Ben Townsend

Freelance Journalist

United Kingdom

Hei. I'm a journalist/editor/copywriter based in Bristol. I have bylines in the Manchester Evening News, The Independent, The Daily Mirror, The Tab, Backbench, The Beaver, and the Great Bentley Parish Magazine. I'm also an ESL teacher, musician, and keen rice connoisseur.

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Immersivelabs
09/13/2021
New FIN7 Lab Series: Tool up against notorious global threat group

Earlier this year, a hacker found guilty for his 'high-level' involvement in a series of financially motivated cyberattacks received a ten-year jail sentence in Seattle. The Ukrainian national, Fedir Hladyr, was one of only three suspects arrested in 2018 that helped orchestrate thousands of network breaches against over 100 US companies, alongside the theft and sale of millions of customer card details and data records.

Manchester Evening News

Manchester Evening News
16/02/2020
Meet Barrington, Manchester's boom box cyclist who 'just loves the music'

You can usually hear him first - the distant rumble of a portable speaker slowly moving down Manchester's cycle lanes. Once you've seen him, he's unmistakeable - wearing his iconic bucket hat and glasses, riding a rickety old mountain bike with an old blue Ikea bag swinging from the handlebar.

Manchester Evening News
14/02/2020
The boy who could be killed by stress - and how a dog could change his life

Stress could kill young Aidan Bennett. Heightened emotion and everyday pressures could kill the 13-year-old. Having an assistance dog would help Aidan enormously - from emotional support, to support with his motor skills and excercise. It would even benefit his cognitive behavioural therapy.

The Independent

The Independent
01/10/2019
Thousands rally behind pioneering cancer researcher facing jail and deportation over UK visa...

A PhD student carrying out pioneering research into prostate cancer is facing jail in the UK because of an administrative error on her visa application. Mother-of-three Adriana Ortega-Zeifert, 39, originally from Mexico, failed to post the hard copies of the necessary documents to the Home Office in 2016, despite completing the relevant payments and forms online.

The Independent
12/09/2019
Everything you need to know about surviving university accommodation

This is it. You've unloaded the car, navigated endless, winding corridors with twenty bags and a house plant in tow, survived a brief (perhaps tearful) farewell, and now you face the front door of your new university home. You slide your key into the lock. But then, you pause.

The Tab

The Tab
28/11/2019
Bolton Cube didn't have fire-resistant cladding because it was 16cm too short

The student tower block destroyed by a fire in Bolton didn't have fire-resistant cladding because it was 16 cm too short, it has been revealed. The Cube, a six-storey block of flats home to over 200 students in Bolton that burnt down earlier this month, did not have fire-resistant cladding because it measured as 17.84m tall - just 16cm under the required height.

aAh! Magazine