Cyber attacks on big companies up 40 per cent
Big businesses are suffering an increasing number of cyber attacks according to a major cybersecurity firm. Symnatec, the company behind Norton, has published its annual internet security report which shows that five out of every six companies with 2,500 employees or more was targeted by a phishing email or email fraud in 2014, 40 per cent higher than in 2013. Small and medium sized companies also suffered more attacks with increases of around 30 per cent. The level of attacks including malware, which aims to infect a user’s machine to gain access to data, ran at 1 million every day last year. The use of ransomware, which locks access to a user’s data until a payment is made to hackers, increased by 113 per cent. Symantec said the only constant in cyber attacks is change and attackers are finding ways to adapt the technology that companies are using for protection to attack them.
Canada’s oil sands among worst for greenhouse emissions
A new report says that not all crude oil affects climate change equally. The study by academics from the University of Calgary, Stanford and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found that there is an 80 per cent difference between the highest and lowest carbon-emitting fuels. Extra heavy crude, which it the type produced at Canada’s oilsands, is among the worst polluters.
Californian Senator proposes equal rights for transgender workers
A bill has been proposed in California that would prohibit the state from contracting companies that do not provide equal rights to transgender employees. It has been introduced by Senator Mark Leno and sponsored by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Equality California and Transgender Law Center. The aim is to give the rights of transgender workers the same level of protection that was introduced for same-sex couples ten years ago. Writing in the Sacramento Bee, Geoff Kors; government policy director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco; says that when the same-sex laws were proposed many said it couldn’t work but the obstacles were overcome. Insurers benefitted he says, because they had a new market for domestic partner insurance. The state also benefitted because it meant that a group which was previously uninsured and relied on emergency health care were covered by private policies. Kors says that after a long battle that ultimately went to the Supreme Court, California led the way in equality legislation, and he believes that passing this new bill would expand upon that legacy.
