IT news in your industry sector

Amadeus opens systems to kick-start innovation-driven ecosystem

By opening its systems, travel software company Amadeus is hoping to foster ecosystem-wide innovation in the travel industry Continue Reading

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• Sebastian Klovig Skelton , Senior reporter

Robotics and Automation: UK must tackle skills, immigration and SME challenges

Home-grown skills may not be enough to enable the UK to build on the government's Industrial Strategy and push robotics and automation Continue Reading

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• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Rural connectivity struggling to keep up with demand

The digital divide between urban and rural areas of the UK is continuing, with broadband and mobile network roll-outs struggling to keep pace with demand Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Northwestern cuts storage costs in half with Komprise

Komprise’s Deep Analytics helps university classify and migrate research data to cheaper disk and cloud as it cuts storage costs from $1.1m to $680,000 per annum Continue Reading

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• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Full-fibre within reach of 2.5 million homes and businesses

Access to full-fibre broadband is approaching 10% of properties in the UK Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Fintech Bud cuts 20% of workforce

Fintech Bud is cutting support staff as it focuses on engineering open banking software capabilities Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Smart meter roll-out delayed to 2024

The government has been forced to put the planned completion date for its Smart Meter Programme back from the end of next year to 2024 Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Travelex launches fintech platform for B2B customers

Travelex has launched a digital platform that enables businesses to use its services via application programming interfaces Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

The five software testing techniques every software developer should know about

Five simple testing techniques that will help developers test their software systematically, thoroughly and quickly Continue Reading

By

• Brian Hambling

Smart meters are the key to going net zero by 2050

According to a landmark UN report compiled by the world’s top scientists, the climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly ... Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Network Rail to use automation and analytics in tunnel examinations and station security

Operator Network Rail will tap into its £357m R&D fund to back innovation competitions aimed to improve assessment of more than 600 rail tunnels and station surveillance Continue Reading

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• Angelica Mari

Ecuador citizens’ data breach holds lessons for enterprises

What caused the mass breach of Ecuadorian citizens’ data, and what can businesses learn from it? Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 30

The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast team returns from its brief summer hiatus to discuss HPE’s hardware refresh processes, the financial services industry’s changing relationship with cloud and a charity that is helping people with chronic illnesses find work in tech Continue Reading

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

PSD2 security deadline extension is not a reason for further can kicking

The extension of a compliance deadline for PSD2 should not be a signal for banks to reduce preperations Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Top five cloud storage pitfalls

Cloud storage offers apparent simplicity, but unexpected costs, complexity, data movement and integration challenges can arise. We look at how to avoid common cloud storage pitfalls Continue Reading

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• Paul Stringfellow, Gardner Systems

The £1bn IT plan to modernise UK railways

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to Network Rail’s CIO about the £1bn IT plan that underpins the modernisation of UK railways. As 5G roll-outs begin, we look at the likely enterprise applications of the new mobile network technology. And we examine the progress of cloud computing in financial services. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

US lawmakers demand internal Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon documents in antitrust probe

US lawmakers have given big tech companies a deadline to disclose a wide range of documents as the House Judiciary Committee’s bipartisan investigation into competition gathers pace Continue Reading

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• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Gartner Catalyst: Prepare for web giants crushing your industry

Companies like Amazon and Alibaba are taking a bigger chunk of the customer journey, but they are also spreading across industry sectors Continue Reading

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• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Research explores economic benefits of full-fibre and 5G at local level

The Broadband Stakeholders Group (BSG) has published research by Oxera to help local authorities understand the benefits of full-fibre and 5G Continue Reading

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• Sebastian Klovig Skelton , Senior reporter

Councils awarded funding to boost online services

Local authorities received more than £750,000 in the second round of the Local Digital Fund, aimed at improving citizen offerings in areas such as housing and payment Continue Reading

