Malware crisis

The annual Christmas circular newsletter is now printed off and ready to go, so after a visit to the doctor's for a routine checkup and lunch yesterday, I went into town to buy some Christmas cards. As I was paying for them my phone went. It was a worried Katherine, asking for advice. Anto's office computer had been hit by a virus, and getting rid of it was posing a problem. I made a few suggestions as I stood outside the card shop in St David's Centre, clutching boxes of cards as I talked, not having had time to put them in my rucksack. I then waited for further updates for the rest of the afternoon. 

It couldn't have happened at a worse time for them. They were awaiting Rhiannon's return from school, and were then about to set off for Heathrow for an overnight stay before flying to Cuba for a long planned trip to all the island's best music and dance places, to refresh their inspiration for their latino band Lament. Viv, Anto's sister minds the shop while they're away, but needs a serviceable secure system to use. Eventually, the status quo seems to have been restored, after performing a system rollback, re-installation of all OS updates and Antivirus software, which seemed to have been knocked out by the malware attack. 

If only I could persuade Anto to use a Linux driven computer for secure threat free surfing, and restrict internet use of his business computer to selected safe sites, the liklehood of bad stuff like this happening would be reduced greatly. I shall nag him about it over Christmas. I even woke up very early and remembered that I had forgotten to tell them to change all their passwords as a security precaution. So I got up and texted them at the airport as they were checking in, poor souls.

Two students were absent for the tutor group meeting, one was poorly and the other's wife was ill, which meant a change in our arrangements. The Paradise Run arrangements came up for discussion, as College students undertake food distribution duties a couple of times a term. Disappointingly, nothing was known as nothing had been said to them about the Street Carers Forum, or its accreditation and training programme. It's up to me now to ensure that there's an evening's briefing for students factored into the College timetable for next term. I think it could be useful at several different levels, and Paul Hocking, Chair of the Street Carers' Representative Group is keen on the idea.