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New powers for
business groups to
tackle late payment
New proposals to give business
groups further powers to challenge
unfair payment terms and practices
on behalf of their members were
unveiled on 3 February.
»»Representative bodies
such as the Federation of Small
Businesses (FSB) have played
an key role in raising the
profile of payment issues.
‘paying 80%
of our invoices
within five days’
Giving these organisations
further powers to challenge
unfair payment terms, on
behalf of their members,
could give small businesses
more confidence to speak out
against the poor practices of
their larger customers.
Paying tribute to the FSB
in highlighting the issue,
Business Minister Matthew
Hancock said: “Small
businesses are the economic
backbone of the UK, but
some large companies are
squeezing the life out of them
by imposing unreasonable
‘small businesses are the
economic backbone of the UK’
payment terms. This behaviour
must stop, once and for all.
“Greater transparency is key
and we are setting an example
in government, by committing
to paying 80% of our invoices
within five days, with a
maximum of 30-day terms on
all public sector contracts.”
Business Secretary
(pictured) Vince Cable said:
“Large companies using their
economic might to impose
unreasonable terms on their
suppliers causes real problems
for small businesses.”
Cyber bank robbers steal
$1bn, says Kaspersky report
Up to 100 banks and financial institutions worldwide
have been attacked in an “unprecedented
cyber robbery”, claims a new report.
»»Computer security firm
Kaspersky Lab estimates $1bn (£648m)
has been stolen in the attacks, which
it says started in 2013 and are still
ongoing.
A cybercriminal gang with members
from Russia, Ukraine and China is
responsible, it claimed.
Kaspersky said it worked with Interpol
and Europol on the investigation.
It said the attacks had taken place in
30 countries including financial firms in
Russia, US, Germany, China, Ukraine and
Canada.
“These attacks again underline the fact
that criminals will exploit any vulnerability
in any system,” said Sanjay Virmani,
director of Interpol’s digital crime centre.
Kaspersky said the gang’s methods
marked a new stage in cyber robbery
where “malicious users steal money
directly from banks and avoid targeting
end users”
.
The gang, which Kaspersky dubbed
Carbanak, used computer viruses to
infect company networks with malware
including video surveillance, enabling it to
see and record everything that happened
on staff’s screens.
In some cases it was then able to
transfer money from the banks’ accounts
to their own, or even able to tell cash
machines to dispense cash at a predetermined time of day.
Kaspersky said on average each bank
robbery took between two and four
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months, with up to $10m stolen each
time.
“It was a very slick and professional cyber
robbery,” said Kaspersky Lab’s principal
security researcher, Sergey Golovanov.
The Financial Services Information
Sharing and Analysis Center, a US body
that alerts banks about hacking activity,
said that its members had received a
briefing about Kaspersky’s report in
January.
“We cannot comment on individual
actions our members have taken, but
on balance we believe our members are
taking appropriate actions to prevent and
detect these kinds of attacks and minimise
any effects on their customers,’’ it said in a
statement.