Tánaiste says the data breach is a real wake-up call on cyber crime for Ireland
Eamon Gilmore Tanaiste says Loyalty-build data breach a timely reminder of the potential costs of cyber crime.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore: told a conference on cyber security organised by the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin yesterday that a number of other countries had already had to respond to similar threats and security incident
The Loyaltybuild data breach was a timely reminder of the potential costs of cyber crime to the individual, to businesses and to Government bodies in terms of financial and reputational damage, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has said.
Addressing a conTwo Irish banks have confirmed that there are indications of fraudulent activity on credit cards caught up in the Loyaltybuild breach, while Clerys, Centra, Stena Line andPigsback have joined the list of companies hit by one of Ireland’s biggest cyber attacks to date. Up to 376,000 customers, including more than 80,000 in Ireland, have had financial information stolen.
ference on cyber security organised by the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin yesterday, Mr Gilmore said a number of other countries had already had to respond to similar threats and security incidents, including South Korea.
In March, the hard drives of 30,000 PCs in South Korea were wiped clean, marking the beginning of a co-ordinated cyber attack on six of the country’s banks.
“The lesson from both of these attacks is clear: individuals, businesses and Government must be constantly vigilant and ensure that our systems evolve to meet the ever-growing threat.”
Mr Gilmore said for a highly globalised country such as Ireland, responding to the global implications of cyber security was essential to protect the human rights of citizens and the pursuit of economic interests.
“Managing the risks arising from malicious use of cyberspace will allow us to continue to benefit from the vast opportunities in the digital economy, which currently accounts for almost 100,000 jobs in Ireland.”
However, he said Ireland needed help in fighting sophisticated cyber attacks such as the Loyaltybuild breach.
“We need more European and more international co-operation, as the issues we face are too great for one country or one company to tackle alone.”
He said there was a compelling case for the public and private sectors to work together in responding to these challenges. “Such co-operation in addressing cyber challenges is vital, and also needs the involvement of civil society.”
Mr Gilmore also criticised surveillance measures by certain countries, saying such activity put at risk efforts to keep cyberspace open and free.
“I believe strongly that states should not bug friendly states and I reject out of hand the notion that extra surveillance should take place, just because the technology permits it.”
Richard Bruton leads investment & Jobs mission to India
MINISTER BRUTON ON JOBS TRIP WITH 42 FIRMS TO BANGALORE, NEW DELHI AND MUMBAI
Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton will today begin five-day investment mission to India along with Enterprise Irelandand the IDA.
Some 42 Irish companies and higher education institutions will target sectors including technology, life sciences, financial services, engineering and education during the trip to Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai.
“Central to the Government’s plans for jobs and growth is driving an export-led recovery, and in the past two years we have seen a turnaround in employment in the exporting sectors of the economy,” Mr Bruton said.
“In the three years 2008-2010 Irish and multinational exporting companies lost more than 40,000 jobs, but since 2011 they have added well over 15,000 jobs.”
The Minister said each job added in companies in these sectors led to about one additional job elsewhere in the economy.
Key growth markets such as India were particular targets, he said.
This will be the 17th major trade and investment mission Mr Bruton has led in 32 months since the Government came into office in March 2011.
Ryanair to hire some 300 new staff as it opens nine Dublin routes
New pilots, cabin crew, customer service staff and software developers are to be recruited next year by Ireland's popular airline
Ryanair is to open nine new routes from Dublin and increasing the frequency of eight existing services, creating 300 jobs with the airline and bringing an additional 700,000 passengers through the airport every year.
The new routes will run to Almeria, Bari, Basel, Bucharest, Chania, Comiso, Lisbon, Marrakesh and Prague from April next year, bringing to 85 the number of services that Ryanair operates from the airport. the airline is also increasing the frequency of the Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London Stansted, Madrid, Manchester and Nice routes, bringing the number of flights from 300 to 400.
The company said it plans to recruit new pilots, cabin crew, customer service staff and software developers next year, creating a total of 300 jobs in Ireland. The move is part of Ryanair’s recent pledge to improve its customer service and website, with the extra routes a direct response to the Government’s decision to scrap the €3 travel tax.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary pointed out around half of the 300 new jobs that the airline is creating in Dublin were connected with the expansion announced today and would not have gone elsewhere if the travel tax had not bee cut. “Scrapping the travel tax is key to this growth,” he stressed.
Welcoming the news, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, said the extra one million passengers represented an opportunity for the overall tourist industry.
“I would like to say this to the hospitality sector, you in turn have a real opportunity, with up to one million extra people coming into our country in 2014, you need to engage with those people and the repeat business will follow,” Mr Kenny said.
He also called on other airlines to follow Ryanair and look at expanding their services out of Irish airports.
