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Vesper Healthcare Acquisition (OTCMKTS:VSPRU) Stock Price Down 2.2% – Should You Sell?WASHINGTON — A top White House official said Wednesday at least eight U.S. telecom firms and dozens of nations were impacted by a Chinese hacking campaign. Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger offered new details about the breadth of the sprawling Chinese hacking campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. FILE - The American and Chinese flags wave at Genting Snow Park ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Zhangjiakou, China, on Feb. 2, 2022. A top White House official on Wednesday said at least eight U.S. telecom firms and dozens of nations have been impacted by a Chinese hacking campaign. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File) Neuberger divulged the scope of the hack a day after the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued guidance intended to help root out the hackers and prevent similar cyberespionage in the future. White House officials cautioned that the number of telecommunication firms and countries impacted could grow. The U.S. believes the hackers were able to gain access to communications of senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures through the hack, Neuberger said. “We don’t believe any classified communications has been compromised,” Neuberger added during a call with reporters. She added that Biden was briefed on the findings and the White House “made it a priority for the federal government to do everything it can to get to the bottom this.” US officials recommend encrypted messaging apps amid "Salt Typhoon" cyberattack, attributed to China, targeting AT&T, Verizon, and others. The Chinese embassy in Washington rejected the accusations that it was responsible for the hack Tuesday after the U.S. federal authorities issued new guidance. “The U.S. needs to stop its own cyberattacks against other countries and refrain from using cyber security to smear and slander China,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said. The embassy did not immediately respond to messages Wednesday. White House officials believe the hacking was regionally targeted and the focus was on very senior government officials. Federal authorities confirmed in October that hackers linked to China targeted the phones of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, along with people associated with Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. The number of countries impacted by the hack is currently believed to be in the “low, couple dozen,” according to a senior administration official. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the White House, said they believed the hacks started at least a year or two ago. The suggestions for telecom companies released Tuesday are largely technical in nature, urging encryption, centralization and consistent monitoring to deter cyber intrusions. If implemented, the security precautions could help disrupt the operation, dubbed Salt Typhoon, and make it harder for China or any other nation to mount a similar attack in the future, experts say. Trump's pick to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation Kash Patel was allegedly the target of cyberattack attempt by Iranian-backed hackers. Neuberger pointed to efforts made to beef up cybersecurity in the rail, aviation, energy and other sectors following the May 2021 ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline . “So, to prevent ongoing Salt Typhoon type intrusions by China, we believe we need to apply a similar minimum cybersecurity practice,” Neuberger said. The cyberattack by a gang of criminal hackers on the critical U.S. pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel used along the Eastern Seaboard, sent ripple effects across the economy, highlighting cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the nation’s aging energy infrastructure. Colonial confirmed it paid $4.4 million to the gang of hackers who broke into its computer systems as it scrambled to get the nation's fuel pipeline back online. Picture this: You're on vacation in a city abroad, exploring museums, tasting the local cuisine, and people-watching at cafés. Everything is going perfectly until you get a series of alerts on your phone. Someone is making fraudulent charges using your credit card, sending you into a panic. How could this have happened? Cyberattacks targeting travelers are nothing new. But as travel has increased in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, so has the volume of hackers and cybercriminals preying upon tourists. Financial fraud is the most common form of cybercrime experienced by travelers, but surveillance via public Wi-Fi networks, social media hacking, and phishing scams are also common, according to a survey by ExpressVPN . Spokeo consulted cybersecurity sources and travel guides to determine some of the best ways to protect your phone while traveling, from using a VPN to managing secure passwords. Online attacks are not the only type of crime impacting travelers—physical theft of phones is also a threat. Phones have become such invaluable travel aids, housing our navigation tools, digital wallets, itineraries, and contacts, that having your phone stolen, lost, or compromised while abroad can be devastating. Meanwhile, traveling can make people uniquely vulnerable to both cyber and physical attacks due to common pitfalls like oversharing on social media and letting your guard down when it comes to taking risks online. Luckily, there are numerous precautions travelers can take to safeguard against cyberattacks and phone theft. Hackers can—and do—target public Wi-Fi networks at cafés and hotels to gain access to your personal information or install malware onto your device, particularly on unsecured networks. Travelers are especially vulnerable to these types of cybersecurity breaches because they are often more reliant on public Wi-Fi than they would be in their home countries where they have more robust phone plans. This reliance on public, unsecured networks means travelers are more likely to use those networks to perform sensitive tasks like financial transfers, meaning hackers can easily gain access to banking information or other passwords. One easy way to safeguard yourself against these breaches is to use a virtual private network, or VPN, while traveling. VPNs are apps that encrypt your data and hide your location, preventing hackers from accessing personal information. An added bonus is that VPNs allow you to access websites that may be blocked or unavailable in the country you are visiting. To use a VPN, simply download a VPN app on your phone or computer, create an account, choose a server, and connect. Pickpockets, scammers, and flagrant, snatch-your-phone-right-out-of-your-hand thieves can be found pretty much everywhere. In London, for instance, a staggering 91,000 phones were reported stolen to police in 2022 , breaking down to an average of 248 per day, according to the BBC. Whether you're visiting a crowded tourist attraction or just want peace of mind, travel experts advise taking precautions to make sure your phone isn't physically stolen or compromised while traveling. There are several antitheft options to choose from. If you want a bag that will protect your phone from theft, experts recommend looking for features like slash-resistant fabric, reinforced shoulder straps, hidden zippers that can be locked, and secure attachment points, like a cross-body strap or a sturdy clip. For tethers, look for those made of tear-resistant material with a reinforced clip or ring. In order for the previous tip on this list to work, "Find My Phone" must be turned on in advance, but remotely wiping your device isn't the only thing this feature allows you to do. The "Find My Phone" feature enables you to track your device, as long as it's turned on and not in airplane mode. This is particularly helpful if you misplaced your phone or left it somewhere since it can help you retrace your steps. While this feature won't show you the live location of a phone that has been turned off, it will show the phone's last known location. With "Find My Phone," you can also remotely lock your phone or enable "Lost Mode," which locks down the phone, suspends any in-phone payment methods, and displays contact information for returning the phone to you. If your phone was stolen, experts caution against taking matters into your own hands by chasing down the thief, since this could land you in a potentially dangerous situation and is unlikely to result in getting your phone back. Strong passwords for important accounts help protect your information while you travel, but it's just a first step. The National Cybersecurity Alliance recommends creating long, unique, and complex passwords for every account and combining them with multifactor authentication to create maximum barriers to entry. If you're worried about remembering these passwords, password managers can be a vital tool for both creating and storing strong passwords. Password managers are apps that act as secure vaults for all your passwords. Some even come with a feature that allows you to temporarily delete sensitive passwords before you travel and then easily restore them once you return. Story editing by Mia Nakaji Monnier. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Tim Bruns. Photo selection by Lacy Kerrick. This story originally appeared on Spokeo and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio. The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.
As 2024 winds down, I checked records to check the last time common Nigerians celebrated Christmas and New Year with desired joy, jubilation and happiness. For over two decades, the story had been of hoping that the incoming year would be better. Yet the succeeding year was always worse than the preceding one. We are on the same trend today. The year 2024 is ending not only on a bad but also on a deadly note. Friendly palliative gatherings became deadly palliative assemblies. Calling to question the policies that made palliative an option in caregiving. Pervasive poverty and hunger have turned hitherto decent communities in Nigeria into beggars’ enclaves. This year started on a bad note with high interest rates from the carryover policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Committee, rising domestic prices or inflation partly as a result of rising energy prices generally and fuel prices in particular, coupled with massive depreciation of the naira, which turned out to be deliberate devaluation to keep the exchange rate at over N1,500 per US dollar! The aim was to make the monetisation of the oil money look huge and federal allocations to the three tiers of government bigger than they used to be. These policies were inimical to economic growth and the development or survival of businesses and human existence. These negative factors or policies that fuelled the deepening hardship being witnessed throughout 2024 started early, even from 2023 and with progressive intensity. Many medium and small businesses went under, and large businesses had to scale down production because of the high cost of production and declining consumer spending. Loss of jobs for many hitherto employed became a common phenomenon with loss of income for households and extended families, as well as loss of revenue to the government in terms of taxes. The expectations that all the presidential travels in search of foreign investments would start yielding fruits came to zero as some existing foreign businesses were leaving due to a bad policy mix. Foreign investors will prefer to invest in an economy with 50 million high- or middle-income citizens who can buy their products than a country of 200 million with two-thirds of the low-income or poverty-stricken citizens. The majority of such country’s citizens would not be able to buy the products despite the low unit cost of production. Foreign businessmen and women will prefer to invest in a country with stable or low inflation that assures them of moderate cost of production to make their outputs and products competitive in prices such that imported commodities of the same nature would not be cheaper and preferred by citizens. Foreign investors would prefer countries with strong and stable domestic currencies such that when they feel they have made huge profits, the exchange rate would not, at the repatriation stage, turn it into a massive loss. One wonders how much brainstorming goes into Nigeria’s policy initiatives, implementation and evaluation. More appropriately, with the doggedness with which our government stuck to its policies once it is introduced, we may ask if there are alternative policies or Plan B to every policy made, such that a fall-back position is created when policy outcomes are not producing the expected feedback. The economy is swimming in huge local and foreign debts and requiring humongous debt servicing which deprives the economy of funds for development, more so when the borrowed funds were hardly used for projects that could yield return and payback. Nigeria’s government now spends over 65 per cent of its revenue on servicing debts. Sometimes citizens are made to believe that there is nothing bad in borrowing. In addition, they claim that the United States is the biggest debtor in the world. They even go as far as saying that the US owes China humongous debt. All those statements are half-truths. Related News Justice ministry to renovate buildings with N2bn in 2025 Afenifere leader hopeful of better life in 2025 FG spends N8.73bn on airport power infrastructure in 2024 —Report If the government borrows too much from the domestic market, it deprives the private sector of the opportunity to borrow money for investments, even cheaply. In competition for funds or loans from the financial market between the public and private sectors, the lenders will give preference to the public because a government exists forever while businesses can go bankrupt. Also, it is the government that will be able to pay the high interest rates that the banks will demand in the face of high demand for loans. This is what is referred to as ‘crowding out effects’. Unfortunately, the public sector is unlikely to put the funds into efficient use that the private sector would. Part of the loans will be spent on consumption, part stolen and part mismanaged or expended on over-invoice projects. The same thing would likely happen to foreign loans. On the issue of the United States and the rest of us, it is fallacious to deride America with its debt. Virtually every country is working for the US as we all want to have our reserves in dollars, thus making us indebted to the country. When a country borrows from the World Bank or IMF, the currency in the dollar, the US currency which makes such debtor indebted to America! If the US owes a country, it can easily print dollars, its currency (it does not need to do that anyway), to offset the debt whereas other countries will have to work to earn dollars to pay off their debts. More importantly, the US has enough assets over and above its debt value. Until another global currency emerges and the US is borrowing and paying back in that currency, we are not on the same level. So, don’t be deceived by the statement on the US indebtedness. The important thing to note is that no highly indebted country can develop until it has been able to reduce the debt to below 20 per cent of revenue and less than 40 per cent of GDP. Our condition in this respect is precarious. Yet, the 2025 budget is largely dependent on fresh loans! Debt, particularly foreign debt, is like opium that countries get addicted to and require rehabilitation to get over it. Nigeria is already hooked! The year 2024 witnessed the actual rebirth in the oil sector with production output from the Dangote refinery and for the first time in decades, one of Nigeria’s nearly forgotten local refineries, the Port Harcourt refinery, came alive with production to compete with Dangote’s business. It is a good sign of possible good things to come. But with the pre-determined or manipulated price far above production cost, the citizens may not reap the benefits. The Nigerian factor from the government and the business community will not make the benefits of the fuel sector trickle down. For instance, the manipulated price was, by some agreement and as announced, brought down below N1,000 per litre at pump price but the prices at the fuel stations, including NNPC outlets remained above N1,000 for one week thereafter. What a country! The outgoing year sees some fight against corruption outside the political circle. Two major events are quite recent and have to do with the Abuja duplexes pinned to an ex-CBN governor but are yet to be confirmed officially beyond the confiscation of the property. The arrests of foreigners and Nigerians involved in cybercrime activities, are still in Abuja. The issues of ex-governors and now legislators, the former accountant-general, and other people at the corridor of power whose files have been with the Economic Financial Crime Commission over the years are being deliberately and gradually forgotten. The high cost of education at all levels is causing another dimension in the drop-out saga and rising number of ‘Yahoo boys’ and Association of Yahoo mothers; the rising cost of Medicare that is returning people to the elewe omo (traditional medicine) with attendant high mortality rates among pregnant women and children; the absence of clear cut policy on agriculture, particularly ranching that is sustaining farmers-herders clash and food insecurity; the government’s principal officers and hangers-on arrogance and carefree attitude about the precarious living conditions of ordinary Nigerians; and other glaring nefarious activities of the political class are a carryover from 2024 to 2025. Such situations are indicative that those who survive 2025 will only thank God that they did not live good lives in the year. I wish the government could disappoint me.