Professional Documents
Culture Documents
European Court of Justice of Irish Water
European Court of Justice of Irish Water
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Gross)
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/s/article/9240040/FDA_calls_on_
medical_device_makers_to_focus_on_cybersecurity?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2013-06-14
Medical device makers should take new steps to protect
their products from malware and cyberattacks or face the
possibility that U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
won't approve their devices for use, the FDA said.
The FDA issued new cybersecurity recommendations for
medical devices on Thursday, following reports that some
devices have been compromised.
Recent vulnerabilities involving Philips fetal monitors and
in Oracle software used in body fluid analysis machines
are among the incidents that prompted the FDA to issue
the recommendations, an FDA spokeswoman said.
In one case reported in October, malware slowed down
fetal monitors used on women with high-risk pregnancies
at a Boston hospital, and in another case, the FDA in
January issued a warning about Oracle software that could
allow remote access to the databases of Roche Cobra
analysis devices, she said.
Representatives of Philips and Oracle didn't immediately
respond to requests for comment on the FDA
recommendations.
"Many medical devices contain configurable embedded
computer systems that can be vulnerable to cybersecurity
breaches," the FDA said in its recommendations. "As
medical devices are increasingly interconnected, via the
Internet, hospital networks, other medical device, and
smartphones, there is an increased risk of cybersecurity
breaches, which could affect how a medical device
operates."
Under proposed rules issued by the FDA, the agency is
justice.
"It is hazardous to suggest that some communities have
lost faith with the justice system of this country without
providing specific evidence.
"I hope that Mr Winsor will back up his statements in his
report. The home affairs select committee will also ask
Bob Jones, the police and crime commissioner for the West
Midlands, about this matter when he gives evidence to us
on Tuesday."
(19th January 2014)
www.independent.co.uk/voices/campaigns/elephantcampaign/
----------------------------------UPDATE------------------------------YARD BACKS WILDLIFE CRIME UNTIT IN FIGHT
AGAINST TRAFFICKERS
(London Evening Standard, dated 16th January 2014
author Justin Davenport)
www.standard.co.uk [Option 1]
Scotland Yard has pledged to continue funding its
specialist wildlife crime unit to tackle growing links with
organised gangs.
Senior officers say criminals are making huge profits from
trafficking the products of endangered species such as
powdered rhino horn, which is now said to be more
expensive than cocaine.
The future of the five-strong wildlife crime unit was in
doubt after an animal charity said it could no longer
continue with a 100,000 annual grant, which funds two
posts. The respected head of the unit, Sergeant Ian Knox,
is also retiring.
It tackles a variety of crimes, ranging from the trapping of
wild birds in east London to the international trade in
elephant ivory.
Commander Richard Martin, the Met's head of intelligence
and covert policing, said the force and the Mayor's Office
for Policing and Crime would continue to fund the unit.
He said: "The unit will remain a single unit but a lot of
work will be done by a wider group of analysts. We will
have the same number of people investigating wildlife
crime in the unit but if we identify wider crime networks
then we can use other Met assets to target them."
road use by all groups, and almost certainly saving life and
limb."
There were 13 cyclist deaths in the Met area last year, the
same as 2012. In 2011 there were 16.
(19th January 2014)
www.telegraph.co.uk [Option 1]
A policewoman stole details of thousands of road crash
victims from a force computer system so she could refer
them to ambulance chasing lawyers as part of a "criminal
enterprise" she ran with her married lover and his wife, a
jury heard.
Pc Sugra Hanif allegedly took down personal details of
people involved in car crashes, before pressurising them
to make claims so she and her co-accused could cash in
on the 700 referral fee.
The 27-year-old Thames Valley Police officer was having
an affair with married Raza Khan during the eight-month
scheme. However, the relationship came to an end after
an anonymous tip-off to police, the jury heard.
Prosecutors claim the scheme could have raked in "well
over 1 million pounds" if all 2,500 sets of details
allegedly stolen by Hanif had resulted in a referral.
Prosecutor Peter Asteris told the jury at Winchester Crown
Court that Khan set up a company called SR Auto Repairs
a month before the scheme began in April 2011, in order
to refer "clients" to solicitors.
A further two similar firms were started in the name of Mr
Khan's wife Paramjeet Kaur, who was also charged.
Mr Asteris told the jury: "The data Pc Hanif took information the Crown says she stole - was not data she
needed to access.
"It was not data related to incidents in which she had been
involved.
"It was just, the Crown says, to provide it to her lover - a
man she was having an affair with - to promote his
business interests."
Mr Asteris said the scheme collapsed when police received
www.independent.co.uk
[Option 1]
tickets had been issued there between the 1930s and the
1980s. But he oversaw a change of policy in 1988 after a
study in the city showed that the most vulnerable
pedestrians were the elderly, children and drunks - not
jaywalkers. "Are they the ones ending up in the morgue or
in hospital?" he says. "The answer is no, and the reason is
that most of them are pretty fleet of foot and agile."
Some think that the success of several projects to make
US cities more walkable is a sign of hope for pedestrians.
But there is little experimentation with more radical
projects such as shared space, which aims to reduce traffic
speed by removing the distinction between streets and
pavements. And fines for jaywalking look set to continue,
says Ray Thomas, a lawyer in Portland, Oregon, who
specialises in pedestrian and bicycle law.
"People in law-enforcement tend to identify with a
motorist's perspective", he says. Wherever there's a push
to protect the rights of pedestrians, officials feel they also
need to enforce limits on them.
"It's their version of being fair," he says. "The difference is
that no jaywalking pedestrian ever ran down and killed a
driver, and by sheer survival strategy most pedestrians
don't jaywalk in front of cars."
Countries where jaywalkers are fined
US, Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Philippines,
Singapore
Breakdown of all trips made in the US
-
Driving : 83%
Walking : 10.4%
Other (including cycling) : 4.2%
Public transport : 1.9%
period reduced.
Mr Hughes, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bermondsey and
Old Southwark, said safeguards would still exist for the
most serious and dangerous offenders. Any convict
applying to work in a school, hospital or other place
containing "vulnerable" people will have to disclose their
crime.
The convictions of those jailed for more than four years
will never become spent - these will have to be declared
whenever they apply for work.
Mr Hughes said it struck a balance between public
protection and giving a "fair chance" to those who want to
abandon crime.
Research has shown convicts who gain work are less likely
to reoffend. In, 2012 a total of 91,000 offenders received a
sentence of four years or less. Each will benefit from the
reforms.
Under the new system, the number of years during which
offenders will have to declare their convictions will begin
from the end of their sentence, rather than the beginning
as at present. That means that a criminal jailed for two
and a half years will now have to disclose their conviction
for a further four years after their release. making it a total
of six and a half years since the start of their sentence.
That is significantly shorter than under the existing system
which would require such an offender to declare their
offence for ten years from the moment their sentence
begins.
(26th February 2014)
The heavy irony is that cyber worries are top of mind for
an industry that has been lax at investing in its computer
systems. Those familiar service disruptions that see
customers unable to make payments or withdraw cash are
an SOS signal that profit has been put ahead of
performance for too long.
Pulling together to defend the reputation of the City in the
wake of the financial crisis was a slow progress. To tackle
this faceless enemy, institutions must be far more nimble.
(26th February 2014)
www.theguardian.com [Option 1]
Corruption in the 28 countries of the EU is costing
European taxpayers about 120bn (100bn) a year, or the
equivalent of the union's annual budget, Brussels
announced on Monday.
In its first attempt to gauge the scale of sleaze not in the
EU apparatus but in the countries of Europe, the European
commission found different levels applied in different
countries, but that nowhere was clean.
"There are no corruption-free zones in Europe," said
Cecilia Malmstrom, the commissioner for home affairs.
"We are not doing enough. That's true for all member
states."
The 41-page commission report as well as two opinion
polls showed that more than half of people (56%) thought
corruption was growing in recent years in their countries
while three out of four saw sleaze as widespread.
The report was purely advisory and analytical. Corruption
prevention and prosecution for criminal cases are the
remit of national governments.
"We do not propose any sanctions at all. Or laws," said
Malmstrom.While generally praising efforts to combat
corruption across Europe, the report complained:
"Declared intentions are still too distant from concrete
results. Genuine political will to eradicate corruption often
appears to be missing."
Britain appeared relatively clean among its EU peers. Only
five out of 1,115 people questioned in Britain expected to
have to pay a bribe. Nonetheless, two out of three Britons
thought corruption was rife in the country.
"In the United Kingdom, petty corruption does not appear
to pose a challenge," the report said. "Moreover, the UK
has made strides in encouraging its companies to refrain
from bribing officials abroad, through stringent legislation
Two-year rule
On Monday, the justice department announced it had
reached agreement with five major internet firms over
their request to share information about how they
responded to orders from the NSA and other agencies.
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook and LinkedIn had
previously sued the US government over being able to
disclose to the public more information on what they have
released to intelligence agencies.
Under the compromise announced, the firms will be able
to release:
- the number of criminal-related orders from the
government
- the number of secret national security-related orders
from government investigators, rounded to the nearest
thousand
- how many national security-related orders came from the
foreign service intelligence and the number of customers
those orders affected
- whether those orders were for just email addresses or
covered additional information
- alternatively they can opt to issue a report that provides
less detail but lets them state the number of national
security and intelligence orders in batches of 250
- As part of the deal, the firms will delay releases of the
number of national security orders by six months.
But tech firms cannot reveal government surveillance of
new technology or new ways to communicate that they
create for up to two years.
This caveat has been criticised by Ladar Levison - the
founder of Lavabit, the secure email service that Edward
Snowden used - who said the provision would undermine
confidence in start-ups.
"While our courts are allowed to keep ethically dubious
nothing of the hole and said his poor driving must have
been to blame.
They dismissed the 62-year-old grandfather's claim that
they should pay the 500 bill to fix the wrecked
suspension on his Renault Espace.
But Mr Cattrall suspected he was being fobbed off and
resolved to find out whether the council was telling him
the truth.
Using a Freedom of Information request, he found out that
a council worker had reported the 18in by 6in hole during
an inspection three months earlier - but the council had
ignored it.
The hole was even recorded as a priority case that should
be repaired within 28 days, but it was never fixed.
He thought that this evidence should be enough to force
the council to soften its stance.
But even after Mr Cattrall, a retired BT project manager,
told Essex County Council of his findings, it still refused to
pay up - and the disagreement went to the small claims
court.
At a hearing at Colchester County Court, a judge ruled in
favour of Mr Cattrall and ordered the council to refund him
500, plus costs of 115.
Mr Cattrall, who has been nicknamed 'Mr Pothole' by his
friends, last night told the Mail he hopes his win will inspire
other drivers to make claims.
His ordeal began when he struck the unfilled hole around
a mile from his home in Colchester one rainy night last
April.
'I think the council works on the basis that a lot of drivers
will just throw their hands up in despair at all the obstacles
which are put in their way and just forget about it as
also targets.
The people the team help might bombard a public figure
with letters or turn up at sensitive sites such as the royal
palaces.
Dr Farnham said: "We have a significant number of people
who believe they are the Queen or in a love relationship
with Prince William or Prince Charles. Their risk of violence
is quite low but their risk of persistence is high because
they're mentally ill.
"They can get themselves into difficult situations if they're
desperate to get into the palace and start running at
armed officers, that sort of thing.
"Some people are extremely persistent and pursue their
cause over a number of years. They are quite ingenious
with the ways they want to get their message over. It
might involving making multiple phone calls, writing up
thousands of letters, blocking (email) systems."
The nine strong unit, which won the diversity award, deals
with 120 cases at any one time, only a small number of
which involve threats of violence.
Other winners included Sergeant Steve Brown, 35, based
in Islington, who was commended for outstanding bravery
after a public vote. He tackled a man with a Samurai
sword who had just stabbed an innocent member of the
public.
Response officer Pc Anthony Morgan, 41, from
Hammersmith and Fulham, was crowned as Best Thief
Taker and Police Officer of the Year for making 212 arrests
in just 11 months - an average of more than two per shift,
and 80% of which ended with a caution or punishment.
He said: "I just seem to come across things. I have made
arrests for shop-lifting, drugs, rape and murder."
Gang unit Trident was given the Special Operational Team
in Serbia.
Police released photographs of a Ferrari and a Ford
Mustang seized in Marbella, and an Aston Martin
recovered in Barcelona.
Detective Inspector James Clancey, from City of London
Police, who was based in Spain for the operation, said:
"This is us seeking to decimate a crime type."
Police say victims of the boiler room gangs have lost sums
ranging from 2,000 to 500,000.
Those who are targeted are usually vulnerable or have a
history of share investment, particularly in privatised
utilities in the 1980s and 90s.
Most of them are aged 40 and over, with many in their 70s
and 80s. Police say some killed themselves because of the
financial problems they got into.
Fraudsters cold-call their victims, applying "high-pressure
sales techniques" and "confidence tricks" to persuade
them to part with their money.
They are offered returns of 10 to 20% per year, directed to
authentic-looking websites and glossy brochures and
asked to invest in bonds in well-known firms or in other
companies that are officially registered.
Initially, they may receive "dividends" to give them
confidence their investment is paying off but never
receive any more or get their money back.
One of the victims, a woman in her late 70s, invested
23,000 in carbon credits.
She was then persuaded by another salesman to borrow
money to buy 140,000 of shares in gold. She never
recovered the money.
"I foolishly trusted him," she told BBC News, adding: "My
Operation Rico is the first time there has been a multiagency and cross-border investigation against different
networks of boiler room fraudsters. Previously there was
more of a piecemeal approach.
However, despite some successes, criminals had become
adept at avoiding detection by frequently moving offices
and wiping computers.
DI Clancey said the Spanish authorities were fully behind
the operation. "The Spanish want to drive it out of Spain it's tainting them," he said.
Detectives acknowledge that boiler room fraudsters will
not disappear but they are more likely to operate in future
in the more "hostile" environments of Thailand, Indonesia
and the United Arab Emirates.
Police have urged anyone who may have been scammed
to call the Action Fraud line on 0300 123 2040.
Anyone with any information about these crimes can call
Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
(2nd March 2014)
execution chamber.
"I still have nightmares," he told me.
"It's the most premeditated form of murder you can
possibly imagine and it stays in your psyche for ever."
"Murder" - an extraordinary word to come from the lips of
a man who administered America's ultimate punishment
on five occasions.
What happened to Allen Ault? What turned him from a
loyal servant of the judicial system to a passionate
campaigner against capital punishment?
His painful journey began with a promotion. Dr Ault was a
psychologist who worked in the diagnostic and
classification centre of the Georgia prison service.
The centre was chosen to house Georgia's execution
chamber and Dr Ault became its warden. Without ever
closely examining his own feelings about the death
penalty, he found himself in charge of the machinery of
death.
In Georgia's case, it was the electric chair. Mr Ault
remembers every detail of every execution he oversaw.
Perhaps the most troubling was that of Christopher Burger,
who as a 17-year-old juvenile with borderline mental
impairment had been involved in a brutal rape and
murder.
Burger spent 17 years on death row. Dr Ault saw him
change. The troubled youth got an education, his brain
developed and matured.
Yes, he was guilty of a terrible crime. He was also
desperately contrite.
When Dr Ault described Burger's execution to me, his
words were powerful, the agonised silences even more so.
compromised device."
Further information
EE Router problems : www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology25809208
D-Link Router problems : www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology24519307
(26th February 2014)
protection.
It would avoid emails and other data automatically
passing through the United States.
In her weekly podcast, she said she would raise the issue
on Wednesday with French President Francois Hollande.
Revelations of mass surveillance by the US National
Security Agency (NSA) have prompted huge concern in
Europe.
Disclosures by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden
suggested even the mobile phones of US allies, such as
Mrs Merkel, had been monitored by American spies.
Classified NSA documents revealed that large amounts of
personal data are collected from the internet by US and
British surveillance.
Mrs Merkel criticised the fact that Facebook and Google
can be based in countries with low levels of data
protection while carrying out business in nations that offer
more rigorous safeguards.
"Above all, we'll talk about European providers that offer
security for our citizens, so that one shouldn't have to
send emails and other information across the Atlantic,"
she said.
"Rather, one could build up a communication network
inside Europe."
Sensitive
There was no doubt that Europe had to do more in the
realm of data protection, she said.
A French official was quoted by Reuters news agency as
saying that the government in Paris planned to take up the
German initiative.
public."
-----------------Further information
On the same day, in a another article, this time in the
Metro. The author Sharon Marris provided additional data.
The top 10 hotspots for theft :
Call Lane, Leeds : 969 incidents
Victoria Centre, Nottingham : 812 incidents
Bridge Street, Northampton : 532 incidents
West Street, Sheffield: 379 incidents
Promenade, Blackpool : 126 incidents
Arndale shopping centre, Luton : 87 incidents
Engish Street, Carlisle : 73 incidents
High Street, Chatham : 60 incidents
Beverly Road, Hull : 47 incidents
Lammas Street, Carmartham : 10
The highest number of personal thefts was recorded by
the Met Police with 19,587 over the past 2 years, followed
by West Yorkshire Police with 9,928.
(29th March 2014)
www.standard.co.uk [Option 1]
Allegations of corruption involving detectives employed on
the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation have dogged
the Met almost from the beginning.
They were raised by Stephen's family, who have always
believed that corruption played a key part in the failure of
the original inquiry into his death.
After the A-level student, 18, was stabbed in Eltham in
1993, five suspects were arrested. But despite a series of
investigations, and a private prosecution brought by the
family, no one was convicted until two years ago.
In January 2012, two of the original five suspects, Gary
Dobson and David Norris, were jailed for Lawrence's
murder after the discovery of new forensic evidence.
Judge Sir William Macpherson's original report, in 1998,
branded the Metropolitan police "institutionally racist"
over its handling of the case. He found that the
investigation was riddled with blunders and incompetence,
including the fact that the names of five prime suspects
were given to police within hours of the attack, but
detectives did not arrest them for two weeks.
However, Sir William found there was insufficient evidence
to prove corruption played a decisive role in the failure to
catch the killers.
The main claims of corruption raised by the Lawrence
family and their lawyers centred on two officers: former
Met commander Ray Adams, who was a leading officer in
the south London area where Stephen was murdered, and
former detective sergeant John Davidson, who was a
senior detective on the first inquiry.
In 2006, a BBC documentary interviewed Neil Putnam, a
former corrupt detective turned whistleblower, who
claimed that Clifford Norris, the father of David, was
paying Mr Davidson to obstruct the case and protect the
OHOPharming.pdf
(29th March 2014)
DELAYED UK CYBER EMERGENCY TEAM WILL
LAUNCH THIS MONTH
(The Guardian, dated 24th March 2014 author Tom
Brewster)
www.theguardian.com [Option 1]
The UK government will unveil its lead cyber emergency
response unit on 31 March, after delays had put the digital
squadron on hold, the Guardian has learned.
The UK Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UK)
will work on developing the UK's cyber resilience to statesponsored and criminal attacks on critical systems,
including those controlling the national energy supply and
within government departments, according to the Cabinet
Office.
Launch day, considered by the Cabinet Office as "a key
milestone in the development of the UK's cyber security
capabilities", will initiate a "first phase", as part of an
incremental rollout.
The CERT was announced in December 2012, when the
Cabinet Office promised to deliver what is considered one
of the most important parts of its 650m cybersecurity
strategy within 12 months.
It soon conceded the project would be pushed back to
early 2014, with few reasons given, other than the division
needed more personnel, better technology and a
headquarters. They were duly added, with Chris Gibson,
formerly of the Forum of Incident Response and Security
Teams (First), made director.
Neil Cassidy, former cyberdefence lead at government
supplier Qinetiq, was made deputy director of operations.
Andrew Whittaker, a former Foreign Office crisis
Staniforth)
www.policeoracle.com
[Option 1]
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/s/article/9245908/Yahoo_resets_
passwords_after_email_hack?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-01-31
Yahoo has been resetting email accounts that were
targeted in an attack apparently aimed at collecting
personal information from recently sent messages, the
company said Thursday.
The list of usernames and passwords used for the attack
was likely collected when another company's database
was breached, Jay Rossiter, a Yahoo senior vice president,
said in a blog post. He didn't name the third party or say
how many accounts were affected.
"We are working with federal law enforcement to find and
prosecute the perpetrators responsible for this attack,"
Rossiter wrote.
The hackers used a malicious software program to access
Mail accounts with the stolen usernames and passwords,
he wrote.
----------------------------------------------------SUSPECTED EMAIL HACKERS FOR HIGH CHARGED IN FOUR
COUNTRIES
(Computer World, dated 27th January 2014 author Lucian
Constantin)
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/s/article/9245780/Suspected_em
ail_hackers_for_hire_charged_in_four_countries?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-01-28
Eleven people were charged in the U.S., India, China and
Romania for their suspected involvement with websites
offering email hacking services.
DECEMBER 2014
FBI RELEASES EXPANDED CRIME STATISTICS FOR
2013
(FBI Website, dated 22nd December 2014)
Full article :
www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/december/fbi-releases2013-national-incident-based-reporting-system-statistics
u.s/2013/preliminary-semiannual-uniform-crime-reportjanuary-june-2013/tables/Table_4_January_to_June_20122013_Offenses_Reported_to_Law_Enforcement_by_State_b
y_City.xls/view
(1st January 2015)
DIGITAL BILLBOARD INITIATIVE
(FBI Website, dated 24th December 2014)
Full article :
www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/december/digital-billboardinitiative
In April 2013, a Buffalo grand jury indicted 33-year-old
Oscar Romero and other suspected members of the Loiza
Boys gang, charging them with heroin and cocaine
distribution. After nearly a year on the run, investigators
received information that Romero had returned to the
Buffalo area from Puerto Rico, and the FBI deployed a
powerful weapon to help capture the fugitive-digital
billboards.
The electronic billboards featuring Romero's face-along
with the words "Wanted" and "Drug Charges" and a
number to call-were posted in the Buffalo area on March
31, 2014. Four days later, Romero turned himself in.
"When our billboards went live, Oscar Romero had been a
federal fugitive for just shy of a year," said Brian Boetig,
special agent in charge of the FBI's Buffalo Division. "Our
partnership with the local billboard company generated
media attention and conversations throughout Romero's
West Side neighborhood, which pressured him into safely
surrendering."
Similar events have occurred around the country, thanks
to the FBI's National Digital Billboard Initiative, which
began in 2007 in Philadelphia when a graduate of the FBI's
Citizens Academy-who happened to be an executive with
Clear Channel Outdoor-offered to provide free space on
Canadian and Mexico borders," he says. "To take 10fingerprints from everyone crossing those borders on a
train, for example, would be an absolute nightmare."
There would also be an issue around how the separate
checking systems would operate, as it would lead to the
requirement to carry multiple documents - a travel token,
a visa and a passport. This would dilute the benefits of
quicker biometric checking technology at the border, such
as e-gates. "Can you imagine how long it would take to
stand in front of an e-gate reader and scan a token, a visa
and a passport one after another?" asks Rinkens.
Biometric data
Another issue was which biometric should be chosen as
the common checking protocol. He says the EC went with
the fingerprint option, whereas the most common
biometric used by European e-gate technology is facial
recognition.
The retention period for biometric data has also been a
thorny issue for the European parliament and the Smart
Borders proposals opted for a period of only three months.
"We were in effect saying to the traveller we will create
this record for you and then three months later throw it
away," says Rinkens. "This causes a big problem for the
gentleman who arrives in February and then comes back
again in June and once more in November. Each time he
will be stopped to have his fingerprints taken, his face
scanned and his passport checked."
There were also issues about giving law enforcement
agencies access to all this information with a biometric
searching capability encompassing up to four different
systems (including Scengen, EURODAC the EU visa
database and the proposed entry-exit system). "After a
few years there would be a collective database of some
200 million 10-fingerprint [records] and if law enforcement
were not able to search that having spent so much money
setting it up that would be a bit strange," he adds.
www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/moneysaving-tips/11192883/Number-spoofing-the-growingcrime-where-conmen-fake-a-banks-phone-number.html
Criminals are using a tried and tested scam to trick their
victims into thinking they are speaking to a trusted
organisation - such as a bank - by using a fake caller ID
number that the fraudster has chosen.
The scam, known as "number spoofing", works by
fraudsters cloning the telephone number of the
organisation they want to impersonate. This makes it
appear on the victim's caller ID display when they
telephone them.
The scammers then persuade the customer to hand over
sensitive personal and financial information.
According to Ofcom, the phone regulator, the fraudsters
use software to manipulate the caller ID number.
If the person at the end of the line suspects anything, the
fraudster will draw attention to the number as proof of
their legitimate identity.
This type of scam was reported on in March this year, but
the Financial Fraud Bureau, Financial Fraud Action UK's
intelligence unit, said there has been a "spike" in cases
reported in recent weeks.
Craig Jones, a spokesperson for FFA UK said: "Number
spoofing is becoming increasingly common and it's not
difficult for the criminals to fake a caller ID. So if a number
appears on your phone's caller ID display, you shouldn't
assume you know where the call is being made from.
"Remember that if a caller is trying to draw your attention
to the number on your phone display, it's very unlikely the
call is genuine as there is no legitimate reason to point it
out."
IN 2015
(The Guardian, dated 24th December 2014 author Stuart
Dredge)
Full article [Option 1] :
www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/24/cybercrim
e-2015-cybersecurity-ransomware-cyberwar
Will 2015 be a happy new year for internet users? Not if
cybercriminals have their way.
Online security companies have been making their
predictions for 2015, from the malware that will be trying
to weasel its way onto our computers and smartphones to
the prospect of cyberwar involving state-sponsored
hackers.
Here's a summary of what you should be watching out for
online in 2015, based on the predictions of companies
including BitDefender, KPMG, AdaptiveMobile, Trend Micro,
BAE Systems, WebSense, InfoSec Institute, Symantec,
Kaspersky, Proofpoint and Sophos. The links lead to their
full predictions.
Targeted attacks and sophisticated spam
The more we do and share online, the more vulnerable we
may be to "targeted" attacks to steal our passwords and
data. "It is possible that our willingness to share and shop
online will let criminals become more selective about who
they target," suggests Stephen Bonner of KPMG.
"They won't need to maintain the current 'hit and hope'
approach of spear phishing, instead only attacking specific
users and computers based on the data these give away
about their owners."
Meanwhile, you may see more spam emails in your inbox
in 2015, as the technology used to send them becomes
more sophisticated.
www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP658%204%20Edition
%20Amend%201%20June%202013.pdf
(1st January 2015)
FEARS CHINESE FORGERS COULD PERFECT KNOCKOFF 2 COIN
(The Telegraph, dated 24th December 2014 author
Gregory Walton)
Full article [Option 1] :
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11312103/FearsChinese-forgers-could-perfect-knock-off-2-coin.html
Concerns have been raised that a Shanghai-based gang of
master forgers could be preparing to mass produce 2
coins after perfecting their technique producing
counterfeit euros.
The 2 coin could come under attack by Chinese forgers, it
has been warned.
The coins which are bi-metallic, containing gold and silver
components, were thought to be more difficult to forge
than simpler designs such as the 1 coin.
But now a major seizure of 500,000 of euro coins has
raised fears that Britain's 2 - with it's relatively higher
value - could be in the forger's sights.
Italian detectives stumbled across the treasure trove of
contraband currency while inspecting a consignment of
metal pipes in the port of Naples.
The seizure was one of the most significant haul of fake
coins in European history.
The quality of the coins suggested that the gang is
producing imitations of such high quality that they would
even be accepted in vending machines, potentially costing
businesses thousands in lost revenue.
reporters in 2010.
The network of gangs operated according to a rigid
structure, with members recruited in Macedonia given the
prospect of earning good money in Austria and Germany.
Once recruited, members had very little contact with other
people in the gang and had strictly defined roles, including
mixing, packing and transporting high-quality heroin into
the EU, where it was sold at low prices.
"The organisation was characterised by its strict division of
labour and well-organised procedures," said Europol in a
statement.
Most of the heroin in Europe originates in Afghanistan. It is
then smuggled over the border into Iran, and shipped into
the Balkans, from where it is transported into western
Europe.
----------------------------------------V
GANGLAND LONDON: 40m HEROIN AND COCAINE BUST
LANDS ALBANIAN GANG 157 YEARS IN PRISON
(International Business Times, dated 19th November 2014
author Lewis Dean)
Full article [Option 1] :
www.ibtimes.co.uk/gangland-london-40m-heroin-cocainebust-lands-albanian-gang-157-years-prison-1475662
An Albanian drugs gang that attempted to flood London
and the south of England with 40m of cocaine and heroin
has been jailed for a total of 157 years.
Seven men were today handed combined sentences of 77
years at Kingston Crown Court after pleading guilty to
conspiring to supply heroin they had smuggled from
Europe.
The men were attempting to introduce the drugs to the UK
Club drugs and legal highs such as Salvia and Green Rolex
are freely sold online and delivered throughout the
country by unwitting posties.
The report, No Quick Fix, came as new figures showed the
number of deaths involving legal highs or New
Psychoactive Substances (NPS), in England and Wales rose
from 29 in 2011 to 52 last year.
One in 12 young people (15 to 24-year-olds) in the UK said
they had used these drugs - the highest figure in Europe.
Even more worrying are those websites selling class A
drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine, which are also
distributed around the country by the postal service.
The CSJ criticised the government for an "inadequate
response to heroin addiction", saying that more than
40,000 drug addicts in England are on the substitute
methadone, which is used to wean addicts off heroin.
"Methadone can be a way of stabilising chaotic drug users,
but we found evidence that it is being used to keep a lid
on problems," said Christian Guy, director of the CSJ.
"Large numbers of addicts are stranded on this statesupplied substitute and forgotten. This broken system is
no different to taxpayers supporting an alcoholic by
prescribing them vodka instead of them drinking gin.
"While our addiction problem damages the economy, it is
the human consequences that present the real tragedy.
Drug and alcohol abuse fuels poverty and deprivation,
leading to family breakdown and child neglect,
homelessness, crime, debt and long-term worklessness."
Alcohol and drug abuse cost the UK an estimated 21
billion and 15 billion respectively. Alcohol-related hospital
admissions in England have doubled in a decade, with
Britain facing "an epidemic of drink-related conditions".
One in 20 people are described as "dependent drinkers".
www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/scotland-yard-probingthree-vip-child-murders-met-widens-paedophile-ringinquiry-9933054.html
Detectives investigating an alleged VIP paedophile ring
are examining claims that three young boys were
murdered during a decade of child abuse, police revealed
for the first time today.
Scotland Yard said officers are probing serious allegations
of abuse at locations across London and the Home
Counties, including "military premises". The claims are
based on evidence from a key witness who says he was
abused from the age of seven till he was 16 between 1975
and 1984.
Police today appealed for other possible victims to come
forward. One senior officer said: "I will believe you,
support you and do everything in my power to find those
responsible and bring them to justice."
Much of the abuse is alleged to have taken place at an
address in Dolphin Square, Pimlico - a luxury block of flats
popular with MPs. The allegations are understood to relate
to sexual abuse by a paedophile ring with links to
government, spy chiefs and prominent military figures.
The key witness, known as Nick, is said to have given
details of three murders - including extra- ordinary claims
that he witnessed a boy being strangled to death by a Tory
MP. Another child was said to have been deliberately run
over and a third killed in front of a government minister.
Scotland Yard confirmed today it was examining
allegations of sexual abuse that were linked to the
murders of three young boys. Police did not give further
details about the murders and said officers had not
recovered a body.
Detectives said they had spoken to the families of two
boys - Martin Allen and Vishal Mehrotra - who disappeared
after being abducted in London, though there was no
Fake ads
The scam has been around for decades with callers
peddling useless security software and tricking people into
spending hundreds of pounds (or dollars) to solve nonexistent computer problems.
Increasingly, the bogus technicians are gaining access to
people's computers remotely.
From there they can also steal personal and financial
information and install malware.
In some cases people are tricked into signing up for
support via fake web ads. Others receive a direct
telephone call from a technician claiming to represent
Microsoft.
Microsoft has warned that scammers are likely to be active
over the Christmas period.
"The holiday season is a popular time for scammers as
more people engage in online activities, including
shopping, donating to charity and searching for travel
deals," it said.
Older victims
Older people needed to be particularly vigilant, it said.
"Tech support scammers don't discriminate; they will go
after anyone, but not surprisingly senior citizens have
been among the most vulnerable."
The US Federal Trade Commission filed a legal case in
Florida last month against a company that used adverts to
scare people into believing their computer had a virus and
then sell them allegedly worthless services.
In the UK, National Trading Standards has recently taken
legal action against a man from Luton who hired people at
an Indian call centre to falsely tell people their computers
ild_abuse_purge/
GCHQ is to team up with the UK's National Crime Agency
to target paedophiles sharing child abuse images on the
"dark net".
The as-yet-unnamed unit will focus on developing
technology capable of scouring the underbelly of the
internet for child abuse-related chat and image
exchanges. It will also focus on the most prolific offenders,
according to a UK government statement.
In a parallel move, coaching children into uploading
indecent images of themselves is to become a criminal
offence. Prime Minister David Cameron is due to outline
the proposed changes in a speech at the We Protect
Children summit in London this morning. Changes in
legislation will be applied through the Serious Crime Bill,
which is currently making its progress through Parliament,
the BBC reports.
The dark net refers to regions of the internet only
accessible with anonymity software such as Tor and not
indexed by search engines.
The "hidden web" focus of a new UK campaign against
child abuse images follows progress by groups like the
Internet Watch Foundation in purging such content from
UK hosted sites.
The IWF removed images from 27,850 websites so far in
2014, already more than double the figures for the whole
of 2013. The UK was responsible for an estimated 18 per
cent of all child abuse imagery in 1996, a figure that has
since dropped to less than one per cent, it says.
Tech giants are playing their part in making it easier to
identify and block child abuse images and videos.
The digital fingerprints (hash values) of thousands of
known child sex abuse images identified by the IWF will be
used by the major tech companies (Facebook, Microsoft,
devices.
"In September I discovered some files that were a bit out
of the ordinary," Snorre Fagerland, co-author of the report,
told IBTimes UK. "They were bigger than usual and I soon
realised that this was an attack framework that I hadn't
seen before, possibly by actors I hadn't noticed before.
"I found a very high quality of code across five different
platforms, a very high level of automation and an
operational security that is positively paranoid. All of this
suggests state involvement."
Fagerland also believes that another factor that indicates
state involvement is the selection of targets. There are
several target areas that appear to be of strategic interest
to a nation state.
The origin of Inception is still unclear but it is not thought
to originate from "the usual suspects" of Iran, China or
Russia.
"Initially we saw a very clear interest in Russia and the
Russian sphere," Fagerland said. "However as we've been
gathering more information about this campaign and more
target data we see that the fields of interest are much
wider than Russia.
"They've targeted countries as far apart as Venezuela,
Mozambique and European countries like Belgium,
Germany and even the UK to some extent."
The targeting of mobile phone operators in Belgium is of
particular significance, Fagerland believes, as it is a
"power seat". Both the European Union and Nato have
headquarters there.
If it is a nation state that is behind the attacks, as the
authors suggest, then the publication of the white paper is
likely to push the malware into the shadows to avoid
further attention and possible detection.
em/index.htm
An ingenious new geographical location system can
pinpoint the source of 999 calls from mobile phones 4,000
times more accurately than the current system.
The new service, developed by BT, EE and HTC, can track
calls to a radius of 30 metres or less, cutting the handling
time for emergency services.
Around 60 per cent of 999 and 112 calls in the UK are now
made from a mobile - 22 million calls a year or 60,000 a
day - all of which are handled by BT call centres. At
present, emergency services are only able to identify
approximate locations of callers to within a few square
kilometres. As a result:
- 999 calls from a mobile take 30 seconds longer to handle
on average than calls from landlines; it can take three
minutes of extra questioning, of often stressed or injured
victims, to determine the location
- In an estimated 36,000 critical incidents reported by
mobile every year, the emergency services spend 30
minutes or more searching for the location
- In around 330,000 emergency calls a year, the caller is
unable to speak to the operator. Having imprecise cell
information for the location when the call is from a mobile
can prevent the emergency services from responding.
Rapid response using precise data
The new geographical location system, called AML
(Advanced Mobile Location), provides 999 operators with
pinpoint location data to save time and lives. It can
identify the source of a mobile phone emergency call to
within 0.003 square kilometres, less than half the size of a
football pitch, instead of several square kilometres.
When an emergency call is made with an AML-enabled
smartphone, the phone automatically activates its location
coped.
We need a similar shift now. All forces need to agree that
every crime will be recorded - because it isn't measuring
how well they're doing, but how much demand they're
facing - and surely it's important for us to show those who
make decisions about our funding just how much demand
there is out there. But we need to do this together and all
forces need to agree to hold the line when challenged
about rises.
Target mindset
Holding the line means dropping once and for all the
target mindset that has been part of our culture for a long
time. And yes, I played my part in that. But I now
recognise, as do many others, that there are many more
ways to monitor performance; how to understand whether
a force, a team, an operation, an individual officer is doing
a good job. We could start by assessing staff by actually
working with them and talking to them rather than
observing their performance through a computer.
