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The Cost of the Erith Fire and how much has Ocado Learnt from Previous Incidents?

It is rare to get detailed information on the costs of incidents; so the recent financial update from Ocado Retail, covering the period around the fire at their Erith fulfilment centre, is particularly interesting. Comments by the company’s senior management, also raise a question mark over how much they have learnt from previous fires. A […]

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CO2 Outages – Did We Learn Nothing in 2018?

We blogged last week about the sharp rise in energy prices in the UK and the fact that this was leading some energy-intensive industries to shut-down production. The situation has now escalated markedly, with the news that our main producer of fertiliser, CF Industries, has shut down production; leading to a massive shortage of CO2

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UK Electricity Supplies hit by Perfect Storm

Electricity prices in the UK were already increasing because of a combination of the rising cost of fossil fuels, outages of nuclear power plants and an unseasonable shortage of wind. However, the sudden shock of a fire at a National Grid site in Ashford, Kent shutting down a 2GW interconnection with France sent prices rocketing

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On This Day in History – Toddbrook Reservoir

The media last week was full of dramatic images of flooding in London: the disruption to Tube stations and two major hospitals causing particular concern. But, exactly two years ago, we were facing an even more serious flooding incident here in the High Peak. Sustained rainfall through late July 2019 had filled Toddbrook Reservoir to

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Why is the Databarracks Data Health Check Interesting?

Databarracks have just published their 2021 Data Health Check. You may think “So what?” – we are constantly bombarded with surveys on different aspects of information security management. I would argue that the Data Health Check is interesting for two reasons: It is explicitly UK focused; and The survey has been carried out every year

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Remembering Pipe Alpha 33 Years On

On 6th July 1988, 167 men died following a devastating fire on the Piper Alpha platform, operated by Occidental Oil in the North Sea. Only 61 people survived, some of whom leapt over 100 feet from the burning platform into the sea. As ever, our thoughts are with those survivors and the bereaved families. The

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Kaseya Ransomware Attack – Is this the new Face of Cyber Attacks?

There has been extensive coverage over the weekend of the massive ransomware attack, that began at the US-based IT firm Kaseya. The attackers managed to infect a software update for Kaseya’s VSA product that went out to customers on Friday with REvil ransomware. This not only affected these firms, but also their customers. One of

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What Have We Learnt from the Manchester Arena Inquiry Volume 1?

The Manchester Arena Inquiry Volume 1: Security for the Arena was published last week. It is now over four years since the attack, and the proceedings of the Inquiry have been widely reported as they happened; but this volume brings together all the evidence about security prior to 22nd May 2017 and, crucially, provides a

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Remembering the 1996 Manchester Bombing – Day 5

In this final blog post looking back at the 1996 Manchester bombing, we discuss the recovery of the hundreds of small businesses caught up in the devastation. Those affected by the attack included: 100 shops in the Royal Exchange; 150 shops in the Corn Exchange; 40 small offices; 15 pubs/cafes; and 1 clairvoyant. The impact

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