ICO Wins Appeal over Data Protection Obligations in Currys Cyber Attack
The UK Court of Appeal upheld the Information Commissioner’s Office decision to fine Currys Group Ltd (formerly DSG Retail) £500,000 for failing to protect personal data after a 2017‑18 cyber‑attack. The ruling confirms that organisations must safeguard all personal data, even when the information is not directly identifiable by a hacker. The appeal reversed a lower‑tribunal view that the seventh data‑protection principle (DPP7) did not apply to partially pseudonymised card data. The case will return to the First‑Tier Tribunal to reassess the fine under the clarified legal standard.
Connected and Compromised: When IoT Devices Turn Into Threats
The proliferation of consumer and enterprise IoT devices continues unchecked, yet most lack basic security controls such as passwords and encryption. Research presented by Mattia Epifani at RSAC 2026 shows that devices—from Amazon Echo to smart refrigerators—store unprotected audio, credentials, and personal...
Viridi Replaces New York Municipal Diesel Generator with Battery
Viridi installed a 150‑kWh battery energy storage system at Erie County Sewer District No. 2 in Hamburg, New York, replacing a diesel backup generator. The BESS provides 32‑90 hours of power depending on pump demand, eliminating fuel use and cutting emissions. Real‑time...
WhatsApp Is Banned in Russia
On February 12, 2026, the Kremlin announced a full ban on Meta’s WhatsApp, citing the app’s failure to comply with Russian data‑access laws. The ban blocks the service for its more than 100 million Russian users, representing over two‑thirds of the...
Procivis to Deliver Lithuanian EU Digital Identity Wallet Sandbox
Swiss firm Procivis has secured a contract to build Lithuania’s end‑to‑end Digital Identity Wallet sandbox, a testbed designed to meet the eIDAS 2.0 requirements that mandate citizen wallets by 2027. The sandbox will enable secure, user‑centric wallet use cases for Lithuanian...
Data Protection Failures on Moldovan Portals Leave Citizens at Risk
Moldovan job‑seeker portal cariere.gov.md exposed 7,758 applicant dossiers, including personal IDs, medical forms and criminal records, due to a lack of authentication. The data were accessible simply by altering a URL parameter, revealing nearly 19,000 JSON files. After a researcher...
Stephen Chapman Praises UK Passport System, Calls for International Standards to Support National Systems
Stephen Chapman, a veteran UK passport official, lauded the country's end‑to‑end passport issuance system for its efficiency, security, and alignment with ICAO standards. He warned that rising fraud and border‑security threats are driving the adoption of advanced features such as...
Québec Has a New Digital Sovereignty Plan. Will It Work?
Quebec announced a $1.4 billion digital sovereignty plan to shift data hosting and procurement to local providers, aiming to reduce reliance on US tech giants. The policy emphasizes sovereign cloud services, hydro‑powered data centres, and free‑software development. However, recent cost‑overrun scandals...
BDUK Release Gigabit Figures for October to December 2025
Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) announced that 56,000 premises received gigabit‑capable service in the October‑December 2025 quarter, bringing the cumulative total to 1,373,800 premises – roughly 4.1 % of UK households. The bulk of the new connections came from Project Gigabit contracts...
Prevention Is Turning a Corner as Public Demand Surges – but NHS Digital Infrastructure Is Still Lagging Behind
Public demand for preventative health in the UK is surging, with NHS App registrations now at 33.6 million – roughly twice the nation’s Netflix subscriber base. A PA Consulting survey shows eight‑in‑ten NHS leaders believe digital tools can cut health inequalities,...
Bank of Ireland UK Fined for Late Security System Implementation
The UK arm of Bank of Ireland was fined £3.78 million by the Payments Systems Regulator for a 14‑month delay in deploying the Confirmation of Payee (CoP) system. The lapse left 1.14 million new payees and roughly £7 million in payments without fraud‑prevention...
Neom Partners with DataVolt on $5bn Hyperscale Datacentre Project for Digital Infrastructure
Neom has signed a landmark $5 billion agreement with Saudi‑based DataVolt to build the Kingdom’s first green‑AI hyperscale data centre in Oxagon. The facility will operate at net‑zero, powered entirely by renewable energy and equipped with advanced cooling to support generative...
Capital Projects Spotlight Nationwide Push to Modernize Libraries
Municipalities across the United States are committing substantial capital to modernize public libraries, positioning them as multifunctional civic anchors. Projects range from a $35 million expansion in La Mesa, California, to a $49 million, 45,000‑sq‑ft new facility in Gallup, New Mexico, each...
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Chooses EBO’s Patient Portal
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust is rolling out EBO’s Intelligent Patient Portal (IPP) as part of its digital transformation, offering a conversational AI interface that guides patients through appointment management and care tasks. The portal is built on...
More Than 40% of South Africans Were Scammed in 2025
South Africa experienced a staggering 77% scam victimization rate in the 12 months to early 2025, with 42% of adults losing money, averaging $130 per incident. GASA estimates scammers extracted roughly $2.3 billion from over 17.5 million South Africans, equating to about...
NHS Transformation Directorate Launches Best Practice and Content Guidance for Patient Messaging
The NHS Transformation Directorate has issued best‑practice and content guidance to help NHS staff decide when and how to message patients via NHS Notify, the NHS App, text, email or letters. The guidance combines clinical safety, governance and digital best...
New Digital Tool to Report River Pollution
The UK Environment Agency has unveiled BluePrint, a new smartphone‑based platform that lets anyone report real‑time observations of rivers, lakes and beaches across England. Building on the WaterWatch pilot, BluePrint uses geolocation instead of QR codes, allowing data collection from...
The Digital Backbone of MoD’s Technology Foundations
The UK Ministry of Defence has solidified its Digital Backbone and Technology Reference Model (TRM) over the past year, launching the digital.mod.uk portal to centralise standards and guidance. By aligning the TRM with the Defence Capability Hierarchy, the MoD is...
Scottish Government Runs Open Data Workshops
The Scottish Government is hosting two online workshops on 12‑13 March to co‑create a shared vision for open data in Scotland through 2036. Led by Martin Macfie, the initiative follows a 2024 independent report and builds on progress with the statistics.gov.scot...
DBT Increases Adoption of Data Hub
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has lifted adoption of its central CRM platform, Data Hub, through a focused digital‑adoption programme. By aligning the tool with user workflows and delivering on‑demand training, email guidance and a performance dashboard, the...
Remote Access Abuse Drives Majority of Breaches
Arctic Wolf’s 2026 Threat Report reveals a dramatic shift toward data‑only extortion, which surged from 2% to 22% of incidents in 2025. Remote‑access tool abuse initiated 65% of non‑BEC breaches, while AI‑enhanced phishing powered 85% of BEC attacks. Ransomware remains common,...
Asylum: Courts Service and Home Office Hope to Join up Disconnected Data Systems by Spring
Senior officials from the Home Office and Ministry of Justice told MPs that the new Atlas immigration case‑working platform is now live and that work to link it with justice‑system databases will be completed by spring. The current data silos...
IPAA ACT Virtual AI Summit: Building a Trusted Digital Future
The Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) is hosting a virtual AI Summit on 18 March 2026. The half‑day event will focus on building a trusted digital future for the public sector, featuring breakout sessions on workforce upskilling, AI governance, digital stewardship,...
Gov.UK: Update on the Serious Fraud Office’s E-Discovery Review
The UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has completed its e‑discovery review of historic fraud convictions that relied on the legacy Autonomy system. Out of 66 identified cases, only three remain under final review, and the SFO reports no material that...
IRS CIO Says Agency Lost 40% of Tech Workers Last Year
The Internal Revenue Service’s Chief Information Officer disclosed that the agency shed roughly 40% of its IT workforce and almost 80% of its technology leadership last year, marking the deepest attrition in two decades. The cuts stemmed from voluntary separations,...
Top HHS Officials Tout TEFCA Data-Sharing Framework As Central To MAHA
Top officials at the Department of Health and Human Services highlighted the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) as a cornerstone of the "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) initiative. TEFCA, mandated by the 2016 bipartisan law, seeks to create...
Michigan Bills Would Regulate Automatic License Plate Readers
Michigan lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan two‑bill package to regulate automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) used by law‑enforcement and private firms. The proposals would restrict data collection, storage, and sharing, limit retention to 14 days, and require quarterly public reports...
GAO: Millions of People Can’t Understand Life-or-Death Weather Alerts
The GAO report warns that roughly 26 million Americans with limited English proficiency struggle to comprehend life‑or‑death weather alerts. Outdated alert infrastructure, insufficient staffing, and slow translation processes prevent timely multilingual warnings. GAO recommends modernizing the National Weather Service’s system with...
Beyond Buzzwords: Using OPM’s Human Capital Standards for Federal HR Modernization
The article explains how OPM’s Human Capital Management (HCM) standards—namely the Human Capital Business Reference Model (HCBRM), the Human Capital Federal Integrated Business Framework (HC‑FIBF), and the Human Capital Information Model (HCIM)—provide a detailed, tiered framework for federal HR IT...
Resident Engagement Initiatives Local Governments Are Using Today
Resident engagement is evolving as local governments blend digital and in‑person tactics to meet higher citizen expectations. Examples include Banff, Alberta’s use of Pinterest for visual storytelling, extending community visibility and civic pride, and Rockingham County, North Carolina’s free eight‑week...
OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity Near Approval to Host AI Directly for the U.S. Government (Exclusive)
OpenAI, Google, and Perplexity are on the cusp of receiving FedRAMP 20x authorization, allowing them to host AI services on their own clouds for U.S. government use. The approval will be limited to low‑impact, pilot deployments but marks a shift toward...
Yu-Lan Chan: An Operational Gun Who Keeps ACT Government Wheels Turning
Yu‑Lan Chan, a senior public servant in the Australian Capital Territory, is portrayed as an "operational gun" who ensures the government’s daily functions run smoothly. She attributes her ascent to curiosity and a willingness to join high‑performing teams rather than...
Remote Learning Still a Work in Progress at Buffalo Schools
Buffalo Schools are increasingly relying on remote‑learning days to meet New York’s 180‑day requirement amid severe winter weather and a compressed academic calendar. District officials cite safety, but teachers, parents, and students uniformly express frustration with the ad‑hoc approach. Device...
AI Agents and How to Govern Them: Tailscale, Sayvint Offer Solutions
AI agents are moving from occasional chat tools to always‑on assistants, prompting enterprises to confront identity‑governance gaps. Tailscale introduced Aperture, an open‑alpha governance layer that ties AI usage to user or workload identities, offering policy controls, audit‑ready session logs, and...
Milwaukee Sheriff Moves to Integrate Biometrica Despite MPD Facial Recognition Freeze
Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office has signed a letter of intent to partner with Biometrica, aiming to access its UMbRA facial‑recognition database. The draft contract would let the sheriff’s office search a de‑identified collection of mugshots, felony warrants and missing‑person images,...
Government Strategy Needs Reimagining: An Experiment From Argentina
Red de Innovación Local (RIL) launched an internal experiment to redesign municipal strategy by first applying its new AI‑driven process to its own team. Using PortalRIL, a platform built on ten years of local‑government data, staff answered a structured “Questions...
Age Verification Laws Face Mixed Prospects, Experts Say
State efforts to require age verification for online content face mixed legal outcomes. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Texas' law, while lawsuits have blocked similar measures in Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, and struck down Arkansas' statute. Public opinion shows...
FAA Launches Competition to Modernize Aging IT Portfolio
The Federal Aviation Administration announced a challenge‑based acquisition to modernize its sprawling, aging IT portfolio of roughly 200 applications and 3,000 databases. Vendors must demonstrate cloud‑native migration strategies, AI‑driven code analysis, and security automation across a four‑phase competition ending with...
