IT news in your industry sector

NatWest Video banking service adds fuel to a future without branches

Bank branches are no longer needed for that hum an touch Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Cloud storage and its main cost components

We run through the main items charged for by the big cloud storage providers, such as capacity, storage type, transactions, data egress, networks and data protection Continue Reading

By

• Paul Stringfellow, Gardner Systems

NHSX urged to rethink national policy to enable healthcare digitisation

Better approaches to governance and skills as well as more realistic expectations around the digital readiness of organisations are needed, according to think tank research Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Making multicloud work: Is it really worth it?

Enterprise interest in multicloud deployments is on the rise, but with so many moving parts to take care of, will the benefits end up being too hard-fought to make it viable for most enterprises? Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 18

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, Brian McKenna, Caroline Donnelly and Clare McDonald weigh up the technology credentials of some of the Conservative Party candidates, find out how Google Cloud is helping the Football Association to achieve its diversity goals, and why Sweden appears to be rowing back on its cashless society plans Continue Reading

By

• Computer Weekly Staff

Cutting employees some Slack: The rise of messaging apps in retail

Slack’s 2019 stock market debut raises the profile of enterprise collaboration software, but what options do retailers have in this space and how are they using the technology? Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

In this week’s issue: GDPR one year on – is it working?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, a year after the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force, we assess its progress. Fears of technology are holding back digital healthcare – we look at the tech that’s bringing back a human touch. And we examine Microsoft’s desktop management tools for Windows 10. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Giving healthcare tech a human touch

 Continue Reading

CIO interview: Gary Foote, CIO, Rich Energy Haas F1

When he was offered the opportunity to set up the technology for a new Formula One team from scratch, CIO Gary Foote couldn’t wait to get on the starting line Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

Cyber crime widely under-reported, Isaca study shows

Cyber crime, which is the top cyber threat to business, remains widely under-reported, and only a third of organisations are confident in their ability to detect and respond to threats, a study reveals Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

NHSX chief to limit future NHS App enhancements

Matthew Gould doesn’t want the health service’s flagship mobile tool to be “all-singing and all-dancing” Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Sainsbury’s Bank moves data to AWS cloud with Teradata UDA

Bank decided on a fundamental shift to AWS cloud, using Teradata’s Unified Data Architecture, after it was divested from Lloyds in 2013. Here’s how it built from a new ground zero. Continue Reading

By

• Lindsay Clark

Consumer comms providers sign Ofcom’s new fairness pledge

The UK’s biggest communications service providers have signed up to a series of new commitments pledging to put fairness to customers at the heart of their business Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Most of today’s enterprise blockchain platforms will need replacing in two years

Most blockchain platforms currently being used in enterprises will have to be replaced in the next couple of years, says Gartner Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Nordics block European Commission tech tax levy to protect digital investment

The Nordic EU countries have formed a powerful voice against the European Commission’s plans on digital service tax. Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Free Wi-Fi to cover entire NHS estate in 2019

Nearly all trusts and clinical commissioning groups across England are now equipped with NHS Wi-Fi and the rest will be fully connected this year, says NHS Digital Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

More than half of UK workforce lacks essential digital skills, says Lloyd’s

In the modern world, digital skills are becoming increasingly important, but a large amount of the UK workforce doesn’t measure up, Lloyd’s has found Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Business leaders failing to address cyber threats

Businesses are failing to address growing cyber threats as business leaders admit to knowledge gaps, a lack of resources and confusion about who is responsible for data breaches, a report reveals Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Facebook loses bid to halt European court decision on EU-US data sharing

Irish Supreme Court dismisses attempt by Facebook to prevent the European Court of Justice considering the validity of US-EU data transfers, after Austrian lawyer Max Schrems argued that they put the privacy of EU citizens at risk Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Migration Advisory Committee calls for expansion of non-EU skilled work visas

As Brexit uncertainty increases, the Migration Advisory Committee has suggested adding more skilled roles to the Shortage Occupations List Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

New-build homes to get broadband quality certification

Broadband connectivity rating firm WiredScore is offering its full-fibre certifications to residential property developers and landlords for the first time Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Slowing smart meter roll-out puts 2020 deadline at risk

The smart meter installation rate is slowing, and with 18 months until the December 2020 deadline, achieving the Smart Meter Programme’s aims now looks very unlikely Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Gant uses Cegid to streamline functions across all markets

As retailer Gant begins to mirror its core operations across all of the countries it operates in, global IT manager Ricky Dematagollage explains what part Cegid will play in the process Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

How AI helps protect Japan’s road system from subsidence

Tokyo-based Kawasaki Geological Engineering is using Fujitsu’s Zinrai artificial intelligence system to develop a solution to erosion causing subsidence and sinkholes on Japan’s road network Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

SAP disruption leads to Revlon class action lawsuit

Investors at cosmetics giant Revlon are taking action following a bungled SAP ERP deployment Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

GCHQ urged to abandon plans to access encrypted chats

Tech companies and security and policy experts are calling for more dialogue with GCHQ on encryption, urging it to ditch its proposal for eavesdropping on encrypted chats Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

The FA signs Google Cloud to support cloud-based push to make football more inclusive

The Football Association is on a mission to up female participation in the sport and make it more accessible to a larger number of fans, and it is teaming up with Google Cloud to achieve its goals Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

A lack of skills and ownership are top challenges to OT security

A lack of skills, visibility and clarity on which business function is responsible for securing operational technology are the biggest challenges to managing the risk, a study shows Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

CIO interview: Sam Shah, director for digital development, NHS England

Uniquely, Sam Shah is both a clinician and a technology leader, and he hopes to use both skillsets to overhaul IT in the health service Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

EE launches consumer 5G, but experts say no rush to upgrade

EE launched the UK’s first official 5G network this week, but with limited availability and 4G networks improving all the time, industry watchers say there is no big impetus for users to upgrade yet Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Red flags missed during ESN planning process, Home Office admits

The PAC’s latest evidence-gathering session for its inquiry into the delayed and over-budget Emergency Services Network has laid bare a number of crucial errors made over the past few years, and found the Home Office missed a number of warning signs Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Skills, digital and the manufacturing sector

Manufacturing still accounts for a large amount of the UK economy, and when it comes to the fourth industrial revolution, the UK has aspirations to be a world leader – but does it have the digital know-how to back it up? Continue Reading

By

• Cath Everett

2.3 billion business and consumer data files exposed online

In the year since the GDPR compliance deadline, the number of data files exposed online without adequate protection is up more than 50% due to misconfigured security controls, report reveals Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Danish government launches national AI strategy

Strategy aims to capitalise on investment in artificial intelligence technologies to enhance Denmark’s societal advancement and give business and industry a competitive edge Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O’Dwyer

Hackers targeting UK universities a threat to national security

Poorly defended UK university research that is mainly commissioned by government is a top target for hackers, putting national security at risk, a study reveals, underlining the need for better cyber security Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

FoI requests reveal slow but steady adoption of cloud-first stance in UK police forces

Intercity Technology's freedom of information (FoI) request-led poll of UK police forces and their use of technology shines a light on how the sector's attitudes towards cloud and digital transformation are changing Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Turla APT group beefs up cyber attack tool

An advanced persistent threat cyber espionage group has improved its tools to attack diplomatic targets, making their activities more difficult to detect and block Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Cyber weapons readily available to criminals, researchers warn

Security researchers have discovered an attack campaign infrastructure designed to scan, brute-force and infect tens of thousands of MS-SQL and PHPMyAdmin servers Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

ICO to shortlist Sandbox applicants

Privacy watchdog’s Sandbox service aims to help develop innovative and beneficial products and services that are privacy compliant Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Perfect storm for data science in security

