

LulzSec hacks NHS.  - martswite
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13712377

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gaius
I completely believe that no patient records have been compromised - because
the project to put them online is so late and over-budget (to the tune of GBP
20 _billion_ ) that it's likely never to be completed.

Let me put that number into perspective: We could buy a replacement fleet of
Trident submarines from the NHS IT budget alone...

~~~
robin_reala
It’s wasted either way. £20bn would be much better sunk into renewables and
energy independence.

~~~
gaius
It's a matter of perspective, there are shrill voices saying that if we scrap
Trident all our economic woes will be over, but really there are much, much
lower hanging fruit than that. A windfall tax on the big IT outsourcing firms
would be a good start.

~~~
arethuza
Having a salary cap for public sector employees might be another way of doing
things - say the same level as the PM (£140K or so).

~~~
gaius
A more interesting scenario would be to cap all MP's pay, incl. the PM's, at
the national average wage.

~~~
ern
All that power and responsibility, and not being compensated for it could be
dangerous. Wouldn't it deter anyone who wasn't wealthy from office, and/or
make them vulnerable to corruption?

~~~
gaius
Serving as an MP is a privilege, not a normal job.

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m0nty
I was quite surprised to find that the NHS uses password-less logins for its
"Flexible Worker Portal":

<https://erecruitment.nhsponline.nhs.uk/Portal/LoginForm.aspx>

So all you need is the DoB, email address and postcode of someone, and you can
view their private information. Genius.

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dsplittgerber
Anonymous is the best that could ever happen for proponents of a crackdown on
freedom (through/via/on the internet).

No one knows who's behind it, so no one will stand up for them, no one will
complain if they get harassed and all the blaim for everything that goes wrong
in the future goes to Anon/hackers. It's the perfect scapegoat for
incompetence.

~~~
mhansen
This isn't Anonymous.

~~~
omouse
Yeah it is. Everyone's Anonymous :|

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paulnelligan
Somehow I've a feeling that we're going to soon lose a lot of freedoms that
we've previously had online. This further supports the argument that the
internet should be 'policed and legislated' - of course this means restricting
information also ... Hackers are winning right now, but in the longer term
Government and Big Business will crack the whip ...

~~~
omouse
_Somehow I've a feeling that we're going to soon lose a lot of freedoms that
we've previously had online._

You've already lost them :| apathy is a bigger enemy than anything. As long as
people have access to their netflix or amazon or whatever, they'll be ok with
internet crackdowns.

Big business and government have been winning for a long time and the hackers
aren't really doing enough.

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motters
The outlook for internet freedoms appears quite doomy over the next few years.
Although in this case LulzSec doesn't appear to have done anything other than
highlight security failings stories like this, along with the various doings
of Anonymous and any other similar groups or individuals, can easily be
exploited by politicians to advocate for a Chinese-style censorship regime and
an end to net neutrality. Any hint that medical records might have been
compromised would cause considerable public fear and alarm, which could then
be channelled for political purposes.

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saulrh
Anonymous literally could not have asked for a better representative on the
information security front. Not only are they demonstrating that nobody's
information is safe right now, they're doing it in a way that gets the message
across without making everybody angry at them or any other geeks or netizens.
Keep up the good work.

~~~
dools
When you use "literally" like this, it's to indicate that what follows, whilst
normally metaphorical, is in this case literal. How is "asking for a better
representative on the information security front" a metaphor?

The incessant misuse of the word literally, literally makes my blood boil.

(See what I did there?)

~~~
rimantas
Once upon the time: <http://literally.barelyfitz.com/>

