Articles about public sector

Earlier this year the UK government released its State of digital government review, looking at how the public sector must urgently transform the way it approaches digital technology.

But with escalating cybersecurity threats, fragmented data strategies, and a widening digital skills gap, the sector may be setting itself up to fail. We spoke to Adam Casey, director of cyber security and CISO at tmc3, a Qodea company, to discuss the challenges the report raises and how they can be addressed.

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We reported a few weeks ago on the challenges businesses face in getting workers to adapt to new generative AI technology.

The latest report from digital experience specialist Nexthink, based on a survey of 220 public sector IT decision makers, shows that this is a particular problem in the public sector, with 96 percent of IT leaders believing this new era of digital transformation will increase digital friction.

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AI adoption is gaining momentum in the public sector as elsewhere, with benefits like predictive analytics and issue detection, but concerns still linger.

Around four in 10 respondents to a new study by SolarWinds, focused on public sector staff, say they are extremely or very concerned about potential risks associated with adopting AI, such as data privacy and compliance, making full-scale implementation a cautious process.

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Many organizations are embracing the benefits of digital transformation to improve efficiency and customer experience.

Historically the public sector has often lagged behind when it comes to new technology, but digital transformation can have a significant effect in delivering better value and services. We spoke to Praveen Karadiguddi, CEO at Scrumconnect Consulting, to find out more about how transformation projects can work in the public sector.

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A new report shows that 79 percent of public sector organizations have started to use AI in production (compared to 83 percent in the private sector) but that trust remains a major concern.

The study, from enterprise resilience platform Splunk, shows trust and reliability in AI-enabled systems -- particularly around cybersecurity tools that employ AI -- continue to be the main concerns for decision-makers (48 percent public, 36 percent private).

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A new study from Splunk, in collaboration with Foundry, finds that 49 percent of public sector agencies struggle to leverage data to detect and prevent cybersecurity threats.

The report shows 50 percent of the sector has issues leveraging data to inform cybersecurity decisions, and 56 percent of public sector agencies have difficulties leveraging data to mitigate and recover from cybersecurity incidents.

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Most industries, from education to manufacturing, are inundated with technical solutions. But there's one space you'd be surprised is still firmly in the 20th century: public safety. That's right, your cops and EMTs are running software that was cutting edge in the early 2000s. This means a few things for the IT industry.

First, it means these groups are facing a massive and necessary upgrade cycle. That translates into a significant opportunity for those interested in the first responder market.

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According to a report by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, almost half of all recorded UK cyber incidents between September 2020 and August 2021 targeted the public sector. Public sector cybersecurity is being put to the test and it’s imperative that public sector organizations properly protect the sensitive data that is in their possession.

Back in October 2020, Hackney Borough Council in London suffered a serious ransomware attack which took many of its services and IT systems offline. The attack cost the council millions of pounds and today, more than 18 months later, data is still missing across many services. In February 2022, the Information Commissioner’s Office ordered Hackney Borough Council to disclose information regarding what cybersecurity training its staff had received prior to the attack, when they were required to work from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The public sector has the highest proportion of security flaws in its applications along with some of the lowest and slowest fix rates compared to other industry sectors.

A new report from application security testing company Veracode finds 82 percent of public sector applications have security flaws and that 60 percent of flaws in third-party libraries in the public sector remain unfixed after two years.

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2020 turned the world on its head, and 2021 is proving to be just as challenging for many at the moment. The UK government, and those working to deliver the technology for it, not only have the current pandemic to worry about, but also fallout from Brexit.

Prahlad Koti, Partner at Netcompany explains why, as technologists, we must heed the lessons, look out for the speed bumps ahead and build technology that will bring sustainable good to the public sector.

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