Apple is reported to have released an urgent software update on Wednesday, days after Turkish developer Lemi Ergin publicly reported a simple but serious bug in its Mac Operating System.

MacOS High Sierra Affected

The bug was discovered in the most recent version of MacOS High Sierra. It has been reported that, by entering the username “root”, and leaving the password field blank, and hitting the enter key several times, a user is granted unrestricted access to powerful administrator rights on the computer.

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A researcher has suggested that the GDPR fine structure could lead to cyber-criminals being given price points to set their ransoms at because now they know how much money they should be asking.

GDPR

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force 25th May 2017. As part of the enforcement mechanism, a fine structure has been published to encourage compliance with the Regulation. The fine structure for GDPR is actually tiered depending upon the scope of the violation, but it has been published and widely publicised that lesser violations will attract fines of 2% of global turnover, and more serious violations will attract fines of up to €20 million, or 4% of their global turnover (whichever is greater).

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The crypto-currency Bitcoin has now reached a record high of $10,000 (£7,462) after only trading at $1,000 at the start of the year, with some experts saying it’s got further to climb.

What Is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a digital web-based currency that operates without the need for central banks and uses highly secure encryption (a crypto-currency) to regulate the currency units and to verify transfers of funds. Bitcoin, which was first produced in 2009, uses the ‘Blockchain’ technology. Blockchain is an open and programmable technology that can be used to record transactions for virtually anything of value that can be converted to code and is often referred to as a kind of ‘incorruptible ledger’.

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A report by the educational charity and think tank ‘Reform’ has suggested that Blockchain technology could be used by the UK government as a more effective, efficient, and modern way to provide verification of the identities of citizens.

What Is Blockchain?

Blockchain is an incorruptible peer-to-peer network (a kind of ledger) that allows multiple parties to transfer value in a secure and transparent way. Blockchain’s Co-Founder Nic Carey describes Blockchain as being like “a big spreadsheet in the cloud that anyone can use, but no one can erase or modify”.

Blockchain technology operates using the IBM cloud and is powered by Hyperledger Fabric 1.0 of Linux Foundation. The developers of the Blockchain system say that the trust between participants is not necessary because trust is embedded in the system itself, and that access to all relevant information is available to participants.

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The government has announced that its new £40m Geospatial Commission will start its strategy of releasing more of the location data held by public bodies to help businesses and boost economic growth, by giving small businesses free access to OS MasterMap® data.

The Commission

It has been announced that the new £40m Geospatial Commission, sitting under the authority of the Cabinet Office, will release Ordnance Survey location data first to help boost business for small companies.

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