Look at the News #2 – Coronavirus News & Major Botnet Takedown

UK and other Coronavirus News

Mandatory Quarantine Introduced for UK Nationals from Red-List Countries

Mandatory quarantine in government-provided accomodation, such as hotels, has been introduced for UK nationals returning from 30 red-list countries. Quarantine will last for 10-days for these individuals.

The quarantine facilities are being set up by the Department of Health and Social Care. Those put into quarantine will be required to pay for their stay. Coronavirus testing will be carried out during quarantine.

The aim of this action is to prevent new mutations of the coronavirus from getting into circulation within the UK. Such nationals will be transported directly from the airport to the place of quarantine.

Currently under the national lockdown people cannot travel abroad without a valid reason, with simply leisure travel not being a valid excuse. People intending to travel abroad must give a declaration as to why they are, which will be reviewed by authorities.

Countries on the red-list include those at-risk of known variants such as countries in Southern Africa, Portugal and South American countries. Foreigners from these red-list countries will be barred from entering the UK altogether.

Labour has said that the new quarantining plan is too limited, for example against emerging strains.

It’s certainly the correct step to take against concerning variants of the virus and I hope the government continues to closely monitor the spread of these new mutations into other countries and quickly update the Red-List accordingly.

South Africa Coronavirus Variant More Contagious

The South Africa strain of COVID is anywhere from 20-200% more contagious than the original. Antibodies created from being infected by the original COVID-19 is also less effective against it.

This means people who were already infected by the original strain may be reinfected via the South Africa variant.

The strain is now dominant in the country of South Africa and is also spreading into other Southern African countries such as Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Malawi and others.

The KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) are helping to learn more about the new strain and also identify its spread into other Southern African countries.

The UK has implemented travel restrictions to and from many Southern African countries due to the new variant, with many on the country Red-List.

Although the news can be a bit worrying it is also hopeful to think that vaccines will likely be able to be edited against this virus fairly easily in the most likely case. It’s good that we are learning more about it, and seeing its differences, which is important. I hope the UK government continues to keep an eye on its spread into other Southern African countries and update the country Red-List as needed.

Schools Reopen Aimed for 8th March

Boris Johnson has said that schools will not be returning after the February half-term, but that it is hoped schools can be opened again from the 8th March, if the government vaccination target is met.

The vaccination target is giving a 1st dose to all people in the top four priority groups by the middle of February.

Johnson also said that Ministers did not yet have enough data to know exactly how soon it will be to safely reopen society and the economy.

Johnson has said it is the intention of government to set out a plan to ease lockdown in the week beginning 22nd February.

Boris Johnson has promised a programme of catch-up and summer schools to mitigate impact of remote learning.

Labour has called for teachers and support staff, and other key school workers, to be prioritised for the vaccine over the February half-term once all in top four priority groups are given the jab.

Getting education back on track is obviously important and also keeping the virus under control is important, so it’s a tricky situation. But many students are suffering, especially those from poorer backgrounds who may struggle to access remote learning, and so it is good to hear there are plans for catch-up programs and summer schools. I also agree that schools being re-opened should warrant teachers, support staff and other key school workers to be vaccinated, it only makes sense.

UK Coronavirus Variant has Differing Symptoms

A study by the Office for National Statistics shows that people with the UK coronavirus variant are less likely to report loss of taste and smell as a symptom, compared to those infected with other variants.

But the study showed symptoms such as coughs, sore throat, fatigue, muscle aches and fever were more common with the UK variant.

The study also showed people with the new variant were more likely to report having symptoms.

Elderly Inpatients Refused Vaccine

A Sky News investigation identified 13 hospitals which denied elderly inpatients a COVID vaccine, despite being within eligible groups. This has prompted calls for the UK Government to change the vaccine policy.

Families said they were told by doctors and nurses that only outpatients were being vaccinated, not patients staying overnight.

Partial reasoning behind this include difficulties in vaccine transportation as well as concerns that patients should receive first and second doses at the same location.

Government sources have indicated that this is not national NHS policy according to Sky News.

It’s obviously a dangerous situation for vulnerable people who are in hospital for other reasons who are in-turn at great risk from coronavirus, considering hospitals would have many COVID patients. I hope the government does plan to make vaccine policy much clearer to help save more lives. It only makes sense that the most vulnerable people are vaccinated as soon as possible.

Internationally-coordinated Take-down of Emotet

An internationally-coordinated action by authorities, one of the largest ever against cyber crime, has taken down a botnet responsible for putting malware on millions of computers worldwide and effecting thousands of companies, it was called Emotet.

Emotet began as banking malware to steal financial credentials, but evolved into an infrastructure tool that was leased out to cyber criminals for breaking into computer networks to install additional malware, including ransomware.

Operation involved law enforcement agencies in UK, North America, and Europe working over a two year period mapping the systems infrastructure.

The operation involved the National Police of Ukraine raiding properties to capture computers that the botnet was being controlled from. Range of digital devices, foreign currencies and gold bars seized.

Emotet would send emails to victims and companies that included malware embedded in via a downloadable link or as a Word document attachment, when clicked and upon accepting a prompt the malware would install

Emotet infrastructure was extensive, several hundred servers across the world, all with different functions to manage infected computers, further spread through networks, and its extensive nature made it harder to take down.

The law enforcement operation hijacked the infrastructure from the inside, infected computers are now being redirected towards police-controlled infrastructure to stop them being exploited further.

The massive criminal cyber operation is believed to have made millions, with authorities obversing $10.5m moved by Emotet operators over a period of two-years on a single virtual currency platform. As much as $500k has been spent by involved cyber criminals to maintain the Emotet infrastructure.

Authorities say Emotet was involved in some of the worst cyber attacks in recent times, including as much as 70% of the entire world’s malwares, many of which resulting in significant economic impacts.

It is a great achievement to be able to take down such an extensive cyber criminal operation as has been done here. Many a times I have often heard people saying that cyber criminal organisations and operations are simply too large to take down as they spread through multiple jurisdictions and managed by many anonymous individuals, and that authorities simply arresting a few people involved won’t do much as they’ll quickly get replaced. But as has been seen here internationally-coordinated authority operations that involve new tactics to take down such large cyber criminal operations are the way forward on this issue.

Of course there will be other cyber criminal operations that will take the place of Emotet but authorities should now be able to implement the lessons of this international authority operation against them in the future and more easily take them down.

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