News

IT for government and public sector

• January 26, 2024 26 Jan'24

  GenAI tools ‘could not exist’ if firms are made to pay copyright

  AI firm Anthropic hits out at copyright lawsuit filed by music publishers, claiming the content ingested into its models falls under ‘fair use’ and that any licensing regime would be too complex and costly

• January 26, 2024 26 Jan'24

  Lawyers carry on Post Office appeals amid uncertainty over government plan to overturn en masse

  Lawyers supporting former subpostmasters said they will continue appealing convictions as normal despite government plan to exonerate hundreds in one go

• January 26, 2024 26 Jan'24

  UK government consults on age verification tech in alcohol sales

  The government has said it wants to allow the use of digital identities and various age-verification technologies in alcohol sales

• January 26, 2024 26 Jan'24

  Expert IT witness outsmarted an ‘aggressive’ Post Office to get to truth after inspection ‘madness’

  The Post Office’s attempts to protect the Horizon system are well known, in light of the public inquiry and a recent TV drama, but Computer Weekly can reveal how an IT expert was treated during his investigation of Horizon

• January 25, 2024 25 Jan'24

  Bugcrowd sees surge in vulnerability submissions, led by public sector

  Crowdsourced vulnerability disclosure and bug bounty platform Bugcrowd says it saw a 151% uptick in submissions related to government and public sector organisations in 2023

• January 25, 2024 25 Jan'24

  DSIT unveils forum to drive AI adoption in UK businesses

  UK government launches AI Opportunity Forum with tech and business chiefs to help firms drive up UK productivity through AI

• January 25, 2024 25 Jan'24

  Tony Blair Institute calls for creation of NHS Data Trust

  The NHS would have a majority stake in the data trust, with additional investment from private sector companies, harnessing anonymised data as a competitive asset, proposes the think thank

• January 25, 2024 25 Jan'24

  Civil Service must embrace innovation, says Cabinet Office minister

  John Glen sets out plans for Civil Service reform, highlighting a focus on technology and innovation, as he plans to ‘crack the productivity puzzle’ in government

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  WebKit vulnerability sparks Apple’s first major security update of 2024

  A zero-day in the open source WebKit browser engine that powers Safari has sparked Apple’s first major patch roll-out of the new year

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  IR35: Contractors call for off-payroll rules to be scrapped in Spring Budget 2024

  A survey of 900 contractors by insurance provider Qdos found that two-thirds want the government to consider scrapping the IR35 rules in the next Budget, which is due to take place in March 2024

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  Southern Water confirms cyber attack after Black Basta claims

  Southern Water, which supplies millions of customers in southeast England, has confirmed it has fallen victim to a cyber attack, although its services appear to be running normally

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  AI will heighten global ransomware threat, says NCSC

  The benefits of artificial intelligence to cyber criminals being well-known, the NCSC now assesses it’s likely AI will soon be widely used to enhance ransomware attacks

• January 24, 2024 24 Jan'24

  Committee chair asks minister to back ‘Mr Bates clause’ in Post Office compensation legislation

  Select committee chair wants guarantees on financial redress for subpostmasters that suffered in the Horizon scandal

• January 23, 2024 23 Jan'24

  Treat cyber risk like financial or legal issue, says UK government

  UK government and NCSC launch proposed code of practice on cyber security governance to help directors and business leaders toughen their defences

• January 23, 2024 23 Jan'24

  Leak of 26 billion records may prove to be ‘mother of all breaches’

  The discovery of a dataset comprising 26 billion stolen records may prove to be record-breaking in both its size and the danger it poses to ordinary people

• January 23, 2024 23 Jan'24

  UN chief blasts AI companies for reckless pursuit of profit

  The United Nations general secretary has blasted technology companies and governments for pursuing their own narrow interests in artificial intelligence without any consideration of the common good, as part of wider call to reform global governance

