back to article Their 'next job could be in cyber': UK Cyber Security Council launches itself by pointing world+dog to domain it doesn't own

The UK Cyber Security Council announced itself to the public realm last week by touting a domain it doesn't own. Helpfully, internet jokesters then bought up variations on the official address. A brainchild of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the UK Cyber Security Council is billed by government as "the …

  1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport"

    A good example of why I prefer to leave the second comma out of their name.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Cybersecurity - brought to you by media studies graduates and PE teachers

      1. Chris G

        "Cybersecurity - brought to you by media studies graduates and PE teachers"

        Plus, presumably, representives from UK culture such as Morris dancers, bagpipers and sheep shearers.

        1. Andy Miller

          I know quite a few Morris Dancers who are Cyber Security practitioners. I wouldn't expect a Morris side to make this scale of blunder.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Devil

            For this scale of blunder, Morris Dancers risk significant injury. Something that PR people seem (unfortunately?) to avoid.

            1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

              Also given access to a brewery, a Morris dance troop could be trusted to organise a piss-up

              1. Andy Miller

                I've been on many Morris related piss-ups, at least two in breweries, and they all have been excellent (as far as I can remember....)

                1. Stumpy

                  If you can remember them, they can't have been that good now, can they?

                  1. Da Weezil

                    Oh I don’t know... maybe the transcript of the court case that followed might have proved informative, it certainly did for a few of us after a particularly “good” night

                    1. Eclectic Man Silver badge
                      Happy

                      Good King Wenceslas

                      I recall one Christmas Eve, my mother, a lay magistrate, being called in for an emergency court case. An American citizen due to fly back to North America on Boxing Day, had been accused of threatening behaviour towards a police officer.

                      Basically he and his friends had been on the piss the night before, had a good time and one had been arrested for something or other. Anyway, the American tried to get him bail from the Police Station, as this is possible in the USA. This was explained by him in court, and there had been a 'misunderstanding' by the Police Officer in question.

                      Anyway, when describing why the person had been arrested in the first place, a rather dour police sergeant explained that the group had been singing rather loudly, and although the tune had been 'Good King Wenceslas' "they were not the original lyrics".

                      One can only hope that the lyrics actually used were recorded in the court transcript.

                2. low_resolution_foxxes

                  The Venn diagram for Morris Dancing and CAMRA membership will have extensive crossover.

                  1. Gareth79

                    Can confirm, I knew a group of Morris Dancers and many were programmers/IT, mostly retired, and beer drinking was a significant part of the culture.

              2. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Given access to an orchard, a Morris troupe could be trusted to organise a piss up - eventually

      2. katrinab Silver badge
        Meh

        I thought Dominic Cummings was a history graduate?

      3. Dave 15

        and the same guy...

        Yup, the same guy who brings you the 4th highest covid death rate in the world (by case) - the NHS - ran this infamous department and set up all this crap.

        The whole thing makes yes minister look quite tame doesnt it?

        Pathetic, totally and utterly pathetic.

        Use a domain that doesnt belong to us, buy ppe from a hotel in China and a bunch of sharks in Turkey and then commission the worlds most expensive and least competent track and trace from your latest girlfriend. What a bunch of no hopers in charge in the UK. People wonder why we routinely ignore the blundering anuses

        1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

          Re: and the same guy...

          It appears to be systemic and endemic, Dave 15, .... a cancer cavorting like a Jim'll Fix It in everyones' midst and smiling for the cameras at every failing reboot.

          amanfromMars [2104071354] ....... painting an obvious picture on https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fallout-greensill-collapse-splatters-british-government-leaves-taxpayers-big-losses

          Cameron himself refuses to even respond to the lobbying allegations. His ear-splitting silence speaks volumes about the state of British politics today.

          Such speaks nothing but ripe rotten to its very core and catastrophically vulnerable to flash crashing and colossal trashing. To think or imagine that lessons have been learned by those always active in that particular peculiar sector is to identify oneself as being totally deluded.

