Latest news with #JohnShier
Scottish Sun
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Shocking moment huge GECKO fell out of tin of Lidl sweetcorn in front of terrified dad as he cooked kids' tea
Grandad John says he now checks every tin before eating GRIM FIND Shocking moment huge GECKO fell out of tin of Lidl sweetcorn in front of terrified dad as he cooked kids' tea Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A GRANDFATHER was left with a sour taste after discovering a dead lizard in a tin of sweetcorn. John Shier, 53, was cooking a meal for his wife and son last month when he uncovered the fully preserved body of a gecko stuck to the can's lid. 6 John Shier, 53, was cooking a meal when he found the gecko Credit: John Shier 6 The dead lizard was sitting on top of the sweetcorn after he opened the tin Credit: John Shier 6 John had to do a double take after spotting the creature Credit: Paul Tonge The sales manager, of Spalding, Lincs, did a double take after spotting the seven centimetre-long creature and likened the discovery to something out of a "bushtucker trial". Pictures show the squashed lizard sitting on top of the yellow veggies and a visible imprint of the animal under the ring-pull lid. Dad-of-two John purchased the tin of Freshona sweetcorn from Lidl as part of a multipack and admitted he had some concerns over the contents of the remaining containers. Speaking to The Sun, he said: 'I thought I was on I'm a Celebrity, it was like a proper bushtucker trial challenge. 'I just wanted the sweetcorn, I didn't really want a seven centimetre gecko to go with it! 'I was just cooking at home and making a usual stir fry, which means I normally just throw everything into a wok. 'I had already added one tin of the sweetcorn, but in the process of opening the second one this thing just caught my eye. 'I did a double take and saw what was sitting right on the top of the tin. I've never seen anything like that before in my life. 'That was it after that, I didn't want to eat any of the ingredients I was eating because I couldn't be sure what was in there. None of us wanted to eat any of the food. 'It's lucky I spotted it really, I might have missed it or it could have been buried beneath the sweetcorn. Giant huntsman spider lurking in his bunch of Aldi bananas 'If I had missed that and thrown it into the meal, or if it was buried in the tin, one of us might have ended up eating it. 'It's safe to say that every tinned item I've opened since has been sieved before use.' And John accused supermarket giants Lidl of 'not taking it seriously' when they offered him a ten pound voucher after being presented with the evidence of his extraordinary find. In a statement, Lidl said: 'It is never our intention for our customers to be dissatisfied in any way. 'We take matters of this nature extremely seriously and pride ourselves on the rigorous quality assurance processes we have in place across our supply chain. 'Reports of this kind are exceptionally rare – we've received no other customer complaints, and we believe this to be an isolated case. 'Nonetheless, our Quality Assurance team is in contact with the customer directly on this matter.' He added: 'This isn't a fly or a small insect, I would understand that because they are so miniscule. 6 John was offered a measly £10 voucher after his find Credit: Paul Tonge 6 John demanded an apology from Lidl Credit: John Shier 6 He has vouched to never shop with the supermarket giant again Credit: Paul Tonge 'But this is a lizard, which is fully intact and measuring seven centimetres. 'I'm shocked at their response, I thought they would take it more seriously. 'I don't know the toxicity levels of a gecko but it could have been really poisonous. I certainly wouldn't want to take the risk of eating one. 'It's a bit of a joke. It's bad enough I could have served it to my wife or son, but one of my grandchildren could have been eating that meal. 'I spend money in that store religiously every week and there is no recognition of my loyalty in their response. 'I have been offered a measly ten pound voucher. I'm not sure if I'm more disgusted at the lack of empathy or the ridiculous gesture. 'I will not be shopping there again.'
The Sun
3 days ago
- Health
- The Sun
Shocking moment huge GECKO fell out of tin of Lidl sweetcorn in front of terrified dad as he cooked kids' tea
A GRANDFATHER was left with a sour taste after discovering a dead lizard in a tin of sweetcorn. John Shier, 53, was cooking a meal for his wife and son last month when he uncovered the fully preserved body of a gecko stuck to the can's lid. 6 6 6 The sales manager, of Spalding, Lincs, did a double take after spotting the seven centimetre-long creature and likened the discovery to something out of a "bushtucker trial". Pictures show the squashed lizard sitting on top of the yellow veggies and a visible imprint of the animal under the ring-pull lid. Dad-of-two John purchased the tin of Freshona sweetcorn from Lidl as part of a multipack and admitted he had some concerns over the contents of the remaining containers. Speaking to The Sun, he said: 'I thought I was on I'm a Celebrity, it was like a proper bushtucker trial challenge. 'I just wanted the sweetcorn, I didn't really want a seven centimetre gecko to go with it! 'I was just cooking at home and making a usual stir fry, which means I normally just throw everything into a wok. 'I had already added one tin of the sweetcorn, but in the process of opening the second one this thing just caught my eye. 'I did a double take and saw what was sitting right on the top of the tin. I've never seen anything like that before in my life. 'That was it after that, I didn't want to eat any of the ingredients I was eating because I couldn't be sure what was in there. None of us wanted to eat any of the food. 'It's lucky I spotted it really, I might have missed it or it could have been buried beneath the sweetcorn. 'If I had missed that and thrown it into the meal, or if it was buried in the tin, one of us might have ended up eating it. 'It's safe to say that every tinned item I've opened since has been sieved before use.' And John accused supermarket giants Lidl of 'not taking it seriously' when they offered him a ten pound voucher after being presented with the evidence of his extraordinary find. In a statement, Lidl said: 'It is never our intention for our customers to be dissatisfied in any way. 'We take matters of this nature extremely seriously and pride ourselves on the rigorous quality assurance processes we have in place across our supply chain. 'Reports of this kind are exceptionally rare – we've received no other customer complaints, and we believe this to be an isolated case. 'Nonetheless, our Quality Assurance team is in contact with the customer directly on this matter.' He added: 'This isn't a fly or a small insect, I would understand that because they are so miniscule. 6 6 'But this is a lizard, which is fully intact and measuring seven centimetres. 'I'm shocked at their response, I thought they would take it more seriously. 'I don't know the toxicity levels of a gecko but it could have been really poisonous. I certainly wouldn't want to take the risk of eating one. 'It's a bit of a joke. It's bad enough I could have served it to my wife or son, but one of my grandchildren could have been eating that meal. 'I spend money in that store religiously every week and there is no recognition of my loyalty in their response. 'I have been offered a measly ten pound voucher. I'm not sure if I'm more disgusted at the lack of empathy or the ridiculous gesture. 'I will not be shopping there again.' Exclusive by Summer Raemason THIS is the disgusting moment a massive spider crawls out of a family's Aldi bananas. Christopher Kirk picked up the fair trade produce at a supermarket on Carnation Way, Ashbourne, in the Peak District during the Easter holiday. When they got to the hotel, Christopher was alerted to the huge arachnid by his screaming two-year-old daughter. She shouted "spider" while her four-year-old sister also recoiled in terror. A stunned Christopher took the, thankfully unopened, bananas straight back to Aldi. He asked the store for a replacement which was accepted. The dad-of-two also uploaded images of the eight legged crawler onto an insect-identifier app. It generated results indicating it was a Huntsman Spider, which is a venomous species found in Asia. Christopher told The Sun: 'The holiday wasn't really disrupted - we just wanted our kids to be able to eat something healthy. 'At the end of the day, I considered it a living creature and I didn't want to harm it myself. 'However, we are now very wary of picking up bananas in a shop and inspect bags of them closely. 'We are also especially wary of loose bananas as it could well have been the bag that contained them that stopped us having a situation where one of us, including our young children, had been bitten." Thankfully no family members were bitten, albeit very shaken up. An Aldi spokesperson referred to Paul Hillyard, a leading authority on arachnids and Science Associate of the Natural History Museum in London. He said: 'The families known for attaching their egg sac to a banana are harmless to humans. "These small spiders sometimes build their nest on a banana because the fruit provides a safe and shady location close to the tiny fruit flies upon which the spiders feed (the spiders have no interest in the banana itself). 'The nesting practices used by these small, harmless spiders are very different to those used by the sort of tropical spiders that might justifiably cause alarm (e.g. the large, agile, huntsman-type spiders and Brazilian Wandering spiders) - most of these carry their egg sac in their jaws or bury it in the leaf litter, rather than attach it to a substrate such as a banana.' An Aldi spokesperson said: 'While it is extremely rare for naturally occurring foreign bodies like this to be found on fruit, it can happen in exceptional circumstances due to outdoor growing conditions. "However, we want to reassure our customers that this type of spider is harmless and poses no risk to their safety.' This comes as other shoppers from supermarkets across the UK have made horrifying discoveries. One customer was left disgusted after discovering some-fin fishy crawling in his Sainsbury's cod - a two- inch parasitic worm. He was looking forward to the fish for his Friday night supper, but lost his appetite after noticing the creepy-crawly. Elsewhere, a couple who ordered a McDonald's to help with their hangovers were left feeling even more sick after discovering a giant bug inside one of the burgers. Cathy Suzuki, 25, ordered the new Homestyle Crispy Chicken and a triple cheeseburger through the UberEats app as she and boyfriend Craig How recovered from the night before. The pair decided to split the £18.80 meal, and cut the chicken burger in half so it could be easily shared. However, when they did, a whopping insect dropped out from between the buns. Meanwhile, another mum found a snail in her McDonald's chicken wrap. And, this is the horrifying moment a family discovered a 'snake-like' creature slithering out of a Sainsbury's potato bag. The stomach-churning footage showed a slimy invader hiding inside the superstore packaging.
Al Bawaba
03-04-2025
- Business
- Al Bawaba
Sophos Report: In 56% of Sophos IR and MDR Cases, Adversaries Logged In, Instead of Breaking In
Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions for defeating cyberattacks, today released the 2025 Sophos Active Adversary Report, which details attacker behavior and techniques from over 400 Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and Incident Response (IR) cases in 2024. The report found that the primary way attackers gained initial access to networks (56% of all cases across MDR and IR) was by exploiting external remote services, which includes edge devices such as firewalls and VPNs, by leveraging valid accounts. The combination of external remote services and valid accounts aligns with the top root causes of attacks. For the second year in row, compromised credentials were the number one root cause of attacks (41% of cases). This was followed by exploited vulnerabilities (21.79%) and brute force attacks (21.07%). Understanding The Speed of AttacksWhen analyzing MDR and IR investigations, the Sophos X-Ops team looked specifically at ransomware, data exfiltration, and data extortion cases to identify how fast attackers progressed through the stages of an attack within an organization. In those three types of cases, the median time between the start of an attack and exfiltration was only 72.98 hours (3.04 days). Furthermore, there was only a median of 2.7 hours from exfiltration to attack detection. 'Passive security is no longer enough. While prevention is essential, rapid response is critical. Organizations must actively monitor networks and act swiftly against observed telemetry. Coordinated attacks by motivated adversaries require a coordinated defense. For many organizations, that means combining business-specific knowledge with expert-led detection and response. Our report confirms that organizations with proactive monitoring detect attacks faster and experience better outcomes,' said John Shier, field CISO. Other Key Findings from the 2025 Sophos Active Adversary Report:Attackers Can Take Control of a System in Just 11 Hours: The median time between attackers' initial action and their first (often successful) attempt to breach Active Directory (AD) - arguably one of the most important assets in any Windows network – was just 11 hours. If successful, attackers can more easily take control of the organization. Top Ransomware Groups in Sophos Cases: Akira was the most frequently encountered ransomware group in 2024, followed by Fog and LockBit (despite a multi-government takedown of LockBit earlier in the year).Dwell Time is Down to Just 2 Days: Overall, dwell time – the time from the start of an attack to when it is detected – decreased from 4 days to just 2 in 2024, largely due to the addition of MDR cases to the Time in IR Cases: Dwell time remained stable at 4 days for ransomware attacks and 11.5 days for non-ransomware cases. Dwell Time in MDR Cases: In MDR investigations, dwell time was only 3 days for ransomware cases and just 1 day for non-ransomware cases, suggesting MDR teams are able to more quickly detect and respond to Groups Work Overnight: In 2024, 83% of ransomware binaries were dropped outside of the targets' local business hours. Remote Desktop Protocol Continues to Dominate: RDP was involved in 84% of MDR/IR cases, making it the most frequently abused Microsoft tool. To shore up their defenses, Sophos recommends that companies do the following:Close exposed RDP portsUse phishing-resistant multifactor authentication (MFA) wherever possiblePatch vulnerable systems in a timely manner, with a particular focus on internet-facing devices and servicesDeploy EDR or MDR and ensure it is proactively monitored 24/7 Establish a comprehensive incident response plan and test it regularly through simulations or tabletop exercises Read the full It Takes Two: The 2025 Sophos Active Adversary Report on © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
Associated Press
02-04-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Sophos Report: In 56% of Sophos IR and MDR Cases, Adversaries Logged In, Instead of Breaking In
IR and MDR Cases Highlight Attackers Are Exfiltrating Data in Just Three Days Compromised Credentials Top Root Causes for Second Year OXFORD, U.K., April 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions for defeating cyberattacks, today released the 2025 Sophos Active Adversary Report, which details attacker behavior and techniques from over 400 Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and Incident Response (IR) cases in 2024. The report found that the primary way attackers gained initial access to networks (56% of all cases across MDR and IR) was by exploiting external remote services, which includes edge devices such as firewalls and VPNs, by leveraging valid accounts. The combination of external remote services and valid accounts aligns with the top root causes of attacks. For the second year in row, compromised credentials were the number one root cause of attacks (41% of cases). This was followed by exploited vulnerabilities (21.79%) and brute force attacks (21.07%). Understanding The Speed of Attacks When analyzing MDR and IR investigations, the Sophos X-Ops team looked specifically at ransomware, data exfiltration, and data extortion cases to identify how fast attackers progressed through the stages of an attack within an organization. In those three types of cases, the median time between the start of an attack and exfiltration was only 72.98 hours (3.04 days). Furthermore, there was only a median of 2.7 hours from exfiltration to attack detection. 'Passive security is no longer enough. While prevention is essential, rapid response is critical. Organizations must actively monitor networks and act swiftly against observed telemetry. Coordinated attacks by motivated adversaries require a coordinated defense. For many organizations, that means combining business-specific knowledge with expert-led detection and response. Our report confirms that organizations with proactive monitoring detect attacks faster and experience better outcomes,' said John Shier, field CISO. Other Key Findings from the 2025 Sophos Active Adversary Report: Attackers Can Take Control of a System in Just 11 Hours: The median time between attackers' initial action and their first (often successful) attempt to breach Active Directory (AD) - arguably one of the most important assets in any Windows network – was just 11 hours. If successful, attackers can more easily take control of the organization. Top Ransomware Groups in Sophos Cases: Akira was the most frequently encountered ransomware group in 2024, followed by Fog and LockBit (despite a multi-government takedown of LockBit earlier in the year). Dwell Time is Down to Just 2 Days: Overall, dwell time – the time from the start of an attack to when it is detected – decreased from 4 days to just 2 in 2024, largely due to the addition of MDR cases to the dataset. Dwell Time in IR Cases: Dwell time remained stable at 4 days for ransomware attacks and 11.5 days for non-ransomware cases. Dwell Time in MDR Cases: In MDR investigations, dwell time was only 3 days for ransomware cases and just 1 day for non-ransomware cases, suggesting MDR teams are able to more quickly detect and respond to attacks. Ransomware Groups Work Overnight: In 2024, 83% of ransomware binaries were dropped outside of the targets' local business hours. Remote Desktop Protocol Continues to Dominate: RDP was involved in 84% of MDR/IR cases, making it the most frequently abused Microsoft tool. To shore up their defenses, Sophos recommends that companies do the following: Read the full It Takes Two: The 2025 Sophos Active Adversary Report on Learn More About About Sophos Sophos is a global leader and innovator of advanced security solutions for defeating cyberattacks. The company acquired Secureworks in February 2025, bringing together two pioneers that have redefined the cybersecurity industry with their innovative, native AI-optimized services, technologies and products. Sophos is now the largest pure-play Managed Detection and Response (MDR) provider, supporting more than 28,000 organizations. In addition to MDR and other services, Sophos' complete portfolio includes industry-leading endpoint, network, email, and cloud security that interoperate and adapt to defend through the Sophos Central platform. Secureworks provides the innovative, market-leading Taegis XDR/MDR, identity threat detection and response (ITDR), next-gen SIEM capabilities, managed risk, and a comprehensive set of advisory services. Sophos sells all these solutions through reseller partners, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) worldwide, defending more than 600,000 organizations worldwide from phishing, ransomware, data theft, other every day and state-sponsored cybercrimes. The solutions are powered by historical and real-time threat intelligence from Sophos X-Ops and the newly added Counter Threat Unit (CTU). Sophos is headquartered in Oxford, U.K. More information is available at .
