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Justice at last in Post Office IT scandal

In this week’s Computer Weekly, 12 years after we broke the story, victims of the Post Office IT scandal finally have their criminal convictions overturned. We take a virtual tour of a Microsoft datacentre and meet a server called ‘Mega-Godzilla Beast’. And we find out how technology is transforming Nationwide Building Society. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Another 38 subpostmasters submit appeals against convictions

The biggest miscarriage of justice in UK history is set to get bigger as more subpostmasters take their cases to the Court of Appeal Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

French legal challenge over EncroChat cryptophone hack could hit UK prosecutions

Lawyers are challenging the legality of a French police operation to harvest tens of thousands of messages from the EncroChat encrypted phone network in a move that could overturn criminal prosecutions in the UK Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Digital tech potential in health and social care not yet realised, says King’s Fund

Report by health policy think-tank says that although there is evidence that digital technology can support staff and patients, there are large gaps in the evidence base Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Post Office scandal CEO steps down from roles after massive miscarriage of justice is laid bare

Former Post Office CEO Paula Vennells has left roles in the church, Morrisons and Dunelm after postmasters’ convictions were overturned in the Court of Appeal Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

HMRC downplays significance of CEO email ‘questioning’ legal basis of loan charge policy

A document dump of emails shared between HMRC officials has prompted loan charge campaigners to further question the legal footing of the government’s controversial disguised remuneration policy Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

‘Spy cops’ victims share ongoing data protection concerns

Under Cover Policing Inquiry will consider whether the extensive amount of personal data collected about left-wing activists by the Special Demonstration Squad was justified, as witnesses question whether information about them is still being collected Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Post Office scandal victims have criminal convictions overturned in Court of Appeal

Subpostmasters have their criminal convictions overturned after a judge rules that the Post Office prosecuted them without investigating computer errors Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

London mayoral candidates debate tech

The four mayoral candidates have set out their plans for the tech sector, including creating skills academies, harnessing kinetic energy, creating a London passport and setting up new tech hubs, but Tech London Advocates founder Russ Shaw says they all missed the mark Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

GCHQ: Cyber investment a guarantor of UK’s global status

GCHQ director Jeremy Fleming sets out a vision for the UK’s cyber security future Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Five reasons to look at hyper-converged infrastructure

HCI promises easy setup, purchasing flexibility, low procurement and operation costs, reliability and all in one box – but there are challenges too Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Department for Education publishes digital strategy

The department's digital and technology function wants to become a leader in the field, invest in its own platforms and manage its legacy technologies Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

The tedium is the message

The president of football’s crumbling European Super League project has cited teenagers’ enjoyment of video games as a reason to constantly pit the continent’s elite teams against each other like ... Continue Reading

By

• Ryan Priest

Security Think Tank: Security culture must underpin vaccine passports

What are the security challenges presented by vaccine passports, and how should they be designed and used with ethics and privacy in mind? Continue Reading

By

• Mike Gillespie

NCSC offers teachers free cyber security training

The NCSC’s latest security training offer builds on a package of measures designed to protect schools from cyber attack Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Government should do more to protect well-being in the digital world, says report

A select committee report argues that new health and employment rights are needed to tackle the negative effects of increasing digitisation Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

UK government renews cloud discount pricing MoU with Microsoft

Three-year deal ensures eligible public sector organisations can continue to access discounted pricing on a range of the tech giant's cloud software and infrastructure offerings Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

CIO interview: Richard Corbridge, Boots

Boots has been hugely successful in its transition to e-commerce and the Covid-19 pandemic has seen several digital initiatives spun up to continue offering services to customers Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

Ocado advances autonomous vehicle strategy with Oxbotica deal

The £10m investment is part of a push to enhance Ocado’s last-mile delivery and logistics capabilities, with first prototypes expected for 2023 Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Winemaker racks Pure all-NVMe all-flash for rapid SAP response

Concha Y Toro also pocketed a 35% saving in storage costs following a move from as-a-service storage provision to Pure Storage FlashArray//X all-flash hardware Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Health app myGP adds Covid-19 vaccine passport function

The new feature is described as the UK’s first NHS-assured Covid-19 certification feature Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

UK’s proposed IoT cyber security law gathers momentum

New statistics appear to vindicate UK government proposals to force suppliers to be upfront about IoT security Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Drax partners with Solace to manage biomass supply chain

Event-based IT architecture helps energy provider optimise its biomass supply chain and drive greater efficiencies, but questions remain about the fundamental sustainability of biomass as an alternative to coal Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Codecov supply chain attack has echoes of SolarWinds

Supply chain attack on code auditing service may have compromised the likes of HPE and IBM Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Lack of leadership, confusion and frustration - the state of digital identity in the UK

