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Monday 27 June 2011

Team Chatback Security Complete The London Bikeathon

**Sponsorship money is still coming in but so far as of 27/6 we have raised £440!!**
Any regular readers of our site will know that we were riding in the London Bikeathon yesterday in support of a charity close to both our hearts 'Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research'.

We started at Battersea Powerstation and rode over to Richmond Park/Ham House and then back again, all together it was 26 miles (although closer to 35 by the time we got to the venue and home again). We managed to safely avoid the other cyclists (over 5,000 of them), the buses, and all the pubs on route! The weather was hot hot hot and we were both knacked knacked knacked!
We are not athletes (see below), I ride most weekends but only really to get some peace and quite from the wife and kids for a couple of hours and Richard rides once a year because his car has run out of petrol!
Is he still alive?!
All in all it was a very enjoyable event and one which I hopefully will do for the third time next year, I may even consider the 52 mile course but we will wait and see (hopefully Richard will join me)!

A well earned pint at
the finish!
There is still time to
sponsor us!
Many thanks to all who sponsored us (there is still time for those who haven't) and a special thanks to Brad (@bradchsv) who sponsored both Richard and I.........if your ever in London we will definitely shout you a beer/coffee/tea or two!

Tuesday 21 June 2011

The Security Institute Annual Conference

It's that time again when the Security Institute holds it's Annual Conference. We both attended last year and it was held in a very nice hotel near the River Thames in Windsor and lasted two days, this yearwith a change in format it is being held in a posh office in the City of London.

The day should start with the Annual General Meeting and some elections, this is shortly followed by the conference lasting for the rest of the day. There is an exhibition which will be open throughout and hopefully there will be plenty of time for us to update, comment and post what's happening.

Once the Conference concludes we will adjourn to the roof terrace for an evening drinks reception and informal dinner, so at least that's something to look forward to already.

The AGM goes off without event and all those nominated for Directorship are confirmed. The chair of the Institute provides a whistle stop welcome, background and the future tour where the Institute is going.

The conference starts with Deputy Mayor of London Richard Barnes who shapes what is actually going on in London during 2012 as well as the Olympics. Always a very good and engaging speaker who knows the audience he is speaking to.

Continuing the political theme next up is Lynne Featherstone MP who doesn't say too much about the new regulatory authority that is to replace The Security Industry Authority (SIA) and says that she doesn't want to steal Bill Butler's thunder, so I look forward to finding out some detail.

Following a coffee break we are back with presentations from RSA, Normura and the Post Office. So far the presentations are on fraud and disaster recovery, there may be a danger of losing some of the audience as not much security is being mentioned.

Catch up with you all soon.

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Wednesday 8 June 2011

8th Annual CISO Summit Rome 2011

Day One - Cyber Crime Risk

Following the Cloud Summit day one of the 8th Annual CISO Summit and Roundtable starts with Detective Superintendent Charlie McMurdie, Head of the Police Central e-crime Unit (PCeU). Providing an overview of the National approach to cyber crime programme. 'National harm, national impact' and briefly shares some limited details on several success stories on arrest operations.

Don Randall, Chairman of the 'Sister Banks' gives his opinion on some of the threats as he sees it and some opportunities to engage with all levels of staff.

Mike Maddison and Sir David Pepper from Deloitte raise the level with Cyber risk should be at board level.

A very interesting and dynamic presentation by Michael Colao, Head of Information Security at Beazley on Insuring against cyber security risks.

And now for the break and expresso.

Back from a break and now it's Don Randall MBE, Master of The Worshipful Company of Security Professionals who announced yesterday (7th June 2011) the first ten Registrants have been admitted to the new Register of Chartered Security Professionals who is chairing the panel on 'Advanced persistent cyber threats and critical infrastructure protection'.

Amongst the panelist are Charlie McMurdie, Jim Reavis of Cloud Security Alliance, Eddie Schwartz newly appointed Head of Security at RSA who got a big laugh at his introduction of company. So far we talked about Olympics, 7/7, cyber crime and data loss but obvisouly no public comments on the current RSA issues, to soon me thinks.

Very informative discussion from the panel and nicely rounds off the first part of the days proceedings. A final presentation from one of the sponsors Courion then it's lunch and more expresso.

Now back from lunch, which incidentally was good I especially love the fact wine was on the table. You've got to admire the Italians approach to eating.

Next up is the turn of Dr Simon Singh on 'The science of secrecy' which was fascinating and inspired by that presentation I've decided to leave and concentrate on my own presentation for tomorrow on Combating and Managing Security Risk through Security Assurance.

I have been very impresses with the quality of the presenters and MIS Training who organised the event no it's off to sponsored drinks and dinner in the centre of Rome somewhere. More tomorrow and my turn in front of this very experienced audience.

Day Two - Security Governance

The second day starts for me with a presentation on Beyond the Cloud by the very entertaining Ray Stanton of British Telecom and there was some funny moments between him and the chair Marcus Alldrick CISO Lloyds.

Next up Dr John Meakin from BP discussing BP's approach to information security.

Lunch and wine complete now back with a presentation by Nils Puhlmann co-founder and CSO of Zynga who created Mafia Wars and other similar games and apps talking about security innovation - are we keeping up.

Next the Technology challenge of identity and access intelligence by my new friends and tour guides at Whitebox Security. Shlomi Wexter discusses. Very passionate and interesting talk.

CISO 'Think Tank' up next. Time for me to prepare for my presentation on Security Risk and Assurance.

Presentation delivered, off for a quick meeting about planning the Round Table slot, drink then dinner.

Final full day for me tomorrow, will be busy with the Round Table section of proceedings, then travelling home so will hopefully will post a wash up in the next couple of days.



Day Three - Round Table



This is the part of the event that more and different people that haven't been at the summit turn up especially for this discussion. This is the opportunity for any and all to be involved in the questioning and challenging today's issues through a series of pre prepared and supplied questions by the audience. This is also the first time I have been invited to do something like this so I am very much looking forward to assisting in facilitating the day.



Unfortunately I cannot say too much about the content as we all promised up front to be discreet ('Chatham House Rule' apply) or more simpler, The first rule of the Round Table is you do not talk about the Round Table, the second rule of the Round Table is ...... well you can see where I am going with that so I'll stop there. Nothing further to report only that I have been very surprised by the fact I've actually learnt a few new things and met some interesting people which I intend to keep in touch with and as conferences go that doesn't happen very often, of course the food and wine was typically Italian . Ciao per ora. Richard


Posted by Richard using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Press Release: The National Security Workers Union (NSWU) Is Born!

With over 350,000 workers employed in the UK private security industry(a), the employees in this sector have been, without doubt, the most under represented or supported workforce remaining in the country.

That's about to change......

Security staff have faced a program of regulation and licensing over the last few years which we all hoped would be the start of a massive uprating of respect and appreciation for the role performed by the hard working professionals within the industry. Indeed even the SIA (Security Industry Authority) anticipated a new “Golden Age” as lack of licensed security professionals would cause a shortage of supply and hence increase wages across the board.

Sadly these hopes were never realised and indeed, though security is still such a vital part of so many companies operations, our jobs never the less, seem to be increasingly less well regarded and the current economic climate has served as a universal excuse to reduce salaries and silence decent across the entire sector.

The NSWU has been formed with the following objectives:

• To represent our members on a personal level, in any conflict with employers.
• To enlighten and increase professional and public awareness of the massive responsibilities and vitally important roles performed by our membership.
• To provide a source of advice and guidance in all aspects of working life for our membership.

Conceived by Rollo Davies, a security professional for over 20 years, the NSWU aims to keep administration and running costs to a minimum, always, enabling the fees of it's members to be used where needed most, providing the support and assistance required, when and where it is needed.

Initially with a 24hour email, and telephone advice service backed up with the website and a representation provision, we have plans to expand, with a qualified full time employment law specialist and trained area representatives, as soon as membership numbers allow.

Some of the largest security companies in the country do not recognise any union currently and the general unions that are available seem to go widely unsupported or promoted at the moment.

The NSWU, run by security professionals for security workers in all sectors of the industry, will campaign to redress the balance and fight to give those whos sole responsibility is to protect people and property, sometimes working unimaginably long hours for relatively poor pay, the respect and acknowledgement they deserve.

http://www.thenswu.org/          NSWUinfo@gmail.com           Twitter: @theNSWU

The Prevent Strand Steps Up

The government’s revised Prevent counter-terrorism strategy was published today. It outlines that the Home Secretary Theresa May will promise to spend more on identifying threats in prisons, universities and the health service. Plans will be unveiled to prevent computers in schools, libraries and colleges from accessing extremist material on the internet.
 
Mrs May has criticised universities for their "complacency" in tackling Islamic extremism on campus, saying that for too long they have not been sufficiently willing to recognise what is happening.
Lord Carlile of Berriew QC, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation 2001-10, comments on the issues surrounding Preventing Violent Extremism including outcomes of the Prevent review.
"It is crucial for universities to be able to identify possible threats and be aware of what is happening on campus. National Security will focus on all aspects of securing the nation and is a vital learning opportunity for institutions that are vulnerable to incubating extremism".


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