After nearly 20 years of research, the perfect storm of computing technologies is finally enabling data science to realise its potential to make valuable contributions to improving cyber security capabilities Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 17

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, Brian McKenna, Caroline Donnelly and Clare McDonald reunite to discuss the discontent at Amazon’s recent shareholder meeting, what went on at the Salesforce World Tour event in London and SurveyMonkey's European datacentre plans Continue Reading

By

• Computer Weekly Staff

Many search engine users unaware of personal data collection

Many users of online search engines are still unaware that data is being collected about them for personalised advertising, a study has revealed Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Excelero and BeeGFS offer next-gen HPC based on NVMe flash

Super-fast solid-state storage in commodity servers ties up with recently-developed parallel file system BeeGFS to target high-performance computing use cases Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Swedes need to keep a week’s cash under the bed

The Swedish population is being advised to keep enough cash at home to last a week in case of problems such as online banking crashes Continue Reading

By

• Jane Hamrin

NHS Digital sets out Internet First policy

NHS Digital is soliciting input to its Internet First policy, a set of standards and guidelines to help health and social care organisations make digital services accessible over the internet Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Saudi Arabia’s largest auto company completes SAP project as part of digital transformation

Abdul Latif Jameel Motors wins SAP Quality Gold Award for digital revamp programme that overhauled performance and efficiency across its business Continue Reading

By

• Alicia Buller

Technology at heart of Spurs’ new stadium

In this week’s Computer Weekly, Sanjeev Katwa, the IT chief at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, discusses the tech behind the most technologically advanced football stadium in the world. We investigate how the data powering artificial intelligence is leading to discriminatory algorithms and explore the inherent risks in 5G mobile networks. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Just over half of UK firms don’t have a cyber resilience plan

Many UK firms still lack cyber resilience and data protection capabilities covering email a year after the implementation of the GDPR aimed at improving personal data protection Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

London Office for Technology and Innovation gets ready to launch

New organisation will officially begin its activities in June and has appointed Nesta’s former government chief as director Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

GDPR: Are we there yet?

A full year since the General Data Protection Regulation was implemented, there has not been the severe punitive action expected by many and personal data breaches continue to happen, leaving many wondering if any progress has been made Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

NHS Digital launches GP IT Futures tender

New framework aims to simplify IT provision for surgeries and create a competitive systems marketplace for primary care Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Effect of GDPR yet to be felt, says law firm Hogan Lovells

Despite the fact that the GDPR has been in full effect for a year, the true effect of the regulation is yet to be felt and organisations should ensure they keep their eye on the ball, says leading privacy law firm Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Ofcom makes new proposals to liberalise access Openreach’s ducts and poles

The telecoms regulator is proposing new regulations on accessing Openreach’s infrastructure that it hopes will incentives others to roll out ultrafast networks quicker Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

No real change a year into GDPR, says privacy expert

A year after the GDPR compliance deadline, many organisations still have a lot of work to do to make real changes and shift focus away from fines to business value and gain, says PwC’s GDPR and data protection lead Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Post Office told to pay over £5m of its opponent’s costs for first Horizon trial

The judge in the Post Office Horizon trial has ordered the organisation to pay the legal costs of its courtroom adversaries, and refused to give permission to appeal a major judgment Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Interview: How Croydon is applying GDS lessons to digital service delivery

The first chief digital officer at one of London’s largest boroughs talks about plans to transform user experience, procurement and cultural perceptions Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Paul Smith looks to tailor its back-end systems with Cegid software

British tailor Paul Smith has been working with Cegid since 2015, but it is now considering upgrading to the provider's latest software to reduce costs and increase efficiency Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Lapse in LinkedIn security certificate update

A lapse in the update of LinkedIn’s security certificate has once again underlined the importance of keeping track to avoid disruptions and phishing attacks, and how even big players are failing to get it right Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Guy's & St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust to drive £175m IT systems revamp

Hospital trust Guy's & St Thomas is looking to procure a single electronic health record system, with the option to include two other trusts. Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

CW Nordics: Nordea links up with IBM to meet fintech challenge

IBM’s €473m managed services contract with Nordea reflects an increasing trend among Nordic banks to outsource more of their IT to help meet the challenge of fintechs. Also read how a shortage of women in the boardroom is a problem in the Nordics but the tech sector points to a more promising future, and find out why the Norwegian government has launched a regulatory sandbox for the fintech sector. Continue Reading

Crown Commercial Service to procure £360m online benefits system

Procurement agency wants new platform to become a one-stop shop for employee benefits across government Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Amazon rejects calls for ban on sales of facial recognition tech to government agencies

Annual meeting defeats resolutions for Amazon to halt sales of its Rekognition software to government agencies, and to do more to tackle climate change Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Police shut down Bestmixer bitcoin laundering service

The Bestmixer cryptocurrency laundering service has been shut down by Dutch anti-fraud police with support from Europol after a tip off by cyber security researchers at McAfee, significantly disrupting cyber criminal money flows Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Swedish state and industry back autonomous vehicle testing facility

 Continue Reading

IBM deal to drive Nordea’s IT-led transformation

 Continue Reading

HMRC's defence of IR35 online status checker tool likened to 'climate change denial'

In an open letter addressed to chancellor Philip Hammond and HMRC's CEO Jon Thompson, the tax collection agency's defence of its IR35 online status checker tool, CEST, is likened to climate change denial, as calls grow for it to be scrapped Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

GoCardless migrates to cloud and gets Google engineering capability

Fintech has moved from an IBM infrastructure as a service to Google’s cloud platform Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

V.Pharma swaps Data Domain for Quantum and cuts backup costs

Belgian pharmacy’s Data Domains had reached end-of-life and it wanted to remain in-budget. Quantum DXi worked out a lot cheaper and easy to manage, with good support Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

Hundreds of European retail banks will disappear as challengers scoop up customers

One in every 10 banks in Europe will no longer exist as digital challengers take customers from them Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

TalkTalk admits new failings in 2015 data breach notification

TalkTalk’s failure to notify all those affected by its 2015 data breach highlights the importance of data visibility so that breach notifications are fast and accurate – a key requirement of the GDPR Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Gothenburg – a hotbed for early startups

Sweden’s second-largest city is by no means the biggest startup hub in the Nordic region, but its global reach is a distinct advantage Continue Reading

By

• Matthew Staff

Fintechs should get out of London to open their eyes and grow

Call for fintechs to stop designing products for themselves and look outside the London bubble. Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Security Think Tank: Effective IT segregation must involve the business

What are the security benefits and challenges of segregating IT environments, and how best are these challenges overcome? Continue Reading

By

• RV Raghu, ISACA

What the UK can learn from the Nordics when it comes to digital ID

The UK and other countries can learn from the Nordic region when it comes to digital identity Continue Reading

By

• John Erik Setsaas

Sheffield’s network-of-networks goes beyond free Wi-Fi

For the city of Sheffield, rolling out a free-to-use city Wi-Fi network has become about much more than just letting shoppers browse the internet. We find out more Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

US grants Huawei stay of execution

US Commerce Department temporarily restores Huawei’s ability to maintain its existing networks and smartphone user base Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

GDS to ‘cajole’ departments into using voice-based services

The vision of GDS director-general Kevin Cunnington is to get governments to roll out voice technology into major services by 2027 Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Retailers need to rethink KPIs in the face of digital shopping

Customer experience is becoming of increasing importance in an omni-channel world, but technology adoption has stores cornered, forcing them to rethink what value stores bring to an organisation and the customer journey Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

MoneySupermarket.com orchestrates data pipeline with GKE

The price comparison site has used container orchestration to split its machine learning data pipeline into parallel processes Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Capita’s NHS contract under review after patient records blunder

