Black Out

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


On the recommendation of a clever German friend, I recently read Marc Elsberg’s Black Out.

It’s a bestseller about the effects an outage of power has on a swath of European countries and the US. Without giving away the plot, it was a coordinated attack which could have been by industry insiders, terrorists, or a rogue state.

It’s a gripping storyline, so I will let you find out by yourself!

With the current suspicion of external actors such as North Korea, China, Russia and others closer to home, it puts an interesting spin on how without secure and constant electrical supply, our interconnected and largely segmented & privatised society, could literally grind to a halt in days or a few short weeks.

Increasingly, we rely on embedded software code to enable access to homes and buildings, regulate our environments and supply our amenities. Stuxnet showed us how vulnerable our software is, when in 2010, over 200,000 machines were affected. It had been five years in development, longer than the planning that goes on behind some revolutions!
You might remember the London & South East electricity outage in Aug 2019, crippled 300,000 customers and brought some rail services to a standstill. That showed how fragile our systems can be.

With the rise of IOT (Internet of things), which overall is a positive thing I believe, how can security be guaranteed? Programmers love black doors and Easter Eggs. While perhaps a bit of (harmless) fun, these all add vulnerabilities, often at firmware level. Apart from the ‘published methods & functions’ in our devices, how many lay dormant, waiting to be activated by activists, terrorists, a foreign power, or even our own governments? In the recent turn that Brexit has taken in the UK, some info has been leaked about the powers, being prepared, just in case of civil unrest.

Any programmer knows that one persons bug, can be another’s ‘feature’. I am sure some readers of this will have experienced this phenomenon in the past where an upgrade removed an old bug, that was being used productively. Its certainly happened to me.

How good will QC (Quality Control) be, as IOT makes even greater use of AI? Potentially daily, Gigabytes or more of data is going to be being processed from each of our homes. How will that be protected, whether running through home assistants/Smart Speakers etc, or protected in the very core of the new (Huawei or not) 5G networks?

The point is that we layer software on software to run our world and increasing farm it out to the cheapest bidder. Good QC is expensive, often 2-3 times more that writing the original code if done seriously well. You only have to see some of the bugs that I encounter, from a variety of #SocialHousing systems each month, to see that cutting corners on quality testing costs everyone more in the long run. That includes keeping those software suppliers help desks staffed up with (in some cases) hundreds of calls to chew through daily.

It might be the right time now to think hard and deep about our software vulnerabilities. Do read the book, Black Out by Marc Elsberg. If you work in or rely on embedded software, it might just be your wake up call 🤔

Related Post: Beware Alexa, she listens all the time you know....  

 

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.

David Bowie – Blackout.
(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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. . . . . . . . . . .

Internet Things That Make You Go Hmmmmmm

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

Regarding a subject close to my heart, last week I was pleased to receive a copy of the Housing Technology, ‘Internet Of Things in Housing’ report 2017/18. Its very timely as next week its #HousingTech2018 at the Oxford Belfry, and a number of sessions I notice touch on IOT experiences.

Of course, if you read this blog, feel free to stop me and say hi, pick my brains on any of the sector products or suppliers. Aareon QLX/QLF users will probably have plenty to ponder about, based on the recent MD reshuffle announcements. Its always great to meet everyone at HT, which has become the de-facto place to see what organisations are doing and see what products emerging. If you have any ideas for future blog posts too, come and fill your boots!

Back in November 2017, I did a spot at a Knightstone Housing day on data, around IOT. Part of that was a graph indicating explosive growth, anytime soon, in IOT. Much of my session did caution around the security aspects of emerging IOT and the patch-ability of devices. I illustrated this at the time with the story of the hacked Samsung internet fridges, coerced to do a classic denial of service attack. This neatly brought the problem home. I.E. that we are looking at quite raw technology here, that still has emerging standards being carved out.

The HT IOT report does seem to bear this aspect out quite well. While its maybe not the blazing saddles era, it might still be that of the ‘Good, Bad and the Ugly’, where IOT pioneers dare to tread. Barriers to adoption include recognised areas of security (11%), integration (18%) and a whopping 34% thinking IOT is plain ‘unproven’. Not brilliant for a pretty risk-averse sector, like social housing. So, manufacturers have work to do on the techie stability of these devices.

In a sector that often has large organisations lacking even the most basic necessities, for 2018, it is hardly surprising that between 39% & 69% of organisations, did not think that IOT was important, from an overall strategy viewpoint. Now I can understand if organisations are still awaiting enterprise-wide EDRMS, CRM, Mobile Working and usable customer self-service, in shoving IOT to the back of a large queue. These outfits clearly need to pull their socks up. 

Fact of the matter is that IOT is here and already happening.