Pakistan Super App for Gov’t Services, Document Verification Advances Toward Launch
Pakistan’s government is set to launch a mobile "Super App" that will consolidate public services, document verification, and digital payments into a single platform. The initiative builds on NADRA’s National Digital Identity system and the existing Pak ID app, leveraging...
Broadband Policy Fights Spark Lawsuits, Funding Debates
Policyband Headlines: ■ @NRBAssociation Defends Cable Must Carry for NextGen TV Signals; ■ @StephenAtHome, @CBS Suits in Dispute over Talarico Interview ■ @FSFthinktank: @EchoStar Needs to Pay Tower Companies ■ Broadband Experts at ACLP Dispute Calif. Broadband Study ■ @LAGovJeffLandry Eyes 911 Upgrades with BEAD...
EU Guarantees Iris2 Access for Governments, Limits Others
EU Commission @defis_eu: Iris2 capacity to be free for EU govts, whose comms will be confidential, not shared w/ others. In time of crisis, non-govt users will be preempted. @esa @EUDefenceAgency @EU4Space. @SESSpaceDefense @EutelsatGroup @Hispasat.https://t.co/QFF3UPPXsq https://t.co/56rvMAcqIo
Our Community Network Map Now Shows Tribal Networks Across the United States
The Institute for Local Self‑Reliance unveiled an upgraded Community Network Map that now includes Tribal broadband providers. The interactive tool identifies 82 active Tribal Internet Service Providers across the United States, displaying population size, business model, network links, and whether...
EMudhra Self-Certified as MOSIP System Integrator for Digital ID Projects at Scale
Indian digital‑ID specialist eMudhra has completed self‑certification as a Modular Open Source Identity Platform (MOSIP) system integrator, joining the MOSIP Marketplace. The certification confirms its software and hardware meet MOSIP’s rigorous technical, operational and security standards, enabling it to deliver...
In Digital-First Era, NJ Librarians Demand More Affordable E-Books
New Jersey librarians and lawmakers have introduced a bill to curb restrictive e‑book licensing agreements that force libraries to pay three to five times the consumer price and limit checkout cycles. The legislation would ban contracts that restrict lending frequency,...
Safer, Faster Public Transportation: AC Transit’s AI-Powered Upgrade with Hayden AI - Ep. 290
In this episode, AC Transit CTO Ahsan Baig and Hayden AI CEO Marty Beard discuss how AI‑powered, edge‑computing cameras mounted on buses detect vehicles illegally blocking bus lanes and stops, improving on‑time performance, safety, and accessibility. The system leverages NVIDIA...
OMB Rescinds the “Common Form” Secure Software Attestation Requirement
On Jan. 23, 2026 the Office of Management and Budget issued Memorandum M‑26‑05, rescinding the Biden‑era mandate that all federal agencies obtain a CISA “Common Form” software attestation. The new memo replaces the one‑size‑fits‑all requirement with a risk‑based, agency‑specific approach while...
Identy Joins Africa’s Push for Digital Identity in Humanitarian Healthcare
Identy is partnering with the volunteer NGO HumanCoop to roll out offline facial‑recognition tools for undocumented patients in northern Mauritania, creating portable digital medical IDs that work without internet. The initiative will initially cover the Bir Mogrein community of over 2,500...
Retired CISA Contracting Chief Juan Arratia Launches Arratia & Associates
Juan Arratia, former Chief of the Contracting Office at CISA, has announced the launch of Arratia & Associates LLC, a consulting firm that will advise on acquisition, procurement, and audit readiness. The new venture follows more than three decades of senior...
Skydio Poised for $4M Windfall From LAPD Drone Deal
The Los Angeles Police Commission approved a private donation that could deliver up to $4 million to drone maker Skydio, funding a three‑year “Drone as First Responder” program. The deal includes a $2.1 million grant for drones, docking stations and installation, plus...
Texas on the Sidelines as Digital Driver’s Licenses Expand Nationwide
Texas continues to lag behind a growing national movement toward digital driver’s licenses, as more than 20 states and Puerto Rico already allow state IDs in mobile wallets. Apple’s latest Digital ID rollout lets users store U.S. passports for TSA...