Synergy Extreme United Kingdom

For executing cyber-attacks on behalf of hacktivist collective Anonymous, two men have been arrested by Southwark Crown Court. A 22-year-old student from Northampton, Christopher Weatherhead received a jail sentence of 18 months while 7 months in prison for Ashley Rhodes, a 28-year-old IT worker and church volunteer from Camberwell for his role in the attacks.

On the other hand, Jake Birchall, an 18-year-old from Chester was sentenced last February 1 for his role in the attacks and Peter Gibson, a 24-year-old from Hartlepool was given a 6 month sentence for his support in the campaign. The attacks were established part of Anonymous’ Operation Payback that directed organizations that had announced a position against the illegal downloading of music and internet piracy.

A DDoS campaign over online payment service providers damage PayPal almost £3.5 million, meanwhile within August 2010 and January 2011, Mastercard and Visa were also exposed to the attacks. The four accused were not simply included in the attacks but they played major roles in controlling the infrastructure used by other Anonymous members to organize the attacks.

Known online as Nerdo, Weatherhead was believed as a dominant member of Anonymous who carried out as a worldwide press representative for the group. While Rhodes, who used the online alias Nikonelite was described to be the most supportive on the accused and possessed a specialist DDoS software on his computer.

The sentenced Anonymous members as rather pretentious but the disposition of their hacks was not very prominent, declared by Judge Peter Testar. He also added that what was exceptional was the time taken to keep the identities of those defendants. The investigators are really to be complimented for dissolving the wall of anonymity that was raised in order to restrain the activity of these subversive being obstructed.

REFERENCES:

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2239131/anonymous-members-jailed-for-hacking-campaign

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9236218/Former_Anonymous_members_jailed_in_U.K._for_PayPal_Visa_DDoS_attacks

http://news.techworld.com/security/3422617/anonymous-hackers-jailed-for-infamous-ddos-campaign/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2267763/Anonymous-members-jailed-denial-service-attacks-Visa-Mastercard-PayPal-websites.html

According to a Conservative member of its cabinet, the somerset county council’s troubled outsourcing contract with the Southwest one has stalled the authority’s program of cost cuts. With the IBM in which Somerset owns a 17.5% share, southwest one a shared services venture has meanwhile begun actively working against Somerset’s interests. However, after the dramatic cut in council payments predicated a succession of the financial losses at the outsourcing venture.

The councillor David Huxtable stated that the Southwest one was stopping the council making cuts or privatizing services because it refused to give up its claim for fees on services the council discontinued. According also to him, every part of their organization has a prt of Southwest One appended to it whether it is buying a financial services, property advice or whatever. However a local authorities can not afford to do all the stuff that they used to do.

They want a change, they are almost precluded from doing because they will be carrying the overhead forever, unless they can renegotiate parts of the contract. The Conservative-led council had been trying to change it contract ever since it won power from the Liberal Democrats in the local election. In 2010, the conservatives cut payments to Southwest One by 31%. The somerset had accounted for 75% of the outsource ventures income. Yet by 2011, the council had cut payments to supplier by over 50% accounting for the majority of its lost income.

The only other council that joined the Southwest One Partnership is Taunton Deane District Council, cut its annual payments by just £1m since 2008. The Avon and Somerset Police the only other public body to join the venture, increased its payments by 70% or £8m. The three authorities account for 90% of Southwest One’s revenue. In the harsh of political world it was a contract set up by the Liberal Democrats and they’ve spent the last three years trying to renegotiate it to get more flexibility in the contract.

The Southwest One said in its annual accounts that it had successfully completed the onstallation of an SAP system, it has been anticipated, help it operate more efficiently. The Southwest One nor Somerset council would confirm how much money the former was claiming in its legal action. They said that in a statement that its legal action find the recovery of sums due under contract.

REFERENCE:

http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240162786/Southwest-One-is-blocking-Somerset-cuts-says-county-councillor

Most of the organization look to the cloud to provide some of the level of contingency against their own systems going down, be it off-site data backup, failover servers for business applications or the use of high-availability servers and software. The business continuity and level of disaster recovery a given organization chooses to put in the places will vary according to its own risk appetite and budget.