          The self same actors in a soap opera are never going to produce and present a stellar alternative performance. They just don't have the necessary IT/je ne sais quoi/chutzpah to deliver sustainable success.

          And what does Cameron's silence tell one and all about the pathetic powerless state of Parliamentarians and honourable members of the Official Opposition and Her Majesty's Civil Service  ...... apart from them being likely easily presumed to be similar to gang members guilty of conspiring in criminal enterprises and perpetrating monumental frauds?

          J'accuse.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Clown government turns everything to clown

    News at 11.

  3. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    dot org ?

    >the government's Defence Industrial Strategy

    I know defence spending is tight (unless you are an aircraft carrier or an F35) and industry is strapped for cash and the government has no money whatsoever - but are they really a charity ?

    1. Tom Chiverton 1
      Mushroom

      Re: dot org ?

      Nukes, don't forget nukes.

      Can't pay the nurses, can afford to blow the planet up a few more times...

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: dot org ?

        Nuke the nurses

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: dot org ?

        are you suggesting they're suggesting we, The Plebs, all chip in (aka share economy, share burden)? I thought we already pay for them nukes via taxes?

        1. General Purpose

          dot org - not just for charities

          All sorts of not-for-profits use dot org and of course Nominet don't ask questions. So you'll find, for example

          some quangos and regulators - acas.org.uk, asa.org.uk, ofcom.org.uk but ofwat.gov.uk

          industry bodies - cbi.org.uk, newsmediauk.org, ukpayments.org.uk

          campaigners - amnesty.org.uk, libertyhumanrights.org.uk (can't be charities under UK charity law because their aims aren't on the list of charitable purposes)

          local residents associations

          resources set up by academics etc - visionofbritain.org.uk

          and so on....

          1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

            Re: dot org - not just for charities

            Yes but none of those are actually official government military-industrial complex organisations

            1. GiantKiwi

              Re: dot org - not just for charities

              Technically, neither is this - that title is held by NCSC.

          2. JeffB

            Re: dot org - not just for charities

            The one that always puzzled me was NorthernRail.org, they were not a charity, quango, regulator or non-profit...

            1. katrinab Silver badge
              Trollface

              Re: dot org - not just for charities

              There's no profit left after the fare money has been siphoned off to their offshore account.

              Allegedly.

            2. Sgt_Oddball

              Re: dot org - not just for charities

              No, they were a government organised charity... In as much as those bloody whiney Northern types (of which I consider myself one) should be consider it an act of charity to even have trains.

              If true blue types had their way we'd be back to using bicycles, the canals and our legs... (looking at Leeds City centre recently, they're certainly making a damn good go at it).

          3. TDog

            Is it only me?

            But every time I see ofwat.gov.uk I feel inclined to add the missing 't'.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Is it only me?

              > But every time I see ofwat.gov.uk I feel inclined to add the missing 't'.

              tofwat - the posh people's regulator

              1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

                Re: Is it only me?

                <Bertie Wooster>Wat Ho!, Top Hole!"</Bertie Wooster>

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: Is it only me?

                  Wrong hole, THOT.

          4. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

            Re: dot org - not just for charities

            Human rights arnt on the list of charitable purposes?

            thats a shame

    2. Dave 15

      Re: dot org ?

      Defence spending? What the bloody hell is the point? We have no steel industry so cant make a gun, bullet or tank. We dont have a tank industry so we couldnt build one if we had the steel. We gave up building guns 50 years ago and import them. The bullets come from South Afirca and are too expensive to actually fire any. The Army isnt big enough to fill a football stadium even if you incldue the 10,000 generals. The navy has a mothballed expensive aircraft carrier and 2 rowing boats and nearly enough airplanes to staff the one carrier left - not that they are allowed to fly them, service them or repair them (have to send them to Italy and Turkey for repairs and they dont fly if the weather might rain in the next 48 hours.

      Frankly I cant think of a government since 1945 that has had the brains to understand how we would defend ourselves if we ever had to. As we cant there is bugger all point in having a ministry of defence or any forces at all. It is bloody sad that we have such a brainless bunch of no hope muppets in charge - and as its the oxbridge educated classics graduate Russian spies that run it as civil servants the brainless morons who fill the houses of parliament (and that is not party political, they are all dumb as shit) are irrelevant in honesty.

      1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

        Re: dot org ?

        I reckon we should go with the swiss model.

        Apart from the "Everyone keep a rifle at home" part

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: dot org ?

          Full of holes?

  4. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
    Joke

    Double bluff

    If they react quickly enough maybe they could spin it as a test, to show who's paying attention to cyber security?

  5. Blofeld's Cat
    Coat

    Er ...

    It could be that the "Ministry of Fun" simply requested a web site that nobody could hack.

    The ultimate in security by obscurity .,,

  6. Mike 137 Silver badge

    Thought leadership

    Thought leadership, like strategy, is something you talk about, not something you do (credit to Dogbert for the observation).

    Almost all these "initiatives" are pure waffle shops. I've participated in several over the years, and all they ever produced were "reports" that stated the obvious and drove zero change. Which is why the state of information risk has been worsening, not improving, for at least the last couple of decades.

    1. Eclectic Man Silver badge
      Meh

      Re: Thought leadership

      I hate the idea of 'thought leadership, so I looked it up on the interpleb*:

      from https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/what-is-thought-leadership-and-when-you-should-use-it/

      "I define thought leadership as a type of content marketing where you tap into the talent, experience, and passion inside your business, or from your community, to consistently answer the biggest questions on the minds of your target audience on a particular topic."

      I confess that I am none the wiser for reading that.

      *Others may call it the 'World Wide Web, or the Internet, but as it connects us plebs across the world I believe that "interpleb" is appropriate.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Thought leadership

        I introduce myself as a thought criminal.

      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Thought leadership

        "I confess that I am none the wiser for reading that."

        I sounds like a long winded way of telling people to create a FAQ and keep it updated.

        (Note that Frequently Asked Questions doesn't include the word "Answers")

  7. nsld
    Paris Hilton

    Looks like they are retraining

    As ballet dancers, they just don't know it yet........

    1. Steve Foster
      Facepalm

      Re: Looks like they are retraining

      Well, they've got the whole foot in mouth thing down pat...

    2. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

      Re: ballet dancers

      They've been practising to do a pas de d'oh.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: ballet dancers

        comment en pointe

        1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge
          Pint

          Re: ballet dancers

          They spent too much time at the barre.

          1. Sgt_Oddball

            Re: ballet dancers

            Oh come now, that's stretching it too far...

            1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

              Re: ballet dancers

              Oh, you need shooting for that! I shall use tutu rounds.

    3. Naselus

      Re: Looks like they are retraining

      Fatima's next job is probably back in ballet.

  8. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Global Operating Devices to ACTive Astute Internetional Rescue with AI Virtual Interventionism

    What more can one say other than GOD help us.

    And I know it is cold comfort to know all Five Eyes are definitely in the same sinking ship, but what is one to do whenever no one within their ranks and leadership are smart enough to listen to the better than just average Jane Doe and Joe Sixpack.

    Here's news of another hamstrung operation forever trying to play catchup while it continues to serially fail with its support for what is existing in their overall command rather than what is to be beyond their exclusive control.

    ...... just saying on https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2021/3/31/northern-command-leads-global-wargame-to-test-ai-capabilities

    “We need to go faster.”

    There is no doubt about the veracity of the need for that prime directive if one wants to be considered as leading in any effective position. However, and especially so in the virtually real cyber domain, it is not without its novel, extremely disruptive and/or destructive problems to address, with probably the major one being that one has no idea who almighty friend or hellish foe ..... who/which be well versed and highly experienced in what are surely virgin fields of overwhelming engagement for traditional and conventional forces and sources .... are.

    One is effectively only able to stumble around as if blind in such a space.

    And to consider that solutions are only to be provided by US citizens, because of the requirement to comply with national security obligations, renders one also deaf and dumb to everyone/everything else out there with a viable voice and rare raw view on unfolding matters.

    That is a fundamental handicap which guarantees failure in anything and everything mooted to be tried and tested.

