Frauday

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is receiving on average four reports a month of law firms being tricked into giving bank details to fraudsters on Fridays. The reports of criminals stealing from firms continue despite repeated warnings not to disclose sensitive details.

Criminals are now in the practice of targeting any conveyancing firms with large amounts of money in client accounts using increasingly sophisticated social engineering attacks to gain access to the money in the client accounts. The criminals will commonly use malicious software installed through unsolicited email communications. They will then try to intercept emails between firms and replace them with their own in an attempt to steal the money from client accounts.

On a couple of occasions these email intercepts have been followed by telephone calls from the fraudsters pretending to be from the bank’s counter-fraud team to further enforce the legitimacy.

On other occasions, law firms have been called and asked for verification of a specific electronic transaction, with callers stating they suspect fraudulent transactions have been set up. The criminals then asks the firm to confirm their online security information.

In November, the SRA revealed that four firms had collectively had £2m taken from their accounts after falling victim to these schemes. Robert Loughlin, SRA executive director of operations, said at the time:

These scammers are very active and convincing. They are highly sophisticated in their approach and therefore very capable of duping many people.

Firms are advised to embark on a security awareness campaign specifically targeting the not clicking on email attachments. Validation callers should be included to help defeat the voice side of the attack.

Author - Peter Bassill

Onwards and Upwards For Innovation and Growth

HMRC recently released its latest annual Research and Development Tax Relief Statistics and they make encouraging reading, not just for the companies that have benefited directly, but for UK PLC as a whole.

By the end of 2013, more than 28,500 companies had made claims under the SME scheme since its introduction in 2000, and over 7,000 under the Large Company scheme, which launched in 2002, making a grand total of more than £9.5bn in tax relief claimed to date.

What’s even better news is that uptake is on the increase, with over a quarter more R&D tax relief claims in 2012-13 than the previous year. London has been the main beneficiary of this remarkable surge, businesses in the UK capital easily outstripping other British regions. The South East also had a disproportionate number of claims and the East of England - with just 9% of the population - claimed more than Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the North East of England put together, which collectively have 20% of the population.

There was a general welcome in business circles for the reported 30% increase in SME claims, however there was undisputed joy in SME circles at the fact that the overall money given back to SMEs by HMRC rose by a staggering 39.5%, compared with the 2.5% decline in large company claim values.

Felicity Burch, Senior Economist at EEF, the manufacturers' organisation, said: "The continued strong uptake of the R&D tax credit is good news, as it supports companies seeking to bring new products and services to market. The credit is a strong feature of the UK innovation system and its position within the innovation landscape must be maintained."

Brian Williamson, MD at Jumpstart agrees that this increase in claims “demonstrates that awareness of the government's existing relief programme is significantly increasing throughout the UK. The 30% rise in the number of SME claims has to be because of a better understanding of the scheme by companies and their advisors.”

The Jumpstart team works tirelessly to promote awareness of the benefits of the UK R&D tax relief scheme. Why? Because they can make a real difference to the finances of dynamic and expanding companies. "Those companies who reap the benefits of successful R&D claims tend to go on to spend more on R&D, thus creating a virtuous circle and bringing substantial benefits to the wider UK economy," adds Brian Williamson.

Of those companies capitalising on the scheme, those in the ‘Manufacturing’, ‘Professional, Scientific and Technical’, and ‘Information and Communication’ sectors accounted for the greatest volume of claims for 2012‐13, according to HMRC’s latest stats. As Jumpstart knows though, R&D tax relief isn’t just confined to technology and manufacturing companies. Far from it! Lots of companies – in a variety of different sectors – are constantly striving to take their products and production methods above and beyond existing technology. This means that they’re doing R&D – sometimes without even realising it – and could be eligible for R&D tax relief, providing the funding for continuing advances.

Take ACS Clothing: “When Jumpstart came to visit and advised us that even the processes used by bakeries had been eligible for R&D, then we thought about all the process projects we have in ACS. We realised then that R&D is not the preserve of high-end, high-tech, pharmaceutical businesses!” says Andrew Rough, Finance Director, ACS Clothing Ltd.

"The rewards for innovation and efficiency are there for all to see” continues Williamson, "SMEs just need to make the most of them. The number of new clients we are attracting every day would suggest that UK SMEs are becoming much more aware of the game-changing advantages which can be reaped from government schemes.”

However, he is keen to stress that “companies must not become complacent when claiming R&D tax relief. It is of the utmost importance that claims are compliant, and good advice and guidance is necessary to ensure vigilance when claiming and avoid the possibility of a challenge from HMRC.”

If anyone can help businesses to benefit from the Government’s increasingly popular and lucrative R&D tax relief scheme, Jumpstart can. Since its inception, Jumpstart has helped its clients recover £44m in R&D tax relief and has identified over £225m in R&D expenditure. It has achieved a claim success rate of 98.9%.

Jim McColl OBE, Chief Executive and Chairman of Clyde Blowers Capital looks back on his experience claiming R&D tax relief with Jumpstart “My company has benefited enormously. Whether you’re £1.4m or £1.4bn, the principle is the same. If everyone made use of the services of Jumpstart, then the UK economy... would be so much healthier. I urge all to follow us, and get what is, after all, rightfully theirs.”

Another SSL Vulnerability - Freak ! ! !

So here we go again, yet another SSL vulnerability. This one is called nicknamed FREAK for “Factoring Attack on RSA Export Keys” and it is certainly making the fear and loathing headlines. FREAK comes from the US and the now defunct US National Security Policy that required software makers to use purposefully weakened encryption technology that was sold overseas. The US wouldn't want people communicating using the encryption they cant break now, would they?

FREAK is a moderate risk vulnerability although a successful attack would permit the attacker to decrypt all of the HTTPS traffic between the victim and the vulnerable site. This does of course mean that the attacker must be in the path of the TCP session.

The vulnerability exists on Android, iOS, OSX and Windows systems, however, both the client systems and the systems they are connecting to need to be vulnerable for the exploit to be successful. The attacker would need to be on the same network as the victim to be successful, meaning that you are only really vulnerable on public networks, like all those WiFi networks around the high street. 

The attacker would then need to pick one encrypted web session where both the client and web server are vulnerable and hijack the session, forcing it to use weak encryption. It is estimated that the attacker would then need seven hours cracking the key. Once cracked, the key could potentially be reused against other sessions for a period of time, but that will differ from site to site. So really, the chances of this being successful are rather limited.

All the major vendors now have patches our for this. Microsoft’s patch is MS15-031 and Apple’s patch is contained within Security Update 2015-002 for Mountain Lion, Maverick and Yosemite. There are also patches available for iOS.

Author - Peter Bassill

National Museum Of Scotland Gets Science Grant!

Edinburgh and its surrounding area is a well-known hub of scientific advance, and here at Jumpstart, we geeks are passionate about communicating new and exciting, plus older but fascinating scientific stories with you.

So we were very excited to hear that the National Museum of Scotland, right here in Edinburgh, has been awarded a £1.3 million grant to fund six new science and technology galleries, creating a Scottish centre for science communication.

Much of the focus will be on biomedical science, including genetics – an area of science that Edinburgh is well known for, after research at The Roslin Institute led to the first mammal cloned from a somatic cell - Dolly the sheep - in 1996.

After her death in 2003 Dolly was put on display at the museum. Other displays will focus on areas such as the development of new pharmaceuticals and advances in prosthetic limbs and body implants. Whatever the area, the aim is the same, to show contemporary developments in science and technology, whilst promoting debate and discussion.

Having such a centre in Edinburgh is an amazing prospect and will hopefully inspire a whole new generation of little geeks – and who knows what they might come up with in the future!

Author - Charlie Burgess

Six ways you can use R&D tax credits to make money

OK, so there is one obvious way that you can use R&D tax credits to make money, and that is to submit a claim! You’ve ticked that box already? Well done! You’re on your way to unearthing a potential juicy nest egg to help grow your business.

But how can you make R&D tax credits work harder for you AND maximise the benefit? 

Here are our 6 top tips:

1. Your first claim is just the start. As your R&D continues you can keep claiming year on year. Ker-ching!

2. You can take the initial funding boost from your first claim and re-invest in your R&D, leading to bigger and better projects. World domination awaits.

3. You can use the next funding boost to purchase new, sophisticated equipment to enable even more R&D. You’re going to be busy!

4. And the payback after that could be used to employ more research staff. It’s a nice feeling isn’t it?

5. By continuing to reinvest your tax credits in innovation, you could boost your claim sizes year on year, develop your company’s R&D and improve your overall financial situation. Big smiles all round.

6. Finally, seek advice from an R&D tax credit expert who can ensure you submit a robust and maximised claim every time. You know it makes good sense…

If you’re going to do this, make sure you do it right by using the very best resources at hand. 

Ready, Set, Grow ! ! !

READY ? Congratulations! You've got a great idea for an innovative business or groundbreaking project. Your business plan is ready. So all you need is the all-important funding.

Well, the good news is that funding has progressed way beyond the traditional bank loan or potential investors who might have a completely different agenda to yours.

SET 

Peer to peer lending (or crowd lending) lenders take no share of a company, have no say in how it’s run and no voting rights – they simply provide “loans”.

Scotland’s first dedicated peer-to-business (P2B) crowdfunding platform, LendingCrowd, was launched at the end of 2014 and has already attracted a healthy number of borrowers. According to Co-founder Stuart Lunn: “Our aim is to challenge the status quo and open up new channels through which local SMEs can secure credit and grow their business. The days of solely relying on traditional banks are over. Business lending is changing for the better.”

Here’s how it works:

1. You sign up and complete your loan application.

2. LendingCrowd assess your application and, if approved, your loan goes live.

3. A "bid" process follows, where lots of investors compete to lend you money, so you can get the best rate possible.

4. Once you’ve reached your target, LendingCrowd takes care of all the admin and you receive the funds.

5. You make one repayment each month, which LendingCrowd collects and distributes to all your investors.

GROW !

Okay, let’s jump forward a little. Imagine you’ve secured your funding and your project is underway. These are exciting times – you’re doing something innovative that’s advancing your chosen field of industry or technology.

You’ll probably find that in order to get this far, you will have spent money trying to improve a product or service through a technological advance, using qualified staff and appropriate project controls.

Not quite so new as crowd funding, the Government’s R&D tax relief scheme was introduced in 2000 to encourage companies like yours to innovate by allowing you to reclaim money invested in qualifying R&D.

We say “companies like yours” because, contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to have labs full of men and women in white coats to qualify. "Many companies don’t appreciate that the scheme applies not just to blue-sky research, but also to changes made to processes and systems that create better ways of operating,” explains Brian Williamson, Managing Director of Jumpstart.

The UK’s leading R&D tax relief specialist, Jumpstart has helped literally thousands of businesses, some of whom had no idea they would qualify, to recover over a whopping £50m in R&D tax relief benefits.

Grow on... visit LendingCrowd’s website or give Jumpstart a call on 0131 240 2900 to find out more.

Retro Game Night

After a great first event before Christmas, the team from SuperByte Festival are back with another retro gaming event at Jumpstart and Hulton Associates partner, MSP ! 

As well as bringing a selection of consoles and games along for your entertainment including 8, 16 and 32 bit favourites, some sweet multiplayer set-ups and big screen projected systems; they’re joined by the team from Zero2Death who’ll be hosting a selection of fun tournaments. If there any particular systems or titles you’d like to see out, let us know when you sign up and we’ll do our best to source them before the event.

As always, MSP will be providing a sweet venue, pizza and beers for everyone (soft drinks also available for the drivers!) so all you need to bring is yourselves and your game head.

The tournaments will be a great addition to the evening – bringing some healthy competition to the Park as all winners will be receiving some suprise prizes! Take a look below for more details and don’t forget to sign up!

Multi-Platform Mario Kart (16 players)

3 rounds of elimination Mario Kart on three different systems and across three different versions of the game to crown the ultimate MSP Mario Kart winner. The catch? We won’t tell you the versions or the platforms until the event itself.

Streetfighter 2 Turbo (SNES Version) (16 players)

Who’ll be the last one standing and be crowned the World Warrior? We take to the classic (and best in our opinions!) version of Streetfighter 2 to find out.

Sonic The Hedgehog – Time Trials (Mega Drive) (20 players)

You’ve one chance to speed-run the first level of the original Sonic The Hedgehog on the Mega Drive. Fastest time wins.

To sign up contact Manchester Science Partnerships on 0161 226 1000

R&D Tax Credits Workshop - Greenheys - Manchester Science Partnerships

HMRC’s R&D tax relief scheme gives around £1.4 bn benefit every year to UK companies BUT estimates suggest there is an extra £0.5 bn a year going unclaimed.

In order to help innovative companies located within Manchester Science Parks access all of the support that they are eligible for, Jumpstart will host a free workshop on claiming R&D tax credits.

Date: Wednesday 11th March 2015 

Time: 12.30 - 2.30 PM

Where: Greenheys, Manchester Science Parks

The event is open to any company small or large who are trying to improve a product or service through technological advance, and therefore could be eligible to make a claim. 

We will cover issues such as eligibility, the legislation and sector successes. There will be lots of examples of the type of eligible work being carried out by businesses.

Come along and find out whether you can claim, it could be the most profitable 2 hours you’ve ever spent!

To register for this free seminar simply email mark.lear@jumpstartuk.co.uk or visit the eventbrite page

New Tattoos Could Mean the End of Finger Pricking for Diabetics

Recently, a group of scientist and engineers in California demonstrated an incredibly elegant and innovative solution to the problem of blood sugar monitoring for diabetics - a temporary tattoo that can automatically detect blood sugar levels!

Diabetes is a metabolic disease where the body cannot process the glucose in food, leading, in the short term, to high blood sugar and, in the long term, to a host of medical problems. The only treatment for diabetes is dietary changes in conjunction with regular doses of insulin, which promotes the absorption and storage of insulin from the blood in the bones and fatty tissues.

Since the determination of what causes diabetes symptoms and the discovery of insulin as a treatment, scientists have worked hard to improve the quality of life of diabetic patients. Devices for administering insulin have been made smaller, more efficient and easier to use. Insulin pumps have been developed, which are worn by the patient and subcutaneously administer both a continual background dose of the drug and larger doses in response to increased blood sugar levels.

However, all of these treatment options require the patient to undergo regular blood sugar testing, to enable the adjustment of insulin dose and prevent dangerous ‘hypos’, whereby the patient’s blood sugar drops too far, causing the patient to feel unwell and, in severe cases, lose consciousness. Current blood testing kits rely on the patient pricking their skin and applying a drop of blood to a testing stick, often multiple times a day. This can cause pain and inconvenience to the patient, and can lead to reluctance to monitor blood sugars.

The newly developed tattoo works by exploiting the changes in the body’s electro-chemical responses caused by changes in blood sugar. The tattoo applies a small electrical shock and measures the response, converting this into a figure for blood sugar. Recent successful trials proved that the tattoos are as accurate as invasive testing methods, and researchers are now looking to develop a simple readout facility and improve the life of the tattoo.

So far this looks to be the biggest improvement in blood pressure monitoring since the development of spring-loaded finger pricks (ouch!)

Image source: University of California, San Diego

Author - Jennifer Smeed