Category: safety

What a year

My all too brief summary of 2020 and thoughts for 2021

2020 has followed much of 2016.

  • A change of president
  • Brexit
  • Deaths of many we’ve known and loved

Plus we can’t forget something that started in 2019 in China – Covid.

Here in the UK, we seem to have made a complete hash of it, but what can you expect from the country that brought you Brexit? Britain is particularly great at shooting itself in the foot. Voting to leave the UK, failing to shut down quickly enough, failing to wear masks, and seemingly creating or at least helping to spread the new Covid variant. We’ve done a great job of showing we can’t sort ourselves out.

Thankfully, this time around the change in president (in the US of A) is from the one many have named “45” to avoid using his name and giving him legitimacy, to Joe Biden, who immediately appears more “normal”. At least he is not focused on “fake news” or disrupting the world. Joe seems to be more about bringing people together. A total turnaround from what the world has experienced during the last four years.

We voted to leave Europe, and now it’s actually happening. The “oven ready” deal wasn’t quite that, though somehow Boris has managed to get something in place. I’ve no idea if it will be enough to save the UK businesses that I know are looking at what business they will still manage to run in this new world of the UK outside of the EU. Time will tell and I hope it will work, but I fear the British public’s choice was so ill-informed and we’ll never quite manage to be the Great nation we once were. Early analysis suggests that services, which makes up most of what Britain sells abroad to the EU will not be as easy or successful. What is still worrying is the noise that rumbles about whether Ireland will reunite, and if that does, it opens the doors for Scotland and possibly Wales to push for independence.

The deaths this year have almost reached 2016 levels. Sean Connery, Derek Fowlds (Basil Brush and yes Minister), Terry Jones, Nicholas Parsons (Just a Minute will never be the same again), Kirk Douglas, John Shrapnel, Max von Sydow, Bill Withers, Honor Blackman, Sir Stirling Moss, Little Richard, Vera Lynn, Ennis Morrison’s, Chadwick Boseman, Diana Rigg, Eddie Van Haley, John Sessions, Geoffrey Palmer, Dave Prowse, and Barbara Windsor.

And my Mum. 19th November 2020 will be forever etched in our family memories.

2020 ends with Covid throwing another spanner in the works with a new variant that spreads faster, so many of us in the UK are in Tier 4 – and if it continues, possibly a Tier 5 might have to be developed. I feel that 2021 will continue to be challenging with respect to the ongoing Brexit and COVID-19 situations, but there’s more to 2021 than that.

2021 holds a lot of promise, some challenges for sure, but like many people around the world, I’m positive it can only get better. When compared to the sh*tshow that 2020 has been.

Fingers crossed 2021 delivers on all the hopes and dreams. And on that note there are some positives to watch for:

And these are just some of the items to which we can look forward in 2021.

Make 2021 your positive year.

Happy New Year

Facebook is too big

I left Facebook more for fears of how they failed to address privacy than other reasons, though those other factors for which Facebook constantly faces criticism did play a part.

To know that a report which it instigated reinforces that some of the issues society today faces are driven by how Facebook works, only makes me more focused on staying out of its way.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53333626

This article by the BBC highlights that far from being a saint, Facebook is a sinner of the worst kind. That, as at that time, 990 or more companies are boycotting Facebook advertising because of how it operates, only corroborates that perspective.

Facebook is great for maintaining contact with friends, but there are other ways.

I’d love to find a way to help and connect with others that is about cooperation, not segregation. About consideration for others, not self-aggrandisement. For the whole of society, not individuals or elitist groups – regardless of political affiliation.

A win for personal privacy

The UK Government had insisted they have the right model, despite security researchers finding lots of flaws and being advised it could breach privacy legislation. Though with the latter, the UK Government’s steam-roller like focus on “getting Brexit done” might leave us, it’s citizens, more exposed anyway.

So, today I read, they’ve made another u-turn and will use the more privacy-focused Apple/Google solution. Good for all of us.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53095336

An interesting time

Supposedly there is an old Chinese proverb about “may you live in interesting times” and is meant to be used as a sort of insult or curse at someone who has displeased you. The idea being that “interesting times” means bad things.

Many might consider the advent and actions taken as a result of the current coronavirus also known as Covid-19 as “interesting times”.

Instead, I’d suggest what it has done is shown us the “interesting people”. I’ve seen two main types so far, but there are no doubt multiple sub-categories.

