News

IT strategy

• July 05, 2011 05 Jul'11

  Tesco Bank customers back online after migration glitch

  Tesco Bank has confirmed its online services are now fully operational after some customers were unable to log into their savings accounts.

• July 05, 2011 05 Jul'11

  Government IT strategy ‘lacks detail on delivery', say MPs

  The government's IT strategy is hugely ambitious but lacks detail about how it will be delivered, a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report has found.

• July 04, 2011 04 Jul'11

  Police-led ICT company will replace NPIA, says home secretary

  Home Secretary Teresa May has announced plans to create a police-led ICT company to replace the National Police Improvement Agency.

• July 04, 2011 04 Jul'11

  Chrome boost as IE and Firefox market share decline

  Microsoft's share of the worldwide internet browser market continued to decline as Google's Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox stole market share over the past 12 months.

• July 04, 2011 04 Jul'11

  BCS open letter urges government to adopt Hargreaves report copyright law reform

  The British Computer Society and The Coalition for a Digital Economy are among the signatories of an open letter to the Prime Minster, urging the government to change UK copyright law to support the digital economy.

• July 04, 2011 04 Jul'11

  Google could face US wire-tapping charges following Wi-Fi network data harvesting

  A US district court judge has dismissed some elements of a class action lawsuit against Google over its Wi-Fi harvesting practices, but says the company is still liable for prosecution.

• July 04, 2011 04 Jul'11

  Hacker group Anonymous steals user names and passwords in cyber attack on Apple

  Hacker group Anonymous claims to have stolen 25 internal user names and passwords from Apple in the latest of a series of attacks on government and corporate websites around the world.

• July 04, 2011 04 Jul'11

  Hulu withdraws Facebook Connect feature after software glitch leaked users' data

  US online video service Hulu has withdrawn its Facebook Connect integration because of security problems discovered soon after launch.

• July 04, 2011 04 Jul'11

  Act now to make social media a business success, says Gartner

  Social networking will radically change the way businesses work as sites such as Twitter and Facebook take over in the workplace, analyst group Gartner predicts.

• July 04, 2011 04 Jul'11

  Microsoft shares location data source code for review of Wi-Fi information harvesting

  Microsoft is sharing source code used for location-based services to allow its collection of Wi-Fi access point data to be reviewed.

• July 04, 2011 04 Jul'11

  IT services supplier Capita buys contact centre business Ventura for £65m

  Capita has bought contact centre business Ventura for £65m in a further sign of IT and BPO consolidation.

• July 04, 2011 04 Jul'11

  Microsoft says Windows Phone shows privacy principle as US inquiry analyses location data

  Windows Phone and Kinect are both examples of Microsoft's principle of privacy by design the software firm applies to all products and services, it said.

• July 01, 2011 01 Jul'11

  £20m turnover threshold could exclude SMEs and communities from £2bn broadband deals

  Smaller network operators and local communities could be excluded from taking part in the government's rural broadband roll-out, according to leaked documents.

• July 01, 2011 01 Jul'11

  Betfair sees 120% increase in mobile customers

  The online gambling firm increased sales via mobile applications by 88% as customer mobile use grows.

• July 01, 2011 01 Jul'11

  HSBC cuts in-house software development with 150 IT job losses

  HSBC plans to shed around 150 UK IT jobs as it prepares for major regulatory reforms.

• July 01, 2011 01 Jul'11

  Spending watchdog slams £469m wasted on failed FireControl project

  National Audit Office cites comprehensive failure of plan to reduce number of Fire Service control rooms where no IT system was ever delivered.

• July 01, 2011 01 Jul'11

  DWP adds agile development into IT contracts for £2bn Universal Credit system

  The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has modified contracts governing the supply of its £2bn Universal Credit system by adding clauses encouraging agile development.

• July 01, 2011 01 Jul'11

  Cyber criminals deploy TDL-4 virus to create indestructible botnet of 4.5m computers

  Over 4.5 million computers around the world have been infected by the TDL-4 virus, creating an indestructible botnet.

• July 01, 2011 01 Jul'11

  Case study: Behind the scenes of the IT powering Wimbledon's tennis tournament

  As the IT partner at Wimbledon for the last 21 years, IBM has experienced more flying rackets, rain and strawberries than Roger Federer has had grand slams. Computer Weekly took a look behind the scenes at the technology powering Britain's biggest ...

• June 30, 2011 30 Jun'11

  Japan earthquake and tsunami provides first real test of high-tech disaster recovery, says Microsoft

  Japan's earthquake and tsunami that killed at least 15,000 people and left 11,000 missing in March 2011 was the first real test of disaster recovery and business continuity plans on a large scale in a high-tech country, according to Microsoft.