With the most basic level of data backup and moving to full business continuity, the following use case scenarios provide some guidance these are the following:

* Simple data backup — the cloud can act as an external storage system where files can be stored so that if there is a problem with on-premise storage, images of specific machines can be restored to a device and individual files can be recovered. It is said that it can be very cost effective, however as with the similar on-premise solutions, there will be a level of down-time while the data is identified and restored to the live environment. Large of the amounts of the data will take a long time to be recovered over the internet which is why Quocirca recommends that data be recovered from the cloud to a local physical device which is then couriered to the customer’s site and then recovered to the target storage system at local area network. The service provider may be able to offer additional archiving services that could work well for the compliance needs.

* Secondary data storage — the cloud can be used as the place where a mirror of existing data is kept. When there is a failure in an on-premise data storage device, systems can failover to use the data being stored in the cloud. Even though this may look as if it provides good levels of business continuity, organization must bear in mind that providing data to on-premise applications from outside the data center may lead to latency issues and that the synchronization of live data may not be as easy as first thought.

* Primary data storage — no data is stored on-premise instead being held directly in the cloud. The latency from the on-premise application to the data will generally make this a non-viable option although this should provide a better data availability due to how the cloud provider architects its storage platform, the latency from the on-premise application to the data will generally make this a non viable option. The data backup and restore is now being carried out at LAN speed.

* Applications and data are held in the cloud with the data back up and restore that is being integrated. The mves of the application and the data closer to each other so that the direct latency is no longer an issue.

* Applications being used as Virtual machines with data being mirrored — In this, by usin applications that have been packed as virtual machine, the failure of a single instance of the application can be rapidly fixed through just spinning up a new instance., this is getting closer to real business continuity.

* Stand-by business continuity — this application virtual machine is permanently spinning, however it is not a part of the live image, the pointers can be moved over to stand-by image in a matter of second, using existing or mirrored data storage.

* Full business continuity — the multiple data storage silos are mirrored on a live basis and multiple application. Virtual machines are maintained, the workloads are balanced between the virtual machines and two level commit is used on the data to ensure that any problem with the data itself is not mirrored across all the data stores.

REFERENCE:

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/the-big-picture-blog/2203020/the-cloud-business-continuity-at-affordable-pricing

A lawyer has advised that RIM, Nokia, Samsung and Apple should be careful of companies that hold patents on technologies outlined to abuse the use of 4G speeds. Firms handling the other conditions of mobile technologies are executing the background of strengthening their patent suites simultaneously. While handset makers will be broadened up their patent portfolios to obstruct legal actions from their competitors, this was according to the partner and patent attorney of an intellectual property company Witners & Rogers, John-Paul Rooney.

He also added that he referred to the value added services to go ahead on top of the technology and how these latest services that will be accessible in 4G will be more secure. Because of the new services there could be a lot of people to use the electronic travel documents and it may be other stuff like health records, drivers licenses and passports. While other people could be utilizing their banks using their mobile phones more often, however it all rely upon on its security.

It possibly that the occurrence of 4G could allow all of that to take place within the next few years. EE is presently the only mobile operator in the United Kingdom that has launched a 4G service, however in May of June it will be replaced by those operators who are fortunate in the current 4G auction. In 2000, the awakening of the 3G transformed the way people used their mobile devices, together with the tremendous growth in the mobile email one of the largest revelations of this technology.

However that much can be taken in from the effect of the 3G auction, Rooney added. At the time the most rewarding phone was RIM’s BlackBerry, however it carried out later that some of the technology the handset used was eventually Visto’s and it prevailed into a huge argument. To resolve a 3-year patent argument, RIM has already admitted to pay Visto $267.5 million and the other firms could be provocative to imitate what Visto did, Rooney stated.

He also added that Visto was eventually fortunate and it got a huge payout and as expected RIM knew that their security system for email was the most outstanding among others and they hoped to continue to obtain it. In 2009, Visto went on to achieve Good Technology from Motorola and then renamed itself after the mobile device management firm.

