From Old School to High-Tech: Criminal Justice's Digital Makeover

With the Justice sector incorporating the Crown Prosecution Service, courts, police, probation service and prisons, the number of systems implemented and utilised over time is inordinate. Legacy systems still play a large role in the workings of these public sector organisations, as they provide a reliable platform for handling business operations. The Justice sector can either work with a hybrid approach, combining legacy systems with new, or move towards complete digital transformation. Both are achievable with the right resources, effort and budget as long as planning and business continuity is taken into account.

Challenges of Legacy Systems

Let’s take a look at the pitfalls of using legacy systems. Firstly, there is the issue of incompatibility where legacy and modern systems struggle to integrate and share data. It’s estimated that companies spend $85 billion (that’s £66,794,700,000 for those of us in the UK) dealing with bad code. Combine that with the shortage of available skilled software developers and it’s already off to a problematic start.

Secondly, there is the risk to security posture with outdated software unable to be patched or updated, increasing the likelihood of cyber security breaches. Ransomware, phishing, malware, DDoS, insider threats, 0-day exploit, social engineering or just human error - there are so many ways in which the IT environment can be compromised. The damage to the Justice sector would be irrefutably impaired. One example of where data breaches have caused significant risk is from September 2023 when criminals targeted the IT systems of an IT contractor responsible for producing staff identification cards for the Metropolitan Police.

Maintaining legacy systems as they age becomes more expensive and time consuming as software components become harder to find, and staff with knowledge of these systems become few and far between. In addition, older systems are slower performance-wise in comparison to modern systems and thus more inefficient.

How IT Industry Can Help

The first step in deciding how to mitigate the challenges that come with legacy systems is to evaluate the costs associated with maintaining them versus modernising. It’s worth considering long term benefits such as improved efficiency, scalability and security when developing a strategy for change.

Your current IT team can support by taking an inventory of the number of devices owned and used by your organisation, so you can ensure adequate security measures are in place. Any patching must be prioritised and scheduled to ensure the security of the environment.

Businesses can address integration challenges by adopting middleware solutions or APIs that facilitate communication between legacy systems and newer technologies. Take for example HM Courts & Tribunals Service who needed to connect their legacy infrastructure to Azure, to support the deployment of Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD). They used a hybrid cloud connectivity solution to allow system integration and data flow between systems and cloud providers. The technology also enabled connectivity to a virtual stenographer solution hosted by a different cloud provider, Google Cloud (GCP).

Such technology could also enable further transformation in the Justice sector. For example for those officers working in regional units who currently have to use three devices to connect to three different force networks, a more innovative approach to cloud connectivity could enable them to access all three networks from a single device.

The Way Forward

Looking to the future, it's not enough for criminal Justice entities to ‘work around’ legacy systems. Gartner states by 2028 cloud computing will be a necessity not just for business competitiveness, but business survival.”

To gain competitive advantage, strategic digital transformation is the way forward. With cloud migration a multitude of benefits can be obtained: flexible data flow between systems on the network, enhanced security from upgrades so that criminal Justice entities protect valuable citizen data, and cost efficiencies from monthly payments over high capital investment upfront. These benefits can be realised sooner with a flexible, dynamic connectivity platform that bridges the gap between the old world and the new. Whatever stage you are at on your transformation journey, a secure digital foundation will improve network performance, reduce cost and complexity, and strengthen security.

Article first published by TechUK