V'GER

Voyager 1 detects a hum in interstellar space

Posted by Kelly Kizer Whitt in SPACE | May 12, 2021

Now 8 years into its travels in the deep reaches of space between the stars, Voyager 1 has detected a faint, low-level hum. It stems from the vibration of the plasma, or ionized gas, in interstellar space.


Voyager 1 is said to have sailed out of our solar system in 2012, when it crossed the heliopause into interstellar space. Image via NASA.

Voyager 1 left Earth in 1977 and crossed the boundary of our sun’s magnetic influence (the heliopause) in 2012. It’s now traveling in the vastness of interstellar space – the space between the stars – and is, at present, the most distant human-made object from us. Interstellar space isn’t quite as empty as a vacuum, and a team of scientists announced on May 10, 2021, that Voyager 1 has now sent back a message, saying it’s detected a faint, monotonous hum of interstellar gas (plasma). Astronomer Stella Koch Ocker of Cornell University led the study and, in a statement, described Voyager 1’s discovery:

It’s very faint and monotone, because it is in a narrow-frequency bandwidth. We’re detecting the faint, persistent hum of interstellar gas.

The study was published May 10, 2021, in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy.

Astronomer Stella Koch Ocker led the study leading to the discovery of a low-level hum in interstellar space. Image via Cornell University.

Although Voyager 1 is traveling in interstellar space, it still feels some influence from the solar wind, a stream of charged particles from our sun. This stream from our sun is no longer the dominant force affecting Voyager 1, however; similar “winds” from other stars mix in. As Voyager 1 reads its environment, it allows scientists to understand how the interstellar medium and solar wind interact and how the the bubble of the solar system’s heliosphere is shaped by external forces.

Voyager 1 has an instrument called a Plasma Wave System, which has been detecting larger eruptions from the sun that affect the plasma, or ionized gas, in interstellar space. It’s when the eruptions are quiet that there’s a background hum. Team member James Cordes of Cornell University described the hum not as an annoying drone, but as something much more pleasant:

The interstellar medium is like a quiet or gentle rain. In the case of a solar outburst, it’s like detecting a lightning burst in a thunderstorm and then it’s back to a gentle rain.

The low-level hum let scientists track how interstellar plasma is distributed in the space through which Voyager 1 is passing. That’s huge! We’ve never had a spacecraft so far from Earth before and so never before could obtain this sort of direct measurement. Team member Shami Chatterjee of Cornell University explained how the hum helps scientists learn more about the interstellar plasma:

We’ve never had a chance to evaluate it. Now we know we don’t need a fortuitous event related to the sun to measure interstellar plasma. Regardless of what the sun is doing, Voyager is sending back detail. The craft is saying, ‘Here’s the density I’m swimming through right now. And here it is now. And here it is now. And here it is now.’ Voyager is quite distant and will be doing this continuously.

Voyager 1 is 14 billion miles (22.5 billion km) from Earth. The signals it sends back to us require nearly an entire earthly day to travel back to Earth. In other words, Voyager 1 is nearly 1 light-day away. For this spacecraft launched in 1977 to still be working outside our solar system and transmitting data is a truly stupendous achievement. Ocker said:


Scientifically, this research is quite a feat. It’s a testament to the amazing Voyager spacecraft. It’s the engineering gift to science that keeps on giving

This artist’s concept shows Voyager 1 leaving the solar system and the greater influence of solar particles and entering interstellar space. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech.

Bottom line: Voyager 1 has detected a faint, monotonous hum from plasma (ionized gas) in interstellar space.

Source: Persistent plasma waves in interstellar space detected by Voyager 1

Via Cornell University

   

DIRECT ACTION GETS THE GOODS

Apple reportedly fires Antonio Garcia Martinez after employee backlash

By Mike Peterson | May 13, 2021

Apple has reportedly fired Antonio Garcia Martinez after an employee backlash over sexist comments that he made in his book "Chaos Monkeys."

The newly hired engineer is "gone from Apple after employee backlash," the company confirmed to Bloomberg on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Apple employees began circulating a petition that called for an investigation into Garcia Martinez's hiring.

"At Apple, we have always strived to create an inclusive, welcoming workplace where everyone is respected and accepted. Behavior that demeans or discriminates against people for who they are has no place here," Apple said in a statement to Bloomberg.

In their petition to Eddy Cue, the Apple employees said that Antonio Garcia's hiring "calls into question parts of our system of inclusion at Apple, including hiring panels, background checks, and our process to ensure our existing culture of inclusion is strong enough to withstand individuals who don't share our inclusive values."

Specifically, employees expressed concerns about Garcia Martinez's views about women and people of color. One passage from "Chaos Monkeys," which was circulated on Twitter, called women in the Bay Area "soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit."

Apple had hired Garcia Martinez to work on its ad platforms product engineering team in April. The Cupertino-based division works on advertising systems within the App Store, Apple News, and elsewhere.


Apple staffers demand investigation into recent 'misogynistic' hire

By Mike Peterson | May 12, 2021


A group of Apple employees are calling for an investigation into the recent hiring of former Facebook ad manager Antonio Garcia Martinez, citing concerns about "misogynistic statements" that he made.

According to a circulating petition that the staffers signed, Garcia Martinez's hiring "calls into question parts of our system of inclusion at Apple, including hiring panels, background checks, and our process to ensure our existing culture of inclusion is strong enough to withstand individuals who don't share our inclusive values."

In the petition, first seen by The Verge, the employees expressed concerns about Garcia Martinez's views on women and people of color. They cite passages from "Chaos Monkeys," an autobiography about Garcia Martinez's work in Silicon Valley, and comments from interviews with the former Facebook ad products executive.

For example, one quote from the book that's being shared on Twitter calls women in the Bay Area "soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit."

Garcia Martinez was hired to join Apple's ad platforms product engineering team, works on advertising technology within the App Store and in other places like Apple News and the Stocks app. He will be based in Cupertino.

The petition calls for an investigation into how Garcia Martinez's "published views on women and people of color were missed or ignored, along with a clear plan of action to prevent this from happening again."

Apple says that diversity is one of its core values. According to its latest diversity report, women made up 34% of Apple's total workforce in 2020. The share of Asian workers also increased to 27%, up from 23% in 2018.

The full text of the letter, which started circulating on Wednesday, can be seen below.

We are deeply concerned about the recent hiring of Antonio Garcia Martinez. His misogynistic statements in his autobiography — such as "Most women in the Bay Area are soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of shit" (further quoted below this letter) — directly oppose Apple's commitment to Inclusion & Diversity. We are profoundly distraught by what this hire means for Apple's commitment to its inclusion goals, as well as its real and immediate impact on those working near Mr. Garcia Martinez. It calls into question parts of our system of inclusion at Apple, including hiring panels, background checks, and our process to ensure our existing culture of inclusion is strong enough to withstand individuals who don't share our inclusive values.

It is concerning that the views Mr. Garcia Martinez expresses in his 2016 book Chaos Monkeys were overlooked — or worse, excused — during his background check or hiring panel. We demand an investigation into how his published views on women and people of color were missed or ignored, along with a clear plan of action to prevent this from happening again.

Inclusion isn't just about who we hire; it's also about how we support everyone who already works at Apple. Given Mr. Garcia Martinez's history of publishing overtly racist and sexist remarks about his former colleagues, we are concerned that his presence at Apple will contribute to an unsafe working environment for our colleagues who are at risk of public harassment and private bullying. We are entitled to insight into how the People team intends to mitigate this risk.

Further, the explicit, conscious biases expressed in Mr. Garcia Martinez's writing will continue to slow our I&D progress as long as they are tolerated by those with the power to affect hiring decisions and career trajectories. At a minimum, we demand assurance that Mr. Garcia Martinez and any who share his harmful views will not be involved in hiring, interviewing, or performance decisions during their tenures at Apple.

Finally, we expect and deserve a transparent, intentional, and detailed strategy from Apple to ensure our culture of inclusion is strong enough to protect our team members against biases like these that ANY new hire brings. Our training calls attention to the unconscious biases that contradict our stated values, but no amount of training can inspire a commitment to inclusion in someone who objects to its basic premise.

We have included a selection of direct quotes below this letter from Chaos Monkeys and interviews with Mr. Garcia Martinez that showcase some of the statements he's made. We are aware that Mr. Martinez has claimed that the quote above is taken out of context, but the full passage is no less harmful. We are also aware that Mr. Martinez has attempted to distance himself from these statements by claiming that they represent widely held attitudes in the tech industry. This is not a tenable position. In reproducing these harmful stereotypes, and in materially benefiting from them, Mr. Martinez shows himself to be a participant in this culture and only furthers the sexism and racism that our I&D initiatives are working to counteract.

Thank you for hearing our concerns. We look forward to your response regarding Apple's plans to continue moving toward a more inclusive workspace.


Update 6:45 p.m. Eastern Time: Antonio Garcia Martinez is "gone from Apple," the company confirmed to Bloomberg on Wednesday.

Meet America's Newest Chess Master,

 10-Year-Old Tanitoluwa Adewumi


May 11, 2021

Heard on All Things Considered

MARY LOUISE KELLYTwitter
KAREN ZAMORA
AMY ISACKSON
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Tanitoluwa Adewumi, pictured in 2019, just became the newest national chess master in the U.S. at age 10.Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Tanitoluwa Adewumi, a 10-year-old in New York, just became the country's newest national chess master.

At the Fairfield County Chess Club Championship tournament in Connecticut on May 1, Adewumi won all four of his matches, bumping his chess rating up to 2223 and making him the 28th youngest person to become a chess master, according to US Chess.

"I was very happy that I won and that I got the title," he says, "I really love that I finally got it."

ARTS & LIFE
This Young Chess Champion Is 'Not Scared Of Anything On That Board'

"Finally" is after about three years — the amount of time that Adewumi has been playing chess. When he started, Adewumi and his family were living in a homeless shelter in Manhattan after fleeing religious persecution by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in their home country of Nigeria.

Now, Adewumi practices chess "every day" after school for "10, 11 hours" — and still manages to get some sleep.

His hours of practice have paid off. As a chess player, he describes himself as a bit of an every man, "aggressive" or "calm" when he needs to be, and always thinking ahead.
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"On a normal position, I can do up to 20 moves [in advance]", he says. Keeping all of the pieces straight in his head might seem like a challenge but Adewumi says it's a skill that "when you master, it just keeps coming back."

Adewumi competes against other chess players at all levels. But his favorite match?

"I guess Hikaru Nakamura is my favorite person I've ever played," he says. "He's a grandmaster, a very strong one. He's on the top of the rankings."

Nakamura won that match. But Adewumi takes each loss in stride — and there's always the possibility of a comeback.

"I say to myself that I never lose, that I only learn," he says. "Because when you lose, you have to make a mistake to lose that game. So you learn from that mistake, and so you learn [overall]. So losing is the way of winning for yourself."

Since the last time NPR spoke with Adewumi, his family moved out of the shelter and he's written a book about his life called My Name Is Tani . . . and I Believe in Miracles. That book has been optioned for a Trevor Noah-produced film adaptation with a script by The Pursuit of Happyness screenwriter Steven Conrad.

But Adewumi's journey is not over yet. He says his goal is to become the world's youngest grandmaster. At 10 years 8 months, he has a little under two years to beat the current record holder, Sergey Karjakin, who gained his title at 12 years 7 months.

Karen Zamora and Amy Isackson produced and edited the audio story. Cyrena Touros adapted it for Web.

For Some Anti-Vaccine Advocates, Misinformation Is Part Of A Business

May 12, 2021
GEOFF BRUMFIEL

 

Transcript

Anti-vaccine advocates are using the COVID-19 pandemic to promote books, supplementals and services.Emilija Manevska/Getty Images

Sayer Ji is a 48-year-old proponent of what he calls natural medicine.

"My parents didn't know about natural medicine, so it really wasn't until I was 17 that I learned some basic principles of nutrition and self care," he told attendees at a recent virtual conference. "I was liberated from needing pharmaceutical medicines."

Ji was also there promoting his website, full of natural remedies and reams of anti-vaccine misinformation. He sells subscriptions for anywhere from $75 to $850 a year.

He is one of many anti-vaccine advocates with a business on the side. They promote false claims about the dangers vaccines pose, while selling treatments, supplementals or other services. Their potential market is the roughly 20% of Americans say they do not want to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to recent polling.

UNTANGLING DISINFORMATION

The Most Popular J&J Vaccine Story On Facebook? A Conspiracy Theorist Posted It

Health experts worry that the misinformation being spread is doing real damage. Without sufficient vaccination, communities could see a resurgence of the virus, particularly in the coming fall and winter months.

Ji has spent years pushing scientifically disproven views about vaccines and other conventional medical treatments, but the coronavirus pandemic gave him and others in the anti-vaccine community a new set of talking points. "This is the new medical apartheid, this is the new biosegregation that they want to roll out across the world," he warned of the vaccination campaigns during a lengthy Facebook video posted earlier this year.

"COVID was the opportunity," says Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit group that tracks anti-vaccination misinformation. "COVID generated a lot of anxiety and conspiracies and misinformation thrive where there is anxiety."

As people have searched online for information on the virus and vaccines, Ji and others have upped their rhetoric, while continuing to promote their books, workshops and other products. Research by the Center for Countering Digital Hate shows it can work, as 147 key anti-vaccination accounts have managed to grow their followings by at least 25% since the start of the pandemic.

And Ahmed believes for those with something to sell, anti-vaccine misinformation serves a second important purpose.

"One of the things that antivaxxers have to do to sell their own remedies ... is to persuade people not to trust authorities they've trusted in the past," Ahmed says.

By using their debunked theories to turn people away from mainstream medicine, these entrepreneurs are creating customers: "Once they've managed to hook someone, they can then sell to them for a lifetime."

That selling can be big business. One of the leading anti-vaccine advocates, Joseph Mercola, is believed to bring in millions each year through his companies, which sell an array of branded natural supplements, beauty products and even pet supplies. In a written statement to NPR, Mercola's company said he "rejects your biased accusation of promoting misinformation."

Separately, in an interview with NPR, Sayer Ji denied that his website was a major source of income.

"I mean I'm a published author, so I encourage people listening to buy my book if they're interested. How about that. So there it is, I've just promoted something, I'm a shill for the anti-vax industry," he said.

"Ultimately, my point though is that I work for a living, and I always have very hard."

He says his primary motive is to provide information to anyone interested in reading it.

Promoting products is not always a cynical move, says Kolina Koltai, a researcher who studies the anti-vaccine movement at the University of Washington. She believes that many are sincere in their beliefs about vaccines.

"If you really want to make that your life's mission, you need to make income somehow," she says. "We live in this capitalist society."

Regardless of motivation, she believes that money is a major part of a feedback loop that continues to drive vaccine misinformation on social media. The extended public health crisis has created a marketing opportunity that "just gives you more and more followers and more and more money."

Ahmed adds that while the anti-vaccine community's self-made personalities resemble others who have proliferated in the age of social media influencers, the potential damage they can cause is real. "Someone who's promoting lipstick isn't going to lead to us not being able to contain a pandemic that's already taken half-a-million lives [in America]," he says.

But the crisis is also bringing more scrutiny to anti-vaccine promoters. Sayer Ji's Instagram account was suspended in April after he repeatedly posted misleading and false information. Other anti-vaccine advocates have toned down their rhetoric on large platforms like Facebook. Koltai says losing these accounts could pose a threat to their livelihoods.

"When they get kicked off of their social media platforms I do think they take a major hit to their business models," she says.

On May 4, Mercola announced that he would remove all information on COVID-19 from his website. In a lengthy post, he cited threats against him as the reason, rather than business or legal considerations. As of May 10, many posts about COVID-19 still appeared on the site.

For his part, Ji says the biggest hit to his web traffic actually came before the pandemic, in 2019, when Google changed its search algorithms to hide anti-vaccine sites like his.

And he says he doesn't worry much about the financial implications of getting kicked off social media sites either.

"Social media deplatforming? Give me a break," he says. "We have hundreds of thousands and millions of followers out there, in part because we do a really good job of providing information that people want."

His company's Facebook account continues to promote vaccine misinformation to half-a-million followers. And lately he has added a big red stamp to it that reads "censored."

Revamped EPA website shows increased climate change risks

By MATTHEW DALY
11/5/2021

EPA Administrator Michael Regan speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Wednesday, May 12, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a gap of more than four years, the Environmental Protection Agency is relaunching a website highlighting evidence of climate change in the United States, including rising temperatures, increased ocean acidity, sea level rise, river flooding, droughts, heat waves and wildfires.

EPA unveiled the revamped website on Climate Change Indicators on Wednesday, calling it a “comprehensive resource” that presents clear and compelling evidence of changes to the climate. The website was effectively suspended under President Donald Trump, who did not allow information on the site to be updated and who repeatedly disputed or downplayed the effects of climate change.

“There is no small town, big city or rural community that is unaffected by the climate crisis,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said Wednesday. “Americans are seeing and feeling the impacts up close, with increasing regularity.”

Unlike Trump, President Joe Biden calls climate change an existential threat to the planet and has made slowing global warming a top priority of his administration. He led a virtual global summit on climate change from the White House last month.

The Biden administration revived the climate change website and added some new measures, pulling information from government agencies, universities and other sources.

Regan called the revamped website “a crucial scientific resource that underscores the urgency for action on the climate crisis,” adding: “With this long overdue update, we now have additional data and a new set of indicators that show climate change has become even more evident, stronger, and extreme.″

Regan said it’s “imperative that we take meaningful action” to address climate change.

The new indicators show that 2020 was the second-warmest year on record, after 2016, and that Arctic sea ice was the second smallest on record last year.

The website also shows that heat waves are occurring more often across the United States, from an average of two heat waves per year during the 1960s to six per year during the 2010s.

Sea levels rose along much of the U.S. coastline between 1960 and 2020, particularly the mid-Atlantic and parts of the Gulf Coast, where some reporting stations registered increases of more than 8 inches, the EPA said.

Coastal flooding also is becoming more frequent, especially along the East and Gulf Coasts, while the average length of the growing season in the lower 48 states increased by more than two weeks since the beginning of the 20th century.

EPA said it worked with partners from dozens of government agencies, academic institutions and other organizations to develop the climate change indicators. Each indicator was peer reviewed by independent experts.

The revamped site also features interactive data exploration tools with graphs, maps and figures, along with an overview of the climate change indicators and climate change’s effects on human health and the environment.

ONE BILLIONAIRE EXITS ANOTHER ENTERS

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Might Have Just Made A Grand Entrance Into The Bitcoin Market

By Olivia Brooke
-May 12, 2021




The CEO of Facebook might have just dropped subtle hints on his “Bitcoin holdings.” In a post that has left the cryptocurrency space confused, for the most part, Zuckerberg posted a picture of two of his goats, named Max and Bitcoin.
What is cooking at the Zuckerberg mansion?

While a lot of Bitcoin proponents have asserted and concluded that the billionaire may have been hoping to spite the cryptocurrency community with the “offensive post” others are reading a deeper meaning to it; a more bullish one that is.

Entrepreneur and founder of Skybridge Anthony Scaramucci is a prominent Bitcoiner who believes that Zuckerberg is cooking something. He implies that Mark Zuckerberg’s move to recruit David Marcus, a former PayPal staff, to manage Facebook’s Cryptocurrency project was the first hint that Zuckerberg was paying attention to Bitcoin. It is possible that the media magnate may have plans to either buy the asset for himself or his companies.

“I knew Mark Zuckerberg would become a Bitcoin-er when he hired David Marcus from PayPal to run Facebook’s crypto business. It’s been a long and winding road, but welcome to Bitcoin. Great job Zuck and David. Excited for what comes next.” Wrote Scaramucci.

BTCUSD Chart By TradingView

Meanwhile, analyst CryptoWhale is also just as optimistic as Scaramucci, as he interprets Zuckerberg’s tweet as a pointer to the Billionaire finally entering the Bitcoin market.
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Mark Zuckerberg rumored to have bought $10 billion worth of Bitcoin

Scaramucci’s views are not just mere guesses. The rumors about Facebook buying Bitcoin have been circulating since the year began. Last month, prior to Facebook revealing its first-quarter earnings report, news broke that the company bought a large amount of Bitcoin for its reserve. However, not a single Bitcoin was in sight after the earnings reports were made. Zuckerberg, who revealed that he intended to invest in other fields of emerging technologies in the future, did not include cryptocurrencies as one of the options.

Despite this, the rumors have resurfaced yet again, this time claiming that Zuckerberg may be buying Bitcoin for his family and not Facebook as was earlier speculated. Implying that the Billionaire might just be imitating the steps of the Winklevoss twins, whom he lost a court case to.

However, a fair share of the Bitcoin community continues to insist that Zuckerberg might be making a mockery of Bitcoin and its holders as a whole. “he’s calling us (bitcoin maxis) jackasses lol. Either way Bitcoin doesn’t need Zuck. Zuck needs bitcoin.” one user wrote.



Olivia Brooke
Hi, I'm Olivia. When I'm not stressing about my multicolored Chihuahua, I'm reading up on the next big thing that Cryptocurrency has to offer. Contact: Olivia.Brooke@zycrypto.com

THAT DIDN'T TAKE LONG

Never Mind: Elon Musk Says Tesla Won't Accept Bitcoin For Car Purchases Any More

By CAMILA DOMONOSKE • NPR

12/5/2021

Tesla CEO Elon Musk delivers his opening monologue on "Saturday Night Live" last week in an image released by NBC. Musk tweeted on Wednesday that Tesla would no longer accept cryptocurrency Bitcoin for car purchases.

WILL HEATH / NBC VIA AP

Tesla is executing a rapid U-turn on Bitcoin.

Months after Tesla embraced Bitcoin, CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday the auto maker would no longer accept the cryptocurrency for car purchases due to its environmental impact.

Bitcoin is very energy-intensive. The "coins" are created through a process called "mining," in which powerful computers solve difficult math problems. That requires electricity — a mind-boggling amount of it.

"We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions," Musk explained in a tweet, "especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel."

The tweet comes just three months after Tesla surprised many by saying it would allow customers to pay for their electric vehicles with Bitcoin. Not only that, the company said at the time it also invested $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency.

It was a good investment. In its most recently quarterly statement, Tesla's bitcoin holdings contributed substantially to its net profits.

But on Wednesday, Musk also said Tesla would no longer sell the cryptocurrency.

From the start, the company came under fire for embracing a currency with a substantial carbon footprint even though Musk has said that Tesla is dedicated to fighting climate change,

Bitcoin enthusiasts point out that renewable energy can power that mining. But critics point out that doesn't mean there's no impact.

And in some cases, Bitcoin mining has actually kept fossil fuel power plants in production when they would otherwise be inactive, adding to the world's carbon footprint.

"Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment," Musk also said on Twitter, a platform he frequently uses to comment on his companies.

Bitcoin values fell by thousands of dollars in the minutes immediately after Musk's tweet. But the price is still north of $50,000 per Bitcoin — 100 times what they were trading for five years ago.

In his tweet, Musk added the company is open to other cryptocurrencies with significantly fewer energy requirements.

The announcement comes days after Musk led to a plunge in another cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, after calling it a "hustle" while hosting Saturday Night Live.

Dogecoin, which started as a joke but became backed with real money, had previously surged in value after Musk expressed support for the cryptocurrency.

Biden issues executive order to increase U.S. cybersecurity defenses

By Lawrence Abrams
May 12, 2021



President Biden signed an executive order Wednesday to modernize the country's defenses against cyberattacks and give more timely access to information necessary for law enforcement to conduct investigations.

This executive order follows the numerous cyberattacks targeting US interests this year, including the SolarWinds supply chain attacks in December and the more recent DarkSide ransomware attack against the largest US fuel pipeline, Colonial Pipeline.

The 34-page 'Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity' is designed to modernize the cybersecurity defenses of the federal government's infrastructure, created a standardized incident response playbook, and increase communication between service providers and law enforcement.

In summary, the executive order will direct the government to perform the following actions:

Require IT (information technology) and OT (operational technology) service providers, including cloud hosting providers, to share information about cybersecurity threats and breaches that they become aware of and to remove contractual issues that prevent the sharing of such information.

Modernize the federal government IT services, including moving towards a Zero Trust Architecture, require multi-factor authentication, encryption for data at rest and in transit, and develop strict security guidelines on the use of cloud services.

Improve supply-chain security by developing guidelines, tools, and best practices to audit and assure that critical software is not tampered with by malicious actors in supply-chain attacks. As part of this initiative, the Federal government will create an "energy star" type of program that shows software was developed securely.

Establish a "Cyber Safety Review Board" that includes Federal and private-sector members who will convene after a significant cyber incident to assess the attack, provide recommendations, and share relevant confidential information with law enforcement.

Create a standardized playbook across all government agencies for responding to breaches and cyberattacks.

Improve the detection and remediation of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and breaches on government networks by deploying a centralized Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solution and intra-governmental information sharing.

These initiatives will be conducting in rolling phrases ranging between 30 days from the executive order, to in some cases, 360 days.

"This is one of the most detailed and deadline-driven EOs I’ve seen from any administration. In the wake of a seismic attack, like SolarWinds, this is incredibly encouraging to see," Amit Yoran, CEO of Tenable and founding director of US-CERT, shared in a statement to BleepingComputer.

The White House has also released a summarized version of the executive order that provides a good overview of the upcoming changes being made to increase the country's cybersecurity posture.

Related Articles:

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Brown University hit by cyberattack, some systems still offline

City of Tulsa's online services disrupted in ransomware incident

Largest U.S. pipeline shuts down operations after ransomware attack

DarkSide ransomware will now vet targets after pipeline cyberattack

Ransomware Group Leaks Info on Some D.C. Cops as Retribution for Demands Going Unmet

Maggie Gile 
NEWSWEEK

A Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate that stole data from the Washington, D.C., police department said it rejected an initial offer of a $100,000 payment and that if more money is not offered, it will release sensitive information that could put lives at risk, the Associated Press reported.

© Alex Brandon/Associated Press FILE - In this April 2, 2021, file photo, Washington Metropolitan Police Department chief Robert Contee speaks during a news conference in Washington. Political hand-wringing in Washington over Russia's hacking of federal agencies and meddling in U.S. politics has mostly overshadowed a worsening digital scourge with a far broader wallop: crippling and dispiriting extortionary ransomware attacks by cybercriminal mafias. All the while, ransomware gangsters have become more brazen and cocky as they put more and more lives and livelihoods at risk. This week, one syndicate threatened to make available to local criminal gangs data they say they stole from the Washington, D.C., metro police on informants.

The Babuk group said on its website late Monday that it would release "all the data" if the D.C. police didn't "raise the price."

"The negotiations reached a dead end, the amount we were offered does not suit us," the group said.

A day after the initial threat, the gang leaked personal information of some police officers taken from background checks, including details of officers' past drug use, finances and of past sexual abuse.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

The extortion threat comes amid a separate ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline that's affected part of the nation's fuel supply, highlighting the power of internet-savvy criminal gangs to sow mayhem from a half a world away with impunity.

D.C. police did not immediately comment and has not said whether it's negotiated any possible payment.

On Tuesday, the gang released screenshots that appear to be negotiations with the department. They show the gang asked for $4 million and received a counter-offer of $100,000. The authenticity of the screenshots could not be independently confirmed.

If true, it's an example how complex the ransomware problem is when even police find themselves forced to consider making payments to criminal gangs.

Late last month, the group said it had hacked into the network of the city's police department and threatened to leak the identities of confidential informants unless an unspecified ransom was paid. Experts said such a release could endanger the lives of the informants.

Babuk leaked similar background files on Monday with its threat to release more, said Brett Callow, a threat analyst and ransomware expert at the security firm Emsisoft.

"This is far worse than any hack of other police departments previously," Callow said, adding that he's never seen a law enforcement agency pay a ransom before.

Ransomware gangs have been leaking sensitive data from victims for well over a year, but experts said they've not seen such aggressive new tactics used before against police departments. The cybercriminal mafias mostly operate in foreign safe havens out of the reach of Western law enforcement.

The average ransom payments last year were $310,000, up 171% from 2019, according to Palo Alto Networks.

Related Articles
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Russian Ransomware Group Claims Credit for Cyber Attack on D.C. Metro Police

'Principled' ransomware hackers who took down the Colonial Pipeline: We regret it

The cybercriminals who caused an energy crisis on the U.S. East Coast said they had no hard feelings on Monday and expressed regret for causing trouble.

Provided by National Post Oil infrastructure stands at the Colonial Pipeline Co. Pelham junction and tank farm in Pelham, Alabama, U.S., Sept. 2016.

Colonial Pipeline Co. halted operations on May 7 after hackers stole almost 100 gigabytes of data and locked the company’s computers in a ransomware attack the FBI attributed to the DarkSide hacking ring.

The company has said the pipeline, the nation’s biggest, will be substantially back in operation by the end of the week. In the meantime, service stations from Virginia to Florida have sold out of gasoline as supplies dwindled and panic buying set in.

The 5,500-mile energy artery, extending from Texas to New Jersey, connects refineries along the Gulf Coast to population centres from Atlanta to New York and beyond. Each day, it carries about 2.5 million barrels, an amount that exceeds the entire oil consumption of Germany.

In a statement on Monday DarkSide expressed regret for the disruption, saying its intention was to “make money” — “not creating problems for society.”
Cyberattack shuts down America’s largest fuel pipeline, gasoline prices to spike
Colonial Pipeline says corporate website back online

The group also tried to shift the blame to its collaborators, adding that going forward DarkSide would “check each company that our partners want to encrypt to avoid social consequences.” It maintains that the targeted companies can afford the ransom, sometimes ranging in the millions, which it demands in return for encrypted data.

“We do not want to kill your business,” the group has previously said.

DarkSide’s site on the dark web hints at their hackers’ past crimes, claims they previously made millions from extortion and that just because their software was new “that does not mean that we have no experience and we came from nowhere.”

The site also features a Hall of Shame-style gallery of leaked data from victims who haven’t paid up, advertising stolen documents from more than 80 companies across the United States and Europe.

In a screenshot of one of its attacks posted on Bleeping Computer , the group reveals some of its stolen data to the company and threatens to release the entirety online.

In some ways DarkSide is hard to distinguish from the increasingly crowded field of internet extortionists. Like many others it seems to spare Russian, Kazakh and Ukrainian-speaking companies, suggesting a link to the former Soviet republics.

Since coming into the limelight last year, Canadian companies have also been a victim of DarkSide’s attacks. Earlier this year, it seized 120 gb of data from Discount Car and Truck Rentals, the Canadian division of U.S.-based Enterprise Holdings. Most recently, corporate data from Home Hardware has been pilfered and, last year, an unnamed billion dollar company was subject to its demands, IT World Canada reported .

According to news reports of DarkSide’s website, the group spares funeral services, hospitals, universities, non-profits or government bodies from attacks, “based on our principles.”

“I assume the attack on Colonial was carried out by an affiliate and the group is concerned about the level of attention it has attracted,” an analyst told Financial Times .

National Post Staff
With files from Reuters and Bloomberg