The another firm that could imitate Visto is digital security solution provider Gemalto which recently announced that it would be working with EE on its 4G services says Rooney. The Gemalto are the world leaders in digital security that they help providers to switch over from 3G to 4G. He had a look at the number of patents it filed between 2008 and the end of 2011 and it was  55. In the year 2012 that they had publish 146 almost triple the number of patents and this ties in with update of 4G.

He also said that it may not be in the publics eyes however companies are working behind the scenes on filing a lot of patents to maximize their revenues from their innovations. Rooney urged firms to ensure that they do not fall into the same trap as RIM did with Visto. If the RIM has done a deal with the Visto a lot of earlier, before 3G had become mainstream then the settlement would have been a lot lower.

REFERENCES:

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2238902/4g-launch-could-see-mobile-makers-sued-by-software-firms-says-lawyer

As a penalty for the PSN or PlayStation network hack that appeared last April 2011, Sony has obtained a record of £250,000 punishment from the ICO or the Information Commissioner’s Office. It substantially opposed with the final decision and will plea over the punishment, said by the electronics company. As a contemplative rupture of the Data Protection Act, the Information Commissioner’s Office recognize the attack that distinguished Sony diminish its PSN for just 24 days.

With email addresses, account passwords, dates of birth, names and addresses, the PSN hack intertwine the personal information of millions of PlayStation users. Apart from that, customers’ credit card details were also considered to be probably in trouble. The rupture could have been restricted if the passwords had been collected more tightly and software had been timely.

According to the ICO deputy commissioner and director of data protection, David Smith, if they are accountable for so many payment card information and log-in details then securing those kind of personal data has to be their first concern. But in that case it didn’t turn out that way, and when the database was pointed it out although in a serious criminal attack, looks like the security measures available were possibly not good enough to reveal.

He also added that there is no assuming that this is a business that have to be able to recognize more. This argument is one of the most intense report that they encountered. A large number of customers put them at the risk of identity theft and they are all affected with that case. Sony said that it will demand over the ICO’s ruling.

It claimed that there was no proof to recommend encrypted bank information were collected, asserting it takes securing customer details very intently. In a statement Sony said that they continually manage to enhance their systems, establishing multiple layers of defence and performing to make their networks reliable, secure and guarded.

They also stated that the criminal attacks on  electronic networks are truly exist and it is growing sign of the 21st century life. The most important for them is the security of their customers’ information and the dependability of their network services. They are grateful that their network services are being used by even more individual all over the world nowadays rather than the time of the criminal strike.

The primary lessons on information security are not being understood said by the head of cyber security at Thales UK, Ross Parsell as he gave his side about the Sony breach. A perimeter-based technique for security based over firewalls and defensive controls within the IT network is no longer adequate. He also added that the organizations need to reconsider their way to information security and be cautious in determining and securing data itself based on the sensitivity of that information.

REFERENCES:

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2238805/ico-fines-sony-gbp250-000-for-playstation-network-hack

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2414637,00.asp

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2238805/ico-fines-sony-gbp250-000-for-playstation-network-hack

http://www.itpro.co.uk/645271/sony-to-appeal-250-000-playstation-network-hack-fine

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/technology/article3666922.ece

http://asia.gamespot.com/news/sony-europe-fined-250000-for-2011-playstation-network-hacking-6402875

As the telecommunications provider EE or Everything Everywhere and Nokia, the smartphone producer both declare a programme of cuts and the changes in the opposing smartphone market observation initiate to generate more United Kingdom jobs. As part of a recently revealed restructuring that will ultimately notice the firm evaluation of 10,000 jobs over the globe, Nokia marked plans to lessen almost 1,000 jobs from its IT organization.

Of those which included on the 1,000 positions, at least 820 of them will be moved to Indian IT companies like TATA Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies. With Nokia’s home country of Finland carrying the blunt, almost 300 jobs will be vanished all in all. From the list of the top five smartphone producer, the mobile company Nokia previously lost its place.

On the other hand, the United Kingdom’s largest mobile network operator has declared that it will close almost 78 high-street warehouse, locating a number of managerial jobs into uncertainty. After last year’s establishing a new brand of over 600 stores, the action arrives which recently sustained under the banners of T-Mobile and Orange before the two companies joined together to evolved into EE. The fusion meant some EE stores were just yards away from each other locating on the high street.

