Security News
Court documents obtained by The Register show that the secret surveillance capability was baked into otherwise mundane bulk SMS sending carried out by MMGRP Ltd. The tax collection agency, which has the power to retrospectively change laws, had been using SMS reminder messages as an enforcement tool. We asked HMRC for comment, posing a series of questions including how long had it used HLR look-up techniques against taxpayers; did HMRC obtain necessary warrants to carry out HLR lookups and, if so, under what legislation and from which courts; how many times it had used this technique; under what circumstances it was deployed; and is the capability present in a contract with its new supplier.
Frustrated at lack of activity from the "Standard setting" UK Cyber Security Council, the government wants to pass new laws making it into the statutory regulator of the UK infosec trade. Government plans, quietly announced in a consultation document issued last week, include a formal register of infosec practitioners - meaning security specialists could be struck off or barred from working if they don't meet "Competence and ethical requirements."
De Rose allegedly conspired with members of a gang known as The Community to defraud someone identified in court as "RM". He is currently contesting extradition to the US to stand trial on wire fraud, theft, and money laundering charges. De Rose's extradition hearing comes after the National Crime Agency arrested eight men aged between 18 and 26 back in February on suspicion of carrying out SIM-swap attacks targeted at US citizens.
Miscreants have hijacked the systems of Angling Direct, diverting traffic from its websites to Pornhub and threatening to wipe its internal data. The statement says Angling Direct has contacted the law enforcement agencies and the UK's data watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office.
Brits are too polite to tell phone scammers to "Get stuffed", "Take a hike" or "Sling yer 'ook" when they impersonate so-called "Trusted organisations" such as banks. That's according to the trade association UK Finance, which found that the number of "Impersonation scam cases" more than doubled in the first half of 2021 to 33,115 - up from 14,947 during the same period last year.
UK-headquartered Kape Technologies announced on Monday it has acquired ExpressVPN in a $936m cash and stocks deal, a move it claims will double its customer base to at least six million. In a canned statement, Kape said combining the two companies would "Create a premium consumer privacy and security player," and that the acquisition "Further positions Kape to define the next generation of privacy and security protection tools and services to return greater control over the digital sphere to consumers."
UK-headquartered Kape Technologies announced on Monday it has acquired ExpressVPN in a $936m cash and stocks deal, a move it claims will double its customer base to at least six million. In a canned statement, Kape said combining the two companies would "Create a premium consumer privacy and security player," and that the acquisition "Further positions Kape to define the next generation of privacy and security protection tools and services to return greater control over the digital sphere to consumers."
The Spanish National Police have, at the request of America, arrested UK citizen Joseph O'Connor in Estepona, Spain, in connection with the July 2020 takeover of more than 130 Twitter accounts. The US Department of Justice said that, in addition to the alleged Twitter account joyride, O'Connor, 22, has been charged in a federal district court in northern California with computer intrusions tied to the commandeering of TikTok and Snapchat user accounts.
A Leeds-based claims management firm has been fined £200,000 for making more than 11 million unwanted PPI calls, the UK's data watchdog announced today. The investigation, prompted by complaints to the Information Comissioner's Office and the Telephone Preference Service, found that Brazier Consulting Services Ltd had made repeated nuisance calls to people about the misselling of payment protection insurance.
The United States is comfortably the world's most powerful nation when measured on "Cyber capabilities that make the greatest difference to national power," according to British think tank The International Institute for Strategic Studies. The report says America's "Capability for offensive cyber operations is probably more developed than that of any other country, although its full potential remains largely undemonstrated".