Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Safe Harbor turbulence continues; Deutsche Telekom plans new security unit; eagles attack!!!
TalkTalk reckons it lost 95,000 customers during its third quarter as a direct result of the cyber attack on its systems in October, out of a total loss of 101,000 subscribers during the period. In financial terms, the operator now says the hack cost it around £60 million (UUS$86.4 million), with £15 million ($21.6 million) of that figure classed as "trading impact" and the rest categorized as "exceptional costs." On a brighter note, TalkTalk's third-quarter revenue actually grew 1.8% year-on-year. CEO Dido Harding is putting a brave face on things, claiming in a statement that "the TalkTalk brand has improved since just after the attack and consideration is higher now than it was before the incident." (See Eurobites: TalkTalk Rocked by Cyber Attack.)
The rumblings over transatlantic data transfer continue, with Reuters reporting that European and US negotiators have missed a deadline on the attempted re-working of the largely all-washed-up Safe Harbor framework. And, just to add to the pressure, national data protection regulators from Europe are due to begin meetings today to try to staunch the flow of data from Europe to the US. The Safe Harbor agreement was thrown into disarray last year over the Schrems ruling, which pronounced that the European Commission's previous interpretation of Safe Harbor was invalid.
Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT) is planning to establish a new security-focused business unit, which will work on products for consumers, SMEs and corporate customers. The products, which will be marketed under the Magenta Security brand, will be showcased at the forthcoming CeBIT show in Hanover.
Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) has launched its NetGuard Security Management Center, which it says operators can use to monitor and control all the multivendor security systems deployed across their networks. The product will be shown by Nokia at Mobile World Congress.
If comms companies really are going to start using drones for connectivity and wotnot, they need to make sure they get the paperwork right first. The BBC reports that Dutch police are training eagles to pluck illegal drones out of the sky. Apparently, even in the sensible Low Countries, there are too many eejits out there who can't be trusted with their neighbor-stalking flying toys. (See Eurobites: Nokia & Du Send in the Drones and DroneComm 2015: Pics Above the Clouds.)
No, not those Eagles
— Paul Rainford, Assistant Editor, Europe, Light Reading
