NEWS 13

Phone-hacking victims expected to challenge CPS decision to end inquiry

SUMMARY:

Phone-hacking victims are expected to demand a review of the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to cease pursuing criminal investigations against Rupert Murdoch’s News UK, Piers Morgan and other former editors at Mirror Group Newspapers.Lawyers representing public figures and others who received payouts from the now closed News of the World or the Sunday Mirror or People said they intended to exercise the victims’ formal right to review after the director of prosecutions (DPP), Alison Saunders, said she had wound up the four-year operation.

FACTS:

• An investigation into hacking at the Mirror Group titles began subsequently, and the overall investigation into newspaper phone hacking and other corrupt practices led to 154 arrests, 45 convictions, at a cost to the police of £41.3m.
•  Ex-footballer Gascoigne and the actor and designer, Sadie Frost, were among those who received a share of £1.2m in compensation from Trinity Mirror

Twitter warns users they may have been hacked by 'state-sponsored actors'

SUMMARY:

Twitter has warned a number of users that they may have been the target of a state-sponsored attack. The company has apparently sent the warnings by email to more than twenty users, all of which contain the same details.The warning begins: “As a precaution, we are alerting you that your Twitter account is one of a small group of accounts that may have been targeted by state-sponsored actors. We believe that these actors (possibly associated with a government) may have been trying to obtain information such as email addresses, IP addresses, and/or phone numbers.”

FACTS:

• Twitter is following both Google and Facebook in sending out warnings to perceived targets of state-sponsored hacking
• Google’s warnings were introduced in 2012, while Facebook began sending its own in October this year