Tag Archive for: Tougher

FIFTY drivers A DAY are being caught using a mobile phone behind the wheel despite tougher penalties

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More than 50 drivers a day are still being caught using their mobiles at the wheel – putting lives at risk.

The number of motorists captured by police has doubled in some areas despite the recent introduction of tougher penalties.

Official figures released by the Home Office show the number of fines issued for using a hand-held device has gone up by 10 per cent across England and Wales in a year.

The statistics show 53 motorists are being caught a day, with 19,655 handed fixed penalty notices last year compared with 17,873 in 2020.

More than 50 drivers a day are still being caught using their mobiles at the wheel – putting lives at risk, Home Office data reveals

 More than 50 drivers a day are still being caught using their mobiles at the wheel – putting lives at risk, Home Office data reveals

VAN DRIVER KILED CYCLIST WHILE SCROLLING ON FACEBOOK

Simon Draper was using his mobile phone when he crashed his van into a cyclist

Simon Draper was using his mobile phone when he crashed his van into a cyclist

A van driver who tried to blame his 18-month-old toddler after killing a cyclist while on the phone was jailed for five years.

Simon Draper was looking at Facebook and Instagram on his mobile moments before ploughing into off-duty police sergeant Lynwen Thomas as she cycled home in Carmarthen, south-west Wales, last February.

Looking at Facebook: Simon Draper

The 42-year-old insisted it was his 13-month-old son who had been on his phone, but he failed to convince jurors at Swansea Crown Court who convicted him of death by dangerous driving in November.

But road safety campaigners fear the figures could be the tip of the iceberg because police had fewer opportunities during the pandemic to catch drivers calling, texting or scrolling at the wheel due to the lockdowns which saw traffic plunge to 50 per cent of normal levels.

In some force areas, there was a dramatic rise in drivers being caught in the year to December 31, 2021, the latest figures available.

Cheshire Police recorded a doubling in penalties from 516 in 2020 to 1,031 drivers penalised last year.

Derbyshire Police also doubled the number of fines handed out from 57 in 2020 to 114 last year.

Scotland Yard caught the largest number of drivers, with 4,196 fined for using their mobiles last year, an 18 per cent rise on the previous year.

More than 1,000 fines were also handed out by officers in West Yorkshire, Cheshire, Greater…

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Being a White-Hat Hacker Just Got Tougher: U.S…

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On October 21, 2021, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), published new export controls on certain cybersecurity items that ban the export or resale of hacking tools to authoritarian regimes, and it created a new license exception for those items. The new regulations aim at tightening export controls on cybersecurity tools, including intrusion software, Internet Protocol (IP) network communications surveillance, and related technology that could be used by threat actors to conduct malicious cyber activities and surveillance. BIS is requesting public comments until December 6, 2021, for potential revision before the interim final rule takes effect on January 19, 2022.

BIS contends that these controls are narrowly drawn, focusing on specific cyber-intrusion and network surveillance equipment, software and technology, and, when combined with the new license exception, that they should have limited impact. The rule adopts cybersecurity controls previously agreed to at the multilateral Wassenaar Arrangement, bringing U.S. controls into alignment with those already adopted by the EU and other jurisdictions. However, network infrastructure manufacturers, cybersecurity software and service providers, IT forensics firms, bug bounty programs, and those engaged in vulnerability testing and research may feel the impact of the rule. Further, exports to national security concern countries such as China and Russia will be highly restricted, and companies dealing with Cypress, Israel and Taiwan will have to navigate new restrictions, notwithstanding those countries’ stronger relationships with the U.S.

This rulemaking provides an opportunity for companies engaged in cybersecurity activities to evaluate whether the controls are indeed narrow enough to exclude their legitimate routine business activities, and to provide comments to BIS on any unintended consequences of these controls.

Background

These new cybersecurity export controls close the loop on a proposed rule, issued by BIS in 2015, to implement multilateral controls agreed to by the Wassenaar Arrangement in 2013. After issuing the proposed rule, BIS received overwhelming feedback from…

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Calls for tougher stance toward Russia grow louder as ransomware attacks rage

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The excruciatingly slow gears of the U.S. government are starting to move with more urgency when it comes to dealing with geopolitical ransomware attacks.

The Colonial Pipeline hack and the ransomware breach of a major food processing facility in recent weeks, coupled with Windows server exploits and the still unfolding saga of an attack on oil company Saudi Aramco, have caught the attention of U.S. government leaders. The question now will be how the U.S. will respond to growing unease over the disruption of global commerce.

“There has been a sea change in the last two or three months in Congress with respect to how seriously policymakers are taking cybersecurity,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-Connecticut), said during a virtual panel discussion hosted by The Wilson Center this week. “Twelve years ago in this institution, if you said cybersecurity, people would look at you quizzically. Colonial Pipeline was different than the other stuff.”

Sheltering attackers

What has changed the dynamic for leaders in Washington and global capitals elsewhere is a growing belief that some nation-states are either behind the attacks or quietly supporting the criminal gangs that perpetrate them. The Colonial Pipeline attack, which disrupted supplies of oil and gas for the eastern half of the U.S. in May, has been attributed to DarkSide, a criminal gang operating out of Russia.

A ransomware attack on the food processing company JBS led to a disruption of meat supplies this summer and the group responsible has been identified as REvil, another Russian criminal group. This month, the Biden administration named the Chinese government as behind a cyberattack on Microsoft Exchange servers that compromised tens of thousands of networks worldwide.

The disruption caused by groups operating inside two large global superpowers has resulted in rising calls for action by U.S. authorities. Himes recently wrote an opinion piece for a Connecticut newspaper calling for the U.S. to “strike back” against cyberattackers.

In his remarks during the Wilson Center event this week, Himes suggested that the government should consider pursuit of wealthy interests inside of Russia. “We really need to establish a…

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Biden will get tougher on Russia and boost election security. Here’s what to expect.

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with Tonya Riley

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President-elect Joe Biden is expected to dramatically shift how the government handles cybersecurity threats when he takes office in January. 

Those changes probably will include a top-level focus on election security after the White House virtually ignored the topic for the past four years and a far tougher stance on Russian hacking and disinformation campaigns than President Trump, who was often unwilling to publicly criticize Russia and President Vladimir Putin. 

“There are members of the Trump administration that prioritized cybersecurity, but Trump never has – and that will be different with Biden,” said Chris Painter, who served as the State Department’s top cybersecurity official during the Obama administration and for the first few months of the Trump administration. Trump frequently misstated basic facts about cybersecurity and seldom mentioned the topic publicly.  

Here are five key cybersecurity priorities for the Biden administration.



a person wearing a suit and tie standing in front of a crowd: President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris address the nation with victory speeches in Wilmington, Del. (Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)

© Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris address the nation with victory speeches in Wilmington, Del. (Photo by Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)

1. Seeking more funding for election security – which Republicans could start seeing as politically beneficial.

Democrats’ effort to deliver billions of dollars to make elections more secure against hacking and safer during the pandemic were stymied during the past four years by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republicans who seemed to fear sparking Trump’s ire. The president seemed to view discussions about election security as delegitimizing his unexpected 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton and later spread unfounded rumors about widespread mail voting fraud. 

Republicans agreed to deliver more than $1 billion for election security and safety during the Trump administration, but that was only about one-fourth of what Democrats sought. 

Trump leaving office could clear the way for a far bigger package to fund a shift to paper ballots in states and counties that still lack them, increased mail voting and more…

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