A look at the software being used by extortionists to attack computer users around the globe.
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Day: May 15, 2017
Rapper Travis Scott’s recent arrest after a concert in Arkansas is not his first on accusations of encouraging fans to join him on stage.
Police in Rogers say the Houston-born musician, whose real name is Jacques Webster, was arrested Saturday night on charges of inciting a riot, disorderly conduct and endangering the welfare of a minor.
Police say Webster encouraged fans to bypass security and rush the stage, leaving a security guard, a police officer and several others injured.
The Associated Press has sought comment from Webster’s representatives.
Webster was sentenced to one year of court supervision after pleading guilty to reckless conduct charges stemming from a 2015 incident in Chicago at the Lollapalooza music festival. Chicago officials said Webster encouraged fans to vault security barricades. No one was injured.
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Anheuser-Busch is upgrading its U.S. breweries and plans to build two new distribution centers as it adapts to an increasingly fragmented beer market.
The maker of Budweiser, Corona, Stella Artois says the upgrades and new distribution centers in Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio, will allow it to store a greater variety of products and get them to customers faster. The measures are part of the $500 million that the company said Monday it will invest in its U.S. operations this year, marking an increase compared with recent years. It’s a portion of the $3.7 billion in global capital expenditures that the Belgian company had already budgeted for 2017.
Anheuser-Busch has struggled to boost sales volumes as craft beers grow increasingly popular in an already crowded marketplace. In 2016, total volume at Anheuser-Busch declined 2 percent, including a 1.6 percent volume decline in North America.
The same thing is happening with non-alcoholic drinks. PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi has said the industry is becoming more “niche,” and that PepsiCo needs to learn how to thrive amid that growing complexity.
The investment announced Monday by Anheuser-Busch includes upgrades to breweries in Fort Collins, Colorado, and St. Louis, Missouri. The company did not say how many new jobs it expects this year’s U.S. investments to create. It has added around 2,500 jobs since 2013, the company said. Anheuser-Busch employs more than 17,000 people in the U.S.
In 2015, Anheuser-Busch had said it expects to invest $1.5 billion from that year to 2018. The Monday announcement was an update, with the company saying it is spending $2 billion from this year through 2020.
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Beyonce dominated last year’s BET Awards with “Lemonade,” but there’s more juice in her cup.
The pop star is nominated for seven awards at the 2017 BET Awards, the network told The Associated Press on Monday. The show will take place June 25 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
Bruno Mars follows Beyonce with five nominations.
Beyonce, who won video of the year with “Formation” last year, is nominated for the top prize again with “Sorry.” Her competition includes her sister Solange (“Cranes In the Sky”); Mars’ playful “24K Magic”; Migos’ No. 1 hit “Bad and Boujee”; and Big Sean’s anthemic “Bounce Back.”
Beyonce and Solange — who has four nominations — will go head-to-head for best female R&B/pop artist, along with Rihanna, Mary J. Blige and Kehlani. Beyonce’s other nominations include album of the year for “Lemonade,” the viewer’s choice award and video director of the year. She’s nominated twice for best collaboration with the songs “Freedom” (with Kendrick Lamar) and “Shining” (shared with Jay Z and DJ Khaled).
The winners in the 19 categories, including film and sports awards, will be selected by BET’s Voting Academy, comprised of entertainment professionals and fans.
Mars, whose latest album was inspired by `90s R&B, is also nominated for best male R&B/pop artist, album of the year, the viewer’s choice award and video director of the year.
Chance the Rapper, who scored four nominations and won three Grammys this year, will battle Lamar, Drake, J. Cole, Future and Big Sean for best male hip-hop artist. Nicki Minaj will compete with rival Remy Ma for best female hip-hop artist, an award Minaj has won since 2010.
Hip-hop trio Migos also scored four nominations.
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a behemoth of culture and wealth, is rebounding from more than a year of internal turmoil and financial problems.
As part of its recovery efforts, the museum is considering a mandatory admissions fee for visitors from outside New York state. The set fee, possibly $25 for adults, would be the first in the venerable museum’s 147-year history.
