Posts by Doctor Syntax

Re: Closest I've had to that ....

"The Mrs came with a hotmail account, for much the same reasons."

You realised she wasn't going to be a long term solution?

Re: The mythological wire stretcher

What, no striped paint?

Re: soo...

"But one of those occupational hazards, hence why it's good practice to check a pit with a gas detector, not a lit roll-up ciggie"

It happened before my time but the scars were still there to be seen....

Gas leak in a tunnel, not sure what gas. Someone from the forensic lab went out to investigate with a detector. Only tested at one level and pronounced it clear. "Look I can strike a match." I've met the RUC sergeant who had the wit to say "Not until I get out".

Detached garage in the first house we bought in NI. Wiring in garage but with no direct connection to supply. The previous owners had managed this by taking a supply from the kitchen as and when needed with a long flex with a 13 Amp plug on each end. One end plugged into a socket in the kitchen and the other into a socket in the garage.

Re: Closest I've had to that ....

I've been past the place a few times in recent years. A monstrous place. My old outfit ended up in that complex, fortunately a while after I left.

Re: Never work with children or animals?

Aren't a polecats just for overhead cabling?

Re: Closest I've had to that ....

Fortunately the water main isn't quite as far over the road as the electric main.

Excavation revealed a second, more recent water main that isn't on the contractors' plans and which they suspect Yorkshire Water don't even know about. It must have been at least 30 years old, however, as I don't remember it being laid.

This is no surprise as a previous electric fault revealed our connection wasn't where the plans showed it to be and some years ago it was discovered that what the gas engineers thought was the gas main was abandoned and ful of water whilst the real gas supply came across adjacent property from different road. What the GIS says and what the ground says seldom seems to coincide.

Re: Closest I've had to that ....

etymonline.com says soudure is derived from Latin solidus or solidare and the modern form is a re-Latinisation of the C15th.

Re: Closest I've had to that ....

I find the drift of this thread worrying. Right now the road is being dug up to replace our connection to the water main.

Re: the difference between an engineer and sn installer.

Remember, you don't own the cat, the cat owns you.

Re: Security investment

Unfortunately the costs of failure are still insufficiently high. Some of the breaches we've seen ought to have brought down the companies. It's not hard to think of a few who ought to be remembered only in MBA courses as case studies in failure. I can only think that C-suite members simply think "There, but for the grace of God, go I" and continue doing business with them.

Re: Hmm...

"Don't confuse correlation and causation"

But don't ignore it; ask how it comes about.

Re: FFS!

"perhaps the NHS provides a bulk email facility to which GPs can provide a mailing list"

It does indeed appear to come from a bulk email facility: notifications.service.gov.uk

It doesn't come from the GP. It doesn't have anything like "Envelope from" my GP. The actual ID there from which it comes is nhs.test.and.trace.covid19.app. A bit opaque, maybe, but possibly from the Serco business contracted to do the test and trace.

That service, in its short history, has form for email security: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/20/serco-accidentally-shares-contact-tracers-email-addresses-covid-19 and didn't see the need to refer themselves to the ICO over that incident. And in any event it's all under the control, for want of a better word, of Dido Harding who also has form with overseeing PII in her previous job.

Plenty of us commented here, right at the start, that trust was absolutely essential for us to have confidence in this operation and that HMGs of all colours have a long history of being untrustworthy in this regard. We also said that appointing Harding was a poor start to building that trust and this just confirms existing suspicions.

Re: You lot...

I don't suppose TT was trying to defraud their users. They just managed to lose control of the users' data twice to those who were trying. With Dido Harding presiding.

It now appears that T&T have acquired a large database of PII. With Dido Harding presiding.

T&T operation is subcontracted to Serco. One of their first actions was to lose control of their tracers' email addresses by email

I repeat again, the problem isn't the unexpected email, it's where the data has got to.

Re: COPI notice

Use a serious situation as a pretext for getting rid of public protections. Absolutely classic.

Re: You lot...

"The message was not addressed to you personally"

So how did it get to me email address. Just one of my email addresses. The email address given to my GP.

Can you explain how somebody other than said GP emails me without a breach of the DPA?

Re: FFS!

Tip: If your e-mail address actually contains the word "spam"

Sigh.

Some people just don't get it. Read this as many times as it takes to understand it: it is contrary to the DPA - based on GDPR - to pass on PII without specific, informed consent.

That is the problem here. Not the message on behalf of the NHS. The passing on of PII without consent. Who knows where it's got to once it's gone?

Re: Spam?

Close. Not prior warning in the press. What you should have seen was a request from your GP to share your PII with a 3rd party.

Re: Worked as intended

Serco have the contract to run Track (or Test) and Trace. The email claims to have been sent by them. Basically, if you got the message you have no idea where your PII has got to by now.

Re: What message?

Maybe you folks have GPs who respect your privacy.

Re: You lot...

I'm afraid that the day to have done that is already past. It was the day we learned about the Durham trip. The damage to the government's credibility was done when he wasn't fired. Like you I would welcome his departure right now but it'll just be seen as another U-turn, more belated than most.

Re: You lot...

"So why the whining?"

Because HMG decided it was a good opportunity drive a coach and horses through one of our legal protections instead of sending the message legally. This is a government that seems quite cavalier in its approach to following the law. Push back is entirely appropriate.

Re: You lot...

"No, the issue is you are letting your blood pressure rise over something that a) was almost certainly warranted in the current situation and b) is, on a scale of privacy intrusion in everyday life, inconsequential."

No, the issue is that an arm of government is using this as an excuse to break the law.

The message could have been sent on behalf of the NHS by my GP to an email address I'd provided exclusively to them. They chose not to do that. They chose to harvest that PII, by whatever degree of compulsion is unknown. It's not the message that's the problem, it's the illegal harvesting of data to so it that's the problem.

Re: FFS!

We are not being Daily Mail as you put it.

The problem isn't the message. The problem is the illegality of sharing PII without consent.

What makes is serious is HMG using a serious situation to justify that when the message could have been sent on their behalf by people who were entrusted with that PII in order to send such messages. Using a situation like that to set such a precedent is one of the oldest tricks in the book for governments who set out to ignore the law. Whatever the situation governments need to be held to account when they attempt that.

Re: FFS!

"They've had my details for years without me getting evidence that it's been abused"

Who's they?

Let's be specific here. In my case the "they" who have had this information for years without evidence that it's been abused is my GP's practice. There is now evidence that it's been abused. The abuse is not, repeat not, that spam has been sent; it the practice had sent the email themselves there's have been no problem whatsoever. The abuse is that PII has been passed to a 3rd party. The email is the evidence of that abuse.

Re: FFS!

I take it you received texts from someone with whom you'd shared your mobile number for that purpose. The problem here is that people to whom we've given contact details for one purpose have illegally passed those details to at least one other organisation without permission to do so. How much further has that information been passed?

The rule of law matters. It matters most when applied to the government and it's an arm of government that appears to have been behind this.

Re: FFS!

"1. They already have your phone number and email address (driving licence, car tax, inland revenue etc"

Who's "they"?

DVLA do indeed have one of my email addresses.

So what? This didn't arrive at that address. It arrived at an address which was given only to a specific private business, my GP.

You may be lax about your personal information security. Some of us aren't. In may case it's an old habit; my livelihood depended on my ability to handle other people's information securely (and to maintain my own security clearance). I'm hardly likely to adopt lesser standards in relation to my own information or to drop my standards just because I've retired.

Now that that email address has been shared I'm going to have to discontinue it and set up another for my GP and hope (hope is about the best I can expect) that there'll be no repetition.

Re: FFS!

"Nobody needs to complain about a single text"

Or an email in my case. In either case it's not the sending of the text or email that's the problem. The problem is that GPs appear to have been told to break the law at scale by making unauthorised disclosure of PII. It's that disrespect for law, which is becoming a pattern for this government, that's the problem and disrespect for law by a government is a very serious problem.

Re: FFS!

If my GP sends out an email on the NHS's behalf that's fine. I gave my GP* an address on which they could email me. What I didn't do is give them permission to pass it on to some third party. This could have been accomplished within the law. It wasn't. Using this particular situation to needlessly break the law is a bad precedent** which shouldn't be accepted.

Freedom under the law is a priceless benefit. When governments start disrespecting the law - any law - because it doesn't suit them that benefit is at risk.

* Remember that although a GP works for the NHS they are an independent business and must follow rules which apply to independent businesses.

** Although this government has already demonstrated an intent to break international law as a matter of policy.

Re: Idiocy

The deeper problem is that IT is seen as an unwelcome cost of doing something whilst not recognising that it's part of the core of what you do. (Hi, there, banks.)

Re: Where are my pitchfork and my torch?

Maybe we should do away with the "support@" email address, it's a money-sink ...

They cottoned on to that one years ago and replaced it by noreply@

Re: Not just smart plugs!

A search through the usual souks will usually turn up something although these days it will usually be a Euro plug. A few weeks ago I bought a desoldering iron which was only available with a Euro plug. SWMBO has just bought a Clover mini iron and close inspection of the photo on Amazon showed a Euro plug although it appears they're selling it with a UK adapter.

It always pays to check the pictures of what's being advertised.