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hat's up? It's Saturday, June 12, and after another long week of news, here's what you need to know about: The growing threat of ransomware attacks, an intensifying bipartisan push to split up Big Tech, and the refugee camp in Syria that is helping support Islamic State. I’d love to keep hearing what you think of Notes on the News. Reply to this email and let me know. |
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| | What Everyone Wants to Know |
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| | An Amazon event in Seattle in 2019. PHOTO: TED S. WARREN/ASSOCIATED PRESS |
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| A bipartisan push to split up Big Tech. House lawmakers proposed bipartisan legislation that would force technology giants to effectively break into two companies, or shed their private label products, like those as part of AmazonBasics or AmazonEssentials. The Ending Platform Monopolies Act targets companies that have a $600 billion market cap or more, have more than 50 million active monthly users and are defined as a "critical trading partner." Only Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google fit the parameters. A draft text reads: "It shall be unlawful for a covered platform operator to own or control a line of business, other than the covered platform, when the covered platform’s ownership or control of that line of business gives rise to an irreconcilable conflict of interest." For Amazon, which Congress has said favors its own goods over other sellers and competes against them with its own, lower-priced products, the bill’s passage could force it to split into two websites: One for its third-party marketplace and one for its own products. Or, the company would have to divest or shut down the sale of its own products. The proposal is the latest bill to target the power of big technology companies and comes as Google and Facebook are facing antitrust lawsuits, and Apple and Amazon are under antitrust investigation. The legislation would need to pass in the Democratic-controlled House and also pick up substantial support from Senate Republicans, who are concerned about technology companies' power, but skeptical of changing antitrust laws. |
| A refugee camp for Islamic State fighters' families nourishes the insurgency. The al-Hol camp in Syria was set up to shelter women and children after the defeat of Islamic State. Instead, it has become a space where female leaders nurture the violent ideology and run a mini-caliphate that raises money to help keep the insurgency alive beyond the camp fence, according to those who have escaped the camp. More than 40 murders have been recorded at al-Hol this year. Last year, an Iraqi woman was strangled in front of her children with an electric wire for posting a video of her dancing on Instagram, an activity forbidden under the strict Islamist doctrine imposed by the group. The Syrian Democratic Forces, the U.S.-backed group responsible for guarding the camp of more than 62,000 people, said they lack the resources to do so effectively. The camp, which also serves as a detention facility, is split into multiple divisions. In the one reserved for female detainees, significant sums of money are raised over social media with contraband phones to help smuggle out people, some of whom go back to Syria to rebuild the group's capabilities. Other fugitives from the camp have been tracked to Belgium, Finland and Sweden, with the United Nations warning that ISIS is looking to use the escapees to develop terrorist cells in Europe. |
| Pop band BTS gets dragged into the debate over South Korea's tattoo law. South Korea is the only country in the world where inking tattoos is illegal without a medical license, a fact few people in the country knew until recently. One lawmaker's recent effort to liberalize the laws, however, backfired when she invoked the K-pop band BTS. In the socially conservative nation, many celebrities cover their tattoos on TV shows and in interviews. So when the politician Ryu Ho-jeong tweeted “Remove Band-Aids from BTS’s body,” after posting a photo of one of the band's members with bandages covering his finger tattoos, it reignited a debate about tattoos' place in South Korean culture and the legal status for some of South Korea's tattoo artists. The band's fans, however, didn't appreciate Ryu using them as political props, forcing her to make an apology. The tattoo law, while lightly enforced, puts the country in a unique place globally, although countries such as Iran and the United Arab Emirates have limits on the types of imagery that can be tattooed. The main opposition to efforts to change the law in South Korea has come from the Korea Medical Association, which says letting those without medical licenses give tattoos could lead to serious infection or allergic reactions. Still, South Korea is home to celebrity tattoo artists, and about a quarter of those in their 20s and 30s have been inked. Kim Do-yoon, the founder of a tattoo-artists union that is seeking to overturn the law, expressed frustration at the disconnect between the law and modern social attitudes. "Despite the surge in people getting tattoos, the country still pretends like we don’t exist," he said. |
| | | 10% — The approximate value that the hedge fund Mudrick Capital's main fund lost in just a few days after a multipronged bet on movie theater chain AMC went awry when the stock's price unexpectedly jumped. The fund lost an estimated hundreds of millions of dollars. The loss for Mudrick highlights how exposure to meme stocks can be risky for institutional investors, and many hedge funds are now slashing their meme stocks holdings. $130,000 — The rough starting price for Tesla's Model S Plaid, a souped-up version of its luxury sedan that the company says can accelerate from zero to 60 miles an hour in under two seconds. The revamp comes as sales of the Model S and Tesla's Model X, its high-end SUV, have slumped in recent years. 67% — The approximate increase in the rate of deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest rose in May compared with the same month last year. Deforestation peaks in the dry season of May to October, when it is easier for illegal loggers to get into the forest. In April, President Jair Bolsanaro said he would bolster environmental-protection funding, then signed a federal budget the next day that slashed funding. 17,000 — The number of farmers of color who qualify for a $4 billion debt-relief program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of the most recent stimulus package. The funds have been put on hold because of a lawsuit in Wisconsin filed by a group of white, conservative farmers who argue the program is unconstitutional because it discriminates against them. 226 — The number of reports of potential cases of myocarditis and pericarditis that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified in people who have received Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna. The pair of conditions affect the heart, and while a small fraction of the more than 130 million people who have received Pfizer or Moderna vaccines have developed them, the CDC is convening an emergency meeting next week to discuss the reports. |
| | | | Ransomware attacks are becoming more frequent. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority revealed that it had been hacked in April. PHOTO: NIYI FOTE/THENEWS2/ZUMA PRESS |
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| How should the government handle increasing cyberattacks? As ransomware attacks roil industries such as gas and meat processing in the U.S., government officials are framing them as a significant national-security challenge. FBI director Christopher Wray said ransomware attacks were a challenge comparable to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with his agency investigating about 100 types of ransomware. And senior Biden administration officials say they are working to disrupt the criminal ecosystem that helps support the booming industry. As everyday Americans start to be affected by malicious hackers, Wray says: "I think there’s a growing awareness now of just how much we’re all in this fight together." What is a ransomware attack? Ransomware is a type of malicious computer code that locks up access to a victim's files with an encryption key, which is essentially an untrackable password. A ransom payment is demanded in return for the release of the files, usually in cryptocurrency. Complaints to the FBI and reports from the private sector found that ransomware incidents have tripled in the past year. One group, known as Ryuk, has raked in $100 million in the past year alone. Last week's attack on JBS, the world's largest meat company, led the company to pay $11 million to cybercriminals; meat supplies tightened, as JBS was forced to suspend operations for a day. When Colonial Pipeline, which operates the largest pipeline in the U.S., was hit last month, it paid more than $4 million to the hackers. And this month has also seen attacks on ferry services in Massachusetts, and the revelation that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates New York City subways, was attacked in April. Executives and cybersecurity experts say that the rash of crimes against critical infrastructure requires both a muscular response from the U.S. government and more care taken by companies to tighten their cybersecurity. “It isn’t always the extravagant attack that succeeds. It’s often very basic things where a door is left open that people exploit,” said Rob Joyce, director of the National Security Agency’s cybersecurity directorate. Why are attacks getting more frequent? Before 2018, hackers often targeted data-rich companies like financial services institutions and retailers, with the goal of making money from identity theft. More recently however, more lucrative ransomware payments have figured in the schemes: The gangs hack large-scale institutions and demand near-immediate payment in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Remote working has also led to an increase in attacks, with employees communicating on potentially insecure networks. The FBI says that many of the types of ransomware it is investigating trace to Russia, some with ties to Russian government security services. Hospitals have emerged as particularly vulnerable because they often have lax cybersecurity controls and the business of life and death is susceptible to extortion. Ryuk, the gang of hackers with ties to Russia, has hit hundreds of hospitals and healthcare facilities since 2018. Hacks in recent months have suspended surgeries, delayed medical care and cost hospitals millions of dollars. Bill Siegel, CEO of the ransomware-recovery firm Coveware, said of Ryuk: "You can tell them, ‘We’re a hospital, someone’s going to die.’ Ryuk won’t even reply to that email.” What role does cryptocurrency play? Cryptocurrencies are the preferred method of ransom payment, because they are difficult to trace across digital wallets and national borders. U.S. officials discourage ransomware payments, but many companies do so out of fear of having their businesses crippled. Federal law enforcement has been growing more adept at tracking payments and at times seizing them, as seen by the FBI’s success in recovering part of the ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline. Still, the White House said it was pushing to better trace payments and to create consistent rules among international partners for how to trace them. A proposed Treasury Department rule would require U.S. banks to report cryptocurrency transactions over $10,000 and vet some customers. |
| | | The album cover for "Make It Thru." PHOTO: Dani Kim |
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| Go listen to: "Sidekik," from singer and producer Mac Wetha's new EP "Make It Thru." What I've had on repeat: "Find My Way Home," a bouncy 2018 house-music track from British producer Sammy Virji. |
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