Computing Comment

Give back the power to protect

2009-10-29T10:27:19+00:00

You may have missed the fact that the week before last was National Identity Fraud Prevention Week.

It must have worked, because as soon as it was over, insurance firm Zurich announced it had lost a backup tape containing the personal details of 51,000 customers. The incident actually took place in August last year, so it came as a belated but timely reminder of the problem.

It also emerged last weekend that hackers had penetrated the Guardian’s jobs web site, potentially compromising the details of half a million users.

The awareness campaign’s organisers had already revealed research suggesting that only three per cent of consumers are confident that companies handle their details securely. They must have been delighted to see their claims underlined by the subsequent week’s news.

There is growing recognition that the database-centric model of securing our personal details has a limited future. Even the most “unbreakable” database is not immune to CDs going missing in the post. Only one person truly cares about what happens to their identity details and that’s the person whose identity it is.

It makes sense, therefore, to develop a model that puts control of those details back in the hands of the individual.

The government, sadly, ignored such a recommendation, made in a Treasury-commissioned report last year. Instead, Gordon Brown pressed on with the deeply unpopular ID cards scheme.

The Global Trust Council policy body is pushing for an international scheme to achieve such a goal, and undoubtedly there will be other similar initiatives. As the internet puts more control into its users’ hands, it will become inevitable that government and industry will need to put in place legal and technical means to extend that control to securing identities.

Look to the future and hope for change

2009-10-22T10:57:39+01:00

Instead of writing a cogent analysis of the big IT news for this column, this week we gave serious consideration to simply listing a few of the best Computing leader articles from the past 10 or 20 years.

After all, if you have been in IT for any period of time, you will have heard it all before.

In the past week, we have seen spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) issue scathing criticism of a major public sector IT project that has been endlessly delayed, run over budget, and has failed the people it sought to serve.

For farmers this week, you can substitute tax credit recipients, passport applicants, child support beneficiaries, or any of the other disastrous projects on which Computing has passed comment.

You have to give credit to the NAO for coming up with a new set of adjectives to describe the latest shambles the office thesaurus must be well thumbed by now.

Also this week, we have The Most Important Microsoft Product Launch Ever, for what must be the 58th time.

Windows 7 hits the streets today, accompanied no doubt by not-at-all PR-organised midnight queues outside leading retailers made up of the non-Apple technorati apparently desperate to usher a new version of Notepad into their lives.

No one is underestimating the need for Windows 7 to be a success for Microsoft or, for that matter, for all the PC suppliers struggling with the enormous recessionary slump in their market but, well, doesn’t it feel like we have been here before?

Instead, let’s imagine some possible headlines a few years from now after all, IT is meant to be all about the future.

Can you see, one day: “Microsoft scraps plans for Windows 9 announces new Windows Lite for on-the-move cloud users”?

How about: “Citizens ready to download latest public services pack from gov.app.store”?

If we’re fed up with the same old headlines, you must be too. If the future is bright, let’s also hope it is different.

Election will herald big changes for IT

2009-10-15T10:43:41+01:00

We may not have a date for next year’s General Election yet, but the campaign is well under way - and, for once, it will be watched with particular interest by the IT community.

The whims and fancies of politicians have always had an effect on IT professionals, of course, but as we approach what will be the most important economic referendum in our lifetime, technology is going to play a more central role than ever.

In the public sector, whoever wins will have little choice but to bring in savage cuts, which will, in politics-speak, be targeted at “bureaucracy” and “the back office” meaning IT will be in the firing line. There is already a growing awareness that shared services will have to be accelerated and outsourcing will become even more prevalent.

One of the biggest changes in Whitehall IT over the past 10 years has been the influx of experienced private sector IT leaders to bring some of their corporate nous to what was an often poorly skilled and badly resourced government IT profession. Given the likely crackdown on high-paid civil servants the Tories’ shadow chancellor George Osborne, for example, promising to effectively cap pay at the level of the prime minister’s salary, will we see a reversal of what has been largely a successful trend?

Changes in government mark changes in public sector IT strategy. Tony Blair’s administration shifted focus from automating the big administrative processes, such as collecting tax and paying benefits, putting technology at the heart of reforming public service delivery.

But that led to over-ambitious projects and ever-expanding databases, neither of which fit comfortably into the modern view of openness, agility and rapid development. We can surely expect big changes to the policy of big IT.

However, one area the next government must get right is IT skills. Every party has spoken of the need to expand our creative and technology sectors to reduce dependence on the City. Whoever wins will only find friends in IT if they make good on this most fundamental of promises.

Digital inclusion benefits us all

2009-10-08T15:17:00+01:00

The government’s Digital Inclusion Task Force is due to release new research next week, highlighting the yawning gap between Britain’s digital haves and have-nots. The Task Force has the worthy aim of bringing online the hitherto digitally dispossessed: the elderly, the poor and the poorly educated.

So does the digital inclusion campaign have any relevance for chief information officers (CIOs)?

If you are a head of IT in the public sector, then clearly it does. Digital inclusion is central to the government’s strategy to deliver public services online through its Directgov site. This improves efficiency for the citizen by cutting queues at government offices.

Of course, giving citizens the confidence to use self-service applications to renew passports, fill in tax returns or apply for housing benefit also reduces the cost to the government of providing services.

But to achieve these aims, the government needs a populace that is universally comfortable in the online environment; hence digital inclusion.

But is there anything in digital inclusion for the private sector? Plenty: in the form of new customers and less-demanding employees.

A more web-savvy population means more opportunities for CIOs to reduce costs by providing products and services as self-service web applications.

If digital inclusion is successful, it may also lessen the load on IT helpdesks by alleviating what support staff refer to as PEBKAC - problem exists between keyboard and chair. If the workers of tomorrow are made tech-savvy by digital inclusion, it should mean that in future IT managers have to devote fewer resources to mundane support tasks. Knowledgeable users will be more able to sort out their technical problems for themselves.

Net traffic filters signal way forward

2009-10-01T15:16:00+01:00

The announcement by the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) of hardware filters to screen vast quantities of internet traffic for online nasties will be welcomed by anyone who has experienced cybercrime.

The system suggested could be used by ISPs to protect individual web users with “cloud-level” scanning, obviating the need for conventional anti-virus and firewall products. It could identify and quarantine PCs recruited to botnets.

Equally, it could be used by large companies and government organisations to protect against assaults, such as a denial of service attacks. The system would be able to identify and manage an attack before it became a security crisis.

Indeed, it is the proposed ability of the system to predict and act quickly to prevent damage from cyber attacks which makes it so attractive.

But will it, for example, be permitted to shut down the internet connection of someone who it detects is attempting to commit a fraudulent online transaction? Or someone who is sharing copyrighted material without authorisation? The latter scenario has already sparked widespread debate as copyright owners struggle with how best to tackle file-sharing, while legislators seek to preserve individual rights.

Of course, automated software to predict and prevent fraudulent transactions is already in widespread use by credit card companies. And many of us have experienced the frustration of having a legitimate transaction blocked because the system decides the transaction is “suspicious” given “normal” patterns of spending.

So that puts enormous responsibility on those who write the rules by which the filter operates: to define what is illegal activity, to determine its automated responses, and to ensure any erroneous actions taken by the system are rectified quickly.

Hollywood has come up with numerous dark visions of a world where automated systems run out of control, from War Games to Minority Report. CSIT’s system may be a far cry from such deadly consequences, but with government agencies already showing a keen interest in the technology, there needs to be close scrutiny of the rule writers.

Maintaining the best of both worlds

2009-09-24T08:00:00+01:00

There is a natural double meaning in the word “cloud” that its more rabid supporters would do well to remember.

There has been far too much marketing hype in the past 12 months, and for many IT managers the future of technology could more likely be described as cloudy than in the cloud.

Are we all in danger of being brainwashed (cloudwashed?) by the likes of Google? Will businesses really flock to transfer all their critical applications and data to an external provider, potentially putting the very ability to operate into the hands of a third party?

As you would expect, Microsoft does not think so, and the latest peek at its version of the cloud, glimpsed through the Office 2010 Web Applications preview, suggests that the software giant sees a more hybrid future where the cloud is a place for collaboration, rather than total migration.

Of course, there is a hardly hidden agenda with Microsoft, desperate as it will be to hang on to its lucrative cash cow of desktop licences. But in the short term, the combination of cloud flexibility with in-house control is more likely to appeal to a lot of IT managers yet to be convinced by the hype.

Many independent experts are also changing their tone. Where once they urged businesses to evaluate the benefits of a cloud computing strategy, now they are pushing the cloud as a concept that can be equally applied to in-house infrastructure as to external services.

Increasingly, a strategy that sees firms move their IT to a cloud-like environment, but within their own operation, is being seen as the way forward. These so-called private clouds offer greater flexibility, but also the opportunity to migrate to a third-party provider once the market has matured sufficiently.

There will still be plenty of people who would like to see the cloud as a Microsoft killer, but they may need a clearer vision before IT managers make such a move.

