WARP Newsletter 2 - September 2006

WARPLOG Issue 2 - September 2006
Welcome to the second issue of this occasional newsletter. The first one seems to have been well received, and interestingly the first 3 responses were from Japan, Ireland and Malta, which indicates the global reach of the programme. We also seem to have had lots of new ‘subscribes’, and only one ‘un-subscribe’ so far which is gratifying. If you missed the first one, you can see it at: http://www.warp.gov.uk/Newsletter1.htm . As ever, there were some teething troubles, and the conversion to PDF seems to have corrupted some links (it’s always easiest to blame the software), so I’m sorry if they caused any problems. The version on the WARP website has the links functioning correctly if you’d like to try again. This time we have news of: the next WARPs Forum, International developments including a Japanese contribution to the Toolbox, the latest new WARPs, and other developments and plans.

WARPs Forum

After careful research, consultation and deliberation, we can now proudly announce that the Annual WARPs Forum 2007 will take place on Tuesday 13 March 2007. Furthermore, to reflect the ever-increasing spread of WARPs sectorally and geographically, this one will be held away from London this time, and with valuable assistance from MYSWARP, we are organising this one at LEEDS Town Hall in Yorkshire. The road and rail links are very good, and the venue is close to the railway station. I hope this will encourage some of you who couldn’t make it last year, and that it will still be accessible to everyone else.

We will be redesigning the format again this year, and whilst there will still be an emphasis on workshops and participation, there will also be more plenary speakers giving you more opportunities to hear from operational and developing WARPs. We will also try to cater for those who are low on the WARPs learning curve, however, the main focus will again be for those who are ‘Serious about WARPs’.

We will let you know more as plans develop, but please do respond to if you have any suggestions about what we can do better next time, and we’ll put them into the mix.We will be issuing invitations to everyone who receives this Newsletter, so do encourage others to sign up if you think they’d like to attend the Forum.

International Developments

On the international front, we have had a very interesting and useful dialogue over the last few months with a researcher from Hitachi in Japan, Hiroko Okashita. Based on Hiroko’s very astute and perceptive enquiries, and responses from NISCC and other WARPs, she was persuaded to produce an FAQs document, now in the Toolbox http://www.warp.gov.uk/ProjectStartup/WARP_FAQ_Additionsv1.0.pdf . I strongly recommend browsing this, as I think you will find it interesting and useful for explaining various subtleties and fundamentals to others such as new members, prospective operators or providers. Thanks to Hiroko for her generosity, I hope nothing was ‘lost in translation’, and we’re hoping we’ll see her at the Annual Forum in Leeds. Please comment on the FAQs if you wish, and if you have your own FAQs that might be of use to others, please get in touch.

Meanwhile WARPs continue to be actively assessed in New Zealand and there are other very positive indications from several other countries, but it still remains to be seen who will register the first overseas WARP. The smart money is now on the Netherlands however, as their initiative to develop WARPs in the Dutch Education sector was revealed at the Govcert.nl conference last week.

ENISA (www.enisa.eu.int) continues to support and promote the spread of WARPs in Europe as part of their ‘CERTs and related services’ work-stream, and SKWARP has been invited to present at the ENISA CERTs workshop in Brussels in October. Thanks to Marco & Mehis for their hard work there. NISCC has also agreed to present on WARPs at conferences in Warsaw and Vilnius next month (in case you happen to be attending). See http://www.secure.edu.pl/en/agenda.html & http://www.securityconference.rrt.lt/index.php?76913710 .

New WARPs, WOF and FWA

(with apologies to those who prefer an AFZ - Acronym-Free Zone)

The steady stream of new WARPs continues, and we can now welcome new Local Government WARPs from the East Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside, and West Midlands regions. The latter one in particular may be the first of a new group of WARPs in the region, and is hosted by Wolverhampton University and has strong links to business and crime prevention initiatives.

As each WARP is registered, their operator is invited to join the WARP Operators Forum (WOF). The WOF meets quarterly and is usually hosted by a WARP provider, and elects a chair for a year (currently Bob Askwith of LJMU/NWGWARP). This is a forum for discussing nitty-gritty technical issues and steering the way the WARP programme evolves.

Inevitably some of the WOF discussions relate to the Filtered Warnings Application (FWA) software, which is used by many WARPs, and is subject to continuous improvement. The latest version under development, due later this year should allow WARP operators to run multiple WARPs on the same server and database. Each WARP will preserve its unique identity and community, but there are economies of scale when one provider can help operate several WARPs.

We are also very pleased to have teamed up with a new company, Avius Experience Ltd (www.aviusexperience.com) so that new WARPs can download the FWA online, and Avius will also collect the licence fee on our behalf. They can also offer an FWA maintenance service for those who want it, though there is no obligation to use it, and other software companies are free to offer a rival service if they wish.

Work continues on the new WARP website, and we are planning a special package for WARPs in education. More details in due course, but rest assured there is still plenty going on in the WARP programme, and we’ll do our best to keep you informed. Even if you think you know it well, do look at the WARP website from time to time, as it is regularly updated, and if nothing else, the WARP Register continues to grow.

Please contact to let us know what you think about any of these issues, this newsletter, and the WARP programme in general, and don’t forget you can unsubscribe (see below), or encourage your colleagues to sign up for this newsletter simply by sending a blank e-mail to : ).

Thanks

Peter B, Head of Information Sharing, NISCC

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