US internet giant Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO), which disclosed two massive data breaches last year, has revealed that about 32 mln user accounts were accessed by intruders in the last two years using forged cookies.
The company – which is being taken over by Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) - said some of the latest intrusions can be connected to the "same state-sponsored actor believed to be responsible for the 2014 breach", in which at least 500 mln accounts were affected.
"Based on the investigation, we believe an unauthorised third party accessed the company's proprietary code to learn how to forge certain cookies," Yahoo said in its latest annual filing.
Ringing off …
The boss of Britain's biggest telecoms group, BT Group PLC (LON:BT.) has vowed to improve its customer service for both the millions of residential consumers and the other telecoms companies that rely on its network after being stung by widespread criticism.
Speaking at a Deloitte and Enders Analysis Media & Telecoms conference, BT chief executive Gavin Patterson said the company had been taken aback by the criticism it received in a regulatory review of the industry which focused on BT's Openreach unit that runs the national broadband network.
According to Reuters, Patterson said: "Around the DCR (Digital Communications Review), I think it is fair to say we underestimated the degree of criticism in our service and in our levels of investment, this has eroded trust in our brand.”
Construction time …
Growth across Britain's construction industry picked up slightly in February, driven by the civil engineering sector, though a slowdown in new orders added to recent mixed signals for the economic outlook.
The Markit/CIPS Construction Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) edged up to 52.5 last month, from 52.2 in January, above forecasts in a Reuters poll that had pointed to an unchanged reading.
Growth in housebuilding cooled to a six-month low and commercial construction activity contracted for the first time in four months, but this was outweighed by an improvement across civil engineering firms.
Eurozone prices …
Euro zone inflation jumped to a four-year high last month, powering past the European Central Bank's target and putting pressure on rate setters to open talks about when and how extraordinary stimulus measures for the region will be scaled back.
Inflation in the 19 countries sharing the euro rose to 2.0% last month, up from 1.8% in January, data from Eurostat showed today, the highest since the start of 2013 and just above the ECB's target of a rate just below 2%.
Producer price inflation, which feeds into overall inflation with a lag, meanwhile surged to an annual rate of 3.5%, up from 1.6% previously..
Loopholes warning …
Exploiting loopholes in European Union rules could bar Britain from accessing the bloc's securities markets after Brexit, a senior member of the European Parliament said today.
Kay Swinburne, a centre right British MEP, told an audience of financial industry officials not to exploit loopholes in these new rules after Brexit otherwise Britain's ability to access the EU market under so-called "equivalence" terms would be jeopardised.
New EU rules to increase transparency in securities markets come into force in January 2018, just over a year before Britain is set to leave the bloc.
Less hiring …
British firms, especially financial groups, are filling fewer permanent positions as they wait to see what happens once the country triggers its exit from the European Union, according to the boss of Swiss staffing group Adecco.
Following the release of its fourth-quarter results today, Adecco’s CEO Alain Dehaze told Reuters: "We see companies waiting to make decisions on new hiring, as they expect (Brexit) Article 50 to be triggered in the coming months. They want to have more clarity about the future."
He added that a 15% fall in Adecco’s permanent placement business in the UK in the fourth quarter, up from a 5% drop in the third quarter, was essentially related to a decrease in financial services in London.