• June 30, 2011 30 Jun'11

  Secure software development key to business, says Microsoft

  Software security and comprehensive development practices are becoming a competitive differentiator, according to Microsoft.

• June 30, 2011 30 Jun'11

  News Corp offloads Myspace to Justin Timberlake-backed company Specific Media

  News Corporation has sold Myspace to digital media company Specific Media and singer Justin Timberlake, who will take an ownership stake and develop the creative strategy for the company.

• June 30, 2011 30 Jun'11

  Back-office staff will be hit in Lloyds Banking Group job cuts

  Lloyds Banking Group will make about 15,000 job cuts, including back-office jobs, as part of an overhaul of its business following a major review.

• June 30, 2011 30 Jun'11

  Worldwide IT spend set to grow 7% in 2011, reaching $3.67trn

  Worldwide IT spend is poised to grow 7.1% in 2011, reaching $3.67trn (£2.29trn), according to Gartner's quarterly outlook.

• June 29, 2011 29 Jun'11

  Smart grid security challenge highlighted in report

  Government plans to create a smart grid for energy networks will require a coordinated focus on cybersecurity as communication networks play a key role, according to a report from The Energy Networks Association (ENA).

• June 29, 2011 29 Jun'11

  Cleveland Police Authority extends Steria shared services deal and saves £10m

  Cleveland Police Authority is set to save almost £10m on top of £50m already identified through an extension of Cleveland Police's ten-year £175m share service deal with Steria.

• June 29, 2011 29 Jun'11

  Report predicts IT skills shortage crisis as data growth set to outstrip staff numbers

  The availability of IT staff to manage big data will fail to keep pace with information growth rates over the next decade, according to analyst figures.

• June 29, 2011 29 Jun'11

  Update software to reduce risk of cyber attack, top suppliers tell business

  Businesses are unnecessarily exposing themselves to cyber attack simply by failing to update to the latest versions of the software they are running, according to Microsoft and Adobe.

• June 29, 2011 29 Jun'11

  Cambridgeshire County Council signs PSN deal with Virgin for £30m

  Cambridgeshire County Council has signed a seven-year public sector network (PSN) contract with Virgin Media Business, estimated to be worth £30m.

• June 28, 2011 28 Jun'11

  Training for IT professionals rather than pupils needed to plug skills gap, say experts

  Improving training and qualifications for senior IT professionals is more important than attracting school leavers into IT careers, according to industry experts.

• June 28, 2011 28 Jun'11

  Experts warn of growth of 'shadow IT' use outside IT department control

  Industry experts have warned of an increase in unauthorised IT systems within organisations as IT departments fail to keep pace with employees' technology demands and the consumerisation of IT.

• June 28, 2011 28 Jun'11

  GPs will need £1.7bn to invest in IT for commissioning

  GPs will need up to £1.7bn to invest in data analytics, business intelligence tools and a platform to join up systems if they are to deliver commissioning under the government's controversial NHS reforms.

• June 28, 2011 28 Jun'11

  Royal Mail appoints third CIO in 18 months

  Royal Mail is set to get another CIO, its third in less than 18 months, when former Network Rail corporate development director Catherine Doran takes over the role from 1 September.

• June 28, 2011 28 Jun'11

  Google complies with 89% of UK government content removal requests

  Google said it complied with more than 89% of the content removal requests it received from the UK government in the second half of last year.

• June 28, 2011 28 Jun'11

  Microsoft launches cloud-based Office 365 aimed at small businesses

  Microsoft has launched Office 365, a cloud-based version of its office productivity suite which combines communications and collaboration for smaller businesses.

• June 28, 2011 28 Jun'11

  Android Market infested by rogue apps, says Symantec mobile device security report

  About 60 rogue applications were found on Android Market over a couple of days in March according to Symantec's Response Center.

• June 28, 2011 28 Jun'11

  Tory technology advisor Liam Maxwell appointed to government IT advisory post

  Top technology advisor to the Conservative Party, Liam Maxwell, has been appointed to a key IT advisory role in the Cabinet Office.

• June 28, 2011 28 Jun'11

  Telcos increase investment in IT

  Mobile and fixed line telecoms companies are stepping up their spending on IT following the downturn, but only slowly, the latest research from analyst group Ovum reveals.

• June 28, 2011 28 Jun'11

  Security is key issue for mobile payment adoption

  Mobile security will be increasingly important as mobile payment adoption increases over the next four years, according to research.

