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4 minute read

Open data, does not mean losing our data. Get it?

Not much time passes between reports of another authority, company or agency losing someone's data. Spying or intelligence agencies nosing around your data is one thing, I'm referring to how people are losing our data the old fashioned way; laptop, train home, oops. Laptops, tablets and USB keys - all of them it seems appear to be dropping out of sight, and control at an alarming rate the world over. I know we live in the era of open data - but someone needs to explain that means sharing data, not leaving it in a pub lavatory.
byAndy O'Donoghue
September 8, 2013
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2 minute read

Internet companies write: “we need to know” letter to Washington

Today, 60 of the world's major internet companies like Google and Facebook, advocacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and investors including Y Combinator have written to  Washington urging the administration to allow more transparency following the recent disclosures detailing extensive federal surveillance programs of global internet users.
byAndy O'Donoghue
July 19, 2013
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3 minute read

Prism: It’s been hiding in plain sight

Well, here it is. After weeks, months, and even years, the scandal has arrived. The scandal that may forever tarnish the Obama presidency: Prism, the top-secret NSA surveillance program that has been harvesting data from nearly every social network service and the world's leading internet companies. Your personal information and mine and that of everyone you know is being hoovered up and examined and gleaned for whatever information the NSA considers pertinent. This is governmental overreach at its worst. An overwhelming example of the "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely" adage.
byShannon Daley
June 10, 2013
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2 minute read

Is your company Cybersecurity aware?

As part of the Keeping the UK safe in Cyberspace, in April the UK Information Security Breaches 2013 was published by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and The Shareholder Executive. Although there is an excellent website to review the survey's findings,  as an experiment in using Data Wrapper,  I used this free and remarkably intuitive tool to visualise a few interesting elements of the survey...

byAndy O'Donoghue
June 4, 2013
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3 minute read

Hacking: British government extends Innovation Vouchers

Social hacking and breaches like the AP Twitter account are by far the most common sort of cyber-security threat. Spotty youths with laptops or activists are not the big threat to small business; the threat to you is about your banking and finance details, your customers' details, data and their payment information. The bad guys are interested in details that can be converted to cash - and that means competitively valuable information like sales reports and new business leads - the cost to trust and reputation also have to be considered.

byAndy O'Donoghue
April 24, 2013
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5 minute read

2013 Action Plan for Jobs & Business On-line Voucher

Today the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Jobs & Enterprise Minister  launched the government's Action Plan for Jobs 2013, the next step in the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and accelerate the transition to a sustainable, jobs-rich economy based on enterprise, innovation and exports. The Plan contains 333 actions to be implemented in 2013 by 16 Government Departments and 46 agencies.  It has a significant technology element to it - ICT Skills and Big Data get specific focus having consideration for how they can impact the Irish economy in a positive way.
byAndy O'Donoghue
February 22, 2013
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2 minute read

Fingal Enterprise Week 2012

​I spoke about how disruptive technology is changing things for both the consumer and consequentially the SME. The single message that I hoped to leave attendees with was 'think mobile'. With mobile devices accounting for at least 20% of internet traffic now, and we're told these mobile users are more likely to buy, it's critical that business owners prepare themselves to deal with the mobile customer. Why?

byAndy O'Donoghue
October 1, 2012