IT for financial services

Cyber criminals net £8bn from financial services in 2016

Organised cyber fraud gangs are turning their attention to online lenders and emerging financial services, potentially netting £8bn in 2016, a report reveals Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Banking malware, DDoS, ransomware and CEO fraud top UK cyber threats

Businesses need to be aware of the value of their data, how that data is likely to be attacked, and how to defend against particular attacks, says leading UK cyber cop Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

CW Nordics: Top IT priorities for Nordic CIOs in 2017

In this first issue of CW Nordics in 2017 we take a look what CIOs in the region are expecting in the year ahead. We asked a select group of CIOs and analysts in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden what IT projects are at the top their priority lists. Also read about the Nordic region as a hotspot for IT startups, with Sweden punching above its weight in financial technology. And find out how board executives at healthcare company Elekta are analysing workforce data to make better strategic decisions. Continue Reading

HPE services and CSC to become DXC Technology

The merger between HP's services division and CSC will launch in April 2017 and is expected to save the companies billions Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

UAE bank builds predictive marketing models

Rakbank is using SAS analytics software to better understand its customers following a successful implementation of the supplier’s anti-money laundering software Continue Reading

By

• Edward Banda

HMRC rejects Gov.uk Verify

HM Revenue and Customs says it won’t be using Gov.uk Verify, which could cause difficulties for the government’s target of having 25 million Verify users by 2020 Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Cloud contracts are still a minefield

Cloud computing is maturing in the enterprise space, but the contracts that underpin cloud services have not evolved at the same pace Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Co-op Bank up for sale now legacy shift to IBM is complete

Bank put up for sale just days after it completed a multimillion-pound migration of its legacy banking platform into an IBM datacentre Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Santander introduces voice-controlled payments

Santander has taken its voice-controlled banking initiative to the next phase, with customers now able to make payments by voice Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

CW Benelux: Is there a Dutch digital delusion?

On government and business levels, the Netherlands aspires to be a digital leader in Europe, but it may be losing ground because of a lack of research and development investment. Also in this issue, IT decision makers based in the Benelux region are less confident than their European neighbours that IT budgets will increase in 2017, and Dutch bank ING, which used digital technology to reinvent itself after the financial crash, is about to reinvent itself again. Continue Reading

Middle East and North Africa public cloud spend to hit $2bn by 2020

Middle East-based organisations are turning to public cloud services, with software as a service driving a major year-on-year spending increase Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

How AI is disrupting the role of call centres and call centre staff

Artificial intelligence could eliminate many white-collar jobs in coming decades. Its effects are already being felt in the call centre industry, but there is still no substitute for the human touch Continue Reading

By

• Lara Ponomareff, CEB

Artificial intelligence will increase productivity by sharpening human mind

The combination of AI and humans will triple productivity if businesses get the balance right for different roles Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Mixed feelings on Australian enterprise app market

The enterprise mobile app development market is attracting big money despite a lack of corporate appetite Continue Reading

By

• Beverley Head

Singapore and Indonesia stand out for IT spend in Apac banking sector

Singapore is the top spender on IT for banking of all developed economies in the Apac region, while Indonesia has the fastest growth rate in IT spending Continue Reading

By

• Ai Lei Tao

Lloyds Bank hit by massive DDoS attack

It has emerged that UK banks have been targeted by a DDoS campaign that affected services intermittently only at the Lloyds Banking Group Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Blockchain can cut investment bank infrastructure costs by 30%

Investment banks can make huge cuts to their IT infrastructure costs through blockchain, according to analysis Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

HSBC appoints technology advisers to keep pace with IT changes

Bank hopes to gain knowledge about technologies such as artificial intelligence and biometric security through its new technology advisory board Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

The evolution of smart Dubai

Aisha Bin Bishr, director general at Smart Dubai Office, discusses how Dubai is evolving as a smart city with the support of local telecoms provider Du. Continue Reading

By

• Edward Banda

Davos: Technology poses new risks to jobs, economies and society

Politicians and business leaders will discuss the risks posed by technology to jobs, political stability and cyber security at the World Economic Forum in Davos Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Investigations Editor

Lloyds Bank digital banking problems an industry warning

Lloyds Bank’s digital banking problems still unresolved after a second day Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Tech focus helps Singapore go second in globalisation index

Singapore is the second most globalised economy in the world and its IT infrastructure is critical to this achievement Continue Reading

By

• Ai Lei Tao

Cyber security scare stories could sharpen focus at banks

There are continual cyber attacks on banks, and although most are repelled, there is significant room for improvement Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Robots replace staff at Japanese insurance firm

