News

IT for government and public sector

• October 20, 2022 20 Oct'22

  Manchester to launch digital strategy

  Four-year strategy to focus on smarter use of technology and data to make Manchester a sustainable and resilient city

• October 20, 2022 20 Oct'22

  Parliamentary committee launches inquiry into AI governance

  MPs will examine the impacts of artificial intelligence throughout the UK economy and how governance of the technology can be improved ahead of the government publishing its formal regulatory proposals

• October 20, 2022 20 Oct'22

  Cyber professional shortfall hits 3.4 million

  Shortage of cyber security professionals continues to grow and shows no signs of abating, says report

• October 19, 2022 19 Oct'22

  Greenland investigates potential blockchain-based election system

  Researchers have been funded to investigate blockchain-based online voting in Greenland

• October 19, 2022 19 Oct'22

  Treat cyber crime as a ‘strategic threat’, UK businesses told

  The government’s new National Cyber Advisory Board aims to help elevate cyber discussion and spur action in the business community

• October 18, 2022 18 Oct'22

  MoD must have clear delivery plan for digital strategy, says NAO

  While the Digital Strategy for Defence seems to be going well, the National Audit Office is concerned there is no overarching plan to implement it, or a clear way of measuring whether it is on track

• October 18, 2022 18 Oct'22

  Government introduces Electronic Trade Documents Bill

  Digital trade documents will be legally recognised as part of plans to reduce paper documents and speed up processing times

• October 18, 2022 18 Oct'22

  Subpostmaster federation failed its members when they needed it most

  A dereliction of duty saw subpostmaster federation ignore its members when IT problems hit and allowed the Post Office destroy their lives

• October 17, 2022 17 Oct'22

  IR35 reforms repeal scrapped: Government labelled ‘spineless’ over u-turn

  The contracting community has not taken kindly to the news that the government is rowing back its plans to repeal the IR35 reforms in the private and public sectors

• October 17, 2022 17 Oct'22

  Government u-turns on plans to scrap IR35 reforms in public and private sector from April 2023

  Chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirms that the planned repeal of the IR35 reforms in the public and private sector is cancelled

• October 17, 2022 17 Oct'22

  Biden ramps up China chip sanctions

  The war of words between China and the US has ramifications across the high-tech sector. We report on the latest developments

• October 14, 2022 14 Oct'22

  Annual costs of Hackney ransomware attack exceed £12m

  Hackney Council reveals new insight into the ongoing cost of a ransomware attack that devastated its systems two years ago

• October 14, 2022 14 Oct'22

  Office 365 email encryption flaw could pose risk to user privacy

  A vulnerability in Microsoft Office 365 Message Encryption could leave the contents of emails dangerously exposed, but with no fix coming it’s up to users to decide how at risk they are

• October 14, 2022 14 Oct'22

  Fujitsu to finally face blame for its part in Post Office Horizon scandal

  Fujitsu’s part in causing the extreme suffering of subpostmasters will be made clear as the IT supplier begins giving evidence at a statutory inquiry

• October 14, 2022 14 Oct'22

  Protecting children by scanning encrypted messages is ‘magical thinking’, says Cambridge professor

  Ross Anderson argues in a rebuttal to GCHQ experts that using artificial intelligence to scan encrypted messaging services is the wrong approach to protecting children and preventing terrorism

• October 13, 2022 13 Oct'22

  Dutch influence standards for post-quantum cryptography

  Cryptology group at Dutch research institute is involved in the two primary algorithms of the next NIST portfolio comprising four new standards

• October 13, 2022 13 Oct'22

  Perpetrators of subpostmaster suffering in Horizon scandal must face public inquiry

  Victims demand that the perpetrators of the Post Office Horizon IT scandal face the public inquiry

• October 13, 2022 13 Oct'22

  Tech critical to the UK’s prosperity, says Jacob Rees-Mogg

  Technology could provide the answer to the energy crisis, according to the secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, as he hails tech as a way to guarantee prosperity for the country