Outsourcer’s health service deal in doubt following the latest in a “litany of failings”, with 160,000 patient records being wrongly archived Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

University of Bradford deploys HPC to aid research into preserving world’s heritage sites

University teams up with OCF to deploy high-performance computing environment to support efforts to create 3D representations of world heritage sites Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

UC Expo 2019: Experts talk up future tech in unified communications

Automation and AI are increasingly prevalent in unified comms, but do enterprises really need it? Continue Reading

By

• Rene Millman

Fintech’s role in reducing world poverty

Kosta Peric swapped a life innovating for banks to work on increasing financial inclusion in the developing world Continue Reading

Using fintech to fight poverty

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to find out how technology is fighting poverty by increasing financial inclusion. We examine how best to manage the challenges of Microsoft’s new plan for ongoing Windows 10 updates. And we find out how data innovation at Lloyd’s of London is supporting a wider digital modernisation at the 330-year-old insurance market. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

L’Oréal and Alibaba create AI-based app to offer self-care support for acne sufferers

Artificial intelligence-based app will help acne sufferers access dermatology treatment with greater ease Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Middle East Interview: Dubai-based Fetchr

Delivery app Fetchr is spreading across the Middle East with its mobile-to-mobile delivery service. We talk to its founder Continue Reading

By

• Alicia Buller

Planned UK age verification checks risky for internet users

Proposed controversial online age verification checks could increase the risk of identity theft and other cyber crimes, warn security experts, who advise parents to set technological boundaries and ensure their families are aware of risks Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Security Think Tank: In-app segregation more intelligent and permissive

What are the security benefits and challenges of segregating IT environments, and how best are these challenges overcome? Continue Reading

By

• Simon Persin, Turnkey Consulting

Cyber security scholarships on offer in Belfast

Queen’s University Belfast is backing the cyber security sector with funding for master of science scholarships Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 16

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload, Clare McDonald and Brian McKenna are joined by prolific Downtime author Ryan Priest to discuss retail sustainability, internet influencers and the tech battle between China and the US Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Software-defined storage vs NAS/SAN: What are the options?

We look at the pros and cons of software-defined storage and weigh up when it’s a better option than buying NAS and SAN pre-built hardware shared storage arrays Continue Reading

By

• Rene Millman

UK leads in government AI readiness

The UK is one of the best placed in the world to take advantage of related technologies for public service delivery, according to a study Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Reduxio’s Magellan charts course to storage in containers

Reduxio makes its storage product functionality available via microservices in containers aimed at container-native deployments, in an initial closed customer beta Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

London council trials Verify-based digital ID scheme for vulnerable citizens

Programme under way at Tower Hamlets will allow residents to build a digital footprint and get better access to council services Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

DCMS shakes up BDUK with new rural full-fibre scheme

The Rural Gigabit Connectivity programme will run for two years, trialling a new model for full-fibre broadband delivery – meanwhile, BDUK is getting a new name Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Security Think Tank: IT asset separation is a risk-based decision

What are the security benefits and challenges of segregating IT environments, and how best are these challenges overcome? Continue Reading

By

• Deshini Newman, (ISC)²

Lloyds Bank creates 500 IT roles in Scotland

New recruits will support banking group’s digital transformation as it aims to give customers “Google-like experiences” Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Danske Bank launches initiative to help SME customers with cyber security

Danske Bank launches initiative to support the cyber security efforts of its SME customers Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

GDPR an opportunity to improve data systems and processes

A year after the official implementation of the GDPR, it is important to highlight the positive opportunities that compliance provides and the insights breach reports are providing, say Deloitte consultants Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

ICO to support GDPR certification schemes

The UK data protection watchdog is accepting enquiries from organisations considering developing GDPR certification schemes, which the ICO says could help recipients achieve competitive advantage Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst