  Artificial intelligence is being incorporated into a range of cyber security products, but the technology may also introduce new threats, a report warns

• February 21, 2018 21 Feb'18

  UAE makes artificial intelligence leap

  The UAE is investing in becoming a global pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence technology in various sectors of its economy

• February 21, 2018 21 Feb'18

  Digital economy to make up 60% of APAC’s GDP by 2021

  The surge in GDP contribution will come as more organisations shift from digital transformation initiatives aimed at shoring up productivity towards digital product development

• February 20, 2018 20 Feb'18

  4G IoT network may ease aviation sector fears over drone safety

  Vodafone is testing mobile and internet of things network technology to protect commercial aircraft from badly flown drones