HMRC ditches Microsoft for Google, sends data offshore Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is the first major department to move to Google Apps, part of an apparent loosening of Microsoft's stranglehold on the government's software services. The department will join the Cabinet Office and Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in deploying the fluffy white stuff. …
I would put it to you that a Coral snake would be more apposite. It has its imitators, it looks good but is a nasty piece of unpredictability and can kill you.
I feel really good that all that data is going into the cloud off shore. It will be secure and beyond the reach of the US government and other ne'er do wells.Also pesky things like data protection no longer need to be enforced as local laws will apply.
Well done tax man, why not put all our most precious data (NI numbers et. al.) in a place that is easy to get to and so inherently complex that inquiring minds will eventually access it.
Easiest way to hand it off to the NSA for data mining, just store all tax data in the US (preferably at Google - it's not like they've publicly stated they've secured their network yet). Cheaper than setting up a dedicated HMRC->NSA link and no legal oversight needed.
(seriously what's wrong with open office if your goal is to remove Microsoft).
its not like they will be hosting all the HMRC databases at google
Yeah I'm sure it's not possible that somebody at the HMRC has ever copy-pasted a crapton of cells into an excel doc filled with private information before. Oh wait I'm sure they actually have.
you might want to read up on tax treaties, the US FATCA legislation means that the UK is already committed to reporting on any US relevant tax data in a format requested by the US.
From a legal perspective companies within the UK are required to report these transactions to HMRC who then provides them to the US IRS.
My guess is that from a national security point of view tax data just isn't that important (note that the article talked about information classified as OFFICIAL which I believe is the lowest level of government data - see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-security-classifications)
Did you miss another T in that?
Not this is correct. As is the case with "PATRIOT" and "FREEDOM", USAnians like to have loud-sounding acronyms to cover a sordid reality. I suppose it was meant to be FATCAT but I guess that would have sounded too much like old-style german word-smithery about removing certain ethnic groups from premises, even in the current mindset of obtaining total state control over pretty much everything.
you might want to read up on tax treaties, the US FATCA legislation means that the UK is already committed to reporting on any US relevant tax data in a format requested by the US.
From a legal perspective companies within the UK are required to report these transactions to HMRC who then provides them to the US IRS.
*facepalm*
Well, at least Google isn't giving your data to the FBI and NSA on a platter.
Microsoft is the worst abuser of privacy. Luckily, Edward Snowden revealed their evil.
July 31, 2012
Microsoft (MS) began encrypting web-based chat with the introduction of the new outlook.com service. This new Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption effectively cut off collection of the new service for FAA 702 and likely 12333 (to some degree) for the Intelligence Community (IC). MS, working with the FBI, developed a surveillance capability to deal with the new SSL. These solutions were successfully tested and went live 12 Dec 2012.
March 15, 2013
SSO's PRISM program began tasking all Microsoft PRISM selectors to Skype because Skype allows users to log in using account identifiers in addition to Skype usernames. Until now, PRISM would not collect any Skype data when a user logged in using anything other than the Skype username which resulted in missing collection; this action will mitigate that. In fact, a user can create a Skype account using any e-mail address with any domain in the world. UTT does not currently allow analysts to task these non-Microsoft e-mail addresses to PRISM, however,
March 7, 2014
PRISM now collects Microsoft Skydrive data as part of PRISM'S standard Stored Communications collection package for a tasked FISA Amendments Act Section 702 (FAA702) selector. This means that analysts will no longer have to make a special request to SSO for this - a process step that many analysts may not have known about. This new capability will result in a much more complete and timely collection response from SSO for our Enterprise customers. This success is the result of the FBI working for many months with Microsoft to get this tasking and collection solution established. "SkyDrive is a cloud service that allows users to store and access their files on a variety of devices.
I'll take your bet...
Corporate e-mail pretty much comes down to three conflicting features:
- cost. Cloud services offer per user costs that scales nicely with the business versus on-premises solutions.
- security/control. Cloud services rely on international treaties/contracts between parties vs having it in-house under your control.
- functionality. Do you want Google's search capabilities vs Microsoft's calendaring. Or maybe IBM's retro feel of this is how crap e-mail was in the 90's?
Having used e-mail systems from all the major player's in large (20,000+ seat) environments and having seen the differences Google Mail maybe a good fit for UK government
Don't be so sure, we use it, our user satisfaction rate is higher with Google apps, they integrate much cleaner, we love it in IT, as it's more secure - local copies of docs arent being mailed around (users might think they are, but they are smart links). It really low support costs, and generally more functional, a user needed to create a spreadsheet of qrcodes, was a doddle in sheets, not possible in office without paying anther £120 for the ultimate edition...
Which they have just given to the Chinese government in a data sharing deal through the aupices of Military unit 61398..
They had Einstein (intrusion detection system) protecting their networks and it decided that the Chinese hack was a friendly mundane event.
