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Contribute to techUK's Cyber Campaign Week – Staying Safe Online.

techUK would like to invite you to contribute to techUK’s Cyber Campaign Week which will this year centre around ‘Staying Safe Online’ – 17-21 February, showcasing how cyber technology can be used & harnessed to better protect citizens & organisations across the UK.

The week will highlight how innovation and best practice can be utilised to mitigate against the growing threat landscape in the cyber domain, a shared challenge we all face. 

They would like to invite you to contribute on one of the topics outlined below. If you wish to contribute to a different topic then happy to explore further with you.

• Secure by design
• Cyber hygiene
• Emerging threat landscape
• Data Protection
• Cyber Skills

A guide which for the first time brings together knowledge from the world’s leading cyber security experts has been launched.

The Cyber Security Body of Knowledge (CyBOK) provides a foundation for cyber security education, training and professional practice.  It will be invaluable for academia, industry and Government.

The 828-page resource has the potential to help organisations to better protect themselves.  It covers the foundations of cyber security, ranging from the human element through to issues in computer hardware security.

Launched at a special event at London’s Science Museum, CyBOK was sponsored by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is a part of GCHQ, and funded by the National Cyber Security Programme with support from DCMS. The development of CyBOK was led by the University of Bristol. 

A new technique (Project Artemis) which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify & block child grooming conversations online has been launched by the Home Office and Microsoft in Seattle.

The technique, which began development at a hackathon co-hosted by Microsoft and the Home Office in November 2018, will automatically flag conversations which could be taking place between groomers & children, and pass on details of the flagged conversation to the relevant law enforcement agency.

The technique, licensed from 9 January 2020, is FREE OF CHARGE, to S&M-sized technology companies to help them stamp out child grooming on their platforms.

Other measures to stamp out online child abuse include £30m funding to target the most the most dangerous & sophisticated offenders on the dark web & upgrades to the Child Abuse Image Database. These include new tools to improve the capabilities of Police enabling them to rapidly analyse seized devices & identify victims.

The Home Office is also working with the Joint Security and Resilience Centre (JSaRC) to develop tools to identify & block livestreamed child sexual abuse and pledged £300,000 in May to further develop capabilities.

New investment in frontline technology will free up thousands of NHS staff hours each day by improving how staff access computer systems.

The government will provide £40m to transform slow login times, one of the main technology frustrations facing NHS staff.  NHS staff currently have to log in to multiple computer programmes when tending to a patient, with each programme requiring its own login details.  Some staff need to log into as many as 15 different systems.

This can be time consuming, and also requires staff to remember multiple complex passwords or use the same one on multiple systems, which is potentially a cybersecurity risk.  The investment will support projects similar to that seen at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool, which implemented single sign-on technology and reduced time spent logging into multiple computer systems from 1 minute 45 seconds to just 10 seconds.  With almost 5,000 logins a day, it saved over 130 hours of staff time and freed up their time to focus on patient care.

To further improve the digital capability of NHS trusts, a new ‘digital aspirant’ programme will be set up.  This will provide funding over several years to assist with digital transformation projects so that trusts can provide safe, high-quality and efficient care.  The programme will aim to raise the bar across the NHS by making sure organisations have a core set of capabilities in place.

Barely had the ballot boxes been put back into storage than the FM of Scotland published her DEMAND to be given the power to hold another independence referendum for Scotland.

ScotGov:  Independence Referendum: transfer of power demanded

ScotGov:  Approval for Referendums Bill

The language used; ‘calling for the UK Government to negotiate and AGREE the transfer of power’ makes it clear she has no intention of ‘negotiating’ and reminds one of the stance taken by the EC when ‘negotiating’ with PM May during the first 3 years of the Brexit process.

She went on to say; “It is for the Prime Minister to defend why he believes the UK is not a voluntary union of equal nations. It is for him to set out why he does not believe people in Scotland have the right to self-determination”.

The term ‘voluntary union of equal nations’ is an interesting one as it implies there is no legal/treaty basis behind the Union, which is not the case.

Act of Union 1707 - UK Parliament

Perhaps the PM could demonstrate the ‘equality of nations’ (or perhaps more accurately ‘Kingdoms’) by equalising down the payments made to Scotland under the Barnett formula which sees Scotland get (currently) approximately £2,000 per head than England.

One wonders how the SNP would finance an independent Scotland without Barnett formula

Editorial commentary; Yet more evidence of ‘dodgy’ financial foundation on an Independent Scotland

More importunely, he should challenge the FM to prove how she would be able to protect the financial stability of an independent Scotland and the financial assets of all the residents in this proposed new country!   The key to the foundation of a financially stable country being a ‘stable & flexible currency with adequate foreign reserves’.

Choose Your Poison: the SNP’s Currency Headache by These Islands, the forum of Scottish pro-union economists.

While the FM may be able to demand the power to hold an independence referendum(s), it has no power to demand the rUK share its currency, nor continue to subsidise Scotland.  In addition, while the rUK may agree a Free Trade Agreement (to be negotiated) with an independent Scotland, there is only uncertainty if Scotland manages to re-join the EU a future date, which would create a NI/RoI border ‘on steroids’!

To sum up, while Scotland may have the ‘moral right’ to become independent, it has no legal right to expect the rUK to pay for it!   So the PM has a moral right to demand that the FM agree to an independent evaluation of any plans the FM has to prove its financial viability, thus demonstrating a ‘duty of care’ to the UK citizens currently living in Scotland.

Latest idea from SNP to increase English Taxpayers’ subsidy:  During the recent Westminster debate on the Queen’s Speech, the SNP proposed that the English NHS ‘spend’ should be increased to the same level as that of Scotland, which may seem reasonable if one ignores the fact that Scotland’s Barnett formula funding is already £2,000 higher than England’s.

BUT, if one follows the logic of the Barnett formula rules, any increase in NHS England’s funding would see an automatic rise in the Consequential payments to Scotland, Wales & NI.  If Scotland spent this extra funding on NHS Scotland, the UK Government would then have to give more funding to NHS England, which would lead to more Consequential payments …………………  Unlimited funding for NHS Scotland!!!!!!!!!!