Whether you actual believe the messages going “missing” was an accident or not, this COVID inquiry has shown that there needs to be a proper review of how our MPs communicate.
I don’t have a solution but we need a better solution than an app owned by Meta where messages can just disappear.
It should be made a criminal offence to deliberately destroy government records. There needs to be an emphasis that they need to take active steps to protect those records. this lot are taking the piss.
Government Matrix instances, perhaps one per department, with an undeletable backup on a secure server and everything unlocked with a fingerprint. No “oops they’re gone” or “I forgot my pin” (which for BoJo is definitely 00769).
It isn’t perfect by a long way but they are already licensed for Teams. Teams with the right settings can prevent named users such as MPs from deleting or editing any messages and messages are stored centrally. It can properly backup chats to a secure archive as well.
Obviously they can then get a tame techy with the right permissions to Teams and Purview to remove the messages but that’s going to apply to any system.
If I communicate about work on WhatsApp, instead of one of our official channels. I end up going through disciplinary actions. This is basically how it works in ANY workplace, because you shouldn’t be discussing critical work stuff on a platform the workplace cannot fucking control!
I have no idea how MP’s get away with this, at all. I would be shocked if any work discussion on a public network (encryption or not) didn’t fall foul of some computer misuse rules in parliament.
Whether you actual believe the messages going “missing” was an accident or not, this COVID inquiry has shown that there needs to be a proper review of how our MPs communicate.
I don’t have a solution but we need a better solution than an app owned by Meta where messages can just disappear.
It should be made a criminal offence to deliberately destroy government records. There needs to be an emphasis that they need to take active steps to protect those records. this lot are taking the piss.
Government Matrix instances, perhaps one per department, with an undeletable backup on a secure server and everything unlocked with a fingerprint. No “oops they’re gone” or “I forgot my pin” (which for BoJo is definitely 00769).
It isn’t perfect by a long way but they are already licensed for Teams. Teams with the right settings can prevent named users such as MPs from deleting or editing any messages and messages are stored centrally. It can properly backup chats to a secure archive as well.
Obviously they can then get a tame techy with the right permissions to Teams and Purview to remove the messages but that’s going to apply to any system.
Also, if a tech deletes something in 365/Azure it gets logged. Thays why I always - ALWAYS - get orders in writing.
If I communicate about work on WhatsApp, instead of one of our official channels. I end up going through disciplinary actions. This is basically how it works in ANY workplace, because you shouldn’t be discussing critical work stuff on a platform the workplace cannot fucking control!
I have no idea how MP’s get away with this, at all. I would be shocked if any work discussion on a public network (encryption or not) didn’t fall foul of some computer misuse rules in parliament.