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UK working to identify exposure after global cyber-security warning
Inflation and borrowing figures illustrate the Budget challenge for Chancellor John Healey
Key points
- The National Debt has topped £3 trillion for the first time in official figures.
- The headline rate of inflation has hit 3.5% and is expected by Capital Economics to peak at 4.2% next year.
- Borrowing is running ahead of forecasts as spending and interest costs increase.
Why it matters. Rising inflation and borrowing costs put pressure on public finances and significantly increase the odds of a Bank of England interest rate rise next month.
The United Kingdom is now checking its online services for exposure after critical flaws were found in PHP, the programming language that powers a large share of the world’s websites.
Latest updates
UK working to identify exposure after global cyber-security warning
The United Kingdom is now checking its online services for exposure after critical flaws were found in PHP, the programming language that powers a large share of the world’s websites. Governments in the UK, the European Union, Australia and the United States have urged every organisation to apply fixes immediately or take affected systems offline. Security researcher Ryan Austin said the vulnerability is the most serious he has found in twenty years, and Surrey Centre for Cyber Security Professor Alan Woodward estimated it affects about thirty million websites. Amazon said an anonymous internet address tried to exploit one of its decoy systems on 17 October, with further attempts on 21 October, before the official warning was made public. The flaw can let an attacker run their own code on a web server, steal data, disrupt services or plant a backdoor for later access. For ordinary users, that means personal information held by online shops, blogs and public services could be at risk if operators do not patch quickly. The UK National Cyber Security Centre says organisations that cannot fix the problem immediately should consider taking their systems offline until they are fully protected.
Faisal Islam: Inflation and borrowing figures illustrate chancellor's Budget challenge
The economic figures released on Wednesday show the constraints for John Healey as he puts the finishing touches to his Budget. The chancellor was on an early flight to North East Scotland on Wednesday to announce new North Sea energy approvals as the last set of major economic figures dropped. From a mile high, as well as close up, the figures for inflation and for the public finances set out his Budget balancing act in clear terms. The National Debt has topped £3 trillion for the first time in the official figures. The headline rate of inflation has hit 3.5% and is surely heading back up to 4% in the coming months. Borrowing is running ahead of forecasts, as spending and interest costs increase. These show the constraints for John Healey as he puts the finishing touches to his statement next week. On the one hand he says he wants to give "breathing space" to consumers yet again feeling the heat from cost of living pressures. The public finances remain under pressure, however, from the double whammy of rising inflation and borrowing costs. While inflation was of course expected to increase as petrol and diesel prices surged, in some cases, to records, other measures of underlying inflation also increased. From airfares to computer game download prices, there are the first signs of stickier forms of price pressure and of higher inflation becoming more embedded, suggesting eleva.
UK inflation and borrowing climb before Healey's first budget
British inflation and borrowing rose more than expected last month, according to data that will add to calls for help for households in finance minister John Healey's first budget next week and the likelihood of a Bank of England interest rate hike.