In the news this week …
MPs summon China-owned firm execs over security concerns
A UK-based, China-owned company has been summoned by MPs to answer questions relating to security concerns.
Lawmakers are worried that the Chinese owner of Imagination Technologies has renewed its efforts to transfer ownership of sensitive security software to companies controlled by China — and fear that networks in the UK, Europe and the US could be compromised.
Speaking to the BBC, Tom Tugendhat, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee said he was concerned that technology developed by Imagination Technologies, based in Hertfordshire, could be used to fine tune the design of so-called “backdoors” into strategically important digital infrastructure.
The world has changed and companies – particularly tech companies – are on the frontline, …Whoever writes the code, writes the rules for the world, more than any regulation passed by bureaucrats. There’s no point in taking back control from Brussels, only to hand it over to Beijing.
Source & full story: BBC News
Microsoft offers protection to healthcare staff
Microsoft has offered to provide healthcare organisations around the world with security tools , following a surge in attacks during the Coronavirus pandemic.
AccountGuard will be free to healthcare, human rights, and humanitarian groups during the crisis. The program tells users when Microsoft has detected an attack, and provides guidance on stopping it.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been among the victims of attempted cyber-attacks over the last month.
Microsoft says human rights organisations Amnesty International, Freedom House, and Human Rights Watch are among those to have taken advantage of the offer.
A spokesman for Microsoft said:
Every patient deserves the best possible healthcare treatment, and we all need to thank and applaud the truly heroic work by those risking their own health to help those who are sick, … Their work is challenging enough but is being made more difficult by cyber-attacks, now or in the future.
Source and full story: BBC News
Coronavirus: EU and Australian tracing apps
Coronavirus contact-tracing apps will be rolled out in Europe and Australia within the next 2 to 4 weeks, according to officials.
Jens Spahn, Germany’s health minister, annunced his country’s app would be ready to download in three to four weeks. Meanwhile, Australia and Denmark plan to push out apps within two weeks.
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison said using the app would be voluntary to begin with – but he did not rule out making it compulsory.
Contact-tracing apps are being developed by several countries around the world.
They typically use Bluetooth or satellite location data to record who a person has been in close proximity to. This information can then be used to notify app-users if someone they have met becomes ill with Covid-19, and declares their status in the app.
Source and full story: BBC News
Google blocking 18m scam emails exery day
18 million scam emails concerning the Coronavirus are being sent to Gmail users every day, according to Google.
The search giant says the pandemic has led to an explosion of phishing attacks in which cyber-criminals attempt to con users into revealing personal data.
Google said it has blocked more than 100 million phishing emails a day during the past week alone. Almost 20 percent of these were scam hoax emails relating to Covid-19.
Scammers have been sending fake emails and text messages claiming to be from the UK government, the WHO, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and even individual US officials, including President Trump.
Independent security researcher Scott Helme said:
Phishing attacks always share the common trait of inciting or depending on an emotion that causes us to act more hastily or think less about our actions at that moment in time, …The coronavirus pandemic is a highly emotional topic right now and cyber-criminals clearly know this. They’re hoping that the typical person might be more inclined to click through links or follow bad instructions if they use this lure.
Source and full story: BBC News
Most US citizens avoid services with privacy concerns
More than 50 percent of U.S. citizens say they would avoid using a product or a service that might disclose their personal information, according to a survey by Pew Research.
Most Americans now believe that their personal information is not secure online. While most U.S. citizens are aware that the Government and private companies may have access to more information than they would like, they’re also now more concerned than ever before about how this data is being used.
Around half of Americans decided not to use products or services due to privacy concerns, but this varies by whether they’ve experienced a data breach
Research analyst Andrew Perrin wrote in his report:
At a time when many Americans believe their personal information is less secure and are concerned with how companies and the government use their personal data, a substantial share of the public has opted out of using a product or service because of privacy concerns, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 3-17, 2019. About half (52%) of U.S. adults said they decided recently not to use a product or service because they were worried about how much personal information would be collected about them.
Source and further reading: Pew Research
