IT for government and public sector

Cyber criminals hack Washington court system

Hackers gain access to the personal data of 160,000 US citizens after compromising Washington State court service servers Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Case Study: Brent Council cuts costs with mobile tech

Brent Council implements mobile technology to cut costs and involve more staff in the future running of the organisation Continue Reading

Adobe moves to cloud-based subscription model

Adobe has announced that it is to introduce a cloud-based subscription model for popular applications, including Photoshop Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Symantec helps NHS trust cut security costs by a quarter

The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust cut security costs by 25% in its partnership with security supplier Symantec Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

SME Arcus brings AWS IaaS and PaaS to public sector with G-Cloud

UK SME Arcus Global has become the first certified Amazon Web Services reseller on the government’s third G-Cloud framework Continue Reading

By

• Archana Venkatraman, Datacentre Editor

Windows 8 passes 100 million in sales

Microsoft says Windows 8 OS has sold more than 100 million copies, roughly matching Windows 7 in the six months after launch Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

95% of local councils share services

Hundreds of local councils are sharing services as government cuts force them to fund new ways of providing services Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Netherlands considers hacking powers for police

The Netherlands government considers legislation to give police powers to hack into computers, install spyware and read emails Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Report into Post Office Horizon system expected in July

The findings of an independent investigation into the Post Office's Horizon accounting system are expected to be published in July Continue Reading

What’s to be done about data breach discovery?

The time from first contact by cyber attackers to the victim learning of it is still measured in months and years, not hours and days Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

The Great Deverticalisation – part 5: Mind the GaaP

Politicians and government have the opportunity, through the power of open platforms, to take the lead in creating modern public services Continue Reading

By

• Mark Thompson, Jerry Fishenden & Alan Brown

Case study: The DANTE link for Euro academics

The best technology innovation winners of Computer Weekly’s European User Awards for Networking on how DANTE brings together researchers from far and wide with Infinera solutions Continue Reading

By

• Jennifer Scott, TechTarget

Case study: How SAP runs Cape Town

For the past 10 years, SAP has been running the city of Cape Town, South Africa Continue Reading

Infosec 2013: Cyber crime challenges law enforcement

Cyber crime is forcing police and law enforcement agencies to re-think basic skills needed, according to experts at Infosecurity Europe 2013 Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Lib Dems will block Snoopers’ Charter, says Nick Clegg

The draft Communications Data Bill will not go ahead while the Lib Dems are in government, says deputy prime minister Nick Clegg Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Infosec 2013: University research challenges reliability of IPS

Research shows intrusion prevention systems (IPS) are not as effective at detecting malicious activity as some might think Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Security spend misaligned with threats, says security veteran

Security budget allocations have remained the same for the past 15 years, but threats have changed, says Shlomo Kramer, chief executive at security firm Imperva Continue Reading

US jails LulzSec hacker Cody Kretsinger

The US has jailed a member of hacktivist group LulzSec for a year for his role in breaching computer systems at Sony Pictures Entertainment in 2011 Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Conficker makes way for web-based attacks, says Microsoft

Web attacks emerge as top threat as businesses finally begin to win the battle against Conficker and other worms, says Microsoft Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Open data leaders slam government over postcode privatisation

The Open Data Institute has hit out at Whitehall plans to allow details of UK postcodes to continue to be sold for profit Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Microsoft reports strong quarterly results for all divisions

Microsoft reported profit of $6bn for the past quarter, up 17% from a year ago, despite a mixed response to Windows 8 and a decline in PC sales Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

World’s fastest supercomputer gets 40PB of DDN storage

The US Oak Ridge lab builds home-grown HPC NAS for 40PB DataDirect Networks with 1TBps of throughput as a SAN to back-end Spider II file system on Titan supercomputer Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How to create a good information security policy

Information security policies provide vital support to security professionals, yet few organisations take the time to create decent policies Continue Reading

By

• Andi Scott

One man’s mission to uncover a WWII decryption machine

How Brian Randell unlocked the secrets of Colossus, the world’s first programmable computer. Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Baldwin, Freelance editor and journalist

