Time for a refresh.
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Horizon v2.0?

I will add one more: it is high-time HMRC was brought to heel. It is a wild west government department that is laughing in the face of Ministers, its arrogant incompetence wre
aking havoc across the country, whilst enjoying absolute impunity. Enough is enough.

Edit: Unethical lawyers face scrutinty

Oh Dear, it never rains but pours

The chief executive of the Post Office, Nick Read, admitted it is possible some of the victims' money which vanished from the accounts of branch managers could have ended up in the 'hefty numeration packages for executives'

Shameful & Appalling are not words I would use to describe it.
Prosecutions occurred between 1999 & 2015, that's 16 years totalling 13.6 million. just to provide data for the courts.

The company was paid £850,000 a year to provide data used for prosecutions and further funds for the provision of witnesses.

Oops

I just realised that I havn't seen this mob's trucks on the road for some time now and 1 of the reasons why certainly didn't get a long enough sentence.

Trucking boss jailed for 2020 crash that killed four Victorian police officers.

Though I wonder if his lawyers have warned him that he risks getting a longer sentence if he looses his appeal.

Another hint that the greedy little leprechaun isn't planning on coming back to face the music.

Former Qantas boss Alan Joyce resigns as chair of Sydney Theatre Company months after Palestine scarf row.

And I'm pretty sure that the "scarf row" was just a convenient excuse.

What more is there to be revealed?
Gov't & P.O. kept report secret

It just won't go away.
Cameron government knew

Took long enough
Sadly, too late for some.

imo since the split of the GPO into 3 separate organisations, greed & incompetence has manifested themselves more.
Again, imo public companies should be prohibited from instigating private prosecutions.
Had than been in force then...
...there would have been no need for any of this.

imo since the split of the GPO into 3 separate organisations, greed & incompetence

Right, that's two of them, what's the name of the third?

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

imo since the split of the GPO into 3 separate organisations, greed & incompetence

Right, that's two of them, what's the name of the third?

Stupidity?

imo since the split of the GPO into 3 separate organisations, greed & incompetence

Right, that's two of them, what's the name of the third?

If you mean GPO it's...
Post Office
Royal Mail
Britsh Telecom

If you mean the other, then Wiggo got it. :)

No surprises here:


UK housebuilders investigated over possible sharing of price information

Watchdog says there is need for ‘significant intervention’ over supply and quality of new homes

The UK competition watchdog has opened an investigation into eight housebuilders after it found evidence they may be sharing commercially sensitive information that could affect the price of homes...

... The report said many local planning departments were underresourced or did not have clear targets or incentives to deliver the number of homes needed in their area. This meant developers were having to deal with protracted and unpredictable planning processes before they could start construction, with small and medium-sized companies disproportionately affected.

It was also critical of “speculative private development” that led to housebuilders producing houses at a rate at which they could be sold without needing to reduce prices, rather than providing the right type of homes...

... profits of the 11 largest housebuilders were “generally higher than we would expect for a well-functioning market”...

... will look into suspected breaches of competition law around the potential sharing of non-public information at Barratt, Bellway, Berkeley, Bloor Homes, Persimmon, Redrow, Taylor Wimpey and Vistry...

More Glenfell Towers in amongst all that lot also?...

Stay circumspect folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Anyone remember the Scotch videotape ad's?
Re-record, not fade away

Profiteering on good health?...


... ‘gamechanger’ diabetes drugs cost up to 400 times more than needed
wrote:

Drug companies urged to ‘release stranglehold’ on medicines such as Ozempic and Trulicity, as millions are priced out of treatment

Drug companies are pricing diabetes medicines at almost 400 times the level necessary to make a profit, according to a new study.

Researchers said it would also be possible for modern insulin pens, which are safer and offer more accurate doses than vials and syringes, to be used even in low-income countries if pharmaceutical firms “put people before their astronomical profits”...

Cost of private Covid jabs risks widening health inequalities...
wrote:

Concerns that some groups who are more at risk from virus face hefty price tag, as Boots set to charge almost £100 a shot...

... “The most disadvantaged in society are most likely to be exposed to respiratory viruses due to things like poverty, intergenerational households and crowded workplaces. While they might be most in need of a seasonal vaccine, they will also be the least likely to afford £100 in the midst of a cost of living crisis,”...

... workplace vaccination schemes might reduce employee absences which could be valuable to society...

All at what price? And who profits?? And to what extent???

Stay healthy!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Meanwhile, at the other end of far too many leaking radioactive barrels:


Sellafield nuclear waste dump to be prosecuted for alleged cybersecurity offences...
wrote:

... an unhealthy workplace culture at Sellafield...

... Charges relate to four-year period between 2019 and early 2023...

... the state-owned Cumbrian nuclear company that it would be prosecuted under industry security regulations...