Japanese insurance company Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance replaces 34 members of its claims assessment team with IBM Watson Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Customer-first approach will make 2017 a challenge for Dutch CIOs

CIOs in the Netherlands could see their strategies lead to thousands of jobs being cut as businesses automate Continue Reading

By

• Rian van Heur

Top 10 financial services stories of 2016

Here are 10 of the most popular fintech articles on Computer Weekly in 2016 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Top 10 IT security stories of 2016

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 IT security stories of 2016: Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Top 10 cyber crime stories of 2016

Here are Computer Weekly’s top 10 cyber crime stories of 2016: Continue Reading

HMRC slammed over tax probe into Newcastle datacentre campus investors

HM Revenue and Customs said it is committed to clamping down on abuses of the UK tax system, following criticism of its decision to recoup tax relief payments to datacentre investors Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

European law enforcement seeking smart ways to fight cyber crime

Cyber criminals are always likely to be better resourced than law enforcement. Now, national and regional police forces in Europe are switching tactics to even the odds. Under-resourced law enforcement needs a smarter approach as cyber crime becomes increasingly prevalent and sophisticated, backed by the money and expertise of organised crime groups set up and run as well-resourced and efficient professional business organisations. Cyber crime operations typically have teams dedicated to looking at open source intelligence, targets’ physical environments, weaknesses in supply chains, and potential collaborators inside target organisations to enable sophisticated, blended attacks that involve a combination of actions against a range of vulnerabilities, making them difficult to detect and defend against. Continue Reading

Metro Bank moves IT infrastructure to cloud

Metro Bank moves its IT infrastructure to a private Rackspace cloud platform, which will allow it to keep up with the latest technologies and reduce costs Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

IT Priorities 2017: Nordic organisations to spend more on cloud services

The adoption of cloud computing in its many guises will be a top priority in the Nordic region in 2017 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

The United Arab Emirates enterprise IT trends for 2017

The UAE is already a leader in areas such as smart city developments, and 2017 looks set to see organisations in the country increase its adoption of other transformational IT Continue Reading

By

• Alicia Buller

40 firms to trial IBM Watson cognitive computing for cyber security

Forty companies sign up to apply IBM’s Watson cognitive computing systems to cyber security, but threat intelligence experts caution against total reliance on such systems Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

London Stock Exchange opens tech services centre in Sri Lanka

The London Stock Exchange increases its technology support services operation in Sri Lanka Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Top 10 ANZ enterprise IT stories of 2016

Here is a rundown of Computer Weekly’s most popular ANZ enterprise IT articles for 2016 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Academics link payment card vulnerability to Tesco Bank cyber heist

UK academics uncover a vulnerability in online payment systems, which they say could have been used in the Tesco Bank cyber heist Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Mastercard uses artificial intelligence for transaction approval

Mastercard is using artificial intelligence to reduce the number of transactions that are wrongly declined, while maintaining security Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Axa offers on-demand insurance via mobile app

Insurance company launches app that offers quick and easy insurance cover for individual items owned by customers Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Middle East bank to launch AI for customer support

Middle East bank Emirates NBD is piloting artificial intelligence to automate customer services Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Dutch bank ING to spend millions ‘disrupting’ its own business

Dutch bank ING used digital technology to reinvent itself following the financial crash, and is about to reinvent itself again, says its global CTO, Brendan Donovan Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Investigations Editor

Lending platform pioneer Zopa aims to become a UK bank

Zopa, the company that pioneered the peer-to-peer lending sector with its tech platform, looks to add more disruption to the retail banking market Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

UK almost bottom of OECD pile for ICT investment

The UK ranks low in terms of how much it invests in the ICT infrastructure as a proportion of GDP Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Russian banks hit by IoT-enabled DDoS attacks

DDoS attacks on Russian banks have been linked to IoT botnets, further confirming this worrying trend and highlighting the need for IoT suppliers to improve security capabilties Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

24 cyber criminals arrested in Europol operation

Romanian police arrest 24 members of a card skimming and cloning operation and identify 47 other suspects Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

HSBC combines AWS with agile thinking to tap into growing demand for mobile banking

Banking giant opens up about how cloud and DevOps adoption is helping it cope with the growing consumer demand for mobile and online banking services Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

The march of the robot workers

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we look at how artificial intelligence is being used to automate existing jobs, including roles as varied as IT administrators and customer service agents. Capital One’s European CIO talks about how to create an agile business. And we offer tips on how to deal with an Oracle software audit. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Australia and New Zealand IT pros on bigger salaries than UK equivalents

Aussie IT pros are better rewarded than their counterparts in the UK, according to surveys Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Insurers face same legacy system battle as retail banks

