Cyber security is a hangover in Vegas

DEF CON was founded in 1992 or 1993 by Jeff Moss (no relation) and is "one of the world's largest annual hacker conventions, held every year in Las Vegas, Nevada ... Many of the attendees at DEF CON include computer security professionals, journalists, lawyers, federal government employees, security researchers, and hackers with a general interest in software, computer architecture, phone phreaking, hardware modification, and anything else that can be 'hacked' ...".

Not to be confused with Black Hat Briefings, which was founded in 1997 by Jeff Moss (no relation) and is "a computer security conference that brings together a variety of people interested in information security. Representatives of government agencies and corporations attend, along with hackers. The Briefings take place regularly in Las Vegas, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Abu Dhabi and, occasionally, Tokyo. An event dedicated to the Federal Agencies is organized in Washington, DC ...".

Would you like to attend DEF CON? One young lady who attended this year gave an interview to BuzzFeed magazine that gives you a hangover just to read it: "... But I had a good time. It’s always a good time. As long as you remember most of it. Or maybe you don’t want to remember. It just kicks your ass. But once a year? It isn’t the worst thing for your liver".

She was interviewed because she was the only ovine who had appeared on the Wall of Sheep and was prepared to talk about it. The Wall of Sheep is where the DEF CON organisers display the logon IDs and passwords of everyone at the conference who has foolishly allowed themselves to be hacked.

The way our young lady put it, "... at past Def Cons, I didn't really have to worry about it, because someone else was always there to take care of it. When we would get close, he’d say turn stuff off, don’t let any of your wireless devices accept any open Wi-Fi or anything. Turn off Bluetooth, anything that connects to you. So I had someone watching out for me before, but since this was my first one on my own, I didn't take precautions".

"This 28-year-old graphic designer from Utah agreed to tell her story on the condition that we preserve her anonymity — or what remains of it", say BuzzFeed. Not a lot: "I got my alert on my cell phone [saying] that I was using too much data. I knew something wasn't right, so I started making changes when I could. I left on Saturday, so I spent most of that night and the next day cleaning up my accounts that may be associated. I totally got owned. It's just such a rookie mistake".

We might take more care of our livers but we, too, would "totally get owned" by hackers if the occasion presented itself.

Anyway, DEF CON is the nice conference and, in light of the Edward Snowden revelations, Jeff Moss (no relation) asked the feds to stay away this year. Which they did. They went to Black Hat instead, where General Keith Alexander, the Director of the NSA [National Security Agency] and Commander of the DOD's [Departent of Defense] US Cyber Command was the keynote speaker.

The general would probably have stayed away from DEF CON this year even if Jeff hadn't asked – he was keynote speaker there last year.

Presumably the feds and the hackers attend these events to size each other up. Maybe there's a bit of trading – you tell me how you did x and I'll show you how I do y. Who knows? One thing is clear, though – the rest of us haven't got a clue. Or a chance.

Hypothesis: when we hear that such-and-such website is secure, or this mobile phone operating system or that slab telecommunications facility, we might as well forget it. None of it is secure. Not for the general public. And don't you believe anyone who tells you otherwise.

Cyber security is a hangover in Vegas

DEF CON was founded in 1992 or 1993 by Jeff Moss (no relation) and is "one of the world's largest annual hacker conventions, held every year in Las Vegas, Nevada ... Many of the attendees at DEF CON include computer security professionals, journalists, lawyers, federal government employees, security researchers, and hackers with a general interest in software, computer architecture, phone phreaking, hardware modification, and anything else that can be 'hacked' ...".

Not to be confused with Black Hat Briefings, which was founded in 1997 by Jeff Moss (no relation) and is "a computer security conference that brings together a variety of people interested in information security. Representatives of government agencies and corporations attend, along with hackers. The Briefings take place regularly in Las Vegas, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Abu Dhabi and, occasionally, Tokyo. An event dedicated to the Federal Agencies is organized in Washington, DC ...".

Would you like to attend DEF CON? One young lady who attended this year gave an interview to BuzzFeed magazine that gives you a hangover just to read it: "... But I had a good time. It’s always a good time. As long as you remember most of it. Or maybe you don’t want to remember. It just kicks your ass. But once a year? It isn’t the worst thing for your liver".

Toe-curling: GDS PR Blitz

The launch of the Government Digital Service's PR campaign on the BBC and in the Guardian was noted here three weeks ago on 14 June 2013.

Last week a new front was opened up in the Times newspaper with an opinion piece by Rachel Sylvester, Geeks in jeans are the Treasury’s new heroes. Are they geeks? Are they in jeans? Are they the Treasury's new heroes? Precisely what have GDS achieved so far? What is the outlook for all their outstanding projects? Ms Sylvester left her readers none the wiser.

Yesterday, again in the Times, the PR campaign went out of control. Laura Pitel wrote Jordan Hatch: boy wonder civil servant with a plan to save £4m:

He has no university degree, no A levels and wears cargo pants to work. Meet the teenage civil servant who is going to save you £4 million ... Jordan Hatch is the poster boy of the Government’s digital revamp ... Bringing a 17-year-old on to the team was seen as the embodiment of a new, more adventurous way of thinking ... the lack of formal qualifications betrays [?] a talent for IT that began when he was barely out of nappies ... Baroness Lane Fox of Soho, recently secured him a role as young digital adviser to the European Commission ...

This ruthless exploitation of Mr Hatch extends all the way to Sir Bob Kerslake, head of the home civil service, and it smacks of desperation:

@1jh makes headlines today for having a terrific impact @gdsteam, and not a bowler hat in sight #csuncovered http://t.co/e6J1i1Hkm1 — Bob Kerslake (@SirBobKerslake) August 6, 2013

Toe-curling: GDS PR Blitz

The launch of the Government Digital Service's PR campaign on the BBC and in the Guardian was noted here three weeks ago on 14 June 2013.

Last week a new front was opened up in the Times newspaper with an opinion piece by Rachel Sylvester, Geeks in jeans are the Treasury’s new heroes. Are they geeks? Are they in jeans? Are they the Treasury's new heroes? Precisely what have GDS achieved so far? What is the outlook for all their outstanding projects? Ms Sylvester left her readers none the wiser.

midata and your money

WHAT'S NEXT POST LAUNCH OF THE MIDATA INNOVATION LAB?

Good question.

That's the title of an interview with Dan Bates, director of the midata Innovation Lab (mIL), published in Ctrl-Shift News, where space is so tight that there isn't room to remind the reader that Ctrl-Shift is one of the 22 Founding Partners of mIL.

"I am proud that we have set the bar high by bringing the mIL to life in just seven weeks from project kick-off", says Dan, too young perhaps to remember that "project kick-off" was 91 weeks ago on 3 November 2011 when the Department for Business Innovation and Skills published Government, business and consumer groups commit to midata vision of consumer empowerment.

mIL has several "learning streams of activity", we learn during the interview, and a "project heartbeat". mIL is an "enabler" and "we have made it easy to get involved". It is a "potential consumer blockbuster" but, before that happens, Dan needs more organisations to sign up.

What kind of organisations? Answer: "these organisations will be trail-blazers who have the humility to acknowledge no-one as yet has all the answers, and thus share and learn, whilst at the same time having the vision and boldness to be the first-movers that accelerate the personal data market".

It's not easy to find organisations like that and Dan's boss, Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, has been reduced to trying to buy them in:

Calling all developers - prizes and seed corn funding for best apps in #midata #midatalab - join now http://t.co/B7bwbdg1Gb — Nigel Shadbolt (@Nigel_Shadbolt) July 30, 2013

As well as bold humble visionaries, there are "experts involved in the mIL", Dan wants it to be "transformative" and he wants to "kick start a collective inflection point in business". midata is all about apps. What kind of apps? According to Dan, "really interesting" ones: "I want some really interesting apps and services to come out of the mIL".

You wouldn't fund a project for 91 weeks, would you, based on breathless promises of really interesting transformative apps that will kickstart a collective inflection point?

You just have. And there's no end in sight.

midata and your money

WHAT'S NEXT POST LAUNCH OF THE MIDATA INNOVATION LAB?

Good question.

That's the title of an interview with Dan Bates, director of the midata Innovation Lab (mIL), published in Ctrl-Shift News, where space is so tight that there isn't room to remind the reader that Ctrl-Shift is one of the 22 Founding Partners of mIL.

"I am proud that we have set the bar high by bringing the mIL to life in just seven weeks from project kick-off", says Dan, too young perhaps to remember that "project kick-off" was 91 weeks ago on 3 November 2011 when the Department for Business Innovation and Skills published Government, business and consumer groups commit to midata vision of consumer empowerment.

Cloud – Dale Vile tells it like it is

Freeform Dynamics is an "IT industry analyst firm" distinguished by "straight talking, telling it as it is in down-to-earth language".

Dale Vile, the CEO, is a "cloud advocate", he tells us in SMBs are tumbling into the cloud? Oh get real, and he's not pleased. Large companies and public bodies are adopting cloud computing but small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) aren't: "we are hardly scratching the surface when it comes to selling cloud options into the SMB space".

What seems to be the problem?

Dale says: "IT policy and planning is down to business people at the lower end" and "where a business person rather than an IT professional is responsible for IT policy, planning and decision-making, cloud is far less likely to be on the agenda".

What's the matter with these business people?

Dale thinks they're hysterics: "... then there’s the MSPs [managed service providers, i.e. cloud shops] who despite the current privacy-related hysteria are still reporting impressive growth that shows no signs of abating".

IT professionals are pretty relaxed about storing their company's data in the cloud and losing control of it but psychologically damaged business people seem to suffer from a primitive need to protect their intellectual property and to honour their promises to keep client data confidential.

If the business people are removed and IT professionals run businesses instead, will that solve the uptake problem suffered by cloud computing?

No.

Dale has another issue: "bloody well appreciate that you aren't going to unlock the SMB space without the channel, so pay more attention to enabling your partners and making sure that cloud is good business for them as well as yourselves".

Cloud – Dale Vile tells it like it is

Freeform Dynamics is an "IT industry analyst firm" distinguished by "straight talking, telling it as it is in down-to-earth language".

Dale Vile, the CEO, is a "cloud advocate", he tells us in SMBs are tumbling into the cloud? Oh get real, and he's not pleased. Large companies and public bodies are adopting cloud computing but small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) aren't: "we are hardly scratching the surface when it comes to selling cloud options into the SMB space".

What seems to be the problem?

Dale says: "IT policy and planning is down to business people at the lower end" and "where a business person rather than an IT professional is responsible for IT policy, planning and decision-making, cloud is far less likely to be on the agenda".

What's the matter with these business people?

Classical innovation and old-fashioned digital

8:51, Friday morning, 2 August 2013, the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, and Evan Davis interviews Emma Stenning, executive director of Bristol Old Vic, and Max Hole, chairman of Universal Group International. The question is what innovations are needed to make classical music more popular.

The proms at the Bristol Old Vic have introduced a screen allowing the audience to see the conductor in the same way as the orchestra does. That seems eminently sensible, but not innovative – Evan Davis and Max Hole agreed that rock concerts have had big screens "forever".

They have also introduced a standing pit for the promenaders. Again, eminently sensible, and ticket sales have gone up by 20% as a result, but not innovative – Emma Stenning made the point that this was actually a return to the way the theatre was in 1766. (When America had only just ceased to be a British colony ...)

In between these sensible points there was a bit of talk about digital innovation, new technology, digital opportunity and the promenade concerts being made more accessible by exploiting the analogy of a concert with computer games and digital environments in which avatars respond to the music (3'22" to 3'47").

Admittedly someone was driving to a funeral while this piece was broadcast, and was feeling mighty sour, but the digital innovation drivel sounded tired, old-fashioned, tawdry, gratuitous and past its sell-by date. The horse is dead and it's a waste of time to keep flogging it.

How boring an old fart have you got to be to still find computer games exciting?

"Digital" doesn't mean "open" or "welcoming" or "warm" or "informal" or "accessible" or "engaging" or "popular". It doesn't even mean "modern" any more.

Classical innovation and old-fashioned digital

8:51, Friday morning, 2 August 2013, the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, and Evan Davis interviews Emma Stenning, executive director of Bristol Old Vic, and Max Hole, chairman of Universal Group International. The question is what innovations are needed to make classical music more popular.

The proms at the Bristol Old Vic have introduced a screen allowing the audience to see the conductor in the same way as the orchestra does. That seems eminently sensible, but not innovative – Evan Davis and Max Hole agreed that rock concerts have had big screens "forever".

They have also introduced a standing pit for the promenaders. Again, eminently sensible, and ticket sales have gone up by 20% as a result, but not innovative – Emma Stenning made the point that this was actually a return to the way the theatre was in 1766. (When America had only just ceased to be a British colony ...)

In between these sensible points there was a bit of talk about digital innovation, new technology, digital opportunity and the promenade concerts being made more accessible by exploiting the analogy of a concert with computer games and digital environments in which avatars respond to the music (3'22" to 3'47").

Admittedly someone was driving to a funeral while this piece was broadcast, and was feeling mighty sour, but the digital innovation drivel sounded tired, old-fashioned, tawdry, gratuitous and past its sell-by date. The horse is dead and it's a waste of time to keep flogging it.

How boring an old fart have you got to be to still find computer games exciting?

"Digital" doesn't mean "open" or "welcoming" or "warm" or "informal" or "accessible" or "engaging" or "popular". It doesn't even mean "modern" any more.