A one-size-fits-all blockchain just won’t do

With manifold use cases and specific requirements for blockchains, businesses will have to choose the right variety rather than deploy a single ‘interoperable’ blockchain

Middle East and Africa to see fastest IP traffic growth to 2020

IP traffic in Middle East and Africa to grow 41% a year to 2020, according to Cisco Visual Networking Index

Finland’s prisons move to a cashless world

Inmates in Finland’s prisons will no longer need to use cash as a pre-paid card system is rolled out

Outgoing information commissioner claims good year for ICO

The ICO is to discuss with government the implications of the Brexit vote and its effect on data protection reform in the UK, says outgoing information commissioner Christopher Graham

BT to offer secure, private network connection into Oracle Cloud

Telco plans to roll out BT Connect service to Oracle Cloud customers during final quarter of 2016

Lauri Love suicide risk if extradited to US over hacking allegations

Westminster Magistrates’ Court hears evidence from medical experts that alleged hacker Lauri Love is at risk of suicide if extradited to the US

MongoDB offers cloud overflow scaling with Atlas database as service

MongoDB has announced its entry into cloud computing with a database as a service, dubbed Atlas, at its annual developer conference in New York City

Most European firms ill equipped for insider security breaches

Nearly a third of European firms do not use basic methods of breach detection, and fewer than one in five have any form of security analytics in place, a survey has revealed

Vodafone may pull jobs out of UK after Brexit

Vodafone says it may pull its headquarters out of the UK after the country voted for Brexit

Security Think Tank: Research biometrics thoroughly before deploying

How can organisations move to biometric authentication of users without running the risk of exposing sensitive biometric information?

Banking IT community faces uncertain Brexit future

The financial services IT community faces a period of uncertainty as finance firms reassess plans following the EU referendum result

Post-Brexit price hikes hit cloud and datacentre community, as currency fluctuations bite

Cloud and datacentre analysts claim IT buyers are already feeling the pinch from the outcome of the EU referendum, but past performance suggests demand for colocation space will rise in the event of recession

Security Think Tank: A starter guide for biometrics in security

How can organisations move to biometric authentication of users without running the risk of exposing sensitive biometric information?

Malaysia approaches fintech with Islamic twist

A fintech Islamic finance platform that links leaders with businesses via banks in Malaysia will change the role of Islamic lenders

Australia’s NAB bank accused of “violating” customer through data sharing

Australian bank NAB is accused of violating a customer over industry data sharing

CW@50: Spreadsheets and ERP – 50 years of software coding business

Business software has been a rich field for IT professionals over the past five decades, and we are on the cusp of a new era of customers rolling their own for competitive advantage

Bet365 bets on Simplivity hyper-converged for test and dev

Bet365 follows up its move to object storage with efficiency gains that result from migration of test and dev work to Simplivity hyper-converged infrastructure from HDS SAN

Prison services colluded with Ofcom in test of mobile phone blockers

Documents reveal trials of mobile traffic interception technology in UK jails, which may have affected users beyond the prison walls

Greater focus on UK tech talent essential in face of Brexit

The UK is already suffering from an IT skills crisis, so how will leaving the European Union affect tech jobs now and in the future?

Intel considers sale of security business

Intel is reportedly considering the sale of its security business to generate capital as the company restructures

Solid state storage in the datacentre: More than a flash in the pan

As IT organisations transform their datacentres to meet the efficiency and agility demands of the digital enterprise, flash storage is increasingly viewed as a key element

Hospitals targeted using camouflaged old malware

Specialised devices running older versions of operating systems are becoming critical points of cyber attack vulnerability, warns TrapX Security

Singapore banks adopt voice biometrics for user authentication

Banks in Singapore are rolling out biometric technology to improve customer services by speeding up the authentication process

Engage early with police on cyber crime, business told

Businesses should approach law enforcement as early as possible about cyber crime, even before they are targeted, according to an expert panel

How data saves lives in Australia’s hospitals

Australia’s National Blood Authority saves A$10m as mobile and data innovations inject efficiency into the supply chain

Twitter forces password resets for accounts vulnerable to hackers

Twitter cross-checks leaked user data with its records, identifying and locking a number of accounts for extra protection