DAA chief executive, Kevin Toland, said that Dublin Airport is now going through its third successive year of growth, with both long- and short-haul business on the increase.
The number of travellers using the airport to connect to other destinations is up 43 per cent year-on-year, he pointed out.
“What we are seeing is an improvement in European business, which is up 5 per cent to date and the UK is coming back into growth,” he said, adding that Dublin is Europe’s third fastest growing airport.
A daily 90-minute walk can cut stroke risk by a third for men
Walking between one and two hours a day can cut the risk of stroke by a third for men.
Daily 90-minute strolls could cut the risk of a stroke by a third but power walking has little benefit, a study has suggested.
Researchers found the length of time spent walking had a bigger impact than the speed of walking.
They discovered that walking at least one to two hours a day was associated with reduced risk of a stroke.
However strenuous “power walks” did little to lower the likelihood of the disease.
The study, which is published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke, examined 3,435 healthy men aged 60 to 80.
Participants were questioned about the distance they walked each week and their usual walking pace.
The research showed that men who walked for eight to 14 hours each week were a third less likely to suffer a stroke than those who spent no more than three hours walking.
For men walking more than 22 hours a week, the risk was two thirds lower.
“If you took 1,000 men who usually walk 8-14 hours per week and followed them for 10 years, on average they would have 55 strokes, compared with 80 for the group who only walk zero to three hours per week,” said lead researcher Dr Barbara Jefferis, from University College London.
“The total time spent walking was more consistently protective against stroke than walking pace; overall it seemed that accumulating more time walking was most beneficial.
“Our findings suggest that regular walking each week could be an important part of stroke prevention strategies in older people.”
Each year in the UK around 152,000 people suffer strokes, which can be fatal or disabling.
Dr Shannon Amoils, from the British Heart Foundation, which part-funded the study, said: “Whatever your age it’s important to stay active every day. This research suggests a daily walk could help to reduce stroke risk and is further evidence that regular exercise – even a daily stroll in the park – can be an effective way to keep healthy.”
It comes after a study by Harvard researchers in 2010 found that women who walked for two or more hours a week were 30 per cent less likely to suffer a stroke than those who said they rarely walked very far.
It also found that women who said they normally walk at a fast pace, classified as at least three miles an hour, reduced their risk of stroke by 37 per cent.
Afternoon caffeine consumption can interrupt your night-time sleep
Caffeine consumption in the afternoon can interrupt nighttime slumber, a small research study says. Even if you ingest caffeine, whether in pill or liquid form, six hours before bedtime, the effects can still rob you of sleep.
The study, published Friday by Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, focused on 12 healthy people with normal sleep habits. The participants took three caffeine pills per day for four days. One pill contained 400 milligrams of caffeine while the other two were placebos. The pills were taken at different times during the evening: six hours before bedtime, three hours before bedtime, and then right before bedtime.
The results showed the effects were pretty much the same no matter how many hours before bedtime caffeine was ingested. At least one hour of sleep can be lost. In fact, the effects of caffeine can be felt as long as 12 hours post ingestion, and can affect getting to sleep and staying asleep.
Your morning caffeine intake, however, is fine, says Dr. Len Horovitz, an internist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. If you’re concerned about your overall caffeine intake, it’s important to limit your caffeine intake eight hours before your bedtime.
Are you looking for a Natural Pick-me-up?
- Eat breakfast. This is the most important meal of the day. Your mama was right about that. Focus on protein and fiber as these will fill you up. Oatmeal and whole grain cereals, fruit, yogurt and some nuts are all good choices.
- Drink water. Most people do not drink enough water on a daily basis and this is an easily overlooked beverage. If you are well hydrated, you won’t feel as sleepy; this is an effect of being well hydrated. If the taste of water bothers you, you can put in a slice of lime or lemon to freshen the flavor.
- Drink green tea. Aside from having many health benefits, it is caffeine free and you can drink as much as you want although I would suggest drink between 4 and six cups a day.
- Choose healthy snacks. That means avoiding your favorite candy bars as they would give you an all-too-brief energy boost before your energy level crashes. Snacks such as unsalted nuts, vegetables (carrots, celery, radishes) and hard-boiled eggs are portable.
- Take a nap! Ten to 15 minutes should suffice. If you nap longer than that, you will feel groggy the rest of the day.
Lastly, and this should be obvious to everyone, make sure you sleep a set amount of hours every night. Poor sleep habits can contribute to a number of health problems such as weight gain and heart disease. The average is six to eight hours a night but whatever the amount you sleep, it’s important to stick to a schedule. If you slept little the prior night, catching up the following night will not be of much help. It is also not beneficial to sleep in on the weekends when your body is used to awakening at the same time every weekday. Create a sleep schedule and stick with it.
Dogs can now detect a low blood sugar for people with Diabetes
It is thought dogs can detect changes in blood sugar levels due to their highly developed sense of smell. As the blood sugar levels go up or down this causes changes to the body’s metabolism which can alter how a person’s sweat or breath smells. For example, diabetic ketoacidosis can cause a person’s breath to smell like nail varnish.
A study of 17 people with diabetes who had been given a dog trained to sniff out and alert them when their blood sugar (glucose) levels were too low reported the dogs had improved their lives and helped with their diabetes. Blood test results confirmed the perception that the dogs could detect glucose levels outside of a desired range in many cases, and that having a dog made the owner more likely to remain in a desired range.
MEANWHILE IN CANADA: 
A special class of canines is about to graduate from a new program that trains dogs to detect when their owners are having a dangerously high or low blood sugar.
Four dogs and their owners have completed training at the Lions Foundation of Canada in Oakville and are ready to graduate as official “diabetic alert guide dogs” on Thursday — fittingly world diabetes day.
The dogs are trained to detect sudden changes in their owner’s blood sugar through scent and alert them, so that they can take measures to normalize their levels.
The Lions Foundation of Canada is training dogs to detect low blood-sugar levels in patients with diabetes.
According to the foundation, the guide dog’s ability to detect changes in its owner’s breath can help patients avoid slipping into diabetic comas and other life-threating effects.
The canines can also run and seek help from within an owner’s home and even activate an alert system if needed.
“It’s a gradual realization that dogs can do so much more,” said Ian Ashworth, director of program development at the Lions Foundation of Canada.
The dogs are trained to assist people with Type 1 diabetes who breathe into a special container when they are having a low or high blood sugar episode.
The dogs are then exposed to the smells, learning to respond appropriately by either warning the adult patient or fetching a parent for a sick child.
Jade and Brooke Boardman are 11-year-old twins who are living with Type 1 diabetes. They have been paired with a guide dog named Nettle.
Brooke says she feels Nettle will become a valuable friend by her side.
“She can smell there is something wrong then she goes into my dad’s room and jumps on the bed and warns them and wakes him up,” she explained.
Terry Boardman, Jade and Brooke’s father, said he and his wife often stay up all night checking on their daughters’ blood-sugar levels.
He said having this new canine companion will help give him and his family peace of mind.
“It’s very tough at times. The girls are always at risk so having another tool like Nettle to help with this. I can’t explain it, it just means a lot to us,” he said.
The dogs are bred by the foundation and are offered at no cost by the Lions Foundation to patients who qualify, a relief for many families since similar diabetes alert dogs can cost up to $25,000 in the United States.
“Hopefully we are flooded with applications,” said Ashworth.
Linda Brown, a diabetic who suffered from weekly blackouts when her blood-sugar levels would dip too low, said her new dog Wilf has given her a new sense of independence.
“He offers me a lifeline, giving me a chance to get back to doing what I did before and feeling safe,” Brown said.
There are currently about a dozen patients across the country waiting for the next class of diabetic guide dogs to be trained.
The Sun’s magnetic poles about to ‘flip’ their position
One half of a 22-year cycle on the Sun is about to come to a close that will see the star’s magnetic north and south poles flip their positions. The event is imminent, according to solar physicists from NASA, and could have effects that reach billions of kilometres beyond the orbit of Pluto.
Despite its outwardly unflappable appearance, the plasma inside the Sun responsible for its magnetic field is constantly churning. Every 11 years, it reorganises itself in a little-understood clockwork mechanism, in the process inverting the star’s magnetic polarity.
An important part of this mechanism is thought to be a difference in the rates at which material flows from the equator to the poles and back on the Sun’s surface, as well as the fact that the Sun rotates faster at its poles than at the equator.
“As the polarity moves toward the pole, it erodes the existing opposite polarity,” said Todd Hoeksema, director of the Wilcox Solar Observatory at Stanford University, in a press release. Like a tide, “each little wave brings little more water in, and eventually you get to the full reversal”.
In this period, sunspot activity on the Sun intensifies. There are also more violent ejections of charged particles from its surface as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These bursts can interact with Earth’s own magnetic field, prompting a surge in the occurrence of auroras, also known as Northern Lights.
RADIO COMMUNICATION
Moreover, larger flares “can disturb the ionosphere and disrupt radio communication, damage electronics onboard satellites, cause hazards to airlines flights in polar routes, and even electrical blackouts in regions near the Earth’s magnetic poles,” said Prof. Arnab Rai Choudhuri, a theoretical astrophysicist from the Indian Institute of Science, in an interview to The Hindu in August.
Similarly, one beneficial effect is stronger protection against galactic cosmic rays, an influx of energetic particles originating from outside the Solar System which are also known to cause damage to satellites and astronauts orbiting Earth.
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