Showing posts with label data security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label data security. Show all posts

Wednesday 25 March 2009

BITS AND BOBS


This first item is a bit serious:

BBC NEWS Social network sites 'monitored' there are plans afoot to monitor the social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace because it was needed to tackle crime gangs and terrorists who might use the sites. This is in addition to proposals to store details of every phone call, email, and internet visit made in the UK.

Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake said the websites contained sensitive personal details and that he was concerned information could leak from any government-controlled database. "It is deeply worrying that they now intend to monitor social networking sites which contain very sensitive data like sexual orientation, religious beliefs and political views,"


Couple of points:

This “idea” is a breach of our human rights, which gives us the right to privacy regarding sexual orientation, religious beliefs and political views that the UK Government has signed up to.

If the history of Government data security s anything to go by they have no chance of keeping the information safe.




Bradford Man follows sat nav to cliff edge

A car was left teetering on a cliff edge after the driver followed sat nav directions down a Pennine footpath.

Robert Jones continued to follow the instructions when they told him the narrow, steep path he was driving on in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, was a road.

Mr Jones, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, only stopped when his BMW hit a fence above Gauxholme railway bridge on Sunday morning.

Police have charged Mr Jones with driving without due care and attention.

Unfortunately this isn’t a one off Police warning over sat nav use Police in Cumbria are warning drivers not to rely solely on Satellite Navigation Systems when driving through the Lake District.

A spokesman said the route-finders do not take into account weather conditions or road types.

Officers from Cumbria Constabulary have been called out to an increasing number of vehicles stranded on high mountain passes in poor weather conditions.

Drivers between North and South Cumbria have been particularly affected.


Ye, it’s called looking where you are going.




This one is bit rude, but you know what teenagers are like BBC an 18-year-old has secretly painted a 60ft drawing of a phallus on the roof of his parents' £1million mansion in Berkshire.

It was there for a year before his parents found out. They say he'll have to scrub it off when he gets back from travelling.

If he knows about it what are the odds he will come back?




From BBC NEWS America- Barack Obama has told Americans he sees signs of economic recovery, but urged them to be patient and look beyond their "short-term interests".

The US president said his draft budget would build a stronger economy which would mean America did not face a repeat crisis in 10 or 20 years.

"We will recover from this recession," he told a prime-time news conference in Washington DC.

Mr Obama said his economic strategy, and his new budget which was now being prepared, was based on creating new jobs, rejuvenating the housing market, and creating new liquidity and lending by the banks.


Methinks he listened to Gordon too much!




Boys Toys BBC NEWS Rail enthusiasts can now enjoy views of Scandinavian fjords, the Swiss Alps, and even Mount Rushmore - in Germany.

Twin brothers Frederick and Gerrit Braun have built the world's longest model railway in the city of Hamburg.

It has six miles of track, cost £8m to build and its 1,150 square metres (12,380 square feet) take in the US, Scandinavia and the Swiss Alps.

By the time the layout is completed in 2014 it will be twice as long and will take in France, Italy and the UK.

The Braun brothers, 41, began work on the Miniatur Wunderland project in 2000.
Their model railway now comprises 700 trains with 10,000 carriages, 900 signals, 2,800 buildings and 160,000 individually designed figures.

It even includes scale models of the Rocky Mountains, Mount Rushmore, the Swiss Matterhorn, and a Scandinavian fjord complete with 4ft cruise ship.

The scenery took 500,000 hours, 700kg of fake grass and 4,000kg of steel to build.
So large is the layout that 160 staff are employed to show visitors around the railway.



Wouldn’t you like an attic big enough?



And finally:


Ananova - World's untidiest car banned police in Germany have banned a woman driver's car from the road - for being too untidy.

The Vauxhall Astra was so full of junk, magazines, old clothes and even bits of furniture that they could barely see the driver at it roared down a motorway near Düsseldorf.

The driver - who has not been named by police - has been banned from taking the car on the road again until it has passed a tidiness test.

Police said the car was so full of junk the woman's face was pressed up against the windscreen as she drove.

God job they can’t see my car!



You don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note. “ Doug Floyd


Angus

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

NHS-THE OTHER SIDE

Saturday 7 March 2009

SATURDAY SNIPPETS 5


It’s enough to make you cry.

From Ananova, a motorist in Liverpool was stopped and questioned by the police-for laughing, yep; the SS seems to have landed.

Gary Saunders was using a hands-free phone when he burst out laughing at a joke told by his brother-in-law.

A few moments later he noticed a traffic officer flashing his lights at him and gesticulating at him to stop his Renault.

When Mr Saunders got out of his car, the policeman told him: "Laughing while driving a car can be an offence."

Supt Kevin Hagger, of the Mersey Tunnels Police, said: "There is no record of the incident in the system so it seems the gentleman was just spoken to by the officer and the matter not taken any further."

I think some retraining is necessary for the “laughing policeman”



Staying on the police theme-Ananova - Lighter sparks police panic police in Nanjing received emergency calls saying a man wearing a hunting rifle on his back was stalking the streets, they sent out six patrol cars to find the “offender”.

"On spotting the man, officers forced him to stop. The man was obviously very scared and said the gun was only a toy lighter, which he just won as an award in a restaurant."

Police tested the gun, but found that pulling the trigger resulted only in a small blue flame coming out from the end of the barrel.

Police gave the man a warning for alarming members of the public and confiscated his life-sized rifle lighter, reports the Yangtse Evening Post.

I expect the man was a bit “light headed”



From the Guardian-Spy agencies' multimillion pound computer project is scrapped A multimillion-pound computer project designed to improve Britain's security by giving key government officials speedy access to secret intelligence on terrorism and other threats has been scrapped in a move described as "appalling" yesterday by a watchdog of senior MPs and peers.

Scope was previously described as marking the "beginning of the end" of the distribution of paper copies of intelligence reports aroundWhitehall and as "fundamentally changing the way the UK intelligence community interacts".

A limited version of the project, called Scope 1, is up and running after a two-year delay. It enables MI5, MI6, and GCHQ to communicate with each other more quickly and securely than before. They can call up the latest intelligence within 15 minutes rather than waiting 12 hours.

Security? Smeg!




From the Register MPs vote to keep addresses private (theirs, not yours), those wonderful open minded MPs have voted themselves the right to withhold their names and addresses from publication. Candidates at Parliamentary elections will get the same right.

Last May, the High Court ruled in a Freedom of Information case that MPs' addresses should be public information. British citizens ought to be able to check on MP expense claims, or to monitor the living arrangements of individuals such as the Home Secretary.

In July, the government used an order in the House to overturn this, arguing that some personal information – particularly that relating to addresses and travel information – should be withheld from publication on the grounds of national security, and also the possibility that MPs would be harassed.


Doesn’t stop em getting slimed though does it?




And finally-Prime Minister's health records breached in database attack Personal medical records belonging to Scotland's rich and powerful - including Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Holyrood's First Minister Alex Salmond - have been illegally accessed in a breach of a national database that holds details of 2.5 million people.

The files contained names, ages, addresses, and occupations of the patients, in addition to medical information such as a list of any current medications and allergies to medicines, according to The Sunday Mail. The records of BBC newswoman Jackie Bird (an earlier version of this story mistakenly referred to her as "newsman") and former Labour leader Jack McConnell and his culture chief wife Bridget were also accessed.

An NHS Fife doctor has been charged with contravention of the Data Protection Act in the case and appeared on petition at Dunfermline in late December. He made no plea or declaration and isn't scheduled to appear again in court until later this year.


Maybe now the Gov will get off its arse and do something about data security.


"We don't know who we are until we see what we can do." Martha Grimes

Angus


NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

NHS-THE OTHER SIDE