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• Angelica Mari

NHSX emphasises need for ethical patient data access

The health service's digital unit welcomed the launch of Health Data Research hubs, but stressed that it will control the design of research collaborations Continue Reading

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• Angelica Mari

Police use of algorithms needs stronger safeguards to prevent bias, report says

A study by the Royal United Services Institute calls for new code of practice to guide use of algorithmic tools in policing Continue Reading

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• Sebastian Klovig Skelton , Senior reporter

Ditch hoodies and hackers to encourage diverse security recruitment

The cyber security industry needs to address a systemic image problem if it is to succeed in recruiting more diverse teams Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

West Midlands gears up for the next phase of 5G

West Midlands 5G (WM5G) marks launch of UK’s first dedicated 5G accelerator programme by holding a series of demos to showcase the wide variety of use cases that exist for the technology Continue Reading

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• Sebastian Klovig Skelton , Senior reporter

When AIs go to war: Autonomous cyber weapons ‘inevitable’

CISOs must start thinking about how to engage with intelligent, adaptive, non-human attackers, says Trend Micro’s Rik Ferguson Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Dutch banks to work together in fight against money laundering

Dutch banks are sharing expertise and resources to help reduce money laundering through their accounts Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Justice system transformation sees delays and reduction of scope

“Ambitious” timescales and scope for £1.2bn modernisation of services had to be scaled back, says NAO report Continue Reading

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• Angelica Mari

Fintech lender increases loan limit as customer demand accelerates

Small business lender Esme Loans has increased its loan limit to quarter of a million pounds as businesses are drawn to its simple and fast digital platform Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Industry opposition to no-deal Brexit hardens, says TechUK

A survey of TechUK members has found that 71% believe a no-deal Brexit at the end of October will negatively affect them in spite of their preparations Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

The right way to get on with building UK tech success is to get a Brexit deal now

The UK technology sector does not want a no-deal Brexit, and recognises the damage it would cause. If we're leaving the EU, the Prime Minister needs to get a deal Continue Reading

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• Julian David, TechUK

Government seeks views on post-Brexit security alignment

The government has called for views on its proposals to align the UK’s post-Brexit cyber security policy to that of the European Union Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

A Cybercommunity Safety Partnership to address On-line Harms and Abuse

We need voluntary co-operation to join up cybercommunity safety across silo boundaries without waiting for governments, regulators and lobbyists Continue Reading

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• Philip Virgo, Winsafe Ltd

Less than quarter of fintechs prepared for no-deal Brexit

A survey reveals that less than a quarter of UK fintech companies have their businesses prepared for the UK's exit from the EU Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

ICO to probe government over Gov.uk data collection plan

The ICO is to look into the government’s leaked data collection plans over fears they may breach the law Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

UN agency Unicef praised for response to accidental data leak

The UN’s children’s agency has disclosed an inadvertent leak of personal data belonging to users of its online learning platform Agora Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

5G takes off at Gatwick Airport

Vodafone’s 5G network goes live in airport’s South Terminal Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

CW Europe: Dutch authorities call temporary halt to datacentre construction

Two Dutch municipalities are putting all datacentre construction on hold while they put together a strategy to help them control developments. A local alderman said datacentres take up a lot of space and place a large burden on the electricity grid. Also read how France is racing ahead of Germany in making the most of service companies in India, and about Google’s plans for a new datacentre and technology training hub in Finland. Continue Reading

Mirai descendants dominate IoT threat environment

Attacks leveraging compromised IoT devices are growing in size, scale and frequency, report security experts at F-Secure and Trend Micro, with Mirai-related botnets a major source of trouble Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Bloomberg will move historic trading data to cloud in support of clients’ machine-learning ambitions

Bloomberg’s CIO for enterprise, Tony McManus, says its clients’ changing attitude to using cloud is changing the way the firm makes its real-time trading data available to the financial services community Continue Reading

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• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Government departments urged to publish R&D spending roadmaps

Issues including funding concentration in the “golden triangle” of London, Oxford and Cambridge must be addressed, according to a Science and Technology Committee report Continue Reading

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• Angelica Mari

Fintech Fluidly combines Google’s cloud and AI tech to ease SME cashflow management woes

London-based fintech Fluidly explains how its recent all-in move to the Google Cloud is supporting its continued growth, and delivers new features to customers faster Continue Reading

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• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Could Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings' ‘secret’ data sharing plan work?

