Latest news with #KevinCurran
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Man caught shortly after robbing bank in East Haven
EAST HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — A man was apprehended moments after he robbed a local bank in East Haven on Friday afternoon, said police. Kevin Curran, 52, of New Haven, went to the M&T Bank located inside the Stop & Shop grocery store on 370 Hemingway Avenue at around 3:23 p.m. According to a bank staff member, Curran, wearing a blue surgical mask and black winter hat, approached the teller and handed over a handwritten note demanding cash. Son dead, father injured after bank robbery turned barricade incident at Super 8 in Groton Curran did not display a weapon, but made a threat by saying, 'I don't want you to get hurt,' shared police. Curran fled the scene with $1,800. Curran was later spotted walking northbound on High Street after police broadcasted his description. When apprehended, Curran had a bag of clothes and other items matching the initial suspect description, cash, a handwritten note, and several knives, according to East Haven police. Curran is being held on a $150,000 bond and is charged with: Robbery in the second degree Larceny in the first-degree Threatening in the second-degree Breach of peace in the second-degree He will appear at New Haven Superior Court on June 25. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Daily Mail
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Zimbabwe's Ben Curran on facing England, failing to fulfil his potential at Northamptonshire and being the 'tame brother'
If you had placed a bet a few years ago on which of the three Curran brothers would be taking part in tomorrow's Test match between England and Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge, you would have got good odds on the answer. Tom, the oldest, was playing white-ball cricket for England in 2021. Sam, the youngest, was a regular member of both limited-overs teams, and would be named Player of the Tournament when Jos Buttler 's side won the T20 World Cup in Melbourne the following year. Ben, meanwhile, was being released by Northamptonshire, which was a novel way of fulfilling unfair stereotypes about the difficult middle child. Yet it is Ben who will take the field in Nottingham. In another twist, he will be doing so for Zimbabwe, the country represented by his father, Kevin, in 11 one-day internationals. And because of Ben's time at Wantage Road, where Kevin spent nine seasons as a fiery all-rounder in the 1990s, it will be Ben passing on tips to team-mates in Zimbabwe's first Test against England for 22 years. 'Whoever we'll be playing in the Test, I've probably faced them,' he tells Mail Sport. 'I guess that's one thing I can share with the guys. It's huge for us. A game like this can only be good for Zimbabwe cricket.' The left-handed Ben spent five summers at Northamptonshire, the county of his birth, before he was let go in 2022, having averaged just 25 in his 26 first-class games, almost all as opener. Confronted by a career crossroads, he chose to rebuild his career in Zimbabwe – and in December he made his debut in both Tests and ODIs. 'It was always in the back of my mind, potentially, to do it, and I thought the timing worked well,' he says, with an accent more southern African than East Midlands. 'I went back, played domestically and chatted to a few people about the possibility. All I really needed to do was perform well to earn a spot.' The move has been the making of him. He ticked off a maiden first-class hundred in January 2023 for Southern Rocks, then joined Rhinos, where he has averaged 55, with another four centuries. In April, he scored 147 and 105 not out for Southerns against Northerns. In between, he marked his Test debut with scores of 68 and 41 against Afghanistan in Bulawayo. Now, he has the chance to prove himself against England. 'I definitely didn't fulfill myself at Northants,' he says. 'I was still learning, and being in and out of the team, getting one or two games here and there, I put myself under a lot of pressure. I look back at my time then, and think I'm a much better player now.' While Tom and Sam have cultivated a reputation as ferocious competitors in the mould of their dad, who died of a heart attack at the age of 53 while out jogging, Ben places himself in a different category. Which of the three does he think is the feistiest? 'I would say Tom probably, but Sam's giving him a run for his money these days,' he says, before adding: 'I've got just be the tame one.' The three boys – separated by a little over three years – spent countless childhood hours playing sport against each other, honing the instincts that have so far brought them a combined 2,699 runs and 199 wickets in international cricket. 'It was very competitive,' says Ben. 'That's what I feel is one of my – and our – best traits – being competitive in the battle. When we were growing up, there was a lot of cricket, and a lot of fighting as well. 'There was plenty of bowling for Sam and me, because Tom used to bat all the time. We had a tennis court growing up, and we were on there, 24/7, playing cricket, losing balls. As we got older, we had a cricket net, with my dad was always throwing to us, feeding balls in the machine.' The brothers are now in regular contact on WhatsApp, and joked recently about 'taking over Asia' – Tom was at the Pakistan Super League, Sam at the IPL and Ben touring Bangladesh with Zimbabwe, who came away with a creditable 1-1 draw in the Tests. 'We don't see each other as often any more, but I'm looking forward to seeing them in England,' he says. How proud would their dad have been that all three ended up as international cricketers? 'Yeah, I'd like to think so. And to think we potentially could play against each other…' Ben has in mind the 2027 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by South Africa, Namibia and his own Zimbabwe. 'What a full-circle moment that could be,' he says. 'It would be amazing.'
Yahoo
15-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Putin could turn off the taps to our cash
It's easy to take electronic payments for granted. In a world where the casual tap of a phone can buy almost anything, cash is no longer king. But our reliance on digital transactions has ushered in a new and insidious threat. Cyber attacks on Britain's banking system by hostile states risk mass disruption for consumers – and the drive to go cashless is making the country more vulnerable. 'If something is 'smart', it's hackable,' says Professor Alan Woodward, a computer security expert at the University of Surrey. 'And we're totally dependent on digital payment infrastructure. A large-scale cyber attack would have a profound effect on daily life. The country would grind to a halt.' Teams of sophisticated hackers in Russia, China and North Korea are constantly probing for weaknesses in the country's banking system, according to Kevin Curran, professor of cyber security at Ulster University. These groups are given free rein and vast resources to launch cyber attacks, he says, and can easily claim that the fallout has nothing to do with them. 'Our absolute reliance on electronic payments opens us up to a lot more nightmare scenarios. There is no in between – either the system is up and running as planned or you're back to pen and paper, literally.' The warning follows a string of high-profile 'payday glitches' affecting high street banks, causing chaos for customers. In January, Barclays customers were left unable to access app and online banking services following a major outage that lasted three days. Some were left stranded abroad while others did not receive wages and were unable to pay rent. The bank has suffered outages lasting 803 hours over the past two years. Lloyds, Halifax, Nationwide, TSB, Bank of Scotland and First Direct also experienced IT problems at the end of January. Banks have blamed these failures on internal malfunctions. Barclays said the latest outage was caused by a 'software problem in a critical module of our UK mainframe operating system'. Yet Professor Woodward sees these problems as indicative of weaknesses of banks to cyber attack. 'These outages are typically caused by someone [working for the bank] doing a system update, something goes wrong and takes a while to put right,' he says. 'It's a failure of process. The cause is usually human error rather than malicious intent.' But a state like Russia with huge resources behind it has the capacity to exploit these human weaknesses in the system, by 'socially engineering' people into allowing their identities to be stolen. Jake Moore, a global cyber security adviser and former cyber crime officer in the police, believes that while banks put a 'huge amount of effort' into protecting their systems from external hacking threats, the biggest challenge is the 'insider threat'. 'Someone might be targeted on LinkedIn, bribed, and asked to put a USB stick in a machine. They get half the money upfront and half when they put it in.' 'It's very difficult to mitigate against this in any industry. The difference in banking is there's far more to lose.' An added vulnerability is that banks have vast and complex IT networks running on increasingly outdated technology that is difficult to maintain and update. Professor Woodward says: 'The UK's banking system is quite robust. Banks increasingly have two-man rules, and a lot of partitioning. You have very few people with God-like privileges within the system. 'But behind the scenes, a lot of older computer systems are doing the processing and some parts of the system can be creaky.' Western banks have suffered from a surge in cyber attacks in the past three years. In 2024, 65pc of financial services firms were hit with ransomware attacks, according to cyber security company Sophos. This was up from 34pc in 2021 and marked the third successive annual rise. Santander confirmed it had been the victim of a cyber attack in May 2024 after a hacking group calling itself ShinyHunters claimed to have gained access to 30 million customers' bank account details. JP Morgan fell victim to one of the biggest cyber attacks in the banking sector a decade ago when data on the accounts of 76 million households and seven million businesses were compromised. The recent rise has been blamed in part on Russian hackers acting in response to sanctions placed on the country and its banks following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Artificial intelligence has allowed hackers to increase the number and sophistication of their attacks. A worst-case scenario cyber attack would be like the payday loan glitch 'times a thousand', Mr Moore says. 'It was a catastrophic day for the Barclays outage to occur. The last Friday of the month and nearing the end of the financial year. 'It lasted three days, but if you were to lengthen the time by days or weeks, you see what a successful attack might look like.' Hostile states are unlikely to attack multiple banks at once 'like in the movies', according to Professor Curran. Instead, he worries about 'smaller, politicised strategic moves' against the sector – particularly a highly disruptive 'denial of service' attack which would bring down cloud services and data centres. 'Salaries would not be paid and the high street would be hit hard,' he says. 'People would really suffer.' Cash usage has dwindled in the past decade. Figures from UK Finance, a trade body representing the financial services sector, show that cash accounted for just 12pc of payments made in Britain in 2023. Around two in five people are living virtually cash-free, according to the survey. The Treasury ordered no new 1p and 2p coins from the Royal Mint last year, a reflection of the declining use of physical money. De La Rue, the company that prints Britain's banknotes, has said demand for cash around the world is at a 20-year low. An HM Revenue & Customs report from 2021 found that 25pc of small businesses and 27pc of mid-sized businesses did not accept cash payments. But the elimination of cash risks inadvertently playing into the hands of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Professor Woodward keeps a little cash at home in case of disruptions to the financial system. 'I'm a professional sceptic because of the industry I work in. If everything collapsed, I'd at least want to be able to buy a loaf of bread. 'There's got to be some contingency if the system fails – the obvious one is to have more cash. But there's no point keeping cash if we get to a stage where people stop accepting it.' A UK Finance spokesman said: 'The UK's banking sector has very strong protections in place and maintains a continual focus on cyber threats. The industry invests significantly to protect customers and keep systems safe. 'The industry also works closely with regulators, government and cyber specialists to stay alert to new trends and threats.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
15-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
How Putin could turn off the taps to our cash
It's easy to take electronic payments for granted. In a world where the casual tap of a phone can buy almost anything, cash is no longer king. But our reliance on digital transactions has ushered in a new and insidious threat. Cyber attacks on Britain's banking system by hostile states risk mass disruption for consumers – and the drive to go cashless is making the country more vulnerable. 'If something is 'smart', it's hackable,' says Professor Alan Woodward, a computer security expert at the University of Surrey. 'And we're totally dependent on digital payment infrastructure. A large-scale cyber attack would have a profound effect on daily life. The country would grind to a halt.' Teams of sophisticated hackers in Russia, China and North Korea are constantly probing for weaknesses in the country's banking system, according to Kevin Curran, professor of cyber security at Ulster University. These groups are given free rein and vast resources to launch cyber attacks, he says, and can easily claim that the fallout has nothing to do with them. 'Our absolute reliance on electronic payments opens us up to a lot more nightmare scenarios. There is no in between – either the system is up and running as planned or you're back to pen and paper, literally.' Human weakness The warning follows a string of high-profile 'payday glitches' affecting high street banks, causing chaos for customers. In January, Barclays customers were left unable to access app and online banking services following a major outage that lasted three days. Some were left stranded abroad while others did not receive wages and were unable to pay rent. The bank has suffered outages lasting 803 hours over the past two years. Lloyds, Halifax, Nationwide, TSB, Bank of Scotland and First Direct also experienced IT problems at the end of January. Banks have blamed these failures on internal malfunctions. Barclays said the latest outage was caused by a 'software problem in a critical module of our UK mainframe operating system'. Yet Professor Woodward sees these problems as indicative of weaknesses of banks to cyber attack. 'These outages are typically caused by someone [working for the bank] doing a system update, something goes wrong and takes a while to put right,' he says. 'It's a failure of process. The cause is usually human error rather than malicious intent.' But a state like Russia with huge resources behind it has the capacity to exploit these human weaknesses in the system, by 'socially engineering' people into allowing their identities to be stolen. Jake Moore, a global cyber security adviser and former cyber crime officer in the police, believes that while banks put a 'huge amount of effort' into protecting their systems from external hacking threats, the biggest challenge is the 'insider threat'. 'Someone might be targeted on LinkedIn, bribed, and asked to put a USB stick in a machine. They get half the money upfront and half when they put it in.' 'It's very difficult to mitigate against this in any industry. The difference in banking is there's far more to lose.' An added vulnerability is that banks have vast and complex IT networks running on increasingly outdated technology that is difficult to maintain and update. Professor Woodward says: 'The UK's banking system is quite robust. Banks increasingly have two-man rules, and a lot of partitioning. You have very few people with God-like privileges within the system. 'But behind the scenes, a lot of older computer systems are doing the processing and some parts of the system can be creaky.' 'People would suffer' Western banks have suffered from a surge in cyber attacks in the past three years. In 2024, 65pc of financial services firms were hit with ransomware attacks, according to cyber security company Sophos. This was up from 34pc in 2021 and marked the third successive annual rise. Santander confirmed it had been the victim of a cyber attack in May 2024 after a hacking group calling itself ShinyHunters claimed to have gained access to 30 million customers' bank account details. JP Morgan fell victim to one of the biggest cyber attacks in the banking sector a decade ago when data on the accounts of 76 million households and seven million businesses were compromised. The recent rise has been blamed in part on Russian hackers acting in response to sanctions placed on the country and its banks following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Artificial intelligence has allowed hackers to increase the number and sophistication of their attacks. A worst-case scenario cyber attack would be like the payday loan glitch 'times a thousand', Mr Moore says. 'It was a catastrophic day for the Barclays outage to occur. The last Friday of the month and nearing the end of the financial year. 'It lasted three days, but if you were to lengthen the time by days or weeks, you see what a successful attack might look like.' Hostile states are unlikely to attack multiple banks at once 'like in the movies', according to Professor Curran. Instead, he worries about 'smaller, politicised strategic moves' against the sector – particularly a highly disruptive 'denial of service' attack which would bring down cloud services and data centres. 'Salaries would not be paid and the high street would be hit hard,' he says. 'People would really suffer.' Death of cash Cash usage has dwindled in the past decade. Figures from UK Finance, a trade body representing the financial services sector, show that cash accounted for just 12pc of payments made in Britain in 2023. Around two in five people are living virtually cash-free, according to the survey. The Treasury ordered no new 1p and 2p coins from the Royal Mint last year, a reflection of the declining use of physical money. De La Rue, the company that prints Britain's banknotes, has said demand for cash around the world is at a 20-year low. An HM Revenue & Customs report from 2021 found that 25pc of small businesses and 27pc of mid-sized businesses did not accept cash payments. But the elimination of cash risks inadvertently playing into the hands of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Professor Woodward keeps a little cash at home in case of disruptions to the financial system. 'I'm a professional sceptic because of the industry I work in. If everything collapsed, I'd at least want to be able to buy a loaf of bread. 'There's got to be some contingency if the system fails – the obvious one is to have more cash. But there's no point keeping cash if we get to a stage where people stop accepting it.' A UK Finance spokesman said: 'The UK's banking sector has very strong protections in place and maintains a continual focus on cyber threats. The industry invests significantly to protect customers and keep systems safe.
