IT management

The Post Office scandal shows how much AI can and must help humans

There has been much speculation about the potential for a future AI disaster after the role of IT in the Post Office scandal - but the way to avoid this is to make sure AI and humans work hand in hand Continue Reading

By

• Frederik Pedersen

Generative AI – an early adopter’s experience

In this week’s Computer Weekly, as IT leaders start to implement GenAI in their organisations, we look at the experiences of one early adopter. Our latest buyer’s guide examines the key security trends for 2024. And Microsoft’s head of identity talks about a future without passwords. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Blackbaud blasted for failing to prevent customer breaches

A supply chain attack at software supplier Blackbaud in 2020 saw data on multiple UK organisations compromised. The US authorities are now taking steps to ensure it can’t happen again Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

US sanctions Iranians behind CNI cyber attacks

US government issues new sanctions against six Iranians suspected of being behind a series of cyber attacks targeting critical national infrastructure, notably water supply systems Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

UK quantum initiatives get funding boost

Government funds new initiatives to drive quantum computing opportunities across the public sector Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Sea-Lion explained: Southeast Asia’s first large language model

The Sea-Lion large language model was built to cater to the language and cultural diversity of Southeast Asia, which is currently underserved by existing models that mostly originate from the West Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Is SAP on the rise?

This year represents a tipping point for SAP to convince cagey customers of the value of cloud enterprise resource planning Continue Reading

By

• Marc Ambasna-Jones

IT security strategy: Assessing the risks of generative AI

Most industry watchers see 2024 as the year when generative AI and large language models will begin moving into enterprise IT Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor
• Adrian Bridgwater

embodied carbon

Embodied carbon is the measurable greenhouse gas emissions of an infrastructure's entire construction, maintenance and demolition processes. Continue Reading

By

• Venus Kohli

It’s Time to Raise the Bar on Observability

Observability has come a long way in the last 30 years – from early service monitoring tools to today’s advanced platforms like Splunk, DataDog, Dynatrace, New Relic and others that ingest massive ... Continue Reading

By

• Tony Lock, Freeform Dynamics

‘People are now listening,' Post Office inquiry told as latest phase ends

The latest phase of the public inquiry into the widest miscarriage of justice in modern UK history – the Post Office Horizon IT scandal – closes with a bang Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

UK police facial recognition explained: What you need to know

In this essential guide, Computer Weekly looks at the use of facial recognition technology by UK police forces, including the points of contention around its deployment so far and where it’s heading next Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Meta ramps up GPUs to get ready for general intelligence

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg anticipates that training and running AI systems requires 10x computer capacity each year Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Why government IT needs a better approach to budgeting

Defra minister, Mark Spencer was recently asked to give an update to how the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is coping with its plans to renew ageing IT systems. The ... Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

AI: House of Lords focuses on copyright and transparency

Large language models promise to boost UK productivity, but the tech needs greater scrutiny and questions remain over intellectual property Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Welsh workers’ AI experiences shaped by uneven power dynamics

Workers in Wales are being negatively affected by the unregulated introduction of artificial intelligence into workplaces due to asymmetric power dynamics Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

UK ranks third in OECD Digital Government Index

The UK has dropped from overall second to third place in the international digital government survey, but fails to feature in the top 10 countries when it comes to having a data-driven public sector Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Defra legacy IT: 180 applications refreshed, over 1,500 remain

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has a 10-year plan to update technology. So far, 180 have been replaced or updated Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Crew Clothing head of IT: ‘The projects don’t stop’

Crew Clothing parted ways with its senior leadership team in 2023, but there is a clear roadmap in place for technology transformation – and it doesn’t involve an ERP system Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

UK government signs AI, science and innovation deals with Canada

The agreements will see the two countries collaborate on AI compute – a development component of artificial intelligence – and work together on technology innovations such as quantum and semiconductors Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Government ‘dragging it out’ by refusing to share knowledge of Post Office trial ‘delaying tactic’

Subpostmasters will have to wait to find out if the government knew of the Post Office’s plan to derail group litigation order, by trying to push managing judge out Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Aviva signs 15-year contract with Indian IT giant

Tata Consultancy Services continues to make large gains in the UK life insurance and pensions sector Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

AI everywhere all at once

Artificial intelligence became mainstream in 2023. Advances in technology and accessibility led to increased awareness and use of AI Continue Reading

By

• Resham Kotecha

Forrester: Curb your AI enthusiasm

Ongoing supply issues with semiconductors mean IT departments may have to wait up to a year for the latest hardware Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Microsoft results show benefits of AI on Azure

The company’s cloud business posted revenue of $33bn, with new AI inferencing workloads driving up demand Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Seagate uses HAMR to hit 30TB in Exos hard drives

HDD giant Seagate unveils 30TB Exos drives with higher areal density, aimed at hyperscaler customers, with products at 50TB promised for 2028 in its roadmap Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

User groups give SAP’s 50% Rise incentive the thumbs up

SAP has changed tack, after the furore over its intention to make certain features available only to Rise customers on SAP Cloud Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Cloud-native strategies pushing purchase decisions beyond IT

Buyer personas now include line-of-business groups, but senior IT management still owns most decisions, and cross-departmental collaboration, while improving, needs a lot of work. Continue Reading

By

• David Essex, Industry Editor

autonomous artificial intelligence (autonomous AI)

Autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of AI in which systems and tools are advanced enough to act with limited human oversight and involvement. Continue Reading

By

• Cameron Hashemi-Pour, Site Editor

Quantum computing in 2024: What are the challenges?

