WIREDGOV NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
So you thought you were being careful! |
Guest Blog by John Kearney of DXW highlights top security tips for password management Trying to make passwords more secure can often end up having the opposite effect, for two main reasons:
For evidence of how people choose passwords, you need look no further than the 10,000 most common passwords discovered in security breaches, as published on Github or this page on Wikipedia. As I write, the second most common password is “password”, “Password” is number 176, “password1” is at 207, “PASSWORD” is at 710 and “Password1” checks in at 2,968. As for the relative ease with which a computer can guess a random string as opposed to a well-crafted passphrase, XKCD tells that story better than we could. No matter how many times people are told never to use the same password across many sites & services, most still do just that. It’s human nature to take the quickest & easiest option, and the one that means we won’t forget our passwords and get locked out. Once you understand how people interact with a system, and the reasons why the rules don’t result in the right kind of behaviour, you can take a different approach. As an individual you should:
As a business, you should:
|
Researched Links: |
techUK: Why we know your password and what you can do about it PC&PE: National Cyber Security Strategy needs long-term plan AXELOS: Secrets, Rumours & Lies Can cyber security prevention be any more basic than this? ‘Reputation is everything’ to an organisation and lax security could cost a fortune Not an obvious target, but data could provide access to more important systems |
|
Never ‘blindly’ rely on something you don’t understand |
‘Explainability’ of AI decisions is a key area of the AI auditing framework. This guidance from Project ExplAIn will inform our assessment methodology. If an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system makes a decision about an individual, should that person be given an explanation of how the decision was made? Should they get the same information about a decision regarding criminal justice as they would about a decision concerning healthcare? These are just two of the issues we have been exploring with public and industry engagement groups over the last few months. In 2018, the Government tasked the ICO and The Alan Turing Institute (The Turing) to produce practical guidance for organisations, to assist them with explaining AI decisions to the individuals affected. This work has been titled ‘Project ExplAIn’. The ICO and The Turing conducted research, including citizens’ juries and industry roundtables, to gather views from a range of stakeholders with various, and sometimes competing, interests in the subject. The findings of this research have now been published in a Project ExplAIn interim report. The report identifies three key themes that emerged from the research:
The findings set out in the Project ExplAIn interim report will feed directly into ICO guidance for organisations. This will go out for public consultation over the summer and will be published in full in the autumn. All materials & reports generated from the citizens’ juries are freely available to access. The project ExplAIn guidance will also inform the ICO’s AI auditing framework, which is currently being consulted on and which is due to be published in 2020. |
Researched Links: |
ICO: When it comes to explaining AI decisions, context matters techUK: ICO launch explainable AI interim report RUSI partners with the Centre for Data Ethics & Innovation Human skill sets are not redundant yet! The intelligent merging of human & technical healthcare SFO; An intelligent solution to a major problem |
Editor’s choice of other ICT items of note: |
ScotGov: Biometrics Commissioner GDS Guest post: Adapting the GOV.UK Design System for the NHS AXELOS: ITIL human centred service design – understanding customer needs |
Learning from, not seeking to assign blame |
Niall Dickson, CE of the NHS Confederation, responds to the Independent Review of Gross Negligence Manslaughter and Culpable Homicide. "There will always be a need for accountability by both organisations and professionals, but as this report recognises, we need to change the way we think about patient safety, from a conversation about blame to one of learning…….. We know staff fear that if they engage in reflective practice, they open themselves up to liability or criminal proceedings, and this can limit what they are willing to share, in turn preventing meaningful learning from taking place. The report rightly identifies a need to introduce legislation to protect reflective practice. This will be a necessary step towards restoring faith in the system, but will require careful nuance to ensure that those acts of negligence that are found to be malicious are not afforded blanket protection, and that patients are protected from the very small number of incompetent practitioners”. |
Researched Links: |
