Security threats Toolkit

Story: Privacy watchdog fears government super-database

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Don

I used to get worked up about stories such as this but then I started to notice a pattern in public sector procurement that gives me some hope:

1) Deal signed with approved services contractor with close links to a US technology firm. UK SME market ignored.
2) UK bureaucrats out of their depth in the procurement of suitable solutions agree to weasal worded contracts that lock-in their department to 10+ years of outsourcing misery.
3) Contractor decides to use the most complex, 'enterprise-class' technology that guarantees years of onsite configuration work.
4) Armed with spurious 'IT Communication' degrees, graduate consultants are landed onsite and instructed to grapple with selected technology.
5) Configuration wizard not found in Start Menu. Errrrr ...
6) Time passes.
7) Overspend buried in departmental restructuring programme.
8) Several years and £100m later, the contract is quietly shelved.
9) Contractor's directors retire to luxury holiday homes happy in the knowledge that the Government emasculated the Serious Fraud Office in late 2006.

So, don't worry, mate, it might n'ver happen.

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