The first is the person who panic buys, who continues to do the usual things even though they should self-isolate, who believes that their needs outweigh those of any others.

The second is the antithesis, the one who goes out their way to self-isolate, who will drop off groceries for vulnerable neighbours, the good Samaritans as it were.

Look carefully at your actions and decide who you are, and who you’d rather be.

Be the person who cares, who is considerate, who thinks about others.

#letstalksafetech

I work for IBM, I should say that up front in case of any concerns that I don’t make that clear.

IBM has launched a micro-site on our IBM Volunteer Portal which has Mayim Bialik, yes Amy Farrah Fowler heself from The Big Bang Theory, sharing tips about being safe online for the younger people around the world.

Let’s start with the link: https://www.ibm.org/activities/cybersecurity/safetech

Indeed, this is information that is valuable to anyone who is online – which is pretty much the whole world these days.

Be safe, be secure, and do the right things for yourself.

Science v Religion

It really shouldn’t be a fight between science and religion, but clearly some don’t believe science and would rather believe in the power of prayer.

This article highlights that the US has a core of people thinking that way, and that the numbers seem to be increasing.

https://slate.com/technology/2019/07/marianne-williamson-anti-science-stances-investigated-presidential-race.html

Now, we probably need to take a step back. Religion is a descriptive name for the beliefs humans have had, in many instances, since we were cavemen. (Very simplistic view, but I don’t want this to be a long article).

Science on the other hand is the learning we have gained, and proved, from investigating and understanding everything around, as well as in, us.This takes in everything from the micro to the macro and extends to the universe. We’re still learning but over the many thousands of years we have advanced so far. We used to worship the sun because it rose and set magically, now we know that we rotate around it and the rising and setting of the sun is “just science”.

Science has improved our lives immeasurably. We live longer, can expect to survive cancers that would have killed previous generations and we’re working to survive all cancers. We know much more about the universe, but as with every item we learn, we find new areas that need further exploration.

What I am saying is that we may want and spiritually need to rely on religion as an emotional or psychological crutch, but we should be very wary of treating everything written in any holy text as absolute.

Get your inoculations, make sure your children do, follow the space missions and support us getting off the earth so we can survive even longer as a species.

We need to trust science more than religion. Doing otherwise will kill off our species in the long run.

A brilliant – and free – solution to ransomware

It’s great to see innovative thinking in any situation, but especially where individuals who may lack technical knowledge are faced with a criminal issue.

Like ransomware.

You may click on an unexpected email, never a good thing, but we all make errors at times. Hey presto, your mail, photos, files, perhaps even your whole PC are locked – their contents encrypted unless you pay a ransom.

So this site is a great idea:

https://www.nomoreransom.org/

It’s easy to use and follow the steps. It’s linked to police organisations.

It’s the ideal solution.

It can’t do every type of ransomware, but it does a lot – and probably the most common.

Be safe.

Not investigating seems wrong to me

If there is as serious an allegation that, if true, has various people saying it should be investigated properly, then having such an investigation denied, that seems wrong to me.

The investigation could be held in private, the results kept private and so on, if there are any security or similar concerns.

To just not investigate is plain wrong and does nothing to reinforce public belief that the MPs and their associated processes are nothing but an old boys (and girls) network.

Bad move MPs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44148019

Whistleblowers should expect and deserve privacy

No one wants to be a whistleblower, nor does anyone wish to be the target of a whistleblower either.

However, the function is a necessary and worthwhile safeguard to ensure compliance, especially where any business is and has to be secretive in what it is doing.

As the article says, the Barclays boss is very lucky to still be employed and also not sufficiently reprimanded to be blackballed from future banking roles, though one might think he is as close as he could be to that status.

Privacy for this function of whistleblowing is key and is enshrined in law in some countries. Long may that continue.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44081942

iOS 11.4 looks like limiting law enforcement USB access

Based on the report below, it seems likely Apple are reinforcing user’s rights to privacy.
It’s a double edged sword of course, but I must admit I’d feel a lot safer with this limitation in place, not because of law enforcement, but because nefarious types won’t be able to use it either.
Any technology the good guys get to break security, eventually makes it into the wild, so better to engineer against that from the start.
Have a read.

iOS 11.4 security tool is Apple’s newest way to foil the Feds