Facebook, the social media giant is set to face a fine of up to £1.25 billion after revealing that 50 million user accounts were compromised on Tuesday 25 September, with affected users being notified via their Facebook accounts.

This recent data breach has been established as the largest security breach Facebook have faced. It is also one of the more severe breaches, as the hackers obtained “access tokens”, which are a form of security key allowing users to browse Facebook on numerous devices without entering a password.

Obtaining these “access tokens” allowed the hackers to gain full access to a user’s account, including third party applications.

Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg addressed the security breach, stating:

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) released statistics regarding the UK housing marketing, which has shown a 173% increase in housing prices in over twenty years. This combined with only a 19% increase in average pay for those aged 24-34, as well as significant increases to renting prices, have entirely “reduced the purchasing power of young adults’ incomes”, making it even harder to save for a deposit and purchase a house.

The IFS have also said that around 40% of young people cannot even afford to buy the cheapest homes in their area with a 10% deposit.

One man, who described buying a house as an “almost impossible challenge”, has recently moved in to a shared house with his partner in order to begin saving. The 27-year old recruitment worker spoke to the BBC about his house-buying expectations, stating:

Industry group, UK Finance have discovered that customers of UK banks have had more than £500m stolen from their accounts at the start of this year. This consisted of £358m being lost to unauthorised fraud and £145m being obtained through authorised push payment (APP) scams. The difference being banks usually refund unauthorised fraud victims, whereas APP victims are rarely refunded.

At the start of 2017, APP scams hit a total of £101m, and this number has now shown an increase of £44m, since four more banks reported fraud data.

UK Finance’s managing director for economic crime, Katy Worobec discussed how the new figures highlighted fraud as a top “major threat” in the UK. She also stated that the money obtained from bank accounts are used to fund terrorism, people smuggling and drug trafficking.”

Following Google’s announcement this week (8 October 2018) regarding a data breach in 2015, they have temporarily shut down their social network Google+, where a security bug enabled third party developers to gain access to user data, potentially affecting around 496, 951 Google+ users.

The announcement on Monday was the first time Google discussed the breach, which although occurred three years ago, was not exposed and remedied until March 2018. Google’s reasoning for late exposure was relayed in an internal memo, which discussed the avoidance of “regulatory interest”, and potential comparisons to Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The bug may have allowed third party developers to gain access to usernames, email, gender, data of birth, location, pictures, as well as occupation and relationship status. However, there is no concrete evidence to confirms this (as Google only holds API data for two weeks) therefore they cannot determine how many users were exposed. Google have advised that there was “no evidence that any profile data was misused” as well as there being “no evidence that any developer was aware of this bug, or abusing the API”.

The National Landlords Association (NLA) has issued a warning, regarding tenants living in Houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) who may face an increase in rent or eviction. This is a result of the new government ruling that requires all tenants in shared houses to register with their local council.

Since Monday, there has been an increase of triple the number of houses registered with councils. This amounts to an extra 160,000 HMOs, who may face a surge in rental payments or eviction.  

The chief executive of the NLA, Richard Lambert discussed the new legislation, stating:

Most organisations will draw up legal contracts with a variety of parties including employees and third-parties before providing or receiving a service from the other contracted parties.

It is important to understand that a contract is not legally binding unless it includes the following:

• An official agreement which consists of making an offer and receiving acceptance of the specific terms within the contract.
• The intention to commence legal relations in the form of a lawful agreement.
• Consideration of any promise given in return for receiving a benefit promised by the other party. I.e. Money exchanged for goods or services.

• MILLIONS OF UK WI-FI ROUTERS HACKED

  

  According to the British security company, SureCloud, there have been an influx of Wi-Fi routers hacked in millions of homes across the UK.

  SureClouder researcher Elliott Thomson, who discovered the reported Wi-Fi hacks, stated:

  “The hacker would be able join the Wi-Fi network, access shared files, access ‘internet of things’ devices which trust the local network”

  He also reported that a hacker could access web browsing history:

• NEW LEGISLATION PREVENTS EMPLOYERS TAKING STAFF TIPS

  

  Business Secretary, Greg Clark has announced the implementation of new measures to support organisations, entrepreneurs, and workers, in accordance with the Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy.

  One of the more prolific changes is the Government’s plan to ensure that all tips left for employees are given in full, rather than employers taking their staff’s well-earned gratuities.

  The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy stated:

• NHS: RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND UNEQUAL PAY

  

  The NHS has recently come under fire regarding racial discrimination in relation to pay, as evidence showed that the salary of white senior consultants was almost £10,000 more than BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) doctors.

  The study also showed that BME nurses and personnel staff were also being underpaid compared to their white comparators.

  This information emerged in the British Medical Journal, in which Professor John Appleby, the director of research and chief economist at the Nuffield Trust thinktank, contributed to the study, stating:

• PR LEADERS URGE EMPLOYERS TO GO BEYOND REPORTING TO REDUCE PAY GAPS

  

  The UK government have recently discussed plans addressing workplace discrimination by requiring employers to report their organisations ethnicity pay gap.

  On the 11^th of October, Theresa May launched a consultation in order to determine the need for organisations to report ethnic imbalances in the workplace, as the prime minister relayed that ethnic minority workers can “feel they’re hitting a brick wall when it comes to career progression.”

  The government and some PR industry leaders feel reporting is necessary, with statistics showing that 15.6 per cent of ethnic minorities are in the lowest pay bracket.

• STAMPING OUT SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE

  

  The discussion surrounding sexual harassment in the workplace has continued with the recent announcement from Carolyn Fairbairn, the director general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), who called for the reinstatement of Section 40 of the Equality Act 2010. This enabled employers to be held accountable for sexual harassment occurring on their premises, although it was scrapped when the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act came in to place in 2013.

  The director general of the CBI stated the following:

• UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ACCUSED OF CYBER CRIME

  

  In a recent security report, which analysed 850 cyber-crimes against UK universities and colleges from 2017 to 2018, there was clear evidence to show that the cyber-attacks were often committed by disgruntled students or staff members within these organisations.

  The report was conducted by the government-funded agency, Jisc,who discovered that the crimes were not being committed by professional hackers or organized crime groups, but instead the perpetrators were much closer to home.  This conclusion was made due to the attacks showing “clear patterns” of activity during term times, whilst attacks were reduced during holiday periods.

  Dr John Chapman, the head of security operations at Jisc, who assists with providing technology services to the higher and further education field, stated:

• WHICH? UNCOVERS UNDERHANDED TACTICS OF POPULAR PHONE APPS

  

  The Consumer Rights Association Which? have devised a report after monitoring 29 popular apps utilised by both iPhone and Android users, in which they discovered the underhanded tactics of several app companies when obtaining personal data.

  Which? found that several of these companies uncovered borderline-lawful means in order to obtain unnecessary information from customers who were unaware, as they neither had the time nor were willing to read the overcomplicated and long data protection policies. After the consumer body found that:

  “Based on average reading it would take 22 hours, 21 minutes to read all the policies in one go.”

  The report also showed that despite the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) being implemented in May 2018, there were still organisations ignoring the fundamentals of the regulation:

• £28 MILLION LOSS TO UK CYBERCRIME VICTIMS IN 6 MONTHS

  

  According to Action Fraud’s cyber statistics, there were 12,372 cyber-crime reports made between October 2017 and March 2018, which resulted in victims losing a total of £28 million.

  Action Fraud, the national fraud and cyber-crime reporting centre is led by the City of London Police. As one of the founding members of the Global Cyber Alliance, The City of London Police also run Cyber Protect, which along with Action Fraud was put in place, in order to investigate, detect, and protect individuals and organisations from cyber-crime and fraud.

  Action Fraud’s statistics show that out of the 12,372 cyber-crimes reports, 4,796 were reports of social media and email accounts being hacked, which resulted in victims losing a total of £11 million.

  It is most likely that the reported cyber-crimes were committed by criminals unbeknownst to the victims, as statistics show that around 50% of cyber-crime and fraud is conducted abroad.

  In relation to the Action Fraud statistics, The Temporary Commander, Pete O’Doherty of the City of London Police, stated the following: