International authorities disrupt 'world's most dangerous malware'

BY MAGGIE MILLER - 01/27/21 THE HILL

© iStockphoto


A team of international law enforcement and judicial groups on Wednesday announced they had disrupted infrastructure used by cyber criminals to spread what authorities described as the “world’s most dangerous malware” and attack organizations around the world.

The Emotet botnet, one of the most prolific malware viruses used by cyber criminals over the past decade, saw its infrastructure disrupted by a coalition of authorities in the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Lithuania, Canada and Ukraine, with European Union agencies Europol and Eurojust providing coordination support.

As part of the effort, hundreds of servers around the world used to spread the botnet were taken over by law enforcement, with Europol noting in a statement that as part of this effort, “the infected machines of victims have been redirected towards this law enforcement-controlled infrastructure.”


The botnet had been used by cyber criminals since as early as 2014 as a backdoor into computer systems, with the Emotet virus sold to other cyber criminals once it had established access to these networks, increasing cases of data theft and ransomware attacks.

“EMOTET was much more than just a malware,” Europol wrote. “What made EMOTET so dangerous is that the malware was offered for hire to other cybercriminals to install other types of malware, such as banking Trojans or ransomwares, onto a victim’s computer.”

The malware was spread through Microsoft Word documents attached to emails, which were often presented as invoices or shipping notices, or documents having to do with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Europol.

Significant data theft was also involved in use of the botnet, with Dutch authorities discovering a database that included stolen email addresses, usernames and passwords.

In the U.S., the FBI and the Department of Justice were involved in disrupting the botnet’s infrastructure, while in Ukraine, authorities shared a video of a raid carried out that involved the seizure of dozens of pieces of computer equipment used to support the botnet.

Sherrod DeGrippo, the senior director of Threat Research and Detection at cybersecurity group Proofpoint, described the Emotet botnet as “one of the world’s most disruptive threats.”

“What makes Emotet particularly dangerous for organizations is that it has been the primary foothold for the future deployment of other banking trojans,” DeGrippo said in a statement provided to The Hill on Wednesday. “At this point, any mainstream banking trojan may lead to devastating ransomware attacks. Their campaign volume is typically large, as we usually observe hundreds of thousands of emails per day when Emotet is operating.”

“Considering this appears to be a law enforcement action on the backend infrastructure of the Emotet botnet, this really could be the end,” DeGrippo noted.

Bureau of Land Management exodus: Agency lost 87 percent of staff in Trump HQ relocation

BY REBECCA BEITSCH - 01/28/21 

After the Trump administration announced its plans to relocate the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) headquarters to Colorado, more than 87 percent of Washington-based employees decided to leave the agency, according to new numbers released by the Biden administration.

The figures show that following a July 2019 announcement the Department of the Interior would uproot the majority of BLM employees, just 41 agreed to relocate, while a staggering 287 either retired or left the agency before the end of 2020.

The flight of employees came after Trump’s BLM rolled out a plan that would leave just 60 of the agency's 10,000 employees in Washington, D.C., establishing a new headquarters in Grand Junction, Colo., while spreading the majority of Washington-based staff to various offices across the West.

“The bureau lost a tremendous amount of expertise; those were very seasoned people,” said Steve Ellis, who held the highest-ranking career position at the BLM under the Obama administration. “The numbers confirmed my worst fears. I hope we can get some of them back.”

Critics saw the move as a way to dismantle an agency that at times stands in the way of development on public lands, particularly for the fossil fuel industry.

Previous reporting from The Hill found the move would split apart a key public lands team, spreading across seven states those who review the environmental impacts of government decisions.

A senior policy analyst, several legislative affairs specialists and a public affairs specialist were among the positions of note shown in the documents to be heading to Reno, Nev.

Democrats frequently questioned why Grand Junction — a town of 60,000 four hours away from any major airport — would be the site of the BLM’s top officers.

The move was first announced by then-Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) as he prepared for a tough reelection campaign.

But as the Biden administration puts its own stamp on the BLM, it’s not yet clear what it plans to do with the Grand Junction headquarters, where 40 employees currently work, or the rest of the employees based out West.

