A computer virus that exploits the same vulnerability as the global “ransomware” attack has latched on to more than 200,000 computers and begun manufacturing digital currency, experts said Tuesday.

The development adds to the dangers exposed by the WannaCry ransomware and provides another piece of evidence that a North Korea-linked hacking group may be behind the attacks.

WannaCry, developed in part with hacking techniques that were either stolen or leaked from the U.S. National Security Agency, has infected more than 300,000 computers since Friday, locking up their data and demanding a ransom payment to release it.

Researchers at security firm Proofpoint said the related attack, which installs a currency “miner” that generates digital cash, began infecting machines in late April or early May but had not been previously discovered because it allows computers to operate while creating the digital cash in the background.

Proofpoint executive Ryan Kalember said the authors may have earned more than $1 million, far more than has been generated by the WannaCry attack.

Like WannaCry, the program attacks via a flaw in Microsoft Corp’s Windows software. That hole has been patched in newer versions of Windows, though not all companies and individuals have installed the patches.

Suspected links to North Korea

Digital currencies based on a technology known as blockchain operate by enabling the creation of new currency in exchange for solving complex math problems. Digital “miners” run specially configured computers to solve the problems and generate currency, whose value fluctuates according to market demand.

Bitcoin is by far the largest such currency, but the new mining program is not aimed at Bitcoin. Rather it targeted a newer digital currency, called Monero, that experts say has been pursued recently by North Korean-linked hackers.

North Korea has attracted attention in the WannaCry case for a number of reasons, including the fact that early versions of the WannaCry code used some programming lines that had previously been spotted in attacks by Lazarus Group, a hacking group associated with North Korea.

Security researchers and U.S. intelligence officials have cautioned that such evidence is not conclusive, and the investigation is in its early stages.

In early April, security firm Kaspersky Lab said that a wing of Lazarus devoted to financial gain had installed software to mine Moreno on a server in Europe.

A new campaign to mine the same currency, using the same Windows weakness as WannaCry, could be coincidence, or it could suggest that North Korea was responsible for both the ransomware and the currency mining.

Kalember said he believes the similarities in the European case, WannaCry and the miner were “more than coincidence.”

“It’s a really strong overlap,” he said. “It’s not like you see Moreno miners all over the world.”

The North Korean mission to the United Nations could not be reached for comment, while the FBI declined to comment.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Pregnant women who come down with the flu are at greater risk of illness requiring hospitalization. A new study found that in resource-poor countries, flu vaccination reduced the risk of illness to mother and baby.  

An estimated 40 percent of the world’s population lives in subtropical and tropical zones, where influenza sometimes circulates year-round. Yet influenza vaccine is rarely used.

Mark Steinhoff is director of the Global Health Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio. He said the influenza virus, which is often mild in healthy people, can result in hospitalization of pregnant women.  

With a growing fetus pressed up against their lungs, Steinhoff says, women with the flu can have trouble breathing.  He also said a pregnant woman is  more susceptible to illness as the growing baby siphons off her natural defenses.

But in a first-of-its-kind study, Steinhoff and colleagues found vaccinating women year-round in a developing country, Nepal near the Indian border, dramatically reduced the incidence of influenza in mothers and benefited their babies.

The study was published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

“It reduced disease in the mothers and in the infants by about 60 percent reduction in the second year. It’s really quite remarkable. But it also reduced the rate of low birth weight — that is, kids born less than 2.5 kilos. It reduced that by 16 percent,” said Steinhoff.

Babies benefited from the shots because they received antibodies against the illness from their mothers while in the womb.

The study

The study ran between April 2011 and September 2013 and involved a total of 3,693 mothers between the ages of 15 and 40.   

There were two phases of the trial, with one group of women being vaccinated in the first year and a different group of pregnant women the following year.  Half of the women received a placebo.

Because influenza in some countries can circulate year-round, there’s no particular flu season as in more temperate climates. The women were therefore vaccinated at various times with a shot that contained three inactivated flu strains. Each group was followed for up to 180 days to see whether they developed fevers and body aches.

Steinhoff said the benefits of influenza vaccination have long been known in the United States and other Western countries.

“The vaccine you know was developed many years ago. It was known to be safe. There were no bad reactions to it,” Steinhoff said.

He said it’s up to individual countries to decide whether they want to launch influenza vaccination campaigns for pregnant women. In the meantime, he said, researchers will be obtaining additional data on year-round immunization programs in developing countries.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Longtime late-night host David Letterman has been honored with the nation’s top prize for comedy.

The Kennedy Center announced Tuesday that the 70-year-old Letterman is this year’s recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He is the 20th humorist to receive the annual prize, which began in 1998. Last fall, he delivered a warm tribute on stage at the Kennedy Center as his frequent guest, Bill Murray, accepted the award.

Letterman hosted more than 6,000 episodes of late-night television, starting in 1982 with NBC’s “Late Night with David Letterman.” He moved to CBS in 1993 and hosted “The Late Show” until his retirement two years ago.

Letterman’s irascible, independent streak inspired fierce loyalty from fans and critics.
…

From: MeNeedIt

It looks like the time has finally come for residents across Africa to start using their most abundant natural power source. While building power plants and transmission lines takes years and costs much more, installing solar panels is quicker and more affordable for individual home owners, businesses and farmers. VOA’s George Putic reports.
…

From: MeNeedIt

One of the effects of progressive muscle diseases like cerebral palsy is muscle stiffness. There are drugs and therapies that are supposed to help but gauging their effectiveness is challenging. Now there’s a high-tech way that may help provide relief for patients. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Cybersecurity experts warn that hundreds of thousands of computer users across the globe remain vulnerable following a large-scale virus attack in recent days. The so-called ‘ransomware’ virus struck governments and companies around the world, as Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
…

From: MeNeedIt

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.

 
…

From: MeNeedIt

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 the two countries get along with a visit to China in January.

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.”
…

From: MeNeedIt

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.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Veteran Irish rock band U2 is the top-selling live music act in the United States for summer 2017, ticket seller StubHub said on Sunday, outpacing pop acts such as Ed Sheeran and Lady Gaga with a concert tour celebrating its seminal “Joshua Tree” album.

U2’s 13-stop “The Joshua Tree Tour 2017” topped the list of most popular live music acts in the United States between Memorial Day (May 29) and Labor Day (September 4). British singer Sheeran’s U.S. leg of his “divide” tour came in at No. 2 with 32 shows over the summer.

Unlike most artists who tour in support of new albums, U2’s concert celebrates the 30th anniversary of its 1987 “The Joshua Tree” album, with lyrics that drew from the band’s travels across America and social commentary.

U2 will kick off its U.S. Joshua Tree tour on Sunday at Seattle’s 68,000-capacity CenturyLink Field, and will play shows across the country including California, Texas and Florida before heading to Europe.

Sheeran’s tour will be at venues averaging a capacity of 20,000 while U2’s venues are upwards of 65,000 seats.

StubHub’s top-10 list did not include tickets sold for shows in Canada.

StubHub, which did not release the number of tickets sold, said U2 had outsold Sheeran by 65 percent and outsold last year’s top summer act, British singer Adele, by 15 percent.

Tickets for U2 have averaged around $246, while average ticket prices for Sheeran have been about $231, the ticket seller said, adding that U2’s June 3 Chicago date was the most in-demand concert of the summer.

StubHub’s top-10 acts of the summer saw an equal division of veteran artists and current pop and hip-hop acts, with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Metallica, Tool and Roger Waters facing off Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar and Justin Bieber.

 
…

From: MeNeedIt

Europe’s police agency Europol says a global cyberattack has affected at least 100,000 organizations in 150 countries, with data networks infected by malware that locks computer files unless a ransom is paid.

“I’m worried about how the numbers will continue to grow when people go to work and turn on their machines on Monday,” Europol director Rob Wainwright told Britain’s ITV television.

So far there has been no progress reported in efforts to determine who launched the plot.

Computer security experts have assured individual computer users who have kept their PC operating systems updated that they are relatively safe.

They advised those whose networks have been effectively shut down by the ransomware attack not to make the payment demanded — the equivalent of $300, paid in the digital currency bitcoin, delivered to a likely untraceable destination that consists merely of a lengthy string of letters and numbers.  

However, the authors of the “WannaCry” ransomware attack told their victims the amount they must pay would double if they did not comply within three days of the original infection — by Monday, in most cases. And the hackers warned that they would delete all files on infected systems if no payment was received within seven days.

Avast, an international security software firm that claims it has 400 million users worldwide, said the ransomware attacks rose rapidly Saturday to a peak of 57,000 detected intrusions. Avast, which was founded in 1988 by two Czech researchers, said the largest number of attacks appeared to be aimed at Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan, but that major institutions in many other countries were affected.

‘Kill switch’ found

Computer security experts said the current attack could have been much worse but for the quick action of a young researcher in Britain who discovered a vulnerability in the ransomware itself, known as WanaCryptor 2.0.

The researcher, identified only as “MalwareTech,” found a “kill switch” within the ransomware as he studied its structure.

The “kill” function halted WanaCryptor’s ability to copy itself rapidly to all terminals in an infected system — hastening its crippling effect on a large network — once it was in contact with a secret internet address, or URL, consisting of a lengthy alphanumeric string.

