I declare a judgement of....
Boys will be boys!
The UK government already has a "considerable" number of attackers and defenders that make it a "major world power" in cyberwarfare, according to a leading US expert. Scott Borg of the Washington DC-based US Cyber Consequences Unit, a well-connected research group, told The Register that the British military and security …
"Among the top cyber security experts I personally know, there are people who are or have been punk rockers, special operations soldiers, goths with lots of piercings, motorcycle gang members, ageing flower children, serious athletes, total societal drop-outs and ultra-nerds." And identified here as having the finest dynamic minds on the planet?
""One special virtue of British politicians and senior civil servants, when it comes to cyber security, is that they seem more aware of how much they don't know than their American counterparts," he said." ..... Their Saving Grace when Defending the Wicket and Dismantling the Field with Spectacular Runs and Magnificent Strokes.
Who or what then, at GCHQ Cyber Security Operations Centre, is Madame/Pimp ..... the Project's Program ProCurator Fiscal. Who or what Phishes Phormed Swarms Pharming Constructive Counters and Seeding New IntelAIgents ..... in one of those New Fangled Quantum Entangled InterNetworking Applications...... or Thinks to Provide and Driver with them?
I'd like a word with that cool lady/hot sugar daddy.
"Information technology remains an area where many of the most talented and innovative people have extremely unconventional backgrounds." ...... Borderline Disturbed, some would Fear, Chris, but Never with Friends at Hand and Helping for then is it QuITe Definitely Pliable Manic and SMARTer Humbling Genius.
"The UK government already has a "considerable" number of attackers and defenders that make it a "major world power" in cyberwarfare, according to a leading US expert."
All right.
So when's the cyber-warfare equivalent of the Suez Canal "last imperial gasp for the UK" going to happen?
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[snip] a "major world power" in cyberwarfare [/snip]
Err I'm sorry - but this would be these people be same government & civil servants that produced NHS Net and GSI?
I take it this would also be the same "major world power" that issued green camo kit to troops in a desert warfare campaign?
If these people think we're "capable" then we're actually far more likely to be bending over pants around our ankles presenting our chocolate starfish to all who wander aimlessly past.
They didn't "produce" NHS Net or GSI, some contractors did (for the NHS, the contractor is CSC who also provide IT services the US Airforce cyber warfare division), our expert cyberwarriors just missed that our own internet presence could be used as a weapon against us.
I know they don't test websites after an exploit is found/ reportes (CESG certainly doesn't) to see if it's repaired (they believe the contractor, rather like we appeared to once believe the Americans weren't using extraordinary rendition). Since the MI5, MOD, NHS, Houses of Parliament, Foreign office websites have all been found to be vulnerable this summer (historically MI5 has been vulnerable at multiple times since 2007) they don't appear to be testing our services either, no defence of the realm.
Quite what our cyberwarriors do is a mystery as well as a secret. This is just FUD, the MPs are back from recess and someone's got a bollocking, so it's leak some information from/ to a source that couldn't possibly be connected to the UK. (that "more knowledgeable MP's" thing is one bottom kissing manoeuvre too far IMO), I'm sure we'll be hearing many more positive stories in the next few weeks about our cyber SAS.
"Quite what our cyberwarriors do is a mystery as well as a secret."....... By Philip Clarke Posted Friday 2nd October 2009 07:05 GMT
Well, what they do, the MicroControl of Real Lives, is a Mysterious Secret well enough known, but the How is the Question whose Answer is Immaculately Protected and Preserved with Random Self Actualised ReProgramming of Servers and Network Node Connections and Denied on Grounds of the Conspicuous Corruptible Advantage ITs Knowledge Delivers.
""The British government will need a steady stream of new talent and new ideas to maintain the UK's status in this rapidly changing field. It will not be able to do this if it relies exclusively on conventional recruitment techniques."
I suppose when they reach 25 they are "retired". Already noo meejda sack anyone over 40 so why can't uk.gov get rid of 'over the hill' 25year olds - they are no longer cool teen hackerz...
Jacqui
A group of politicians and lawmakers in the UK have backed a campaign to ban the sale of CCTV systems made by companies alleged to introduce potential security issues as well as being linked to human rights abuses in China.
Organized by campaign group Big Brother Watch, the letter said that partly Chinese state-owned CCTV manufacturers Hikvision and Dahua should be banned from sale or use in the UK.
Both manufacturers are banned from trading in the US, owing both to security concerns and alleged evidence of their use in so-called "re-education" camps in Xinjiang, where China is accused of detaining an estimated 1 million Uyghurs and subjecting them to abuse, torture, and forced sterilization, the campaigners said.
The UK has signed up to a US plan for sharing police-held biometric data about citizens with US border officials.
According to a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), the body met "informally" with representatives of the US Department of Homeland Security this week to discuss the plans.
They come under the auspices of the Enhanced Border Security Partnership (EBSP), which is designed to increase the US Department Of Homeland Security's ability to detect threats through biometric information sharing. Israel signed up to the arrangement in March.
The UK government is upping the ante in attempts to have Arm listed on the London stock exchange, with reports suggesting it is considering the threat of national security laws to force the issue with owner SoftBank.
According to the Financial Times, the British administration is considering whether to apply the National Security and Investment Act (NSIA), which came into force at the start of the year, in a bid to have SoftBank change its mind over listing Arm exclusively on the Nasdaq in New York, as it has previously indicated.
The FT cites the usual "people familiar with the matter", who indicated there had not yet been a formal debate over using national security legislation, and the idea was opposed by some government officials.
The UK government has published its plans for reforming local data protection law which includes removing the requirement for consent for all website cookies – akin to the situation across much of the US.
Also notable is the removal of the requirement for a Data Protection Impact Assessment, as well as a new political direction over the Information Commissioner's Office.
However, Nadine Dorries, the minister for the Department of Digital, Media, Culture and Sport, rejected controversial proposals to remove the right to challenge automated decision-making. Privacy campaigners had said the proposals were "irresponsible" and would make it harder for people to "challenge the government or corporations."
The UK government is continuing efforts to have chip designer and licensor Arm listed on the London Stock Exchange after its public offering rather than New York, as is the current plan.
At stake is whether Arm moves its headquarters to the US, potentially leading to the further loss of UK jobs.
Speaking to the Financial Times, UK minister for Technology and the Digital Economy Chris Philp said the government was still "working closely with" Arm management on the IPO process, despite its parent SoftBank having previously indicated that it was planning to list Arm on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York.
More than two years after England launched a COVID data store, keeping details of National Health Service (NHS) patients, the country's National Data Guardian (NDG) remains unsatisfied with who is accessing the data.
The COVID-19 data store was launched in March 2020, and would pull together medical and operational data about the spread of the virus across the country.
Poll As return-to-office attempts continue to fail for big tech businesses, another proposed change to the work world is gaining steam: The four-day week.
In the UK, a 70-company trial program the BBC described as "the world's biggest" began this week, with participants paying their employees a regular week's pay for 80 percent of the labor. That pilot may be the largest, but it's hardly the only one.
Some companies have opted to trial the four-day week on their own, like Dell, which recently switched to a shortened week in the Netherlands after previously trialing it in Argentina.
The UK's technology sector is continuing to hire and to bump up salaries despite the deteriorating economic outlook, at least according to accounting and consultancy outfit RSM.
RSM said that its Middle Market Business Index (MMBI) survey showed that fewer organisations in all sectors plan to increase recruitment during the second quarter of this year compared to the first quarter, down from 52 percent to 41 percent. The survey also found a drop in the number of businesses planning to recruit more staff over the next six months, which points to the labor market outside of the tech sector starting to cool.
The company cited reasons including the impact of the war in Ukraine, the hike in inflation, ongoing supply chain issues and weakening customer demand, which it says is having a dampening effect on middle market companies.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority is lining up yet another investigation into Google over its dominance of the digital advertising market.
This latest inquiry, announced Thursday, is the second major UK antitrust investigation into Google this year alone. In March this year the UK, together with the European Union, said it wished to examine Google's "Jedi Blue" agreement with Meta to allegedly favor the former's Open Bidding ads platform.
The news also follows proposals last week by a bipartisan group of US lawmakers to create legislation that could force Alphabet's Google, Meta's Facebook, and Amazon to divest portions of their ad businesses.
The UK’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has commenced a full national security assessment of Newport Wafer Fab’s acquisition by China-controlled entity Nexperia.
The Fab is the UK’s largest chipmaking facility and produces up to 32,000 wafers a month. In August 2021 it was acquired by a Dutch outfit named Nexperia that is controlled by Chinese company Wingtech.
Issues including global semiconductor shortages demonstrating the importance of sovereign capacity, the many credible accusations that Chinese firms practice industrial espionage, China’s desire to become self-sufficient in semiconductors, and general China-related security concerns all made the sale a hot political issue. So hot that when news of the sale emerged, UK prime minister Boris Johnson promised a national security assessment, overriding business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng who had previously said the deal wasn’t worthy of a probe.
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