Research shows that while there has been a big reduction in quantum computing investment, governments have been ploughing in funding Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

We need backup! Pennsylvania police data loss shows why

Police evidence systems data was lost during ‘routine maintenance’, with human error blamed – the case clearly illustrates why data protection can’t be left to chance Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

The shifting winds of SAP's cloud strategy

In 2023, SAP's strategic pivot towards cloud-centric innovation produced a wave of discontent among its vast on-premises customer base Continue Reading

By

• Jon Gill

Inside India’s supercomputing journey

India is looking to shore up its supercomputing capabilities, but more needs to be done to realise its ambition of becoming a world leader in the field Continue Reading

By

• Pratima Harigunani

Pre-Horizon users contacting lawyers as more Post Office IT horror stories emerge

Lawyer says there is no reason to believe the Post Office treated unexplained shortfalls on systems prior to Horizon any differently to the way it dealt with unexplained Horizon shortfalls Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

The promise of quantum computing

Sergio Gago, managing director for AI, machine learning and quantum at Moody’s, explains why now is a good time to invest in quantum computing. Continue Reading

Tech companies warn EU over encryption plans

In this week’s Computer Weekly, tech companies are calling on the European Commission to rethink plans to weaken internet encryption – we explore the issues. We talk to credit rating agency Moody’s about why it thinks now is the time to start investing in quantum computing. And we examine how a different approach to recruitment could ease the datacentre sector skills gap. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Russian IT sector still under serious pressure

Russian IT sector faces challenges on multiple fronts as Western sanctions widen Continue Reading

By

• Computer Weekly correspondent

French TV giant sticks with Dell NAS for channel upgrade

TF1 has the biggest market share in French TV, but plans for more. It has upgraded from Isilon to PowerScale scale-out NAS and saved 42% in energy costs, halving rackspace use Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Google Cloud teams up with Singapore government on AI initiatives

Over 100 generative AI use cases have been tested through the AI Trailblazers programme, among other initiatives to spur AI adoption and build AI talent in the city-state Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Lords question legality of police facial recognition

Lords committee ‘deeply concerned’ about the rapid expansion of live facial recognition by UK police, which it says is progressing without any real oversight or accountability Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

MP demands answers from government minister over second faulty Post Office IT system

Kevan Jones MP highlighted evidence of injustices caused by a computer system used in Post Office branches prior to the introduction of the controversial Horizon system. Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

What developers need to know about LLMs in the enterprise

We look at the main areas enterprise developers need to consider when building, testing and deploying enterprise applications powered by large language models Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor
• Adrian Bridgwater

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 Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Security Think Tank: Expect more from GenAI in 2024

But 2024 also feels slightly different; the past 12 months have seen generative AI burst on to the scene, and this year its impact will continue to be felt, says Turnkey Consulting's Harshini Carey. Continue Reading

By

• Harshini Carey, Turnkey Consulting

Quantum, AI and geopolitical conflict: '24 will be a big year for cyber

With big trends like quantum, generative AI and geopolitical conflict, 2024 looks set to be a big year in security, but defenders have an unparalleled opportunity to harness these trends for good, says Quorum's Federico Charosky Continue Reading

By

• Federico Charosky

Akira ransomware gang claims Lush cyber attack

The Akira ransomware gang claims to have stolen over 100GB of data from cosmetics manufacturer and retailer Lush Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

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 Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Security Think Tank: What to expect in cyber this year

Risk arising from insecure generative AI, an explosion in mainstream acceptance of zero-trust, and increasingly tight cyber insurance policies will all be high on the agenda in 2024, writes Forrester senior analyst Alla Valente Continue Reading

By

• Alla Valente

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 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Bulk sender authentication: More vital than ever

With new guidelines from Google and Yahoo governing bulk emails coming into force in February 2024, here's what you need to know to keep your sales and marketing lists compliant Continue Reading

By

• Gerasim Hovhannisyan

The race to regulate AI: 2024 unpacked

EU’s AI Act is set to become ‘gold standard’ of AI regulation. Will other countries adopt the same high standards or like the UK opt for a light touch in favour of growth and investment? Continue Reading

By

• Jamie Rowlands and Angus Milne, Haseltine Lake Kempner

shared services

Shared services is a delivery model organizations use to consolidate similar business functions into a single unit that supports the entire organization. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Sheldon

Cisco updates AppDynamics with Smart Agents to tackle sprawl

As application architectures becomes more distributed, monitoring becomes increasingly complex – Cisco has a plan for simplification Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

