Month: March 2021

Cyber-security companies are warning about the rise of so-called ‘extortionware’ where hackers embarrass victims into paying a ransom.

Experts say the trend towards ransoming sensitive private information could affect companies not just operationally but through reputation damage.

It comes as hackers bragged after discovering an IT Director’s secret porn collection.

The targeted US firm has not publicly acknowledged that it was hacked.

In its darknet blog post about the hack last month, the cyber-criminal gang named the IT director whose work computer allegedly contained the files.

It also posted a screen grab of the computer’s file library which included more than a dozen folders catalogued under the names of porn stars and porn websites.

The infamous hacker group wrote: “Thanks God for [named IT Director]. While he was [masturbating] we downloaded several hundred gigabytes of private information about his company’s customers. God bless his hairy palms, Amen!”

The blog post has been deleted in the last couple of weeks, which experts say usually implies that the extortion attempt worked and the hackers have been paid to restore data, and not publish any more details.

The company did not respond to requests for comment.

The same hacker group is also currently trying to pressure another US utility company into paying a ransom, by posting an employee’s username and password for a members-only porn website.

‘The new norm’
Another ransomware group which also has a darknet website shows the use of similar tactics.

The relatively new gang has published private emails and pictures, and is calling directly for the mayor of a hacked municipality in the US to negotiate its ransom.

In another case, hackers claim to have found an email trail showing evidence of insurance fraud at a Canadian agriculture company.

Brett Callow, a threat analyst at cyber-security company Emsisoft, says the trend points to an evolution of ransomware hacking.

“This is the new norm. Hackers are now actually searching the data for information that can be weaponised. If they find anything that is incriminating or embarrassing, they’ll use it to leverage a larger pay-out. These incidents are no longer simply cyber-attacks about data, they are full-out extortion attempts.”

Another example of this was seen in December 2020, when the cosmetic surgery chain The Hospital Group was held to ransom with the threat of publication of ‘before and after’ images of patients.

Ransomware is evolving
Ransomware has evolved considerably since it first appeared decades ago.

Criminals used to operate alone, or in small teams, targeting individual internet users at random by booby-trapping websites and emails.

In the last few years, they’ve become more sophisticated, organised and ambitious.

Criminal gangs are estimated to be making tens of millions of dollars a year, by spending time and resources targeting and attacking large companies or public bodies for huge pay-outs, sometimes totalling millions of dollars.

Brett Callow has been following ransomware tactics for years, and says he saw another shift in methods in late 2019.

“It used to be the case that the data was just encrypted to disrupt a company, but then we started seeing it downloaded by the hackers themselves.

“It meant they could charge victims even more because the threat of selling the data on to others was strong.”

Tough to defend against
This latest trend of threatening to publicly damage an organisation or individual has particularly concerned experts because it is hard to defend against.

Keeping good backups of company data helps businesses to recover from crippling ransomware attacks, but that is not enough when the hackers use extortionware tactics.Cyber-security consultant Lisa Ventura said: “Employees should not be storing anything that could harm a firm reputationally on company servers. Training around this should be provided by organisations to all their staff.

“It’s a troubling shift in angle for the hackers because ransomware attacks are not only getting more frequent, they are also getting more sophisticated.

“By identifying factors such as reputational damage, it offers far more leverage to extort money from victims.”

A lack of victim reporting and a culture of cover-up makes estimating the overall financial cost of ransomware difficult.

Experts at Emsisoft estimate that ransomware incidents in 2020 cost as much as $170bn (£123bn) in ransom payments, downtime and disruption.

A firm that has the registered details of more than nine million chipped pets across the UK has been accused of losing its customers’ data.

Petlog is requesting that all users create a new account, but is not explaining why they need to do so.

One dog owner told the BBC he had logged on and received the details of someone else with the same name, including a phone number and address.

Petlog told the BBC pet information was safe.

In a statement the firm said: “We reassure all customers that their pets are safely on our microchip database.

“There are some customers who may be unable to immediately view their pets’ details when they set up their new online account, but this is because we are committed to protecting their data, and we want to verify details, in some cases, before we continue the online set up process.

“This is no way affects the reunification process, in the event of a pet going missing and the data is still safely on our microchipping database, which can be accessed 24/7 by our authorised network.”

David Plant contacted the BBC after he saw messages on a Facebook group suggesting that Petlog had lost customer data and needed everyone to re-register.

He went on the website and typed his name in – but instead of being matched to his springer spaniel, Sally, he was provided with the details of another man with the same name, and his dog, Max. The details included the address and mobile phone number.

“This seems like a massive breach of GDPR (data-protection regulations),” Mr Plant told the BBC. “In theory I could register his dog to my address and claim him as mine.”

He said numerous messages and calls to Petlog had gone unanswered.

Another said the situation was creating “chaos for pet owners”.

“Probably thousands of pets with microchips inserted are no longer registered, leaving owners unable to be reunited with stolen or lost pets and are completely unaware of this,” Chris Boston told the BBC.

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Professor of law at Newcastle University, Lilian Edwards, believes what has happened represents a breach of GDPR rules that should have been reported to the information commissioner’s office (ICO).

“It sounds like a massive database issue and [it] obviously contained personal data, so it is a breach and they should have notified the Information Commissioner’s Office within three days,” she said.

“They are not handling it very well and that is surprising because people are very attached to their pets.”

The ICO said it had no record of such a breach, although it said that not all such incidents needed to be reported.

Petlog said that it had found no evidence of a GDPR breach.

One BBC reporter checked the details of their cat, Smudge, on the database and was unable to re-register its chip.

The site said: “Your pet’s details have not been lost. We just need to clean up some of your data first.”

The Petlog website added: “Our online services and website have been upgraded to ensure the database is secure. All data has been safely and securely migrated. As you may not have added your details to the database in the first instance, some of our security questions may not immediately match.”

Missing dogs
In the FAQ section, Petlog explained that for some customers with new details, such as a different email address, the process would take longer.

“Customers can fill in the ‘can’t see my pet’ form within their online account so the system can match their record and their new details with their pet’s record,” it said.

The firm added: “We understand this might be concerning, but we can give our reassurance that all pets are still safely on our microchip database and in the event of a pet going missing, reunification [sic] won’t be affected.”

But on its Facebook page, people disputed this.

“Two dogs found on M6 and couldn’t have their microchips details passed on as they weren’t on the system,” wrote one.

Many others said they had had difficulties re-registering, with some saying they no longer had a record of their pet’s chip ID.

“This is a complete and utter disgrace,” wrote one customer on Petlog’s Facebook group, asking why she had found out about the issues on social media.

“Petlog should have immediately contacted all customers directly to speed up correction of this dire cock-up.”

Kate Bevan, editor of Which? Computing magazine and a cat owner, said: “It’s concerning to discover that Petlog has apparently failed to keep track of the personal information of its customers and of the details of their beloved pets.

“All organisations are required by law to protect user information. Petlog must resolve the problems as a matter of urgency.”

Pet theft soars
Twitter account Missing Pets GB urged all owners to check their accounts immediately.

Petlog is managed by the UK Kennel Club, which in January issued a statement apologising for issues arising from the “implementation of our new database”.

At the time, chief executive Mark Beazley blamed the switchover to a new system for a range of problems and delays that customers were experiencing.

“I give you my assurance that we will resolve the remaining customer-service issues and offer further online improvements,” he said at the time.

Pet ownership has rocketed during the Covid pandemic, with UK households buying 3.2 million pets since it began, according to the Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association.

Pet theft has also increased during lockdowns, prompting campaigners to urge the government to introduce tougher penalties for the crime.

Phone companies must do more to stop fraudsters who spoof phone numbers to trap victims. one of the UK’s top law enforcement officers has said.

Graeme Biggar, director general of the National Crime Agency’s National Economic Crime Centre, says the UK needs “a step change in our response” to fraud.

It costs the economy up to £190bn each year.

Phone companies say they are committed to taking action over nuisance calls.

Mr Biggar says there has been an “explosion” in the number of criminals spoofing phone numbers in the past 12 months.

“Phone companies have been used for fraud since they’ve been invented and it’s a constant arms race to stop vulnerabilities and then stop them.

“With HMRC scams alone, more than 2,700 numbers have been taken out of circulation after they’ve been reported, but there is definitely a lot more that the phone companies need to do and can do.”

His comments are backed up by a recent report from industry body UK Finance, which suggests the number of reported cases of impersonation fraud – including spoof calls – last year nearly doubled to 40,000.

However, the real figure is likely to be much higher, because many victims won’t report fraud to their bank or building society, or even tell their family or friends, because of feelings of embarrassment or guilt.

Earlier this year, the level of fraud in the UK was labelled a “threat to national security”.

What is number spoofing?
The communications watchdog, Ofcom, describes number spoofing as people who deliberately change the telephone number and the name that is relayed as the Caller ID information.

“They do this to either hide their identity or to try to mimic the number of a real company or person who has nothing to do with the real caller,” explains Ofcom on its website.

“For example, identity thieves who want to steal sensitive information such as your bank account or login details, sometimes use spoofing to pretend they’re calling from your bank or credit card company.”

Ope Oladejo, a 21-year-old law student, had nearly £2,000 stolen from her last summer – money she’d been saving whilst working as a carer for help pay for a law course.

“The number spoofing was the most important part [of the deception],” she tells the BBC.

“At first I was a bit sceptical…but they said: ‘Check the number [we’re calling you on] on the back of your card’.

“I checked and it matched and that’s when I let my guard down completely.”

Because the criminals had convinced Ope she was speaking to her bank, they were able to get key details and information from her, which allowed them to steal the money.

Thankfully, the money was refunded by Ope’s bank and she has been able to continue her studies, but she says the incident hit her hard.

“Emotionally it just made me really sad, I just cried a lot about it,” she says.

“Financially I think it made me smarter… I basically ignore any phone calls I’ve not got saved as they might be a spoof.”

The BBC approached Mobile UK, which represents the four big mobile phone companies, as well as BT, for comment.

The mobile operators and BT said they were committed to taking action against nuisance calls and to working with Ofcom and law enforcement bodies to reduce the threat.

They added that they take customers’ security very seriously and advised people to hang up straight away if they are suspicious about any call.

You can hear more on BBC Radio 4’s Money Box programme on Saturday at 12pm on Radio 4 or by listening again here shortly after broadcast.

OneWeb has put up another 36 satellites, taking its in-orbit constellation to 146 spacecraft.

The new platforms were lofted by a Soyuz rocket from Russia’s far east.

The additions will enable engineers to further test the company’s promised system for delivering broadband internet connections from space.

OneWeb is now owned principally by the Indian conglomerate Bharti Global and the UK government after they bought the enterprise out of bankruptcy last year.

The new management anticipates offering a commercial service this autumn to northern latitudes – including Britain, Northern Europe, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and Arctic Seas – with a full global roll-out of connectivity in mid-2022.

“We have what we call ‘five to 50’ (degrees latitude). So, that’s five launches we need to do in order to get to this coverage of basically the south coast of the UK to the North Pole,” explained chief executive Neil Masterson.

“By the end of June we will have completed those launches to enable us to be providing our service. But in total this year, we expect to be doing somewhere between eight and 10 launches,” he told BBC News.

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Mr Masterson, formerly the co-chief operating officer at business information provider Thomson Reuters, was brought into OneWeb when it emerged from “Chapter 11” bankruptcy protection in November.

There has been an intense period of hires, with more than 200 employees joining the books since the autumn.

Supply chains have also had to be re-established, allowing OneWeb Satellites, the joint venture with Airbus, to resume full-volume manufacturing at its factory in Florida.

And all this has required extra funding, of course.

OneWeb announced in January it had raised a further $400m from tech investor Softbank and satellite services specialist Hughes Network Systems. But this still leaves OneWeb short of about $1bn to finish the set-up of its first-generation constellation of 648 satellites.

Those spacecraft also need an array of supporting ground stations dotted around the globe.

“We need one more ground station to fully support commercial service in the areas mentioned by the end of this year,” the chief executive said.

“We know where it’s going to be. Covid makes it a little bit more tricky, but I think we feel confident at this stage, we’ll get it done.”

OneWeb says its testing programme is progressing well, and in a demonstration this month for the US Department of Defense claimed its satellites were providing downlink data rates of up to 500 megabits per second with a delay, or latency, in the internet connections as low as 32 milliseconds.

OneWeb’s chief competitor in the internet mega-constellation business is Starlink, which is being set up by the Californian rocket company SpaceX.

Starlink, which has 1,320 satellites in orbit now after another launch on Wednesday (the architecture of its network requires more satellites than OneWeb) has already begun beta testing with high-latitude customers.

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The two projects are, though, following quite different business models.

OneWeb will be working with partner telecommunications companies to deliver its broadband offering, whereas Starlink will be selling a big chunk of its bandwidth direct to the consumer.

Some way behind both OneWeb and Starlink are Lightspeed and Kuiper.

Lightspeed is the broadband mega-constellation being developed by the long-established Canadian satellite communications company Telesat. This system has only just selected a spacecraft manufacturer in the Franco-Italian aerospace company Thales Alenia Space. The first of Lightspeed’s 298 satellites won’t launch for another two years.

Kuiper is a subsidiary of online retailer Amazon. Like Starlink, the Kuiper constellation will comprise several thousand satellites but details of a launch schedule have not been released.

There are tentative proposals in the EU also for a communications mega-constellation.

In the UK, the government’s purchase of a stake in OneWeb has been controversial, especially with an early suggestion that the constellation could be fashioned into some sort replacement for the EU’s Galileo navigation system which Britain no longer has a stake in after Brexit.

It was confirmed this week that OneWeb has answered the Request for Information now being run in government to find solutions to the country’s needs for precise Positioning, Navigation and Timing, or PNT.

But this is likely, certainly in the short term, to take the form of resilience support. In other words, using OneWeb to bolster the signals coming from Galileo and its American counterpart, GPS.

Mr Masterson says his team are thinking about the services they could offer in the future, especially when OneWeb introduces a second generation of spacecraft – the manufacture of which will have a lot more British involvement.

Carissa Christensen, the chief executive of consultancy Bryce Space and Technology, discussed OneWeb on a recent edition of the BBC’s Bottom Line business programme.

She said: “The UK has targeted space as a driver of economic growth. OneWeb is in a very exclusive club with regard to space capabilities and space activities, and so for me there’s some alignment in that decision to become an investor in OneWeb with that vision of space driving a post-Brexit UK economic boom.

“I don’t want to overstate that as saying, ‘clearly that’s going to work’. But it’s taking on an opportunity and it’s a bold decision.”

Criminals and paedophiles are trying to groom and exploit young siblings as part of an emerging trend of online sexual abuse, experts have warned.

The Internet Watch Foundation said victims ranged from 3-16 years, with some groomed to copy adult pornography.

It found 511 examples involving siblings between September and December – roughly one in 30 instances of all “self-generated content” in that time.

Campaigners say livestreaming services need to do more to protect children.

The IWF, which works with police and websites worldwide to take down harmful material, said the Covid-19 pandemic had been a “perfect storm” for the abuse.

Its chief executive, Susie Hargreaves, said there had been:

a greater demand for abusive content
an increase in the amount of time spent online by children
a rise in the use of livestreaming platforms
There was a “common myth” abuse involving siblings was limited to poorer countries – but most of the videos the IWF found featured children in the West, including from the UK, US and across Europe.

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Grooming often begins on social-media and gaming platforms, before offenders encourage children on to video-chat or livestreaming services where the abuse then escalates.

And abuse of siblings typically involves an older child being coerced into abusing their younger brother or sister.

One video, shared online multiple times, involved a brother and sister aged six and three being given instructions by an abuser, the IWF said.

‘Heinous offenders’
Last December, the government set out its proposed Online Harms Bill, designed to ensure companies provide improved safeguarding measures.

It plans to give watchdog Ofcom the power to:

block access to online services that fail to protect users
fine technology companies
The proposals contained the “strongest protections” for children, Safeguarding Minister Victoria Atkins told BBC News.

“Encouraging siblings to enact sexual abuse demonstrates just how heinous offenders are in this space,” she added.

NSPCC online-safety-policy head Andy Burrows said it could be a “world-leading piece of legislation” but must follow through with its promise to give Ofcom “teeth” to step in and take action.

