Posts by Disgusted of Cheltenham

America's cyber defenses are being dismantled from the inside

to lose something you have to have it in the first place.

Signalgate chats vanish from CIA chief phone

Re: Hum

Foggy Bottom? Bottom is not the word that usually comes with licking.

Microsoft lists seven habits of highly effective Windows 11 users

Re: My hot tip

Maybe someone will publish a cross-grade to switch our working systems from W10 to Ubuntu LTS or something less bloated? (In case you ask, I needed Windows for full 'silverlight' to work from home, but for most people it's just too much trouble to get a Linux laptop since Dell stopped providing it on the low level ones.)

Trump tariffs to make prices great – a gain

Loopholes

There are no penguins in Greenland, nor in Diego Garcia. If the algorithm isn't stochastic parroting by IA, what have they done in Nuuk to avoid tariffs?

HP deliberately adds 15 minutes waiting time for telephone support calls

HMRC

The monolithic gov.uk big font simple language never gives confidence that your slightly unusual case is convered as you follow up and down or around until you've completed a circuit, having has to use an outside seach engine that can handle AND not just OR. It's also their mistakes that need to be sorted, which online just doesn't (e.g one computer is working on 52 weeks another on 53 and 4-6 weeks to get from one to the other). It would be good to have a press zero to skip the pious crud about using the wonderous online as you wouldn't be using the phone if you didn't have to. We don't know if there is a 15 minute wait, but I find the staff as helpful as they can be, even if most of the time it's not this number (given online or on the letter that has arrived in the post) that deals with this aspect, and they can't transfer the call but here's the next number to ring and be told the same tales plus assurance that this is not the number for whatever is the currently fashionable problem that too many people are ringing about.

The biggest microcode attack in our history is underway

Re: Enough rope?

It seems that once you have been granted a pardon then the self-incrimination exemptions no longer apply. That could make things much more interesting.

UK tax collector's phone service 'deliberately' bad to push users online, say MPs

Re: Never blame on evil...

Seems you haven't had to deal with DWP. Whilst faster at answering than HMRC, it always seems that you have selected the wrong number or option despite that being the one given in their letter. The helpful person is unable to transfer the call to the right queue, but does have the number you need, so you start again with the recorded encouragement to use online (when only phoning because online hasn't worked for anything complicated), erroneous information on timing, plus an extra minute of don't call us about any of the following topics...

UK sleep experts say it's time to kill daylight saving for good

Technically the Irish are good Europeans and have GMT+1 as standard, but go back an hour in winter (IWT Irish winter time), thus keeping in time with the UK all year.

Windows 11 migration? Upgrade engine revs up, enterprises have no choice

Re: Big if

So when will there be a system upgrade available for home users (without games) to go from Windows 10 to, say, Ubuntu?

Google cuts ties with Entrust in Chrome over trust issues

Re: It's Widespread - even HMG

https://assets.applytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud-13/documents/709217/287037250953500-service-definition-document-2022-05-17-1441.pdf

End-to-end encryption may be the bane of cops, but they can't close that Pandora's Box

Re: And good does not always triumph.

Do you have any evidence for this claim?

Council claims database pain forced it to drop apostrophes from street names

Re: Does anywhere in Wales have accented letters?

Malaŵi isn't in Wales, but..

In Cambridge there's St. Bene't's Church

We never agreed to only buy HP ink, say printer owners

Paper next

My HP dates from when it played nicely with linux, but it was a surprise to find that they are now offering a paper subscription too since they know how many sheets have been used, and so for 'just' £1.99 a month you can get...knotted.

NHS England published heavily redacted Palantir contract as festivities began

Re: poor redaction

But why redact it anywhere? Unless Docusign will give you the document if you can quote it, what information does it or could it give away? Perhaps it's just someone told to redact the signature and not quite understanding that a digital signature is not the same as a scan of a wet one.

Redaction?

Can anyone explain why the DocuSign Identifier is redacted on most (but not all) pages, e.g. page 9 or page 40? Although not simply black on black, this redaction seems to have been done manually given that it does appear where large amounts of the body text are missing and there's also one case in Doc1 on page 64 where the final E of the header is not redacted.

Why is the page number 26 redacted? (It comes between 25 and 27.)

More generally, how do you verify the digital signature on a redacted document?

BT misses deadline for removing Huawei from network core

Re: So...

The reports of sloppy development also mentioned that finding this in the equipment they had looked at did not mean it wasn't in that of other suppliers. Note also that the UK was not in the vanguard of bans (just a limit on coverage), indeed HMG only acted when the US export controls on China made it impossible to get repairs, upgrades and fixes.

UK convinces nations to sign Bletchley Declaration in bid for AI safety

Re: It's simple really.

Alongside these opportunities, AI also poses significant risks, including in those domains of daily life. To that end,.... (i.e. posing significant risks?)

we resolve to intensify and sustain our cooperation, (i.e. be seen to do something, but not sure what)

All actors have a role to play... (yes, Equity rules. Surprisingly Euro-English)

development-orientated approaches (makes a change from customer)

We encourage all relevant actors to provide context-appropriate transparency and accountability on their plans to measure, monitor and mitigate potentially harmful capabilities and the associated effects that may emerge, in particular to prevent misuse and issues of control, and the amplification of other risks. (The light peppering of commas is always interesting in international paperwork, and a pain for translators. That last comma means amplification doesn't go with prevent - it seems to be provide... accountability...but is certainly unreadable on first pass)

scientific and evidence-based (tautology?)

The countries represented were:

Australia

....

European Union (no, it's not a country, but the footnote indicates

international organisations acting in accordance with their legislative or executive competences.

So which is the other such organisation?)

UK voter data within reach of miscreants who hacked Electoral Commission

Re: Ubiquity

The focus on just a single technology remains a bad idea, although cards could be part of the mix as the Irish have deftly done: allowing one of the two forms for the passport allows that travel document to look and feel like an ID card and offers the functionality without igniting panic. A compulsory unique physical token offers scope blackmail and control (e.g. over wives and daughters) that may not have been a significant issue when the German Ausweis was introduced (in the same year the UK wartime ID card was scrapped).

Re: Ubiquity

Instead of adopting the Australian system of ensuring that everyone gets a chance to vote, our politicians have been keen to increase the participation rate in elections. So instead of the ‘head of household’ registering everyone, the onus was on people to do it themselves; those with no intention of voting would not bother, so the rate would go up. Not appearing can be a problem for credit reference, but still it was optional until the House of Lords (with unusual ignorance) stepped in with an amendment to put a civil penalty (i.e. fine that couldn’t turn you into a news item by being jailed for failure to pay) for those not registering when asked to by a registration officer.

If there was any thinking behind this it may have been in relation to jury service, where you stand a chance of being called for each place in which you appear on the register. Some small business owners would rather not take this risk and thus be encouraged not to vote. (They might also not want to walk near the court to avoid “praying a tales”.) It’s time we threw out the electoral roll, with all its accumulated out of date but explicit data protection oddities, and had a jury status list for all residents, with uniqueness, preferably by extending the settled status register to include everyone.

Meanwhile what will happen if what is being called ID is needed for postal vote? Getting a civil penalty for not having it is not acceptable.

Whilst not remotely surprised by the attack, and just waiting for the same on one.login, the response that we should "remain vigilant for unauthorised use or release of [their] personal data" is spectacularly unhelpful. What, exactly, should we do, especialy now we can't play the trick of adjusting the postcode (before they were used - last two digits showed where it was copied from it you were careful to note which digits you gave to whom)?

UK.gov bans TikTok from its devices as a 'precaution' over spying fears

Re: Wrong decision

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/social-media-how-to-use-it-safely is, rightly, published and not specific to MPs, officials, nor any other group of folks who would prefer not to be ignored.

60% of Germany's 5G network is Huawei, says Chinese embassy

Re: Proof???

GCHQ's early published comments on Huawei kit gave specific examples of very sloppy and insecure programming, but also noted that this did not mean it was worse than that from any other source since the others had not been scrutinised to the same level of detail. For more recent see https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/hcsec-ob-report

It's worth recalling that the UK ban came in response to the US/Trump controls which would make it impossible to repair the infrastructure.

Why ChatGPT should be considered a malevolent AI – and be destroyed

Doesn't this count as libel?

At least under the Australian definition of publishing this would sound like libel - and should start a lawyer feeding frenzy over 'intent'.

(To first approximation the dead do not have data protection rights either, so maybe missing evidence for 7 years counts as a presumption of decease?)

Traffic lights worldwide set to change after Swedish engineer saw red over getting a ticket

Re: How many engineers does it take to change a light?

Once upon a time the Swedish lights had amber+green before green, but they had to change to comply with the Common Market. For a really clever system, badly implemented, look to Quebec, where the shape of the light can be used by the colour-blind: Square red, triangle amber, circle green. It would have been much safer to have a red circle to avoid the rest of the world's red circles being mistaken for go. Presumably zero engineers involved in that choice of light change.

Careful now, UK court ruling says email signature blocks can sign binding contracts

Re: The law on signatures

See also Stephen Mason's work, freely available from

http://ials.sas.ac.uk/about/about-us/people/stephen-mason

Brussels changes its mind AGAIN on .EU domains: Euro citizens in post-Brexit Britain can keep them after all

Bananas

It was the EEC long before the EU that made special provision for 'dollar' bananas. This bit of history shouldn't be assumed to be a lie just because it was pre-internet:

https://www.cvce.eu/en/obj/treaty_establishing_the_eec_protocol_on_the_tariff_quota_for_imports_of_bananas_rome_25_march_1957-en-3bcfd762-ac40-422d-90a3-1bef6b69d255.html

Red flag: Verify to be marked 'undeliverable' by gov projects watchdog

Since half the people who try can't get in, how would compulsory help? Those are a cumulative 5m accounts, not people; whatever the position on fraud (which we are told is both out of control and none detected), it's designed so one person can have many, and no doubt some of those with providers who have gone will have taken out a second one, not to mention those who try to put in a tax return 366 days after the previous one.

Australia has lots of good ideas, like compulsory opportunity to vote so there's no intimidation to keep people away and no opportunity to masquerade as someone who will not turn up. (They even invented the secret ballot.) In this case, better to look to NZ or Canada. 'Platforms', we are told, have canonical registers; Verify doesn't. Much better either to have a proper distributed Jury service status register or to make the compulsory EU resident's database optionally available for UK citizens.

We knew it was coming: Bureaucratic cockup triggers '6-month' delay of age verification block on porno in the UK

Re: "the holdup is due to DCMS having failed to notify the European Commission in time"

The 50th was on a Monday, and what would have been the first May 1 bank holiday to be on May 1 was switched to Monday 8th. Perhaps you should put 100th in the diary now; banks may be a thing of the past by then, but I imagine we'll still want the holidays.

1234 5678 901 - is a string of random numbers

It may be an arbitrary choice, but it doesn't look remotely random.

UK taxman falls foul of GDPR, agrees to wipe 5 million voice recordings used to make biometric IDs

Why does it always take so long to fix?

It was obvious from when this was turned on that it was not being done with consent or any other legal basis, so how in their world of agile development did the issue not get noted, considered, and resolved rather than needing such effort to accept it was a mistake? It's not as if there's some political mandate like Universal credit under which jobsworths can hide. Of course most of us only need to phone then because we have a slightly more complicated case than the simplified big-font online information covers; this enforced attempt at enrolment came after the usual annoying exhortation to use w w w dot gov dot uk forward slash ... which not only adds to the delay and frustration of the caller but makes it harder for those answering the pre-grumpified 'customers'. I don't see any costings for taxpayer's wasted time, but, like a quarter of an hour each for 6 million failed attempts to use Verify , it starts to add up.

Edtech will save our schools from cuts and spare our teachers from burnout, booms UK.gov

Re: What schools are for

But there are a few things that could be done. Teaching touch-typing, for example.

UK.gov's Verify has 'significantly' missed every target, groans spending watchdog

Re: Estonia

The Estonians have kindly provided their service to anyone else who wants it, and in English...

https://e-resident.gov.ee/

On the first day of Christmas, Microsoft gave to me... an emergency out-of-band security patch for IE

Re: Really?

And how else do you use an employer's system that calls for silverlight?

Cambridge Analytica dismantled for good? Nope: It just changed its name to Emerdata

Re: Suggestion for a new name

Just Merde.

UK's Department of Fun seeks data strategy head – experience not needed

Re: a salary of up to £65,535

Surely you would want a bit more?

£12k fine slapped on Postman Pat and his 300,000 spam emails

Re: Junk confusions

Are you, perhaps, confusing the Post Office and Royal Mail?

US govt staffers use personal gear on work networks, handle biz docs on the reg – study

Re: Simple but bad explanation

Once upon a time I recall sending any incoming emails with .docx home so I could convert them to .doc or .rtf or something that we could read at the office.

