Who really owns the largest slice of Wall Street


The vast majority of people who trade in shares are already the wealthiest 10% of American households

Who gets a slice of the stock market cake? 

Photograph: Mona Chalabi

Mona Chalabi
@MonaChalabi
Tue 16 Feb 2021

Robinhood wants to “democratize finance”, according to its mission statement. And, for a brief period last month, the trading app seemed to be doing just that as small investors appeared to be battering Wall Street investors who had bet on the demise of GameStop, AMC cinemas and other.

The long-term fallout of a saga that gripped the world is still unknown and regulators are poring over the sudden rise in shares of GameStop and others. But what is true is that share ownership in the US is still anything but democratic – the vast majority of people who trade in shares are already the wealthiest slice of society.

A massive 84% of all shares held by American households are owned by the wealthiest 10%. These figures come from a 2017 study by the economist Edward N Wolff who used data from the Survey of Consumer Finances to reveal just how skewed US stock ownership is.

US stocks can be represented as 100 cake slices, each one representing 1% of the market. Photograph: Mona Chalabi

84% of the US stock market is held by the richest 10% of households. Photograph: Mona Chalabi

Wolff notes that the concentration of stocks in the hands of the wealthy has huge consequences for wealth inequality. Rather than owning stock, the wealth of the middle class was largely invested in home ownership, meaning that this slice of American society was deeply affected by the housing price drop that began in 2007. That sting has been even sharper given that real wages have barely risen over the past 40 years.

And, since the US is a country where economic inequality overlaps with racial inequality, there are other clear patterns in stock ownership. While stock ownership makes up 17% of white household wealth in the US, it represents just 3% of the wealth in Black and Hispanic households.

Household wealth by race. Photograph: Mona Chalabi

 HIP CAPITALI$M

 FINANCE

Mitchell Demeter: Tesla’s move into Bitcoin could have ripple effects on Vancouver’s startup community

by Guest on February 15th, 2021 at 12:10 PM

• Mitchell Demeter is president of Netcoins, a cryptocurrency trading platform.

By Mitchell Demeter

Tesla’s reveal last week that it’s invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin signifies the start of a large trend toward institutional investment in the crypto asset class, which could have rippling effects on the industry both globally and locally. 

It’s no secret that Elon Musk, who briefly became the world’s richest man last month, is personally bullish on bitcoin. Making Tesla the first Fortune 500 company to put bitcoin on its balance sheet however, is a business statement that takes both vision and risk. 

Risk, not because Bitcoin isn’t a sound asset—quite the opposite—but because it opens him and the company up to critique that Tesla is hedging its bets against the value of the U.S. dollar. 

Since the pandemic hit, Canada and the U.S. have been printing money at an unprecedented rate to offer economic relief. While the stimulus helps in the short term and cushions us against the effects of the economic crisis, long-term it could cause an additional crisis—one of hyperinflation and currency devaluation. 

Therefore, Tesla’s move into crypto could be seen as a proactive hedge against the U.S. dollar. Afterall, Bitcoin was designed so that no more than 21 million will ever be created. This is why institutional investors like Musk are viewing it as a justifiable asset to invest in for treasury management. 

Fuelling further controversy is the fact that Tesla is a publicly traded company, which means big banks own pieces of it and hedge funds around the world are now inadvertently exposed to Bitcoin.

Those that view crypto as an overhyped asset class could decide to pull their investment, however more likely we’ll continue to see a rise in institutional investment as the asset class proves to store its value. 

As the industry becomes more legitimized globally, prepare to see the effects locally in Vancouver’s startup ecosystem.

Vancouver is a hotspot for fintech and as venture capitalists and investors look to make bets in the space, more innovation and ventures will follow. 

As the industry becomes more mainstream, the conversation around regulation is also being expedited. As an industry player in Vancouver, I’ve been working closely with regulators to establish a framework for our crypto trading platform to be able to operate within a regulated framework.

This has led to many fruitful conversations around policy development, which is a step in the right direction. Clear regulation attracts more industry players and leads to more innovation in the space. It also helps protect consumers against bad actors. 

So while it may not be as daring as his SpaceX mission to Mars, Musk’s bet on Bitcoin as a treasury management strategy, does set a new precedent for the Fortune 500 and I suspect we’ll soon see others follow suit.

Mitchell Demeter is a serial entrepreneur and pioneering figure in the cryptocurrency industry. Having gained worldwide attention for launching the world’s first Bitcoin ATM, Mitchell now serves as president of Netcoins, a trading platform that makes it easy for anyone to buy, sell, and understand cryptocurrency. 

British soldiers sacked for being gay can get their medals back

Thousands of British military personnel who were dismissed because they were homosexual will be able to have their service medals restored if they had been taken away when they were kicked out of the armed forces

WHEN WILL CANADA AND THE USA DO THE SAME

.

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Liberty/PA

Liberty/PA Falklands veteran Joe Ousalice, 68, being given his medal for long service and good conduct by the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, on 22 January 2020.

Gay rights campaigners welcomed the move as the “first step on a journey” but said that issues such as enduring criminal records, lost pension rights and still blemished service records now needed to be dealt with by the Ministry of Defence.


Gay men and lesbian women were banned from serving in the British military until 2000. About 200 to 250 were thrown out each year because of their sexuality, and frequently had their service medals removed.

In some instances, medals were physically ripped from a service person’s uniform after a conviction at court martial. Those found guilty of being homosexual sometimes went on to a serve a prison term, typically several months long.

Johnny Mercer, the veterans minister, said the announcement “addresses a historic injustice”. He said that it was intended to demonstrate “the military is a positive place to work for all who chose to serve” and encouraged those who thought they were eligible to apply.

Last year, Joe Ousalice, 70, a Falklands veteran, was personally handed back his long service and good conduct medal by the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, which had been removed from him in 1993 after a court martial.

Ousalice, who is bisexual, had served 18 years as a communications officer in the Royal Navy before he was dismissed on charges that he maintains were fabricated. He won his medal back after he had launched a legal action, which led the MoD to apologise to him – and to promise to review the wider situation.

“This is nowhere near enough,” Ousalice said. “Basically, when they take your medal from you, the medal effectively decrees what you get for your pension. By taking my medal and three good conduct badges that I had, my rank was cut. I had to wait until 60 before drawing a pension, whereas I could have got it immediately.”

Craig Jones, the joint chief executive of Fighting with Pride, a charity supporting LGBT+ veterans, described the move as the “first step on a journey” and said that he believed that ministers such as Mercer would go further.

“People’s lives were shattered by the ban. We need to look at giving people their commissions and warrants back, royal pardons of convictions, help with resettlement – and, yes, there is an overwhelming case for compensation and the restoration of pensions,” Jones added.

The MoD said that the government was working “to examine and understand the wide ranging impact of pre-2000 practices in the armed forces”. That, the ministry said, would ensure that “beyond the return of medals, the impact of this historical wrong is acknowledged and appropriately addressed” although no further details were given.

IN 1947 HUAC IN THE USA RAN A PUBLIC CAMPAIGN OUTING HOMOSEXUALS IN THE ARMY, THE GUY LEADING THIS HOMOPHOBIC WITCH HUNT WAS A SENATOR FROM WISCONSIN; JOE MCARTHY 

Veterans who were kicked out before 2000 said they were victims of covert investigations, including secret filming, or repeated harassment by military police over several years in an attempt to prove they were gay.

THIS ALSO OCCURED IN CANADA IN BIG CITIES UNDER LOCAL POLICE

 AS WELL AS RCMP COVERT OPS

© Provided by The Guardian Royal Air Force veteran David Bonney (r) and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London after the Remembrance Sunday service last November. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

The last serviceman to be sent to prison for being homosexual was David Bonney, who was found guilty at a court martial in Cornwall in 1993. Bonney had joined the RAF aged 17 in 1987 and said he had “learned and accepted I was gay” when he served during the first Gulf war.

Bonney said he was subject to a two-year investigation after a copy of Gay Times had been found in his room. That included, he said, “bugging my room, having people follow me, placing officers outside the local gay bars to spy on people going in, using the local police stations to take my friends to, to interview them and altogether create terror and fear among my friends and associates”.

The court martial sentenced him to six months in prison, of which he served four including one month of solitary confinement, and left him with a criminal record – although following an appeal his discharge was changed to honourable. He said he hoped the MoD would “amend and compensate for the injustice and effective bullying I experienced”.

ON THE CENTENNARY OF KROPOTKIN'S DEATH 

1921-2021

Mutual Aid: An Illuminated Factor of Evolution
SKU: 9781629638744
Contributors: Peter Kropotkin • Illustrated by N.O. Bonzo • Introduction by David Graeber & Andrej Grubacic • Foreword by Ruth Kinna • Preface by GATS • Afterword by Allan Antliff

Series: PM Press/Kairos
ISBN: 9781629638744/9781629638751
Published: 7/2021
Format: Paperback/Hardcover
Size: 8.5x11
Pages: 240
Subjects: Anarchism
Price:
$20.00


Available for pre-order. Shipping in June.

One hundred years after his death, Peter Kropotkin is still one of the most inspirational figures of the anarchist movement. It is often forgotten that Kropotkin was also a world-renowned geographer whose seminal critique of the hypothesis of competition promoted by Social Darwinism helped revolutionize modern evolutionary theory. An admirer of Darwin, he used his observations of life in Siberia as the basis for his 1902 collection of essays Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. Kropotkin demonstrated that mutually beneficial cooperation and reciprocity—in both individuals and as a species—plays a far more important role in the animal kingdom and human societies than does individualized competitive struggle. Kropotkin carefully crafted his theory making the science accessible. His account of nature rejected Rousseau’s romantic depictions and ethical socialist ideas that cooperation was motivated by the notion of “universal love.” His understanding of the dynamics of social evolution shows us that the power of cooperation—whether it is bison defending themselves against a predator or workers unionizing against their boss. His message is clear: solidarity is strength!

Every page of this new edition of Mutual Aid has been beautifully illustrated by one of anarchism’s most celebrated current artists, N.O. Bonzo. The reader will also enjoy original artwork by GATS and insightful commentary by David Graeber, Ruth Kinna, Andrej Grubacic, and Allan Antliff.

Praise

“N.O. Bonzo has created a rare document, updating Kropotkin’s anarchist classic Mutual Aid, by intertwining compelling imagery with an updated text. Filled with illustrious examples, their art gives the words and histories, past and present, resonance for new generations to seed flowers of cooperation to push through the concrete of resistance to show liberatory possibilities for collective futures.”
—scott crow, author of Black Flags and Windmills and Setting Sights

“Taking aim at both Social Darwinists and Romantic dreamers, Kropotkin’s classic text makes plain that the promise of liberation arises from our collective instinct to cooperate. In this new edition, lovingly illuminated by N.O. Bonzo, we can see the powerful amplifying effect of mutual aid firsthand.”
—AK Thompson, author of Black Bloc, White Riot

“The turn of the century world that inspired Kropotkin to write Mutual Aid may seem very distant to the readers of the 21st century. Yet the principles of reciprocal support that he and his comrades advocated have taken on a new significance in our era of austerity, isolation, climate crisis, and pandemic. With a fantastic stroke of transhistorical artistic wizardry, N.O. Bonzo simultaneously conjures up and re-imagines the visionary aesthetics of the early twentieth century anarchist movement to make Kropotkin’s appeal for cooperation feel as urgent as ever.”
—Mark Bray, author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook and co-editor of Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader

“The illustrations in this new edition of Mutual Aid do justice to Kropotkin the polymath and to his magnum opus.”
—Lee Dugatkin, author of The Prince of Evolution

“This version of Mutual Aid beautifully illustrates what ‘mutual aid’ is all about! The cooperation evident on the pages between Kropotkin and N.O. Bonzo illuminates that the more we mutually support each other, the more we not only survive but also thrive—and soar to new heights of care and solidarity.”
—Cindy Milstein, coauthor of Paths toward Utopia: Graphic Explorations of Everyday Anarchism

