NHS Surrey has been fined £200,000 by data regulators over the loss of sensitive information about more than 3,000 patients. Thousands of children's patient records were found on a second-hand NHS computer that was auctioned on eBay, the BBC understands.
Regulators said NHS Surrey failed to check that a data destruction company had properly disposed of the records. Three further computers that had been sold on eBay contained sensitive data.
UK watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) imposed the fine on the trust after patients across Surrey were affected by the data loss.
"The facts of this breach are truly shocking," ICO head of enforcement Stephen Eckersley said in a statement. "NHS Surrey chose to leave an approved provider and handed over thousands of patients' details to a company without checking that the information had been securely deleted, the result was that patients' information was effectively being sold online."
At the time NHS Surrey contacted patients involved to make them aware of the data breach. "This case is currently the subject of legal proceedings."
The breach was one of the most serious that the ICO had seen, the data watchdog added. NHS Surrey was alerted to the data loss by a member of the public who had purchased an old NHS computer and found patient records.
Upon investigation, the trust discovered the computer contained the health records of 2,000 children and 900 adults, plus a number of NHS human resources records. A further 39 computers that had been sold by the data destruction company were recovered during the course of the investigation, with sensitive records found on three of the hard disks.
The data destruction company had offered free disposal of the computers in exchange for the sale of salvageable materials. The company promised to crush the computer hard disks using an industrial guillotine, but NHS Surrey failed to monitor the destruction process, the ICO ruled, and did not have a contract in place that explained the legal requirements of the data destruction.
In this instance had a third party financial loss arisen directly from the loss of the third party data then a cyber-liability insurance policy would have responded and paid all sums that you may become legally obliged to pay, including claimants cost and expenses, but not fines imposed.
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Among a few things that are truly the identity of any nation, national anthem holds a significant position. Along with the national flag, it represents the country throughout the world and adds to the national pride. It is basically a patriotic hymn or other song adopted by a nation for use on public or state occasions and is the individuality of any state.
Coming back home, Pakistan’s national anthem, written by Hafeez Jalandhari, has always been a subject of criticism as it is completely in Farsi (Persian), rendering it incomprehensible for majority of Pakistanis. While the current national anthem is hardly approved, Pakistan’s first national anthem remains a mystery and just a few people know the existence of another national anthem approved by founding father Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (R.A) prior to Hafeez Jalandhari’s ‘Pak Sar Zameen Shaad Baad’.
Jagan Nath Azad, a Lahore based Urdu poet commissioned the first national anthem of Pakistan just three days before the independence on 11th August 1947 at the behest of M.A. Jinnah. According to a Professor of History hail to University of Karachi, Jagan Nath was equally excited and amazed when came to know that Jinnah wanted him to commission Pakistan’s national anthem regardless of his religious identity.
About a year and a half after the partition, after Mr Jinnah’s death in September, 1948, the government of Pakistan, headed by its first Muslim Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, decided to discard the anthem. National Anthem Committee was formed in December, 1948 to recommend new anthem.
However, unfortunately, we do not have any account pertaining to the first national anthem in our history books. With all these accessible evidences, none of the historians ever tried to discover the fact that what prompted the then leaders of Pakistan to discard the first national anthem as envisioned by Mohammad Ali Jinnah to get it written by a non-Muslim writer in Urdu.
The question arises: what prompted the then government to discard Azad’s ‘Aye sar zameen-i-paak’ that was also in our national language? And it remains unanswered.
It is common observation that cognizance of a minor child to an adult person is restricted to the given facts that Hafeez Jalandhari commissioned the first national anthem of Pakistan. Misleading people is a crime but concealing historical facts to its nation is beyond the criminal act. One must think about it with all dimensions opened.
I always wondered that why our national anthem was in Farsi despite Urdu being the national language. In fact, there were other big languages as bengali and punjabi……at tha time. we should also have national anthem translated in to all regional languages of Pakistan… Moeed
which was adopted in 1950. Then the poets were invited to write appropriately worded lyrics fitting the music. More than 700 contestants had submitted their lyrics out of which the National Anthem Committee had selected the lyrics written by Hafiz Jalandhari. The National Anthem was then officially adopted by the Government. The whole exercise took more than 4 years and Radio Pakistan had broadcasted it for the first time on 14th August 1954.
