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A Ransomware Attack Has Atlanta’s Infrastructure Hostage

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Atlanta

The city of Atlanta has become the victim of a massive Ransomware attack that has compromised its stability. This incident became public knowledge a few days ago when Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told news sources about the attack.

The Ransomware that attacked Atlanta is named “SamSam”. This ransomware has been observed across multiple industries including Government, Healthcare and ICS. As such, this critical attack can make a huge mess for the people in and outside of those sectors.

To make matters worse, this is a new variant of the ransomware. This variant deploys using a loader which decrypts and executes an encrypted ransomware payload. The first reports of the variant have been sighted as far back as October 2017.

Today, the city is at a complete halt and in a race against the clock to restore their systems. At this time, it appears that no customer or employee data was compromised although Atlanta is urging residents and employees to monitor their personal information

The major issue is the demands of the attackers. They have demanded the city to pay 6 bitcoins (Around $42k USD) with the threat of having all the information deleted permanently. Ms. Bottoms has also stated that cybersecurity has become Atlanta’s number one priority.

“The safety and security of our employees and customers remain our top priority. We are working around the clock to work through this ransomware cyberattack and we ask for your patience as we implement business continuity measures,” Bottoms said.

“I want to thank the Department of Atlanta Information Management, my senior team, our federal partners, Microsoft and Cisco for their hard work and focus on this issue.”

Of course, this can’t be a cybersecurity incident without someone in the security department not doing their job, eh? Turns out that Atlanta has been warned about this ransomware attack since months ago, with the city neglecting to protect themselves.

Once again, the cybersecurity part of a big business entity (Or an entire city, if you will) has neglected to take proper precautions and now is paying the consequences. Could Atlanta be able to recover in time? Only time will tell.

I always wanted to be a journalist who listens. The Voice of the Unspoken and someone heavily involved in the gaming community. From playing as a leader of a competitive multi-branch team to organizing tournaments for the competitive scene to being involved in a lot of gaming communities. I want to keep moving forward as a journalist.

Android

Google Chrome now has a ‘picture-in-picture’ feature

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Google is getting ready to make a big change to how its Chrome browser works. This is because new browsers from startups like Arc are making the market more competitive. The company said on Wednesday that it will be adding a new feature called “Minimized Custom Tabs” that will let users tap to switch between a native app and their web content. When you do this, the Custom Tab turns into a small window that floats above the content of the native app.

The new feature is all about using Custom Tabs, which is a feature in Android browsers that lets app developers make their own browser experience right in their app. Users don’t have to open their browser or a WebView, which doesn’t support all of the web platform’s features. Custom tabs let users stay in their app while browsing. Custom tabs can help developers keep users in their apps longer and keep them from leaving and never coming back.

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If you make the Custom Tab into a picture-in-picture window, switching to the web view might feel more natural, like you’re still in the native app. People who send their customers to a website to sign up for accounts or subscriptions might also find this change useful, since it makes it easier for users to switch between the website and the native app.

After being shrunk down to the picture-in-picture window, the Custom Tab can be pushed to the side of the screen. Users can tap on a down arrow to bring the page back to the picture-in-picture window when it is full screen.

The new web experience comes at a time when Google is making it easier for Android users to connect to the web. People can find their way to the web with AI-powered features like Circle to Search and other integrations that let them do things like circle or highlight items.

The change is coming to the newest version of Chrome (M124), and developers who already use Chrome’s Custom Tabs will see it automatically. Google says that the change only affects Chrome browsers, but it hopes that other browser makers will add changes like these.

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Threads finally starts its own program to check facts

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Meta’s latest social network, Threads, is launching its own fact-checking initiative after leveraging Instagram and Facebook’s networks for a brief period.

Adam Mosseri, the CEO of Instagram, stated that the company has recently implemented a feature that allows fact-checkers to assess and label false content on threads. Nevertheless, Mosseri refrained from providing specific information regarding the exact timing of the program’s implementation and whether it was restricted to certain geographical regions.

The fact-checking partners for Threads—which organizations are affiliated with Meta—are not clearly specified. We have requested additional information from the company and will revise the story accordingly upon receiving a response.

The upcoming U.S. elections appear to be the main driving force behind the decision. India is currently in the midst of its general elections. However, it is improbable that a social network would implement a fact-checking program specifically during an election cycle rather than initiating the project prior to the elections.

In December, Meta announced its intention to implement the fact-checking program on Threads.

“At present, we align the fact-check ratings from Facebook or Instagram with Threads. However, our objective is to empower fact-checking partners to evaluate and assign ratings to misinformation on the application,” Mosseri stated in a post during that period.

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Mark Zuckerberg reports that Threads has a total of 150 million users who engage with the app on a monthly basis

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Threads, Meta’s alternative to Twitter and X, is experiencing consistent and steady growth. During the Q1 2024 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg stated that the social network currently has over 150 million monthly active members, which is an increase from 130 million in February.

Threads made significant progress in integrating with ActivityPub, the decentralized protocol that powers networks such as Mastodon, during the last quarterly earnings conference. In March, the firm granted U.S.-based users who are 18 years of age or older the ability to link their accounts to the Fediverse, enabling their posts to be seen on other servers.

By June, the business intends to make its API available to a broad range of developers, enabling them to create experiences centered on the social network. Nevertheless, it remains uncertain whether Threads will enable developers to create comprehensive third-party clients.

Meta just introduced their AI chatbot on various platforms like Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Threads was conspicuously omitted from this list, perhaps because of its lack of built-in direct messaging capabilities.

Threads introduced a new test feature on Wednesday that allows users to automatically archive their posts after a certain length of time. Additionally, users have the ability to store or remove specific postings from an archive and make them accessible to the public.

Threads is around nine months old, and Meta has consistently expanded its readership. Nevertheless, Threads cannot be considered a viable substitute for X, as Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, explicitly stated in October that Threads will not “amplify news on the platform.” However, Meta’s social network continues to grow in popularity. According to app analytics company Apptopia, Threads now has more daily active users in the U.S. than X, as Business Insider reported earlier this week.

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