“The Interior Department’s new leadership will work with BLM career staff to understand the ramifications of the headquarters move and determine if any adjustments need to be made," the agency said in a statement. "We are committed to engaging with a number of stakeholders through this process, including Tribes and Members of Congress."

“BLM’s important mission and the communities served by the agency deserve a deliberate and thoughtful process," it added.

Ellis advised that such a process should be handled “surgically.”

“It was a tough four years to be a federal employee,” he said. “Just because the last administration treated them badly, you don't want to do that again.”

THIS WAS STEVE BANNON'S IDEA OF DECONSTRUCTING GOVERNMENT, IF YOU CAN'T FIRE PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS BECAUSE OF UNION CONTRACTS YOU MOVE THEIR ENTIRE

DEPARTMENT (PHYSICALLY IF NECCASARY) FORCING THEM TO QUIT.

IT WAS TRUMP AND KUSHNER POLICY APPLIED BY SONNY PERDUE TO THE USDA AS WELL.

Calculations Show Humans Can't Contain Superintelligent Machines



Researchers say we’re unlikely to ever be able to contain a large enough superintelligent artificial intelligence>>>P.

The premise sounds scary, but knowing the odds will help scientists who work on these projects.

Self-teaching AI already exists and can teach itself things programmers don’t

“fully understand.”

In a new study, researchers from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Human Development say they’ve shown that an artificial intelligence in the category known as“superintelligent” would be impossible for humans to contain with competing software.

That... doesn’t sound promising. But are we really all doomed to bow down to our sentient AI overlords?

➡ The world is f#@!-ing weird. Let's make sense of it together.

Berlin’s Institute for Human Development studies how humans learn—and how we subsequently build and teach machines to learn. A superintelligent AI is one that exceeds human intelligence and can teach itself new things beyond human grasp. It’s this phenomenon that causes a great deal of thought and research.

The Planck press release points out superintelligent AIs already exist in some capacities.“[T]here are already machines that perform certain important tasks independently without programmers fully understanding how they learned it,” study coauthor Manuel Cebrian explains.“The question therefore arises whether this could at some point become uncontrollable and dangerous for humanity.”

Mathematicians, for example, use complex machine learning to help solve outliers for famous proofs. Scientists use machine learning to come up with new candidate molecules to treat diseases. Yes, much of this research involves some amount of“brute force” solving—the simple fact that computers can race through billions of calculations and shorten these problems from decades or even centuries to days or months.

➡ Cool Stuff We Love: The Best Books About AI






Because of the amount that computer hardware can process at once, the boundary where quantity becomes quality isn’t always easy to pinpoint. Humans are fearful of AI that can teach itself, and Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics (and generations of variations on them) have become instrumental to how people imagine we can protect ourselves from a rogue or evil AI. The laws dictate that a robot can’t harm people and can’t be instructed to harm people.

The problem, according to these researchers, is that we likely don’t have a way to enforce these laws or others like them. From the study:

“We argue that total containment is, in principle, impossible, due to fundamental limits inherent to computing itself. Assuming that a superintelligence will contain a program that includes all the programs that can be executed by a universal Turing machine on input potentially as complex as the state of the world, strict containment requires simulations of such a program, something theoretically (and practically) impossible.”

Basically, a superintelligent AI will have acquired so much knowledge that to even plan a large enough container will exceed our human grasp. Not just that, but there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to parse whatever the AI has decided is the best medium. It probably won’t look anything like our humanmade, clumsy programming languages.

This might sound scary, but it’s also extremely important information for scientists to have. Without the phantom of a“failsafe algorithm,” computer researchers can put their energy into other plans and exercise more caution.

 

Exclusive: U.S. oil industry seeks unusual alliance with Farm Belt to fight Biden electric vehicle agenda

By Jarrett Renshaw and Stephanie Kelly  

© Reuters/Jason Reed FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO:

 E85 Ethanol biodiesel fuel is shown being pumped into a vehicle at a gas station in Nevada, Iowa

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. oil industry is seeking to forge an alliance with the nation's corn growers and biofuel producers to lobby against the Biden administration's push for electric vehicles, but is so far meeting a cool reception, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

The effort marks an unusual attempt by the petroleum industry to cozy up to its long-time rivals, reflecting the scale of its concern over President Joe Biden's sweeping measures to combat climate change and tamp down fossil fuels.

While the oil industry and biofuels producers are natural competitors for space in America's gas tanks, they share a desire to ensure a future for internal combustion engines.

The effort also reflects the rapidly shifting political landscape in Washington: the oil industry's once-mighty influence has waned since Biden replaced Donald Trump as president, but the farm belt remains a vital and powerful political constituency.

The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers oil refining trade group confirmed it has been contacting state and national representatives of the corn and biofuel industries in recent weeks to seek support for a policy that would reduce the carbon-intensity of transport fuels and block efforts to provide federal subsidies for electric vehicles.

That proposal would be an alternative to Biden's stated goal of electrifying the nation's vehicle fleet and would ensure a continuing market for liquid fuels like gasoline and corn-based ethanol.

AFPM met in mid-January with some corn and biofuel industry lobbyists and some member refiners are hoping to host another meeting in February to discuss the future of liquid fuels.

"This whole idea was going to have to take a whole lot of time to gel, but we have made some progress," said Derrick Morgan, senior vice president at AFPM.

The industry's push to change the course of electric vehicle policy faces big headwinds: California has announced a ban on internal combustion engines by 2035, other states are considering similar measures, and auto-maker General Motors on Thursday announced it will produce only electric vehicles by then.

Geoff Cooper, head of the Renewable Fuels Association, a leading biofuel industry trade group, confirmed RFA representatives were invited to participate in the February meeting, but said his organization had not yet decided whether to attend.

"We weren't born yesterday and we're not going to let the oil industry play us like a fiddle," he said. "They have a long history of pushing surrogates and proxies to the microphone to do their dirty work and we're not interested in that."

The National Corn Growers Association is also considering whether to send staff the February discussion, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

NCGA CEO Jon Doggett told Reuters no such meeting had been scheduled, and distanced his group from the idea of an oil-corn alliance. "I have nothing to do with any refining groups. We haven't talked," he said.

Asked if any of its state-level member organizations were considering attending, Doggett replied, "We have dozens of groups. I can't know what all of them are planning."

Sources said the biofuel and corn industry is reluctant to join with the oil industry on this issue not just because of its longstanding rivalry with refiners, but also because it does not want to publicly oppose the energy policies of the new president.

WHIPLASH IN WASHINGTON

The refining sector enjoyed a seat at the table under former President Donald Trump, who was keen to bolster the oil and gas industry.

Biden marks a complete reversal. He entered the White House promising measures to restrain the oil industry, from pausing new drilling leases on public lands to contemplating tougher limits on emissions.

Biden this week pledged to buy 645,000 electric cars for the government vehicle fleet as part of a broader plan to advance EVs through vehicle procurement, infrastructure development and subsidies, threatening the multi-billion dollar gasoline market.

AFPM's Morgan said refiners are not scared of electric vehicles but dislike rigid government mandates. "What we have a problem with are heavy-handed mandates that take away consumer choice, either altogether or in large part. We don't think that's the right way forward," Morgan said.

The oil industry believes carbon emissions from fuel can be reduced by requiring increased octane content, which makes gasoline burn cleaner. Ethanol is a popular octane booster.

The U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard currently requires refiners to blend biofuels like ethanol into fuels. As a result, most gasoline sold in the United States has about 10 percent ethanol in it. The biofuel industry has been pushing hard to ensure those mandates continue.

"It's no surprise the oil industry all of a sudden wants to give us a bear hug. We produce lower carbon fuels. They don't," said Emily Skor, head of the biofuel group Growth Energy.

(Re

Why anti-vaxxers are gaining ground amid the coronavirus pandemic

“There are many layers here and I think what the anti-vaxxers are doing is preying on those layers,” said Erica DeWald of Vaccinate Your Family.

By Anagha Srikanth | Jan. 28, 2021 THE HILL

Story at a glance 

VIDEO https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/536388-why-anti-vaxxers-are-gaining-ground-amid-the?jwsource=cl

As the United States is scrambling to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine, misinformation is thriving.
While an increasing number of Americans have been willing to be inoculated against the coronavirus, some remain hesitant.

The anti-vaccination movement has continued to push its cause throughout the pandemic.

Despite commitments from Facebook, Youtube and other online platforms to combat COVID-19 misinformation, new rumors keep popping up almost as soon as others are shut down. So how do you get ahead in what seems like an endless game of Whac-a-mole?

“We have to separate out two strains here, the traditional anti-vaccine groups and leaders and your layperson who has their concerns about this being a new vaccine that was developed and approved quicker than your average vaccine,” said Erica DeWald, the director of strategic communications and partnerships for Vaccinate Your Family.

The groups that make up the larger anti-vaxxer movement in the United States were organizing even before a vaccine was developed, growing their social media audience and online reach. Leaders like Robert Kennedy Jr., who most recently falsely suggested a link between Hank Aaron’s death and the COVID-19 vaccine, can be extremely wealthy and some have even profited off of the movement.

So when the coronavirus pandemic hit, DeWald said, “they saw it as their opportunity to finally push their agenda into the mainstream and how they decided to do that was by teaming up with people who were against COVID-masking requirements and lockdowns.” United by anti-government sentiments, some anti-vaccine advocates even found themselves at the insurrection at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6.

But not everyone who expresses anti-vaccine sentiments is necessarily part of the larger movement. Despite being disproportionately harmed by the coronavirus pandemic, Black and Indigenous Americans are especially likely to be skeptical of a vaccine as a result of racism and even abuse in the medical community.

A new documentary produced by Kennedy and other leaders speaks to this history, but also makes misleading comparisons between the COVID-19 vaccine and the Tuskegee Experiment.

“They’re filling the void. That's what anti vaxxers do best, they fill in the void of information,” said DeWald. “You have an entire country that doesn’t talk about institutional racism in the medical community and here they are.”

Racism in the medical community persists to this day, starting at the foundation of many health care professionals’ educations. Half of white medical trainees believe such myths as Black people have thicker skin or less sensitive nerve endings than white people, reported the Association of American Medical Colleges in 2020, many based on outdated and outright racist studies. But DeWald said that history is only part of the problem.

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

“Are they not getting a COVID-19 vaccine because of that mistrust or are they not getting a COVID-19 vaccine because if they have a bad reaction they don’t know that they can get medical care for that reaction? There are many layers here and I think what the anti-vaxxers are doing is preying on those layers,” she said.

The rollout of the vaccine itself has been problematic, with early data showing that Black, Hispanic and other people of color make up a smaller share of vaccinations compared to their share of cases and deaths, while the opposite is true for white people. Even this information, however, is incomplete because many states are not releasing racial breakdowns of the data to the public.

The lack of transparency is a big reason that public health advocates are losing out to anti-vaxxers, noted DeWald. While the anti-vaccine movement is largely tainted by misinformation, they’ve been successful in pointing out that vaccination is a choice and finding common ground through buzzwords such as “informed consent.”

Groups like the Black Coalition Against COVID-19 have begun this work already. In Michigan, a statewide initiative to improve health literacy saw more than 1 million residents obtain health coverage through the state's expanded Medicaid program. But laying groundwork for health literacy is no easy process.

“It comes down to person to person communication,” she said. “It’s about listening, acknowledging that their concerns are legitimate and real and answering them and I think what that means for the country is to actually start the process of community outreach.”

Warren calls CNBC reporter's 'bluff' on rich leaving US over wealth tax
BY JORDAN WILLIAMS - 01/28/21 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called a CNBC reporter’s “bluff” after the reporter suggested that wealthy Americans would leave the U.S. over a new tax.

Warren appeared on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Thursday, in which she discussed how levying a two-cent tax on the richest families in America would raise enough money for causes such as universal childcare and universal free college

After hearing her remark, host Sarah Eisen said the tax “might also chase wealthy people out of this country as we’ve seen has happened with, with other wealth taxes.”

“You just said how much we need the economy to be revitalized right now for companies to start adding jobs and not subtracting them anymore,” Eisen said.

Warren then pushed back on Eisen, saying “someone has to pay to keep this nation going right now,” and doubled down on her argument for taxing the “the top one-tenth of one percent” to fund more universal causes.

“What they want to do, is not only keep their wealth, they want to keep building their wealth faster than anyone else,” Warren said. “All I’m saying is can we have just, just a little fairness here? A two-cent wealth tax so that we can have universal childcare—”

“I’m just presenting the counter argument,” Eisen said interrupting Warren.

“Well, how about a counter argument though, based on fact?" Warren responded.

“The wealthiest in this country are paying less in taxes than everyone else,” Warren said. “Asking them to step up and pay a little more and you’re telling me that they would forfeit their American citizenship, or they had to do that and I’m just calling her bluff on that. I’m sorry that’s not going to happen."

 VIDEO https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5cl36404-warren-calls-cnbc-reporters-bluff-on-rich-leaving-us-over-wealth-tax?jwsource=

CHATTEL SLAVERY
Protests erupt in Poland as near-total abortion ban takes effect
BY JOSEPH CHOI - 01/28/21 


© Getty

Nationwide protests have broken out across Poland for the past two nights in response to a near-total ban on abortions.

Protests are taking place after a new restriction took effect following a ruling from a top court three months ago that stated it was unconstitutional to abort a congenitally damaged fetus, The Associated Press reports.

As the AP notes, fetal malformations were the cited cause for around 98 percent of legal abortions in Poland.

Women at the protests this week, led by women’s rights group Women’s Strike, reportedly said the new restriction made them not want to get pregnant at all.

“The state wants to further limit their rights, risk their lives, and condemn them to torture,” said Adam Bodnar, a top human rights official in Poland whose office is independent of the government, according to the AP.

With the new restriction taking effect, abortions can now only be performed in cases of rape or incest or if the life or health of the mother is at risk.

“Today is a terrible day for women and girls in Poland," Esther Major, a senior research adviser at Amnesty International, said in a statement.

Major called the new restriction "the latest in a coordinated and systematic wave of attacks on women’s human rights by Polish lawmakers."

The AP reports that members of the Law and Justice Party, the ruling party in Poland that is aligned with the Roman Catholic Church, argued the latest restriction was put in place to prevent the abortion of fetuses with Down syndrome. Such abortions make up a large portion of abortions in Poland, the news outlet noted.

Cheney offers bill to prohibit suspension of oil, gas, coal leases

BY TAL AXELROD - 01/28/21 

© Bonnie Cash


Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) introduced two bills Thursday seeking to block the White House plan to pause leases for oil, gas or coal on federal lands, a key part of its expansive climate change platform.

Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican and the representative of a major fossil fuel-producing state, said the Safeguarding Oil and Gas Leasing and Permitting Act and the Safeguarding Coal Leasing Act would force the Biden administration to obtain a joint resolution of approval from Congress before implementing any federal moratorium on oil and gas leasing or permitting or coal leasing.

The bills are similar to one from Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R), which is also likely to be formally introduced Thursday.


“The executive actions from the Biden Administration banning new leasing and permitting on federal land endanger our economy and threaten our national security. The legislation I am introducing today would safeguard against these damaging orders, and prevent the job loss, higher energy costs, and loss of revenue that promises to come with them,” Cheney said in a statement. “These bills will defend the interests of the people of Wyoming and our nation, and I will work with partners in Washington to push for their consideration.”

Cheney touted 21 co-sponsors for the Safeguarding Oil and Gas Leasing and Permitting Act and 14 for the Safeguarding Coal Leasing Act, as well as support from a number of industry groups.

“The Petroleum Association of Wyoming applauds Congresswoman Cheney’s common-sense bill that will give voice to those elected offices with a constitutional responsibility to represent the people and lands affected by these misguided attempts to wreak havoc on economies across the West,” said Petroleum Association of Wyoming President Pete Obermueller.

The introduction of the bills follows President Biden’s signing of executive orders laying out an array of climate goals, including conserving 30 percent of public lands and waters by 2030, halting the granting of leases on public lands or offshore waters and putting the U.S. on a path to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

The move by Cheney could play well among her constituents in Wyoming, which is a major producer of coal, natural gas and crude oil, but could also serve as a way to tap into a popular issue within the GOP at a time when she faces withering criticism from conservatives over her vote this month to impeach former President Trump.

Cheney has cast her vote as one of “conscience” after Trump egged on a raucous crowd of supporters who later waged a violent riot in the Capitol on Jan. 6, an event that led to the deaths of several people.

Cheney's vote outraged some House Republicans and sparked a petition by some to remove her from her leadership post.

Days after the impeachment vote, Cheney got her first official GOP primary challenger for the 2022 election.

Regulator shelves rule meant to force banks to serve oil, gun companies

BY SYLVAN LANE - 01/28/21 10:25 AM EST

• Cheney offers bill to prohibit suspension of oil, gas, coal leases

The OCC on Jan. 14 finalized its Fair Access rule, which was proposed in November to protect oil, natural gas and firearms companies from being spurned by banks. A slew of major banks have backed away from financing oil and gas drilling projects and firearm manufacturers in recent years, citing climate change and several mass shootings.

Republicans applauded the OCC for taking action to protect such companies, some comparing their woes to the centuries of financial discrimination faced by people of color in the U.S.

Democrats and advocates for big banks — two groups rarely on the same page — condemned the proposal as unnecessary, intrusive and shortsighted.

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF BIG PHARMA

Belgian authorities inspect AstraZeneca pharmacies amid EU vaccine dispute

BY CELINE CASTRONUOVO - 01/28/21


© Getty Images


Belgian health authorities on Thursday said they inspected an AstraZeneca pharmaceutical factory upon request from the European Commission, the latest development in the ongoing feud over delays in the delivery of coronavirus vaccines.

According to The Associated Press, the Belgian government was asked to inspect the factory to determine whether the delays in the delivery of AstraZeneca’s vaccine are actually a result of production issues at its manufacturing plants in Europe, as the company has claimed.

The chemical manufacturer Novasep has a factory in the Belgian town of Seneffe that has reportedly been used in the production of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine, which was developed in coordination with Oxford University.

The inspections come as EU officials face pressure to accelerate its vaccine rollout to keep up with other countries like the U.K. and Israel, which have been able to distribute the vaccine at much higher rates.

AstraZeneca agreed to initially give the EU 80 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine, but cut it back to 31 million doses, citing reduced yields from its European manufacturing plants.

The EU on Wednesday claimed that it received even less than that amount and just one quarter of the doses originally agreed upon for the bloc’s 27 member states from January to March.

AstraZeneca on Wednesday denied the claim that it was failing to honor its commitments to the EU, with AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot saying, “Our contract is not a contractual commitment, it’s a best effort.”

“Basically, we said we’re going to try our best, but we can’t guarantee we’re going to succeed. In fact, getting there, we are a little bit delayed,” Soriot added.

The AP reported that the EU has committed to buying a total of 300 million AstraZeneca doses with the possibility of 100 million extra shots.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday gave a warning to pharmaceutical companies that developed coronavirus vaccines with the help of EU aid, saying at the World Economic Forum’s virtual event in Switzerland that the companies “must deliver” and “honor their obligations.”

According to the AP, the EU invested about 2.7 billion euros, roughly $3.3 billion, in companies researching and developing COVID-19 vaccines.

EU, AstraZeneca feud escalates over delays in vaccine delivery

Despite the ongoing dispute with AstraZeneca, Stefan de Keersmaecker, the European Commission’s health policy spokesman, said that authorities believe they will still be able to meet their goal of vaccinating at least 80 percent of EU citizens over the age of 80 by March.

“It is an ambitious target, but we believe it is a realistic one,” he said, according to the AP, noting the readiness of doses provided by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are currently the only coronavirus inoculations to be approved for use in the EU, though AstraZeneca is expected to be reviewed by regulators on Friday.