Richard's Kingdom

In the film “The Return of the Pink Panther”, the bungling Inspector Clouseau famously admonishes a blind man and his “meunkey” for begging without a license, while failing to notice the armed robbery in progress at the bank behind him. Meanwhile in the real world, following up the story of Poole Borough Council using the [...]

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers bill was sold as being a vital tool in the fight against child abuse, serious and organised crime, and yes, even terrorism. Now that it’s an Act of Parliament, we find it’s actually being used to enforce school catchment areas and target nuisance dog poo. Is wanting the best education [...]

Wanted, for incitement to identity theft… Hat tip: Ian.

Dear Alun Michael MP, This week we learnt that HM Revenue and Customs finally misplaced the 25 million database records they’ve been trying so hard to lose all year through negligence and gross misconduct. I am shocked, but not surprised, at the revelation that the Government has put millions of people at risk of fraud. [...]

Earlier this month, my ISP (PlusNet) got hacked, exposing its webmail system to spammers. The volume of spam I receive doubled overnight as a result, even though I don’t use their online email system. This kind of security breach is nothing new. In fact it happens on a frequent basis, though the news is often [...]