The fire that blazed inside the Notre Dame Cathedral was able to spread so quickly due to the building's height, stone exterior and difficulty in accessing the towering wood ceiling beams.
The spire and part of the roof collapsed today, exposing a large hole in the roof after a fire broke out inside the iconic 850-year-old structure during renovations.
After the blaze was brought under control, saving the bell tower and historical relics inside, firefighters said it was obvious the fire would be severe "in the first 20 minutes".
Once the beams start burning, the stone exterior also made it harder for firefighters outside the building to get to the source of the flames.
Image: LeLaisserPasserA38.
The stone traps heat and smoke, preventing them from working inside.
The Notre Dame's height also posed a challenge, providing extra oxygen for the fire to breath and complicating efforts to reach the flames.
540 million private Facebook records found on public Internet
According to a report last Wednesday by UpGuard, a cybersecurity firm, two databases containing user data from Facebook were found on Amazon.com web servers accessible to the public on the internet. Information leaked included user ID's, photos, Facebook friend and group lists, and interests.
One of the databases is owned by the Mexican company Cultura Colectiva, which specializes in digital media, while the other is owned by a separate Facebook-integrated app, At the Pool. In these two instances, the records were publicly available because the "Amazon S3 Buckets" on which the data were stored were misconfigured to allow public access instead of only private access. The original report was not entirely clear about this point, and Wikinews confirmed with UpGuard that the two incidents involved two separate Amazon S3 buckets.
UpGuard reportedly sent an email to Cultura Colectiva on January 10, and again on January 14, but received no response. On January 28, UpGuard reportedly emailed Amazon Web Services informing them of the situation, to which on February 1 Amazon Web Services acknowledged the bucket's owner had been informed. After the database had still not been secured, UpGuard reportedly emailed Amazon Web Services again on February 21, with Amazon Web services responding that they would investigate what else could be done about it. Reportedly, the Amazon S3 Buckets were only secured after Bloomberg contacted Facebook.
The Guardian drew comparisons between this case and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which over 50 million Facebook profiles were harvested for data without users' knowledge or consent.
Glitter Nail Varnish: The New Way to Protect Your Data.
Security experts have come up with a novel way to ensure your laptop or tablet hasn't been tampered with and your data compromised - glitter nail polish.
Physical tampering with devices to steal data, or install malware for monitoring purposes, is becoming an increasing problem, especially when travelling, where border officials can easily confiscate devices for ‘inspection’.
Problems with hardware interference and data theft have been particularly reported by business travellers to China. The UK government meanwhile has the right to suck all the data from a device and store it when people enter and leave the country.
The Girlloop
