You may receive a [...]]]> Another Trojan Email popped into the spam basket today, this one entitled Facebook Password Reset Confirmation. The Email, purporting to be from Facebook, claims that the user’s Facebook password has been changed and informs them that the new password can be found in an attached document, which is a zip file.

You may receive a email claiming to be from Facebook Manager titled “Facebook Password Reset Confirmation. Important Message”. The message is a trick designed to fool recipients into installing a trojan on their computer.

Those who open the attached file, Facebook_password_3921.zip in this case, ostensibly to view their new password, will in fact be launching a copy of the Bredolab Trojan. Once downloaded, the virus gives the sender complete control of the target computer, allowing cyber criminals to potentially spy on users of the computer or use it to steal personal information or distribute more spam

As with any such dodgy emails, or unsolicited attachments, the best action is to delete the lot, and think no more about it.

Click here to find out more about the Bredolab Trojan on symantic.com.

Mike has been an inspiration to TechCo management over many years, due to his unusual way of looking at the usual. [...]]]> According to Mike Manisty, former CIO of the National Offender Management Service, and currently working for Gartner, “Reality in government IT is too often a triumph of procrastination and pedestrianisation over inspiration and aspiration!”

Mike has been an inspiration to TechCo management over many years, due to his unusual way of looking at the usual. He has been prepared to criticise the status quo, and challenge the excesses of government IT procurement and outsources contracts.

In a comment to a post on the new UK government IT Strategy, Mike goes on to say that “To achieve such a radical change will require the sacrifice of a number of sacred cows, including procurement policy, HR policy, security accreditation, sourcing contract overkill, project governance, budget delegation, just for starters.”

This is straight out of the TechCo recipe book, and we look forward to tackling the ingredient list; we love a challenge! We would particularly like to see procurement rules changed to allow smaller companies able to compete for IT work with a minimum of hassle. While we are at it, we would also like to see Agile concepts introduced in government application development – now that would be radical!

To read the full article, and Mike’s contribution click here to read Andrea DiMaio on the New UK IT Strategy

Mike Manisty was arguably the first person to undertake a solar-powered voyage upstream from Westminster to the navigable source of the Thames near Lechlade in Gloucestershire. He started on 24th June 2008 and completed the journey on 21st July 2008 at the pub near the Round House.

Click here for details of the Thames Solar Challenge by Mike Manisty
Mike is also on twitter, click here to follow

The film called The Journey of Courageousness, by Aleksandr Orlov, documents the courageous journey of the Meerkats [...]]]> The latest episode in the viral marketing campaign Compare The Meerkat has aired, and of course has made it to YouTube. This time the advert (a short film called The Journey of Courageousness) even has a trailer!

The film called The Journey of Courageousness, by Aleksandr Orlov, documents the courageous journey of the Meerkats from their home in the Kalahari desert to finally end up in Russia. As usual for this sequence of adverts, the production is excellent, and the storyline is brisk and full of comedic moments. Check out Sergei looking seasick on the ocean crossing!

Compare The Meerkat Film Trailer

The Journey of Courageousness – Compare The Meerkat Advert (Jan 2010)

It is a bit like the instruction I was given all those years ago when as a newbie [...]]]> Our post last Thursday has sparked some debate around the office about how long a blog post should be. I mean honestly, a blog post should be as long as it needs to be, and no more!

It is a bit like the instruction I was given all those years ago when as a newbie mechanic I asked how far should I tighten a bolt. My mentor, a wily old veteran who had probably been around at the retreat from Dunkirk (or is that Dunquerke?), nodded sagely and then told me (with a straight face) to tighten it until it snapped, and then back off a bit…

As a rule, I always finish a blog post off and then leave it for a few hours before going back to edit down a bit. Usually it just needs to have a few superfluous words removed, and the odd repetition corrected. That is really the same thing, as my old mentor would have advised; write until it is just too long, and then back off a bit!
A quick random sample of a few blogs gives a sample (admittedly unscientific!) of post length as a general guide. The following are average word count per post:

• Techco Support average 368
• Bruce Thompson Coaching average 438
• Guardian Technology Blogs average 665

However if you average up posts from one of the more prolific bloggers, the word count can be a lot higher. Penelope Trunk of Brazen Careerist averages about 1500 words a post, with some as high as 1856.

Now if you think about it, the length of you article reflects the content. For a helpdesk how-to, you really only need to know the problem and solution, so a low word count is appropriate. For a coaching article, more wordage is required, because there is likely some scene setting, to give people the vision, sounds and feelings that they might experience. If you are a worldly wise uber-blogger like Penelope Trunk you probably have a lot more to say.

The advice we give to trainee bloggers who ask the question “How long should a blog post be?” is simple and gradual:

• Aim for 200-300 word to start with
• When confident aim for 400-800 words on a specific topic
• Once you are a veteran blogger, make your post as long as it needs to be!

To check out the blogs we have sampled here, click on the links below to take your own word count:

• TechCo Support
• Bruce Thompson Coaching
• Guardian Technology Blogs
• Penelope Trunk Brazen Careerist

As noted in the Bristol Programming blog, the numbers are almost unbelievable. Together with an undisclosed number of desktops in the Ministry [...]]]> Does it seem odd that with Chinese hackers exploiting Internet Explorer 6 vulnerabilities to infiltrate Google’s network, so many Government departments are actively prevented from upgrading to a safer, more usable browser?

As noted in the Bristol Programming blog, the numbers are almost unbelievable. Together with an undisclosed number of desktops in the Ministry of Justice using the vulnerable and out of date browser, the figures for IE6 in Government are breathtaking:

• More than 750,000 workstations in the NHS
• 500,000 in the Department of Work and Pensions
• 300,000 in the Ministry of Defence

Is it possible that the cost to Government that outsourced IT providers would demand to upgrade the browser are so high that it is worth the risk of compromise? There must be some major national security threat if users ever get the ability to use tabbed browsing; what else could explain the reluctance to upgrade? Perhaps some bold MP would like to ask the question in Parliament.

To read the original article click here to visit the Bristol Programming blog

The amount of email that [...]]]> Another one of those pesky email hoaxes popped into our in-box today. It was the Simon Ashton hoax, with the warning forwarded by a well meaning friend. As we tell all our staff, collogues, customers and friends, the email hoax works because people think “better safe than sorry”

The amount of email that a typical hoax can generate is a major cost to organisations. Just think of a company with 60 employees; if each person takes a minute to read a hoax virus email, that will cost an hour of lost productivity. Then if half of them spend a couple of minutes forwarding it to their friends, that is another hour lost! Once a few people in your company have received a warning and mailed it to all their friends and colleagues, a mail overload can easily result.

We support the advice that companies should consider circulating a policy on virus hoaxes to all their staff, in an attempt to avoid the costs involved.

For a sample anti hoax virus policy click here to visit Sophos – Don’t fall for a virus hoax

The Institution is Britain’s leading professional organisation for people who work in the development, installation and testing [...]]]> The Institution of Analysts and Programmers has embraced the Web 2.0 concept and changed the format of it’s website to the popular blog format. The site is using WordPress, with the Atahualpa WP Theme by BytesForAll.

The Institution is Britain’s leading professional organisation for people who work in the development, installation and testing of business systems and computer software. A number of PRINCE 2 Practitioners are members of the IAP, and a few hold prominant positions in the organisation.

If you want to see what the new WordPress powerd IAP website looks like click here to visit The Institution of Analysts and Programmers