The accurate recording of crime is a huge issue and I've
only skimmed the surface of it in this blog. But I think
there is an opportunity for the service here to do the right
thing, together, for better decision making, better
effectiveness and better service for victims. All of which
say 'improved performance' much more clearly than a set
of crime figures.
uaware comment
In my opinion the author of this article doesn't understand
the publics "need" to see what the level of crime is in their
area. If the police are so insistent that they want members
of the public to become more involved in community
police matters; how can they if they do not understand the
base problem. That is, what is the crime level in their area
now; and what was the crime level last year.
With that premise understood by residents they can then
look at the next question. That of, how many crimes are
solved in my area. Followed by the third question; how
does that compare with other forces / services / divisions
around the country ?
Several years ago I read a report of a meeting attended by
a London Borough Chief Constable. During that meeting
the Chief Constable boasted that 17.5% of crimes were
solved annually in their Borough, and that met required
targets !
(1st January 2015)
dealing-1.724781
A senior police officer who was awarded the MBE has been
arrested on suspicion of dealing Class A drugs.
Chief Inspector Paul Cahill was found slumped over his
wheel in Wandsworth Road in Lambeth by passing
policemen.
When officers searched the 43-year-old's vehicle they
allegedly uncovered a stash of Class A drugs.
He was arrested on suspicion of possessing Class A drugs
with intent to supply and being made unfit to drive
through alcohol or drugs.
He was taken to a south London police station and bailed
until January.
More Class A drugs - a category which includes cocaine
and heroin - are believed to have been found at his home.
Chief Insp Cahill was also suspended from his duties as a
member of Westminster borough command.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said it was not its
policy to name people who had been arrested, but
confirmed a Chief Inspector had been seized on Monday.
He said: "We can confirm a Chief Inspector from Territorial
Policing was arrested in Wandsworth Road on Monday, 1
December on suspicion of possession with intent to supply
a substance thought to be class A drugs. He was also
arrested on a drink drive related offence. A breath test
was not administered.
"He was taken to a south London police station. He has
been bailed to return to a south London police station in
January.
"The officer has been suspended."
The decorated officer, who was given the MBE in 2004 for
services to diversity in policing, heads a team that clamps
down on crimes such as drug dealing in Soho and the West
End.
Mr Cahill hit the headlines after becoming the victim of a
homophobic attack in 1996.
A year later he appeared on the front of the Gay Times in
full uniform.
He was also involved in using gay officers to reassure the
public and gather intelligence around Old Compton Street
in the aftermath of the Soho nail bombing in 1999.
He was chair of the Gay Police Association until it was
disbanded in April and was praised by the Met for his work
in revolutionising attitudes to gay men in policing.
One ex-colleague told the Sun: "He is a brave, outspoken
and a first class police officer. His colleagues will be
shocked."
(1st January 2015)
TALKTALK CUSTOMERS HIT BY INDIA-BASED SCAM
CALLS PROMPTING FEARS OF DATA LEAK
(The Guardian, dated 5th December 2014 author Charles
Arthur)
Full article [Option 1] :
www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/05/talktalkcustomers-india-based-scam-calls-prompting-fears-dataleak
TalkTalk is investigating whether its customer database
has been leaked after more than 100 customers said they
had received calls from Indian-based scammers quoting
their names, addresses and account number details.
www.ibtimes.co.uk/77-chinese-immigrants-arrested-kenyasuspicion-cybercrime-ring-1478188
Police in Kenya have arrested 77 Chinese nationals in
connection with a cybercrime centre in Nairobi.
Authorities said a cybercrime ring in the capital was being
operated from the dormitory-style homes of Chinese
immigrants.
It is thought that they were "preparing to raid the
country's communication systems", the police force said.
The Daily Nation newspaper reported that the criminals
had equipment that would enable them to infiltrate bank
accounts, Kenya's M-Pesa mobile banking system and cash
machines.
The director of Kenya's Criminal Investigation Department,
Ndegwa Muhorom said: "The suspects are being
interrogated to establish their mission in the country and
what they wanted to do with the communication gadgets.
They have been charged in court."
Police spokeswoman Zipporah Mboroki added: "We want to
do a thorough investigation over the matter and we are
currently working on their travel documents."
Suspicion was originally aroused when officers were
investigating a house fire which killed one person, a
detective close to the matter said.
The same detective, who has not been named by the Daily
Nation, said that the charges against the Chinese
immigrants, who were apparently living in army dormitorytype housing, include being in the country illegally and
operating radio equipment without the proper permits.
China's ambassador to Kenya has been summoned to
"explain if his government was aware of the group's
activities", the Standard newspaper reports.
on UK registered cars."
The gangs target indoor concerts in the winter months,
and large scale outdoor festivals in summer.
Catching the thieves themselves has sometimes been
successful and a large proportion have been found to be
from Romania. But finding those organising the crime is
proving more difficult.
"We get the soldiers but we need to identify the person
who is paying for the festival ticket, sometimes they have
five or seven tickets. Who is paying the bill of more than
1,000 each time?" Ch Insp Liedhegener said.
"This year 90 per cent [of the criminals caught] are known
to have worked in the UK so the information given from
the UK is really important to be known in the other areas
to get an overview. It would be really great if we can bring
the UK in 100 per cent. With Germany and the UK as the
drivers of that I think we can be really powerful."
PoliceOracle.com understands that there are currently
discussions being held regarding whether Britain will join
the scheme.
Ch Insp Liedhegener was in England to attend the second
National Festival and Events Intelligence Conference
hosted by Leicestershire Police.
More than 110 delegates from forces across the UK, as
well as one from Ireland's Gardai Sochana, met to share
best practice around large scale music events.
(1st January 2015)
NEW STOP AND SEARCH SCHEME FORMALLY
LAUNCHED
(Police Oracle, dated 1st December 2014 author Helena
Hickey)
www.policeoracle.com [Option 1]
NOVEMBER 2014
COMPUTING SECURITY REVIEW - NOVEMBER 2014
-----------------------ASIAN MOBILES THE DISTRIBUTED DENIAL OF SERVICE
THREAT OF 2015
(The Register, dated 19th November 2014 author Darren
Pauli)
Full article [Option 1] :
www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/19/asian_mobiles_the_ddos
_threat_of_2015_security_mob_says/
Vietnam, India and Indonesia will be the distributed denial
of service volcanoes of next year due to the profieration of
Leyden)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/13/cyber_insurance_analys
is/
The UK government last week partnered with 12 insurance
companies to develop the "cyber-insurance" market. But
experts are split on whether encouraging the development
of the nascent market will result in the adoption of
improved security practices.
Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said that while
cyber insurance adds an extra layer of protection for
organisations it needed be used in combination with good
cyber-security practices more generally in order to get the
best results.
The government is promoting the growth of the cyber
insurance market as a means of improving cyber security
risk management. It says the insurance sector can
improve good practice by asking the right questions of
customers in relation to their cyber breach and operational
risk policies.
----------------------LADS FROM LAGOS USING "PREDATOR PAIN" ON VICTIMS
(The Register, dated 13th November 2014 author John
Leyden)
Full article [Option 1] :
www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/13/419ers_adopt_cyberspy
_tactics_white_paper/
Advanced-fee fraudsters are adopting the tactics of statesponsored hackers in attacks targeting small- to mediumsized businesses, rather than large corporates, according
to research from Trend Micro.
www.computerworld.com/article/2842244/wi-fi-security-vsgovernmentspies.html#tk.CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-1104
Its one thing to be lectured to about Wi-Fi security and
quite another thing to see the actual manuals used by
government spies.
At The Intercept, Cora Currier and Morgan Marquis-Boire
have just published software manuals from "The hacking
suite for governmental interception." The software is
called Remote Control System (RCS) and it is made by an
Italian company, Hacking Team.
The many data breaches over the years have yielded
millions upon millions of in-the-wild passwords.
A password such as "Mickey Mouse" may be found in a
dictionary, but phrases like "DisneysMickey",
"IlikeMickeyMouse" or "MinnieMouserules" will not be. But
chances are that some person, somewhere, used that as
their password at one time. If that password was stolen in
a data breach, it may have been added to a database of
in-the-wild passwords.
Did you go to Denver last year? Some people did and
important things happened to them there. No doubt
"Denver2013" has been used as a password by someone,
somewhere at some time. Thus, you shouldn't use it.
(1st December 2014)
SLAVERY LEVELS IN UK "HIGHER THAN THOUGHT"
(BBC News, dated 29th November 2014)
Full article : www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30255084
There could be between 10,000 and 13,000 victims of
slavery in the UK, higher than previous figures, analysis
for the Home Office suggests.
Modern slavery victims are said to include women forced
years.
Mr Winsor said: "For too long the debate on policing has
focused on its capacity: the number of officers, the
proportion of officers on the front line and the size of
police budgets.
"These are important matters, but so too are the
capabilities of forces, the skills, technology, equipment,
quality of officers and how well they are led."
Sir Hugh Orde, President of the Association of Chief Police
Officers said: "We are continuing to make changes at
pace.
"Adapting to cyber-crime is a challenge but we are
working transform our response by recruiting people with
specialist skills and training our own staff to prevent and
detect those who seek to use technology to harm or steal
from us.
"We've invested in specialist investigators for sexual
abuse and changed the way we work with other agencies
to protect children."
The HMIC is launching an online tool where people can see
how well their local force is performing :
www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/
(1st December 2014)
around-world-legally-allowed-use-force-1476736
US police are under pressure not only for the killing of an
unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, but also for the
military-style response to the sometimes violent protests
that followed.
The sight of police in camouflage gear brandishing assault
rifles, backed up by armoured vehicles was a reminder
that some US police departments have acquired militarysurplus hardware from wars abroad.
Many other law enforcement agencies around the world
have rules of engagement that allow lethal force to be
used relatively freely. But for every regulation that gives
police wide scope to use firearms, there is another code
that sharply limits their use.
Reuters photographers around the world took portraits of
police officers, and asked them at what point are they
legally permitted to use force to control crowds.
Venezuela
Interior Ministry decrees that, when peaceful methods of
resolution have failed, police must warn violent
demonstrators that there will be a "progressive,
differentiated use of force". While no firearms must be
carried for peaceful demonstrations, when things turn
violent, the emphasis is on avoiding harm to children,
pregnant women and the elderly, and no force is to be
used on those who avoid violence or are withdrawing from
the scene.
Afghanistan
Police, often themselves the target of armed attacks, are
officially authorised to respond with weapons "and
explosives" against a group of people only if it has ...
disturbed security by means of arms, and if the use of
other means of force ... has proved ineffective". Afghan
police are required to give no fewer than six warnings -
must be "proportionate".
Belgium
Human rights monitors say, this means firearms can never
be used for crowd control.
Italy
In Italy, police and the paramilitary Carabinieri follow
guidelines that say the use of weapons is allowed only in
the line of duty, when it is an "unavoidable necessity to
overcome resistance, stop violence, or prevent a [serious]
crime", and that the response must be proportionate to
the situation
Austria
The use of lethal force is permitted to tackle rioting or to
detain a dangerous suspect, but only when less dangerous
methods "appear inappropriate or have proved to be
ineffective", and with the aim of avoiding serious injury
where possible. The use must be proportionate, and be
preceded by a warning.
(1st December 2014)
FBI : IN THE LINE OF DUTY - ANNUAL OFFICERS
KILLED REPORT
(FBI website, dated 26th November 2014)
Full article :
www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/november/annual-officerskilled-report-more-than-a-tally-of-losses/annual-officerskilled-report-more-than-a-tally-of-losses
The FBI's annual Law Enforcement Officers Killed and
Assaulted (LEOKA) report that was released earlier this
week details in chilling narratives and statistics how 76
law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in
2013.
The bilateral deal was signed in June this year after long
negotiations. However, in April the ECJ threw out the Data
Retention Directive, with many parliamentarians
concerned the PNR agreement might breach EU law in the
same way.
PNR data is information on passengers collected by air
carriers and includes name, dates of travel, address,
email, phone numbers, credit card number, etc. Those
arguing against the deal say that such blanket data
retention not only breaches fundamental rights, but is also
ineffective.
"There is no proof that the mass collection and storage of
air passenger data helps in combating terrorism, as some
claim," said Green euro lawmaker Jan Philipp Albrecht.
"The recent attack on the Canadian parliament would not
have been prevented by PNR exchange for example. While
the exchange of passenger data may create a false sense
of security, it is neither necessary nor effective in fighting
terrorism and involves a large and unjustifiable cost."
Austrian MEP Jrg Leichtfried also said data protection
concerns must be taken seriously: "We should not rush
into an agreement that has potentially far-reaching
consequences for the civil liberties of EU citizens and
might undermine ongoing work on the data protection
package."
The EU-Canada PNR agreement requires the consent of
the European Parliament before it can be made law, but
that will not now be forthcoming until the ECJ gives its
legal opinion.
But it doesn't end there. If the ECJ decides that the deal
with Canada is illegal, it would have clear implications for
similar agreements with the US and Australia.
(1st December 2014)
COMPEL BANKS TO REPORT FRAUD ATTACKS
AGAINST THEM
(Police Oracle, dated 24th November 2014 author Josh
Loeb)
www.policeoracle.com [Option 1]
Banks, pension funds and other financial institutions
should be legally compelled to disclose to police whenever
they fall victim to a cyber attack, City of London Police's
most senior officer has said.
Commissioner Adrian Leppard said making it a legal
requirement for banks to tell police such information could
mean vital steps could be taken to protect others.
He was speaking at the Financial Crimes and CyberSecurity Symposium in New York, where he also called for
the two global cities to forge a tighter policing
relationship.
His announcement comes ahead of a programme in which
the New York District Attorney's office and City of London
Police will swap staff to give personnel a wider range of
experience of thwarting what the Commissioner has
described as a "common enemy".
Security experts have previously warned that many
successful attempts by cyber-criminals to defraud banks
have gone unreported to police because of reluctance on
the part of financial institutions to tacitly admit that their
systems are not 100 per cent secure.
Commissioner Leppard said it was crucial to take a
proactive approach to cyber threats by putting in place
"technical and legal systems that will keep trading
platforms secure from malware and prevent companies
from being compromised by a rogue employee or weak IT
systems".
He said global markets could be brought to a standstill by
a massive cyber attack - and he suggested terrorists could
attempt this in a bid to wreck havoc on the global
economy.
November 2014)
Full aricle [Option 1] :
www.ibtimes.co.uk/uk-bed-factory-boss-charged-humantrafficking-offences-1476188
The owner of a bed factory that supplied major retailers,
including Next and John Lewis, has reportedly become the
first head of a UK company to be charged with human
trafficking offences.
Mohammed Rafiq, who owns Kozeesleep, and two of his
employees have been charged with conspiracy to facilitate
travel within the UK for exploitation, according to the
Sunday Times.
Staff supplied to Kozeesleep in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire,
were forced to work for less than 2 a day.
Authorities were alerted in 2011, when a 20-year-old
trafficking victim contacted charity Hope for Justice. The
charity helped the man to escape to a safe house, leading
to the escape of more victims.
West Yorkshire police launched Operation Tavernhouse,
which resulted in the conviction of Hungarian traffickers
Janos Orsos, 43, and Ferenc Illes, 25, in May.
The traffickers' Hungarian victims survived on scraps of
food, with up to 42 men living in a single two-bedroom
house. They worked for up to 20 hours a day and were
paid as little as 10 a week.
One of their victims was paid just 30 for more than 21
weeks' work. He was also severely undernourished and
lost more than 22lb in weight. Police said the victims had
essentially been kept as slaves.
A lawyer for Kozeesleep told Next that Orsos had
threatened staff until they handed over their wages, and
that the salaries of some temporary staff were paid
Bahrain.
Amnesty wants governments to establish strict trade
controls requiring national authorities to assess the risk
that the surveillance equipment would be used to violate
human rights before authorising any transfer, in a similar
manner to how the arms trade is controlled.
Marek Marczynski added:
"Detekt is a great tool which can help activists stay safe
but ultimately, the only way to prevent these technologies
from being used to violate or abuse human rights is to
establish and enforce strict controls on their use and
trade."
Amnesty will use its networks to help activists across the
world learn about Detekt and scan their devices for signs
of spyware.
Detekt is a free and open source software and is provided
as is, without warranties or guarantees of any kind.
For more information about Detekt, and to download the
tool, please visit https://resistsurveillance.org
(24th November 2014)
PUBLIC RIDE ALONG WITH POLICE PATROLS TO
BOOST CONFIDENCE IN OFFICERS
(The Telegraph, dated 21st November 2014 author Keith
Perry)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-andorder/11247437/Public-ride-along-with-police-patrols-toboost-confidence-in-officers.html
A senior police officer has called for members of the public
to be allowed on patrol alongside frontline police officers
Hackers can find out a lot about you from social media so
if they are targeting you specifically and you choose, say,
your pet's name you're in trouble.
- Choose words that don't appear in a dictionary
Hackers can precalculate the encrypted forms of whole
dictionaries and easily reverse engineer your password.
- Use a mixture of unusual characters
You can use a word or phrase that you can easily
remember but where characters are substituted, eg
Myd0gha2B1g3ars!
Have different passwords for different sites and systems
If hackers compromise one system you do not want them
having the key to unlock all your other accounts.
- Keep them safely
With multiple passwords it is tempting to write them down
and carry them around with you. Better to use some form
of secure password vault on your phone.
(1st December 2014)
POLICE CHIEF WARNS OF JIHADIST CYBER ATTACK
ON CITY INSTITUTIONS
(London Evening Standard, dated 19th November 2014
author Justin Davenport)
Full article [Option 1] :
www.standard.co.uk/news/london/police-chief-warns-ofjihadist-cyber-attack-on-city-institutions-9870097.html
Islamist terrorists could launch a cyber attack on financial
institutions in the capital and online defences need to be
strengthened, a police chief warned today.
Loeb)
www.policeoracle.com [Option 1]
Pregnant women are being "recruited" by people
traffickers who force them to sell their babies into a life of
virtual slavery for as little as a few thousand pounds,
according to Europol.
Babies aged just six months can be bought by traffickers
for between 3,000 and 6,000, and moving them across
borders is "relatively uncomplicated", an intelligence
notification from the Europe-wide policing agency states.
It adds: "In many cases the victims travel on genuine
passports of non-related adults.
"The organised crime groups involved in these types of
exploitation are very mobile and typically active in several
countries making use of contacts in diaspora
communities."
Once they have been successfully trafficked abroad, the
babies can be used by women involved in illegal begging
or benefit fraud.
Because of their young age when they were taken from
their mothers they may never discover their true
identities.
Names are often legally changed in countries of origin,
while other exploited children are "born on the road" with
the births never being registered anywhere.
Europol's report describes Fagin-type figures who raise
bands of trafficked children to commit specialised petty
crime, with the profit from such illegality going straight
into the coffers of organised crime groups.
To enforce obedience, these gangmasters use threats of
violence or food deprivation to psychologically manipulate
the youngsters to do their bidding.
and Wales.
It found that:
- Among the sample, 37 rape allegations were not
recorded as a crime
- For 3,842 reported crimes, offenders were given a
caution or a penalty notice - but inspectors believe 500 of
those should have been charged or given a heavier
penalty
- 3,246 of those offences that were recorded were then
deemed to be "no crimes" - but inspectors believe 20% of
those decisions were wrong and a crime had been
committed
- The incidents recorded as "no-crimes" included 200
reports of rape and 250 of violent crime
- More than 800 of the victims were not told of the
decision to "no-crime" their report
Analysis
by Danny Shaw, BBC home affairs correspondent
The under-recording of crime is more than a question of
getting the statistics wrong.
If an offence isn't officially logged, it may not be
investigated. And without a police inquiry there's no hope
of finding the perpetrator and preventing other crimes.
Inspectors say there may well be people on the streets
now, able to commit more crimes, who would have been
locked up had their original offence been properly dealt
with.
There are indications that some forces are improving. But
there's also a warning in the report that increasing
workload pressures among police - who are having to do
CHARADE
(The Guardian, dated 18th November 2014 author Gary
Copson)
Full article [Option 1] :
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/18/crimefigures-political-police-chiefs
It is a question reasonably asked by every householder: is
my area safe? Police forces have various strategies to
reassure them; visibility, connectivity. Most of all there are
statistics. The trouble is, the figures we cite most often
may be totally unreliable and leave us with a false sense
of security.
The latest report from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of
Constabulary (HMIC) addresses crime-reporting practices.
It says that police compliance with Home Office counting
rules is improving but varies from force to force, and
overall is still not good enough. This might invite people to
conclude that your average local police officer is, for some
peculiar reason, determined to dishonestly suppress
official crime figures. HMIC could not possibly say this and I wouldn't have when I worked there - but there is,
and long has been, an underlying and unhealthy political
game that creates and drives performance fraud.
Home Office counting rules are arcane and full of
irrationalities. This never used to matter before our
political parties started to use reported-crime figures as a
weapon in a battle over who could be toughest on crime.
Back then crime figures were not treated as
incontrovertible laser-sharp measures of police
effectiveness and integrity.
What crimes get recorded and how they are counted are
political choices. Recorded crime never has been, and
certainly isn't now, a reflection of the actual incidence of
crime in society. The Crime Survey of England and Wales is
accepted as a more accurate reflection, but even that is
far from infallible. Reducing the number of reported
'Shameful inability'
The MPs' report investigates the lessons for local
government that have been recommended in the wake of
Prof Jay's investigation.
Labour MP Clive Betts, chairman of the committee, said
Ofsted would be called before the MPs to answer "serious
questions" about its inspections.
"Repeated Ofsted inspections in Rotherham failed to lift
the lid on the council's shameful inability to tackle child
sexual exploitation," said Mr Betts.
The MPs also criticised the town's councillors for their lack
of effective scrutiny and challenging of council officers.
The report said the authority had many child protection
policies but they were "divorced from reality".
The parliamentary committee called for an investigation
into missing files at the council and said council officials
"should be held accountable for their actions."
"Arrangements should be put in place to bring to account
not just council officers still in post but those who have
moved on from an authority before serious questions
about their performance emerge, " said Mr Betts.
In a statement, Ofsted said it welcomed "the opportunity
to give evidence to the committee".
"In common with a number of organisations, we accept
that past inspections may not have given child sexual
exploitation the forensic focus it needed and deserved," it
said.
Rotherham Council leader Paul Lakin has welcomed the
report and said an internal inquiry into the missing files
had begun but the council planned to bring in an external
audit team to complete the task.
Police believe more than 200 gangs from around the world
are targeting London using the Internet, though the figure
changes constantly.
DCS Snelgrove says many gangs are operating in different
countries and a number of Falcon's inquiries span the
United States, parts of Europe and Russia.
However, many of the cyber frauds are committed by
home grown gangs or individuals.
One inquiry involves a woman living in London who was
allegedly behind a series of frauds on auction sites based
in Europe.
In her first major interview DCS Snelgrove said one of the
squad's main priorities was to improve investigations into
business fraud in London.
She said there was concern that some crime reports
submitted through Action Fraud - the Home Office fraud
recording body - had not been properly investigated in the
past.
She revealed plans to set up "volume crime hubs" in
London so individuals and businesses could report fraud
directly to the Met.
She said: "We will have volume crime hubs because one
weakness was that we were not responding to the volume
of crimes being reported through Action Fraud and into the
Met."
Around 54,000 reports of fraud were recorded by Action
Fraud in London last year.
DCS Snelgrove said: "Many people tell us it is the tip of the
iceberg in terms of the amount of crime. I think it is
significantly under-reported and we want to give people in
London, businesses and individual victims, the confidence
to report and assure them there will be a policing response
at the end of it. "
2014)
Full article :
www.brake.org.uk/news/1308-rsw14-national
Brake is a national road safety charity that exists to stop
the needless deaths and serious injuries that happen on
roads every day, make streets and communities safer for
everyone, and care for families bereaved and injured in
road crashes. Brake promotes road safety awareness, safe
and sustainable road use, and effective road safety
policies. We do this through national campaigns,
community education, services for road safety
professionals and employers, and by coordinating the UK's
flagship road safety event every November, Road Safety
Week. Brake is a national, government-funded provider of
support to families and individuals devastated by road
death and serious injury, including through a helpline and
support packs. Brake was founded in the UK in 1995, and
now has domestic operations in the UK and New Zealand,
and works globally to promote action on road safety.
Brake is today launching a campaign calling on all road
users to look out for each other,to help stop the five
deaths and 61 serious injuries that happen every day on
UK roads, and particularly to protect people on foot and
bike. The call comes at the start of Road Safety Week,
coordinated by Brake, during which police across the
country will be stepping up traffic enforcement to deter
and catch drivers putting others at risk.
As part of the campaign, Brake and partners RSA and
Specsavers are today revealing statistics showing
shocking numbers of UK drivers senselessly risking lives
by flouting traffic laws. Almost one million fixed penalty
notices were issued for 'careless driving' and speeding
offences in 2013 -almost two a minute. 950,505 were for
speeding and 17,483 for careless driving (a fixed penalty
newly introduced in August 2013).
Embargoed figures are available by region and postcode,
including the top 10 worst postcode areas :
www.brake.org.uk/component/content/article/27-whatshappening/1314-rsw14-stats
2013 Offences
Fixed penalty notices issued for careless driving and
speeding : regional breakdown
East : 1,968 (96,116)
East Midlands : 1,330 (88,449)
London : 2,275 (71,529)
North East : 536 (45,823)
North West : 1,527 (100,469)
Northern Ireland : 11 (672)
Scotland : 3,487 (102,320)
South East : 1,520 (142,363)
South West : 1,083 (74,338)
Wales : 854 (53,785)
West Midlands : 1,493 (92,732)
Yorkshire and Humber : 1,224 (77,760)
Open numbers : Careless driving
Bracketed numbers : Speeding
National top 10 postcodes: where drivers who have
committed careless driving offences reside
1.ST3 (Stoke-on-Trent, 45 offences)
2.CR0 (Croydon, 43 offences)
3.PA2 (Paisley, 40 offences)
4.G81 (Clydebank, 39 offences)
5.ST6 (Stoke-on-Trent, 39 offences)
6.G72 (Glasgow, 37 offences)
7.AB42 (Peterhead, 36 offences)
8.IV2 (Inverness, 36 offences)
9.DG1 (Dumfries, 35 offences)
10.ML6 (Airdrie, 34 offences)
National top 10 postcodes: where drivers who have
committed speeding offences reside
worker got just 151 for five 10-hour days, which worked
out at less than half the national minimum wage. In
another example cited a worker was employed by Slender
Contracting, of March, Cambridgeshire, for 20 hours over
two days, but after deductions from his pay packet he was
shown to be in debt.
29 May: Rimantas Sulcas illegally supplied workers to a
number of Scottish vegetable farms and paid them wages
below the legal minimum. He was ordered to do 180 hours
unpaid community work. Sulcas had no GLA licence and
paid his employees at a rate below the legal minimum
wage.
October: A Romanian migrant, Gheorge Ionas, was fined
500 for forcing Armagh apple pickers to endure "extreme
exploitation", in inhumane conditions, in Northern Ireland
while operating illegally. He kept Romanian migrants in an
unheated outbuilding and forced them to scavenge for
out-of-date food from supermarket bins.
The Home Office figures were obtained by the shadow
immigration spokesman, David Hanson, who said that the
home secretary, Theresa May, who took over responsibility
for the GLA in April, had taken her eye off the ball.
"The GLA has done important work in the past 10 years
but there are still too many people being exploited by
unscrupulous employers, yet Theresa May has taken her
eye off the ball with fewer people investigated and fewer
people caught," said Hanson. "The home secretary should
be far more proactive in tackling poor working conditions
run by gangmasters."
The former Home Office minister for Labour also claimed
that the drastic reductions in investigations and
prosecutions of illegal gangmasters showed how little the
government cared about ending workplace exploitation.
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, also
demanded to know why May was "allowing the situation to
get worse". She said: "She is letting gangs get away with
Loeb)
www.policeoracle.com [Option 1]
DNA profiles relating to unsolved major crime cases
including murders, rapes and terrorism will be shared
between Britain and Australia under a deal agreed by the
Home Office and Australia's Justice Ministry.
The DNA Search Request Network - of which the United
States and Canada are also a part - allows UK forces to
request searches of foreign agencies' genetic material
profiling databases to try and find matches and identify
suspects.
Under the agreement, member states retain the right to
refuse permission for a search if for any reason they deem
it "inappropriate".
A similar system was already in place before Immigration
and Security Minister James Brokenshire signed a
memorandum of understanding with his Australian
counterpart this week.
However, the Home Office says the new network will
speed up the process of making requests to Australian
national police checking service Crimtrac.
Mr Brokenshire said: "The agreement represents the type
of international co-operation and data sharing that is
critical in an increasingly interconnected world, where
criminals seek to exploit any gaps that exist to find safe
havens for their activities."
Michael Keegan, Australia's Justice Minister, pledged his
country would seek further opportunities for exchange of
DNA and other biometrics data internationally.
While in the UK Mr Keegan also held meetings with
National Crime Agency Director General Keith Bristow and
Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey.
Intercontinental exchange of DNA information can be a
Full article :
www.rai-see.org/news/south-eastern-europe/5218-euannounces-kosovo-mission-graft-probe.html
Brussels' foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said she
will send an independent legal expert to look into
corruption allegations at the EU's rule-of-law mission in
Kosovo, EULEX.
Mogherini told a news conference in Brussels on Tuesday
that an independent expert will probe allegations that a
EULEX judge took bribes to shut down cases against
people accused of serious crimes.
"I took the decision today to appoint a legal expert, an
independent legal expert, to look at and review the
mission's mandate implementation. Obviously with a
particular focus on the handling of the allegations," the EU
foreign policy chief said.
The allegations surfaced last week when an EULEX
prosecutor, Maria Bamieh, accused a former judge at the
mission, Francesco Florit, of taking a 300,000 euro bribe to
clear a man accused of murder and seeking another bribe
in a corruption case against a Kosovo government official.
Florit strongly denied the accusations.
Bamieh, who has been suspended, has alleged that EULEX
initially failed to investigate her suspicions about Florit,
and instead has targeted her for being a whistleblower.
Elmar Brok, the chairman of the European Parliament's
foreign affairs committee, urged the EU on Tuesday to fully
investigate the allegations to ensure that EULEX remained
credible.
"The mission's role in Kosovo is to fight against corruption
and impunity, and it should set an example. We must
show with no hesitation that no one is above the law and
Child abuse
Europol's report - entitled 'Internet Organised Crime Threat
Assessment 2014' - also highlights new challenges for law
enforcement posed by the way the internet is facilitating
the sickening abuse of children.
Individuals with a sexual interest in children communicate
with like-minded offenders and "share best practice"
around how to gain access to victims and create "material
that is considered to be of 'high quality'".
Offenders take part in virtual conferences on subjects
including "how to better groom and abuse children, where
good destinations are for travelling child sex offenders and
how to obtain children there".
"These platforms encourage the normalisation of child
abuse by the sharing of experience and justifications," the
report states, adding: "Best practices on how to rape,
kidnap, murder and dispose of children's bodies are also
shared openly on Darknet."
The horrific rise of what is described as "live streaming of
on-demand abuse of children" is also described.
This is likely to be a "growth area" financially, Europol
notes.
The report also states: "The expansion of the internet of
everything and the interconnectivity of electronic devices
will create new opportunities for child abusers, further
expanding offenders' access to images of children.
"There will be increased opportunities to hack into devices
such as baby monitors and CCTV in schools and other
facilities frequented by children."
The 'internet of everything' has been described as a new
era of technological interconnectedness in which
everything from power grids to household items like
dishwashers and fridges - and even windows and doors will be connected up electronically, with options for
remote control.
According to Europol, experts believe "it is not a matter of
if - but when - there will be a cyber-attack of major
significance and impact on critical operational
infrastructure" - and it suggests the internet of everything
could be used to murder particular individuals.
Commercial operations
REMEMBERANCE
IN FLANDERS FIELD
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
OCTOBER 2014
COMPUTER REVIEW - OCTOBER 2014
-----------------------------BIGGEST THREAT TO EUROPES CYBERSECURITY ?
(The Register, dated 30th October 2014 authors Jennifer
Baker & John Leyden)
Full article :
www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/30/the_threats_to_europes
_cybersecurity_arent_what_you_think_they_are/
Hint : Not Hackers
Forget cyber-espionage, cyber-warfare and cyberterrorism. The biggest threat to Europe's infrastructure
cybersecurity are power outages and poor communication.
On Thursday, ENISA (European Network and Information
Security Agency) held its biggest ever cybersecurity
exercise involving more than 200 organisations and 400
cyber-security professionals from 29 European countries.
The bi-annual event* simulates a lifelike attack, modelled
on real events, to test the reaction of national Computer
Emergency Response Teams (CERTS), government
ministries, telco companies, energy companies, financial
institutions and internet service providers.
-----------------------------TWITTER "SUICIDE TWITTER SNIFFER" BACKFIRES OVER
PRIVACY CONCERNS
(The Register, dated 30th October 2014 author Jennifer
Baker)
Full article :
www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/30/samaritans_app_backfir
es_over_stalker_and_privacy_concerns/
In response to public outcry via Twitter and personal blogs
on Wednesday, the Samaritans have announced an optout function for their stalker-friendly app Samaritans
Radar.
Samaritans Radar automatically scans the tweets of
anyone the user follows and alerts subscribers to
potentially suicidal tweets based on "trigger phrases".
However well-meaning the intention, many Twitter users
were quick to point out that there were huge privacy
implications, not to mention the creepy effect: "The people
you follow won't know you've signed up to it and all alerts
will be sent directly to your email address," according to
the Samaritans website.
-----------------------------NOW CYBERCRIMINALS CAN AUTOMATE ROGUE CREDIT
CARD CHARGES
(Computer World, dated 29th October 2014 author Lucian
Constantin)
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/article/2840589/nowcybercriminals-can-automate-rogue-credit-cardcharges.html#tk.CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-10-30
Cybercriminals have a new tool to make the most of stolen
credit card details before payment processors detect the
fraud, security researchers warn.
A Web-based application called the Voxis Platform is being
advertised on underground forums as a tool for cashing
out money from stolen credit cards by automating
fraudulent purchases, according to security researchers
www.computerworld.com/article/2825999/dropboxdismisses-claims-of-hack-affecting-7m-accounts.html?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-1015#tk.rss_cybercrimehacking
Hackers claim to have stolen a database of almost 7
million Dropbox log-in credentials, but the company says
its service was not hacked and that unrelated websites are
the data source.
The first data dump appeared Monday in an anonymous
post on Pastebin.com and contained 400 username and
password pairs. The author said that it's only the "first
teaser" of 6,937,081 hacked Dropbox accounts and asked
for community support in the form of Bitcoin donations.
The user also claimed to have access to photos, videos
and other files from the compromised accounts.
-----------------------------WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A PASSWORD
MANAGER
(Computer World, dated 13th October 2014 author Lucian
Constantin)
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/article/2825873/security0/whatto-consider-when-choosing-a-password-manager.html?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-1015#tk.rss_applicationsecurity
Many security experts feel that passwords are no longer
sufficient to keep online accounts safe from hackers, but
we're still a long way from widespread adoption of
biometrics and alternative methods of authentication.
Most of us are stuck with using passwords as the primary
keys to our online lives, so we should at least strive to
follow best security practices when it comes to managing
them. This includes using long and complex passwords or
phrases that can withstand brute-force attacks, using
MILLION COMPUTERS
(Computer World, dated 7th October 2014 author Jeremy
Kirk)
Ful article :
www.computerworld.com/article/2692500/russiancybercrime-group-compromised-half-a-millioncomputers.html?source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-1009#tk.rss_security0
A mistake by a suspected Russian-speaking cybercriminal
group allowed a security vendor to peep on a campaign
that stole login credentials for hundreds of thousands of
online bank accounts.
In a new report, Proofpoint said it found a large number of
WordPress websites that had been compromised to
perform a drive-by download of Qbot, also known as
Qakbot, a malicious software program.
Proofpoint analyzed the malware and found an
unprotected control panel on a server used by the gang to
control the computers, a dumb but not uncommon
mistake.
-----------------------------CRIMINALS USED MALWARE PROGRAM TO STEAL MILLIONS
FROM ATM's
(Computer World, dated 7th October 2014 author Lucian
Constantin)
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/article/2692464/criminals-usedmalware-program-to-steal-millions-from-atms.html?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-1008#tk.rss_cybercrimehacking
Criminals have stolen millions of dollars from ATMs
worldwide using a specialized malware program that
forces the machines to dispense cash on command.
said in a statement.
Mrs May said she would make a further statement to
Parliament about the inquiry on Monday.
However, Labour said the home secretary had "serious
questions to answer" over her handling of the inquiry.
Prime Minister David Cameron had previously given Mrs
Woolf his public backing.
'Brewing for some time'
Mrs Woolf's resignation comes after the first person
appointed to lead the inquiry - Baroness Butler-Sloss stepped down in July when concerns were raised about the
fact that her late brother was attorney general during the
1980s.
The independent inquiry was set up to look at how public
bodies dealt with historic allegations of child sex abuse,
however, victims' groups have called for a statutory
inquiry.
It follows claims over many years about paedophiles in
powerful places and alleged establishment attempts to
cover up their actions.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live's John Pienaar, Mrs Woolf
said she had told Mrs May she was already considering
resigning this morning.
She said she regretted "unsettling" victims, saying: "I've
clearly destroyed their confidence in the inquiry with me
leading it. These are the last people I had wanted to
upset."
"I was determined that the inquiry got to the bottom of the
issues and if I don't command their confidence to run the
panel fairly and impartially then I need to get out of the
way."
It had been "clear for some time victims didn't have
www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/1500-crime-fugitives-areextradited-by-eu-warrant-9828250.html
Nearly 1,500 criminal suspects, including murderers and
rapists, who fled to London to avoid facing justice
overseas have been extradited over the past five years
under the controversial European Arrest Warrant, new
figures revealed today.
The Met statistics show that 45 alleged killers and 35 men
wanted for rape were among 1,423 suspects detained in
London since April 2009 and sent to other European
countries in response to EAW requests.
Other offenders hiding in the capital who have been
extradited to face prosecution abroad using the fast-track
system - which David Cameron is battling to preserve in
the face of a major Tory rebellion - include 25 accused of
child sex offences and 30 suspected armed robbers.
Two alleged terrorists, 130 people wanted for drug
trafficking and 252 accused of fraud have also been sent
back to European countries using the EAW after being
found by the Met on the run in London.
More than half of the alleged offenders were Poles. There
were also 113 Romanians, 138 Lithuanians and 37
Hungarians. Only 67 Britons - less than five per cent of the
total - were among those handed over. The new statistics,
obtained by the Evening Standard, follow a pledge by the
Prime Minister to hold a Commons vote on retaining the
EAW before the crunch Rochester and Strood by-election
next month.
The warrants allow criminal suspects to be extradited from
one EU country to another without the need for the
evidence in the case to be tested in court before the
person is sent back.
Mr Cameron wants to renew Britain's participation in the
system before a December 1 deadline set under the terms
of an "opt-out" agreed five years ago by the Labour
government.
But as many as 100 Conservative backbenchers, who
believe that the system is exposing British citizens to
injustice, are planning to vote "no" in what could become
the most damaging rebellion of his premiership.
Home Secretary Theresa May has already sought to quell
the revolt by warning that any decision to abandon the
arrest warrant will undermine the fight against crime by
making it harder for police to secure the return of suspects
who have fled overseas.
She has also expressed concern that it would turn Britain
into a haven for foreign criminals and today cited the new
figures as evidence of the potentially disastrous
consequences of pulling out of the system.
"The arrest warrant is a vital tool to help us bring serious
international criminals like paedophiles, human traffickers
and terrorists to justice," Mrs May told the Evening
Standard.
"Without it, London and the UK's other great cities would
be safe havens for European criminals on the run because
of our diminished powers to send them back.
"We have reformed the arrest warrant to ensure that it is a
fair and effective tool to tackle crime - with those extra
safeguards in place, it is not a tool that we should give
up."
Mrs May added that withdrawal from the arrest warrant
would also leave British law enforcement agencies with
"weakened" powers to capture criminals "who have fled
overseas", while "victims of crime would find it harder to
get justice".
People of 56 different nationalities, including 803 Poles,
have been returned to 25 EU states after being held in
London.
Full article :
www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/21/get_safe_online_survey
s/
Internet-enabled frauds reached 670m across the UK in
the 12 months running up to the end of August, according
to new figures from the National Fraud Intelligence
Bureau.
Since the majority of internet-enabled fraud cases still go
unreported, the true economic cost to the UK is likely to be
significantly higher.
The figures were released as part of the 2014 edition of
the annual Get Safe Online Week, which runs from 20 to
26 October.
As part of Get Safe Online Week, credit reference agency
Experian unveiled research on illegally traded information,
which shows an increase of 300 per cent over the last two
years. More than 110 million pieces of data bought and
sold by criminals so far in 2014. The figures come from
independent study was commissioned by Experian using
web monitoring technology.
The vast majority (96.5 per cent) of the illegally traded
data consists of login credentials - username and
password combinations. Online accounts can give identity
fraudsters access to huge amounts of information such as
where you bank or shop, linked accounts that may have
passwords saved automatically and all the personal
information you may have shared over email.
Compromised email accounts also contain personal
contact lists that allow fraudsters to target other potential
victims.
The remaining data consisting primarily of passport details
and payment card details.
Separate research commissioned by Experian discovered
evidence that people are also closing down the accounts
that they don't use, leaving less opportunity for criminals
But the Home Office said: "We are clear that all crimes
should be investigated," adding that the government was
"determined to stamp out" what was an "appalling crime".
A spokesman said the NCA had safeguarded or protected
more than 1,000 children, making 706 arrests.
"We will always ensure police and other crime fighting
agencies have access to the powers and resources they
need to tackle child abuse in all its forms," the department
said.
Last week Mr Bristow apologised if children had been
harmed because of Ceop "sitting on" information it had
about 2,000 British paedophiles for more than a year.
Information on the men was sent to UK authorities by
Toronto Police in July 2012, as part of an international
investigation, Operation Spade, into suspected
paedophiles.
But it was not passed on to police forces until more than
12 months later in November 2013.
(1st November 2014)
to identify victims.
Almost 5,000 computers were seized by just over a third
of the 43 forces in England and Wales last year. Those that
responded said they had a total of 181 specialist officers
assigned to search through the images to try and identify
the victims. This works out at six per force.
Figures show that Lancashire Constabulary seized 745
computers in 2013, had three specialists to analyse the
devices and made 158 arrests for possessing,
downloading, and distributing child abuse images between
2013-14.
Northumbria Police confiscated 570 computers with eight
specialists to work on them while Hertfordshire
Constabulary seized 516 computers with four specialists.
Out of the 16 forces that responded to the request,
Durham Constabulary seized the least amount of
computers.
NSPCC lead for tackling sexual abuse Jon Brown said that
senior leaders and relevant authorities need to prioritise
the problem when managing resources.
He said: "The volume of devices and the number of
images on each device that forces are having to work
through is increasing.
"Ultimately what we need is an approach that cuts this
material off at the source but until then, relevant
authorities must ensure that staffing numbers are at a
level to be able to deal with this and prioritise accordingly,
so swift action can be taken and children are not put at
risk."
Nevin Grieve, Vice President of the Europe, Middle East
and Africa region of the Wynyard Group, said that data
analytics software could help alleviate the problem that
leaders face.
skills and by improving our links with the third sector and
local authorities we can improve our intelligence networks
to proactively identify such cases."
New technology
In January, the NSPCC children's charity highlighted a rise
in sexual abuse cases in Scotland involving children under
the age of 13.
Police Scotland recorded more than 700 offences against
young children in 2012/13. The charity also reported a rise
in calls to its helpline.
The taskforce will build on the work of Operation Dash, a
multi-agency operation led by Police Scotland, which is
trying to determine the extent of child sexual exploitation
in the Greater Glasgow area.
Assistant Chief Constable Graham added: "There is no
doubt that across the globe the volume of offending
through all forms of online activity, whether possession of
indecent images of children, online grooming with intent
to committing further sexual offences or the exchange of
indecent images amongst groups is escalating due to
increased access to mobile devices, improved download
technologies and the development of sophisticated
software to conceal activity.
"All law enforcement agencies recognise the challenge this
presents but the solution will not be offered by one agency
alone, but by working together across the justice sector,
across the voluntary sector and with local authorities in
tackling this issue.
"We continue to invest in developing technologies and
investigation techniques and will learn from best practice
across the world in order to target offenders to prevent
crime."
Children in care
Hidden knowledge
The very fact that scammers clearly are aware of our
psychological vulnerabilities - no matter how they gained
that knowledge - suggests they can potentially teach us as
much as their victims about confidence tricks. This is
something Stajano has taken to heart in his research. He
has worked with Paul Wilson, a close-up magician and
security consultant to casinos, to explore exactly how
scammers persuade their victims to hand over their
personal belongings. Wilson is one of the writers and stars
of BBC television show The Real Hustle, in which he and
his team "scam" members of the public by recreating
notorious confidence tricks (any money or valuables are
later returned).
Wilson's team has recreated hundreds of scams for the
cameras, but Stajano - who quickly became a fan of the
show - realised that the scammers repeatedly used one or
more of the same seven persuasion principles. Three of
these principles are similar to those Modic identified by
talking to potential or actual scam victims. Scammers use
the "time principle" to persuade us we need to act quickly
before we can think rationally and exercise self-control.
They also make use of the "deference to authority
principle" and the "herd principle" - our tendency to act
like our friends or those around us - to convince people
that the scam is legitimate.
But scammers have at least four other tricks up their
sleeves, says Stajano. They might distract us so we don't
recognise a scam - making use of physically attractive
accomplices, for instance. They can use our deepest
desires to blind our reasoning - which is why online dating
scams are so common. They can hook some victims by
manipulating our innate dishonesty and making us act
criminally ourselves - knowingly attempting to launder
money as part of the Nigerian email scam, for instance.
Finally, they can use the kindness of some well-meaning
victims against them - scam emails begging for help and
money are often sent out in the wake of a natural disaster.
Old tricks
What's really fascinating, says Stajano, is that scammers
have used these principles for centuries. For instance, the
Nigerian email scam might seem the product of the digital
age, but a version of it existed in 16th Century Europe.
There's a good reason for that, he says: many of the
vulnerabilities that scammers exploit are actually human
strengths rather than weaknesses. He points to the work
of psychologist Robert Cialdini at Arizona State University,
who is famous for his work on the psychology of
persuasion. "He's explained that the authority principle,
for example, is actually very helpful for surviving
peacefully in human society," says Stajano. "We shouldn't
see scam victims as stupid - they're acting in a way that's
beneficial for our survival most of the time."
The seven persuasion principles might be as old as the
hills, but Stajano says they are often ignored by security
experts, who are as likely to blame security breaches on
the people using their systems as they are to blame the
scammers. "Too many security professionals think: users
are such a pain - my system would be super-secure if only
users behaved in the proper way," he says. He is trying to
persuade experts that they need to make security systems
that work in harmony with - not despite - the way we
behave.
Making those new systems won't be easy, and Stajano
believes the only solution is to encourage people to
empathetically understand and anticipate human
behaviour.
As an example of the problems security experts face,
imagine you're about to win an online auction for a mobile
phone. You might reasonably expect to trust the seller,
whose profile is brimming with positive feedback from
other users. But Stajano points out that your trust in this
case is really based on the herd principle: you can't be
sure that the seller is not in fact a scammer who has built
risk."
Speaking on behalf of police forces including Avon and
Somerset, the national policing lead for cyber-crime,
Deputy Chief Constable Peter Goodman said: "It is a
challenge for police to find and sift through the millions of
these images and analyse them as quickly as possible, so
that they can be passed on to investigators who can take
action to protect the children involved or others who may
be at risk.
"This is part of the wider challenge for police to transform
the way they deal with cyber-crime in a period of fiscal
constraint while also protecting communities from the
more traditional sources of harm.
"Every police force and law enforcement agency has the
capability to investigate images held on computers and
ability trace people's use of the internet for illegitimate
purposes.
"There's been an increase in the numbers of people
working in high-technology roles, such as forensic
examiners, within police forces and the majority of their
work focuses on child sexual abuse.
"Police have improved systems for prioritising images and
are using better technology. Police forces work closely with
the National Crime Agency and Child Exploitation and
Online Protection Centre (CEOP) who lead on tackling
online child abuse. But there is more to do.
"Protection of children here or abroad is at the heart of
policing. Back in July police arrested 660 people for this
crime, showing that offenders leave a digital footprint that
police will find.
"We are working hard to continue to speed up our
processes so that we can protect children and stop
offenders sooner."
(1st November 2014)
www.policeoracle.com [Option 1]
A group of officers from as far afield as China and
Palestine have made a visit to a force in a quest to
understand the workings of the British policing model.
As part of a leadership course ran by the College of
Policing, a total of 25 officers from across the globe visited
Gwent Police headquarters to see how policing in this
country works and the way it can inspire management and
leadership skills in their home forces.
While at the force they met with senior leaders and the
police and crime commissioner to understand the key
issues in British policing before going on to visit the
control room, counter-terrorism and professional standards
departments.
Deputy Chief Constable Craig Guildford (pictured centre)
said: "We have welcomed our international colleagues and
have been impressed by their enthusiasm to learn about
policing in Gwent.
"We organised a comprehensive programme for them to
see how the various policing roles work within the Force,
and they have been impressed that all our work is
underpinned by our community and victim centred ethos.
"The programme also included a meeting with the police
and crime commissioner who outlined his role of
representing the people of Gwent to make sure the service
provided by the police is efficient and effective
"The feedback we have received is very positive, and we
hope they take back some of what they have learnt here
to the benefit of their own police forces and communities."
The International Leadership Programme is an eight-week
course. This instalment saw attendees from countries
including Bahrain, Seychelles, Indonesia, Palestine, China
and Saudi Arabia. Aimed at mid-level managerial staff, it
focuses on a variety of topics such as: crime scene
Hidden crime
Organ and human tissue harvesting is also listed in the
report as one of a wide variety of "exploitation types".
It stresses there is no reliable intelligence to suggest any
trafficking of victims to the UK for this purpose, but it cites
uncorroborated reports suggesting that two UK passport
holders of East African heritage were to be trafficked to
Europe for the sale of body organs.
Because of the dreadful state of their living conditions in
their original homes, some victims of trafficking may
regard their situation in captivity in the UK as an
improvement and so may not regard themselves as
victims, the report states.
"Cultural values" and "work ethic" may also be a barrier to
individuals becoming conscious about the fact that they
are human trafficking victims.
The NCA's United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre
(UKHTC) estimates that 2,744, people, including 602
children, were potential victims of trafficking for
exploitation in 2013, an increase of 22 per cent on 2012.
Liam Vernon, Head of the UKHTC, said: "Human trafficking
for the purposes of exploitation is an insidious and
complex crime and much of the exploitation is hidden
from view.
"The National Crime Agency is committed to continually
disrupting what is a vicious and criminal trade in human
misery, which exploits the most vulnerable people, both
here and abroad, for financial gain. Victims are being
forced to work in private houses and in hospitality,
farming, manufacturing and construction industries. In
many cases, threats and violence are used to ensure
compliance."
(1st November 2014)
SEPTEMBER 2014
COMPUTER REVIEW - SEPTEMBER 2014
FORMER MI6 CHIEF WARNS OF MASS SNOOPING BY
PAEDOPHILES
(The Register, dated 2nd October 2014 author Jasper
Hamill)
Full article :
www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/02/former_mi6_chief_warn
s_mass_snooping_paedophiles/
The former head of MI6 has warned parents that
paedophile predators are capable of using location-based
services to find and abuse their kids.
In a warning that might sound a bit rich coming from a
former chief spook, Sir John Scarlett said he was worried
about how easily a youngster's movements could be
traced.
Young girls are "obviously vulnerable to tracking," he
claimed, with perverts or private enterprises able to track
arising."
-------------------------------BORED HACKERS FLICK SHELLSHOCK BUTTON TO OFF AS
PAYLOADS SHRINK
(The Register, dated 3rd October 2014 author Darren
Pauli)
Full article :
www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/03/shellshock_bored_hacke
rs_giving_up_droves/
Malicious and benign attacks against systems vulnerable
to Shellshock had halved by Sunday after peaking three
days following the bug's disclosure, Akamai researchers
say.
The variety of payloads targeting vulnerable sites
increased dramatically over the same period before
tapering off, in a possible sign that hackers were bored
with the bug.
The number of unique payloads increased from 43 on day
zero to a whopping 10,716 just 24 hours later. It peaked
on 27 September at 20,753 before falling off.
The numbers demonstrated the effectiveness of
Shellshock as an attack vector, researchers Ezra Caltum,
Adi Ludmer and Ory Segal wrote in a co-authored post.
"One of the troubling aspects of the Shellshock
vulnerability is the ease of exploitation, which can be seen
by the dramatic increase in the number of unique
payloads between the first and the second days," they
said.
-------------------------------SHELLSHOCK ATTACKERS TARGETING NAS DEVICES
PROTECTION AUTHORITIES
(Computer World, dated 26th September 2014 author
Loek Essers)
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/article/2688001/google-getsprivacy-lesson-from-eu-data-protection-authorities.html?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-0929#tk.rss_technologylawregulation
European Union privacy regulators want Google to make
its privacy policies easier to find and understand, with
exhaustive lists of what data it holds and processes, in
order to comply with EU law, they told the company this
week.
Google received the package of recommendations from
the Article 29 Working Party (WP29), an umbrella group for
European data protection authorities. While WP29 has no
power to sanction the company, its members have
imposed fines in a number of cases following Google's
2012 changes to its privacy policy, which several national
privacy regulators found breached EU rules.
-------------------------------FBI : YOUR REAL SECURITY TERROR - AN ANGRY INSIDE
MAN
(The Register, dated 25th September 2014 author John
Leyden)
Full article :
www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/25/insider_threat_growing_
warn_feds/
Disgruntled workers are causing more problems for their
employers, the FBI warns.
Employees, ex-workers or contractors with a grudge
against their former paymasters are abusing cloud storage
study.
The findings comes from the University of New Haven's
Cyber Forensics Research and Education Group
(UNHcFREG), which earlier this year found vulnerabilities
in the messaging applications WhatsApp and Viber.
This time, they expanded their analysis to a broader range
of Android applications, looking for weaknesses that could
put data at risk of interception. The group will release one
video a day this week on their YouTube channel
highlighting their findings, which they say could affect
upwards of 1 billion users.
-----------------------DATA SHOWS HOME DEPOT BREACH COULD BE LARGEST
EVER
(Computer World, dated 3rd September 2014 author
Jaikumar Vijayan)
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/article/2601349/data-showshome-depot-breach-could-be-largest-ever.html?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-0904#tk.rss_security0
It looks like Home Depot may have earned the dubious
distinction of being responsible for the biggest
compromise ever involving credit and debit card
Security blogger Brian Krebs, who first reported the data
breach Tuesday, updated his report today with new
information gathered from the cyber underground.
According to Krebs, the data strongly suggests that a
breach occurred at nearly all of Home Depot's 2,200 stores
in the U.S.
Krebs based his conclusion on a review of stolen credit
and debit card data posted on an online store that sells
such information. The site lists each card, along with the
city, state and ZIP code of the card owner, as well as the
store code where the data was stolen.
-----------------------CELEBRITY NUDE PHOTOS SCANDAL A WAKE-UP CALL FOR
CLOUD USERS
(Computer World, dated 2nd September 2014 author
Sharon Gaudin)
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/article/2601006/cloudcomputing-celebrity-nude-photos-scandal-a-wake-up-callfor-cloud-users.html#tk.rss_cloudsecurity
An apparent hack of cloud storage sites that caused a slew
of nude images of female celebrities to hit the Internet
over the weekend should serve as a wake-up call for the
public, and for enterprises, to be more cautious with the
information they store in the cloud.
Whether the scandal will make some enterprises, already
nervous about cloud security, more hesitant about
migrating to the cloud remains to be seen.
"This is a great example of what can go wrong with the
cloud," said Jeff Kagan, an independent IT industry analyst.
"I don't know if this will make people or enterprises more
hesitant about the cloud, but it will make them more
careful, and that's good. That's how we learn. We learn not
to touch the hot stove when someone else gets burned."
Over the weekend, stories emerged about nude photos of
model Kate Upton and actresses like Mary E. Winstead and
Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence appearing online. Some of
the photos appear to be authentic. Others do not.
------------------------
cyberattacks.html#tk.rss_security0
A U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman said
Wednesday the agency is working with the Secret Service
to determine the "scope" of reported cyberattacks against
several financial institutions.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Russian hackers
struck JPMorgan Chase and another bank earlier this
month. A subsequent report in the New York Times said
the attacks hit JPMorgan Chase and four other U.S.
financial institutions.
The Times reported that "gigabytes" of information were
stolen, including customer account information.
A JPMorgan Chase spokeswoman did not confirm the
attacks, saying that "companies of our size unfortunately
experience cyberattacks nearly every day. We have
multiple layers of defense to counteract any threats and
constantly monitor fraud levels."
Representatives for Wells Fargo, Bank of America and
Citigroup -- also frequent targets for hackers -- could not
be immediately reached for comment.
(1st November 2014)
WHERE ARE OUR BORDERS ?
When you leave the UK you will have your passport
checked at an airlines ticket desk. You may have even
have had to enter your passport details online when
checking-in. If you were going to the USA, you would have
to complete an ESTA application. All of these details would
have been checked and checked again at the departure
gate. A similar thing applies at Eurostar and ferries. That is
leaving the country, what about coming in ?
Well, when using Eurostar there is the French passport
control. Then a few yards later there is the UK passport
control (on French soil). As for airports in other countries,
Loeb)
www.policeoracle.com [Option 1]
Breaking up police forces could be preferable to mergers,
a police and crime commissioner (PCC) has suggested.
Former businessman Matthew Ellis, Staffordshire's
Conservative PCC, said small and medium sized forces
could be more viable in the future than any new
"superforces" - which he attacked as a "stack them high,
sell them cheap" idea.
He warned that larger forces would be "less able to meet
local need", adding: "Bigger doesn't always equal better.
The bigger you get, the more inefficiencies are built into
the system."
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary recently
announced that some smaller forces risked becoming
economically inviable.
But Mr Ellis said he did not believe there was a link
between the size of a force and its viability. In an interview
with PoliceOracle.com, he claimed Staffordshire Police had
a "geographical footprint" that is economically optimum.
"We're pretty well straight until 2020, and I've inherited
the same situation as anyone else," he said. "In my view
Staffordshire is an optimum size."
The idea of creating smaller instead of larger force areas
has also been mooted by others, including police
governance analyst Bernard Rix.
Custody battle
Mr Ellis has hit the headlines in recent months with his
outspoken campaign to ensure adequate provision in local
hospitals so detainees sectioned under the Mental Health
Act never need be locked up in police cells.
He will this week ask North Staffordshire Healthcare NHS
Trust to sign a pledge to keep their mental health suite
25/news/police-warn-public-against-black-white-moneyscams-6724878336/
The Malta Police Force this afternoon issued a warning to
the public about persons carrying out 'black/white money
scams' in Malta.
"The perpetrators of these scams usually start by saying
that they are in possession of a quantity of money that
has been smuggled out of their country of origin. In order
to evade the authorities, this alleged money will have
been hidden by using black ink (hence black money) or
bleached (white money). They will also sell chemicals
purportedly to be used to restore the money to its original
state.
More often than not, they will set up a demonstration of
this conversion to show how the money is to be cleaned
after purchase but this is no more than a trick.
Once the victim has purchased the money, no amount of
chemicals will restore the money as this was never actual
money in the first place but just black or white paper.
More often than not, the perpetrators will have left the
country by the time the Police receive any information.
Hence, it is strongly advised that members of the public
that receive such an offer refrain from engaging in such
deals and to contact the police immediately."
(1st November 2014)
FORCE INVESTS IN 400 BODY WORN CAMERAS
(Police Oracle, dated 23rd September 2014 author Ian
Weinfass)
www.policeoracle.com [Option 1]
Kent Police has become the latest force to invest in Body
Worn Video (BWV) for officers.
The force is giving the technology to local policing teams
public places.
The Acpo guidance focuses on those who stumble across it
as well as those that indulge in it. "The Metropolitan Police
Service (MPS) is committed to making PSEs safer for
both users and those who happen upon them when going
about their daily business."
PSEs can be dangerous places where rape, serious sexual
offences, serious assaults and robbery take place and go
unreported. Sites used exclusively by men - such as public
toilets - have historically been policed differently to
cruising and dogging sites, aided by a different set of legal
rules. Police action has often been triggered by public
concern.
"PSEs are complex environments and the use of them for
sexual activity is an emotive issue, which is more often
than not exacerbated by negative stereotypes and
prejudicial views," reads the guidance.
"It is our responsibility (with our partners) to make such
places safe places for all users, and prevent and detect
crimes. It is not our role to act as moral arbiters; we must
enforce the law proportionately, firmly, fairly and in an
even-handed way."
Also taking a softly-softly approach to public sex is
Brighton council, which recently received a number of
complaints over cruising in Dukes Mount park. Officials
reportedly suggested that The Greenery, a notorious gay
cruising spot in the park should allow bushes to grow
between 15ft and 20ft tall to afford privacy to outdoor
fornicators.
For those public sex environments outside of public
lavatories, the common law and statute law is usually only
concerned with those situations where a member of the
public is likely to chance upon public sex and be alarmed
or distressed by what they see.
But most dogging and cruising areas are deliberately
internal use.
She said: "We should get rid of crime figures. They are not
a measure of police performance."
She said police officers "do more than just deal with
crime", adding: "Purely measuring police performance in
terms of recorded crime is what has led us to where we
are now.
"If we get so focussed on reducing crime at all costs, that's
when we start to skew activity."
Ch Supt Curtis made her remarks during a question and
answer discussion at the conference in Warwickshire,
where she spoke alongside fellow panellists Baroness
Newlove, Shami Chakrabarti, and shadow policing minister
Jack Domey.
Mr Dromey said statistics could not be used as a viable
measure of crime owing to under-reporting.
"You could accommodate in a telephone box the number
of people who believe the veracity of the statement that
all is well and crime is falling," he added.
Post incident procedures
Other issues that were debated included post incident
procedures for firearms officers. The Independent Police
Complaints Commission has recently finished a
consultation on the issue and are expected to reveal the
results shortly.
Mr Dromey said he was "instinctively against" allowing
officers to confer.
He added: "I am instinctively worried about the ability to
confer because it does suggest the ability to concoct."
Ms Chakrabarti, Director of human rights campaign group
Liberty, said public confidence in the investigation of fatal
shootings by police was damaged by the perception that
officers were being allowed to "write the script together".
She added: "It's human nature to want to have one story,
but there is never just one story."
But Ch Supt Curtis said she was against proposals to split
up teams of officers until initial statements about an
incident had been taken from them.
"I think it's a huge risk if we go down that route," she said.
"There is so much evidence out there that tells us that the
best evidence comes when officers have had the
opportunity to have that initial debrief."
"We roughly know who they are. If we can take them out
of the equation then the rest will fall down," he said.
Although, he added, fighting cybercrime remained an
uphill battle.
"This is not a static number, it will increase unfortunately,"
he said.
"We can still cope but the criminals have more resources
and they do not have obstacles. They are driven by greed
and profit and they produce malware at a speed that we
have difficulties catching up with."
The biggest issue facing cybercrime fighters at the
moment was the fact that it was borderless, he told the
BBC.
"Criminals no longer come to our countries, they commit
their crimes from a distance and because of this I cannot
use the normal tools to catch them.
"I have to work with countries I am not used to working
with and that scares me a bit," he said
The majority of the cybercrime "kingpins" were located in
the Russian-speaking world, he said.
Relationships with Russian law enforcers have not always
been good but were "improving". He revealed that he had
recently been on a trip to Moscow to discuss four big
cybercrime cases and was hopeful that arrests and jail
sentences would follow.
Mr Oerting described how Russian-speaking criminal
gangs were creating and testing malware and then selling
it as a service in online forums.
"Then it is downloaded by all kinds of criminals, from
Eastern Europe, Europe, Africa and America," he said.
"I think that should also count for the digital world. I hate
to talk about backdoors but there has to be a possibility
for law enforcement, if they are authorised, to look inside
at what you are hiding in your online world."
(1st November 2014)
SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AT ITS WORST
LEVEL FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS
(London Evening Standard, dated 8th September 2014
author Martin Bentham)
www.standard.co.uk [Option 1]
Sexual violence against women is at its worst level for
more than 30 years, one of Scotland Yard's top female
officers warned today.
Commander Christine Jones spoke out as she announced
new "Al Capone" tactics to target the capital's most
serious domestic abusers.
She said violent pornography, the use of rape as "a
weapon of choice" and a culture in which girls were
pressured into posting explicit images on social media
were all part of an "unacceptable" attitude towards
women.
Commander Jones, who leads the Met's efforts to combat
domestic abuse, said more women would suffer unless
"we as a civilised society say that this is not acceptable
to us".
The Met is to target 160 of London's most prolific and
dangerous domestic abusers with tactics modelled on
those used to jail US gangster Al Capone in the Thirties.
Officers will examine tax records, benefit claims and other
aspects of an abuser's life to find ways to prosecute those
who might escape charges because their victim is too
scared to testify.
apologise-victims.html
Rapists and child abusers are escaping punishment and
being allowed to walk free by police if they say sorry to
their victims.
New figures show that some those accused of sexual
offences are being handed community resolution orders,
also known as restorative justice.
The orders are often used to punish youths so they do not
get a criminal record and usually involve the offender
making a verbal or written apology to their victim.
However, it is now emerged that in 2012/13, Wiltshire
Police dealt with around 30 serious sexual offences, which
included rape and sexual activity with a child, by handing
out a community resolution order.
In a return check last year, it found 58 people accused of
sexual offence allegations, including five of rape, were
handed the orders.
Crime statistics for the Wiltshire force area show that
between May 2013 and July 2014, there were 142 violent
and sexual crimes.
Now victims' groups have spoken out and criticised the
procedure saying it does not send a tough message to
offenders that their behaviour is unacceptable.
Details of the practice at Wiltshire Police were revealed in
a report by HM Inspectorate of Constabularies, which
branded their use of community resolution orders for
sexual offences as 'unacceptable'.
The report states: 'An internal report in 2012/13 concludes
that "Wiltshire Police has intentionally or inadvertently,
manipulated the recording of sexual offences and thereby
improved the perception of performance".
'The report estimates the number of rapes not recorded at
a major problem.
International gangs are said to be diversifying elements of
their operations from drug trafficking and armed robbery
into fraudulent foods.
Michael Ellis, assistant director of Interpol, told BBC News:
"This has changed the scope of investigations. Criminals
have realised that they can make the same amount of
money by dealing with counterfeit food. Invariably the
sentences are much lighter.
"In my experience, the patterns used by criminals involved
in counterfeiting are very similar to those used in the
dealing of drugs. They operate front companies, they
employ front bank accounts, they will have false
declarations for the movement of their goods, they will
mis-declare their shipments."
Operation Opson III in December 2013 and January 2014
involved coordinated raids across 33 countries in the
Americas, Asia and Europe.
More than 131,000 litres of oil and vinegar, 20 tonnes of
spices and condiments, nearly 430,000 litres of counterfeit
drink and 45 tonnes of dairy products were seized. In
addition, 96 people were arrested.
Food crime can have fatal consequences. In China in 2008,
an industrial chemical, melamine, was added to increase
the protein content of baby milk. Six babies died of severe
kidney damage as a result.
In the Czech Republic in 2012, more than 40 people were
killed by vodka and rum that had been laced with
methanol.
Mr Ellis said: "Counterfeiting impacts on everyone. The
criminals have no care at all for the hygiene or bacterial
content in the end product. They just want the brand
name in order to get their money."
Full article :
http://home.bt.com/lifestyle/motoring/motoringfeatures/th
e-end-of-the-tax-disc-a-drivers-guide-11363928704833
Sadly it's not the end of Vehicle Excise Duty altogether,
but the long-serving tax disc will shortly be phased out.
Here's what you need to know to make sure you stay legal
and avoid a hefty fine.
What's happening?
From October 1st this year all vehicles will no longer
receive a paper tax disc to indicate that Vehicle Excise
Duty has been paid. That means cars, motorbikes and
scooters, vans, buses and lorries.
How will the police know I have tax?
Rather than relying on the presence of a disc the police
will use ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition)
cameras to check the DVLA's database that your vehicle is
taxed. These have already been in use for several years
and can check the presence of VED much more quickly.
How do I get my road tax?
You can apply to renew your VED online or at the Post
Office as before, but you won't come away with a tax disc.
The VED database will be updated so you know you'll be
legal. In addition from November 1st it will be possible to
pay for one year's VED by monthly direct debit, helping to
spread the cost.
What happens when I sell my car?
Any outstanding tax left on your car when it is sold is no
longer valid, so it is imperative you notify the DVLA as
soon as possible so that you are no longer responsible for
the tax status of the vehicle. Any outstanding months
remaining will be refunded, but only whole months will be
paid so it makes sense to do this towards the end of the
month.
AUGUST 2014
COMPUTING SECURITY REVIEW - AUGUST 2014
----------------------ATTACK TARGETS AUO INDUSTRY FIRMS IN EUROPE
(Computer World, dated 25th August 2014 author Lucian
Constantin)
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/article/2598560/malwarevulnerabilities/attack-targets-auto-industry-firms-ineurope.html
Cybercriminals are using a new information-stealing
malware program to target companies from the
automobile industry in Europe, security researchers
warned.
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/s/article/9250136/Researchers_t
o_name_the_most_hackable_cars_at_Black_Hat_?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-08-05
A report to be presented this week at the Black Hat USA
conference in Las Vegas will detail which vehicles are most
vulnerable to hacker attacks via a car's Bluetooth,
telematics or on-board phone applications.
Researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, who in the
past have issued reports on the most vulnerable vehicles,
intend to release an update showing the most and least
hackable cars.
"A malicious attacker leveraging a remote vulnerability
could do anything from enabling a microphone for
eavesdropping to turning the steering wheel to disabling
the brakes," the researchers said in a brief outlining their
upcoming report. "Unfortunately, research has only been
presented on three or four particular vehicles. Each
manufacturer designs their fleets differently; therefore
analysis of remote threats must avoid generalities."
------------------------ANDROID VULNERABILITY STILL A THREAT AFTER NEARLY
TWO YEARS
(Computer World, dated 1st August 2014 author Lucian
Constantin)
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/s/article/9250110/Android_vulne
rability_still_a_threat_after_nearly_two_years?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-08-04
Security researchers have recently found a vulnerability
that could be used to hijack Android apps and devices, but
"I want to see every one of these victims getting the right
support now and for as long as it takes them to help them
on the path to recovery."
Maggie Atkinson, children's commissioner for England,
said the number of identified child victims was "largely
consistent" with the findings of their own national inquiry
into "child sexual exploitation in gangs and groups
'Horrific experiences'
Rotherham council's chief executive, Martin Kimber, said
he accepted the report and the recommendations made
and apologised to the victims of abuse.
He said: "The report does not make comfortable reading in
its account of the horrific experiences of some young
people in the past, and I would like to reiterate our sincere
apology to those who were let down when they needed
help.
"I commissioned this independent review to understand
fully what went wrong, why it went wrong and to ensure
that the lessons learned in Rotherham mean these
mistakes can never happen again.
"The report confirms that our services have improved
significantly over the last five years and are stronger
today than ever before.
"This is important because it allows me to reassure young
people and families that should anyone raise concerns we
will take them seriously and provide them with the support
they need.
"However, that must not overshadow - and certainly does
not excuse - the finding that for a significant amount of
time the council and its partners could and should have
done more to protect young people from what must be
one of the most horrific forms of abuse imaginable."
the Welsh political party that made the FoI request about
incidents in Wales, said: "My fear is that one day someone
may die in a police car while on the way to hospital
because an ambulance is not available.
"There clearly needs to be better management within the
NHS so that vehicles aren't tied up waiting at hospitals."
Mike Collins, Director of Service Delivery at the Welsh
Ambulance Service, said the service was working with
police to reduce instances "where our emergency
colleagues are awaiting an ambulance response."
He added: "Despite the increase in calls that we
experience year on year we are actually reaching more
and more people across Wales than ever before.
"We recognise that on occasions we are short of the eightminute target for these most serious calls but are working,
and will continue to work, as hard as we can to get to
patients as quickly as possible."
Last year the Police Federation warned that police were
being asked to fill gaps where other emergency services
were under strain because of cuts.
Cumbria's new Chief Constable Jerry Graham also recently
said the police was now regarded as the "organisation of
last resort."
He added: "The instinct of officers is to help people. As
other public services have had to take cuts we have found
ourselves increasingly filling these gaps."
(1st September 2014)
LONDON HAS "THE MOST CRIME AGAINST SEX
WORKERS", REPORT FINDS
(BBC News, dated 12th August 2014)
Full article : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englandlondon-28748972
RAPE CASES
(London Evening Standard, dated 1st August 2014 author
Martin Bentham)
www.standard.co.uk
A new spray which will speed up police investigations into
rape and other offences by making it easier to detect body
fluids is to be developed by the Met and London university
scientists.
The spray contains "biosensor" detection molecules that
will turn different colours on contact with semen, blood
and saliva.
A Met document says the spray, being developed by the
force with scientists at King's College, will be able to
identify "trace amounts of body fluids not visible using
existing white light searching techniques" and halve the
time it takes to search for such fluids.
Announcing the plan, Home Office policing minister Mike
Penning said the Met and King's College were on the verge
of a "major technological breakthrough" which could "help
to solve crimes and secure justice for victims".
The research will be funded with a 113,000 grant from
the Home Office's police innovation fund.
(1st September 2014)
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-07-31
Hacker Gary McKinnon has reinvented himself as an online
search expert, after winning a 10-year fight against
extradition to the US for breaking into military computers
to look for evidence of UFOs.
In a bid to market his talents, Glasgow-born McKinnon has
set up a consultancy business, dubbed Small SEO, that
pledges to manipulate certain aspects of company
websites so that they appear higher in search engine
results - a process known as search engine optimization
(SEO).
McKinnon, who markets himself as someone with 20 years
IT experience on his firm's website, is charging 40 British
pounds an hour for his SEO services.
A number of companies have already signed up to use the
services McKinnon is offering through Small SEO. They
include London law firm Kaim Todner, tutoring service
GMAT Tutor London, Oxfordshire hair salon The Hair Safari,
and child safety door stop maker Jamm Products.
--------------------------------11 SIGNS THAT YOU HAVE BEEN HACKED
(Computer World, dated 26th July 2014 author Roger A
Grimes)
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/s/article/9249968/11_signs_you_
39_ve_been_hacked_and_how_to_fight_back?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-07-30
In today's threatscape, antivirus software provides little
piece of mind, and antimalware scanners on the whole are
horrifically inaccurate, especially with exploits less than 24
hours old. Despite modern heuristics, virtualized
environments, system monitoring, and network traffic
detection, hackers still reach us on a regular basis.
software is used.
Its content is hidden from conventional search engines
such as Google and Bing. Commonly used apps such as
Instagram, WhatsApp and Evernote - whose content does
not show up in search results either - are not covered by
the term.
Britain's National Crime Agency recognises the drug trade
on the dark net is a threat.
"It's a big problem," says Caroline Young, deputy director
of the NCA's Organised Crime Command.
"In our threat assessment we have cocaine and heroin as
a high priority, and because it's cyber-enabled that makes
it even more of a high priority."
However, she said the figures might be misleading.
"The numbers of vendors in the UK has reduced by 40%,
each vendor may have more than one listing," she says.
One internet safety campaigner was concerned by the
findings.
"We still think the internet can be a wonderful tool for
consumers and businesses, but we do worry good people
and companies get caught up in the web spun by
criminals and rogue operators," said Adam Benson, deputy
executive director of Digital Citizens Alliance.
"That will slowly erode the trust and confidence we have in
the internet."
After months of negotiations, a dark net drug dealer based
outside the UK agreed to answer my questions.
He would only do it anonymously and using encrypted
messages.
"To us the dark net is all about anonymity and freedom,"
he said.
I put it to him that he was still selling dangerous
substances and supporting organised crime.
"A street dealer could sell you anything without you
knowing what it is exactly," he replied. "Because of the
strong community on the dark net, this almost never
happens. And when it happens, the vendor in question will
lose all of his clients."
He added that the online drugs trade showed no signs of
reducing."I've seen the dark net market grow almost
exponentially."
Undesired publicity
Californian Ross Ulbricht was arrested last year and is
awaiting trial charged with being the administrator of the
original Silk Road site, which he denies.
Customers and dealers used encrypted email and paid
using the virtual currency Bitcoin, which can be hard to
track.
The FBI seized the site and confiscated all funds. But some
observers say that has only increased interest in the
markets.
Deepdotweb.com is a website that observes developments
on the hidden web. A representative from the site said:
"The Silk Road bust was the best advertising the dark net
markets could have hoped for."
Anonymous network
One of the most popular access methods for the dark net
is the TorBrowser.
It allows people to use Tor, an "onion-routing" system that
makes a PC's net address untraceable.
It bounces encrypted data through several randomly
year.
Stephen Greenhalgh, the deputy mayor for policing, also
dubbed the national Home Office funded Action Fraud
centre as "No Further Action Fraud" as he called for a new
drive to investigate the crime.
In a strongly worded attack he criticised the police lack of
action at the launch of the first ever 'Business Crime
Strategy' for London.
A report by the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime says
the police response to investigating fraud is "inadequate"
highlighting that an "astonishing" small number of fraud
cases are actually solved by police in London.
Figures show that a total of 81,631 frauds were reported to
police by London businesses in 2013/14.
A total of 758 of these were deemed "solvable" by the City
of London Police run National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.
However, only 177 cases were passed to the Met to
investigate and just nine were successfully prosecuted last
year. Ninety five cases are still being investigated.
Mr Greenhalgh told the Standard the figures were
"shocking" saying: "I think it is a disgrace. There is no
doubt that the police response to fraud and cyber fraud is
inadequate."
He said there was a perception that fraud was victimless
but cited the case of his sister who had worked hard to
build up a small business but lost 100,000 to a fraudster.
"The police response was woeful," he said. "They did not
act and my parents had to bail her out from their own
pension money."
New measures to combat business crime announced by
Boris Johnson today include a "resilience centre" to help
protect small businesses from fraud and specialist police
units to help fraud and investigate on line business crime.
effects operations."
Staff are instead directed to an alternative page, which
has not been leaked.
"The accusation that GCHQ has been manipulating polls
and influencing and distorting political discourse is
incredibly serious," said Emma Carr, acting director of the
Big Brother Watch campaign group.
"The UK is always the first to point the finger at countries
if there is a whiff of corruption or interference within a
democratic process, so if senior ministers are aware that
this is taking place then this absolutely stinks of hypocrisy.
"It is essential that the government directly addresses
these accusations, otherwise they are at risk of losing the
international moral high ground."
(9th August 2014)
UK GUN CRIME : SHOULD POLICE RETRY GUN
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY
(BBC News, dated 14th July 2014 author Ed Ram)
www.bbc.co.uk
San Francisco is scaling up its use of an intelligent gunshot
sensor system - but when the same scheme was trialled in
the UK it was abandoned after two years. However, the
technology of the sensors has improved, so is it time to
retry the system?
It sounds like a no-brainer. A tried and tested network of
listening sensors are placed around a city and can
instantly pinpoint where a gunshot has come from within
seconds of the weapon being fired.
ShotSpotter promises to save police having to hunt doorto-door in the vague vicinity of a blast. It analyses the way
the sound waves from the gun firing radiate out reaching
microphones at slightly different times.
Bedlock said.
Even so, Birmingham - and other UK cities that eyed
ShotSpotter - might be wise to remain reticent.
ShotSpotter is optimised to handle the very specific
noises, frequencies and decibel levels created by
conventional weapons.
But while such weapons may be relatively easy to come
by in the US and parts of Latin America, they are less
common in the UK.
As a result, criminals in Britain often resort to other types
of firearms, including ones that shoot pellets and electric
stun guns.
A review of the 22 injuries caused by guns in
Birmingham's west and central areas between April 2011
and March 2012 reveals that the majority were the result
of air-rifles and BB air guns.
"A higher sensor density might permit such modified
weapons to be detected, but the economic equation
would, again, need to be reviewed," said Mr Bedlock.
It's not impossible that ShotSpotter will return to the UK.
The Home Office notes that it is "down to each regional
police force" as to whether it invests in the equipment.
But for now it seems this is one instance where the
traditional trumps cutting edge tech - at least where
British cities are involved.
(9th August 2014)
BUTLER-SLOSS STEPS DOWN FROM CHILD ABUSE
INQUIRY
(BBC News, dated 14th July 2014)
Full article : www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28295282
I've always been puzzled by the fact that Italy has two
police forces, although Italians don't seem to find it
strange at all.
If you ask "why two?" they'll tell you, by way of
unsatisfactory explanation, the polizia are the regular
state police while the carabinieri are part of the army.
The real reason is a quirk of history.
The carabinieri are actually older than Italy itself. Their
force was founded by Victor Emanuel I, Duke of Savoy and
King of Sardinia almost half a century before modern Italy
came into existence.
Their name comes from the carabina, the rifle they
traditionally carried.
Among the famous people they've arrested over the past
two centuries, they can even boast one of Italy's founding
fathers, Giuseppe Garibaldi - twice.
When Italy was unified, the royal corps of carabinieri
remained a nationwide military presence performing law
enforcement duties so, in many ways, functioning as a
duplicate police force.
In fact, you're just as likely to hear an Italian threaten to
call the carabinieri as the polizia.
For one you dial 112, for the other 113 - but most Italians
I've challenged don't know which is which, even though it
says 112 on the side of the carabinieri's cars.
And just like the police, they're loved and loathed: hailed
for acts of courage, condemned for excessive violence.
But the one thing they're best known for is being the
national butt of politically incorrect jokes: where once the
English featured an Irishman, the Italians have a
carabiniere.
"If you don't want your data recovered, destroy the phone
- and that has been standard security advice, in relation to
telephones and computer drives, for a number of years.
Any other 'solution' simply postpones the point at which
someone is able to access your confidential data."
(9th August 2014)
POLICE BLAMED OVER 1985 CHERRY GROCE
BRIXTON SHOOTING
(BBC News, dated 10th July 2014)
Full article : www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london28248588
Police failures contributed to Dorothy "Cherry" Groce's
death, whose shooting triggered the 1985 Brixton riots, a
jury inquest has found.
Mrs Groce was shot by police looking for her son Michael
and paralysed from the waist down. She died of kidney
failure in 2011.
The jury at Southwark Coroner's Court found police failed
to communicate properly and adequately check who was
living at the property before the raid.
Her son was never charged.
Eight failures
The jury found there were eight failures made by police
during the raid and her "subsequent death was
contributed to by failures in the planning and
implementation of the raid".
These included not properly briefing police officers that Mr
Groce was no longer wanted by police, failing to
adequately check who lived at the property or to carry out
adequate observations on the house.
On the morning of the shooting, four children were present
at the property.
The jury also concluded that officers should have called off
the raid entirely during a police briefing but failed to do so.
However, they found there was no failure by police to call
off the raid once it had begun.
The mother-of-eight died 26 years after the shooting in
2011, at the age of 63, from an illness which a pathologist
directly linked to the gunshot injury.
'Police shouted'
Dr Robert Chapman said that during a post-mortem
examination, he found small metal fragments from the
bullet still lodged in the base of her spine.
Mrs Groce had also became more susceptible to a host of
debilitating illnesses as a result of the injury, the court
heard.
Her shooting by Metropolitan Police Inspector Douglas
Lovelock sparked two days of unrest in Brixton during
which shops were looted and petrol bombs thrown.
Mr Lovelock, who admitted being responsible for the
wound, told the inquest he had apprehensions about going
on the job and said he felt shocked when he mistakenly
shot her.
He told the court that after shooting her he thought: "I
hope to Christ it is shock and I have missed."
In a statement taken after the shooting and read to the
jury, Mrs Groce said that as she lay bleeding, police
continued to shout at her.
They asked her if she knew where Michael was, as they
were searching for him in connection with an armed
robbery.
Mr Lovelock stood trial in 1987 charged with inflicting
It also states that opening times for the offices "do not
appear fit for purpose" and fail to take into account local
demand.
The Met review found people supported the idea but
wanted changes to locations and opening times and
criticised the "look and feel" of the new offices.
It says contact points were used by an average of just 1.3
"customers" a week and "do not appear to offer
particularly good value for money". Each "customer" using
the counters is estimated to cost 84 in staffing.
The police report says the Mayor's Office for Policing and
Crime, which plans to open 116 new front counters, should
consider increasing the minimum opening times from
three to six hours a week.
London Assembly Labour spokeswoman Joanne McCartney
said: "These figures are startling. When Boris [Johnson]
decided to close police stations he promised an
'equivalent or better service', but was warned repeatedly
that these contact points were insufficient.
"Londoners need to know where to find their local police
officers and for this to be a safe and private place for
victims to report crime and get advice. With only 1.3
visitors per week to contact points, the Mayor needs to
admit that this experiment has failed and urgently rethink
his approach."
Original plans to open police counters in coffee shops were
abandoned after consultation while a similar scheme to
station police in post offices was also rejected.
The numbers of people reporting crimes at front counters
has fallen by more than 100,000 - almost half - since
2006/07 as people turn to other forms of communication,
including online.
A recent report revealed the Met had raised 125?million
officials.
4 July: The prime minister orders a senior civil servant to
look again at the 2013 Home Office review.
7 July: Lord Brittan dismisses claims he failed to act
appropriately on Mr Dickens' claims as "completely
without foundation".
(9th August 2014)
EU SET FOR MORE POLICING POWERS
(Press Association, dated 5th July 2014 via Daily Mail)
Full articl : www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article2681322/EU-SET-FOR-MORE-POLICING-POWERS.html
David Cameron has secretly opened the door to the
transfer of more policing powers to the European Union, it
has been reported.
The Times said that British ministers had informed
Brussels that they will make a decision on whether to join
a Europe-wide DNA database by 1st December 2015 - six
months after the general election.
The paper said that a leaked document had revealed the
Government was considering the sharing of DNA records
along with a number of other additional measures.
Both Downing Street and the Home Office refused to
comment on the report directly, saying they did not
comment on leaked documents.
However, the disclosure is likely to anger Tory MPs who are
bitterly opposed to Britain's participation in the
controversial European arrest warrant.
The warrant is one of 35 measures that the Government is
currently re-negotiating to rejoin after using its opt out
Baker)
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/s/article/9248835/Google_gets_o
ver_41_000_requests_to_forget_personal_data?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-06-05
Google has already received around 41,000 requests to
delete links to personal information from its search results
in the three weeks since a key ruling by the European
Court of Justice about the so-called right to be forgotten.
On May 13 the court ordered Google to remove links to a
Spanish newspaper notice about a mortgage foreclosure
against Costeja GonzA!lez, a 58-year-old lawyer, because
it infringed his right to privacy. The paper itself was not
ordered to remove the information, but GonzA!lez
successfully argued that the links displayed by Google to
this information about him had become inadequate and
irrelevant over time.
In response to the ruling, Google put a form on its website
to make it easier for it to process requests to delete links.
The search giant, which processes more than 90 percent
of all web searches in Europe, described the form as "an
initial effort" to comply with the ruling.
---------------------------------------------------ISPs URGED TO QUARANTINE INFECTED COMPUTERS
(Computer World, dated 3rd June 2014 author Lucian
Constantin)
Full article :
www.computerworld.com/s/article/9248812/ISPs_urged_to_
quarantine_infected_computers?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-06-04
The recent effort to disrupt the Gameover Zeus botnet
includes plans for Internet service providers to notify
victims, but some security researchers think ISPs should
play an even bigger role in the future by actively
quarantining infected computers identified on their
networks.
Law enforcement agencies from several countries
including the FBI and Europol announced Monday that
they worked with security vendors to disrupt the
Gameover Zeus botnet, which is estimated to have
affected between 500,000 and 1 million computers.
- to rescue children
- to prosecute their abusers
- to stop the trade in obscene images
Predator has led to more than 1,000 arrests across the
world in the past six months, 29 of those were in the UK.
Lt Grossman says paedophiles trade images across the
world, which demands a global response from law
enforcement. "Your suspects are our suspects, your
victims are our victims," she says."I start my day at 04:00,
so I can talk to the Brits, the Australians, to any
international partner." Her team also has access to
software that can track in real time paedophiles accessing
images on peer-to-peer networks.
Earlier this year Lt Grossman and a colleague were in
London training 100 British detectives from across the UK.
They taught their UK counterparts advanced techniques
for tracking suspects online and gathering evidence.
British arrest
The cooperation between the US and UK has led to some
high profile arrests.Earlier this year a British man called
Mark Luscombe was jailed after an operation which began
in the US. Luscombe, 29, of Verwood, Dorset, used a
paedophile chat room online. He contacted an undercover
agent from Homeland Security who was posing as a man
offering his children for sex.
The 29-year-old offered to send the officer indecent
images of children in exchange for watching a girl being
abused live on a webcam. Luscombe was sentenced to
five years in jail after pleading guilty to 16 offences at
Bournemouth Crown Court. BBC News has obtained access
to his police interview tapes. In them Luscombe tells
officers that he thought he might be under surveillance.
"I know I probably spoke to one of you and that's how you
probably got me," he said. He also admitted that he
needed help. "I've always felt this way, I know it's bad and
wrong... it's just wired up."
Detective Superintendent Chris Naughton from Dorset
police believes this conviction sends a powerful
message."From us receiving the information to going
through his door was about 48 hours," he says. "I think
that shows how well [international cooperation] works."
Undercover agent
Homeland Security regularly deploys undercover officers
online. Special Agent Kevin Laws has been doing the job
for a decade and has made 60 arrests. He poses on incest
chat rooms as a father offering his children for sex with
other adults. "This is as bad as it gets," he tells us.
He gets frequent requests from people who want to meet
him and abuse the fictitious children, including people
from the UK. "Oh every day, it's a rare time I don't speak
to someone in the UK," he says. He admits that his work is
like "a drop of sand in the ocean", but that it does send a
clear message to abusers. "We might not get you today or
tomorrow, but we will get you, and it will be when you
least expect it."
Online images accumulate
- In 2002 the US National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children reviewed and confirmed 45,055 examples of
obscene images of children found online (some of these
were duplicates)
- In 2013 the figure had grown to 23,881,197
- As of May 2014, the centre had reviewed 112 million files
containing images of child sexual abuse
Predator detentions
- In 2003, 339 arrests were made worldwide in connection
with Operation Predator
- In 2013, the number had grown to 2,099
- To date, the total number of arrests linked to the
operation totals 10,608
(3rd July 2014)
www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/jun/25/us-guntraffickers-handguns-rifles
Analysis of seized firearms related to US drug arrests
shows three quarters of weapons seized are handguns.
How do drug traffickers arm themselves? If we were to
take as gospel US TV shows such as Breaking Bad, we
could be left with the impression that gun battles are a
matter of each side pulling out semi-automatic rifles and
firing shots at their enemies.
Except that does not seem to be the case at all - at least
in the United States. The Small arms survey 2014,
released last week, looked at over 140,000 small arms
seized, light weapons and rounds of light weapon
ammunition seized by police forces in eight US cities
between 2007 and 2012. Of the total, 10,345 were linked
to felons, drug traffickers and gang members.
77% of the weapons were simply handguns, with 70% of
these being semi-automatic pistols. In contrast, rifles, such
as the Kalashnikov and AR-15, made up just 12%. The
number of machine guns seized was negligible.
Rifles make up 15.4% of the total followed by shotguns at
11.9%. The small amount of machine guns make up less
than one percent of the sample.
When looking specifically at handguns, semi-automatic
pistols were in the majority at 2,096 - that's almost three
times the amount of revolvers, which were the second
most-seized.
The report also collected data on gun seizures in Mexico,
where it appears the direct opposite was true. According
to a similar study in the 2013 edition of the survey, south
of the border, 72% of the guns seized were long guns
(machine guns, rifles, shotguns and sub-machine guns).
Only data from Houston and Los Angeles had sufficient
information to allow gun seizures to be linked to gang
Filtering system
Around four million people apply for a criminal records
check every year.
Last year, three Court of Appeal judges said the blanket
checks could breach the right to a private or family life.
After that ruling, the judges said it would be a matter for
Parliament to decide what amendments to make to
records check rules.
The Home Office has since introduced a system to filter
out single minor convictions or cautions.
But the government pursued an appeal against the Court
of Appeal ruling, saying the "protection of children and
vulnerable groups must not be compromised".
Working with children
The Supreme Court - the highest court in the UK and the
final court of appeal in cases of public importance - heard
the case on 9 December but has only just announced its
decision to rule against the government.
The BBC's legal affairs correspondent, Clive Coleman, said
the net effect of Wednesday's ruling was that the law
would remain as it was.
However, he said the decision could be relevant for
anyone applying for a job, especially if it involved working
with children or vulnerable people.
Under the new filtering system, cautions given to adults
are removed from criminal records checks after six years.
Cautions to children are filtered out after two years.
(3rd July 2014)
source=CTWNLE_nlt_securityissues_2014-05-21
Deleted files can often be recovered, and that's a problem
when you're passing your PC or PC-related tech along to
someone else. Whether it's sensitive financial data,
business documents, or scandalous photos that could be
used to blackmail you, you probably don't want people
getting their hands on your private stuff.
Fortunately, you can take steps to protect your data,
whether you're getting rid of a PC, external hard drive, or
USB stick. Here's how!
------------------------------------------------------ONLINE ADVERTISING ENDANGERS USER SECURITY,
PRIVACY
(ComputerWorld, dated 15th May 2014 author Lucian
Constantin)
Full article :
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9248375/Online_a
dvertising_endangers_user_security_privacy?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_securityissues_2014-05-21
The current state of online advertising endangers the
security and privacy of users and the U.S. Federal Trade
Commission should force the industry to offer better
protections through comprehensive regulation, the U.S.
Senate said in a report.
The report includes findings and recommendations of the
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the
Senate's Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs following an investigation into the
distribution of malware through online ads -- also known
as "malvertising." It was followed by a hearing Thursday
that included testimony from Yahoo and Google about
their efforts to combat such threats.
Constantin)
Full article :
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9248398/More_fa
ke_antivirus_apps_pop_up_in_Google_Play_Windows_Phone
_Store?source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-05-19
Last month Google offered refunds to users who bought a
fake antivirus app from Google Play, but the scam seems
to be catching on and security researchers have recently
identified similar apps in both the Android and Windows
Phone app stores.
Malware analysts from Kaspersky Lab found a fake app
called Kaspersky Mobile in the Windows Phone Store,
which is unusual because cybercriminals tend to target
Google Play and because Kaspersky doesn't even make an
antivirus product for Windows Phone.
The fake app, which was available for 149 rubles or around
US$4, used Kaspersky's logo and other branding elements
and even pretended to scan files when run, said Roman
Unuchek, senior malware analyst at Kaspersky Lab in a
blog post Thursday.
---------------------------------------------IS EU "RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN" REALLY THE "RIGHT TO
EDIT THE TRUTH" ?
(Computerworld, dated 14th May 2014 author Sharon
Gaudin)
Full article :
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9248345/Is_EU_s_
right_to_be_forgotten_really_the_right_to_edit_the_truth_?
source=CTWNLE_nlt_security_2014-05-16
(section 165(A).
Section 163 is thus inextricably linked with the exercise of
the powers conferred by sections 164-165(A) and other
powers in the Act, nothing more, nothing less, save for the
carrying out of road checks under the authority of section
4 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.
There is no power to detain a stationary vehicle - so it was
held by the Divisional Court in the case of Regina v
Waterfield (1964). In the case of Beard v Wood (1980) it
was held that the power to stop a vehicle is available
provided the constable is acting bona fide and not
capriciously.
In my view, it is difficult for a police officer engaged in an
operation of the kind mentioned in the question to claim
they are acting in good faith when it appears that the
object of the exercise or one of the principal objects of the
exercise is the enforcement of the civil law which is wholly
unconnected with police duties and responsibilities.
In the case of Lodwick v Saunders (1985) it was held that
a driver is under a duty to keep a vehicle at a standstill
while a constable has reasonable opportunity of exercising
his powers(confirming the foregoing rationale behind the
enactment of section 163) and this may include telling the
driver of his suspicions that a vehicle had been stolen and
to arrest him and thus to detain the vehicle against the
driver's will.
As correctly anticipated in the question, if having stopped
a motor vehicle a police officer does not then exercise a
police power and steps aside to allow the bailiffs to get on
with their work, the driver of the motor vehicle is entitled
to drive off and would commit no offence in doing so.
Irrespective of whether the operation under review had
been set up to assist the bailiffs in their work or the bailiffs
were availing themselves of the opportunities presented
by the road checks, I much lean to the view that when
examined as a whole it constitutes an irregular and
Total 209
Source: The College of Policing
(17th June 2014)
says Twyford.
Both the Tube network and buses are well-covered by
CCTV, a major tool for investigations. Images can then be
circulated among the police and public. Oyster data can
also be used: if users are registered to cards, the police
know where they tapped in and out, and can send officers
to those stations to pick them up there.
Sometimes, there is also DNA evidence. And - to serve as
a warning to others - when individuals are convicted, the
BTP publicises it, putting the sanction (such as the
perpetrator going on the sex offenders list) into the public
domain.
EVAW says it tends to be the same perpetrators again and
again. The charity also notes that teenage girls and
younger women are more heavily targeted, perhaps
because they may appear less confident and the
perpetrator may calculate that they are less likely to call
them out. But men can also be victims. One recalls being
groped aged 14 on a crammed tube train: "A man started
stroking my penis through my trousers. All I could do was
use my nearest hand to hold his hand away forcibly - I
didn't want to cause an incident in such a narrow
environment."
The low reporting rate also reflects the fact that some
victims are too upset to report the crimes and would
prefer not to relive it. Many of those who contacted me both women and men - said they were too shocked,
embarrassed or even ashamed either to draw attention to
it at the time, or to go to the police.
Sometimes, though, victims are also unsure whether a
crime has been committed. The law here is actually fairly
straight-forward: as soon as a person makes contact with
someone in a sexual manner without consent - which can
include pressing up against someone - that is sexual
assault. Exposing genitals or masturbating in public can
bring charges of "outraging public decency", and
aggressive sexual comments can be an offence under
homeowners.
Met police figures show that only eight suspects were
charged with squatting in a residential building during the
first two months of this year. That compares with 46
charges in the first two months after legislation outlawing
squatting came into effect, in September 2012.
Those convicted of the offence can face up to six months
in prison and a 5,000 fine. Shortly after it came into
force, the number of people charged hit a monthly peak of
28. But since February last year it has remained in single
figures every month.
The total number of squatting prosecutions in the capital
since the law came into effect is 138.
The figures, released under the Freedom of Information
Act, show that more than half of suspects came from
eastern Europe, with 52 Romanians and 23 Poles charged.
Britons accounted for 26 suspects and there were six
Spaniards, five Lithuanians, two Algerians, two Nepalese
and two Latvians. Housing charities and other
campaigners opposed to the new law had claimed it would
criminalise large numbers of homeless people. But the Met
said it appeared that the legislation was in fact putting off
potential offenders.
"Awareness of police powers to deal with squatting has
perhaps both increased confidence in homeowners who
become victims, and acted as a deterrent to potential
offenders," said a Scotland Yard spokesman.
Some Conservative MPs have called for the legislation,
which covers only residential buildings, to be extended to
commercial property. They cite cases in which squatters
have taken over pubs and even a former police station.
The Met said it was "not aware of an increase in squatting
in commercial premises", but would support property
owners if offences were identified.
The first person to be jailed under the new law was Alex
Haigh, 21. In September 2012 he was given a 12-week
sentence by Westminster magistrates for squatting in a
flat in Pimlico.
Charges since ban came in (number of people
charged)
2012
Sept : 18
Quarter 4 :58
2013
Quarter
Quarter
Quarter
Quarter
1
2
3
4
:21
:15
:8
:10
2014
Jan : 0
Feb : 8
(17th June 2014)
www.standard.co.uk [Option 1]
Cyber crime is driving a huge surge in fraud offences, with
seven out of 10 scams now involving an IT element, a
police chief warned today.
Detective Superintendent Pete O'Doherty, head of the
National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, likened the offence to
"modern-day burglary".
He said: "From what I see day in and day out, cyber crime
is rapidly increasing, both in volume and in complexity. As
a pure crime, but also as facilitator for other crimes. It is
evolving at a rapid pace."
The total number of fraud offences reported to police
nearly doubled in the last financial year. There were
230,845 frauds recorded in 2013/14 - more than 630 a day
- compared to 122,240 the previous year, an 89 per cent
increase.
Mr O'Doherty said that about 70 per cent of these scams
now involved a "cyber element", compared to around 40
per cent five or so years ago.
He added: "Cyber fraud has been described as the
modern-day burglary. Now you don't have to be in a
person's house to rob them - you can be sitting in Russia,
for example, and using servers to rob someone in London.
It is a global threat."
The number of "pure" cyber crimes reported - such as
computer virus attacks on companies - has also soared in
the last year, from 11,523 to 22,315.
There were 494 cases of companies saying that their
computer servers had been hacked.
About 6,000 people also told police their social media
accounts such as Facebook were hacked into, mostly by ID
fraudsters stealing details of their personal lives. A recent
WONDER
(The Guardian, dated 24th April 2014 author Alan Travis)
Full article : www.theguardian.com/uknews/2014/apr/24/falling-crime-levels-no-one-year-wonder
For once the much-derided official figures tell a clear and
unambiguous story, overall crime levels in England and
Wales are not only down but fell in 2013 by the largest
annual drop on record - 15%.
The authoritative Crime Survey for England and Wales
published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also
makes clear that this was no one-year wonder but part of
an accelerating trend that has seen the biggest sustained
fall in crime since the second world war.
The level of incidents in 2013 at an estimated 7.5m crimes
is 25% lower than that seen five years ago. The ONS says
this is 60% lower than the 19m crimes that were officially
estimated to have taken place in 1995 when the post-war
crime rate peaked when Michael "prison works" Howard
was home secretary.
Perhaps the story is most clearly told by looking at what
has happened to the murder rate in England and Wales. In
the "bad old days" of the early 1960s when gangs such as
the Krays and the Richardsons terrorised London's East
End the number of homicides stood at about 300 a year.
But then murder rate rose steadily through the 1980s and
1990s to a peak of 1,047 deaths in 2002/03 when 172
victims of the killer GP, Dr Harold Shipman, were included
in the total. In the early years of the 21st century there
was an annual homicide toll in England and Wales of about
800 murders a year but that has since tumbled year on
year down to the 551 recorded by the police in 2013 nearly 50% below the peak.
The statisticians say the murder rate has fallen despite the
growth in the population from 15 homicides per million
The force has also changed its tactics towards gangrelated crimes, with more emphasis on enforcement and
preventative measures.
The force said that during the last financial year, more
than 1,400 gang members have been arrested and those
involved in gang-related crime were jailed for over 1,270
years.
A further 1,331 gang members are subject to judicial
restrictions such as gang injunctions, ASBOs, electronically
tagged or managed under License or Youth Referral
Orders.
Trident officers have seized more than 940,000 in cash
and about 330 firearms.
There has also been a 40% increase in officers visiting
victims of crime with 203,562 appointments held.
The decrease in reported crimes has been attributed to an
increase in "Big Wing operations" - whereby staff across
the Met join in on a day of action to target specific areas of
crime.
In November, a Met Police whistleblower said police forces
were routinely manipulating crime statistics in order to
meet targets; however, the force said how it recorded
crimes had been audited with a compliance rate of 95%.
But Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe later said
there was "some truth" to the allegations, and that an
investigation into the claims would report back later this
year.
(2nd June 2014)
www.standard.co.uk
An airport security review has been ordered across
America amid claims that a teenage stowaway who
sneaked onto a flight from California to Hawaii could just
as easily have been a terrorist bomber.
Video footage from San Jose Airport shows the 16-year-old
climbing over a perimeter fence at 1am on Sunday before
hiding in the left rear wheel well of a Boeing 767.
The boy, who has not been named, slipped through
multiple layers of security, including video cameras,
German shepherds and police officers on Segways.
He climbed onto the first plane he saw on the tarmac, not
realising that it was bound for Kahului Airport on the island
of Maui.
He passed out during the freezing five-hour, 2,350-mile
flight but survived relatively unscathed. Medical experts
say he sank into a hibernation-like state and only regained
consciousness an hour after the plane landed.
Authorities said the temperature at the jet's cruising
altitude of 38,000 feet could have dropped to 50 degrees
below zero or lower. Oxygen would have also been in short
supply at that height.
Jeff Price, an aviation security expert at Metropolitan State
University in Denver, told the Los Angeles Times: "People
go over the fence, they're caught. But he got all the way
to the aircraft.
"The question it brings up is: What's to stop somebody
from putting a bomb on the plane with the same method?"
(2nd June 2014)
OPERATION SANCTUARY
ARRESTS REACH 75
(BBC News, dated 17th April 2014)
The number of people arrested as part of an investigation
into allegations of sexual crime against vulnerable women
and girls on Tyneside has risen to 75.
Northumbria Police set up Operation Sanctuary in January
and have identified about 80 women and girls who are
potential victims.
The total number of people arrested is now 72 men and
three women.
Of these, 11 men are going through the court system
charged with various sexual offences, including rape.
---------------------------------------------SEX EXPLOITATION PROBE UNCOVERS HIDDEN CULTURE
OF ABUSE
(Chronicle Live, dated 28th March 2014 author Sophie
Doherty)
www.chroniclelive.co.uk [Option 1]
A police probe into the sexual exploitation of teenagers on
Tyneside has uncovered a hidden epidemic of abuse
stalking our streets.
A police probe into the sexual exploitation of teenagers on
Tyneside has uncovered a hidden epidemic of abuse
stalking our streets.
Northumbria Police launched Operation Sanctuary in
January with a wave of arrests after receiving a report
expressing concern for one girl.
But as the investigation continues detectives have
discovered a widespread problem of vulnerable women
and girls being abused by predatory men.
Operation Sanctuary has now been broadened to include
thing."
Police are currently half way through speaking to the 80
females they need to talk to.
But Operation Sanctuary is expected to continue long into
the future.
(2nd June 2014)
address in E10.
A 51 year old man was arrested at the address is being
held in custody, police said.
Under Home Office guidance, neither gun is classified as
an antique but a legal loophole allows both to be
considered as "antiques" under the law. All handguns were
banned in the UK in 1996 after the Dunblane school
massacre. However, the anomaly revolves around section
58 of the 1968 Firearms Act, which gives an exemption to
"antique" weapons if they are considered as "curiosities
or ornaments."
Campaigners say the Act fails to define "antique" but
leaves the matter to the police and courts to decide.
Detectives say there is evidence that "antique" guns have
been used in shootings in London, while police in
Birmingham say similar guns have been taken on at least
two robberies - one involving injury to a person.
Working guns traded online are sent in the post for 300
to 400 a time.
Detectives in London are understood to be investigating
several cases where individuals have arranged the
purchase of antique guns for gang members.
One gang squad detective in the capital said a boy aged
17 quoted the Firearms Act to officers when he was
stopped with a historical gun in east London. Police say
gang members are buying guns from dealers, often with
few questions asked, and then obtaining home-made
ammunition from underworld armourers.
The trend has prompted law enforcement agencies to
lobby the Home Office for tighter laws on the sale and
possession of antique guns.
The National Ballistics Intelligence Service, which keeps a
database of all guns seized by UK police forces, is calling
girls and boys in London for sexual abuse, says one of the
Met's most senior officers.
Some men pick up runaways and other vulnerable children
in cars. Other abusers are leaders of organised street
gangs who use their power to pressure girls into sex.
Scotland Yard warns that nearly 3,000 London children
could be at risk of abuse or other mistreatment that
requires intervention by police or other child protection
experts.
The alarming disclosures were made by Met Assistant
Commissioner Mark Rowley during an appearance before
the London Assembly.
It will heighten concern about the scale of hidden child
sex abuse in the capital. The findings follow a warning last
year by the deputy children's commissioner that
thousands of youngsters nationwide are being subjected
to sexual abuse by gangs and other groups after scandals
involving the exploitation of girls in Oxfordshire and
Rochdale. Mr Rowley said the Met's new figures were the
result of a new referral system for identifying children at
risk which had already picked up 487 cases during a sixmonth pilot in a handful of boroughs.
He said that was expected to produce an overall London
figure for children at risk of between 2,000 or 3,000 as the
system was expanded, but warned that serious organised
exploitation had already been uncovered. "I currently have
of the order of 10 organised crime type operations of
people abusing, usually girls, not always, but usually
girls".
He added: "We are seeing two broadly different profiles of
gang, you have the elder males, picking up runaways and
all the rest and exploiting them, taking them to hotels, etc.
And then you have the street gang type profile, and we
are getting both of those coming into our system."
Mr Rowley added that detectives had carried out arrests in
www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/womens-refuges-toreceive-20-million-lifeline-for-victims-of-dom/
Women's refuges will receive a 20 million boost as part of
a Government initiative that obliges councils to
accommodate those fleeing violent partners from outside
their local area.
Theresa May this week approved the funding, which forms
the first part of a 40 million pledge to support domestic
abuse victims. First announced in the 2015 Spending
Review, the initial wave will cover 2017 and 2018.
Communities secretary Sajid Javid said local authorities, in
partnership with specialist charities, can bid for a share of
the funds to safeguard existing centres and create more
accommodation for women escaping domestic violence.
Councils will only be awarded a share of the funds if they
commit to collaborating with refuge providers from across
the UK.
Previously, cuts to local authority grants have resulted in
non-statutory services being reduced, putting refuges at
risk of closure. Some councils also introduced local
connection rules, meaning that only women from the
nearby area could access support.
Charities have warned of the dangers of this policy, as it
stops women and children who are in fear of their lives
from moving across the country to a place of safety, and
away from their abuser.
Recent research by Womens Aid, who the Government
has consulted about the funding, found that 17 per cent of
specialist womens refuges had closed since 2010, with
more than 155 women a day refused accommodation, due
to a lack of space.
But national domestic violence charity Refuge, who also
worked with the Government, today welcomed the funding
as a positive step and a "lifeline for women and children
in need of protection."
Refuges are often the only escape route for women and
children in fear of losing their lives, chief executive
Sandra Horley added. Refuges provide women and
children with much needed safety, expert support and the
building blocks they need to begin a new life, free from
fear.
The Government is also publishing its new priorities for
domestic abuse services, setting out how councils can
provide services "in a collaborative and effective way".
Mr Javid said the funding was designed to ensure no victim
is turned away from refuges. "Domestic abuse knows no
barriers. It can happen to anyone of us, at any time, he
added.
The news could be seen as an indication that Mrs May
wishes to deliver on her promise of social reform. The
Prime Minister has fought to tackle domestic violence
since she was home secretary and her key adviser, Fiona
Hill, is also said to feel strongly about the issue.
Last month, Mrs May temporarily exempted womens
refuges from planned changes to housing benefit rules
which could have forced further closures.
In a previous speech to the Police Federation, she said:
Let me be absolutely clear. Domestic abuse is a crime.
Sexual assault is a crime. Child sexual abuse is a crime.
Modern slavery is a crime. And the victims and survivors
of those crimes deserve to be heard now, just as they
should have been years ago, and they deserve justice, just
as they did then.
(3rd November 2016)
MAKE ANTI-GROOMING LESSONS COMPULSORY
(London Evening Standard, dated 1st November 2016
author Kate Proctor)
online
(1st November 2016)
UK TO INCREASE NATIONAL CYBER-DEFENCE GRID
(BBC News, dated 1st November 2016)
Full article : www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37821867
Automatic defences to stop hackers hijacking websites or
spoofing official domains will get a boost from a 1.9bn
government cybersecurity strategy.
Chancellor Philip Hammond will give details of the plans in
a speech later.
Other defences that intercept booby-trapped emails or
shut down thieves impersonating bank websites will also
be expanded.
The strategy will also help enlarge specialist police units
that tackle organised online gangs.
Some cash will go towards education and training of
cybersecurity experts.
Mr Hammond is expected to formally launch the scheme,
called the National Cyber Security Strategy, on Tuesday.
The plans will set out action needed to protect the UK
economy and the privacy of British citizens, and will also
encourage industry to ramp up efforts to prevent cyberattacks.
Mr Hammond said Britain "must now keep up with the
scale and pace of the threats we face".
"Our new strategy... will allow us to take even greater
steps to defend ourselves in cyberspace and to strike back
when we are attacked," he added.
OCTOBER 2016
COMPUTER SECURITY REVIEW - OCTOBER 2016
-----------------------APPOINTMENTS ON HOLD AS COMPUTER VIRUS WREAKS
HAVOC WITH NHS TRUST SYSTEMS
(The Register, dated 31st October 2016 author Alexander J
Martin)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/31/virus_shuts_down_nhs_t
rust/
debit_cards_at_risk/
A suspected security breach has led banks in India to warn
3.25 million customers to replace their debit cards or
change the PINs.
National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI), the
umbrella organization for the nation's retail IT systems,
said customers at 19 banks were affected. We're told 641
people have been defrauded - approximately $200,000
has been taken, largely from cloned cards used in Chinese
and US ATMs.
"Necessary corrective actions already have been taken
and hence there is no reason for bank customers to
panic," said NPCI CEO Mr Abhaya Hota. "Advisory issued
by NPCI to banks for re-cardification is more as a
preventive exercise."
The recall of RuPay, Visa and MasterCard debit cards has
hit a slew of banks: State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI
Bank, Yes Bank and Axis Bank. Early reports suggested the
problem had been at the backend systems of Hitachi
Payment Services (HPS), which runs a network of 48,000
ATMs and 230,000 sales terminals across the country, but
the firm has denied this.
-----------------------NETFLIX REMINDS PASSWORD RE-USERS TO RUN A RESET
(The Register, dated 16th October 2016 author Richard
Chirgwin)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/16/netflix_reminding_pass
word_reusers_to_run_a_reset/
Netflix has reminded people whose user IDs are circulating
in breach-lists to check their security and if necessary
reset their passwords.
The issue resurfaced late last week, when an Adweek
Bahn AG
- ABELLIO GREAT ANGLIA ( The majority of train services in
the counties of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk)
Parent Company : Dutch national rail operator
Nederlandse Spoorwegen
- LONDON MIDLAND ( London Euston, Coventry, Stratford
upon Avon, Birmingham, Liverpool)
Parent Company : Govia which is a joint venture between
Koelis (French) and Go-ahead Group (Multi-national / UK
HQ)
- MERSEY RAIL (Liverpool, Chester - suburbs and rural)
Parent Company : A joint venture between Serco (UK) and
Abellio the international arm of the Dutch national rail
operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen.
- NORTHERN RAIL ( Durham, Whitby, Scarborough, Hull,
Blackpool, Manchester, Liverpool, Crewe, Lincoln,
Sheffield)
Parent Company : A joint venture between Serco (UK) and
Abellio the international arm of the Dutch national rail
operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen.
- SOUTHERN ( London Victoria, London Bridge to Brighton,
Hastings and other stations in West Kent, counties of
Surrey and Sussex)
Parent Company : Govia which is a joint venture between
Koelis (French) and Go-ahead Group (Multi-national / UK
HQ)
- SOUTH EASTERN ( London Charing Cross / Victoria /
Blackfriars / Cannon Street / London Bridge to Kent)
Georgia Wood was taken into police custody and stripsearched when she was just 12 years old. She remembers
being taken into custody in south Wales eight years ago
by officers who suspected her mother of possessing drugs.
"They didn't explain to me until we got to the police
station. And they literally just said 'this is what's going to
happen and we're going to do it'," she told BBC Radio 5
Live Investigates.
"For someone to just be so horrible and demeaning, I just
thought 'well, if I'm meant to respect my elders, aren't my
elders meant to respect me'? And I really didn't feel
respected in that situation."
Another young person subjected to a strip search was
Marion - not her real name - who says she was handcuffed,
pinned to the floor, and had all her clothes cut from her
body by female officers at a London police station.
She says male officers stood at an open door while she
was naked on the floor before she was later "paraded
through the station" in just a paper suit.
She was 24 when she had been taken into custody while
trying to help a young man she saw being arrested.
"I was pinned to the ground with three officers on me. It
felt like there were more than that because they were
grabbing me from all sides," she told 5 Live.
"They were also talking with male officers who were
standing at the open door. They were chatting together
about what implements to use on me, like leg restraints,
scissors, things like that. They were saying things like,
'there's a good girl' which I found really humiliating.
"Once they had me completely naked they put me into a
paper suit which didn't do up properly so my breasts were
exposed and they paraded me like that through the
station then dumped me on the floor of another cell."
have been put into the operation. But that is not the only
type that we see. There is a lot of espionage malware that
can achieve the same goals, that is either offered for sale
on the black market, or even freely available. Another
possibility is not to use outright malware but to abuse
legitimate software for remote control. While that may
generally be easier to detect, if the attackers do succeed,
it is even more difficult to fingerprint than a 'limited use'
malware family and attribute it to a threat actor."
5. DDoS attacks
In light of the recent massive DDoS attack that nearly shut
down internet services in the US, public awareness of this
type of cybercrime has become vitally important.
Distributed Denial of Service attacks occur when multiple
systems flood the bandwidth of servers with
unprecedented traffic, effectively taking them offline.
Cybercriminals have now begun leveraging unsecured IoT
(Internet of Things) devices to create botnet armies of
compromised devices to launch DDoS attacks.
Jay Kaplan, former NSA analyst and CEO of security firm
Synack, told IBTimes UK, "DDoS attacks are one of the
oldest tricks in the book, but they continue to be a very
real threat - especially as of late - with hackers targeting
the latest exposed vulnerabilities in the IoT space, like
poorly crafted passwords.
"Cybercriminals do not need much technical proficiency to
launch a DDoS attack, and the scale of these attacks is
rapidly increasing. While sophisticated hacking groups no
doubt utilize DDoS as one "tool in the toolkit," a recordbreaking attack like seen with Dyn last week is believed to
be the work of amateur hackers. Even further, individuals
with no technical/hacking proficiency can hire DDoS-as-aservice companies if there's enough motivation."
Johnson added, "IoT devices are often created and
marketed to make consumers' lives easier. The
unfortunate reality is that security is often an afterthought
attack.
The report also raises concerns that a proposed new
communications system for the emergency services may
not work effectively underground.
It also urges that cuts to the number of health personnel
trained in dealing with Chemical, Biological, Radiological
and Nuclear attacks should be reversed
(1st November 2016)
THREAT OF COMPLEX MOBILE MALWARE IS ON THE
RISE WARNS EUROPOL
(International Business Times, dated 27th October 2016
author Jason Murdock)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.ibtimes.co.uk/threat-complex-mobile-malware-risewarns-europol-1588558#
Europol said it had enlisted the help of 22 EU member
states, three non-EU countries, two EU agencies and
"numerous public and private partners" to speak out about
the dangers of sophisticated malware that can attack
smartphones and tablets.
"Law enforcement and our industry partners continue to
report the proliferation of mobile malware, which is now as
complex as PC malware," said Rob Wainwright, director of
Europol, in a statement, adding that if users start to report
mobile cyberattacks it will help to combat the threat.
He continued: "We need to send an awareness message to
citizens and business, and this global campaign is the first
step to create a common alliance between public and
private sectors within the EU and beyond".
In the agency's latest 'Internet Organised Crime Threat
Assessment', released this year, mobile malware featured
www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/black-people-six-timesmore-likely-than-whites-to-be-stopped-and-searcheda3380736.html
Black people are over six times more likely than whites to
be stopped and searched by police, new figures reveal.
Overall use of the controversial powers reduced by more
than a quarter across all ethnicities but stops of white
people fell more sharply.
Official figures showed those from black and minority
ethnic (BME) groups were three times as likely to be
stopped and searched as those who are white in 2015/16.
Black people were over six times more likely to be
stopped.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd branded the statistics
"unacceptable" but added stop and search powers
remained "vital" in the fight against crime.
The findings emerged as new standards and training for
officers using the tactic will be rolled out.
A Home Office report said the difference between BME and
white groups narrowed to twice as likely between the
years ending in March 2011 and 2015 but has risen again
in the latest year.
It went on: "A similar story has been seen for the black
group, which fell from over six times more likely to just
over four times more likely between the years ending
March 31 2011 and 2015, before rising again to over six
times more likely in the year ending March 31 2016."
Labour MP Yvette Cooper, chairwoman of the Commons
Home Affairs Committee, said the figures raise "important
questions" for the police and the Home Office.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: "The decline in
stop and search clearly shows there is some effort to use
One of the most recent incidents was a distributed-denialof-service (DDoS) attack against the US-based DNS
provider Dyn.
The subsequent outage - since blamed on the notorious
Mirai botnet - took out a slew of websites including Twitter,
Reddit, Netflix, PayPal and Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The botnet, which infects Internet of Things (IoT) devices
such as home internet routers and CCTV cameras, was
exploited by an unknown cybercriminal to send waves of
traffic towards the Dyn website servers, which hosted
these major sites, and used to force the platform offline.
The same DDoS tactic - deployed on an unprecedented
scale last month - was used to target security researcher
and journalist Brian Krebs. Later, the source code for the
malware was published online and has since been used as
a basis for extortion demands.
On such threat, as published on the Web Hosting Talk
forum, warned: "If you will not pay in time, DDoS attack
will start, your web-services will go down permanently.
After that, price to stop will be increased to 5 BTC with
further increment of 5 BTC for every day of attack."
The weaponisation of hacking tools
This evolution, according to Moores, is the
"weaponisation" of [hacking] tools. He said: "Big
companies are now starting to worry that an attack is no
longer an information security issue, it's a board and
shareholder and customer confidence issue."
In 2016, the size of DDoS attacks in the wild have spiked now reaching well over 600 gigabits of data a second
being directed at a victims' server. Moores predicts the
situation is getting out of control. "Once it goes above a
terabit, that wipes out any protection," he said. "No
current protection systems can deal with that sort of
flood."
Article :
www.politifact.com/georgia/statements/2013/feb/11/marke
l-hutchins/are-there-more-places-buy-gun-big-mac/
How many guns are there in the USA ?
In short, they don't know.
From a Guardian newspaper article from October 2015
(https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/27/howmany-guns-are-in-america-state-secrecy-means-no-oneknows) :
"The best available data comes from a private survey by
the University of Chicago, not the federal government, and
that is still an estimate, finding that 79 million US
households have guns. Other surveys have estimated
there are between 270 and 310m guns."
But using some figures from The Independent (October
2015 : www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/gunowners-now-have-eight-weapons-on-average-double-whatit-used-to-be-a6703751.html) where it is quoted that each
gun owning households now own 8.1 guns each ; the
previously quoted estimate is considerably outstripped to
640m guns.
Sadly, whatever way you look at it; be it 58,000 or
139,000 gun dealers. Will the police recycling
comparatively a few guns make much difference ?
Definition of an FFL
A Federal Firearms License (FFL) is a license in the United
States that enables an individual or a company to engage
in a business pertaining to the manufacture or importation
of firearms and ammunition, or the interstate and
intrastate sale of firearms. Holding an FFL to engage in
certain such activities has been a legal requirement within
the United States since the enactment of the Gun Control
Act of 1968.
See Wikipeadia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Firearms_License
(1st November 2016)
DETECTIVES SENT INTO COMMUNITIES TO PROTECT
CHILDREN FROM PREDATORS
(London Evening Standard, dated 21st October 2016
author Martin Bentham)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/detectives-sent-intocommunities-to-protect-children-from-predatorsa3375306.html
Hundreds of specialist detectives are to be posted to frontline local policing roles to protect children from "sexual
predators" in an overhaul of the way the Met tackles the
threat of sex abuse, violence and radicalisation.
Scotland Yard said it would also be beefing up action to
stop young Londoners being lured into gangs as it warned
of "new and frightening " dangers fuelled by online
pornography and extremist propaganda.
The reforms form part of a new blueprint for fighting crime
in the capital which also involves significant changes to
police efforts to combat rape and offences against
"vulnerable" adults.
They came as the force issued a raft of statistics
highlighting the threat to the capital's children. The figures
show that:
There are about 1,500 children in London identified as
being at risk of sexual exploitation.
Another 8,100 "very young" children are on protection
plans because of the risk of violence or abuse.
inquests.
Police figures also show that the number of reported rapes
and other sexual offences rose by 14%, reflecting a
slowing of the recent increase in reporting rates for these
types of crime.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the 24% rise
in violent crime was largely due to improvements in
recording practices and increased coverage but did
include "a small but genuine increase in some categories
of violent crime".
But the overall crime rate remained broadly flat as
measured by the Crime Survey of England and Wales,
which estimated that there were 6.5m crime incidents in
the 12 months to June - a fall of 1% compared to the
previous year.
The ONS also published its second ever estimate of online
crime, which it put at 5.6m fraud and computer misuse
offences, confirming its high volume on a level
comparable with offline crime. The two sets of figures will
be merged into the overall headline figure in January.
John Flatley of the ONS said: "Violent crime covers a wide
spectrum from minor assaults, harassment and abuse that
result in no physical harm to the victim through to
incidents of wounding and murder.
"The latest figures present a complex picture, with the
crime survey for England and Wales estimating similar
levels of violent crime to that seen in recent years, but the
number of offences recorded by the police increasing.
"We think the rise in the police figures is due to a
combination of factors. First, the expansion of the police
series to cover new harassment offences. Second, a
greater proportion of incidents reported to the police being
recorded as crimes. At the same time, the crime survey
has shown a greater proportion of victims of violent crime
reporting to the police. Finally, it appears there has been a
RANSOMWARE ATTACKS
(International Business Times, dated 19th October 2016
author India Ashok)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.ibtimes.co.uk/london-financial-sector-prime-targetransomware-attacks-security-researchers-find-1587105#
Ransomware attackers have set their sights on the UK's
capital. Security researchers have uncovered that London
has been under attack from threat actors, who are
specifically launching ransomware attacks to target
individuals and businesses.
Some of London's top banks, law firms and other
businesses were found to have suffered nearly 10,500
ransomware hits, Malwarebytes researchers uncovered.
Additionally, the City of London was found to be the top
ransomware target in the UK, with 670% more
ransomware attacks than the rest of the UK's top 10
vulnerable areas combined.
Malwarebytes researchers' analysis of London's Square
Mile, which is home to a significant number of financial
service companies and other businesses, revealed that the
city was hit more times than many other countries,
including Sweden, Malaysia and Hungary.
Malwarebytes data science analyst Nima Samadi told
IBTimes UK: "When analysing the data it gave us an
interesting snapshot into a growing problem facing
companies. These nefarious threats, which essentially
demand money with menaces, are becoming a real
problem for big business - encrypting company files for
ever unless the ransom is paid. It is a modern day
protection racket.
"Given that only 7,000 people live in the City of London,
but hundreds of thousands commute there every day, it is
not a great leap to assume these attacks involved
compromised work systems. With over 80m square ft of
"What the National Health Service will say is 'we are not
going to operate on you because your body mass is too
high'. They have not helped themselves to prevent an
illness," he told the Loughborough Echo.
"Yet if people leave doors or windows open there is an
expectation the police will investigate.
"I would far rather my officers were spending their time
preventing crime, protecting the public and focusing on
other stuff than things that are preventable."
Under a long-running operation Leicestershire police have
attempted to tackle the problem by raising awareness
among students.
"It is right that we try and stop it but it is right that people
take responsibility," Kay said.
Kay said he was not suggesting Leicestershire police had
any plans to change their practices, adding: "I pose that
as a question."
However the suggestion was met with criticism.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, who represents north-west
Leicestershire, said: "I would like to hope that the force are
putting this out there as a way of reminding the public of
the importance of not leaving doors or windows open.
"But it is their job to detect and investigate such crimes,
not to penalise law-abiding citizens who may have made a
mistake."
Sandie Forrest, a local councillor, said she was
"astounded" the question had been posed. "I think the
comparison that the police are making with the NHS is a
poor one because at the end of the day the NHS will
intervene at some stage," she said.
"I appreciate that the police have an enormously difficult
more and more people are getting away with this every
year and it is a problem that will only get worse unless
something is done.
"This is a matter I'll be raising with the Mayor to try and
find out why the police are failing so miserably to pursue
these criminals."
A Met spokesman said that allegations of this type of
crime are taken seriously and "where there are
investigative opportunities, incidents are pursued".
The spokesman added: "We continue to work with retailers
to identify opportunities to reduce the theft of fuel from
forecourts.
"One proven method is to adopt 'pre-pay' technology for
fuel, which we would recommend, this is a matter for
retailers to consider."
(1st November 2016)
REPORTED RAPES IN ENGLAND AND WALES DOUBLE
IN FOUR YEARS
(The Guardian, dated 13th October 2016 authors Vikram
Dodd and Helena Bengtsson)
Full article [Option 1]:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/13/reporte
d-rapes-in-england-and-wales-double-in-five-years
The number of rapes recorded by police has doubled in
the past four years while the percentage of allegations
resulting in conviction has fallen, official figures indicate.
Police and prosecutors believe that the rise in reported
cases indicates that people are more willing to report
sexual attacks in the aftermath of the Jimmy Savile sexual
abuse scandal and other recent high-profile historical
cases, and amid promises that a culture of disbelief in the
"procedural shortfalls".
The officers' lawyer, John Downes, from Slater and Gordon,
said: "We welcome the news that officers from Scotland
Yard are assessing the criminal claims against the IPCC.
"My clients have suffered for the past five years since the
original incident and the spurious claims against them
have tarnished their lives.
"They now hope the allegations they have made against
the IPCC are taken seriously by the Metropolitan Police and
look forward to being updated soon."
The IPCC admitted at the July hearing that it failed to take
into account statements corroborating the officers'
accounts from independent witnesses, did not interview
those witnesses and failed to disclose those statements
during disciplinary proceedings.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said on Saturday: "We
can confirm that in September the MPS received two
linked allegations of crime, relating to issues arising from a
misconduct hearing in July 2016 which was halted because
of issues with disclosure.
"The allegation has been recorded and is being assessed."
An IPCC spokeswoman said: "The MPS has made us aware
that two linked allegations are being assessed and as such
it would be inappropriate to say more at this stage."
Mr Kennedy-Macfoy's lawyer, Shamik Dutta, said he had
yet to be informed by the Metropolitan Police of any
complaints and would expect Mr Kennedy-Macfoy to be
notified. He also said the firefighter should be "invited to
participate" if there is an investigation.
Mr Dutta added: "It is worth reiterating that after Mr
Kennedy-Macfoy was found not guilty in the magistrates'
court, both the Metropolitan Police and the IPCC
investigated his police complaint. In the course of those
SEPTEMBER 2016
esearchers-show-off-remote-attack-against-tesla-models.html
Tesla Motors is considered one of the most cybersecurityconscious car manufacturers in the world -- among other
things, it has a bug bounty program. But that doesn't
mean the software in its cars is free of security flaws.
Researchers from Chinese technology company Tencent
found a series of vulnerabilities that, when combined,
allowed them to remotely take over a Tesla Model S car
and control its sunroof, central display, door locks and
even the braking system. The attack allowed the
researchers to access the car's controller area network
(CAN) bus, which lets the vehicle's specialized computers
communicate with each other.
-----------------------CAN BANKS DO BIOMETRIC SECURITY ? WE'D TRUST THEM
BEFORE THE GOVERNMENT
(The Register, dated 19th September 2016 author John
Leyden)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/19/british_biometric_surve
y/
Brits have more faith in their banks than government
agencies to roll out authentication technologies based on
biometrics, according to a new survey from Visa.
Consumers are nearly twice as likely to trust banks to
store and keep their biometric information such as
fingerprints and iris scans safe (60 per cent), than they are
to trust government agencies (33 per cent).
Nearly two-thirds of consumers (64 per cent) want to use
biometrics as a method of payment authentication. The
growth in fingerprint authentication for mobile payments
via Apple's Touch ID technology and the like is driving
increased acceptance of the technology.
It did not include any credit card data, the site said,
adding it believed the attack was state-sponsored.
In July, Yahoo was sold to US telecoms giant Verizon for
$4.8bn (3.7bn).
It is not yet known if the breach will have an impact on
that sale or its valuation.
###'Massive breach'
News of a possible major attack on Yahoo emerged in
August when a hacker known as "Peace" was apparently
attempting to sell information on 200 million Yahoo
accounts.
Yahoo on Thursday confirmed the breach was far bigger
than first thought.
It recommended all users should change their passwords if
they had not done so since 2014.
"Online intrusions and thefts by state-sponsored actors
have become increasingly common across the technology
industry," the company said in a statement.
"What is noticeable here is that this breach is massive,"
said Nikki Parker, vice-president at security company
Covata.
"Yahoo is likely to come under intense scrutiny from
regulators, the media and public and rightly so.
Corporations can't shy away from data breaches and they
must hold their hands up and show that they are
committed to resolving the problem."
She added: "Let's hope the ink is dry on the contract with
Verizon."
The scale of the hack eclipses other recent, major tech
breaches - such as MySpace (359 million), Linkedin (159
million) and Adobe (152 million).
won't cancel the CPA they can get in touch with the
Financial Ombudsman Service".
Top tips to avoid getting caught out
- Before signing up to a trial read the small print VERY
carefully, it could save you a lot of agro in the long run
- If there are no terms and conditions - walk away
- Check your bank statement regularly to spot any
unexpected charges
- Remember - almost nothing is free on the internet
(1st October 2016)
home network.
"Authentication bypass is not good. Together with the XSS
and some poor UI design, this means I can steal your Wi-Fi
password," Pen Test Partners warns.
Fortunately, upgrading the firmware of the Wi-Fi Extender
to version 1.1.8 resolves the problem. In a statement to El
Reg, BT thanked Pen Test Partners for its help in flagging
up the software weaknesses:
We are grateful to Pen Test Partners for alerting us to this
issue. We have been working to address this potential
weakness and issued an update which corrected the
problem in August 2016. We are not aware of any cases
where customers have suffered any issues. Customers
should ensure they download the firmware update from
the BT website.
The bugs - the latest in a long line of vulnerabilities in
SOHOpeless networking kit - is explained in a blog post by
Pen Test Partners :
https://www.pentestpartners.com/blog/bt-wi-fi-extendermultiple-security-issues-upgrade-asap/
BT information
Check out the BT website and confirm the model number
of your equipment matches the ones requiring updating.
Make these checks BEFORE updating the firmware.
Hardware version: V1.0.2
Firmware version: V1.1.5 (the upgraded versions is 1.1.8 available here :
http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/54345)
(1st October 2016)
PFI.
"Taxpayers' money continues to be wasted on ill-conceived
and badly planned capital projects, IT investments and
major reform programmes. We have not secured the
reforms to the Civil Service that we thought were
necessary to achieve better value."
###Stephen Kelly:'the human Ken doll'
And what of the major players behind IT reform during this
period? Former chief operating officer of the Cabinet Office
Stephen Kelly and current Sage chief executive gets a
mention, as does Francis Maude.
"[Kelly] was known as the 'human Ken doll' by my office
and others knew him to be the 'best friend of Francis
Maude, the Minster for the Cabinet Office - one of the few
minsters really hated by the Civil Service, perhaps
because he was so strongly committed to reform."
Former head of the Government Digital Service Mike
Bracken is named only in passing and former chief
technology officer and current digital tsar Liam Maxwell is
not mentioned at all.
Of former Cabinet Office minister and current digital policy
at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport Matt
Hancock - who previously sat on the PAC - Hodge sniffs:
"Matt Hancock was not universally popular with his
Conservative colleagues on the PAC, but because of his
close links with the Conservative Party leadership, he was
feared and one could always sense the atmosphere when
he entered the room."
Her prescription is a heavy dose of transparency,
accountability and training.
"The civil service continues to lack the appropriate skills
and expertise required for modern government."
Commercial and IT expertise are particularly wanting as
there are "simply not enough civil servants with those
skills."
Hodge's book lays bare the case for why waste within the
public sector badly needs addressing. Unfortunately the
evidence suggests it still has a long way to go.
(1st October 2016)
31 (accounting for 963 victims) followed by 18- to 24-yearolds and those aged 32 to 38.
The day of the week with the highest number of thefts was
Friday, when 650 crimes took place during the year.
Women were more likely to fall victim to the crime than
men.
This is thought to be because women often carry their
valuables in a handbag, rather than in pockets which are
difficult for a thief to access.
'Gang surrounded me and stole my wallet'
Tom Foreman, 22, was a recent arrival in London when he
was surrounded by a gang of pickpockets who stole his
wallet at King's Cross.
The recruitment consultant, who lives in Bounds Green,
was on his way to the gym when he was targeted by the
group in April.
He said: "I was talking to my friend, minding my own
business, when a group of people gathered around us.
"My friend saw someone waiting behind me sneak my
wallet out of my pocket. I noticed straight away, but there
were so many people around us the guy slipped into the
crowd.
"I was devastated as it had practically everything I owned
and my whole month's wages. It felt so invasive - I had to
ring around my family and ask for money to get me
through the month."
He called for more police at the station to deter pickpocket
gangs: "There are just not enough officers for the sheer
amount of people. The police I spoke to said it pretty much
happens all the time and informed TfL staff but they don't
have the resources to investigate."
He added: "I've definitely become more aware of these
hate crime'."
Other forces understood to be interested include Devon
and Cornwall, Durham and Lincolnshire, which are all
sending officers to Nottingham to discuss the experiment.
Alton said: "There has been quite a lot of interest in the
action we have taken. Both our chief constable and our
commissioner have been contacted by forces and
commissioners nationally to discuss how we have made
the changes and what the impact has been so far."
The force defines misogyny hate crime as "incidents
against women that are motivated by an attitude of a man
towards a woman and includes behaviour targeted
towards a woman by men simply because they are a
woman".
The new classification means women can report incidents
that might not be considered a crime and the police will
investigate.
Last week it was revealed that prosecutions relating to
violence against women and girls in England and Wales
have reached record levels amid warnings that the
increasing use of social media is fuelling the rise.
Campaigners believe misogyny is spilling over from the
virtual world of the internet into the real world.
Trickett said: "Street harassment is at the root of a lot of
the sexualised violence that we see - the idea that women
are sexual commodities. It's also linked to online abuse. A
lot of it has gone unchallenged for so long that it has
almost become normalised."
Campaigners in the city said the reaction to the
classification of misogyny as a hate crime had been
overwhelmingly positive, with many men also registering
their approval.
"We've had women say how proud they are to be from this
city, and that this makes them feel like they're walking 10
dislike of women,
contempt for women
ingrained prejudice against women
hatred of women
mistrust of women
www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/hope-forbank-fraud-victims-we-were-robbed-of-47000--but-theomb/
In what could be a breakthrough ruling for victims of
banking fraud, the financial ombudsman is to order a high
street bank to repay an elderly couple who lost tens of
thousands of pounds in a conveyancing scam.
The ombudsman, which settles disputes between
customers and financial services firms, will tell Lloyds
Bank to repay 47,508 plus interest to Donald Kelly, a
retired professor, and his wife, Patricia.
Its decision was based on what Lloyds knew about the
fraudsters.
Banks are supposed to check the credentials of all
customers when they open an account and to be
especially vigilant when large sums are paid into or taken
out of new accounts.
Prof Kelly, 83 and Mrs Kelly, 82, are just two of many
victims who have contacted Telegraph Money after being
swindled out of life-changing amounts of money while in
the process of buying a property.
Like other victims, the Kellys received a convincing-looking
email from a criminal who pretended to be their solicitor
and requested payment into an alternative account.
The Kellys believed they were paying a deposit of 47,508
to their solicitor on September 2 last year, just over a
month before moving from Wirral, Merseyside, to their
new home in a retirement village in Exeter. In fact, the
fraudsters received the money.
Prof Kelly said: "The email looked no different except that
two letters in the solicitor's name had been swapped
around."
The Kellys said they were not aware that they had been
findings."
David Williams, managing director of Ford Simey, said the
firm had conducted an investigation as soon as it became
aware of the scam and had found no evidence that its
systems had been compromised.
What the Kellys' case means for other fraud victims
The couple's success will give hope to other victims that
they have grounds to demand compensation from banks
that allow fraudsters to open accounts.
Banks are supposed to carry out checks on new customers
to ensure that they are who they say they are.
Andrew Goodwill, founder of the Goodwill group, which
fights fraud, said: "The ombudsman's ruling, while it will
not set a formal precedent, suggests there was a flaw in
the due diligence that Lloyds should have carried out
when the fraudsters' account was opened."
He said that although the ombudsman could comment on
banks' processes, it did not have the power to enforce
changes. But he said the ruling showed it was worth
reporting disputes to the ombudsman.
"It's nice that a member of the public has taken on the
banks and won, as it hardly ever happens," Mr Goodwill
said.
Prof Kelly said: "It was only when the ombudsman began
to investigate Lloyds that we started getting information
from the bank."
(10th September 2016)
AUGUST 2016
into your computer? According to a new report by cloudbased cybersecurity firm Duo Security, it may take less
than half an hour for hackers using phishing email
campaigns to access systems and steal sensitive
information.
Duo Security collected data from 400 organisations using
its free web-based tool Duo Insight, which allows internal
IT teams to test employee response by sending out
phishing campaign simulations. The firm said that of the
11,542 users who received such phishing emails, 31%
clicked on links that could have potentially compromised
systems via malware or virus attacks.
The phishing simulation links sent out by Duo did not
install malware, instead it prompted users to enter their
login credentials. Alarmingly, 17% of users ended up
providing their usernames and passwords "giving an
attacker in a real-world scenario the keys to corporate
data".
-----------------------PHARMACEUTICAL AND MANUFACTURING FIRMS HIT BY
"OPERATION GHOUL" HACK ATTACK
(International Business Times, dated 17th August 2016
author Jason Murdock)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.ibtimes.co.uk/pharmaceutical-manufacturing-firmshit-by-operation-ghoul-hack-attack-1576601
A sophisticated cybercrime operation targeting industrial
and engineering firms in over 30 countries across the
world with the aim of stealing financial data has been
exposed by security researchers at Kaspersky Lab.
The cybercriminals behind the campaign, dubbed
Operation Ghoul, have reportedly attacked over 130
businesses so far using email phishing tactics to spoof
letters from banks in an attempt to get unsuspecting
recipients to hand over sensitive corporate information.
Leyden)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/11/car_lock_hack/
Security researchers will demonstrate how crooks can
break into cars at will using wireless signals that can
unlock millions of vulnerable vehicles.
The eggheads, led by University of Birmingham computer
scientist Flavio Garcia alongside colleagues from German
engineering firm Kasper & Oswald, have managed to clone
a VW Group remote control key fob after eavesdropping on
the gizmos' radio transmissions.
The hack can be used by thieves to wirelessly unlock as
many as 100 million VW cars, each at the press of a
button. Almost every vehicle the Volkswagen group has
sold for the past 20 years - including cars badged under
the Audi and Skoda brands - is potentially vulnerable, say
the researchers. The problem stems from VW's reliance on
a "few, global master keys."
----------------ANDROID BUG FEAR IN 900 MILLION PHONES
(BBC News, datd 8th August 2016 author Mark Ward)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37005226
Serious security flaws that could give attackers complete
access to a phone's data have been found in software
used on tens of millions of Android devices.
The bugs were uncovered by Checkpoint researchers
looking at software running on chipsets made by US firm
Qualcomm. Qualcomm processors are found in about 900
million Android phones, the company said.
Affected devices included:
- BlackBerry Priv
Greenwich : 491
Hackney : 817
Hammersmith and Fulham : 624
Haringey : 794
Harrow : 282
Havering : 380
Hillingdon : 485
Hounslow : 434
Islington : 781
Kensington and Chelsea : 293
Kingston upon Thames : 212
Lambeth : 1065
Lewisham : 634
Merton : 313
Newham : 721
Redbridge : 356
Richmond upon Thames : 211
Southwark : 911
Sutton : 189
Tower Hamlets : 496
Waltham Forest : 514
Wandsworth : 529
Westminster : 1424
(1st September 2016)
NHS SLAPS PRIVATE FIRM HEALTH IQ FOR MOVING
BRITS' DATA OFFSHORE
(The Register, dated 26th August 2016 author Kat Hall)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/26/health_iq_rapped_by_nh
s_digital_data_security/
Health insurance and financial data management biz
Health IQ is the latest outfit to have its wrists slapped by
NHS Digital in the UK for failing to comply with data
processing rules.
A technical audit of Health IQ concluded the company had
"I welcome the minister's positive statement of cooperation with EU partners on security and policing
issues," he said. "This is in total contrast with what the
then-home secretary and her ministers said to us before
Brexit, namely that we would be cut adrift on these issues
if we voted out, and we would need to negotiate 27
separate arrangements.
"The key questions remain: will we have still have special
access to Europol and will we still be part the European
arrest warrant?"
In April, former home secretary Theresa May concluded in
a keynote speech that, on balance, Britain would be more
secure within the EU.
"Outside the EU, we would have no access to the
European arrest warrant, which has allowed us to extradite
more than 5,000 people to Europe in the last five years,"
she said.
(1st September 2016)
GERMAN MINISTER SEEKS FACIAL RECOGNITION AT
AIRPORTS AND TRAIN STATIONS
(The Register, dated 22nd August 2016 author Darren
Pauli)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/2/german_minister_seeks_f
acial_recognition_at_airports_train_stations/
Germany's interior minister Thomas de Maiziere wants
facial recognition systems in the country's airports and
train stations to identify terror suspects.
Europe has experienced a wave of attacks, many terrorrelated, over recent months, which has in turn triggered a
heightened state of security.
drivers-blue-badges-trebles-a3325351.html
Thousands of people are stealing disabled drivers' blue
badges, with the number of cases trebling in the past
three years.
The badges enable disabled people to park for free in pay
and display bays and for up to three hours on yellow lines.
In London they exempt holders from having to pay the
congestion charge.
There were 2,056 instances of blue badge theft in the UK
in 2015, according to an analysis of Department for
Transport data by the Local Government Association.
The figure represents a 17 per cent increase on the 1,756
instances recorded in 2014.
In 2013, the number of recorded blue badge thefts stood
at 656.
The LGA, which represents more than 370 councils across
England and Wales, said the increase has been
accompanied by a rise in the number of people prosecuted
by councils for using stolen or lost badges to park for free
dishonestly.
The number of people caught abusing the scheme has
almost trebled in five years with 985 successful council
prosecutions in 2015 compared with 330 in 2010.
But the LGA is calling on people to help councils to further
crack down on the problem.
Councillor Martin Tett, the LGA's transport spokesman,
said: "The theft of blue badges is clearly a crime on the
rise and it is alarming that incidents have trebled in just
three years.
"Illegally using a blue badge is not a victimless crime. For
disabled people, blue badges are a vital lifeline that helps
them get out and about to visit shops or family and
friends.
three years.
The group, headed by Belgian national Dzemail Trstena,
offered to take both theory and practical driving tests for
provisional license holders at centres across the Home
Counties and West Midlands.
Police say the scam allowed an unknown number of
potentially "dangerous and unskilled" drivers on UK roads.
One fraudster, Bulgarian national Emil Petkov, was caught
on CCTV being turned away from more than 30 theory test
centres between 2010 and 2014 when the photo ID he
presented was discovered not to be his. Others were
caught taking practical tests.
Spencer Barnett, of the Met Police's Organised Crime
Partnership, said: "We will never know how many tests
they successfully cheated, but they were brazen and
persistent in their repeated attempts. I have no doubt that
they would have kept going had we not stopped them
when we did."
A court heard how Trstena, 45, would ferry fake candidates
to test centres around the country while claiming to be
their driving instructor.
One member of the gang, Musa Matluma, aged 34, from
Macedonia, was arrested in June 2014 while caught
fraudulently sitting a theory test.
A 42-year-old British bus driver, Colin Julian, and Trstena
were then arrested at their homes the following month
after fraudulently taking practical driving tests at a centre
in Kettering. The final member of the gang, Petkov, 31,
handed himself in to Leytonstone Police Station on the
same day.
The group was sentenced at Blackfriars Crown Court on
Friday (12 August).
Searches by National Crime Agency (NCA) and Met Police
officers had found the gang to be in possession of a large
number of provisional licences and theory test booking
documents.
The find led to seven provisional licence holders also being
prosecuted, with detectives saying their main motive for
not wanting to take the tests was difficulty reading or
speaking English. They were given between four and
eight-month prison sentences, except one defendant who
was handed a suspended sentence.
prosecuted, if caught.
Dubbed the "Twitter squad", the unit is costing the
Metropolitan Police 1.7 million to create and will be
staffed by five detectives. The Home Office is also said to
be pouring 452,756 into the Online Hate Crime Hub,
which is due to run for two years.
It comes after a number of incidents of online trolls
making racist and sexual threats. In 2014, a troll
threatened to rape Stella Creasy, MP for Walthamstow,
and branded her a "witch", after she supported a
campaign for author Jane Austen to become the new face
of the 10 bank note. Peter Nunn, 33, from Bristol, was
jailed for 18 weeks after he retweeted the "menacing"
posts.
In the same year, Robert Riley, from Port Talbot, was jailed
after he made comments about the fatal stabbing of Leeds
teacher Ann Maguire claiming he would have killed all the
teachers at her school.
However, civil liberties campaigners have raised fears that
the new unit could stop people expressing opinions for
fear of arrest. It follows cases where people have faced
court action after making light-hearted statements.
In 2010 Paul Chambers was taken to court and fined after
posting a tweet joking he would blow up an airport if it
was closed by snowfall. The conviction was quashed two
years later Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, told
the Mail on Sunday: "Online bullying is an increasingly
serious problem but police should not be proactively
seeking cases like these and turning themselves into
chatroom moderators. With such measures, even if well
intentioned, there is a real danger of undermining our very
precious freedom of speech".
Andrew Allison, from the Freedom Association libertarian
group, added: "There's a risk of online vigilantism, where
people who are offended by the least thing will have a
licence to report it to the police."
The paper says Twitter and Facebook will be asked to help
fund a "community" element to the unit, in which
volunteers "skilled in the use of social media" will
"identify, report and challenge online hate material", it
reports. The detectives' role will be "identifying the
location of the crime" when online abuse is reported, and
fair elections."
As communities secretary, Pickles sent commissioners into
Tower Hamlets when the allegations of fraud emerged. His
report makes 50 recommendations, including calling for
pilot schemes under which voters would be asked to bring
identification with them to polling stations.
"A driving licence, passport or utility bills would not seem
unreasonable to establish identity. The government may
wish to pilot different methods. But the present system is
unsatisfactory; perfection must not get in the way of a
practical solution," it says.
With intimidation of the public on their way to cast their
votes one of the issues identified in Tower Hamlets, Pickles
also says returning officers, who oversee elections, and
the police, should be given powers to establish cordons
sanitaires around polling stations where particular
problems are identified.
He argues that rules on the use of postal votes, which
have previously been identified as ripe for fraud, should be
toughened up - with party activists no longer allowed to
handle them, for example, and an end to the possibility of
applying for a permanent postal vote.
Rahman was found guilty of multiple charges of corruption
and kicked out of office last year. He and his allies were
found to have used vote-rigging and religious intimidation
through local imams to return him to power.
Backers of the Bangladeshi-born Rahman initially
dismissed the claims against him as racism; and Pickles
says in future, concerns about damaging community
relations must not be an excuse for failing to investigate
allegations of fraud.
"There are sometimes challenging issues over divisive
community politics, but this is no excuse for failing to
enforce British law and protect the integrity of our
democratic process. The law must be applied equally and
fairly to everyone," he said.
The report cites evidence that pressure was put on
vulnerable members of some minority ethnic communities
to vote in accordance with the will of elders. "There were
concerns that influence and intimidation within households
may not be reported, and that state institutions had
turned a blind eye to such behaviour because of 'politically
DCI Julie MacKay, who led the cold case team which
recently cracked the 1984 murder of Melanie Road in
nearby Bath, is heading up the investigation.
She said: 'As we saw with the Melanie Road case, the
passage of time since a murder is no longer an obstacle in
securing justice for these victims.
'The technology used in DNA forensics has come a long
way since Susan was murdered and we now have a full
DNA profile of the man who sexually abused and murdered
her.
'Similarly to the Melanie Road murder investigation, the
key to solving this horrific crime is in the painstaking and
methodical work my team is undertaking to make sure all
the information we have is on the right systems.'
She added: 'I am convinced that someone out there has
information on what happened that August night in 1976.
'I would appeal directly to them, or the killer himself, to
come forward now and bring an end to the 40 years of
heartache Susan's family and friends have had to endure.
'Susan was a well-liked and respected woman who was
brutally murdered in her own home and I am determined
to bring her killer to justice.'
Anyone with information is asked to call 101 now and
quote Operation Radar. Alternatively, information can be
left anonymously with Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
----------------------------------------------ARTICLE FROM 9 YEARS AGO, UNDER A LABOUR
REGIME
----------------------------------------------RATE OF UNSOLVED MURDERS DOUBLE IN A DECADE
(The Telegraph, dated 2nd September 2007 author Tom
Harper)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1561945/Rate-ofunsolved-murders-doubles-in-decade.html
Unsolved murders have doubled over the past decade,
raising fears that police and courts are unable to tackle
violent crime.
"I know the case of somebody who had seen the video
who was a British citizen who was caught up in the attack
in Tunisia in Sousse and she would say that it changed
what she did and saved her life.
"She went to her bedroom on the fifth floor, buried herself
in that and locked the door. It's basics but it's really
important."
Funding for an extra 600 firearms officers was announced
by the government last year following the Paris attacks. Mr
Rowley said they were still being trained, but that by
working overtime and "other methods" police were putting
more armed patrols on the streets.
"The critical point is that this 24/7, specialist officers with
the weaponry and equipment to confront a terrorist. This
is high calibre, highly trained specialist people.
"They are on patrol in vehicles across London, sometimes
they will be on foot, and based on intelligence, based on
disrupting terrorism, they will vary between shopping
centres, places like Oxford Street, sometimes sporting
events, religious premises.
"We will have a much bigger, stronger capability to deal
with anything that hits us in London."
On the scale of the threat, Mr Rowley added: "What we
see reflects what's going on across Europe.
"Most of them aren't people who have travelled to Syria,
but they are being inspired, trying to pick up weapons, to
plan an attack here. That's what we've been wrestling with
most of all. We've had a steady flow of people thinking
about that sort of attack.
"The second thing that we've got to guard against is
people returning from Syria more determined, more
deadly, more highly skilled in weaponry. If those people
were to reach the UK that would be a major concern.
JULY 2016
COMPUTER SECURITY REVIEW - JULY 2016
----------------------MALWARE FOUND IN 75% OF TOP 20 COMMERCIAL BANKS
IN THE US
(International Business Times, dated 2nd August 2016
3. Llandudno : 5,501
4. Lincoln : 4,576
5. Chester : 3,642
6. Gloucester : 3,508
7. Coventry : 2,678
8. Swansea : 2,285
9. Norwich : 1,814
10. Tonbridge : 1,447
11. York : 1,414
12. Torquay : 1,226
13. Brighton : 974
14. Rochester : 734
15. Telford : 695
16. Salisbury : 537
17. Bournemouth : 469
18. Redhill : 336
19. Lancaster : ? (not shown in article)
20. Dorchester : ? (not shown in article)
(1st August 2016)
POLICE FIND 30 MILLION IMAGES OF CHILD ABUSE
IN MAJOR ANTI-PAEDOPHILE OPERATION
(The Telegraph, dated 29th July 2016 author Martin Evans)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/29/police-find-300million-images-of-child-abuse-in-major-anti-paed/
Police in Scotland have recovered more than 30 million
images of child sex abuse and have identified more than
500 victims, it has been announced.
In the first major operation of its kind in Scotland,
detectives arrested 77 people on suspicion of a range of
offences involving the abuse of youngsters as young as
three-years-old.
Dubbed Operation Lattise, the investigation focused on
the distribution of indecent images, online grooming and
Criddle)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/27/lie-detector-testsfor-sex-offenders-police-catch-criminal-reoff/
A convicted sex offender had admitted reoffending after
police asked him to take a lie detector
test when concerns were raised about his behaviour.
Essex Police said the man, who had previous convictions
for indecent exposure, was tested
following a referral from detectives.
He consented to the test and, when questioned about his
results, admitted reoffending.
The man in question was not on probation, Essex Police
confirmed.
Officers then secured a sexual harm prevention order
through the courts, which included a
condition that he must submit to a polygraph test when
requested by police.
If he refuses it will be a breach of the order and he will be
arrested, interviewed and could
face the courts.
Essex Police now plans to extend the scheme to test
previous offenders.
Detective Chief Inspector Jim Sandford said: "We use the
polygraph test to get information
about whether or not a sex offender is reoffending, so that
we can assess the risk they pose
to the public and ensure they are complying with sexual
harm prevention orders imposed by the
courts.
"We can't force people to take part unless it forms part of
a court order and the results of
a polygraph test can't be used as evidence in court.
"But the benefits are that it shows they are willing to
engage and co-operate with the
authorities, and it can prevent us relying on more intrusive
methods of monitoring."
The test is carried out in three stages, with an interview,
followed by the polygraph test
www.thetimes.co.uk [Option 1]
Bogus law firms set up by fraudsters who clone a genuine
one to harvest money have doubled in number to more
than 700, the solicitors' watchdog said yesterday.
Almost half of all reports of fake law firms involved the
identity theft of a firm or solicitor, often involving the
cloning of a genuine firm's website with a view to
persuading members of the public to send money or
information.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) said there had
been a doubling of bogus law firms since 2012. It said that
genuine law firms were being targeted by cybercriminals,
and in one in ten cases money had been stolen.
One of the newest tricks is "CEO fraud", where senior
figures in law firms are impersonated and the accounts
team is ordered by email to transfer money to pay an
invoice. This is often don on a Friday to give the criminals
more time to avoid detection.
The SRA's Risk Outlook report urges the public and law
firms alike to be vigilant. The regulator also noted an
increase in fraudsters sending bulk emails and confidential
information. This is of particular concern, it says, because
victims of bogus activity are not covered by protections
that apply when dealing with a regulated firm, such as
access to the solicitors' compensation fund.
As for law firms, the key risk is reputational damage from
being cloned by a bogus firm, the report adds. "This may
lead to the loss of future clients and income. There is also
the possibility that firms may be held liable for losses
attributed to having dealt with a bogus firm."
The SRA warns law firms and consumers to watch out for
potential signs of bogus firms. These may include the firm,
branch office or individual not being recorded on the Law
Society's "find a solicitor" web page; unsolicited
correspondence or correspondence containing error of
spelling, grammar or terminology, inconsistencies in the
spelling the name of the firm and firm using only
telephone numbers or email addresses.
Paul Philip, SRA chief executive, said: "We want to see
firms proactively making sure their clients are also aware
of the risks in this area. For instance, we would
social media.
(1st August 2016)
To the gallows
On this occasion, Nixxer targeted an address that will lead
to a family man in Kansas, US. Nixxer selected the address
through a random search of online clipboard Pastebin for
the keyword "dox" - the name given to private personal
information made public.
Those records did not yield a name and Nixxer did not
know if the street address was even real.
But it didn't take long to verify the address, through
Google's and Microsoft's online mapping services, and in
geospatial databases. Along the way he found not only
details of the man he sought but also the previous owners
of the property. Checks against other public databases
revealed how much the house cost, allowing the social
engineer to make estimates on the household income
necessary to purchase the home. He reckoned the
combined income was about US$120,000.
Photos of the house on mapping services revealed a car
parked in the driveway. Although the license plates were
blurred, it was enough for the hacker to learn of the make,
model, and US state in which the car was registered. "You
can see they are Kansas plates because of the colour, the
way they are shaped, and how many letters and numbers
it has," Nixxer says.
A well-loved playground in the house's back yard points to
at least some young children in the home. A football field
visible behind the house is also useful information.
"There is a local school in town, and a local gridiron team,
and that's information you could use to help craft phishing
attacks," Nixxer says.
Noose tightening
Online identification services are the scourge of privacy
advocates. One service widely-regarded as a notorious
treasure trove by social engineers is Salesforce web
property data.com which allows tit-for-tat trading of
personal information and encourages professionals to
upload their contacts in order to access the same number
of identities stored within its servers.
Facebook."
Nixxer switches targets to the man's business and learns
that his victim is the director.
"I have enough information at this point to open and close
his bank accounts, or do whatever I want," he says.
With his noose of personal information tied, Nixxer's next
step is infiltrate the website of his victim's business. That
site is powered by an un-patched instance of Linux. Nixxer
quickly gains access to the web server with root privileges.
"It worked just like that," Nixxer says, clicking his fingers.
With a malicious site in place, all sorts of other attacks
become possible.
Cutting the rope
Can you avoid attacks like that Nixxer outlined above? The
hacker thinks you can, with the first step being to avoid
Facebook.
"There is no reason to write down where you actually grew
up, who your real brothers and sisters are, or where you
went to buy clothes yesterday," he advises.
Yet locking down accounts still will not stop Nixxer and the
growing army of skilled social engineers across the world
from gaining sufficient information on users to bring them
ruin.
He recommends users use fake online personas and
deploying a handful of tools including web browser tools
such as uBlock Origin, AdBlock Plus, and script blockers.
(1st August 2016)
online banking.
The next morning Ms Klag discovered that 13,600 had
been taken out of her Santander account in three separate
transactions, presumably because the fraudster had been
able to access Ms Klag's internet banking from his remote
connection.
Ms Klag called Santander that morning. It contacted the
recipient bank to see if any funds were remaining in the
fraudster's account. It later recovered 4,023 before
closing the case.
She also notified Action Fraud, the cybercrime reporting
service. Her case was assessed by the National Fraud
Intelligence Bureau, but because there were judged to be
insufficient lines of inquiry it was not passed to police for
further investigation.
When Ms Klag contacted TalkTalk, the company was
unsympathetic. It said: "In these circumstances we do not
believe we have a responsibility to reimburse you for the
money stolen since that theft would not have occurred if
you had not allowed the scammers to have access to your
PC and provided them with certain aspects of your
banking details."
Santander said it could not accept any responsibility for
the losses on the account as Ms Klag authorised the initial
payment.
A spokesman said: "While we are very sympathetic to Mr
Klag's situation and the distress caused by being the
victim of a scam, Ms Klag initiated and used a 'one-time
passcode' to validate and authorise the transfer, a security
measure we put in place to protect customers against
fraud, and confirmed the payment as genuine when we
called to check."
Ms Klag said she was disappointed by the responses. She
said: "Surely someone must be able to help me get my
money back?"
But victims of crimes such as these often have no hope of
seeing their savings again. Banks will insist that they
simply obeyed the customer's instructions.
However, Martyn James, from the Financial Ombudsman
Service, said victims might be able to get their money
back if their own bank or the recipient bank did not act
correctly once the fraud was reported. The police are also
Many computer users don't realize it, but for most people
their internet router is the most important electronic
device in their home. It links most of their other devices
together and to the world, so it has a highly privileged
position that hackers can exploit.
Unfortunately, many consumer and small-business routers
come with insecure default configurations, have
undocumented backdoor accounts, expose legacy services
and have firmware that is riddled with basic flaws. Some
of these problems can't be fixed by users, but there are
many actions that can be taken to at least protect these
devices from large-scale, automated attacks.
Don't let your router be a low-hanging fruit for hackers.
Basic actions
- Avoid using routers supplied by ISPs. These routers are
typically less secure than those sold by manufacturers to
consumers. They often have hard-coded remote support
credentials that users can't change and patches for their
customized firmware versions lag behind patches for the
same flaws released by router manufacturers.
- Change the default admin password. Many routers come
with default administrator passwords and attackers
constantly try to break into devices using these publicly
known credentials. After you connect to the router's
management interface for the first time through your
browser - the address should be the router's default IP
address found on its bottom sticker or found in the set-up
guide - make sure the first thing you do is change the
password.
- The router's web-based management interface should
not be reachable from the internet. For most users,
managing the router from outside the LAN (local area
network) is not necessary. If remote management is
needed, consider using a VPN (virtual private network)
solution to establish a secure channel to the local network
first and then access the router's interface.
no-means-no-rape-law/
Germany passed a "no means no" rape law on Thursday,
making any form of non-consensual sex punishable and
helping authorities deport migrants and refugees who
commit sex crimes.
The new law, partly inspired by the New Year sex attacks
in Cologne, came as the first perpetrators in the Cologne
sex attacks were convicted.
Two asylum-seekers, from Iraq and Algeria, were found
guilty of taking part in the assaults.
But there was anger after they were both given suspended
jail sentences and released.
The German parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of
a reform popularly known as the "No means no" statute.
The measure was passed by 601 votes, with none against
and only a handful of abstentions.
Under the new law, any case where sexual contact is
forced on a victim who withholds consent will now be
punishable as a crime. Previously, only cases where a
victim physically resisted were punishable under German
law.
"In the past there were cases where women were raped
but the perpetrators couldn't be punished," Manuela
Schwesig, the minister for women, said.
"The change in the law will help increase the number of
victims who choose to press charges, reduce the number
of criminal prosecutions that have to be shelved and
ensure sexual assaults are properly punished."
Currently only one in ten rapes are believed to be reported
in Germany, and only eight per cent of rape trials result in
convictions, according to the justice ministry.
The new law includes provisions for cases where victims
are unable to withhold consent because they are
inebriated or unconscious. But critics say it does not make
allowance for cases where victims may feel unable to
withhold consent for other reasons.
Calls to reform the law attracted huge support after the
Cologne sex attacks, when hundreds of women trying to
celebrate the New Year were groped and molested in the
area around the city's main train station.
A 21-year-old Iraqi named only as Hussein A under
www.ibtimes.co.uk/bt-kpmg-research-finds-cybercrimehas-now-become-industry-1569196
The increase in cyberattacks against businesses indicates
that the age-old perception of cybercriminals being lone
hackers conducting attacks may no longer be valid. A
recent report suggests that cybercriminals are now part of
an organised crime enterprise driven by demands on the
dark web and the marketplace.
According to a collaborative research report by BT and
KPMG, cybercriminals now function similar to businesses,
conducting extensive research on victims and launching
successful large-scale attacks by blackmailing and/or
bribing employees to gain access to sensitive information.
Mark Hughes, CEO Security, BT, said: "The industry is now
in an arms race with professional criminal gangs and state
entities with sophisticated tradecraft. The twenty-first
century cybercriminal is a ruthless and efficient
entrepreneur, supported by a highly developed and rapidly
evolving black market. Businesses need to not only defend
against cyber-attacks, but also disrupt the criminal
organisations that launch those attacks. They should
certainly work closer with law enforcement as well as
partners in the cyber security marketplace."
Paul Taylor, UK Head of Cyber Security, KPMG, said: "It's
time to think differently about cyber risk - ditching the talk
of hackers - and recognising that our businesses are being
targeted by ruthless criminal entrepreneurs with business
plans and extensive resources - intent on fraud, extortion
or theft of hard won intellectual property."
According to the report, "digital crime currently costs the
world in the region of $400bn every year". It adds that
while new malware and malicious campaigns are created
and launched "every second", existing and old malicious
tools also remain functional, adding more weapons to
cybercriminals' arsenal.
Organised cybercrime syndicate
The report sheds light on instances where international
police cooperation was necessitated in order to apprehend
cybercriminals running massive scam operations. "In
victimsupport.org.uk.
(5th July 2016)
JUNE 2016
COMPUTER SECURITY REVIEW - JUNE 2016
----------------------ANDROID MALWARE MASQUERADING AS WHATSAPP, UBER
AND OTHERS
(International Business Times, dated 29th June 2016
author India Ashok)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.ibtimes.co.uk/android-malware-masqueradingwhatsapp-uber-others-google-play-store-targets-userseurope-1567980
A new Android malware campaign has been uncovered by
security researchers that mimics the user interfaces of
popular apps like WhatsApp, Uber, Google Play, WeChat
and others to trick Android users into divulging their credit
card details.
Cybersecurity firm FireEye has uncovered several strains
of malware spreading via SMS phishing campaigns, which
have so far targeted Android users in Germany, Austria,
Italy, Denmark and Russia. The firm pointed out that other
European countries could also be impacted by the
malware.
The firm explained that hackers send victims SMS
messages with an embedded link that redirects users to
the malware app. Once installed, the malware has been
designed to stay dormant until it detects users launching a
benign app, like a banking app...... The malware then
activates and sends the unwary users "secure" data to the
criminals.
-----------------------DATA BREACH EXPOSES FRENCH POLICE OFFICERS TWO
WEEKS AFTER ISIS-INSPIRED MURDER
(International Business Times, datd 28th June 2017 author
Jason Murdock)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.ibtimes.co.uk/data-breach-exposes-112000-french-
police-officers-two-weeks-after-isis-inspired-murder1567873
A data breach has impacted 112,000 French police officers
after a file containing home addresses and telephone
numbers was uploaded to Google Drive without strong
protection - roughly two weeks after a police official was
murdered in an Isis-inspired attack.
In a move that has been branded an "act of revenge" at
the hands of a disgruntled former employee, the data
reportedly came from a health and benefit insurance firm
closely linked to the police, called the Mutuelle Generale
de la Police (MGP).
According to the local media RTL details on officers - both
serving and retired - alongside family members were
uploaded to Google's cloud storage service on 2 June and
were only protected by "a simple password." The
investigation into the leak, which took three weeks to
uncover, is now underway to find out if anyone accessed
the compromised data.
-----------------------ACER SECURITY BREACH EXPOSES DATA OF 34,500
ONLINE SHOPPERS
(Computer World, dated 20th June 2016 author Ian Paul)
Full article [Option 1]:
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3086155
Computer maker Acer recently revealed to California's
Attorney General (AG) that hackers broke into the
company's online store and grabbed sensitive customer
data. The leaked data includes information such as
customer names, addresses, and credit card numbers
including expiry dates and three-digit CVC security codes.
The hack affects 34,500 customers based in the United
States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, as first reported by
ZDNet, which Acer later confirmed to PCWorld.
-----------------------HALF OF SMALL BRITISH BUSINESSES HIT BY CYBERCRIME
(Computer World, dated 14th June 2016 author John
Leyden)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/14/sme_cybercrime_survey
/
Almost half (48 per cent) of Britain's small businesses
hotspots patrols."
Often dubbed 'plastic police' or 'Blunkett's bobbies' PCSOs
are civilian members of staff, used to bolster police
presence and support constables.
They have no power of arrest, and cannot investigate
crimes, but do have specific powers to deal with minor
public order offices, in what is often referred to as 'soft
policing'.
In most forces PCSOs are the only officers who now
conduct proactive and visible foot patrols.
In the experiment, the support officers were told to make
themselves as visible as possible and GPS devices
embedded in radios were used to track the time they
spent in each location.
On average per hotspot, there were 39 per cent fewer
crime incidents and 20 per cent fewer 999 emergency
calls compared with 38 non-patrolled high crime areas.
Every additional PCSO visit per day decreased calls to
police by approximately 34, with the number of crimes
declining by around four.
"The experiment suggests that the number of visits to
each hot spot may matter more than the total minutes - as
if each time the police arrive they renew their deterrent
effect on crime," said Dr Barak Ariel, lead researcher on
the trial.
The extra 21 minutes of PCSO time per day amounts to
3,094 hours across all high crime areas in Peterborough,
roughly equivalent to two fulltime PCSOs whose annual
salaries would cost no more than 50,000.
But the extra cost of the PSCOs would be more than met
by the money saved from court appearances and jail time,
the researchers estimated.
Prison time from the prevented crimes would have
amounted to 2,914 days at a cost to taxpayers of
280,000. The researchers calculate that for every 10
spent on extra policing, 56 would be saved in prison
costs alone.
"Any other investment in policing can now be challenged
to match the benefits of foot patrols in preventing the
equivalent of either 86 assaults, or six burglaries, or six
sexual crimes," added Professor Sherman.
Crime 'hotspots' are defined as small urban areas, streets
or intersections, where there is a concentration of crime usually offences such as theft, burglary, violence and
criminal damage.
"The deterrent role of police and PCSOs patrolling crimeharm hotspots is now indisputable," said Professor
Lorraine Mazerolle of the University of Queensland and
Editor of the Journal of Experimental Criminology, where
the research was published.
"The police can, and do, prevent crime, they just need to
be appropriately deployed to crime-harm hotspots."
Cambridgeshire Constabulary's Assistant Chief Constable
Mark Hopkins said: "We're keen to look at the findings in
further detail and explore how they could help to influence
our future policing plan."
Police recorded crime in 2015
Recorded crime % change year-on-year
Sexual offences : +36%
Violent crime : +27%
Homicide : +14%
Knife crime : +9%
Fraud : +5%
Firearm offences : +4%
Robbery : -4%
Criminal damage : -9%
(1st July 2016)
the original - look at the address bar to make sure that this
is the case.
SEVEN
Make sure you maintain effective software to combat
phishing. Norton Internet Security automatically detects
and blocks fake websites. It also authenticates major
banking and shopping sites.
uaware comment
Other security software is available from other providers :
Kaspesky, McAfee, Eset, Avast, Panda. Pick your
preference, but check out there performance first by
reading a computer magazine; ie. Computer Active.
(1st July 2016)
the EU.
Mr Raab said: "This is yet more evidence of how EU
membership makes us less safe. Free movement of people
allows unelected judges in the rogue European Court to
decide who we can and can't deport. This puts British
families at risk."
The list of offenders will fuel claims that Britain is
hamstrung by EU freedom of movement rules and will only
be able to deport violent convicts if the country backs a
Brexit on June 23.
A report last week warned that 5,789 criminals from
overseas are free to walk the UK's streets - the highest
number since 2012 - because they are protected under EU
human rights laws.
Mr Gove on Monday warned that the EU's lack of border
controls on the continent "actively abets terrorism".
"One of the things that we can do if we else the European
Union is control our borders and also control who we
deport," Mr Gove said.
"At the moment, unfortunately, the European law, which
the European Court of Justice takes, has prevented us from
getting rid of some people who are terrorists, or criminals
who have been supporting terrorists."
Under current British law, any foreigner who commits a
"serious crime" or is sentenced to more than a year in jail
qualifies for automatic deportation.
However if the convict is from the EU, that rule can be
meaningless because of the bloc's "freedom of
movement" rules that allow migrants to live and work in
any member state.
Research released by the Leave campaign has identified
50 cases - most occurring under Mr Cameron's
premiership - when attempts at deportation where blocked
by EU law.
They include six EU nationals convicted of murder, five
found guilty of sexual offences and thirteen locked up for
drug dealing or similar crimes.
Many of the European Court decisions were linked to the
fact convicts are only released by a parole board when
incarceration is no longer "necessary" to protect voters calling into question why they should be made to leave
the UK.
offenders-cannot-deported-EU-open-borders-Brexit
www.express.co.uk/news/uk/676421/
(1st July 2016)
the cutters.
Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons home affairs
select committee, said:" This development defies belief.
The migration crisis will not wait for these vessels to be
fully operational. I shows a lack of planning and a woeful
failure of management."
Mr Vaz also criticised the Home Offices decision last year
to scrap a 4 million contract providing Border Force with
its own surveillance aircraft to help guard the coast. "The
National Crime Agency has not acquired new capabilities
in this area so it was either a case that there was
duplication of services or we a making do with fewer
capabilities. At this time we need to increase aerial
surveillance, not decrease it," he said.
Chris Hobbs, a former Scotland Yard border control officer,
said:" The problem of migrants risking their lives across
the Channel is happening now. By next year it is going to
be too late".
Volunteers with the National Coastwatch Instition, who act
as "eyes and ears" for the Border Force have been given a
telephone number to call if they see suspicious activity.
Small airports are also a weak link. A borders inspection
report published in January found that regions seldom had
the capacity to scrutinisze light aircraft beyond those
assessed as high risk.
-----------------------"DEFENCE AGAINST MIGRANTS A JOKE" POLICE SOLD
350K BORDER PATROL BOAT FOR 80k AMID CUTS
(Daily Express, dated 2nd June 2016 author Vickiie
Oliphant)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.express.co.uk/news/uk/676134/UK-migrant-crisiskent-police-sold-top-border-patrol-boat-immigrationfunding-cuts
BRITAIN'S feeble attempts to secure its own borders faced
further pressure today after it was revealed officers
fighting people smugglers in the Channel sold off their
350K boat - for just 80K.
Kent Police first bought the Princess Alexandra III formerly an RNLI lifeboat - in 2006 and kitted it out as a
patrol boat for the south east coastline.
But it was flogged at auction just eight years later after a
MAY 2016
COMPUTER SECURITY REVIEW - MAY 2016
-------------------------ANDROID MALWARE MASQUERADING AS FAKE BANK APP
EMPTIES ACCOUNTS BY LOCKING USERS OUT OF THEIR
PHONES
(International Business Times, dated 28th May 2016
author India Ashok)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.ibtimes.co.uk/android-malware-masquerading-fakebank-app-empties-accounts-by-locking-users-out-their-
phones-1562499
Hackers have unleashed a new variant of Android malware
that poses as a fake banking app to trick users into
compliance, after which it locks users out of their
smartphones and sets about emptying their accounts,
while victims scramble to access their phones again. The
malware is called Fanta SDK and has been around since
December 2015.
Security firm Trend Micro identified the threat and noted
that the hackers were sending victims emails in efforts to
distribute their malware encased app. Trend Micro mobile
threat analyst Jordan Pan said: "We acquired a sample of a
fake banking app in Russia named Fanta SDK that is
capable of changing the phone's password when the user
tries to remove or deactivate the application's admin
privileges. It also has a unique way of running its routine
by waiting for certain commands before it launches its
attack."
----------------------ANDROID MAILWARE SPYLOCKER TARGETING EU BANK
CUSTOMERS FOR LOGIN CREDENTIALS
(International Business Times, dated 27th May 2016
author India Ashok)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.ibtimes.co.uk/android-malware-spylocker-targetingeu-bank-customers-login-credentials-1562356
An android malware variant is targeting customers of EU
banks as well as some popular Android apps, in hopes of
accessing login credentials. The malware, dubbed
SpyLocker, was previously identified as masquerading as a
flash player app for Android and targeted banks in
Australia, New Zealand and Turkey. However, security
researchers have now noticed that the new variant of the
malware has focused on targeting customers of European
banks.
Intel Security, which first identified SpyLocker, has
unveiled a new wave of attacks which resort to phishing
tactics in efforts to infect users' systems. The attacks
employ either the same fake flash player for Android app
or a fake Android system update app, using compromised
Wordpress and Joomla sites to distribute malware
impersonating a "porn player".
He added that "it has almost certainly led - and will almost
certainly lead - to the erroneous deletion of large numbers
of DNA profiles and fingerprints from the national
databases".
Mr MacGregor said in the report, published in March, that
he had "recently been informed that a suitable fix to this
problem should be delivered in February 2016. I will again
keep it under review".
Tim Farron MP, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: "The
Government wants tougher legislation and plans to gather
more and more data on citizens.
"But this shows that the Government cant even safely
keep hold of information it has on criminals.
"I think the Home Office should get their own house in
order instead of proposing further illiberal and draconian
laws."
Keith Vaz MP, the Labour chairman of the Home Affairs
select committee, said the deletions were "astonishing"
and would devastate the public's trust in how the police
handle data.
He told The Daily Telegraph: "These revelations are
devastating for the public's trust in how the police manage
data. The accidental deletion of tens of thousands of DNA
profiles is astonishing.
"This lost information is vital in linking evidence from
serious crimes to individuals, and the loss of this data may
cause severe delays for current and future investigations.
"This failure in the Home Office's communication to
individual forces has led to a fiasco, and the Committee
will be raising these issues with the Home Secretary when
she next appears to give evidence."
Tim Loughton MP, a Tory member of the same committee,
added: "The police really do not make it easy for
themselves.
"The Government rightly legislated to make sure that
personal details of citizens who had been questioned but
never charged or prosecuted were not retained alongside
genuine criminals.
"Now it seems someone has been trigger-happy with the
delete button for the records of those who have a criminal
record and who we need to keep a closer eye on to guard
against future offending.
NEW STUDY
(International Business Times, dated 25th May 2016
author Tom Porter)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.ibtimes.co.uk/experts-link-50-gun-crimes-acrosseurope-new-study-1561893
Governments need to improve the way they gather and
share information about illegal firearms in order to combat
gun crime, a UK-led report has concluded.
The 15-month Effect Project found that inconsistencies in
the ways European countries register firearms offences
means that gun crime was difficult to monitor.
It found that legal loopholes could be exploited by
criminals to acquire firearms, and recommends the
formation of a centralised "firearms focal point" where
information on firearms and their ballistic material can be
stored and shared by European countries.
Experts from Coventry University and UK ballistics
consultancy Arquebus took part in the study, which will be
presented at the EU in Brussels on Wednesday, 25 May.
It comes amid increasing concern about the availability of
illegal firearms in Europe, in face of the threat from
terrorist groups and organised crime gangs. Last year,
Islamist militants armed with automatic weapons launched
deadly terror attacks in the French capital Paris in January
and November.
In April, members of an organised crime gang in Kent were
convicted after being found in possession of a stash of
automatic weapons purchased from the same Slovakian
store as the Paris attackers, who targetted Parisian
satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January, 2015. The 22
Kalashnikov-style assault rifles and nine machine guns
were described by police from the National Crime Agency
as "mass casualty weapons". They had been sold legally
and reactivated by hammering out a metal pin placed in
the barrels.
In the wake of the attacks experts called for a joined-up
European strategy to combat the spread of illegal
firearms, some of which are decommissioned weapons
reactivated to fire live rounds, and others smuggled into
what-to-do-if-someone-posts-your-naked-pictures-online/
(8th June 2016)
VIETNAM BANK
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/vietnam-cyberheist-hackerstried-transfer-funds-slovenian-bank-1560525
SRI LANKA BANK
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/commercial-bank-ceylon-websitehit-by-hack-attack-1560271
(8th June 2016)
attack.
"I think there is a real possibility the Army could have to
be called in to conduct routine duties that are currently
performed by authorised firearms officers," said Mr White.
"If you cannot get police officers carrying guns then you
are going to have to have the Army on the streets."
(8th June 2016)
codeine.
In an online poll of motorists one in seven admitted to
drug driving, with the majority taking prescription
medication rather than illegal drugs.
The research found British motorists are four times more
likely to drive under the influence of legal drugs than their
contraband counterparts, with many saying they were
unaware of how the law applies to driving when using
prescription drugs.
And with hay fever season approaching, more than a third
of motorists claimed to suffer from with the condition, with
nearly two-thirds of hay fever sufferers admitting to
driving after taking medication to treat the allergy, despite
the potential risks of drowsiness and reduced
concentration levels.
Matt Lloyd, Motoring Expert at Confused.com said: "It's
worrying to see that so many motorists admit to driving
whilst under the influence of drugs - both prescription and
illegal. However, it would seem that new drug driving laws
introduced early last year seem to be having an impact,
with the number of drug driving arrests increasing by 140
per cent.
"This means more motorists who are found to have broken
the law are being caught, which in turn will help to make
our roads a safer place.
"There is however, another area for concern around the
level of awareness amongst drivers when it comes to how
certain medications can affect a person's driving ability.
"This is particularly alarming given the current time of
year, especially as more than a third of motorists admit to
suffering from hay fever, with many resorting to
medication to help combat the symptoms - despite the
potential risks of drowsiness and reduced concentration
levels.
"Our advice is simple, before taking any medication
people should always read the safety leaflet before
driving. Or if unsure they should ask the pharmacist or err
on the side of caution and don't drive, as road safety for
themselves and others should be a top priority for any
driver."
(8th June 2016)
between 2011-2015
Met Police : 17.4%
Northants : 16.8%
Gtr Manchester : 13.6%
Merseyside : 11%
Leicestershire : 9.9%
Norfolk : 4.8%
Cumbria : 3.9%
Durham : 2.1%
Cleveland : 1.3%
Sussex : 0.4%
(8th June 2016)
to the request.
Three of the country's biggest forces, the Metropolitan
Police, Greater Manchester and West Midlands said it
would be too expensive for them to reveal the information.
Merseyside Police and Dyfed Powys Police said giving
further details of the offenders would put their human
rights at risk.
(8th June 2016)
Justin Davenport)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/londons-new-crimehotspots-revealed-a3240796.html
Data collected from hospital A&E departments in London
has revealed dramatic new hotspots of violent crime in the
capital.
Anonymous intelligence collected from victims of knife
crime and violence shows different results from the picture
painted by police figures.
The data is collected under a scheme to cut violent crime
in which intelligence from A&E hospitals is shared with
police and local authorities.
So far, 17 hospital departments in London are involved in
the data sharing scheme, which allows police to create
maps of violent crime hotspots and plan strategies to
tackle them.
Researchers say the results also reveal new information
about weapon use and gang violence.
Professor Jonathan Shepherd, the architect of the original
violence reduction scheme in Cardiff, said: "The data
reveals new hotspots in London not apparent from the
police data.
"Also the surprise for me is that it has clearly got
relevance for understanding gang violence. This is useful
for identifying gang violence hotspots. People who are
injured do not want to go to the police, but they do go to
get their injuries treated."
In Hackney, the new intelligence is already being used by
the borough's Integrated Gangs Unit to direct police to
areas of gun and knife crime activity.
Writing in the magazine Police Professional, Professor
Shepherd and colleagues from the Greater London
Authority and the Met highlight contrasts between the
hospital data and police figures.
He says targeting hotspots at the right times is crucial: "It
is clear that scientific policing, like precision surgery, is
more effective, less harmful and less costly than
interventions informed by tradition and scattergun
approaches."
www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/stop-usingemail-use-the-post-instead-solicitors-fight-back-agai/
An official body has reacted to the spate of "conveyancing
fraud" cases uncovered by Telegraph Money by launching
a "cyber safety" initiative to protect consumers from
scams when they buy or sell property.
The Conveyancing Association, whose members handle
one in five property transactions in Britain, has advised
solicitors to communicate sensitive information such as
bank account details by post rather than email.
Many of the cases of fraud reported by Telegraph Money,
which have seen some victims robbed of hundreds of
thousands of pounds, have involved criminals apparently
intercepting emails between solicitors and property sellers
or buyers and substituting their own bank account details
for the genuine ones.
Telegraph Money has previously consulted a number of
experts and put together a guide to stop more people
falling victim.
The new scheme stipulates that the first communication
between clients and their conveyancing firm should be by
post and include the company's bank details. Clients will
be asked to verify their own account information in the
same way.
Beth Rudolf of the Conveyancing Association said the idea
was to avoid sending any personal financial details
electronically. She said using the post was "as safe as you
can get".
She added that member firms that wanted to continue to
use digital communication were developing alternative
online systems that would allow customers to enter
information in a secure portal, with verification by text
message or a password.
Another alternative scheme would allow clients to enter
bank details via an online "widget". If the information was
wrong, the client and company would be notified.
APRIL 2016
COMPUTER SECURITY REVIEW - APRIL 2016
-----------------------MOZILLA CREATES PATCHES TO FIREFOX AFTER FLAWS
FOUND BY GCHQ
(The Register, date 28th April 2016 author "Register Team)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/28/firefox_patch/
In version 46 of its popular Firefox web browser, Mozilla
has patched 10 vulnerabilities, some rated either critical
or high severity, that permitted remote code execution.
One of the patched high-severity flaws was burned
reported by the Communications-Electronics Security
Group (CESG), the information security limb of the UK's
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
Mozilla says in an advisory that four critical memory safety
bugs (CVE-2016-2804 to 2807) are now patched.
"Mozilla developers fixed several memory safety bugs in
the browser engine used in Firefox and other Mozilla-based
products," the security team says
"Some of these bugs showed evidence of memory
corruption under certain circumstances, and we presume
that with enough effort at least some of these could be
exploited to run arbitrary code."
The lone high severity bug was found by British security
bods Maryam Mehrnezhad, Ehsan Toreini, Siamak F.
Shahandashti, and Feng Hao of Newcastle University.
-----------------------WHAT DO YOU CALL AN OLD, UNPATCHED AND EASILY
HACKED PC ? AN ATM
(The Register, dated 26th April 2016 author John Leyden)
Full article [Option 1]:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/26/atm_hacking_all_t
oo_easy/
Almost any cash machine in the world could be illegally
charts-history-of-killings-in-london-a3228661.html
A new interactive "murder map" of London gives an
insight into the history of killings in the capital.
The project was set up by Peter Stubley, a former court
reporter at the Old Bailey, who said he hoped the map
could be of use to students, academics, friends and
relatives of victims or the police.
The database has gathered information from the
Metropolitan Police, the Crown Prosecution Service, and
media coverage and court records to show where murders
where committed and what methods the killer - or killers used.
The data spans from the time of Jack the Ripper in the
19th Century to the present day, although only killings
from 2008 onwards are recorded on the map.
The murders are colour-coded by the cause of death,
which normally relates to the weapon used, although the
'none' category usually refers to murders committed by
way of unarmed violence such as punches or kicks.
Mr Stubley told Metro.co.uk: "It wasn't a particularly new
idea but nobody had done it for London and I always
thought that murder cases could tell us a lot about the
state of society at that particular moment, whether it is
teenage knife crime, homelessness, drug and alcohol
abuse or domestic violence.
"There was a mixed reaction at the start, but our intention
is to report each case in the same way."
Murder Map : www.murdermap.co.uk/murder-map.asp
(1st May 2016)
Sebastian Mann)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/half-of-hitandrun-driversdid-not-know-it-was-illegal-study-finds-a3228261.html
Nearly half of drivers convicted of hit and run offences say
they would have remained at the scene if they had known
fleeing was against the law, new research has found.
A survey also found that motorists aged 16-34 are most
likely to have failed to stop after a crash because they are
scared of the consequences. One third of those quizzed
left the scene.
The most common reason for older drivers committing the
same offence is that they did not think the incident was
serious enough.
Some 695 people convicted of carrying out a hit and run
were polled for the study, which was conducted by the
University of Leicester.
According to the survey, 45 per cent would have stayed at
the scene of the crash if they'd known it was illegal to
drive away.
Dr Matt Hopkins, a senior lecturer at the university, said:
"For a number of drivers there is clearly confusion about
the legal requirement to report an accident.
"Importantly, some differences are observed between
younger and older drivers that could be developed into
preventative strategies."
Ashton West, chief executive of the Motor Insurers' Bureau
(MIB), which commissioned the research, said: "There is a
real need to understand why there are so many hit and
run accidents.
"The completion of this independent research will provide
useful insights which we will share with the Government,
police, the insurance industry and other interested bodies
so that we can take action to tackle this problem
together."
www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/crime-in-london-up-byfour-per-cent-in-a-year-a3226411.html
Crime in London rose in the last 12 months by just over
four per cent - or an extra 29,192 offences, new figures
showed today.
There were rises in violent crime, up by five per cent, theft
and snatches, up eight per cent, and sexual offences,
which rose by 9.3 per cent.
However, the figures for the financial year 2015/16
showed muggings were down two per cent over the last
12 months and the number of burglaries at their lowest
level since the early 1970s.
Scotland Yard claimed the rise in violent crime was mainly
due to more accurate recording of offences though the
figures showed there were 3,700 more cases involving
violence with injury.
There were also slight increases in the number of gun and
knife offences.
Police investigated a total of 109 homicides in the 12
months to April, a rise of six on the previous 12 months.
The figures showed a big increase in the number of theft
from person offences, with 2,600 more offences than the
previous 12 months.
There were also double digit rises in domestic abuse
cases, up 10.6 per cent, and racist and religious hate
crime offences, up by 18 per cent.
The total number of sexual offences in 2015/16 rose by
9.3 per cent with an 8.8 per cent rise in the number of
rape offences.
Police believe many of these increases are due to an
increased willingness of victims to come forward while
officers say the rise in sex offences is still being driven by
the aftermath of the Operation Yewtree investigation into
Jimy Savile.
Assistant Commissioner Helen King, head of Territorial
Policing, said: "We will continue to keep up our intensified
focus on areas such as violence where we have seen a rise
in recorded offences. We must not lose sight of the
reductions we have achieved over the last five years."
(19th April 2016)
upwards, far more than the $500 or less they cost in 2014.
The prices of identity documents have gone up while the
cost of other items, particularly malware, has nose-dived.
Other items offered for sale include hacking tutorials,
airline points and complete personal information dossiers
(names, addresses, dates of birth, etc). These dossiers can
be used for identity theft or other nefarious purposes.
"The underground marketplace is booming and only
getting bigger, more sophisticated, and competitive," Dell
SecureWorks concludes.
"Knowing what you and your organization are up against
and where your information could potentially be going and
what it's worth is a great way to help prioritize what you
protect."
(19th 2016)
seen as positive."
(19th April 2016)
None of the bases cost more to run each year than the
price of Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard HoganHowe's new 65,000 Range Rover, which has a 1,000
backseat entertainment system.
Croydon North MP Steve Reed said: "Croydon was hit hard
by the London riots in 2011. Now we find Croydon is set to
lose five neighbourhood police bases - one of the biggest
cuts in London in London's biggest borough.
"With violent crime and domestic violence still on the rise,
this is a real kick in the teeth."
Mr Reed claimed that some police savings were
undermining promises to "keep our community safe".
The force said the plans to stop leasing the 15 sites will
save 123,000 in the first year and 423,000 annually
thereafter. It is part of a strategy to slash 63.6 million
from the amount spent on real estate by 2019/20 and
deliver a "leaner estate".
According to documents from the Mayor's Office for
Policing and Crime, many of the safer neighbourhood
bases are no longer needed because of the roll-out of
"street briefings" and "coffee with a copper" sessions.
The documents state that Bromley and Croydon had a
"disproportionately high number" of deployment bases.
The most expensive of the 15 bases is at Colham House in
Hillingdon, which costs 59,093 a year, followed by the
Burnt Ash Lane base in Bromley, at 53,568, and Ealing's
Arches Business Centre site, which costs 38,413.
Borough commanders and council chief executives will be
briefed about and lead the closure plans.
There are 247 safer neighbourhood bases in the capital.
After the changes, Brent will have the most, 13, followed
by Havering, with 12, and Barnet on 11. Hounslow has the
fewest: three.
Scotland Yard said only one of the bases to be axed has a
public "contact point", adding that they are no longer
needed operationally and would be "decommissioned in
the next few months".
However, it said: "All staff and officers, and equipment will
be redistributed into nearby operational facilities within
the relevant borough.
was active meant that the thefts were still only affecting a
smaller percentage of the
Defenders on the road, but added: "Its going to be rural
areas that are mainly targeted
because that's where these types of vehicles are located".
"There are markets all around the world and Eastern
Europe is one of those markets".
In 2014, British police took part in Operation Atlantic,in cooperation with the US
Customs and Border Protection, aimed at shutting down
the shipping of illegally imported
Defenders and Mini Coopers.
NFU Mutual has issued advice for improving security
including fitting steering wheel
locks, alarms and trackers, as well as marking components
with paint and keeping the
vehicle in a lock-up or parking in well-lit areas.
Clive Harris, agricultural vehicle specialist at NFU Mutual,
said:" I urge Land Rover
Defender owners to be vigilant and be on their guad.
Owners should ensure they have
adequate security measures in place and consider fitting
an after-market approved
immobiliser and tracking device if possible".
"When not in use, Defenders should be parked in a garage
or a secure area which is well
lit if possibe. Never leave keys in the ignition and keep
keys out of sight at home and
when out in public areas. It's essential that easy
opportunities are taken away from
thieves".
(19th April 2016)
MARCH 2016
COMPUTER SECURITY REVIEW - MARCH 2016
COURTS CRY OVER CUNNING CALL-CENTRE CRIMINALS
CRAFTING CONVINCING CONS
(The Register, dated 29th March 2016 author Shaun
Nichols)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/29/scammers_impersonati
ng_govt_agencies/
US federal courts have alerted Americans to a fresh crop
of scams in which conmen are
setting up call centers and impersonating government
agencies.
The advisory describes how criminals are pretending to be
US marshals and court agents,
demanding victims hand over money for a supposed
failure to appear for jury duty.
"This year's scams are more aggressive and sophisticated
than we've seen in years past,"
said Melissa Muir, director of administrative services for
the US District Court of
Western Washington.
"Scammers are setting up call centers, establishing callback protocols and using specific
names and designated court hearing times."
According to the courts, criminals are not only calling
people with demands for cash, but
carrying on the ruse by setting up numbers for the target
to call back and hand over
payment details. By using specific names and reporting
supposed court dates missed and
threatening arrest, the scammers could further scare their
targets into paying up on the
spot.
The courts note that they do not send collection agents to
claim fines for failure to
appear for jury duty, and in the event a person is charged
Wednesday.
The Register reader Nicholas was among those targeted
by the link-containing message. He
was concerned that fraudsters had managed to get their
hands on his mobile phone number in
the first place.
"I have received two text alerts from NatWest, coming in
from their 'official' SMS number,
advising me that there has been 'unusual activity on my
on-line banking account' and
advising me to log into my account," Nicholas told The
Register.
"I am concerned how the fraudsters can spoof the text
alerts to a valid NatWest telephone
number and also how they have managed to get my own
mobile phone number."
----------------------NORTH DORSET COUNCIL HIT BY RANSOMEWARE
(The Register, dated 4th March 2016 author Kat Hall)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/04/north_dorset_council_ra
nsomware_refusal_payout/
North Dorset District Council in England's southwest is
working with police to identify
the source of a ransomware infection in this week.
It is the latest outbreak of file-scrambling malware in what
IT security experts believe
to be a growing problem for local authorities in the UK.
According to an email seen by The Register, the attack
had infected 6,000 files on the
council's servers by Tuesday.
However, the council said yesterday evening the problem
had been fixed.
Councillor Graham Carr-Jones, deputy leader of North
Dorset District Council, said: "The
'ransomware' attack was quickly detected by our security
systems and action was taken to
minimise the impact on our systems. No customer data
was compromised.
"The council has not made, and will not make ransom
payments in such circumstances. We are
another driver.
Recently, gangs have targeted bus passengers to claim
thousands in alleged whiplash injuries.
'Significant drain'
The number of induced accidents in 2015 fell by 2%
compared to a record high the previous year, Aviva said.
However, there was a 40% year-on-year drop in the
number of staged accidents, which was attributed to the
introduction of more stringent measures around taking out
a policy.
Tom Gardiner, head of fraud at Aviva, said: "Induced
accidents now account for nearly half of all organised
motor fraud we detect.
"Crash for cash does not just push up premiums for
genuine customers, it puts innocent motorists at risk.
"It is also a significant drain on scarce public resources
such as ambulance, police and A&E time, all of which are
wasted on these entirely bogus claims."
The insurer said the problem could also be moving to new
areas after some postcodes in Worcester, Margate and
Leicester were found to be hotspots.
Former West Midlands Police detective Neil Thomas who
now independently investigates fraudulent crashes, said
Birmingham and other big cities are specifically targeted.
He said: "Birmingham is quite an obvious choice - it has
been a hotspot for a number of years. There's the high
volume of traffic and also the road network.
"In any big city... there are going to be genuine traffic
collisions.
"The fraudster can then get away with having staged
incidents because people won't notice them"
What is a 'crash for cash' scam?
- A car in front of you slams on the brakes for no obvious
reason and you collide with it
- The other driver will insist it is your fault and hand over
their insurance details - often already prepared and
written down
- Your insurers will write to you with details of the other
driver's claim, exaggerated with costs like car hire,
Audi Q7
Range Rover Autobiography
(1st April 2016)
across London.
People who have been offered jobs in sensitive roles, such
as working with children or vulnerable people, are unable
to start work until the checks are completed. In January,
the Standard revealed the Met had a backlog of more than
68,000. The force today said more than 30,000 has been
cleared from this, but the average waiting time has
increased to 77 days, from 75.
According to figures seen by the Standard, Scotland Yard is
one of the worst performers of all forces in the UK for
processing the checks. About 45 per cent of cases are
completed within the target of 60 days. James Gadd, 37,
who accepted a job in October as a support worker in a
London disabled school, said he is waiting for his
clearance and has been struggling to pay the bills.
"It has had an untold effect on my family," he said. "For
months I haven't been able to earn a living.
I would have started as soon as the clearance came
through. When I phoned up about to see what was
happening the woman on the phone said she was dealing
with hundreds of calls like mine every day from people
who are at breaking point.
"She told me her job has now become 'suicide prevention'
because people are at breaking point and unable to earn
money because they can't start their jobs without
clearance."
The delays relate to enhanced checks, which are passed
by the DBS, part of the Home Office, to the relevant police
force on employers' behalf. The DBS said: "The delay in
processing DBS checks by the Met is of great concern to
us and our customers. The Met has informed us their
recovery plan includes recruiting, training and transferring
additional staff. We are told turn-around times will reduce
as a result and are monitoring this situation closely."
Scotland Yard said: "DBS checks are not simple
administrative work These decisions directly impact
children and vulnerable adults and those who seek to work
content.
(1st April 2016)
translation.
Co-creator Richard Harvey said: "Lip-reading is one of the
most challenging problems in artificial intelligence so it's
great to make progress on one of the trickier aspects,
which is how to train machines to recognise the
appearance and shape of human lips."
Details about the developments will be presented to the
International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal
Processing in Shanghai, China, on Friday.
(1st April 2016)
online-fraud-with-refunds-met-chief-tells-banksa3210596.html
Britain's most senior police officer has reportedly said
banks should refuse to refund victims of online fraud
because it "rewards" them for being lax with internet
security.
Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe
was quoted as saying the current system was "not
incentivising you to protect yourself".
He said customers were effectively being "rewarded for
bad behaviour" while discussing how banks could make
people more security-conscious, the Times reported.
"If you are continually rewarded for bad behaviour you will
probably continue to do it but if the obverse is true you
might consider changing behaviour," he said.
"The system is not incentivising you to protect yourself. If
someone said to you, 'If you've not updated your software
I will give you half back', you would do it."
His comments come as police prepare to include
cybercrime estimates in official crime statistics for the first
time in July.
Sir Bernard said that the figures are set to double with the
change.
Two in five (44%) UK consumers have been subject to
cybercrime in their lifetime, according to a survey released
last year.
But nearly half of them do not take the time to change
their account passwords after a security compromise or
break, the Norton Cybersecurity Insights Report found.
Home Secretary Theresa May warned the International
Crime and Policing Conference on Wednesday that
faceless crime was being conducted over the internet on
an "industrial scale".
But according to The Times, police follow up fewer than
one in 100 frauds and there were fewer than 9,000
convictions out of more than three million frauds in 12
months.
GCHQ estimates that 80% of cybercrime, which is thought
to cost 1 billion a year, could be prevented by tougher-tocrack passwords and regularly updated security software.
uaware comment
I wonder if the most senior police officers comments were
written after crime statistics were considerably skued
upwards last year when cybercrime was added for the first
time.
You can have the most efficient security software loaded
on your PC / laptop; coupled with your banks own security
application, but if someone wants to hack your computer
sadly they will. Even the banks themselves are hacked and
defrauded
The next thing we are going to hear from senior police
officers is that insurance companies should not pay out on
burglary unless adequate security measures are taken !
What will that be ? Steel bars at windows and steel doors. I
suppose with a 13% crime detection rate by the Met that
will be suggested by Sir Hogan-Howe in the future.
(1st April 2016)
a national level."
However, this appears to fly in the face of efforts to crack
down on sex assaults in public spaces.
After a TfL survey revealed 15 per cent of women and girls
had experienced unwanted sexual behaviour on the
transport network, the BTP set up Project Guardian in 2013
with the Met, City of London police and TfL.
Created in conjunction with three women's organisations,
the End Violence Against Women Coalition (Evaw),
Hollaback London and Everyday Sexism, it sought to
encourage victims to come forward. Project Guardian has
since been replaced with a well-publicised campaign,
"Report it to stop it".
None of the three women's groups was aware the unit was
being axed. Sarah Green, the director of Evaw, said: "We
need to hear from BTP's chief constable, and from the
Department for Transport and the Home Office, as to
whether such plans have been consulted on and what the
intention is to ensure our national railways police force is
able to respond to and ultimately to deter sexual
offences."
The spokesperson for the BTP, which is mostly funded by
train operating companies, said: "Thankfully, the most
serious sexual offences are rare on the railway and they
will always be allocated a senior investigating officer
supported by a dedicated team."
-----------------------UPDATE
BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE HALTS PLANS TO AXE SEX
CRIME UNIT AFTER OUTCRY
(London Evening Standard, dated 2nd April 2016 author
Rosamund Urwin)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/british-transport-policehalts-plans-to-axe-sex-crime-unit-after-outcrya3216566.html
The British Transport Police has halted plans to axe their
sexual offences unit following an Evening Standard
investigation into the closure.
uaware comment
The worrying thing is, BTP management thought (if that is
the right word) it ok to scrap this unit. I thought there was
something called "Risk Analysis" before doing something
that affects people safety.
(1st April 2016)
Apple iPhone 5C
HTC One
Apple iPhone 5S
Nokia 635
(1st April 2016)
breach."
"Once the perpetrator has been identified, civil fraud
solicitors can assist in the recovery of any stolen assets,
whether that be information or monies with the use of
search and seize orders and freezing orders. In light of the
importance of these tools to recovering the losses and
identify perpetrators of cyber crime, the NCSC should be
advising business which are the victims of a cyber security
breach of the availability of these crucial strategies," he
said.
(1st April 2016)
difficult-to-bring-charges-Met-claims.html
Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police
Commissioner, has blamed the high number of foreign
criminals for the force's lack of success in getting cases to
court.
He said the complexitities involved in checking DNA,
fingerprints and previous convictions of foreign nationals
made it "quite a challenge" to bring charges within the
alloted 24 hours.
Sir Bernard had been asked to explain Scotland's Yard
comparitively low rate of 13 per cent rate of total
notifiable offences ending in a charge or summons by the
London Assembly police and crime committee, according
to The Times.
The figure is up to 16 per cent in other large urban forces
such as Greater Manchester and West Midlands police.
Sir Bernard said: "It's not that foreigners cause problems,
it's just that is what London is like.
"The challenges that poses ... is that we need to have the
intelligence on them when they are detained. We need
their criminal conviction history, we need the forensics
information - and all of those are challenging if we have to
release 90-odd per cent of our suspects within 24 hours."
He said that of the foreign national offenders the force
deals with, 55 per cent are from Europe and the remainder
are from outside the EU.
Sir Bernard declined to be drawn on whether Britain
should leave the EU but said: "It's a little bit easier to work
within Europe because we have the EU arrest warrant."
uaware comment
Let's not hide the problem with statistics.
- 28% of 250,000 arrests = 70,000 foreign national
suspects
- 55% of the 70,000 foriegn nationals arrested are from
the EU = 38,500
- Those foreign national suspects released with no further
costs and the Met had lost time in replacing a system that
was 30 years old.
The new software system would have provided the core of
the Met's command and control and call handling system.
A similar system is being used by the London Air
Ambulance Service and a number of US police forces,
including the Chicago Police Department, but it is not clear
why there were such serious delays in implementing the
Met project.
It was due to replace an ageing system based on similar
technology to an airport luggage handling system but
which handles between 12,000 and 15,000 emergency
and non-emergency calls per day.
A second 90 million contract with Lockheed Martin to
integrate the new command and control project with other
Met applications has also been scrapped.
The Met said in a statement: "The contract was terminated
on the basis of the supplier's failure to deliver the
command and control system in accordance with the
contract, including its failure to deliver in time for the
originally planned October 2015 go-live date. There was
no prospect of a finished product being delivered before
the expiry of the contract term on 18 March 2016.
"Northrop Grumman has disputed MOPAC's right to
terminate the contract. MOPAC stands by its decision, and
is seeking immediate repayment of milestone payments
from Northrop Grumman.
"MOPAC is also minded to pursue a claim against Northrop
Grumman for costs and damages arising from the
supplier's failure to deliver a command and control
solution in accordance with the contract."
The statement said Scotland Yard's existing command and
control system "remains in normal operational use" and is
"undergoing further modernisation".
It added that the Met "is also looking at alternative options
to meet its longer-term operational requirements."
Labour London Assembly member Joanne McCartney,
people are located within one day, safe and well. Those
that are not remain as open cases and are subject to
regular review and action."
Sherry Peck, London director at The Children's Society,
said: "Without action to provide better help early on, more
children will go missing, exposing them to increasing risk
of sexual exploitation and other crimes. Too often the
issues they are running from do not get addressed early
enough.
"On the streets young people are more likely to be
befriended by adults who appear to offer what they want
and give them an escape, but in reality they are looking to
exploit them."
Scotland Yard records children as absent for a maximum of
24 hours before they are upgraded to missing. All under13s are recorded as missing. The report found each
missing person investigation costs police on average
between 1,325 and 2,415.
(1st April 2016)
You might think this is what pubs are for, but the Licensing
Act of 1872 is having none of it. "Every person found
drunk on any licensed premises, shall be liable to a
penalty," it says. Furthermore, the Licensing Act of 2003
reaffirms that it is an offence to sell alcohol to a drunk
person, and to buy alcohol for a drunk person. You can see
what these laws are getting at, even if they are broken in
more or less every pub in Britain more or less every day.
Carrying a plank along a pavement
There is a lot of claptrap around about crazy laws that
supposedly still apply, but this one actually does, at least
in London and its environs. It is part of a list of street
nuisances described in the Metropolitan Police Act of 1839,
which also bans singing indecent songs, sliding on ice,
ringing doorbells and running away, and beating a rug or
doormat after 8am.
Defacing banknotes
Those jottings you sometimes see on money - they're
illegal. The Currency and Banknotes Act of 1928 made it
an offence to deface a banknote in any way. Strangely, it
is not illegal to destroy a banknote altogether, although,
according to the Coinage Act of 1971, it is an offence - if
you can manage it - to destroy a coin (that was minted
after 1969).
Queue jumping
Many people would love to see this banned nationally,
perhaps with hanging reintroduced as punishment, but for
now it is only a Transport for London bylaw, provided there
is a sign up. "Any person directed by a notice to queue or
asked to queue by an authorised person shall join the rear
of the queue and obey the reasonable instructions," the
rules say. TfL also prohibits people from using London's
public transport while "unfit as a result of being drunk or
under the influence of controlled drugs". Few Londoners,
I'm sure, have ever unknowingly disobeyed that.
After all, legitimate sellers will know that when you sell or
give away an iOS device you should always sign out of
iCloud and erase all content and settings in
Settings>General>Reset>Erase All Content and Settings
before you do.
I hope this advice helps you avoid being ripped-off.
(1st April 2016)
FEBRUARY 2016
TWO FORCES REQUIRE IMPROVEMENT IN THREE KEY
AREA - SAYS HMIC
(Police Oracle, dated 25th February 2016 author Helena
Hickey)
www.policeoracle.com [Option 1]
Two forces have been classed as "requiring
improvement"in all three strands of the PEEL inspections
carried out by HMIC last year.
Cleveland Police and Dyfed Powys Police were assessed as
"requiring improvement" - the second lowest grade
possible - for effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy, with
HMIs raising serious concerns in each area.
HMI Mike Cunningham had serious concerns about the way
Cleveland Police keep people safe and reduce crime as
well as how prepared it was to meet future financial
challenges.
Additionally, he said he was "particularly concerned" by
the force's approach to protecting some of the most
vulnerable people.
"HMIC found inconsistencies in the identification of
vulnerable victims at the first point of contact with the
police", he said.
"We also found that the force does not respond to all
incidents within the required timescale. However, I am
encouraged to see the improved quality of the force's
crime investigations; and the force works well to identify
and disrupt organised criminality."
However, the report states HMIs found "an ethical culture"
with a workforce who knew the standard of work expected
of them and who have a " high regard" for chief officers
added.
But he said: "A speeding motorist from Stuttgart poses no
less threat than if they were from London... I'm amazed
that after 21 years or so of trying that get European police
forces to manage to create some sort of mutual approach
to this, we are still trying.But to say that Northern Ireland
and the Republic of Ireland can't manage it that's
astonishing. The phrase - beggars belief - springs to
mind."
Paul Hodge, another former officer with roads policing
expertise,told PoliceOracle.com
"Trying to make all things equal to all, the famous phrase
"the law is the law"- is not always that easy.Dealing with
non-UK drivers is nothing new and I believe still a problem
for our mainland police forces as motorists escape by
heading back to Europe, and the follow-up costs are
prohibitive."
In France they operate a "pay up now" system, and same
in USA, I believe, so escaping is not an option.
The PSNI said anyone caught speeding by a police officer
would be prosecuted, regardless of their nationality.
Inspector Rosie Leech from Roads Policing told the Belfast Telegraph :" At the moment, the PSNI does not
have the power to enforce motoring legislation or pursue
outstanding fines outside of Northern Ireland or the United
Kingdom."
"However, while drivers from outside Northern Ireland or
the United Kingdom do not as yet receive penalty points or
fines for speeding offences detected by the Northern
Ireland Road Safety Partnership, they do not escape
prosecution if detected by police officers."
"If detected by police, drivers who are willing to accept
and abide by the conditions of a fixed penalty may be
dealt with at the roadside, otherwise they face the
enough.
The attackers were Dan Turner and Kyprianos Vasilopoulos
from security firm Trustwave who test network defences
for a living.
There were several different devices on my network that
looked hackable, said Mr Turner. My router had known,
unpatched security issues and the USB-connected back-up
drive was also tempting but for him the web-capable
camera was "the big red flag".
A few hours' work uncovered a previously unknown bug in
the camera's core software that Mr Turner was able to
exploit.
"It meant we were able to do things with it that we really
should not be able to do," he said. "At that point it was
pretty much game over."
The attack the pair developed revealed the internal
passwords for the network the camera sat on. Knowing
that allowed attackers to join the network with the same
privileges as all the members of my family. Maybe that's
why my network security system did not spot the
intrusion.
It's a vulnerability that exposes more than me to potential
trouble. The Shodan search engine that logs net devices
lists about 1.5 million that use the same core software.
That's not to say that all are vulnerable but a good
percentage are probably unwitting gateways to the
networks they sit on.
Calling out
It's these often unregarded devices that are a big security
issue, said Greg Day, European security chief at Palo Alto
Networks.
Most people overlook them because they seem so
mundane, he said. Even though most will be, in effect, a
small computer running a cut-down version of the Linux
operating system.
"You should look at the pings going out from your home
network," he said. "There might be a lot more outgoing
traffic than you think."
Using a network sniffing tool, I had a look and I was
amazed at how much data was flowing across my home
network. Desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones were
all checking in online, many constantly, to get updates or
to feed ads and other content to apps.
I also found two mystery devices - one of which was
revealed to be a printer and the other a digital radio I had
forgotten I had hooked up to the wi-fi when I got it years
ago.
Increasingly, said Mr Day, it will be the smaller,
supposedly smarter devices that will expose people to
security risks.
There are industry efforts to find and fix bugs in gadgets
that make up the Internet of Things but not all
manufacturers are reacting to reports of problems. The
maker of the web-capable camera I use has been informed
about the bug but it has no plans to close the loophole.
Thankfully, said Mr Vasilopoulos from Trustwave, attacks
on those home networks are relatively rare. Instead,
cyber-thieves tended to rely on spear phishing campaigns.
"Everything starts with email," he said. "That's always the
easy route."
These campaigns use carefully targeted emails that look
like they have been sent by people a target knows or is
likely to respond to. Names for these emails are often
grabbed from social media sites such as Facebook or
LinkedIn.
To demonstrate how this worked the Trustwave team faked
a message to me from an attractive young woman who
works at the BBC. My middle-aged vanity was all too likely
to make me open the message, click on the attachment
and fall victim.
If I had opened it, I would have seen an error message
from occurring.
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC)
revealed it has teamed up with London School of
Economics (LSE) to build a picture of "predicted demand"
on policing in the 181,000 census output areas.
The move comes as the inspectorate warns police forces
must have a better grasp of what they are likely to face in
the years to come as they deal with increasingly limited
resources.
Predicting where crime could occur, as well as what type
of offences may be committed, drew comparisons to
Steven Spielberg's 2002 film Minority Report, based on a
story by sci-fi writer Philip K Dick, in which police use
psychic technology to arrest and convict murderers before
they commit their crime.
Asked if there was a danger that officers would rely too
heavily on this sort of crime-mapping, the chief inspector
of constabulary, Sir Tom Winsor, said it would be a
valuable tool.
"It's another very useful tool in the toolbox. But it's not
going to be like the satnav that makes people drive off the
end of a pier. They're not going to slavishly follow it.
"It's just an enormously valuable instrument, which many
of them do not have. At a local level, the inspectors
themselves know where the troubled families are; they
know where habitual criminals live.
"But to have that at force level but also to be able to drill
down to small units in a particular area; that is an
enormously valuable tool. But we're a long way from
Minority Report."
In its annual report on the state of policing, HMIC said
police forces are likely to face continued pressure on
resources and budgets, despite faring relatively well in the
most recent spending review in which George Osborne,
the chancellor, protected police spending.
The watchdog argues police forces need a more effective
www.thetimes.co.uk [Option 1]
Only six fraudsters were prosecuted for tampering with
food in the UK las year, despite a supposed crackdown
after the horsemeat scandal in 2013.
Data obtained by the Food Standards Agency from
councils showed little evidence that those who replace
quality ingredients with cheaper products are being
punished.
Cases inluded cheaper alternatives being sold being sold
as Smirnoff vodka and Gordon's gin in Pontypridd and beef
being substituted for lamb in curries in Chester. Another
conviction incuded the presentation of sheep meat as goat
meat in Ealing.
Duncan McNair, who chaired an inquiry into the wellbeing
of farmed animals in the UK, saidthat the figures were
parlous yet wholly unsurprising.
"For years the UK has lacked, and still urgently needs, a
new political will to build a robust, durable and properly
funded food regulatory system committed to recovering
consumer safety", he said.
He added that huge food producers and retailers "will
regard the miniscule number of prosecutions and the
attendant trifling penalties as a small overhead set against
their gargantuan turnover, and as a green light for the
status quo".
The US Food and Drug Administration warned this week
that fraudsters were adding by-products of wood pulp to
parmesan cheese.
Chris Elliott, professor of food saety at Queen's University
Belfast, who investigated the horsemeat scandal for the
government, found last year that oregano was being
packed with other ingredients. He said: " No one really
knows th true level of fraud in the food supply system in
the UK". In January PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimated
that "food fraud costs the global food industry up to $40
billion (28 billion) a year". Carol McKenna, directo of
One of the areas where the Met was rated "good" was for
its action against organised crime. HMIC's report said
there were 218 gangs per million Londoners, way up on
the 75 reported nationwide.
In the first study by HMIC of force's effectiveness at
tackling gangs, it said the Met has a "well developed
understanding of the threat and risk posed by SOC
[serious organised crime]. We found effective mechanisms
in place to prioritise investigations against the gangs and
OCGs [organised crime groups] that cause the most harm
to Londoners".
(1st March 2016)
10% to 20%.
"We know electrical products are high on shopping lists
this sale season so we are urging
the public to keep their families and homes safe by
making a habit of registering a new
product as soon as they get it home," said Emma Apter, of
Electrical Safety First.
"People may think it's too much hassle or there is no
benefit of providing contact details
but an unregistered appliance can be a hidden danger in
homes as it's difficult for
manufacturers to trace them."
Hotpoint Safety : https://safety.hotpoint.eu/
Indesit Safety : https://safety.indesit.eu/
General appliance safety :
www.registermyappliance.org.uk/
(1st March 2016)
JANUARY 2016
COMPUTER SECURITY REVIEW - JANUARY 2016
----------------------LINCOLNSHIRE COUNCIL IT RANSOME
(The Register, dated 1st February 2016 author Alexander J
Martin)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/01/lincolnshire_council_ran
som_a_whopping_350/
Lincolnshire County Council's IT is back up and running
after the council shut everything down last week following
a ransomware attack in which the attackers turned out to
have asked for a mere 350.
Despite the BBC reporting that the council had been hit by
a 1m ransom, a spokesperson told The Register that it
had only been asked for $500 (c 350), unsurprisingly to
be paid in Bitcoin.
The council has not released the name of the ransomware
which hit it, though it continues to claim that it had been
hit by a 0-day exploit.
The vulnerability has yet to be disclosed, but the council
told The Register it did not believe it had been victim to a
targeted attack.
----------------------HOME OFFICE LOST ITS WORKERS COMPLETED SECURITY
VETTING FORMS
(The Register, dated 29th January 2016 author Alexander J
Martin)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/29/home_office_admits_los
ing_completed_vetting_forms/
The Home Office has admitted to The Register that among
its data breach incidents last year was one in which
Leyden)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/25/sainsburys_bank_weak_
crypto/
Sainsbury's Bank website still relies on insecure
cryptography protocols that more security conscious
organisations have abandoned as obsolete.
The UK supermarket-owned bank's "secure" site rates an
"F" in tests using the industry standard Qualys' SSL Labs
service - chiefly because of the support for protocols
security experts reckon are well past their sell-by date.
The practical upshot here is that Sainsbury's Bank is not
following industry best practice, creating an added risk as
a result, not that customer details have been exposed
much less leaked.
----------------------COMMUTERS SLAM UK RAIL OPERATOR C2C FOR BEING
PRIVACY VIOLATOR
(The Register, dated 25th January 2016 author John
Leyden)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/25/uk_rail_operator_c2c_pr
ivacy_snafus/
Commuters in the south east of England, already angry
about recent timetable changes and delays, have been
further incensed by basic security blunders by rail
operator c2c as it tried to placate passenger disquiet with
a new compensation form on its website.
The company, which operates rail service between London
Fenchurch Street and Southend in Essex, initially used an
unencrypted form to request private information.
In addition, it failed to use the BCC field in a recent bulk
email, thus disclosing the email addresses of more than
500 people in the process.
----------------------SYMANTEC PARTNER CAUGHT RUNNING TECH SUPPORT
SCAM
(Computer World, dated 25th January 2016 author Gregg
Keizer)
Full article [Option 1]:
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3026243
Tech support scammers are known for their cheek -making unfounded claims that PCs are infected to scare
consumers into parting with their money -- but a
Symantec partner took nerve to a new level, a security
company claimed last week.
According to San Jose, Calif.-based Malwarebytes, Silurian
Tech Support ran a scam in which its employees, who
billed themselves as support technicians, used obscure
but harmless entries in Windows' Event Viewer and Task
Manager to claim that a PC had been overwhelmed by
malware, then leveraged those bogus threats to sell
overpriced copies of Symantec's Norton security software
and an annual contract for follow-up phone support.
----------------------IRISH GOVERNMENT WEBSITES HIT BY WIDENING DDoS
ATTACKS
(The Register, dated 22nd January 2016 author John
Leyden)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/22/irish_gov_ddos/
A number of Irish government-related and public sector
websites were knocked offline by an apparent DDoS attack
on Friday morning.
The latest assaults follow apparently similar web attacks
on the popular boards.ie discussion boards (bang) and the
Irish National Lottery earlier (wallop) this week.
At the time of first of the assaults against boards.ie, an
individual using a pseudonym got in touch to suggest
follow-up assaults against a wider range of Irish sites
would follow, ostensibly motivated by a desire to highlight
security weaknesses.
----------------------GOOGLE BINNED 780 MILLION ADS LAST YEAR
(The Register, dated 22nd January 2016 author Darren
Pauli)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/22/google_crushes_malicio
us_ads/
Google blocked 780 million malicious and annoying
politicians ... and that is why the region right now, Latin
American and the Caribbean, are at a boiling point," Grillo
said.
Here is the list of the world's top 50 most violent
cities in 2015 by homicides per 100,000 inhabitants:
1. Caracas, Venezuela - 119.87
2. San Pedro Sula, Honduras - 111.03
3. San Salvador, El Salvador - 108.54
4. Acapulco, Mexico - 104.73
5. Maturin, Venezuela - 86.45
6. Distrito Central, Honduras - 73.51
7. Valencia, Venezuela - 72.31
8. Palmira, Colombia - 70.88
9. Cape Town, South Africa - 65.53
10. Cali, Colombia - 64.27
11. Cuidad Guayana, Venezuela - 62.33
12. Fortaleza, Brazil - 60.77
13. Natal, Brazil - 60.66
14. Salvador, Brazil - 60.63
15. St Louis, Missouri, US - 59.23
16. Joao Pessoa, Brazil - 58.40
17. Culiacan, Mexico - 56.09
18. Maceio, Brazil - 55.63
19. Baltimore, Maryland, US - 54.98
20. Barquisimeto, Venezuela - 54.96
21. Sao Luis, Brazil - 53.05
22. Cuiaba, Brazil - 48.52
23. Manaus, Brazil - 47.87
24. Cumana, Venezuela - 47.77
25. Guatemala City, Guatemala - 47.17
26. Belem, Brazil - 45.83
27. Feira de Santana, Brazil - 45.5
28. Detroit, Michigan, US - 43.89
29. Goiania, Brazil - 43.38
30. Teresina, Brazil - 42.64
31. Vitoria, Brazil - 41.99
32. New Orleans, Louisiana, US - 41.44
33. Kingston, Jamaica - 41.14
34. Gran Barcelona, Venezuela - 40.08
35. Tijuana, Mexico - 39.09
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
that he was part of a Polish gang called Infra Red that had
been subject to a major police operation.
He was reportedly being investigated after a man was
killed at a football match between Korona Kielce and Legia
Warsaw in Kielce, south-central Poland. Reportedly fights
broke out between rival factions in the crowd before the
man was killed and Kupiec went missing. His mother
pleaded for him to return in an open letter after his
disappearance.
Locals in the area believe he may have lived there for up
to four years and trained at a local gym. An employee at
Route 2 Fitness sports club in Devizes, said according to
the Guardian: "We didn't really know him. None of us knew
him very well. He wasn't in very often. He wasn't a regular
person. He would come in sometimes early in the
mornings. He didn't speak very much."
A Wiltshire Police spokesman said: "At 7.50pm on 13
January 2016 Wiltshire Police officers executed an arrest
warrant on behalf of Interpol. They attended Subway, in
London Road, Devizes, and arrested a 28-year-old Polish
man in connection with an investigation into a murder in
Poland.
"He is in custody and is being dealt with by Interpol." In
July 2015, British police arrested the wrong Peter Kupiec in
London. The man had the same year of birth as the
suspected killer, but his month and day of birth were
different.
A Subway spokeswoman confirmed a member of staff had
been arrested. She said: "He provided the valid
identification and documents required to gain employment
at the time he was hired. As this is now being investigated
by the police, we are unable to comment further."
Interpol most wanted
www.interpol.int/notice/search/wanted
(1st February 2016)
London dominated the top 20 hotspots for theft claims with 16 areas featured in the list, including three districts
of Ilford, east London and north Kensington. Milton Keynes
and West Bromwich, near Birmingham also had high
numbers of burglary claims.
District
(Postcode) [Claims per 1,000 quotes]
South Tulse Hill & Dulwich (SE21) [61.2]
Clayhall (IG5) [57.5]
Redbridge (IG4) [56.7]
Gants Hill, Newbury Park, Aldborough Hatch (IG2) [53.5]
Whetstone district (N20) [49.5]
Heston, Cranford (north), Osterley (TW5) [49.2]
Hadley Wood, Cockfosters, East Barnet, New Barnet (EN4)
[48.6]
New Southgate district (N11) [48.1]
Barkingside, Hainault (IG6) [46.7]
Teddington (TW11) [46.6]
Source: MoneySuperMarket
The least common areas for burglars were Harbury and
Derry, Northern Ireland. The SA3 postcode, covering
south-west Wales also had low numbers claims related to
theft.
Kevin Pratt, consumer affairs expert at
MoneySuperMarket, said burglary claims was top of the list
when insurers calculate premiums.
But what makes Dulwich so attractive to criminals?
Mr Pratt said: "Dulwich differs hugely street-to-street.
Thieves can 'hide in plain sight' on the bustling streets and
take the time to establish targets without attracting much
attention.
"But there are also quieter, greener areas which are also
appealing to burglars. It's a case of 'nobody's a stranger
because everybody's a stranger'.
"These days people do so much shopping online and get
might once have pulled them apart and sent them on their
separate ways. The clash will probably now be recorded as
a violent offence.
The increasing number of reports of rape and other sex
offences is likely to be driven by the greater willingness of
victims to come forward, partly because of the publicity
over accusations of historic child abuse. Richard Garside,
the director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies,
argues the statistics reveal more about police activity than
patterns of offending.
"They tell you quite a lot about what police are focusing on
and what they are prioritising," he says.
However, it is hard to dismiss the increases in murder, gun
crime and knife crime as a statistical quirk.
In some corners of our big cities life is becoming more
dangerous. Elsewhere crime is changing rapidly - and the
statistics are struggling to catch up.
(1st February 2016)
HOW DO I AVOID BEING A CRASH FOR CASH
VICTIM ?
(BBC News, dated 21st January 2016)
Full article : www.bbc.co.uk/guides/ztqt39q#zcg8xsg
PAYING THE PRICE
According to the Insurance Fraud Bureau 'crash for cash'
costs the UK 340m every year. And
who ends up paying for it? You guessed it - the honest
motorists who pay their premiums.
The scam is usually carried out by criminal gangs who
make fraudulent claims on car
insurance. The profits are often used to fund other crimes
like illegal firearms, drug
dealing and people trafficking. So how can you avoid
being a victim?
Crash for cash scammers choose their victims carefully they keep an eye out for drivers
who look like they would be fully insured but be less likely
to cause a fuss. Mothers with
children on board and the elderly are favoured victims. If
you've been a victim, the
circumstances are likely to be as follows.
KNOW THE SIGNS
The accident
A car in front of you slams on the brakes for no obvious
reason, and you have no time to
react and collide with the car in front. Another scenario
(known as 'flash for cash')
happens when a driver flashes their lights at a junction to
let you out, then crashes into
you deliberately.
The blame
The other driver will insist the accident is your fault. The
scammer will then hand over
their insurance details - sometimes already prepared and
written down.
The claim
A few weeks after the accident your insurers will write to
you with details of the other
driver's claim which will be exaggerated with costs like car
hire, recovery and whiplash
injuries.
CRASH NATION
The Association of British Insurers says that every year
fraud costs honest policyholders
around 50 each in higher premiums. Martin reports that
innocent lives are also being put
at risk.
AVOID THE SCAM
abc123
111111
1qaz2wsx
dragon
master
monkey
letmein
login
princess
qwertyuiop
solo
password
starwars
Further information
To check out the worst passwords during the last 5 years
go to :
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3024404
(1st February 2016)
EUROPE TO EXPAND DATABASE ON TERRORISTS
AND CRIMINALS
(The Telegraph, dated 19th January 2016 author David
Barrett)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/12109008/Europ
e-to-expand-database-on-terrorists-and-criminals.html
Criminal records of non-European Union citizens will be
shared by member states for the first time, it has been
announced, in a move to tighten the net against criminals
and terrorists in the wake of the Paris attacks.
The European Commission said it would upgrade a
database - the European Criminal Records Information
System, or ECRIS - to include information about people
from outside the EU who have criminal records here.
Currently, only the criminal records of EU citizens are
shared among member states using ECRIS, and non-EU
offenders are left out.
While the judges stressed that their decision did not give
people "carte blanche" to use any degree of force to
protect themselves, they said that force was not
necessarily unreasonable and unlawful "simply because it
is disproportionate - unless it is grossly disproportionate".
The president of the Queen's bench division, Sir Brian
Leveson, and Mr Justice Cranston used the case to give
guidance to judges and juries throughout England and
Wales on how to deal with similar cases.
Their ruling confirmed that the current domestic law was
valid. The Crown Prosecution Service's guidance says that
"anyone can use reasonable force to protect themselves
or others, or to carry out an arrest or to prevent crime".
It adds: "You are not expected to make fine judgments
over the level of force you use in the heat of the moment.
So long as you only do what you honestly and instinctively
believe is necessary in the heat of the moment, that would
be the strongest evidence of you acting lawfully and in
self-defence. This is still the case if you use something to
hand as a weapon."
Grossly disproportionate force, such as a "calculated
action of revenge" would not be covered, it says.
In Friday's ruling, Leveson declared: "In the circumstances
I conclude that the criminal law of England and Wales on
self-defence in householder cases, taken as a whole, fulfils
the framework obligation under Article 2(1).
But the judge warned: "The headline message is and
remains clear: a householder will only be able to avail
himself of the defence if the degree of force he used was
reasonable in the circumstances as he believed them to
be."
Agreeing with the president, Cranston said the "plain
words" of the section read in their legal context "mean
that in householder cases the force used in self-defence is
not unreasonable simply because it is disproportionate -
www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jan/13/hidden-riseviolent-crime-growth-violence-against-women
Women are bearing the brunt of an invisible rise in violent
crime, a new analysis shows. Domestic violence and
violence against women have increased since 2009,
researchers found, pushing up overall levels of violent
crime.
The findings contradict the official message that violent
crime has been in decline since the mid-90s. They also
begin to challenge the assertion that men are the most
likely victims; violent crime against men continues to fall.
A team led by Sylvia Walby, Unesco chair in gender
research and a professor of sociology at Lancaster
University, discovered the rise in violent crime after
looking again at data collected by the Crime Survey of
England and Wales (CSEW) between 1994 and 2014.
Official statisticians cap the number in a series of crimes
that a single person can report to the survey at five, to
stop outliers skewing the statistics. But Walby argues that
this method excludes the experiences of "high frequency"
victims - particularly victims of domestic violence - who
often make up more than 5% of respondents.
To take these victims into account, Walby and her
colleagues instead looked at all reported crimes. The new
study also slightly alters the definition of violent crime to
include sexual offences such as rape, which are usually
given their own category in CSEW figures.
Abandoning the cap and including sex crimes shows the
fall in violent crime reached a turning point in 2009, when
a rise in domestic violence and violence against women by
acquaintances begins.
Although violence against women by strangers remains
flat, and violence against men continues to fall, the rises
are so marked they fuel an overall rise in violent crime.
and Victim Support said people using the apps should tell
a friend where they are going before meeting anyone.
The figures come from police reports where Tinder and
Grindr has been used in the description of an allegation.
This can refer to cases where they were allegedly used to
commit a crime, where the victim and suspect met on the
app, or where the app was mentioned but was not directly
related to the crime - for example when a victim happened
to be on Tinder when the crime was committed.
Grindr and Tinder did not reply to requests for a comment.
(1st February 2016)
POLICE FORCE REVEALS MOTORISTS UNBELIEVABLE
EXCUSES FOR USING A MOBILE WHILE DRIVING
(The Telegraph, dated 10th January 2016 author By
Agency)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/12091892/Police-force-revealsmotorists-unbelievable-excuses-for-using-a-mobile-whiledriving.html
A police force has released some of the unbelievable
excuses used by drivers caught using their phones on the
road, including: "I have a new girlfriend and our song
came on the radio, so I had to call her."
Surrey Roads Policing Unit has revealed the ludicrous
explanations in a bid to raise awareness of the dangers of
driving with a mobile phone.
One distracted driver, who was pulled over by officers, told
them: "I was only looking at a photo - drivers using their
mobiles really annoys me."
Another motorist caught in the act claimed they liked the
song they were listening to and were trying to identify it
on the mobile app Shazam, which tells listeners the name
Mark Chandler)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/most-londonunderground-sex-attacks-take-place-during-rush-hour-notlate-at-night-a3151746.html
Most sex attacks on the Underground happen to
commuters in busy carriages during the rush hour, new
figures have revealed.
Campaigners say the data demolishes myths about both
victims and perpetrators of sexual violence.
Statistics from British Transport Police show between
January 2014 and last December, 322 sexual assaults
were reported on the Underground during the evening
peak of 5pm to 7pm.
There were a further 291 reports to British Transport Police
(BTP) from 8am to 10am over the same period.
By contrast, only 110 assaults were reported between
11pm and 1am.
Sarah Green from the End Violence Against Women
Coalition told the Independent: "These figures tell a
compelling story about how sexual harassment is mostly
experienced during daytime commuter journeys - not
during late-night social hours."
And she said the figures "explode a myth that women who
have been drinking or who are dressed a certain way
provoke sexual harassment, because the victims at peak
morning and early evening travel times are largely
working women making commuter journeys."
She added: "The figures may also similarly explode myths
about perpetrators of sexual harassment, because at 8am
they are sober men who purposefully look for chances to
offend, not late-night opportunists."
The figures also showed a spike in reports over the
www.ibtimes.co.uk/revealed-40000-deadly-weaponsseized-uk-borders-including-death-stars-hidden-daggers1536854
Tens of thousands of deadly weapons - including "death
stars", concealed swords and daggers hidden in belts have been seized by border police over the past five
years, shocking new Home Office figures reveal. Customs
officials have been bombarded with people trying to
smuggle almost 40,000 lethal weapons between 2010 and
2015, with many likely destined for UK streets and to be
sold on the black market.
The figures, from the UK Border Agency (UKBA), show
everyday items - like belt buckles, key rings and walking
sticks - being illegally adapted to conceal knives and
swords.
The haul also saw hundreds of more bizarre weaponry
confiscated, such as blowpipes, ninja shoe spikes and
kyoketsu-shogs - double-bladed ninja weapons attached to
a long chain that can be hurled at victims.
It comes as the police forces across the UK continue to run
weapon amnesty campaigns in the face of a growing
concern over the number of stabbings and violent attacks.
Last year, knife crime rose across England and Wales for
the first time in four years. Figures showed a 23% increase
in stabbings in London in the first 12 months to May 2015
compared to the previous year.
It led to a crackdown by Met Police in July, part of which
saw officers seize a significant arsenal of dangerous
weapons that managed to get into the UK unnoticed.
In 2011, Border Agency chiefs warned that "vicious"
weapons its officers were seizing at ports of entry were
becoming "more and more sophisticated".
But since then a steady stream of many thousands have
continued to be confiscated. In a one year period over
2014/15, some 6,735 weapons were seized by customs,
compared to the 6,064 taken in 2010/11. In total, from
which fit over your steering wheel and hold them in place
so that a thief can't steer properly, aren't infallible, but
they do provide a deterrent for opportunistic thieves.
Locks that do the same job for your gearstick or your
pedals are also available.
Or if you've got a little more money to spend, why not
consider a tracking device? You'll pay upfront for the
device to be installed and then pay a small annual
subscription fee, but if your car is stolen, the police will be
able to locate it.
You might also want to consider upgrading the security for
your drive or parking space. Buying a small home CCTV
system needn't cost the earth, and it could help catch
anyone who does try to steal your car. Or if you'd rather
have something cheaper, a motion-activated home
security lamp that shines down on your driveway could
help put thieves off.
Use the security features your car already has
Modern cars are full of clever security features, but you
might not use - or even be aware of - all of them. For
instance, did you know that many modern cars have
systems which enable them to lock automatically as you
pull away? Enabling these systems will help protect you
against carjackings - surely one of the scariest possible
ways of having your car stolen.
What's more, some modern cars have lights that will stay
on for a set time - usually 30 seconds - after you've left
them. These systems are great for getting you to your
door safely and ensuring someone isn't lurking in the
shadows. Check your user manual to see whether you
have such a system fitted to your car and to find out how
to activate it.
Think about where you keep your keys
Car security systems have advanced so far now that the
easiest way for a thief to steal the car is often to steal the
keys themselves. This can mean picking them from your
pocket, or even stealing them from your house.
So think about which pocket you're keeping your keys in
when you're out and about. And when you're at home,
make sure you don't leave your keys near to an open
Barrett)
Full article [Option 1]:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-andorder/12064205/Revealed-Britains-privately-funded-policeforce.html
More than 1,100 police and community support officers
are being funded with millions of pounds contributed by
residents, schools, councils and shopping centres, The
Telegraph can disclose.
Police forces' coffers are being bolstered by more than 20
million a year in additional cash from external sources,
over and above the main taxpayer funding from the
Government and council tax bills.
Figures published for the first time today showed 1,120
officers were paid for by extra contributions - equivalent to
the size of a county police force.
The true national total for England and Wales will be far
higher because only 20 out of 43 forces provided data.
One Home Counties parish council which charges each
household an extra 7 a year on average said it
introduced the surcharge because they rarely saw a police
officer.
Another in Yorkshire - where the chairman of the parish
council said he feared rates would have to rise next year
due to rising police costs - said they had no choice but to
pay for their own PCSO because there would never be a
policing presence in the village without it.
The new figures emerge after wealthy residents of a
Hampshire village offered to pay 60,000 a year between
them after their local beat bobby faced the axe under
spending cuts.
Parish councillors in Upton Grey and The Candovers said in
October they would pay the sum if Pc Andy Reid was
retained as their dedicated officer - but the offer was
rejected on the grounds it would create a "two tier" police
service.
Analysis of figures obtained by The Telegraph under
freedom of information laws showed nearly half the forces
in England and Wales have no such qualms, however.
At least 34 parish councils pay for a local officer to patrol
their area, though the true figure will be much higher
http://curia.europa.eu/juris/showPdf.jsf;jsessionid=9ea7d0f
130d56604d2a6bb2d43699a18eb8bb0b996ad.e34KaxiLc3
eQc40LaxqMbN4Pah4Ke0?
docid=47753&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&dir=&occ=first
&part=1&cid=802866
http://www.nienvironmentlink.org/cmsfiles/NIELEnvironmental-Audit-Committees-InquiryResponse.pdf
Northern Ireland Environment Link (NIEL) briefing
to the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly- 13th
October 2016
http://www.nienvironmentlink.org/cmsfiles/NIELBrexit-Briefing-for-BIPA.pdf
Northern Ireland Environment Link (NIEL) Brexit
Briefing to the Committee for Agriculture,
Environment and Rural Affairs- 30th June 2016
http://www.nienvironmentlink.org/cmsfiles/NIELBrexit-Briefing-for-AERA-Committee.pdf
Research and Information Service Briefing Paper
Paper 83/13 18th May 2012 NIAR 306-12
Des McKibbin
EU freshwater policy
1 Overview
This paper provides an overview of EU water policy
since the adoption of the Water
Framework Policy in 2000;
It examines the implementation of the water framework
Directive in Northern Ireland; and
It provides an assessment of the possible policy
changes made as a result of the fitness check of water
policy and the forthcoming blueprint to Safeguard
Europes Waters.
2 Background
EU water policies comprise a large body of legislation
covering areas as diverse as flood management, bathingwater quality, chemicals in water, clean drinking water,
groundwater protection and urban waste water. The EU
Water Framework Directive (WFD), adopted in 2000, was
introduced to streamline the EU's water legislation into
one over-arching strategy.
Ten years on from adoption of the WFD, EU water policy
was chosen as a pilot area for a policy fitness check to
ensure it continues to be fit for purpose. This forms part of
the European Commissions Smart Regulation Policy,
announced in its Work Programme for 2010. The purpose
of the fitness checks ...is to identify excessive burdens,
Providing research and information services to the
Art. 9
2012
Make operational programmes of measures
Art. 11
2015
Meet environmental objectives
First management cycle ends
Second river basin management plan & first flood risk
management plan.
Art. 4
2021
Second management cycle ends
Art. 4 & 13
2027
Third management cycle ends, final deadline for meeting
objectives
Art. 4 & 13
In 2007, in the
first WFD implementation report the Commission issued its
first assessment of progress in implementing the
Directive. It looked at the way Member States transposed
the WFD into national law, the administrative
arrangements, and the river basin district analyses. In
2009, a second WFD implementation report assessed
progress on establishing monitoring networks.
The 22 December 2009 was a key milestone regarding the
WFD, as it was the deadline for Member States to draw up
their river basin management plans (RBMPs). Each plan
had to include a programme of measures (PoM) to meet
the WFDs objectives. This process will be repeated on a
cyclical basis, whereby RBMPs are
9 European Commission [online] WFD: Timetable for
implementation. Available from: http://nia1.me/vt
Providing research and information services to the
Northern Ireland Assembly 4
NIAR 306-12 Briefing Paper
prepared, implemented and reviewed every six years; the
first cycle covers the period 2009-2015.
Article 9 of the Water Framework Directive required
Member States to ensure that water-pricing policies
provide adequate incentives to use water resources
across
10 European Commission [online] WFD Implementation
Reports, available from: http://nia1.me/w1 11 DoE [2008]
River Basement Management Planning [online] available
from: http://nia1.me/vw
Providing research and information services to the
Northern Ireland Assembly 5
NIAR 306-12 Briefing Paper
the EU where many river basin districts are shared by
Member States; Cross-border districts are referred to as
International River Basin Districts (IRBD).
The WFD requires Member States to coordinate their
efforts in managing IRBD with the aim of producing a
single management plan covering the entire district. On
the island of Ireland, a total of eight river basin districts
have been identified. One of these is entirely in Northern
Ireland, four are entirely in Ireland and three are
international river basin districts.
Figure one shows the three IRBDs and the one wholly
contained river basin district in Northern Ireland:
The North Eastern River Basin District is the only one
contained wholly within Northern Ireland;
the North Western International River Basin District,
including the Erne and Foyle river basins, together with
the basins of Lough Melvin, Bradoge River, Lough Swilly
and related small coastal river basins in west County
Donegal;
the Neagh Bann International River Basin District,
including the Lough Neagh and River Bann basins as well
as river basins draining to the outer estuarine limits of
Dundalk Bay (Rivers Fane, Castletown, Glyde, Dee, Cully
Water, Kilcurry, Ballymascanlan and Flurry) and
Carlingford Lough (Newry River);
the Shannon International River Basin District, including
the Shannon river basin, which drains the midlands of
Ireland and also a small portion of County Fermanagh in
Northern Ireland, together with small coastal river basins
in Counties Clare and Kerry. Only a very small portion of
this International River Basin District lies in Northern
Ireland. Consequently the preparation of the plan for the
Shannon International River Basin District has been led by
the authorities in the Republic of Ireland. Full consultation
south.
Over 0.7 million people live in the District which includes
the most densely populated region of Northern Ireland, the
Belfast Metropolitan Area, and surrounding commuter
areas. Most of the main urban areas are located beside
rivers or on the coast. In rural areas, many people live in
small villages or single dwellings.
Within the North Eastern River Basin District there are:
111 river water bodies; 3 lake water bodies; 16 coastal
water bodies; 3 transitional water bodies; 8 groundwater
bodies; and 25 heavily modified water bodies
The NERBMP classification results indicate:
16% of waters in the North Eastern District are at good
status or better; 65% are classified as less than good
status;
2% are classified as good ecological potential or better;
and
the remaining 17% are at moderate ecological potential
or worse.
14 NIEA (2009) NORTH WESTERN River Basin Management
Plan Summary[online] available from: http://nia1.me/w7
(pages 24&25)
15 NIEA (2009) NORTH WESTERN River Basin Management
Plan Summary[online] available from: http://nia1.me/w7
(page 32)
Providing research and information services to the
Northern Ireland Assembly 8
NIAR 306-12 Briefing Paper
7 groundwater bodies (88%) are classified as good for
chemical quality and water quantity, 1 is poor.
The NERBMP has applied for derogations under the criteria
identified. As such it has set objectives to be achieved at
each 6 year cycle until 2027:
By 2015 reach good status, or better, in 61 out of 133
of surface water bodies (46%);
Reach good ecological potential or better in 4 heavily
modified water bodies (3%).
7 out of 8 of groundwater bodies (88%) will be
maintained at good status.
68 surface water bodies and 1 groundwater body have
been identified where it will be more feasible and costeffective to implement actions over a longer period of time
than
by 2027, all objectives will be achieved16
4.1.3 Neagh Bann River Basin Management Plan
(NBRBMP)
The Neagh Bann River Basin District covers an area of
around 5740 km2. It takes in all of County Armagh, large
parts of Counties Antrim, Londonderry, Down and Tyrone,
and a small area of County Fermanagh. The waters of the
Neagh Bann area support fishing and boating, and the
wetlands around Lough Neagh.
Within the Neagh Bann river basin district there are 255
river water bodies; 10 lakes; 3 coastal water bodies; 2
transitional water bodies; 14 groundwater bodies; and 35
heavily modified water bodies.
The NBRBMP, the classification results indicate:
39 out of 270 surface water bodies (14%) and 13 out of
14 groundwater bodies (93%) are already achieving the
standards required for good status or higher.
One heavily modified water body (0.4%) has been
classified as being at good ecological potential or better.
The NBRBMP has applied for derogations under the criteria
identified. As such it has set objectives to be achieved at
each 6 year cycle until 2027:
By 2015 117 out of 270 of our surface water bodies will
have reached good status (43%),
9 heavily modified water bodies (3%) will have reached
good ecological potential or better.
13 out of 14 groundwater bodies (93%) will be
maintained at good status.
144 surface water bodies and 1 groundwater body where
it will be more technically
feasible and cost-effective to implement actions over a
longer period of time than 2015. By 2027, almost all
water bodies will be meeting good status. The exceptions
will be
16 NIEA (2009) NORTH Eastern River Basin Management
Plan Summary [online] available from: http://nia1.me/w8
Providing research and information services to the
Northern Ireland Assembly 9
NIAR 306-12 Briefing Paper
4 river water bodies in the Ballinderry River system,
http://ec.europa.eu/atwork/pdf/cwp_2017_en.pdf
Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2016
http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/bills/2016/8216/b8216d.
pdf
E-mail: bpage@geog.ucl.ac.uk
contrasting interests of state, market and civil society
institutions and their impact on the final draft. The paper
ends by bringing the history of the WFD up to date by
looking at the initial responses of the key actors to the
final WFD and at recent developments in relation to
implementation. Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
and ERP Environment.
INTRODUCTION
The European Union Water Frame- work Directive
(European Commission, 2000d) is an overarching piece of
legisla- tion that aims to harmonize existing European
water policy and to improve water quality in all of Europes
aquatic environments. As we argued in the first part of this
paper, the WFD is central to debates about a putative shift
of institutional power within the European Union away
from the Council of Ministers and to- wards the European
Parliament in environ- mental matters (Jones and Clark,
2001). In this paper we focus more specifically on a far
more
Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP
Environment
pervasive shift in the mode of governing in
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B. PAGE AND M. KAIKA
Europe and beyond (Jessop, 1997; Rhodes, 1997;
European Commission, 2000b). This change is usually
encapsulated in the phrase a shift from government to
governance and, in organizational terms, is illustrated in
the rising influence of un-elected bodies, which are, in the
broadest sense, non-governmental (private firms and their
representative associations, quangos, civil society bodies
and other lobby- ing groups). The statutory incorporation
of public participation into the production of individual
river basin management plans (WFD Article 14) illustrates
the extent to which this shift is currently being codified in
legislation. Across a range of policy arenas and spatial
scales there is a desire to dragoon the public in general,
and NGOs in particular, into the process of drafting policy
(Curtin, 1999). The rubric around stakeholder
for the quality of water used for drinking. It began with the
Surface Water Directive in 1975 and culmi- nated in the
1980 Drinking Water Directive, which set binding water
quality targets. This first wave of legislation also set water
quality objectives (WQOs) for different aquatic environments that could affect public health: the water used
for fishing, harvesting shellfish or bathing. Though the
focus was on public health, this phase also addressed
more intrin- sically environmental issues such as pollution
control. The Dangerous Substances Directive, for example,
established lists of harmful substances and set permitted
levels of their discharge.
In the second phase of legislation (1988 1996), the
priorities shifted away from the protection of public health
and towards poll- ution control and environmental
manage- ment. Following the Maastricht treaty, the
European Union set out to establish a common
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EU WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE 2
environmental policy. In 1988 the existing leg- islation on
water was reviewed and a number of strategic changes
were made. More attention was paid to preventing
pollution emanating from urban wastewater and
agricultural run- off. In particular, a concerted effort was
made to set the level of permitted pollution by setting
case sensitive emission limit values (ELVs) for different
pollutants in different types of water body. These covered
biological pollutants downstream from sewage treatment
works (as in the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive of
boundaries
3 Introducing the combined approach to pollution control
by linking emission limit values to environmental quality
standards
4 Incorporating quantitative elements into environmental
planning at the EU scale
5 Redefinition of good water status and redrawing of the
list of priority hazardous substances
6 Introduction of the costs of environmental externalities
into water pricing in order to encourage demand
management
7 Increasing public participation in policy-making in order
to increase transparency and compliance
system. In this respect, whilst the WFD was new, it was,
in many ways, an extension of ideas developed for the
IPPC Directive.
Second, whereas in the past water manage- ment was
organized around existing political administrative
boundaries or around the use to which water was put, the
new WFD organizes water management around river
basins a hydrological unit. As a result the new policy
covers all water, whether it is used or unused. The policy
does, however, still identify specif- ically vulnerable areas,
which have special requirements and whose boundaries
may or may not coincide with river basins. Some member
states (UK, Germany and Spain) already use the river
basin approach, but this is not the case everywhere. Under
the WFD a river basin management plan will need to be
drawn up for each river basin some of which will cross
national frontiers. The plans will be updated every six
years. This plan will have to include an analysis of the
river basins physi- cal characteristics, a review of the
impact of human activity on the status of water in the
basin, an assessment of existing abstractions and an
economic analysis of water use in the district.
Groundwater and coastal waters will be assigned to the
most appropriate river basin district. River basins such as
the Maas, the Schelde and the Rhine are already managed
under cross-border agreements. However, the institutions
associated with existing
trans-national agreements were suspicious that the WFDs
overarching legislation and request for a new set of actors
The sixth major shift in policy marked by the WFD was the
introduction of aspects of water pricing at full cost
recovery (Article 9), an overtly economic tool, which
initially appears to be ill placed within an environmental
piece of legislation concerned with conservation and
public health. This policy was justified as a means of
controlling consumption in the face of unrelenting demand
(Buckland and Zabel, 1996). The principle of full cost
recovery became a very controversial issue in debates
around water policy. Whereas some countries have a long
tradition of charging for water others do not. Ireland, for
example, supplies domestic water free and recovers the
cost through taxation. The directives initial aspira- tion to
introduce full-cost pricing for all water supplies (drinking,
irrigation and industrial) was later watered down through
pressure from the Council of Ministers. Member states are
now only required to ensure that the price charged to
consumers for fresh water and for the treatment of
wastewater will take into account the full environmental
costs. In order to accommodate national variations,
provision was also made for derogations from full cost
recovery. For example it was accepted that it was
permissible to provide a subsidized drink- ing water supply
and wastewater services for low-income households. The
need to introduce local variation shows how the WFD
inevitably encroaches on social policy, trade policy and
competition policy as well as environmental policy.
A seventh and final major innovation of the WFD is related
to widening participa- tion in water policy-making (Article
14). The proposal for a WFD stated establishing a
framework for a common European water policy will
require more involvement of citizens, interested parties,
non-governmental
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EU WATER FRAMEWORK DIRECTIVE 2
as in the European South. Still, as a general- ization,
quality issues are more important in northern Europe
where a longer history of industry and intensive farming
has raised the profile of water pollution as a cause for
concern. In particular, there is considerable public anxiety
in northern Europe over the health impacts of nitrate
pollution in water, derived from agricultural fertilizers and
animal waste. The result is that there are still major
concerns over eutrophication, organic pollution and
acidification of water in rivers, lakes and groundwater. The
interests of northern European farmers in the WFD were
primarily concerned with sharing the costs of limiting
diffuse pollution with the state and/or the general public.
At other scales there are also differences between nation
states on the balance between water use and the
objectives of conservation. Across the EU demand for
public drinking water (14% of water use) is stationary or
declining; however, this also masks consider- able regional
variation and relative success of various domestic demand
management policies in different countries. Germany for
example has had far more success in reducing domestic
water demand than the UK in a broadly similar socioenvironmental context (ICWS, 1996; OFWAT 1997). The
introduction of policies such as environmental pricing,
which are designed to provide incentives for domestic
demand management, are likely to generate different
political responses in differ- ent parts of the EU. This is
also true of policies designed to take account of the
impacts of future climate change (Arnell and King, 1997;
Rees et al., 1997).
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B. PAGE AND M. KAIKA
increasingly concerned that the costs of tackling diffuse
pollution are likely to be passed on to consumers directly
through water bills, which will be to the detriment of the
industrys public relations. The private water companies
exerted their influence through the Brussels based group
Eureau, through national representative organizations
(such as BGW (German Gas and Water) or Water UK) and
through the direct involvement of individual private
companies (Ondeo, RWE-Thames) in the consultation
process.
Governments
Much of the burden of implementing and paying for the
changes proposed by the WFD will fall on the governments
of member states, including the considerable cost of
producing the river basin management plans. Apart from
monitoring water quality this involves the time-consuming
bureaucratic and expensive task of assessing water
abstraction in a context where most governments have
little informa- tion and no existing institutional
infrastructure of abstraction licenses. The plans require a
survey of the human impact on all water resources in
order to produce an economic analysis that will then
become the basis for moving towards full cost recovery.
The interest of government bodies, therefore, lay in minimizing the obligation involved in the assess- ments and
elongating the delivery period for the river basin
management plans. Alterna- tively, national governments
were looking to shirk the responsibility for producing these
plans by shifting the task onto other scales of government,
OF THE WFD
The three main groups who were involved in the
production of the legal document (the Commission, the
European Parliament and the Council of Ministers) fought
tooth and nail between 1998 and 2000 to secure the
directive closest to their interests. But how did they react
to the draft that finally emerged in December 2000? The
European Commission was trium- phant and viewed the
WFD as a major advance. Throughout the drafting of the
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directive, the Commission had played the role of the
mediator between the other two bodies and was faced at
least twice with the possibil- ity that the directive (and
many years of asso- ciated work) would be completely lost
because the two bodies could not reach an agreement. It
was not surprising, therefore, that the Com- mission
celebrated when a final text of the directive was accepted
by all relevant parties. This Directive is one of the most
important legislative acts at Community level concerning
the protection of the environment. It combines and co-
IT WAS NEVER OUR DEMOCRACY, THE RICH OVER RULED OUR LIVES
AND DEMOCRACY
19 October 2016
By Rita Cahill
We have never had our constitution or democracy at its core on
the side of ordinary people. Since the start of the water charges
campaign there have been many have argued the opposites-that
the government is ours for the taking and the laws are there to
defend our rights only that we need to return to some mythical time
when the state acted solely in the interests of the people and that
the constitution was the bastion of rights we could all rely on. If only
we didnt vote for these corrupt figures. Many believe the state is a
neutral actor in the world-it is not. Its structures were set up
explicitly to protect elites.
These ideas have been combined with the idea need for a new
party or a government of independents to retake our democracy.
This notion (which has an understandable basis considering how the
media rants about how were so democratic) is a farce. The fault in
this line of thought lies in a misconception of the role of government
and it completely ignores the influence of international capitalist
modes of production/distribution which in effect dominate
government and its possible policies.
It is not the government members are necessarily morally corrupt
people (they probably are) but they are acting in the manner which
is necessitated by the structures and laws of government and the
pressure of power-full international groups such as the IMF, the
ECB , the Troika and enormous international corporations.Any new
party or party of independents will become ossified after a period of
time and succumb to these pressures. Parliament is of course a
minor player in the world in comparison to these interest.
The model of government and constitution we have were never set
up to enshrine the rights of the majority(other than in language)and
democratic participation in society but instead were created to quell
and stifle more radical alternatives of democracy-direct participation
in your own affairs and guarantee the ability of a few to dominate a
semi-democratic process through concentrated capital.
Firstly the constitution is open to broad interpretation by the courts
and within it are found many conflicting rights but overall the courts
and judges invariably side with the powerfull and elites. The
constitution and laws passed by the governments main role is to
protect private property(not your home or car) and the security of
the state. It does this very effectively. This system of governance
was devised hundreds of years ago to maintain thru le of a few over
the many.
From the crushing of embryonic labour rights movement to the
centralisation of power within the government and the explicit
protection of private property in the constitution (eg. protection of a
huge accumulation of wealth by a tiny minority),the early Irish state
was authoritarian in nature and brutal in practice when dealing with
those who opposed their policy and who wanted a more just and
equal society. Why was this so?-The Irish nation had just gone