Tech that comes with weak passwords such as “admin” or “12345” will be banned in the UK under new laws dictating that all smart devices must meet minimum security standards.

Measures to protect consumers from hacking and cyber-attacks come into effect on Monday, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said.

It means manufacturers of phones, TVs and smart doorbells, among others, are now legally required to protect internet-connected devices against access by cybercriminals, with users prompted to change any common passwords.

Brands have to publish contact details so that bugs and issues can be reported, and must be transparent about timings of security updates.

It is hoped the new measures will help give customers confidence in buying and using products at a time when consumers and businesses have come under attack from hackers at a soaring rate.

At least 18 public-sector websites in the UK and US send visitor data in some form to various web advertising brokers – including an ad-tech biz in China involved in past privacy controversies, a security firm claims.

[…]

In the US, .gov websites are not supposed to run ads. In the UK, ads are allowed on .gov.uk websites, subject to some limitations. The .gov and .gov.uk sites flagged by Silent Push each publish an ads.txt file that spells out the businesses allowed to automatically sell that site's ad space to advertisers as a visitor arrives.

[…] Silent Push found a bunch of UK and US government websites with [the ads.txt] file listing various advertising exchanges and resellers ranging from Google (like what El Reg uses) to one in China.

[…]

One of the ad-tech vendors used by the .gov.uk sites, and highlighted by Silent Push, is Yeahmobi. This Chinese entity reportedly had its mobile ad SDK removed from the Google Play Store in 2018 for alleged ad fraud. Yeahmobi did not respond to requests for comment.

[…]

Silent Push's report identifies four .gov sites that, in our experience, do not display adverts though do ping web ad platforms, do list various exchanges in their ads.txt files, and may break US government CISA rules. In the UK, it's a different story, as 18 sites identified by Silent Push use Yeahmobi among others to display ads somewhere on pages.

Inese Briede says her sister, Inga Rublite, 39, might not have died ‘if someone was just checking up on her’'

In a recent study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the authors looked at records of deaths for which pathologists were unable to determine a cause during an autopsy (coded as “unascertained”). In the vast majority of cases, including Giddings’s, this is usually because a body is too decomposed to examine properly. Their research suggests that the number of unascertained deaths in England and Wales increased five-fold between 1992 and 2022, even as overall mortality rates were falling.

Yet these figures only account for the most extreme cases of decomposition, notes Theodore Estrin-Serlui, a pathologist in London and one of the paper’s authors. He estimates that 8,000-9,000 people were found in an advanced state of decomposition in 2022.

Several factors influence how rapidly a body decomposes. Corpses rot faster in hot and steamy conditions; those of obese people tend to waste away more quickly. Yet warmer weather and wider waistlines cannot explain why decomposition has become much more frequent among certain groups, especially older men. “We’re talking about people who die alone and aren’t found for a good period of time,” notes Dr Estrin-Serlui. Frequency of decomposition, he suggests, can be used as a proxy for social isolation.

The theory seems plausible. In 2021 30% of all households contained only one person, compared with 17% in 1971. Rates of unascertained deaths tripled among British males over 60 between 1990 and 2010, the largest increase, at a time when the fastest-growing group of people living alone were middle-aged men. Family breakdowns, rising separation rates and changing social norms have pushed more people to live alone. People may not know who their neighbours are. In central London residents often live stacked in flats, in close physical proximity to one another but with little social contact. There, rates of decomposition at home are twice as high as in suburban Hertfordshire

Archive link

The family home where Captain Sir Tom Moore raised millions for NHS charities during the pandemic has been put up for sale for £2.25m.

The house and grounds in Marston Moretaine, in Bedfordshire, became well-known after the Army veteran walked laps around the garden, raising £38m for NHS Charities Together.

He lived there with his daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore and her family.

The Grade II listed property has seven bedrooms and four bathrooms.

In a marketing video posted online, estate agent Hadyn Van Weenan said the Old Rectory featured an "iconic and very famous driveway".

They did, however, do a public good.
I'm sure Channel 4 loses similar amounts for some of the Dispatches.

Can you guess which ones?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/14099083

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/14099080

Archived version: https://archive.ph/eWBnr

Grindr, the world's biggest dating app for the LGBT community, is being sued for allegedly sharing personal information such as people's HIV status with third parties.

According to the claim, lodged at the High Court in London, "covert tracking technology" was deployed, and highly sensitive information was illegally shared with advertisers.

Law firm Austen Hays says there are more than 650 claimants and "thousands" of UK users were affected.

Grindr says it will "respond vigorously" to the claim.

Cross posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/13328418

Christopher Cash, 29, the researcher, and Christopher Berry, 32, were charged under the Official Secrets Act.

They are accused of giving "articles, notes, documents or information" to a foreign state, the Met Police in the UK said.

Mr Berry, from Witney in Oxfordshire, and Mr Cash, of Whitechapel, London, were arrested last March in connection with the investigation.

It was previously reported that one of the men - Mr Cash - was a parliamentary researcher involved with the China Research Group, and who is understood to have had access to several Conservative MPs.

Despite a recently proposed smoking ban, it’s been revealed the UK government has been providing cigarettes to Ukrainian troops training in the country.

Under a scheme with the Ministry of Defence, Ukrainian soldiers undergoing training in the UK are given duty-free tobacco as part of their rations.

It came after soldiers reportedly complained about the high prices of cigarettes in the UK – which average around an eyewatering £15 per pack.

In Ukraine, a pack of 20 cigarettes will only set you back roughly £1.70.

...

It’s said the move has helped Ukrainian soldiers focus, with the lack of cigarettes posing a ‘risk to morale’.

...

A source, familiar with the deal, told the Telegraph: ‘It is fair to say that smoking is going to be less of a threat to these brave soldiers’ lives than fighting Putin’s illegal invasion of their country.’