Month: August 2020

  • Intel, VMware broaden 5G collaboration across radio access network

    Aiming to accelerate the roll-out of both existing LTE and future 5G networks, Intel and VMware have announced that they have entered into a collaboration on an integrated software platform for virtualised radio access networks (RANs).

    The companies say that as communications service providers (CoSPs) evolve their networks to support the roll-out of future 5G networks, they are increasingly adopting a software-defined, virtualised infrastructure. They add that virtualisation of the core network has already enabled CoSPs to improve operational costs and bring services to market more quickly.

    Also, increasing numbers of CoSPs are embracing the idea of having open and

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  • Challenger bank sees huge growth during pandemic

    App-based challenger bank Starling has seen a huge rise in its number of business and retail customers in the past nine months, despite the period being hit by the Covid-19 outbreak.

    Its success is another example of an established fintech, with a diverse offering, successfully navigating the pandemic-instigated slowdown. 

    In November last year, Starling had 926,000 retail bank accounts, 82,000 business bank accounts and held about £1bn in credits. But according to a letter to investors from the bank’s founder and CEO, Anne Boden, it now provides more than 1.25 million current accounts, 200,000 SME (small and medum-sized enterprise)

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  • Capital One hit with $80m fine by US regulators over 2019 data breach

    Capital One must take steps to address shortcomings in its cloud risk operations plan after being hit with an $80m fine for a 2019 data breach that affected 106 million customers in the US and Canada.

    A consent order issued by the US Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said the company engaged in “unsafe and unsound practices, including those relating to information security” and failed to “establish effective risk assessment processes” before migrating its IT systems to the cloud.

    This allegedly paved the way for an unauthorised third party to gain access to the social

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  • Isle of Wight trial shows positive effect of contact-tracing app, but data privacy body slams UK

    The UK government’s Covid-19 contact-tracing app programme has to date been a catalogue of missed schedules, delays, technology setbacks and has generated much, mostly deserved, criticism, but details have emerged of how the official trial of the yet-to-be-launched product on the Isle of Wight has generated positive results in the fight against the Covid-19 coronavirus.

    However, this rare good news associated with the project came just as citizens’ rights and legal bodies concerned with data protection and privacy amplified their concerns regarding the fundamental nature of the programme and who is running it.

    The contact-tracing app’s whole development has been

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  • Virgin Media customers targeted in Twitter phish

    Virgin Media customers reaching out to contact the firm’s official Twitter account about tech support and broadband issues are being victimised by a relatively unsophisticated fraudster posing as the internet service provider (ISP) and phishing for account and credit card details.

    The @virgneimedia account joined Twitter in March 2020 and has amassed only 36 followers. It has duplicated the official @virginmedia header and biography and appears only to retweet official Virgin Media content.

    However, for at least a fortnight, the fake account has been contacting Virgin Media customers through their Twitter direct messages (DMs)

    Multiple screenshots of the scam posted

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  • Cyber attack combined with Covid-19 puts Travelex into administration

    More than 1,300 UK jobs at foreign exchange company Travelex will be cut as a major cyber security attack in 2019 combined with this year’s Covid-19 slowdown take their toll.

    PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has been appointed administrator and through what it described as a “complex restructuring deal”, which has seen some of its assets sold, has raised £84m and saved 1,800 UK jobs. 

    Travelex was held to ransom by hackers in January after a cyber attack forced it to turn off its systems. It took a £25m hit after its systems were encrypted by Sodinokibi ransomware on 31 December 2019.

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