IT news in your industry sector

UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency appoints first CEO

The government has named the first CEO of the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

German fuel supplier taken offline in cyber attack

Cyber attack against Germany’s Oiltanking, a major fuel logistics company, affects 13 distribution terminals across Germany, in an incident with echoes of last year’s hit on Colonial Pipeline Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Met Police faces legal action over Gangs Matrix

Campaign group Liberty is taking legal action against the Met over its use of the Gangs Matrix, claiming it is driven by racial stereotypes and disproportionately affects people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Over one-fifth of ransomware attacks target financial sector

Newly published data reveals a significant uptick in cyber attacks against the financial services sector during the third quarter of 2021 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Dubai’s fledgling drone programme gets another nudge

Through a series of initiatives, Dubai is positioning itself to reap the benefits of a promising global market for drone technology Continue Reading

By

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

How Ocado pushes technological boundaries

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to Ocado’s CTO about how the e-commerce company pushes technological boundaries. Our latest buyer’s guide looks at the importance and technical challenges of data integration. There’s a growing dispute over the use of end-to-end encryption – we look at the differing perspectives. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Nebulon SmartInfrastructure brings cloud-defined storage to datacentre

Cloud-defined storage allows customers to build private clouds on-site, with pools of storage built from commodity hardware, Nebulon PCIe cards and its browser-based console Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

UK has record year for tech IPOs in 2021

Tech companies represented 29% of all UK initial public offerings last year, raising a record $6.6bn Continue Reading

Data on children of armed forces personnel exposed in breach

Data on 4,142 children of serving armed forces personnel was exposed in a data breach at the Ministry of Defence Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

How apprenticeships are helping bridge the digital skills gap

Apprenticeships are not only for young people – they can help make IT departments more diverse and inclusive, as well as plugging skills gaps, as DWP Digital has proved Continue Reading

By

• Richard McHugh

Understand your cyber training ‘need’ before committing to a programme

In-house or outsourced? What makes a good security training programme, and what questions should buyers ask when procuring training-as-a-service? Continue Reading

By

• Paddy Francis

NRF review: What’s in store for retail tech in 2022?

What themes will we be seeing in the retail tech space over the next year according to the 2022 National Retail Federation’s Big Show? Continue Reading

By

• Glynn Davis

Cyber skills gap affecting data privacy practice, finds ISACA

Organisations are struggling to fill both legal and technical privacy roles, with potentially damaging consequences, according to a report Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust advances digital-first strategy

Trust is making progress with its 10-year plan, centred around an electronic patient records system Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Leeds NHS Trust moves millions of patient records to the Microsoft Azure public cloud

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is moving its on-premise patient data system to the Microsoft Azure public cloud Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

CISOs must get out in front of Ukraine cyber crisis, says NCSC

The National Cyber Security Centre is urging UK organisations to take steps to bolster their cyber security resilience in response to the ongoing Ukraine crisis Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Novel phishing campaign highlights need for MFA, says Microsoft

Microsoft details a new multi-stage phishing campaign that only affects victims without multifactor authentication in place Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Barclaycard customers increase contactless spending following limit rise

Barclaycard customers have increased their contactless card spending by 40% with most of their card payments using the technology Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Nightmare Log4Shell scenario averted by prompt, professional action

Prompt and professional community response to the Log4Shell disclosure means the dangerous and widespread vulnerability has not been exploited to the extent many had feared Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Bank account switching accelerates as consumers choose digital services

Surge in UK consumers changing current account providers is a sign that digital banking services are eating into the traditional sector Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Refrigeration firm freezes legacy backup for one Cohesity cluster

France-based Clauger had reached limits of capacity and complexity with multi-supplier legacy backup, so moved to one Cohesity cluster and gained restores that took mere minutes Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Security Think Tank: Focus on ‘nudging’ to build effective cyber training

In-house or outsourced? What makes a good security training programme, and what questions should buyers ask when procuring training-as-a-service? Continue Reading

By

• Tom Everard

Ocado showcases 3D printing innovation

Having delivered its first orders 20 years ago, Ocado is now reinventing the business process for online grocery delivery Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Mr 500,000 Chips

We recently saw a TikTok of the new guy on Dragons’ Den explaining the virtues of obtaining enough money to own a private jet: to maximise the number of what he refers to as his 500,000 chips – the ... Continue Reading

By

• Ryan Priest

More intel emerges on WhisperGate malware that hit Ukraine

Security experts have been poring over the WhisperGate malware with which alleged Russia-backed entities targeted Ukrainian government websites Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Storage tech brief: Look out for PCIe gen 5 drives in 2022