But no front-line employees are in doubt, like some other staff they will just send to a neighboring store within the upcoming months, this was according to the mobile operator. The outcome of the termination of the managerial employee looks less assured. An EE spokesman stated that they have observed their retail estate to enhance the service that they give to their customer on the high street. They have two EE stores nearby the proximity to each other, while in some areas they are just some step away, as part of these changes they decided to reinforce and worked together.

Because of this consolidation, it will establish a commercial sense and it will also help them handle the high levels of demands in their stores and enhance the customer experience. The EE spokesman also added that all managerial staff will be transferred to their other store that will improve the service levels considerably. The store has only one manager, so they will search to move the affected managers within reach. In the United Kingdom, EE is presently the only mobile operator to offer 4G, however other operators like BT have plans to start operating the service this 2013.

REFERENCES:

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2237100/nokia-cutting-1-000-jobs-while-ee-to-close-78-uk-stores

http://www.techinvestornews.com/Mobile/Latest-Mobile-News/nokia-cutting-1000-jobs-while-ee-to-close-78-uk-stores

http://www.outsourcemagazine.co.uk/articles/tag/300-unilever

http://interceder.net/latest_news/Tata-Consultancy-Services

An adaptable government has ineffective to take protection move to secure it and the British military could be endangered to cyber attack, the lapses could leave forces severely exposed in the state of war. It was the damaging conclusion of MPs on the Defence Select Committee in a new report, the Defence and Cyber Security. It stated that the United Kingdom’s forces have now become so devoted on the IT that it takes a huge operational risk aspect that has not been adequately seized into account through its military planning.

According to James Arbuthnot MP committee chairman that it is their perspective that the cyber security is adequately composite, substantial and demanding activity to authorize increased executive attention. The government has to establish as it has not yet settled, the skills, policies, thinking, education and people that consider both the chances and the burden that cyberspace produces.

The proof presented to the committee by the government defence ministers deceived a harmful sense of security, the committee also heard some proof that the whole combat units like the warships and aircraft could be carried out entirely malfunction by an attack. The report claimed that this kind of system undergoes a constant cyber attack, the ability to perform could be badly determined.

In order to recognize the type of cyber attack that might consent a military response, it needs more work to be accomplished. However it has a scope of contingency plans in place to meet any speculations and Andrew Murrison, the defence minister criticized the claims, the MoD or the Ministry of Defence said.

The government is investing almost £650 million within 4 years in its National Cyber Security Programme that will also secure the British military, Murrison added. He also stated that the United Kingdom armed forces and the assets and equipment they use are belong to the world’s most advanced and modern so indeed information technology performs an important role in their operation.

To sustain over instantly superior attacks, the Ministry of Defence takes the protection of their systems intensely and has a scope of contingency plans in place. They have challenged the government to expose information about the contingency plans it has in place as when the attack happens, if it has none, it should reveal so and instantly establish their own plans.

REFERENCES:

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2234999/uk-military-unprepared-for-risk-of-cyber-attack

http://www.onenewspage.co.uk/n/Computer+Industry/74vnp8h8k/UK-military-unprepared-for-risk-of-cyber-attack.htm

http://localuknews.co.uk/article/uk-military-unprepared-for-risk-of-cyber-attack

http://www.congoo.com/news/addstorycomment.aspx?st=218905493&Channel_ID=14&Category_ID=325

To encrypt sensitive data and control and recover data securely, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust has chosen Wave Systems’ Safend Encryptor, a security management company to do the task. It was one of the first to carry out a mandate coming from the Department of Health saying that all mobile data should be encrypted and it goes over the process and met the needed standard for data encryption of mobile devices, USB storage devices and all laptop hard drives stated by the Trust.

The system and networking technician of Trust, Alex Fildes said that they were dedicated in being one of the first Trusts to execute the Department of Health’s mobile data encryption mandate however they still want to go deeper moves in handling encryption technology that would secure prominent hardware and eliminate the need for devices to be removed.