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 Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Mitigating the risks of modern application development

Organisations need to have visibility over their software supply chain, secure and monitor interfaces to legacy systems and adopt zero trust to mitigate the risks of modern application development Continue Reading

By

• Peter Lees

IT Sustainability Think Tank: Why 2024 should be less about predicting and more about acting

With 2023 now behind us, it is time to look ahead at what enterprise leaders should be focusing their IT sustainability efforts on during the year ahead Continue Reading

By

• Carmen Ene, BNP Paribas 3 Step IT,

Cloud is not always the answer: Five reasons why

We look at why the cloud is not always the best choice, including for reasons of cost, application suitability, management, data protection and the needs of the business Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

Security Think Tank: 2024 is the year we bridge the cyber divide

ISACA's Steven Sim Kok Leong shares his thoughts on the coming year in cyber security, considering the impact of regulatory change, the evolving role of the CISO, and advances in innovative cyber tech Continue Reading

By

• Steven Sim Kok Leong

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Inside Cisco’s security platform strategy

Raj Chopra, senior vice-president of Cisco’s security business, outlines the company’s security platform strategy and how it brought different products together into a single platform Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Critical vulnerability exposes Fortra GoAnywhere users

Fortra GoAnywhere MFT users must take steps to address a newly disclosed zero-day vulnerability without delay Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Salesforce’s bug bounty programme paid out $3m in 2023

Ethical hackers disclosed more than 4,000 vulnerabilities to Salesforce last year through its bug bounty programme, and received over $3m in rewards Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

10 business sustainability trends for 2024

In 2024, environmental sustainability will be thrust into the spotlight. Learn what's driving that change and what some of the negative fallout might be. Continue Reading

By

• Mary K. Pratt

enterprise agility

Enterprise agility is a paradigm for scaling agile methodologies beyond development teams. Continue Reading

By

• George Lawton

GitHub: Top tips to make software developers more productive

Study highlights importance of good documentation and processes, as well as fewer work distractions Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Podcast: Storage and compliance outlook for 2024

Interesting times ahead in 2024 as we talk to Mathieu Gorge, CEO of Vigitrust, about updates to EU regs, PCI, NIST, post-Brexit divergence and 60 national elections across the globe Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Expert guide to e-discovery

An expert guide to why your organisation needs an electronic discovery policy and how to go about creating one Continue Reading

By

• Martin Nikel, Thomas Murray

NVM Express boosts computational storage standards

New command sets allow for computational storage with NVMe flash and includes frameworks to allow local memory usage in processing workloads on storage hardware Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

GenAI outlook: Expect industry disruption and job cuts

It’s early days for generative AI, but as the technology becomes more pervasive, the business services sector is likely to experience big changes Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

CTO interview: Greg Lavender, Intel

Computer Weekly caught up with Intel’s chief technology officer to find out the semiconductor giant’s plans for the European market Continue Reading

Davos 2024: AI disinformation tops global risks

In this week’s Computer Weekly, AI-generated disinformation and misinformation will be the top risks for businesses, governments and the public over the next two years, according to the World Economic Forum. Intel’s CTO discusses the chip maker’s plans for the European market. And we examine the dearth of digital skills among elected officials. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

infrastructure as code (IaC)

Infrastructure as code, also referred to as IaC, is an IT practice that codifies and manages underlying IT infrastructure as software. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen J. Bigelow, Senior Technology Editor

SolarWinds hackers attack Microsoft in apparent recon mission

Russian-backed threat actor behind infamous 2020 SolarWinds Sunburst intrusion hacked into Microsoft’s systems, apparently in an attempt to get hold of intel on themselves Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Dutch companies not ready for AI

Many Dutch organisations are not ready to start working with AI, according to the Cisco AI Readiness Index Continue Reading

By

• Kim Loohuis

Upgraded Arabic large language model is twice as big

Techniques that were used to double the power of what was already the largest LLM for Arabic can now be applied to other languages whose native speakers do not yet have access to AI Continue Reading

By

• Pat Brans, Pat Brans Associates/Grenoble Ecole de Management

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 Continue Reading

By

• Lis Evenstad

Openreach accelerates digital network roll-out

Added vigour to UK’s largest broadband provider’s digital network transformation play, with latest tranche of exchanges across furthest reaches of UK now able to offer digital comms based on full-fibre networks Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

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 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

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 Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

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 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Stellar Lifestyle opens high-tech retail space

The Hive 2.0 retail space in Esplanade Xchange uses AI and robots to enable self-checkout, prepare and serve beverages, and deliver items to offices in a nearby building Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Tech trends: what will be hot in 2024?

Five major technology trends for 2024 Continue Reading

By

• Bev White, Nash Squared

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 Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Unilever provides recipe support to blind and partially sighted shoppers

Accessible QR codes and an app from Be My Eyes link shoppers direct to Unilever customer support Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Datacentre Editor

Fujitsu boss admits to missed opportunities to prevent miscarriages of justice

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

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA