Tory MPs in China Research Group targeted by phishing attacks August 6, 2020 Cybersecurity experts have slammed Parliament’s online security training as “appalling” after members of the Sino-sceptic China Research Group of Conservative MPs have been targeted by phishing attacks. China Research Group Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and co–founder of the China Research Group, last week revealed he believed Chinese state-sponsored hackers were [...]
Pompeo pushes to ban Tiktok, Wechat and other ‘untrusted’ Chinese apps August 6, 2020 The Trump administration is pushing to purge “untrusted” Chinese apps including Tiktok and Wechat from US app stores, amid increasing tensions across the Pacific. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo yesterday signalled that the US may soon order Apple and Google to remove certain Chinese apps over national security concerns. Pompeo said apps linked to [...]
Government wasted £150m on unusable face masks bought from banker August 6, 2020 The government is facing calls to investigate its procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic, after it emerged ministers spent at least £150m on unusable face masks from a family investment firm. The face masks, which were part of a £252m government contract with investment firm Ayanda Capital signed in April, were deemed [...]
Bubble trouble: Lessons from three centuries of boom and bust August 6, 2020 While 2020 has seen its fair share of market turbulence, it has some way to go to match the volatility of 1720. This month marks the 300th anniversary of the peak of the South Sea Bubble — one of the first financial bubbles, and still one of history’s greatest. The bubble began when the South [...]
Flexibility key to Blazing Griffin’s soaring success August 5, 2020 Within 24 hours our entire games’ studio was working from home. Inadvertently, we had made the sudden transition slightly easier as have given staff the option to partially work from home for some time now and are used to flexible working. This meant that our work was already entirely cloud based, that we had device [...]
Tiktok faces EU privacy review over data collection methods August 5, 2020 Tiktok’s attempts to restructure its European operations are facing a review from EU privacy watchdogs, as the video sharing app prepares to sell its US arm to Microsoft. Last week, Tiktok shifted data about its UK, EU and Swiss users from computer servers in the US to holding bases in the UK and Ireland, as [...]
Johnson gives Tiktok the green light for London headquarters August 4, 2020 Boris Johnson has given the green light to allow video sharing app Titkok to move its global headquarters to London, in a move that will likely spark fury from across the Atlantic. Downing Street today said it had no objection to Tiktok’s shift to the UK, despite growing national security concerns over its close links [...]
Trump demands US Treasury cut of Tiktok sale August 4, 2020 US President Donald Trump has said the US Treasury should be brought in on Microsoft’s potential acquisition of Tiktok’s American arm, arguing the deal wouldn’t happen without its approval. Trump said he told Microsoft the government should receive a “substantial portion” of the deal if an American firm buys the operation. Tiktok’s Chinese owner Bytedance [...]
Bitcoin Tests $12,000 Mark as Decentralized Finance Surpasses $4 Billion August 4, 2020 This week the price of Bitcoin (BTC) went from about $10,200 to a near $12,000 high, but it was met with resistance and crashed to less than $11,000 within 6 minutes. At press time, it’s trading at $11,200 as it steadily recovers. Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, started the week at $355 [...]
Russian hackers ‘stole’ US-UK trade deal papers from Liam Fox’s email August 3, 2020 Classified US-UK trade documents were “stolen” from former trade minister Liam Fox’s email account by Russian hackers, according to reports. The papers, which were leaked ahead of the December General Election last year, were accessed via several hacks on Fox’s account between 12 July and 21 October, according to Reuters. Several sources declined to name [...]