Mastercard says it is helping banks to stop payment scams in their tracks, before funds leave a victim’s account. The payments provider said that in partnership with UK banks including Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, NatWest, Monzo and TSB, it is using payments data to help identify payment scams. Mastercard’s new tool helps banks to get an instant rating that shows the risk of a payment being made to a fraudulent account. This is based on factors such as account activity and the relationship between the payer and payee. Ajay Bhalla, president of cyber and intelligence at Mastercard, said: “We are helping banks identify and predict which payments are being made to fraudsters and stop them in real-time.” Spotting fraudulent payments among millions made every day is like finding a needle in a haystack Paul Davis, TSB Over four months, TSB said that Mastercard’s tool has increased its fraud detection. Paul Davis, director of fraud prevention at TSB, said: “Spotting fraudulent payments among millions made every day is like finding a needle in a haystack, with scams becoming ever more complex – so prevention and monitoring tools are key. “Our partnership with Mastercard is providing the intelligence needed to identify fraudulent accounts and prevent payments ever reaching them.” The Financial Ombudsman Service recently said it is seeing a higher proportion of complex scam complaints, with some involving investments or cryptocurrency. It is seeing increasing numbers of complaints which contain the features of more than one scam. For example, someone may be duped by a romance scammer who then persuades them to invest in cryptocurrency schemes which do not exist. Or someone may attempt to pay for goods which do not exist and then receive a phone call from a scammer impersonating their bank who persuades them to make multiple payments by claiming their payment attempts have been unsuccessful. Many banks are currently signed up to a voluntary reimbursement code in cases where blameless scam victims transfer money to a fraudster, but there have been concerns about this not always being applied consistently. TSB has its own fraud refund guarantee. Plans are under way to make reimbursement mandatory. The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has said new rules compelling banks to reimburse scam victims who have been tricked into paying fraudsters will come into force next year. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Art historian helps build new Assassin’s Creed game after son’s suggestion Twitter to stop TweetDeck access for unverified users Broadband customers plagued by issues despite inflation-busting price hikes

Salesforce Inc. has eliminated more workers beyond a previously announced 10% reduction in a renewed focus on profitability.

At Wednesday's Google I/O, which may have set a record for mentions of AI in

The meaning of life is the ultimate mystery – why do we exist? And is there a point to… well… anything? These are questions to which we may never find answers, but at least we can define what “life” means in scientific terms. And yet, our understanding of what life is is changing all the time, thanks to space exploration. As scientists continue to hunt for life beyond our own world, biologists are having to rethink the meaning of the word “life” itself. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Generally, biologists explain “life” as connoting a self-sustaining chemical system which is capable of performing functions such as eating, metabolising, excreting, breathing, moving, growing, reproducing, and responding to external stimuli. This definition works pretty well here on Earth (although there are some important exceptions, such as viruses), but experts have pointed out that if life exists elsewhere in the universe, it may not display the same properties that we’re used to. Indeed, it might be unrecognisable as life as we know it (forget those little green men). In which case, how will we spot it if it ever crosses our path? Astrobiologist Sara Imari Walker and chemist Lee Cronin think they’ve come up with a solution. The pair are now arguing that highly complex molecules found in all living creatures can’t exist thanks purely to chance. Therefore, they say, the universe must have a way of creating and reproducing complex information and retaining a “memory” of all of this.. In an interview with New Scientist, Walker, of Arizona State University, explained their radical idea on how objects come into existence. The concept, known as Assembly Theory, explains why certain complex objects have become more abundant than others by considering their histories. If the theory proves correct, it will redefine what we mean by “living” things and show that we’ve been going about the search for extraterrestrial life all wrong. In the process, we could even end up creating alien life in a laboratory, she stressed. In her discussion with New Scientist, Walker pointed out: "An electron can be made anywhere in the universe and has no history. You are also a fundamental object, but with a lot of historical dependency. You might want to cite your age counting back to when you were born, but parts of you are billions of years older. "From this perspective, we should think of ourselves as lineages of propagating information that temporarily finds itself aggregated in an individual." Assembly theory predicts that molecules produced by biological processes must be more complex than those produced by non-biological processes, as Science Alert notes. To test this, Walker and her team analysed a range of organic and inorganic compounds from around the world and outer space, including E. coli bacteria, urine, meteorites and even home-brewed beer. They then smashed up the compounds into smaller pieces and used mass spectrometry to pinpoint their molecular building blocks. They calculated that the smallest number of steps required to reassemble each compound from these building blocks was 15. And whilst some compounds from living systems needed fewer than 15 assembly steps, no inorganic compounds made it above this threshold. "Our system … allows us to search the universe agnostically for evidence of what life does rather than attempting to define what life is," Walker, Cronin, and others wrote in a 2021 Nature Communications article. The handy thing about this building block system – which they’ve dubbed the “'molecular assembly index” – is that it doesn’t rely on carbon-based organic materials to be identified. In other words, an alien could be made of entirely different stuff entirely and we’d still be able to spot it as life using the index. It also works regardless of what stage of “life” an extraterrestrial being is in – whether it is still in its infancy or has moved into a technological stage beyond our understanding. That’s because all of these states produce complex molecules which couldn’t exist in the absence of a living system. If all of this is hurting your head, let’s just get back to the basics: if there is a secret to life, it might all be down to what we do, not what we are. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Ubisoft is said to have scrapped plans to make a sequel to the mythological game 'Immortals Fenyx Rising'.

The Cabinet has approved Ireland’s participation in a European Defence Agency (EDA) project to improve cyber-threat response and information exchange with other member countries. Tanaiste and Minister for Defence Micheal Martin secured Government approval for the project which aims to facilitate information exchange and improve the response to cyber threats to EU member states’ defence structures. The duration of the Military Computer Emergency Response Team Operational Network (Micnet) project is four years with the possibility of an extension. The EDA said this network of national cyber-threat response teams will enhance the level of cooperation in the cyber domain at EU level, at a time when computer networks are increasingly contested and the number of cyber-attacks against the EU continues to grow. It said cyberattacks have increased exponentially in the past few years, having serious political, financial, and economic consequences across Europe and beyond. The objective is to develop a robust and coordinated response to cyber threats affecting defence systems in the EU, including those used in military common security and defence policy missions and operations. Mr Martin also secured approval for three other European Defence Agency projects relating to the procurement of Defence Forces equipment. This includes ammunition, soldier equipment and Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) items like hazmat suits. The projects are an opportunity to secure defensive equipment and ammunition after the Russian invasion in Ukraine impacted supply for smaller nations like Ireland. The overall EDA ammunition procurement project includes fast-tracked supply for Ukraine but Ireland will not be participating in this aspect as it has “constructively abstained” from the supply of lethal equipment. Ireland may still supply non-lethal soldier equipment and CBRN items to Ukraine. Ireland has participated in the European Defence Agency, which was set up to support the EU’s defence capabilities, since it was established in 2004. Ireland’s participation in these EDA projects will now be subject to Dail approval. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Trust and ethics considerations ‘have come too late’ on AI technology Mitigating ‘extinction’ from AI should be ‘global priority’, experts say Teenager given criminal behaviour order apologises after TikTok ‘prank’

By Sheila Dang (Reuters) -Twitter users will soon need to be verified in order to use TweetDeck, the social media

Fortnite vaulted the popular Red-Eye Assault Rifle and brought back the MK-Alpha Assault Rifle in Chapter 4 Season 3.

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 29, 2023--

As Kai Cenat asks for Pokimane's number, she persuades her to put in a word for IShowSpeed to end their 2-year Twitch ban

Technology services provider Accenture is the latest company to ramp up its artificial intelligence business, announcing Tuesday that it will invest $3 billion over the next three years and double its AI-related staff to accommodate scorching hot demand

A study last year found that every time you throw away a banana peel, you're missing out on a great snack. The study, published in ACS Food Science & Technology, found that if banana peels are blanched, dried, and ground into a flour, they can be turned into baked goods that taste just as good as wheat-based products. And it turns out it's actually really food for you. Consuming products made from banana peel means you consume minerals and cancer-fighting minerals. Sugar cookies that were enriched with banana peels not only tasted the same as peel-free sugar cookies, but contained much more fibre, magnesium, potassium, and antioxidant compounds. In 2021, a study on banana peel cake found the yellow skin of the fruit provided a natural food colour as well as a nutritional boost. Whilst a 2016 study found that substituting up to 10 per cent of wheat flower with banana peel flour can enrich baked bread with higher protein, carbohydrate, and fat contents. Not only is it a healthy food option, it also helps reduce food waste! And the same goes for other fruits too, such a mango skin, what was found to boost a cake's antioxidant properties and improve its flavour. Just make sure to add the right amount of banana peel to your bakes and makes. Adding too much banana peel flour did result in the study's cookies going somewhat brown and hard, possibly from all the extra fibre. 7.5 percent of banana peel flour seems to be the sweet spot, with the texture and taste hitting an appealing balance. So maybe reconsider next time you go to thrown a banana skin away. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings. How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel