climate and comms

There are so many pundits out there who have finally jumped on this bandwagon.   But lets be honest,  five and a half (or is it now closer to six)  billion people,  can’t be wrong – the mobile revolution is finishing its transition from what have been predominantly voice services to broad-band data services.  The devices that we used to just talk on are now full blown computers and we use them for everything – although we do actually still use them to talk on as well too!.  ( See my previous blog:   http://rossmac2310.blogspot.com/2011/10/human-evolution-and-mobile.html ) There are so many exciting threads to this trend : the Internet revolution in Africa and other emerging markets,  the plethora of new services being created every day that add value to our everyday existence and the emergence of real competition in the mobile handset space.   I applaud Microsoft ( and Nokia) for their exciting new partnership and a handset t...

con·text /ˈkäntekst/ The circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed. authenticate [ɔːˈθɛntɪˌkeɪt] vb (tr)   to establish as genuine or valid What does context have to do with authentication? When you log on to a web site and enter your user name and password so as to ‘authenticate’ yourself all you are presenting are self reported credentials to the site.  If you present the correct credentials then the site accepts you as - who you say you are.   It takes you at face value.  It identifies you.  Liken it to a knight of old arriving at castle and announcing himself.   When you log on to a web site and it asks you to log in with a user name and password – you are in effect – announcing yourself – identifying yourself.   What happens if someone steals your password?   Then they can log on as you – the site is none the wiser – the thief has presente...

We in the southern part of the UK have started to see our Indian summer start to slowly fade as we get into this first week of October.    It has been a wonderful but disorientating week with temperatures in the high 20’s (80’s F) – and clear blue skies - I could have sworn this was Jo’burg in Summer.   All that was missing was the swimming pools ! Well I know that parts of the mid-West have also had some great weather.  Indeed in the good ol’  US of A October has become known as  National Cyber Security Awareness month.    Who would have thought ten years ago that a whole month would be ‘honoured’ with such a strange moniker.     Well I guess 10 years ago no one would have predicted that we would have become so utterly dependent on the Web – our every waking and in some instances sleeping moments have some Web connection.    E-mail, social-media,  telephony,  shopping, business, entertainment, gaming  – ju...

In April this year,  Epsilon Data Management LLC  (one of the world's largest providers of marketing-email services) , a division of Alliance Data Systems Corp issued a statement, " On March 30th, an incident was detected where a subset of Epsilon clients' customer data were exposed by an unauthorized entry into Epsilon's email system. The information that was obtained was limited to email addresses and/or customer names only ." ( http://www.fastcompany.com/1744738/the-epsilon-breach-should-you-be-angry-worried-or-bored ) When it's all said and done, the Epsilon hack may be the largest name and email address breach in the history of the Internet.  Epsilon handles more than 40 billion emails annually and more than 2,200 global brands. If you are thinking you are safe because you opted-out of marketing emails, think again ( http://blogs.computerworld.com/18079/epsilon_breach_hack_of_the_century ) Epsilon required their customer...

 If you live in the UK and are somehow involved in the business world and exposed to media you could not help but have noticed the extensive advertising campaign that HSBC has been running on its new (sic) ‘security device’ for online banking - Secure Key.    ( I was tempted to refer to them as  ‘ large UK bank’  - but it is so obvious who it is – no point in pretending. ) A lot of money has been thrown at this campaign – I would guess millions.  ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx0Z5CiQMIw )   Full page spreads in large circulation newspapers cost big bucks not to mention prime time TV slots.   So here you have the worlds largest retail bank splashing millions on advertising and even more on a ‘cool’ little device that looks like a mini-calculator  - but basically a technology that has been around for about a decade.   This will be rolled out to 4m retail customers worldwide at a reported cost of up to £50 per pop!...

In many countries around the World, access to the Internet is seen as a basic right, and so it should be.    Those countries which have done so to date include :  Estonia, France,  Spain,  Greece  and Finland,  which was actually the first to do so in June 2010.  ( http://www.publicserviceeurope.com/article/642/internet-access-should-be-a-human-right)  I In fact the United Nations recently declared Internet access as a human right. ( http://www.itproportal.com/2011/06/04/un-declares-internet-access-as-a-human-right/ ) Obviously the next challenge is to build the infrastructure and provide the means of access.    But that is the subject of a separate discussion. So the “World”  has woken up to the importance of closing the digital divide and has also realized the importance of the Internet, and access to it,  to the functioning of society.   Amongst the many momentous events of the last twelve months ...

I know,   I know – I hear the howls of protest even before finishing this first sentence.   “What about all the innocent lives exposed by the irresponsible publication of peoples names in positions of authority or in sensitive roles. ?”    But where does the fault lie ?  With those doing the breaking and entering?   Or those not providing adequate protection??  It is liked leaving your house locked without an alarm system, going on holiday, and coming back and finding it broken into.   Don’t be surprised.  You have no one to blame but yourself.  “ But these are criminals ! “  – I hear the sounds of self righteous chest thumping.    Maybe, but what they have done – I hope – is scare the s**t out of anyone who has anything (data) that is accessible via the Web  - and into ensuring that their ‘security’ ( if any ) - is rapidly upgraded.    This ranges from personal users who ...