WARP Newsletter 3 - November 2006

WARPLOG Issue 3 - November 2006
Welcome to the latest issue of this occasional newsletter. If this seems very soon after the last one, don’t panic, we’re not going into the SPAM business, it’s just that there is so much happening! This time we have news of: FIRST, new WARPs, new software, new logo and a brand new WARP Toolbox !

International Developments
A very well-respected Swiss Academic Institution has published an excellent survey of Information Security needs http://www.crn.ethz.ch/publications/crn_team/detail.cfm?id=25402 It shows that Switzerland is closer to the UK than you might think in many ways. The paper also contains a very interesting recommendation on WARPs in its final conclusions paragraph. This was quite unprompted, but it is good to see independent validation of the WARP model by such a respected authority. The authors are of course linked to NISCC’s opposite number in Switzerland, MELANI http://www.melani.admin.ch/index.html?lang=en who did attend last year’s WARP Forum, so maybe it is not entirely coincidental, but a valuable affirmation nonetheless. Watch out for WARPs in the Alps!

ENISA continues its support for WARPs, and held a very interesting workshop for CERTs and related activities. Natasha of SKWARP had a star part, and gave her characteristically lively presentation, which was very well received. A speaker from CERT-CC was clearly impressed, and suggested that WARPs could easily apply for FIRST membership, at least Associate status, if they wanted to. We may of course consider reciprocating by admitting some CERTs to the WARP Register in due course, if they meet the Code of Practice. ENISA were also present at two international conferences recently, in Warsaw and Vilnius, where the organisers had also specifically requested WARP presentations. John Harrison represented the WARP programme there and had excellent reviews. We confidently expect new WARPs in Poland and Lithuania before too long.

New WARPs
I’m sorry to report that there has been a big hiccup with one of the early WARP Providers when ETR2A closed for business. Discussions are still under way with their ‘parent’, the University of Northumbria and other stakeholders in the North East, and we are still hopeful that someone will step forward to pick up the reins of NEGWARP and NECWARP. Our sympathy goes out to the members in that region, and we hope they are not suffering too many problems in the meantime. As a result, those WARP licences will reluctantly be withdrawn until a new champion can be found.

On a much brighter note, the Schools WARP, DSWARP is developing well, generating a lot of interest at county level and we continue to have high hopes for that initiative.

ANSWARP has its formal launch at Anite on 1 December, and it will certainly be interesting to follow the progress of this industry-based WARP.

WMCWARP was also formally launched on 24 November at Wolverhampton, and they have ambitious plans to develop a cluster of WARPs with links to a new e-crime initiative. The relationship to e-crime prevention is an obvious one, and could well become a force multiplier across many areas in future.

New Toolbox – 13 December
Even those of you who don’t feel the need to visit the WARP Toolbox regularly (despite fresh stuff being added all the time) will definitely want to have a look at the newly revitalised version. It has a brand new front-end with a more user-friendly explanation of WARPs for visitors – very handy for explaining about WARPs to the uninitiated.

The whole site has a more up-to-date cleaner look, and we have even updated the WARP logo. Feel free to swap to the new one on your WARP site if you wish. We have checked with the lawyers, who confirm that it is an acceptable alternative trademark to the existing one. We have also gone to a lot of trouble to reorganise and update the material so that it should be far more accessible, and much easier to find those really useful items you expect to see. That must be worth a visit after 13 December (the date of the next WARP Operators Forum). Please let us know what you think.

FWA 4.2 release (now called v5.0)
The latest release of FWA has the long-awaited capability for hosting multiple WARPs on the same server, which will generate significant cost-savings for some WARP Providers. It will also now run with the free version of SQL server, generating even more savings. As a result we have slightly increased the licence fees, which will make a small contribution towards the FWA development costs. We will actually be collecting the licence fees this time via the Avius site when the software is downloaded. It is currently in beta testing so should be issued in good time for Christmas !

Do encourage your contacts and colleagues who are interested in WARPs to sign up for this newsletter simply by sending a blank e-mail to :
warp-news-subscribe@list.warp.gov.uk , to ensure they get an invitation to the Annual Forum in March.

Thanks

Peter B
Head of Information Sharing, NISCC
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