Posts by jacksongreen

UK's Get Safe Online? 'No one cares' - run the blockbuster ads instead

The various companies we interact with online need to up their game as well as they constantly send mixed messages which then leads to complacency and/or confusion within the average consumer base.

A prime example are the various banks. If I access my bank acounts online I require multi-factor authentication with smartcard readers or pin code type tokens from one of the various vendors. If I phone them up on one of their published numbers they require me to answer security questions to authenticate myself.

All well and good so far.

The banks also make a point of printing on my statements that they will never ask me for account details etc in email or over the phone - and then completely break that rule every single time they phone me! The conversation goes something like

them: "Hi this is XXX calling from YYY. Could I just take you through security to verify your identity ?"

me: "No because you called me so I have no idea if you are who you say you are"

They usually get quite irate at that point for reasons that are beyond me. However the point is if our banks insist on phoning us up and asking us to give them security check information is it any wonder your average consumer then falls prey to various phishing scams since they have been conditioned that whilst their bank says they do not do it they do it every time they call them!

Atlantis go for 8 July blast-off

Last chance to see

Tried to see Endeavour launch and got caught by the scrub, sadly I can't make it out to watch this one. To anyone that's going tho - get there early and pack a big picnic because afterwards the traffic will be gridlocked for hours and the food outlets will be full to bursting!

It's a great day out even when it doesn't launch so it must be immense when it does!

CIX conferencing system is bought out – again

MUD

CIX was also the home of the Discworld mud in the early 90s - oh how I wasted many hours at university logged on to those servers!

fond memories.

Helpdesk Heroes or unappreciated geeks?

Car crushing madness

Amongst the various incidents, most of which are depressingly common such as network leads pulled out and placed in drawers to tidy up desks and keyboards mysteriously not working that soak your trousers when you pick them up, my favourite stands head and shoulders above the rest.

I was working on a helpdesk where we supported internal and external users. The external users where a little odd in that they were self employed and leased their laptops from the company and had insurance policies on them for damage etc. Well one guy called in and said he needed to raise an insurance claim, I duly called up the appropriate form and asked what happened. It transpired that the guy had got stuck in snow and in order to gain traction had stuffed his laptop bag behind one of the wheels and had somehow FORGOTTEN that his several thousand pound laptop was inside! Took a while to stop laughing after that one.

That said it's good to have served my time on the frontline - as a lead engineer myself these days I get new engineers who have never worked on the frontlines and are extremely substandard when it comes to problem solving and it worries me that these days people don't automatically work in support before they're allowed near anything else.