The most recent articles from Computing

UK ISPs lack interest in EU cyber attack, says Lords

Dave Bailey — 2010-03-18T11:47:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, Computing, Thursday 18 March 2010 at 11:47:00

UK can survive cyber attack, says Lords committee, but UK ISPs show little interest in submitting inquiry evidence

The House of Lords has criticised UK ISPs for showing little interest in submitting evidence on UK cyber security.

The House of Lords EU Committee's fifth report, Protecting Europe against large-scale cyber-attacks, concluded that the UK is " reasonably well placed to cope with such disruptions."

But it said it regrets that key UK infrastructure players "should not have shown more interest in submitting evidence to this inquiry."

The UK's big carriers, BT, Cable & Wireless, and Virgin Media, and also lower-tier ISPs were absent from presenting any evidence in the oral and written submissions to the committee.

One of the report's functions was to look at "the part which the EU can play in helping the United Kingdom and other Member States to prevent and detect cyber attacks."

One proposal was to create national government-run Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) to address the threat of a cyber attack. But the committee concluded that existing measures are sufficient and that a national team is not needed.

The Lords report said: "none of our witnesses have suggested that the United Kingdom's current system of sector and company-specific CERTs should be replaced by a national United Kingdom CERT."

The Lords report pointed to the presence of three government CERTs set up to deal with internet incidents in the UK.

Currently there are two based in the GCHQ, one is GovCertUK, the government CERT for the public sector system, and the other is the recently established Cyber Security Operations Centre, responsible for defence against cyber attacks.

The third is the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, which provides protective security advice to businesses and organisations.

The US has a national CERT which interacts with federal agencies, industry, the research community, state and local governments, and others to disseminate reasoned and actionable cyber security information to the public.

Copyright legislation will cost ISPs up to £500m

Parliamentary reporter — 2010-03-17T14:19:00.000Z

Parliamentary reporter, Computing, Wednesday 17 March 2010 at 14:19:00

Government plans to force ISPs to crackdown on copyright abuse will cost the industry between £250 million and £500 million according to an estimate published by the Department for Business.

Government plans to force ISPs to crackdown on copyright abuse will cost the industry between £250 million and £500 million according to an estimate published by the Department for Business.

But the department's impact assessments for the Digital Economy Bill, which has passed the Lords and is awaiting debate in the Commons, claim this should be set against a potential £1,700 million benefit to rights holders.

The assessments were published on Tuesday ahead of further progress on the legislation, which may be caught up in the rush to salvage as much as possible of the government's outstanding legislation before the general election expected on May 6.

The department said the cost of complying with the legislation facing ISPs include the cost of notifying infringers, ISPs' capital costs, the cost of setting up and running a call centre and annual capital and operating costs for mobile phone operators. It said there were also unquantified broadband costs for consumers.

The assessments warned some low income or low value digital product consumers would stop consuming digital content altogether rather than purchase.

And there would be costs to rights holders of identifying infringing IP addresses and taking infringers to court.

Benefits to consumers would include "ensuring that investment in high quality and diverse creative content is at appropriate levels".

A report presented to the Commons said file sharing of audio, video, data, or anything in digital format between users on a computer network "has increased significantly in the last few years" .

It said: "This has served to reduce the incentive for the creative industries to invest in the development, production and distribution of new innovative content."

The intention of the legislation, the department said, is to make it easier for rights holders to bring targeted civil actions against suspect copyright infringers and place obligations on ISPs when informed by rights holders to notify subscribers of their unlawful behaviour and to maintain records of the most frequent offenders to allow rights holders to take targeted legal action.

Becta budget slashed by £40 million

Dave Bailey — 2010-03-16T10:08:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, Computing, Tuesday 16 March 2010 at 10:08:00

Ed Balls slashes school ICT delivery and e-learning budget

Government ICT and e-learning delivery partner Becta is to have its £108m budget slashed by £40m due to its "success" in achieving government aims.

The announcement came as School's Minister Ed Balls was speaking to BBC radio presenter Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 on Monday about efficiency savings from both the schools and non-schools budget.

Questioned about the Becta budget cut, Balls said that Becta's example was a really good one: "If you went back to 1997 we didn't really have computers in schools, we weren't using IT properly," Balls said.

"Becta's job was to get that IT into schools, and that's what they've done. It was a huge and radical change, and I'm saying to Becta we need to carry on doing some of that, and to sell that technology round the world, but we don't need the scale, now we've succeeded," explained Balls.

Becta's baseline budget from 2009/10 was £108.875m, with £62.585m set out for programme and running costs, £6.3m of capital, and £39.9m for the Home Access programme. Home Access helps low-income families who lack computer and/or internet access to get online at home.

Becta is the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, and its role as set out on its website is "to ensure that technology is used at its best in the British education system. We work to make sure technology is used effectively – maximising the gains to our teachers and learners."

Human Rights Committee may get veto on copyright cases

Parliamentary reporter — 2010-03-15T13:36:00.000Z

Parliamentary reporter, Computing, Monday 15 March 2010 at 13:36:00

Lord Mandelson's proposal will see the Human Rights Committee able to block copyright laws asking ISPs to suspend service

Business secretary Lord Mandelson has come close to giving the Joint Commons and Lords Human Rights Committee the power to veto any orders made under the proposed Digital Economy Bill to crack down on copyright infringement abuse.

This undertaking was published ahead of the Lords' final approval of the bill on Monday, which contains provisions to enable copyright holders to compel internet service providers to act against abusers, in the last resort by suspending service.

The bill faces passage through the Commons, where it is not yet even scheduled for debate. The passage is expected to be truncated in the rush to the general election – likely to be on 6 May.

The legislation will therefore find itself subject to inter-party horse-trading in the "wash-up"; the last few days before the Queen dissolves Parliament, when Conservative and Liberal Democrat opponents will have greater power to block parts of the bill to which they object.

Lord Mandelson told the committee the reserve power was needed to " future-proof" the legislation and pledged the government would "consider very carefully any negative recommendation" to proposed orders made by the committee on the grounds that it would infringe the human rights of the copyright owners, the internet users or any other party.

An added memorandum said: "If the Joint Committee on Human Rights recommended against any planned use of the power, no further progress could be made unless the committee's recommendation is overturned by resolution of the whole House.

"Given the support shown by all parliamentarians for human rights considerations, this in effect provides a very powerful safeguard against misuse."

An earlier report from the committee asked the government to justify including the right to make future revisions to the bill by order, and asked for clarification on the issue of affected individuals having the right to appeal before being cut off.

The committee made no comment on Mandelson's letter, which also gave that assurance.

TfL tenders for traffic control software maintenance

Dave Bailey — 2010-03-15T11:30:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, Computing, Monday 15 March 2010 at 11:30:00

Transport for London invites software specialists to look after its east London traffic control system

Transport for London (TfL) announced a tender for software upgrades to its east London traffic control system (ELTRACS) today.

The contract is worth between £1.6m and £4m (excluding VAT) with a duration of two years.

The tender said the contract would include investigating and correcting software problems relating to any faults identified – as well as enhancing the system as required.

In addition to software maintenance, the tender is also looking for the development and maintenance of an interface between the control software and the IP communications network proposed on ELTRACS, to support the ongoing development of the IP network as new devices are migrated onto the system.

The IP network outlined in the tender was due to be accepted, handed over and signed off last December, according to TfL's 31 March 2009 board meeting discussing the 2009/2010 budget.

ELTRACS monitors and controls traffic on the east London road network, as well as tidal flow in the Blackwall, East India and Rotherhithe tunnels and the Limehouse link.

TfL envisages seeing between four and six applicants for the final selection process. Submissions must be made by 16 April 2010.

People happier voting on the web

parliamentary reporter — 2010-03-12T17:23:00.000Z

parliamentary reporter, Computing, Friday 12 March 2010 at 17:23:00

Vast majority of electorate say they would vote online and 13 per cent admit to having an MP as "a friend" on Facebook. says survey

More than three-quarters of the electorate would vote via the internet if they could, according to a major survey conducted this week.

The survey, conducted by media consultants Lewis Communications, interviewed 1,000 people on their attitudes to the use of social media and digital technology in politics.

Some 56 per cent of those polled had visited political websites, signalling a substantial increase in online politics compared with 1995.

About a quarter, 24 per cent, regard Twitter as an essential communications tool for politicians, but only 27 per cent said they would be encouraged to vote for a particular MP if contacted on a social networking site, compared with 47 per cent who said they would not.

Just over a quarter successfully identified Guido Fawkes, the most prominent of the political bloggers, 13 per cent admitted to having an MP as "a friend" on Facebook but six per cent thought "tweet" was a nickname for a fool.

Lewis' digital PR director Eb Adeyeri said: "Many commentators believe this will be the UK's first internet election with politicians exploiting channels such as Facebook and Twitter to convey their message."

Fifteen per cent of those polled thought Tory leader David Cameron would have the most followers on Twitter despite his comment that "too many tweets make a tw*t".

And the general level of ignorance around social networking was demonstrated by the finding that four per cent of respondents said they thought former Labour premier Clement Attlee had the greatest number of twitter fans, even though he died in 1997 before twitter had been invented.

Nearly half identified Kerry McCarthy as Labour's Twitter tsar, but 19 per cent thought she was a TV presenter and 18 per cent an Irish pop star.

Attempts to launch an online voting process were put on hold in favour of a drive to popularise postal voting largely through fears of personation and a resistance, largely on the Labour side, to a personal registration system requiring individual identification.

HMRC signs IT development deal with Accenture

Nicola Brittain — 2010-03-12T15:05:00.000Z

Nicola Brittain, Computing, Friday 12 March 2010 at 15:05:00

£10m partnership deal will see HMRC IT staff improve services

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has signed a £10m partnership deal with Accenture to develop its in-house IT capability.

In a statement published in the Official Journal of the European Union, the department said the deal will see Accenture improve the capabilities of its in-house IT development team, as well as IMS Solutions Development and Delivery.

Accenture will also actively contribute to the development of an IT strategy for the department, one of the priorities of which will be cost reduction.

HMRC emphasised that its new IT partner must comply with data security requirements, which is particularly important in light of new powers granted to the Information Commissioner's Office allowing it to fine departments and companies in breach of data protection laws.

The contract is currently valued at £10m, down from the estimate of between £18m and £36m quoted in the tender document.

The deal will also see Accenture make services available to other organisations involved in enforcing tax and customs laws such as the Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, UK Border Agency and the Home Office.

This article originally appeared in Kable.

Tories blow smoke over high-speed broadband

Dave Bailey — 2010-03-12T12:01:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, Computing, Friday 12 March 2010 at 12:01:00

Manifesto mistakenly compares next-generation fibre speeds with Digital Britain's universal service commitment

The Conservative's Technology Manifesto was launched yesterday with several laudable aims, however its ambitions seem confused.

One claim in the manifesto says: "We will be the first country in Europe to extend superfast 100Mbit/s broadband across most of the population...this is up to 50 times faster than Labour’s planned broadband network."

However, the Tories are not comparing like with like. Labour has made two promises, the first for the delivery of 2Mbit/s to be universally available to all the UK by 2012 - mostly delivered through copper-based networks. The second is for widespread rollout of next-generation optical fibre for the delivery of superfast 100Mbit/s broadband by 2017 and to 90 per cent of the population.

The Tories promise is identical to the government's second commitment, and yet they are comparing this promise with the first.

The one difference is that the Tories do not specify the percentage of the population that will have access to the next-generation optical fibre.

They also argue in the manifesto that this high speed broadband network will help to create 600,000 additional jobs.

Fears that Digital Economy Bill will pass without full scrutiny

Parliamentary reporter — 2010-03-12T10:17:00.000Z

Parliamentary reporter, Computing, Friday 12 March 2010 at 10:17:00

Passage in Commons may see horse trading between the Tories and Lib Dems on which elements are dropped

Fears are mounting that the government's flagship Digital Economy Bill containing the controversial "telephone tax" is being left to the mercy of a last-minute scramble to finish off legislative business before Parliament is dissolved for a 6 May general election.

Commons leader and government business manager Harriet Harman was unable to reassure MPs when she delivered her agenda for the next two weeks on Thursday [11 March] without a slot for the Bill, due to receive its third reading or final approval in the Lords on Monday [15 March].

The Budget is due to be delivered on 24 March, tying up a large part of the following week with up to four days of detailed debate on chancellor Alistair Darling's proposals, including the proposal for a levy of 50p per month on telephone landline connections to fund the wider spread of next generation broadband.

Harman, also deputy leader of the Labour Party, told MPs: "We want to make sure we have the fastest broadband possible in all parts of the country and that the copyright system is modernised."

Questions about intended progress with the Digital Economy Bill were raised by Lib Dem business spokesman David Heath and ignored by Harman, who was then warned by a Tory backbencher that it would be "deeply unsatisfactory" for such an important measure to be rushed through the Commons without any scrutiny.

Observers are speculating that Prime Minister Gordon Brown will launch Labour's campaign at its Scottish conference on March 27 and go to the Queen to ask her to dissolve Parliament at any point thereafter up to Monday 12 April, but some expect him to do so on 1 April.

The chances are that the Digital Economy Bill will at most be given a second reading — overall approval — without MPs going through it line by line in committee, and the government will require Conservative approval to rush it through thereafter, giving the Tories and to an extent the Liberal Democrats the power to horse trade over which elements are let through and which are dropped.

That could be bad news for Google and other major opponents of a Tory and Lib Dem inspired amendment in the Lords giving copyright owners the right to go to court to compel ISPs to cut off infringing internet sites.

The levy is likely to be an election issue, with the Tories opposed in principle.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown complained in the Commons: "The Conservatives have made announcements that put the future of digitisation and broadband in this country at risk.

"We are determined that everyone in this country has access to broadband and access to the best services."

BCS says Digital Economy Bill needs 'softly, softly' approach

Dave Bailey — 2010-03-11T16:19:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, Computing, Thursday 11 March 2010 at 16:19:00

"Better legislation later, rather than hurried legislation," says Chartered Institute for IT

The Chartered Institute for IT, also known as the British Computer Society (BCS), has called for more time to be spent on considering the implications of the Digital Economy bill currently passing through Parliament.

Elizabeth Sparrow, the Institute's president, said: "The bill could have huge consequences for online activity that are currently poorly understood."

The Digital Economy bill's proposals have been heavily discussed since its announcement, and it is currently due for its third reading in the House of Lords prior to its final passage in the Commons.

Sparrow said: "Those opportunities could be curtailed and even diminished if some of the proposals being discussed make it into law.”

The most controversial powers include the modification of copyright legislation without full parliamentary scrutiny, powers to block or take down web sites based on allegations of copyright infringement, and classifications of "service providers" and obligations placed upon them.

The Institute is concerned that speeding the bill through Parliament could actually increase digital exclusion and affect people who need internet access.

The Institute also said that the bill places potentially onerous burdens on small companies, schools and libraries in terms of having to comply with copyright law: "This could result in reduced internet access and availability to many vulnerable members of society, who may well derive the greatest benefit, " said Sparrow.

Although the Institute has raised these concerns, it concedes that the bill's passage has been valuable in raising some fundamental issues.

"Copyright and the creative industries are important and must be supported, but not to the net detriment of society," the Institute pointed out.

One worry for the bill's proponents is that "better legislation later, rather than hurried legislation now," could see the bill delayed beyond the upcoming general election.

Identity and Passport Service spends £300 per ID card on advertising

Nicola Brittain — 2010-03-11T12:04:00.000Z

Nicola Brittain, Computing, Thursday 11 March 2010 at 12:04:00

And a further £87,700 on marketing and £11,930 on branding

The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has published advertising expenditure for its ID card scheme that equates to £300 for every ID card applicant so far.

The money went on online and offline advertising used to make businesses and consumers aware of the scheme in Manchester and London.

The IPS also spent £87,700 on marketing and £11,930 on branding in relation to ID cards and the National Identity Register.

Home Office minister Meg Hillier told Nick Hurd MP that the marketing expenditure was used for developing and printing brochures, leaflets and application guidance notes for consumers. She also said that the IPS had spent nothing on public relations.

Separately, in a parliamentary written answer published on 8 March 2010, Hillier told Edward Timpson MP that the IPS has received 4,307 ID card applications from people living in the north west of England.

ID cards were first introduced for foreign nationals living in Britain in November 2008 and are now available to UK citizens living in the north west on a voluntary basis.

The scheme was expanded to London last month, and ID cards are now available to 16-24 year olds.

The Home Office plans to make the cards available to the entire population in 2012.

BMA criticises Summary Care Records on Today programme

Nicola Brittain — 2010-03-10T16:52:00.000Z

Nicola Brittain, Computing, Wednesday 10 March 2010 at 16:52:00

Patients should be issued with an opt-out form, says the BMA

On Radio Four's Today programme this morning Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA Council, explained that the BMA has "serious concerns" that patient medical records are being uploaded too quickly to a national database.

This follows a letter from the British Medical Association (BMA) to health minister Mike O'Brien in which the BMA urged for the rollout of the Summary Care Records (SCR) system to be put on hold. It also asked for independent evaluation of pilot schemes set up to test the security of the system.

The SCR puts basic information about patients' health in England, including details of allergies and medication, onto a central database.

Currently, patients are told by letter before their details go on the system, giving them the chance to opt out.

Meldrum said on the Today programme that as a result of the SCR system being pushed through at “breakneck” speed, some patients are not aware their records are being added to the system and that both patients and doctors are confused about what the SCR will mean for them.

“Doctors and patients need to be fully informed about the benefits of having their personal information stored on the system... and patients need to be able to opt out if they want to,” he said.

Also on the Today programme, Dr Simon Eccles, medical director for Connecting for Health, defended the scheme: “It's incredibly important that where people want it, they will be able to share health information that will save their lives because clinicians will know what is wrong with them," he said.

The original letter from the BMA to the health minister said: "We urge you to consider, as a matter of urgency: (i) a halt to the rollout of the SCR in the areas which have not yet begun their Public Information Programmes; (ii) inclusion of an opt-out form in the information material to patients; and (iii) the permanent withdrawal of BMA comment from the NHS Connecting for Health promotional video."

The NPfIT will link more than 30,000 GPs to nearly 300 hospitals through an online appointments system via the spine. It will also feature a centralised medical records system for 50 million patients, e-prescriptions and faster computer network links.

But the plans for the centralised medical records system (SCR) have received repeated criticism over security fears and a lack of enthusiasm among doctors for the technology.

HP workers picket for a second day

Nicola Brittain — 2010-03-09T16:34:00.000Z

Nicola Brittain, Computing, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 16:34:00

But the company and union will have further talks at the end of the week

Some 200 HP employees and members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union have gone on strike for a second day today.

The strikers, who are based in the north and work for the Department of Work and Pensions, picketed their working colleagues throughout the day, according to national officer at the PCS, Jim Hanson.

“We were worried that some members would think that the two day strike was too long and that there would be a lower turnout, but we have been pleasantly surprised at the support,” said Hanson.

The union will decide on their next move following talks with the company due to take place at the end of the week.

HP issued the following statement: “We are disappointed to confirm that a number of employees have voted in favour of local industrial action on Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th March. An agreement was reached with the PCS’s negotiating team, brokered through ACAS on 22nd February, but this was subsequently rejected by the union’s membership.”

“In co-operation with our client(s) we have put together a plan to mitigate the impact of the two day action. We will continue to maintain a dialogue with the union in an attempt to avoid any further form of action.”

DNA database placed on a statutory footing

Parliamentary reporter — 2010-03-09T13:20:00.000Z

Parliamentary reporter, Computing, Tuesday 9 March 2010 at 13:20:00

Cross-party demands for changes to the Crime and Security Bill ignored

The government has used its Commons majority less than a month before the likely date of the general election to push through changes in the law placing the government's DNA database on a statutory footing.

This follows a debate on the Crime and Security Bill, which is currently at the report stage in the Commons.

Crime and Policing Minister David Hanson flatly rejected cross-party demands for a retention period of three years for data from those not subsequently convicted of a crime. Further demands for the data to be held for a longer period (as in Scotland) - where the suspect was arrested for a serious violent or sexual crime - were also denied.

The only government concessions have been to reduce the retention period from 12 years to six and add a new clause to the Crime and Security Bill, which has now completed its passage through the Commons.

The clause provides a procedure through which in exceptional circumstances the "innocent" can "request" the destruction of their data, thereby taking this process out of the hands of the chief constables whose discretion will vary.

The process, which will be upheld by the National DNA Database Strategy Board, is widely expected to be applied to just a handful of those wrongly arrested or who volunteered DNA data to eliminate them from a crime.

During the debate former Tory minister Douglas Hogg said there was "a strong case for a national database including all citizens". However, most of those contributing to the debate deemed the government's reduction of the retention period from 12 to six years to be insufficient.

Tory shadow Home Office minister James Brokenshire said about a million records on the existing database are from those never convicted, cautioned, formally warned or reprimanded, including 100,000 children.

"It is the impact that this has on those who feel they have been criminalised that is so damaging," he added.

Liberal Democrat spokesman Chris Huhne contrasted the increase in the size of the database from 2.1 million in 2002 to 5.6 million last year while the number of detected crimes for which a DNA match was available had fallen from 21,000 to 18,000 in the same period.

Earlier yesterday [08.03.10] a report from the cross party Home Affairs Committee accused the government of failing to detail more than a handful of cases where DNA data on file had been pivotal in securing a conviction.

The Tory proposals were defeated by 264 to 185 on a whipped vote.

New body aims to make Digital Britain vision a reality

Dave Bailey — 2010-03-05T17:16:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, Computing, Friday 5 March 2010 at 17:16:00

But experts say Broadband Delivery UK may lack sufficient funds

The government organisation charged with implementing the universal service commitment (USC) and next generation fibre networks proposed in Lord Carter's Digital Britain report was unveiled today.

The launch of Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) coincided with the publication of a report entitled An Assessment and Practical Guidance on Next Generation Access (NGA) Risk in the UK.

The report aims to inform public authorities about how best to invest in superfast broadband.

Despite these initiatives, Community Broadband Network chief executive Malcolm Corbett said that there are still areas of the country where the USC of 2Mbit/s will be very difficult to achieve.

"These areas make up 11 per cent of the country and will require £800m to fix," he said. "The £200m the government will receive from the BBC Digital switchover fund, combined with the £150m raised via the landline levy, simply wouldn't be enough.

"The government will have to raise money by other means, perhaps by getting the private sector and the communities themselves involved. With them on board, you have a fighting chance of achieving universal access," said Corbett.

"We've entered into a dialogue with the government to share knowledge which can make public sector funds go an lot further. It's important to look for solutions outside those simply offered by BT," he added.

The report examines three different ways of extending the reach of broadband in the UK: a purely market-led approach; one in which the NGA is subsidised by the Digital Britain ‘Next Generation Fund’; and finally the effect of local bodies such as regional development agencies supplementing a subsidised network - an example of this in pratice is that of the Yorkshire Forward Digital Region initiative in South Yorkshire.

Rural Affairs Minister Dan Norris said: “The research published today will help public bodies and BDUK identify what areas need attention so that solutions can be developed for these communities to benefit from faster broadband services."