PCIe 5.0 will offer bandwidth up to 128GBps per drive. We look at what’s available and when, including in the new EDSFF form factor, as well as looking forward to PCIe gen 6 Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

PwnKit bug endangers Linux distributions worldwide

Qualys researchers share intel on a memory corruption vulnerability in a program installed by default on every major Linux distribution Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Demands on Fujitsu to contribute to £1bn Horizon scandal compensation costs

Fujitsu cannot hide away as taxpayers pick up the bill for the Post Office scandal triggered by its IT system, say peers Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Prepare, but don’t panic, over supposed Russian cyber threat

A fresh alert from the US Department of Homeland Security may have IT security teams jumpy over the possibility that their organisations could be targeted by Russian state actors Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cyber Essentials programme gets biggest update since launch

NCSC implements a thorough revision of its Cyber Essentials scheme to reflect the changing security landscape Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

UK launches international data transfer council

Businesses, academics and trade bodies convene to help the UK seize data-sharing opportunities Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Subpostmaster campaign group to meet government over unfair compensation settlement

A group of subpostmasters excluded from fair compensation in the Horizon scandal is to meet government department to discuss their demands Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Ikano Bank’s team of robots exceeds 2021 targets

How the Swedish bank’s robotic automation project reached its time-saving target with time to spare, automating 168 processes, creating an in-house RPA team and embedding automation in every department’s thinking Continue Reading

Socitm outlines public sector digital trends for 2022

Report identifies the key areas of focus for technology decision-makers in government in the months ahead, across areas from cyber and data to digital identity and 5G Continue Reading

CIO interview: Michael Cole, CTO, European Tour and Ryder Cup

The highly traditional sport of golf is proving to be an innovator in its field, with internet of things technology and cloud adoption transforming tournaments after Covid Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

Retailers mired by manual data integration

Retail relies on third-party data sources to drive business decisions and competitive pricing, but many struggle to pull in this data Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

MPs say Online Safety Bill fails to tackle full range of harms

A DCMS select committee has warned that the Online Safety Bill should be expanded to cover more types of harmful content, such as child abuse material designed to circumvent content removal Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can ask Supreme Court to hear extradition appeal

Senior judges said today that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can petition the Supreme Court to decide whether to hear an appeal against his extradition to the US Continue Reading

EDSFF brings built-for-NVMe connectivity to the datacentre

Aimed at enterprise use cases, EDSFF offers incredible flash density in shared storage and hyperscale deployments, but storage products that use it are still thin on the ground Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Object storage: How research institute got 850TB for €150,000

French scientific research institute had its budgets cut and to meet the new cost constraints, it settled on Swarm software-defined object storage from DataCore Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT
• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

How Forensic Architecture uses tech to protect human rights

Forensic Architecture speaks to Computer Weekly about how it uses various digital technologies to investigate human rights abuses around the globe, including the pushback of migrants over the Greek border and the killing of Mark Duggan by London police Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Outdated systems core to DWP £1bn pension underpayment blunders

Old software is among the main reasons behind the pension errors affecting 134,000 people, says a House of Commons committee report Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Heathrow Airport takes to the cloud with Oracle Fusion Applications

Airport has implemented a full spread of Oracle Cloud Applications, including ERP and HCM, as it looks to recover from the pandemic Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Tinder algorithm charging users more based on age

Popular dating app Tinder could have broken data protection and equality laws by using personal data about people’s age to set different prices Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

CTO interview: James Donkin, Ocado Technology

Ocado is a cloud-first business and develops its own software cloud-natively, but some things need to be processed on-premise or at the edge Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

ICO criticises government-backed campaign to delay end-to-end encryption

Data protection watchdog warns that delaying end-to-end encryption will put children at risk Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

MoJ faces ICO enforcement over subject access requests backlog

Ministry of Justice receives enforcement notice from information commissioner over ‘substantial’ backlog of subject access requests described as being of ‘significant concern’ Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Adelaide digitises its healthcare processes

The Central Adelaide Local Health Network has digitised manual processes in more than 20 speciality areas to improve patient experience and alleviate the workloads of frontline staff Continue Reading

Government ‘has nothing against’ paying 555 subpostmasters fair compensation

Government officials are open to finding a way to properly compensate victims of the Horizon scandal without setting a dangerous legal precedent Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Data of 515,000 vulnerable people stolen in Red Cross attack

The International Committee of the Red Cross is probing a cyber attack that has already seen the personal data of hundreds of thousands of the world’s most vulnerable people compromised Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

MoonBounce firmware bootkit shows advances in malicious implants

MoonBounce firmware bootkit shows evident technical improvements over others, making it a more dangerous threat to organisations. It is being used by Chinese state-backed actors Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Advantages of traditional banks are weakening amid digital challenge, says FCA

Weakening of the advantages enjoyed by traditional banks over the years is “driven by digital innovation and changing consumer behaviour”, says regulator Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Zopa Bank hits £1bn deposits in just 18 months

Bank has seen rapid growth since its launch and has set ambitious targets for the next 12 months Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Delayed pay: Umbrella company cyber attacks disrupt salary payments to thousands of contractors

Thousands of contractors across the UK are anxiously waiting to see if their payroll cycles will be disrupted for a second week, after two of the umbrella industry's biggest players were targeted by cyber criminals Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

UK SMEs to receive tech skills and software boost

A new government scheme aimed at helping businesses improve their productivity and sales online has opened for applications Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Government funds charity campaign to warn big tech over the risks of encryption to children

Barnardo’s and other charities begin a government-backed PR campaign to warn of the dangers end-to-end encryption poses to child safety, which has been criticised as being ‘one-sided’ Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Danish digitisation partnership delivers plan to government

Public-private collaboration submits plan setting out “how Denmark can take advantage of the opportunities presented by digitisation moving forward into the future” Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Content removal will not stop misinformation, says Royal Society

Censorship of scientific misinformation online could exacerbate feelings of distrust, so government should look at information literacy and funding fact checkers instead, says report Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Cloud-era disaster recovery planning: Assessing risk and business impact

In the first in a series on cloud-era disaster recovery, we provide a step-by-step guide to building firm foundations for the disaster recovery plan, with risk assessment and business impact analysis Continue Reading

By

• Paul Kirvan

Twelve million jobs to be lost to automation in Europe by 2040

Millions of current jobs in Europe will be carried out by robots as software robots automate processes Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Aldi launches grab-and-go test store in London

Discount supermarket brand Aldi has launched a checkout-free concept store in London to test contact-free shopping Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Trellix XDR platform forged out of McAfee, FireEye union

The private equity owners of McAfee Enterprise and FireEye are merging the companies into a new entity to ‘define the future’ of cyber security through XDR technology Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

The race to quantum computing

In this week’s Computer Weekly, researchers are racing to create the first commercially useful quantum computer – we look at one of the European candidates. Cyber security is one of the greatest risks facing the global economy, warns the World Economic Forum. And we examine the role of employee experience in hybrid working. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Nordic fintech to use Google-inspired core banking from Thought Machine

Nordic fintech Lunar is modernising its banking platform as it sets out to expand free of the limitations of its current systems Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Amazon puts UK Visa ban on hold

Online retail giant Amazon continues to allow UK Visa credit card payments as negotiations over fees with the card provider continue Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Government widens subpostmaster miscarriage of justice compensation

Government changes its position in billion-pound Horizon scandal compensation Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Test police algorithms in court rather than legislate, Lords told

Police algorithms and their impacts should be tested and challenged in court, rather than controlled by new laws, says policing minister Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

‘Russian-backed’ hackers defaced Ukrainian websites as cover for dangerous malware attack

Kiev claims that a hacking group in Belarus – a close ally of Russia – was responsible for hacking Ukrainian government websites amid threats of military action Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Automation and interoperability key to UK’s digital energy plans

Energy Digitalisation Taskforce recommends that policy-makers and regulators drive open standards across the energy sector Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Connexin switches on full-fibre broadband network in Hull

So-called ‘disruptive’ communications company specialising in building and operating smart city infrastructure connects first customer to full-fibre network in East Yorkshire Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

Nato offers tech support after 'massive cyber attack' hits Ukraine

Speculation mounts that Russia is behind a cyber attack which defaced Ukrainian government websites amid growing international tension Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Socitm outlines public sector digital trends for 2022

Report identifies the key areas of focus for technology decision-makers in government in the months ahead, across areas from cyber and data to digital identity and 5G Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Microsoft veteran turns her attention to levelling up IT industry for women

Diversity goes beyond balancing the internal workforce and should include working with partners that also have diversity as a core objective, says Gavriella Schuster Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Post Office received £1bn taxpayer subsidy last year as part of IT scandal compensation

The Post Office has received over £1bn in taxpayer subsidies for its Horizon scandal compensation scheme Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Google forced to release documents about anti-union campaign

New court documents reveal that Google attempted to keep details of its anti-union campaign confidential by claiming attorney-client privilege Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Nordic companies targeted in wave of cyber attacks