    Take care, IT's an AI Jungle out there.

    ...... which may or may not be there as advertised here should it fall foul of the following advisory issued upon posting .... [Thank you. Your comment will be displayed soon after reviewing]

    Some folk and horses you can help and bring to water, others you can't and they would die of thirst for that which they have been led to, to freely partake of, and how idiotic of them is that. One would just have to accept then that they be beyond the reasonable help of all possible assistance and their personal prognoses are imminently terminal in any and every fast moving scenario.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Global Operating Devices to ACTive Astute Internetional Rescue with AI Virtual Interventionism

      I think we found the perfect job for our very own amanfromMars 1

      1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

        Re: Global Operating Devices to ACTive Astute Internetional Rescue with AI Virtual Interventionism

        As much as one might like to think that would be a right doozy of an engaging appointment, under current government administration is such much more likely to be recognised as something of a booby prize trapping one into the confines of self-serving NDAs and OSA strait jackets should one consider them binding commitments to accept and honour.

        Oh, and governments usually always only pay peanuts whenever compared to private and pirate markets which do not have the same worry and fear about what you might or might not know about them.

        :-) They do say that everyone has their price though, and whenever the price is right, governments can be just as well servered as private and pirate sectors with the ball then held in their court to play.

  9. Commswonk

    Why?

    We already have an established National Cyber Security Centre; do we really need an Cyber Security Council (answerable to a different department of government) as well?

    If the answer to the above is yes then can someone please tell me (us!) what the reason is? At the moment it looks like another bunch of people just sucking on the public teat while serving no new purpose.

    I just hope the answer doesn't involve "thought leadership", although the article rather suggests that it will. If it does then IMHO we're doomed.

    1. lglethal Silver badge
      Go

      Re: Why?

      Whilst im not completuely clear on the two, I believe that this one (the cyber security council) are just supposed to sit around and come up with ideas about getting people to study cyber security.

      Whereas the National Cyber Security Centre is actually supposed to help people with their cyber security.

      So they do have (if i have it right) different roles, and probably do deserver to come from different departments. Still a complete and utter waste of time and money though, but thats par for the course in Borisland...

      1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

        Re: Why?

        Why does the People's Front of Judea spring to mind?

        1. JeffB

          Re: Why?

          I thought it was the Judean People's Front...

          1. Ochib

            Re: Why?

            You are all welcome at the Judean Popular Front

        2. Ramis101

          Re: Why?

          Splitters!

        3. DwarfPants
          Coat

          Re: Why?

          Twice in one day, El Reg should implement an auto Monty Python inserter. Perhaps a third tab "Enter you comment", "Add an icon", "Monty Python quotes"

      2. tfewster
        Facepalm

        Re: Why?

        Let's get the Department for Education involved as well so even more time can be wasted.

        By the way, the press release contains other howlers. Did you know that "infosec professionals" are (apparently) actually out-of-touch, incompetent amateurs? Never mind, the UK Cyber Security Council will sort them out!

    2. Chris G

      Re: Why?

      I suspect 'one of the chaps' didn't have a job but was interested in this kind of thing.

      Then he was given a desk and told to give it a go.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Why?

        > National Cyber Security Centre; do we really need an Cyber Security Council

        Hypothetically if I grabbed the website for National Cyber Security Council and put up a brass plaque in Whitehall, how much government money could I hypothetically get away with before anyone noticed?

        I would like to tell you what we do at the National Cyber Security Council, but 'security' old chap.

        1. Eclectic Man Silver badge
          Joke

          Re: Why?

          Coincidentally the 'Yes Minister' episode where the banker Sir Desmond Glazebrook gets a job on a QUANGO through perfectly acceptable and honest lobbying* was on last night.

          *He asks Sir Humphrey Appleby to get him a job charing a QUANGO, and the only one available just happens to be the one that can get Minister Jim Hacker out of a hole he talked himself into on the BBC, thereby proving his independence, honesty, integrity and of course devotion to the country, that all members of QUANGOs need :o)

    3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Why?