Prime minister Boris Johnson and his controversial special advisor, Dominic Cummings, are “secretly” working on a plan to gather citizen data from across Whitehall to be used for targeting ... Continue Reading

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• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

UK consumers want biometrics but fear driverless cars and AI

Report also shows many adults across the country have never heard of the internet of things or big data Continue Reading

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• Angelica Mari

The emergence of the shopping centre-as-a-service model

Shopping centres have been morphing into wider entertainment, leisure and hospitality venues for some time, but their role is set to evolve yet further Continue Reading

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• Ben Sillitoe

GDPR non-compliance worse than feared

Over half of UK businesses do not yet appear to be fully GDPR-compliant, and many have de-prioritised their compliance efforts Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

UK calls for cyber capacity-building at UN security group

The UK’s representative to a United Nations cyber security working group has called for increased investment in capacity around cyber security Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Spectra tilts at HSM with StorCycle storage management software

Spectra Logic unveils newly-developed storage management platform and two-tier file access and object storage with all data visible to all users for restore Continue Reading

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• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Tech startups can boost UK shipping market after Brexit

Increased connectivity and propositions based on tools such as AI and blockchain can provide opportunities to the shipping sector after Brexit, says report Continue Reading

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• Angelica Mari

Brexit disrupts FCA exploration into data use in wholesale banking

The extra work for banks due to Brexit preparations has caused a delay to FCA work on the use of data in the wholesale banking sector Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Inside NatWest Ventures

NatWest Ventures is helping NatWest bank to remain relevant to its SME businesses customer community through digital innovation Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

BT gears up to take on rogue drones

BT’s Enterprise unit is offering customers an anti-drone security solution to protect their physical sites from intrusion Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Ctera launches hybrid cloud HC2400M at media use cases

Edge filer specialist hits up the media and entertainment market with its NAS-like hardware that caches data locally, syncs with other nodes and stages data to the cloud Continue Reading

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• Antony Adshead, Storage Editor

Ministry of Defence unveils innovation priorities

Artificial intelligence and 3D printing are among the key areas of focus for the Ministry of Defence's latest approach to emerging tech Continue Reading

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• Angelica Mari

Is there substance in Boris Johnson’s full-fibre broadband vision?

The new prime minister made a bold promise to roll out full-fibre broadband across the country by 2025 – but it’s a challenging task that requires serious investment and planning Continue Reading

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• Julian David, TechUK

Security Think Tank: The case for blockchain-based identity

What are the best and most effective ways information security professionals can use blockchain technology? Continue Reading

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• Richard Hunt, Turnkey Consulting

A tech boost for social care

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we explore how local authorities across the UK have been looking at assistive technologies, ranging from collaborative robots to voice assistants, to support delivery of adult social care services. We also look into the ramifications of HMRC targeting 1,500 GlaxoSmithKline IT contractors. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Brain-computer interfaces: Promising tech needs regulating

Connecting a computer directly to the brain could revolutionise healthcare, but the tech giants might monopolise data and application areas Continue Reading

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• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

How UK councils are using technology to support adult social care

As budgets dwindle and central government delays the creation of an overarching strategy around the future of care, local authorities are looking into innovations such as robotics and voice assistant technologies to ease the pressure on resources. Continue Reading

Terror watchlist faces reform after court rules it violates rights of people entering US

A secret US terrorist database containing information on more than 1.2 million people – who face repeated interrogations, detentions and electronic searches – violates constitutional rights, a US judge said last week Continue Reading

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• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Commvault buys Hedvig in push for global storage player status

Backup player Commvault aims to bring together datacentre and multi-cloud operations with software-defined storage that can unify access to almost any storage medium, anywhere Continue Reading

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• Yann Serra, LeMagIT

Social engineering a factor in virtually all cyber attacks, report claims

Almost every single cyber attack will, at some stage, require a human to be tricked into doing something, according to research by Proofpoint Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

IT leaders need to speak up about the voice channel

Voice assistants represent the next frontier, and a range of new skills will be needed to move beyond pilot projects to a true voice channel Continue Reading

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• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Loyal Dutch IT professionals not being rewarded enough, survey shows

Companies warned they could lose loyal IT staff because salary rises do not match those on offer from rival employers Continue Reading

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• Kim Loohuis

Security Think Tank: Too soon to dismiss blockchain in cyber security

What are the best and most effective ways information security professionals can use blockchain technology? Continue Reading

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• Maxine Holt, Omdia

Towns invited to bid for connectivity boost

Some 100 places in England are eligible to get resources from the £3.6bn fund aimed at creating local jobs and economic growth, with broadband as a key priority Continue Reading

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• Angelica Mari

Telenor collaborates with Norwegian education providers on digitisation

Educational institutions in Norway are working with telecoms supplier Telenor to help businesses better understand technology Continue Reading

By

• Gerard O'Dwyer

Royal Navy readies autonomous technology push

A competition ran by new accelerator NavyX will seek to find mature ideas around the approach to improve operations and increase efficiency in maritime operations Continue Reading

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• Angelica Mari

Security Think Tank: Use blockchain for integrity and immutability checks

What are the best and most effective ways information security professionals can use blockchain technology? Continue Reading

By

• Eoin Keary

Security pros doubt officials can enact effective security laws

Elected officials cannot be trusted to enact effective cyber security legislation and social media firms should be subject to strict privacy regulation, according to most information security professionals in a survey Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Cutting the cord: Negotiating cloud contracts with problematic customers

How accountable should cloud firms be for the actions of the customers that use their platforms, and how much thought should they give to aligning themselves with problematic brands before hosting them? Continue Reading

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• Sooraj Shah

Tide Foundation aims to boost password security

While passwordless security remains just out of reach, a non-profit organisation has developed a mechanism that it says makes passwords exponentially more difficult to crack Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Latest Facebook security lapse exposes millions to account hijack

18 million UK users are among the more than 400 million at risk of account hijacking after phone numbers linked to their Facebook accounts were found in an open online database Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

National Rail Enquiries hit by rush hour real-time information outage on mobile app and website

National Rail Enquiries confirms it is waiting on a third-party supplier for an update on when access to real-time train departure and arrival information will be restored on its website and mobile app Continue Reading

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• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Security Think Tank: Blockchain is not for everyone, so look carefully before you leap

What are the best and most effective ways information security professionals can use blockchain technology? Continue Reading

By

• Paddy Francis

EasyJet deploys Google’s natural language processing tech to bring voice search to airline app

Airline claims to be the first in the world to offer customers access to voice search capabilities within its mobile app Continue Reading

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• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

New funding announced to tackle online child abuse

Government announces £30m of new cash to tackle online child harm as part of Spending Review 2019 Continue Reading

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• Angelica Mari

Executive interview: How Figleaves uncovers a data Eden

Online lingerie business that started out at the height of the dot com boom is now focused on using advanced analytics to reveal new data insights Continue Reading

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• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Check Point warns of Android phishing attacks

Researchers at Check Point have identified a security flaw in Android-based smartphones that exposes vulnerable users to phishing attacks Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Security Think Tank: Blockchain utility depends on business type and cost

What are the best and most effective ways information security professionals can use blockchain technology? Continue Reading