It was years ago that I had learnt to my shock that Pakistan’s National Anthem is a replacement of one composed by a Lahorite non-Muslim poet, Jagan Nath Azad. Urdu diction of abandoned national anthem is lucid and its imagery simple.How it was expedient to annul it, is a tantalizing question.
If you read through our current national anthem, It contains mostly urdu words and has a more balanced verse.
Deception is norm in our history. I still remember, when I was in 4th grade in 1957, we used to read the history (Muashtarti Uloom). It had a chapter on Quid-e-Azam, which had the information “Muhammad Ali Jinnah was born in a small town “Jhiruk” of Distt. Thatta on 25 Dec. Come 1958, and changed to Karachi:):)
Roohan Ahmed! I think you have some much free time to write a blog on this subject. WE have so many other important issues, it would be better you select some important topic instead of bothering about our national anthem. Mind your business please and dont waste yours and the peoples time.
The national anthem had to be composed in a hurry in 1950 because of the impending state visit of the Shah of Iran. President Sukarno had been the first head of state to make a state visit and there had been no Pakistani national anthem to play upon his arrival. A.G. Chagla produced his beautiful composition within a few weeks, in time for the Shah’s visit. The lyrics were added later through a process described in M. Saeed’s comment. By the way there is one line of Urdu in the anthem (Pak sarzameen ka nizam)!
well urdu comes from several different languages including turkish, arabic and persian, so there is nothing wrong with the national anthem being in persian if it conveys our ideology. it is clear to see why the older one was rejected, as it sounds simple, whereas the current one literally gives me goosebumps and awakens the patriot in me, not to mention that it also sounds better to the ears. it should be part of our education system and school curriculum to explain the national anthem to children so that they understand what it is about, so that they dont just sing empty words in school assembly etc
Honours Bachelor of Arts – Urban Geography and GIS – University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, BC. (9/2005-8/2009)
Developed a value-added consulting practice by listening to client needs, setting project goals, effectively managing complex spatial databases, applying advanced analysis tools, and creating compelling reports and visual products.
Demonstrated skill conducting local and regional scale land development analysis based on linked datasets such as parcel-scale zoning information, assessed land values, socio-demographic patterns and trends, network-based proximity calculations to community amenities.
Recognized ability to deliver high-quality results on short notice while managing multiple priorities.
Developed curriculum for bi-monthly mentorship meetings focused on personal value identification, goal setting and networking strategies.
Worked in collaboration with the Provincial Health Services Authority and 20+ partners to integrate public health priorities into planning practices across BC and participated in development of a logic model, terms of reference, key principals and data sharing standards.
Prioritized and executed core project activities including stakeholder consultations, data discovery, geodatabase maintenance, geocoding, spatial analysis, map production and public presentation.
Led priority research projects investigating the relationship between human health and local socio-economic patterns and trends, land use compositions, street walkability, air-quality, and network-based proximity to fresh food retailers and social services.
Worked as part of a team to exceed daily and monthly sales targets and participated in numerous community events including yoga classes and running clinics.
Independently planned, managed and delivered 10+ contract GIS mapping projects for diverse academic, corporate and municipal clients with a total value over $5,000.
Represented student interests and presented key recommendations to UBC Student Council on how to strategically integrate the three pillars of sustainability into UBC Operations & Administration, Teaching & Learning, and Research & Partnerships and a motion of unanimous support was passed.
Lead youth groups on 21-day wilderness expeditions and promoted a strong team environment of trust, acceptance and inspiration
An Ecological Model of Human Health through a Cartographic Lens – Pecha Kucha style presentation at the BC Society of Landscape Architects Annual Conference (04/2013)
A Service-Based Remoteness Index of BC – Poster presentation at the 7th International GEOMED conference on spatial statistics and geomedical systems – Victoria, BC. (10/2011)
Mapping the Population Distribution of BC – Oral presentation at the 4th International Cartography Association’s workshop on Spatial Analysis and Measurement – Vancouver, BC. (8/2011)
Linking Urban Planning and Public Health to Improve Early Human Development – Sole author of publication in ‘Trail Six: An Undergraduate Journal of Geography’ (9/2010)
Applying GWR and LISA Techniques to Improve Analysis of Neighbourhood-Scale EDI Data Across BC – Oral presentation at the Human Early Learning Research Retreat – Vancouver, BC. (6/2010)
Our Children’s Voices: The Middle Years Development Instrument – Measuring Children’s Developmental Health and Well-Being – Co-author of United Way publication (9/2010)
Expert use of ESRI ArcGIS 10.1 for complex spatial data analysis and visualization including proven application of Spatial and Network Analyst extensions, Toolbox functions and Model Builder.
