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10/05/2020

Update: Chinese mainland reports 14 new confirmed COVID-19 cases

A customer buys products at a time-honored food store in east China’s Shanghai Municipality, April 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Xiang)

Twelve cases were domestically transmitted, with 11 reported in Jilin Province and the other one in Hubei Province.

BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) — Chinese health authority said Sunday that it received report of 14 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on the Chinese mainland Saturday, of which two were imported cases reported in Shanghai.

Twelve cases were domestically transmitted, with 11 reported in Jilin Province and the other one in Hubei Province, the National Health Commission said in a daily report.

One new suspected case imported from abroad was reported in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

No deaths were reported Saturday on the mainland, according to the commission.

On Saturday, 74 people were discharged from hospitals after recovery, while the number of severe cases decreased by two to 13.

As of Saturday, the overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 82,901, including 148 patients who were still being treated, and 78,120 people who had been discharged after recovery.

Altogether 4,633 people had died of the disease, the commission said.

By Saturday, the mainland had reported a total of 1,683 imported cases. Of the cases, 1,568 had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 115 remained hospitalized with three in severe conditions. No deaths from the imported cases had been reported.

The commission said four people, all from overseas, were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

According to the commission, 5,840 close contacts were still under medical observation after 427 people were discharged from medical observation Saturday.

Also on Saturday, 20 new asymptomatic cases were reported on the mainland. One case was re-categorized as a confirmed case, and 61 asymptomatic cases, including 16 from overseas, were discharged from medical observation, according to the commission.

The commission said 794 asymptomatic cases, including 48 from overseas, were still under medical observation.

By Saturday, 1,044 confirmed cases including four deaths had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 45 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 440 in Taiwan including six deaths.

A total of 967 patients in Hong Kong, 40 in Macao, and 361 in Taiwan had been discharged from hospitals after recovery.

Source: Xinhua

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06/04/2020

Tomb Sweeping Festival: China pays ‘virtual’ respects to ancestors

Image caption Staff film a tomb sweeping ceremony for a customer

People in China are paying their respects to dead ancestors digitally as the country continues to face the coronavirus outbreak.

The Qingming festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, is usually a time when people visit the graves of friends and family, sprucing up the area and making offerings to their spirits.

But amid fears of another outbreak, the government has advised people to stay away and maintain social distancing.

That’s led to some cemeteries allowing people to come as long as they’ve booked a slot, while others are banning visits completely.

But other companies and burial places have turned to modern technology as they look for ways for families to continue the centuries-old tradition.

Li Quanxi, an official at Beijing’s civil affairs bureau, said: “We want to encourage people to transform social traditions amid the coronavirus outbreak.”

What is Qingming festival?

Qingming festival is one of the most important events in the calendar to commemorate ancestors who are no longer with you.

People clean the graves and burn items such as joss sticks and paper offerings – sometimes quite large ones – to honour the dead and transmit money and other goods to loved ones in the afterlife.

Image caption A woman burns incense ahead of the tomb sweeping festival

The tomb sweeping period falls between 28 March and 12 April.

Making offerings online

It is not completely unknown for pay their respects online, however, with the spread of Covid-19, there are now people who have no other option.

“Cloud tomb sweeping” allows people to “virtually” clean graves and make offerings to spirits.

In pictures: Wuhan partially reopens

One website providing this service is Heavenly Cemetery. On the surface, the website looks like any usual shopping site, although it also allows people to have their own memorial halls for their loved one so family and friends can join.

Relatives can light a candle, burn money and offer objects such as Chinese rice wine and beer. There is even an option for online tomb cleaning.

Media caption Watch: People pay respect to their deceased pets ahead of Tomb Sweeping Day

Funeral company Fu Shou Yuan International launched its own online tomb sweeping service on 12 March. It operates in more than 30 Chinese cities. In its first week, its website had about 87,000 visitors.

George Chen, whose grandparents are buried in Shanghai, visits their tombs every year but will be marking this year’s Tomb Sweeping Day online for the time being.

He told Shanghai Daily: “Old traditions are deeply rooted, but it is quite understandable because it is a special period. I will pay virtual respect and visit the scene once the epidemic ends.”

Getting someone to do it for you via livestream

While taking part in “cloud tomb sweeping” does mean you get to send offerings, it does not include the physical cleaning of a loved one’s tomb.

So some burial spots are now offering relatives a chance to watch a member of staff clean the tomb via a live stream. Others will send you photographs of the cleaned grave.

One cemetery in Shanghai is offering packages where a “valet sweep” starts from as little as 35 yuan (£4).

Image caption Staff hold a ceremony on behalf of a customer

Babaoshan funeral parlour, in Beijing, also offers live stream services.

Zhou Weihua, deputy director of the parlour, told Chinese news agency Xinhua that live streaming could become a future trend.

“Helping clients sweep tombs and holding online commemorative activities not only meets the demand in this special period but also offers more options for people to remember their deceased family members in the future.”

What about Wuhan?

China reported 3,199 deaths from coronavirus with 2,559 of those in Wuhan, where the first cases were recorded late last year.

The city is still in a lockdown which is expected to end on 8 April, and the government has announced that cemeteries will remain closed until 30 April.

Wuhan’s civil affairs department said it would make “unified arrangements to organise staff at cemeteries to hold a collective ceremony to pay tribute to the deceased”.

Source: The BBC

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06/03/2020

Cathay Pacific fined £500,000 over customer data protection failure

A Cathay Pacific plane lands on the tarmac

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined Cathay Pacific Airways £500,000 for failing to protect customers’ personal data.

The UK watchdog said the airline’s computer systems had exposed details of 111,578 UK residents and a further 9.4 million people from other countries.

These included names, passport details, dates of birth, phone numbers, addresses and travel history.

“Appropriate security” was not in place between October 2014 and May 2018.

The ICO said Cathay Pacific became aware of a problem in March 2018, when it suffered a “brute force” password-guessing attack.

The Hong Kong-based firm reported this to the ICO. The regulator said it subsequently uncovered “a catalogue of errors” during a follow-up investigation, including:

back-up files that were not password protected
internet-facing servers without the latest patches
operating systems that were no longer supported by the developer
inadequate anti-virus protection

At least one attack involved a server with a known vulnerability – but the fix was never applied, despite having been public knowledge for more than 10 years.

Steve Eckersley, the ICO’s director of investigations, said there were “a number of basic security inadequacies across Cathay Pacific’s system, which gave easy access to the hackers”.

The airline failed four out of five of the basic cyber-essentials guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre, he added.

Analysis: A wake-up call for others

By Joe Tidy, Cyber-security reporter

I’m told investigators were extremely concerned by the failures they found. It paints a picture of a company that did not take security of personal data seriously, and today’s fine will be a wake-up call to them and other firms. It is, however, only a pittance compared to what it could have been if the hack had occurred more recently.

New GDPR rules have increased the potential maximum fine, and it’s clear the failures here would have warranted a far more severe punishment.

Instead of a £500k penalty, Cathay Pacific could have been hit with a share-holder sickening £470m fine – 4% of its annual global turnover.

The £500,000 fine Cathay Pacific is facing is the maximum possible under the Data Protection Act 1998, which was used instead of the newer GDPR “due to the timing of the incidents in this investigation”.

In July 2019, the ICO announced it would fine British Airways £183m for a breach of its systems, and the Marriott hotel group £99.2m. But both fines were delayed until later this year.

The ICO said that Cathay Pacific had acted promptly once it became aware, and sought expert help from a top cyber-security firm, and had also contacted affected customers.

The report also noted there were no confirmed cases of the personal data being misused – but that it was very likely it would be in future.

In a statement about the fine, Cathay Pacific said it “would once again like to express its regret, and to sincerely apologise for this incident”.

It said “substantial amounts” of money had been spent on security in the past three years.

“However, we are aware that in today’s world, as the sophistication of cyber-attackers continues to increase, we need to and will continue to invest in and evolve our IT security systems.”

Source: The BBC

Posted in addresses, £183m, £500,00, £500,000, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, customer, cyber-attackers, data protection, dates of birth, failure, fined, Hong Kong-based, Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), IT security systems, Marriott hotel group, names, passport details, personal data, phone numbers, travel history, UK watchdog, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

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