29/11/2008 by deepspacemillar.

From what I understand, Damian Green was arrested earlier this week by a team of 9 anti-terrorist officers in connection with government leaks. The reason he was arrested is may be because he (or a junior minister also arrested this week) actively tried to persuade civil servants to leak documents or actually accessed the documents themselves with the intent of leaking them.
Why this required 9 specialist anti-terror police to arrest him, I do not know. Why apparently Jacqui Smith, Gordon Brown, or anyone else for that matter didn’t know about it, I also do not know.

This article sums things up rather nicely.

Personally, I think it would be very much within the public interest to know these things without it having to be ‘leaked’. Perhaps government communications (that don’t affect security) should be publicly available for all to scrutinise, in the same way the government wants to be able to read all our communications with the IMP database.

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29/11/2008 by deepspacemillar.

Hey everybody. Sorry for the lack of updates recently. Over the last month I’ve had a small avalanche of work to get through, which means I havn’t had the time to update the blog. It seems to be easing up a bit though, so hopefully I’ll be able to update on a more regular basis again…

However, I wouldn’t mind getting someone else or even several people to write some posts for the blog if they are interested. If you would be interested in doing so, fire me an email, and we can discuss it

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11/11/2008 by deepspacemillar.

El Reg, again, reports that a dozen boroughs in London have implemented a new ‘risk assessment’ policy that attempts to vet performers at any live music event. The policy means the Police can ban any event if they do not receive the personal details of the performers involved. Apparently, the policy has “…already been used to pull the plug on an afternoon charity concert of school bands in a public park organised by a local councillor”. Fair enough, school bands are usually pretty dire, but perhaps this is a little over the top.
The police want information on these events 14 days in advance, so they can evaluate the potential ‘terror threat’. The policy seems to be targeted at music favoured by the black community.
“Have a look at the papers and tell me where the black-on-black shootings happen? They’re around the night time economy, music promotions attract people who have a propensity to use violence. That’s not speculation. We have a duty to prevent that from happening.”
Well fair enough, there’s a point there, but why vet the performers? Surely the crowd are the people who are the potential trouble. I’m a gigging musician myself and I can tell you that if my band(s) incited violence, we would be screwing ourselves over. No venue wants to invite a band that is going to incite a riot or stir up violence, it’ll only cause them trouble. If a band does that sort of thing, they are quite frankly, irresponsible and stupid, and are throwing their future gig chances away. I am involved in and attend gigs of the ‘metal/death metal’ variety and despite the injuries from mosh pits, circle pits and ‘walls of death’ or what have you - there isn’t a focus on violence or incitement, despite these gigs being probably the most ‘violent’ one will come across.
How the police have decided live music is now a potential terror threat is beyond me. All this will do is discourage live music, by making venues less likely to host gigs, and making it harder for bands to be seen and heard. Another example of short-sighted idiocy.

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11/11/2008 by deepspacemillar.

El Reg has noted that despite the constant growth of the criminal DNA database, help in convictions has actually dropped slightly.
In 2000/2001, the database contained ~1.2 million people’s data, and had an effectiveness of about 0.29% in solving crimes.
Since then, the database has ballooned to hold 4.7 million, and its effectiveness has risen slightly to 0.36%, down from 0.37% last year, despite the addition of around half a million new records.
It just goes to show that despite having a massive database of biometric information, the effectiveness of the database to assist in solving crimes isn’t all that impressive, and also probably contains the records of a truckload of innocent people who just happen to have been arrested for whatever reason. I would love to see more relevant and detailed statistics on the database, relating to the amount of crimes that rest primarily on biometric evidence etc.
It’s sad that despite the great cost and concerted effort, many innocent people will be caught up in it.

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11/11/2008 by deepspacemillar.

Well, who didn’t see this one coming?
The Guardian has noted that the cost of the ID card system has risen roughly £50m, with complications causing the bill to rise, even as measures are being taken to try and control the costs. Some of the cost-cutting measures also seem to have potential security implications - one of those being the reduced checking of cards against the NIR. Some have called this a security lapse, as it provides a way for visually forged cards to be adequate, therefore making the system more insecure, therefore eroding the very point of them in the first place.
And the good news continues - now not only will it cost more of your tax money, it will also cost more at point of sale:
The Telegraph reports that both passport fees and ID card fees are now to rise, with passports being £72 + an extra £28 for the ID card associated with it, and £58 for a stand-alone ID card. Costs are expected to rise further, even as the £200 million business ‘market’ for ID cards will mean many different companies will be providing registration services.

I share the sentiments of several commentators that have pointed out that these price rises and general cost rises are particularly galling given the current economic climate. I’m also amazed that the government seems to think that ID cards will be immensely popular, even going so far as to effectively hold a competition to win an ID card for people who really want one. I hope it is they, and not I who has completely lost their sense of all reality…

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