back to article Home Office launches £4m cyber security awareness scheme

The UK Home Office has launched a new £4m information security awareness campaign, designed to educate businesses and consumers about rising hacker threats. The first stage of the campaign is due to get underway in the autumn. The scheme will sit alongside other more established information security initiatives, such as Get …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Interesting, giving that the greatest threat to cyber security lies in the hand of the government. Their data gobbling, combined with lacking security makes them a juicy target for many a hacker.

    1. jake Silver badge

      @Martijn Otto

      Actually, Martijn, the greatest threat to online security is idiots who insist on using the term "cyber", without any actual knowledge of how computers & networks work ...

      1. Khaptain Silver badge

        Re: @Martijn Otto

        I would argue that the greatest threat is actually the gullibility of a very large percentage of internet user. Unfortunately it is not so easy to repair that problem.

        The first major hurdle lies in the "education" of said Gullible Crowd. If they were to be educated correctly then they would then start to think critically about what the governement are actually doing and we don't really want them to start doing that.

        4 Million, sound more like a cheap marketing campaign than a serious attempt to make a difference.

        1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

          Re: @Martijn Otto @Khaptain

          There is a way to make users like the ones you indicate safe, but it means locking down their computers so that they can't install software, and are completely removed from any decisions about installing patches.

          Whilst it would appear that Microsoft and Apple may be moving to that mindset, it is gathering some opposition from computer users, especially those who understand how things work.

          I'm sure that there are other organisations that would like there to be this level of control, especially if they can recruit the vendors into installing other software components as part of the patching process.

          The problem is one of balance between on-line liberty and security (and I'm not specifying whose!)

          1. Pen-y-gors

            Re: @Martijn Otto @Khaptain

            you missed out "...and disconnect all their devices from any form of network"

          2. Anonymous Coward
            IT Angle

            Locking down the computers?

            > There is a way to make users like the ones you indicate safe, but it means locking down their computers ..

            And in the process making it totally unusable for any real work as you can't even change the home page and right-click is disabled for most tasks and desktop customization is disabled. Of course this only applies in the Windows land ...

          3. Wayland Sothcott 1

            Re: @Martijn Otto @Khaptain

            It frightens me how easy it is to tell people lies. More frightening is that it's harder to get people to believe the truth.

        2. jake Silver badge

          @Khaptain (was: Re: @Martijn Otto)

          I think my comment said pretty much the same as yours, but a trifle more succinctly.

          Passing "Critical Thinking 101" should be a requirement for highschool graduation ...

          1. Khaptain Silver badge

            Re: @JAke

            Sorry about that Jake, i had presumed that the idiots that you mentioned were the ones that hold Governement seats rather than the couch potatoe ones sitting at home...

            1. jake Silver badge

              @Khaptain (was: Re: @JAke)

              Uh ... there really isn't any difference.

              Neither the GreatUnwashed, nor the .gov "officials", have anything resembling a clue about computers & networking.

    2. andreas koch
      Unhappy

      @Martijn Otto -

      I agree. I'm just waiting for some nitwit to leave a whole 500TB storage rack standing in a car park while reshuffling the load on his truck. Couriers have left briefcases with government documents in the tube before.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Does it start....?

    "There are many threats out there, but remember, the biggest threat to your security is us and our american masters."

  3. jake Silver badge

    All of £4m?

    That'll help. Not.

    Blithering idiots.

    1. Vimes

      Re: All of £4m?

      I seem to recall one article somewhere indicating that a lot of the technology being used by GCHQ for the tapping of international communications had actually originated from within the NSA. Hardly surprising really when you consider how well they've run other initiatives.

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: All of £4m?

        Listening into phone calls[1] ain't rocket science. Plug into the test/monitor port of the telco gear of your choice.

        This has existed since analog T-carrier gear.

        The only problem is figuring out which bit of twisted-pair/fiber to listen in on ...

        [1] For largish variations of "phone calls", of course.

        1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
          Unhappy

          Re: All of £4m?

          "The only problem is figuring out which bit of twisted-pair/fiber to listen in on ..."

          I think you've been missing the point.

          The evidence coming form both the US and the UK is that they want to listen to everyone all the time.

          Why?

          How about (basically) because they can.

          1. jake Silver badge

            @John Smith 19 (was: Re: All of £4m?)

            "I think you've been missing the point."

            And I think you don't fully understand the point.

            "they want to listen to everyone all the time."

            They have been. Since 1946. See: United Kingdom – United States of America Agreement.

    2. Dr U Mour

      Re: All of £4m?

      No disrespect to jake but £4m is a lot of money, and in my opinion, far too much. Why does distributing simple information cost this much?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: All of £4m?

        Not really. If they (ha!) spend 50% on materials/commercials/fliers and the rest on staff and and office, it's only 19 bodies, desks and an office for a year.

      2. jake Silver badge

        @Dr U Mour (was: Re: All of £4m?)

        £4m is a lot of money (and probably more than 99.999% of the folks reading this will earn in a lifetime!), but it's peanuts to any largish town or small city. Much less a metropolis or country.

        Data center needs (including bandwidth) consume loot at a ferocious rate ...

  4. weebs

    The weakest point in the chain is the wet squishy one, badly educated end users who have the same password for everything. It's about time people realise that this is the worst thing possible, who always are under the age old adage of "it'll never happen to me" until they realise someone just wired all their PayPal money somewhere in China.

  5. Vimes

    Crimes against UK businesses?

    Perhaps they could actually be taken seriously if they stopped turning a blind eye to UK citizens and businesses being shafted by US companies. They could also stop ignoring the spying activities of a company whose owner has links to the Russian military and whose systems were trialled by BT. And how about encouraging ISPs to stop offshoring services to the US? (rather than encourage it - which is probably what they are doing at the moment since it makes it easier to spy on the usage of such services).

    I'm sure that the likes of GCHQ couldn't believe their luck when BT moved their email to Yahoo.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    when I saw the title...

    I thought it was a campaign to show the public(and other subversive elements, elsewhere) how to protect themselves from the snooping run by the doughnut...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Continue the frog boiling!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The frog is boiled, we are now just being rendered into soup.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    How

    In today's climate, can they justify 4m on this?

    Governments really have lost the plot.

  9. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    Might like to start with the House of Commons

    Have they cleared up their virus de jour yet?

    1. hplasm
      Thumb Up

      Re: Might like to start with the House of Commons

      Which strain? Red, Blue or Yellow.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Might like to start with the House of Commons

        "Which strain? Red, Blue or Yellow"

        There's no difference (as in There Is No Alternative). They are all mixed together forming a sh*tty brown colour.

  10. Pen-y-gors

    Swapsies?

    How about giving £4m to GCHQ as their total budget, and spend the existing GCHQ billions on something more useful, and which is in step with our desire to live in a free society?

  11. Tom 7

    If they'd been aware themselves

    they might have noticed someone making off with £4million.

  12. Arachnoid
    Thumb Down

    High Priority?

    £4 million that`ll get them all of 30 seconds of TV advertising

  13. Crisp
    Big Brother

    The Biggest Hacking Threat In The UK

    Is probably the UK Home Office itself.

  14. Andrew Jones 2

    Step1 -

    Don't click on any links in any email. EVER. And don't download any attachments EVER.

    Step2-

    Don't visit the less popular porn sites that are completely surrounded by advertising.

    Step3-

    When watching illegal copyrighted material - if the video player on the page says "you must download super wonderful video codec 2030" or any other wording indicating you must download something to continue, simply click the small play button at the bottom left of the player, NOT the one in the center.

    Step4-

    If while browsing around the internet a you see a window that says something like "your computer has been scanned and has 235 problems, click here now to fix them" DON'T EVER!

    Step5-

    If your computer comes with McAfee or Norton pre-installed - immediately locate the nearest heavy implement - like a sledgehammer - and KILL IT!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      re: Step 3

      That works? Thanks.

  15. i like crisps
    Black Helicopters

    But i am AWARE...

    ...I'm aware that everyone in the Home Office are CUNTS.

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