MOD spectrum under the spotlight The UK Ministry of Defence has published its first consultation on the huge quantity of radio spectrum it has unfettered access to, though it turns out the usage isn't as exclusive as it first appeared. The Cave report: an analysis of how radio spectrum is used in the UK, identified 23 bands that are allocated to the MOD, and …
"which is why 2.7 – 3.1GHz isn't going to be publicly traded any time soon." Which would suggest that its Satellite Program Controls are AI Private Concern....... which they are, Publicly and Transparently Downloaded and Traded for Guidance.
A Civil CyberSpace Program for All? Go On, Spoil Yourselves. ImaginaNation Provided.
For a long time I've been concerned about the 430-440MHz secondary allocation to the Amateur Radio service and how long we will actually keep hold of it. According to the UK Defence Spectrum Consultation, It looks like the 430 - 450MHz spectrum is likely to be scrutinised sometime after 2012 which is extremeiy concerning.
I have the feeling that Ofcom have been rubbing their grubby little mitts together for a very long time, waiting to flog it off and make a pile of cash. I started to smell a rat when Ofcom decided to not charge for an Amateur Radio license, effectively taking away any lobbying potential that we had. We have already had Short Range Devices allocated spectrum in the band which have been causing interference to some fixed base repeater systems, but I can see this as a potential nail in the coffin of Amateur Radio use in the UHF spectrum. There has already been a furore over the 10GHz selloff, but the Radio Society of Great Britain seem to not be fighting the corner of the Amateur Radio fraternity and seem to be rolling over. I can see the same thing happening over 430-440MHz..
Looks like I for one won't be settting up for Moonbounce on 70cms...
The British Army has apologized after its Twitter and YouTube accounts were compromised by entities that used them to promote NFTs.
As recorded by The Wayback Machine, the @BritishArmy Twitter feed hosted content promoting non-fungible tokens described thusly: "The Anomalies is a collection of special Possessed 1/1s".
UK watchdogs under the banner of the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF) have called for views on the benefits and risks of how sites and apps use algorithms.
While "algorithm" can be defined as a strict set of rules to be followed by a computer in calculations, the term has become a boogeyman as lawmakers grapple with the revelation that they are involved in every digital service we use today.
Whether that's which video to watch next on YouTube, which film you might enjoy on Netflix, who turns up in your Twitter feed, search autosuggestions, and what you might like to buy on Amazon – the algorithm governs them all and much more.
Exclusive The UK Ministry of Defence has suspended online application and support services for the British Army's Capita-run Defence Recruitment System and confirmed to us that digital intruders compromised some data held on would-be soldiers.
The army was informed of the break-in on March 14, and "that a group of hackers was going to release Army Application Data on the dark web," a source familiar with the matter told us.
Two days later, the Army shut down the career website and DRS as a precautionary measure.
A leaked internal report details how Ericsson paid hundreds of millions of pounds to Islamic State terrorists in Iraq, substantiating earlier reports that the company was paying intermediaries to buy off ISIS on its behalf.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed over the weekend that the leaked report, which reviews the years 2011 to 2019, included names and precise details of how money from the company found its way to terrorists.
Rather than halting operations in Iraq as Islamic State ravaged the country, some personnel within Ericsson instead bribed "politically connected fixers and unvetted subcontractors", the ICIJ said, while the Swedish biz continued building potentially lucrative mobile networks.
Members of the British Armed Forces Soldiers have reacted with anger after a British Wi-Fi provider failed to automatically end their time-limited contracts before charging them for consuming data "without subscription".
Ofcom-regulated Wifinity prompted a wave of fury when it told former subscribers on Ministry of Defence bases that they would be receiving bills running into the hundreds of pounds for data services that former customers didn't want and hadn't signed up for.
Those bills were then "revised" without explanation down to sums of £10-£30, as seen by The Register, in what one ex-customer told us was a cynical attempt to trick recipients into paying up to avoid further hassles.
Exclusive Britain's tax collection agency asked a contractor to use the SS7 mobile phone signalling protocol that would make available location data of alleged tax defaulters, a High Court lawsuit has revealed.
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs had the potential to use SS7 to silently request that tax debtors' mobile phones give up location data over the past six years, according to papers filed in an obscure court case about a contract dispute.
SMS provider MMGRP Ltd, operators of HMRC's former 60886 text messaging service, filed a suit against the tax agency after losing the contract to send text messages on its behalf. Court documents obtained by The Register show that the secret surveillance capability was baked into otherwise mundane bulk SMS sending carried out by MMGRP Ltd.
Vodafone is to begin retirement of its 3G network next year, saying this will free up frequencies to improve 4G and 5G services.
The move follows proposals by the UK government late last year to see 2G and 3G networks phased out by 2033. Other networks have already confirmed plans to start early, with BT phasing out 3G services for EE, Plusnet and BT Mobile subscribers from 2023.
Vodafone said it will begin retiring its 3G network in 2023 as part of a network modernisation programme.
Almost a third of the world wide web's top million sites are still not using HTTPS by default, according to infosec researcher Scott Helme's analysis.
In his Top 1 Million Analysis, in which he runs crawlers over a guessable number of websites, Helme published his findings on a variety of common internet security technologies. Broadly, he found that most security measures were on the top – except for extended verification (EV) certificates.
On HTTPS, Helme found that 71.7 per cent of sites he scanned actively redirected his crawler to use HTTPS-encrypted connections, a figure he said had improved markedly from 57.6 per cent in September 2019.
TalkTalk has once again topped UK communications regulator Ofcom's complaint charts.
Ofcom has collated whinges from consumers about landline, fixed broadband, pay-monthly mobile and pay-TV services.
The figures the regulator publishes are relative to the size of a provider's customer base and its latest set of numbers make for interesting reading since they cover the period (April to June 2021) during which the UK began to ease lockdown restrictions.
Ofcom has slapped two small telcos, Guaranteed Telecom and Met Technologies, with a financial penalty for switching the home phone services of more than 100 people without their knowledge or consent.
The businesses used a particularly aggressive style of mis-selling – slamming – to transfer customers to their services without permission, an investigation by the UK's comms regulator found.
Some 110 customers in total were slammed by the companies in 2019 (43 by Guaranteed Telecom and 67 by Met Technologies). A "sizeable proportion" of them included elderly or vulnerable members of the public, Ofcom says.
The Register - Independent news and views for the tech community. Part of Situation Publishing
Biting the hand that feeds IT © 1998–2022
