200PB by 2021..
That's a lot of "where our customers have been" data.
881 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jan 2013
That this news comes out shortly AFTER a decision is made not to completely split BT from Openreach, one may ponder why it wasn't announced just a few weeks ago where it would have been seen as a fairly damning indictment of the way the two work together (but totally don't, no way, not at all.)
Hospitals are only the "losers" if local IT don't have appropriate backups running and local/network permissions set properly. At worse ransomware should encrypt local docs and shares the user has access too - that's assuming it gets past firewalls/sandboxing/AV and malware protection and application whitelisting etc.
Restoring a few folders is the bread and butter of most sysadmin roles, hardly a big deal and that's the WORSE case scenario in a well run IT department.
Proper application whitelisting alone massively reduces randomware infections on it's own.
The government (and people usually throw the NHS into that) self report to the ICO far, far more than any private companies do. That's a fact.
Just because they aren't reporting themselves doesn't mean breaches don't happen, they are merely more worried about bad PR than public employees, many of whom would report to the ICO even if their bosses told them not to (sorry MPs!).
Paper is exceptionally easy to sneak out of buildings especially if done over the course of several years. They only found 500-600 pages by the sounds of it, doesn't mean that's all of it.
As for them "missing" the 500 page set the first time around, there's nothing to say it was in the house at the time or if after the first search he thought "well that's that - let's get my own back".
Bottom line is we don't know enough about the discrimination case or investigation to draw any real conclusion.
There's ideas being mooted of merging some of the remaining health boards and/or potentially parts of councils too. I can see the merit in some of it, but as always with IT there's a lot of contracts which need to expire etc for it to start happening without a huge amount set aside for buying out/penalty clauses.
What I don't get is why England can't do something similar, if anything everything there is becoming more fragmented year on year.
There's a balance to be had with IT, I'm sure those who have worked in IT departments know this, there are always bad eggs (like every department).
If the organisation hero-worships IT then it'll never work properly, the bad eggs will do next to nothing and consider themselves above the rules that apply to other stuff. If the organisation treats IT like sh!t, they'll only have poor staff and a high turn over of decent workers.
Personally I think IT should always be treated like any core service department, it's given the funds it needs but oversight is fairly strict, importantly that oversight should be by someone who understands how IT functions e.g. a Director who has worked in IT hands on. You'd never have a finance director who'd never worked in payroll or accounting after all.
You assume they have an inventory that shows who has and who hasn't had one. I've twice been told to check my smart meter, I don't have one. I've also had quotes from my own supplier "based on my smart meter readings" via the post if I were to stay with them - after deciding to change.
They don't know, it's a complete mess and frankly that means I'll probably be considered to have one for decades to come despite having the old mechanical type.
Honestly I think this is different, it depends on the content they offer clearly but there is a market for it, I just think they may be a little late if they are looking to compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime.
I suspect Apple are just going to buy up a large company that currently dominates in another area and expand their portfolio, potentially something like Netflix.
I use one, but with exceptions. My domain, email and master password for the PW manager itself are never stored there. Heck none of them are stored - they are the only ones I remember and change myself.
This means should my passwords all be leaked, the method of recovering access to those accounts (generally via e-mail) is secure.
I'm the primary carer for my elderly father and he's got an alarm that alerts me if he falls or he can press if he needs urgent help such as confused, lost etc. It sends me his GPS location as well as calling me (I have to answer it) in order for it not to then call other relatives.
I just find it amazing that we're even considering this tech when the bottom line is theatre staff not chucking people out who are using mobiles and prisoners not being searched and having cells searched frequently.
I work next to an American who apparently voted for Trump, he never stops telling me. It doesn't matter what the current administration do - my colleague approves of it. I asked why he voted for Trump - he said to protect his right to guns.
Which is odd as he's been living in the UK for 10 years.
When pressed why, he said if he wanted to move back to the US he would become a gun owner again to protect himself.
Why don't you have one whilst living here? You could join a club?
No need, UK is safe, we don't need them at home. It's great.
I just.. I just.. /facepalm.
They have no choice, it's in their charter that they must have opposing views in most shows. It's the same on radio 4 (which I listen to far more than I watch TV), you'll usually find someone from the opposite side of the argument even if they're a numpty that even the presenter clearly dislikes.
The BBC are left leaning, it's pretty obvious to anyone taking an impartial look at them - and I'm left leaning myself, just not someone who's loyal to any political party or the BBC.
But it sounds as if the IT department there is pretty huge, it's possible that it's simply grown too big over the years as projects were added, department sprung up etc. It happens surprisingly frequently in large organisations particularly when IT staff initially start as part of a department before being merged into the IT department later, I've seen that a couple of times over the years.
The problem here is they seem to be wanting to primarily reduce spend, but outsourcing tends not to do that from my experience and will always result in lower customer (staff) satisfaction and/or increased cost per completed incident/project.
They won't remove it for one very simple reason - it'd force many companies to use Linux.
I work in Healthcare, if they did this we'd be on Linux within 12 months and we'd never be back to Microsoft, so naturally I'm hoping MS do it.
However my biggest problem would be that only 2 of our 200 IT staff have any real 'nix knowledge, they've spent their entire life supporting Windows or Mac OS and only a handful have even used a linux live CD..
We could also do with a clever-UAC model. One which learns which permissions are not routinely required and resticts the user more as time goes on, whenever one of those permissions they haven't used in 6 months suddenly needs to be used - it should prompt the user for authorisation rather than just saying "ah screw it, this is within his rights".
We need our permissions models to be more reactive, right now we set them in stone and hope that's enough but there are permissions which could be removed over time which purely by prompting could alert the user to unusual activity.
Missing the point a little, these would have included referral letters, diagnosis notifications, letters asking people to come in for appointments etc etc.
These haven't been acted on, heck I bet they can't even find out if some of these people are still alive and if there was a negative impact on health of those who are and those who not aren't.
Bottom line is that some of these could have been letters to patients or to a patient GP updating them on something VERY important such as urgent treatments for cancer, Hep C etc.
Free calls to people on the same network? Most of my family are on O2, so whilst I may swap company to get a better deal (go through one of the resellers etc.) I try to stay with it so I can make all those mobile calls for free and just as importantly my friends and family can contact me - free via mobile.
I *could* probably save £5 a month by moving but then I'd have to spend more than that in call charges.
I'd also debate whether Uswitch, who have more than a passing business interest in stoking up the idea of switching is the best source for this sort of data.
I'm not usually a tinfoil hat fan myself but when I heard about he deal with google and co I was genuinely surprised. This is NOT good and is exactly what google have been accused off repeatedly in the past by government, the EU etc - basically fiddling with the algorithm to suit themselves, well now they'll do it to suit others.
I'm honestly wondering if now is the time for the likes of Yahoo to hit the reset button and give the search engine game another, proper go - and avoid this sort of "deal".
Wow, are we Linux fans so unable to debate a topic these days that we've got to drag in MS or Windows into every instance?
Addressing the OP's concerns - One of the reasons Linux is arguably as stable as it is has to do with Linus's being such a hands-on protective type who's not afraid to snarl when required. It'd be a bloody mess otherwise.
We need the public to start demanding better from companies and we need governments who are more than willing to fine, massively for any failure by companies to keep infosec standards high in products they produce.
We're not just talking about information here, this is vehicles that are a ton or more moving at high speed, I see a potential weapon - not just a info security risk.