Posted by stuart.gilbertson

It’s back and bigger than before! Jump onto our dedicated page to control our office Christmas lights remotely from the comfort of your seat!

We’ve gone above and beyond the stress of simply putting up decorations by offering punters the chance to control our office decorations through the miracle of the Internet.

Decorations include glowing fairy-lights, a large six-foot illuminated snowman – which can be inflated on command – and a speaker which can be activated to play a loop of the song ‘Jingle Bells’.

https://christmas.considerit.com

The latest Apple MacBooks feature a new T2 security chip that physically disconnects the laptop’s built-in microphone whenever the lid has been closed.

In an event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, the company announced the new security feature to add an extra layer of privacy for all new MacBook users which will prevent hackers and malicious applications from being able to eavesdrop on conversations when the lid is closed on the device.

The company confirmed there was no need to introduce the privacy feature on the webcam because “the field of view is completely obstructed with the lid closed”.

Ghostery, UK councils, and vitamin sellers all falling foul of GDPR, by sending list of e-mail contacts in CC rather than BCC.

Ghostery have published a summary on their website which reads:

• Ghostery sent out an email on May 25, 2018 that unintentionally resulted in the exposure of some account holders’ email addresses.
• Only email addresses were exposed.
• You are not affected if you use Ghostery but did not provide an email address to us.
• You are not affected if you did not receive the GDPR email from Ghostery.
• As soon as we found out, we stopped using the email distribution tool.
• Ghostery is currently working to rectify the incident and we will keep our users updated.

The company has since apologised for the error, saying that it had recently stopped using a third-party email automation platform and was managing emails in its own system in a bid to be more secure.

Nutrition business Vitl also fell foul of basic e-mail etiquette by sending an email update without bothering about the difference between CC and BCC.

The list doesn’t stop there. Marsha De Cordova MP’s office also sent an email to their constituents with the same blunder, effectively releasing the distribution contact list to everyone receiving the email.

On 18 November 2016, the CPS received a package of 15 unencrypted DVDs from Surrey Police. Those DVDs contained recordings of intimate sensitive personal data of victims, as well as the sensitive personal data of the perpetrator. On the same day, the receiving CPS office in Guildford sent the package of DVDs to its office in Brighton, where a specialist unit would review the evidence contained on them.

The DVDs were sent by tracked DX delivery in a single box. DX logs confirm that the package was sent to the CPS Brighton office on 18 November 2016. The package was delivered to the Brighton office of the CPS – located in a shared building – on 21 November 2016. The CPS does not believe that its staff were in the building at the time.

The entry doors to the office building are locked and require a card and PIN code for access. DX has a code to enable it to make early morning deliveries before normal working hours. When DX makes early morning deliveries to the CPS Brighton office, they are left in an unsecured area in reception. Once in the building, the CPS office – including the reception area in which deliveries are left – can be accessed by anyone.

It was not until 1 December 2016 that the loss of the DVDs was discovered. The loss wasn’t reported to Surrey Police until 14 December 2016, almost a month after the loss.

The DVDs were not encrypted. The CPS has stated that it is not normal practice to encrypt this kind of material. Encryption software is, however, available to all areas of the CPS.

The ICO was not notified of the data loss until 11 April 2017. The CPS were therefore fined £325,000 for losing the unencrypted storage media. The DVDs have never been found.

This is the second penalty imposed on the CPS following the loss of sensitive video recordings. The ICO ruled that the CPS was negligent when it failed to ensure the videos were kept safe, and did not take into account the substantial distress that would be caused if the videos were lost.

It also found that, despite being fined £200,000 following a separate breach in November 2015 – in which victim and witness video evidence was also lost – the CPS had not ensured that appropriate care was being taken to avoid similar breaches re-occurring.

Steve Eckersley, Head of Enforcement, said:

The victims of serious crimes entrusted the CPS to look after their highly sensitive personal data – a loss in trust could influence victims’ willingness to report serious crimes.

The CPS failed to take basic steps to protect the data of victims of serious sexual offences. Given the nature of the personal data, it should have been obvious that this information must be properly safeguarded, as its loss could cause substantial distress.

The CPS must take urgent action to demonstrate that it can be trusted with the most sensitive information.

Last month, the European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E) publicly admonished Serbia and Kosovo for not properly balancing their grids. Their negligence caused the grid to drop from its usual 50Hz to 49.996Hz. This meant that over the course of three months, any clocks that synchronised their time using the grid lost six minutes.

“This average frequency deviation, that has never happened in any similar way in the CE [Continental Europe] Power system, must cease,” the group wrote. “ENTSO-E is urging European and national governments and policymakers to take swift action.”

This week, ENTSO-E announced that oven, microwave, and alarm clocks across the continent were no longer six minutes slow. They ran the continental grid at a slightly higher frequency than normal (50.01Hz) for the same time-period until the clocks were back in sync.