... The site has the largest store of plutonium in the world and is a sprawling rubbish dump for nuclear waste from weapons programmes and decades of atomic power generation.

Other findings in the Guardian’s Nuclear Leaks investigation included concerns about external contractors being able to plug memory sticks into its computer system while unsupervised.

The Guardian also revealed that cyber problems have been known by senior figures at the nuclear site for at least a decade...

... Sellafield’s computer servers were deemed so insecure that the problem was nicknamed Voldemort after the Harry Potter villain, according to a government official familiar with the ONR investigation and IT failings at the site, because it was so sensitive and dangerous...

All far too run down due to an insurmountable pile of rubbish and the ever present pressure of cutting costs?...

Reassuring?...

We need a better researched and planned and effective solution.

... And all BEFORE the new tranche of fission nuclear overly expensively gets dumped upon us all...


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

That Scotch tape is sure getting a thorough workout.
Report that condemns the Post Office

All far too rushed "out the door"?...


Microsoft blamed for “a cascade of security failures” in Exchange breach report
wrote:

Summer 2023 intrusion pinned to corporate culture, "avoidable errors."

A federal Cyber Safety Review Board has issued its report on what led to last summer's capture of hundreds of thousands of emails by Chinese hackers from cloud customers, including federal agencies. It cites "a cascade of security failures at Microsoft" and finds that "Microsoft's security culture was inadequate"...

... "Throughout this review, the board identified a series of Microsoft operational and strategic decisions that collectively points to a corporate culture that deprioritized both enterprise security investments and rigorous risk management,"...

... “Inaccurate public statements” and unsolved mysteries...

... Microsoft has previously offered a version of the intrusion story, one that notably avoids the words "vulnerability," "exploit," or "zero-day."...

... Those kinds of unrevealing, withholding public statements were cited by the CSRB in its finding of Microsoft's failures. The report cites "Microsoft’s decision not to correct, in a timely manner, its inaccurate public statements about this incident, including a corporate statement that Microsoft believed it had determined the likely root cause of the intrusion when in fact, it still has not." It also notes that Microsoft did not update its September 2023 blog post about the invasion cause until March 2024, "as the Board was concluding its review and only after the Board’s repeated questioning about Microsoft’s plans to issue a correction."...

... “Cascade of Microsoft’s avoidable errors”

The CSRB's conclusion is that Microsoft's security culture is "inadequate" and that a "cascade of Microsoft's avoidable errors allowed this intrusion to succeed."...

... "Unfortunately, throughout this review, the Board identified a series of operational and strategic decisions that collectively point to a corporate culture in Microsoft that deprioritized both enterprise security investments and rigorous risk management," the report states. "These decisions resulted in significant costs and harm for Microsoft customers around the world..."

All too reminiscent of another "too-big-to-fail" monopolistic big corporation that is heavily funded by the USA?...


Stay safe folks?...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

How can this be?...


Low-carb diets work. Why does the American Diabetes Association push insulin instead?
wrote:

The American Diabetes Association takes millions from companies that stand to profit from our reliance on drugs. Is that affecting their guidance?

For a glimpse into how big business influences the $4tn US healthcare system, look no further than the world’s most powerful diabetes advocacy and research non-profit, the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

Diabetes afflicts 38 million Americans, with another 90 million considered pre-diabetic. Every year the disease claims the lives of over 100,000 Americans and disproportionately affects people of color. It is also ruinously expensive, as doctors visits, hospital stays, insulin, blood test strips, leg amputations, continuous glucose monitors and numerous glucose-lowering drugs add up to about $400bn a year. To put it bluntly, we are losing the war on diabetes.

And unlike many other diseases – such as certain cancers, Alzheimer’s, kidney disease, or Crohn’s – type 2 diabetes is reversible.

This bears repeating and elaboration. Numerous nutritional studies have shown that diabetes can be reversed...

... in 2021, the Patients for Affordable Drugs report, found that a third “of the members of the ADA board of directors have financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry”.

Diabetes is a national scandal hiding in plain sight. Despite infinite medical innovations, including glucose-lowering drugs, fast- and slow-acting insulin, A1C tests, continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps, more than 100,000 Americans die from the condition annually. In 1980, before many of these medical breakthroughs were available, that number was 35,000.

The big winners of the ADA’s cozy arrangements with industry, of course, are the pharmaceutical companies that enjoyed an estimated $58bn in annual sales in 2017, and the medical device and food companies who donate to the ADA in exchange for recipe endorsements.

The losers are the millions of people with diabetes who suffer amputations, blindness, neuropathy, often daily shoot themselves with insulin and eat carbohydrate-rich foods because they simply are not informed about their healthier options...

All at what cost?

And what of the other costs other than merely financial??...

Is that any kind of healthy business?...


Stay healthy folks?
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)