DEN HAAG (ANP) - De Autoriteit Consument & Markt (ACM) onderzoekt een mogelijk kartel tussen toeleveranciers aan instellingen in de publieke sector. De toezichthouder heeft daarvoor invallen gedaan bij enkele bedrijven.

Het vermoeden is dat deze bedrijven onderling geheime afspraken maken over het verdelen van klanten, stelt de ACM. Als blijkt dat de wet is overtreden, kunnen boetes oplopen tot 10 procent van de jaaromzet van een bedrijf.

ANKARA (ANP/BLOOMBERG) - Het Duitse defensieconcern Rheinmetall heeft op de NAVO-top in het Turkse Ankara een principeovereenkomst getekend met de Amerikaanse branchegenoot Lockheed Martin voor de gezamenlijke productie van ATACMS-raketten in Duitsland. ATACMS zijn ballistische langeafstandsraketten voor gronddoelwitten.

De productie moet plaatsvinden bij de fabriek van Rheinmetall in Unterlüss in de deelstaat Nedersaksen. Daar wordt momenteel gebouwd aan een fabriek voor de productie van raketmotoren die bijna klaar is. De productie van die motoren zou begin 2027 moeten beginnen, samen met de productie van componenten voor de raket.

Volgens de bedrijven is de overeenkomst een volgende stap bij de productie, integratie en distributie van ATACMS-raketten binnen de NAVO-landen en Europese bondgenoten. Het wordt de eerste fabriek voor ATACMS buiten de Verenigde Staten.

In Schiedam zijn twee jongens van 13 en 15 aangehouden. Een van hen had een machete en twee bivakmutsen bij zich. De andere jongen had volgens de politie een steekwapen op zak dat leek op een vlindermes.

Hollywood dacht dat digital natives minder interesse zouden hebben in films in de bioscoop, maar Generatie Z (1997-2012) is nu de actiefste groep bezoekers. Hoe komt dat?

Omdat het grootste koraalrif ter wereld ‘veerkrachtig’ is gebleken, is het door Unesco niet als ‘bedreigd’ beoordeeld. Maar dat is het wel, zeggen wetenschappers, die bovendien een ‘super-El Niño’ aan zien komen. „Het wordt verschrikkelijk, het Great Barrier Reef kan zulke hittegolven niet aan.”

The Association of Tour Operators of Russia said Slovakia’s suspension of summertime visa processing is unlikely to cause major problems given that the country is not a popular travel destination among Russian tourists.

After serving as last year’s poster child for retail cyber misery, Marks & Spencer has become one of the first companies to sign up to the UK government's new Cyber Resilience Pledge. The retailer is among 60 organizations that have signed up to the voluntary scheme, launched by technology secretary Liz Kendall on Tuesday. Signatories commit to treating cybersecurity as a board-level responsibility, signing up to the National Cyber Security Centre's Early Warning service, and encouraging suppliers to achieve Cyber Essentials certification or an equivalent baseline. "Today, some of Britain's biggest businesses are taking action to strengthen their cyber defenses and setting a powerful example for others to follow," Kendall said. "By signing this Pledge, they are showing that cyber resilience is no longer just an IT issue - it is a business imperative." She warned that cyberattacks can disrupt services, expose customer data, and damage the bottom line, adding that AI is making attacks "more sophisticated and easier to launch." M&S's appearance is hardly surprising. After falling victim to one of the UK's highest-profile cyber incidents last year, opting out would have raised more eyebrows than opting in. More interesting are some of the names missing from the government's roll call. Not every member of last year's cyber casualty club made the guest list. Co-op and Harrods are absent from the government's roll call, as is Jaguar Land Rover, which spent weeks recovering from a cyberattack before later receiving a £1.5 billion government-backed lifeline to help shield its supply chain from the fallout. The pledge is entirely voluntary, so their absence doesn't necessarily say anything about their security posture, but if ministers are presenting the initiative as a badge of good cyber citizenship, it's fair to ask why they chose not to wear it. Then there's Capita. The outsourcing giant has also signed the pledge, despite developing an impressive archive in The Reg of cybersecurity mishaps over the past few years. Last year, it was fined by the ICO over its 2023 ransomware attack that exposed more than 6 million records, and earlier this year, it disclosed that a pension portal had exposed personal information belonging to civil servants. Either nobody believes in continuous improvement more than Capita, or the government's definition of cyber resilience is reassuringly forgiving. Microsoft also features prominently among the launch partners, with UK chief executive Darren Hardman praising the initiative as a way to strengthen cyber resilience. Security professionals may quietly note that Microsoft's software also keeps them exceptionally busy for at least one Tuesday every month. Beyond the more eyebrow-raising additions, the list reads like a roll call of corporate Britain. Aviva, Fujitsu, London Stock Exchange Group, Mastercard, Morrisons, Pearson, QinetiQ, SSE, United Utilities, and Vodafone all signed up, alongside a sizeable contingent of consultancies and cybersecurity firms. There's no enforcement mechanism behind the pledge, only the optics of signing up. That makes the omissions almost as interesting as the names that made the cut. ®

It turns out my vaping habit is dangerous in more ways than one. But it could make me very popular in a survival scenario

Sitting outside a bar at the weekend, I noticed something coming out of my bag that looked and also smelled a lot like a naked flame. Ordinarily, I’d have thought it was my vape, but it couldn’t have been, since that was in my mouth. So I put it down to a mirage created by the clement weather, and thought no more of it until someone much smarter than me said: “Your bag’s on fire.”

It was my remarkable good fortune to be sitting opposite a friend who is a chemistry teacher, and explained what had happened through a laborious sequence of rhetorical questions. What is a spare vape battery made of? What are keys made of? What happens to a lithium battery when you connect something metal to each end? What is the result of closing a circuit inside a handbag? Not only had I set my bag alight; I’d melted my keyring, which for complicated reasons held a plastic portrait of both my nieces circa 2017, and it was yet more bad luck that I was also sitting opposite my sister, who, in fairness, reacted surprisingly well to the sight of her molten children.

Continue reading...