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Windows and doors are not only architectural elements that allow light and access into your home. An integral part of good design, they convey your own personal style, well-being and security to all who enter your home.

We at Thames Valley Windows are passionate about the design of our windows and doors. With over 30 experience in the business, we offer a wide selection of designs to fit every budget. All our products are FENSA certified and incorporate the latest technologies in energy efficient double glazing and locking security for peace of mind and lower your heating bills.

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At Thames Valley Windows, we are here to serve you. Our Home Consultants are experts in their field and can advise you on the right product to fit your needs. Call us for a commitment-free assessment of your needs at 0800 181 698 or come visit our showroom in Bracknell or Guildford.

Why you should care that half of EU members are shirking the EC about data sharing rules

Ministers from half of the EU's 28 member states have signed a letter asking the EU Commission to drop its “barriers to the free flow of data”

Ok, let’s get the facts out first. The Commission will publish the findings of its inquiry into online platforms (“search engines, social media, knowledge and video sharing websites, app stores, etc.”) which took place after the publication of the EU's Digital Single Market Strategy last year.

In an article published by The Register, ministers from Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Sweden decried the EU’s data protection legislation. They “encouraged the commission to move ambitiously forward in its efforts to remove regulatory and non-regulatory barriers in the Digital Single Market”, so that data can be shared more easily between and beyond member states.

Presently, data sharing across the EU is a complicated matter, with more complexity foreseen with the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018. As a result of the new legislation, which brought about the collapse of Safe Harbor (The Guardian, Oct 6, 2015), data localisation projects have picked up in Germany and France.

The authors of the letter pleaded the commission and the Dutch incumbent in the EU's rotating presidency to take the following into account (only excerpts are shown):

Build a solid foundation for the digital economy. For the digital economy to flourish businesses and consumers must thrive in a trusted and connected digital environment...review of the e-Privacy directive with the aim to repeal all elements that are no longer fit...regulatory framework should be adapted to better spur investments…

Strengthen the framework for digital innovation and entrepreneurship. Refrain from one-size-fits-all regulation which would reduce competition and hamper innovation...ensure that data can move freely across borders, both within and outside the EU, by removing all unjustified barriers to the free flow of data.

Move the single market into the digital age. As both consumers and businesses can benefit significantly from cross-border e-commerce within Europe we need to step up efforts to make it easier to trade online across the internal market and not impose new burdens on businesses.

In effect, the letter calls for the the outright repeal or heavy amendment of the e-Privacy directive using broadband business competitiveness as its justification to allow data to flow freely across borders.

The veil of secrecy

However, the “truth” is never what it seems and is usually shrouded in obfuscation and a foggy mist of vested interests. A regular bugbear for many governments, the EU's e-Privacy directive caused some distress in January when a legal opinion determined that it meant the ongoing snooping activities of many member states' governments were not strictly lawful.

The collapse of Safe Harbor also caused trouble for many of the US-based multinationals which had otherwise been able to promise they were following the European legal regime with Europeans' data when held in the US. Of course, the Snowden disclosures proved this was not the case.

Patriotic tech companies might complain about the stricter directives, but for the most part, multinationals, particularly American ones, have only one concern - the bottom line. Besides, of what use is European personal information in a US located database? Products and services offered on websites and social media are location based, i.e., a person is offered products and services based on that person’s geographical location, be it online or from a brick and mortar nearby. Even if that person were to login to Amazon, the majority of the products offered are locally sourced and, at best, they are pan-European handled by a local distributor. The exception (and it is a rare one as far as end-user shopping is concerned) is those products actually purchased in the US and shipped to Europe. So Americans have no real need or use for European personal information even though they will tell you they need that information to better match personal online behaviour and product offers. All that can be done just as efficiently right here without any need for leftpondian interference as all it requires is the right analytical algorithm.    

Ulterior motives?

Of greater concern is the state apparatus that requires tech companies to turn over their data under the banner of national security. And exactly whose national security are we talking about, America’s or Europe’s? Paris, Brussels, Oslo, The Sinai Jet Bombing, Ankara, Beirut...where were the state intelligence agencies?  

