Some users of Gamin , Sony and Suunto GPS devices have been reporting inaccuracies in their GPS data as of new years day.
Users are reposting GPS offset, where a GPS track does not align with the actual route taken. The offset can be from a few meters to a few hundred meters, and is affecting devices with a Song GPD chipset.
Some of the infected devices include;
Garmin Edge 130, 530, 830, 1030 plus models.
Garmin Forerunner 45,245, 745, 945
Garmin Fenix 6
Garmin Vivoactive 3, 4
Polar Vantage range
Suunto range
Some Samsung phones
What’s caused the problems?
The issue is related to the EPO (Ephemeris Data File) – sometimes called the Satellite pre-cache file, that the device uses to quickly find satellites (it assumes their position while trying to get a more accurate lock)
This file is downloaded and updated via the internet whenever your device can connect to the servers to obtain a copy. But at the turn of the new year, the data in the file was wrong and this has lead to the offsets people are seeing.
The file has been corrected now, and next time your device downloads the file it will update it’s cache.
If you’re outside for long enough and your device can lock directly onto the satellites, that will also correct the offset.
So TL;DR – it’ll fix itself over the next few days.
Apps can now integrate Google assistant to a much deeper level, giving access to specific functions within the app. For example you can open MyFitnessPal and log a food entry by just saying something like “Hay Google, log carrots in MyFitnessPal” or open a chat with a friend “Hay Google, message Billy on WhatsApp”
And for your most common tasks, you can create custom shortcut phrases. So instead of saying “Hey Google, tighten my shoes with Nike Adapt,” you can create a shortcut to just say, “Hey Google, lace it.” You can explore suggested shortcuts or create your own by simply saying, “Hey Google, show my shortcuts” to get to the settings screen.
Whether you want a hands-free way to use your apps or shortcuts to complete common tasks, we want to make Android and your apps even more useful and convenient—and to give you time back to enjoy what matters most.
Adam Coimbra, Product Manager.
No more “Your call is import to us…” while listening to Get Happy on hold!
Using the latest version of the Google Phone app you no longer have to sit with the on hold music playing in the background, Google Assistant can listen to the call for you and alert you when an actual human answers the call. And better still, it’ll put THEM on hold while it notifies you.
Hold for Me is our latest effort to make phone calls better and save you time. Last year, we introduced an update to Call Screen that helps you avoid interruptions from spam calls once and for all, and last month, we launched Verified Calls to help you know why a business is calling before you answer. Hold for Me is now another way we’re making it simpler to say hello.
Andrew Goodman, Product Manager, Google Assistant Joseph Cherukara, Product Manager, Phone app
Using the Google AI, the new phone app is able to identify the difference between Hold Music, automated messages like “Your call is important to us, please hold the line” and some advertising messages.
While the ‘Hold For Me’ is active, the call will be muted and Google’s AI will provide an on-screen transcript of what’s happening on the call so you can keep an eye on your progress through a call answering system for example.
The audio processing is done entirely on the phone, so no data is sent into the cloud for analysis unless you allow it.
At the moment the ‘Hold For Me’ only works on pixel devices, but Google are hoping to update the app on all Android 9 and above phones very soon.
The new normal of living in a Covid19 world brings with it some important questions about how you’re going to manage your business’s data security.
If you’ve changed how and where your workers are based, such as home workers or shared work spaces, or have taken on extra measures such as track and trace or monitoring your staffs health, there are data security measures that you must implement to comply with GDPR and protect the processing of personal data.
Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA)
Under the GDPR you need to show that any processing of personal information is being being done in line with the GDPR. You’re responsible for being able to demonstrate your compliance and to show that you’ve considered the impact of the data your processing. It’s recommended that you have a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) to help demonstrate your assessment.
Making changes to your GDPR policy should only be done after a DPIA is carried out.
The DPIA is not just for large organisations, any business that is processing personally identifiable information is required to be registered with the ICO and to have a GDPR policy in place.
Am I processing personally identifiable data?
What counts as Personally Identifiable Data?
Any information that can identify an individual is Personally Identifiable Data, the most obvious being peoples names, but other types of data could also be used to identify someone;
Names
Client Reference ID’s
Order Numbers
Browser Cookies from websites
PAYE information
CCTV images
Bank Details
Mobile Phone Numbers
Social Media Details
What counts as Processing Data?
