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Technology 7 June 2021

The Week in Internet News: Yet Another Ransomware Attack

Grant Gross
By Grant GrossGuest AuthorTechnology Reporter

Where’s the beef? Cybercriminals, likely from Russia, shut down a Brazilian meatpacker’s operation for a couple of days using ransomware, Reuters reports. The attack on JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker, came just weeks after ransomware, also likely from Russia, shut down the Colonial Pipeline in the U.S. for several days. The U.S. FBI blamed the attack on JBS on REvil, a Russian-speaking ransomware gang, the Associated Press reported at NPR.org.

In the air tonight: Microsoft is expanding Airband, its wireless broadband initiative, to eight U.S. cities, in an effort to close the digital divide in urban areas, Engadget reports. While the Airband Initiative has focused on rural areas, the new push will bring it to Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, El Paso, and Memphis.

Sharing is caring: Amazon has announced that the connected devices it offers, including Alexa-connected speakers and Ring doorbells, will soon begin to share a small slice of your Internet service with the neighborhood in a new wireless service called Sidewalk, with the goal of allowing these devices to operate more efficiently, USA Today says. Users will be able to opt out, Amazon promises, and already several news articles are telling readers how to turn it off.

Dating scene: U.K. regulators are investigating Facebook for collecting user data to push its own dating and shopping services, The Independent says. The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will look at the ways Facebook gathers and uses certain data and whether it may provide an unfair advantage over rivals in the online classified ads and online dating space. It will also investigate Facebook Login, which allows people to sign into other websites and apps.

Dating leaks: In more online dating news, Net Marketing, the operating of the Omiai Japanese dating app, has reported a data breach, affecting the personal data of more than 1.7 million users, the Japan Times says. Names, photos, addresses, passport information, and drivers license information were among the personal data leaked.

Paying for tweets: Twitter is launching a pay service, called Twitter Blue, in Australia and Canada, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. Twitter Blue will include bookmark folders that help users save and organize tweets, and a timer of up to 30 seconds to undo a tweet before it is posted. Lots of Twitter users might like a “do over,” but will they pay for it?

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Disclaimer: Viewpoints expressed in this post are those of the author and may or may not reflect official Internet Society positions.

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