One might argue that only the metadata is scanned and inspected, and that no actual information is viewed or analysed. After all, state agencies have to scan millions of metadata tags daily making it impossible to detail each individual phone call or message. The problem lies in “three degrees of separation” or “the three hops,” (The Guardian, Oct 28, 2013) that the NSA’s PRISM program uses to determine association. It’s that third hop of connection that greatly expands the probability of innocent people worldwide being scooped up into the NSA’s surveillance machine. As Ars Technica explain in an article from 2013, you’re only “one hop from the author, and three hops from Hamid Karzai.” And if you think it’s only happening in the US, guess again. Just yesterday, May 26, the UK’s independent biometrics commissioner, Alastair MacGregor, revealed that 53% of the 9,600 individuals on the counter terrorism databases have never been accused of a crime.  

How we feel about it

The simple truth is that national security agencies have drunk their own Kool-Aid and have ended up seeing terrorists under every rock. It’s called tunnel vision which then morphs into collective paranoia. Just look at what’s happening in the US with Patriot Act I and II, the FISA courts, the militarisation of police forces and the institutionalised racism of ethnic minorities. You think this is all crazy talk? Does the name Donald Trump ring a bell? The fact is security agencies are no more likely to stop a terrorist attack than you or me as evidenced in a series of articles: Business Insider, The Most Interesting Revelations From Frontline's Powerful Exposé of the National Security Agency, May 20, 2014; The Intercept, US Mass Surveillance Has No Record of Thwarting..., Nov 17, 2015; The Washington Post, NSA Phone Record collection Does Little to Prevent Terrorist Attacks..., Jan 12, 2014.

We take data security very seriously; it is the heart and soul of our business. So when a news article like this one is published, and entire governments seek to water down privacy laws, we get very concerned. That is not to say we don’t applaud the work of national security agencies, we do. It is a thankless and wearisome job. But we do ask state agencies to show some common sense judgement when it comes to privacy laws and data sharing.

We do nothing to further the cause of national security by indefinitely detaining, without due process (Human Rights Watch, Apr 18, 2016), a false positive suspected terrorist in Guantanamo while simultaneously arming ISIS rebels in Syria through Turkey’s back door (The Guardian, Now The Truth Emerges..., June 3, 2015) simply because they are against Bashar al-Assad. The farce is almost laughable.  

Data security and privacy go hand in hand and one cannot be isolated from the other. If you don’t have privacy, you don’t have data security; if you don’t have data security, you don’t have privacy. It’s that simple. So, while entire governments seek to weaken the privacy rights of individuals in the guise of “increased commercial opportunities,” the security industry takes an opposing view because it negates everything we’re trying to accomplish for our clients - the possibility of safeguarding the integrity of their information assets from prying eyes, industrial espionage and data breaches. In fact, we in the cybersecurity subscribe to the opposite: only by guaranteeing data security do our clients feel more confident in expanding e-commerce opportunities.

The Answer

Clearly, each side has its own agenda and motives, and never the twain shall meet. Or can they? We argue that both sides can achieve a workable solution to everyone’s satisfaction if each is willing to compromise. Do secret state security agencies really need to exchange data deemed “suspect” between each other? We already have Interpol for that. From a commercial point of view, European companies doing business on the continent already freely exchange customer information between marketing and financial organisations to offer targeted advertising. At the same time, cybersecurity vendors should provide more robust encryption of data packet transfers. In this day and age, we should offer the best of both worlds.   


Secon Cyber Security
At Secon Cyber Security, we take the matter of data privacy very seriously. Our whole purpose for being is cybersecurity. As such, we offer advice and services around GDPR compliance, network security, cloud security, endpoint security, email archiving, DLP (data loss prevention) solutions, user-awareness training and education, cyber skills assessment and development.

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Now THAT’S embarrassing!

A goatse hosting site is hacked leaving users with their asses vulnerable (pun intended)

Reality. You can’t make this up. It’s so much better than any reality TV show.