Advanced use of DSLR camera equipment for photography and video recording complemented by use of Adobe Photoshop and Premier Pro and Photoshop for editing.
I’m quite keen on my orange squash as most of you know. Those of you who know me well will also know my particular fondness of Robinson’s Orange Squash.
Recently they have changed their label from the one in the photo. Why change a label? To attract attention to the product to re-promote it? To accompany a change in flavour or ingredients?
My guess is the latter because it is now necessary to dilute the cordial in slightly different proportions in order to remove the slight aftertaste of pinapple that is otherwise noticable. When I first tried the ‘new’ orange squash I thought I’d picked up the wrong bottle from the supermarket as Robinson’s do indeed sell an orange and pinapple version….
Anyway, I checked and I definitely have the orange (no added sugar) squash and with a little bit of experimentation as to proportions of cordial to water it’s all sorted.
The point of this entry….. none really other than to fill time and hopefully keep you amused for all of 2 minutes!!
When I did this to start with, it said it needed to know the dimension of the bounding box so I altered it to \includegraphics[bb = 4 4 5 5]{Normalisedzscores.pdf} which runs fine, but in DVi I get the following error message:
Last year I wrote my dissertation in TeX. This was a major faff as I was incapable of making contents pages and bibliographies in it. Therefore I’ve decided to learn how to use LaTeX. So far, it’s great! I’ve worked out contents and bibiliographies without any bother and can do tables and everything I need. However, graphics seem to be beyond me! I’ve got the graphics saved as .wmf as they were what I needed for TeX, however, it seems that these are unsuitable for LaTeX. Equally, I’ve tried converting them to .jpg and .pdf and using pdflatex in the latter case, but it still won’t put graphics into my document.
Apparently, because I’m 21 and want to be treated like an adult, I have to act like one. It appears that in order to act like an adult you have to be parted from nearly 100 soft toys and redesign your room so that it looks like a room in a show house and not like a room anyone lives in.
At least my 30 favourites are safe (currently in a box waiting to go back to university which isn’t great, but at least they’ve avoided being sold.)
Today I had the most comedy phone conversation ever. I dialled the relevant number and after two rings, a voice announced “I’m sorry all our operators are busy at present. Please hold until the next available member of staff becomes available. You are number zero in the queue.” This is itself is amusing as how is it possible to have an empty queue? Also, if I’m in an empty queue why is noone answering the phone?!
A few minutes later my call was answered. The helpdesk I was ringing is one which sorts all things technology based. Consequently I was very surprised when they said they weren’t reading emails today. (I sent them an email initially to explain the problems as that’s what I was told to do when I rang them the first time.)
Why are Sunday evenings so gloomy? I went out for dinner this evening, however, I was home by 9.00 so have had to fill the remaining hours before I can accept defeat and go to bed ready to wake up for another day’s revision.
MSN’s quiet today too, as it is every weekend. I guess people have more of a social life than I do. I finished another book today though and have been watching the snooker, so I can’t grumble too much.
Bank holiday tomorrow. It’s just like a Sunday all over again which isn’t a good thing in my opinion. All of you who work Monday to Friday will no doubt dispute that point, but for someone like me who works everyday, Bank holidays are just another reason for places to be shut and people to be busy doing things they want to do as opposed to have to do!
MONDAY 26th February (week 8), 7pm in the Butterworth Hall within Warwick Arts Centre, the University of Warwick Wind Orchestra and massed choir of 250 7-11 children from local schools come together to perform for your entertainment. We will be playing pieces ranging from Hobbits from Lord of the Rings, to a medley of Beatles songs. Other tunes include ‘The Future’s in Our Hands’ featuring the massed choir and Siyahamba as well as My Fair Lady medley, Scramble! by Nigel Hess, Overture to ‘Candide’, Holsts’ first suite in Eb….. Something for everyone!