Originally the Trust chose McAfee Endpoint and it tested to be deceptive. It was questionable with the hardware that they used, when there was a problem the data was not amendable with the recovery tools that was on the McAfee, it was according to Fildes. The Trust experienced issues with some of its hardware where the disk encryption break down and devices had to be removed.

The organization has gone through a delicate process and ended up with the two options, the Check Point Full Disk encryption and Safend Encryptor. Although Check Point serves to be a good product but it doesn’t fit the way laptops are utilized in the hospitals inside the Trust. As the IT team was assured that it would give guarantee encryption of users’ data, despite of leaving the operating system in a vital and amendable status in the event of a disaster recovery condition, NHS Bolton selected Safend Encryptor.

Fildes added that it required minimal administration, it lessens the impact on staff productivity and there was also no demand for the organization to give training on how to use it because it is easy yet secure, that’s why it was the best option for them. In trying to weaken Safend Encryptor, the team researched and tested some hacking and data recovery tools, however they were not able to figure it out.

With the use of Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager, it has been deployed for over 400 machines and the implementation is presently in progress on a provisional basis. Last October 2012, the installation took place and Trust said that the machines that recently had issues with disk encryption software have shown no problem at all by using Safend Encryptor.

The Trust’s work in assuring its data is guaranteed comes after several questioned the readiness of the information Commissioner’s Office to request fines over the careless organizations in the NHS. The first data protection fine that’s worth £70,000 over the Aneurin Bevan Local Health Board in Pontypool, South Wales was issued by the ICO.

In a case against Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust was the biggest fine to date that comes from the ICO to an NHS body that’s worth £375,000. The fine occurs after a batch of hard-disk drives that should have been terminated by a contractor were bargained at the auction website eBay, the Trust questioned the assessment.

REFERENCES:

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2231908/nhs-trust-selects-wave-systems-safend-encryptor-to-replace-unreliable-mcafee-endpoint/page/2?WT.rss_a=nhs+trust+selects+wave+systems%E2%80%99+safend+encryptor+to+replace+%27unreliable%27+mcafee+endpoint&WT.rss_f=

http://www.technocular.com/tech-news/nhs-trust-selects-wave-systems-safend-encryptor-to-replace-unreliable-mcafee-endpoint/

http://resources.made-in-china.com/article/industry-view/BEQJlrHbVnDy-NHS-Trust-Selects-Wave-Systems-Safend-Encryptor-to-Replace-unreliable-Mcafee-Endpoint/

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=82427729

Including the telecoms giant BT, Ofcom the communications regulator has finally declared the bidders for the anticipated 4G spectrum auction in which it named as the largest ever sale of mobile airwaves in the United Kingdom. Back in the month of July, BT had initially pointed out that it could bid for 4G spectrum and recently it stated that it wouldn’t include anything more however they should still observe some things on what comes out in the Ofcom application process.

Niche Spectrum Ventures, a new subsidiary of BT has applied and qualified for the said auction. Meanwhile, the auction will start on January 2013 and the other organizations that have capabilities to bid in the auction are O2, Vodafine, EE or Everything Everywhere, MLL Telecom, Three and a subsidiary of mobile operator PCCW, the HKT.

To bid for the spectrum, the application deadline was last December 10, 2012. And as the interest of O2, Vodafone, EE and Three were always qualified to bid, it was always a question if what organization would join them as the process starts. On the other side, a new entrant like BT will find it hard to achieve anything from the auction, it was according to Matthew Howett, an Ovum analyst.

Howett added that the process the auction has been developed makes it difficult for a new entrant to go home with any essential amount of spectrum. However, there is a block of spectrum applicable at 2,6GHz that could fascinate a new entrant but if they sweep that spectrum they would be able to send off a service on a regional infrastructure only as there wouldn’t be enough spectrum to launch the service to nationwide basis, except that it signed a national roaming agreement with another operator that offered that service.

Bidders will be contending for spectrum in two determined bands, the 2.6GHz and the 800MHz. The 2.6GHz band is excellent for delivering faster speed, while the lower frequency 800MHz band was authorized when analogue terrestrial TV was switched off. For the upcoming decade and beyond, the 4G auction will be a striving process that will rule the structure of the United Kingdom mobile phone market, it was according to Ed Richard, Ofcom chief executive.

