08-05-2020, 01:50 AM
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Coronavirus: NHS contact-tracing app - Dido Harding heads track and trace programme
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52579547More than 40,000 people have installed the smartphone software so far.
The health service is targeting the Isle of Wight only, at this stage, but it says this is the first stage of the app's rollout - not a test.
Tests carried out on behalf of BBC News confirm the developers have found a way to work round restrictions Apple places on the use of Bluetooth in iPhones.
In a related development, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced that Baroness Dido Harding will head up the wider test, track and trace programme.
She was, at one time, a non-executive director on The Court of The Bank of England.
How she lands these extremely responsible positions without displaying any level of competence is a mystery to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dido_Harding.
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08-05-2020, 03:15 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: NHS contact-tracing app - Dido Harding heads track and trace programme
What a co-incidence! I just installed the CovidSafe app on my phoneIt has been installed over 5 million times since being released last week.
The only information it asks for is your name (you can give an alias) and your phone number - the latter needs to be accurate because you receive a text with an activation code.
Bluetooth needs to be activated also because it uses this to monitor phones in your vicinity. It doesn't need access to your GPS as it doesn't track your movement.
The source code has not been released yet but is going to be. It only uses data from your phone if you test positive to Covid19. When the crisis is over the legislation requires that all data collected be destroyed.
19-05-2020, 05:57 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: NHS contact-tracing app - Dido Harding heads track and trace programme
Security flaws found in NHS contact-tracing apphttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52725810
The security researchers involved* have warned the problems pose risks to users' privacy and could be abused to prevent contagion alerts being sent.
GCHQ's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has acknowledged the issues and promised to fix some and review others.
But the researchers suggest a more fundamental rethink is required.
Specifically, they call for new legal protections to prevent officials using the data for purposes other than identifying those at risk of being infected, or holding on to it indefinitely.
In addition, they suggest the NHS considers shifting from its current "centralised" model - where contact-matching happens on a computer server - to a "decentralised" version - where the matching instead happens on people's phones.
The researchers detail seven different problems they found with the app.
They include:
- weaknesses in the registration process that could allow attackers to steal encryption keys, which would allow them to prevent users being notified if a contact tested positive for Covid-19 and/or generate spoof transmissions to create logs of bogus contact events
- storing unencrypted data on handsets that could potentially be used by law enforcement agencies to determine when two or more people met
- generating a new random ID code for users once a day rather than once every 15 minutes as is the case in a rival model developed by Google and Apple. The longer gap theoretically makes it possible to determine if a user is having an affair with a work colleague or meeting someone after work, it is suggested
* https://www.stateofit.com/UKContactTracing/
20-05-2020, 11:12 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: NHS contact-tracing app - Dido Harding heads track and trace programme
Outsourcing firm Serco has apologised after accidentally sharing the email addresses of almost 300 contact tracers.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52732818
Serco wrote the email to tell new trainees not to contact its help desk looking for training details.
But the staff member who sent it put their email addresses in the CC section of the email, rather than the blind CC section - revealing them to every recipient.
The mistake may leave the firm in breach of data protection rules. It is understood that at least one member of staff has raised the issue with the Information Commissioner.
When the Home Office made a similar error last year it referred itself to the Information Commissioner, but Serco is not intending to do this.
20-05-2020, 11:32 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: NHS contact-tracing app - Dido Harding heads track and trace programme
Originally Posted by Omah
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Outsourcing firm Serco has apologised after accidentally sharing the email addresses of almost 300 contact tracers.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52732818
More evidence of the "Dido Effect" .....
Donkeyman!
20-05-2020, 03:52 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: NHS contact-tracing app - Dido Harding heads track and trace programme
UK track and trace system in place from June - PMhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52741331
Boris Johnson said 25,000 contact tracers, able to track 10,000 new cases a day, would be in place by 1 June.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had challenged the PM over the absence of a tracing system since March.
On Tuesday, deputy chief scientific adviser Prof Dame Angela McLean said an effective system for tracing new coronavirus cases needed to be in place before lockdown restrictions could be changed.
21-05-2020, 11:57 AM
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Re: Coronavirus: NHS contact-tracing app - Dido Harding heads track and trace programme
Time running out on track and trace, NHS leaders warnhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52748564
It said lockdown measures should not be eased until a clear plan was in place.
Niall Dickson, chief executive of the confederation, which represents health and care leaders, welcomed Boris Johnson's pledge made at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.
But in a letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Mr Dickson said without a clear strategy the UK was at greater risk of a second peak of the virus.
He said a strategy should have been in place sooner and if the right system was not instigated rapidly the ramifications for the NHS "could be severe".
21-05-2020, 05:48 PM
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Re: Coronavirus: NHS contact-tracing app - Dido Harding heads track and trace programme
Track-and-trace system due by 1 Junehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-52749186
The app tested on the Isle of Wight is working, he says.
Prof John Newton says someone who tests positive using this system will be asked to self-isolate and those close to them will be informed.
Who will be "close" and who wil not .....
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