Westministenders: Before the Fire Alarm of Rome goes off

[RedToothBrush]

I’m going to keep this one very simple.

THE DEADLINE TO REGISTER TO VOTE IS 22ND MAY.
www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

Postal votes start to go out on 23rd May.

Your challenge is to persuade someone to register to vote or to get someone who is considering not to, to get their arse to the polling station.

Go forth and harass. Especially women and the young.

That’s it. No frills OP.

Its a very difficult thing for people to admit (even to themselves) that they were wrong.....

It's extremely difficult for anyone to admit that they have been taken for fools.

I'm obviously a lost cause as I've never been targeted by the Conservatives/UKIP/Leave/Britain First etc.

NancyWake it wasn't "focussed" on anything except computer systems with security vulnerabilities.

The media in the UK understandably focussed on the impact on the NHS.

No, the NHS was the only UK organisation to be hit. I already said it was a worldwide attack, so I'm not sure why you're repeating that. The point is that of the suspects thus far, N.Korea is highly unlikely, Russia more so, but their own interior ministry was one of the worst hit. Probably the most feasible narrative is a criminal cybergang hence the ransomware (although they were using US NSA cyber tools) in which case it's odd that the only UK organisation affected doesn't have any money. In Spain it was Telefonica, telecoms giant that owns 02, for example.

So, none of this adds up, including the idea that the NHS happened to be struck because it has old IT, as if there aren't businesses across the country with outdated and vulnerable systems. And is the Russian interior ministry likely to have security vulnerabilities comparable to the NHS? A country that's responsible for hacking other governments.

It's extremely difficult for anyone to admit that they have been taken for fools.

I happily admit I was taken in by Tony Blairs appeal to the public, thinking no British Prime Minster would lie to the public in order to secure a mandate for war.

But since then - sorry Treeza - I am willing to believe anything of any politician. And generally, it's not good.

No, the NHS was the only UK organisation to be hit.

You know this how, exactly ?

I was listening to a guy from IBM of R4 this morning on the subject of the random ware attack. He is an expert in identifying and tracking this sort of thing. He said there were a couple of unusual things they have found about his attack.

1 - usually ransom ware attacks start as phishing emails of some kind. They have a lot of 'traps' set up specifically designed to attract just this sort of phishing email and he said that they had not received anything in any of their traps for this ransom ware. This means that it looks like this attack did not start as a phishing attack and they are not clear who the patient zero was or how it started.

2 - when they followed the money a lot less bitcoin had been transferred for this than they would usually expect and the amount of money raised by the attack was peanuts considering its scale.

3 - they have heard a lot from large organisations on this attack, but not as much from individuals and small businesses as they would have expected.

Now this is by no means my area and I am not sure what all this means (Possibly 2 and 3 could be explained by the large amount of publicity the attack and solution received), but I thought it was interesting that this attack has not followed the standard patterns. I think it is worth keeping half an eye on to see what comes up from further investigation.

With the BMW factory working to a Just In Time system, I don't see how it can keep going once customs controls are introduced. Building warehouses for parts could cushion some of the delays.

Leaving the single market and customs union will have a bad enough impact on the complex supply chains. But if we cannot negotiate a lengthening of the interim deal beyond its current 3 year cap, we're fucked. There's no way we'll get an FTA in less than 7-10 years.

And the car industry has explicitly said: any deal is better than no deal.

You know this how, exactly ?

One can be sure of nothing in this sorry tale, however that is what the reputable UK news sources have reported. And no other UK companies have come forward to say they were affected.

Nissan did come forward. Their battery factory was affected.

Excellent work BiglyBadgers, much appreciated, I will go and find that interview.

You know this how, exactly ?

And no other UK companies have come forward to say they were affected.

There's an imperative for them not to.

I know two of my previous employers would not report (nor need to report) such an incident.

I have a feeling any oddities in distribution are a function of the fact it was NHS systems that were first hit - they are probably much more interconnected with each other (thus spreading it "internally") than with 3rd parties.

that is what the reputable UK news sources have reported

I would be curious as to what sources qualify as "reputable" ...

I would not be surprised if the ransomware came from another bored teenager who did expect to go quite this far, just like the Talktalk attack.

Building warehouses for parts could cushion some of the delays

Given the price of land, it would add a massive overhead to the price. Why do people think JIT is used in the first place ?

