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All that glitters is not e-gold

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in Uncategorized on April 30, 2007 at 3:03 pm

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e-gold has been around for the longest time, since the 1990

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No medals for UK Government over London Olympics security

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in Olympics, Security on April 26, 2007 at 11:16 am

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Giving an otherwise rather dull and predictable keynote speech at Infosecurity Europe about the IT security demands of running the London Olympics, Derek Wyatt MP has let it slip that UK Government hands are tied when it comes to security technology. He also made it clear that he has no idea where the security threat will come from stating

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How crap is that?

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in Security on April 18, 2007 at 5:18 pm

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Security specialists Websense conducted an opinion poll during the e-crime congress in London this year, and have today revealed the results. Of 105 international security professionals surveyed, 64% beleived that the Board would be responsible in the event of an information leakage, but 95% said that companies would probably not even know about the leak in the first place.

Let me recap, 95% of the security professionals from around the world that were asked agreed that companies would not be confident that they would even know about an information leak. How crap is that?

Very crap is the correct answer.

The spook of security specialists, a collective noun I claim responsibility for, also agreed (well 79% of them did at any rate) that legislation should be put in place to curb this data loss epidemic, as well as to ensure the better transparency following any breach. Sadly there was only a 2% hike to 10% amongst the spook when it came to thinking that companies were actually taking anything like a properly proactive role in tackling the problem in the first place.

The other key findings of the survey are as follows:

* Information breaches are costly

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Wish me luck!

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in Uncategorized on at 10:38 am

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Being a writer can be a lonely profession. Being a freelance writer doubly so. More often than not the only feedback you get are telephone calls from editors asking where the bloody copy is that was due 10 minutes ago, or emails from

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Am I Bovvered?

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in Security on April 15, 2007 at 11:58 am

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According to new research of the UK workforce carried out by data encryption specialists SafeBoot, and published this morning, the answer would appear to be a great big no. At least as far as mobile corporate security is concerned. With a dangerously relaxed attitude towards security on their laptops, the sharing of PIN numbers and passwords alike, not to mention personal data spread willy nilly across the Internet, the research reveals things really couldn

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Universal Plug and Hack

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in IBM on April 11, 2007 at 4:35 pm

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My friends over at the IBM X-Force, the James Bond sounding research and development team that came along as part of the recent Internet Security Systems (ISS) acquisition have informed that they reckon we should be on the alert for a Microsoft Universal Plug and Play flaw to be exploited by the end of the week.

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Wireless security cracked. Again.

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in Security on April 8, 2007 at 10:23 pm

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WEP, we are told, stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy. To which I have to reply, to borrow a phrase from Ricky Tomlinson, my arse. If that was the level of privacy my wired network had I would never use it. Indeed, according to the latest reports from a bunch of German security researchers at the Technische Universit

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Sky HD - what a washout

By Davey Winder in Editorial

Posted in Sky on April 1, 2007 at 11:31 pm

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I managed to put it off for 12 years, but having run out of excuses such as “it’s perfectly lovely as it is” or “let’s wait until the kids are old enough not to mess it up” and “if I had any spare time I would” I have finally been forced into decorating the living room at Chez Happygeek. Those with an interest in social commentary will notice that I did not say ‘lounge’ or ‘front room’ but ‘living room’ and by so doing have betrayed my council house boy working class upbringing. Those with an interest in decorating will notice I said ‘forced’ and by so doing have betrayed both my dislike of emulsion paint and parting with cash to solve the problem by allowing a professional into the house.
Surprisingly, the whole thing was going swimmingly well. Some 75% through the redecorating process, everything but the chimney breast painted, a brand new cream carpet (yes, I must be mad with a 9 and 7 year old in the house) fitted and some built-in furniture units ripped out and removed it was time to relocate the TV from one end of the room to the other. No big deal, you might think, apart from the fact that the Sky + and TV cables now came through the wall at the wrong end of said room. I could, I guess, have got a big ladder out and moved them myself. But far better to use this as an excuse to upgrade to Sky HD surely? That way I get a nice new shiny Sky box to pump high definition broadcasts into my HD ready television, and a professional gets to move the cables for me in the process.
And so it was that I made the worst decision this year so far.
Thursday lunchtime and the professional yells Davey rather too loudly for my liking. As I amble the short distance from my office to the living room I discover why. He has managed to drill straight through the main pipe supplying water from the central heating bolier to the radiators. I am greeted by dirty black water spurting onto what was a brand new cream carpet but now seems to be a slushy grey mess and quickly turning into a submerged slushy grey mess.
Eventually both the water flow and my rather loud cursing dry up. Eventually the living room is full of Sky installers and their managers from the local area office. Eventually a plumber arrives to get a new pipe in and provide my kids with hot water and hot heat for the fast approaching cold night.
Friday afternoon and eventually the people turn up to look at the water damage, and the huge hole in the wall the plumber had to demolish to get access to the pipe.
So here I am, on Sunday night, sitting in my living room trying to work with the sound of two underfloor heaters and fans, two above floor fans and huge industrial dehumidifier all competing for the prize of which can give Davey the biggest headache. At least the carpet is dry, and by Tuesday I am told the floor and walls will be as well. Sometime after Easter I might even have a rebuilt wall, and can start decorating. Again.
Now being a consumate geek I probably wouldn’t have minded so much had Sky HD been any good, but sadly it is far from it. Sure, the few shows being broadcast in HD, mainly on Discovery and National Geographic channels, are impressive. But you quickly get fed up with the blatant lie that is Sky One HD. You may think you are getting an HD channel, but check out the ‘info’ button and you discover that 90% of the output is not in HD at all. What’s the point of a HD channel that shows largely non-HD content?
More to the point, where is my extra

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