      "If the answer to the above is yes then can someone please tell me (us!) what the reason is?"

      Because no govt dept. wants to be left without one.

    4. General Purpose

      Re: Why?

      We need a UK Cyber Security Council because right now Boris and his mates are eager to put union flags on everything, label everything "UK" and say "United Kingdom" as often as possible, hoping it'll stick.

    5. Muppet Boss
      Pint

      Re: Why?

      >We already have an established National Cyber Security Centre; do we really need an Cyber Security Council (answerable to a different department of government) as well?

      Because this is a small local Council, probably somewhere between Salford and Bury, not intended to offend the both...

      1. PM from Hell

        Re: Why?

        I'd like to propose that the HQ for the new Cyber Security Council be located in Besses o' th' Barn. It has ample facilities for Civil Servants including a tram stop, 2 golf courses several Gyms and is the home of Sedgely Tigers Rugby club. Its also very handy for 2 hospitals and the famous Strangeways Hotel.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Why?

          No, they closed Prestwich Hospital down years ago - I think it's a Tesco's or something now. But I'm sure the locals would get a nostalgia buzz from a new community of people wandering up the street with their knickers round their ankles.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's not clear exactly what the new body will do

    I will offer this breakthrough and revolutionary idea that the new body will be busy, very, very busy. Busy making itself looking busy by demonstrating how busy it makes itself being seen as being busy. You ain't seen nothing (yet), but boy, the business is gonna be a-booming. Move along plebs, nothing to see here, move along!

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: It's not clear exactly what the new body will do

      We know a song about that!

      Bing Crosby et al from A Connecticut Yankee At King Arthurs Court.

  11. nagyeger
    FAIL

    governing body on training and standards

    A comment on RevK's blog points us to: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-uk-cyber-security-council-to-be-official-governing-body-on-training-and-standards

    This is in the online safety section, apparently.

    Yes, you couldn't make it up, they're the official governing body on training [FAILURES] and [IGNORING] standards.

    1. Eclectic Man Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: governing body on training and standards

      So what is the role of the BSI and the ISO? I used to be on an ISO advisory panel in the UK concerning cryptographic algorithms and protocols, which was / is professionally run by a prof from RHBNC (Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, now just Royal Holloway College).

      There are lots of other international standards bodies with interests in cryptography and IT (sorry 'Cyber') security, like the ITU, Cenelec and the IEEE. Will this new organisation co-ordinate UK representation with them? If only there was a reliable web site which explained their role...

  12. Cynic_999

    This information is grossly out of date

    Since publication of this article, the minister concerned has recruited a bloke he met at his local pub (coincidentally being his wife's brother, though the minister was unaware of the connection at the time), who, after long detailed negotiations and 7 pints of cider, has promised to set up a web sight (or is it cite?) as well as an intertube mail address thingy for a cut-price 7 or 8 figure sum, which over the next 5 years (if not delayed by unforeseen circumstances such as a cold spell over Winter) will result in web pages containing at least 5000 real words of e-content and one or two JPGs, all generated by leading-edge AI in conjunction with his mate's 7 year old daughter and her pet gerbil. A committee to discuss what font to use is already in the initial stages of formation, with £15 million having been allocated to that end.

    It will be World beating.

    So stop spreading fake news!

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: This information is grossly out of date

      If only "track and trace" had been organised on such a professional basis

      1. Eclectic Man Silver badge

        Re: This information is grossly out of date

        It was organised very efficiently and effectively, in South Korea.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: track and trace / in South Korea.

          A South Korean colleague of mine returned from a few months in South Korea late last year; and commented "It's nice to be back in a free country". I have no particular opinion one way or another, and perhaps I misunderstood, but it is just possible this suggests some people in the UK might find some of the reasons for the effectiveness of SK's track and trace somewhat challenging.

    2. Stumpy

      Re: This information is grossly out of date

      Well, I'll save you £15M right off the bat. Comic Sans. It's always good to start with Comic Sans.

      1. albaleo

        Re: This information is grossly out of date

        It's folk like you that put people like me out of business.

