IT news in your industry sector

QD Stores deploys SAP Fiori as pathway to possible S/4 Hana adoption

East Anglia-based discount retailer uses design thinking to develop SAP Fiori Screen Personas to enhance ECC6 instance Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Labour SME minister back-tracks over claims party will scrap IR35 reforms if it comes to power

Shadow small business secretary Bill Esterson clarifies comments he made during an event this week that suggested Labour had made halting the roll-out of the IR35 reforms to the private sector policy Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

TfL locks down Oyster accounts to ward off credential stuffing

Mandatory password reset for all travellers who use Oyster and contactless payment systems follows minor breach incident earlier in 2019 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Hack Friday: This Christmas, fight back against cyber criminals

It’s nearly Christmas, and cyber attacks and fraud attempts in the retail sector are ramping up. Is it time to panic? And is there anything we can do beyond hammering home the message around basic cyber security hygiene? Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

TSB neglected to assess capabilities of main IT provider in its failed system migration

TSB failed to properly assess and manage the internal service provider that lead its botched IT migration Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

CIO interview: Ross Fullerton, CIO, London Ambulance Service

Brought in after a major IT disaster in 2017, the CIO is now introducing technologies to speed up emergency response times and get key patient data back to doctors before arrival at A&E Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

NatWest digital bank goes live

NatWest has announced the availability of its standalone digital challenger bank, known as Bó Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Keep on truckin’

Elon Musk has explained why the windows of Tesla’s tank-like Cybertruck smashed during a humiliating launch. Chief designer Franz von Holzhausen cut a gleeful figure as he prepared to throw a steel ... Continue Reading

By

• Ryan Priest

Telefónica reveals global restructuring plan

Global telco to undergo wholesale changes to prioritise markets where it says it can be relevant and grow sustainably in the long term Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

Finnish tech firm aims to create scalable general-purpose quantum computer

University spin-off is attempting to take quantum computing capabilities to multiple business sectors Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Staff in smaller businesses bogged down by poor communications

Inadequate communications between senior management and staff in small to medium-sized enterprises is leading to poor decision-making Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Finland’s OP Financial Group accelerates open banking push

Finnish banking group is working with a Danish fintech to add open banking functionality to its offerings Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 38

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, the team discusses the Liberal Democrats’ manifesto and touches on those of the two main parties. Also under discussion are Dreamforce, Google Next and Monster Confidence for Stemettes Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications
• Clare McDonald, Business Editor
• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Tandem and TrueLayer partnership shows how fintech can support fintech

TrueLayer and Tandem partnership demostrates the power of collaborative ecosystems Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

The super-resilient IT function

IT functions don’t have to continue taking the blame for organisational failures, they can take the lead in transforming the business Continue Reading

By

• Ade McCormack, Auridian Consulting

Peer calls for clear-out of Post Office board after Court of Appeal confirms major court defeat

Conservative peer championing subpostmasters’ long-running battle with Post Office suggests management clear-out after Court of Appeal rejects appeal bid Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Revamped HMRC IR35 status checker tool still lacks key functionality, contractor groups claim

HMRC releases an updated version of its IR35 tax status checker tool, CEST, to accommodate the onset of the tax avoidance reforms being rolled out to the private sector, but contracting stakeholders claim it still lacks basic functionality Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Facebook undermined rivals in bid to dominate global messaging

Facebook used buyouts and bullying tactics towards competitors to grow its business empire, documents leaked to Computer Weekly reveal Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly
• Crina Boros

General Election 2019: Digital must be at the core of the next government’s strategy

TechUK lays out the technology priorities it wants to see from the next UK government to boost the digital economy Continue Reading

By

• Julian David, TechUK

Why thousands of IT contractors face ‘life-changing’ tax bills

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we investigate HMRC’s loan charge policy, a retrospective tax grab that has left thousands of IT contractors facing financial ruin. We compare the cloud storage offerings from AWS, Microsoft and Google. And we find out how retailers are turning to tech to deal with a new generation of shoppers. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

General Election 2019: The Conservatives’ technology policies and digital plans

With the UK gearing up for its third general election in four years, Computer Weekly outlines the Conservative and Unionist Party’s main technology policies and digital plans, as laid out in its manifesto Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Snap taps Verizon as 5G partner to extend AR, video experiences

US comms giant Verizon teams with Snapchat creator to look at supporting advanced video applications such as augmented reality on its 5G network Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

Nationwide building society opens up systems through mortgage API

Nationwide Building Society is trialling an application programming interface that will enable its mortgage brokers to link directly to some of its systems Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

University of Leicester dumps SANs and LUNs for Cloudian object storage

One-to-one mapping between Dell SANs and media servers had passed their sell-by date and caused vulnerabilities for the University of Leicester, which fixed the problems by a move to “stateless” object storage on Cloudian Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

State backs Norway’s fibre cable capacity building

Norway is increasing investment on communications infrastructure in an effort to reduce reliance on Swedish and Danish networks Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Uber app exploit posed safety risk to passengers

A flaw in Uber’s system meant thousands of trips in London were taken with unauthorised drivers at the wheel Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

General Election 2019: Labour’s technology policies and digital plans

With the UK gearing up for its third General Election in four years, Computer Weekly outlines the Labour Party’s main technology policies and digital plans, as laid out in its manifesto Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Conservatives propose national cyber crime force

Manifesto also says Tories would “empower the police to safely use new technologies like biometrics and artificial intelligence, along with the use of DNA, within a strict legal framework” Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Labour breaks an emerging consensus on Broadband Policy?

No one size fits all needs. Every smart community (let alone "City") will probably need at least one Internet Exchange to handle local inter-operability. The UK as a whole will probably need more ... Continue Reading

By

• Philip Virgo, Winsafe Ltd

Court of Appeal dismisses Post Office application to appeal damning judgment

The Court of Appeal has rejected a Post Office application to appeal judgments made in the first trial of its multimillion-pound battle with subpostmasters over IT system failures. Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Figeac Aero manages growth with DataCore software-defined storage

Global roll-out sees DataCore software-defined storage deployed on Huawei hardware to HQ and 14 worldwide sites as aero parts maker copes with acquisition and expansion Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

England manager Gareth Southgate tells how data analytics and cloud have helped the FA modernise

England football manager tells Google Cloud Next UK conference how the FA is using big data and cloud collaboration tools to change the organisation's culture and improve players’ performances on the pitch Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

CIO interview: Paul Stein, CTO, Rolls-Royce

The aerospace engine manufacturer is at the leading edge of technology developments such as electric power, and already makes extensive use of advanced IT systems such as AI Continue Reading

By

• Sooraj Shah

TSB tech woes continue with overnight systems failure

TSB customers have experienced problems receiving money into their accounts due to an IT error, just days after the bank was slammed in a report on its IT problems last year Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Some 29,000 UK web domains suspended for criminal activity

Domain suspensions for criminal activity over the past year has dropped for the first time since 2014 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Labour pledges review of NCSC in UK security overhaul

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre may get expanded powers under a Labour government Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

British Airways cancels flights due to technical issue

British Airways customers are suffering delays and cancellations as a result as a technical issue Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Swiss packaging manufacturer powers digital maintenance with GE and ServiceMax

Carton and packaging company SIG, which also sells IoT-connected machines to food and beverage firms, has developed a digital maintenance service Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

SMEs prevail in expanded FutureNHS tender

Health service is looking to procure a larger sharing and collaboration platform for health and social care Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Has Amazon dropped its plan for a bank account?

Has Amazon decided against launching a bank account? Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Life under the loan charge: An IT contractor’s story

Thousands of IT contractors are being pursued by HMRC for “life-changing” tax bills for work they did up to 20 years ago, as part of a disguised remuneration clampdown known as the loan charge policy. One of those affected anonymously shares his take on what it’s like to live with a six-figure tax demand hanging over you Continue Reading

By

• An anonymous IT contractor

SME disaster recovery made easy with cloud, hybrid and HCI

Disaster recovery is a lot easier for small businesses than it used to be, with use of the cloud, hybrid cloud, physical and virtual appliances, and hyper-converged infrastructure all among the choices on offer Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Pritchard

HSBC builds API digital platform with MuleSoft to forward open banking

At Dreamforce 2019, HSBC announced the building of a digital platform with Salesforce MuleSoft to forward open banking opportunities Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications

Western Union transfers to AWS cloud

Western Union is the latest financial services form to set out a future in the Amazon Web Services cloud Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

CW Nordics: Automation pays off for Sweden’s social workers

Software robots are freeing up time for social workers in Sweden to help benefits claimants find employment and to receive the money they are entitled to. Also in this issue, read how Sweden’s SEB bank is using a Google-inspired, cloud-native core banking platform, and why India is leading the pack when it comes to IT outsourcing from the Nordic countries. Continue Reading

Lib Dem election manifesto: Party vows to scrap loan charge and review IR35 private sector reforms

The Liberal Democrats’ General Election manifesto sees the party pledge to scrap the controversial loan charge policy, and undertake a review of the IR35 private sector reforms Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Collaboration is key to rapid adoption of govtech across Europe

Government technology is spreading across Europe, but policy-makers and senior civil servants are still figuring out best practices Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Fashion retailer AllSaints on using Google Cloud to handle online shopping traffic peaks

