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• UK councils failing on digital delivery - SOCITM

  Many local councils fail to grasp simple technology concepts such as the benefits of digital delivery, according to Socitm's annual report on local council IT performance.The Socitm Better Connected report said that around two thirds of all councils fail to meet fairly low standards, i.e. more than two stars out of a possible four, because of an inability to cut costs through the internet and online services.Just nine councils, or two per cent of the total, were awarded the four star ranking (Brighton & Hove, Bristol City, East Sussex CC, Eden DC, The City of Edinburgh, Lewisham, Richmond upon Thames, Salford City and SurreyHeath BC), compared to 11 last year.Some 30 per cent of council web sites got the three star ranking, up from 24 per cent last year, while 43 per cent achieved two stars and 106 one star.Socitm acknowledged that this is a slight improvement against last year, but said that development had stagnated in 2009.The results show that councils are not using technology efficiently, and are not delivering convenient and value-for-money services for taxpayers, proving that they had not recognised the value in digital services, according to Socitm. Read more on this story here.

• The Dark Side of Twitter

  Barracuda Labs analyzed more than 26 million Twitter accounts in order to measure and analyze account behavior. The analysis enabled researchers to model normal user behavior and identify features that are strong indicators of illegitimate account use. The study reviews several key areas including True Twitter Users1, Twitter Crime Rate2, and Tweet Number3.Key highlights from the Twitter research include: In general, activity continues to increase on Twitter: more users are coming online; True Twitter Users are tweeting more often, and even casual users are becoming more active. As users become more active, the malicious activity also increases. The number of True Twitter Users increased to 43 percent, up from only 29 percent in June 2010. For every 100 Twitter users, 39 have between one and nine followers, while 50 percent of Twitter users have more than 10 followers. Approximately 79 percent of Twitter users tweet less than once per day. After decreasing at the end of 2009, the Twitter Crime Rate increased 20 percent from the first half of 2010 to the second half of 2010, going from 1.6 percent to 2 percent. Attackers are distributing malware and exploiting vulnerabilities to achieve their malicious goals. To view the complete Barracuda Labs 2010 Annual Security Report and the company’s security portal, please visit http://barracudalabs.com .Protecting Profiles on Facebook and TwitterBarracuda Labs also announced the availability of its new Profile Protector, a free service that protects social networking users against malicious threats on Facebook and Twitter and is available at http://profileprotector.com/ . The application analyzes user-generated content posted to profiles and is able to block or remove malicious or suspicious content. This includes malicious URLs, embedded photos and/or videos on Facebook and Twitter pages and news feeds.Footnotes:1 – ‘True Twitter User’ is defined as a user that has at least (≥) 10 followers, follows at least (≥) 10 people, and has tweeted at least (≥) 10 times.2 – ‘Twitter Crime Rate’ is defined as the percentage of accounts created per month that were eventually suspended for malicious or suspicious activity, or otherwise misused.3 – ‘Tweet Number’ is defined as a user’s average number of tweets per day.Read more on this story here.

• Tools to alleviate email horror

  We've all done it (or at least I hope it's not just me) - fired off an email and realised a second too late that we've said the wrong thing to the wrong audience, or 'replied to all' when we thought we had only replied to a colleague.Here's some useful email tools to help us before we commit to sending.

• The £16 billion question: What's wrong with government IT?

  Despite spending around £16 billion per annum, Whitehall and Westminster often see IT as a necessary evil: a risk to be mitigated rather than an opportunity to be exploited.Information technology should be a transformational force, a tool to enable government not only to improve public services but to dramatically improve the relationship between citizen and state.The new report from The Institute for Government, System error: fixing the flaws in government IT was published on 2 March and will be launched at an event featuring Government COO Ian Watmore. It sets out the case for a new approach to IT in the public sector, and recommends tackling two important aspects simultaneously: 1. platform - delivering government-wide efficiencies of scale and interoperability 2. agile - facilitating rapid response and innovation at the front line.The report demonstrates that by implementing both of these elements, government could see cost and time savings whilst delivering a more effective and flexible service.System Error has been welcomed by government CIO Joe Harley: "As Government CIO I find the report very helpful. The approach to platform and agile is useful and constructive. Government has a large and complex IT estate and the majority of it works efficiently and effectively. However, we are always looking for ways to improve and this report has a number of very useful recommendations for us to consider as we formulate our ICT Strategy. I look forward to working with the Institute in the future." . Read the full story here or download the System Error report.