Amazon warns hoverboard buyers to throw them away over safety fears December 16, 2015 Amazon has warned shoppers who have purchased hoverboards to throw them away, a day after it pulled them from sale over safety concerns. The devices, which are in fact self-balancing scooters, had been pegged as one of the most popular gifts to give this Christmas. However, many of the devices do not adhere to safety [...]
Google year in search trends 2015: Cilla Black, iPhone 6s, Rugby World Cup and Adele – Here’s how we searched the web this year December 16, 2015 If there's any indicator into the psyche of the nation, it has to be what we spend our time googling. And this year it was all about Cilla Black, the iPhone 6s, and even the election managed to get our fingers typing. We said Hello to Adele more than any other musician and while the Rugby World [...]
McAfee cybersecurity report: Mobile banking apps are exposing us to cyber attacks December 15, 2015 Badly designed mobile apps are quickly becoming one of the biggest leaks exposing our personal data to cyber crooks, according to fresh security research from McAfee showing that threats are now being detected at the rate of five per second. Hackers are exploiting the weak security coding practice used in many mobile apps, and this [...]
UK space industry heads for the stars with Tim Peake mission and new National Space Policy December 15, 2015 The UK is finally catching up with its European neighbours in the global space industry. Today, its first “official” astronaut was sent up to the International Space Station (ISS) on a six-month mission. Major Tim Peake, a former military man, will use his time there to carry out a series of science experiments. He isn't the [...]
Former Barclays chairman Sir David Walker joins London blockchain startup SETL December 15, 2015 A former Barclays chairman and City veteran has joined a London-based fintech startup underpinned by the blockchain in another major signal that the technology is gaining traction in the banking world. Sir David Walker, who chaired Barclay between 2012 until earlier this year, will chair SETL, a blockchain-based payment processor and settlement company. Walker is a veteran of the banking world [...]
British astronaut Tim Peake has blasted off into space: Here’s what you should know about the ISS mission December 15, 2015 British astronaut Tim Peake is currently heading skyward aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, heading beyond the Earth's atmosphere to the International Space Station (ISS). Just after 11am today, Peake took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch pad in Kazakhstan. You can watch his mission live here: Once he reaches his destination, he'll spend the next six months carrying out [...]
Tim Peake’s mission marks a historic day for the UK space industry as Britain’s first International Space Station astronaut gets set for lift off December 15, 2015 Today marks an historic day for British science, innovation and space investment. It is the day that Tim Peake blasts off to the International Space Station – the first British astronaut from the European Space Agency to do so. This remarkable feat is the pinnacle of the UK’s growing global capability in space innovation and research – a [...]
Forget a fintech bubble: 2016 will be the year this booming market finally gets serious December 14, 2015 In 2015, global fintech investment will top $20bn, up from $12bn in 2014. There are wide-ranging estimates of the number of fintech players around the world today, but some say it’s surpassed 10,000. In China, there are over 2,000 marketplace platforms alone. The big banks are clambering over one another to invest in (or play [...]
Fintech 100: UK dominates KPMG’s global list of top fintech firms of 2015 with Transferwise, Funding Circle and Atom Bank December 14, 2015 As if you needed more proof that the UK fintech scene is booming… The UK is dominating a list of top fintech firms, with more emerging firms than any other country in the world, according to KPMG’s “Fintech 100”. The list of the leading fintech firms of 2015 is made up of 50 established firms [...]
Cybersecurity: Targeted cyber attacks doubled in the year to October 2015, with government and the finance sector bearing the brunt of cybercrime December 14, 2015 It's enough to make you want to permanently lose your login details: The number of criminal targeted cyber attacks doubled in the year to October 2015, according to a report released today by Control Risks. Other worrying trends identified by the risk consultancy's Riskmap Report 2016 report were a 56 per cent rise in the number [...]