Policeman Data Skank

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

I don’t know what crossed your mind a few weeks ago when you heard about the recent UK big data breaches. On the Monday was a loss of millions of names from the UK Electoral Roll. 40 million voters in fact from hackers - Full article here. I suppose that does make a difference for our government to not be trying to be selling it this time!

A few days later came the PSNI data breach, of every serving police officer in Northern Ireland. - Full article here.

The day after that came Norfolk and Suffolk police, fessing up over another data breach consisting of personal details of 1,230 victims, suspects and witnesses - Full article here

While the first one was apparently a successful hack attempt, (we are familiar with some of those in social housing), the second two look more like spectacular own-goals, that would have needed Mary Earps England’s ‘Queen of Stops’ to try to effectively prevent. These were both cases where the police authorities apparently responded to freedom of information (FOI) requests, for summary data. IE number of cases, totals of police staff and roles etc.

They say a little knowledge is dangerous and that would certainly be true if that data was extracted into Excel perhaps (a tool we all love a little too much),  and a pivot table/formulas created for creating the summary totals. To be compliant with a FOI request they could have easily supplied a short PDF of the totals page. To share way too much data we could provide the much bigger spreadsheet and inadvertently and criminally overshare.

In the case of the PSNI data breach, it could not have been much worse a mistake.

I have worked a lot over in Northern and Southern Ireland over the last 25 years.  When I first traveled there, they had barely dismantled the British army checkpoints outside Belfast international airport. I have 100% always had positive and uplifting experiences with all sides of the communities I have worked with and received care and generosity throughout. Belfast and other places have improved immensely. Offices and property blocks have plate glass on the outside again and hen parties cycle around city centres on big beer/gin bikes. Its one of my favourite corners of these isles.

One institution in society that still polarises there is the PSNI. Once called the RUC reflecting just one part of society, its new incarnation is still extremely suspicious to both communities, nearly 22 years on:

Loyalist community suspicion

Republican community suspicion

In terms of putting people at risk and drastic effect on safety, over twenty thousand ordinary people doing some very dangerous jobs have been put in even more danger. Perhaps all down to lax training of admin staff on GDPR, our responsibilities to it and how they are to use software tools handling our data.

It wouldn’t be the first time I have encountered organisations doing a well meaning GDPR induction, yet with no practical advice of how and where to store data and the importance of it being accurate, succinct, consistant and well controlled. Its probably the subject of another future post or two, but we do give staff tools such as Excel and barely train them on it (if at all). No wonder they try to use it like a database and have no idea what they might inadvertently share using it. With such lack of knowledge, staff should be banned from using the common off the shelf excuse, “I cant do that due to data protection!”.

So, could these last two types of gaffs happen easily in your organisations?

How well do you induct and keep all staff aware of GDPR?

How do you induct staff on how your systems and storage needs to be used consistently for good data hygiene?

How well do you control information access and controlled release, particularly of sensitive data?

If you have any doubts on the above, please take action right now, before your organisation makes some rooky mistakes and we can all watch its gory details examined on Newsnight and Sky News.

If you are struggling with getting your GDPR in order, or replacing spreadsheets with systems or databases, just get in touch with us.

Subscribe to our blog here on this link, to always catch the latest news on whats happening in the sector.

Acutance Consulting would be happy to help you review systems options, 

please just get in touch, for a chat over a ginger nuts & a brew ☕😋

       Related Post: Thoughts on getting Right To Forget right

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Audioweb – Policeman Skank.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.

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For The Want Of A Nail

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy
or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy



Predictive analytics look to me to becoming Social Housing's next 'Self-serve' or 'staff mobile working'. The latter pretty much now being rolled out by pretty much all forward thinking landlords. I have recently written a whitepaper on predictive analytics for arrears case management. Definitely one area which I would take a proven solution off the shelf.

But how should you go about building a model yourself, for other purposes? What might be the gotcha's that are worth thinking about?

Well the first one for me would be focus carefully on your end-game. As I have heard it described quite well, by one data scientist friend, don't build yourself a rather elaborate hammer, then go looking for your nail. Predictive Analytics is a current buzzword, much like 'Digital Strategy' was until recently. At least most organisations understand what the latter practically means now. Before setting out, know what most of your outcomes are going to be.

Next, when you have some outcomes in mind, check your available data supports it. Easier when you start with a well integrated set of systems. Do get in touch with me directly if you still haven't cracked that one. Never try to structure a project around data you just don't have. Ask that crucial question before you start. Where specific data is missing, there may be the opportunity to generate it or collect it specially. You might want to target a particular sub-set of residents/customers, to have reliable data to utilise.

Data quality is the next gotcha. Assume a good deal of your data will be of poor quality. That need not hold you back. Many projects have been delayed until data is thought to be 100% correct. Believe me, you won't have 3 years or more to get to that point. I would urge you to cautiously work with what you have and enforce a data culture to constantly improve it, in parallel to any predictive analytics project.

Assume too, that you will find even more poor data, as you build models & work with it. I have lost count of the number of tenancies & works order requests, with end dates before start dates etc. If your data cannot be corrected, filter it right out, lest it skew models.

One example I heard about, management were too bullish about the apparent good quality of data. After being advised that data cleansing was required in the project, this was dismissed to shorted timescales, against the advice of consultants. Later when poor data quality was revealed, and more time needed to be added to extend the project, to achieve outcomes, it became a credibility issue for the director involved. Don't be caught out by too much good news, hiding the bad.

Finally, when your lovely shiny predictive analytics model is built, ensure you have planned a proper deployment phase. It is not enough that you have 'built it and so they will come'. Work out how you are going to tell the wider organisation what your model can do and seed their imagination as to how they can apply it to their own department issues and decision making. Find out what their particular nail will be, to which they can apply your new shiny hammer.

I promise, soon I will post on what typical calculations for SocialHousing, might work for us, and how this might affect process.

Related Post: Sick of your housing management system? Why not write your own?  

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Todd Rundgren – For The Want Of A Nail.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.
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