back to article Directgov farms out web content across Europe

The UK government’s internet portal that serves as a one-stop public services shop for British citizens caches its website at locations throughout the European Union, The Register has learned. Directgov, whose content management system, hosting and managed service is maintained by NTT Europe Online, operates from “primary …

COMMENTS

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  1. The Indomitable Gall

    Abroad...

    "But the downside for some is that potentially sensitive government data ends up cached abroad. "

    How many EU countries have weaker data protection than ours? (genuine question)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    At least ...

    ... i's not across the pond with the good 'ole boys.

  3. Jonathan Richards 1
    Alert

    What content is cached?

    If it's just the forms and instructions for renewing my vehicle licence, then I'm not too bothered. If it's the server logs that show which IP addresses have accessed which bits of the Direct.gov resources I can begin to see some level of concern. If it's the personal information which one submits in using the online services then I'm very concerned. There are strict rules about off-shoring (and, God help us, "near-shoring") personal data; I suppose that Direct.gov and NTT can assure us that they've considered all that?

  4. Hollerith 1

    Sounds sensible to me

    They've taken a sensible approach. I'd store my stuff around good, secure European servers, too. Is this a story??

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    value for money

    The equation used presumably doesn't take into account the value of jobs for British-based workers with respect to the possible tax revenues and reduced social security payments then?

  6. ElNumbre

    Concerned...

    Its not the data being mirrorred at the front end in the EU I'm worried about, its the stream of information going out the backdoor to Redmond and Langley in the US.

    But apart from renewing Car Tax, does anyone actually use direct.gov for anything?

  7. npupp 1
    Happy

    more than just car tax..

    ...i used it to look up when the bank holidays are ^^

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Badgers

    Did I go to www.thedailymail.com in error?

    Why is this a problem? The servers are unlikely to be held in any country with more lax security than the UK - has any other government posted the details of half the country on an unencrypted CD?

    Not that I use direct.gov.uk ever - even for my car tax, I have a post office within walking distance (next closest one is 12 miles away and run by a surly humourless idiot) that I'd like to keep open despite the government's intensified efforts to close it.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Pointless

    The only thing more pointless than the directgov website is directgov delivered over Freeview. It's like a leaflet with all the useful information taken out.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Cut Off

    What happens if we were to be cut off from the EU/

    Would Direct.Gov become laggy as hell

  11. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Well DUH, welcome to the internet n00bs.

    Coming next week: "zOMG! All my data gets divided into packets and sent through a whole chain of machines that I don't even know about! I thought when you went to a website you were directly connected to the website, like when you make a phone call!"

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And the trail ends up in

    NTT Communications is the unregulated part of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, approximately one third owned by the Japanese government.

  13. Dave Bell

    Big Deal

    OK, I hope there are good and varied connections with the rest of Europe. What's the name of that place in Docklands that everybody and their sheep seems to use to house their servers? I've known enough network failures where "independent" hardware wasn't, that using a server in another country looks good, but how many links between us and them are genuinely independent?

    I wouldn't be surprised if half a dozen telcos have their own optical fibre to Europe, all going through the Channel Tunnel. Demon Internet had two independent routes to the USA that converged, physically, on the same bridge in the USA.

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