As predicted, debit and credit card, and other cashless payment systems now make up most financial transactions, but could this mean a change in the understanding of the value of money in the young generation?

In 2015 Cards Overtook Cash.

Back in May 2015, the number of cash transactions dipped below cashless transactions for businesses, consumers and financial organisations. At that time cash made up only 48% of financial transactions, beaten by cheques (to an ever decreasing extent), credit cards, debit cards, contactless cards, direct debits, and standing orders. This led experts to predict a continued downward trend for cash, perhaps reaching £13 billion in value by 2023 compared to cashless transactions of £27 billion+. This trend appears to be very much on the course predicted, with Millennials, and now Generation-Z getting used to a world where cash plays a smaller, and decreasing part in their lives, shunned in favour of online purchasing using cards and PayPal.

Different View of Value?

Some financial and technical commentators have suggested that a change in the perception of the ‘value’ of money could be something that could be taking / could soon take place among the young because of:

• Money becoming more ‘invisible’ and intangible through the use of more cashless transactions.
• Less emphasis on the importance of physical cash from parents who are themselves used to using cards for most transactions.
• Money becoming more difficult to track because of so many card-based transactions.
• Parents topping up phones for children rather than giving them cash.
• The ability to make contactless payments with cards
• The introduction of new currencies e.g. Bitcoin, which is web-based and doesn’t go through central banks.

Why The Move Away From Cash?

The reasons why the move from physical cash to cashless and invisible is still progressing include:

• A fall in the price of card readers and card transactions, and banks making it easier for more smaller businesses to take cards, which means that many smaller businesses can now offer chip and PIN services.
• The growth of self-service checkouts.
• The continued growth of internet shopping.
• The expanded use of top-up cards, and transport cards with longer terms than paper tickets e.g. Oyster card.
• Vending, parking, and other machines accepting cards.

Will Cash Disappear Soon?

According to the Payments Council, cash is still an important way for many people to carry out day-to-day purchases, and to tightly control their spending. Plus, for 3.5 million people it is the only method that is used. Despite predictions of cash soon becoming a minority system, The Payments Council has said that cash will not disappear completely.

Different Perception of Value?

The idea that perceptions of the value of money are changing has not been fully tested and is currently based upon more anecdotal evidence, guesswork and assumptions.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Offering customers the chance to pay using very convenient, cashless means i.e. by card (on and offline over the phone), PayPal, top-up cards / top-up online accounts etc. is therefore likely to be an important way to contribute to positive customer experiences of your business, help your business to remain competitive, reduce the cost of sales, and get money quickly into the business in a convenient way.

A 5 year pilot scheme is being introduced to English schools, which will focus on teaching children cyber security skills in a bid to fill a skills gap in this area across the UK.

Cyber Crime Now an Important National Issue.

The risk of criminals (or foreign powers) hacking into critical UK computer systems ranks as one of the top four threats to national security. The importance of combating cyber crime as a national and an international issue has been brought into sharp focus over the last year by (for example) :

• Reports last year (such as Symantec’s in April) showing a big increase in cyber crimes such as online fraud in the UK.
• Multiple high profile data breaches reported in the media such as the Tesco bank hack (and theft).
• State-sponsored hacking threats outlined in Chancellor Philip Hammond’s National Cyber Security Strategy speech.
• Alleged state-sponsored hacking in the US elections.
• The setting up of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) with help from GCHQ, and the introduction of the National Cyber Security Programme, including ‘CyberFirst’.
• A warning by the Commons committee last week that a cyber skills shortage is undermining confidence in the UK’s cyber defences.

The Skills Gap.

The recent Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report highlights concerns about the UK government’s efforts to protect government data from attackers, with one of these concerns being for the apparent lack of suitable cyber security skills in the country i.e. a cyber skills gap.

The New Pilot Scheme.

Under the new five-year pilot scheme, 5,700 pupils aged 14 over in English schools will spend up to four hours a week studying cyber security. The lessons will take the form of classroom and online teaching, including the setting of real-world challenges, and the introduction of work experience opportunities from September this year. The lessons will fit around the pupils’ current courses and exams.

£20 Million To Spend.

It has been reported that The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is providing £20m for the new cyber security lessons, and the intention is that:

• Pupils can learn cutting-edge cyber security skills which could help them to find employment in a fast-growing cyber security industry that currently employs 58,000 experts.
• Talent in this area can be identified and nurtured.
• UK businesses and governments can benefit from the skills of home-grown cyber-security experts, and the skills gap can be significantly narrowed in the near future.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Businesses and governments need to get together and find effective ways to bridge the widening cyber-skills gap. Both governments and businesses are targets for cyber criminals, and both would benefit from the outcomes of the up-to-date education and training of a new generation of cyber security experts. This pilot, along with other initiatives could go some way to narrowing a UK cyber security skills gap, and therefore reducing the risk of each of us becoming a victim of cyber crime.

An estimated 1.5 million WordPress pages were attacked and defaced in January via a vulnerability in the platform’s REST API.

What Vulnerability?

The vulnerability in the REST API (the Application Programming Interface of the REST architecture that makes up the pages) meant that unauthorised persons could modify the content of any post or page in a WordPress website. The fact that the vulnerability was there, and that attacks were taking place through it, was flagged up to WordPress by web security firm Sucuri on 20th January. At that point, approximately 67,000 pages had been compromised and defaced in four separate attack campaigns. The latest figures put the number of compromised pages at 1.5 million, and the number of unique affected websites at around 40,000 (because many pages in the same website were attacked in most cases).

Hackers Competing.

A patch was developed and issued to all users on 26th January, but the vulnerability had already become widely known among hackers, and it appears that 20+ hackers or even groups of hackers had been competing with each other to compromise as many WordPress pages as possible.

Defeated The Blocking Rules.

Hackers in this case were able to get around the blocking rules that had been put in place by web hosting companies and firewall suppliers in order to prevent attackers from exploiting just such vulnerability.

Defaced Pages.

Since the flaw allowed hackers to modify any page or post in the WordPress websites, hackers defaced pages by leaving images and messages in pages / posts saying “was here” or similar.

Defacing Doesn’t Bring Money.

Technical and security commentators have pointed out that hackers are generally looking for ways to monetise website vulnerabilities, and defacing pages does not offer this. The fear is, therefore, that next move will be for hackers to use the vulnerability remaining in any sites to spread malware, or to launch spamming attacks.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

WordPress is the most popular website platform in the world, and many businesses use them. A vulnerability of this kind is therefore a serious matter which could cause disruption to businesses, and create costs and other potential problems in trying to put the issue right. Many businesses may not have checked their web pages recently, and may not even be aware that they have been attacked, and their pages have been defaced. Businesses with WordPress websites can therefore protect themselves against the vulnerability by upgrading to WordPress 4.7.2 or, e.g. signing up for WordFence’s firewall service.

Lockheed Martin UK has announced that it is supporting the UK government’s CyberFirst initiative, designed to attract and fast-track tomorrow’s online security experts.

What Is CyberFirst?

The CyberFirst skills initiative was piloted and launched by GCHQ in May 2016, as part of a government / industry partnership. CyberFirst is the next step on, and hopefully the beneficiary of GCHQ’s Cyber Summer Schools programme, and other UK initiatives designed to uncover cyber security expert potential, such as the Cyber Security Challenge and the National Maths Challenge.

CyberFirst is part of the National Cyber Security Programme at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), and under the scheme, it is hoped that 250 recruits could receive £4,000 student bursaries, paid work placements, and employment in cyber security work after their graduation.

Lockheed Martin UK

In supporting the initiative, global security and aerospace company Lockheed Martin UK will be sponsoring students over 3 years, and providing them with work placements as part of their studies.

The Chief Executive of the company, Paul Ruddock, has publicly acknowledged the cyber skills gap that is widening in businesses, and has stated that Lockheed Martin are excited to be part of the CyberFirst.

Report Confirms Cyber Concerns

Lockheed Martin’s partnering with government to actually do something to bridge the cyber skills gap is music to the ears of those who have read the report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The report highlights concerns about the UK government’s efforts to protect government data from attackers, with one of these concerns being for the apparent lack of suitable cyber security skills in the country.

Change From Monitoring And Mopping Up To Proactive Prevention.

Richard Parris, chief executive at cyber security company Intercede, has been reported as highlighting the fact that most of the 120bn currently being spent on cyber security, is used up in monitoring for, and clearing up after breaches. He believes therefore that as well as having highly secure, user-friendly and cost-effective alternatives to often complicated authentication procedures on websites, more money should be spent on mitigating the initial risk of online data security breaches. The skilled individuals produced as part of the CyberFirst initiative, could help this pro-active risk spotting, and risk reducing process.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Lockheed Martin’s support of the CyberFirst initiative is a boost, and sends a message to other businesses and potential supporters that business and government need to get together, and find effective ways to bridge the widening cyber skills gap. Both governments and businesses are targets for cyber criminals, and both would benefit from the outcomes of the up-to-date education and training of a new generation of cyber security experts.

President Trump’s order to ban immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries has led to 30 more US technology firms openly expressing their opposition to it.

127 Total

The 30 technology firms, who have just signed a brief opposing the ban, join 97 others who have already filed a legal document objecting to the ban because they believe that the ban will not only harm their businesses, but that it could also be unconstitutional.

About The Ban

President Trump’s executive order meant that as well as the suspension of US entry permission for nationals of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, Syrian refugees have also been banned indefinitely. There is, however, a temporary restraining order in place allowing visa holders from the seven named countries entry into the US until the case has been heard in its entirety.

The Objections From Tech Businesses

The order may be considered by many to be unconstitutional for several reasons. Firstly, it appears to have been poorly vetted and researched, and appears to be irrational. The order is also regarded by many as being unconstitutional because it appears to violate the separation of power between the federal government and the states, and it violates the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause because of its apparent bias against Muslims.

In terms of potential damage to technology businesses, the ban may make the US a less attractive country for tech businesses and tech workers to move to, and could, along with possible changes to H-1B visas, cause skilled immigrant tech workers and whole start-ups to move out of the US to other countries e.g. India or China. Innovation and the competitive edge that many US companies derive partly from their many immigrant workers could therefore also suffer.

The Brief and the New Signatories

The latest technology companies to object have signed up to the amicus brief. This allows parties not directly involved in a case, but who feel that they have been / could affected by it to give their view. The 30 new signatories include some big names, such as HP, Adobe, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This case illustrates how the attractiveness of the business environment is important in any country, in terms of attracting skilled labour and businesses. Governments and leaders who can make the business environment attractive, and manage security matters well at the same time can therefore bring economic benefits to their countries. This case also illustrates how some industries, more than others, such as the technology industry (which is the same in the UK also) rely on access to labour from many different countries. These industries can therefore suffer if government messages, rules, policies and interventions act not just as a deterrent to potential economic and wealth contributors, but also unsettles and upsets existing, well established existing, big companies.