Nearly $130bn wiped off crypto, use pen and paper if attacked by cybercriminals

Cryptocurrencies have resumed their sell-off as the US and China deepened their renewed trade war. Bitcoin, the largest digital asset, slumped by as much as 4.6pc towards $110,000 after Beijing raised the stakes in its economic battle with Washington. More than $129bn (£97bn) was wiped off the total cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko, as China imposed restrictions on American subsidiaries of one of South Korea’s biggest shipbuilders. The move was in retaliation to US measures against its own shipping sector. Telegraph 

People should plan for potential cyber-attacks by going back to pen and paper, according to the latest advice. The government has written to chief executives across the country strongly recommending that they should have physical copies of their plans at the ready as a precaution. A recent spate of hacks has highlighted the chaos that can ensue when hackers take computer systems down. The warning comes as the National Cyber-Security Centre (NCSC) reported an increase in nationally significant attacks this year. BBC 

The performing arts union Equity has threatened mass direct action over tech and entertainment companies’ use of its members’ likenesses, images and voices in AI content without permission. The warning came as the union said growing numbers of its members had made complaints about infringements of their copyright and misuse of their personal data in AI material. Its general secretary, Paul W Fleming, said it planned to coordinate data requests en masse to companies to force them to disclose whether they used members’ data in AI-generated material without consent. Guardian 

Vodafone has said a massive blackout in its internet coverage yesterday was not caused by a cyber attack. The issues have now been fully resolved, according to the company, after hundreds of thousands of people reported their wifi, 4G and 5G connections dropping out. “On Monday afternoon, for a short time, the Vodafone network had an issue affecting broadband, 4G and 5G services,” said a Vodafone spokesperson. “This was triggered by a non-malicious software issue with one of our vendor partners which has now been resolved, and the network has fully recovered. SkyNews

Pokémon developer Game Freak has suffered another huge leak of data, revealing the studio’s purported planned projects until 2030. The leak comes a year to the day after a “teraleak” of “significant internal data” that revealed unannounced Pokémon games. Game Freak later acknowledged it was hacked, admitting personal employee information had been obtained. Then, in April this year, Nintendo filed a request to subpoena Discord for the hacker’s identity. Eurogamer

Apple has rebranded its streaming service with “a vibrant new identity”, and it involves a confusing name change. The tech titan snuck the reworked streaming service name into the announcement that the 2025 blockbuster F1 The Movie will be available to stream on the platform from Friday, the 12th of December. Right at the bottom of the press release, Apple says “Apple TV+ is now simply Apple TV”, meaning the service has dropped the “+” from its name. While it’s certainly a cleaner look, it will also make things even harder to distinguish within Apple’s streaming repertoire. WhatHiFi