We start again with Kable, which reports that CSIA (our sponsor) yesterday published their revision to the National Information Assurance Strategy (NIAS), the first revision since 2003.

Money quote from Sir Richard Mottram, permanent secretary, intelligence, security and resilience:”Individuals and organisations supply information to government which they rightly expect to be safeguarded,” “For government, as for all successful organisations, information assurance is now a key priority and it is important for government to give a lead on the best practice across the economy.”

Also from Kable, in the stating the obvious category, A government minister has said it has to make up ground in helping people with disabilities make proper use of technology. Anne McGuire MP conceded: “We haven’t quite caught up with how we support people with technology through government programmes.” Dear reader, Ms. McGuire just pushed every one of my buttons, and you will see another post from me discussing this at great length.

Department of Carrots: Following a successful trial in which the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs and North Tyneside MBC streamlined the process through sharing data the departments are planning to roll out the system across a further six local authorities.

During the trial the time taken to pay someone their benefits after they had lost their job was halved, while the payment of tax credit was stopped more quickly, reducing the possibility of overpayments.

JISC: A new report has outlined the next steps for the long term management of data for the Joint Information Systems Committee and other higher education institutions. Dealing with data reviews the variety of data, and arrangements for its accumulation, storage and use, across disciplines. It sets out 10 key recommendations and a further 25 of lesser importance.

Ticking several boxes for us, Police at last week’s Glastonbury Festival have tested out new body worn mobile cameras, which transmitted audio and video images back to the police control room

According to Avon and Somerset Constabulary, it is the first police force in the UK to trial the system. Called the Body Worn Video Wireless system, the technology transmits encrypted digital video from cameras worn on the police officer’s shoulder. It also transmits the officer’s position to the police base via GPS receivers.

I don’t know why John Reid had to go to New York to make this point, but the outgoing home secretary has urged manufacturers of smart phones and other new consumer products to design out crime at the product development stage. Last month, a group of mobile phone manufacturers, academics and law enforcement representatives were invited to the Home Office to discuss areas of product development. Among the issues discussed were:
Is there a simple way for service providers to disable all the functions of the handset, including the camera and mp3 player, when it is reported stolen?
How could a stolen handset communicate its whereabouts to police or other phones?
Is it practical for a snatched phone to automatically shut down?
How can the relative security of different models of mobile phone be highlighted?
Should biometric access restrictions be rolled out to all mobile phones?
What can be done to prevent criminals using phones to facilitate crime?
How can the police maximise the forensic value of the handset?

The Open Rights Group (ORG) has given a vote of no confidence to the recent round of e-voting pilots. It published a report on 20 June 2007 that includes scathing criticisms of the way e-voting and e-counting proceeded at a number of sites during the local government elections last month.

From BCS, a discussion of quantum computing and cryptography (does anyone else agree with me that cryptography has become the sole raison d’etre for continued research into quantum computing?)

In the ‘just because it’s cool’ department, IBM has announced that it has tripled the speed of the world’s fastest computer through the development of a new machine. The Blue Gene/P supercomputer, the next step up from the Blue Gene/L unit, is capable of operating at speeds faster than one petaflop, equivalent to one quadrillion processes a second.

Ben Laurie points us to Stefan Brands writing about the spectrum of uses available when selective disclosure is employed.

Via the Institute For The Future, this report on pervasive computing. It focuses largely on potential impacts on health and the environment, and discusses three scenarios for take-up.

Also from the IFTF, a discussion of cybewar in the New York Times. (They get it wrong right off the bat, assuming that Tickle Me Elmo dolls won’t be turned into unstoppable killers, just because they are not currently hooked into the Internet. Sheesh.)

Light Blue Touchpaper discusses dual use tools that can be hijacked by hackers and the government’s less than delicate approach to them.

And that’s it for today–hope we filled your tea break.