News

IT strategy

• August 02, 2011 02 Aug'11

  NHS trust forced to adopt National Programme patient records system or face £8.8m fine

  An NHS trust was forced to buy care records software through the National Programme for IT or face the threat of an £8.8m fine - even though it had a longstanding supplier in place.

• August 01, 2011 01 Aug'11

  CSC closes acquisition of iSoft ahead of NHS IT contract renegotiations

  Outsourcing provider CSC has closed the acquisition of beleaguered healthcare application provider iSoft for $189m (£115m).

• August 01, 2011 01 Aug'11

  CIO interview: Michael Foster, European vice-president of IT, FedEx Express

  What role should IT play in business? This is the question Michael Foster, vice-president of IT at Fedex Europe, tackles at the global courier. Cliff Saran reports.

• August 01, 2011 01 Aug'11

  Former government CIO John Suffolk joins Huawei as head of cybersecurity

  Former government CIO John Suffolk has joined China-based IT company Huawei as global head of cybersecurity.

• July 29, 2011 29 Jul'11

  Why the High Court ruling in the Newzbin2 case is such a big deal

  The creative industries have welcomed the UK High Court ruling that BT must block access to pirated content aggregator site Newzbin2, but why is the ruling seen as such a game changer?

• July 29, 2011 29 Jul'11

  Government axes 376 more websites

  The government has axed nearly half of its websites since June last year, following recommendations that all digital public services should be under one URL.

• July 28, 2011 28 Jul'11

  Highlights from 'A recipe for rip-offs' - the Select Committee report on government IT

  The Public Administration Select Committee has published a scathingly critical report on government's use of IT. We've chosen a selection of the highlights from the report.

• July 28, 2011 28 Jul'11

  ElasticStack delivers cloud with SAN-resilient storage on commodity hardware

  Cloud platform provider ElasticStack has refined its software to deliver a cloud platform with resilient storage using low-cost commodity hardware...

• July 28, 2011 28 Jul'11

  KLM deploys RightNow natural language search for mobile website

  KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has rolled out software-as-a-service provider RightNow's CX Intent Guide on its mobile website.

• July 27, 2011 27 Jul'11

  Computer glitch halts Post Office card transactions

  Customers have been unable to complete card transactions at the Post Office after a computer glitch across all branches...

• July 27, 2011 27 Jul'11

  Virgin Media sees small drop in business sales, and loses 18,000 broadband users

  Cable telecoms supplier Virgin Media has reported a small drop in business revenue for its second quarter, while the firm also revealed it has lost 18,000 broadband users...

• July 26, 2011 26 Jul'11

  Tate museum group chooses Drupal and cloud hosting for new website

  The Tate museum group is scrapping the use of HTML code in favour of open source content management platform Drupal...

• July 25, 2011 25 Jul'11

  US House of Representatives committee approves cybersecurity standards bill

  The US House of Representatives has passed a bill designed to increase education, research and development to counteract cyberthreats.

• July 25, 2011 25 Jul'11

  Businesses should prepare for Web 3.0, says Booz&Co

  The next generation of web technology will transform the way businesses work within five to ten years, research by management consulting firm Booz&Co predicts.

• July 25, 2011 25 Jul'11

  Automated web application attacks are the top security threat, study reveals

  Websites are attacked about 27 times an hour or once every two minutes on average, peaking at 25,000 attacks a minute or seven a second, according to research...

• July 25, 2011 25 Jul'11

  IT industry salaries rise 7.5% in 2011

  Salaries for IT professionals have risen by 7.5% to reach an average wage of over £46,000 in 2011...

• July 25, 2011 25 Jul'11

  UK confirms international cyber rules conference

  UK foreign secretary William Hague has confirmed that the government is to host an international conference on cyberspace in London on 1 and 2 November 2011.

• July 25, 2011 25 Jul'11

  US court gives Oracle another chance to put its patent case against Google

  A US judge has rejected Oracle's claim for $2.6bn in damages from Google for infringing Java patents, but has given Oracle the chance to come up with a more reasonable claim...

• July 22, 2011 22 Jul'11

  DWP asks system integrators to list SME contractors to open up public sector deals

  The Department for Work and Pensions is asking its systems integrators to list the number of SMEs in their supply chains, in a move designed to open up more public sector contracts to small businesses.

• July 22, 2011 22 Jul'11

  British Computer Society – the case for change

  A year on from the BCS extraordinary general meeting (EGM), Amit Bhagwat looks at how BCS has evolved, why the EGM came about and gave the results that it did, what has followed since and, how BCS might consider its future from here.

• July 21, 2011 21 Jul'11

  Trend Micro aims to secure consumer mobile devices for enterprises

  Security firm Trend Micro has announced an enterprise mobile management product to help organisations integrate consumer devices into an enterprise environment in a secure way.