NHS Confed: Report recognises need to change patient safety conversation from blame to learning Independent review of gross negligence manslaughter & culpable homicide Not learning lessons is ‘all too common’ in public sector organisations NHS Administrative Management is often a prime example of the ‘Peter Principle’ ‘Never’ events do happen but we rarely remember the lessons learnt |
SME Supplier Locator update... | ||
UK Government and public sector spend with SME’s is continually on the increase and by 2020, it is the stated intent of Cabinet Office that £1 of every £3 spent on government contracts goes to SME’s. Against this ambitious backdrop, the WiredGov Supplier Locator service has been developed specifically to embrace the SME Agenda and provide the ideal platform for SME’s to promote their services, solutions, accreditation and success stories directly to our ever increasing audience across all government and public sector verticals and Tier 1 suppliers. Recent arrivals to the SME Supplier Locator service include:
Click here to find out more. |
Not long before a new ‘batch’ set off to Uni. |
A University of Liverpool-led partnership has been awarded £575k funding from the Office for Students for a project to further develop mental health provision for students across Liverpool. The partnership, which includes the Innovation Agency, is behind a project that will employ staff in Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust’s Hope Clinic, which supports people following self-harm. The project will also offer assessment & support to people experiencing a mental health crisis and will develop group interventions for a range of mental health issues including eating disorders, anxiety and depression. |
Researched Links: |
Innovation Agency: £575k boost for student mental health provision in Liverpool Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust’s Hope Clinic |
Even minor changes mean tenants must be given a revised version |
The Government published an updated version of the How to Rent guide in England on 31 May 2019. The new guide was published a day before the Tenant Fees Act came into force in England. In this blog first published on the Anthony Gold website, RLA Policy Director David Smith takes a closer look at what has been updated in the guide and the implications of the change. The guide needs to be given to all tenancies that are new or renewed for a new fixed term after 1 October 2015. It is not required for tenancies that started before 1 October 2015 and which have continued after that date as periodic tenancies although there will be relatively few of these in existence. The guide was updated slightly for the same reasons as it published the new version of the form 6A for serving s21 notices. That is the introduction of the Tenant Fees Act from 1 June 2019 and the consequent changes to the maximum size of a tenancy deposit and the various prohibitions on the charging of fees to tenants. The key elements mentioned in the new guide are that:
|
Researched Links: |
RLA BLOG: How to Rent guide update and the implications of the change Citizens Advice: Momentous day for England’s renters as Tenant Fees Act comes into force |
Editorial Commentary; For some veterans the scars may heal, but their view of life will never be the same again |
Blind Veterans UK helps ex-Service men & women of every generation rebuild their lives after sight loss. Since 1915 they’ve provided rehabilitation, training, practical advice and emotional support to tens of thousands of blind veterans. It’s a sad fact that many of the blind veterans they support suffer from social isolation. It happens as we get older and our families leave us, and partners pass away. For people with sight loss, that isolation is all the more painful to bear. It’s not just about losing other people though, it’s also about being isolated inside yourself when you are unable to carry out tasks such as going to the shops or even pick up a phone to speak to a friendly voice. For those who can’t see, it often leads to losing your self-belief, and – even worse – your sense of belonging. That’s why they need your support now as we remember the sacrifices made by those armed services personnel who landed on the beaches of Normandy 75 years ago last week
|
|
Still a ‘hot topic’, with widely spread views, for those who put fingers to keyboard in order to ‘share their views’: |
Researched Links: |
Defra: Pet owners reminded to seek advice on travel plans ahead of 31 October EU News: Easier use of digital information for freight transport – Council agrees on its position OE: European elections - the results in maps and charts OE: The selection of top EU jobs explained IFG: Brexit should force Parliament to reinvent itself B4B: Brexit and the US-UK Defence Relationship B4B: The Anglosphere – reality or mirage? B4B: “Dear Jenni …”: an open letter to The Times B4B: In the marginals, it’s the Leavers who are in revolt |
- General News, Charities & Third Sector
- Health, Social Care and Homelessness
- National & Devolved Policy Statements & Initiatives, Legislation / Legal
- Consultations
- Reports and Other Publications not listed in other sections
- EU Legislation, Initiatives, etc.
- ICT and Data Management / Security
- Business and Other Briefings / News – (Government Funding Opportunities)
- Forthcoming Events