The “kill” function had not been activated by whoever unleashed the ransomware, and the researcher found that the secret URL had not been registered to anyone by international internet administrators. He immediately claimed the URL for himself, spending about $11 to secure his access, and that greatly slowed the pace of infections in Britain.

Experts cautioned, however, that the criminals who pushed the ransomware to the world might be able to disable the “kill” switch in future versions of their malware.

Hackers’ key tool

WanaCryptor 2.0 is only part of the problem. It spread to so many computers so rapidly by using an exploit — software capable of burrowing unseen into Windows computer operating systems.

The exploit, known as “EternalBlue” or “MS17-010,” took advantage of a vulnerability in the Microsoft software that reportedly had been discovered and developed by the U.S. National Security Agency, which used it for surveillance activities.

NSA does not discuss its capabilities, and some computer experts say the MS17-010 exploit was developed by unknown parties using the name Equation Group (which may also be linked to NSA). Whatever its source, it was published on the internet last month by a hacker group called ShadowBrokers.

Microsoft distributed a “fix” for the software vulnerability two months ago, but not all computer users and networks worldwide had yet made that update and thus were highly vulnerable. And many computer networks, particularly those in less developed parts of the world, still use an older version of Microsoft software, Windows XP, that the company no longer updates.

The Finnish computer security firm F-Secure called the problem spreading around the world “the biggest ransomware outbreak in history.” The firm said it had warned about the exponential growth of ransomware, or crimeware, as well as the dangers of sophisticated surveillance tools used by governments.

Lesson: Update programs

With WanaCryptor and MS17-010 both “unleashed into the wild,” F-Secure said the current problem seems to have combined and magnified the worst of the dangers those programs represent.

The security firm Kaspersky Lab, based in Russia, noted that Microsoft had repaired the software problem that allows backdoor entry into its operating systems weeks before hackers published the exploit linked to the NSA, but also said: “Unfortunately it appears that many users have not yet installed the patch.”

Britain’s National Health Services first sounded the ransomware alarm Friday.

The government held an emergency meeting Saturday of its crisis response committee, known as COBRA, to assess the damage. Late in the day, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the NHS was again “working as normal,” with 97 percent of the system’s components now fully restored.

Spanish firm Telefonica, French automaker Renault, the U.S.-based delivery service FedEx and the German railway Deutsche Bahn were among those affected.

None of the firms targeted indicated whether they had paid or would pay the hackers ransom.

 
…

From: MeNeedIt

Dr. David Nabarro says he wants to rid the world of two diseases that are close to being eradicated: polio and guinea worm. Polio exists mainly on the Pakistani-Afghan border and in northern Nigeria. Both are conflict zones, where vaccine workers risk their lives to immunize children.

“The last part of eradicating any disease is always the hardest part,” Nabarro said during a visit to VOA. “If you don’t do it, you lose everything. To do it, you’ve got to really bring all the energy and commitment you can to bear.”

The World Health Organization has worked to eliminate polio for more than 30 years. Nigeria was to be declared polio-free this year, meaning the country had no cases for three continuous years, but then the disease returned.

“We must remain vigilant and focused until we are certain that the last case has been found and that we have got everybody protected,” Nabarro said.

Watch: WHO to Vote on New Director-General; David Nabarro Wants the Job

Guinea worm

Nabarro also wants to rid the world of Guinea worm, a disease that starts when people drink water containing fleas infected with guinea worm larvae. The larvae grow in human intestines. And while it is not life-threatening, it is painful when the worm emerges.

In 1986, about 3.5 million people had Guinea worm disease. Last year, 25 people had it. This was the result of efforts by United Nations agencies, the Carter Center, which was founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nabarro wants to make more inroads in ending malaria, a disease that threatens nearly half the world’s population. Even through malaria can be prevented and cured, the WHO says it caused nearly half a million deaths in 2015.

Ebola epidemic

During the Ebola epidemic, Nabarro visited the West African countries ravaged by the disease as the U.N. special envoy on Ebola. It took the world a long time to put together an effective response to the epidemic, and before it was over more than 11,000 people died.

The WHO was heavily criticized for the way it handled the pandemic. Nabarro wants to make sure a tragedy of this magnitude does not happen again because of a lack of preparedness.

“I want to be sure the world as a whole helps nations to respond quickly when there’s a threat of infection. Usually, that means that the problem doesn’t get out of control,” he told VOA.

Life of public health service

Nabarro has spent his life working in public health. He worked in Iraq with Save the Children in 1974. He continued to work in public health positions until he joined the World Health Organization in 1999 and has worked at the WHO and for the U.N. since then. Nabarro has worked on malaria programs.

Now, he hopes to be elected director-general of the World Health Organization when the World Health Assembly meets in Geneva May 23.

This is the first time candidates will be elected to become director-general of WHO by member nations.
…

From: MeNeedIt