By

• Petra Wenham

Tandem Bank steps up its artificial intelligence training with appointment

Tandem Bank names seasoned artificial intelligence expert to drive its journey to personalise banking Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Businesses need to keep investing in tech and hope to avoid a no-deal Brexit

A no-deal Brexit could have serious consequences for the UK tech sector and skills base, making it more difficult to recruit technology specialists and hire freelancers Continue Reading

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• Albert Ellis, Harvey Nash Group

Gartner: Eight ways blockchain can support governments

Distributed ledgers are not just limited to finance and smart contracts. Gartner explores how blockchain can tackle government inefficiencies Continue Reading

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• David Furlonger, Gartner

TrickBot Trojan switches to stealthy Ostap downloader

Operators of the TrickBot banking Trojan have switched to a new downloader to evade detection and analysis for a high-volume malicious spam campaign targeting business, researchers warn Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Danish MobilePay app moves away from mainframe

Danske Bank’s popular mobile payment app moves from mainframe to open source DataStax Enterprise built on Apache Cassandra Continue Reading

By

• Alex Cruickshank

Nationwide Building Society harnesses low-code platform

Software development platform makes it quicker to build apps Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Cyber criminals tap into web social engineering toolkit 

Security researchers have discovered a web social engineering toolkit that enables cyber criminals to create fake update notification campaigns  Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

CISOs think cloud safer, but security fears remain

The majority of information security leaders think cloud is now safer than on-premise, but security fears remain, with recently breached and highly regulated organisations most concerned, poll reveals Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Allied Irish Banks selects cloud platform for digital transformation

Bank is streamlining its operations through a cloud platform from nCino Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

At least 47,000 servers vulnerable to remote attack

All organisations using Supermicro servers are being urged to update firmware to block remote attacks exploiting vulnerabilities in baseboard management controllers Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Samsung KX gives consumers and retailers a glimpse of the future

Samsung puts its Galaxy range, the internet of things and community events at the heart of its new central London consumer space – but don’t call it a store... Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

Post Office changes IT leadership reshuffle decision

The Post Office has changed its IT leadership reshuffle weeks after announcing its original plan Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Security Think Tank: Risk mitigation is key to blockchain becoming mainstream

What are the best and most effective ways information security professionals can use blockchain technology? Continue Reading

By

• Mike Yeomans, Information Security Forum

Nearly £1m of EU funding to boost tech skills in UK SMEs

An initiative led by the Department for Work and Pensions will focus on enhancing skills in rural locations to unleash competitiveness in areas such as agritech and biorenewables Continue Reading

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• Angelica Mari

Interim GDS boss gives preview of priorities

Alison Pritchard sets out key areas of attention for the digital service, from analytics to Brexit work Continue Reading

By

• Angelica Mari

UK organisations join quantum comms pilot

Four UK companies are taking part in a pilot project to build the most secure communication infrastructure in Europe Continue Reading

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• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Dutch virtual reality can help reduce teacher shortage worldwide

Dutch lecturer uses virtual reality to improve teaching and developments are being watched by the Teachers Task Force of Unesco Continue Reading

By

• Kim Loohuis

TSB works with Silicon Valley tech firm to help SME customers take card payments

UK bank will offer its small business customers card-processing and point-of-sale technology by partnering with a fintech set up by Twitter CEO Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Security Think Tank: Blockchain – balance risk and opportunity for smart security

What are the best and most effective ways information security professionals can use blockchain technology? Continue Reading

By

• RV Raghu, ISACA

CISOs turn to AI, detection, response and education

Information security leaders are looking to artificial intelligence, better detection and response capabilities and user education in the face of cyber threats, but need more budget, a study shows Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

CIO interview: Simon McNamara, chief administrative officer, RBS Group

Brought in after a catastrophic IT failure that affected 6.5 million customers, the IT chief at Royal Bank of Scotland Group says the bank is now a leader in innovation. Continue Reading