• January 23, 2024 23 Jan'24

  SEC bitcoin hack was result of SIM-swapping

  A cyber attack on the US financial regulator earlier in January 2024 occurred after hackers took over one of its mobile phone accounts in a so-called SIM-swapping attack

• January 22, 2024 22 Jan'24

  PAC calls on MoD to fix inventory management IT

  The Public Accounts Committee is concerned that the ageing and fragmented IT systems used in the MoD’s inventory management puts front-line forces at significant risk

• January 22, 2024 22 Jan'24

  Fujitsu agrees to support former subpostmasters’ families beyond financial redress

  Fujitsu will meet with victims of the Post Office scandal and their representatives to discuss what the IT giant can do for them beyond financial redress

• January 22, 2024 22 Jan'24

  Chat control: Tech companies warn ministers over EU encryption plans

  Tech companies have written to EU ministers to urge them to back the European Parliament, rather than the European Commission, over proposed regulations to police child abuse

• January 22, 2024 22 Jan'24

  Urgent question asks which ministers knew of Post Office’s shocking plan to remove judge

  Labour peer uses urgent question to uncover who, if anyone, in government was aware of the Post Office’s attempts to remove judge as it became clear it was losing

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  ICO prompts confusion over police cloud legality

  The UK data regulator has suggested that, despite major data protection concerns, it is likely to greenlight police cloud deployments because of an information-sharing agreement with the US government

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  MPs flag similarities between HMRC's treatment of Loan Charge contractors and Post Office scandal

  The fallout from HMRC's controversial disguised remuneration clampdown, the Loan Charge policy, has been likened to the Post Office Horizon scandal during a House of Commons debate

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  Fujitsu boss admits to missed opportunities to prevent miscarriages of justice

  Concerns of an expert witness in subpostmaster trials were ignored by Fujitsu

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  Neighbouring Kent councils hit by simultaneous cyber attacks

  Canterbury, Dover and Thanet Councils in Kent have all been struck by simultaneous cyber attacks knocking systems offline, with indications of a link between all three

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  Cabinet Office publishes 10-point generative AI guidance

  Cabinet Office’s framework, which will evolve as the technology moves forward, sets out 10 principles for the government's use of generative AI systems

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  Fujitsu boss describes Post Office behaviour as 'shameful and appalling'

  The UK head of Fujitsu said he does not know why the Post Office did not reveal information about Horizon software errors to defendants during prosecutions

• January 18, 2024 18 Jan'24

  Anger sparked by TV drama forces Fujitsu to put public sector contract bidding on hold

  It is not just the UK government that has been forced to act quickly amid public anger, as a wounded Fujitsu stalls government contract bidding

• January 18, 2024 18 Jan'24

  PSTN switch-off threatens access to adult social care services

  The Public Switched Telephone Network switch-off is threatening vulnerable Londoners access to adult social care and other vital services, as councils are left to manage the cost without financial support from the centre, says London chief digital ...

• January 18, 2024 18 Jan'24

  More than 900 subpostmaster convictions wouldn’t have happened without Post Office-backed law change

  IT expert says it cannot be the case that computer evidence is treated as accurate in court, without investigation into surrounding circumstances

• January 18, 2024 18 Jan'24

  Tech firms: Investigatory Powers review will undermine privacy of UK citizens

  Trade group TechUK argues in a briefing sent to the Home Office that proposed amendments to the Investigatory Powers Bill could have a far-reaching impact on privacy and security

• January 17, 2024 17 Jan'24

  NCSC invites security pros to join the big leagues

  The NCSC is inviting security pros from across the UK to sign up to work with its experts on an intelligence-sharing initiative

• January 17, 2024 17 Jan'24

  Victims of 2023 Capita data breaches head to High Court

  More than 5,000 people impacted by data breaches arising from two cyber incidents affecting outsourcer Capita have joined a group action lawsuit