• July 21, 2011 21 Jul'11

  Hacking group Anonymous claims to have hacked into NATO servers and stolen data

  Hacking group Anonymous has claimed to have hacked into NATO servers, according to the Blottr.com news service.

• July 20, 2011 20 Jul'11

  (ISC)² publishes official guide to CSSLP

  Information security body (ISC)² has published the only official guide to the Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP) certification.

• July 20, 2011 20 Jul'11

  Data breach at York University highlights urgency of security checks, says ICO

  The University of York's accidental breach of thousands of students' personal data points to a need for improved security checks, according to the Information Commissioner's Office.

• July 19, 2011 19 Jul'11

  Carphone Warehouse uses business process management to increase customer satisfaction

  Retailer Carphone Warehouse is claiming a 25% jump in its customer satisfaction ratings after investing in BPM software to help staff deal with sales, queries and complaints.

• July 18, 2011 18 Jul'11

  Sainsbury’s debuts mobile shopping site

  Retailer Sainsbury's has launched a mobile version of its website to extend its commerce platform to additional channels. The optimised mobile site is built using a mobile platform provided by Usablenet. The platform provides access to over 15,000 ...

• July 18, 2011 18 Jul'11

  Public-funded bodies must open data, transparency chief tells Demos

  All bodies in receipt of public sector funding should be made to open up their data, said Tim Kelsey, the government's adviser on transparency and open data.

• July 14, 2011 14 Jul'11

  CIO interview: Phil Pavitt, HM Revenue & Customs

  HM Revenue & Customs CIO Phil Pavitt talks to Computer Weekly about the biggest and most challenging tasks in public sector IT. Pavitt discusses his overhaul of the department's IT; tackling spending cuts; public sector IT strategy and the role of ...

• July 13, 2011 13 Jul'11

  Central government staff lack skills in IT

  A significant proportion of civil servants lack skills in areas such as IT, a National Audit Office report has found.

• July 13, 2011 13 Jul'11

  HMRC saves £21m with first centralised government procurement contract

  The government has awarded its first centrally managed contract for print services at HMRC with outsourcing company Williams Lea. The deal is expected to save £21m, replacing 140 contracts with one.

• July 12, 2011 12 Jul'11

  Cisco to axe 10,000 jobs

  Cisco Systems may cut as many as 10,000 jobs, roughly 14% of its workforce, to combat weak profit growth, according to Bloomberg.

• July 12, 2011 12 Jul'11

  Cyber terrorism set to increase after al-Qaeda calls for more cyber attacks, says government

  Cyber terrorism will become an increasing problem as the tools and techniques needed for cyber attacks become more widely available, according to a report on the government's new counter-terrorism strategy.

• July 12, 2011 12 Jul'11

  Infosys changes name and splits into four vertical sector divisions

  Infosys has split itself vertically to enable it to do more work in specific business sectors, while a change of name reflects its broader remit.

• July 11, 2011 11 Jul'11

  IT professionals get multiple job offers and double-digit pay increases as demand surges

  Demand for IT skills has increased as businesses begin to re-invest in IT and professionals with particular IT skills are receiving multiple job offers and double-digit pay increases if they switch employers.

• July 11, 2011 11 Jul'11

  Microsoft packs a lot into July’s four Patch Tuesday security updates

  Microsoft is to release only four security updates in this month's Patch Tuesday security update, but these will cover 22 vulnerabilities in Windows and Office.

• July 08, 2011 08 Jul'11

  Communications minister Ed Vaizey says US ISP piracy deal could pave way for UK

  The top five US internet service providers (ISPs) have agreed with film and music producers to issue warnings to customers suspected of online piracy and to take action against repeat offenders.

• July 08, 2011 08 Jul'11

  Businesses understand social media risks but fail to take precautions, says survey

  Businesses are using social media without taking adequate measures to monitor staff activity, which could open them up to security attacks and create compliance risks.

• July 07, 2011 07 Jul'11

  Business analyst skills shortage continues as IT job market grows

  Business analysts are the IT staff most in demand for permanent and contract roles, according to KPMG.

• July 07, 2011 07 Jul'11

  FireControl project failed because of inadequate EADS contract, MPs told

  The failure of the canned £469m FireControl project was due to an inadequate IT contract, MPs were told at a Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

• July 07, 2011 07 Jul'11

  ICO calls on UK businesses to open their doors to audits and reduce data breaches

  Private enterprises make up a third of data security breach claims, but despite this, many continue to resist the offer of an audit by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), according to the privacy watchdog's latest annual report.

• 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

  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

  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

  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 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

  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

  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 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.