IT professionals back our campaign

2009-09-17T10:05:24+01:00

We have already had an lot of interesting and positive reactions to our new campaign, Tomorrow’s IT Leaders. There is clearly widespread concern at all levels of the profession about the future direction of the IT management role.

Frustrated IT staff with many years’ experience are finding their careers hitting a glass ceiling as firms say they want IT leaders who are business savvy, yet fail to offer the opportunity to develop such skills.

Offshore outsourcing remains a major bone of contention for many who feel their career development is being given less priority by employers in favour of introducing lower-paid overseas resources.

And many IT professionals who have found themselves out of work as a result of recessionary cutbacks are struggling to find suitable roles or to push open doors to jobs that are being closely guarded by recruitment consultancies.

Yet we constantly hear that the UK is crying out for technology expertise and leadership. There is a serious mismatch happening somewhere.

Perhaps it is important to remember that IT is still a relatively young profession – law, medicine, engineering have been around for centuries, IT for decades.

As City University’s David Chan points out, the definition of an IT leader has already changed many times as the adoption of technology has evolved. It is a constant challenge to plan your career to reach a goal that is constantly changing.

But to encourage talented people into IT, and to groom them into tomorrow’s IT leaders, requires enough stability to give them confidence in their future opportunities.

There is an important debate to be had, and we hope that our campaign offers
today’s aspiring IT professionals with a chance to air their concerns and voice their opinions at this critical time for the UK IT industry.

Tomorrow's IT Leaders

As part of Computing's Tomorrow's IT Leaders campaign, we talk to the UK's top chief information officers (CIOs) to find out their views on the role of IT leaders and how this will change in the post-recessionary world.

Click here to find out more about our Tomorrow’s IT Leaders campaign

Help us to avert a leadership crisis

2009-09-10T08:39:00+01:00

A perfect storm is brewing around the UK’s IT leaders.

Firms are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit IT managers with the skills needed to improve their business through technology. According to Forrester Research, nearly 40 per cent of chief information officers (CIOs) are now sourced from outside IT departments. At the same time, thousands of IT staff have lost their jobs in the recession, and many more are affected by the growth of outsourcing.

As a result, the traditional career development routes from professional to manager to leader are disappearing.

And the sector is struggling to attract sufficient young people to fill the 140,000 new roles needed every year, with the dwindling popularity of IT courses showing how few students view the prospect of working in IT as an appealing option.

Yet all this is happening as technology becomes more exciting and fashionable than it has ever been. The future of the UK economy lies in its technology industries, but all the evidence shows that a potential time bomb is emerging that will leave businesses bereft of suitably skilled IT leaders.

Over the next three months, Computing’s new campaign, Tomorrow’s IT Leaders, aims to develop a roadmap for today’s IT professionals to reach the top of their profession.

We will talk to the current leaders of UK IT to find out their views on how the role of the CIO will change over the next three years.

And we will aim to provide readers with advice on how they need to develop their skills and professional experience to become the IT managers we will desperately need to support the growth of technology-led business in the UK.

Let us know what you think by email at feedback@computing.co.uk or by submitting your comments online. We want to hear your views and involve the UK IT profession in this vital debate.

Awards prove that IT is alive and well

2009-09-03T11:33:56+01:00

Forget economic indicators. Ignore for now the fact that UK hardware spending is the lowest since records began. If you need a shot in the arm to show the true health of the UK IT profession, then take a long, slow read through the list of finalists for the all-new UK IT Industry Awards 2009, from the BCS and Computing.

The roll call of leading organisations, individuals and technologies up for a prize this year demonstrates that excellence, quality and customer satisfaction are thriving in the technology community.

We genuinely expected to struggle when encouraging entries to this year’s awards but the reality could not have been more different. IT budgets may be shrinking, IT departments may, sadly, have a few more empty desks than they did this time last year, but in perhaps the most difficult economic environment many have known, there is no shortage of innovation.

The finalists prove that for those organisations looking to beat the recession and be more competitive, efficient and flexible once the downturn is over, IT remains central to their success.

Our congratulations to all the shortlisted entries, and good luck for the final round of the process in what promises to be a set of difficult decisions for our judges.

NHS IT still innovating

2009-09-03T11:32:26+01:00

The NHS is one area that has not been short of cash for IT investment, regardless of the wider economy. But so much of that money has been tied up in the £12.7bn National Programme for IT (NPfIT), that many NHS IT leaders have faced a new set of challenges to keep innovating and delivering technology to improve healthcare.

That so many have been able to drive IT-enabled change while keeping up with the controversies and complications of NPfIT is a great reflection of their skills and determination. When, eventually, the national applications are rolled out, the combination with local IT innovation is a cause for optimism for the future of technology in the health service.