Thousands of Passwords and SMS Online after Hacking Vodafone Iceland

The website of Vodafone telecommunications company in Iceland was hacked earlier this weekend, exposing 30,000 user passwords and 80,000 text messages as well as other confidential customer data such as addresses, visir.is reports.

The messages ranged from personal messages between individuals to sensitive information between MPs and senior policy makers.

Vodafone urges customers who may be using the same passwords on other sites to change them. All passwords on vodafone.is have been rest, according to a statement from the company.

Statement from Vodafone Iceland (www.vodafone.is)

Vodafone Iceland urges all customers who have identical passwords on other services (such as webmail or social media) to their 'My Vodafone' (Mínar síður) account on vodafone.is to change the password on the relevant sites.

This is to ensure that data obtained by a foreign hacker can not be used to gain access to other sites.

All passwords on Vodafone Iceland's website have been reset, users will be prompted to set a new password when service resumes.

Source: Icelandreview
Iceland24, Diciembre 2013

60 Persons Lose Jobs at RÚV (Icelandic National Broadcaster)

Sixty people will lose their jobs at RÚV, Iceland’s National Broadcaster, in cost cutting measures, as announced yesterday morning. Thirty-nine people have already received notice. Ríkisútvarpið, RÚV (english: "The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service") is Iceland's national public-service broadcasting organization.

Minister of Finance Bjarni Benediktsson said during question time in parliament yesterday that his thoughts were with those who had lost their jobs but that RÚV is “like any other government institution, indeed we are talking here about a public limited company in that costs need to be rationalized.”

Head of the Association of Broadcast Journalists Hallgrímur Indriðason told visir.is that the broadcaster had gone through three such layoffs since 2008 but that people had hoped that such cuts had come to an end.

Director of RÚV, Páll Magnússon, stressed that the station would continue to provide the best service possible. They will reduce annual operating needs by 500 ISK million.

Operating from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional centres around the country, the service broadcasts a variety of general programming to a wide audience across the whole country via radio channels Rás 1 and Rás 2, and one television channel.

Source: Icelandreview
Iceland24, November 2013

Iceland has the highest rate of antidepressant use in the world

Rich, developed countries are consuming an average of 10% more antidepressants than about a decade ago, according to a report released on Nov. 21 from the OECD.

The increase has a lot to do with growing awareness about depression, which in turn has made treating the illness with drugs more socially acceptable. Big spikes in a few standout countries, the report says, may also “be linked to the insecurity created by the financial crisis” (pdf p.102). In Spain and Portugal, consumption rose 23% and 20% between 2007 and 2011, respectively. The UK’s rate doubled between 2000 and 2011.

The highest antidepressant-consuming country in the world? Iceland, where all three of the country’s main banks failed early on in the crisis. At almost twice the OECD average, its antidepressant consumption rose almost 50% over the observed period to 106 doses a day for every 1,000 people. (Some academics think Icelanders may consume more antidepressants because alternative treatments like psychotherapy aren’t as popular.)

Ironically, the country is now considered model of recovery in Europe, since its economy is growing faster than others in the region thanks in part to a rebound in fishing and tourism. And yet Icelandic households are still wallowing in debt and shrinking salaries. The country’s current estimated rate of depression—between 15% and 25% of its residents are expected to experience depression at some point—is hardly model behavior.

Lack of Sunlight Saving in Iceland Factor for Depression?

Guðmundur Löve, head of the Icelandic Association of Tuberculosis and Chest Patients, believes that the fact that Iceland does not observe daylight saving like other European countries is one of the contributing factors for high rates of depression in the country.

Source: Quartz
Iceland24, November 2013