Years ago, when I was young and stupid... My mother rarely was picking up the phone when I calling her. When asked why, she told me, the ringtone is indistinctive, and she doesn't hear it. I've recorded a custom ringtone, with me shouting a Polish counterpart of: "Hey! It's me! Pickup the phone!" Well, it has worked, even if she had changed the ringtone soon after 😅
mastodon.social/@cmconseils/11…
Lady Laura :bongoCat: (@cmconseils@mastodon.social)
Attached: 1 image #Meme #HumourLady Laura :bongoCat: (Mastodon)
abeorch reshared this.
Terence Eden
in reply to Terence Eden • • •I'm quoted in this article.
newscientist.com/article/25249…
#NHS #OpenSource #GitHub
NHS England rushes to hide software over AI hacking fears
Matthew Sparkes (New Scientist)Terence Eden reshared this.
Terence Eden
in reply to Terence Eden • • •As I say in the post, if you're in the UK *please* write to your MP about this.
Don't just pontificate online. Write a short email to your MP and tell them you disagree with NHS England's decision to shut down all their Open Source code.
Nicol Wistreich reshared this.
Dan Q
in reply to Terence Eden • • •I don't see anything in the article about writing to your MP. 😔
But I've done so anyway. And echoed your concerns at danq.me/nhs-england-rushes-to-…
NHS England rushes to hide software over AI hacking fears
Dan Q210561 ✨ [Q]
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Terence Eden
in reply to 210561 ✨ [Q] • • •Chip Butty
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Terence Eden
in reply to Chip Butty • • •I suggest writing to both your MP and MSP 😀
Chip Butty
in reply to Terence Eden • • •DamonHD
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Terence Eden
in reply to DamonHD • • •David O'Brien
in reply to Terence Eden • • •I’m based in Scotland. Does this decision apply UK-wide, or England only?
@Edent
Terence Eden
in reply to David O'Brien • • •David O'Brien
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Not sure the NHS in Scotland had the same setup, but will do.
@Edent
J.H.Noyes
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Franklin Delano Stallone
in reply to Terence Eden • • •I'd say I'm in 2 minds about it. Take the 2nd paragraph of the article. How does the average person benefit from the source?
I'd personally prefer having a system that lets me import my records into Apple Health or any app of my choice.
It mention duplication of effort. The duplication of effort within the NHS I don't think is solved by the repos. It's all the private companies providing things like SystmOnline which doesn't even cover everything at one GP.
Tom Chadwin
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Conny Nasch
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Hugh
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Thank you for highlighting this, and without any unnecessary hyperbole!
A hugely retrograde step; I'll certainly be writing to my MP on the matter.
Kerry Buckley
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Nu Modular
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Even with the recent Copy Fail exploit being revealed, this is an extreme measure, to put it mildly.
#FOSS #Linux
Andrew Nesbitt
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Search software origins to browse – Software Heritage archive
archive.softwareheritage.orgWalrus 🏴
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Terence Eden
in reply to Walrus 🏴 • • •@Walrus conspiratorial thinking rarely helps. You can peruse his entry in the Register of Members' Interests if you want to look for evidence.
The truth is likely to be much less exciting - I suspect a manager somewhere has gotten spooked & thinks this will help.
Nicol Wistreich
in reply to Terence Eden • • •“There are thousands of NHS repositories on GitHub. The work undertaken to assess all of them and then close them will be massive. And for what?”
“Even if we ignore the impracticality of closing all the code - it is too late! All that code has already been slurped up. If Mythos really is the ultimate hacker, hiding the code now does nothing. It has likely already retained copies of the repositories.”
”And if it were both practical and effective to hide source code - that doesn't matter. These AI tools are just as effective against closed-source. They can analyse binaries and probe websites with ease.”
“There are tens of thousands of NHS website pages which refer to their GitHub repos - will they all need to be updated? What's the cost of that?”
@Edent
Nicol Wistreich
in reply to Nicol Wistreich • • •I am convinced that closing all their excellent open source work is the wrong move for the NHS. I hope they see sense and reverse course.”
“Until then, I've helped make sure that every single NHS repository has been backed up and, because the software licence permits it, can be re-published if the original is closed.”
👏👏 @Edent
Nine Stones Close
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Terence Eden
in reply to Nine Stones Close • • •Nine Stones Close
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Terence Eden
in reply to Nine Stones Close • • •Khleedril
in reply to Terence Eden • • •@NineStonesClose Not sure how you can say this. Surely any software security breach would be undertaken with the aim of exfiltrating NHS data about patients. Exactly the data Palantir and their ilk would like to have.
I would say it is almost certain that the people who have made this decision would have been cowed into it by 'advice' that open source software leaves the door open to the data sets.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Terence Eden • • •#TranslatedFromTheRepublican
"NHS sides with Trump billionaires to increase dependency on ghouls like Peter Thiel, despite national security risks & associations with Jeffrey Epstein.
National Security Vulnerabilities deliberately promoted."
independent.co.uk/tech/palanti…
theguardian.com/technology/202…
bbc.com/news/articles/c393w38l…
ft.com/content/1ac7a046-329c-4…
archive.ph/rFIqN
theguardian.com/society/2026/a…
Cautionary Tale: Trump orders access denials
theguardian.com/law/2026/feb/1…
observer.co.uk/news/columnists…
Credit cards cancelled, Google accounts closed: ICC judges on life under Trump sanctions
Ashifa Kassam (The Guardian)Terence Eden
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •This isn't about access to data. It is about source code security.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Forgive my snarky remarks.
My hashtag isn't directed at your post but at the public officials fostering these policies of obsequious compliance.
The moneyed interests behind deliberate source code insecurity policies have their own agenda.
Security of data and data sovereignty are threats to those interests.
Terence Eden
in reply to Nicole Parsons • • •understood. But we don't have Republicans in the UK (other than the anti-monarchy lot).
What did your MP say when you wrote to them about it?
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Terence Eden • • •desmog.com/2024/06/12/mapped-t…
desmog.com/2024/09/20/mapped-r…
desmog.com/2025/01/21/mapped-d…
cnbc.com/2026/04/15/trump-uk-n…
forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/…
desmog.com/2026/04/08/mapped-t…
desmog.com/2025/12/10/mapped-d…
The UK has public officials enacting billionaire agendas & fossil fuel funded fascism.
Code security is essential.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
monbiot.com/2024/05/13/the-und…
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Rightwing populists will keep winning until we grasp this truth about human nature
George Monbiot (The Guardian)Michele Adduci
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Martin
in reply to Terence Eden • • •vasundhar
in reply to Terence Eden • • •⊥ᵒᵚ Cᵸᵎᶺᵋᶫ∸ᵒᵘ ☑️
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Terence Eden
in reply to ⊥ᵒᵚ Cᵸᵎᶺᵋᶫ∸ᵒᵘ ☑️ • • •⊥ᵒᵚ Cᵸᵎᶺᵋᶫ∸ᵒᵘ ☑️
in reply to Terence Eden • • •I meant only a few years ago this was literally just a CSV you could fetch.
Terence Eden
in reply to ⊥ᵒᵚ Cᵸᵎᶺᵋᶫ∸ᵒᵘ ☑️ • • •If it's important to you - let them know. There's nothing I can do about it.
⊥ᵒᵚ Cᵸᵎᶺᵋᶫ∸ᵒᵘ ☑️
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Kevin Russell
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Terence Eden
in reply to Kevin Russell • • •Kevin Russell
in reply to Terence Eden • • •The NHS has been put in a bobsled to hell by Tories, Starmer has done nothing to.change the destination.
Like he's done nothing on Tory demonstration laws, like he's adopted Tory lgbt bigotry, like he's continued Tory Austerity, like he continues racist Tory immigrant scapegoating.
Ain't nothing outside the PM purview.
Terence Eden
in reply to Kevin Russell • • •@kevinrns I mean, that simply isn't true. Funding is significantly up in the NHS.
ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationand…
If you think the PM bothers with matters like this, you haven't really understood how UK politics works.
No need to reply, thanks.
Healthcare expenditure, UK Health Accounts - Office for National Statistics
UK Health Accounts team (Office for National Statistics)Kevin Russell
in reply to Terence Eden • • •The need is for a new PM. Sadly.
Terence Eden
in reply to Kevin Russell • • •@kevinrns that graph literally shows a drop since Labour were elected in 2024…
As, in fact, do most other statistics.
england.nhs.uk/2026/02/waiting…
You're welcome to be doomer about it. But I prefer a reality based approach.
Anyway, you concentrate on your country and we'll concentrate on ours.
Bye.
NHS England » NHS waiting list lowest in almost 3 years as NHS battled busiest winter on record
www.england.nhs.ukKevin Russell
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Gina
in reply to Terence Eden • • •InsertUser
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Terence Eden
in reply to InsertUser • • •digital.nhs.uk/developer/api-c…
Nadia/Надя/नाडिया/娜迪亚/ نادية
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Terence Eden
in reply to Nadia/Надя/नाडिया/娜迪亚/ نادية • • •Stephen Paulger
in reply to Terence Eden • • •I think I have the ability to convince a "computer person" that this is a bad idea. Any advice on how to translate that to convincing an MP who has an unknown level of computing experience?
One thing I wondered was whether writing to DSIT might be a better approach for me to take.
Terence Eden
in reply to Stephen Paulger • • •@aimaz
Write a *very* short and focussed letter to your MP. The DSIT will not respond to you - they'll tell you to contact your MP.
Explain, in simple language and using no more than 2 paragraphs, why you think it is a bad idea and ask them to forward your concerns to DHSC.
Andy Wootton
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Terence Eden
in reply to Terence Eden • • •fsfe.org/news/2026/news-202605…
FSFE: NHS England should not hide public code behind closed doors - FSFE
FSFE - Free Software Foundation EuropeOwen Blacker
in reply to Terence Eden • • •@fsfe Out of interest, someone asked if I knew of any evidence of "make thing open, it makes thing better" actually having been shown to be the case.
D'you happen to know of any references offhand? (I'm being too lazy to search, so please don't feel you need to search on my behalf)
Terence Eden
in reply to Terence Eden • • •There's another article in the New Scientist with more details about how #Mythos spooked the #NHS into shutting down its brilliant #OpenSource projects.
newscientist.com/article/25253…
Backlash builds over NHS plan to hide source code from AI hacking risk
Matthew Sparkes (New Scientist)Terence Eden reshared this.
Terence Eden
in reply to Terence Eden • • •My comment on the issue:
newscientist.com/article/25253…
Backlash builds over NHS plan to hide source code from AI hacking risk
Matthew Sparkes (New Scientist)Terence Eden reshared this.
Iván Sánchez Ortega
in reply to Terence Eden • • •civio.es/novedades/2025/11/17/…
This is the landmark ruling that sets a new standard for algorithmic transparency in Spain
CivioPaul M
in reply to Terence Eden • • •well there's maybe a role for you in Paris if you get completely fed up with it mastodon.social/@sovtechfund/1…
Sovereign Tech Agency
2026-04-30 16:08:33
Terence Eden
in reply to Terence Eden • • •heise.de/news/FSFE-warnt-NHS-s…
FSFE warnt: NHS sollte quelloffenen Code nicht depublizieren
Dirk Knop (heise online)alagtriste
in reply to Terence Eden • • •The Boy That Cried Mythos: Verification is Collapsing Trust in Anthropic | flyingpenguin
www.flyingpenguin.comTerence Eden
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Here's a list of the ~160 GitHub repos the NHS have closed down due to security fears.
github.com/orgs/uk-gov-mirror/…
#OpenSource #CyberSecurity #Mythos
[Unofficial] UK Government Mirror
GitHubTerence Eden reshared this.
AnneH
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Terence Eden
in reply to Terence Eden • • •And here's the official Open Source guidance from GDS.
gov.uk/guidance/ai-open-code-a…
Throws quite a bit of shade at the NHS, including the line "Private repositories can create a false sense of security."
#NHS #OpenSource #Mythos
AI, open code and vulnerability risk in the public sector
Government Digital Service (GOV.UK)Terence Eden
in reply to Terence Eden • • •I'm quoted in the BMJ discussing the NHS's attempts to shut down their Open Source code.
doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s928
Rhii Alexander 🏳️⚧️
in reply to Terence Eden • • •So a senior technical authority in the NHS is pursuing security through obscurity on repositories which have little-to-no security implication
After 7 years of consulting in the public sector, one thing always surprises me; how do we have so many incompetent people working in technical civil service/public sector roles?
It's at such a state where at one unamed department I had to deal with a dev team where only 1 person had any programming experience and the rest were general IT workers who thought they would try their hand at something else whilst making 0 attempts at learning to code, but were, somehow, accepted into mid/senior level developer positions
Terence Eden
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Here's the response to my #FoI request
whatdotheyknow.com/request/inf…
There are no minutes of any meeting where this new anti-open-source guidance was discussed. Lends credence to the suggestion that a non-technical manager made this up on the hoof.
All other requests denied on security grounds.
#NHS #OpenSource
Neil Brown reshared this.
Greem (Graeme. Not Graham!)
in reply to Terence Eden • • •that sounds very much like grounds for an appeal to me, given that prior to the instruction those repositories were open and no security issues had happened as a result.
Unless of course they had, in which case why don't we know that?
They've tied themselves in a knot there.
Deadliftbear
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Khleedril
in reply to Terence Eden • • •Greg
in reply to Terence Eden • • •I'd love it if there was a way to open-source our (patients) data input into the proprietary chain, so that any products passing that data would be obliged to open source. I know it's pie in the sky, but one can dream.
I do wonder which lobby group got to them. I'm very much in favour of legally mandated full disclosure, recording & minuting of ANY lobby meeting with any public body or their representatives. Transgressions punishable by DEATH (or maybe an occasionally enforced long prison term)
Kruku
in reply to Terence Eden • • •ilias 🏴☠️💙💛
in reply to Terence Eden • • •a follow up albeit a delayed one (thanks to my MP's delayed response): he "isn't familiar about the issue at all" but agreed to meet at the next surgery to discuss this.
so I guess I'll have to properly prepare for it. any advice, if you have one?
Terence Eden
in reply to ilias 🏴☠️💙💛 • • •Imagine you are giving a presentation to a very bright person who has no background in your subject. You have two minutes. Ask for *one* thing. Demonstrate why it is important. Show how many people support it.
But, most of all, practice with a friend. Get them to time you for 2 minutes. Get them to ask questions.
In short, prepare!
Neil Brown reshared this.
ilias 🏴☠️💙💛
in reply to Terence Eden • • •that's very helpful, thank you!
can I just clarify one thing: by "how many people support it", do you mean public opinion, or I can use, for example, GDS argument against closing down repos & multiple NHS own guidelines?
Terence Eden
in reply to ilias 🏴☠️💙💛 • • •Matt Cengia
in reply to Terence Eden • • •