ECB suffers cyber attack
The European Central Bank has this morning confirmed that is has been the victim of a cyber attack. The breach occurred on a database linked to the Bank’s public website and has resulted in email addresses and other contact information being accessed. The data is low level, relating to those who have requested updates in ECB events, and no market sensitive or financial information has been compromised. That said, the hacking of data from a major central bank is a stark reminder of the risks of this kind of attack. The ECB says its security team has addressed the vulnerabilities of the system.
Read the full story.
Terrorism deaths increase
The latest update from the Maplecroft Terrorism and Security Dashboard shows a sharp rise in deaths from terrorism in the last year. The UK based firm logs, analyses and maps all reported acts of terrorism and ranks countries accordingly. The new update shows that the last 12 months has seen a 30 per cent increase in deaths from terrorism compared to the previous 5 year average. In the year to 1
st July 2014, there were 18,668 fatalities, although the number of attacks was down by around a thousand to 9,471 – that works out as an average of 26 per day. Iraq recorded the most attacks, while Nigeria accounted for the highest number of deaths per attack. The report shows that Iraq is the riskiest country for terrorism currently but a total of 12 countries are also ranked highly and there are rising concerns over China, Egypt, Kenya and Libya.
Obamacare legality issue may be a simple fix
While some experts are predicting a showdown in the US Supreme Court after two lower courts disagreed about the legality of the way Obamacare is run, others believe that a simple fix is possible. The issue is the wording of the Affordable Healthcare Act which has appears to require citizens to buy insurance through a state-run exchange and not from a central government agency site. This could mean that the millions who have bought policies through Healthcare.gov should not be entitled to tax credits. However, some experts say that states could make a contract with HHS to run the exchange for them, and that would satisfy the law. Whatever happens, the government are keen to point out that consumers are not likely to be affected by this glitch.
Read the full story.
Cyber risk is truly global; nowhere is exempt
It could be easy to dismiss the risk of cyber attack as something only likely in the big commercial centers of the world and certainly the likes of New York, London and Sydney are frequent targets. However, any business anywhere in the world can be targeted. A warning from Deloitte in Bermuda says that being on a remote island is no defence; as shown by the firm’s recent report into cyber threat. Deloitte says that no sector is immune; any business that has valuable data is at risk, but while it’s not possible to be 100 per cent secure, there is a lot that businesses can do to minimise the risk. Having strong defences and policies and being constantly vigilant in spotting an attack are vital in today’s digital world.
India allows greater foreign investment in insurance industry
As had been hoped, the Indian government has approved the raising of the level of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country’s insurance industry. The change will mean that the industry, which desperately needs investment in India, will be able to partner with outside investors with 49 per cent FDI instead of the current 26 per cent.
Read the full story.
