Is it possible for hackers to tap into your set top box ? Computer Weekly reader Jeremy Jones thinks so. Jeremy has sent us a video showing some bizarre subtitles that have appeared on his television set. The quality of the video isn't great, but it clearly shows what looks like a rambling child's story about her mum as a subtitle to the sports reports on the news. Jeremy is mystified, but he thinks his set top box, which he bought at Woolworths for £10, has been interfered with in some way. Can anyone out there solve the mystery ?
Warwick Ashford sent me this interesting post about Google:
Google's CEO Eric Schmidt has been talking a lot about green energy in the US leading to speculation that he may be thinking about stepping down to pursue new interests. Schmidt has also been making suggestions about which technology issues should be a priority for the US government next year. Taken together, there may well be something in the speculation that he is considering a role in the new US administration due to take power in January. This could have big implications for Google's future, which has gone from $86m to over $20bn from 2001 to 2008 under Schmidt's leadership. It is even more plausible that Schmidt is thinking of moving on considering Google managed to end the third quarter of 2008 with a strong profit of $1.35 in the face of financial uncertainty. Now would probably be a relatively good time to bow out and let other worry about how to get returns on Google's $1.65bn investment in YouTube. However, it all remains nothing more than speculations which means that Schmidt is as likely to step down as Google CEO as not. Schmidt remained confident about the "underlying strength" of Google's core search and ads business when the third quarter financial results were announced. I would not put any money on Schmidt leaving Google just yet. He seems driven by challenges and not easily daunted. If I were him, I would also want to prove they YouTube can be made to pay its way and that that faith in Google's core business model was not misplaced.
November the 5th is fast approaching but anyone expecting fireworks when Microsoft gave first preview of its Windows 7 operating system today would be disappointed. The new operating system, due to ship in January next year doesn't offer much more than the Windows Vista. There are a few bells and whistles. Window's 7 support for touch-sensitive displays could prove useful for people that need to use table PCs on the move. And the ability to connect to Windows Sever 2008 without a VPN could also be helpful to businesses. But they don't add up to a compelling reason to upgrade. Verdict so far - a damp squib.
I was at a very interesting presentation today with HSBC's IT and operations head Ken Harvey.
He was giving a presentation about the bank's One HSBC project. This is a project to move all the bank's different units regardless of region or business line onto common computer systems.
It was very interesting presentation and kept my full attention as a result. On the 42nd floor of HSBC's headquarters in Canary Wharf, on a clear day, one could easily to be distracted by the view.
The project is now two years old and is already paying for itself according to Harvey. Some of the achievement so far include the reduction of the number of core banking systems from 55 to 17, credit card systems cut from 24 to 17, internet banking systems reduced to 13 from 41, desktops all on the same standard compared to 40 before and trading systems reduced from five to one.
By the end of 2010 all of these will be consolidated to one core banking, one credit card, one internet banking, one desktop standard and one trading system and all on the One HSBC platform. HSBC has also reduced the number of datacentres it operates globally from 130 to four pairs.
But as we always talk about savings I thought I would mention some of the advantages of One HSBC to customers.
If you are a corporate and you want to ensure that different units across the world have enough cash to pay their bills you can just tell the bank how much they all need and it will convert the currency and move it around for you.
Meanwhile if you are a retail customer and you lose your card the cancelation and replacement process is far easier for you and the member of staff dealing with you. This process traditionally requires 13 different actions but with the new system it is only five. It also offers customers an identical interface no matter how they are dealing with the bank. Whether they are in a branch or on the road using whichever mobile device you chose the interface is the same.
Think your identity is safe? Well, as one industry insider recently discovered - ironically, during National Identity Fraud Prevention Week - it's not just phishing attacks and software vulnerabilities of which you need to be wary. If your house is physically broken into, it could be more than just your property at stake - and re-securing your assets can be harder than you'd expect, thanks to poor customer service, and the idiosyncracies of current security protocols.
"National Identity Fraud Prevention Week had a cruel twist for me this year: I was burgled as it started.
It would be fair to say I was more stressed about what could be stolen by criminals using my ID than what was actually stolen.
Passports, laptop and mobile phone were amongst the items taken. Also as the burglars helped themselves they had access to lots of personal information such as bank account details.
As soon as we got home to our trashed house and discovered the burglary, both my partner and I were on the telephone to various agencies to cancel various accounts.
The best place to start? Ah, you should call the police, you say. Yes, that's what we thought too. About 24 hours later they finally turned up.
But the thing that really stood out for me was the way call centres are run. If you ask something out of the ordinary they cannot help. "But I can't find my account number because the house has been turned over!"
The de-facto ID is the passport, so I immediately called the Identity and Passport agency. Although the number given out is obviously not the agency directly but a call centre. They could not do anything until I had a crime reference number.
So, 24 hours later, when I finally received my crime reference number I filled in two forms on the website to report it stolen. I contacted them the next day and was told that these forms would be posted to me whereupon I should sign them and send them back. That could take time, I thought, so I printed the forms and filled them in and posted them immediately.
Two days later I telephoned the Identity and passport agency and they could not tell me whether they had received my forms. "The office does not speak to people over the phone about this," said the call centre. All I wanted to know was whether the passports had been successfully cancelled. "You will receive a letter informing you. This could take weeks." Well that's reassuring. In actual fact I did receive the letters quite quickly, so well done, but reassurance over the phone would have been better.
As I was speaking to a call centre, which is powerless, I asked for the number for the actual office involved in Peterborough. I was told they do not have a number for them.
That wasn't the only incident. Just after the burglary I had telephoned my bank to try to ensure that my online bank account couldn't be used by the people that have my laptop, passport and lots of personal details.
The call centre worker asked for my account number, date of birth and mother's maiden name; I asked him if that was all he was asking me and he said these are details that only I would know. Well unless someone had my passport and had seen my bank details. My passport has my name, date of birth and mother's maiden name on it. The burglars could quite easily have my bank details (my cheque books were in the house) and of course they have my laptop.
And my final grip is with a certain telco. Nothing to do with ID theft, but it was poor customer relations all the same. One of the items stolen was a mobile phone. One that allows you to browse the web and check e-mails - you know, like a Blackberry, but not as good. It is an extra £5 a month. Now that the device has been stolen I cannot use the service. Although I am a good customer with a full broadband and phone service the company does not think it would be fair to send me a new device or to cancel the service.
The person on the phone had some suggestions. Buy a new one or get one cheap by adding another user. The latter would mean another £5 per month plus a cut price £29 for the phone. Obviously I was not happy. The company's response was "we offered you insurance".
This is a common theme: the bank mentioned ID theft insurance also. They also tried to sell me home insurance, which actually made me laugh out loud."
So far the IT industry has emerged relatively unscathed from the credit crunch. But with the governor of the bank of England, Mervyn King's gloomy admission yesterday that the UK is on the verge of a recession, the good times must surely be coming to an end.
Today's news that Yahoo plans to lay off 1,500 employees is likely to set the tone for a difficult 12 months ahead. Some major IT suppliers are already tightening their belts, trimming their advertising budgets, and reviewing their head counts.
We will probably not feel the full effects until 2009. Leading analyst, Richard Holway, predicts a 2% recession across IT. But there will be winners are losers. IT companies supplying nice-to-have technology will be badly hit, as the shakeout in Silicon Valley implies.
The real winners will the IT companies that can save businesses money - not in five years time - but now.
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