Latest news with #&S
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Thousands of UK companies 'could have M&S-style hackers waiting in their systems'
Tens of thousands of British businesses could have hackers waiting inside their systems - all because of a change in the business model of hacking. Luxury fashion brand Dior is the latest retailer to announce that some of its customer data has been stolen by attackers, and M&S is still suffering the effects of an attack that started in April. On Tuesday, the British retailer revealed customer data had been stolen, although "usable" payment details and passwords were not taken. Online shopping remains unavailable at M&S and recruitment has been paused while the . by spotting criminals in its network and shutting down its operations, and Harrods also revealed it recently . Although the attacks have not been connected by investigators, the increasing number of high-profile incidents could be down to a change in the hacking market, according to Dr Harjinder Lallie. "It's just frightening," said Dr Lallie, a university reader in cybersecurity at the University of Warwick, to Sky News. "I've been in cybersecurity for 26 years - I've never known a time like this." The criminals behind DragonForce, a powerful suite of tools that hold companies hostage until they pay a ransom, recently changed their business model. "They moved to a model which we refer to as 'ransomware-as-a-service'. "If I'm Dragon Force, I'll say to you: 'You can use my very, very powerful tools to conduct the attack, and you can keep 80% of everything you collect, as long as I get 20% of it.'" explained Dr Lallie. That means wannabe-hackers "no longer need the technical know-how" to launch an attack, he said. Instead, they can just buy the software on dark-web forums that operate like any online marketplace, complete with vendor ratings. Evidence of the DragonForce ransomware has reportedly been found in the M&S attack already. Read more from climate, science and technology: In attacks like M&S's, criminals enter a business's networks, usually after tricking someone into letting them in, and then spend some time learning everything they can, including potential vulnerabilities and how the network is configured. "Tens of thousands of businesses up and down the UK probably have hackers inside their network already and just don't know about it, I'm afraid," said Dr Lallie. "I don't want to scaremonger, but that is how it is working. They're sitting in your network, waiting to the point where they can attack." Adding to the problem is artificial intelligence, said Professor Manos Panaousis, professor of cybersecurity at the University of Greenwich. "Most of cybersecurity attacks are social engineering attacks," he said. Social engineering attacks are when a criminal tricks a user into letting them into systems. "With the use of generative AI, social engineering gets better." "If you put ransomware-as-a-service and generative AI together, they lower the barrier to the barrier to entry [...] and you get more sophisticated attacks."
The Irish Sun
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Coronation Street stars look worlds away from the cobbles as they soak up the sunny weather on boozy night out
THE cast of Coronation Street enjoyed some much-needed down time as they enjoyed a slew of boozy drinks in the sunshine. The stars of the ITV soap opera were out in force in MediaCity in Salford as they hit up their favourite bar for evening drinks in the UK heatwave . 3 Samia Longchambon sank some drinks in the sun with her Corrie cast mates Credit: Instagram 3 She posed up a storm with her soap pals Credit: Instagram Just a stone's throw from the show's set, stars including Samia Longchambon and Julia Goulding let their hair down for the mid-week soiree. Maria Connor actress Samia shared a series of snaps from the evening do as she cuddled up to her co-stars. In one photo, she posed alongside her on-screen husband, Mikey North, as she threw her arm around him whilst tightly clutching onto her drink. Poking fun at their characters, she added the caption: "Gaz and Maz on the razz." Read More on Corrie An hour later, Samia shared another snap of her posing with Shona Platt star Julia and recently axed cast member, Farrel Hagerty. Samia kept things low-key in a loose-fitting white top and a pair of light blue denim jeans. The outing was a chance for the actress to blow off some steam after Alongside co-star Most read in Soaps The cast are famously outlawed from accepting paid promotions online but Samia and Sair have been allowed to rake in thousands extra after bosses approved a slew of brand deals. Infuriatingly, many of the cast had similar partnerships knocked back with one actress telling The Sun that it had created high tension among the show's set. Coronation Street and Emmerdale announce huge 'crossover' special episode in UK soap first They told us 'It's one rule for the polished PR favourites, and another for the rest of us. 'If you're not part of the golden circle, forget it. 'They wouldn't let most of us even do a teeth-whitening collaboration, meanwhile Samia's out there posing with pastries. 'It's a total p**s take. 'We've been told time and time again: no ads, no endorsements — not so much as a candle on Instagram. 'But then Samia pops up in a full-blown promo for M&S and everyone's just supposed to pretend it's normal? 'People are keeping quiet as they don't want to rock the boat or get the boot but there's a lot of anger. 'Why are some allowed to cash in while the rest of us struggle?' According to internal documents, outside work must be pre-approved, must not conflict with ITV's commercial partners or damage an actor's character's integrity. 3 The Maria Connor actress has been central to a recent backstage war Credit: ITV
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
XRP Prices Could Blast Higher to $3.40 as Major Bearish Pattern Fails
This is a daily technical analysis by CoinDesk analyst and Chartered Market Technician Omkar Godbole. Imagine a basketball player executing a convincing fake jump shot and holding just before his feet leave the ground. The defender, anticipating a quick shot, jumps prematurely, only to create an opening for the offensive player to drive to the basket or take a wide-open shot. This analogy mirrors the price action in XRP, where the failure of a major bearish pattern has cleared the way for bulls to take control, opening up the potential for a strong upward move. XRP is used by Ripple to facilitate cross-border transactions. XRP carved out a large head-and-shoulders topping pattern from December to April, signaling an impending transition of the market leadership from the bulls to the bears. The breakdown happened in early April, with prices slipping below the H&S support at $2 and sliding quickly to $1.60. Several analysts called for an extended sell-off toward $1.20, but prices quickly reversed higher to retake the $2 handle, marking a failed breakdown. In other words, the bears were trapped like the defender in the basketball analogy. Since then, XRP's price has continued to rise, topping $2.50 to signal an end to the declining trend from the mid-January high of $3.40. So, the bulls now have a clear shot (like the basketball attacker) at the January high and perhaps even higher price levels. The bullish outlook looks even more convincing considering XRP is trading well above its 200-day simple moving average. Moreover, XRP held largely above the average throughout the early April crypto market sell-off when BTC fell as low as under $75,000. The bullish move is backed by a spike in trading volumes, in a sign of trader confidence in price prospects, according to CoinDesk Research's AI-assisted technical analysis model. "A key resistance level at $2.40 was decisively broken with high volume, triggering accelerated buying as the price formed an ascending channel pattern," the model said. "While AI predictions suggest XRP could reach $2.85 by June 1, some analysts are projecting much higher targets, with price forecasts ranging from $3.33 to as high as $15." "Market sentiment remains strongly bullish following Ripple's court victories against the SEC and post-election optimism under the crypto-friendly Trump administration," the model in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
BBC News
02-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Marks & Spencer says it is working 'day and night' over cyber attack
The boss of Marks & Spencer has told customers the retailer is "working day and night" to manage the cyber attack that has forced it to temporarily shut down its online Machin said he was "really sorry" for the disruption to services, but did not say when normal business would resume.M&S's problems began over the Easter weekend, with customers reporting problems with Click & Collect and contactless week, the company confirmed it was dealing with a "cyber incident" and paused online orders on its website and apps.
BBC News
22-04-2025
- Business
- BBC News
M&S dealing with 'cyber incident' amid delays for some customers
Marks and Spencer (M&S) says it has been dealing with a "cyber incident" affecting some of its services over the last few UK retailer said its Click and Collect service has been impacted by technical issues along with its ability to collect contactless payments - with many customers taking to social media to complain about delays.M&S chief executive Stuart Machin apologised to customers in a note on Tuesday. He said the company had been forced to make temporary, small changes to store operations "to protect you and our business"."There is no need for you to take any action at this time and if the situation changes, we will let you know," he said. The notice said the firm is working to resolve some "limited" delays to Click and Collect comes after some shoppers complained over the weekend about the issues - which also include being unable to use gift cards or vouchers in person took to social media to call the issues a "total failure for customers" in a post on X."A simple message out to customers to save a journey would have worked a treat," they said.
