Personal account: walking, flying, good food and wine. Occassionally, the day job: information security and business risk.
London, Buckinghamshire, Wales
Joined July 2009
- Tweets14.9K
- Following1.5K
- Followers314
- Likes30.5K
Pinned Tweet
A number of folks I know have had their accounts hacked recently. Recovery is painful, if it happens at all. Prevention is better than cure:-
- Enable App-based 2FA
- Use a strong, unique password
- Do not click on unsolicited links, especially in DMs, but always, anyway.
ALT Always use 2-factor authentication.
David S retweeted
"The question is not what man can scorn, or disparage, or find fault with, but what he can love, and value, and appreciate."
~ John Ruskin
November Evening in a Welsh Wood
🎨 James Thomas Watts (1895)
David S retweeted
Pero’s Bridge, the bridge in Bristol which collapsed a few months ago, has collapsed. Again.
📷 Angus McIntyre
David S retweeted
European Movement UK is saddened by the passing of Patrick Stewart, a legendary actor and European advocate. Here’s a brilliant sketch he starred in from 2016 defending the European Convention on Human Rights.
David S retweeted
Cyclists are continuing to ride along the newly pedestrianised section of Oxford Street, despite being asked to dismount.
Around seven security staff have been stationed near Oxford Circus, calling out to cyclists to get off their bikes, with mixed success.
More on this story ➡️ bbc.in/3W32bbT
#OxfordStreet #London #Cycling #Pedestrianisation
David S retweeted
The Queen’s Tower at Imperial College has stood in South Kensington since 1897
In 2022 it went behind scaffolding
Full stonemasonry restoration, new copper dome, and every surface examined.
It came down in April 2026
It took 4 years because there are not enough people left who know how to do it
@Gondor_Ind
David S retweeted
Hello!
It doesn’t cost anything to retweet but it helps me spread the word about my small business.
My online shop is full of bold & colourful prints, homewares and cards.
I’m also available for freelance design work and art licensing.
gailmyerscough.co.uk
David S retweeted
#Nunhead coffee shop Goodcup opens as evening cocktail and vinyl bar
The venue will now open every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 6pm to 11pm.
southwarknews.co.uk/area/nun…
David S retweeted
"It seems to me that a decision has been made to replace doctors and to remove distinctions between doctors and other professions.
It's no coincidence that the NHS continues to struggle with efficiency, productivity, and safety problems while we progress further towards a blended workforce without the necessary training supervision or regulation."
Via @bmj_latest
bmj.com/content/393/bmj-2026…
David S retweeted
I am going to invoice @GOVUK for all this bloody work I am doing for them. This could have been explained so much better @wesstreeting
David S retweeted
Security called me at 6:12 AM today.
"Patch every PHP server immediately."
I asked what happened.
"Two critical vulnerabilities. Remote code execution. No authentication required."
Cool.
How many PHP servers do we have?
According to inventory: 12
According to reality:
Nobody knows.
We found one running WordPress.
Three running old internal tools.
One under someone's desk.
Two inside vendor appliances.
A forgotten employee directory from 2016.
And a server named:
PHP-OLD-DO-NOT-TOUCH
Naturally, that one runs payroll exports.
Then we found a PHP 5.6 box.
I asked who owned it.
The documentation said:
BRIAN.
Brian left in 2019.
We called Brian.
He said:
"Oh wow, that's still running?"
Excellent.
By 8 AM, leadership joined the incident call.
CEO:
"Can hackers actually get in?"
Security:
"Potentially yes."
CEO:
"Without a password?"
Security:
"Yes."
CEO:
"Then why do WE need passwords?"
Not the lesson.
Finance asked if we could wait until the weekend to patch because downtime affects revenue.
Security explained that the alternative was letting strangers execute code on our servers.
Finance asked for a cost comparison.
At 9:17, someone suggested temporarily taking the vulnerable websites offline.
Marketing refused.
"Our campaign is live."
So for the next hour, the company officially decided maintaining a landing page for 20% off webinar registration was more important than preventing remote server takeover.
We finally patched everything we could find.
Then our scanner discovered another PHP server.
Hostname:
TEMP-PHP-2014
Uptime:
4,512 days.
Nobody knows what it does.
Nobody owns it.
Nobody can shut it down.
But every time we block network access, the warehouse stops printing shipping labels.
Security has classified it as critical infrastructure.
It is running PHP 5.4.
The vulnerability has existed longer than half our employees.
The emergency patch took four hours.
Finding out what PHP actually runs took eleven.
The internet isn't held together with code.
It's held together with servers everyone is afraid to turn off.
David S retweeted
One of the darkest days in Welsh history!!
And totally avoidable!! 😢 😢 😢
We remember the 116 children and 28 adults lost in Aberfan 60 years ago. ❤️
David S retweeted
Hi @RFHunt1 - if @marksandspencer won’t give you a replacement or refund, contact your bank or credit card provider and make a chargeback to dispute the payment.
Tell them that the retailer is in breach of contract under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. M&S are on the hook for it as they engaged the courier (probably Evri) to safely deliver the goods into your physical possession.
Make your problem theirs. I wish they would use a proper courier firm instead of relying on these cretins to deliver online orders.
#ConsumerRights
It was a sinking feeling knowing that my @marksandspencer order was delivery only. Sadly, yet again - a parcel (of value) deposited somewhere - a ‘safe place’ but nope no safe places.
Easily could be delivered to my door. But now it’s lost as is the money I paid. Not happy.
David S retweeted
Nansi Williams - the heroic dinner lady who died saving the lives of schoolchildren during the Aberfan disaster...
On October 21, 1966, a Welsh school dinner lady Nansi Williams threw herself over five children as a wall of coal waste crashed into their school. All five survived. She did not.
That morning, children at Pantglas Junior School in Aberfan, Wales, were preparing for their final day before the half-term holiday. Nansi, a local woman who worked in the school dining hall, was collecting dinner money from pupils.
Above the village stood enormous mountains of waste from the nearby coal mine. For years, residents had lived beneath them, despite concerns about their stability.
At approximately 9:15 a.m., one of those mountains collapsed.
Around 150,000 tonnes of coal waste and water surged down the hillside, smashing into houses and engulfing the school.
Inside, Nansi saw the danger approaching.
She ordered five children to get down, then threw herself over them, using her own body as a shield.
The impact killed her.
One of the children, Karen Thomas, later recalled how Nansi had jumped on top of them as glass shattered and the wall collapsed. The children initially did not understand that she was dead. They tried pulling her hair to wake her.
When rescuers recovered Nansi's body, accounts say she was still clutching a pound note collected for school dinners.
The Aberfan disaster killed 144 people, including 116 children.
An official inquiry later placed responsibility squarely on the National Coal Board. The catastrophe had been preventable.
Nansi had no children of her own. In her final moments, she saved five who belonged to other families.
For decades, her extraordinary sacrifice received little recognition beyond the community that remembered her.
Now, approaching the disaster's 60th anniversary in October 2026, a campaign to honor her has succeeded. A commemorative Purple Plaque is scheduled to be unveiled in Aberfan on October 30.
Five children went home because Nansi Williams never did.
#archaeohistories
