Articles about Government

How can we best use data to reach our goals? This is a question that every business and public sector organization often asks themselves. Data is an incredible asset, and Government has some of the richest data sets available. The potential of data to drive efficiencies, improve policy making and, ultimately, drive better outcomes for citizens, is well documented.

The UK Government’s National Data Strategy shows its commitment to placing data at the heart of a concerted national effort to improve citizen services. There are numerous Initiatives focused on helping improve the use of data across government. One such example is the collaboration between the Global Government Forum, the Office for National Statistics, NTT DATA UK, and the Cabinet Office, to produce the Civil Service Data Challenge (CSDC), which pushes data innovation a step further.

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The war in Ukraine has highlighted the role that the cyber world has to play in modern conflict and a new survey from NordVPN finds that 93 percent of Americans believe that another country could launch cyberwarfare against the US.

What's more, of over 1,000 consumers surveyed only 19 percent feel 100 percent confident in the government's ability to protect them, despite the fact that 70 percent rank the US as the most secure country for cyber war attacks.

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If you use the internet then it's certain that some organization somewhere is storing data about you. Indeed research shows that people are happy to share information in exchange for a better consumer experience.

However, that data is still yours, so how can you understand what information you're giving away and how can you take better control?

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The digitization of public services is at the very top of government agendas across Europe, but the lack of accessible and reliable data, such as core information about individuals and businesses, creates challenges for digital administration.

This information, called basic data or register, is re-used throughout the public sector and is an important basis for public authorities to perform their tasks properly and efficiently. Not least because an ever-greater number of tasks must be performed digitally and across units, departments and sectors. Without accurate and accessible basic data, true joined up services will always remain an illusion.

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Revenue generated by cybersecurity firms in the UK rose by 14 percent to £10.1 billion ($13.7 billion) last year according to the latest Annual Cyber Sector Report from the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS).

The report, which tracks the growth and performance of the UK's cyber security industry, reveals the sector contributed around £5.3 billion to the UK economy in 2021, rising by a third on the previous year from £4 billion -- the largest increase since the report began in 2018.

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Local councils in the UK report a 27 percent increase in the use of digital services over the 12 months from summer 2020, compared to the previous year.

Digital experience company Acquia used freedom of information requests to compile the report, which also suggests the UK government’s drive to encourage usage of digital services is bearing fruit with local councils making considerable strides to improve accessibility.

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Changes to the UK government's Cyber Essentials security certification scheme come into force today. They include things like guidelines on remote working and hybrid approaches, rules for cloud service accounts -- such as deploying multi-factor authentication -- and speeding up critical patch deployments for critical and high severity vulnerabilities

We talked to Karl Alderton, technical account manager at security and compliance specialist Qualys to find out more about how these changes will affect businesses and what they need to do in response.

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The UK government is today launching a new scheme providing small businesses with discounts of up to £5,000 on approved software as well as free advice and support through a new online platform.

Help to Grow: Digital is designed to support smaller businesses and help them to grow. It offers discounts on digital accounting and CRM software from leading suppliers.

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Cybersecurity company ESET has released new research into FamousSparrow, a cyberespionage group attacking hotels worldwide, as well as governments, international organizations, engineering companies and law firms.

The Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group FamousSparrow has been exploiting the Microsoft Exchange vulnerability known as ProxyLogon, which allows hackers to take control of Exchange servers.

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When it comes to consent and data privacy, the rise of regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), along with increased consumer awareness of data infractions and breaches, has raised the stakes.

When the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) passed in 2018, many states began following California's lead. Currently, more than 30 states have comprehensive privacy bills that are close to passing or in early stages of being drafted.

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In the first signs of UK data policy starting to diverge from the EU, the government has today announced a package of measures to help it seize the opportunities of data to boost growth, trade and improve public services.

Plans include 'data adequacy' partnerships with 10 countries including the US, Australia and Republic of Korea, and the appointment of a new Information Commissioner to oversee the changes.

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Canonical is announcing today that Ubuntu is set to drive high security and regulated workloads thanks to gaining a new FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) certification.

Now the world's most popular operating system across private and public clouds, Ubuntu has received the FIPS 140-2, Level 1 certification for its cryptographic modules in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, including OpenSSL 1.1.1.

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According to a new study from third-party ID risk specialist SecZetta 53 percent of respondents lack confidence in the strength of the US government’s infrastructure to protect the American people from cyberattacks.

Also 88 percent say organizations and government entities must have better data security systems in place to protect them from the increase in third-party remote attacks.

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We looked last week at how government agencies are adapting to remote working, but a new report from ESET shows they are also facing a growing attack surface and greater challenges from APT groups and cybercriminals.

Many of the threats facing government have come from organized criminal groups, which have been increasingly willing to work together towards a common goal. Plus the line between cybercriminals and nation-state actors continues to blur.

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The last year has seen all businesses facing a major shift as employees have been forced to work from home.

Government agencies have been no exception to this, but they have specific issues relating to handling sensitive data. Last month the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a plan to expand remote work options and other agencies are expected to follow suit.

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