After a slew of cyber attacks hit major companies in the Nordics at the end of last year, we look at how they were affected and how they have recovered Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Councillors refuse public release of IT audit of Hackney Psya ransomware attack

Hackney councillors claim an IT audit report is exempt for disclosure as it relates to action taken in relation to the prevention, investigation or prosecution of crime Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Ikano Bank’s team of robots exceeds 2021 targets

How the Swedish bank’s robotic automation project reached its time-saving target with time to spare, automating 168 processes, creating an in-house RPA team and embedding automation in every department’s thinking Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

NCSC sounds alarm over Russia-backed hacks

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre joins US calls to be wary of Russian state interference in critical national infrastructure IT systems Continue Reading

ICO investigates police use of app to covertly record calls from mobile phones

Surrey and Sussex police forces call in regulators after 1,000 police officers downloaded an app to covertly record phone calls on police-issued mobile phones Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

MEPs demand EU probe into Pegasus spyware abuse

A group of European Parliament Members has called for an EU-wide investigation into NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware after it emerged EU member states may have used it Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

UK government bodies challenged on secure identity

Public sector bodies in the UK recognise secure identity and access management as critical to the roll-out of digital services, but face challenges in addressing this Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Government backs Turing Institute in bid to set global AI technical standards

The DCMS has announced an AI Standards Hub, comprising The Alan Turing Institute, the National Physical Laboratory and the British Standards Institution to set a global bar for AI technical standards Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Microsoft fixes six zero-days in January Patch Tuesday update

A larger than of late Patch Tuesday update from Microsoft comes as defenders continue to grapple with Log4Shell Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Dutch cyber volunteers receive major funding boost

The Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure has received a $100,000 donation to expand the scope of its work Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Macquarie joins NSW government’s cloud supplier panel

New South Wales state agencies will be able to access Macquarie’s sovereign cyber expertise and secure cloud, network and datacentre services Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

How digital-twin technology could revolutionise the healthcare industry

Digital-twin technology is not new, but in many industries it is still regarded as novel and is often misunderstood Continue Reading

By

• Arash Ghazanfari

Almost half of Log4j downloads still dangerously exposed

Whether by error or design is unclear, but a great many IT teams are still exposing themselves by downloading outdated, insecure versions of Apache Log4j Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Post Office can’t access records of all money paid to it by victims of the Horizon scandal

A parliamentary select committee was told that the Post Office is unable to access information to accurately calculate compensation for some Horizon scandal victims Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Banks accused of neglecting customer security measures

Which? singles out Metro Bank, Virgin Money and TSB over insecure online banking processes Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

NHS England urged to produce tech roadmap to cope with pandemic backlog

Tech can help to ease the pressure on the health and care system, but basic infrastructure is lacking, a House of Commons report has found Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Companies propose scanning content pre-encryption to fight CSAM

Firms working on the UK government’s Safety Tech Challenge have suggested that scanning content before encryption will help prevent the spread of child sexual abuse material – but privacy concerns remain Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Cyber security failure one of biggest risks facing countries and businesses, warns WEF

Cyber risks are among the top five risks facing organisations and governments over the next two to five years. Digital inequality and the over-crowding of space with communication satellites present further risks  Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

How Pepsi is taking digital to the max

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to PepsiCo’s digital director about delivering innovation in customer experience. Our first buyer’s guide of 2022 examines hybrid cloud storage. And we find out how Arkwright and Granville from the BBC sitcom Open All Hours are inspiring retailers 40 years on. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Arkwright’s till, Tesco GetGo and retail tech’s non-linear innovation journey

The checkout-free Tesco GetGo store shows that retail technology has come a long way since the faulty till draws in Open All Hours, but some of today’s innovation goes back to the future Continue Reading

Public sector IT and communications spend down 4% last year

Public sector spending on IT and communications was down in 2021, but some departments bucked the trend with major investments Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Ministry of Justice caught up in multiple cyber incidents

Besides multiple disclosed data breaches, department was also affected by two ransomware attacks Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

MPs call for fair compensation for excluded victims of Post Office scandal

Almost 100 MPs have backed a call for the government to reverse its decision to exclude 555 subpostmasters from fair compensation for their suffering and losses as a result of the Post Office Horizon scandal Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

New supercomputer opens doors for researchers in Sweden

More than twice as powerful as its predecessor, a new supercomputer ushers in new opportunities for researchers who rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning Continue Reading

By

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

Record amount invested in UK fintech last year, but female founders still overlooked

Last year the UK financial technology sector attracted the most investment ever following a slowdown in 2020 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA