In addition to questions about the continued use of potentially unreliable and unregulated live facial recognition (LFR) technology, masks to protect against the spread of coronavirus may be presenting a further challenge to the technology.

Questions From London Assembly Members

A recently published letter by London Assembly members Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM and Sian Berry AM to Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick have asked whether the LFR technology could be withdrawn during the COVID-19 pandemic on the ground that it has been shown to be generally inaccurate, and it still raises questions about civil liberties.

Also, concerns are now being raised about how the already questionable accuracy of LFR could be challenged further by people wearing face masks to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Civil Liberties of Londoners

The two London Assembly members argue in the letter that a lack of laws, national guidelines,  regulations and debate about LFR’s use could mean that stopping Londoners or visitors to London “incorrectly, without democratic public consent and without clear justification erodes our civil liberties”.  The pair also said that this could continue to erode trust in the police, which has been declining anyway in recent years.

Inaccurate

The letter highlights concerns about the general inaccuracy of LFR. This is illustrated by the example of first two deployments of LFR this year, where more than 13,000 faces were scanned,  only six individuals were stopped, and five of those six were misidentified and incorrectly stopped by the police. Also, of the eight people who created a ‘system alert’, seven were incorrectly identified.

Others Concerns

Other concerns by the pair outlined in the letter about the continued deployment of LFR include worries about the possibility of mission creep, the lack of transparency about which watchlists are being used, worries that LFR will be used operationally at protests, demonstrations, or public events in future e.g. Notting Hill Carnival, and fears that the technology will continue to be used without clarity, accountability or full democratic consent

Masks Are A Further Challenge

Many commentators from both sides of the facial recognition debate have raised concerns about how the wearing of face masks could affect the accuracy of facial recognition technology.

China and Russia

It has been reported that Chinese electronics manufacturer Hanwang has produced facial recognition technology that is 95% accurate in identifying the faces of people who are wearing masks.

Also, in Moscow, where the many existing cameras have been deployed to help enforce the city’s lockdown and to identify those who don’t comply, systems have been able to identify those wearing masks.

France

In France, after the easing of lockdown restrictions, it has been reported that surveillance cameras will be used to monitor compliance with social distancing and the wearing of masks.  A recent trial in Cannes using French firm Datakalab’s surveillance software, which includes an automatic alert to city authorities and police for breaches of mask-wearing and social distancing rules looks set to be rolled out to other French cities.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Facial recognition is another tool which, under normal circumstances (if used responsibly as intended) could help to fight crime in towns and city centres, thereby helping the mainly retail businesses that operate there.  The worry is that there are still general questions about the accuracy of LFR, its impact on our privacy and civil liberties and that the COVId-19 pandemic could be used as an excuse to use it more and in a way that leads to mission creep. It does appear that in China and Russia for example, even individuals wearing face masks can be identified by facial recognition camera systems, although many in the west regard these as states where a great deal of control on the privacy and civil liberties population is exercised and may be alarmed at such systems being used in the UK.  The pandemic, however, appears to be making states less worried about infringing civil liberties for the time being as they battl

The housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, has said in a speech about safely restarting the housing market that technology such as virtual viewings looks set to play an important part.

Hard Hit Housing

The housing market has been hit extremely hard by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and by the measures taken to curb the spread of the virus. Mr Jenrick highlighted how 450,000 property buyers had to put their plans on hold and 300,000 tenancies come up for renewal each month.  Also, the pandemic has meant that people have been unable to move, many people have been forced to take mortgage holidays or have struggled with rent payments and estate and letting agents around the country have been closed. Housing experts are now predicting a sharp drop in house prices this year.

The construction industry also ground to a halt as lockdown measures were introduced.

It is only now that some estate agents and housebuilding firms have begun to reopen as lockdown restrictions have been relaxed.

How Technology Is Helping

Technology is reported to be helping with the restart of the housing and construction industries in several ways including:

– Estate agents being encouraged to conduct virtual viewings rather than in-person visits to properties.

– Digital transformation projects under the Digital Street plan by HM Land Registry that should allow buyers to carry out parts of the property buying process digitally e.g. using blockchain for contracts and signing deeds online.

– The first-ever virtual hearings for the planning inspectorate which Mr Jenrick has said should take place “within weeks”.

– The UK government using video, phones, and computers to vote remotely on debates.

Measures

On 13 May Mr Jenrick announced the following other measures to help get the housing market and construction moving in the right direction again:

– The First Homes programme (later this year) will give a 30% discount on new homes for key workers including nurses and teachers and police officers as well as local first-time buyers.

– The opening of estate agents’ offices and show homes and allowing and removal companies and the other essential parts of the sales and letting process to re-start.

– Allowing house-building sites to apply to extend their working hours to 9 pm Monday to Saturday in residential areas and beyond that in non-residential areas.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The pandemic has forced many of those in government, business and other walks of life to use and realise the value of technology in order to carry out what work they can whether it is video conferencing, collaborative cloud-based working platforms, or other tech tools. The fact that aspects of the housing market and planning can be carried out in a ‘virtual’ way provides safe and effective ways to help to get things moving again and is making a positive contribution at an exceedingly difficult time.

A Bloomberg NEF (BNEF) report forecasts that sales of combustion engine cars will drop 23 per cent in 2020, whereas worldwide electric car registrations are set to fall by only 18 per cent.

Pandemic Causing Huge Car Sales Downturn

With lockdown measures, a mass loss of income and jobs, the closure of car plants and showrooms worldwide, and a huge dent in ‘consumer confidence’ has come an inevitable downturn in the sales and registrations of new cars in 2020.

Three Years

Colin McKerracher, head of advanced transport at BNEF has said: “The long-term trajectory has not changed, but the market will be bumpy for the next three years.”

Electric Models

The BNEF has also forecast that electric vehicle models will reach 31 per cent of the overall car fleet by 2040, accounting for 58 per cent of new passenger car sales. Combustion engine cars, however, are forecast to continue to gradually decline from their peak in 2017.

There are already 7 million electric cars on the road and electric car sales for this year have been 1.7 million.

Implications For Oil and Electricity

The demand for oil is predicted by BNEF to reduce by 17.6 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2040 as anti-pollution legislation and the resulting increase in electric-powered transport takes over. BNEF also says that the increased number of electric cars could mean a 5.2% increase in the demand for power as well as the need for 290 million charging points by 2040.

Cars Not Sold

The Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) figures show that only 4,321 cars were registered in the UK in April, which is the lowest monthly level since 1946 and marks a massive 97 per cent plunge in sales from the same month in 2019.

Large numbers of unsold cars are now simply stored outside, waiting for lockdown restrictions to be lifted and some kind of upturn in the economy.  For example, the Upper Heyford airbase close to Bicester, in Oxfordshire is currently home to a vast quantity of cars estimated to be worth £35 million.

Air Quality

Lockdown around the world has brought a fast and dramatic decrease in air pollution and subsequent increase in air quality.  For example, nitrogen dioxide levels are reported to have fallen by 40 per cent around over urban areas in China, 20 per cent over Belgium and Germany, and anywhere from 19 to 40 per cent in different parts of the U.S.

The chance to see how much the environment has benefitted from coronavirus restrictions on industry and transport (road, aircraft, and rail) is likely to strengthen the case for electric vehicle ownership worldwide.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

New car registrations are often used as a key economic indicator and the pandemic has clearly been disastrous for the car market including manufacturers and their supply chains around the world. Little or no demand from hard-hit consumers is, of course, at the heart of this massive slump in a huge industry.  It is not surprising, therefore, that the BNEF is suggesting very bumpy times in the industry over the next 3 years.  Electric car ownership, driven by climate targets, industry investment and commitment, and now a perhaps improved perception by consumers who can see how a clean-air electric future could look appears to be something that, once the initial round of recessions starts to lessen could increase towards its projected trajectory.  As well as having implications for the oil and electric industries, increased demand for electric cars could create more opportunities for businesses going forward.

Phones are essentially powerful mobile computers that contain vast amounts of valuable personal information. This article looks at how to tell if your phone has a virus, what to do if you think it has, and how to protect your phone.

Virus or Malware

Both a virus and malware are malicious programs, but in security terms, a virus is a type of malware that copies itself onto your device and malware, the general terms for malicious software, is a type of threat.

Types of Mobile Malware

There are many different types of malware that can infect mobile phones, including:

– Banking malware, many of which are Trojans designed to infiltrate devices and collect bank login and passwords.

– Spyware, used to steal a variety of personal data.

– Ransomware, which locks the phone until the user pays a ransom.

– Mobile Adware, whereby “malvertising” code can infect a device, forcing it to download specific adware types which can then allow attackers to steal personal data.

– Crypto-mining apps, which use the victim’s device to mine crypto-currency. For example, in February 2019, security researchers at Symantec claimed to have discovered 8 crypto-mining apps in the Microsoft Store.

– MMS Malware, whereby attackers can send a text message embedded with malware to any mobile number.

– SMS Trojans, which can send SMS messages to premium-rate numbers across the world thereby landing the user with an exceptionally large phone bill.

Android Vulnerable To Malware From Malicious Apps

Android phones are known to be vulnerable to malicious software that usually arrives via a malicious app that the user has downloaded, sometimes via the Google Play Store or an app from a third-party app shop.  A recent Nokia Threat Intelligence report showed that Android devices are nearly fifty times more likely to be infected by malware than Apple devices.

For example, back in September 2019, Security researcher Aleksejs Kuprins of CSIS cybersecurity services company discovered 24 apps which had been available for download in the Google Play Store that contained spy and premium subscription bot ‘Joker’ malware.  Also, in January 2019, security researchers discovered 36 fake and malicious apps for Android that could harvest data and track a victim’s location, masquerading as security tools in the trusted Google Play Store.

Android phones are also vulnerable to malware and viruses if users download message attachments from an email or SMS, download to the phone from the internet, or connect the phone to another device.

Why?

Reasons why Google’s open-source Android is vulnerable to malware include:

– The complicated processes involved in the issuing of security updates means that important software security updates often get delayed.  This is because unlike Apple iPhones, there are thousands of different Android devices made by hundreds of different manufacturers, each with a range of hardware quality and capabilities.

– The open-source nature of Android, which is also one of its strengths in terms of scope and flexibility, can also lead to more human error and potential security holes.

Apple iOS

Apple iPhones are generally thought to be much less at risk from viruses and malware because they have protections systems built-in which include:

– The need to go through the Apple App Store to download an app. Apple reviews each app for malicious code before it makes it into the store, thereby stopping an obvious method of infection.

– iOS “sandboxing” stops apps from touching data from other apps or from touching the operating system, thereby protecting a user’s contact and other personal data.

– The majority of iOS apps do not run as an administrator, thereby limiting their ability to do damage.

– Apple issues frequent updates to patch any known vulnerabilities, which everyone with a compatible device receives at the same time.

Still Targeted

Although the vast majority of viruses/malware attacks on phones affect Google’s Android phone OS (97 per cent), and viruses are rare on Apple iPhones due to the built-in security measures, they are also still targeted by cybercriminals, and vulnerabilities in iOS platforms do exist.

For example:

– Phishing attacks e.g. bogus pop-up ads are used to trick iPhone users into downloading malicious software.

– Back in August 2019 a Google Project Zero contributor reported discovering a set of hacked websites (from February 2019) that were being used to attack iPhones to infect them with iOS malware and had most likely been doing so over a two-year period.

Signs That Your Phone May Have a Virus

Some of the main signs that your phone may already have a virus/be infected by malicious software are:

– Unusual and/or unexpected charges on your phone bill e.g. additional texting charges.

– Your phone contacts reporting that they have received strange messages from you.

– The phone crashes regularly.

– New/unexpected apps are present.

– Apps crash more often than usual.

– An increase in the number of invasive adverts on your phone (a sign of adware).

– Slowing down of the phone and poor performance.

– Large amounts of data being used, without an obvious cause.

– The battery life is noticeably reduced.

What Next?

If your phone is infected with a virus, take the following steps:

– Switch the phone to airplane mode to stop malicious apps from receiving and sending data.

– Check the most recently installed apps against the listed number of downloads (in the App Store and Google Play).  Low download numbers, low ratings and bad reviews may indicate the need to delete the app.

– Install anti-virus software and carry out a scan of your handset.

– You can also contact your phone’s service provider or visit the high street store if you think you have downloaded a malicious/suspect app

iPhones

If you suspect that your iPhone may be infected:

– Check your apps and delete any unwanted ones.

– Clear the phone’s history and data, and restart.

– Consider installing mobile anti-virus software.

Prevention

Prevention is the best form of cure, and the steps you can take to ensure that your phone is both secure and not infected with a virus include:

– Using mobile security and antivirus scan apps.

– Only using trusted apps / trusted app sources.

– Check the publisher of an app (which other apps they have created), check the numbers of installations and positive reviews before installing an app, and check which permissions the app requests when you install it.

– Uninstalling old apps and turning off connections when not using them.

– Locking phones when they are not in use.

– Not ‘jailbreaking’ or ‘rooting’ a phone.

– Using 2-factor authentication.

– Using secure Wi-Fi and VPN rather than just the free Wi-Fi when out and about.

– Being careful with email security and hygiene e.g. monitor for phishing emails and not clicking on unknown/suspicious attachments and links.

– Being careful with security around texts, social media messages and ads.

App Developers

With apps being the source of many infections of phones, there is an argument that there is responsibility among mobile app developers and those commissioning mobile apps to ensure that security is built-in from the ground up. This should mean making sure that all source code is secure and known bug-free, all data exchanged over app should be encrypted, caution should be exercised when using third-party libraries for code, and only authorised APIs should be used.

Also, developers should be building-in high levels of authentication, using tamper-detection technologies, using tokens instead of device identifiers to identify a session, using the best cryptography practices e.g. store keys in secure containers, and conducting regular, thorough testing.

Going Forward

If you train yourself to regard your phone as another mobile computer (that probably has a lot more personal data on it) that can be targeted by cybercriminals and needs protection, and are cautious regarding apps, emails, texts and adverts, then you are less likely to end up with a damaging virus/malware program on your phone.

New government guidelines from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), after its consultations with bosses, unions and trade bodies have given a glimpse of early forms of post-lockdown working practices.

Draft Plans

The latest seven draft plans from the government, widely reported in the UK media this week, are thought to be the basis of announcements to be made by the Prime Minister on Thursday.  The guidelines are the bare bones of the expected way forward in ‘easing’ the lockdown.

Keep Working From Home

One of the key suggestions in the draft plans that could help protect public health at a vital time, and stop transport systems from becoming immediately overwhelmed is for workers (who can) to continue working from home for the time being.

Changes In Workplace Routines

Suggested changes in workplace routines, and ways in which safety could be improved also include:

– Improved hygiene where correct social distancing is not possible e.g. using physical screens and other protective equipment.

– Businesses with more than five employees conducting risk assessments before staff return to work and explaining how working conditions will be made safer in the light of these.

– Shielding those people considered to be the most vulnerable by banning them from work that cannot be carried out from home.

– Staggering arrival and departure times/staggering on-premises hours, and staggering break periods.

– Reconfiguring seating and tables to keep employees at a safe distance from each other and to reduce any face-to-face interactions.

– Stopping the ‘hot desking’ practice so that employees are more in control of the hygiene of their workspace and are not unnecessarily exposed to more risk.

Buzzfeed, which claims to have seen all seven of the new guidance documents gives more details on its website here: https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/governments-draft-plan-to-ease-lockdown-workpace-in-full

Phase 2

Phase 2 of the government’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, which refers to the easing of lockdown conditions can, however, only take place when the so-called 5 Tests have been met.  These are making sure the NHS can cope, having a ‘sustained and consistent’ fall in the daily death rate, the rate of infection decreasing to ‘manageable levels’, ensuring the supply of tests and PPE can meet future demand and being confident any adjustments would not risk a ‘second peak’

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

With many businesses now fighting for survival and people being in lockdown since the end of March, there is an appetite for work, trade and the economy to be jump-started again, but people are painfully aware of the risk of that triggering a really devasting second peak.  Right now, with no vaccine yet plus limited treatment options for the highly contagious virus, and with schools still closed, although the guidelines are a welcome starting point to help many businesses to prepare for some kind of return, Scotland looks likely to continue lockdown measures beyond a scheduled review this Thursday, and this could also be the case elsewhere in the UK.

The guidelines do highlight, however, how remote working is likely to continue as a safe a practical option for many but that big changes will need to be made to processes and layouts in businesses across the UK, and that some types of businesses e.g. restaurants, cafes and pubs, will find this really challenging.