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FBI Says Takes Threat of US Election Hack ‘Seriously’

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

FBI Says Takes Threat of US Election Hack 'Seriously'

The FBI is taking “very seriously” the possibility a foreign country is trying to meddle with America’s electoral process and even influence voting outcomes, the agency’s director James Comey said Thursday.

US agencies, companies and individuals are frequently targeted by overseas hackers, and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign has accused Moscow of hacking into Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails.

The recent breach of DNC data, along with other electronic intrusions, has raised concerns about cyber incidents that could affect the outcome of the US presidential race, or other contests.

FBI agents “take very seriously the notion that a state actor is messing someway in our electoral process — whether that is to disrupt, to influence, to sow discord, or to create doubt,” Comey said at a Washington security summit, without specifically mentioning Russia.

The FBI is “working very hard” to understand the size and scope of any hacking attempts, he said, but tried to reassure the public that the old-fashioned way of tallying ballots in many states protects them from hackers.

“The actual vote counting in this country tends to be kind of clunky, in a way that’s a blessing because it makes it more resilient,” he said.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Wednesday said Russia hacks US computer networks “all the time.”

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

Number of state school pupils receiving private tuition has risen by a third, report reveals

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

About 43% of state school teachers have offered private tutoring outside their main work as demand continues to rise, a report has revealed.

The number of state-educated 11 to 16-year-olds in England and Wales who have been privately tutored rose by more than a third over the last decade, according to research by the Sutton Trust.

But the charity warned that the growth of the “shadow education” market, which it estimates to be worth up to £2 billion for pupils aged five to 18, is exacerbating inequalities in the education system by pricing lower income students out.

Currently across England and Wales, more than a quarter of state-educated 11 to 16-year-olds (700,000 pupils) have been privately tutored at some point, while 43% of state school teachers have offered private tuition.

Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust and the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “Private tuition is widespread and increasingly so. Nearly half of teachers have tutored and a quarter of teenagers have been tutored. But with costs of at least £25 per session, many cannot afford to benefit from this extra support, which exacerbates education inequalities.

“No-one wants to limit parents doing their best for their children, but we need to ensure that extra tuition is as widely available as possible. Otherwise, it will continue to widen the attainment gap.”

Maths and English were the most common subjects to be tutored in, followed by the sciences, Spanish and French, while specialist tuition for pupils hoping to pass the 11-plus test and gain a place at a grammar school was also popular.

Last year, 280,000 (10%) 11 to 16-year-old pupils in England and Wales received private tuition – a number the trust called “remarkable”.

But private school pupils were twice as likely to receive private lessons than those attending state schools, and pupils who received free school meals were almost 10% less likely to be privately tutored than those who did not.

The report – based on polling by Ipsos MORI and the National Foundation for Educational Research and data from private tuition agencies – claims to be the “most comprehensive analysis to date” of the UK’s private tuition market.

The trust is calling on the Government to introduce means-tested vouchers that will enable lower-income families to access additional educational support and provide quick remuneration to participating tutors and agencies.

It also is urging agencies to provide a certain proportion of their tuition to disadvantaged pupils for free.

Tutorfair, which has 38,000 tutors and gives free tutoring to one child for every student who pays, was praised as an example of good practice, and grammar schools should ensure young people are familiarised with the type of test they will encounter in entrance exams and encourage children from lower-income backgrounds to apply, the trust recommended.

[Source:- independent]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

Bank of Mum and Dad expected to fork out £5.8 billion over the coming academic year

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

The Bank of Mum and Dad is expected to fork out an estimated £5.8 billion over the coming academic year in order to support their children through university.

Even though higher education is an opportune time for young people to learn how to effectively manage their finances, parents are still set to pick up a large chunk of their children’s bills, as the costs associated with living and higher education rocket.

The new research from uSwitch.com has shown that, overall, parents will spend £417 a month – adding up to more than £5,000 over the year. With over 1.1 million full-time undergraduate or foundation degree students at universities across the UK, parents across the country will be collectively spending the staggering amount which will go into the billions.

The findings are more-than-double the amount as recently highlighted in similar research from NotGoingToUni which showed parents will be dishing out £2,285 each year during their children’s time at university.

According to uSwitch, though, accommodation is set to be parents’ single most expensive outlay, with contributions to rent costing them an average of £101 a month. Meanwhile, contributions to tuition fees – which are set to rise beyond £9,000 a year – will cost parents a further £71 each month, while food adds another £44.

Parents believe their contributions to bills are higher than they should be, with only a third thinking their children are on the best deals available. Across all household bills, parents anticipate they could be overpaying by over £54 per month, or £651 per year.

Claire Osborne, consumer expert atuSwitch.com, described how time spent away at university is meant to be “the best time of our lives.” However, the rising cost of studying and living means students are struggling to get by financially. She said: “Thankfully, many parents are prepared to provide the financial help they need, but it’s always worth checking where money could be saved.”

The survey’s findings have come at a time similar research has painted a bleak picture of student finances for the 2016/17 academic year. New findings from HSBC found the first 100 days of the term alone are set to cost freshers an eye-watering £3,300 each, as students say living away from home is more expensive than expected, leaving them feeling overwhelmed at having to manage their own finances for the first time.

Sati Dhanjal, vice president, described how it was clear young people don’t get enough education about one of the most important factors they’re going to have to deal with when they reach independence: money. She added: “Things are hard enough for them, with a lack of jobs and the recession, without adding credit card debt into the mix.”

A University of Southampton and Solent NHS Trust study recently highlighted how students who experience financial difficulties and worry about debt have a higher chance of suffering from depression and alcohol dependency.

Leader of the study, Dr Thomas Richardson, described how the findings suggest “a vicious cycle” whereby anxiety and problem drinking “exacerbate financial difficulties,” which then go on to increase anxiety and alcohol intake. He said: “Interventions which tackle both difficulties at the same time are therefore most likely to be effective.”

[Source:- independent]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Internet

Hacked Dropbox Data of 68 Million Users Is Now for Sale on the Dark Web

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Hacked Dropbox Data of 68 Million Users Is Now for Sale on the Dark Web

Email and password data for more than 68 million Dropbox users is for sale in the darknet marketplace.

The data set, which is from a 2012 breach, includes users’ email addresses as well as obscured passwords. The nearly 5 gigabytes of data represents one of the larger user credential leaks in recent years. Its price is reportedly being set at two bitcoins, the equivalent of about $1,141 US dollars, by a data trafficker on the darknet website TheRealDeal. There are no reports that the dataset has been successfully sold yet.

Dropbox quietly announced the 4-year-old breach last week when it sent out a note to affected users informing them that they would be proactively resetting their passwords. They informed users that their accounts were being reset because the company had been notified about a possible threat. But the full extent of the massive breach was reported by Motherboard and confirmed by an unnamed senior Dropbox employee several days later.

Dropbox was aware of a security breach in 2012 and told its customers, but says that the true scope and size of the hack was new information until last week. Patrick Heim, head of trust and security at Dropbox, said that the company felt it had taken sufficient preventative measures by proactively resetting passwords. Heim added that at this point, there is still no evidence that the users’ passwords have been successfully decoded and sold.

Hacked user credentials can be very valuable among data traders. Email and password data is typically bought and sold on the darknet, a tier of anonymous and largely untraceable Internet access that is often used for illegal activity such as drug or firearms trading. Large numbers of stolen user data can be integrated with software that automatically cycles though email/password combinations in order to hack into different websites. Given that many people reuse the same passwords on multiple websites, this can be a very effective method. Dropbox actually points to an employee’s reused password hacked from another website as the cause of the 2012 Dropbox breach.

But the stolen passwords from Dropbox were all either hashed or salted. Both are methods of obscuring passwords should they fall into hackers’ hands. Hashing converts passwords into a fixed number of random characters while salting adds a secret value to the end of each password. Hashing and salting can help to keep passwords safe in stolen databases, but the danger with hashing and salting is that both techniques can be eventually decrypted, especially for passwords obtained from several years ago. However, at this time there is still no confirmation that any of the passwords have been successfully decoded and sold. It’s one reason why the reported value of the data, at two bitcoins, is so low.

“The value in bitcoin is a really good indicator of how valuable the hack really was,” said Bryan Seely, a cybersecurity expert and hacker at MGT Capital Investments. “Given how low the price is, I’d say the situation probably isn’t too bad.” Hackers set a stolen medical database containing 34,000 patient records at a price of 20 bitcoins, or $13,173 U.S. dollars, this July.

Dropbox has several high profile clients that use Dropbox Business, a premium tier service that offers features like unlimited data storage and extra security. It’s used by companies like Hyatt, Hewlett Packer and Spotify. Dropbox Business was not launched until after the 2012 breach, so these clients are unlikely to have stolen data.

The hack points to the fragility of passwords as a security measure online. “Passwords are outdated, they’re annoying to users, they annoy IT teams, they’re hard to remember,” said Malcolm Harkins, the chief security and trust officer at a security company called Cylance. Harkins added that new security measures such as multi-faceted authentication are far stronger methods. At Dropbox, which offers two-step verification login for users, rate of enrollment for the extra verification measure has increased nearly tenfold since news of the hack.

Tyler Cohen Wood, cybersecurity adviser at Inspired eLearning, agrees, adding that users should take a degree of personal responsibility for their user data. “If you haven’t changed your passwords since 2012, you might want to rethink your own personal password policy and change them more frequently,” he said.

Despite this, he added, companies have a duty to fully disclose breaches. “It is always best to report potential compromises of accounts and passwords to users right away so that they can take action immediately,” he added.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

Quarter of families buy or rent new home to secure school place

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

One in four parents with school-age children have either bought or rented a new property to secure an address in the catchment area of the best schools, according to a report.

The study by financial services provider Santander reveals the extraordinary lengths to which middle-class parents will go in order to get their child into their preferred school, with London parents among those most likely to make the move.

According to the survey, London has the highest proportion of parents (46%) moving to secure an address within a school catchment area, and they are willing pay a premium of over £70,000 to buy a house close to a good school.

Yet more than a quarter of all families (27%) who move to be within a catchment area will leave as soon as a school place is secured for their child.

The survey of more than 4,000 adults found that almost one in five (17%) have to change jobs to facilitate a move into a good school catchment area. A fifth (20%) are forced to downsize; 15% admit they have to move to an area they don’t like, while 21% leave family and friends, and 22% pay more than they can afford – just to get their child into the right school.

Of those families who move to be within their desired catchment area, almost half (49%) sold their previous property and bought a new one close to their preferred school. A quarter said they purchased a second home in the catchment area, while 26% admitted to renting a property to secure a school place.

Miguel Sard, managing director of mortgages for Santander UK, said: “School catchment areas remain a key discussion point for many parents.

“Our research shows that with competition for school places remaining high, parents are making significant financial and lifestyle sacrifices to be within the catchment area of desirable schools. Living within a certain school catchment area is a priority for many families but these premium addresses can come with a hefty price tag.”

Parents in the East Midlands are the least likely to move to try to secure a place for their child in a good school: at 11%, the East Midlands has the lowest proportion of parents moving in order to get an address in the right catchment area.

But, on average, families are prepared to spend an 11% premium, which according to Santander, equates to an average of almost £24,000 in the current property market, to move to their desired catchment area.

[Source:- theguardian]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Internet

Microsoft Starts Offering Complete Range of Cloud Services From UK Data Centres

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Microsoft Starts Offering Complete Range of Cloud Services From UK Data Centres

Microsoft is introducing a complete set of cloud services from data centres in Britain, its second biggest market for cloud-based software after the United States, as demand for data localisation spreads across Europe and around the world.

The new offering will allow a range of British customers from the legal, banking, public and utility sectors to run operations over the Internet, something they had been reluctant to do for regulatory and data security reasons.

“We want to make sure that as many customers as possible have access to the cloud,” said Nicola Hodson, general manager of marketing and operations for Microsoft UK.

Local storage of data has grown more desirable as US technology companies have become dominant and after former US National Security Administration contractor Edward Snowden disclosed mass government surveillance, stoking public concern over data privacy, security and national sovereignty.

More recently, Britain’s vote to leave the European Union has raised questions about the status of data stored and processed in the UK.

Previously, Microsoft customers using cloud software relied on European data centres based in Dublin, Amsterdam or other locations. It operates more than 100 data centres globally.

The UK Ministry of Defence, which employs 230,000 people and spends more than $3 billion per year on technical infrastructure, will be an early customer of Microsoft’s cloud office apps and infrastructure, citing cost savings and data security.

Other initial UK cloud customers include automaker Aston Martin, and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, the country’s largest mental health agency, and Capita Plc, Britain’s largest business process outsourcing, which serves a mix of clients in central and local government and the private sector.

Microsoft is the world’s No. 2 cloud software supplier after Amazon, which pioneered cloud services a decade ago. Both companies also compete with Google, IBM, Oracle and many others.

The UK-based cloud will host Office 365, a suite of cloud applications that replaces Microsoft’s classic Office software, and Azure, its cloud-based software infrastructure platform. Microsoft plans to add its Dynamics CRM Online suite of cloud sales and marketing applications in the first half of 2017.

Forrester Research estimates global spending on public cloud platforms, business services and applications will reach $236 billion (roughly Rs. 15,66,244 crores) by 2020, a compound annual growth rate of 22 percent between 2015 and the end of the decade.

Microsoft already counts thousands of UK cloud customers ranging from retailer Marks and Spencer Group Plc to Virgin Atlantic airlines. Customers have the option of hosting data locally or elsewhere on the Microsoft network.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Internet

India May Get 5G Networks With the Rest of the World: Telecom Secretary

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

India May Get 5G Networks With the Rest of the World: Telecom Secretary

India stands a chance to get 5G technology with the rest of the world as the country enters an era of Internet of Things (IoT), Telecom Secretary J S Deepak said in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

“…We got 2G 25 years after the rest of the world, at least after the developed world. We got 3G more than a decade after it became ubiquitous in US, Europe. 4G may be, five years after its global launch. In 5G, we have the chance of being there with the rest of the world,” Deepak said.

He added that the probable simultaneous launch of 5G in India along with the rest of the world could be from bridging the gap that had prevailed and the country might as well take a step forward and acquire a leadership position in certain areas as it enters into an era of Internet of Things with connected devices and machines.

Deepak was speaking after inaugurating the first edition of ‘IoT India Congress’ that aims to bring together key stakeholders across the value chain and verticals to collaborate.

“The IoT, which is estimated to have…something like 50 billion connected devices in the next 5-6 years, will unleash a business opportunity for India, at least of USD 15 billion,” he said.

In a recorded video address to the Congress, Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, IoT is important because connected devices are going to become the order of the day.

“IoT is important more for the poor, for the farmers, for healthcare, for education sectors, to make the quality of life better…,” the Minister said. Deepak said a very ‘vibrant’ IoT ecosystem would be seen in India very soon.

The Department of Telecom has come out with a machine- to-machine (M2M) roadmap which seeks to synergise regulators, bodies involved in development of standards, manufacturers and perspective users so that associated industries could benefit.

Pointing out the initiatives like Telecommunications Standards Development Society India and others by the Department of Telecom, he said “Leveraging technology is an objective which pervades the whole of government. The Department of IT has developed an IoT policy which is in the draft stage and under consultation…”

Stating that there is lot of work in progress like KYC norms for SIM embedded M2M devices, 13 digits numbering scheme for IoT – for SIM embedded M2M devices, he said, “The Department of Telecom has requested the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India for recommendations in the area of quality of service standards of international roaming system and requirement of additional spectrum for an IoT ecosystem in India.

“As soon as the recommendations are received we hope to come out with specific decisions…” he said.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

Ofqual on why exam performance improved after 2010 – and it’s not because of ‘dumbing down’ or pupil ability

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Exam paper

Performance rose as pupils and teachers became more familiar with the tests, exams watchdog finds

Any improvements in GCSE and A-level performance since 2010 are likely to have been caused by pupils and teachers becoming more familiar with the tests, rather than by an increase in students’ ability levels or a “dumbing down” of exam papers, according to a new report from the exams regulator Ofqual.

The study found that pupils’ performance – as measured by marks rather than grades – improved significantly in the first three years after the introduction of new A-levels in 2010-11 and new GCSEs in 2011-12, but that this improvement slowed after that time.

The improvements probably result from teachers gaining more experience of teaching the new specifications and pupils having more past papers to learn from, the report suggests.

Limits of familiarity

It says benefits brought about by growing familiarity with the tests usually last for about three years. After this, the “limits of familiarity” are reached and the effect no longer brings about significant improvements in performance.

Ofqual’s report says the fact that pupils’ marks rose in the wake of exam reforms suggested that familiarity, rather than other factors, was the cause: “One would expect that improvements due to [test familiarity] can be made more quickly than [those] due to [genuine improvements in ability], meaning that improvements due to test familiarity might explain a greater portion of the more rapid changes occuring in the first few years.”

It adds: “The fact that most [grade] boundaries exhibited relatively rapid increases which seemed to lessen after the third assessment year…is consistent with the proposition that post-reform improvements in performance are test-specific and related to student/teacher familiarity (rather than reflecting more general improvements in ability). This is because one would expect improvements to subside once the limits of test familiarity and preparedness are gradually reached.”

Allaying concerns

Ofqual said its research, which covers the period since 2010, would “allay concerns of a systematic ‘dumbing down’ of assessments”.

This was because it was “unlikely” that improvements in pupils’ performance were “due to assessments becoming easier”, it said, adding: “Changes in test familiarity is a more plausible explanation.”

Ofqual’s report uses increases in grade boundaries, rather than in final grades, as an indicator of rising pupil performance. An Ofqual spokeswoman said the use of “comparable outcomes” – a system that has ended grade inflation by linking overall GCSE and A-level results to pupils’ prior attainment – would prevent grades from dropping and then rising as a result of new exams, which are being introduced over a three-year period from 2017.

However, she added that the years of rising GCSE grades between 1988, when the qualification was first introduced, and 2012, were not caused by increasing familiarity with the tests. This was because, during this period, there was a “year-on-year steady increase” in grades, rather than sharp rises in the wake of new exam specifications.

[Source:- tes]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

Exclusive: Force schools to admit fair share of poorer pupils, says academies boss

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Dame Sally Coates

The school admissions system is in need of a ‘huge overhaul’, according to former ‘super head’ Dame Sally Coates

Schools should be forced to take a percentage of disadvantaged children that reflects the level of deprivation in their locality, Dame Sally Coates has said.

Speaking to TES, the United Learning director of academies in the south of England described the huge variation in the intake of poorer children across schools within the same local authority as “madness”.

“[The current admissions system] doesn’t help social mobility,” she said. “Every middle-class parent, if they’ve got their wits about them, plays the game. And the poor children are always the ones who are left behind.”

Dame Sally, former head of Burlington Danes Academy in west London, wants a review group set up to overhaul admissions with the publication of wider list of rules that schools have to abide by.

‘I’m very angry about admissions’

Currently, most schools are required to prioritise looked-after children or children with special educational needs in their oversubscription criterion. But Dame Sally believes an additional requirement should be added.

“Why not have that you have to take a certain percentage of pupil-premium children which reflects the area your school is in? Why not spread children out?” she said.

“Some schools having 6 per cent pupil premium [pupils] and other schools having 70 per cent in the same local authority. It is just madness.”

Dame Sally added: “[Admissions is the] thing I feel most strongly about at the moment. It is absolutely in need of a huge overhaul. I feel very angry about admissions.”

The government’s push towards a fully academised education system, with more and more schools controlling their own admissions, means there has never been a more important time to change the system, Dame Sally believes.

“If schools do break the admissions code, then there should be more consequences,” she said. “I don’t think it should be left to schools and academy trusts. It should be centrally overseen.”

[Source:- tes]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

‘This year schools will be hit by a tidal wave of Goveian reform. We must stay focused on teaching quality’

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

The scale and pace of reform in the education system is a huge problem – and it is partly down to how often the education secretary changes, writes a leading educationist

It’s time to make new (school) year’s resolutions.

Few school years can have started with education in a greater state of turmoil. During the 2016-17 academic year, teachers and school leaders will face more changes than they have ever done in a single year. Curriculum change piled on top of new tests and examinations, alongside continuing structural revolution.

And the author of most of these changes? He has moved on. Like so many secretaries of state before him, Michael Gove (pictured) is not around to oversee the implementation of the changes he introduced, nor to get the credit or the blame for what goes right or wrong.

Before the ink was dry on much of the legislation and the implementation phase had hardly got under way, Gove had been moved on to the Ministry of Justice and would soon become more interested in pulling the UK out of the EU than in his programme of prison reform. Then, with a new prime minister, with whom he had previously crossed swords – as he had done with so many in his own party – he was out of government altogether. Alas, ringside seats for the conversation between Theresa May and Gove were not for sale, for they would surely have fetched a high price. I have an inkling that, before long, Michael Gove will tire of being a backbench MP and will return to the intellectual cut and thrust of his previous profession, journalism, perhaps as editor of The Timesor Telegraph.

A big part of the problem for the maintained education service in England is the frequency with which ministers change. With an average of just over two years in office, secretaries of state know that they have to act quickly if they are to leave their mark.

‘Never has so much change hit teachers so hard’

Meanwhile, those who work in schools are left to implement the changes, while reading in the newspapers of the next changes on the horizon. Never has so much change hit teachers so hard as this year. For secondary teachers, this includes changes to A level, AS and GCSE, changes in the GCSE grading system, new syllabuses and exams, new accountability measures and the English Baccalaureate. For primary teachers, who are coming to terms with a new curriculum and painstakingly introducing a new assessment system, the end product is undermined by the key stage 2 Sats shambles this summer.

It will be so easy to be overwhelmed by all this change, so it will be doubly important this year to concentrate on what really matters – the children and young people in school and the quality of teaching, learning and assessment day by day. This is where teachers can make a difference, unlike the mad extent of change in 2016-17. So, at the start of the first term of the school year, new year’s resolutions should focus on the important – increasing the life opportunities of the pupils, undertaking top quality professional development, getting to grips with the best research, working with teachers in other schools to improve practice, improving the quality of teaching, better learning-focused assessment, and so on.

Whatever anyone thinks of the individual changes, it is the number of simultaneous changes that represents the major problem for schools. And, when the balance sheet of change is finally drawn up in a future education audit, the effect of each change will be impossible to separate out and nobody will know which of the changes has been successful.

In the words of the 19th-century prime minister Lord Salisbury, “Change, change, change, who wants change? Things are bad enough as they are.”

Happy New Year!

[Source:- tes]

April 4, 2024 0 comment