Any time anything happens to the data, it’s processing. With digital data this would include when it’s first entered into your system, if it’s accessed, sorted or looked up and when it’s modified or printed.
It includes the collection of data even if it’s not stored, such as taking temperature readings.
I don’t use a computer for work?
The GDPR covers processing of data in any format, this includes data on your mobile phone (such as contact details, call logs, text messages, WhatsApp messages etc)
I don’t even have a mobile phone
It’s not just digital data that is covered, an form of filing system is taken into account, so an address book, Filofax or even the top drawer of your desk would all fall under the GDPR.
Track & Trace
If you’re recording information for Track & Trace, you are required to follow the GDPR when doing so. You should update your GDPR policy to include the processing of this data and carry out a DPIA to make sure you are following the requirements of GDPR.
You should make sure that individuals know why you are collecting this information, who will have access to it and how long you will retain it for. The data collected must not be used for any other purpose.
You will need to identify the lawful basis for collecting this information. If you have a legal requirement to collect the information, or are doing so because your industry is encouraged to do so, it’s likely that you will be able to use ‘Legitimate Interest’ as the bases. Otherwise you may be required to use individual consent.
You should collect the minimum amount of information needed for the purpose. This would probably be a contact name, phone number and the date, time and duration of their stay at your premises.
Ask for only what’s needed You should only ask people for the specific information that has been set out in government guidance. This may include things like their name, contact details and time of arrival for example.You should not ask people to prove their details with identity verification, unless this is a standard practice for your business, eg ID checks for age verification in pubs.
Be transparent with customers You should be clear, open and honest with people about what you are doing with their personal information. Tell them why you need it and what you’ll do with it. You could do this by displaying a notice in your premises, including it on your website or even just telling people.If you already collect customer data for bookings, you should make it clear that their personal data may also be used for contact tracing purposes.
Carefully store the data You must look after the personal data you collect. That means keeping it secure on a device if you’re collecting the records digitally or, for paper records, keeping the information locked away.See our guidance on simple security measures you can take here.
Don’t use it for other purposes You cannot use the personal information that you collect for contact tracing for other purposes, such as direct marketing, profiling or data analytics.
Erase it in line with government guidance You should not keep the personal data for longer than the government guidelines specify. It’s important that you dispose of the data securely to reduce the risk of someone else accessing the data. Shred paper documents and permanently delete digital files from your recycle bin or back-up cloud storage, for example.
Track & Trace QR Code
If you’ve printed out a government Track and Trace QR code, you do not need to include that information on your GDPR as you will not be processing the information in any way.
(Temperature monitoring, symptom monitoring or asking about their health or the health of household members)
If you’re monitoring individuals (or their household) for signs of COVID-19 you will need to take extra care with the way the data is collected and processed. This type of data is classed as Special Category Data and has extra safeguards offered by the GDPR.
You should carry out a DPIA to ensure you have covered all the legal requirements for processing this kind of information.
Individuals who are asked about their health or the health of those they live with, or who are asked to take a test or have their temperature taken, have rights under the GDPR. They are entitled to know at the point of collection;
What information is being collected.
Why it’s being collected.
Who will have access to the data.
How long the data will be held for.
What the legal basis is for collecting the data.
who they should contact if they have any problems or issues.
They will also be entitled to request a copy of the data (Called a Subject Access Request, or a SAR)
Furthermore, they will be required to give specific, clear consent for the collection of this information.
Home workers access to company data
With many organisations now looking at moving to full or part time home workers, you need to make sure your GDPR policy covers the movement of data to and from your remote workers, and the data’s security while off site.
The transfer of data to and from your workforce and your office network should be a closed, secure transfer, either digitally over secured communications channels or physically.
If your workers are in the office or in other company owned premises, the security can be centred around the closed network design, but when your workers are remote or working from a home office, that transfer of data needs to be done via public systems (This could be manual, such as moving paper records and files from the company to the workers, or digitally over the public internet)
If the data falls under the scope of the GDPR, then it is a lawful requirement that you protect the transfer of the data.
For files and paper this could be by using a locked briefcase or storage box, a pre-vetted courier or an employed courier. For digital information, this should include encrypted data over secure connections, such as a VPN (Virtual Private Network) Remote Desktops or secured cloud services.
Passwords
You shouldn’t be letting your staff use weak passwords anyway, but we know in a secure office environment it can happen.
With staff accessing your business network remotely, those passwords suddenly become critically important and must be strong, ideally with 2FA (Two Factor Authentication) in place so any logon attempt needs to be verified by a text message or mobile phone app.
You should have sufficient monitoring of access so you can identify malicious logon attempts and any issues of security.
Data transfer and storage for home workers
You should make sure data is secured during transport, whether digitally over the internet, on USB devices or as paper files.
Once the data has been delivered to the remote worker securely, you need to make sure it’s stored in a secure way.
Paper folders and files should be stored in a secure locked cupboard or filing cabinet in the house for example, it’s not a good idea to leave them in a car or in a garage or shed.
Digital data should ideally be encrypted when not being accessed, and only kept in the remote location for as long as is necessary.
Using a home pc or mobile
If your remote workers are going to use personal devices for processing your organisations data, you should ensure that it meets your data security policy standards.
This should include sufficient secure (encrypted) storage, segregation of data from personal data, robust antivirus measures and secure internet connections as a minimum.
If you already have a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy in your GDPR and IT deployment pack, then you should make sure it’s up-to-date, appropriate for it’s new use and that your employees read it and understand it.
Video Conferencing
Using video conferencing is a great way to keep in touch with staff and clients, but you should cover it’s appropriate use in your DPIA.
You should choose a platform or two that offer corporate level security, two factor authentication, logging and recording facilities and end-to-end encryption and deploy them for use.
You should make sure users are kept updated on proper use, and how to spot improper use or potential scams on the platforms, and you should make sure the end users are keeping their platform client apps up to date.
In your policy file you should include items such as screen sharing, file sharing, remote control and instant messenger chat use.
Office Chit Chat
One of the things people might miss while working from home is the office chit-chat. Not the gossiping at the coffee put for 20 minutes, but the background day-to-day chatter that helps the office function.
To help with this, there are a few digital radio stations and channels that will pay constant background chatter, it sounds odd but having that quite noise in the background can actually make it easier to concentrate on what your’re doing.
For the time when you would just pop your head up and ask a colleague something, you might find it useful to have an ongoing meeting room open between all your office staff. That way they don’t have to start a specific call with someone if they just want to ask a quick question.
We can help you conduct and write your Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) to make sure you’re protecting personally identifiable data in line with GDPR requirements.
We can help you move your business to an agile, modern IT setup, with remote workers, hot desking and secure digital storage.
We can also help you with IT Support for your remote workers, making sure your agile workforce are getting the support they need in this new way of working.
If you need help with setting up remote workers, GDPR Policy files, DPIA’s or any other IT support issues #WeCanHelp
The government have launched their new NHS Track and Trace app, making use of the technology developed jointly by Google and Apple and deployed into modern handsets at the start of the outbreak.
If you or someone you know is looking to improve their IT skills to help them get back into work or startup their own business, Access To Business have some online programs that might be of interest to you or them.
If you’re reading this and think you know someone who would benefit from the courses below, but the don’t have any way to get online at the moment, or are not confident getting online, then contact us and we might be able to help them.
Basic Computer Skills
If you need help with the first steps to being online (turning a computer, phone or tablet on, getting connected, setting up an email account and so on) then the Future Digital Inclusion – Learn My way course is for you.
It’s module based and takes you through every step at your own pace and in a way you can understand and learn from.
Becoming More Confident Accenture Project
This project is aimed two groups of people:
Those with a current employment history (currently in work or have previously worked) including:
People aged 25+ years (i.e. not first-time job seekers) interested in building their digital confidence and capability – ready for future job opportunities, and less vulnerable in a digital world.
Helping people with low digital skills to build their digital skills and confidence to achieve their personal goals
Providing skills training for enterprise or employment
Supporting job-seekers 25+ years
Supporting people in full-time or part-time work to improve their job prospects.
Use of existing or new resources, including free online courses through Learn My Way.
Apps & Services – Make IT Happen
There are many modules here designed to teach you how to best use common apps and services such as the many Google services (GMail, Calendar, Docs…) Microsoft services (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint…) Photography, Online design tools (Canva) and more.
HMRC
And if you’re after help with Child Tax Credits, Working Tax Credit, PAYE, VAT, National Insurance, JRS (Job Retention Scheme), Tax Returns and Furloughing, the HMRC Sessions are an excellent place to get the information you need.
How do I access the courses?
Simple, just call or email Jim Brennan or Simon Moore at Access To Business and they’ll get you sorted with log in details.
If you need help getting started with technology, remember that we offer a range of services for new businesses, taking care of your IT needs so you can concentrate on what you do best.
We can sort out your IT needs with equipment, websites, email accounts, domain names and everything else IT related, that you might need to help your business flourish.
When the UK government took the decision to impose working restrictions in March 2020, the nature of office work changed dramatically overnight.
Not all the changes had a negative impact, people who could work from home found that they could be just as productive without the commute to the office.
We look at the lessons learnt and how they can be implemented to make the new normal a better place to work.
Working from home
It’s been a revelation just how convenient working from home is, both for the employer and the employee. No travel time meaning more productive hours and less pollution from driving, and, if your job allows it, more flexible working hours giving you more quality time with your family, fewer distractions (in some cases) and no arguments over who used the your milk.
Going forward, it’s easy to see that employees could use this to their advantage, downsizing their office as it only has to accommodate a fraction of the workforce while the remainder work from home or ‘hot desk’ in shifts.
First, lets look at how working from home could be a long term change, and at what a work from home office might need.
Home Workstation & Hardware
Working From Home
It’s more than likely that your work from home employees will need a computer, chances are they already have a computer of some sort at home, but with the ubiquitousness of tablets and smartphones, it may well be that their home computer is somewhat outdated.
There are a number of options available here depending on the person and their position in the company.
The least expensive method would be to use a remote desktop session (even running it from a ‘live CD or USB rather than from their computers operating system) This requires little processing and memory power from the remote end as all the heavy work is done at the server end (typically cloud based or a server at your office)
You could provide a laptop for work use, giving you control over the spec and budget of the machines your staff are using, or you could give them a budget to buy their own devices for work use.
Unless particular processing power is needed on the remote devices, say for graphics work, then using a laptop is absolutely the best option. There’s a choice of touch screen, stylus input, tablet/laptop or standard laptops again depending on your employees needs.
Additional screens can be setup, especially if your staff are used to using them in the office, wide screens and rotatable screens are ideal for managing large spreadsheets or word processing.
Having a decent camera, microphone and speakers are also very useful especially when you’re running video conferencing calls or your remote workers are contacting clients. If the built in offerings are a bit low quality, it’s easy to buy and use external devices.
If the remote workers home space allows it, have a separate screen that can be dedicated to video calls and conferencing, leaving this logged into an office Microsoft Team meeting (or zoom, Skype or any other conferencing app) all day long so all your remote workers can see and speak to each other without having to start up a specific session. This helps give the office/team feeling to working and means that your staff can keep in contact as they would do normally, such as chitchat over a coffee in the office, or asking for help from colleges while their working.
If the remote workspace is not a dedicated area, such as a home office, then having hardware that can be setup and then packs away quickly and tidily is essential. If your remote workers are working on the dining room table, having two 20 inch monitors in place all the time would really get in the way!
Your remote workers might also need access to a printer or scanner. Depending on what quality they need and how often they need it, there are several options. From providing a multi-function printer/scanner at home for every day print jobs, to setting up the office printer to allow remote print access, and using the camera on the users smartphone as a scanner.
Home Broadband
Home Broadband
In most cases, a lightning fast broadband connection at the remote end is not required, the amount of data sent to and from a remote worker can be kept quite light or buffered and cached when the broadband is less busy.
If there are other people sharing the broadband, hogging all the bandwidth when your remote user downloads a set of files is soon going to be picked up on, so using technology you can cache these files on the remote workstation over night, or access them via remote desktop software.
Carrying out a survey of your remote workers homes could help identify better broadband deals, and help your remote workers position their workstations and WiFi access points/routers in the best locations for connectivity and speed.
Compliance
It’s essential that your remote workers remain compliant with various legislation while working from home, Health and Safety and GDPR are the two that immediately spring to mind, but there may be others that you need to take into account.
GDPR (DPA2018)
GDPR, the Data Protection Ace 2018, policies you have in place will need assessing and updating to cover the new situation, but this should not be a barrier to moving to this new working environment.
If home PC’s, tablets, smartphones or other devices are being used to process personal information, they should be assessed and managed according to your GDPR policy.
Business information and household information should be strictly segregated, and management put in place to protect the business data.
Assessing the working conditions for your remote users will quickly identify areas that need to be covered under your GDPR policy, this may include things like; screen privacy, data storage, printing and destroying printed material, transporting data between the office and remote office and data encryption.
Meeting Room & Reception
With your office staff working from home, it means the office doesn’t need to be so big. In lots of situations, a meeting room, reception area and one or two offices would suffice.
This means the meeting room can be large enough to accommodate clients and observe the social distancing rules, and and office workers in the building could work from one of the offices meaning they are isolated from other people while they’re in.
Your reception could be fitted with a client-facing monitor, and any ‘walk in’ clients could still speak with any member of staff via video conferencing.
A networked scanner and printer could also be made available to share documents.
Hot desking would need a slight revamp, with maybe just a docking station and screen left behind when a users leaves, and a wipe down of all surfaces before they are used again.
Keeping it all together
Making sure your company data is available to your remote workers in a reliable and secure way is essential. There are a number of options for you to look at.
Firstly there are cloud only solutions, services like Microsoft and Google. They are the big boys but that is a benefit; their platforms are reliable and robust and have a range of options and prices that give you access to different amounts of storage space and different tools.
Then there are hybrid solutions, part cloud based and part office-server based. These setups allow you to make use of all the transport facilities of cloud based connectivity, but with the security and peace of mind of an office-based server.
Then there is the pure office-only solution, letting you manage and configure every aspect of the system with an in-house server.
Each option has it’s pros and cons and are suitable to different types of work, in some situations you might combine different elements of all three setups to offer the right connectivity and security for your remote workers.
Having control over your data is essential. Being able to audit it’s use, monitor for breaches in your security, and remotely destroy data from a compromised device are all tools you should have at your disposal.
Making sure your data is backed up is critical. Also, making sure the data on your backup targets is up-to-date and includes any data that might be sitting on a remote device should be built into your backup plans.
We can carry out a review of your remote workers home office and advise you of any changes we think are needed to make it a long term working arrangement. We can check internet connection, WiFi location, device security, working environment and identify areas needed to be included in your GDPR policy
We can also sort out your office based needs, with terminals, servers, internet connections, security and everything else you need to allow your remote workers to be as efficient as possible.
Contact us today to prepare your workplace for the new normal.
With furloughed workers and people working from home, the UK residential broadband networks have been put under continued strain for the past 5 weeks and users are starting to feel like their broadband speeds are slowing down.
Why so slow?
Most residential broadband connections are sharing bandwidth between several homes, it’s difficult to find accurate contention ratio data, but a few years back it was typical that residential connections had a contention of 50:1, what that means is that 50 homes could share a single connection to the internet.
Businesses often had 20:1 contention ratios, meaning that each business on the connection could share the bandwidth with up to 19 other businesses.
During normal use, this is not an issue. Through the day the bulk of internet traffic is on the businesses networks, and from 5pm onward the trend swinging to mostly residential connections.
During the lockdown, this trend has obviously changed. Many many more users are vying for bandwidth over the residential connections during the day.
Getting the most out of your internet.
There’s not much you can do in the short term to address the speed of your broadband. Longer term you could look at changing provider or moving to a less contented connection, or one with guaranteed minimum speeds.
But here are some tips to making the most of the speed you’ve got.
Go Lite
Us lite modes on your device or browser or apps that support it.
Some mobile phones and tablets have a Data Saver mode to reduce the amount of data apps can access in the background, Windows 10 has a similar feature under Data Mode.
Set your browser to a lite mode, Chrome, Opera, Firefox and Edge all have data saving modes, designed to reduce and compress the amount of data needed to load a webpage.
While you’re at it, using plugins like The Great Suspender will put tabs that you’re not using into a sleep mode to prevent them automatically refreshing and downloading data in the background.
More and more smartphone and tablet apps now have features to reduce the amount of data needed to work by reducing the quality of graphics, video or sound, or suspending some features while working in a lite mode, check your apps settings for details.
Some apps, like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, can be removed or disabled, and you can use the web based version of the app instead. Most (if not all) of the features you use are available via the web version, all without the background updates.
IoT
Smart home devices like lights, switches, TV’s Security Cameras and personal assistants are everywhere, and most of them will be connected to your WiFi and may be sending and receiving data in the background.
Disconnect them from the WiFi if there is a setting to do that, or turn the power off to them while you’re working to stop them using up you valuable internet speed. Once you’ve finished work, you can turn them back on or reconnect them.
Same goes for any tablets or smartphones you’re not using, set them to airplane mode to disconnect them from the WiFi while you’re working.
Go 4G (or 5G)
If you’ve got a massive or unlimited mobile data allowance, and a reasonable enough signal, use that instead of your home WiFi.
Look for the Mobile Hotspot or WiFi or the Tethering settings in your phone to turn it into a WiFi point you can connect to.
Drop the bitrate
If you’re streaming video, use the streaming apps settings to reduce the bitrate or resolution, it’s easier to watch a smooth playing though slightly less HD movie than it is to watch a 4K movie that stutters and buffers every few minutes.
If you’re in a video conference call, opt to go audio only, if you’re still having issues, see if there’s an option to dial in on the telephone.
#WeCanHelp
If you need help making your broadband speeds better, or getting your workforce running securely from home, give us a call toady.
With the UK getting ready to celebrate V.E. Day’s 75th anniversary with a Bank Holiday this Friday (albeit in lockdown conditions) we take a look at the world of the Digital Computer and the role of Bletchley Park on the development of today’s computers.
Lock-down 2020 v Wartime 1939
Whenever our nation reacts together against adversity, the phrase “Blitz spirit” often appears in the press. But the wartime ethos of ‘Make Do and Mend’, ‘Dig for Victory’, and ‘When In Doubt, Lights Out’ was played out in a very different world to today’s ‘Stay Home, Save Lives’ (and lasted considerably longer)
In our quarantine, we’ve been able to remotely access our company resources over the internet, hold video conferencing meetings over Skype, Teams and Zoom and keep up with friends and family over social media. Back at the start of the second world war, the digital computer was only just being born.
The Term ‘Computer’ in 1939 referred to a person who’s job was to perform calculations, and the only way to keep in contact remotely was via the telephone and a manned operator switchboard.
Bletchley Park, Station X and Codebreakers
The UK Security Agency GCHQ evolved from the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS). At the outbreak of war, the GC&CS consisted of a handful of people working on deciphering diplomatic encrypted messages, based in a single room in a building in London.
Prior to war, Germany started to invest in encryption machines to speed up and secure the encryption of information that was broadcast over wireless stations. These machines were thought to create ciphers that were unbreakable.
Through a network of listening stations around the cost of the UK, British intelligence services could intercept the wireless transmissions sent in standard Morse Code, but messages meant nothing without a way to decipher them.
It quickly became obvious that being based outside of London would be sensible, and Bletchley Park, a stately home in modern day Milton Keynes, was chosen for it’s central location, easy access to London, Birmingham, Manchester and other cities via train and road, proximity to Oxford and Cambridge universities for students, and close to the main trunk telephone and telegraph networks for the UK.
Female codebreakers at Bletchley Park
BP as it became know, or sometimes Station X due to the radio intercept station that was setup on the site, soon expended and by the end of the war 10,000 personnel were working at the site, mostly in brick built outbuildings referred to as the Huts and Blocks.
Most of these staff were female and we’re involved in performing complex calculations and programming electronic machines to enable them to rapidly crack the encrypted intercepted messages. These we BP’s first Computers.
The Professor Types
Some of Britain’s finest mathematicians and professors were recruited via various secret (and sometimes not so secret) ways into BP, and were set to work on finding a way to break into the various ciphers that the Germans were using to encrypt their messages.
Names such as Alan Turing, Gordon Welchman, Bill Tuttle, Max Newman and Joan Clarke were amongst the many cryptanalysts working on various codebreaking problems, including the well known Enigma traffic.
Electronic Codebraking Machines
Early in the War, British, French and Polish codebreakers met up in a forest in France to discuss a combined codebreaking effort. It was clear that the Polish team had achieved significantly more success against German codes and ciphers, and had started designing a machine to help break the German Enigma traffic.
Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman later replicated the Polish machine at Blethcley Park. Called the Bombe, it was the first electromechanical device used to rapidly check encrypted messages against an array of possible encryption settings, stopping when it found a possible match.
Bombe Machines and operators
Lorenz Machine & Colossus
The Germans continuously made improvements to their encryption machines, adding additional encryption devices or changing how the devices were used, but the basic machine remained relatively the same.
Then, in 1941 a new machine was used. British broadcasting stations could hear the signal, but it wasn’t sent in Morse Code. The Germans had used a device that encrypted the information as it was entered, and sent it automatically in teleprinter code at about ten characters per second, far too fast for a human to write down.
Using a British teleprinter, the British were able to intercept the messages but they could not crack the cipher.
With the help of other signal intelligence, it was realised that these messages were being sent to and from German high command to the army commandos in Europe, and as such they were of great importance.
By studying the encrypted messages, and with the help of German operator errors, a team of cryptanalysts working under Ralph Tester devised a machine that could help to decrypt this new cipher.
Their work eventually produced the Colossus, the worlds very first programmable digital electronic computer.
Tommy Flowers, a post office engineer, helped build the first Colossus prototype. He then helped refine the design into the Colossus Mark 2 which went operational in June 1944.
Colossus was programmed by means of a plug board and switches, it used vacuum tubes (Thermionic Valves) to perform boolean operations much like the bits in modern computers.
It’s classed as the first ‘First Generation’ computer; it was digital and programmable. This meant it could be used to solve different problems simply by reprogramming it.
By the end of the war, there were 10 Colossi in operation. The British government ordered their blueprints be destroyed asking with most of the machines in order to keep the secret that Britain could intercept and decrypt messages sent on this need system.
After the war, some of the mathematicians who had worked on designing machines for BP carried their ideas forward in UK universities, designing ever more complex and more universal computers.
American mathematicians who had been working at Bletchly Park in the latter years of the war had more freedom to advance their development of digital computers, being outside the scope of the British Official Secrets Act.
Modern computers
The second generation of computers built upon the likes of Colossus, but moved to digital switches rather than vacuum tubes, and made use of storable programs that could be recalled from the computers memory.
This then evolved into the third generation of computers which is what we have today, making use of integrated circuits, long term storage and human interface devices.
So as part of your VE Day celebrations, give a moment to remember the service of all the staff based at Bletchly Park and it’s listening stations who worked together and gave birth to the digital age.
The government has announced a rapid response unit of specialists to identify false, misleading and misinformed posts regarding the Covid-19 coronavirus.
Made up of experts from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and from the technology sector, they’re working to combat fake news and fraudulent activity on social media platforms.
Fake News
The government is worried that the amount of fake news or ‘false narratives’ circulating around the Covid-19 outbreak, is dangerous and could obscure the actual factual advice given by the NHS.
The unit has already been tackling upto 70 serious incidents a week with purported experts making dangerous claims that could mislead people into thinking a dangerous activity was safe to do, or that the level of severity has been overestimated.
Fraudsters
Along with the fake news are the fraudsters, ready to take advantage of the ongoing epidemic. We’ve listed some of the frauds we’ve seen or heard about on our other blog post here: Coronavirus Scams. We’ll keep that post updated with relevant information.
The public can help stop the spread of potentially dangerous or false stories circulating online by following official government guidance – the ‘SHARE’ checklist. This includes basic but essential advice such as checking the source of a story and analysing the facts before sharing.
There are a number of online resources that will help you spot fake news and frauds, but the best resource you have is you, follow the governments SHARE initiative and think before you click.
Source – make sure information comes from a trusted source
Headline – always read beyond the headline
Analyse – check the facts
Retouched – does the image or video look as though it has been doctored?
Error – look out for bad grammar and spelling
Some websites that help fact check articles and debunk the fakes and frauds:
If you’ve got a home broadband service, you probably already have WiFi access around your home, but there may be things slowing your WiFi down, we look at the most common causes for a slow internet connection.
If you’ve not got home broadband, there are a few things you can try to get online at home during the lockdown.
Optimising your WiFi
With so many people working from home during the lockdown, the residential broadband infrastructure is being put under extra stress. This can lead to a slower internet connection when you need it most.
There’s not a lot you can do in the immediate future to change what’s happening to your broadband, even changing provider is going to take a while to get sorted, so we look at the options available to you inside your home.
Staying Connected
Ofcom have released some good advice for keeping connected running during the coronavirus lockdown
Move your router
Move your router so it’s a free from other devices as possible. Try to keep it on a table, shelf or windowsill, and away from any other electrical devices, especially lamps, TV’s, Stereos, Speakers, Baby monitors, and anything with a lot of metal in it.
Go Wired
If you’re trying to work from home, try using an Ethernet cable from the router to your laptop or PC. While many routers boast Ethernet-busting speeds, the wireless connection is likely to be less reliable and those extra fast speeds are usually only in busts of data, not a continuous stream.
Router to Phone Socket
Try to keep the distance between the main (first) phone socket in the house and the router to a minimum, plugging into an extension in another room could greatly reduce the incoming signal if you get your broadband over the telephone line.
Cable users are less affected as long as the extension comes from the cable junction box outside your house and not an internal one.
Other tips
Turn it off and back on again!
Yes really! us IT bods don’t make this stuff up!
With many home routers, there’s limited diagnostic and management options available to you, so if your router has got itself stuck or is not working optimally, turning it off (unplug it from the mains so the power is completely removed from the device) leave it a few minutes so the internal memory is cleared, then plug it back in and power it up again.
Try moving it (again)
You might think that your router is in an optimal spot in your home, but hidden steel work in the walls and solid brickwork, especially in old houses, can cause the WiFi signal to drop off dramatically.
If you have a tool on your phone or laptop to measure the WiFi signal, using it in each corner of every room will help you identify black spots, test each spot several times throughout the day to get an average reading, and remember leave your measuring device alone while it works so you don’t block or bounce the signals off your body!
If you don’t have an app to measure the WiFi, but you know the signal is particularly poor in one room, or you identify a WiFi black spot that you can’t overcome, use a booster or an extender/repeater device to enhance the signal in that area.
Using different channels and frequencies
Most home routers will be set to auto configure the channel to use, and will likely broadcast over both WiFi frequencies (2.4gHz and 5gHz) but you can configure these settings yourself to try to boost the range and speed you get.
If you do make any changes to your router, always make a note of what the settings were before you change them, that way you can always undo anything that doesn’t work!
Th 5gHz frequency has more channels available to it, meaning there’s less chance of congestion and interference from neighbors WiFi devices, it offers faster speeds but over a shorted distance.
The 2.4gHz frequency has fewer channels, slower top speeds but a longer range.
QoS
If you’re using WiFi calling, video calling or any other ‘live’ streaming service, switching on Quality Of Service could help to make sure that data is prioritised over other data.
Not got home broadband?
If you don’t have broadband available to you while you’re in lockdown, there are a few things you can try.
First of all, ask your neighbours if they would be willing to share their broadband. Most modern routers have the ability to offer a guest WiFi meaning there’s no danger to you or them as devices on the Guest network can’t access devices on the main network (and vice versa)
If you’re using a BT, Vodafone, Sky, Virgin or some other large mobile phone provider, you can already get free broadband access via any of their home WiFi devices over the guest network.
What that means is, if you have a BT mobile phone contract, and your neighbour has BT home broadband, using the BT app on your phone, you can freely connect to your neighbours broadband guest WiFi without them having to do anything.
Using your mobile
If you’ve got a fairly hefty data allowance on your mobile, you can set it up as a WiFi hotspot for your other devices to connect to.
Make sure you monitor your data usage so you don’t go over your limit.
Contact your provider
If you can’t get any other service, try contacting your provider and explaining the situation. They may have special offers available to help users during the Covid-19 lockdown.
#WeCanHelp
If you need any help configuring your broadband router and WiFi to optimize it, or would like help getting your guest network up and running for your vulnerable neighbours, give us a call.