Has anyone listened to the Gladiator soundtrack recently? If so, have you noticed the uncanny resemblence of one of the tracks to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack? I know that Klaus Badelt was involved in the score production for Gladiator, but did he really use the same theme in both soundtracks?
A slightly less geeky observation: drinking too much alcohol isn’t good; for the person, the people they are with and the people that are around them. To explain, a party of promers who set up their rug next to our ‘camp’ came dressed in their finery (black ties and silly dresses.) They all then consumed lots of alcohol, but one man in particular became very drunk to the level of almost being unconcious. Personally I can’t see the point, but that is just me.
I went on holiday to the Lake District with Mum's Mum, Mum's Mum's Mum and Dad and Tom and Babe and Patch. It was very fun.
We walked 26 miles. It was hard work. Here is a picture of me on a walk around a place called Blea Tarn.
On 1 of our walks, we saw sheep playing football. You can see the goal keepers in the pictures below.
Humph – it is raining, revision is not going well, and to top it all, Leicester Tigers were beaten by Sale in the Premiership final.
I get the same error when I try to insert a ps file. Can anybody tell me why? Thanks… by Mika on this entry
Hi there Laura, Nice blog – I have a suggestion for you regarding your LaTeX graphics problems. Open… by Peter M on this entry
Interestingly they've changed the apple and blackcurrant one as well. Me and my sister both seperate… by on this entry
Too much orange squash can get boring quickly, which I've never found to be a problem with blackcurr… by on this entry
suitably amused. Still plenty of orange squash in the office. I can't stand the stuff. The blackcurr… by Lucy Griffiths on this entry
After much recent speculation, there have been exciting developments in the Union. Yes, finally the Union has seen the light and added WORD UP to their collection of quiz games. Look out for LuckySeven™ dominating the high score table.
Went out to grad and event in the Cooler last night-Indian Event of some kind- only 4 of use pale skinned mob in there-clearly they had flocked from all arouned to witness the moooves pulled of by Jambon, James, Chattie and myself. However, rather disappointly the event was somewhat tainted for me, as once again Jamie neglected to wear his white leather jacket- I look forward to the spring when he will once again become a major player on the fashion scene. Also, expect him to wear sunglasses all year around like the Greeks. Good time was had by all, although there has been much whinging about hangovers this morning-not balla!
Have also been enjoying following the elections campaign, am particularly impressed that there has been no chalk scrawlings on the pavement to damage my designer apparel.
I find this blog completely appalling and unacceptable. I hope you are ashamed of your childish acts… by Robin on this entry
Bad conditions of mobility and accessibility to jobs and services in most metropolitan regions in developing countries are a key development issue. Besides the negative effects on the wellbeing of their populations associated with traffic congestion and time spent on transportation, the latter mean economic losses in terms of waste of human and material resources.
That led me to read with much interest a recent book – available on Google Play - on the impact of rail-based networks in São Paulo and Mumbai [1] written by Jorge Rebelo, a transport specialist who worked for more than 25 years at the World Bank. São Paulo and Mumbai are both mega-metropolitan regions with about 20 million inhabitants and in dire need of quick solutions for better mobility and accessibility for their populations. As their population and income grew, auto and motorcycle ownership and their use also increased in both cities. Their mass transport systems are overloaded and travelling conditions are reaching their limit or are above their limit at peak-hours. Congestion is becoming unbearable in these two megacities and any new infrastructure requires relocation of houses and businesses, a very sensitive issue which in turn demands careful planning and heavy investment.
Both Mumbai and São Paulo metropolitan regions have extensive suburban railway networks dating from the 19th century that are now serving primarily a huge number of mostly low-income commuters every day. Built initially for transportation of freight and intercity passengers, these railways are now major commuter networks which are used by millions of passengers every day. According to Rebelo, both mega-metropolitan regions have delayed too long the substantial extension of their subways and other rail based systems either because of lack of coordination between levels of government and/or unreliable financing mechanisms which did not allow the required continuity to ensure annual additions to their rail based systems. The price for having procrastinated in facing those challenges has been huge!
Increasing challenges with mobility are of course not unique to those two mega-metropolises. Nineteen of the twenty-six largest [2]metropolitan areas in the world are in non-advanced economies and most of them have suffered from a mismatch between, on the one hand, the fast dynamics of densification and transformation of space use and, on the other, the slower pace of institutional adaptation and/or investment finance to cope with the evolution of transportation needs. Mobility difficulties have become more intense even where population dynamics and rural-urban migration are not major factors, like in Russia, as approached by JungEun Oh and Kenneth Gwilliam [3] in a recent World Bank review of the urban transport sector in the Russian Federation:
“Russian cities are undergoing critical economic and social changes that affect the performance and condition of their urban transport systems. While the population of most large cities in Russia (over one million residents) has remained relatively unchanged over the last decade, the average income of the urban dwellers has sharply increased. The number of private cars per capita has increased rapidly, generating a demand for urban mobility which is increasingly difficult to meet.”
Through the long series of projects and analyses with which the World Bank has been supporting urban transport improvements in developing countries over the years – openly accessible on www.worldbank.org [4] – one can notice how challenges associated with the mismatch between evolution of urban transport needs and institutional and investment finance responses are widespread in the developing world. One can also see how far ago those challenges had already become significant. For instance, a World Bank appraisal report [5] on a project in Rio de Janeiro more than 20 years ago stated the following:
“Urban Transportation is in a crisis in Brazil. Although the nation has invested heavily in the sector over the past 15 years, the effective demand for urban transport services particularly in major metropolitan regions (MRs), increased by about 82% in the last decade, and under present pricing policies, exceeds the existing peak hour supply in most MRs. To add to this capacity shortage, the Brazilian urban transport sector suffers from institutional problems due to a lack of coordination between the three levels of government responsible for urban transport in the MRs.”
Not by chance, the issue of coordination between levels of government is highlighted in a set of policy proposals argued in Rebelo’s book - one that certainly serves as a reference for most metropolitan areas in developing countries. First and foremost, it is fundamental to establish some sort of real, effective Metropolitan Authority as a coordinator of long-term planning, evaluation and prioritization of new investments and coordination of their tariff and subsidy policy. This has also been pinpointed in a recent World Bank report - Institutional Labyrinth [6]:
“Typically, multiple agencies, at different levels of government, are involved in the management and delivery of urban transport infrastructure and services. More often than not, there is little or no coordination among them. This results in duplication and inefficiency in the use of resources and poor-quality services. The need for institutional coordination across space and function is increasingly being recognized as critical to developing an integrated and comprehensive urban transport system.”
The rapid transformation of space use and densification of connections between urban areas tends to turn previous transport- and urban-related political and administrative mandates obsolete and dysfunctional. Natural political inertia or resistance then often becomes a hindrance to building some sort of new, effective authority able to cope with the evolving metropolitan reality.
Some other recommendations follow in Rebelo’s book. For instance, there should be a search for financing mechanisms that are less dependent on floating government general budgets. A greater use of Public-Private Partnerships seems to be a trend in many parts of the world, and that might require operating subsidies. Therefore, financing mechanisms to guarantee the payment on time of those subsidies must be in place to avoid situations where concessions risk failing when operating subsidies are not paid on time. Revenues from advertising, use of station space, real estate developments around stations and urban operations can also be carefully planned.
Another key consideration is to strongly encourage the transparency of the bidding and evaluation process to foster international competitiveness and decrease costs. It also seems advisable to create an inventory of projects contained in the long-term strategy well beyond preliminary design stages. That would cut in the implementation schedule and make projects more attractive from a political standpoint. Finally, in most cases probably with the help of the judiciary, an effort must be made to find ways to simplify and accelerate expropriation/resettlement processes that may be deemed as necessary. All these recommended procedures require a definition of lines of authority appropriate to the evolving metropolitan reality.
The reality is some of the developing world’s transport infrastructures are beyond simple congestion; they are in danger of complete collapse or paralysis. There is reason to believe, however, that authorities in many countries have got the message and started to act more decisively. For instance, Mumbai just had its first monorail inaugurated and there are other rail and metro projects underway under the leadership of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are also undertaking substantial programs to try to address their mobility issues, and it’s high time they do it. Pay-offs from adjusting institutions and finance to the urban dynamics are clearly huge. It’s time to unclog the arteries of urban transport now to prevent stroke and paralysis tomorrow!