Money stolen falls from record $1.25bn to $813m as more victims refuse to pay off criminal gangs

Ransomware payments fell by more than a third last year to $813m (£650m) as victims refused to pay cybercriminals and law enforcement cracked down on gangs, figures reveal.

The decline in such cyber-attacks – where access to a computer or its data is blocked and money is then demanded to release it – came despite a number of high-profile cases in 2024, with victims including NHS trusts in the UK and US doughnut firm Krispy Kreme.

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Italian and Irish regulators want answers on how data harvested by chatbot could be used by Chinese government

The Chinese AI platform DeepSeek has become unavailable for download from some app stores in Italy as regulators in Rome and in Ireland demanded answers from the company about its handling of citizens’ data.

Amid growing concern on Wednesday about how data harvested by the new chatbot could be used by the Chinese government, the app disappeared from the Apple and Google app stores in Italy with customers seeing messages that said it was “currently not available in the country or area you are in” for Apple and the download “was not supported” for Google, Reuters reported.

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Audit watchdog finds 58 critical IT systems assessed in 2024 had ‘significant gaps in cyber-resilience’

The threat of potentially devastating cyber-attacks against UK government departments is “severe and advancing quickly”, with dozens of critical IT systems vulnerable to an expected regular pattern of significant strikes, ministers have been warned.

The National Audit Office (NAO) found that 58 critical government IT systems independently assessed in 2024 had “significant gaps in cyber-resilience”, and the government did not know how vulnerable at least 228 ageing and outdated “legacy” IT systems were to cyber-attack. The NAO did not name the systems for fear of helping attackers choose targets.

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Amid claims of sabotage of undersea cables, a small wooden structure houses a key cog in Europe’s digital connectivity

At the end of an unmarked path on a tiny island at the edge of Stockholm’s extensive Baltic Sea archipelago lies an inconspicuous little wooden cabin, painted a deep shade of red. Water gently laps the snow-dusted rocks, and the smell of pine fills the air.

The site offers few clues to the geopolitical drama that has gripped Scandinavia in recent months, driven by accusations of infrastructure sabotage. But in fact the cabin houses a key cog in Europe’s digital connectivity, and a point of vulnerability in a potential hybrid war: a datacentre that amplifies the signal from a 1,615-mile fibre-optic cable running from northern Sweden to Berlin.

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Screenshots purporting to be from systems of Liverpool NHS health facility have been posted online

A ransomware gang claims to have stolen data from the Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool, allegedly including patient records.

The INC Ransom group says it has published screenshots of data on the dark web that contains personal information of patients, donations from benefactors and procurement information.

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It’s a war that will never end. But for small-business owners, it’s all about managing risk while reaping rewards

We humans are simply too dumb to use passwords. A recent study from password manager NordPass found that “secret” was the most commonly used password in 2024. That was followed by “123456” and “password”. So let’s all give praise that the password is dying.

Yes, we know that we should be using 20-letter passwords with weird symbols and numbers, but our minds can’t cope. We use the same password for many accounts, be it for a newsletter subscription or our life savings. We all have too many passwords. So we opt for the easiest to remember – and steal.

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Carrying 99% of the world’s international telecommunications, the vulnerable lines are drawing nefarious interest

The lead-clad telegraphic cable seemed to weigh tons, according to Lt Cameron Winslow of the US navy, and the weather wasn’t helping their attempts to lift it up from the seabed and sever it.

“The rough water knocked the heavy boats together, breaking and almost crushing in their planking.”

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UK consumer group Which? finds some everyday items including watches and speakers are ‘stuffed with trackers’

Air fryers that gather your personal data and audio speakers “stuffed with trackers” are among examples of smart devices engaged in “excessive” surveillance, according to the consumer group Which?

The organisation tested three air fryers, increasingly a staple of British kitchens, each of which requested permission to record audio on the user’s phone through a connected app.

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Trump campaign immediately blamed Biden White House and Kamala Harris for Chinese government-linked hack

Chinese government-linked hackers are believed to have targeted phones used by Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, as part of a larger breach of US telecommunications networks, according to a New York Times report.

The Trump campaign was informed this week that the phone numbers of the Republican presidential and vice-presidential nominee were among those targeted during a breach of the Verizon network, the paper said, citing sources.

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At the doctor’s | Phone safety | Passwords | Heinz advert

Lucy Mangan, writing about her doctor joking about her kidneys (Digested week, 4 October), reminded me of having an examination for an enlarged prostate. As I lay on the couch waiting for the procedure, my doctor said: “In accordance with current NHS guidelines, I have to take a run-up.” It made me feel less discomfited.
David Noonan
Earley, Berkshire

• En route for Colombia in 2018, I threaded a chain through the case of my new iPhone. I kept the chain looped round my wrist to reduce the chance of it being snatched when I was out in the streets or dropped when I was leaning over a precipice. And it made it easier to find the phone in the dark of a hostel room or in the gloom of the Salt Cathedral. I’ve never taken the chain off. The advantages are as pertinent to London as they are to Bogotá (‘They rob you visibly, with no repercussions’ – the unstoppable rise of phone theft, 9 October).
Judith Harvey
Oxford

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