Apple puts iPad mini with retina display on sale

Apple released its new iPad mini with retina display last night. The tablet device was announced at the end of October but was put on sale without any prior warning after Apple claimed supplies are tight.

Apple usually makes a grand spectacle of its launches, but in a break from tradition, the second generation iPad mini was put on sale on the website on Tuesday evening.

Recent claims that Apple’s first Retina display mini tablets will be in short supply could be the reason behind the under the radar release to avoid a rush on the product.

 


Waking Shark II tests cyber security of London banks

Yesterday saw financial organisations within London take part in simulated cyber-attack scenarios to test the City’s defences against online threats.

The drill, code named Waking Shark II was supervised by officials from the Bank of England, Treasury and Financial Conduct Authority and led by a team from Credit Suisse who created the simulated attacks.

The cyber attacks, which included a denial of service attack from a fictitious foreign government tested how well backs and companies communicate and coordinate with authorities and each other in an emergency.

Sources told Reuters that it was productive and rendered them better equipped with the tools to face an attack in real-time.

David Harley, ESET Senior Research Fellow, told CBR: "This kind of simulation can be very useful in terms of testing contingency plans, resilience of communication channels, adherence to procedures and protocols and so on, though it’s hard to simulate the sort of conditions of surprise and stress that prevail in a real crisis."

 


UK government digital services framework goes live

More than a third of companies on a new procurement framework for building digital public services have never worked with government before.

The 183 suppliers that have won the opportunity to secure contracts with central government also include a high proportion – 84% – of SMEs. Of the 70 suppliers new to government, 94% are SMEs.

The new framework has been developed to give government easy access to suppliers of all sizes with the right digital capability to help them design and build public services that are digital by default and focused on user needs.

It aims to provide sufficient supplier capacity to enable the delivery of digital projects at multiple UK locations and directly supports the Government Digital Strategy.