AllSaints shifts website workloads into Google Cloud to protect against website downtime, as well as embarking on microservices-led push to modernise its infrastructure Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

How Nicigas is disrupting Japan’s gas market with IoT

Japanese energy retailer Nicigas is deploying 850,000 IoT devices to convert traditional gas meters into smart meters to unlock consumption data amid efforts to shake up the utilities industry Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, TechTarget

Sweden’s SEB explores core banking in the cloud

 Continue Reading

NHSX seeks chief information officer

Role is the latest in a series of senior positions the digital unit is looking to fill in order to build its leadership Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Swedish hospitals suffer IT crashes

Hospitals in Sweden’s West Götaland region have suffered computer problems because of as-yet unexplained hard drive crashes Continue Reading

By

• Jane Hamrin

Met Police launches £600m IT infrastructure tender

Force aims to move away from a multi-supplier approach and enable flexibility and savings in technology Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Mimecast blocked 99 billion suspicious emails in third quarter

Latest threat intelligence report reveals the scale of the threat posed by malicious emails, with the transport, legal and financial sectors hit hardest Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Datrium boosts VMware protection but won’t add more hypervisors

NVMe flash pioneer turned DR-as-a-service-focused data platform provider Datrium says VMware and Kubernetes have “won the market” and it won’t extend support beyond those two Continue Reading

By

• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Finland’s ministry of transport floats tech-enabled four-day week

Government department says four-day working week is made possible by technologies such as artificial intelligence Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Massive increase in fraud attacks on TSB customers during IT meltdown

There was a massive spike in attempts by fraudsters to steal from TSB customers when the bank’s IT systems failed in 2018 Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Holy grail of digital banking is, at first glance, a new channel, not a new concept

Details of Google’s plans in the financial services sector have emerged with nothing groundbreaking so far, but the sector is guessing what comes next Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

House of Commons seeks IT security chief

Interviews for the two-year engagement are due to take place in December 2019 Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

John Lewis Partnership taps Google Cloud for AI expertise to bolster customer experience

The John Lewis Partnership is building on its earlier forays into the Google Cloud by tapping into its artificial intelligence and machine learning expertise to deliver on its omnichannel business ambitions Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Public sector risks downplayed by senior IT leaders

Sophos reveals a significant cyber security perception gap between senior IT and security leaders in the public sector and their front-line teams Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Macy’s Magecart breach presages Christmas fraud spike

US retailer Macy’s admits some customer data was accessed by unknown actors during a week-long Magecart attack Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Anti-stalkerware coalition calls time on intrusive abusers

New coalition plans to tackle the scourge of stalkerware as a tool of domestic and other forms of abuse Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Azimo opens doors at Brexit-proof Dutch arm

Cross border payments fintech Azimo has opened the doors to its European headquarters in Amsterdam Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

TSB programme pulled apart in report on IT meltdown

City law firm tears into TSB’s management of botched core banking platform migration Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Huawei shrugs off latest US reprieve

Chinese tech giant dismisses the latest extension of the US Temporary General Licence and maintains that the US government is harming its own interests in banning it Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Is facial recognition happening too fast?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, as the information commissioner calls on police forces to slow down the introduction of facial recognition, we examine the issues. We look at what the use of DevOps methods means for storage strategy. And we talk to Microsoft’s global cyber security chief. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Scottish local government prioritises automation and AI in digital plan

Use of the technologies will be ramped up as part of the next phase of the Digital Office 2.0 programme Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

DataCore adds file and S3 object storage with vFilO

Software-defined storage specialist DataCore has added file storage and S3 object storage access with vFilO, which lets customers create virtual pools from on-site and remote datastores Continue Reading

By

• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

Foreign e-commerce giants threaten Nordic high streets

Surveys show up to 40% of high-street stores in Sweden and Finland could face closure by 2030 as retailers seek to combat e-commerce threat Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Australian bourse to overhaul technology infrastructure

The Australian Securities Exchange is embracing digital ledger technology, microservices and DevOps to modernise its core systems Continue Reading

By

• Stuart Kennedy

Loan charge under review: The 20-year retroactive tax policy pushing IT contractors to the brink

Thousands of IT contractors are at risk of financial ruin as HMRC pursues them for tax it claims they owe on work they did up to two decades ago and were reimbursed for via loan remuneration schemes. Computer Weekly investigates Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Notorious hackers claim responsibility for Labour DDoS

Hackers claiming to represent Lizard Squad say they were behind a distributed denial of service attack on the UK’s Labour Party Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Home Office Brexit app contains multiple security flaws

