"Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport"
A good example of why I prefer to leave the second comma out of their name.
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 …
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.
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
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-lossesCameron 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.
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....
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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!
> 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.
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)
>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...
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.
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!
We know a song about that!
Bing Crosby et al from A Connecticut Yankee At King Arthurs Court.
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.
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...
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!
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.
'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.
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.
"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.
"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.
"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?
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.
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.
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?
... 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 ...
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."
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!
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.
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.
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
> 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.
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?