• June 27, 2011 27 Jun'11

  Queen Victoria Hospital signs deal with Mastek to anonymise patient data

  Queen Victoria Hospital (QVH) NHS Foundation Trust in West Sussex has signed a deal with IT services company Mastek to pseudonymise its data.

• June 27, 2011 27 Jun'11

  Lulz Security announces it is to disband following 50-day hacking spree 'cruise'

  Lulz Security – a group of hackers claiming responsibility for hacking Sony and Nintendo and taking down the websites of the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the US Senate – has announced it is to disband.

• June 27, 2011 27 Jun'11

  Buyer's guide: Does IT need its own ERP?

  Increasingly, there is a need to be able to manage the whole of an IT platform, not only at the server, storage and network levels, but also at the software, performance and even the datacentre facility level, writes Clive Longbottom (pictured).

• June 27, 2011 27 Jun'11

  Unite members at Fujitsu’s Crewe site to strike

  Members of the Unite union at Fujitsu's site in Crewe have voted to take strike action over the alleged unfair treatment of a trade union activist.

• June 24, 2011 24 Jun'11

  Twelve nations collaborate to shut down international scareware cyber crime rings

  Twelve countries have collaborated in an anti-cybercrime effort to shut down two crime rings that caused more than £46m in losses to over 900,000 people through sales of fake security software known as "scareware".

• June 24, 2011 24 Jun'11

  Travelodge UK confirms no financial data has been breached

  Travelodge has confirmed that a "small number" of customers have received a spam e-mail via a third party, but insists that no financial data is at risk.

• June 24, 2011 24 Jun'11

  Travelodge UK investigates customer database hack following spam attack

  The Travelodge UK hotel chain has issued a warning to users of its online service to watch out for spam e-mails.

• June 24, 2011 24 Jun'11

  Federal Trade Commission investigates Google charges of abusing its position

  Google is to be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission as to whether it abuses its position in search dominance to steer users to its own sites and services.

• June 24, 2011 24 Jun'11

  Many organisations lack adequate cyber protection, survey reveals

  Organisations lack the correct strategy to prevent cyber attacks against networks and enterprise systems, a study has revealed.

• June 24, 2011 24 Jun'11

  Government cancels SME contracts and hands IT services deals to Capita

  Government departments have been cancelling freelance IT contractors supplied through SMEs and giving their interim staff business to Capita under orders from the Cabinet Office's Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG), in apparent contradiction of ...

• June 24, 2011 24 Jun'11

  Intellect leads IT sector's involvement in SmartGrid GB smart metering project

  The IT sector will contribute to a smart grid for the UK after the launch of cross-industry organisation SmartGrid GB.

• June 24, 2011 24 Jun'11

  Yahoo shareholders vote against Roy Bostock and Carol Bartz at board elections

  Nearly 20% of Yahoo's shareholders voted against re-electing to the board the company's chairman, Roy Bostock, and chief executive, Carol Bartz, at the annual investor meeting.

• June 24, 2011 24 Jun'11

  LulzSec hacks Arizona police in protest at controversial immigration legislation

  Hacker group Lulz Security has published documents stolen from Arizona police in protest at the state's controversial new immigration law.

• June 23, 2011 23 Jun'11

  Financial services regulations holding banks back from public cloud, says UBS IT security chief

  Regulations are holding back adoption of public cloud services in financial institutions, according to Chris Swan, CTO of security at UBS.

• June 23, 2011 23 Jun'11

  Five key challenges to be tackled by the next NHS CIO

  Christine Connelly's departure as CIO from the Department of Health comes as the NHS faces huge challenges. We talked to experts in NHS IT to identify the top five challenges facing the new health CIO.

• June 23, 2011 23 Jun'11

  SQS embarks on software testing expansion in India

  Hot on the heels of some major customer wins, managed software testing service provider SQS is boosting its offshore resources in India.

• June 23, 2011 23 Jun'11

  Tesco Bank customers remain locked out of accounts following migration glitch

  Tesco Bank customers are still unable to log into accounts following a migration glitch.

• June 23, 2011 23 Jun'11

  Swiss bank UBS axes 500 IT jobs in outsourcing drive to cut costs

  Swiss bank UBS plans to cut 500 technical jobs worldwide as part of an internal IT department re-organisation and outsourcing initiative.

• June 23, 2011 23 Jun'11

  Suspected teen hacker faces five charges under the Computer Misuse Act

  Ryan Cleary, who was arrested in connection with cyber attacks claimed to have been carried out by hacker group LulzSec, is facing five charges under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

• June 23, 2011 23 Jun'11

  Winklevoss twins call off battle against Facebook

  Twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who claim Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for the social networking site Facebook, have abandoned legal attempts to renegotiate the original $65m settlement.

• June 23, 2011 23 Jun'11

  How to avoid regulatory action by the ICO

  Civil Monetary Penalties imposed by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for data breaches are helping to increase awareness and spur action by UK companies worried about damage to their brand, even if they are able to afford to write off up ...

• June 23, 2011 23 Jun'11

  CIO interview: Dave Benson, ex-CIO of News Corp

  Dave Benson has been in IT for the past 30 years, where he has seen every revolution from the PC to the iPhone. Now CIO at Progress Software, he talks to Cliff Saran about the evolution of IT.

• June 23, 2011 23 Jun'11

  Office for National Statistics denies UK Census 2011 data hacked by LulzSec

  The Office for National Statistics has confirmed the UK Census 2011 data is secure and was not stolen by hacker group Lulz Security. Census director...

• June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11

  UK banks unaffected by European data breach crackdown

  A crackdown on businesses which will make it mandatory to report security breaches will have little impact on UK banks, according to the British Bankers Association (BBA).

• June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11

  Survey shows UK firms at risk from inadequate social media policies

  Most UK employees have not been given clear guidance on using social media networking sites, a study has revealed.

• June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11

  Christine Connelly quits as NHS CIO

  NHS CIO Christine Connelly has resigned and will leave her post at the end of the month.

• June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11

  European Commission gives green light to CSC acquisition of beleaguered iSoft

  The European Commission (EC) has approved CSC's acquisition of healthcare software maker iSoft.

• June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11

  Mozilla releases final version of Firefox 5 for download

  Mozilla has released a fifth version of its web browser, Firefox, available to download for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android.

• June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11

  Oxygen Accelerator offers £75,000 prize for top tech start-up

  The Birmingham-based Oxygen Accelerator tech start-up support programme is to give £75,000 to the top participant in the 13-week intensive mentor-led training programme.

• June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11

  NS&I begins service procurement

  NS&I has informed the IT sector that it will begin the procurement process to replace its current back office services contract.

• June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11

  Bitcoin will recover from hack losses, claims developer

  The virtual currency Bitcoin will recover after a hack attack caused its value to drop from $17.50 a unit to almost nothing in minutes, according to one of its senior developers.

• June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11

  Lulz Security publishes informants' identities following arrest of UK teenager Ryan Cleary

  Hacker group Lulz Security has published the identities of two informants after the arrest of a UK teenager police believe to be affiliated to the group.

• June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11

  Web publishers warn online businesses could leave Holland if strict EU cookies law adopted

  Web publishers could leave Holland if the country's parliament adopts a strict internet privacy law in response to the European Union's internet privacy directive.

• June 22, 2011 22 Jun'11

  Wellcome Trust puts ITSM in the cloud

  Biomedical research charity Wellcome Trust has replaced two legacy IT service management systems (ITSM) with a cloud-based alternative and has cut £600,000 annual costs and improved service levels.

• June 21, 2011 21 Jun'11

  Smart meter project lacks public support due to concerns about rising energy costs

  Fears of initial price rises and a lack of evidence on future savings could de-stabilise government plans to reduce energy consumption through smart metering, according to a survey of 1,000 consumers.

• June 21, 2011 21 Jun'11

  SOCA first casualty of anti-government campaign hack by Lulzsec and Anonymous

  The UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency appears to be one of the first targets of a joint anti-government campaign by hacking groups Lulz Security (Lulzsec) and Anonymous.

• June 21, 2011 21 Jun'11

  Cyber criminals adapt techniques to follow business technology innovation, says AVG

  Cyber criminals are following business technology innovation, adapting traditional techniques to steal and monetise data from new technology platforms, says security firm AVG.

• June 21, 2011 21 Jun'11

  Business spending on public cloud to rocket by 2015, says IDC

  Spending on public cloud services will grow four times faster than the entire IT market over the next four years, according to the research firm.

• June 21, 2011 21 Jun'11

  Bank app store part of community cloud developments

  Community-based cloud services for banks, including an app store for financial services organisations, are being incubated on the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) network.

• June 21, 2011 21 Jun'11

  Germany opens cyber defence centre in response to critical infrastructure attacks

  Germany has launched a national cyber defence centre in Bonn aimed mainly at protecting critical national infrastructure from cyber attacks.

• June 21, 2011 21 Jun'11

  Westminster City Council CIO David Wilde leaves for Essex County Council

  Westminster City Council chief information officer David Wilde is leaving at the end of this week to take up the equivalent role at Essex County Council.

• June 21, 2011 21 Jun'11

  UK Census 2011 database hack by LulzSec under investigation

  The Office for National Statistics is investigating reports that hacker group LulzSec may have succeeded in hacking into the database of the UK's 2011 Census.

• June 21, 2011 21 Jun'11

  Thousands of Australian websites wiped out by hacking of domain registrar

  More than 4,800 Australian websites have been wiped out with no chance of recovery following a break-in by hackers at Australian domain registrar and web host Distribute.IT.

• June 21, 2011 21 Jun'11

  Ministry of Justice signs security deal with Detica

  The Ministry of Justice has signed a contract with BAE Systems Detica to provide security services through a managed service arrangement.

• June 21, 2011 21 Jun'11

  EC lawyers declare EU/US passenger name record unlawful on data protection grounds

  Lawyers for the European Commission (EC) have warned that a US-European agreement to store the personal data of air passengers for 15 years is unlawful.

• June 20, 2011 20 Jun'11

  British Library joins Google to digitise 250,000 books for search and download

  The British Library and Google have signed a partnership to digitise 250,000 out-of-copyright books from the Library's collections.

• June 20, 2011 20 Jun'11

  Royal College of Nursing uses SaaS disaster recovery after on-premise contact centre hardware fails

  The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) used its cloud-based disaster recovery (DR) software-as-a-service (SaaS) for almost two weeks after its on-premise contact centre hardware failed.

• June 20, 2011 20 Jun'11

  Anonymous joins forces with Lulz Security to steal classified government information

  Hacking groups Anonymous and Lulz Security (Lulzsec) are joining forces to steal and leak classified government information

• June 20, 2011 20 Jun'11

  Hackers steal personal data of 1.3m Sega Pass users – Lulz Security vows revenge

  Sega has confirmed hackers stole the personal information of nearly 1.3 million users of an online service operated by a European subsidiary.

• June 20, 2011 20 Jun'11

  Icann expands scope of web domain suffixes to include all languages and scripts

  The global organisation that oversees the internet address system has voted to expand the number of website domain suffixes called generic top-level domains (gTLDs) from the current 22.

• June 20, 2011 20 Jun'11

  Microsoft wins Federal Trade Commission approval to buy Skype Technologies

  The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has granted Microsoft approval to buy Skype Technologies in a deal worth $8.5bn.

• June 20, 2011 20 Jun'11

  US to use virtual internet to test defensive and offensive technologies

  Organisations in the US are building a virtual model of the internet to enable security researchers to simulate attacks by foreign powers and from hackers based inside the US.

• June 17, 2011 17 Jun'11

  Square Kilometre Array radio telescope project bidders prepare for huge IT requirements

  South Africa has presented its bid for the Square Kilometre Array, which will be the world's biggest radio telescope.

• June 17, 2011 17 Jun'11

  Chinese software flaw makes infrastructure vulnerable, warns report

  China's public infrastructure is vulnerable to cyber attack because of vulnerabilities in software used to run weapons systems, utilities and chemical plants, according to Reuters.

• June 17, 2011 17 Jun'11

  Citigroup Bank confirms only US customers affected by data breach but raises estimate

  Citigroup has confirmed only US-issued Citi credit card accounts were affected by a breach of Citigroup Bank data by hackers in May, but has revised upwards the number of accounts involved.

• June 17, 2011 17 Jun'11

  CIOs should review IT strategies monthly to achieve most for their business, says Ovum

  CIOs should review their IT strategies every month if they really want to help the business, says IT analyst firm Ovum.

• June 17, 2011 17 Jun'11

  Internet Explorer will not support insecure WebGL 3D graphics spec, says Microsoft

  Microsoft says Internet Explorer will not support the WebGL specification designed to give web applications access to 3D graphics processing power for security reasons.

• June 17, 2011 17 Jun'11

  Can the Chromebook change enterprise desktop IT?

  Can Google's Chromebook shift traditional IT spending to thin client computing? Cliff Saran reports.

• June 17, 2011 17 Jun'11

  CIO interview: Chris Chant, UK government director of G-Cloud

  Chris Chant, the government's interim director of digital and director of the G-Cloud programme, speaks exclusively to Computer Weekly's Kathleen Hall about the future of the cloud in the public sector.

• June 17, 2011 17 Jun'11

  Virgin Media the first ISP to warn customers of SpyEye trojan following tip-off from Soca

  Virgin Media is the first UK internet service provider to warn customers their PCs are infected with a virus.

• June 17, 2011 17 Jun'11

  NHS Scotland deliberates over open standard policy for IT services framework agreement

  NHS Scotland is to set up a framework agreement for IT services, including consulting, software development, internet provision and support for its desktops.