IT priorities 2016: Cloud initiatives drive IT spending

Cloud computing is expected to experience the biggest growth in spending among businesses planning IT investments in 2016

Datacentre operators warned of public cloud threat to long-term co-location success

Speakers at the 2016 DataCloud Europe conference urge co-location firms to act on public cloud threat or risk losing business

Local Government Ombudsman moves to cloud network service

Ombudsman service is on the way to realising 30% cost savings with 50% faster connectivity after procuring a cloud telephony service through G-Cloud

Ransomware is helping make the cyber threat real

The Scottish government is working to help businesses understand and manage the cyber security risk

UK IT community rocked but keeping calm in face of Brexit

The UK IT sector reacts with alarm, tempered by a calm pragmatism, to the British Referendum verdict to leave the European Union. Reporting by the Computer Weekly team

Focus on diversity, not gender, says most influential woman in UK IT 2016

The winner of Computer Weekly’s most influential woman in UK IT award, Maggie Philbin, says the IT industry should focus on wider diversity as opposed to just gender equality

Most influential women in UK IT 2016: Rising Stars

Computer Weekly reveals the judges’ choice for the 2016 most influential women in UK IT Rising Stars. Special thanks to the Salesforce Foundation for extending its support to our 2016 Rising Stars

AWS clinches cloud deal with Colorado law enforcement agencies

US State of Colorado signs AWS cloud deal, paving way for law enforcers to make greater use of digital technologies during criminal investigations

Queen’s Birthday Honours list recognises more women in IT

The 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours list recognised a number of IT and digital entrepreneurs, and been hailed as the most diverse ever

NoSQL offerings from Microsoft and Oracle

Cloud and big data applications have led to a new wave of NoSQL data stores. We look at what Microsoft and Oracle have to offer

CIO interview: Why Europe matters to Ben Booth

Ben Booth has headed several European IT departments in his career, and he feels that remaining in the European Union (EU) is good for the UK and good for IT

Singapore to block internet access for its public servants from 2017

From May 2017, most of Singapore’s public servants will not be able to access the internet from their workstations

New cyber security law in the offing for Singapore

Singapore government will table new Cyber Security Bill in 2017 to strengthen its online defences

UK social media habits are a corporate security risk, warns Intel Security

Companies should educate employees not to connect to strangers on social media to reduce the risk of phishing attacks, Intel Security has warned

Stockport council ditches HDS SAN for Nutanix hyper-converged

Stockport council shifts to hyper-converged server storage boxes from Nutanix, with its previous SAN reaching end of life and experiencing operational issues and scalability problems

Equinix embarks on big data push to inform new datacentre designs and builds

Colocation giant Equinix outlines its plans to use IoT and big data analytics to improve the design of its carrier neutral facilities

Why cloud disruption will shift the dynamics of IT budgets

Cloud computing is set to become one of the most disruptive forces of IT spending since the dawn of the digital age

Dell divests software business to free up funds for EMC deal

It has been less than three months since Dell sold off its services arm. Now its software business is being offloaded. We look at the implications

Rapid7 discloses remote code execution flaw in Swagger

Rapid7 researchers warn businesses of remote execution vulnerability in the Swagger programming tool

High-performing DevOps teams create better quality code, research suggests

The 2016 State of DevOps report makes the case for incorporating security checks into every stage of the software development cycle

Nordic CIO interview: Martin Althén, Husqvarna

The CIO at power tool maker Husqvarna tells Computer Weekly how he is repositioning the company through digitalisation

Think like attackers, says HPE cyber security strategist

Organisations need to think of cyber attackers as adversaries and competitors focused on stealing data, maximising their profit and minimising their risk, says HPE security strategist Tim Grieveson

Computer Weekly announces the 50 most influential women in UK IT 2016

Computer Weekly announces its top 50 list of the most influential women in UK IT, including 2016 winner Maggie Philbin

Singapore to pioneer tropical datacentre

If successful, trial would prove that datacentres can function optimally at temperatures of up to 38°C and humidity of up to, or exceeding, 90%

UAE businesses struggle with security breach declaration

UAE firms find difficulty in providing facts on security breaches, while consumers demand to be informed of incidents

Lower average cost of Australian data breaches is not a sign of comfort

The average cost of a data breach to Australian organisations dropped in 2015, according to research

EU workers trust EU countries most with cloud data

Survey reveals European workers trust EU countries much more than the US with their work data in the cloud

Work in progress: How Jisc’s shared datacentre vision is shaking up the education sector

Computer Weekly gets a progress report from the Jisc shared services datacentre team in Slough about how the education sector is making use of the site

US takes on the critics of Prism in Irish court

The US says social media companies have to do mass surveillance in Europe, while the European Union says they can’t. The Irish court is to decide competing claims

From SQL to NoSQL – and back again

We take a look at the suppliers behind the emergence of databases that organise web-scale datasets and the like – and the most recent set of upstarts dubbed NewSQL

Amazon cloud crash forced Australian enterprises to take heads out of sand

Enterprises in Australia need to rethink their cloud backup strategies following the recent AWS outage in Sydney

Australian government entices UK tech startups

Australia is trying to entice UK technology firms to open operations in the country, with benefits including a stepping stone to Asia and a skilled workforce

Cyber security industry mostly welcomes report on TalkTalk breach

Most of the recommendations of a government committee inquiry into the TalkTalk breach have been welcomed, but pundits have expressed reservations about some, particularly proposed new fines

Angus Council signs up to Scottish Wide Area Network

Angus Council has become the latest local authority in Scotland to sign up to the Scottish Wide Area Network, or Swan, for enhanced public services delivery

Enterprises urged not to view security as a barrier to internet of things adoption

The Lower Colorado River Authority’s chief administrative officer urges enterprises to balance the risks of using the internet of things with the benefits connected devices can bring

OPNFV Project scales up network functions virtualisation ecosystem

At the OPNFV summit in Berlin, the OPNFV Project announces new R&D capabilities and a student internship programme

CESG issues challenge to information security professionals

CESG technical director Jonathan Lawrence tells The Cyber Security Summit that information security professionals need to deliver security controls that help business users achieve their goals securely

Nutanix adds storage for containers, physical servers and all-flash

Hyper-converged infrastructure maker Nutanix adds container support with persistent storage, offers block iSCSI storage for physical servers and allows all-flash across the product range

Hundreds of UK IT and back office roles at RBS cut

The Royal Bank of Scotland is cutting 900 IT and back office jobs as part of a reorganisation that involves offshoring roles

Act now to save the open internet, says Internet Governance Commission

The future of the internet is at risk from multiple scenarios, and quick action is needed to protect it, says the Internet Governance Commission

LogMeIn resets user passwords lifted from LinkedIn, Tumblr and MySpace hack data dumps

Remote device management supplier acts after discovering reused customer account credentials in data breach dumps from LinkedIn, Tumblr and MySpace

Government committee calls on TalkTalk to publish breach report

A government committee inquiry into the TalkTalk cyber breach calls for more fines and other measures to ensure greater protection of personal data

Nets and Coinify launch blockchain development lab in Denmark

Nordic payments technology firms work together on blockchain proof-of-concept developments

Brexit will make UK more vulnerable to cyber attack, say security pros

A third of security professionals are concerned that a Brexit vote will hamper cyber threat intelligence sharing with EU states

Millions of city-dwellers still lack broadband connections

A study by the Wireless Broadband Alliance has found that over half of the global urban population are unconnected, including many in some of the world’s wealthiest cities

StorageOS tackles shortcomings of container storage

As containers gain popularity for webscale apps, startup StorageOS launches in beta to provide persistent storage for containers at Dockercon developer event

TeenTech Awards set to name 2016 finalists

The 2016 round of the TeenTech Awards has announced its latest cohort of entries in a pitching session at the Royal Society London

UK consumers support fines for firms that lose personal data

Most UK consumers would like the government to take more action to ensure companies protect personal information

Three-quarters of tech firms do not have gender diverse senior management

Research by Tech London Advocates finds that only 23% of technology companies have gender diverse teams at senior management level

Hays Recruitment service desk project is all gain and no pain

The firm was attracted by the many benefits of a cloud-based service desk, but chief among them was the low risk involved in implementation

Euro Championship network traffic spike highlights OTT boom

The BBC and EE both reported massive spikes in network traffic during the England versus Wales clash at Euro 2016

How MI5 and MI6 gather your personal data for surveillance

Publicly released documents shed light on the many databases and sources used by the intelligence services to gather bulk personal data about UK citizens

NoSQL database technology finds use cases, but still minority sport

From managing water meter data, through Bitcoin and video data, to web publishing, NoSQL database technology is finding real use cases. But it's likely to be stuck at 10% of the market for some time

CW500 video: Robert Carolina, Royal Holloway, on trust and ethics

Robert Carolina, executive director of the Institute for Cyber Security Innovation, Royal Holloway, University of London, talks about the importance of trust and ethics in a digital world

Bluetooth 5 standard brings range, speed and capacity boost for IoT

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has announced the forthcoming Bluetooth 5 standard, promising significant improvements to support an accessible and interoperable internet of things

French Resistance uses satellite broadband for anniversary event

A satellite broadband service was used to connect veteran secret agents for an historic commemoration of the work of MI6 in Nazi-occupied France

Scality upgrades for enterprise adoption of object storage and S3

Object storage specialist Scality recognises de facto supremacy of Amazon S3 and includes directory features to allow enterprise production use of object-based private and public cloud storage

Builders kill Virgin broadband service to thousands of Londoners

Builders working in Brixton, south London, have severed a crucial link in Virgin Media’s trunk network, cutting broadband and cable TV services to thousands

Wimbledon deploys smartphone app to engage fans

The Wimbledon tennis championships previously used digital tech to engage fans unable to attend matches – but has switched focus to fans in the grounds for 2016

Why leaving EU would be disastrous for UK digital scene

Startups and government minister discuss the risks that leaving the EU would bring to the UK IT industry

Memset laments ‘pitiful return’ on G-Cloud datacentre investments

Memset managing director Kate Craig-Wood claims public sector buyers are too entrenched in old procurement practices to make the most of G-Cloud

CW@50: The Great British chip invention

There is a link between the world’s first working computer and the world’s most successful chip: they are both British

Openreach CEO Selley emphasises broadband delivery technology

Joe Garner’s replacement at Openreach, technologist and engineer Clive Selley, discusses VDSL, G.fast and pure fibre as elements of the future for UK broadband

Fintech trailblazer hits United Arab Emirates

European challenger bank takes its financial technology (fintech) model to the Middle East with the opening of an office in Dubai

Philippines government data breach is a warning to Asean region

Security is a rising concern in the Asean region, with fears fuelled by incidents such as the recent hacking incident in Manila

CW500 video: Wandsworth's David Tidey on trust and ethics in a digital world

David Tidey, CIO at Wandsworth Council talks about the importance of trust and ethics in a digital world

Cyber crime cost UK business more than £1bn in the past year

UK businesses have reported a 22% increase in cyber crime in the past year, resulting in more than £1bn in losses

Australian datacentre investments rocket due to latest enterprise IT trends

The increased use of big data, analytics, cloud and mobile technologies in Australian enterprises is driving spending in datacentre services

New Zealand calls for tech specialists

New Zealand needs more IT professionals, and is hitting its targets through a mix of training existing residents and attracting new ones

Gaps remain in the digital and data-driven strategies of Asean firms

The majority of Asean business leaders acknowledge they lack a complete digital strategy, despite most believing it is important to have an agile, data-driven business

Gulf Air tinkers with Oracle suite and explores hybrid cloud models

Bahraini airline Gulf Air is looking to make productivity gains across its enterprise resource planning system

CW500 video: Robert Bond on trust and ethics in a digital world

In this CW500 video interview, Robert Bond, head of data protection & cyber security Laws Group, Charles Russell Speechlys LLP talks about the importance of trust and ethics in a digital world

Enfield council to deploy customer service robot

The London Borough of Enfield is starting to use a software robot, known as Amelia, to process citizen requests

Microsoft and LinkedIn: Nadella spends like he means it

To pay $26.2bn for a social network that has failed to grow its income may be poor judgement – but Microsoft’s plans are far-reaching

Datacentre security: Why operators must give cyber and physical threats equal attention

Datacentre operators often talk up the physical security measures they have in place, but are they at risk of overlooking cyber threats?

BDUK finds more cash for rural broadband

BDUK has uncovered and hopes to recover £150m of underspend from Phase 1 of the rural broadband roll-out project

Isle of Man: From seaside getaway to tech startup hub

The Isle of Man government is stepping up efforts to position itself as the low-tax jurisdiction of choice for the startup community. But what's it like to do business there?

Fintech poised to revolutionise banking in the Middle East

The Middle East has been slow to join the fintech revolution, but there is an opportunity for CIOs to help banks stride ahead as demand picks up

Cyber weapons are perfect weapons, says security expert Mikko Hypponen

There is a lot of 'fog' surrounding cyber weapons and cyber war because there is no way of knowing the true capability of any country, says security expert Mikko Hypponen

A quarter of UK consumers refuse to shop cash-only

Consumers in the UK are reducing their cash use, with a quarter of shoppers claiming to avoid stores that don't accept payment cards

Internet traffic to triple by 2020, says Cisco

The latest edition of Cisco’s Visual Networking Index predicts a near tripling of internet traffic during the coming years as more than a billion people come online

Beware the pitfalls of security awareness training, says expert panel

While there is value in security awareness training, not all training programmes are effective or value for money, according to a panel of experts

Security Think Tank: How infosec pros should influence prep for GDPR

What is the role of information security professionals in ensuring organisations comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by 25 May 2018?

EDF Energy upgrades network with Vodafone

EDF Energy signs a 10-year, multi-million pound contract with Vodafone to update its communications and IT infrastructure to support training and compliance

Icelandic airport uses Wi-Fi to improve services and efficiency

The swiftly expanding Keflavik Airport in Reykjavík is using a combination of sensors and Wi-Fi to monitor passenger movement and improve airport efficiency

William Hague MP defends Investigatory Powers Bill

The idea of a 'Snoopers Charter' is ridiculous in the light of current and planned checks and balances around access to communications data, says William Hague

Government reaches accord over ESN in National Parks England

The Home Office reaches an agreement with National Parks England over the provision of mobile coverage for the emergency services

Saudi hackers claim Mark Zuckerberg’s social media accounts

A hacking group based in Saudi Arabia claims to have accessed several social media accounts belonging to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

‘Considerable risk’ if Post Office replaced Horizon system, says chairman

Post Office chairman Tim Parker says there would be ‘considerable risk’ associated with changing its Horizon computer system

How emails sent to and from Parliament are monitored

Government officials deny that emails sent by MPs are open to surveillance by GCHQ and NSA - we examine the evidence

Rio 2016 Olympics passes final IT test

IT services firm Atos completes its 200,000 hours of testing the IT systems for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics

How 3D printing will disrupt industry worldwide

The technology is helping startups model prototypes and inventory suppliers lop millions from supply chain costs

CIO Interview: Grant Hodgkinson, Mimecast

CIO and vice-president of digital operations at the email security expert explains the importance of electronic communication in the modern business environment

Three Ireland sets out to become an omnichannel operator

Mobile network Three Ireland chooses Amdocs to support a ground-up rebuild of its systems and processes after acquiring O2’s Irish business in 2014

CIO interview: Lee Edwards, chief technology officer, The British Library

The British Library is starting a major IT overhaul to support its work in preserving the UK’s heritage of digital and physical knowledge

Nordic CIO interview: Claes-Håkan Johansson, Preem

CIO of Swedish fuel company tells Computer Weekly about the firm’s digital journey and how IT has made sure it is part of the business

Finland to deploy national Sigfox IoT network

Internet of things service provider Sigfox has announced plans to extend its global network across Finland by 2017

Cisco and IBM collaborate on IoT analytics at the network edge

Cisco and IBM combine edge analytics with Watson to enable a deeper understanding of data generated on the internet of things

Download speed not biggest broadband concern, say manufacturers

Manufacturing association EEF warns the government that focusing too much on broadband speed is distracting policy-makers from other issues

HPE demands $3bn from Oracle over dropped Itanium database support

The long-running dispute finally enters the courts, but whose fault is it really that organisations are buying fewer high-end HPE servers? Moreover, why are two big players beating each other up over a fast-disappearing market?

Nordic CIO interview: Petteri Naulapää, Stockmann

CIO of Finnish-listed international retailer tells Computer Weekly about the department store’s journey towards omnichannel

Avoiding a security nightmare at South Australia’s Catholic schools

Taking on the challenge of securing student and organisational data while ensuring easy access to resources

CIO interview: Cloud a necessity at News Corp

News Corp’s global CIO, Dominic Shine, discusses how the media giant’s five-year cloud strategy has driven the business

A new wave of cyber attacks targets the Middle East’s banks

Hot on the heels of the Qatar National Bank breach comes a campaign employing advanced social engineering techniques

Success is a driver of imposter syndrome

At an event to help women in technology overcome doubts about their abilities, career coach Deena Gornick explained imposter syndrome and invited tech professionals to tell how they overcame the phenomenon

Microsoft sells 1,500 mobile patents to Xiaomi in licensing deal

Sale of mobile patent portfolio comes alongside software licensing agreement and may herald Xiaomi’s expansion into Europe and the US, say analysts

My first IoT project: A guide for businesses

We’ve all had a good giggle about having our fridges hacked – but now it’s time to get real. What are the first steps enterprises should take when implementing their first internet of things project?

MPs’ private emails are routinely accessed by GCHQ

Computer Weekly investigation reveals the extent of interception of MPs’ and peers’ email communications and data

Human error causes more data loss than malicious attacks

Stupid humans, you are the weakest link, at least according to the ICO

Big data and open-source cloud technology help Gulf Air pin down customer sentiment

Big data engine that performs sentiment analysis on both Arabic and English textual data helps airline to understand and react rapidly to customer preferences

Cloudera users put pattern recognition at heart of new business ventures

Cloudera users Barclays, BT, Sky Betting & Gaming and Markerstudy are finding new business development opportunities through the use of the Hadoop ecosystem

For IBM, the answer is Watson. But what is the question?

IBM is promoting its Watson natural language processing analytics technology as it tries to move its core business beyond technologies that it pioneered, but which have become commoditised. Will it fly?

Server shipments fall as firms use cloud and virtualisation to cut hardware costs

Gartner’s latest global server sales tracker highlights the toll that cloud and virtualisation are taking on the market

Does Microsoft Azure make sense for developers?

Microsoft is betting heavily on cloud services for its future. We take a close look at its strategy as a platform for Office 365, Linux and microservices

Financial trader bets on hyper-converged from Nutanix

London Capital Group ditches server-plus-SAN architecture for Nutanix and slashes deployment times and datacentre footprint with hyper-converged server/storage boxes with VMware

NetApp Solidfire adds high-end SF19210 all-flash array

All-flash array maker tops out the SF family with the SF19210, upgrades OS to add VVOLs compatibility and launches licensing that separates software licences and hardware purchases

Skype for Business: One year on, so what are the results?

It’s now a year since Microsoft transitioned the Lync unified communications suite into Skype for Business, but has the enterprise embraced or shunned it?

Hyperoptic adds locations to network footprint

FTTP supplier Hyperoptic expands its ultrafast broadband offering into seven more towns and cities

Sloppy SaaS firms lose out on G-Cloud deals, research suggests

Ex-EuroCloud general secretary Lindsay Smith claims SaaS providers need to stop blaming others for their lack of G-Cloud sales success

Thailand province successfully trials flood simulation system

A province of Thailand is using an IT system from NEC to help it predict floods

It makes sense to go hyperscale/hyper-converged

Hyperscale computing and storage are the norm for web giants. Hyper-converged scenarios make it possible for small and medium-sized enterprises to gain the advantages of combined server/storage nodes

Gotthard Base Tunnel opens with 4G coverage throughout

Rail passengers travelling through the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland will be able to access 4G LTE connectivity throughout their journey

Safe Harbour confusion fuels rise in demand for European datacentre space, CBRE claims

User demand for locally hosted cloud services prompts cloud firms and infrastructure providers to rapidly take-up datacentre space in Europe, CBRE research shows

Middle East CIO interview: V. Chandrasekar, Standard Chartered

The CIO of Standard Chartered bank in the Middle East tells Computer Weekly about the challenge of keeping customers happy through IT