Help me, Lazyweb!

[caddyman]

So, if you want someone to climb up onto the roof of a three storey building to arse around with the TV aerial primarily, but also to check that the recent bad weather hasn’t dislodged any tiles, do you think a roofererer would be OK? Or, given that I really don’t care about the roof as long as it lasts while I’m there, but I do want to watch the telly, should I just find someone to do that? I don’t even know what they are called: “Telly aerial engineers”?

Can anyone on Lazyweb advise, please?

In other news, the Department has forwarded a Führer Directive prohibiting us from taking laptops out of the building in case someone goes all Ministry of Defence and loses heaps of sensitive data. Laughable for two reasons: firstly it rather obviates the need for them in the first place if you can only use them in a building that is already crammed with PCs set up for hot-seating; and secondly, it rather overstates the sensitivity of the information and data generated by this place.

I have worked for successive incarnations and iterations of the current Department, and the most we get to is ‘confidential’ a security marking that means simply don’t tell anyone outside until we’re sure it won’t embarrass the Government. Well, embarrassing the Government is slightly less dangerous than losing the technical specs of a main battle tank, or the identity details of a third of the population.

Showing the knee-jerk naïveté of the Department, I notice that there is no similar injunction against taking flash memory, data sticks, recordable CDs or DVDs, or even good old floppy disks out of the place.

Comments

[fencingsculptor.livejournal.com]

At least you have received the word of G.O.D.
Rumour control had notified us that Sir GusO'D was issuing such a missive govmt wide, but we here in the upper eschelons have heard FA ...as usual.

However, rumour also has it the we have requisitioned all the spare pigeons from Trafalgar Square and are having a couple of Pigeon lofts installed on the roof of government towers....

I have also rediscovered an ancient long forgotten piece of equipment covered in dust at the back of a disused stationary cupboard .....pen and paper.

[pauln.livejournal.com]

We are mounting a small course in Secure Information Management if that would be of any interest to your colleagues.

[probablyscotty.livejournal.com]

Yellow Pages.

Aerial services and supplies.

"While you're up there mate, let me know if you spot any significant damage or put your foot through the roof? Cheers."

With a winning smile, of course.

Aerial readjustment

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

Don't you need to own a fake Australian bird before they let you do that?

[fractalgeek.livejournal.com]

I thought the prohibition was "unless encrypted", which seems quite reasonable. Shame you can't apply it to your lords and masters as well.

We have a similar one - personal data or documents above a particular security classification. 'Tis undermind by blanket rules requiring over-classification of docs - "so do I have to erase my customer once they have read this?"

[drjohnsilence.livejournal.com]

I had a maverick AS who used to enjoy challenging HMT's overclassification of documents. They had to back down on every single occasion. It was all to cover the backside of one Steve Robson...