News

IT for government and public sector

• September 16, 2022 16 Sep'22

  Barnet Council awards Capita contract extension

  Barnet Council has awarded Capita a contract extension as part of its transition away from a large contract with the supplier

• September 15, 2022 15 Sep'22

  Organisations failing to account for digital trust

  The vast majority of businesses are well aware of the importance of digital trust, yet very few have a dedicated staff role responsible for it, report finds

• September 14, 2022 14 Sep'22

  Ex-CISA head Krebs: Disrupt ransomware support networks to win the war

  Speaking at an event hosted by data protection specialist Rubrik, former CISA director Chris Krebs calls for the security community to work collectively to kick out the supports from under ransomware gangs

• September 12, 2022 12 Sep'22

  CISOs should spend on critical apps, cloud, zero-trust, in 2023

  Faced with a global recession next year, security buyers should try to direct investment towards technology that protects customer-facing and revenue-generating workloads, say analysts

• September 12, 2022 12 Sep'22

  NHS Business Services Authority goes to tender for £1.7bn HR system

  Organisation is looking for an integrated workforce solution for the NHS, which includes NHS electronic staff record services

• September 08, 2022 08 Sep'22

  NCSC CyberUK event heads to Belfast in 2023

  National Cyber Security Centre’s annual CyberUK roadshow is crossing the Irish Sea to Belfast in April 2023

• September 08, 2022 08 Sep'22

  Chinese APT using PlugX malware on espionage targets

  China’s Bronze President APT is once again targeting government officials of interest to its paymasters, this time using forged diplomatic correspondence, according to the Secureworks Counter Threat Unit

• September 07, 2022 07 Sep'22

  Albania cuts diplomatic ties with Iran after cyber attack

  In a global geopolitical first, the Albanian government has severed diplomatic ties with Iran and expelled its ambassador after it was targeted by an APT backed by Tehran

• September 06, 2022 06 Sep'22

  Companies House to introduce digital ID system

  Companies House will introduce a digital identity verification process for people wanting to register and run a company in the UK

• September 06, 2022 06 Sep'22

  New prime minister Liz Truss urged to press on with IR35 and loan charge policy reviews

  Contracting stakeholders are calling on Liz Truss to make good on her pledge to undertake a review of the IR35 rules when she became prime minister

• September 05, 2022 05 Sep'22

  UK payments upgrade to add more than £3bn to GDP, but much more on offer

  UK GDP will increase when its ageing payments infrastructure is replaced with the latest technology to enable real-time payments

• September 02, 2022 02 Sep'22

  Dutch government finally allowed to use public cloud

  Public cloud is finally within reach for Dutch public services. Previously, the Dutch government was only allowed to use private clouds due to risks concerning privacy and security

• September 02, 2022 02 Sep'22

  HMRC to review how IR35 works in practice following PAC criticism

  Several months have passed since the Public Accounts Committee issued its damning report on the fallout from the introduction of the IR35 reforms in the public sector, and HMRC has shared its feedback on its contents

• September 01, 2022 01 Sep'22

  Police interview Horizon scandal victim in investigation into potential perjury by Fujitsu staff

  The Met Police have interviewed a former subpostmaster as part of an investigation into potential perjury by former Fujitsu staff

• September 01, 2022 01 Sep'22

  Local authorities experience 10,000 attempted cyber attacks every day

  Local authorities across the UK face a daily deluge of cyber incidents, with phishing and DDoS attacks the most prevalent, according to an insurance broker

• September 01, 2022 01 Sep'22

  Google workers oppose cloud contract with Israeli government

  Google workers and Palestinian rights activists call on company to divest from involvement in cloud and artificial intelligence contract with Israeli government and military, following allegations the tech giant has retaliated against an employee ...

• August 31, 2022 31 Aug'22

  Regional tech hub leaders want more support with levelling-up from next prime minister

  Several senior leaders from the regional-focused UK Tech Cluster Group have shared their views on what they think the next prime minister should do to ensure tech funding is distributed more evenly across the UK

• August 31, 2022 31 Aug'22

  Norway has NOK200m plan to bolster cyber defences

  Norway is investing heavily in its cyber defences amid heightened threat from Russia

• August 31, 2022 31 Aug'22

  NHS staff fall further behind amid ransomware attack

  While some NHS bodies are now recovering their services after the ransomware attack on a crucial software supplier, others are still being forced to rely on pen and paper, and some will be waiting months to recover

• August 30, 2022 30 Aug'22

  IAM house Okta confirms 0ktapus/Scatter Swine attack

  Following last week’s disclosureby Group-IB researchers of a major phishing campaign, Okta has warned its customers to be on their guard

• August 30, 2022 30 Aug'22

  One Login digital identity project makes headway

  Government services are lining up to work with the GDS on its One Login digital identity system, according to its director of digital identity, Natalie Jones

• August 25, 2022 25 Aug'22

  Adaptive RedAlert, Monster ransomwares go cross-platform

  Kaspersky researchers have shared new intelligence on two emergent cyber criminal groups that have adapted their ransomwares to target different operating systems at the same time

• August 25, 2022 25 Aug'22

  Security pros fret about stress and promotion over cyber attacks

  CIISec’s annual report on the state of the security profession reveals some home truths for security leaders

• August 25, 2022 25 Aug'22

  LockBit 3.0 cements dominance of ransomware ecosystem

  Ransomware attacks were up 47% in July compared with the previous month, according to the latest threat data from NCC Group, with the LockBit family largely to blame

• August 24, 2022 24 Aug'22

  Most CISOs think they’ve been attacked by a nation state

  Most organisations have made changes to their cyber strategies and policies following Russia’s invasion, and almost two-thirds suspect they have been directly targeted or impacted by a nation-state cyber attack

• August 23, 2022 23 Aug'22

  Home Office announces Scale-up visa for fast-growth firms

  Scale-up visa launched to help high-growth businesses employ talent from overseas, but sponsorship requirements could undermine effectiveness

• August 23, 2022 23 Aug'22

  Farming tech projects get £16.5m in government funding

  Projects receiving funding through latest round of farming innovation programme include tech to improve fruit farming and the use of artificial intelligence to improve pigs’ welfare

• August 22, 2022 22 Aug'22

  Google Cloud and Singapore government team up on AI

  Singapore’s National AI office will tap Google Cloud’s expertise in artificial intelligence to build artificial intelligence applications and train public sector officers on AI

• August 22, 2022 22 Aug'22

  Kaspersky threat data added to Microsoft Sentinel service

  Microsoft and Kaspersky have agreed a collaboration to integrate Kaspersky’s threat data feeds into Microsoft’s cloud-native SIEM/SOAR service

• August 22, 2022 22 Aug'22

  Lloyd’s to end insurance coverage for state cyber attacks

  Lloyd’s of London has instructed its members to exclude nation state cyber attacks from insurance policies beginning in 2023, saying they pose unacceptable levels of risk

• August 19, 2022 19 Aug'22

  Cozy Bear targets MS 365 environments with new tactics

  Cozy Bear, or APT29, is trying out new tricks as it seeks access to its targets’ Microsoft 365 environments

• August 18, 2022 18 Aug'22

  LexisNexis sued by immigration advocates over data practices

  Four immigration advocacy groups launch lawsuit in Illinois alleging data broker’s collection, aggregation and sale of people’s personal data, including non-public information, to corporations and government bodies

• August 18, 2022 18 Aug'22

  Growing MFA use spurs ‘pass-the-cookie’ attacks

  The exploitation of stolen session cookies by cyber criminals is once again back on the agenda, thanks to the growing popularity of multifactor authentication tools

• August 18, 2022 18 Aug'22

  It takes a breach to force boards to take notice of cyber, says UK government

  Too often, it takes a major incident for business leadership to pay attention to cyber issues, according to a government-commissioned study of victims

• August 18, 2022 18 Aug'22

  GPS tagging of migrants breaches UK data protection law, says Privacy International complaint

  Privacy group files complaints with Information Commissioner’s Office and Forensic Science Regulator over Home Office’s GPS monitoring of migrants

• August 16, 2022 16 Aug'22

  Cyber security accelerator launches in Greater Manchester

  Accelerator will add to Manchester’s growing cyber security ecosystem, which already includes several tech unicorns, arms companies and the offices of GCHQ

• August 16, 2022 16 Aug'22

  Why organisations need to harmonise their CIO and CISO roles

  Unless properly managed, conflicting responsibilities between the chief information officer and the chief information security officer can cause project delays and budget overruns, says Netskope’s Mike Anderson

• August 16, 2022 16 Aug'22

  DWP looks to hire new CDIO

  Department is on the hunt for a chief digital and information officer to lead on its digital agenda, offering up to £200,000 pa for the role

• August 15, 2022 15 Aug'22

  Lawyers and journalists sue CIA and Mike Pompeo over Assange surveillance claims

  CIA and its former director sued over allegations that they authorised unlawful spying on US citizens when they visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London

• August 15, 2022 15 Aug'22

  Royal Mint turns to Circular Computing for remanufactured Lenovo laptops

  BSI Kitemark for laptops supplied by Circular Computing intended to certify remanufactured products that are ‘as good as’ brand new devices

• August 12, 2022 12 Aug'22

  UK Amazon workers stage series of wildcat strikes over pay offers

  Amazon warehouse workers across the UK have organised a series of spontaneous strike actions after the e-commerce giant’s management offered them pay rises between 35p and 50p

• August 12, 2022 12 Aug'22

  Online Safety Bill ‘not fit for purpose’, say tech experts

  IT specialists lack confidence that legislation compelling tech firms to tackle online harms will work as intended, with only a small minority believing ‘harmful but legal’ content can be effectively and proportionately policed by internet platforms

• August 10, 2022 10 Aug'22

  Increase in UK startups scaling to exit, but half still struggle

  Despite more startups scaling to the point of exit than ever before, half are still stuck in low growth stages – particularly those working with emerging technologies

• August 10, 2022 10 Aug'22

  Microsoft fixes two-year-old MSDT vulnerability in August update

  August’s Patch Tuesday drop fixes more than 120 CVEs, including another MSDT RCE zero-day that is being actively exploited.

• August 10, 2022 10 Aug'22

  ‘Coopetition’ a growing trend among ransomware gangs

  Sophos shares data from its new X-Ops unit at Black Hat in Las Vegas, revealing a growing number of ransomware victims being attacked by multiple gangs at the same time

• August 10, 2022 10 Aug'22

  UK to surveil convicted migrants with facial recognition

  A Home Office scheme to biometrically scan the faces of convicted migrants who have already carried out punishments has come under fire from privacy and human rights groups for being discriminatory

• August 09, 2022 09 Aug'22

  HS2 sets aside £9.5m to cover cost of IR35 non-compliance

  HS2 has become the latest public sector entity to have fallen foul of the IR35 rules, with its accounts confirming that it is anticipating a tax bill of £9.5m for failing to assess the status of contractors provided to it by a third party

• August 05, 2022 05 Aug'22

  NAO guide for senior government leaders flags barriers to better data use

  A National Audit Office guide for government chiefs on improving data use points to difficulties in achieving data sharing benefits and laments variability in cross-government data quality

• August 05, 2022 05 Aug'22

  CIO interview: Stephen Booth, CIO, Coventry University

  After more than 20 years at the university, the CIO is still taking on new responsibilities – including his team becoming a commercial entity and acquiring its own software

• August 05, 2022 05 Aug'22

  Reliance on PSN may have exacerbated cyber attack impact

  As it seeks a new supplier to reinvigorate the migration away from the Public Services Network, the Cabinet Office says relying on the legacy network may be putting public sector bodies at heightened risk in cyber attacks