I did some work with a construction and building services corporation, last Spring, who specialise in ‘Smart Cities’. They were successfully scaling up a lot of techniques from ‘domestic gadgets’, into new built environments. Car parking and energy efficient lighting, the former which is highlighted in a case study, brought substantial benefits. 

Any organisation lucky enough to be building new affordable housing, needs to embrace the possible benefits of IOT on offer here. Existing voids and care & support environments to different degrees, can easily leverage low cost IOT.    

Interestingly, a rich variety of IOT devices were in use, or planned. Humidity and temperature sensors are by far the most popular installed. Considering the number of our residents, struggling with high costs of heating their homes, and in potential fuel poverty, this is an excellent place to start. Humidity, motion and chemical detectors have been proven in transient void environments, to manage our assets, at a time when damage can certainly occur and every day without a tenant really counts.

For me the key trick with IOT, to make it a success, is integration with our business applications. That is the icing on the cake and means we potentially can build systems that react to information, rather than just record a growing glut of data, we have to mine ourselves for insights.

For instance, we want to know when that care & support resident has not boiled the kettle this morning, (if they usually do), rather than the previous 48 times they managed it between 08:35 and 09:42 hrs. Without clear, useful, clever integration, we create yet more admin. If we have a frequency sensor on a lift motor, we need to know when its oscillation frequency changes, so we can do that (low cost) service check. Ideally too, that smart boiler, notifies us that it is poorly, a long time before it fails.   

This report tells me a number of things. Socialhousing is not being ambitious enough in planning for IOT deployment. Perhaps CEO’s are not being sufficiently informed or enthused as to its potential. Secondly, finance teams & budget holders need to understand the potential efficiencies of the ‘smart estate’. Real time data about our stock, customer usage of energy and behaviour, will reduce repair spend, provide more proactive care & maintenance, potentially reduce energy bills and increase customer satisfaction.

Related Post: Automation via ICT is not always the right thing to do. Just look at the evolution of the Car Wash 

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.

C+C Music Factory - Things That Make You Go Hmmmm.
(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.
File Under: 360,1stTouch,4Js. , 07854655009 ,365Agile," """" ",,#UKHousing,#HousingDAY, #HomesForBritain,#InternetOfTenants, #Shout,1st Touch,3squared,Accuserv,Acutence,Aareon,Academy,ActiveH,AirWatch,Alignment,ALMO,Anite,Apex,ArchHouse,Archouse,asbestos, Asprey e-state pro,ActiveHousing,Asset Management,Aurora,Average IT Costs,App,Associates,ACL,Abritas,AMS,AX,aspireview,Agile365, BO,BPR,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning, Business Process Review,Business social networking, Blockwise, Block wise,BI,BancTec,BluTek,Bluebox, Castle,CBL,Cedar Open Accounts,Cx,Change,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, CHR,Citrix,Civica,Clearview,CMS , CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,Civica Genero,Contractor Systems,CORE,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,CRM,Crystal Reports,CTI,CTX,Customer Relationship Management,Cashflow, COA,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Competitive Dialogue process,complex IT procurements,Component Accounting, Community Reward Services, Consilium, Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Contact 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Knights In White Satin

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



I think more people should experience Somerset. It is often said to me it is a quiet county, as everyone seems to rush through it to get west to Devon and Cornwall. It certainly must make it quieter, but no less fun or likeable. The vast quantity of work I have done, down in this really cool corner of Britain, has made me a real advocate. The Somerset Tourist board know where to post that remittance.

Soooo.. when it was mentioned to me that Knightstone Housing, just outside Weston-Super-Mere, were looking at putting together a whole event, on digital and data, I was up for it. IOT or ‘Internet Of things’, for you non TLA people. As many in socialhousing will know, Knightstone are joining with DCH, just further west.

I must have been blogging about the Internet Of Things for yonks, maybe 5 years by now.
Every time it is just around the corner. However, in 2017 it seems the smart money think it actually is. This is how fast experts think that IOT will grow:

Expected IoT Internet Of Things growth post 2017

Proof that we are on the cusp, can be seen in the explosion of IOT home automation and other domestic product devices, we all seem to be dabbling with. Recognisable examples are Hive, Nest, Wink, going headless with Amazon Echo/Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomePod. We are getting used to geekily talking into our home devices too aren't we, more so than we are prepared to do outdoors, with others.

More and more devices are entering our homes too, internet kettles, fridges, taps, heating controls etc. A world of convenience, but for sure we are in a pioneers era, with early adopters the foot soldiers. Something I described as IOT’s Betamax vs VHS moment. IOT devices need to adopt some solid standards, so devices from different sources can all work together, with standard interfaces to management software, or upper application layers (e.g. the Asset Management or CRM system).

Security of data and updates are another key area. We need to keep the vast amounts of data generated/consumed, where it’s meant to be. That needs to be designed in from inception, with the ability to patch/upgrade remotely, possibly months, or years into the future of an IOT device, that might function for ten years or more.

Having done battle on many occasions with the self-service checkouts, at Morrisons, I have always thought that the ‘March Of The Machines’ might start there. As I described at the Knightstone event, it might start in your kitchen. If Samsung internet fridges can be harnessed to leverage a remote DoS (Denial of Service) attack on internet connected servers, then we need to take IoT security way more seriously. So, right there you can see the need for strong standards for IoT, and soon! I may well blog on the remainder of the content of that presentation, in the next few months.

Could a malicious hack into the nations hummus and taramasalata, precipitate a double-dip recession?

I was very impressed with the way Knightstone had recognised the extreme importance of data, devoting a whole day to it. There was a hundred or so attendees, from the organisation and external ones, such as Yarlington and Brunelcare. Nick Horne called it right that the two key resources our organisations turn on, are data and our people. Great to chat afterwards to Nick and many others at the event I have got to know, over the last few years.

The sessions included experiences from Dwr Cymru Welsh Water on their data strategy, as well as how the data scientists of Bron Afon Community Housing, are improving quality and eliminating the old faithful, yes the labour of love, the Excel spreadsheet.

Data the welsh way, the Bron Afon Journey

Housemark and Equillian had some great data insights as to how AI and algorithms are helping us sift through ever more potentially linked data. From Equillian, my premier, from many takeaways on the day, was that “Organisations with poor data quality will never be the most successful”. Within and beyond the socialhousing sector, we would all do well to paint that slogan at the face of every open-plan office wall. That would remind managers and staff 20 times a day, that’s the ultimate key to our success.    

All the Knightstone Data and Technology Day presentations can be found on the following link -

Click here to access the presentations from #KHADataTech

Get in touch if I can add some insight to your data project or future presentation event

Related Post: In your organisation, are you the classic 'Hunter-Gatherer'? 

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.

The Moody Blues - Nights In White Satin.
(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.
File Under: 360,1stTouch,4Js. , 07854655009 ,365Agile," """" ",,#UKHousing,#HousingDAY, #HomesForBritain,#InternetOfTenants, #Shout,1st Touch,3squared,Accuserv,Acutence,Aareon,Academy,ActiveH,AirWatch,Alignment,ALMO,Anite,Apex,ArchHouse,Archouse,asbestos, Asprey e-state pro,ActiveHousing,Asset Management,Aurora,Average IT Costs,App,Associates,ACL,Abritas,AMS,AX,aspireview,Agile365, BO,BPR,Browser Applications,Business Objects,Business Planning, Business Process Review,Business social networking, Blockwise, Block wise,BI,BancTec,BluTek,Bluebox, Castle,CBL,Cedar Open Accounts,Cx,Change,Cheaper Housing IT,Chics, CHR,Citrix,Civica,Clearview,CMS , CCS IT Keystone CCSIT,Civica Genero,Contractor Systems,CORE,CorVu,Cost Reductions,Covalent,CRM,Crystal Reports,CTI,CTX,Customer Relationship Management,Cashflow, COA,Coactiva,Codeman,Comino,Competitive Dialogue process,complex IT procurements,Component Accounting, Community Reward Services, Consilium, Consolidation, Consultancy,Consultant,Contact Manager,Context,CIH,Chartered Institute Of Housing,Cadcorp,Cerrus Saturn,convergeOne,CACI,CPL, CRS Director, Deeplake,Development Systems,Accuserve,Document Management,Documotive,datasystems , Microsoft dynamics GP 2013, DynamicAI, Dynamic AI, ECMK,EDRMS,England, English,EnterpriseBI,ERP Systems,ERP,Elmhurst,Estatecraft,EDM,ESRI,Exponential-e, Finance, Financial Systems, Financials, Factorwise,Facebook ,Footprint,Fusion, Getting best from,gotonysmith, Grasp,Grip,GeoSolveIT,GIS,GGP,Genero,GCloud,G-Cloud,HouSys,Housing software,HFI (Housing Financials interface),HG,Housemark survey,Housing Blueprint,Housemark, HRA,housingtITguy,Housing Support Pro,HousingSupportPro,Housing Options,Hometeam, Housing Group,hotpixuk, HousingIT,hotpix,Hardware,Hitex,Housing Contact Company,housing predictive analytics, Impact Response,iPayPro,implementations,iRobot,In House,InHouse,In4,InMotion, InMotion2016, InMotion2015, InMotion2016 , Exhibition, conference,Housing Management Consultant,Housing Management 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Block Chain Rockin' Beats

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or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy



You like me must have been reading lots about the Internet Of Things (IOT), particularly how it's expected to work within socialhousing. I have chatted to people and read about sensors for care and support, that detect if our service users have left their bed, brushed their teeth, or switched the kettle on for a morning brew. Also of smart boilers, that can contact its owner, via a contractor and log a repair, to correct its fault that is just becoming evident. The logical step for an autonomous boiler, is to go beyond calling for help, actually order it, with BitCoin too.

I already have a gas and electric meter read by the dustcart every fortnight, when it does the bins down my road.  See, I am a pioneer myself! As we know though, from the old cowboy films, pioneers are generally those with the arrows in their backs. Better in some cases, to maybe ride in later, with the women and children, in the covert wagons.

It all sounds like good stuff eh? What could go wrong?

Well it would be enormously funny if a hacker spoofed every new boiler on the scheme and logged multiple works orders for each. You know just for fun? Or maybe, more a scenario that auditors might think of. What if one of your Contractors got a young hacker in to just spoof a few randomly, at regular intervals, to log a repair?

As for my meters, when I was a young pup at school, a mate of mines father, good catholic of course, discovered a way to reduce his gas bill. For a few weeks each month, he switched it around, running it backwards. This worked fine until one quarter he over did it. The gas board (way before we were asked to 'Tell Sid' and privatise it off to be British Gas), were puzzled as he seemed to be supplying gas to the national grid. What if I could spoof my meters?

Clearly it would not be in my interests to risk anything like that, but how can be safeguard, secure all these IOT sensors, to prove they are what they seem?

Bitcoin uses the BlockChain concept, in order to authenticate transactions, in order to set up a 'trust' relationship. Blockchain technology is an ideal way to track IOT devices and their individual histories. Much like in Bitcoin, a 'ledger' of IOT transactions can be created, so peer devices can be sure of what they are talking to, and its history. With the reliability of a Blockchain history, maybe even an auditor will allow that boiler to place its own repair and combined with a digital currency, such as Bitcoin, pay for the works order itself.

This would provide a secure means of digital data sharing, with a scalable and robust form of coordination, between devices.   It's a fascinating subject and clearly we are at the beginning of a device revolution here. Read more on the Blockchain technology stack below.

http://www.coindesk.com/blockchain-application-stack/
Related Post: What happens when Channel Shift may slim down your service centre? 

     Catch the blog monthly archive at https://archive.org/details/@housingitguy

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The Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin' Beats.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


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The Real (Internet of) Things

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @hotpixUK
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Lately I have been thinking about the so called 'Internet of Things' (IoT), and wondering if we have enough internet IP addresses for all the applications that potentially we will have about our person. According to Gartner, there will be nearly 26 billion devices on the Internet of Things by 2020.

Objects in the IoT will not only be devices with sensory capabilities, but also provide actuation capabilities (e.g., bulbs/locks controlled over the Internet). To a large extent, the future of the Internet of Things will not be possible without the support of IPv6; and consequently the global adoption of IPv6 in the coming years will be critical for the successful development of the IoT in the future.

IoT, can refer to a wide variety of devices such as chips inside tablets (slowing us they have been swallowed or not), heart monitoring implants, biochip transponders on farm animals, automobiles with built-in sensors etc. Current market examples include smart thermostat systems and washer/dryers that utilize wifi for remote monitoring. You will have seen those HIVE (http://www.hivehome.com/  ) ads.

Maybe social housing will one day come with an iPad plastered into the wall in the hall, showing the status of your heating, nudges to save the tenants money, water, energy and alert then to their arrears, when they are logging that responsive repair. I don't think we are that far away from that vision. Smart Asset Management, for benefit of resident and landlord is coming.

In at least two UK Housing tenders I have been involved in, I have included questions around smart homes, heating and electrical system monitoring, to test how innovative our providers are, regarding gathering information from tenants, without intrusion, but to enhance their life, health and wellbeing.

For care and support, being able to scan RFD tags and folder bar codes to clearly understand our service users needs on mobile devices, has been here for some time. At home, I remember a chat just a few weeks ago with one of those blokes (I think they recruit blokes, as I have personally never encountered any ladies), who read meters these days. He said that he was due to be replaced with a smart meter that waited for a dustcart to go by every other week, to take more accurate readings for billing.

Get ready, the future is here, I tell you!

Stewart Davison of Capita Housing Software Services, will be doing a session on the Internet Of Things, at Homes at Olympia 27th Nov 10:30, see http://www.homesevent.co.uk/page.cfm/Action=Visitor/VisitorID=1238 for details. it should be an interesting lecture.

Related Post: Are you a fan of the bake-off?.

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The Human League - Real Thing.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009

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