Warehouses aren't just valuable real estate going to waste. They need to be staffed. Heated. Maintained. Kept secure. All things that would make a real capitalist come out in a rash.

Add to that the UKs spectacular ineptitude with infrastructure, and you're not selling it to me.

Ransomware Cyber Attack RECAP: Nissan confirm they have been hit by hack which crippled NHS

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/cyber-attack-nhs-latest-news-13029913

Quite a few of the security agencies (as in the internet ones, not the police type!) have issued statements to help others stay safe. Its safe to assume there have been a few companies and individuals also hit by this.

NHS +1, but the point stands.

I'm not convinced ordinary UK companies are going to cover up such an attack as a matter of course, particularly when it's in the national, indeed international interest, to know the full extent and the details.

It's not true that NHS systems are primarily connected to each other, there are many private companies now working within the NHS, offering NHS and social care services, Virgin Care for example.

All things that would make a real capitalist come out in a rash.

They are. There is a reason the Conservatives have not had a 'letter from business this time'. Its not because "Fiona doesn't like letters". Its because Fiona doesn't like business and business doesn't like Fiona.

Peregrina I agree with Lurking Just in time has been the prevailing business model in manufacturing operations and logistics for decades now. The whole point is that having anything stored and on inventory costs you money, staff, property, utilities, business rates, the delay in receiving revenue to offset expenditure etc. etc. It is the reason EU manufacturers are now looking for EU Suppliers to offer insure their supply chains against this risk.

Actually I should have put the delay in receiving revenue to offset expenditure at the head of the list......

It's not true that NHS systems are primarily connected to each other,

If they're on the internet, they are.

Moving away from JIT is also an environmental ballache |(but the UK will be dumping any pretence at climate change targets, so that's OK).

It would also stretch out time-to-market, and time-to-react for manufacturers in fast moving industries. Leading to companies unwilling to release version 2, because they are still stuffed to the gills with version one components. Of course no-one is going to place an order for version 1, if they know version 2 is coming out soon.

It also introduces another point of failure into the manufacturing process ... making it more vulnerable to (say) strikes.

And so our descent into the 1970s continues.

NHS Wales systems have not been affected by the ransomware attack.

Some quotes from the story on the BBC explain why.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-39923453

"NHS Wales has said none of its computer systems have been impacted and no patient data affected by a global cyber-attack.

Suspicious activity was identified on six computers on part of its network.

"Our systems prevented the virus activating and the machines were isolated," a Welsh Government spokesman said.
...
The Welsh Government said precautionary measures had been taken "to ensure the integrity of the system and we continue to monitor the situation closely".

"We have recently invested in upgrading IT to protect potentially vulnerable NHS Wales systems and all GP systems in Wales are managed and supported centrally, with best practice security controls.

"Additional steps continue to be taken to protect NHS IT systems and we would like to thank National Wales Informatics Service (NWIS) and IT teams across the NHS who have been working tirelessly over the weekend.""

If this had been a deliberate attack to cripple the NHS in the UK, it would only have targeted the NHS and it would have introduced malware to crash systems irrevocably. It didn't.

Here is the labour manifesto if anyone fancies some bedtime reading.

www.labour.org.uk/index.php/manifesto2017

I was working for ICI (RIP ) too many years ago when they first introduced JIT and TQM (Total Quality Management - Crosby) in the Petrochemicals & Plastics Division They were highly interlinked. If you were operating a stock system/not JIT, then if you discovered a fault at the end of the process, then not only did you have lots of product that was faulty, but you also had lots of stock that was unusable

And as Lurking has said, non-JIT disincentivises innovation and upgrades.

Can you imagine the nightmares in logistics and wasted stock if things are caught up in customs awaiting clearance? With a lengthened supply chain? (ok, we on Westministenders can but it would appear that DD et al can't )

I suppose one of the arguments is that the UK is then incentivised to make all components within the country. But that ship has sailed for car industry (excuse the mixed metaphor/pun) The world has moved on.

Oh TQM! It was like a religion, paid disciples came to convert you, which seemed a bit daft to me as I did it out of common sense and a wish to be effective and didn't need a religion to motivate me... Then ironically I got sent as our representative to some European organisation to further TQM , nought to do with the EU, just business neighbours getting together to set some standards and regulatory frameworks.............