About the Contributors

Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) was the foremost theorist of the anarchist movement. Born a Russian Prince, he rejected his title to become a revolutionary, seeking a society based on freedom, equality, and solidarity. Imprisoned for his activism in Russia and France, his writings include The Conquest of Bread; Fields, Factories, and Workshops; Anarchism, Anarchist-Communism, and the State; Memoirs of a Revolutionist; and Modern Science and Anarchism. New editions of his classic works Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution; Words of a Rebel; and The Great French Revolution, 1789–1793 will be published by PM Press to commemorate his life and work on the centennial of his death.

N.O. Bonzo is an anarchist illustrator, printmaker, and muralist based out of Portland, OR. They are the creator of Off with Their Heads: An Antifascist Coloring Book.

David Graeber, taught anthropology at the London School of Economics. He was the international best-selling author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years and Bullshit Jobs: A Theory. He has written for Harper’s, The Nation, Mute, and the New Left Review. One of the original organizers of Occupy Wall Street, Graeber has been called an “anti-leader of the movement” by Bloomberg Businessweek. The Atlantic wrote that he “has come to represent the Occupy Wall Street message . . . expressing the group’s theory, and its founding principles, in a way that truly elucidated some of the things people have questioned about it.”

Andrej Grubacic is a dissident from the Balkans. A radical historian and sociologist, he is the author of Wobblies and Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History; Don’t Mourn, Balkanize! Essays after Yugoslavia; and the editor of From Here to There: The Staughton Lynd Reader. A fellow traveler of Zapatista-inspired direct-action movements, in particular Peoples’ Global Action, and a cofounder of Global Balkans Network and Balkan Z Magazine, he is associate professor in cultural anthropology at California Institute of Integral Studies.

Ruth Kinna works at Loughborough University in the UK. She is the author of Kropotkin: Reviewing the Classical Anarchist Tradition (2016) and writes on historical and contemporary anarchist politics. She is editor of the peer-review journal Anarchist Studies.

Allan Antliff, professor, University of Victoria, is author of Anarchist Modernism: Art, Politics, and the First American Avant-Garde (University of Chicago, 2001); Anarchy and Art: From the Paris Commune to the Fall of the Berlin Wall (Arsenal Pulp, 2007); Joseph Beuys (Phaidon, 2014); and editor of Only a Beginning (Arsenal Pulp, 2004), a documentary anthology of anarchist writings and activism in Canada.

Oakland-based artist GATS (Graffiti Against the System) is an internationally renowned graffiti artist with work reaching as far as Palestine, the Philippines, and Rome. He is best known for his iconic mask imagery, the intricate insignias that fill them, and his liberatory political messaging accompanying many of his pieces.

Click here for one-page information sheet on this product

Experts feared India's farming protests would be COVID superspreader events.

Poverty, misinformation and a younger population may explain why cases plummeted instead.

insider@insider.com (Nilanjana Bhowmick) 1 day ago

© Imtiyaz Khan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Indian Youth Congress (IYC) workers shout slogans during a protest against the new agricultural laws, the rise of unemployment and price rise of goods and services, in New Delhi on India, on February 9 Imtiyaz Khan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Mass gatherings such as the farmers' protests didn't become the superspreader events experts feared

        COVID cases have steadily fallen, raising hopes the country is close to                         achieving herd immunity.

         One expert says misinformation may have been an "accidental game changer"          at encouraging mingling.

When Indian farmers began gathering to protest in November 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, experts predicted these would be superspreader events.

Three months later, tens of thousands are still gathered in tents on the outskirts of Delhi with more still arriving in tractors for speeches and impromptu marches. Big election rallies took place in October in the state of Bihar. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims flocked to the annual religious gathering of Kumbh Mela in January, mostly without masks.

But not only have these not led to spikes in COVID cases, such cases have plummeted.

This densely-populated country of nearly 1.4 billion people, whose median age is only 28, recorded just 11,583 cases on February 10, down from a high of nearly 100,000 a day in September.

© Our World In Data The number of coronavirus cases India is recording daily has drastically fallen Our World In Data

India began a full lockdown in March when cases were relatively low, then gradually emerged in stages from June. Cases began to fall long before the country embarked in January on a vaccination programme that has so far inoculated nearly 8 million people.

"None of the horrors, that were imagined, happened during these gatherings," Dr Rajib Dasgupta, chair of the Centre of Social Medicine & Community Health at Jawaharlal Nehru University, tells Insider.

As India's case numbers continue to decline, experts hope that the world's second biggest country is approaching herd immunity, the "indirect protection" from infections "when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection," according to the World Health Organization.

© Xinhua/Partha Sarkar via Getty Images A health worker administers a dose of COVID-19 vaccine to a civil defence personnel at a private hospital in New Delhi, India, on Feb. 13, 2021 Xinhua/Partha Sarkar via Getty Images

Dasgupta says mass gatherings may have accelerated this among a population that is less vulnerable to COVID, due to a relatively young population.

Misinformation about the danger of COVID may have emboldened people to gather together, he adds, saying it "might well have been an accidental game changer."

The myths, often circulated through WhatsApp and social media, included that COVID-19 was no worse than seasonal flu and that traditional herbal concoctions or spices such as turmeric or gooseberries can safeguard against it.

Boom, an independent website that fights misinformation, published 178 fact checks of false claims circulating about COVID in the first five months in 2020.

Read more: As little as 13% of people who get the coronavirus develop symptoms, a new study suggests   

© Santosh Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav gestures towards the crowd during an election rally ahead of the third phase of Bihar Assembly Elections on November 5, 2020 in Mahua, India. Rallies for the elections are among the mass gatherings that have taken place in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic Santosh Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Monish Sengupta, who divides his time between Calcutta and the UK, tells Insider, a doctor friend "recommended consuming some homeopathic medicine and camphor with hot milk."

At a tea shop in Calcutta in mid-February, Insider encountered a group of young men sipping tea and loudly arguing whether herd immunity meant they might skip taking the vaccine. "Where's the coronavirus? It's gone," one of them said. On February 5, a flight between New Delhi and Calcutta was packed. Both airports were crowded.

But despite the warnings about mass gatherings, one volunteer reports seeing no one with COVID symptoms at a camp set up by doctors and volunteers at the site of the farming protests.

Read more: Fauci said he worried about getting COVID-19 while working in the 'superspreader' Trump White House

Indranil Mukhopadhyay, co-convener of the Delhi chapter of health movement Jan Swasthya Abhiyaan, says there is a noticeable lack of distancing and mask wearing at the protestors as well as a reluctance to getting tested for the virus.

The professor, who teaches at New Delhi's Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, tells Insider the camp is "fertile ground" for the virus. But he adds the group's medical camp has so far not come across anyone displaying COVID symptoms, despite attending to more than 15,000 patients.

A working paper by the US National Bureau of Economic Research, that used data from last year's Black Lives Matter protests, provides a potential insight into why this was the case.

It concluded that people who were least likely to contract the virus, were most likely to attend the protests in America, while those who were high-risk stayed away.

© MONEY SHARMA/AFP via Getty Images Hindu devotees take a holy dip in the waters of the River Ganges during Makar Sankranti, a day considered to be of great religious significance in the Hindu mythology, on the first day of the religious Kumbh Mela festival in Haridwar on January 14 MONEY SHARMA/AFP via Getty Images

The BLM protests also prompted those who didn't participate in demonstrations to follow safety protocols more diligently because the protests raised the risk they perceived, the paper noted. The paper's lead author, economics Professor Dave Dhaval, tells Insider "some of the above factors may be in play" in the farmers' protest.

Dr Satyabrata Routray, director of immunization at the India chapter of Path, a global nonprofit health organization, says misinformation played its part, but poverty was crucial in forcing people out of their homes.

Read more: Doctors are speaking out to dispel the 'groundless' myth that the COVID-19 vaccine affects fertility in women or men

More than 90 percent of India's workforce is in the informal sector - lacking social insurance and often earning a low daily wage. India also has around 1.77 million homeless people, who have no homes to lock themselves into.

"People needed to get out of their homes and get on with the business of earning their daily bread. A large majority of the Indian population are poor and depend on daily wages," Routray tells Insider.

"Any intermixing of infected population with the rest of the population would hasten herd immunity. And looking at the numbers I would say we are very close to herd immunity."

Dasgupta says people are asking "if the situation is real" - whether India genuinely is approaching herd immunity. "I would say it is reasonably real. The sero surveys have thrown up evidence of pretty high levels of exposure to infection," he adds, referring to blood testing to estimate the extent of exposure.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)'s latest sero survey showed 21.5% of Indians have been exposed to the virus. While a sero survey in Delhi - which has so far recorded 636,000 cases and 10,886 deaths - showed more than 56% of people there had developed antibodies against the virus.

Calcutta -- which has more than 14 million in its wider metropolitan region - has so far recorded 571,000 cases and 10,220 deaths. Last June, much earlier in the pandemic, the ICMR had said 14% of people in Calcutta had developed antibodies, while a private laboratory in September put the figure at 50%.

Read more: I'm a NHS doctor and I've seen firsthand how devastating COVID is. Everyone needs have give up some freedoms to make it through the final stretch of the pandemic.

Dasgupta adds the coronavirus is not a new virus in the region. India was hit by the 2002-3 outbreak of SARS, which is a variant of the coronavirus. The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) hit in 2015. Studies have also detected the presence of Human Coronavirus 229E and Human Coronavirus HKU1 among Indian children.

"COVID-19 is a new disease but the coronavirus is a very common virus in Asia and South Asia which means the pool of susceptible people was not as large as it was initially assumed," Dasgupta adds.

Dasgupta agrees India is nearly at herd immunity, adding: "It's unlikely that there will be another huge wave." But he warns that there may yet be surges in rural areas, which so far have been less affected than cites.

"The game changer at this point would be to get more and more people vaccinated against the virus," he adds. "To convince and communicate to the people constantly that the threat is still alive."

Read the original article on Business Insider

Law firm that represented Trump in his bid to overturn the election is hacked: Cyber-criminals steal 100GB of files and post them on the dark web

+5

Jones Day famously - and controversially - represented former President Donald Trump in several of his unsuccessful attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election

Law firm that represented Trump in his bid to overturn the election is hacked: Cyber-criminals steal 100GB of files and post them on the dark web

Hackers by the named of Cl0p Ransomware claim to have stolen files belonging to Jones Day, one of the world's largest law firms, and posted them online

Jones Day famously represented former President Donald Trump in several of his unsuccessful attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election 

The firm confirmed the hack but said their severs weren't directly breached

The hackers, however, claim otherwise, saying they directly hacked the firm

Two documents leaked include a memo to a judge marked ‘confidential mediation brief’, and another is a cover letter for ‘confidential documents’

The group claim to have 100GB in stolen files, but say Jones Day have not yet responded to their messages of ransom 

+5

The hackers, who go by the name Cl0p Ransomware, recently posted what they claim is several gigabytes of data on a site where they advertise their breaches, Databreaches.net reporte

By LUKE KENTON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 17 February 2021

Hackers claim to have stolen files belonging to the global law firm Jones Day and have posted a number of the purported illicitly obtained documents on the dark web.

The firm famously - and controversially - represented former President Donald Trump in several of his unsuccessful attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election citing unfounded claims of voter fraud.

The hackers, who go by the name Cl0p Ransomware, recently posted several gigabytes of data allegedly belonging to Jones Day on a site where they publicize their infringements, Databreaches.net reported.

‘We hacked their server where they stored data, on attempts to “settle” they responded with silence and we had to upload the data,’ one of the alleged hackers told VICE. ‘We emailed them and they ignored us for over a week. We did not encrypt their network, we only stole the data.’

Jones Day confirmed the hack in a statement to the Wall Street Journal, but denied its own severs had been directly compromised. Instead, the company blamed the breach on Accellion, a company that provides a file sharing system that was hacked earlier this month.

The law firm said it's currently investigating the incident and will be in discussion with affected clients and appropriate authorities.

Jones Day famously - and controversially - represented former President Donald Trump in several of his unsuccessful attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election +5

Jones Day famously - and controversially - represented former President Donald Trump in several of his unsuccessful attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election

The hackers, who go by the name Cl0p Ransomware, recently posted what they claim is several gigabytes of data on a site where they advertise their breaches, Databreaches.net reported +5

The hackers, who go by the name Cl0p Ransomware, recently posted what they claim is several gigabytes of data on a site where they advertise their breaches, Databreaches.net reported

The online posting by Cl0p Ransomware includes a few individual documents that are easily accessible to the public. Also included is a memo to a judge marked ‘confidential mediation brief’, and another is a cover letter for enclosed ‘confidential documents’.

The authenticity of the documents has not yet been confirmed by Jones Day.

According to WSJ, dozens of others files also purported to belong to the law firm were posted by Clop on the dark web.

The hackers are reportedly offering 20 caches related to Jones Day, which range from 1.54GB in size, up to 4.5GB. One of the caches is marked ‘extracted emails’, according to VICE.

+5

The online posting by Cl0p Ransomware includes a few individual documents that are easily accessible to the public. Also included is a memo to a judge marked ‘confidential mediation brief (above)

Hackers typically post stolen information on the dark web, or online generally, after the hacked entity fails to pay a set ransom.

Clop Ransomware said Jones Day never responded to their messages about their alleged breach.

‘They didn’t answer us,’ the group said. ‘We invited them to enter our chat, but they were silent.’

The online posting by Cl0p Ransomware includes a few individual documents that are easily accessible to the public. Also included is a memo to a judge marked ‘confidential mediation brief (above) +5

The online posting by Cl0p Ransomware includes a few individual documents that are easily accessible to the public. Also included is a memo to a judge marked ‘confidential mediation brief (above)

+5

Another file is a cover letter for enclosed ‘confidential documents’ (shown above)

The hackers, who claim to have more than 100GBs of data in total, said they first reached out to the law firm on February 3, informing them of the breach and telling them data had been stolen.

As of Tuesday, the hackers told WSJ that while still yet to receive a response, they do believe the Jones Day received their messages.

Jones Day, meanwhile, denied it had fallen victim to a direct ransomware attack and instead blamed the breach on Accellion, a company the firm previously used to transfer large files electronically. 

Accellion announced on February 1 that it was the target of a sophisticated attack on December 23. All customers were promptly notified, the company said.

‘The company is conducting a full assessment of the FTA data security incident with an industry-leading cybersecurity forensics firm. We will share more information once this assessment is complete,’ a company spokesperson said.

‘For their protection, we do not comment on specific customers. We are working with all impacted FTA clients to understand and mitigate any impact of this incident, and to migrate them to our modern kiteworks content firewall platform as soon as possible.’   

Despite Jones Day's protests, the hackers told the Journal that they did hack the firm's servers directly, and said they weren't even involved in the Accellion breach.  

+5

Demonstrators hold up signs in front of an inflatable giant rat in the likeness of U. S. President Donald Trump outside the NYC office of Jones Day law Firm on November 13, 2020 in New York City

Law firms have long been considered a prime target for hackers because their files often contain confidential information, including the size of settlements, negotiations about pending deals, and legal strategy that would normally be shielded from public viewing because of attorney-client privilege.

When it comes to Jones Day specifically, the firm is one of the largest in the world and has in excess of 2,500 lawyers on its books globally, and boasts $2 billion in annual revenue.

The firm also has deep ties with the Trump administration, after more than a dozen of its lawyers worked in the White House, including Don McGahn, who served as White House Counsel until 2019.

The company was widely criticized for signing on to help the Trump administration in its efforts to overturn the 2020 election late last year.

The now-embattled Lincoln Project even started a PR campaign against the firm to attempt to force it to withdraw as Trump’s counsel.

But the efforts came in vein, with Jones Day continuing to work with Trump even after Biden’s inauguration.

When asked by VICE what their motivation was for hacking Jones Day to begin with, Clop Ransomwear responded: ‘And what do you think? Financial of course,’ adding a wink-face emoji.

N. Korea tried to hack Pfizer for COVID-19 vaccine, treatment technology: NIS

By Yonhap
Published : Feb 16, 2021 - 


A vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 (AP-Yonhap)

North Korea has attempted to hack into South Korean drug manufacturers' computer systems to obtain information related to coronavirus vaccines and treatment, the state intelligence agency told lawmakers Tuesday.

At a closed-door parliamentary session, the National Intelligence Service reported the average daily number of cyberattacks in South Korea has increased 32 percent year-on-year to about 1.58 million cases, most of which were unsuccessful, Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the main opposition People Power Party told reporters after the session. 

Ha claimed that Pfizer is believed to have been attacked by the North, citing documents provided by the NIS and other sources that he declined to specify.

The NIS also said that North Korea has enhanced its crackdown on anti-socialist acts, upping the punishment for distributing video materials from South Korea to the death penalty, according to lawmakers.

Anyone caught watching South Korean videos is punishable by a jail term of up to 15 years, the NIS said.

"To put it simply, it's punishment for the 'Korean Wave,'" Ha said.

On the public absence of leader Kim Jong-un's wife, Ri Sol-ju, the NIS said that no unusual signs or intelligence have been collected.

The lawmakers also quoted the NIS as saying that North Korea has changed leader Kim's official title in English to "president" from "chairman." (Yonhap)

Insider Q&A: Pfizer Exec on Ramping Up Vaccine Supply

SOCIALIZE THEM UNDER WORKER SELF MANAGEMENT 

"We look at reducing wait times when changing over between batches, doubling of our batch size, increasing yields per batch."

Feb 15th, 2021
Linda Johnson


Mike McDermott, president of global supply since 2019.
Wendy Barrows/Merck via AP

With coronavirus still spreading globally, Pfizer, Inc. and the other makers of COVID-19 vaccines are under pressure to rapidly make more. Mike McDermott heads that effort at Pfizer, where he's been president of global supply since 2019. He previously served in other operations management positions in his 30-year career at Pfizer.

The COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech was the first to get the green light, from Britain in early December, followed by the United States, Europe and other countries. Pfizer makes the vaccine's main component, a piece of genetic code called messenger RNA or mRNA for short. It uses other companies called contract manufacturers to make the vaccine's protective shell and to fill, inspect and package vials.

The Associated Press spoke with McDermott recently about addressing this production challenge. The conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: After developing your vaccine so quickly, how is Pfizer approaching the need to make billions of doses in record time?

A: There is a dire need to vaccinate more people quickly. We are expanding our capacity to make more vaccine as quickly as possible. We are making process improvements, adding more manufacturing lines within the Pfizer and BioNTech facilities, expanding use of contract manufacturers and adding more suppliers.

Q: What are those process improvements?

A: These involve getting more productivity from our existing lines. We look at reducing wait times when changing over between batches, doubling of our batch size, increasing yields per batch. We're reducing cycle times, from the start of manufacturing to shipping.

Q: What else are you doing inside your Kalamazoo, Michigan, factory?

A: We went from one production line to four lines and from one shift to three shifts. We are expanding everywhere possible. We haven't taken a day off since October.

Q: With new variants of the virus emerging, can Pfizer quickly update its vaccine to block those versions?

A: Our mRNA platform technology is the perfect science to be able to make modifications quickly. In essence there would be no changes to the manufacturing network. That altered genetic material would come into the system – and production would begin immediately on a new vaccine version.

Q: Recently Pfizer hiked its production forecast for this year from about 1.3 billion doses to about 2 billion. Are you sure you can do that?

A: Right now, we can potentially deliver approximately 2 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021. We are confident in this commitment, but of course are constantly looking for ways to make and distribute more doses faster.