News

IT for government and public sector

• July 08, 2024 08 Jul'24

  Sir Alan Bates welcomes MP’s elevation to House of Lords

  Former Labour MP has moved to the House of Lords where he will continue campaigning for justice for victims of the Horizon scandal

• July 04, 2024 04 Jul'24

  UK data regulator should investigate police cloud deployments

  The Scottish biometrics commissioner has called for the UK Information Commissioner’s Office to formally investigate whether Police Scotland’s cloud-based evidence sharing system is fully compliant with data protection laws

• July 03, 2024 03 Jul'24

  NCA’s Operation Morpheus targets illicit Cobalt Strike use

  International law enforcement operation targets cyber criminals using the Cobalt Strike penetration testing framework for dodgy purposes

• July 03, 2024 03 Jul'24

  Former Post Office chair 'regrets' keeping critical Horizon report secret

  Tim Parker, chairman of the Post Office from 2015 to 2022, admits he should not have accepted legal advice to prevent release of a review that could have supported victims of the Horizon scandal

• July 03, 2024 03 Jul'24

  UK must push forward greater use of open tech

  OpenUK is calling on policymakers to put more effort into building the UK’s open source capabilities

• July 03, 2024 03 Jul'24

  Police Digital Service employees arrested on suspicion of fraud, bribery and misconduct

  The Police Digital Service has confirmed an internal review of its processes will be undertaken in the wake of staff arrests

• July 03, 2024 03 Jul'24

  Tech leaders recognised for social, cultural and economic innovations

  TechUK President's Awards highlight the contribution of the IT community to improving society through digital innovation

• July 01, 2024 01 Jul'24

  Diana project provides Nato tech dividend to Finland

  Finnish tech sector to receive a boost following the country’s decision to join Nato

• June 28, 2024 28 Jun'24

  Former Fujitsu engineer says Post Office ‘trapped’ him into giving incomplete evidence

  Gareth Jenkins turned his fire on the Post Office on the final day of his marathon evidence session at the Post Office public inquiry

• June 27, 2024 27 Jun'24

  UKtech50 winner interview: Alan Bates, Post Office Horizon scandal campaigner

  UKtech50 winner Alan Bates talks to Computer Weekly about why the Post Office needs to be modernised, how to deploy an IT system the right way and his plans to write a book

• June 27, 2024 27 Jun'24

  UKtech50 2024: The most influential people in UK technology

  Computer Weekly has announced the 14th annual UKtech50 – our definitive list of the movers and shakers in the UK tech sector

• June 27, 2024 27 Jun'24

  IT giant Atos faces collapse if restructuring talks fail

  French IT giant Atos is facing financial problems that could affect the ability of its UK arm to deliver key government contracts, including those related to NHS records in hospitals

• June 27, 2024 27 Jun'24

  Wales partners with OpenAI to improve Welsh language tech

  The Welsh government’s data partnership with the company behind ChatGPT aims to improve how artificial intelligence technologies work in the Welsh language

• June 27, 2024 27 Jun'24

  Experts shocked by ‘extraordinary’ claim made by Post Office IT expert witness

  A former Fujitsu engineer made an ‘unbelievable’ claim about evidence he gave in witness statements when acting as an expert witness during Post Office prosecutions of subpostmasters

• June 26, 2024 26 Jun'24

  Ignorance of ‘legal niceties’ from Post Office expert IT witness saw innocent people jailed

  IT expert used by Post Office to give evidence supporting prosecutions of subpostmasters did not understand legal duties he was bound to

• June 26, 2024 26 Jun'24

  Police Scotland did not consult ICO about high-risk cloud system

  Police Scotland chose not to formally consult with the data regulator about the risks identified with a cloud-based digital evidence sharing system, while the regulator itself did not follow up for nearly three months

• June 25, 2024 25 Jun'24

  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange freed from prison

  A deal reached with US authorities will end the WikiLeaks founder’s years-long legal saga, setting him free if he pleads guilty to a criminal conspiracy charge

• June 25, 2024 25 Jun'24

  Numbers prove former subpostmaster federation boss’s ignorance over Post Office scandal

  George Thomson is ignoring the numbers when he downplays subpostmaster prosecutions based on Horizon data

• June 24, 2024 24 Jun'24

  Sellafield pleads guilty to criminal charges over cyber security

  Nuclear Decommissioning Authority-backed organisation Sellafield Ltd pleads guilty to criminal charges brought over significant cyber security failings that could have compromised sensitive nuclear information

• June 24, 2024 24 Jun'24

  Buckinghamshire Council drives efficiencies with Microsoft Copilot

  With local government facing a funding crisis, Buckinghamshire Council hopes artificial intelligence can boost efficiency and reduce outgoings

• June 24, 2024 24 Jun'24

  Metropolitan Police could investigate one of its own staff in Post Office probe

  Former Post Office investigator deleted references to software errors in a witness statement from Fujitsu’s Gareth Jenkins during the wrongful prosecution of a subpostmaster

• June 21, 2024 21 Jun'24

  Sellafield whistleblower ordered to pay costs after email tampering claims

  A former consultant at Sellafield has been ordered to pay costs for having ‘acted unreasonably’ in claiming the nuclear facility tampered with metadata in letters used against her in court

• June 21, 2024 21 Jun'24

  Qilin ransomware gang publishes stolen NHS data online

  The ransomware gang behind a major cyber attack on NHS supplier Synnovis has published a 400GB trove of private healthcare data online

• June 21, 2024 21 Jun'24

  ICO police cloud guidance released under FOI

  Long-awaited guidance from the UK data regulator on police cloud deployments highlights some potential data transfer mechanisms it thinks can clear up ongoing legal issues, but tells forces it’s up to them to decide if the measures would work

• June 20, 2024 20 Jun'24

  Sir Alan Bates hits out at Post Office ‘incompetence’ after data breach

  Victims of the scandal react with anger at news the Post Office published a document containing their names and addresses on its website

• June 20, 2024 20 Jun'24

  Post Office and Fujitsu had tense relationship, but were joined at hip when protecting their brands

  Problems in the roll-out of Horizon Online in 2010 created a tense relationship between the Post Office and Fujitsu

• June 19, 2024 19 Jun'24

  Post Office Horizon system investigators were blocked and threatened as they witnessed cover-up

  Independent investigators who put Post Office and its Horizon system under spotlight faced aggression as they witnessed cover-up

• June 19, 2024 19 Jun'24

  Microsoft admits no guarantee of sovereignty for UK policing data

  Documents show Microsoft’s lawyers admitted to Scottish policing bodies that the company cannot guarantee sensitive law enforcement data will remain in the UK, despite long-standing public claims to the contrary

• June 18, 2024 18 Jun'24

  General election 2024: The Green Party promises Digital Bill of Rights

  The Green Party manifesto contains several tech nuggets, including a bill to ensure independent regulation of social media platforms, increase R&D investment and a cautious regulatory approach to AI pledges

• June 17, 2024 17 Jun'24

  Once ridiculed Post Office scandal campaigner Alan Bates receives knighthood

  Campaigner for justice, once labelled a ‘nutter’ and a ‘thief’, knighted for his work to expose the Post Office scandal

• June 14, 2024 14 Jun'24

  Post Office scandal victims in Scotland have convictions quashed

  Scotland follows England, Wales and Northern Ireland in exonerating wrongfully convicted subpostmasters en masse

• June 13, 2024 13 Jun'24

  General election 2024: Labour promises to boost digital infrastructure

  The Labour Party manifesto for the UK general election promises a new industrial strategy and an overhaul of planning rules to help support the digital and tech sector

• June 13, 2024 13 Jun'24

  AI’s environmental cost could outweigh sustainability benefits

  Artificial intelligence can help organisations manage and mitigate their environmental impacts in a number of ways, but the highly polluting nature of the technology could outweigh its other sustainability benefits if not dealt with

• June 13, 2024 13 Jun'24

  Black Basta ransomware crew may be exploiting Microsoft zero-day

  A Microsoft vulnerability that was addressed without fanfare in March may in fact have been exploited as a zero-day by the notorious Black Basta ransomware gang, threat hunters warn

• June 13, 2024 13 Jun'24

  Q&A: Adalbjorn Thorolfsson on IT project management in Iceland

  With a small, but very sophisticated population, Iceland has unique ways of keeping up with the rest of the world in the IT sector. Adalbjorn Thorolfsson, president of the Icelandic Project Management Association, describes some lessons for the rest...

