Public Sector
Your Public Sector Pulse: Where Policy Meets Tech Innovation
There’s so much happening at The Register in our coverage of government tech, we've created a dedicated section for the public sector, which offers you a front-row seat to the intersection of governance and technology. From e-governance initiatives and cybersecurity protocols to digital transformation in public services, however fast (or slow) it happens, we bring you analyses, updates, and insights that matter.
European Parliament bars lawmakers from using AI tools
Who knows where that helpful email summary is being generated?
AI + ML17 Feb 2026 |5
£111M later, frictionless post-Brexit border dream 'brought to early closure'
With no staff, no funding, and the contract closed, it looks a lot like limbo
Public Sector17 Feb 2026 |17
All the world's a stage – except this deputy federal CIO job
$200K role promises authority, mission, and 'zero patience for theater'
Public Sector17 Feb 2026 |3
UK.gov launches cyber 'lockdown' campaign as 80% of orgs still leave door open
Digital burglaries remain routine, and data shows most corps still don't stick to basic infosec standards
Security17 Feb 2026 |38
Capita taps Microsoft Copilot to dig it out from UK pensions backlog
Outsourcer tells MPs AI is prioritizing cases as thousands of civil servants face delays
Public Sector17 Feb 2026 |25
MoD ticks shopping list as PM considers weapons budget boost
Top brass splash cash on acoustic targeting, hypersonic missiles…and Red Hat
Offbeat17 Feb 2026 |15
Keir Starmer declares 'months' timeline for social media age clampdown in UK
Stricter rules for VPNs and AI chatbots also in the offing amid child safety push
Personal Tech16 Feb 2026 |142
DVSA seeks £95K digital chief to steer test booking system out of the ditch
Agency looks to cut waiting times and curb bot-driven slot reselling as it doubles down on IT overhaul
Public Sector16 Feb 2026 |18
US appears open to reversing some China tech bans
Asia In Brief PLUS: India demands two-hour deepfake takedowns; Singapore embraces AI; Japanese robot wolf gets cuddly; And more
Public Sector16 Feb 2026 |8
Trump's Genesis Mission gets its first set of 26 sure-to-succeed objectives
DoE bets AI can speed fusion, unlock decades of nuclear data, and probe fundamental physics
Public Sector13 Feb 2026 |43
Oracle suits up for Air Force Cloud One program with $88M contract
Big Red joins AWS on a multi-cloud defense platform
Public Sector12 Feb 2026 |5
Feeling brave? Ministry of Defence seeks £300K digital boss to manage £4.6B spend
Whoever gets it will steer UK department's IT, AI strategy, and megabucks vendor deals
Public Sector12 Feb 2026 |7
The UK government isn't spending much taxpayer cash on X
Department for Education dropped £27,118. The rest, little to nothing
Public Sector12 Feb 2026 |66
Brussels drafts blueprint to spot and swat rogue drones
Action Plan calls for EU-wide drills, industry forums, and expanded identification requirements
Public Sector11 Feb 2026 |8
Doctors told to give Palantir's NHS data platform the cold shoulder
200,000-strong union says spy-tech firm's ICE work undermines patient trust
Public Sector11 Feb 2026 |47
Legacy systems blamed as ministers promise no repeat of Afghan breach
UK government grilled over progress made to prevent a second life-threatening leak
Security11 Feb 2026 |17
British Army splashes $86M on AI gear to speed up the battlefield kill chain
Troops fitted with new comms kit as part of Project ASGARD
Public Sector10 Feb 2026 |38
Dutch data watchdog snitches on itself after getting caught in Ivanti zero-day attacks
Staff data belonging to the regulator and judiciary's governing body accessed
Cyber-crime09 Feb 2026 |1
Europe's sovereign cloud spend set to triple as geopolitics bite
Updated Gartner predicts strong uptake driven by concerns over reliance on foreign providers
PaaS + IaaS09 Feb 2026 |9
Brussels eyes crowbar for Meta's WhatsApp AI lockout
Euro watchdog says Zuckercorp blocked rival assistants, weighs emergency action to force 'em back in
AI + ML09 Feb 2026 |19
Popular
Anthropic tries to hide Claude's AI actions. Devs hate it
The software doesn't show what files it's working on
Why AI writing is so generic, boring, and dangerous: Semantic ablation
opinion The subtractive bias we're ignoring
Infosec exec sold eight zero-day exploit kits to Russia, says DoJ
Infosec in Brief PLUS: Fake ransomware group exposed; EC blesses Google's big Wiz deal; Alleged sewage hacker cuffed; And more
You probably can't trust your password manager if it's compromised
Researchers demo weaknesses affecting some of the most popular options
Dutch cops arrest man after sending him confidential files by mistake
Bungled link handed over sensitive docs, and when recipient didn't cooperate, police opted for cuffs
Final step to put new website into production deleted it instead
Who, Me? 02:00 AM is not the time to ignore procedures and rely on a shortcut to do a tricky job
Cisco set to release home-brew hypervisor as a VMware alternative
Only for its own comms apps – whose users can probably do without a full private cloud
Google patches Chrome zero-day as in-the-wild exploits surface
High-severity CSS flaw let malicious webpages run code inside the sandbox
Price of popularity: Linux Mint's success also means maintainer stress
Lots of donations, but lots of pressure to go with it
Open source registries don't have enough money to implement basic security
fosdem 2026 Free beer is great. Securing the keg costs money
STORIES
European Commission probes intrusion into staff mobile management backend
Officials explore issue affecting infrastructure after CERT-EU detected suspicious activity
Cyber-crime09 Feb 2026 |3
Matrix is quietly becoming the chat layer for governments chasing digital sovereignty
FOSDEM 2026 One-to-one and group messaging, encrypted VoIP calls, video conferencing – the open protocol handles them all
Networks09 Feb 2026 |23
Let there be light! DARPA seeking physics-defying photonic computers to supercharge AI
There’s about $35M up for grabs if your circuits can beat today’s limits
Public Sector06 Feb 2026 |16
DWP considers chatbot work coaches as AI-fueled job losses loom
AI-pocalypse Benefits system trials automation amid growing interest in universal basic income
Public Sector06 Feb 2026 |37
UK council digs deeper into capital assets to keep Oracle project afloat
West Sussex plans to triple use of property sales as ERP budget blows past original estimates
Databases06 Feb 2026 |53
SpaceX wants to fill Earth orbit with a million datacenter satellites
The FCC is taking public comments - now’s your chance to tell them this plan is bonkers
Public Sector05 Feb 2026 |109
UK's 'world-first' deepfake detection framework unlikely to stop the fakes, says expert
Home Office enlists Microsoft to set industry standards as AI-generated forgeries surge from 500K to 8M in two years
AI + ML05 Feb 2026 |6
Cloud sovereignty is no longer just a public sector concern
Interview Businesses still chase the cheapest option, but politics and licensing shocks are changing priorities, says OpenNebula Systems
PaaS + IaaS05 Feb 2026 |2
UK justice system unplugs from ancient datacenters after five-year slog
37 court applications shifted off failing kit, though some are camping in a temporary hosting facility
On-Prem05 Feb 2026 |37
Estonia hedges its bets on US tech while going all-in on Microsoft
Riigi IT preps European escape plan as it herds civil servants into Redmond's cloud
Public Sector04 Feb 2026 |22
UK watchdog to rule on £246M Post Office subsidy over Horizon scandal and IR35
CMA's Subsidy Advice Unit reviewing state aid linked to redress and off-payroll tax costs
Public Sector04 Feb 2026 |31
EU's fishy digital certificate system leaves exporters floundering
Catch platform sinks under weight of bugs, missing species, and postal code gaffes while containers pile up at ports
Software04 Feb 2026 |25
Universal £7,500 payout offered to PSNI staff over major data breach
