The South Caucasus News - SouthCaucasusNews.com

A glass door bears a commemorative seal marking 75 years at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, U.S., July 8, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

A study has shed light on how the number of sexual partners British people have changes as they age, and new findings have surprised researchers.

While the frequency of sexual partners among heterosexual people declines steadily from age 40, the study found stark gender disparities within some age groups.

Researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA), in collaboration with King’s College London and University College London, questioned more than 5,000 people aged 18 and older.

Women consistently reported having one sexual partner until the age of 50, after which there was a sharp decrease in the number of individuals reporting recent partners. This trend continued with age, with 79% of heterosexual women aged 70 and above saying they had no male partners in the last three weeks.

As men got older, they were also increasingly likely to report no recent partners, but the decline was less steep. Among men aged 70 and above who were heterosexual or had sex with women in the last three months, 50% said they hadn’t had a female partner in the most recent three weeks.

It is well established that sexual habits vary hugely throughout people’s lives. “Many, often interrelated, factors influence what people do, with whom, and how often,” said Prof Cath Mercer, a sexual health researcher at University College London.

The study explored the relationship between age and sex partner counts during the mpox outbreak in the UK. Researchers sought to better understand how sexual behaviours change with age, so that mathematical models of sexually transmitted infections can be made more accurate for future epidemics.

“People of all ages and sexualities can have different sex lives. We need to make sure that this is reflected when modelling what can happen in a public health context and when we’re planning healthcare services” said Prof Henry Potts, a health informatics researcher at UCL and co-author.

This research on sexual habits and age helps public health bodies tailor safe sex messages to the right demographics through different media channels that best reach these subgroups.

Mathematical models of disease transmission shouldn’t assume that having multiple partners just stops happening at a strict age threshold or that young people are necessarily most at risk. “Public health campaigns need to be evidence- rather than assumption-based to ensure that those who most need sexual health care can – and do – receive this,” added Mercer.

An individual employed by a Washington DC-based organization with international offices was targeted with powerful hacking software made by NSO Group, researchers have claimed, raising new concerns about the proliferation of spyware that can infect Apple devices.

The alleged attack was discovered by researchers at the Citizen Lab at the Munk School at the University of Toronto while they were checking the individual’s device.

Citizen Lab, which is on the forefront of finding sophisticated hacking attacks against members of civil society – including journalists, environmental rights defenders and diplomats, among others – did not provide any other details about the individual or where the person was when the alleged cyber-attack occurred. The individual has elected to remain anonymous.

Researchers said they discovered what is known as a “zero-click exploit”, a vulnerability that allows software sold by companies like NSO Group to infect a user’s mobile device through a previously unknown security flaw in a phone’s operating software, without the user having to click on a malicious link.

Apple released what is called a “patch” to fix the security flaw in its latest version of iOS (16.6.1). The company had no further comment.

NSO said in a statement that it was “unable to respond to any allegations that do not include any supporting research”.

The Israeli company has said it only sells its spyware – which can infect any phone – to government clients, for use in fighting serious crime and terrorism. But the Guardian and other media groups have documented dozens of cases of the spyware being misused by government clients in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, India, Rwanda and the UAE, among others.

Once a phone is infected, the user of the spyware – mostly likely a foreign government intelligence service or police – has total access to the phone, including encrypted conversations and messages over applications such as Signal or WhatsApp. It can also turn a person’s mobile into a listening device by manipulating its recorder.

The spate of attacks against journalists, diplomats, foreign government officials and activists, including against US citizens abroad, prompted the Biden administration in 2021 to place NSO on a blacklist. The company is also being sued by Apple and WhatsApp.

Bill Marczak, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, told Reuters he attributed the exploit to NSO Group’s Pegasus with “high confidence”, based on forensic evidence. He also said that he believed the operator of the spyware had likely made an error during installation of the spyware, which was how Citizen Lab found it.

Got a tip on this story? Please contact Stephanie.Kirchgaessner@theguardian.com