Argus Geopolitical Intel

Data Breach: Millions of Confidential Records Exposed Broker Data Leak Posted By GEO´PRChannel Team www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com Ata Hakcil led the team of white hat hackers from WizCase in identifying a major data leak on online trading broker FBS’ websites. The data from FBS.com and FBS.eu comprised millions of confidential records including names, passwords, email addresses, passport numbers, national IDs, credit cards, financial transactions and more. Were such detailed personally identifiable information (PII) to fall in the wrong hands, it could have been used in the execution of a wide range of cyber threats. The data leak was unearthed as part of WizCase’s ongoing research project that randomly scans for unsecured servers and seeks to establish who are the owners of these servers. We notified FBS of the breach so they could take appropriate action to secure the data. What’s Going On Forex, a portmanteau of foreign currency and exchange, is the process of converting one currency...

Defence 2.0 Britain to reduce troop sizes to focus on technology  By Iain Fraser - Managing Editor www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com Defence Minister Ben Wallace has announced plans for the military brought about as part of Boris Johnson´s new foreign & defence policies. The report Global Britain in a competitive age - The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy Britain is to reduce the size of the army from 76,500 to 72,500 by 2025 as part of a plan to concentrate on technology to go forward and fight the "threat of the future" When the policy report details the UKs post-Brexit Foreign Policy and highlighted its Defence Policy Priorities all designed to ensure that the UK is “better-equipped for a more competitive world”. The Defence Minister told Parliament that the armed forces must think and act differently, they will no longer be deployed as a force par se but become a more "present active force around the world" Wallace said “The ...

Enlarging NATO’s toolbox to counter hybrid threats -NATO on GEO´ Posted By GEO´ PRChannel Team - Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com 19 March 2021 What is published in NATO Review does not constitute the official position or policy of NATO or member governments. NATO Review seeks to inform and promote debate on security issues. The views expressed by authors are their own. Threats to stability and security are increasingly taking place in the “grey zone”, where state and non-state actors employ hybrid tactics, such as disinformation or cyber attack. How is NATO responding to these challenges? Today’s security environment is increasingly complex. The times when peace, crisis and conflict were three distinct phases, when conflicts were fought largely with military means, and when adversaries were well known, are over. Cyberattacks are hitting nations below the threshold of a military attack. Social media campaigns create alternative realities that seek to destabilise political...

Brexiled UK in foreign policy rethink By Iain Fraser - Geopolitical Journalist www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com Government sources have revealed that the government is pledging a total rethink on its Foreign Policy as its examines its  "outdated international system" to better protect the UK's interests and values, in a year-long review of post-Brexit foreign and defence policy. To date the repost has recommended that the incumbent government forge new partnerships as the Uk jux da positions" and refocuses on the  Indo-Pacific countries such as India, Japan and Australia. The recommendations also give a green light to an increase in nuclear capability.. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to outline the findings of the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, he will say that the government will address "the challenges and opportunities the UK faces in a more competitive world". A move with the times the government has had a W...

G20: A more equal post-COVID world - Atlantic Council on GEO´ Posted by PRChannel Team - Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has been especially damaging to the economic well-being of women—worsening gender inequality by crippling women’s employment and earning opportunities while exacerbating household challenges such as violence against women. Monday, March 8—marks International Women’s Day, this year aptly themed “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world.” As the agenda takes shape for the Group of Twenty (G20) presidency—which passed to Italy in December 2020 in the midst of the coronavirus crisis—to address the pandemic, climate change, and other transnational challenges, the bloc must take steps to ensure women are central to the more equitable and inclusive recovery that it seeks, the world’s women need, and the global economy demands. Gender inequality is certainly not a new feature of G20 economies; on...

Hundreds of Businesses Exposed in Verkada camera hack . By Iain Fraser - Geopolitical Journalist www.GEOPoliticalmatters.com Its believed a small group of hackers managed to access both live and archived surveillance footage from hundreds of businesses including Tesla by gaining administrative access to camera maker Verkada over the past two days. The story which broke first on Reuters and focuses Tillie Kottmann a Swiss software developer who showed them evidence including recordings taken inside a Tesla factory a prison in Alabama, various hospital rooms, a police interview area and community gym´s. While the hackers have not yet been identified it is believed they hacked the system using credentials publicly available (OSINT) To read the full story and analysis  Log In  |  Register

What global trade has to do with COVID-19 Posted By PRChannel Team - Gibraltar (Remote) www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com A global dispute over access to COVID-19 vaccines suggests a new role for the World Trade Organization, although purists will bridle at that possibility, according to the Financial Times.  “People are dying in poor countries,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said on her first day in office on March 1, Reuters reports. “The world has a normal capacity of production of 3.5 billion doses of vaccines and we now seek to manufacture 10 billion doses.” India and South Africa proposed waiving the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement rules on intellectual property (IP) that govern the production and export of vaccines and other medical supplies needed to combat COVID-19, Bloomberg explains. Backers of the exemption, humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières among them, say it’s unscrupulous for wealthy economies to hoard the vaccine and drug companies to put profit before lives in...

Chancellor throws UK economy a lifeline  By Iain Fraser - Geopolitical Journalist www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak has delivered a budget specifically designed to get Britain through the Covid-19 crisis in what is hoped as "one final push" to kickstart the economy and to be prepared to embrace the post-covid economy. The sting in the tail is a hike in corporation tax from 2023 seen to go some way toward asuaging the hard hit public finances. Sunak said that the economy would return to its pre-pandemic size in mid-2022, six months earlier than previously forecast, helped by Europe’s fastest coronavirus vaccination programme. But lasting economic damage equivalent to 3% of annual output would persist, and 65 billion pounds ($91 billion) of extra support was needed in the short term as restrictions were lifted over the next few months, he said. Britain’s first rise in corporation tax since 1974 will see big, profitable companies pay 25% fro...

Russian people reluctant to have Sputnik vaccine GEO´ By Iain Fraser - Geopolitical Journalist www.geopoliticalmatters.com When Russian pensioners were offered the Covid vaccine Sputnik 5 only 3% of them registered for the jab. The development of the Russian Sputnik 5 anti-Covid vaccine it had scron poured on its mainly by the west. They were incredulised that Russia could develop an effective vaccine, however the Lancet medical journal showed it to be 91.6% effective against coronavirus, up there with the world's best. That official endorsement from the medical journal was a political triumph as well as a huge scientific one and while countries from Latin America to Europe are now ordering batches of Sputnik, the rollout in Russia itself has been slow, as people prove deeply reluctant or suspicious to be injected.  Read Full Story  Log In  |  Register