Affected police officers squeezed mental health services, relocated over safety fears
Security04 Feb 2026 |3
'The EU runs on Microsoft' – and Uncle Sam could turn it off, claims MEP
Open Source Policy Summit 2026 Open source gains urgency as Europe reassesses reliance on US tech
Software04 Feb 2026 |153
'Lethal' and 'magical' Palantir tech is in demand by Pentagon, China, Middle East, CEO says
Less popular in Canada and Northern Europe
Public Sector03 Feb 2026 |19
Next-gen nuclear reactors safe enough to skip full environmental reviews, says Trump admin
DoE trims NEPA paperwork for advanced reactors
Public Sector03 Feb 2026 |77
Palantir declares itself the guardian of Americans' rights
Opinion CEO Alex Karp meets criticism with soaring revenues and a sermon
Applications03 Feb 2026 |78
UK names Barnsley as first Tech Town to see whether AI can fix... well, anything
AI-pocalypse South Yorkshire becomes ground zero for nationwide experiment with £500K seed funding
AI + ML03 Feb 2026 |87
British military to get legal OK to swat drones near bases
Armed Forces Bill would let troops take action against unmanned threats around defense sites
Public Sector03 Feb 2026 |56
South Korea enlists AI to spot pump and dump schemes on social media, or in Spam
Main stock exchange targets shares, government agency looks for crypto crooks
Public Sector03 Feb 2026 |3
Capgemini to sell the biz that works for US government amid criticism of ICE contract
'The nature and scope of this work has raised questions' says CEO, who swears he couldn't spot it sooner
Public Sector02 Feb 2026 |43
India dangles 20-year tax holiday for clouds that serve offshore users
Asia In Brief PLUS: NTT offshores to Vietnam; Japan adds AI interface to space data; Samsung cashes in on memory boom
Public Sector02 Feb 2026 |3
Sword of Damocles hangs over UK military’s Ajax as minister says back it or scrap it
Armored vehicle trials halted after troops report noise and vibration symptoms
Public Sector01 Feb 2026 |94
Feeling taxed by layoffs, IRS turns to AI helpers
Fewer humans, more bots - just in time for filing season
Public Sector30 Jan 2026 |9
NS&I's IT car crash considers cutting legacy links to stop the bleeding
£1.3B over budget and four years late, bank searches for a way to not to bust new timetable and funding pot
Public Sector30 Jan 2026 |58
Capita pension portal 'fiasco' forces Cabinet Office into damage control
150-strong 'surge team' deployed as 8,500 retirees left high and dry, some waiting 9 months for legally owed cash
Public Sector29 Jan 2026 |34
Birmingham City Council's Oracle ERP fiasco now £144M and still not working
Five years after its planned go-live, the system remains incomplete as costs balloon more than sevenfold
Databases29 Jan 2026 |86
Irony alert: Anthropic helps UK.gov to build chatbot for job seekers
The jobs that will be eradicated by our AI overlords
AI + ML29 Jan 2026 |9
Cops put Microsoft Copilot in holding cell after controversial hallucination
Chatbot banned – for now – after it dreamed up West Ham match that never happened
AI + ML28 Jan 2026 |48
Cops get more facial recognition vans as UK bets big on AI policing
Home Office white paper promises millions for LFR, a new Police.AI unit, and a bespoke legal framework
Public Sector28 Jan 2026 |15
UK tax collector plans £2B tech binge as legacy systems refuse to die
Updated AWS and Capgemini loom large in HMRC's procurement pipeline
Public Sector28 Jan 2026 |20
Britain's Ministry of Defence signs on the dotted line with Palantir
'Follow-on' agreement lasts 3 years as US techies protest vendor's ICE contract Stateside
Public Sector28 Jan 2026 |26
ICE knocks on ad tech’s data door to see what it knows about you
Agency looks to understand the extent of identifying information available to its masked agents
Public Sector27 Jan 2026 |84
France to replace US videoconferencing wares with unfortunately named sovereign alternative
French govt says state-run service 'Visio' will be more secure. Now where have we heard that name before?