A data breach at a forum for "anal fisting" has resulted in the exposure of 107,000 accounts. More than a third (37 per cent) of those affected by the Rosebutt Board were already included in the Have I Been Pwned? site, according to security researcher Troy Hunt. Victims will be able to use Have I Been Pwned? to check whether their data has been exposed once Hunt uploads the leaked data.

Info exposed includes usernames, email addresses, IP addresses, and weakly hashed passwords, Vice reports. Info uploaded to Have I Been Pwned? will be flagged as "sensitive" and not publicly searchable.

The Rosebutt Board caters to enthusiasts of “extreme anal dilation and anal fisting,” many of whom have been placed at risk of public humiliation or blackmail as a result of their sexual proclivities.

Not surprisingly, multiple .gov and .mil email addresses were exposed in the Rosebutt breach, Hunt reports.

Note: You know what this means, don’t you? After years of the government sticking it up our rear ends, it’s time for some serious payback!

Here’s the cherry on top

How often do you find this kind of synchronicity in life?

Right after reading the above news article, I turned to the Guardian. And what do I find? The 2016 Turner Prize shortlist features the sculpture of a man’s ass! Here’s the picture. 

More than just another brick in the wall

Sats answers published online...the second time in 3 weeks! Testing to go ahead despite leak

Pink Floyd's The Wall

News published by several media sources yesterday revealed that the Department for Education suffered a second major embarrassment after the answers for its Spelling, punctuation and grammar tests for 10 and 11 yr olds across england were published online.

When we grew up and went to school there were certain teachers who would hurt the children any way they could...

Despite the leak, testing would go ahead. A DfE spokesperson said the key stage 2 test of spelling, punctuation and grammar (Spag), which is compulsory for pupils in the final year of state primary school in England, would take place as planned but said its investigation would continue.

By pouring their derision upon anything we did and exposing every weakness however carefully hidden by the kids.

A whistleblower revealed to the Guardian that Pearson, the multinational education publisher responsible for administering the Sats, posted the tests a day early on a password protected site for test markers. According to the BBC website, a company statement said that "a small number of markers accessed the paper, although as contracted markers they are bound by confidentiality and have a duty not to share any papers. We do not have any evidence that the content of the paper has been compromised."

But in the town it was well known when they got home at night their fat, psychopathic wives would thrash them within inches of their lives.

John Fallon, Pearson CEO, said the company believed 102 markers had seen the paper in the four hours it was available. "Unfortunately, in this case we have made a mistake which we are very sorry for," he said.

We don't need no education.

The DfE said while the paper had not been put into the public domain, it appeared a "rogue marker" had then leaked the paper to the Guardian newspaper.

We don't need no thought control.

The new key stage 2 tests for 10- and 11-year-olds have also been widely criticised by teachers and parents who say they are too difficult for the age group. Last week parents across the country took their children out of school in protest at the tests.

No dark sarcasm in the classroom; teachers, leave them kids alone.

One experienced primary school headteacher said the new grammar tests would have stumped Jane Austen. “I have a degree in English language and there are a number of questions that I couldn’t answer,” she said.

Hey, teacher! Leave them kids alone! All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

Special thanks to Pink Floyd for a great album.

A new cybersecurity study reveals that…

Cybersecurity studies - how many does that make this year, 12...15?

No one keeps a secret for long

Has anyone noticed?

Almost daily we are being treated to the findings of yet another cybersecurity report designed (and not by accident, I might add) to scare the living bejesus out of us.

For some reason, everytime I see a new cybersecurity report has been released, regardless of its content, I am instantly transported back to that popular 80s arcade game, Pac-Man ━ that canary yellow, jaw-chomping, insatiable dot eater, whose 8-bit wakka-wakka wav sound file was the inspiration for Shakira’s 2010 World Cup Waka-Waka theme song, I’m guessing. OK, that’s not even close.

This Pac-Man, however, has my face on it and I’m being chased around an ever increasingly, difficult-to-survive, digital maze by 4 hungry little chomping “ware” ghosts - adware, malware, spyware and ransomware. Actually, any 80s arcade game is a great metaphor for today’s cyberattacks ━ Joust, Frogger, Space Invaders, Caterpillar, even Q*Bert ━ they’re all coming to get you, the hero, and you know that, sooner or later, you’re going to die. There’s no escape.

I may be wrong but it’s as if these reports are being released almost simultaneously with the news of some cyberattack. And that makes me wonder if somehow security developers might be in cahoots with code hackers.

I don’t want to belittle the gravity or consequences of these attacks ━ they are real. But it’s not surprising either that most of these cyberreports originate in the US, the masters of fear mongering. Americans live off fear; just look at their news and adverts. It’s how they make their money. They spread fear and get you to buy stuff. Erectile dysfunction? We have a pill; Weird, suspicious looking neighbors? We have guns; Fear of illegal immigrants? We’ll build a wall; Running out of oil? We’ll start a war somewhere. All you have to do is pay.

In fact, this heightened state of collective paranoia has reached such a fever pitch that, just this past weekend, a lady on a flight from Philadelphia to Syracuse reported to flight attendants that the person sitting next to her might be a terrorist because he was “writing strange things on a notepad.” It turns out the person next to her was professor Guido Menzio, an Italian economist working on some differential equations. I’m sure authorities at the Pentagon and NSA love this woman because she bought into the fear like a champion. To me, though, this woman just went off on a (sinα / cos α). In case you’re wondering, that equation translates to tangent. Hey, maybe I’m a terrorist, too!

So the big question remains. How do we sift through all the fear tactics with the least amount of psychological and emotional damage?

There are at least two ways. The first one is guaranteed to rid you of your fear forever. Live off the grid. Throw away everything electronic - TVs, phones, computers, cars, radios, watches, microwave ovens, trainers, etc. - basically anything with a chip in it, sell your house and belongings, buy a 60s or 70s vintage car, move out into the country far away from CCTV cameras, grow your own food and live free away from prying eyes, negative news reports, inane reality shows and doomsday-predicting politicians! Some people have done it and swear by it.

It’s a great life, if you can find it. Just ask this fellow from Alabama. Wait...what? That’s right, if you don’t buy any stuff, the government will come for you and evict you from your own land for being “unpatriotic.” So much for freedom, then. Clearly, you’re only allowed to be as free as the stuff ‘fear’ tells you to buy.

The other way is to use common sense, the ability to act in accordance to the consequences of cause-effect, a commodity of which we are in short supply. The demographics here are quite clear: millennials are, by far, the most tech savvy group. In other words, they’re the ones who spend the most time online, and, by extension, the demographic with the least awareness for common sense. Again, I don’t blame the ordinary millennials for their lack of cybersecurity awareness. They’re programmed to be online 24/7 with no regard for consequences. It’s a trend that’s been slowly developing and taking hold since the 80s.

Those of us who are older, and hopefully wiser, know the dangers of information, i.e., data, overload. We were brought up with phrases like, “Loose lips sink ships” and “Mum’s the word.” So we’re naturally wary of all these bits of personal data flying about in cyberspace. But millennials have no such compunction; they don’t know anything else.

So, use common sense because there’s no other alternative.

• Install a good, reputable security program on all your devices. Make sure these offer VPNs and are cloud compatible.
• Install a good password manager.
• Make sure all your system devices are patched and updated.
• Don’t go putting stuff on the internet you wouldn’t want your mother to see.
• If you must do porn, go only to reputable porn sites. (yes, they exist!)
• Don’t share everything with everybody - your real life is more important than your virtual one.
• If you’re going to cheat on your spouse, do it the old fashioned way - go to a brothel and pay for it; don’t look for it online. Check out The Girlfriend Experience on Showtime.
• READ! Preferably more than 140 characters at a time. There’s a lot of great advice out there; inform yourself. We have more knowledge available to us than at any point in history, and yet, we seem to be dumber than ever before.
• Employ a “best practices” strategy.

But above all, just remember this - everything you do online is visible in some form or another. What would you like strangers to know about you...or not?