The UK government is spending obscene amounts of money trying to maintain ancient, outdated computer systems which are unable to meet even the basic cybersecurity, or operational requirements of today, a report has claimed.
Organizing for Digital Deliver, a report recently released by the Cabinet Office, found that the UK government spends $6.5 billion a year on IT, of which $3.2 billion goes on keeping legacy systems afloat.
Some of these systems are allegedly three decades old, and in five years’ time, the cost of maintaining these systems could be as high as $30 billion.
The report further claims that some of the digital services offered by the government “fail to meet even the minimum cybersecurity standards”.
Contemporary systems are data-oriented, allowing businesses to use numerous sources of data to improve their decision-making process. However, even when government agencies do have access to data – they can’t make use of it, due to the incompatibility of their legacy systems.
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