He added that the new 4G services will encourage growth, innovation and investment in the United Kingdom and it will also carry some essential benefits to their consumers by means of faster, better and more stable mobile broadband connections. By January, the bidding process will begin and it is anticipated to take a number of weeks.

Bidders are to be enlightened of what they have gain and its cost with licenses granted and license rates paid. An Ofcom spokesperson said that it should be completed within the first quarter of the year and then a new 4G service will be developed towards the second quarter of 2013. They anticipated some new 4G services to exist from a group of providers in May or June.

REFERENCES:

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2233146/ofcom-announces-4g-bidders-bt-included

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/news/a446558/ofcom-announces-4g-auction-bidders.html

http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/news/20121220-ofcom-announces-bidders-4g-auction-confirms-bt-involved

http://rapidberry.net/ofcom-announces-seven-bidders-participating-in-upcoming-uk-4g-spectrum-auction/

http://www.onenewspage.co.uk/n/Computer+Industry/74rki3csq/Ofcom-announces-4G-bidders-BT-included.htm

http://www.technationnews.com/2012/12/25/ofcom-announces-participants-in-4g-bid-o2-vodafone-ee-and-three-included/

Balancing the recent service level to a military mission that has an entry route and no exit route that is not just alarming but self-destructing, said by Peter Dawes-Huish, the CEO of Linux-based software solutions firm LinuxIT as he previously attacked the public sector G-Cloud system. Dawes-Huish added in the Westminster cloud computing eForum that the data lock-in and data opaqueness is as accepted in the cloud offering like in any other delivery model.

The government may have developed a selection of platform supplier however they have also established dependence with that software supplier, Dawes-Huish addressing an audience that included Andy Nelson, a government CIO. They had acquired the benefits of cloud however decrease the risk of making errors if the government assigned that all systems obtained on the cloud harmonize to the software interoperability and with the same standards of data.

He had perceived some comments from a lot of suppliers of public-sector solutions in the G-Cloud that were at odds with the positive buzz Nelson had created regarding with the service throughout the conference, Dawes-Huish stated. He also added that he had frequently heard that purchasing solutions costs’ government within 3 or 5 times the cost of any single purchase in the commercial industries and he was doubtful that the G-Cloud will result to the similar conclusions.

People were surprised that as a non-framework framework, it’s been particularly hard to handle the processes of getting engaged on the G-Cloud. On the other side, some email addresses did not work, and even the pages while some suppliers just haven’t been able to access or can’t place a catalogue of services. When it comes to the legal concerns, some government departments reveal that using G-Cloud is against the government policy and it serves as illegal.

They will still find everything in beta, if they go with G-Cloud as it shifts into its second year of its proposed 3-year life cycle, Dawes-Huish stated. The LinuxIT CEO said that the service doesn’t yet appear to have the level of commitment it needs to function long term while he sustained that G-Cloud serves as a great opportunity for government, however an open market with choice and standards could vary this.

Dawes-Huish said that he would provoke Andy and his colleagues to certify that the standards of choice are evenly as essential as the cloud process and the meaning of shifting to the cloud. As the upcoming year’s weapon arrives and there is a better prototype of service delivery that needs them to transfer from the cloud, in that case all selections will be available to them, Dawes-Huish concluded as he specify G-Cloud as the modern government weapon. They can finally say that the mission is accomplished if that will happen.

REFERENCES:

http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2231958/gcloud-suicidal-mission-with-no-exit-says-linuxit-ceo

http://www.technocular.com/tech-news/g-cloud-suicidal-mission-with-no-exit-says-linuxit-ceo/

http://www.techinvestornews.com/Cloud/Latest-Cloud-Computing-News/g-cloud-suicidal-mission-with-no-exit-says-linuxit-ceo

http://www.onenewspage.co.uk/n/Computer+Industry/74rkhz6yp/Cloud-is-%E2%80%98suicidal-mission-with-no.htm

http://cloud-times.rsspump.com/?topic=g-cloud-is-a-suicidal-mission-with-no-exit-says-linuxit-ceo&key=20121214154507_44e2aa413c8e44aaa738e7d09d5d2dac