Genetic testing firm 23andMe investigated over hack
The data watchdogs of the UK and Canada will investigate genetic testing company 23andMe over a data breach in October 2023. Hackers gained access to personal information of 6.9 million people, which in some cases included family trees, birth years and geographic locations, by using customers’ old passwords. One of the things the joint taskforce will investigate is whether adequate safeguards had been put in place to protect such data. “We intend to cooperate with these regulators’ reasonable requests,” 23andMe said in a statement.
Cyber security staff are working weekends more than ever before
More than eight-in-ten cyber security professionals in the UK are working weekends because of the pressure of their job, according to new research. In a new report from security firm Bitdefender, based on a survey of 1,200 cyber professionals in France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, the UK and the US, the company said the pressure means that 71% of UK respondents are planning to look for a new job within the next year. Globally, seven-in-ten said they often have to work at weekends, with the figure rising to 81% in the UK. It’s just 59% in Singapore.
The rise of AI-powered killer robot drones
GPS jamming is creating demand for cheap drones that use AI to navigate, target and attack. It’s only a matter of time before this will be a worldwide danger. Remember former Google CEO Eric Schmidt? He now makes flying AI robots that target and kill autonomously. (Really!) His robots are in high demand for one simple reason: GPS jamming. I’ll explain more about Schmidt’s robots below. But first, it’s time to catch up on the rising trend of GPS, cell phone and other signal jamming, which is triggering a global arms race between jamming and anti-jamming technologies.
All households in Scottish region to get alert about hackers publishing stolen medical data
All households in the Scottish region of Dumfries and Galloway are set to receive letters warning them that cybercriminals are likely to have published medical data about them stolen from the National Health Service (NHS) in a ransomware attack in February. The cybercrime group behind the attack, INC Ransom, claimed in March that it would publish the confidential medical files unless NHS Dumfries and Galloway made an extortion payment. The health trust refused to do so. A copy of the notices to be sent across the southernmost region of Scotland, bordering northwest England, was published on the NHS Trust’s website on Monday. They will reach just under 150,000 people, most of whom are likely to be users of the country’s universal health system.
US Surgeon General thinks social media should come with tobacco-style warning labels
One of the United States’ most senior health officials, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, today said in an op-ed for the New York Times social media platforms should have warning labels regarding the potential mental health harms they could create in the young. “The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency – and social media has emerged as an important contributor,” he said. This isn’t the first time Murphy has sounded the alarm where mental health and social media use are concerned. In 2023, he published a 19-page report, which cited research on the fact the youth of America probably spends too much time in social media enclosures where anxiety and depression could emerge. In the op-ed, he referenced numerous studies, each that came to the conclusion that overuse of social media leads to less time spent among peer groups and less sleep time, while children are caught up in an environment where they are constantly comparing themselves with others. The latter, it’s believed, causes feelings of inadequacy and isolation.
