A rise in cyberattacks poses a vital risk to India’s economic ambitions, with industries from manufacturing to pharmaceuticals

Hostile states are using organised crime gangs to carry out illegal activity in the UK, the head of the National Crime Agency has warned. NCA director-general Graeme Biggar highlighted “the emerging links between serious and organised crime and hostile states” in a speech outlining the agency’s annual assessment of crime threats to Britain. Speaking in Westminster, central London, on Monday, he said: “North Korea has for some time used cybercrime to steal funds and more recently cryptocurrency. “The Russian state has long tolerated and occasionally tasked the cybercrime groups on its territory, and had links with its oligarchs and their enablers. “And over the last year we have seen hostile states beginning to use organised crime groups – not always of the same nationality – as proxies. “It is a development we and our colleagues in MI5 and CT (counter-terrorism) policing are watching closely.” Mr Biggar said the biggest group of offenders in the UK is those who pose a sexual threat to children, estimated to be between 680,000 and 830,000 people – around 10 times the prison population. He warned that the availability of abuse images online has a radicalising effect by normalising paedophiles’ behaviour, and that viewing images, whether real or AI-generated, increases the risk of someone going on to abuse a child themselves. There are around 59,000 people involved in serious organised crime in the UK, with around £12 billion generated by criminal activities each year, and around £100 billion of dirty cash from across the globe laundered through the UK. Key threats to the UK include: – Criminals exploiting migrants travelling to the UK in small boats. The number of arrivals doubled to more than 45,000 in 2022, with gangs using “bigger, flimsier, single-use boats” and packing more people on to each craft, Mr Biggar said. – Illegal drug use that fuels a raft of other crimes including violence, theft, use of guns and modern slavery. Nearly 120 tonnes of cocaine and 40 tonnes of heroin are consumed in the UK every year, and NCA analysis of waste water suggests cocaine use is increasing by 25% in some areas. The agency wants to stop the use of synthetic opioids like fentanyl getting a hold here as they have done in the US. – Online fraud, which accounts for more than 40% of all crime. Mr Biggar said: “We assess that 75% of fraud is partially or fully committed from overseas. Generative AI is also being used to make frauds more believable, through the use of ever better deep fake videos and Chat GPT to write more compelling phishing emails.” Mr Biggar said developments in technology such as increased use of end-to-end encryption are making the agency’s work harder. He finished his speech by saying: “Law enforcement, including the NCA, needs to do more to be at the leading edge of new technology: this will require collective vision and sustained investment. “And, secondly, we need more effective strategic partnership from technology companies. “This is about responsible behaviour about designing public safety into their products alongside privacy, so that we all reap the benefits from technology, rather than suffering their consequences.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Kim Kardashian, Rylan Clark and Dalai Lama among those joining new app Threads Mastercard helping banks predict scams before money leaves customers’ accounts Art historian helps build new Assassin’s Creed game after son’s suggestion

Sometimes it seems like golf fans are treated harshly. There are a lot of competitions

You might want to start leaving your door open at night, if new advice from sleep experts is anything to go by. New guidance might just change people’s choices when it comes to sleeping habits as we approach the warmer summer weather. While purchasing a fan is recommended for keeping cool when it comes to hotter temperatures, opening doors can do a lot when it comes to air circulation at night. “Surprisingly, only 60 per cent of adults sleep with their door closed meaning that 40 per cent sleep with their door open,” says Rex Isap, CEO and sleep expert at Happy Beds. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Explaining the implications of leaving doors open, Isep added [via Ideal Home]: “Firstly, a study found that those who slept with the bedroom door open reported a better and longer night’s sleep than those who slept with the door close. The reasoning behind this is that leaving the door open helped regulate the temperature in the room by making the temperature slightly lower, averaging 19 degrees Celsius.” Isap added: “Given that between 18 and 20 degrees Celsius is the ideal bedroom temperature, this naturally makes it easier for a person to fall asleep. It also makes it the ideal thing for a person to do if they suffer from night sweats, are going through menopause, or are generally overheating from the hot weather.” It’s not just a case of improving air flow and better maintaining temperatures either, as Sammy Margo at Dreams claims that leaving doors open also connects sleepers with the rest of their house and improves natural light in the mornings. Margo said: “Sleeping with an open door can also create a sense of openness and connection to the rest of your living space. It can alleviate feelings of isolation or confinement and promote a more positive and harmonious atmosphere in your home. It also opens the bedroom up to natural light from other areas of the house which can help in the morning!” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

MIT has created a robot arm that grips based on reflex and can adapt in

The UK’s antitrust agency has agreed with Microsoft Corp. and Activision Blizzard Inc. to pause its ongoing London

The remnants of Tropical Storm Hilary pummeled California with flooding rains on Monday, disrupting flights and knocking out

LOUISVILLE, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 8, 2023--

Black holes are the most confusing things out there in the universe and no-one really knows what they are – at least, that’s our very basic grasp of it. Now, though, a new study has posited a theory that black holes are structures created by unseen cosmic dimensions - or topological stars. And just to make it a little more confusing, these topological stars exist purely in the hypothetical realms of mathematics. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have been exploring string theory, which posits that particles in the universe are actually tied to extra (hidden) dimensions through vibrating strings. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter According to their findings, hypothetical topological stars could exist for real in the universe and they’re essentially formations of nothing which could appear in space. The study finds that topological stars would appear “remarkably similar to black holes in apparent size and scattering properties, while being smooth and horizonless”. The study, which was published in Physical Review D, found that these stars which until now have only existed in hypothetical form, look an awful lot like the black holes out in the universe. “String theory is a theory that reconciles quantum physics and gravity into a quantum gravity theory,” study leader Pierre Heidmann said. Speaking to Motherboard, he said: “Usually when you have a new theory like that, you have new degrees of freedom that come with it, and you can try to see what new fundamental objects can arise from that.” Co-author of the study Ibrahima Bah added: “It’s an interesting question to ask: Are there things other than a black hole [that] will give you a hint about what new physics could look like?” “But before you get there, you need to know how to tell whether you have a black hole or not, and to do that you have some prototype examples of things that are not black holes to be able to compare." As ever, black holes remain the most mysterious, and the most fascinating things out there. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

(Reuters) -Audio-streaming platform Spotify Technology plans to raise the price of its ad-free premium monthly plan by $1 in the

‘Pac-Man 99’ has been removed from Nintendo Switch Online after the company confirmed that it intended to take down the game earlier this year.

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