• October 13, 2022 13 Oct'22

  Turing launches government-backed AI standards information hub

  The Alan Turing Institute has launched the AI Standards Hub jointly with the British Standards Institution and the National Physical Laboratory, backed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

• October 12, 2022 12 Oct'22

  NCSC urges organisations to secure supply chains

  NCSC’s latest guidance package centres supply chain security, helping medium to large organisations assess and mitigate cyber risks from suppliers

• October 12, 2022 12 Oct'22

  French Supreme Court rejects EncroChat verdict after lawyers question secrecy over hacking operation

  France’s Supreme Court has sent a case back to the court of appeal after police failed to disclose technical details of EncroChat hacking operation

• October 12, 2022 12 Oct'22

  ICO selectively discloses reprimands for data protection breaches

  Data protection experts question ICO’s selective approach to publishing formal reprimands for contravening the law, after FoI request reveals the Cabinet Office was among the organisations reprimanded

• October 11, 2022 11 Oct'22

  Post Office scandal inquiry restarts with call for a pause amid disclosure controversy

  The statutory public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal has begun phase two with a request for an adjournment amid allegations that the Post Office is failing to meet its obligation to disclose all relevant documents

• October 11, 2022 11 Oct'22

  Public sector spend on IT climbed to £12.6bn in 2021

  Public sector bodies IT spend went up 10% last year, but the majority of the money went to large IT suppliers with 89% of the total spend going to so-called ‘tech titans’, according to a report from Tussell

• October 10, 2022 10 Oct'22

  Dutch infrastructure sector seeks closer collaboration with government

  Although the Netherlands government is increasingly realising how vital the country’s digital infrastructure is, it lacks sufficient policy-making and vision, say industry associations

• October 10, 2022 10 Oct'22

  BHRUT launches digital surgery clinic

  Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust’s digital surgery clinic, thought to be the first in the world, will give 700 patients access to a digital platform to help them prepare for surgery and speed up recovery

• October 10, 2022 10 Oct'22

  Ukraine and EU explore deeper cyber collaboration

  A Ukrainian delegation has met with officials from the EU’s ENISA cyber agency to explore deeper cooperation on cyber security issues

• October 09, 2022 09 Oct'22

  ODI food poverty study shows black families and North East suffering most

  A food poverty data report from the Open Data Institute shows black families and the North East of England are suffering the most

• October 06, 2022 06 Oct'22

  EU rolling out measures for online safety and AI liability

  The European Council has approved the passage of the Digital Services Act to protect people’s rights online, while the European Commission has announced proposals to help those negatively affected by artificial intelligence to claim compensation

• October 06, 2022 06 Oct'22

  Proposals for scanning encrypted messages should be cut from Online Safety Bill, say researchers

  Automatic scanning of messaging services for illegal content could lead to one billion false alarms each day in Europe

• October 04, 2022 04 Oct'22

  Public sector aims to close digital skills gap with private sector

  Digital leaders from the public sector have stressed the need to build up the digital skills and capabilities of civil servants to successfully deliver the government’s digital transformation ambitions, but not at the expense of supplier ecosystems

• October 04, 2022 04 Oct'22

  IR35 reforms to be scrapped: What IT contractors need to know

  News of the government’s plans to scrap the IR35 reforms took the contracting world by surprise, but IT contractors are being warned off making hasty changes to the way they work just yet

• October 04, 2022 04 Oct'22

  HMCTS continues roll-out of Common Platform despite calls to halt deployment

  Controversial roll-out of digital case management system continues amid planned strike action by Public and Commercial Services Union because of issues with the system

• October 04, 2022 04 Oct'22

  France extradites Spanish EncroChat cryptophone distributors for complicity with organised crime

  Three phone sellers have been extradited from Spain to France to face charges that they were complicit in the activities of criminal EncroChat phone users  

• October 03, 2022 03 Oct'22

  Digital right to work checks officially go live

  Under the new government guidance, employers can choose between 16 certified identity service providers to digitally check their employees legal right to work in the UK

• September 30, 2022 30 Sep'22

  Surveillance tech firms complicit in MENA human rights abuses

  Research finds companies are profiting from surveillance technologies that facilitate human rights abuses against migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in the Middle East and North Africa, with little to no oversight

• September 30, 2022 30 Sep'22

  Interview: Rachel Hilliam, chair, Alliance for Data Science Professionals

  Rachel Hilliam talks about the origins, mission and future plans for the Alliance for Data Science Professionals

• September 29, 2022 29 Sep'22

  Failure of Russia’s cyber attacks on Ukraine is most important lesson for NCSC

  Russia has so far failed in its attempts to destabilise Ukraine through cyber attacks due to strength of Ukrainian, security industry and international efforts

• September 28, 2022 28 Sep'22

  Whistleblower Peter Duffy calls for oversight of NHS records to prevent evidence tampering

  A whistleblower has called for greater oversight in the handling of ‘safety-critical digital information’ across the NHS, in light of a number of cases that raise questions about data governance and record-keeping within the health service

• September 28, 2022 28 Sep'22

  Online Safety Bill needs complete overhaul, say rights groups

  Civil society groups write to new digital minister to challenge various aspects of the upcoming Online Safety Bill, which they say threatens rights to privacy and freedom of expression

• September 26, 2022 26 Sep'22

  How Russian intelligence hacked the encrypted emails of former MI6 boss Richard Dearlove

  Hack by Russian-linked ColdRiver group exposed former MI6 chief Richard Dearlove’s contacts and email communications with government, military, intelligence and political officials

• September 26, 2022 26 Sep'22

  Data analysis and artificial intelligence key industrial strategy missions for Labour

  Shadow business secretary announces Labour’s proposed industrial strategy, in which data would take a central role

• September 26, 2022 26 Sep'22

  More than 30 startups to join Plexal’s Cyber Runway accelerator

  Now in its second year, the Cyber Runway accelerator has been designed to support firms at various stages of growth, as well as help the cyber security sector to improve on its diversity, inclusion and regional representation

• September 23, 2022 23 Sep'22

  Conversation between two police officers formed basis of EncroChat warrant, court hears

  The National Crime Agency did not seek a written explanation of a French hacking technique before applying for a surveillance warrant to use French “intercept” in the UK, a court heard

• September 23, 2022 23 Sep'22

  NCA ‘deliberately concealed’ information when it applied for EncroChat warrants, tribunal hears

  Investigatory Powers Tribunal hears that the National Crime Agency made ‘serious and fundamental errors’

• September 23, 2022 23 Sep'22

  IR35 reforms to be scrapped in public and private sectors from April 2023, government confirms

  The government has confirmed that the 2017 and 2021 roll-out of the IR35 reforms to the public and private sectors, respectively, will be repealed in April 2023

• September 23, 2022 23 Sep'22

  Post Office scandal inquiry chair intervenes in slow compensation progress

  Chair of statutory public inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal has aired his disappointment over the slow progress in making interim payments to victims

• September 22, 2022 22 Sep'22

  CCS £2bn big data and analytics framework goes live

  The Crown Commercial Service has launched a big data and analytics framework worth up to £2bn over the course of the agreement

• September 21, 2022 21 Sep'22

  Contractors call for IR35 review and tax cuts in Chancellor’s mini-Budget

  The contractor community is patiently awaiting the outcome of this Friday’s mini-Budget, with hopes for some concrete details on the Prime Minister’s proposed IR35 review and news of a corporation tax cut

• September 20, 2022 20 Sep'22

  NHS Scotland to transform population health through digital technologies

  A collaboration between NHS Scotland, industry partners and academia aims to launch large-scale programmes to improve population health in the country through digital technologies and new patient pathways