Oolite Bulletins

The security of NHS systems is becoming a growing cause of concern because of their continuing reliance on obsolete Windows XP systems, the rise of ransomware attacks in hospitals worldwide and other factors.

Nearly half (45 per cent) of NHS trusts scan for application vulnerabilities just once a year, with less only 8 per cent doing so on a daily basis. The figures comes from a series of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to 36 hospital trusts by application security firm Veracode. It warns that failure to regularly check for problems leaves patient data at risk of cyberattacks through legacy websites and third-party plugins.

The UK’s Trident submarine fleet is vulnerable to a “catastrophic” cyber-attack that could render Britain’s nuclear weapons useless, according to a report by a London-based thinktank.

[…]

“To imagine that critical digital systems at the heart of nuclear weapon systems are somehow immune or can be confidently protected by dedicated teams of network managers is to be irresponsibly complacent.”

The only unhackable computer is one that's running a secure operating system, welded inside a steel safe, buried under a ton of concrete at the bottom of a coal mine guarded by the SAS and a couple of armoured divisions, and switched off.

Disembodied wrote:

... although I'd sleep a lot more safely if the things weren't parked 25 miles upwind of me.

Cody wrote:

You'll be alright - once climate change really starts to bite, the prevailing winds will probably change direction.

Cody wrote:

Question: are wind turbines directional?

Modern large wind turbines are typically actively controlled to face the wind direction measured by a wind vane situated on the back of the nacelle.

Cody wrote: ↑Fri Jun 02, 2017 11:31 am

A climate like Labrador, indeed. I remember the winter of '63 - we'd get that, or worse, every year!