Case study: London's Olympic network from BT

After receiving an honourable mention in the European user awards for networking, Computer Weekly looks at the challenge of rolling out the network for the London Olympic Games in 2012 Continue Reading

By

• Jennifer Scott, TechTarget

Anonymous hacks North Korean websites for a second time

Members of the Anonymous hacktivist collective claim to have again hacked several prominent North Korean websites Continue Reading

Google reaches deal with EU competition authorities

Google has reportedly reached a deal with European Union (EU) competition authorities over concerns about its business practices Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Google has another go at allaying EU competition concerns

Google has submitted a fresh set of proposals to address European concerns about its business practices and avoid punitive action Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Bots and web apps among top threats to data security, says Check Point

Bots, viruses, breaches and attacks are a constant and real threat to the information security of organisations Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Porn websites pose malware risk, says researcher

Browsing popular pornography internet sites pose a growing risk of malware infection, according to a security researcher Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

South Korea accuses North Korea of launching cyber attacks

South Korea blames North Korea for the cyber attacks that shut down thousands of computers at broadcasters and banks two weeks ago Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

UK financial regulator FCA probes RBS IT failure

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) probes an IT failure at Royal Bank of Scotland that also affected NatWest and Ulster Bank customers Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

British Library archives the web

The British Library is to archive 4.8 million UK websites and one billion web pages, following statutory changes to copyright legislation Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

The Great Deverticalisation - part 4: The role of the private sector

Why do we persist in running vertically integrated organisations when standardising many of these processes would free us up to do things so much better, and more cheaply? Continue Reading

By

• Mark Thompson & Jerry Fishenden

Case Study: 192business switches to tokenisation to speed up business processes

Online payment card verification firm 192business uses tokenisation to speed up its processes and protect credit card details from fraud Continue Reading

US Army practises poor data security on mobile devices

Pentagon inspector general finds smartphones and tablets the US Army buys are not configured to protect sensitive data and allow remote wipe Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Anonymous threatens to declare cyber war on North Korea

Anonymous hacktivist collective has threatened North Korea with cyber war if leader Kim Jong-un does not resign and install free democracy Continue Reading

Google closer to action from European privacy regulators

Google is another step closer to action by privacy regulators across Europe for failing to change the way it manages user data Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Howard Shiplee latest to lead Universal Credit delivery

Howard Shiplee has been appointed the latest lead on the DWP Universal Credit programme Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

Home Office needs to boost capability to fix UKBA IT

The Home Office must improve its internal capability to fix the siloed IT systems behind the soon-to-be-scrapped UK Border Agency Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

UK government sets up cyber security fusion cell

A cyber security “fusion cell” for cross-sector threat data sharing aims to put government, industry and information security analysts side-by-side Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Employees ignore security rules, say infosec pros

Most information security professionals believe corporate employees wilfully ignore security rules, survey at RSA Conference 2013 reveals Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Malware in counterfeit software to cost business $114bn in 2013

Dealing with malware in counterfeit software will cost global enterprises an estimated $114bn in 2013, says research firm IDC Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Agile Project Management for Government

Brian Wernham shows how an agile approach can incrementally deliver large mission and safety critical technology solutions. Continue Reading

Six security issues to tackle before encrypting cloud data

Concern about security and privacy is likely to drive adoption of cloud encryption, but there are six security issues businesses should tackle Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Universal Credit not at odds with agile, says former chief

Former programme director of Universal Credit, Malcolm Whitehouse, has denied the mega-project is at odds with agile development Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

The Great Deverticalisation - part 3: New skills and structures in the public sector

Why do we persist in running vertically integrated organisations when standardising many of these processes would free us up to do things so much better, and more cheaply? Continue Reading

By

• Mark Thompson & Jerry Fishenden

Government mandates 'preference' for open source

The government has, for the first time, mandated a preference for using open source for future developments Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

US authorities investigate hack of Michelle Obama and other high-profile people

US authorities are investigating hackers who allegedly stole financial information belonging to US first lady Michelle Obama Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Warwickshire Council adopts Gmail

Warwickshire County Council is to complete a full Gmail roll-out across its 4,500 users next month, in a move that will deliver £250,000 in savings Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

Phishing emails sent in pairs to lend authenticity, says training company

Phishing emails are now being deployed in pairs to create the illusion of authenticity, says security awareness training company PhishMe Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Microsoft releases four critical security updates

Microsoft is to release four “critical” patches in its monthly Patch Tuesday security update, according to the advance notice. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Hilary Reynolds latest universal credit programme director to move

Universal credit programme director Hilary Reynolds has moved off after just four months, the latest senior figure to leave the programme Continue Reading

Midlands health trust trials BlackBerry 10 OS on PlayBook with Z10 roll-out

The Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust tests the Blackberry 10 operating system (OS) for a mobile fleet deployment Continue Reading

By

• Jennifer Scott, TechTarget

MP adamant Universal Credit IT suppliers told to down tools

Universal Credit IT contractors have been told to down tools, says Stephen Timms, Labour MP for East Ham Continue Reading

"Universal credit contractors told to down tools," claim MPs

"Universal credit contractors told to down tools," claim MPs Continue Reading

What is RSA's build, buy, partner strategy?

Computer Weekly takes a closer look at RSA's build, buy, partner strategy Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

How to tackle big data from a security point of view

Before leaping into big data, companies must be clear what they are trying to achieve, otherwise their investment will be wasted Continue Reading

By

• Peter Wood, First Base Technologies LLP

UK teams up with Estonia to develop digital public services

The UK government has signed an agreement with Estonia to work together on developing digital public services Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

RSA 2013: Suppliers need to prepare for new security vulnerability handling standards

Software makers and online service providers need to prepare for two ISO standards on vulnerability handling processes due by the end of 2013 Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Health records should be protected like bank details, says BCS

The BCS and NHS say people should protect their online medical records in the same way they look after their bank details Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

RSA 2013: Obama cyber order will have significant effect, says DoHS

President Barack Obama’s executive order on cybersecurity is a “very big deal” says Mark Weatherford, deputy under-secretary for cybersecurity at the US Department of Homeland Security (DoHS). Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

The Great Deverticalisation - part 2: The power of open

The public sector has the opportunity, through the power of 'open', to take the lead in creating organisations for the future success of UK plc Continue Reading

By

• Mark Thompson & Jerry Fishenden

Universal Credit has the hallmarks of another IT failure

Charities, housing associations and consultancies have warned that the Department for Work and Pensions’ £2.2bn Universal Credit programme has all the hallmarks of another public sector IT disaster. Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

Music companies critical of Google’s anti-piracy efforts

Music companies have accused Google of failing to fulfil a pledge not to give prominent rankings in search results to websites offering illegal music downloads. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Pitchford to head-up Universal Credit programme

David Pitchford, executive director of Major Projects Authority heads up the Universal Credit at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

Bad outsourcing decisions cause 63% of data breaches

Bad outsourcing decisions nearly two-thirds of data breaches investigated by security firm Trustwave in the past year Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Grant Thornton uses Huddle for business support programme

Grant Thornton is using Huddle to share information and content as part of the £200m government-backed GrowthAccelerator Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

HMRC alerts businesses to impending real-time PAYE changes

HMRC is notifying businesses about impending real-time information (RTI) changes to the PAYE payroll system Continue Reading

How to find the most vulnerable systems on your internal network

Most corporate networks share common vulnerabilities, but many could be mitigated with education in “hacker thinking” for technical staff Continue Reading

By

• Peter Wood, First Base Technologies LLP

CIO interview: David Matthewman, CIO, Open University

Three years after joining the Open University, CIO David Matthewman continues to push a strategic programme to deliver value and innovation Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Social media: A security challenge and opportunity

Generation Y workers are posing increasing security challenges to their employers as they share data unreservedly Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

EU cyber strategy aimed at boosting preparedness and cooperation

The European cyber security strategy addresses insufficient national preparedness and boosting co-operation in the region, says the EC Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Business avoids cloud over fear of government snooping

Almost half of IT professionals are deterred from keeping sensitive data in the cloud because of fear of government intervention and possible legal action, a survey has revealed Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Twitter strengthens login security after hacker attack

Days after a hacking attack, it has emerged that Twitter plans to strengthen its login security with two-factor authentication Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Raspberry Pi Model A computer goes on sale for £16

The latest version of the small single-board Raspberry Pi computer – Model A – has gone on sale in Europe at just £16 Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

The great deverticalisation – part 1: the street

Why do we persist in running vertically integrated organisations when standardising many of these processes would free us up to do things so much better, and more cheaply? Continue Reading

By

• Mark Thompson & Jerry Fishenden

Why has NAC, like DLP, failed to take off?

Why are organisations not investing in systems that are designed to keep malicious actors out of their networks? Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Encryption is safe bet, says SafeNet

Encryption is the only thing that can give peace of mind to CIOs and CISOs, says Dave Hansen, president and CEO of security firm SafeNet Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

ICO hits Sony with £250,000 data breach penalty

The Information Commissioner’s office (ICO) has fined Sony Computer Entertainment Europe £250,000 for breaching the Data Protection Act Continue Reading

Defra plans £80m agile CAP system

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is planning a single integrated £80m Common Agricultural Policy system Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

Why has DLP never taken off?

Why is data loss prevention (DLP) technology not being adopted if it provides the very protection most businesses need? Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

GDS must not become an outlier, warns Martha Lane Fox

The Government Digital Service (GDS) must not remain an outlier to the way the public sector delivers online services, says Martha Lane Fox Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

UK citizens unwilling to embrace big data

The public sector could improve services by imitating the private sector’s use of big data, but citizens are overwhelmingly against the idea Continue Reading

By

• Jennifer Scott, TechTarget

G-Cloud powers Huddle’s public sector sales growth

Cloud collaboration firm Huddle saw its public sector sales double to 30% of all revenues this year due to uptake generated through the CloudStore Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

Met Police to equip officers with 30,000 mobile devices

The Metropolitan Police wants to roll out 30,000 mobile and tablet devices to officers this year to give better information on the beat Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

Post Office wants to get to bottom of IT system allegations

A system that set out to modernise the Post Office in 1996 is under the spotlight after claims that Horizon accounting system is error prone Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Post Office announces amnesty for Horizon evidence

The Post Office is calling for evidence from people who have used the Horizon IT system which some have blamed for accounting discrepancies Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Oracle rushes out patches for Java zero days

Oracle has released two out-of-band security updates for the latest zero day vulnerabilities in Java Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Disable Java to protect from latest zero-day

Security researchers are warning of a zero-day vulnerability in all versions of Java, including the latest Java 7 update 10 Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Government extends employer £1,500 apprenticeship grant for further 12 months

Government and National Apprenticeship Service extend AGE 16-24 grant for further 12 months Continue Reading

By

• Kayleigh Bateman, Computer Weekly

Software piracy international in scope, says Fast

The scale of software piracy is both international in scope and military in its execution, says the Federation Against Software Theft (Fast) Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

IT contractors seek to fill skills gap left by public sector cuts

IT contractors are increasingly confident about job opportunities in the public sector due to reductions in the civil service's head count, finds research Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

UK Border Agency tenders for security systems

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) and Border Force is tendering for an integrated border security system Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

VoIP awareness up but user numbers remain low

A report from Ofcom claims four in five consumers know what voice over internet protocol (VoIP) is, but just 29% use the technology Continue Reading

By

• Jennifer Scott, TechTarget

MPs slam the award of government contracts to tax-avoiding IT firms

MPs allege that Accenture used revenue from its deal with HMRC to reduce its tax bill Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

IT spending to rise in 2013

Find out what analysts are predicting for technology in Europe this year, including changes in budgets and how companies can reduce costs and improve sustainability. Continue Reading

Ernst & Young email keyword analysis identifies fraudsters

Fraud investigators have revealed the most common words used in email conversations by employees engaged in rogue trading and fraud Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Business priorities: what to protect, monitor and test

How information security professionals can prioritise what to protect, monitor and test in the light of current budget and resource constraints Continue Reading

Executive brings own software which is adopted by business

Rochdale Development agency (RDA) has started using cloud based Huddle collaboration software after a development officer started using it at work. Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA