Personal Tech: What Geeks are talking about from Computer Weekly

Here is the latest Personal Tech News from Computer Weekly.

Capgemini to build 100-strong team of blockchain specialists
The IT services firm is building a team of 100 blockchain experts as banks start to consider the technology as the future of financial services

Lack of career progression pushes IT workers to shop around for jobs
Research from EMC finds that a lack of career progression in their current organisation is the top reason IT people choose to move jobs

E-commerce struggles for growth in Asean countries
Online retail market growth in the Asean nations remains slow but nonetheless significant, according to a survey of consumer habits in the region

Israeli volunteers ready their cyber defences as Anonymous affiliates attack
Every April, Israel braces itself for an onslaught from pro-Palestinian hackers, but the occupants of a small conference room in Tel Aviv stand in their way

RBS to close NatWest branches and cut 600 jobs as customers go online
The Royal Bank of Scotland is set to close branches and cut jobs due to the rapid take up of digital banking services

BBC turns micro:bit computers into IoT devices
The BBC and Nominet demonstrate a new use case for the micro:bit computer and hope to turn Britain’s schoolchildren into internet of things pioneers

Mitel and Polycom merge to form $2.5bn cloud unified communications firm
Communications and collaboration suppliers Mitel and Polycom pool their resources to form a $2.5bn unified communications (UC) powerhouse

Australian universities increase IT spending well above global average
Australian universities are increasing their IT spending as they improve learning and operational efficiency

Stockholm’s public sector boosts productivity with a move towards mobility
The city has a mobile strategy that’s been embraced by staff and citizens

Microsoft steps up campaign against government surveillance
Microsoft is the latest technology firm to push back against the secrecy of US government data access requests, which it claims are rapidly increasing in number

Security Think Tank: Five tips for creating a patch management strategy
What strategies can companies adopt to help keep up with and deal with the huge volume of software updates they are facing?

EE, Qualcomm bring freestyle drone racing to Wembley Stadium
Spectator sports status beckons as the European Rotor Sports Association live streams over the EE 4G network

Data protection law sails through European Parliament
The European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation has successfully passed through the European Parliament

Security Think Tank: Security patching an essential element of outsourcing contracts
What strategies can companies adopt to keep up and deal with the huge volume of software updates they face?

CW@50: The changing face of the datacentre over the past 50 years
As Computer Weekly prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary, we take a look back at how the design and role of the datacentre has changed over the past five decades

Ticketmaster tech chief claims software engineers should consider sales training
Ticketmaster tech chief says undergoing sales training could help software engineers become more persistent in tracking down bugs

Social media could be used to identify refugees, says fintech founder
A panel at the Innovate Finance Summit 2016 discussed ways refugees could access funds, including digital identities, smartphones and peer-to-peer applications

IBM and Oracle fortunes hit by rapid growth of PaaS, Gartner claims
Gartner’s application infrastructure market tracker reveals how PaaS growth is shaking up the supplier landscape

Government surveillance under fire across Europe
UK and US government surveillance programmes are facing criticism from the courts, MPs and data protection regulators

Mixed response to call for more work on Privacy Shield
The Article 29 Working Group’s call for revisions of the Privacy Shield for trans-Atlantic data transfers is welcomed by those keen for a stronger framework and criticised by those keen to avoid delay

Business needs education in cloud value and security, study shows
Improved trust and security are critical to encouraging continued adoption of the cloud, an Intel Security report shows

World’s biggest companies lack maturity in security, says IBM Security
Many big organisations are still grappling with the challenge of establishing a more cohesive and collective security strategy, says IBM Security

Google urges enterprises to abandon data capacity planning in the face of IoT
Director of Google cloud platforms claims enterprises are wasting time trying to predict how their data needs will change over the next five years

Singapore’s Jurong Health Services: Transforming healthcare through data technologies
Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH) is being recognised for its high standards of data use

BT seeks security recruits
BT is to recruit 900 people to its security business in the next 12 months as part of a push against cyber crime

UK would need its own Privacy Shield deal with EU if it votes for Brexit
If the UK voted to leave the EU, it could face a difficult negotiation to conform to new data protection regulations, say experts

NCA attempts ‘back door’ access to obtain activist Lauri Love’s passwords
Court told that use of civil proceedings to force disclosure of alleged hacker Lauri Love’s passwords is disproportionate and would breach human rights law

OpenStack accelerates into production environments
People are no longer just dabbling in the OpenStack private cloud – the OpenStack Foundation has found that many users are starting to undertake production work

Windows PowerShell tied to more than a third of cyber attacks
Security firm Carbon Black confirms widespread abuse of Windows PowerShell by attackers flying under the radar in line with the trend of exploiting operating systems

Security Think Tank: Allocate maintenance processes to each piece of key software
What strategies can companies adopt to help keep up with and deal with the huge volume of software updates they are facing?

Enterprises that shun cloud comprise a business threat, says 451 Research
Hosted IT reaches a tipping point as analyst house 451 Research claims that enterprises shunning cloud technology constitute a risky proposition

European Court of Justice ruling on Snoopers’ Charter delayed until July 2016
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) will not rule on the legality of the so-called Snoopers’ Charter legislation until after the UK’s June 2016 EU referendum

Ed Vaizey MP hails role of UK datacentres in solving enterprise data sovereignty issues
Digital economy minister Ed Vaizey talks up the government’s role in supporting the growth of the UK datacentre sector and wider technology industry

UK poised to lead global fintech sector, says Tech City chair Eileen Burbidge
Tech City chair and venture capital expert says the UK is in a position to become a world leader in financial services and sheds light on how cloud can provide failing firms with a stay of execution

Collaboration vital to reduce economic impact of CNI cyber attack
The interconnected nature of critical national infrastructure (CNI) means the impact of the risk and the cost of a cyber attack grows exponentially every day

GDS appoints Public Services Network head
Government Digital Service (GDS) elevates Mark Smith to head of the Public Services Network (PSN)

Banks see video banking as key to customer satisfaction
Video banking is set to take off over the next few years to improve the personal connection between banks and customers, according to research

Want to adopt Blockchain? Better start playing, says panel
A panel of financial services experts discussed adoption of blockchain technologies at the Innovate Finance 2016 Summit

Apple Pay struggles in Australia as banks profit from a fee-phobic market
Despite Australia being iPhone crazy its banks aren’t exactly rushing to enable the payment process

European Parliament set to approve EU data protection law
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is ready for its final rubber stamp this week, with EU countries expected to pass it into law in two years

Superfast network build brings broadband to Somerset village
Specialist ISP Satellite Internet has connected the third and final village in its BDUK market test pilot project in Somerset in just seven weeks

Network Rail announces Could IT Be You 2016 competition winner
UK rail network manager Network Rail announces the winner of the 2016 cohort of its IT talent competition

UK cyber crime growing exponentially
UK ranks highly in phishing, social media and ransomware attacks as cyber criminals professionalise and take advantage of unpatched websites, Symantec’s latest threat report reveals

Security Think Tank: Using vulnerability management to support the patching process
What strategies can companies adopt to deal with the huge volume of software updates they are facing?

BAE Systems warns about shape-shifting strain of Qbot malware
Qbot malware will become a potent threat, facilitated by exploit kits for initial infection and automated to gain maximum victim count, warns BAE Systems

DWP knew of Universal Credit problems in mid-2012 despite insisting all was well
Documents released after a four-year legal battle show that DWP officials knew of problems with Universal Credit in 2012 despite insisting it was on time and budget

Singapore releases cloud outage guidelines
The Singapore government releases a set of tiered guidelines for organisations to follow if they have a cloud outage

Ofcom to present Openreach network access plan by summer of 2016
Ofcom’s Sharon White tells MPs she hopes to present detailed proposals on how BT’s rivals can access the Openreach network by the summer of 2016

Activist Lauri Love faces order to disclose encryption keys
The UK’s National Crime Agency, takes an unusual legal step to force a former university student accused of hacking to disclose encryption keys.