The biggest barrier to insurance companies adopting digital technology is their heavy reliance on legacy IT systems Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Black cab customers can now pay by card as well as cash

London Mayor’s Taxi and Private Hire Action Plan sees card technology introduced to all black cabs in the capital Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

The cyber threats lurking within every company

Insider threats have been around for a long time, but it is only recently that people have begun to acknowledge the true danger they pose Continue Reading

By

• Peter Ray Allison

SDN trailblazer Big Switch Networks launches in UK

Having established a base of paying customers through a key partnership with Dell, SDN supplier Big Switch Networks is opening its first European offices and gunning for Cisco’s ACI business Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

25 years of Linux

In this week’s Computer Weekly, 25 years after Linus Torvalds released the Linux kernel, we look at how the open-source operating system has influenced modern-day IT. Our new buyer’s guide covers the fast growing technology of object storage. And we examine the rise of corporate wireless networking. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Insurers are joining fintech party

Insurers are held back from digital transformation by legacy systems, but insurance-focused IT startups offer them hope Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

UAE telco launches mobile wallet

Etisalat signs deal with technology company to offer its customers a mobile wallet service, as fintech expands in the Middle East Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Lessons to be learned from attempted $1bn bank heist

Analysis of an attack aimed at stealing $1bn reveals important lessons for cyber defenders, says BAE Systems head of threat intelligence Adrian Nish Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange uses blockchain for e-voting

Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange offers controlled access to the AGM information of listed companies through a blockchain-based service Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Nordea bank joins rival’s mobile payment platform

Nordea signs up to the mobile payments platform from Danske bank for its customers in Denmark and Norway Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Lloyds Bank to use virtual reality to test applicants for graduate programme

Bank will use virtual reality to test potential recruits in situations that are otherwise difficult to recreate Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

More virtualisation to come in mature Australian market

Australia has been hailed as a rapidly growing market for mobile virtualisation Continue Reading

By

• Beverley Head

Swedish bank uses Amelia the robot for customer services

SEB is using AI software from IPsoft for customer service after a successful internal project Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Demand rises for low-cost flash storage across Australia

Flash storage gains popularity in Australia, as smaller organisations are attracted by lower prices and higher capacity Continue Reading

By

• Beverley Head

Mastercard woos software developers with API platform

Credit card company Mastercard is investing heavily in digital payments and wants to engage with developers and startups Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Emirates Islamic bank and the Muslim finance revolution

The CIO at Dubai-based bank Emirates Islamic tells Computer Weekly how IT is supporting the company through industry change Continue Reading

By

• Alicia Buller

Consumers trust banks more than government for biometric security

UK citizens think banks are the best organisations to provide biometric authentication for payments Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Banks and fintech firms respect each other, says HSBC boss

The relationship between banks and fintech companies has sweetened over the past five years with mutual respect evident, says HSBC boss Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

DNB and Nordea to merge IT operations for Baltic super bank

Two of the Nordic region’s banks will use joint operations, including IT, to help them grow in the Baltic area Continue Reading

By

• Eeva Haaramo

Insurance brokers count cost of lost business as SSP SaaS platform outage enters second week

SSP confirms to Computer Weekly it has no clear idea when all brokers will be able to continue doing business via its SaaS platform, two weeks on from Solihull datacentre power outage Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Bank IT spending to hit $241bn across four major global regions

IT spending across four major economic regions will increase by around 4% in 2016, but Europe is the least certain Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

A new nearshoring game is emerging

Countries selling themselves as nearshore business services locations need to change their sales pitches to avoid becoming like all the other countries doing the same Continue Reading

By

• Ilan Oshri

Barclays uses blockchain for trade finance transactions

Barclays Bank has successfully tested the use of blockchain technology to complete a large trade finance agreement, which promises huge efficiencies Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Mobile device use feeds card fraud in Asean region

Card fraud is rising in Asean countries, with the high use of mobile devices a contributing factor. Continue Reading

By

• Ai Lei Tao

Banks should avoid customer service robots for a few more years

Banking sector should not use software robots to automate customer services such as chat because consumers expect better service levels when it come to their finances Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Westpac bank launches Databank data protection service

Australia's Westpac bank is offering organisations that share customer data a service that it says securely locks down personal information Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Kennedy

UK second only to US in DDoS attacks

Distributed denial of service attacks on UK organisations have eased from a peak in the fourth quarter of 2015, but the UK remains the world’s second most targeted country Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Expect ransomware arrests soon, says bitcoin tracking firm Chainalysis

Law enforcement organisations are set to ramp up arrests of cyber criminals behind ransomware attacks, according to financial technology startup Chainalysis Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Police arrest woman in connection with Sage data breach