Software27 Jan 2026 |104
High Court to grill London cops over live facial recognition creep
Victim and Big Brother Watch will argue the Met's policies are incompatible with human rights law
Security27 Jan 2026 |28
Tech employees demand their leaders take a stand against ICE
But CEOs remain frozen in place
Public Sector26 Jan 2026 |228
Oracle AI sailed the world on Royal Navy flagship via cloud-at-the-edge kit
Big Red says 'sovereign' platform supports decision-making and operational learning at sea
AI + ML26 Jan 2026 |34
UK digital ID goes in-house, government swears it isn't an ID card
Minister dodges cost questions while promising smartphone-free access and 'robust' verification
Public Sector26 Jan 2026 |84
UK border tech budget swells by £100M as Home Office targets small boat crossings
Drone, satellite, and other data combined to monitor unwanted vessels
Public Sector24 Jan 2026 |26
British government caves on datacenter approval after legal challenge
Ministry admits greenlighting London-based megabit barn without proper environmental safeguards
On-Prem23 Jan 2026 |67
London boroughs limping back online months after cyberattack
Direct debits? Maybe February. Birth certificates? Dream on. Council tax bills? Oh, those are coming
Cyber-crime23 Jan 2026 |12
Marching orders delayed: Veterans' Digital ID off to a slow start
Much owed to the few, but takeup is under 1%
Public Sector23 Jan 2026 |66
Trump says he got a deal for rare earths in Greenland, but they won't come easy
You can't just grab 'em by the mine shafts - there aren't any
Public Sector22 Jan 2026 |83
Uncle Sam's VMware 'bargain' doesn't include the actual hypervisor
GSA trumpets 64% discounts on Broadcom's VMware portfolio, core vSphere platform mysteriously absent from agreement
PaaS + IaaS22 Jan 2026 |7
Bank of England: Financial sector failing to implement basic cybersecurity controls
Mind the cyber gap – similar flaws highlighted multiple years in a row
Security22 Jan 2026 |5
House of Lords votes to ban social media for Brits under 16
As public consultation kicks off, members of UK Parliament's second chamber highlight damage to children
Public Sector22 Jan 2026 |84
Turing Institute Chief Scientist takes acting CEO role amid defense push
Professor Mark Girolami keeps seat warm after Jean Innes bailed following ministerial arm-twisting
AI + ML22 Jan 2026 |5
SAP scores £275M award from UK tax collector – sans competition
Updated System handling £800B must be SaaS and sovereign. Only German vendor fits the bill, says HMRC
Databases22 Jan 2026 |11
British Army's drone degree program set to take flight
Program will train just 20 people per year
Public Sector22 Jan 2026 |10
House GOP wants final say on AI chip exports after Trump gives Nvidia a China hall pass
Bill still needs to pass the House and Senate before the president can sign or veto it
Public Sector21 Jan 2026 |2
Social Security Administration admits it underreported DOGE dirty dealings
Encrypted files, Cloudflare sharing, and political outreach surface in DOJ filings
Public Sector21 Jan 2026 |12
EU considers whether there's Huawei of axing Chinese kit from networks within 3 years
Still dominant in Germany's networks, among others
Networks21 Jan 2026 |16
Ireland wants to give its cops spyware, ability to crack encrypted messages
Its very own Snooper’s Charter comes a month after proposed biometric tech expansion
Security21 Jan 2026 |34
Best of British: UK's infosec envoys include Cisco, Palo Alto, and Accenture
Minister unwraps ambassadors of the Software Security Code of Practice
Security21 Jan 2026 |7
Child safety or age-gating for all? UK social media ban plan draws fire
Open Rights Group says plans would create serious privacy risks
Public Sector21 Jan 2026 |67
Anthropic CEO: Selling H200s to China is like giving nukes to North Korea
This is totally not because China is giving away its best models away for free, right?
AI + ML20 Jan 2026 |27
MPs ask who's responsible when AI crashes the UK finance system
Committee says watchdogs lack urgency as accountability for automated decisions remains unresolved
AI + ML20 Jan 2026 |24
England's Department of Health and Social Care offering £285k for new tech director
Fancy it? As national health tech boss, you'd be one of the highest paid in the team
Public Sector20 Jan 2026 |8
£45B savings remain theoretical as UK digital roadmap delayed again
Promised plan keeps slipping as ministers talk up future efficiency
Public Sector20 Jan 2026 |17
UK gambling regulator accuses Meta of lying about its struggle to spot illegal ads
Labels Zuck’s ad library ‘a window into criminality’ and the Social Network as ‘happy to turn a blind eye’
Legal20 Jan 2026 |43
UK prime minister stares down barrel of ban on social media for kids
Labour's latest U-turn? 61 backbenchers pile pressure for Starmer to back Tory peer's amendment
Public Sector19 Jan 2026 |81
Warwickshire school to reopen after cyberattack crippled IT
Kids return to classrooms after safety infrastructure knocked out
Cyber-crime19 Jan 2026 |45
Royal Navy's helicopter drone makes its first autonomous flight
Capable of carrying 1-ton payload and key to strategy protecting North Atlantic from Russian submarines
Public Sector19 Jan 2026 |111
Trump wants big tech to pay for big beautiful power plants
It just needs PJM Interconnection, one of the US's biggest grid operators, to green light the auction
Public Sector17 Jan 2026 |36
Woman bailed as cops probe doctor's surgery data breach
Suspect assisting West Midlands Police over alleged theft at Walsall GP practice
Security15 Jan 2026 |24
There was so much fraud on COVID loans, the feds trained an anti-fraud AI on the applications
Had it been around in 2020, it could have flagged tens of billions before payouts, PRAC tells Congress
Public Sector14 Jan 2026 |14
UK backtracks on digital ID requirement for right to work
U-turn leaves questions on costs, funding, and benefits unanswered
Public Sector14 Jan 2026 |155
Stop dragging feet on AI nudification ban, UK government told
Committee raises concerns over delays and loopholes in proposed law
AI + ML14 Jan 2026 |41
Trump administration sets GPU export rules that put Chinese buyers at the back of the queue
America first, for sales and access to foundries
Public Sector14 Jan 2026 |15
Cloud to be an American: Congress votes to kick China off remote GPU services
US House backs bill to regulate remote access to export-controlled chips
Public Sector13 Jan 2026 |7
Federal agencies told to fix or ditch Gogs as exploited zero-day lands on CISA hit list
Git server flaw that attackers have been abusing for months has now caught the attention of US cyber cops
Security13 Jan 2026 |2
Birmingham pauses Oracle relaunch to get staff on board
Europe's largest council delays Fusion reimplementation four years after go-live disaster
Databases13 Jan 2026 |31
Britain goes shopping for a rapid-fire missile to help Ukraine hit back
Project Nightfall aims to deliver a UK-built long-range strike capability at speed
Public Sector13 Jan 2026 |117
Fujitsu scores place on £984M UK government framework despite bid boycott
Turns out the voluntary pledge to restrict public sector tendering during Horizon scandal inquiry has loopholes
Public Sector13 Jan 2026 |13
India demands crypto outfits geolocate customers, get a selfie to prove they’re real
Government is fed up with bad actors using digi-cash to fund dodgy deeds
Public Sector13 Jan 2026 |9
Ofcom officially investigating X as Grok's nudify button stays switched on
Tech minister Liz Kendall says the government will back a robust regulatory response
AI + ML12 Jan 2026 |88
Tories vow to boot under-16s off social media and ban phones in schools
Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch pitches age limits and classroom curbs as fixes for behavior and mental health
Personal Tech12 Jan 2026 |60
Cloudflare CEO threatens to make the Winter Olympics a political football after Italy slugs it with a fine
Labels Rome's comms regulator ‘a quasi-judicial body’ that works on behalf of ‘shadowy, European media cabal’
Legal12 Jan 2026 |158
India’s government denies it plans to demand smartphone source code
Says ongoing talks about security are about understanding best practice, not strong-arming vendors
Security12 Jan 2026 |5
Malaysia and Indonesia block X over failure to curb deepfake smut
Asia in Brief PLUS: Cambodia arrests alleged scam camp boss; Baidu spins out chip biz; Panasonic’s noodle shop plan; And more!
Legal12 Jan 2026 |29
Biting the hand that feeds IT
