Category: z-Exclude

Latitude Financial hit by malicious cyberattack

Latitude Financial has revealed it has been hit by a sophisticated and malicious cyberattack that has compromised a total of 328,000 separate pieces of data that it had sourced from its customers. The loans, credit card and insurance provider said it had detected unusual activity on its systems over the last few days that was believed to have originated from a major vendor used by Latitude.

The company said the attacker appeared to have used employee login credentials to steal personal information that was being held by two other of Latitude’s service providers. In a statement to the ASX on Thursday morning, Latitude said approximately 103,000 identifications documents – 97% of which were drivers’ licences – were stolen from the first service provider, while 225,000 customer records were stolen from a second service provider.

Bank runs used to be slow. The digital era sped them up

Regulators, policymakers and bankers are looking at the role that digital messaging and social media may have played in the collapse, and whether banks are entering an age when the psychological behavior behind a bank run — mass fear from depositors of losing their savings — may be amplified and go viral quicker than bank officers and regulators can successfully respond.

Samsung to invest $230 billion to build mega chip cluster

Samsung Electronics said Wednesday it expects to invest 300 trillion won ($230 billion) over the next 20 years as part of an ambitious South Korean national project to build the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturing base near the capital, Seoul.

The chip-making “mega cluster,” which will be established in Gyeonggi Province by 2042, will be anchored by five new semiconductor plants built by Samsung. It will aim to attract 150 other companies producing materials and components or designing high-tech chips, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Japan / Securities firm SMBC Nikko slapped with ¥300 million fine for market manipulation

The Japan Securities Dealers Association said Wednesday it has imposed a penalty of 300 million yen on SMBC Nikko Securities Inc for market manipulation, matching the highest fine previously issued by the organization.

According to the JSDA, SMBC Nikko illegally propped up the prices of 10 individual stock issues to stabilize them last year in “block offering” transactions.

The fine imposed on the brokerage by the JSDA is equal to that issued to Nomura Securities Inc. in connection with an insider trading scandal in 2012.

Credit Suisse slump renews fears of global banking crisis

Shares of Swiss bank lose more than a quarter of their value in one day, dragging down European and US markets.

Prosecutors Encourage Corporate Confessions — WSJ

Top New York federal prosecutors on Wednesday unveiled a new effort to encourage companies to voluntarily disclose wrongdoing to U.S. attorneys. Under the new policy, which is effective immediately, companies that self-report misconduct will receive more lenient treatment than if prosecutors discover the misconduct through whistleblowers or of their own accord. Damian Williams and Breon Peace, the U.S. attorneys in…

The Emotet botnet returns and is sending a slew of malicious emails

The notorious Emotet botnet, considered one of the biggest threats to internet security, has resurfaced after a prolonged hiatus, armed with new tactics. The botnet’s trademark strategy of sending spam messages that appear to be from a known contact, addressing recipients by name and purporting to respond to existing email threads, was observed again last week after a four-month break.

Previous resumptions of activity have seen Emotet deploy fresh techniques to avoid endpoint security products and deceive users into clicking on links or enabling dangerous macros in Microsoft Office attachments.

US drones have no business near Russia – ambassador

Antonov met with Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried, who protested the “unsafe and unprofessional intercept” of the drone that resulted in its loss. “We consider this incident a provocation,” Antonov told reporters after the meeting. He said he told Donfried that US drones, planes and ships had no business being that close to Russian…

Exclusive: Russia’s secret document for destabilizing Moldova

CHISINAU, Moldova — On Friday, John Kirby, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, made a surprise announcement at a White House press briefing. U.S. intelligence, he said, had determined that the Kremlin was plotting to topple another European democracy. “Russian actors, some with current ties to Russian intelligence, are seeking to stage and use protests in Moldova as a…

Inflation in Argentina surges past 100 percent in historic spike

The country’s inflation has not surpassed 100 percent in over three decades, as value of Argentina’s currency plummets.

Paris visitors alarmed at trash strike

Portuguese tourist Fabio Figueirado wanted to admire beautiful buildings on a romantic getaway in Paris, but instead he and his girlfriend have found themselves navigating pavements piled high…

China says AUKUS on ‘dangerous path’ with nuclear subs deal

The United States, Australia and the United Kingdom are traveling “further down the wrong and dangerous path for their own geopolitical self-interest,” China’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, responding…

Taiwan unveils portable attack drone as China tensions rise

Taiwan unveiled its first portable attack drone on Tuesday, an unmanned aerial vehicle similar to a U.S. model used in Ukraine’s fight against Russia, as China steps up…

A 2nd wave of layoffs at Meta; 10,000 jobs are cut

Facebook parent Meta is slashing 10,000 jobs, about as many as the social media company announced late last year in its first round of cuts, as uncertainly about the global economy hits the technology sector particularly hard.

The company announced 11,000 job cuts in November, about 13% of its workforce at the time. In addition to the layoffs, Meta said Tuesday that it would not fill 5,000 open positions.

Meta and other tech companies have been hiring aggressively for at least two years and in recent months have begun to let some of those workers go. Hiring in the U.S. is still strong, but layoffs have hit hard in some sectors.

Child suicides in Japan hit record high of 514 in 2022

A record 514 children attending elementary, junior high and high schools in Japan died by suicide in 2022, topping the previous high of 499 seen in 2020, government…

Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan says arrest attempt ‘totally illegal’

Khan tells Al Jazeera an arrest warrant is a politically motivated attempt to ‘remove him’ from upcoming elections.