Previous incompetence

A few years ago, they sent me their records of my entire membership profile, so that I could check them for correctness. These records included my National Insurance number, address, phone numbers, email addresses, etc.

But they sent it along with their rag, "The Bulletin", in a CLEAR celophane wrapper, with every detail clearly visible to everyone!

And they have the nerve to preach to the industry about information privacy and security.

BCS aren't the only culprits

I had a similar email from one of the Big Four audting companies recently. The email carried the subject line "Information Security in the Financial Sector" but unfortunately, they also committed the cardinal sin of including all recipient addresses in the 'To' field.

It was a simple mistake, but considering the subject line and keeping in mind the likely recipients, it was quite a blunder :-)

Hands up who wants to take advice on Information Security from the company that did this?

Common mistake

We get emails from professional bodies and councils all the time (well, a couple of times a week) sent to a mailing list by just copying the address book into the To: field.

Re: Hm

> Quite why I pay my BCS subscription, I don't know. Toilet roll is cheaper,

> more effective and keeps your constitution healther than an £80 a year

> membership bill does.

I've stopped giving them money for nothing a long time ago, and instead pay ACM and IEEE CompSoc - at least you get some magazines that are worth reading!