The Petya ransomware is starting to look like a cyberattack in disguise

The ransomware that wasn’t The haze of yesterday’s massive ransomware attack is clearing, and Ukraine has already emerged as the epicenter of the damage. Kaspersky Labs reports that as many as 60 percent of the systems infected by the Petya ransomware were located within Ukraine, far more than anywhere else. The hack’s reach touched some of the country’s most crucial infrastructure including its central bank, airport, metro transport, and even the Chernobyl power plant, which was forced to move radiation-sensing systems to manual. The ostensible purpose of all that damage was to make money — and yet there’s very little money to be found....

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Cyberattack Hits Ukraine Then Spreads Internationally

Several companies have been affected by the Petya cyberattack, including, from left, Rosneft, the Russian energy giant; Merck, a pharmaceutical company; and Maersk, a shipping company. Credit Left, Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters; center, Matt Rourke/Associated Press; right, Enrique Castro Sanchez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Computer systems from Ukraine to the United States were struck on Tuesday in an international cyberattack that was like a recent assault that crippled tens of thousands of machines worldwide. In Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, A.T.M.s stopped working. About 80 miles away, workers were forced to manually monitor radiation...

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Global Cyberattack: What We Know and Don’t Know

A screenshot of what appeared to be the ransomware affecting systems worldwide on Tuesday. The Ukrainian government posted the shot to its official Facebook page. A quickly spreading ransomware attack is hitting countries across the world including France, Russia, Spain, Ukraine and the United States, just weeks after a ransomware attack known as WannaCry. What We Know • Several private companies have confirmed that they were hit by the attack, including the American pharmaceutical giant Merck, the Danish shipping company AP Moller-Maersk, the British advertising firm WPP, the French multinational Saint-Gobain and the Russian steel, mining...

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Tumblr Goes Radio Silent On Net Neutrality After Verizon Acquisition

Back when Verizon first began expressing interest in pivoting from broadband duopolist to media and advertising, you might recall that it launched a short-lived technology blog named Sugarstring. Sugarstring quickly made headlines for all the wrong reasons however, after it was revealed that Verizon was banning any new hires from writing about hot-button subjects like net neutrality, or the fact that companies like Verizon and AT&T are now bone-grafted to the nation's intelligence and surveillance apparatus. Sugarstring is long-since dead, replaced in large part by Verizon's acquisitions of Yahoo and AOL, which also brought Huffpo, Engadget,...

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Net Neutrality Is Dying. Speak Out Now Before It's Too Late

“Come on! The internet is an incredible place!” said comedian and political commentator John Oliver, “And tonight, we need to talk about an issue that is impacting it.” He was just one of the many advocates of a free and open internet who were using the public forum to spread awareness on the threats that the internet is about to face. On May 18, 2017, the current Federal Communications Commission (FCC) led by Chairman Ajit Pai voted 2-1 on a motion to repeal rules and regulations put in place by his predecessor to ensure a free and open internet for all. The motion, if sustained during a second vote held after the FCC is fully staffed later...

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Netflix Joins Support of Net Neutrality

July 12 will be a national day of action for net neutrality, and Netflix has finally announced it will be fully participating. During the Obama years, Netflix was a major player on the front lines of the fight for ensuring net neutrality. As a streaming service, Netflix theoretically relies on net neutrality to ensure internet providers don’t slow down their streaming speed in order to elevate cable programs. But Netflix hasn’t seemed to be as enthusiastic as of late, even as the FCC under Ajit Pai, a former cable lobbyist appointed by Trump, poses the most grave threat to net neutrality we’ve ever seen. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently...

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