News

IT for government and public sector

• September 27, 2023 27 Sep'23

  Five more subpostmasters have IT system-related convictions overturned

  Over 90 former subpostmasters have so far seen wrongful convictions overturned since it was proved that software errors were to blame for accounting shortfalls

• September 27, 2023 27 Sep'23

  Post Office had no interest in subpostmaster welfare when taking legal action, says Fujitsu memo

  Fujitsu memo reveals Post Office didn’t care how legal action would affect its subpostmasters as it placed the reputation of its computer system before their welfare

• September 27, 2023 27 Sep'23

  City of Las Vegas masters cyber incident response with Darktrace

  The high-rolling city of Las Vegas experiences unique cyber security challenges rarely seen elsewhere. CIO Mike Sherwood reveals how he turned to Darktrace to help address incidents quicker and with confidence

• September 26, 2023 26 Sep'23

  UK government quietly disbands data ethics advisory board

  The government has disbanded its Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation’s advisory board in favour of pulling the relevant artificial intelligence (AI) and data knowledge from a pool of external experts

• September 26, 2023 26 Sep'23

  HMRC names and shames non-compliant umbrella firms for running tax avoidance schemes

  The government tax collection agency is stepping up its efforts to prevent contractors falling victim to non-compliant umbrella firms with three new names added to its list of known tax avoidance schemes

• September 25, 2023 25 Sep'23

  Visa to fund AI scholarships for underrepresented students in government scheme

  Payments giant supports UK scheme to increase diversity in the data and artificial intelligence sector through funding

• September 25, 2023 25 Sep'23

  Apple fixes three vulnerabilities found by spyware researchers

  Apple has patched three more vulnerabilities uncovered by spyware and surveillance researchers at The Citizen Lab

• September 22, 2023 22 Sep'23

  Cyber experts set out plan to secure future US elections

  A group of experts are setting out to enhance election cyber security in the United States, and restore public faith in a process tainted by interference and misinformation in the past

• September 22, 2023 22 Sep'23

  Lords begin inquiry into large language models

  Lords will examine the risks and opportunities of large language models and look at how government can effectively manage them in the coming years

• September 20, 2023 20 Sep'23

  Parliament passes sweeping Online Safety Bill but tech companies still concerned over encryption

  Ofcom will consult on standards to enforce new powers, but tech companies remain concerned about the impact of the bill’s ‘spy clause’, which could require them to scan encrypted messages

• September 19, 2023 19 Sep'23

  Braverman puts pressure on Meta to pause end-to-end encryption plans

  The home secretary is calling on Meta to halt its plans to introduce encrypted messaging services on Facebook and Instagram until the company puts measures in place to detect abuse

• September 19, 2023 19 Sep'23

  New revelations from the Snowden archive surface

  A decade after Snowden exposed NSA’s mass surveillance in cooperation with the British GCHQ, only about 1% of the documents have been published – but three major facts can finally be revealed thanks to a doctoral thesis in applied cryptography by ...

• September 19, 2023 19 Sep'23

  Post Office employee changed story for witness statement used to destroy subpostmaster

  Post Office inquiry hears how an auditor changed her story about a subpostmaster to help win court battle

• September 19, 2023 19 Sep'23

  UK wants international collaboration on AI for development

  Foreign secretary James Cleverly uses speech at United Nations General Assembly to set out vision for potential of AI technology to speed up development in the world’s poorest nations

• September 18, 2023 18 Sep'23

  Government offers £600,000 to subpostmasters with overturned convictions

  Subpostmasters wrongfully convicted of financial crimes based on evidence from faulty Horizon software will be offered £600,000 compensation by government

• September 18, 2023 18 Sep'23

  Government seeks industry views on cyber threat to UK CNI

  The Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee is seeking evidence from the cyber sector as it launches an inquiry into the resilience of the UK's critical national infrastructure

• September 15, 2023 15 Sep'23

  UK space sector needs more people with AI skills, according to survey

  Space sector survey shows machine learning and artificial intelligence skills are highly sought after, as the industry struggles to recruit and retain people with the necessary talent

• September 15, 2023 15 Sep'23

  Manchester police data breach a classic supply chain incident

  The developing data breach at Greater Manchester Police follows a cyber attack on the systems of a key supplier of ID services to the force

• September 14, 2023 14 Sep'23

  Bristol Uni to host one of Europe’s most power supercomputer clusters

  A high-performance computer system being built at the University of Bristol will run thousands of GPUs to support research in artificial intelligence and scientific discovery

• September 14, 2023 14 Sep'23

  Government appoints Dave Smith as UK national tech adviser

  The former Rolls-Royce technology director will take over the role of UK national technology adviser, following government recruitment campaign for the role in the wake of former tech adviser Patrick Vallance’s departure

• September 13, 2023 13 Sep'23

  GCHQ breached privacy rights of IT professional and security researcher, human rights court rules

  The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg finds UK intelligence services breached the privacy rights of two overseas nationals – an IT professional and a security researcher

• September 13, 2023 13 Sep'23

  Patch Tuesday: Microsoft fixes zero-days in Word and Streaming Service

  September 2023 brings a light Patch Tuesday, with two zero-days and five critical vulnerabilities listed in the latest release

• September 12, 2023 12 Sep'23

  Ancient MoD IT systems could cause supply issues for frontline troops

  Deliveries of inventory to the front line are being put at risk due to legacy IT systems and poor data, according to the National Audit Office

• September 12, 2023 12 Sep'23

  Whitehall only capable of ‘piecemeal’ digital transformation, says PAC

  The Public Accounts Committee is unconvinced government will achieve its digital transformation ambitions as progress is thwarted by staff shortages and a lack of senior leadership engagement

• September 12, 2023 12 Sep'23

  European enterprises to spend more on generative IT to close gap on US

  European organisations are upping their spending on generative AI innovation, but face challenges recruiting the right people to support this

• September 11, 2023 11 Sep'23

  University of Glasgow launches Centre for data science and AI

  Scottish university will apply artificial intelligence and data science to help solve some of the world's biggest challenges

• September 11, 2023 11 Sep'23

  Polish election questioned after Pegasus spyware used to smear opposition, investigation finds

  Senate committee alerts prosecutors over potential crimes by public officials involved in purchasing Pegasus spyware used to monitor and smear political opponents

• September 11, 2023 11 Sep'23

  IR35: HMRC reportedly working to April 2024 start date for settlement offsets fix

  HMRC is reportedly planning to roll out its fix for the double-taxation issue affecting IR35 compliance cases by April 2024

• September 08, 2023 08 Sep'23

  Deputy PM urges UK plc not to lose focus on cyber

  In a speech at TechUK, deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden urges the cyber security community not to lose focus, and to do more to further collaboration across sectors

• September 08, 2023 08 Sep'23

  HGS to provide contact centre support for One Login

  The partnership between the Government Digital Service and Hinduja Global Solutions will see the supplier provide contact centre services for the digital identity platform

• September 07, 2023 07 Sep'23

  UK minister fails to reassure tech companies over encryption risk

  Technology companies say reassurances by government ministers that they have no intention of weakening end-to-end encrypted communication services do not go far enough

• September 07, 2023 07 Sep'23

  Kent Digital tackles digital divide with refurbished laptops

  The council has begun working with Circular Computing to support people who do not have access to laptop devices

• September 07, 2023 07 Sep'23

  Government AI taskforce appoints new advisory board members

  An initial progress report published by the Taskforce provides detail on new appointments to its external advisory board as well as rebrand to focus on “frontier” artificial intelligence

• September 06, 2023 06 Sep'23

  French supreme court dismisses legal challenge to EncroChat cryptophone evidence

  Defence lawyers plan to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights after the French supreme court disallowed an appeal over the legality of EncroChat evidence

• September 06, 2023 06 Sep'23

  German court unclear whether intercepted EncroChat cryptophone messages are legally admissible

  Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court is waiting to hear five complaints that could decide whether data from the hacked EncroChat phone network can be lawfully used in German courts, but situation remains unclear for now

• September 05, 2023 05 Sep'23

  Hacked Electoral Commission failed Cyber Essentials audit

  The Electoral Commission failed an NCSC Cyber Essentials audit on multiple counts at about the same time as cyber criminals breached its systems in 2021, it has emerged

• September 05, 2023 05 Sep'23

  Government pumps £18.5m into autonomous vehicles

  Government’s funding is part of a £50m pot going to 30 different ‘cutting-edge’ manufacturing projects, with the aim of boosting green technology innovation

• September 05, 2023 05 Sep'23

  NCSC names ex-NCC man as new CTO

  New NCSC CTO Ollie Whitehouse joins from NCC Group, having also worked at BlackBerry and Symantec

• September 05, 2023 05 Sep'23

  Plymouth Uni spearheads research into wind farm cyber resilience

  Project hosted at the University of Plymouth in Devon aims to develop cyber security measures to protect the UK’s increasingly important offshore wind farm assets

• September 04, 2023 04 Sep'23

  TUC launches AI taskforce for workers’ rights and societal benefit

  The Trades Union Congress has launched what it calls an AI ‘taskforce’ to draft an AI and Employment Bill, aimed at safeguarding workers’ rights, early in 2024

• September 04, 2023 04 Sep'23

  LockBit ransomware gang allegedly leaks MoD data after hit on supplier

  The UK government appears to have become entangled in a LockBit ransomware attack after data was leaked from a third-party supplier online

• September 01, 2023 01 Sep'23

  Police Scotland five-year digital strategy approved

  Police Scotland’s new strategy outlines how the force will approach and invest in its digital transformation over the next five years, but notes its ability to achieve its ambitions is subject to the availability of funding

• September 01, 2023 01 Sep'23

  IT experts issue new warnings over Online Safety Bill plans to weaken end-to-end encryption

  BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, argues the government is seeking a technical fix to terrorism and child abuse without understanding the risks and implications

• August 31, 2023 31 Aug'23

  Border Target Operating Model gives update on digital border plans

  The model aims to make smarter use of data and technology at the border, including a digital gateway for users to provide data and apply for licences and authorisations

• August 31, 2023 31 Aug'23

  Home Office and MoD seeking new facial-recognition tech

  The UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator is running a ‘market exploration’ exercise on behalf of the Home Office to identify new facial-recognition capabilities for security and policing bodies in the UK

• August 31, 2023 31 Aug'23

  Post Office to provide in-person identity checks for One Login

  Partnership between the Government Digital Service and the Post Office will see postmasters and staff provide face-to-face identity checks for those unable to use the One Login app or website

• August 31, 2023 31 Aug'23

  GenAI outranks cloud as business IT strategic priority

  Enterprise Strategy Group research on the use cases for generative AI shows it as strategic for corporate IT, with impacts on customer experience, software development and IT Ops

• August 31, 2023 31 Aug'23

  MPs say UK at real risk of falling behind on AI regulation

  MPs in charge of scrutinising the UK government’s proposals for regulating artificial intelligence have warned that time is running out for the introduction of new AI legislation before 2025

• August 30, 2023 30 Aug'23

  Met police data platform deployed with data protection issues

  Met Police deploys integrated record management system despite data protection ‘compliance issues' that would inhibit its ability to retrieve data, meet its statutory logging requirements, and respond to subject access requests

• August 29, 2023 29 Aug'23

  Zero-day that forced Barracuda users to bin kit was exploited by China

  Mandiant has published details of how a Chinese threat actor targeted high-profile users of Barracuda Networks' Email Security Gateway appliances, including government agencies of interest to Beijing's intelligence goals