May calls for action over online hate to stop attacks

Theresa May has urged an international response to stop the sharing of hateful content online and help prevent another massacre like the Christchurch mosque attacks.

Fifty-one people were killed and dozens wounded in attacks on 15 March in New Zealand that were livestreamed on Facebook.

The Prime Minister, who is attending today’s Online Extremism Summit in Paris, wants governments and companies to work together to stop technology from being“weapon is ed ”. The summit will be co-chaired by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and aims to focus international efforts to stop social media being used to organise terrorism.

Cybersecurity experts have warned Whatsapp users to update the messaging a pp as soon as possible following the discovery of a major vulnerability that could allow attackers to install a malicious code on smartphones.

The Facebook- owned app said it identified and fixed the issue earlier this month, but Citizen Lab, a research group at the University of To ron to,s uspects an attacker attempted to exploit it again on Sunday.

What sA pp has said a select number of users were targeted by an advancedcyb er actor, exploiting its voice calling feature, which it said had all the hallmarks of a private company reportedly that works with governments to deliver spyware that takes over the functions of mobile phone operating systems.

“It demonstrates the importance of keeping your soft ware up dated,” said Dr Budi Arief, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Kent.

“I’m not particularly surprised by this development. This happens all the time.”

What sA pp said it was deeply concerned about the abuse of such capabilities and is also urging users to update their apps out of an abundance of caution.

The company has some 1.5 billion users worldwide.