BATTERYFORPC BLOG
Lapsus$: Oxford teen accused of being multi-millionaire cyber-criminal
A 16-year-old from Oxford has been accused of being one of the leaders of cyber-crime gang Lapsus$. The teenager, who is alleged to have amassed a $14m (£10.6m) fortune from hacking, has been named by rival hackers and researchers. City of London Police say they have arrested seven teenagers in relation to the gang but will not say if he is one. The boy's father told the BBC his family was conc ... Read more
2022-03-24 20:27:00
Ukraine war: Fortnite owner Epic Games raises £37m for humanitarian efforts
Epic Games says it has raised more than $50m (£37m) to aid humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. The Fortnite publisher announced on 21 March it would donate all proceeds from in-game sales, including cosmetic in-game items and virtual currency bought in a shop or online, until 3 April. And Xbox is donating the fee it would usually take on items bought by players in Fortnite. The amount raised so fa ... Read more
2022-03-24 20:26:35
Spotify paid 130 artists more than $5m last year
Spotify has revealed it paid $7bn to music industry rights holders last year, accounting for almost 25% of the industry's total revenues. The news came on the company's Loud And Clear website, which was launched last year with the aim of "increasing transparency" around its payments. The streaming giant said 52,600 artists earned more than $10,000 (£7,500) from Spotify in 2021. Of tho ... Read more
2022-03-24 20:26:02
Hundreds of companies potentially hit by Okta hack
Hundreds of organisations that rely on Okta to provide access to their networks may have been affected by a cyber-attack on the company. Okta said the "worst case" was 366 of its clients had been affected and their "data may have been viewed or acted upon" - its shares fell 9% on the news. It says it has more than 15,000 clients - from big companies, including FedEx, to small ... Read more
2022-03-23 20:48:44
The three Russian cyber-attacks the West most fears
US President Joe Biden has called on private companies and organisations in the US to "lock their digital doors", claiming that intelligence suggests Russia is planning a cyber-attack on the US. The UK's cyber-authorities are also supporting the White House's calls for "increased cyber-security precautions", though neither has given any evidence that Russia is planning a cyber ... Read more
2022-03-23 20:48:24
Ukraine: How crowdsourcing is rescuing people from the war zone
Finding a safe route out of Ukraine is not easy. One challenge facing those looking to escape is to find one that is not under heavy bombardment from Russian forces. The UN says more than three million people have have now fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion just over three weeks ago. So how do people actually find safe passage out of the country? One way is via transport arranged ... Read more
2022-03-22 20:03:18
Scottish mental health charity SAMH targeted in cyber attack
A Scottish mental health charity says it has been the victim of a "sophisticated and criminal" cyber attack. Police are investigating the incident which has affected emails and phone lines at SAMH, the Scottish Association for Mental Health. Charity chief executive Billy Watson said staff were devastated by the attack. He said they were trying to keep support services running. " ... Read more
2022-03-22 20:02:43
Multiple Apple services suffer outages
A number of Apple services experienced outages on Monday, Apple's support page has confirmed. The areas affected included the App Store, iMessage, Maps, Apple Arcade, the iTunes store, podcasts and Apple TV+. Apple's system status page now shows that all of its services are back up and running. Some of Apple's network was down for three hours. A number of iCloud services had been affected, inc ... Read more
2022-03-21 19:54:16
OneWeb to fly on competitor SpaceX's rockets
The London-based satellite company OneWeb will resume launches of its spacecraft using rockets operated by its American competitor, SpaceX Both firms are building constellations in the sky to deliver broadband internet connections. But while SpaceX can send up its Starlink system using its own rockets, OneWeb was left looking for rides when the Ukraine war forced it to abandon the use of Russian ... Read more
2022-03-21 19:53:59
Biden: Russia 'exploring' US cyber-attacks
President Joe Biden said on Monday that intelligence indicated a growing Russian cyber threat to the US. He said Russia was "exploring" cyber attack, but the US would use "every tool" to prevent and respond to such a move. Mr Biden suggested Moscow could act in retaliation for sanctions imposed on it after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia's foreign ministry has said bila ... Read more
2022-03-21 19:53:24