IT news in your industry sector

Team working on controversial Post Office Horizon EPOSS software was the ‘joke of the building’

Former members of the ICL team developing software for the Post Office Horizon EPOSS system were unqualified and engaged in poor software development practices, public inquiry told Continue Reading

Global network fragmentation a source of increasing risk

Risk consultancy’s report says the weaponisation of cyber space and geopolitical clashes herald a breakdown of global networks into distinct regional or national architectures Continue Reading

Security Think Tank: Ransomware defences: An extended to-do list

Strategies to extend ransomware protection beyond backups and intrusion detection must centre dark web monitoring, among other things Continue Reading

Post Office changed view of Horizon problems before roll-out, because of a ‘sunk cost fallacy’

Insider tells public inquiry that the Post Office continued to roll out the controversial Horizon system despite a ‘considerable’ number of errors, because it was too committed Continue Reading

Commoditisation of NHS tech is a problem, says NHS Digital interim CEO

NHS Digital interim CEO Simon Bolton calls for a stronger mandate from the centre around the systems in use in the NHS, with no more than four to six electronic patient record systems used across the country Continue Reading

TikTok influencers are better than finance firms for money advice, say quarter of young adults

Young people are turning to TikTok-based influencers for advice on how to manage their finances and where to bank Continue Reading

APP fraud volumes expected to double by 2026, says report

Losses to authorised push payment fraud in the UK are expected to climb to over $1.5bn in the next four years. Meanwhile, the NAO accuses the Home Office of lagging on progress to tackle the issue Continue Reading

NHS Scotland extends video consultation scheme

The Scottish Near Me video consultation platform can now be used in community settings such as libraries and health and care centres for GP appointments, hospital appointments, care homes, dietetics and mental health support Continue Reading

How to protect against ransomware attacks

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we look at how to prepare for and protect against ransomware, and what to do if you’re hit by an attack. We gauge industry reaction to Ofcom’s plan to investigate the big three cloud providers. And we find out how travel giant TUI is implementing self-service analytics. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Inside Singapore’s public sector IT strategy

Adopting a platform approach with products that can scale across the board and building a strong engineering bench are some of the key aspects in Singapore’s public sector IT strategy Continue Reading

Met Police removes nearly two-thirds of people from gangs matrix

Legal action by human rights group Liberty forces Met Police to overhaul its gangs violence matrix database Continue Reading

Sadiq Khan launches Data for London Advisory Board

Board will look at how to join up and share data between public and private London organisations in an effort to build a stronger data economy and improve public services Continue Reading

CaixaBank robot answers the most customer questions

AI-based virtual assistant at Spanish bank is now used by over four million customers Continue Reading

The next decade in enterprise backup

Backup set to adapt to deliver more security, ransomware protection and flash-speed restores, and deal with the complexity of multi-, hybrid cloud and container-based operations Continue Reading

Siemens aims to pioneer industrial metaverse usage

German engineering giant is exploring industrial metaverse use cases, and the Biosphere Foundation in Devon is proving out Siemens technology Continue Reading

Security Think Tank: Let’s be transparent about ransomware

Greater transparency regarding ransomware attacks, including details about attack methods used and what kinds of assets were compromised, would likely help the community prevent future attacks Continue Reading

Online scam victims lose an average of £1,000 each

New data from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau shows victims of online fraud lose an average of £1,000 per person Continue Reading

Cyber insurance: The good, the bad and the ugly

Most cyber insurance contracts are innately flawed because they exclude losses arising from state-backed cyber attacks, and this will make proper attribution even more important in the future, says Cisco Talos’ Martin Lee Continue Reading

Volume of self-reported breaches to ICO jumps 30%

The number of self-reported breaches to the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office soared by nearly 30% in the 12 months to 30 June 2022 Continue Reading

An encouraging new conversation around sustainable IT, says Nordic CIO

What started as a whisper a decade ago has become distinctly audible chatter among IT leaders sharing best practices on how to protect the environment Continue Reading

MoD recruits Immersive Labs to bolster cyber resilience

UK’s Ministry of Defence will run cyber drills and address its security talent gap with Immersive Labs’ CyberPro, Cyber Crisis Simulator and Application Security products Continue Reading

Defra confirms final settlement of £86.5m with HMRC over ‘historic’ IR35 status assessment errors

The conclusion of HMRC’s long-running enquiry into errors made by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when assessing the IR35 status of its contractors has seen it pay a final settlement of £86.5m to the tax collection agency Continue Reading

17 West Midlands NHS trusts deploy digital pathology

Trusts hope digital pathology programme will transform cancer diagnosis in the region and reduce backlogs Continue Reading

Security Think Tank: To stop ransomware, preparation is the best medicine

You can’t ‘stop’ ransomware, but you can do a lot to keep yourself from becoming ensnared when it strikes Continue Reading

Scrutinising AI requires holistic, end-to-end system audits

Understanding the full impacts of artificial intelligence requires organisations to conduct end-to-end social and technical audits of their systems, but the process comes with a number of challenges Continue Reading

Cyber criminals have World Cup Qatar 2022 in their sights

Volumes of malicious cyber activity around the upcoming FIFA World Cup are already starting to tick upwards and are likely to continue to do so Continue Reading

CW Benelux: Heineken finds the right brew for digital

Heineken’s data management director has revealed some of the ways the company is using information technology to transform digitally. Also read how a PhD student in the Netherlands is detecting hidden messages on the internet by exploring the practice of steganography. Continue Reading

Dutch government finally allowed to use public cloud

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The world's oldest cryptocurrency exchange prefers doing business in Luxembourg

One of the newest niches in fintech, cryptocurrency exchanges may fare very well in Luxembourg Continue Reading

ODI fuel poverty survey shows young adults most hard up

A fuel poverty data report and index from the Open Data Institute shows that young adults and people in multi-occupied accommodation are most at risk Continue Reading

Anything can happen so IT teams need to be ready, says Kyiv City Council CIO

Kyiv City Council’s IT team has experienced challenges faced by no other tech department and is determined to use what it has learnt to take Ukraine forward when the war is over Continue Reading

Microsoft serves smorgasbord of six zero-days

November’s Patch Tuesday fixes significantly fewer vulnerabilities of late, but includes six actively-exploited zero-days, three of them of critical severity Continue Reading

Fujitsu expert witness in subpostmaster trial ‘manoeuvred’ into role, public inquiry told

A former Fujitsu technology expert who defended the Horizon system’s robustness in court was unhappy after being ‘manoeuvred’ into acting as an expert witness, public inquiry hears Continue Reading

Qualcomm, Renault go up a gear in electric vehicle partnership

Leading car manufacturer and mobile technologies firm announce plan to enter a strategic long-term cooperation, encompassing co-development of high-performance computing platforms based on Snapdragon Digital Chassis Solutions for next generation of software-defined vehicles Continue Reading

Security Think Tank: Anti-ransomware strategies should be as easy as ABC

When developing and implementing ransomware protection strategies, the importance of paying thorough attention to security measures you might consider elementary cannot be understated Continue Reading

NortonLifeLock, Avast debut new ‘Gen’ identity

The combined NortonLifeLock and Avast consumer cyber business, Gen, says it will serve over 500 million customers worldwide Continue Reading

Six subpostmaster convictions referred for appeal in Scotland

Six former subpostmasters in Scotland will have appeals against criminal convictions heard after being referred by Scotland’s Criminal Cases Review Commission Continue Reading

How Imec hopes to industrialise artificial intelligence

Pure research explores the fundamental questions of artificial intelligence, but applied research takes those ideas to industry, making it all worthwhile Continue Reading

How the US-China chip war will affect IT leaders

In this week’s Computer Weekly, as the US ramps up semiconductor sanctions on China, we examine the ramifications across the tech sector. Cyber criminals are turning to new forms of encryption – we talk to the Dutch researchers trying to catch them. And we look at what cloud providers need to do to improve customer experience. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

How government can capitalise on a revolution in data sharing

Alison Pritchard, deputy national statistician at the Office for National Statistics, says the new government Integrated Data Service enables tackling questions that we don’t yet know we need to answer Continue Reading

UK climate tech startup investment doubles in 2022

Climate technology investment has nearly doubled in the UK over the past year and is growing globally, but questions remain over how to scale capacity and whether the necessary change will occur in time to prevent climate catastrophe Continue Reading

Public sector IT projects need ethical data practices from start

Data ethics needs to be integrated into public sector IT projects from the very start, and considered throughout every stage of the process, to be effective Continue Reading

Department for Education escapes £10m fine over data misuse

Department entrusted data on 28 million children to a company called Trustopia, which turned out to be anything but trustworthy, but has escaped a £10m fine under new rules Continue Reading

Keeping personally identifiable data personal

As it celebrates its 100th birthday, the BBC has begun a pilot looking into its role in enabling the general public to store their personal data Continue Reading

How Globe is driving data analytics with Snowflake

The largest telco in the Philippines has moved its on-premise data warehouse to Snowflake to address scalability challenges and improve customer experience Continue Reading

Data-driven decision making will fail – and here is why

Marc Warner, CEO at Faculty, contends that corporate organisations need to go through a cycle similar to the development of scientific thought – from divination, via data deluge to theoretical understanding Continue Reading

To fight ransomware, we must treat digital infrastructure as critical

Ransomware defence is failing because we don’t view our digital infrastructure in the same way as our physical infrastructure, argues Elastic’s Mandy Andress Continue Reading

CIO interview: Marc Jennings, CIO of analytics and AI, TUI

The international travel group is overhauling its data stack and aims to provide self-service analytics to key employees across the organisation Continue Reading

Elon Musk begins mass Twitter layoffs via email

New Twitter owner Elon Musk has begun the process of cutting the company’s workforce in half, but is already facing a legal backlash for allegedly violating US labour laws Continue Reading

Microsoft: Nation-state cyber attacks became increasingly destructive in 2022

The willingness of nation-state actors to conduct destructive cyber attacks is a source of grave concern, as Microsoft’s latest annual Digital Defence Report lays bare Continue Reading

Crown Hosting Data Centres secures £250m government colocation deal

Cabinet Office joint venture with Ark Data Centres secures a second term providing colocation services to the government Continue Reading

Data Lab bolsters business execs data course in time with Data Summit

Course focuses on the leadership skills needed to design, resource and implement a data strategy that will enable organisational change Continue Reading

Security Think Tank: Ransomware and CISOs’ balancing act

Ransomware has the potential to cause irreversible business damage, so CISOs should consider not only protection but also response and recovery Continue Reading

Microsoft pledges $100m in new IT support for Ukraine

Microsoft will continue to offer free-of-charge technology support to Ukraine for the foreseeable future Continue Reading

Confirmation bias led Post Office to prosecute subpostmasters without investigation, inquiry told

Former Post Office tech leader tells public inquiry that confirmation bias led to hundreds of subpostmasters being prosecuted for financial crimes without proper investigation Continue Reading

The Security Interviews: Building trust online

Consumer reviews website Trustpilot has built and scaled its IT security team and is now turning to agile methods and DevSecOps to further enhance its cyber capabilities Continue Reading

Automated threats biggest source of cyber risk for retailers

Threat actors targeting retailers during the coming holiday season are increasingly turning to automated forms of cyber attack, according to a report Continue Reading

Russia risks shortage of PCs and software

Russian consumers and businesses could face a shortage of IT equipment including PCs and software Continue Reading

All NHS staff should have basic AI training, says report

A report by the NHS AI Lab and Health Education England calls for all health and care staff to receive training in artificial intelligence as the technology will be increasingly adopted in healthcare practice Continue Reading

UK and Japan join forces on digital government

Countries sign memorandum of cooperation to share ideas and strategies on digital government initiatives Continue Reading

Retail’s robotics reboot

Walmart and Amazon are among the retailers acquiring warehouse robotics firms, during a period of significant innovation in this space Continue Reading

Shadow digital secretary outlines Labour’s tech priorities

Labour’s digital and technology plans focus on reining in the power of the tech giants, boosting connectivity across the UK, and improving online safety Continue Reading

Dropbox code compromised in phishing attack

Cloud storage service says malicious actors successfully accessed some of its code within GitHub, but insists customer data is secure Continue Reading

UK spent £6.4m on secret cyber package for Ukraine

Westminster has revealed for the first time the existence of a previously top-secret security programme that has been helping Ukraine fend off Russian cyber attacks Continue Reading

Can crypto recover from the crash of 2022?

What does the crypto wipeout of 2022 mean for an increasingly turbulent economy and can crypto bounce back in the months and years ahead? Crucially, how will regulators react? Continue Reading

Security Think Tank: Know your networks, know your suppliers

To combat the ransomware scourge, we must work harder to monitor and learn from the increasingly complex threat environment, keep a closer eye on supply chains, and share our insights Continue Reading

Game of ‘hardball’ in Horizon negotiations left subpostmasters exposed to tragedy

‘Hardball’ negotiations between the government, the Post Office and ICL meant subpostmasters were ignored and thrown into a tragedy that could have been averted Continue Reading

How Prostate Cancer UK built its own message bus

The cancer charity received funding ring-fenced for modernising its data management – the funds were spent on a solutions architect and an ETL process Continue Reading

NetApp launches BlueXP as single console across on-prem and cloud

BlueXP gives customers monitoring and control over all NetApp storage on-site and in multiple clouds. Meanwhile, its Ontap OS has added S3 object storage access Continue Reading

Huawei pushes OceanStor’s Arm chip benefits at Paris love-in

Chinese giant trumpets green benefits on its Arm processor hardware with OceanStor Dorado V6 range, which offers huge capacities and performance at the high end Continue Reading

A third of UK cyber leaders want to quit, report says

Nearly a third of UK security leaders are considering leaving their current role, and more than half are struggling to keep on top of their workload Continue Reading

Scotland’s Data Lab CEO Brian Hills on its ambition to change lives

Brian Hills, chief executive of The Data Lab in Scotland, on why he thinks the organisation’s mission is less about data and more about changing lives by giving people career opportunities Continue Reading

Subpostmasters federation failed its members when they needed it most in Post Office scandal

A dereliction of duty saw the National Federation of Subpostmasters ignore its members when IT problems hit and allowed the Post Office to destroy their lives. Continue Reading

How the pandemic accelerated tech adoption in hospitality

The pandemic led to technology adoption across several sectors, with hospitality being no exception. Continue Reading

How the pandemic accelerated tech adoption in hospitality

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we look at how the hospitality sector is turning to technology to rebuild after it was devastated by the pandemic. Google’s cloud business is growing but remains well behind the market leaders – what does its future look like? And we look at the benefits of AIOps for storage. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

AI experts question tech industry’s ethical commitments

The massive proliferation of ethical frameworks for artificial intelligence has done little to change how the technology is developed and deployed, with experts questioning the tech industry’s commitment to making it a positive social force Continue Reading

Prepare today for potentially high-impact OpenSSL bug

OpenSSL trailed a critical vulnerability patch last week, which will be only the second such flaw ever found in the open source encryption project. Unfortunately, the first was Heartbleed Continue Reading

Cyber crime officer says French legal challenges to EncroChat are ‘hype’

Matthieu Audibert, officer of the French Gendarmerie’s cyber space command, gets into a spat with defence lawyers on Twitter over the lawfulness of evidence from the hacked phone network EncroChat Continue Reading

Security Think Tank: Container security: why so different?

Done well, container security can be a model for securing the enterprise, and businesses that focus their teams on solving it can help accelerate positive change in other areas Continue Reading

Post Office warned of Horizon software-induced ‘tragedy’ in 1999

Problems experienced during live trials of the Post Office Horizon system predicted the ‘tragedy’ that unfolded Continue Reading

Top 50 women in UK tech, IR35 Truss fiasco – Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast

The team reflects on the announcement of the Most Influential Women in UK Technology 2022, the IR35 reforms being scrapped, then not, and Dreamforce & Oracle Cloud World in the US Continue Reading

How has container security changed since 2020, and have we taken it too far?

While containers are now one of the most popular ways to deploy applications, it is fair to say that the adoption and implementation of security best practice to govern their use has not kept up Continue Reading

Government ups cyber support for elderly, vulnerable web users

DCMS announces a funding boost to help the elderly, disabled and other vulnerable groups stay safe online and avoid being misled by disinformation Continue Reading

NCSC’s Levy steps down after 20-year intelligence career

NCSC technical director Ian Levy bids farewell, telling his successor: ‘Don’t panic’ Continue Reading

NHS to get new national CISO

The Department for Health and Social Care is seeking a new national CISO, who will be tasked with providing strategic cyber leadership, direction and expertise across DHSC and the wider NHS Continue Reading

Horizon system EPOSS code writers lacked basic programming skills, public inquiry hears

Horizon system code writers lacked basic programming skills, according to the task force set up to investigate reported problems with the controversial software Continue Reading

LinkedIn adds new features to safeguard user privacy, security

Social media platform is adding a number of features and systems designed to protect legitimate users from inauthentic profiles and activity Continue Reading

Santander calls for cooperation to tackle APP fraud

New report puts forward key recommendations that the banking sector, government and other industries could take to tackle authorised push payment fraud Continue Reading

ICO warns against using biometrics for ‘emotional analysis’

ICO warning highlights risk of ‘systemic bias’ and discrimination associated with organisations using biometric data and technologies for emotion analysis Continue Reading

Reported Horizon errors should have been ‘show-stopper’, public inquiry told

Subpostmasters should have been given the benefit of the doubt over unexplained losses, but were hounded to pay money back, with lives ruined and innocent people prosecuted Continue Reading

The Conservatives are laughing at cyber security pros

If causing a security breach is a resigning matter, then you shouldn’t expect to get your old job back a week later. Unless you’re a Conservative home secretary, apparently Continue Reading

Finnish researchers lay the groundwork for flying drones

A large, sparsely populated country, Finland is preparing for a future where it could rely on flying drone technology Continue Reading

New minister asked to pause Fujitsu government contracts

Parliamentarians keep focus on Fujitsu’s role in the Post Office Horizon scandal with demand for pause on government contracts to the supplier Continue Reading

Australia budget closes in on digital divide, cyber resilience

Australia’s latest budget is geared towards providing better broadband connectivity in regional and rural areas, shoring up the cyber security posture of its businesses and plugging tech talent shortages, among other areas Continue Reading

UKCloud in liquidation: Troubled public sector cloud provider hit with winding up order

Public sector sovereign cloud provider served with winding-up order nine months after an acquisition that was intended to address a £30m funding shortfall at the firm Continue Reading

How financial institutions can streamline compliance with AI

AI systems help make compliance processes more efficient and effective for financial institutions. Automation can reduce problems like human error and regulatory breaches. Continue Reading

New ways of upcycling CO2, decarbonizing steel and cement

The industrial sector has a massive carbon footprint. That's why some companies are working to clean up steel and cement and find new uses for carbon. Continue Reading

Apple patches new iPhone zero-day

Apple’s latest patch fixes yet another zero-day, as security issues keep surfacing in its mobile products Continue Reading

One in five tech workers subject to workplace surveillance

Digital surveillance is now a common feature of the UK’s post-pandemic economy, says Prospect Union, adding to growing calls for workers to be given a greater say over how technologies are deployed in the workplace Continue Reading

Dutch lawyers raise human rights concerns over hacked cryptophone data

Dutch defence lawyers say in an open letter that there is a risk of unfair trials unless they are allowed to test the reliability and legitimacy of hacked cryptophone evidence Continue Reading