Facing a $15 million operating deficit, the Met filed a formal proposal with New York City this month to charge visitors who don’t live in the state a set admission, instead of the current voluntary contribution.
“We’ve had financial challenges — significant ones — over the last couple of years that have culminated over the past year, and a rather significant need to reorganize the institution and to retrench our finances,” said Daniel Weiss, the museum’s president.
About 100 staff positions have been eliminated through buyouts and layoffs. The number of special exhibits staged each year is being slashed from 55 to about 40. A $600 million new wing that had been planned, but not fully financed, is postponed indefinitely. Instead, the Met will be focusing on more pressing capital needs, Weiss said, including spending as much as $100 million to replace a block-long “ocean of bad skylights” built in the 1930s over art galleries.
Met director and chief executive Thomas Campbell stunned the art world in February by announcing his resignation, amid criticism of the museum’s financial management.
“It was clear we were on a path that was not sustainable, and if we didn’t deal with it, it was going to get worse in a hurry,” said Weiss, who took the reins from Campbell and is now the interim CEO.
He blamed the museum’s financial problems on “a perfect storm” of money-sucking factors: too many costly special exhibitions; restaurants and gift shops where revenues declined; and public programming that was overly ambitious.
Revenue from admissions and membership also had slipped.
But make no mistake, there’s no immediate danger to the museum, which has endowments of $3 billion.
Admissions fees might help ease the current budget deficit, which was about 5 percent of the $315 million in operating costs in 2016.
“The deficit is not high compared to the total budget, but remember, these numbers are not just about the money: Donors want to back a winning story, and any indication that it’s not makes them skittish,” said Andrew Taylor, an arts management expert at Washington-based American University.
The details of how the fees would work are the subject of talks with the city, which gives the museum $27 million in subsidies annually. The city also owns the museum site in Central Park and has approval rights for entrance policies.
An entrance fee of $25 would be in line with admissions to other New York art institutions, from the MoMA ($25) and the Guggenheim ($25) to the Whitney ($22).
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio gave some generalized support to the idea, saying it was “fair” for non-state residents to pay something. “I’m a big fan of Russian oligarchs paying more to get into the Met,” the mayor joked recently.
Of the record 7 million visitors in 2016, 67 percent came from outside New York state and 39 percent of the total from abroad.
In recent years, the museum was targeted by a class-action lawsuit that challenged the Met’s “recommended” $25 admission and accused the institution of obscuring the fact that people could enter for less. The case was settled last year when the Met agreed to say the price is only “suggested,” with signs telling visitors that “The amount you pay is up to you.”
Visitors have split on whether an entrance fee should be mandatory for some.
Angeleka Kunath, 64, visiting from Hamburg, Germany, said she feels foreigners should pay and would gladly do so to keep the Met running at its best.
“The price is worth it. Art is so important for our lives and humanity; it gives us inspiration it brings people together,” she said.
Ken Wilson, 60, who was visiting from Greensboro, North Carolina, said he didn’t think anyone would have a problem paying to get in.
“It’s amazing and educational,” he said. But he said it was unfair that New Yorkers would get a discount. And with the search for its new director underway, the museum could maybe discuss cutting the high six-figure salaries of its top executives.
A New Hampshire man who was injured in a house explosion is thanking Siri for saving his life.
Christopher Beaucher says he was checking on his mother’s vacant cottage in Wilmot on May 1 when he saw something suspicious and went inside.
He tells WMUR-TV that when he switched on a light, the house exploded.
“The whole place caught fire,” Beaucher said. “Part of it collapsed while I was in it during the initial explosion, so I couldn’t really tell where I was.”
Beaucher’s face and hands were badly burned. He grabbed his cellphone but was unable to dial because of his injuries. He says he somehow asked his iPhone’s voice-controlled virtual assistant Siri to call 911, believing he was going into shock.
A spokeswoman for Apple said Monday that statistics on Siri being used for emergencies weren’t available, but noted some recent emergencies in which it was used. Those include three boaters off the Florida coast in April who used the water-resistant phone when their craft capsized; a 4-year-old boy from London who used his mother’s thumb to unlock her iPhone and called Siri after she collapsed at home in March; and a man in Vancouver who collapsed, became paralyzed, and was able to use his tongue to use Siri.
Beaucher is undergoing treatment for his injuries and says he hopes to return to his job as a cook and tend to his farm.
“I’m very, very, extremely lucky to be alive,” he said.
The New Hampshire state fire marshal’s office is investigating the explosion.
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Kara McCullough, a scientist working for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has been crowned Miss USA.
McCullough, who represented the District of Columbia in the decades-old pageant, was born in Naples, Italy, and raised in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She said she wants to inspire children to pursue careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“I love science,” McCullough said after the Sunday event. “I look at this as a great opportunity to … get to experience worldwide culture, as well as just having the opportunity to be impacted by so many children, hopefully in the math and sciences.”
McCullough bested 50 other contestants and will represent the U.S. at the Miss Universe contest.
This was the second year in a row that the representative of the nation’s capital won the Miss USA title. Last year, District of Columbia resident Deshauna Barber became the first-ever military member to win Miss USA.
This year’s top five finalists were asked questions that touched on the pros and cons of social media, women’s rights and issues affecting teenagers. McCullough was asked whether she thinks that affordable health care for all U.S. citizens is a right or a privilege. She said it is a privilege.
“As a government employee, I’m granted health care and I see firsthand that for one to have health care, you need to have jobs,” she said.
McCullough said she will be discussing with her supervisor whether she will take a leave of absence from her job at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during her one-year reign.
Miss New Jersey Chhavi Verg, who studies marketing and Spanish at Rutgers University, was the runner-up at the event held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on the Las Vegas Strip.
Verg was one of five women who participated in the pageant who told The Associated Press they immigrated to the U.S. with their families at a young age. Verg and the women representing Florida, North Dakota, Hawaii and Connecticut described the challenges and opportunities they faced as immigrants.
Verg told The AP that she and her parents immigrated from India to the U.S. with only $500 in their pockets when she was 4 years old. Her first winter she did not have a winter coat and the family struggled to adjust.
“I want to show Americans that the definition of what it means to be American is changing,” the 20-year-old said. “It’s not just one face. There are many different people who are Americans, and I feel like Asian-Americans often times are left out of the conversation.”
The contestants’ remarks contrast with the controversy that surrounded the pageant in 2015, when then-part owner and now U.S. President Donald Trump offended Hispanics when he made anti-immigrant remarks in announcing his bid for the White House.
Trump co-owned The Miss Universe Organization with NBCUniversal, but the network and the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision quickly cut ties with him, refusing to air the show. Trump sued both networks, eventually settling and selling the pageant to talent management company WME/IMG.
Katy Perry has announced her upcoming album will be titled “Witness” and will be released on June 9.
Perry has also announced an extensive tour of North America to promote the release.
The singer’s website says Perry’s first tour since 2015 begins Sept. 7 in Columbus, Ohio, and has dates listed through Feb. 5. Anyone who buys a ticket will receive a copy of the album.
Two singles have been released from “Witness” so far: “Chained to the Rhythm” and “Bon Appetit.” Perry hinted at the album’s name earlier this month by wearing a headpiece that spelled out the word “Witness” on the red carpet at the Met Gala.
Perry is set to perform on the season finale of “Saturday Night Live” this weekend.
Historic rivals China and Vietnam are working on substantive agreements that could cover trade, investment and maritime resource sharing despite a bitter sovereignty dispute that had snarled relations less than a year ago.
The Communist neighbors are inching toward new trade and investment ties that analysts say would help shore up overall relations. Some believe the two might later approach stickier topics such as joint use of disputed waters or humane treatment of each other’s fishermen. The two countries still contest sovereignty over tracts of the vast, resource-rich South China Sea east of Vietnam and southwest of Hong Kong.
Prospects of some kind of agreement came into focus during Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang’s visit to China, which ends Monday. He suggested the two sides work on complementing each other’s trade and investment advantages with a view toward improving overall relations, state media from Hanoi said.
“President Quang is in China, and China promised a lot,” said Yun Sun, senior associate with the East Asia Program under Washington-based think tank the Stimson Center. “From an economic point of view, it is certainly practical and beneficial for Vietnam to have some sort of deal, but then again I think this still relatively early to tell.”
In a meeting with Quang Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for more cross-border economic cooperation zones and joint infrastructure building, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported. China pledged to “mitigate” its trade deficit with Vietnam and increase direct investment, Sun said.
“Talking probably does help lower tensions and improve the odds of things happening,” said Alaistair Chan, an economist covering China for Moody’s Analytics.
The Vietnamese president suggested China finalize rules on opening the Chinese market for farm products, dairy and seafood, media outlet vietnamnet.vn said. He also called on China to make more “preferential loans” and urged a working group to develop renewable energy investment projects that play on China’s strengths and demand in Vietnam, the Vietnamese news report said.
On Friday companies from both countries signed agreements on milk distribution, tourism and rice processing.
China is the largest trade partner of Vietnam, with imports and exports worth about $72 billion last year. Vietnam also calls China one of the top 10 investors in the country.
But both countries are likely to hedge on letting outsiders invest in infrastructure, a possible source of direct investment, Chan said. “If they can get there purely on trade and stay away from investment, a touchy subject in both countries, I think that’s probably where they can get their quickest gain,” he said.
China and Vietnam stepped up dialogue after July 2016, when a world arbitration court ruled that Beijing lacked a legal basis to claim more than 90 percent of the sea, a boon to rival claimants in Southeast Asia: Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. China responded to the ruling by seeking one-on-one dialogue with each country. Vietnam was one of the most hostile toward China before the court ruling.
Beijing and Hanoi dispute sovereignty over much of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea, including two chains of tiny islets. Beijing’s go-ahead for a Chinese oil rig in contested waters set off a clash in 2014. The two countries also still face distrust fanned by centuries of political rivalry as well as a border war in 1979.
Both countries stake their fast-growing economies on export manufacturing. Vietnamese companies resent China for using their larger production scales to sell goods in bulk at relatively low prices.
Relations got a lift in September when the Chinese premier and Vietnamese prime minister agreed to manage maritime differences. Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visited China in January to help smooth relations.
Another boost came as China emerged last year as the top single-country source of tourism for Vietnam. About 2.2 million Chinese visited Vietnam from January to October. Chinese tourists have reshaped the economies of Hong Kong and Taiwan over the past decade.
Agreements on managing disputed tracts of the South China Sea may come later if the two sides keep getting along, experts say.
Vietnam and China have agreed to an “informal” median line in the tract of sea where their claims overlap, said Carl Thayer, Southeast Asia-specialized emeritus professor of politics at The University of New South Wales in Australia. They might eventually work on expanding joint exploration for oil under the seabed and a way to ensure “humane” treatment of fishermen, he said.
“It’s to stop the ramming, boarding, seizing fish catches and radio equipment and in the old days taking them hostages for money,” Thayer said. Under a human treatment agreement, he said, “If you find them, you report them to the other side and return them rather than bash them up and take everything.”
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Florida’s Indian River lagoon is considered the most biologically diverse estuary in the Northern Hemisphere. But it is facing a serious threat to the plants and animals in its waters. The water’s surface is increasingly dotted with thousands of dead fish, manatees, birds and other creatures. Faiza Elmasry has more about the problem, the cause and the solution. VOA’s Faith Lapidus narrates.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed on Sunday a second case of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo after an outbreak this week of 17 other suspected cases.
Health officials are trying to trace 125 people thought to be linked to the cases identified in the remote northeastern province of Bas-Uele province in northeastern Congo near the border with Central African Republic, WHO’s Congo spokesman Eugene Kabambi said.
Three people have so far died among the 19 suspected and confirmed cases, he added.
It was not immediately clear how the first victim, a deceased male, caught the virus, although past outbreaks have been linked to contact with infected bush meat such as apes.
The outbreak comes just a year after the end of an epidemic in West Africa killed more than 11,300 people mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
However, Congo, whose dense forests contain the River Ebola near where the disease was first detected in 1976, has experienced many outbreaks and has mostly succeeded in containing them without large-scale loss of life.
The GAVI global vaccine alliance said on Friday some 300,000 emergency doses of an Ebola vaccine developed by Merck could be available in case of a large-scale outbreak and that it stood ready to support the Congo government on the matter.
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This weekend’s global online extortion attack reinforces the need for businesses and other large organizations to update their computer operating systems and security software, cybersecurity experts said.
The attack largely infected networks that used out-of-date software, such as Windows XP, which Microsoft no longer offers technical support for.
“There’s some truth to the idea that people are always going to hack themselves,” said Dan Wire, a spokesman for security firm FireEye. “You’ve got to keep your systems updated.”
The attack that authorities say swept 150 countries this weekend is part of a growing problem of “ransomware” scams, in which people find themselves locked out of their files and presented with a demand to pay hackers to restore their access.
Hackers bait users to click on infected email links, open infected attachments or take advantage of outdated and vulnerable systems. This weekend’s virus was particularly virulent, because it could spread to all other computers on a network even if just one user clicked a bad link or attachment.
Lawrence Abrams, a New York-based blogger who runs BleepingComputer.com, says many organizations don’t install security upgrades because they’re worried about triggering bugs, or they can’t afford the downtime.
Here are five tips to make yourself a less-likely victim:
Make safe and secure backups
Once your files are encrypted, your options are limited. Recovery from backups is one of them. “Unfortunately, most people don’t have them,” Abrams says. Backups often are also out of date and missing critical information. With this attack, Abrams recommends trying to recover the “shadow volume” copies some versions of Windows have.
Some ransomware does also sometimes targets backup files, though.
You should make multiple backups — to cloud services and using physical disk drives, at regular and frequent intervals. It’s a good idea to back up files to a drive that remains entirely disconnected from your network.
Update and patch your systems
The latest ransomware was successful because of a confluence of factors. Those include a known and highly dangerous security hole in Microsoft Windows, tardy users who didn’t apply Microsoft’s March software fix, and malware designed to spread quickly once inside university, business and government networks. Updating software will take care of some vulnerability.
“Hopefully people are learning how important it is to apply these patches,” said Darien Huss, a senior security research engineer for cybersecurity firm Proofpoint, who helped stem the reach of the weekend attack. “I hope that if another attack occurs, the damage will be a lot less.”
The virus targeted computers using Windows XP, as well as Windows 7 and 8, all of which Microsoft stopped servicing years ago. Yet in an unusual step, they released a patch for those older systems because of the magnitude of the outbreak.
“There’s a lot of older Windows products out there that are `end of life’ and nobody’s bothered to take them out of service,” said Cynthia Larose, a cybersecurity expert at the law firm of Mintz Levin.
Use antivirus software
Using antivirus software will at least protect you from the most basic, well-known viruses by scanning your system against the known fingerprints of these pests. Low-end criminals take advantage of less-savvy users with such known viruses, even though malware is constantly changing and antivirus is frequently days behind detecting it.
Educate your workforce
Basic protocol such as stressing that workers shouldn’t click on questionable links or open suspicious attachments can save headaches. System administrators should ensure that employees don’t have unnecessary access to parts of the network that aren’t critical to their work. This helps limit the spread of ransomware if hackers do get into your system.
If hit, don’t wait and see
Some organizations disconnect computers as a precautionary measure. Shutting down a network can prevent the continued encryption — and possible loss — of more files. Hackers will sometimes encourage you to keep your computer on and linked to the network, but don’t be fooled.
If you’re facing a ransom demand and locked out of your files, law enforcement and cybersecurity experts discourage paying ransoms because it gives incentives to hackers and pays for their future attacks. There’s also no guarantee all files will be restored. Many organizations without updated backups may decide that regaining access to critical files, such as customer data, and avoiding public embarrassment is worth the cost.
Ryan O’Leary, vice president of WhiteHat Security’s threat research center, points out that this weekend’s hackers weren’t asking for much, usually about $300.
“If there is a silver lining to it, you’re not out a million dollars,” he said.
Still, “My answer is, never pay the ransom,” Abrams said. “But at the same time, I also know that if you’re someone who’s been affected and you’ve lost all your children’s photographs or you’ve lost all your data or you lost your thesis, sometimes $300 is worth it, you know?”
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Paris bid leaders want to capitalize on the sense of optimism surrounding new President Emmanuel Macron to beat Los Angeles and secure the Olympic Games in 2024 — not 2028.
With the IOC currently assessing a proposal to award the next two Olympics — one to each city — Paris officials insist the French capital city is the right choice for 2024.
The 39-year-old Macron, France’s youngest-ever president, officially took office on Sunday as the IOC evaluation commission started a three-day visit to Paris.
“Our team has a new member, the new President of France, Emmanuel Macron,” bid leader Tony Estanguet said on Sunday. “He’s been a fantastic supporter of our bid from the beginning. He will be with us all the way to Lima and hopefully beyond.”
Los Angeles and Paris are the only two bidders left for the 2024 Games, which will be awarded in September at a meeting of Olympic leaders in Peru. The race began with five cities, but Rome, Hamburg, Germany, and Budapest, Hungary, all pulled out.
The IOC has four vice presidents looking into the prospect of awarding the 2024 and 2028 Games at the same time in September.
“We have one goal during these few days: to convince you that Paris is the right city, with the right vision, at the right moment,” Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said. “The right city with world-class venues and accommodation, and the best public transport in the world, ready right now.”
International Olympic Committee members were in Los Angeles earlier this week to meet with the U.S. bid leaders and inspect their planned venues. While Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti appeared at least willing to consider hosting the 2028 Olympics if the city isn’t awarded its first choice of 2024, Hidalgo said Paris is set for the earlier edition.
“With financial and political stability and support, we are ready right now,” Hidalgo said. “At the right moment, as the no risk option.”
Patrick Baumann, the chair of the IOC evaluation commission, said Sunday’s discussions with Paris leaders focused solely on their project for 2024.
“Right now we are still in a process where we assess a potential candidacy for 2024,” Baumann told a press conference. “2024-2028 was not a matter of discussion.”
The French government has pledged one billion euros ($1.1 billion) of support for the Paris bid and Macron is expected to confirm that amount. If Paris is awarded the 2024 Games, the infrastructure budget is expected to total 3 billion euros, with operational costs of 3.2 billion euros.
Paris is also betting on the compactness of its plans to make the difference. According to the bid dossier, 84 percent of the athletes will be able to reach their competition venues in less than 25 minutes, and more than 70 percent of the proposed venues are existing facilities, with a further 25 percent relying on temporary structures.
Paris, which last staged the Olympics in 1924, failed in bids for the 1992, 2008, and 2012 Games.
With the pro-business and pro-EU Macron, Paris bid leaders have a strong supporter. The new president has already thrown his weight behind Paris’ bid, telling IOC President Thomas Bach over the phone of its “expected benefits for all French people.”
Macron did not attend Sunday’s night gala dinner with IOC members in Paris but invited the evaluation commission on Tuesday to the Elysee Palace before they leave.
Meanwhile, the Paris team added another high-profile figure to their list of backers on Sunday as it unveiled France soccer great Zinedine Zidane as their latest ambassador.
“I was involved in several bids, but this one is really close to our hearts,” said Zidane, who also supported the Qatar bid to host soccer’s 2022 World Cup and was involved in Paris’s 2008 and 2012 failed bids.
IOC members started their visit with a full day of discussions on Paris’ proposals that will be followed by venue visits on Monday and further meetings on the final day.
“Our friends of Paris 2024 presented us with an exceptional and well detailed bid presentation,” Baumann said. “We have two cities with a wonderful Olympic spirit. It’s difficult to give them less than 10 out of 10.”
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