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of fraud in connection with a data breach at accounting software firm Sage Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Financial sector faces era of cyber mega heists

Banks and other financial institutions are threatened by a new breed of elite cyber criminals running professional operations that will use any means to achieve their goals, says Barclays security chief Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

PwC Australia uses gamification to teach cyber security lessons

With the number of cyber incidents identified by Australian organisations more than doubling in the past year, PwC is using an online game to give enterprises first-hand experience of what it means to face a cyber attack Continue Reading

By

• Beverley Head

RBS abandons IT project for hiving off 300+ bank branches

RBS has abandoned a project to create an IT platform to support the sell-off of more than 300 bank branches Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Banner Health cyber breach underlines need for faster intrusion detection

A data breach at Banner Health has highlighted the importance of intrusion detection and prompted calls for greater cyber security investment in the increasingly targeted healthcare industry Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Singapore’s DBS Bank signs up to Amazon cloud

The latest move in the cloud journey of DBS bank in Singapore is an agreement with Amazon Web Services Continue Reading

By

• Ai Lei Tao

One in five businesses hit by ransomware are forced to close, study shows

More than half of UK companies have been hit by ransomware in the past year, a study on the impacts of this popular attack method has revealed Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Barclays to use voice recognition for phone banking

Retail bank says technology will provide secure verification by recognising the unique characteristics of each person’s voice Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

German digital bank Fidor acquired by French banking giant

Fidor CEO says merger with BPCE will allow challenger to continue its international expansion Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange centralises functions with ERP

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has installed first ever ERP system. CIO Eldad Hershtig explains his strategic choices and implementation path Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Security industry welcomes cyber crime’s inclusion in official stats

The security industry welcomes the inclusion of cyber crime statistic in official crime reports to highlight the size and nature of the threat Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

CW Middle East: July-September 2016

In this issue of CW Middle East, we look at how CIOs in the region are formulating their virtualisation strategies as organisations warm to the benefits of cloud computing. Today, virtualisation in the Middle East has gone beyond a shoddy virtual private network (VPN) installed on a desktop, to more sophisticated cloud-based technologies that are enabling a more mobile, more agile workforce. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Building big ideas in banking

In this issue, we visit JP Morgan’s European software development centre in Glasgow to see how the investment bank is working with local universities and collaborating in the open source community. Software chief Stephen Flaherty talks about how JP Morgan uses open source software and has now begun contributing to open source projects. The bank uses NoSQL and OpenStack technologies and is pushing the limits of Hadoop to power risk applications, enabling it to achieve near real-time risk analysis of a trade. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

IBM sets up security centre in Canberra

IBM leads the charge as large private businesses invest heavily in security resources across Australia in an attempt to close the security gap Continue Reading

By

• Beverley Head

Was that it? Business as usual for fintechs after Brexit vote

Following the Brexit vote, Fintech Times editor Bird Lovegod describes how financial services IT startups are getting on with business as usual Continue Reading

By

• Bird Lovegod

IBM’s Watson gets to work

In this issue we explore the many ways IBM’s Watson has evolved from the machine that bettered humans in US game show Jeopardy! to providing deep analytical insights to solve real-world crises. We also look at how Barclays bank is using DevOps to remain competitive and reveal new research that illustrates why cloud computing is at the heart of business innovation. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Standard Chartered takes global delivery network to next level

Bank to invest $3bn in global delivery network, with particular focus on scaling up Malaysian centre Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Visa’s Dubai innovation centre to focus on digital payments

Visa has opened a technology innovation centre in Dubai to focus on cashless payments Continue Reading

By

• Edward Banda

DWP trials blockchain technology for benefit payments

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) trials blockchain's distributed ledger technology, with benefit claimants using a mobile app to track welfare payments Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

CW@50: A history of IT outsourcing

Computer Weekly looks at where and when IT outsourcing was invented and considers the changes the sector has gone through since Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Overcoming the scale-up challenge of enterprise DevOps adoption

CIOs and IT leaders share their advice on what enterprises can do to accelerate the spread of DevOps within their organisations Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Thailand’s TMB Bank modernises IT through the cloud

Bank used a move to Office 365 as a starting point for its transformation into a cloud-first organisation Continue Reading

By

• Ai Lei Tao

Barclays banks on agile and DevOps to tackle competitive threats in fintech

Barclays Bank opens up about how increasing competition in the financial services sector has fuelled its 18-month, company-wide campaign to increase its use of agile and DevOps methodologies Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

LizardStresser IoT botnet launches 400Gbps DDoS attack

Attack groups using the LizardStresser botnet are exploiting IoT devices to mount massive DDoS attacks without using amplification techniques, say researchers Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst