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Press statement by Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe18 March 2021

Last week marked 1 year since WHO announced that the Public Health Emergency of International Concern declared on 30 January 2020 represented the first ever pandemic caused by a coronavirus.

Since then, weve seen nearly 42 million cases in this region alone, and more than 120 million globally. But weve also seen giant scientific leaps and the introduction of effective tools that give us power over the virus, when used.

The power of the collective. The heroism of our frontline. When I look back at the past year, I see remarkable attributes we have all expressed to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Ultimately, our behaviour is saving lives.

The danger, however, is still clear and present.

The current situation is most acute in parts of the Region that were successful in controlling the disease in the first 6 months of 2020. It is in central Europe, the Balkans and the Baltic states where case incidence, hospitalizations and deaths are now among the highest in the world.

Case incidence continues its increasing trend, and is moving eastwards. We have now seen 3 consecutive weeks of growth in COVID-19 cases with over 1.2 million new cases reported last week across Europe.

Last week, deaths in the Region surpassed 900 000. Every week, more than 20 000 people across the Region lose their lives to the virus. The number of people dying from COVID-19 in Europe is higher now than it was this time last year, reflecting the widespread hold this virus has.

We are yet to see the widespread health impact and benefits of vaccines, which I can also assure you will come. But for now, we need to remain steadfast in our application of the full range of tools to respond.

Some 48 out of 53 European countries or territories have reported the B.1.1.7 variant of concern, which is gradually becoming predominant in our region. And yet, in the context of this faster spreading variant, several countries including but not limited to Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom have rapidly reduced transmission with public health and social measures to levels that can, and must, be kept low.

Five countries in the Region have received vaccines from the COVAX Facility fair and equitable access to vaccines, the overarching concept of COVAX, is happening in reality. The gap in access to vaccines in our region is narrowing, yet inequity persists, with all high-income countries having rolled out vaccination, but only 60% of middle- and lower-income countries having done so.

As of today, a total of 46 countries in the Region have administered more than 107 million doses of vaccine. Three percent of the population in 45 countries have received a completed vaccination series, and data from 23 countries indicates that 51% of health workers have received at least 1 dose.

While 27 countries are currently in a partial or full nationwide lockdown, 21 are gradually easing restrictive measures. Some are doing so based on the assumption that increasing vaccination uptake in countries would immediately lead to an improved epidemiological situation. Such assumptions are too early to make.

Let there be no doubt about it, vaccination by itself particularly given the varied uptake in countries does not replace public health and social measures.

With vaccination coverage in the Region ranging from less than 1% to 44%, it is also far too early to demonstrate the effect of vaccines on overall COVID-19 hospitalization and deaths. Nonetheless, early data from Israel, Scotland and the UK, linked to effectiveness against severe disease by the Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines, is promising and show lives are being saved.

As vaccine uptake increases, their broader impact will become visible, and studies like these will guide policy and improve our understanding of how the different vaccines contribute to our response. We welcome these studies, stressing that the available data is limited and that further research is urgently needed.

The WHO Regional Office for Europe and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control have developed a robust protocol to study vaccine effectiveness in community settings to allow effective comparison of the results between countries.

A number of countries in the Region have temporarily suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine as a precautionary measure, based on reports from a few countries of rare blood coagulation disorders in persons who had received the vaccine. The detection, investigation and assessment of these cases is a testimony to strong surveillance and regulatory mechanisms.

In vaccination campaigns, it is routine to signal potential adverse events. This does not necessarily mean that the events are linked to the vaccination. Venous thromboembolism is the third most common cardiovascular disease in the world. It happens in populations regardless of whether they are vaccinated or not. COVID-19 vaccination will not reduce illness or deaths from other causes.

As of now, we do not know whether some or all of the conditions have been caused by the vaccine or by other coincidental factors. WHO is assessing the latest safety data, and once completed, the findings will be made public. At this point in time, however, the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine far outweigh its risks and its use should continue, to save lives.

Vaccines work, and will eventually allow a return to a new normal. But for that to happen, we need to rely on science and have confidence in the incredible protection afforded by vaccines against all vaccine-preventable diseases, including COVID-19.

Meanwhile, we have one eye fixed on the future. This week, the Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development, chaired by Professor Mario Monti, issued a call to action to rethink policy priorities in the light of pandemics, to fix the fractures and address the conditions that allowed COVID-19 to happen. This is a concrete step towards making health a centrepiece of society, preparing for future health emergencies and making sure that the notion of health as peripheral is a thing of the past.

Stay safe. Thank you.

Read more here:
Statement WHO European Region: COVID-19 case incidence on the rise as deaths edge towards 1 million - World Health Organization

The Marshall Liberal Government today launched a national first campaign Quit your way in May that will encourage South Australian smokers to join in and find their way to be smoke free for the month of May, or even part of the month.

Smokers have told us that they want to quit smoking their own way and that is why we are launching the Quit your way in May campaign, Minister for Health and Wellbeing Stephen Wade said.

We are encouraging smokers to think about what quitting approach might work for them, and to make plans to have a go at quitting this May.

It usually takes more than ten attempts to successfully quit smoking so setting a short-term goal gives smokers an opportunity to experience success and celebrate stopping smoking, even for a short amount of time. Hopefully that initial success will give them the skills and confidence to quit long term.

Smokers who register for Quit your way in May can choose to receive regular emails to assist them with preparing to quit smoking and to provide support and advice throughout their quit attempt. And because we know smokers benefit from quitting with others, a Facebook support group has been established.

We also want to remind smokers that the Quitline is always there if they need some additional assistance.

Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia Tobacco Control Unit Manager, Dr Clinton Cenko, said that quitting is a really good way to reduce stress and anxiety in the longer term.

Although people generally think that smoking relieves cravings and stress, smoking can actually increase your stress hormones in the longer term, Dr Cenko said.

But by about six weeks after quitting smoking, research indicates that most people feel less stressed and in a better mood than when they smoked.

Quitting for a month means that participants will be well on the way to improving both their physical and mental health.

Successful quitter, Esther Nimmo, said smoking was part of her lifestyle for a long time but it was making her sick and she knew she needed to take action for her overall health.

I hated the control smoking had over me and it gave me a heightened sense of anxiety because I knew it was not good for me, Ms Nimmo said.

It took ten attempts before I was successful in quitting smoking, but I feel fitter, healthier and happier since I quit. My self-esteem and my mental health are better as a result of quitting smoking.

Id like smokers to know that while it can be challenging to quit, they arent alone on this journey and the benefits for quitting for your physical health and mental health are truly worth it.

To register and get helpful tips and support, visit http://www.quityourwayinmay.com.au

More:
Quit Your Way in May - Premier of South Australia

The malware can grab login credentials for more than 450 apps and bypass SMS-based two-factor authentication

Cybercriminals are attempting to take advantage of the popularity of Clubhouse to deliver malware that aims to steal users login information for a variety of online services, ESET malware researcher Lukas Stefanko has found.

Disguised as the (as yet non-existent) Android version of the invitation-only audio chat app, the malicious package is served from a website that has the look and feel of the genuine Clubhouse website. The trojan nicknamed BlackRock by ThreatFabric and detected by ESET products as Android/TrojanDropper.Agent.HLR can steal victims login data for no fewer than 458 online services.

The target list includes well-known financial and shopping apps, cryptocurrency exchanges, as well as social media and messaging platforms. For starters, Twitter, WhatsApp, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Outlook, eBay, Coinbase, Plus500, Cash App, BBVA and Lloyds Bank are all on the list.

The website looks like the real deal. To be frank, it is a well-executed copy of the legitimate Clubhouse website. However, once the user clicks on Get it on Google Play, the app will be automatically downloaded onto the users device. By contrast, legitimate websites would always redirect the user to Google Play, rather than directly download an Android Package Kit, or APK for short, said Stefanko.

Even before tapping the button there are signs that something is amiss, such as the connection not being secure (HTTP instead of HTTPS) or that the site uses the .mobi top-level domain (TLD), rather than .com used by the legitimate app (see Figure 1). Another red flag should be that even though Clubhouse is indeed planning to launch the Android version of its app soon, the platform is at present still available only for iPhones.

Figure 1. Notice the difference in the URLs between the fraudulent (left) and legitimate (right) website

Once the victim is hoodwinked into downloading and installing BlackRock, the trojan tries to purloin their credentials using an overlay attack. In other words, whenever the user launches one of the targeted applications, the malware will create a data-stealing overlay of the application and request the user to log in. Instead of logging in, the user unwittingly hands over their credentials to the cybercriminals.

Using SMS-based two-factor authentication (2FA) to help prevent anyone from infiltrating your accounts wouldnt necessarily help in this case, since the malware can also intercept text messages. The malicious app also asks the victim to enable accessibility services, effectively allowing the criminals to take control of the device.

To be sure, there are other ways to spot the malicious decoy besides those shown in Figure 1. Stefanko points out that the name of the downloaded app Install, instead of Clubhouse should be an instant red flag. While this demonstrates that the malware creator was probably too lazy to disguise the downloaded app properly, it could also mean that we may discover even more sophisticated copycats in the future, he warned.

Figure 2. The installation prompt

This is perhaps also a good opportunity to brush up on mobile security best practices:

For a more thorough take on how to protect yourself against mobile security threats, head over to this article.

Read more from the original source:
Beware Android trojan posing as Clubhouse app - We Live Security

How do these perpetrators of crime in most cases manage to silence or intimidate victims and their families is a question that remains unanswered; as does the question why police fail protect victims and their family members.

According to the NCRB's "Crime in India" 2019 report, Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of crimes against women (59,853), accounting for 14.7 percent of such cases across the country. UP also had the highest number of crimes against girl children under the POCSO Act and ranked second in terms of rapes committed.

The Yogi Government however claims that crime has come down in UP in the last four years. Government says that there is almost 66 % decline in cases of loot, 19 % in murders and more than 45 % in the incidents of rape and molestation.

It says in 1535 police thanas, women help desks have been set up. Besides, 135 criminals have been killed in the last four years in 7791 encounters.

Take your pick on what you want to believe in Yogis Ram Rajya.

More:
What the publicity blitz to observe four years of Yogi as CM will not tell - National Herald

Todays columnist, Mark Kerrison of New Net Technologies, invokes David Bowie to get the point across that the vast majority of security issues are tied to changes. luvhermit CreativeCommons Credit: CC PDM 1.0

Despite his one-time appearance in the film The Prestige as Nikola Tesla, its unlikely David Bowie spent much of his time studying up on the challenges of technology. Still, he seemed to know what he was talking about when the glam rock and fashion icon encouraged us to Turn and Face the Strange, Ch-Ch-Changes. Bowie would fully understand that all data breaches or malware vectors are tied to changes. Facing those changes with a proper change control implementation has become so crucial for that very reason: Any change that slips by the team could introduce a malware disaster.

Gartner reports that 85 percent of all problems faced by IT teams, whether theyre operational or security, are often tracked to some form of change. They likewise predict that 90 percent of security breaches could have been detected with an effective change and configuration management process. Given that the average Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) a data breach runs about 190 days after infiltration, the longer a firm goes without a fully-implemented change control process, the more likely they are to suffer a devastating breach or even a ransomware attack. To properly implement change control, companies must start by understanding it.

This technology lets security teams identify changes in any environment so that any changes that represent a threat or open software up to a vulnerability are correctly identified as such. Unlike change management, which focuses on a given companys process in introducing change, in change control security teams understand what those changes are and their effect on the software environment.

Consider a zero-day attack, which by its nature can bypass whitelists and firewalls. The malware may go undetected, but the underlying changes to existing functions which enable that malware must occur. Change management helps firms avoid unexpected changes, but its in the realm of change control that they can determine those unexpected changes and deal with them.

We can identify these changes in four essential types:

Effective change control analyzes all changes, discerning between those that were harmless and ideally approved and those that were neither approved nor harmless. There are a few critical integrations an effective solution should leverage. Security teams should integrate data from change management into the change control solution. They need to empower that solution with analysis and Threat Intelligence to learn the patterns and behaviors of good changes, so that the team can reduce change noise and they can assess unexpected changes and assigned risk context.

Once detecting those risk-associated changes, an effective technology should offer remediation, using that risk context to help operations teams prioritize in the remediation process. Leveraging intelligent change control products and processes will better protect organizations from a breach, and also help spot potential breaches and contribute to enhanced IT operations.

Mark Kerrison, chief executive officer, New Net Technologies

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Turn to face the 'ch-ch-changes' of change control | SC Media - SC Magazine