As romance fraud and dating scams soar during pandemic, many are left heartbroken June 11, 2021 Romance scam reports and online dating scams have soared during the coronavirus pandemic. Analysis by consumer group Which? found that romance fraud reports were up by 40 per cent in the year to April of this year, compared with the previous year, with more than 7,500 reported scams. Reported losses reached £73.9mduring the period – [...]
US recovers $2.3m from Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack June 7, 2021 US authorities today said they had recovered around $2.3m (£1.6m) in cryptocurrency from the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline. US deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco said investigators had seized 63.7 Bitcoins, now valued at about $2.3m, paid by Colonial after last month’s hack that sparked major shortages at petrol stations along the east coast. [...]
Investment professionals must beware of the cyber risks in portfolios May 25, 2021 | City Talk Internet security blog posts are usually more at home on the inside pages of IT trade publications than on the front pages of international newspapers. The one published by Microsoft Corporate Vice President Tom Burt on 2 March, about the emergence of “state-sponsored threat actor” Hafnium, was a notable exception. A new threat had emerged, [...]
Former MI5 chief reveals secret documents in hollowed-out tree were eaten by squirrels May 18, 2021 A former MI5 chief has recalled the distress of a Russian intelligence officer discovering top secret documents concealed by an agent in a hollowed-out tree had been eaten by squirrels. Baroness Manningham-Buller, who served for more than three decades in the Security Service including five as director general, recounted the spying tale as she highlighted [...]
London crime gang dressed as key workers and joked about ‘clap for drug dealers’ May 17, 2021 A crime gang who dressed as key workers to avoid capture and joked about a weekly clap for drug dealers have been jailed. Andrew Doyle, 35, from Hammersmith, used the name “Neighbourhoodhero” on a secret encrypted messaging network while carrying out cocaine deals at the height of lockdown last year. He exchanged messages with Derrick [...]
Pandemic drives 15-fold rise in online scams, say UK cyber spooks May 10, 2021 UK spooks took down more online scams last year than in the previous three years combined as the Covid-19 pandemic fuelled an increase in cyber crime. Experts oversaw a huge 15-fold increase in the number of scams removed from the internet, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said today. It comes as unscrupulous hackers tried [...]
Joachim Klement, CFA: Three Geo-Economics trends to watch May 4, 2021 | City Talk “Today’s investors need to understand geopolitical trends as a main driving force of markets.” Joachim Klement, CFA Joachim Klement, CFA, has emerged over the last decade as one of the more insightful and compelling voices in finance. Well-reasoned, rigorous, humorous, and occasionally iconoclastic, his perspective, featured either on the Enterprising Investor Blog or on his [...]
World’s biggest dark web child porn network with 400,000 members shut by German prosecutors May 3, 2021 Prosecutors in Germany said today they have busted what is believed to be the world’s biggest international darknet platform for child pornography, used by more than 400,000 registered members. Frankfurt prosecutors said in a statement together with the Federal Criminal Police Office that in mid-April three German suspects, said to be the administrators of the [...]
Darktrace races out of the blocks: A boost for London’s IPO market after Deliveroo’s flop April 30, 2021 In a welcome boost for the London IPO market after the Deliveroo flop, UK cybersecurity company Darktrace launched this morning well above its initial price of 250p per share, jumping sharply to 350p in opening trade. There were early indications that the initial valuation might be higher than this, at around £3bn, however it appears that [...]
NatWest refuses to jump on the crypto bandwagon amid money laundering charges April 26, 2021 NatWest’s reluctance to enter the crypto market should be seen as out of step with the wider financial services ecosystem, according to a leading London lawyer. Earlier this week, the bank said it has ‘no appetite’ to serve business customers which accept cryptocurrency, as the bank is taking a ‘cautious approach’ following recent money laundering [...]