Huawei claims national security is used as plausible excuse for 'protectionism'

Re: National Security is by definition protectionism

No, NSA don't do drinks at the bar.

How do you explain the completely different UK and US positions on use of Huawei equipment in broadband networks?

Yorkshire cops have begun using on-the-spot fingerprint scanners

Digital?

The help finding next of kin is an interesting digression, but this whole system only works for those with a criminal record or non-EU immigrants. Any idea what proportion of the population of West Yorkshire that is?

I never carry ID - the grey beard says over 18, but then it's rare to even see police in rural Gloucestershire; What powers are being used to demand it?

NHS OKs offshoring patient data to cloud providers stateside

No, Sam, GCHQ is not part of MoD

Anyway https://www.gchq.gov.uk/privacy is quite clear

We store your data on secure servers in the Republic of Ireland.

UK.gov slammed for NHS data-sharing deal with Home Office

Re: Definitely not the Data Guardians of the Galaxy

Explicitly just 'no surprises for the citizen'. Not sure how anyone could be both a citizen and an illegal immigrant.

And then 'choice' includes Hobson's choice.

Comodo CA acquired by Francisco Partners ...

But then we couldn't pay fines...

Comodo is the trust anchor for

https://penaltynotice.direct.gov.uk/

(If, for some reason, you don't like this, please offer a better suggestion for HMG.)

Computers4Christians miraculously appears on Ubuntu wiki

Zero days

No, it's on the third day, i.e two days later.

Turnbull's Digital Transformation Office is actually working!

Quick work

This seems unlike GDS. Have they come up with an app in their first 7 years? The IPS prototype passport checking app wasn't theirs, but has gone and HMPO doesn't seem to have anything expected soon. There are NHS apps, but lo, so does gov.uk: First published:

27 March 2017 Asian Hornet Watch - new app launched to help people quickly and easily report sightings of this invasive species.

Awkward. Investigatory Powers Act could prove hurdle to UK-EU Privacy Shield following Brexit

No, it's about humans, not citizens

'Citizen' does not appear in GDPR; it is about "data subjects who are in the Union" or any processing done within the Union. Unlike the citizen's rights in the US, Europe including UK takes a starting point under human rather than citizen's rights. Knowing someone's citizenship(s) is not very easy (so hardly surprising NSA is having trouble answering a question). Long may it remain irrelevant for almost everything.

Since UK companies will want to provide services into the EU, it's hardly unreasonable for them to comply with the law where the customers are, so getting an agreement is clearly important, but it would seem rash to assume that the EU-US Privacy Shield will still be in its current form in two years. And there will presumably be the need for a UK-US agreement as well.

IBM used dud DoS shield for failed online census says Oz PM

And DTO?

Where was DTO when ABS needed them? Surely the friends recruited from GDS could have warned them about previous recent experience in the UK, such as DVLA, DEFRA, HMRC, and Electoral Registration?

IT analyst: Oz census data processed as plain text

Re: I'm Batman

Presumably related to John Batman, the founder of Melbourne (hence Batman Avenue, Station etc.)

Time to re-file your patents and trademarks, Britain

Re: And so it starts.

No, there was a threat about Calais, until someone checked and found it was a bilateral and not EU agreement, similar to the position on the border between US and Canada.

Just because we can now do stupid things doesn't mean that we will stop seasonal workers or make it harder for tourists. Our current mess is partly because of the refusal by the head of the civil service to allow it to consider plan B on the grounds that it wasn't government policy - ignoring the point that the government had, for better or worse, pushed this one over to the people. Of course we now hear that the Bank of England and Treasury have been working on it. But the last budget should have had in and out options.

EU GDPR compliance still a thing for UK firms even after Brexit

Re: Pop!

Four more provinces of Canada would be a much better fit.

Can whole countries claim asylum?

Why you should Vote Remain: Bananas, bathwater and babies

Surely there comes a point at which it is fair to say that we have been trying to reform the EU from within, but have not managed to do so and have no new ideas on how we might? Even the (dubious) changes agreed are conditional on the UK staying, .i.e. were not accepted as worth doing anyway. We gave it a good try, and, as Churchill said, we wish it well.

Those who lead saying it's the wrong time chose the time. Gus OD thinks two years is not long enough, but what was his job when the Lisbon treaty was signed? People could do silly things and over-react; some of the threats have been quite creative, but the EEC banana problem dates from 1956.