For our final show in February and with increasing talk in the media of wars, and the possibility of the re-introduction of conscription, we reported today on the possible risks posed to our country by an electric car charging device.
A few years ago who could ever have imagined that a charger for electric cars would have to one withdrawn from the market over fears that it could be used by unscrupulous people to conduct cyber-attacks against the National Grid?
But it’s all true the popular charger, COPPER SB has been flagged due to its failure to comply with stringent cyber security laws enacted in 2021.
Apparently this is all due to the fact that for user convenience, the device can be connected to the internet thus allowing it to be controlled by a smartphone.
As a result hackers, potentially operating from adversarial nations, could theoretically seize control and by activating devices en masse, orchestrate a coordinated attack, triggering widespread electricity blackouts.
It should be stressed that so far no evidence of a flaw within the model has as yet been uncovered, nevertheless authorities are sufficiently concerned to withdraw the product from sale however, there are as yet no plans to recall units already installed in homes.
Vulnerabilities of our increasingly connected world are now coming to light even from seemingly benign devices where the stability of our national infrastructures are hanging in the balance.
Crikey!
In the second hour of today’s programme we highlighted a far less worrying topic, although for one man, a huge disappointment.
After buying a ticket on the Powerball draw using a mix of family birthdays and other numbers of personal significance, John Cheeks was excited beyond measure after his chosen numbers were posted on the website of the DC Lottery in Washington, run by Taoti Enterprises.
But when he went to collect his winnings, he was told that the company had posted the wrong numbers by mistake and even though the post remained on line for 3 days, these were not the numbers that had actually been drawn.
An employee at the office simply said that the ticket was “no good” and that Mr Cheeks should “just throw it in the trash can”, adding: “You’re not going to get paid. There’s a trash can right there!”
Nice!
But Mr. Cheeks didn’t follow that advice but armed with the ticket and a screen shot of the published draw result, contacted a lawyer who subsequently told reporters that the lottery operator had failed to produce any evidence to support their claim that the error was due to a mistake by one of their contractors.
He went on to assert that even if a mistake had been made, a precedent existed since in a similar case in Iowa, a mistake admitted to by a contractor, still resulted in the claimed winnings being paid out.
Of course you could really get lucky like the recently reported couple from Colne, Lancashire, Richard and Debbie Nuttall, who whilst holidaying in the Canary Islands received a text declaring them winners of the EuroMillions jackpot.
They originally thought they’d scooped £2.60 but it later emerged that they’d actually won over £61.7m.
Well there you go!
Hope to see you again tomorrow,
Scott
