Christmas shoppers get christmas warning
- Online shoppers are being warned of the risks of cyber-fraud during the festive season
- The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – part of GCHQ – is launching a major campaign called ‘Cyber Aware’ with its first ever TV ads
- It says over last year’s Christmas shopping period there was an average loss of £775 per incident from online shopping fraud
- The NCSC is outlining six key things people can do to protect accounts
- Online shopping has seen significant growth this year and is likely to reach new levels at Christmas – even though High Street shops are re-opening again in many areas
- The NCSC is working on the campaign with the Home Office, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and aims to help individuals and organisations to protect themselves online
Hackers targeted vaccine supply chain
- The international vaccine supply chain has been targeted by cyber-espionage, according to IBM
- The company says it tracked a campaign aimed at the delivery “cold chain” used to keep vaccines at the right temperature during transportation
- The attackers’ identity is unclear – but IBM said the sophistication of their methods indicated a nation-state
- It follows warnings from governments, including the UK- of countries targeting aspects of vaccine research
- For information on keeping your computers and device secure, read our latest article in which our online safety experts unpack cyber-security here
NHS Covid-19 and Zoom top Apple’s iPhone 2020 app charts
- Apple has revealed the NHS Covid-19 app was the second most downloaded iPhone product on its App Store in the UK this year
- Only the video chat app Zoom was installed more times. TikTok came third
- The contact-tracing app’s achievement is notable given it only launched about two months ago and is solely targeted at users based in England and Wales
- The iPhone is the UK’s best-selling smartphone brand
- However, on a global scale, people use Android. The BBC has asked Google where the government’s app appears on its own Play Store’s rankings
Warner Bros films set for release on streaming services
- Warner Bros has escalated tensions between Hollywood’s studios and US cinemas with a decision to make all releases available to stream as soon as they hit the big screen
- The move will enable film fans to watch the forthcoming sci-fi epic ‘Dune’ and the ‘Matrix sequel’ on HBO Max at the same time as their cinema release
- Typically, new releases are shown exclusively at cinemas for months
- But with many cinemas shut due to COVID, studio revenues have plunged
- As a result, Warner Bros said all of its 2021 releases would go straight to HBO Max, the streaming service owned by its ultimate parent company AT&T
Sexual Offences to be retried in Northern Ireland due to ‘legislative error’
- Prosecutors will bring fresh proceedings in three sexual offence cases after a review into 15 cases in which convictions were set aside because of “legislative error”
- The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said the test for prosecution was not met in the 12 other cases
- The 15 cases involved 17 victims, most of whom were children when the offences occurred
- The convictions were rescinded due to a “technical change in the law” in 2009
- It meant the cases should not have been prosecuted in a magistrates court
- PPS assistant Director Ciaran McQuillan, who conducted the reviews, said he could “assure all victims that a sensitivity to their views and the experience they had gone through was at the forefront of my mind”