industry - Tag Archive

The technology army

8 Replies Christopher Roberts

Want to do your bit for your country? Join the forces and fight for your freedom? Many people do.

However, wouldn’t it be so much better if you could do it from a comfy chair, in a climate controlled building, with tea and biscuits on hand?

The front line

When you think of the front line, you usually think of solders in action, often in hostile, dangerous conditions. However in our new ‘cyber’ world, the front line is more the back offices. More and more, the threats to our security are not physical, but cyber.

This is why the UK government have set up Cyber Security Challenge UK. Cyber Security Challenge UK is a project that hopes to encourage individuals into the security industry.

The logo of Cyber Security Challenge UKIn the future it is likely that our wars are not going to be as defined as country versus country, but rather hackers versus data owners. This means that anti-virus firms, and the military will need to work very hard to keep our country safe.

Imagine what would happen if the banking system got hacked. Everyone’s theoretical money could potentially be wiped, and we would have no clue who owned what. Imagine a leading brand had a virus infect their entire internal network.

Cyber threats are becoming more and more real, and more and more scary.

If you think that you could be up to the challenge to become a ‘security champion’ head over to cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk and have a go at their challenges.


The challenges are a series of online games and competitions to test your cyber security abilities, to see if you could train to become a defender of computers.

If you are successful, you may be offered a job or funded through training, so it’s worth a try – you never know, you may discover some hidden potential!

Could you work for an anti-virus firm or the government to protect people against cyber crime/attacks?

What happens in Japan stays in Japan?

4 Replies Christopher Roberts

Some say that despite Japan being the third largest economy in the world, what happens in Japan, usually stays in Japan. After the recent Tsunami, this seemed to be the case, initially.

However now that most of the countries industry has shut down, the effects are really being felt around the world. Why? Well, Japan is a major exporter of electrical and motorised goods – after all companies like Honda and Sony are based there.

A Busy Japanese Street - Representative of the Japanese EconomyOften the Japanese factories make some of the parts and then the final goods are assembled closer to where they are going to be sold. This is great as it increases capacity due to specialisation, but it does have it’s problems too.

Due to the Japanese parts of such businesses currently being shut down, the entire supply chain for such goods has ground to a halt, as nobody can get the parts they need out of Japan.


Around the world Japanese firms are shutting down their plants, due to a lack of parts. Toyota are actually now withdrawing their UK operations due to the Tsunami – among other things.

Japanese Car Logos

The logos of well known Japanese cars

Sony are in a similar situation, as their firm is considering a complete shut down for 2 weeks due to power shortages. No doubt other firms like Panasonic, Nissan and Fujitsu wont be far behind too.

It looks like the shifting of a few tectonic plates might have caused a lot more than a devastating earthquake and tsunami, but also a slowdown in the global tech industry – leading to a large loss of jobs worldwide 🙁

What are your views on this, will the world really struggle without Japan?