  13. Tron Silver badge

    The clowns are running the circus.

    'Thought Leadership' is Boris Speak for another way to syphon public money to ones mates, making up for how much Brexit has cost them.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: The clowns are running the circus.

      Because "Thought" and "Leadership" are what immediately come to mind when you think of Boris

  14. fidodogbreath

    Cybery McEggface

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It'd be nice to think that...

    'The UK Cyber Security Council domain doesn't even have a parking page, let alone a working website behind it'

    ...is disingenuous. The site may technically exist and be up and working. The 502, however is no less of an embarrassment and doubly so since it's apparently still an issue.

  16. MrReynolds2U

    Cyber ... urgh!!

    When did Cyber move from a prefix to a noun? It's a horrible bastardisation of the original use of the word. Unfortunately now it's in regular use.

    (I realise it's originally derived from Greek)

    When I read or hear it used this way it grates... every... time.

    On a side-note, I did actually study Cybernetics at Reading back in the day.

    1. arachnoid2

      I did actually study Cybernetics at Reading

      Cyber-Netflix doesn't appear on a curriculum I ever saw, is it a real life series akin to CSI:Cyber?......

      1. Eclectic Man Silver badge

        Re: I did actually study Cybernetics at Reading

        I think you have the author William Gibson to thank for the term "cyberspace' in his story "Burning Chrome".

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson

        1. MrReynolds2U

          Re: I did actually study Cybernetics at Reading

          "Cyberspace" I am entirely fine with. It's been around a while and just feels right as a term.

          However, politicians and marketers using the word "cyber" on it's own (as a blanket term for pretty much anything computer-related) is what grates.

          Actually, thinking about it... pretty much anything a politician or marketer says pisses me off.

          1. Eclectic Man Silver badge

            Re: I did actually study Cybernetics at Reading

            "pretty much anything a politician or marketer says pisses me off."

            I'm ok, then. As an occasional supporter of the Liberal Democrats here in the uK, I have nothing whatsoever to do with politics, or the use or abuse of political power at all.

          2. Dave559 Silver badge
            Stop

            Re: I did actually study Cybernetics at Reading

            "Cyberspace" is a bit of a wank term as well, to be honest. We all know it was new and shiny (iridescent shimmering silver, since you ask) once, but the internet has effectively been around for most people for nigh-on 30 years now, it's certainly not "new media" any more. Is it not perhaps time for this hackneyed phrase to wash up on the shore of a desert island somewhere, along with "surfing the web" and all those "under construction" GIFs, please?

  17. Potemkine! Silver badge

    In France we call that kind of council a "Theodule committee". a Theodule committee is a governmental emanation whose only purpose is to use taxpayers' money to fill the pockets of political friends nominated to that committee. These committees are totally useless for the public good, and generally make a public report once a year (written by an unpaid intern) to prove they really exist. I'm relieved to see we aren't the only corrupt country to do that.

    1. Adrian 4

      The world-beating UK has already expanded that concept to be an entire Theodule Government.

  18. Lotaresco

    Brought to you by...

    This entire "cyber" nonsense is a concept of a government that is composed mostly of PPE graduates. That's PPE, the degree that covers skimming reference sources, bullshitting and busking essays. They genuinely think that any subject can be skimmed and understood (to the level they consider it necessary to understand) any subject. They are disgusted at the costs of IT security. I have been told by several of them that they think it's revolting that graduates of red brick universities, mere "grammar school boys" should be paid as much or more than a cabinet minister gets paid. We're the wrong sort, we went to the wrong place, we are very much "non-U" and it's disgusting that there are very few Eton educated individuals in IT. Apparently.

    They are setting out to get the costs down and degrade the profession to a box-ticking exercise. Sadly there are far too many within the civil service who are keen to help them. They are also enraged that a consultant in industry makes several times what they earn in Cheltenham or Milton Keynes. Therefore the entire profession is being worked over with lukewarm schemes such as "Cyber Essentials" and the NCSC sponsored MSc. Add to that the advertising campaigns which attempt to push people with zero interest in the subject into "cyber" and you have the reason whey I'm looking forward to retirement.