• June 12, 2024 12 Jun'24

  IT witness was hidden away from Post Office court battle, but supported it from shadows

  Former Fujitsu chief architect provided evidence support to Post Office witnesses in High Court battle despite being unfit to provide it directly

• June 11, 2024 11 Jun'24

  Pure Storage hit by Snowflake credential hackers

  Pure Storage emerges as the latest victim of a fast-spreading breach of Snowflake customers targeting users with lax credential security measures in place

• June 11, 2024 11 Jun'24

  General election 2024: Conservative manifesto promises to continue tech policies

  The Conservative Party manifesto contains little by way of new commitments for tech and digital, but lays out plans to continue existing policies and promises made under the last government

• June 11, 2024 11 Jun'24

  More than 160 Snowflake customers hit in targeted data theft spree

  Mandiant reports that more than 160 Snowflake customers have been hit in a broad data theft and extortion campaign targeting organisations that have failed to pay proper attention to securing valuable credentials

• June 11, 2024 11 Jun'24

  Nuclear waste body cuts energy use by 20% as Pure replaces HPE

  French nuclear waste agency Andra has cut storage energy use by 20% and strengthened its disaster recovery capabilities by deploying Pure Storage and 10-year controller upgrades

• June 10, 2024 10 Jun'24

  General election 2024: Liberal Democrats thread digital commitments throughout manifesto

  The Lib Dems have promised a new industrial strategy and emphasised the importance of the digital sector, skills and regulating AI, as they lay out plans for the UK general election

• June 10, 2024 10 Jun'24

  NHS blood stocks running low after ransomware attack

  The NHS is appealing for people with O Positive and O Negative blood types to come forward to donate as hospitals in London struggle to keep critical services running after ransomware attack

• June 10, 2024 10 Jun'24

  AI firms can’t be trusted to voluntarily share risk information

  Workers at frontier AI firms have warned that their employers – including OpenAI, DeepMind and Anthropic – can’t be trusted to voluntarily share information about their systems capabilities and risks with governments or civil society

• June 10, 2024 10 Jun'24

  Post Office Capture software training deficit echoes systemic Horizon problems

  Post Office branch managers have told Computer Weekly they had no training on how to use Capture software, which pre-dated Horizon

• June 07, 2024 07 Jun'24

  Northern Irish police used covert powers to monitor over 300 journalists

  PSNI publishes report on police surveillance of journalists and lawyers, but Northern Ireland’s Policing Board says it does not give the assurances needed

• June 07, 2024 07 Jun'24

  DDoS gang threatens to disrupt European elections

  Russian hacktivists are threatening to disrupt the European Parliament elections, while the BBC reports on new deepfake threats to the UK’s electoral process

• June 07, 2024 07 Jun'24

  Bitdefender makes MDR services free to NHS bodies hit by Qilin

  Bitdefender offers NHS bodies affected by a major cyber incident free access to its product suite, as the health service continues to deal with the impact of the Qilin ransomware attack on partner Synnovis

• June 07, 2024 07 Jun'24

  Fujitsu had Post Office ‘over a barrel’, inquiry told

  Post Office scandal inquiry hears how board member believed Fujitsu was exploiting the Post Office

• June 06, 2024 06 Jun'24

  Mystery Post Office software developer revealed in 1995 Horizon project document

  Capture software was used by about 2,000 subpostmasters in the 1990s, with allegations that errors in the software caused account shortfalls

• June 05, 2024 05 Jun'24

  Post Office chair was aware of Horizon concerns from day one but failed to act

  Almost immediately after joining the Post Office, Alice Perkins was told about software problems and was concerned about an imbalance of power in the Post Office’s relationship with Fujitsu