The Home Office’s Brexit app may be putting EU citizens’ personal data at risk Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cyber criminals tool up for Christmas fraud season

Organised criminals are trying to cash in on the festive retail boom with both brand new and tried-and-tested techniques Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

LOTI launches dashboard that maps technology resources of local authorities

London Office of Technology and Innovation launches dashboard in partnership with Bloomberg Associates to drive savings and identify skills levels Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

NVMe-over-TCP brings super-fast flash over standard IP networks

TCP is the latest transport protocol that can be used to connect NVMe flash storage. We explain how NVMe-over-TCP works and the key advantages for datacentre customers Continue Reading

By

• Eric Ebert

Google to launch bank accounts in 2020

Google is launching bank accounts in the US in 2020 as tech giants continue to deepen their activities in the financial services sector Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Wagestream gives staff alternative to payday lenders: Fintech interview 30

Wagestream is enabling workers to access their pay in real-time, reducing the need for overdrafts and payday loans Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Finnish biometric identity plans for seamless air travel

Finnair and Finavia explore options for automatic digital identification and authentication of air travellers Continue Reading

By

• Alex Cruickshank

Attack on Labour shows need for DDoS defence but should alarm few

After being hit by two DDoS attacks in the space of 24 hours, many commentators are convinced the UK’s Labour Party is the victim of foreign interference in the General Election campaign. It probably isn’t Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

CIO interview: James Freed, CIO, Health Education England

As well as the usual IT leadership tasks, the healthcare IT chief is also responsible for helping to develop digital skills and awareness for staff across the health and care sectors in England Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

PCI DSS payment security compliance drops again

Worldwide, barely one-third of companies are maintaining full compliance with the PCI DSS security standard – and the numbers are falling Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 36

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, the team pick talk about General Election tech, HMRC's “war” on IT contractors, diversity in STEM and how organisations can fight back against fake online reviews Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications
• Clare McDonald, Business Editor
• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

NHS still holds citizen trust on data use

But the public trust banks more than local or central government bodies when it comes to handling personal information, a new study has found Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

‘Robust’ security foils cyber attack on Labour Party

Labour claims to have been the victim of a cyber attack, but says it is confident no data leaked Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

The importance of digital accessibility

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine what retailers need to do to make their digital channels accessible for disabled people. We look at the rise of alternative desktop productivity tools to Microsoft Office. And our new buyer’s guide covers next-generation programming tools such as no-code/low-code development. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Major report on TSB IT disaster expected soon

A damning report into the 2018 IT disaster at TSB is expected to heavily criticise executives when it is published in November Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

G-Cloud 10 fails to generate business for suppliers, study says

Research firm Tussell’s study into G-Cloud reveals majority of suppliers listed in its report did not earn any revenue in 2018 through the public sector framework Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

Goldman Sachs probed over alleged Apple Card gender discrimination

US financial services regulator is investigating allegations that Goldman Sachs’ credit decisions for its Apple Card offering show gender bias Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

IBM's financial services cloud offers developer opportunity

IBM hopes to bring developers to its new financial services cloud that runs on the IBM Cloud platform and uses Red Hat OpenShift as its Kubernetes environment. Continue Reading

By

• Darryl K. Taft

What is QLC flash and what workloads it is good for?

QLC flash offers low per-gigabyte costs and lots of capacity, but can be limited by endurance and I/O performance. It can be a good disk replacement for several workloads, however Continue Reading

By

• Rene Millman

Morrisons in new appeal over data breach fine

The Supreme Court has heard an appeal from retailer Morrisons as it attempts to overturn prior judgments holding it liable for a 2014 leak of employee data Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

What’s new in UK retail’s online-to-offline movement?

US menswear retailer Untuckit used to be an online pureplay, but by the end of 2019 it will have 80-plus stores, including its two new UK shops, as the online-to-offline trend continues Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

HMCTS researches the future of open justice

A new report by Policy Lab into the threats and opportunities of technology is aimed to support new approaches to policy-making Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

GoCardless and TransferWise create global network for direct debits

Fintechs’ network will make it easier for small companies to expand their customer bases internationally Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Zopa opens testing for its banking products to customers

Zopa's move into the banking sector is gathering pace as customers test out its savings product Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Co-operative Bank extends mortgage service deal with Capita

Co-operative bank has extended a contract to outsource its mortgage platform in a deal with Capita Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Dutch banks to work together in fight against money laundering

 Continue Reading

CW Benelux: Dutch banks fight money laundering

Dutch banks are sharing expertise and resources to help reduce money laundering through their accounts. Also read in this issue how companies could lose loyal IT staff because salary rises do not match those at rival employers, and why a Dutch province is pioneering a no-code software development platform. Continue Reading