Clop Hacks BBC, Boots and BA

A Russian cybercriminal group called Clop has hacked into the payroll service provider Zellis, which provides payroll services to a number of large British companies, including British Airways, Boots, and the BBC. The hackers stole the personal data of tens of thousands of employees at these companies, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth.

Clop is a ransomware group operating in Russia, that has been active since 2019. Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts a victim's files and demands a ransom payment in order to decrypt them. Clop is known for using a variety of techniques to infiltrate victim networks, including phishing emails, exploiting vulnerabilities in software, and using brute force attacks.

The BBC has said that the hack will not impact its programming or operations. However, the hack is a reminder of the growing threat of cyberattacks. Businesses of all sizes need to take steps to protect their data from cybercriminals. These steps include:

• Implementing strong security measures: This includes using firewalls, antivirus software, and intrusion detection systems.
• Educating employees about cybersecurity risks: This includes teaching employees how to spot phishing emails and how to create strong passwords.
• Regularly backing up data: This will help to minimize the damage if a cyberattack does occur.
• Having a plan in place to respond to a cyberattack: This plan should include steps for notifying employees, restoring data, and investigating the incident.

Conclusion:

The Clop hack of BA, Boots, and the BBC is a serious incident that highlights the importance of cybersecurity. Businesses need to take steps to protect their data from cybercriminals. By implementing the steps outlined in this blog post, businesses can help to mitigate the risk of a cyberattack.

Call to action:

If you are a business owner, I encourage you to take steps to protect your data from cybercriminals. By implementing the steps outlined in this blog post, you can help to mitigate the risk of a cyberattack.

This is a serious hack that could have a significant impact on the affected companies. It's important for businesses to take cybersecurity seriously and to implement strong security measures to protect their data.

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BBC Prepares For Abolition of Licence Fee This Year

Cambridge-educated Tim Davie, (current head of BBC Studios) was acting DG before Tony Hall got the job - and comes from an overwhelming commercial background.

— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) June 5, 2020

Tim Davis the new DG.

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BBC Berates Barclays

Barclays and the BBC have fallen out over claims in a Panorama programme entitled "Inside Barclays: Banking on Bonuses", to be broadcast tonight, that Barclays misled shareholders.

As per the BBC:

"After a series of controversies, bosses at Barclays say they're changing the culture of the bank. But what went wrong? Reporter Richard Bilton investigates the bonus culture that drove one of our biggest banks."

Panorama will accuse Barclays wrongly naming Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour as the source of £3BN of bail-out money received during the banking crisis in 2008. The money helped Barclays stave off a government rescue akin to the ones used to prop up RBS and Lloyds TSB.

Panorama will state that the money came from the Abu Dhabi government, and that this was not properly disclosed in its 2008 accounts.

However, Barclays contest that it re-drafted all financial documentation “overnight” once the change had been identified except for one mention in the accounts, which it blames on a “simple drafting error”.

Barclays are quoted by the Evening Standard:

“We have repeatedly demonstrated to Panorama why the allegations which they plan to make in their programme are completely unjustified. 

Barclays is satisfied that the steps taken to disclose the change in ownership of the companies which were investing in the bank in 2008 were entirely appropriate. The change in ownership of the investing companies had no bearing on the transaction or required approvals.”

Professor Alistair Milne, an expert on financial regulation in the City, said banks are expected to release accurate information about major deals.

"Any discrepancy of that kind is serious because it raises questions in the minds of investors. Every bank is well aware the annual report is a critical document and a huge amount of time and attention is put in to trying to get all the details correct."

For good measure, the programme also claims that Barclays helped clients avoid tax on an “industrial” scale.

Child Benefit Shake Up

I see that George Osborne used the BBC Breakfast show to announce to a bleary eyed "Monday morningish" nation that child benefit for higher rate taxpayers would be axed "by" 2013.

Someone should remind Osborne that announcements such as this should be made to Parliament first. The Tories were always quick to criticise Labour when they indulged in this form of "government via media announcement", sadly they seem to be emulating their foe.

Credit to the interviewer, who was clearly taken by surprise, for trying to press some details out of Osborne. She quite rightly made him admit that "higher rate" includes not just those on 50%, but also those on 40%.

She then asked, in relation to "by 2013", whether this would be phased in over a period of time up to 2013. Osborne gave a rambling, evasive response which did not answer the question.

Quite clearly he intends to start cutting child benefit back (for higher rate taxpayers) now, in phases, rather than leaving it all until 2013.

Barclays Face Investigation

Barclays face an investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a result of the recent BBC programme "Whistleblower", which placed an undercover reporter in a Barclays call centre and one of their high street branches.

Whistleblower alleged that call centre staff accessed private customer files, and made sales calls to people who asked not to be contacted.

The ICO said that the allegations were a cause for concern.

The BBC placed their undercover reporter in the Doxford call centre in Sunderland, where she found examples of mis-selling, employees lying to customers and security failings.

Quote:

"I've seen customers misled, lied to and treated with contempt. I've seen people charged for financial products they neither asked for or knew they had."

The ICO has asked Barclays for the results of an internal inquiry, and for a copy of its policy on telephone sales.

Barclays said in a statement:

"We take the allegations made by the programme very seriously and are conducting our own internal investigation. Where there has been improper behaviour we will take action to improve what we do. Of course we will also fully co-operate with the Information Commissioner's own investigation."

To add to Barclays humiliation Reuters report that it faces a US investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), into allegations of insider dealing by bank staff who served on bankruptcy committees.

The SEC will look at trading activity between 2002 and 2003 by a proprietary trading desk at Barclays.

A separate lawsuit filed against the bank in March by a former employee alleges that Barclays' U.S. distressed debt desk, which deals in bankrupt company bonds, traded debt after "potentially gaining nonpublic information" through bankruptcy creditor committees.

This has been topped off by the news that a group led by Royal Bank of Scotland says that it plans to go hostile if necessary with an offer for ABN AMRO, the Dutch bank that has already agreed a deal with Barclays.

The hostile bid is estimated to be worth around £49BN, compared with the £45BN offered by Barclays.

Not a happy week for Barclays!

Diamond Geezer

Congratulations to Barclays' president, Bob Diamond, who could according to reports earn £42m for his work in 2006.

This gobsmacking amount is even more gobsmacking, when one takes into account that the CEO of Barclays, John Varley, earns a lot less.

Mr Diamond's £42M comes about from the following:

-He earns a paltry £250K
-He has a potential bonus of £10.4m
-Benefits of £17K
-Shares worth £4.5m
-Paper profit of £5.7m from the Barclays Global Investors Executive Option plan, which he exercised last year.

On top of the above, which comes to £20.9m, Barclays have made a further award of 934,516 shares to Mr Diamond; these are worth nearly £7m at current prices.

If his Barclays Capital investment banking operation and other businesses continue the performance of recent years, that could be increased to 2.8 million shares worth £21m, bringing the maximum total earnings from work in 2006 to £41.9m at current prices.

On top of that Mr Diamond could receive a further £14.8m "retention" bonus this year. His total holdings in Barclays shares, through various option plans, amount to nearly £70m.

John Varley earned a paltry £3.2m plus £1.2m in shares in 2006.

It is ironic that Barclays was recently given a public flaying on the BBC programme "Whistleblower", for mis-selling and fraud, and that it is also under fire along with other banks for its excess penalty charges.

Well, look at it this way, they have to make money somehow; otherwise how on earth could they afford to pay Mr Diamond?

BBC Puts Boot Into Barclays

The BBC investigative programme "Whislteblower", which investigates anti-social or criminal practices in organisations and companies across the UK, put the boot into Barlcays Bank last night.

It exposed a catalogue of shabby practices at a call centre and branch in Guildford, ranging from mis-selling unnecessary products to fraud.

The programme sent in an undercover reporter firstly to a Barclays call centre, then to a branch in Guildford. There she uncovered a catalogue of shabby practices:

• Her bank trainer told a classroom of call centre trainees that he "loved" getting customers complaining about bank charges.



• People were charged for financial products they neither asked for, or knew they had. Beware of being charged for the new Barclay product "Additions", one incident showed that a customer was charged for this without even having asked for it. One manager admitted that the bank's "Additions" accounts are one of the "most mis-sold" products in the bank.



• One employee moved over £200K from one customer's account to another, without permission, purely so that he could get commission.



• The programme highlighted serious flaws in security and fraudsters at work, the reporter saw bank employees working with criminals to commit fraud.

The good news is that Barclays made £7BN last year, and their spokeswoman when confronted with the evidence in her ivory tower in Canary Wharf said:

"I don't think what you've seen is any way representative of the way in which Barclays does business, and I'm sure our millions of customers would tell you exactly the same thing."

So that's alright then!

Extracts of the programme can be watched via this link Whistleblower.

Here is Barclays response, as posted on their website Barclays.