    1. Eclectic Man Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: Brought to you by...

      PPE: Politics, Philosophy and Egotism

    2. MrReynolds2U

      Re: Brought to you by...

      Yes I've noticed those post-grad qualification adverts:

      - Know fuck-all about IT?

      - Want a pointless qualification that nobody in the industry will recognise?

      - Want to get said MSc and still know fuck-all about IT?

      Sign up today.

      1. Eclectic Man Silver badge

        Re: Brought to you by...

        Are you, by any chance, referring to Dominic Cummings's highly valued super-forecaster 'wierdos'?

  19. Warm Braw

    The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists

    There's some rather dispiriting background to this here.

    One of the organisations involved is, I kid you not, the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.

    View the Sigmund Romberg future of your profession here, folks...

    1. Commswonk

      Re: The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists

      There's some rather dispiriting background to this here.

      Dispiriting is a wildly inadequate description IMHO. I read this:

      The Council’s focus is set in four pillars:

      Professional Development

      Outreach and Diversity in Cybersecurity to Develop the Next Generation

      Professional Ethics

      Thought Leadership and Influence

      Apart from the usual salad of buzzwords (Bingo, anyone?) I see no mention of anything about improving the nation's cyber security; silly of me to expect it really.

      Never mind; it's got Outreach and Diversity so it's got to be good innit?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists

        > I see no mention of anything about improving the nation's cyber security; silly of me to expect it really.

        That's a bit like saying introducing 8 year-olds to football won't help the England team. Maybe not immediately...

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Very few Eton educated individuals in IT...

    ... because they is mostly thick. Met plenty of the nice-but-dim brigade as have accidentally ended up in the horsey world despite living in social housing. I went to a comprehensive but I still got a decent BSc and then a PhD - that doesn't count with these types. You might as well be "merely" a tradesperson. What does bring them up short, though, is when you can correct them on their misremembered classics :-) -- or when your horse beats theirs :-D

    By the way - anybody here read Jacob Rees-Mogg's execrable book "The Victorians" - bloody hell. They think this guy is some kind of genius. I can only assume he's always been the smartest person in the room due to assiduous attention to room selection. Occasional flashes of rhetorical brilliance but in general it reads like a late-night, last-minute rush job by a first year undergrad (US=Freshman); more specifically, from one who was the smart kid at school and hasn't quite realised he's going to have to step it up now he's matriculated. The guy called his sixth child 'Sixtus' for Christ's sake and told everyone it was a Latin joke. ORLY? SIxtus is a Latinization of a Greek name (Ξυστος) and six in Latin is 'Sextus'. It is literally an ancient corruption of "Polished" - it would be a better epithet for JR-M himself.

    Oh yeah, they also think that Gove is smart. Oh and they absolutely were blown away by Dominic Cummings, weren't they? The history graduate who told us the key thing was to pick people 'very carefully' and focus on brilliant scientific minds, giving them freedom and funding. Weird how nobody ever seemed to question why DC thought he himself was actually one of those. It's almost like they aren't actually intelligent enough to tell whether people are really intelligent or just maintaining a brilliant, loud projection of a semblance of the same devoid of any real underlying substance ...

    1. Eclectic Man Silver badge

      Re: Very few Eton educated individuals in IT...

      It is not all Jacob's fault, he is after all the son of William Rees-Mogg:

      https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/09/mystic-mogg-jacob-rees-mogg-willam-predicts-brexit-plans

      "In the spring of 1997, shortly before Tony Blair took power, William Rees-Mogg, ex-editor of the Times, leading Eurosceptic, pinstriped self-publicist and father of Jacob, published a book that claimed to see the future of the world. The Sovereign Individual: The Coming Economic Revolution and How to Survive and Prosper in It opened with a quote from Tom Stoppard’s play Arcadia: “The future is disorder.”

      For 380 breathless pages, Lord Rees-Mogg and a co-author, James Dale Davidson, an American investment guru and conservative propagandist, predicted that digital technology would make the world hugely more competitive, unequal and unstable. Societies would splinter. Taxes would be evaded. Government would gradually wither away. “By 2010 or thereabouts,” they wrote, welfare states “will simply become unfinanceable”. In such a harsh world, only the most talented, self-reliant, technologically adept person – “the sovereign individual” – would thrive."

      1. Snapper

        Re: Very few Eton educated individuals in IT...

        William Rees-Mogg also wrote -

        Blood in the Streets: Investment Profits in a World Gone Mad

        The Great Reckoning: Protect Yourself in the Coming Depression

        and a few others on the same lines. Which suggest that Smoggie may have had a few tips from his pater about deliberately creating a depression and a world gone mad so he could make a modest profit.

        The proles don't matter and never did!

      2. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

        Re: Very few Eton educated individuals in IT...

        For 380 breathless pages, Lord Rees-Mogg and a co-author, James Dale Davidson, an American investment guru and conservative propagandist, predicted that digital technology would make the world hugely more competitive, unequal and unstable. Societies would splinter. Taxes would be evaded. Government would gradually wither away. “By 2010 or thereabouts,” they wrote, welfare states “will simply become unfinanceable”. In such a harsh world, only the most talented, self-reliant, technologically adept person – “the sovereign individual” – would thrive." ...... Eclectic Man

        Well, EM, was he more right than wrong with those canny predictions? The views expressed look very familiar and far too similar to many presented everywhere nowadays to be summarily dismissed as errant erudite propaganda/misinformation/disinformation/fake news.

        1. Eclectic Man Silver badge

          Re: Very few Eton educated individuals in IT...

          Hi, amanfromMars 1. The text is a quote from the Guardian article available via the link. The article does indeed reckon that maybe people should have taken more notice of Baron William Rees-Mogg's prognostications.

          My point was that Jacob Rees-Mogg is not exactly a self-made man, he has inherited a great deal from his father, financially, genetically and intellectually.

          1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

            Re: Very few Eton educated individuals in IT...

            Cheers, EM,

            That's all very well and as may certainly be, and such is a rare enough raw privilege to be sure, but is there anything though of the Pitt or the Cromwell harboured within, rather than something of the night to be coaxed out into the open and to be energised, encouraged and EMPowered into Sterling Stirling Type Conservative ACTivity ..... which hasn't been seen by any for far too many a moon?

            Now that would be unusually nice and something of a creative disruption and pleasant attraction

        2. tiggity Silver badge

          Re: Very few Eton educated individuals in IT...

          In general his predictions were poor. He was immortalized in Private Eye as "Mystic Mogg", a running joke on his predictive newspaper columns being so frequently wrong.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Re: Very few Eton educated individuals in IT...

      > The guy called his sixth child 'Sixtus' for Christ's sake and told everyone it was a Latin joke. ORLY? SIxtus is a Latinization of a Greek name (Ξυστος) and six in Latin is 'Sextus'.

      He did try to call his child "Sextus" but the registrar's spell-checker bowdlerized it.

    3. techdead

      Re: Very few Eton educated individuals in IT...

      this made me larf out loud, best post i've read in a while - wot no icon for hysterical giggling?

  21. thondwe

    co[.].uk site leads somewhere

    The co[.].uk site leads somewhere - but not the council - looks to be a Ltd company with a web site which seems somewhat incomplete if you follow the links?

  22. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Out of Sight and Sound and Minds and into the Deep and Dark Webs of a Harry Limelight

    Was it not smart of Dominic Cummings to quickly remove himself from the maniacal manic government spotlight? Do you know what he is up to and up for nowadays? Anything you can tell us all listening to voices sharing opinions here?

    Maybe he got one of those old boy taps on the shoulder which invite and introduce one into the shady shadows and murky mines of kompromat?

  23. Mike 137 Silver badge

    Three days later

    The 502 error still persists on UKcybersecuritycouncil.org.uk

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Fancy the job of putting it right?

    Here you go then...

    https://www.green-park-jobs.co.uk/job/chief-executive-officer-uk-cyber-security-council

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