(no subject)

[Ross Anderson]

> When Gas installers first had to be CORGI registered, a lot of
> handyman types who were also competent gas installers were prevented
> from installing gas appliances, as well as the cowboys.

Still a problem today. I had the devil of a job finding someone who
could fix a Calor gas boiler in Bedfordshire. When registration was
introduced, most of the people on Calor's list just quit.

Now, how many of the greybeards who still know how to write VTAM
applications will bother to register? And if there are none about,
what do you do when the legacy security code in your bank mainframe's
RACF exits needs patching to install whatever new authentication
scheme is cooked up by the e-envoy and the PIU?

> A _voluntary_ qualification would be a good thing, and I support the
> idea.  If it gave a minimum guarantee of quality it would be
> especially useful to employers. Gimme!

They exist. For all their problems, CISSP and CISA are the industry
standards. Who on earth wants UK qualifications? In the IT world, the
UK has been completely unimportant since Tony Benn destroyed our
computer industry back in the 1960s. This country's only significance
is that we account for 5% of software sales.

Come to think of it, there are labour mobility issues here. If some
German chap who works for a big accountancy firm in Rotterdam and is a
CISSP wants to come over here and install a system in the UK
subsidiary of an Austrian bank, and can't, then where does that leave
Britain under the Treaty of Rome?

Ross