Friendly Exocets and Radar in the Falklands anyone?
I guess you aren't keeping up. We already have all your tax information along with your emails, metadata around everything you do electronically, etc. ad nauseum. That's so we can share it back to GCHQ while they share all they have gathered in the US back to the NSA. Reciprocity. It's not just for war anymore.
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Mandate that any business done with our government is by a UK entity paying all taxes in the UK.
Especially as this data should only be hosted in this country.
MIght be worth El Reg doing an FOI request for a copy of the BCR's they have in place for the processing and protection of the data, unless of course the Government is relying purely on the goodwill of the safe harbor agreement?
The problem with that (and it's been tried) is it quickly becomes a mandate for said UK entity to treble it's prices - and not worry too much about things "working" since the customer (UK plc) can't go elsewhere.
Presumably you practice what you preach, so *you* only buy UK-sourced goods ?
Those of us old enough to remember British Leyland shudder in horror at the mantra "I'm backing Britain."
@Jimmypage
Any company can have a UK entity, Google has one but claims all its sales are through Ireland.
I also think you are confusing sourcing of the actual item with the entity itself, using your logic importing would not exist.
Its more about the ethics, the government lambasts Google for its tax practices and then buys stuff from them. Its a bit like the Costa/Nero/Starbucks conundrum with the way they choose to do business and avoid taxes via Luxembourg for Nero and Switzerland for Starbucks so I use Costa.
Its not just IT skills that are vanishing. All engineering and science qualifications are in decline. For example, the NHS is unsustainable without foreign clinical staff (doctors and nurses), which holds back the countries where these immigrant staff come from..
It is no coincidence that there are very few scientific or numerate members of the House of Commons. The skills needed to make a modern economy function are notable absent at the heart of government.
An economy that is based on manufacturing is more dynamic than one based on services, which have very little downstream benefit, often using imported furniture and foreign IT equipment in existing rented premises. Angela Merkel, observing Britain, once remarked "it will be interesting to see if you can run an economy based on cutting each other's hair." I fear the answer may be along all too soon.
Offshoring the tax department ought yo be a matter of public shame. There are Pacific island republics that manage to avoid doing this..
You're remarkably 'challenged' if you think things would be better run under Red Ed. We had a decade and a half under Labour and as much outsourcing carried on there as afterwards, only combined with a fiscal incontinence that would make a drunk Premiership footballer's wife look tight.
The problem with technical skills in the UK is two-fold. Firstly, they've been devalued by decades of media/sports coverage drumming into kids that they should be the next gangsta rapper or superstar footballer. Secondly, those who do move forward with education aren't encouraged towards disciplines that might be of worth to the economy - funds are limited, and yet we pump out masses of media studies and art history graduates. In the past, students were able to get company sponsorship through university for relevant qualifications - uncontrolled government issue student grants (that, of course, became unsustainable, leading to loans) killed that and lead us to the current mess.
Following the link in the article I came on this statement: "Careful legal and security assessments were conducted to establish whether the services were suitable for use at the official security classification in government."
So who would pass them as suitable for security classifications. Read further and all is revealed: "We are operating a “yes-first” approach to open internet tools. This follows guidance from GDS on using these tools to help Civil Servants to be more productive. Web access is open to most services, and blocked where there is an established threat rather than by default. On devices (laptops, phones, tablets) we provide a basic checking service before making apps available for users to install. This makes sure that the applications are trusted, compliant and have an appropriate level of security for use at OFFICIAL.
Applications our users are actively using include Evernote, Trello, Workflowy, Twitter, Eventbrite and many more."
GDS. That explains it all.
"Is this legal? I thought all Gov Owned PI information had to remain in the EU."
Call me naive, but some government IT people are pretty switched on, and I find it hard to imagine that they wouldn't have arranged for the government Google Apps instances to be hosted on UK, or at least EU, based servers. This isn't like your free gmail account with ads.
The credibility Google gets from this is such that I imagine they are very, very anxious not to screw up.
"The acceptance by HMRC that they can store official information offshore in Google data-centres represents a major change and endorsement of Google’s approach to managing sensitive information."
- UK head of Public Sector Sales, Google, wroting on Linkedin.
You don't in fact seem to be lacking in imagination. You imagined a whole scenario of "pretty switched on people", rather than the reality of a craven government intent on more and more privatisation and damn the consequesnces.
Remember that back in 2001 the Labour government sold their offices to a Bermuda-based company, which they have leased back ever since.
When your entire department is dependant on (legally) tax-avoiding arrangements, it's hard to take a moral stance against it.
Staff seem to spend more time on paperwork than on patient care. Each member of staff that comes along asks the same questions and fill in the same forms that had already been answered to the previous member of staff. There's little coordination within a ward and less between wards and departments, and practically none between sites of what is nominally the same hospital.
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