Whatever...

Hack attack

So, to the relief of high-profile organisations the world over, LulzSec has decided to call it  quits.  The infamous group of hackers took no prisoners during its brief but ravaging reign, with the likes of Sony, Nintendo, and PBS all falling prey to seemingly effortless hacks of scandalous magnitude. 

For those of you that have been following the story and want to get some perspective on the LulzSec hacks, this infographic by Gadgets and Gizmos summarises the vital statistics of hackers and online security on the whole.

Home is where the work is

By Alexandra Radius

The chance for a quick lunchtime nap or to keep an eye on the children – not to mention the bliss of escaping lengthy traffic jams and crippling transport strikes – working from home is a popular dream for any employee.   

According to the annual French study published recently by “l’Observatoire de la parentalité” (parenting observatory), for those workers with children, the ‘home office’ option is a top priority when it comes to career choices, in order for them to balance their professional and family lives. 

Not only do home workers make better use of their time – particularly as a result of avoiding the problems that plague the French transport system – they often have a habit of accepting more of the workload in an effort to reassure the boss that their situation isn’t seen as an escape from the normal office groans and grumbles.  

Alcatel-Lucent – a technology firm with approximately 10,000 employees – has been a trendsetter in this domain for several years now with 30 percent of its workforce functioning on home-based agreements (working remotely on average one day a week).  That said, even though large French companies such as Air France, France Telecom and Renault have all signed agreements to put home working measures in place, the practice is not as widespread as expected. 

In any case, with the continued development of technologies like VoIP and video conferencing tools, I believe that the home office mentality will soon be a de facto standard in many organisations.  Often with a more motivated, autonomous approach to their workload, home workers will soon be recognised as efficient, valuable members of any business team.

And with summer just around the corner, there’s no better time to test out the theory!

 

New Facebook page – find out who JK really is

By Lindsey Challis

The internet has always had that unique characteristic of anonymity to it - being able to talk to people on forums, and on social networks, without ever really revealing who you are. But with web 2.0 in full swing and social networks growing at an unstoppable pace – is that now over? As we begin to confide in these communication methods – do we now know more about each other?

I’d argue that it depends on the person behind the social networking tool. If you choose to depict yourself accurately, people will have a better insight into your character. If you choose not to reveal such information, or even twist the truth in some areas – people will know even less about the real you. So it’s your choice – to deceive or not to deceive!

Here at JK we want you to get to know who we are. At the moment you’ve seen our personalities shine through blog posts, whether it is the techy one, the gamer, the tweeter or the one who just wants to defend her Essex stereotype – find out more about us, the techy quirks that grab our interest, and what it’s really like to work at JK, on our new Facebook page!

“Like” our Facebook page and be in with a chance to win a Freecom DataBar XXS.

A post-PC world?

by Richard Ratcliffe

The launch of Apple iCloud has seen the return of talk concerning the post-PC world. Similar sentiments were expressed at the consumer technology show, CES, earlier this year. With sales of PCs down, smart phone and tablet adoption up, and cloud services in vogue, it’s not hard to see why some people may come to this conclusion. But are users really ready to give up their PCs in favour of cloud based computing?

I’m not so sure. There are a number of barriers that may prevent users from trusting the cloud to handle all of their computing needs. For a start, UK wireless or wireline communications are not yet reliable enough to guarantee ubiquitous service. Neither business users nor consumers will be very tolerant if they are unable to access basic software or data because of peak traffic or a poor connection.

Another factor is the feeling of ownership that a traditional PC provides when it comes to both data and software. Apple’s authoritarian approach to content and incidents like Amazon spontaneously removing books from users’ libraries may make individuals hesitant to hand control over to external organisations in the immediate future. How forgiving would you be if you tried to access cloud based personal data, such as photos or videos, only to find it had been inexplicably deleted by your service provider?

Perhaps the biggest argument against abandoning the PC in favour of the cloud, is the security risk it poses. Recent years, and 2011 in particular, have seen recurring incidents of high profile organisations losing sensitive data entrusted to them. Until companies can find a way to secure the online world there will be significant numbers, myself included, who will want to hang on to their traditional PCs for a while yet.

Cyber warfare – from sci-fi fantasy to an imminent reality

By Ginnia Cheng

Over the past couple of weeks, nations and corporations alike have been hit by an unrelenting wave of high-profile, internationally prevalent security breaches, causing some of the world’s most powerful country leaders and CEOs to seriously reconsider their foreign policies and corporate strategies. It therefore comes as no surprise that cyber warfare has never been more of an impending threat than now.

Only last week, US officials announced plans to treat cyber attacks as ‘acts of war’ which may provoke real world military responses. So when it emerged that hackers who stole hundreds of login details from Google’s Gmail system originated from China, the world waited for reaction from the US Government with baited breath. 

One cannot help but draw similarities to conflicts past, as a “war of words” between these two international giants escalated over the past week. While the US simply stated it was “looking into” the Gmail security breath, the Chinese government categorically denied any involvement with the attacks. It has also been reported that US Defence Secretary Robert Gates announced “we are not trying to hold China down”, and that only last month, a top Chinese general declared that China has no intention to match US military power.

Yet hostility again arose this week when a Chinese government newspaper opined that the allegations were motivated by the "vicious intent of sparking new disputes concerning Internet security between China and the US”. This recent to-ing and fro-ing is no doubt reminiscent of Cold War exchanges, especially now that the US government is moving to classify cyber warfare as real world acts of aggression.

The recent antics of “hacktivist” groups like Anonymous and LulzSec, who target corporations, organisations and governments worldwide, have also attracted the attention of intergovernmental military organisation NATO, which has indicated that “the [Anonymous] groups will be infiltrated and perpetrators persecuted”. LulzSec reached the heights of notoriety when it repeatedly attacked Sony’s websites and swiftly moved on to Nintendo and other organisations it took offence with, while Anonymous most recently hacked Iranian government servers. 

It’s hard to tell whether there is a degree of fear mongering occurring in the media at the moment surrounding the threat of real world conflicts resulting from cyber activity, and it remains to be seen how and when – or if at all – any hacking attacks translate into real world warfare. Indeed, I think I speak for everyone when I say that I sure hope it remains nothing more than a cyber cold war – but it seems very clear that we have a reached a new chapter of the world of cyber warfare.

 

Breaking the habit of a digital lifetime

By Dana Hashem

I turned a tweeting corner yesterday.  When several colleagues started calling in the morning to say they were stuck in traffic around London Bridge, it was obvious something was up. 

Curious to find out the cause of the disruption, I instinctively turned to Twitter to find out what was going on.  For the first time since joining the micro-blogging site, I acknowledged that it was more likely to deliver the answers I was looking for than Google (my usual first point of call for news-related searches), marking something of a landmark shift in my usual browsing behaviour. 

I wasn’t disappointed either – by simply searching for the hashtag #LondonBridge, I instantly got the lowdown on what had happened and was able to access information and pictures that were not yet available anywhere else on the web.  

It seems I’m not alone in my break from habit.  A new reputation survey by PR Week shows that while Joe Public doesn't yet view Twitter as reliable news source, 43 percent of those surveyed think that it is often the first source to break stories.  

I suspect the jury will be out for quite a while on whether Twitter can ever be taken seriously as a reliable source of information, but I for one am a convert and look forward to seeing how it shapes our consumption of news in years to come.

Good to be growing again

By Mike King

Although the general feeling in the UK seems to be that the economic recovery is slow, at Johnson King we’re fortunate enough to be seeing really strong growth.  We’ve just finished our financial year (at the end of April) and the latest figures show our billings were up 20% year on year.  Given that the two previous years both saw us shrinking, it feels great to be back to growing strongly.

We’re not alone.  Although at 20% we’re growing more quickly than many of our competitors, the PR industry in general has had somewhat of a revival over the past year or so.  According to PR Week’s latest annual tables published at the beginning of May, average growth across UK PR agencies was 9.24% in 2010. 

Unfortunately, the same can’t yet be said for the wider economy, where the growth rate is still slow.  The latest government figures show that economic growth in the UK is lagging behind its European neighbours, with GDP for the first quarter of 2011 reported to be growing at 1.5% in Germany, 1% in France and just 0.5% in the UK.

The growth delivered across the PR industry is a good indication that businesses are becoming more optimistic.  One of the most encouraging aspects of our performance is that we continue to see plenty of potential clients and growth opportunities.  All the signs are that in the coming year we’re going to continue growing as we did last year.  Though, exciting as it is, I doubt that we’ll be able to compete with the fastest growing company ever.