• January 17, 2024 17 Jan'24

  Michelle Donelan aims high on tech innovation growth

  The science, innovation and technology secretary wants the UK to match US VC investment as a proportion of GDP

• January 16, 2024 16 Jan'24

  Fujitsu ‘morally obliged’ to contribute to subpostmaster financial redress amid ‘insane’ delays

  Fujitsu has apologised for its role on the Post Office scandal and said it is ‘morally obliged’ to contribute to the financial redress of victims

• January 16, 2024 16 Jan'24

  Republic of Ireland publishes progress update on digital strategy

  Update reveals 2.3 million people in Ireland now have MyGovID accounts, and the Irish government plans to launch a new digital portal for businesses, as well as establishing an AI advisory council imminently

• January 16, 2024 16 Jan'24

  NAO head calls for clean data and modern government IT

  Better IT procurement, better IT systems and better data are among the recommendations Gareth Davies is giving to Parliament

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  British Library catalogues back online after ransomware attack

  The British Library has restored online access to its main catalogue of nearly 40 million items on a limited basis as it continues the long and arduous process of recovering from a ransomware attack

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  AI likely to worsen economic inequality, says IMF

  While artificial intelligence will replace some jobs and complement others, the International Monetary Fund says that, in most of the scenarios it envisages, the technology will likely deepen macro-economic inequalities

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  Russia hacked ex-MI6 chief’s emails – what they reveal is more Dad’s Army than deep state

  A Russian hacking group that published emails of ex-MI6 chief Richard Dearlove claimed to have uncovered a conspiracy, but it was more Dad’s Army than the ‘deep state’, Computer Weekly and Byline Times reveal

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  How legal disclosure failures disrupted the Post Office Horizon inquiry

  From overly narrow search terms, overzealous deduplication of documents and failed email migrations, poor management of legal discovery has delayed justice for postmasters in the Horizon inquiry  

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  IT failure caused weekend chaos at Sussex hospitals

  The critical incident at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, caused by IT issues on Sunday night, has now been resolved

• January 15, 2024 15 Jan'24

  NCA director sacked after WhatsApp and email security breaches

  Nikki Holland, former director of investigations at the NCA, was sacked for “misconduct” after sending sensitive NCA information over personal email and WhatsApp

• January 12, 2024 12 Jan'24

  Post Office scandal inquiry hits mainstream after dramatic start to year

  Long-running statutory public inquiry restarts with hugely increased interest following ITV’s dramatisation of the two decades-long scandal

• January 12, 2024 12 Jan'24

  UK government seeks public views on impacts of AI-generated porn

  The government’s Pornography Review will look in part at the use of AI throughout the industry to generate sexually explicit content without people’s consent

• January 11, 2024 11 Jan'24

  MHRA launches roadmap for medtech regulations

  The roadmap covers plans for regulations on medical technologies, including implantable devices, artificial intelligence and healthcare software, with core elements of a new framework to be in place by 2025

• January 11, 2024 11 Jan'24

  Cisco fixes high-impact flaw in unified comms platform

  Cisco unified comms customers are urged to patch a critical vulnerability in Unity Connection, a messaging and voicemail product

• January 10, 2024 10 Jan'24

  Hundreds of subpostmasters to have convictions quashed in blanket exoneration

  The government has chosen to introduce legislation that will enable it to exonerate hundreds of subpostmasters as a group

• January 10, 2024 10 Jan'24

  Windows Kerberos, Hyper-V vulns among January Patch Tuesday bugs

  Microsoft starts 2024 right with another slimline Patch Tuesday drop, but there are some critical vulns to be alert to, including a number of man-in-the-middle attack vectors

• January 10, 2024 10 Jan'24

  Scotland ‘sleepwalking’ to mass surveillance with DPDI Bill

  The independent checks and balances over biometrics and biometric-enabled surveillance must be strengthened to prevent Scotland from sliding into a surveillance state along with the rest of the UK