Monday 19 March 2012

Who's snooping on your site?

We occasionally check who has been accessing the websites set up for each of my published books. This is fairly easy to do because every time someone visits a web site there's an electronic trail left in the log files on the web server computer. From those details we can check who owns the IP Address of the person/organisation making the enquiry.
On the Company Mole web site we found one interesting entry(IP: 30.100.21.18) leading back to a company called Cyveillance Inc which is owned by QinetiQ. QinetiQ is the research company which was spun off from the British Ministry of Defence. It is often involved in classified work and the Intelligence services.
The log entry showed Cyveillance had scanned all of the Company Mole web site. A look at the Cyveillance public web site shows as part of their public activities they are involved in "Brand Protection" for major corporate organisations. Interestingly our CM web site is set up so it can only be accessed by name "www.companymole.com", so this was no random search. Maybe Cyveillance has discovered the truth about the Foundation of Honour? Is Adam Cranford now recorded on a secret massive intelligence database?.

Tuesday 6 March 2012

GPs in charge of chaos in the NHS

I've posted before on the matter of NHS Walk-In Centres being closed in the UK, now I've experienced it for myself. Unusually I've come down with a cold which has migrated into a chest infection. For the first time in 15 years I've phoned my local GP Practice to ask for an appointment to see my GP so I can get a dose of antibiotics to knock this infection on the head. No appointments for 3 days, even then that would be with a locum doctor. GPs should not be allowed to hold the NHS purse strings.

What do they expect - should I let the infection progress until I end up in A&E?  There used to be a Walk-In Centre in the locality managed by experienced nurses where I could be seen fairly promptly, but that has been closed, the next nearest WIC closed a couple of months ago.

I'm going back to bed and hope that my body can deal with the infection. I've contributed money to the NHS all my life, and now when I need their assistance I've been let down. Nice one Andrew Lansley! He is so keen to listen to the well paid GPs and let the Walk-In Centres slide into oblivion.