To nobody’s surprise, efforts by a group of peers to force the government to accelerate progress on digital identity in the UK foundered in the House of Lords yesterday (20 April 2021). Baroness ... Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Banco Santander moving more than 200 servers to cloud per day

Banco Santander has migrated about 60% of its IT infrastructure to the cloud and is reaping the benefits Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

London needs a mayor of growth

Here East’s CEO Gavin Poole on why the next mayor must ensure London remains the tech capital of Europe, and the importance of learning from the past Continue Reading

By

• Gavin Poole

Government launches plan for smart use of knowledge and innovation

Strategy sets out how Westminster can harness and achieve better value from £104bn worth of innovation and knowledge assets within central government Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Transatlantic relationship strengthens Sweden’s startup sustainability

Nordic startup network is taking lessons from Canada in getting women into the IT industry Continue Reading

By

• Matthew Staff

Shop and go – will Amazon’s cashless ‘just walk out’ store work?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, Amazon has opened its first ‘just walk out’ grocery store in the UK, but is it the right time to hit the high street? We examine the human and technical issues around email security. And we analyse Microsoft’s $19bn purchase of voice recognition supplier Nuance. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Amazon Go – is now the right time?

In the beginning of 2021, Amazon launched a physical store in London, but is it the right time to be investing in offline? Continue Reading

BBC appoints new digital and technology leaders

BBC splits former chief technology and product officer role into two, with Just Eat executive Storm Fagan to join in September Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Google and Siemens combine forces to address AI at the industrial edge

The partnership shows how the public cloud giants are branching out into specialist application areas to different industry sectors Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

UK fintech investment hits new heights as government announces increased support

The UK fintech sector saw high levels of investment in the first quarter of this year, with increased support from the government Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

UK technology job creation nears two-year peak

Pace of recruitment accelerates and optimism reaches highest level since 2014, according to KPMG Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Tech professionals most likely to see mental health decline due to pandemic

Struggling to cope with anxiety and new ways of working are among the problems workers in the sector face, study says Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Government puts Facebook under pressure to stop end-to-end encryption over child abuse risks

Facebook faces growing government pressure to abandon its plans to offer users end-to-end encryption to secure the privacy of their messages as the NSPCC raises concerns about child protection Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

London tech manifesto calls on next mayor to support tech industry

The London tech manifesto, put together by several tech organisations, calls on the city’s next mayor to support tech companies, increase digital skills investment and tackle the lack of diversity in the sector Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Finnish government strengthens country’s IT network security

Finland’s government has created a new national organisation to help public and private bodies improve network security Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Sutton Council trials in-home sensor tech

The council is deploying sensors in the homes of vulnerable people to be able to detect when they might need help Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Post Office’s full and final settlement with Horizon scandal victims in plain English

The legal settlement with subpostmaster victims of the Horizon scandal that the government and the Post Office say is “full and final” is anything but Continue Reading

By

• Alan Bates

Dutch accuse UK of ‘damaging confidence’ by disclosing details of EncroChat police collaboration

The Dutch Public Prosecution Service claims Britain has damaged confidence by disclosing details of an international investigation into the EncroChat encrypted phone network to the courts Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly
• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Uber ordered to reinstate six drivers fired by automated process

A default judgment handed down by Dutch court has ordered Uber to reinstate six drivers with compensation following unevidenced accusations of fraud and automated firing via algorithm Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Top 8 warehouse management systems to research

Efficient warehouses are key to customer satisfaction. Learn about some of the top warehouse management systems, including some of their benefits and drawbacks. Continue Reading

By

• Linda Rosencrance

Google launches multimillion-dollar cloud tech push to boost Covid-19 vaccine distribution

Tech giant Google is ploughing millions of dollars into initiatives to bolster the availability of Covid-19 vaccines and make it easier for people to access information about immunisation programmes Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Only government standing in the way of fair compensation for subpostmasters

The UK government is the only block to fair compensation for subpostmasters who were wrongly punished for accounting shortfalls Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

University of Hertfordshire is latest academic cyber attack victim

Multiple systems are offline at the University of Hertfordshire following a cyber attack Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

In-sourcing IT in Wales has provided a positive change, says auditor

While savings have not been as great as expected, the decision to in-source IT in Welsh government has been a success, according to Audit Wales Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Microsoft is most impersonated brand in phishing attempts

Technology companies continue to be frequently spoofed by cyber criminals in their phishing attempts Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Ireland’s DPC launches probe into Facebook leak

The Irish Data Protection Commission has launched an ‘own volition’ inquiry into the leak of data from 500 million Facebook profiles Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

CW Middle East: Qatari regulator launches platform to help combat money laundering

The Qatar Financial Markets Authority is using a digital platform to enable financial services professionals to assess their knowledge of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism. Also in this issue, read how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the IT spending patterns among enterprises in Saudi Arabia. Continue Reading

Overview of 4 types of warehouse management systems

Modern companies need to create efficient warehouses, and understanding which type of warehouse system to choose is key to that. Here's a look at four types and how they can help. Continue Reading

By

• Linda Rosencrance

The tracks of National Rail’s tears

To the meme generation he was simply known as the Airplane Mode Prince, but it seems nobody has taken the passing of the Duke of Edinburgh quite as hard as National Rail. Users of the website woke ... Continue Reading

By

• Ryan Priest

Tesco reports online sales surge, advances digital platform

Retailer announces 77% boost to e-commerce sales, details on Clubcard app uptake and advances in its IT remediation plan Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Qatar regulator launches platform to monitor human understanding of financial crime

 Continue Reading

Cloud archiving: A perfect use case, but beware costs and egress issues

The advantages of cloud archiving are ease of use and being well-suited to potential latency issues, but IT teams need to be aware of costs and issues around moving data from and between clouds Continue Reading

By

• Maxwell Cooter

Why Microsoft’s $19bn acquisition of Nuance makes sense

Microsoft regularly demos real-time speech-to-text transcription and has just spent $19bn on bolstering its voice capabilities Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

AET gets Ctera to smooth hybrid cloud access to big files

Remote locations with unreliable WAN connections needed to share large files, which was a real headache until US engineering firm got Ctera edge filers with Azure cloud as a tier Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Europe provides growth for TCS despite year floored by pandemic

Tata Consultancy Services grows its continental European business despite economic slowdown brought by Covid-19 restrictions Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Security Think Tank: Vaccine passports cannot be taken lightly

What are the security issues and challenges presented by vaccine passports, and how should they be designed and used with ethics and privacy in mind? Continue Reading

By

• Richard Hunt, Turnkey Consulting

Security Think Tank: Vaccine passports must be secure by design

What are the security issues and challenges presented by vaccine passports, and how should they be designed and used with ethics and privacy in mind? Continue Reading

By

• Paddy Francis

MP told to ditch official email over hacking fears

MP Tom Tugendhat claims the intelligence services advised him to switch to the Gmail service due to concerns his parliamentary email could be hacked Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Covid-19 left people feeling vulnerable to cyber crime

Around 15 million people in the UK experienced cybercrime in the past 12 months, with a cumulative 64 million hours wasted dealing with the fallout Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

End of the road for Post Office IT system that destroyed lives

The Post Office has revealed the end to its controversial Horizon IT system which, through its errors and the Post Office's denial of them, caused huge suffering for hundreds of subpostmasters Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Civil Service Data Challenge aims to improve use of data

Business and government have partnered to launch a Dragon’s Den-style competition to encourage civil servants to come up with ideas on how to improve the use of data Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

EncroChat lawyers raise questions over use of PII secrecy orders on UK decryption capabilities

Lawyers claim that public interest immunity certificates may have been used to withhold information on UK intelligence agencies’ ability to decrypt encrypted communications Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Microsoft enters the Dragon’s den with Nuance acquisition

The $19bn acquisition of Nuance firmly plants Microsoft at the forefront of voice recognition. The stage is set to combine voice with artificial intelligence Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

The evolution of RPA

In this week’s Computer Weekly, our latest buyer’s guide looks at the future of robotic process automation (RPA). Google’s legal victory against Oracle over the use of Java APIs has huge significance for software developers. And we find out how expectations of IT have grown as firms prepare for the post-Covid workplace. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

How the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium sequenced Sars-Cov-2

Consortium of universities and other institutions has harnessed datasets, analytics and cloud computing to sequence Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in a blisteringly short time Continue Reading

By

• SA Mathieson

Another 27 Danish banks get access to open banking APIs

Nordic banks gain access to open banking capabilities from Nordic API Gateway, with an agreement through their shared IT service provider Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Ctera KubeFiler to bring Kubernetes storage to its cloud gateways

KubeFiler uses the container storage interface to allow Kubernetes to access persistent storage as if it were from a local NAS device, and while keeping existing access profiles Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

University students adapt to remote learning but question value for money

New research outlines students’ fears around the impact of long-term remote education and lecturers’ skills to operate online Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Loan Charge Group MPs demand IR35 shake-up to stop contractors becoming ‘zero-rights employees’

Inquiry by Loan Charge All-Party Parliamentary Group calls on government to tweak IR35 legislation during passage of next Finance Bill Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Datacentre Editor

CIO interview: Nitin Chaturvedi, chief digital and technology officer, KFC Global

The Covid-19 pandemic led to the digital element of KFC’s business becoming increasingly important, says the fast food retailer’s chief digital and technology officer Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

NCSC: Using your pet’s name as a password is very stupid

If your email password is still Rex, Rover or Mr Fluffles, it’s probably best to change it, the NCSC has said Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Tech industry sees surge in remote working job postings

Pandemic drives an increase in demand for “work anywhere” jobs and hybrid skills, research says Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

IR35 reforms: MPs call on government to clean up UK’s ‘wild west’ contracting labour supply chain

A 200-strong group of MPs is calling for urgent action from the government to protect contractors from the dubious practices of non-compliant umbrella companies and badly behaved employment agencies just days after private sector IR35 reforms came into force Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Post Office Horizon contract extension is part of project to bring Fujitsu work in-house

The Post Office is to move work done by Fujitsu in-house when its outsourcing contract ends, and is already recruiting IT experts Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

HMRC signs reworked, three-year public cloud deal with AWS worth £94m

HMRC has ripped up and replaced its deal with AWS several months after signing it to tap into cost-savings on Amazon cloud services via the One Government Value Agreement Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Future working models at big banks begin to fall into place

Banks traditionally lead the way in technology adoption, but what can businesses take from their post-Covid-19 remote-working strategies? Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

CIO interview: Gary Delooze, CIO, Nationwide

Building society’s CIO talks about building a technology strategy, working with the rest of the business and the Covid-19 pandemic Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

IBM Cloud for Financial Services goes on general release

IBM Cloud’s push to provide sector-specific public cloud services to financial services firms enters a new phase Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Inside Microsoft’s industry cloud strategy

Microsoft dives deeper into its industry cloud strategy and what it means for enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Deliveroo riders strike over pay and work conditions

Riders across the country are demanding fair pay, safety protections and basic workers’ rights pay on Deliveroo’s first day of trading as a public company Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Facebook ducks calls to apologise over huge data leak

Facebook gives its side of the story as data on millions of its users leaks, but is yet to apologise for security lapses that put half a billion people at risk of compromise Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

A billion extra contactless payments in year since limit increase

Visa said there was an extra one billion contactless payments made by its customers last year Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Digital Markets Unit starts work on codes of conduct for tech giants

Digital markets regulator officially launched to ensure tech giants such as Facebook and Google cannot exploit their market dominance to crowd out competition and stifle innovation online Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Post Office gives controversial Fujitsu contract another year

The Post Office's controversial contract with Fujitsu has been extended another year to help the organisation manage its exit Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Irish employees’ ‘right to disconnect’ enshrined in code of practice

A code of practice giving employees the ‘right to disconnect’ from work and not engage in electronic communications outside of their normal hours has come into effect in Ireland Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Demands for changes to ‘barmy’ rules on digital evidence have government’s ear

The government is listening to calls for changes in how digital evidence is considered in court, as Post Office IT scandal spells out current rule's inadequacy Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Where now for storage? Hitachi, IBM and Pure Storage

Part II: Storage supplier strategy in the cloud era: Hitachi, IBM and Pure Storage. We snapshot the big six hardware makers, as they take things to the cloud and as-a-service models Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Facebook data leak could be outside scope of GDPR

Regulators may be unable to do much about leaked data on 533 million Facebook users, as it seems to have been stolen before GDPR came into force Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

CDDO will assess delivery of government digital projects

Government Digital Service boss Tom Read and the government’s Central Digital and Data Office executive director Joanna Davinson reveal next steps for digital, data and technology in government Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Where now for storage? Dell EMC, NetApp and HPE

Part I: Storage supplier strategy in the cloud era: Dell EMC, NetApp and HPE. We snapshot the big six hardware makers, as they take things to the cloud and as-a-service models Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

GDS seeks director for identity assurance programme

The new leader will be focused on efforts to deliver a single digital identity system for online public services Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

EncroChat hearings delayed as lawyers seek disclosure on police hacking

Court hearings precipitated by police cracking the EncroChat secure mobile phone network have been delayed after defence lawyers request further disclosures on police decryption capabilities Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Lose-lose US sanctions apply brakes to Huawei’s 2020 growth

Bans on Huawei products in infrastructures around the world begin to affect its bottom line, but comms technology provider shows growth and reaffirms commitment to creating greater value for customers and society in the face of adversity Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

DCMS publishes report on opening data access to stoke economic growth

Research from Frontier Economics with economist Diane Coyle describes how the government could prime data sharing to stimulate economic growth Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Enterprise Applications Editor

Commerzbank picks Google for cloud migration

German bank expands its work with Google Cloud and plans to move 85% of applications to its platform Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

NHS is apparently closing security skills gap

By the end of 2020, there were more than twice as many in-house security professionals at NHS trusts as there were two years before Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor