Author: SKYNEWS

Britons must “strengthen their defences” against the growing threat posed by ransomware developed or enhanced using artificial intelligence (AI), the head of the UK’s cyber security agency has warned. It comes as a new report from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has found that AI is lowering the barrier of entry to novice cyber criminals. The NCSC – which is a part of GCHQ – has also warned that bad actors are using AI to better find and target victims and that the technology will almost certainly increase the volume and impact of cyber attacks in the near term.The…

The leader of an online church who is accused of pocketing $1.3m (£1m) through a cryptocurrency fraud scheme told his followers God told him to do it.Eli Regalado and his wife Kaitlyn marketed their cryptocurrency, INDXcoin, to Christian communities in Denver, Colorado, saying God told him people would become wealthy if they invested, the Colorado Division of Securities said in a statement. They raised nearly $3.2m (£2.5m) from more than 300 people. At least $1.3m of that went directly to the couple or was “used for their own personal benefit”, a complaint filed in Denver County District Court said.According to…

Astronomers have discovered 85 possible planets outside our solar system with temperatures that could be cool enough for life.These exoplanet candidates are similar in size to Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune, and were discovered using data from NASA’s Transitioning Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). TESS enables scientists to observe dips in the brightness of stars, known as transits, caused by objects passing in front of them.Typically, at least three transits need to be seen to discover an exoplanet in this way, in order to determine how long they take to orbit their star.However, in the new study, researchers looked at systems that…

Dame Joanna Lumley says she hates it when people secretly take photos of her in public and will always call them out for their “creepy” behaviour.The Absolutely Fabulous star told Sky News: “I never mind doing photographs with people, but what I don’t like is when they steal them. “They don’t ask, you can just see them quietly at a dinner table, going like that [gestures taking a photo] across the restaurant.”I walk over and say, ‘Shall we do a proper picture?’ And they get a bit flustered and say, ‘Oh, I didn’t want to disturb you’, you know? But…

Paying monthly for car insurance can lead to paying hundreds of pounds extra, according to analysis from a leading consumer group.Those who pay an annual sum typically incur less cost, research from Which? said. The group assessed sales data from comparison website GoCompare and found monthly payers were charged £309 more on average than if they paid only on an annual basis.In a month examined last year, September 2023, it cost £892 on average for a year’s cover paid on a monthly basis, while a one-off annual fee was £583.Read moreWhy has the price of car insurance gone up so…

In recent years superhero, fantasy and animation have dominated the movie box office, making billions of pounds for franchises like Marvel and Star Wars. But their runaway success hasn’t been matched with top awards at the Oscars.But Barbie and Oppenheimer could, at this year’s awards, break that trend. Going back to the 1980s and 1990s, the trend had been that box office hits were often rewarded with Academy Award nods, as shown by our analysis of historic box office data and the Academy Awards Database.Read more: Oppenheimer leads Oscar nominations – with big nods for Barbie too But since the…

Completion of the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant has been delayed for up to another four years, according to the French company developing it.The final cost of the power station, which will be the UK’s first new nuclear plant in decades, could also end up being as much as £46bn. The start of electricity production at the site had been scheduled for June 2027 – but a re-evaluation of the schedule suggests that one of the two planned reactors in Somerset will not be ready until 2029.Another evaluation assumes it could be operational a year later, while a final scenario…

A man has been charged with harassment and stalking following complaints about an “emotionally disturbed male acting erratically” in the vicinity of Taylor Swift’s home, US authorities have confirmed.David Crowe, 33, from Seattle, Washington, was arrested near the pop star’s townhouse in the Tribeca neighbourhood in Lower Manhattan, New York, on Monday evening. He was then taken into custody, where he was charged. A New York Police Department (NYPD) spokesperson said: “Officers were approached by multiple complainants who pointed out an emotionally disturbed male acting erratically at the location.”Once officers observed the male harassing multiple complainants, they took him to…

“Fiscal headroom”. It is a desperately boring term, meaningless to many. Yet this bit of economic jargon may well have the power to swing the next election.It is thanks to fiscal headroom that the chancellor may be able to splurge on billions of pounds of tax cuts in the coming months, hoping to lift the Conservatives’ sagging polls. It is on the basis of “fiscal headroom” that Sir Keir Starmer will decide whether he can go ahead with his much-vaunted plans to invest untold amounts in Britain’s energy sector. All of which raises a rather important question – what is…

Oscar winner Kate Winslet has donated thousands of pounds to help a young girl with a rare eye condition.The British actress, best known for films including Titanic and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, and thriller series Mare Of Easttown, sent the donation and left a message for Lily-Rae Merchant-O’Hanlon on a GoFundMe page set up by her mother, Emma Merchant. Lily-Rae, 11, from Nottingham, was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, an inherited eye condition which causes blurriness in the central part of the eye, in December. Image: Pic: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP The condition affects one in 10,000 people according to…