In the past year, in the race to bring video-chat and livestreaming services to market, some technology companies had prioritised profit over making their platforms safe, the charity said.

And Mr Burrows raised particular concerns over Facebook’s plans to introduce end-to-end encryption – a way of sending information so only the intended receiver can read it – across all of its messenger services.

‘Anti-abuse measures’
Plans to include it in its video-chat service, Rooms, launched in May, would “significantly compromise the ability to detect child abuse”, he said.

The National Crime Agency said the changes would “dramatically reduce [Facebook’s] ability to provide law-enforcement with the evidence they need” to prosecute alleged offenders.

Facebook said the rollout of end-to-end encryption was “a long-term project”, adding: “We are committed to building strong anti-abuse measures into our plans.

“Facebook will continue to lead the industry in developing new ways to prevent, detect and respond to abuse.”

For information and support for those affected, visit the BBC’s Action Line.

Supermarkets can sell non-essential items and garden centres can open in Wales from Monday in a further slight easing of Covid lockdown rules.

Shops that have already been open, but had non-essential aisles cordoned off, can now sell anything, but shops that only sell non-essential items will remain closed until 12 April.

Garden centres will open their doors to customers for the first time since lockdown began in December.

Shops must have strict Covid protocols.

They are the latest restrictions to be lifted as Wales’ coronavirus case rate has fallen below 50 per 100,000 people and the national Covid positivity rate is below 5% – both under the lockdown threshold.

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All primary and some secondary school children have returned to the classroom while four people from two different households can now meet outdoors, including in gardens, as the stay-at-home rule was relaxed to a stay local one.

First Minister Mark Drakeford and the Welsh government have also said more industries could be reopened or considered for reopening if Covid cases rates and test positivity rates remained low.

What restrictions could be lifted?
From 27 March, if case rates remain low:

Libraries and self-contained accommodation could reopen, but you can only holiday with people from your own household
Organised children’s activities could restart
Stay local restrictions could be lifted
From 12 April, if case rates remain low:

All shops and remaining close-contact services could resume
On 22 April

Ministers will consider when gyms and outdoor hospitality in Wales can reopen in its lockdown review

After hairdressers reopened for appointments last week, the reopening of non-essential aisles in supermarkets and garden centres welcoming customers is Wales’ latest step towards reopening after being shut for three months.

‘Gardening important for mental health’
Justin Williams is looking forward to opening Fron Goch Garden Centre near Caernarfon and believes services like his can help people’s wellbeing.

“Gardening is important for mental health,” he said.

“It’s important to have an outside or inside space for growing plants or vegetables. It’s something to do with the kids but also something for people of any age to get involved with. It also encourages people to stay home and be safe.”

Garden centre bosses across Wales have been frustrated being shut while centres in England have remained open.

“We were frustrated this hadn’t been recognised in Wales like in England but are happy that’s changing now,” Mr Williams added.

“There’s been a lot of interest in us opening. People have been quite lonely without much support, it will be good to get people out and see guests in the garden.”

What about non-essential retail?
Many non-essential retailers thought they would be allowed to open when hairdressers did on 15 March, but were “frustrated and disappointed” they could not open until English non-essential retailers did on 12 April.

Welsh ministers said the move to allow supermarkets to start selling non-essential items again while other shops remain shut was seen as “the least risky” Covid rules relaxation as supermarkets were already open.

The Welsh Retail Consortium previously said the industry was losing £100m in revenue every week while non-essential shops such as clothes outlets and bookshops were shut.

Chepstow Bookshop in Monmouthshire will not be able to open next week while the supermarket and high street newsagents nearby will be allowed to sell non-essentials items such as books.

“I can understand why the Welsh government has done it,” said Matt Taylor, who has owned the 40-year-old book store for 15 years.

“It’s great we’ve been on a level playing field for so long, although there are a few frustrations.”

Mr Taylor’s shop, which has been shut for six of the past 12 months, offers click and collect and home delivery home but he estimates trade is “two-thirds” of what it was the previous year while “working twice as hard”.

“The thing people seem to miss the most about coming into independent shops like ours is customers not knowing what they want, it’s that browsing experience. And in this pandemic, books have given people a refuge or an escape from it all.”

Monmouthshire has the third-lowest Covid case rate of Wales’ 22 local authorities – behind Ceredigion and Bridgend – and Leeann Davies, who owns Village Treats in Magor, was “gutted” her sweet shop didn’t open at the same time as hairdressers.

“It seems like along with the pubs and restaurants, we’re the only ones not open,” she said.

“Some of these supermarkets are getting record profits as they’ve no competition whereas even when we’re open, we don’t have the amount of customers they do – and we have strict Covid procedures.

“But I understand we’re non-essential and you can’t differentiate between my little shop and a big store in a city centre.”Mr Davies said her her business would not have survived the coronavirus crisis without government support – but does have hope for the future.

“After the first lockdown and, as so many people are working from home, we were the busiest we’d ever been,” she said.

“Communities have really got behind supporting local businesses and if more people continue to work from home after the pandemic, maybe local shops like ours may have a really encouraging futures.”

BT has said it will “build like fury” to roll out full-fibre internet connections after new rules announced by the UK’s telecoms regulator.

Ofcom has decided not to impose price caps on full-fibre connections provided by the firm’s Openreach subsidiary.

This gives the company the certainty it had been looking for ahead of a planned £12bn investment.

However, the decision lays Ofcom open to criticism that is has given a near-monopoly operator a generous deal.

That could mean more expensive internet connections for the public than might have been the case.

Ofcom also froze the price curbs it levels on what Openreach charges internet service providers for its slower copper-based connections.

‘Ramp up’
Openreach lays down and maintains the fibre-optic cables involved as well as operating the associated telephone exchanges, and then sells use of these services to individual internet service providers. They in turn sell access to the public.

The business has said it can now confirm a plan to build fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) connections to 20 million homes and offices by the mid- to late-2020s.

“Today’s regulation will allow us to ramp up to three million premises per year providing vital next generation connectivity for homes and business right across the UK,” said Openreach’s chief executive Clive Selley.

Ofcom’s chief executive denied its move would harm consumers.

“It’s true we certainly want to make sure that BT can have a fair bet on this investment, but at the core of our approach is that we are trying to get competition into the wholesale network layer, of broadband for the future, really for the first time in quite a new way,” Dame Melanie Dawes told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme.

“And the reason we believe in competition is we actually think that’s best for the consumer. It gives us all more options to choose from, not just on pricing but also on service quality and reliability.”

Unregulated fees
As part of the measures, Ofcom will effectively freeze the wholesale fees Openreach charges for providing “superfast” data speeds of up to 40 megabits per second, which rely on copper links via fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) or older technologies.

The watchdog had previously forced these to fall by about 20% over recent years.

The price Openreach charges for faster and more reliable FTTP connections will remain unregulated.

There is, however, one new restriction.

Openreach will not be allowed to offer geographic discounts on its full-fibre wholesale services. A similar limitation already existed on its provision of “superfast” links.

And Ofcom has said it will review all long-term discount arrangements offered by Openreach to its clients, and will intervene if necessary to prevent the firm from stifling investment by rivals.

It said it believed its approach should mean about 70% of the UK would still end up with a choice of networks.

Virgin Media, CityFibre and Hyperoptic are among alternative providers.

Their ability to profit from building rival networks would have come under pressure if they had been required to match new full-fibre price caps imposed on Openreach.

“Rolling out infrastructure is a costly and time-consuming venture, that comes with a long pay-back on investment,” commented Kester Mann, an analyst at the tech consultancy CCS Insight.

“This is particularly true in less-densely populated areas where the economics may be considerably less appealing.

“As such, Openreach needed certainty that it would be able to make a sufficient return on investment before embarking on the next stages of roll-out.”

Copper switch-off
Openreach will also be allowed to turn off copper-based networks in areas where faster full-fibre internet connections to properties have already been deployed.

This should help reduce its costs by removing the need to maintain two different systems in parallel.

Ofcom said this would also help promote take-up of faster fibre services.

However, it indicated that any such switch off must be done “progressively… over a number of years”.

And it added that customers would be “protected” during the transition to ensure they would continue to have access to the net.

Ofcom had to walk a difficult line with this review.

If it set regulation too tight by capping wholesale prices at a low level, the risk was that BT and its fibre network rivals would be reluctant to invest the billions needed to roll out ultrafast broadband.

If it loosened the reins it would be accused of going soft on BT, sparking anger from the likes of Sky, which use the Openreach network and would have to pass on the higher prices to their retail customers.

By opting to impose no price controls on BT’s fibre product for a decade, Ofcom has chosen the second option, insisting that it is the only way to spark the frenzy of competitive network building needed to move the UK up into the broadband fast lane.

What this review does not do is ensure ultrafast connections reach the 20% of the country where BT and its rivals still don’t believe they can make a commercial return.

The broadband industry is waiting impatiently to hear how the government plans to spend the £1.5bn of public money it has promised by 2025 to spur investment in rural fibre coverage. An announcement on that is expected imminently.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is looking to strip three Chinese telecom firms of their US operating licenses.

China Unicom Americas, Pacific Networks and ComNet had failed to explain their links to Beijing, the FCC said.

The US communications watchdog has long argued those links could pose a national security risk.

The move signals that US president Joe Biden is likely continue Donald Trump’s tough approach on Chinese tech firms.

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Expelled from US
The FCC voted unanimously on Wednesday to revoke the licenses of the three companies, a move that could see them expelled from the US market.

The companies were asked in April last year to address concerns over the their links to the Chinese government, which the FCC claimed could leave them vulnerable to its “exploitation, influence, and control”.

But while the companies have tried to address the FCC’s concerns, it has not accepted their explanations.

“The threat to our networks from entities aligned with Communist China is one that we must address head on, and I am pleased that the FCC continues to show the strength and resolve necessary to meet this menace,” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said in a statement.

China Unicom is a unit of one China’s three major telecommunications networks.

Pacific Networks resells international voice and data services to US operators, while its subsidiary ComNet provides a variety of mobile services, including SIM cards and international calling cards.

The FCC granted approvals for the three companies to operate in the US more than a decade ago, when there was less concern in the US about Chinese technology companies.

More scrutiny
Separately, the Commerce Department said it had served subpoenas on multiple Chinese firms which operate in the US, to see if they pose a national security risk.

The move followed a Trump-era executive order, which sought to secure telecommunications and technology supply chain.

The subpoenas will gather information to “allow us to make a determination for possible action that best protects the security of American companies, American workers, and US national security,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

“Beijing has engaged in conduct that blunts our technological edge and threatens our alliances,” she added.

The department did not name any companies.

Space projects are the latest international scientific collaborations to lose funding because of the cut in UK overseas aid.

Ten initiatives that would have used space data to tackle developing-world problems, such as human trafficking and flood vulnerability, have had their support cancelled.

Ministers are dropping the commitment to spend 0.7% of GNI on foreign aid.

The result of Covid financial pressure, the move is supposed to be temporary.

But for the affected projects, it has left them scrambling to find alternative financing in an attempt to keep their ideas alive.

The projects all fall under the UK Space Agency’s award-winning International Partnership Programme (IPP).

The IPP has grant-funded 43 projects in 47 countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America since its launch in 2016 – and is acknowledged by independent assessment to have had high impact. Annual spend has been about £20m.

But no new collaborations will receive support in 2021/22.

The 10 projects that received initial, or “discovery”, funding last August have been told they won’t now get the cash to move to the “delivery phase”.

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Dr Andrea Berardi, from the Open University, described the decision as “sad”, “embarrassing”, and “frankly baffling” given the relatively small sums involved.

His DETECT team is using satellite radar data to find areas of water that are potential breeding zones for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Drones would investigate these pools of standing water and deliver a safe biocontrol agent.

“I think we would have revolutionised mosquito vector control in hard to reach areas, especially like the Amazon region where basically all other control methods have completely failed,” Dr Berardi told BBC News.

“We made promises to governments in three countries – Guyana, Vietnam and Sri Lanka – that we would be offering the solution to them with UK government support. This is incredibly damaging to the reputation of the UK.”

Earth observation consultant Dr Geoff Smith has been working on the University of Nottingham-led SAtellite SArgassum Monitoring System (SASAMS).

This would use spacecraft imagery to find problematic seaweed invasions along Mexico’s Caribbean coast. Large quantities of sargassum can disrupt the local ecosystem by smothering seagrasses and corals, and the fish that live among them; and will damage tourism because people don’t want to visit blighted beaches.

“SASAMS would allow people to plan better, by seeing the seaweed a few kilometres offshore. They’d know where to put booms out to try to collect it before it reached the beaches. It’s a solution that could be used all around the Caribbean,” Dr Smith explained.

“We’d developed the technology, engaged with stakeholders and were looking forward to seeing the operational phase – and then we got a letter to say it wasn’t going to happen.”

What has puzzled IPP teams is the emphasis put on their type of international engagement in Tuesday’s Integrated Review, which set out new foreign policy objectives for a post-Brexit Britain.

The overseas development assistance (ODA) approach was praised in the document, which led Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, to comment: “There’s a growing gulf between rhetoric and reality in the government support for science. The Integrated Review is full of fantastic and achievable ambitions, but the words are meaningless if they’re not backed up with funding.”

The UK Space Agency disperses the funds it receives from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. A BEIS spokesperson told BBC News: “The UK remains a world-leading aid donor. We will spend more than £10bn this year to address poverty, tackle climate change, fight Covid and improve global health.

“We are working with our delivery partners, including the UK Space Agency, to implement the new settlement for 2021/22 and protect the most effective research programmes.”

Ministers intend to set out their broader R&D plans shortly. They have promised to raise investment significantly, to reach 2.4% of national productivity by 2027.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said the decision to cut overseas aid from 0.7% of UK Gross National Income (GNI) to 0.5% will be reversed when the fiscal situation allows. He told MPs the amount spent on aid even after the cut was “extraordinary”.

The UK’s national research funding agency, UKRI, informed scientists last week by letter that there would be a £120m shortfall for the projects it supports through the international aid budget.

UK Space Agency IPP projects already in the delivery phase will receive their expected funding this year.

Google plans to reduce the fees it charges to feature Android apps within its Play store.

From 1 July, it will take a 15% cut from the first $1m (£720,000) in sales each year of the apps and any digital goods and services sold within them, rather than its current 30% commission.

It follows a similar step announced by Apple in November.

Regulators are investigating both of the big tech companies following claims of anti-competitive practices.

The situation for Google is slightly different in that it allows rival app stores to work on its mobile platform, and also makes it easier to install software by other means.

However, the fact that the Play store remains most Android phones’ default option may be judged to give it an unfair advantage.

Games developer Epic is among those to have argued that both Apple and Google charge “exorbitant” fees.

Bigger payouts
In a blog, Google’s vice president of product management defended its charges on the grounds that the company provided marketing tools and other resources to help developers succeed.

But Sameer Samat acknowledged taking developers’ “input into account” over the matter.

The firm said 99% of global Android developers did not earn over $1m a year, so would benefit from a 50% reduction in fees.

Those that do earn more should find the scheme to be more generous than Apple’s, it added.

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Google’s 15% rate will apply to the first $1m of sales a developer makes each year regardless of their total earnings, with the remainder subject to the 30% fee.

By contrast, Apple only offers a 15% rate if a developer’s net sales fall below $1m. As soon as they surpass that limit, all earnings are subject to the higher charge.

Apple issued the latest defence of its own practices on Monday, when it said more than 330,000 jobs in the UK alone were supported by its App Store.It’s a fast-growing industry, key to the infrastructure of the digital economy – and dominated by two giants which control access and prices.

In any other business than mobile apps – say electricity or communications networks – you would expect such a duopoly to be subject to strict regulation.

But until recently Google and Apple have felt free to do what they want.

Now they have had to respond to pressure from developers for a better deal – though it’s doubtful if they’d have acted if regulators, particularly in the EU, had not begun to show an interest.

Google appears to have outbid Apple when it comes to cutting fees for developers. But both companies can easily afford to be more generous.

It’s estimated that mobile app revenues grew by 30% in 2020 – and the tech giants took a healthy slice of that.

Don’t expect the Brussels regulators to step back and say “job done”.