Today in Denmark: A roundup of the news on Friday
The hackers that stopped every train in Denmark, criminal investigations at an elite boarding school, and Maersk's plans to reduce emissions are among the top news stories in Denmark on Friday.
Hackers shut down every train in Denmark last Saturday
Initial statements from DSB, the Danish state railway company, said widespread outages of train service in Denmark on October 29th showed no evidence of hacking. They've now changed their tune.
On Thursday, DSB announced "criminal hackers" had accessed an area of their software limited to testing — and since it was unclear whether the hackers had made it outside the test environment into the general system, security protocols triggered a shutdown.
Normally, such a shutdown shouldn't affect train activity — everything necessary to run the trains is supposed to be accessible while the system is under a security lockdown. But an "error in the software" meant these backup systems were not in place.
This isn't the first widespread closure Denmark has seen this year due to hacking activity. In August, all 176 of Denmark's 7-Eleven convenience stores were held hostage by a ransomeware attack, in which hackers demanded money to return control of the system.
READ MORE: Danish 7-Eleven stores back on grid after ransomware attack
Police investigate 14 potential crimes at Herlufsholm
Authorities say they're processing fourteen cases in which criminal charges could be brought related to the elite boarding school Herlufsholm, which was rocked by a TV2 documentary detailing a culture of unmitigated bullying and issues with sexual assault.
The police haven't revealed whether the cases regard incidents between school employees and students or between fellow students.
In addition to the fourteen recent cases, police are also investigating a report directly from Herlufsholm School about an incident 30 years ago. While the statute of limitations for most crimes would have expired, crimes against minors including rape do not have a statute of limitations.
READ ALSO: Danish royal children withdrawn from controversial boarding school
Maersk invests big in Spanish renewable energy
Two new 'green fuel' plants in Spain will help Maersk go carbon neutral by 2040, the company hopes.
The plants — one in Galicia, in Spain's northwest, and the other in Anadalusia in the south — will generate "green methanol," a fuel produced using resources such as biomass and solar energy.
The project, backed by corporate partners and European Union money, will bring 10 billion euros and an expected 85,000 jobs to Spain.
Maersk's shipping activities account for 0.1 percent of the world's total CO2 emissions.
Martin Lidegaard elected new leader of Social Liberals
After Sofie Carsten Nielsen resigned as head of the Social Liberals (Radikale) due to their poor election performance, a unanimous party election hands the reins to Martin Lidegaard as leader and Samira Nawa as vice-chair. (Lidegaard did run unopposed, to be fair.)
"I have a different style than my predecessor," Lidegaard said at a press conference Thursday night at Christiansborg. "But the political content and our heart's blood are the same."
READ MORE: Leader of Denmark's Social Liberals resigns after election defeat
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Hackers shut down every train in Denmark last Saturday
Initial statements from DSB, the Danish state railway company, said widespread outages of train service in Denmark on October 29th showed no evidence of hacking. They've now changed their tune.
On Thursday, DSB announced "criminal hackers" had accessed an area of their software limited to testing — and since it was unclear whether the hackers had made it outside the test environment into the general system, security protocols triggered a shutdown.
Normally, such a shutdown shouldn't affect train activity — everything necessary to run the trains is supposed to be accessible while the system is under a security lockdown. But an "error in the software" meant these backup systems were not in place.
This isn't the first widespread closure Denmark has seen this year due to hacking activity. In August, all 176 of Denmark's 7-Eleven convenience stores were held hostage by a ransomeware attack, in which hackers demanded money to return control of the system.
READ MORE: Danish 7-Eleven stores back on grid after ransomware attack
Police investigate 14 potential crimes at Herlufsholm
Authorities say they're processing fourteen cases in which criminal charges could be brought related to the elite boarding school Herlufsholm, which was rocked by a TV2 documentary detailing a culture of unmitigated bullying and issues with sexual assault.
The police haven't revealed whether the cases regard incidents between school employees and students or between fellow students.
In addition to the fourteen recent cases, police are also investigating a report directly from Herlufsholm School about an incident 30 years ago. While the statute of limitations for most crimes would have expired, crimes against minors including rape do not have a statute of limitations.
READ ALSO: Danish royal children withdrawn from controversial boarding school
Maersk invests big in Spanish renewable energy
Two new 'green fuel' plants in Spain will help Maersk go carbon neutral by 2040, the company hopes.
The plants — one in Galicia, in Spain's northwest, and the other in Anadalusia in the south — will generate "green methanol," a fuel produced using resources such as biomass and solar energy.
The project, backed by corporate partners and European Union money, will bring 10 billion euros and an expected 85,000 jobs to Spain.
Maersk's shipping activities account for 0.1 percent of the world's total CO2 emissions.
Martin Lidegaard elected new leader of Social Liberals
After Sofie Carsten Nielsen resigned as head of the Social Liberals (Radikale) due to their poor election performance, a unanimous party election hands the reins to Martin Lidegaard as leader and Samira Nawa as vice-chair. (Lidegaard did run unopposed, to be fair.)
"I have a different style than my predecessor," Lidegaard said at a press conference Thursday night at Christiansborg. "But the political content and our heart's blood are the same."
READ MORE: Leader of Denmark's Social Liberals resigns after election defeat
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