DECEMBER 2017 | MANE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY | 11
Vodafone, CityFibre to bring gigabit fibre to 5 million UK homes by 2025
Vodafone will be partnering with fibre internet infrastructure provider CityFibre to bring gigabit fibre connections to 5 million UK homes and businesses by 2025.
The infrastructure uses fibre connections right from the home to the internet (known as FTTP or Fibre To The Premises). It helps achieve speeds of up to 1,000mbps -- much faster than what is currently available with existing services.
The speeds achieved by the fibre connections will match or exceed those provided by Google Fiber, an internet service by Google. The service is slowly rolling out to major cities across the United States. ■
Intel and AMD partnering to produce new laptop chip
Rivals Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) are working together to produce a laptop computer chip as part of Intel’s eighth-generation Intel Core line-up. The new chip will use an Intel processor and an AMD graphics unit. The partnership will pit the two companies against competitor Nvidia. The new chip will be made for laptops that are designed to be thin and portable, but still powerful enough for gamers to run the latest and greatest PC titles.
The new Intel chip will not compete against AMD’s own Ryzen chips. AMD specified that these new Intel chips will be aimed at gamers, while the Ryzen chips can run games but aren’t specifically designed for that purpose. ■
Equifax data hack affected 694,000 UK customers causing calls for enhanced cyber security
In early September 2017, Equifax, the credit reference agency, announced it had been the victim of a criminal cyberattack in May. Although the UK branch of Equifax was not breached, the attack compromised the personal information of some UK consumers. The agency Equifax has now admitted that 694,000 customers in the UK had their data stolen between May and July this year. Equifax now says that it will contact its affected UK customers by letter to offer them help.
US banks are stepping up anti-fraud controls and investigations are under way to see how deep the hack went. The Scottish government has outlined its action plan to protect public organisations from cyber attacks. Everyone has a role to play in cyber security, including big market players – but if this is not done voluntarily, legislation may be required, according to Julian King, the European commissioner for security union.
New cyber security measures and techniques must be put in place to prevent future hacks and data breaches. 2017's other biggest hacks, leaks, and data breaches include Bell Canada, Verizon, Wannacry, and Deloitte. Meanwhile, the hack affecting Yahoo in 2013 that originally was reported to affect one billion accounts now stands at three billion. ■