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In brief: NHS IT chief to leave, Facebook "fogies", Vodafone wireless price cuts
Plus: People are security's weakest link

By silicon.com

Published: Monday 18 June 2007

The head of the £12bn NHS IT modernisation project has revealed he is to leave his post. Richard Granger is to leave his full-time post as chief executive of NHS Connecting for Health "during the latter part of this year", according to the agency.

It said he will return to work "primarily" in the private sector during 2008 and is currently considering "several significant approaches".

NHS Connecting for Health said that "in due course" an announcement regarding a successor and transitional arrangements will be made by the Department of Health.

Granger said in a statement: "My decision should be seen in the context of the changing role of the centre of the NHS and the fact that when I took on this challenge I said I would give this job five years."

He said: "I passionately believe that the programme will deliver ever greater levels of benefit to patients over the coming years. There remain a number of challenges ahead but I firmly believe that the leadership of the programme by Lord Hunt, David Nicholson and my colleagues within CFH will ensure these hurdles are overcome."

Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are reporting a huge influx of older members, according to The Sunday Telegraph.

Membership of Facebook is growing fastest among the over-25s, the paper said - although the so-called "Facebook Fogies" phenomenon is not going down well with teenagers, who appear to resent the intrusion.

From 2 July Vodafone UK is reducing its pricing for wireless connectivity services and introducing three new price plans, including a £25 per month flat-rate offering. The company says it has 280,000 data card customers.

Human error is the biggest risk for computer network security and carelessness with passwords costs businesses a fortune in theft and fraud, according to a survey by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

The survey of 1,800 adults found just over one-third recorded their password or security information by either writing it down or storing it somewhere on their computer, nearly two-thirds never changed their password and one in five people used the same password for non-banking websites as for their online bank.

Network security is a major growth area where the UK has a good opportunity to become a global leader if it develops new technology, said minister for science and innovation Malcolm Wicks.

Consumer Direct, the advice service managed by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), will share its complaints data with the police for the first time to help in the fight against doorstep crime.

The pilot scheme with Hertfordshire Police will run for three months. Of the almost one million cases logged by Consumer Direct last year 8,500 were about uninvited doorstep callers and police think there is a strong link between rogue doorstep tradesmen and distraction burglaries.