When IT Meets Politics

An overdue outbreak of common sense: "Safeguarding your Identity"

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:17:35 +0000

Further to my blog this morning, I have just been given a link to the notice launching the new "Safeguarding Your Identity" strategy. Do read and enjoy. I do hope none of you will then tell me what I have missed and why I should not, for once, unequivocally welcome a Government strategy paper.

Who "owns" your identity and your personal data?

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:08:46 +0000

HMG appears about to admit that federated identity management is inevitable, if only because none of the tribes of Whitehall can agree to use a system controlled by another tribe. Meanwhile

"It's Ours: why we, not the government, must own our own data" an excellent paper from the Centre for Policy Studies has moved the debate on.

Digital Britain - charge the Elephant not the dying donkey

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:22:18 +0000

The Digital Britain Report contains much that is to be welcomed and it will be unfortunate if debate focuses on the weakest section: the proposals for funding the roll out of broadband, particularly the levy on the local loop. The Internet advertisers, who will benefit most appear to have got away with paying least.

Digital Britain: may you be given what you ask for?

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:49:52 +0000

I have not yet read the full Digital Britain report but have found the section I was told to look for but not refernce until after publication. Chapter 7 on Digital Security, Page 197 paragraph 36 is a welcome for the work of the EURIM E-Crime Group. I have a busy time ahead.

Digital Britain and the Elephant on the Network

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:54:34 +0000

Part of the driving force behind the Digital Britain report is the way in which search engines and social and gaming networks based outside the UK are draining the advertising and content revenues that previously funded every broadcaster and publisher other than the BBC.

Good practice or legal practice in Data Guardianship

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:19:07 +0000

The mild criticism of the new BCS Personal Data Guardianship Code in the Register reveals the practical need for the code. I believe it is good practice to try to collect and record consent, whether or not it is legally required.

Your opportunity to help clean up the Internet

Fri, 29 May 2009 20:02:15 +0000

The domain name structure is at the heart of the Internet - including of the fights against spam, malware, electronic impersonation et al. Nominet is to be congratulated on the scale and nature of its current consultation exercise.

Government 2.0: the Inglorious (MPs' Expenses) Revolution

Tue, 26 May 2009 13:53:12 +0000

The saga of the MPs' expenses disc is not only a classic tale of information governance, or rather the lack of it, but of the selective use of information to bring about revolution. We do not yet know what kind of revolution. But, with the largest ever new intake of MPs in prospect, the Revolution of 2010 will be more akin to 1660 or 1688 than 1946, let alone 1979 or 1997.

How does the cookie crumble? Whose spyware is acceptable?

Fri, 22 May 2009 18:58:22 +0000

What is the difference between the Larry Page's claim that making Google wipe data after six months would hit Flu Protection and a Ministerial claim that spending umpty £billion on data retention and Interception Modenrisation would help the War Against Terror"? This morning I also received an eloquent lawyer plea "Please kill this cookie monster to save Europe's websites".

Who trusts who in the on-line world and why?

Sat, 02 May 2009 11:47:49 +0000

During my recent bout of manflu, I tried to make sense of the morass of material on the current scale and nature of on-line malpractice and the reasons for the current erosion of confidence in the on-line world. My conclusion is that there are three main culprits:.

Number 10 Petition for HMG to support the fight against E-Crime

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:36:01 +0000

The taxpayer is by far the biggest victim of E-Crime: both directly and indirectly: from £150 million looted from the Individual Learning Accounts to a £billion or so from automated VAT and Benefit fraud to the computer-managed mortgage fraud that helped bring down the former building societies - plus the tax revenues on the lost profits to business from crime against the private sector.

Who Should Police the Internet?

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:51:16 +0000

Today is the first day of Infosec. In my article in the Guardian supplement, I refer to comparisons of the Internet with Railways and the Wild West. The first police force in England was created by the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company to protect their construction sites, then their tracks and later the goods they carried.

Information Security Industry or e-Protection Racket?

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:52:12 +0000

What other industry would collectively spend over £3 billion a year on protection and less than £30 million a year on tracking, tracing and removing the predators who are milking them? Come to InfoSec (Tuesday to Thursday) and see how and why the security of the on-line world is in such a parlous state.

Death by Data Protection: those lethally secure databases

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:35:11 +0000

More patients die because their medical record was wrong than because it was not available. More suffering and injustice are caused because police, justice and care records are not fit for purpose than because they are insecure. There is a very old rule of thumb that about 10% of records will have random errors unless entered by those with a vested interest in their accuracy and in a position to know what is correct. That is not the case with the records on many public databases.

A Rapid Payback Budget

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:59:56 +0000

Industry is now focussed almost entirely on "stopping the bleeding" with forward thinkers looking at what can be done on positive cash flow. Hence my suggested three point plan: