When IT Meets Politics

Self-policed e-paradise or a vigilante-ruled e-anarchy?

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 09:29:21 +0000

Over 20% of the population of the world and over 60% of that of the UK population now use the Internet to do business, learn or play. The proportion of criminals who use it to identify and exploit victims is at least similar. So who is policing it - everyone or no-one?

How do we rebuild trust in the on-line world - not just Government?

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:46:57 +0000

The messages in the Cabinet Office, HMRC, IPCC and MoD reports and recommendations released on 25th June will keep security experts occupied years. But the responses to the recommendations of recent Parliamentary reports and its own Independent Reviewer, raise far wider questions.

Lets have an end to bicker, bitch and divide and move from rhetoric to action

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:30:39 +0000

I have just received my paper copy of Computer Weekly and see that the "My Take" column which I contributed has been juxtaposed with an "expert comment" from Mike Gillespie. He appears to call for a holistic approach to security while dismissing the Information Security Awareness Forum which has brought together over twenty professional bodies and trade associations to take a rather more holistic approach than he is advocating. So too does the slew of government reports released yesterday - see my blog of yesterday.

Data Handling Procedures in Government: Report Published

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:10:47 +0000

The Cabinet Office Final report on Data Handling Procedures across government, the Written Ministerial Statement, the Independent Review of Government Information Assurance and the "Cross Government Actions: Mandatory Minumum Measures" are all now available on ...

Another day, another laptop lost

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:36:34 +0000

Recent repots of laptops lost by doctors stolen from hospitals appear to indicate that medical records on personal computers are less secure today than when the NCC Microsystems Centre tested six systems under contract from the DTI over 20 year years ago. Why?

"Public, she speak with forked tongue" : Interpreting the Economist fieldwork on "Civil Liberties"

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:04:20 +0000

This week the Economist publishes an excellent article describing the ambivalent attitude of the British Public towards Civil Liberties and the Surveillance Society. It could be, but is not, summarised as: "We want to be looked after but do not trust the systems".

Industry "leaders" speak with forked tongue on ICT Skills

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:51:42 +0000

The supposed attack by the CBI on the new vocational diplomas is at variance to feedback from employers on the new ICT Vocational Diploma, said to be much more rigorous, relevant and, perhaps more important, intellectually interesting and challenging, than the current A levels it could replace - if it proves successfull in practice.

Making public on-line services fit for society: the Bled Report

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:28:47 +0000

On May 15th I promised to blog again on the conclusions from the session I chaired at the European Commission workshop in Bled on social inclusion, ethics, the "forced" use of e-government services and "digital citizens rights". These have no official status, they but an extract from my report back to a plenary but ...

Another day, another data loss: its the wetware stupid.

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:21:09 +0000

This time its yet another paper file left on a train. Do read the report of the Home Affairs Select Committee in full. Then re-read it, remembering that the largest single death toll from a data leakage was when a Columbian Drug cartel analysed the billing records of the local telephone company to identify the location of the Drug Enforcement Agency Safe Houses from the calls from the US embassy. They then slaughtered everyone in them, including most of the DEA team.

Are you or your bank liable for on-line fraud?

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:43:28 +0000

"Banks slip through virus loophole" was the headline for an article by Danny Bradbury in the Guardian last week. This began: "Is my money safe? A quiet rule change allows British banks to refuse to compensate the victims of online fraud if they do not have "up-to-date antivirus and spyware and a personal firewall"

Deskilling Britain - the accelerating UK ICT Skills Crisis

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:38:40 +0000

Lloyds TSB recently announced that the move of two thirds of their ICT staff to India was not to save money. The UK throughput of ICT graduates has halved over past five years, is now below that in 1996 and is about to fall further. IR 35 led to the exodus of many of the most able and ambitious independent consultants. Today we see mounting pressures to address our increasing skills shortages (quality even more than quantity) by allowing in more immigrants.

An incompetent, unsafe and corrupt Surveillance Society ?

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 09:12:25 +0000

This morning the first of a season of reports on surveillance and information assurance was published. The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee report was released to the Sunday Papers at one minute past midnight. The Commons Press Gallery get their copies at 09.00 Monday morning. Meanwhile the Cabinet Office report and recommendations on Information Assurance have been circulating, unpublished for nearly two months.

Who would you trust with your e-mail content: Google or GCHQ?

Fri, 30 May 2008 20:38:36 +0000

At the FIPR 10th birthday I was fascinated to hear an attack on HMG plans to record all on-line communications by a well-known civil liberties activitist who makes a point of using g-mail: because it is not Microsoft. There is an increasingly surreal quality to some of the debate over what is ethical.

Why do we never learn and keep replicating failure?

Thu, 22 May 2008 07:28:39 +0000

There have been many successful public sector systems, some very very large like the original computerisation of PAYE in the 1980s. There is much excellent guidance on how to do IT properly. But the National Plan for IT failed for very similar reasons to HISS or the DSS Operational Strategy over two decades ago. Why do we never learn?

Usable by ordinary human beings: the route to e-inclusion

Thu, 15 May 2008 11:13:18 +0000

Most government on-line systems are inaccessible to most of those of those they are most intended to serve - was my personla summary of the of the introductory discussions at the EU workshop on Ethics and e-Inclusion that I attended on Monday. The consequences are not only unethical, they are indefensible by almost any measure other than technophilia.