- An audit has revealed shortcomings in the IT of the National Agency
- Almost 80% of NCA’s computer budget is spent on inherited systems
- The NCA should approach these weaknesses with complete plans
An independent audit of the police guard dog, HM Inspection of the Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), published a disturbing report on the IT systems of the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom.
The report underlines that “most of the computer systems on which it is based are exceeded and unfit for the objective”, declaring that the NCA is overwhelmed by technical debt thanks to a continuous priority of rapid repairs on more complete long -term solutions.
This is not all, because the report also recommends that the NCA improves its management of bulk data sets – because there is currently no data set from regional units of organized crime, and none provides for the NCA to carry out a bulk analysis of data from the law application of the law – despite the plans for the service to replace the national police of the police in 2026.
A ten -year strategy
A significant limitation with which the NCA is confronted, in particular given the sensitive nature of most data from the organization, is the lack of adoption of the cloud;
“The NCA was also slow to fully adopt the advantages of cloud -based technology, which has unfavorable practical consequences. For example, staff cannot automatically transfer data between IT systems operating on each of the three levels of security for government security classification policy. ”
Inherited systems that are still exploited by the NCA means higher maintenance costs, limited features and compatibility with other internal systems, increased training necessary for new staff and an inability to fully exploit data sets from other obsolete systems.
260 inherited systems have been identified, which led to 80% of the organization’s computer budget spent on the service of these obsolete systems.
The report ends with nine global recommendations, including a ten -year development strategy to replace inherited IT systems, the development of a plan to carry out a loose data analysis of the law data ensemble of the law, as well as the adoption of the management of the government’s digital and data capacities.
The NCA Graeme Biggar DG confirmed Techradar Pro;
“We take in -depth measures in the areas identified in the report’s recommendations, a large part of which was underway at the time of the inspection. This includes a program to modernize the agency’s scale.”
