Defra’s legacy IT unsupported and ill-equipped for digital services | Computer Weekly
Summary
A report from the Public Accounts Committee has warned that the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is at risk of wasting money on digital services due to its legacy IT. As such, Defra may have to pay additional charges for updates, or choose to run the applications completely unsupported, which increases the risk of failure or cyber attacks. In one example given in the PAC report, until recently, vets had to buy old laptops on eBay to be able to run the software for recording bovine tuberculosis test results because the legacy application was unsupported on newer operating systems. The PAC found that many of Defra’s legacy systems still rely heavily on paper forms or documents, and it handles around 14 million transactions each year. Defra has told the PAC its IT strategy is to stabilise legacy applications to reduce the risks of cyber attack or operational failure, as well as developing and implementing the IT systems needed for EU Exit.