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Grain Cooperative 'New Cooperative Inc' Hit with BlackMatter Ransomware Attack

Andrew Orr ·

Cyber gang BlackMatter has attacked Iowa-based grain cooperative New Cooperative Inc with ransomware, successfully shutting down its systems.

The attack occurred on or around Friday, according to Allan Liska, senior threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future Inc. The ransomware gang, which goes by the name BlackMatter, is demanding a $5.9 million ransom, Liska said.

New Cooperative confirmed that they had been attacked and said they had contacted law enforcement and were working with data security experts to investigate and remediate the situation.

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Here's How Much Your Car Knows About You

Andrew Orr ·

Jon Callas, the Electric Frontier Foundation’s director of technology projects, explained what data newer cars, especially Tesla, collect from you.

“All of these things are at least theoretically able to be logged,” cautioned Callas. “And there is a port that you can connect something to — and there’s lots of hardware and software that you can connect to your car and get all sorts of telemetry information about how the car is running — and just like there are people who hack their computers there are people who hack their cars.”

Here’s How to Force Files to Download on iOS
Cool Stuff Found

Here's How to Force Files to Download on iOS

Andrew Orr ·

Redditor u/kevingrabher wrote about a shortcut that can force files in iCloud Drive to download. This helps you keep important files handy for offline access. Here are the steps: Open the Shortcuts app and create a new shortcut. Add Action “Get Contents of Folder” (*). Press the triangle icon and enable “Recursive.”  Add Action “Get Details of Files.” Set the detail variable to “File Size” (if not set by default).   In the first action you’ll probably want to choose Ask Every Time, so you can download a different folder each time.

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Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch — Mac Geek Gab 891

John F. Braun & Dave Hamilton · · Add Comment

Today the “we” is three with the return of Pilot Pete! The content is the same, only better, as Pete ensures your two favorite geeks complete their explanations for you. Topics today include Time Machine, Watch battery drain, airplanes, and of course your favorite Quick Tips and Cool Stuff Found. Press play and enjoy learning at least five new things with John, Dave, and Pete!

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Do You Have 100 Terabytes of Free Storage? Download the Universe

Andrew Orr ·

Researchers have prepared the Uchuu simulation of the universe, the most detailed ever made so far. It contains 2.1 trillion “particles” in a space 9.6 billion light-years across.

The simulation models the evolution of the universe across more than 13 billion years. It doesn’t focus on the formation of stars and planets but instead looks at the behavior of dark matter within an expanding universe. The detail of Uchuu is high enough that the team can identify everything from galaxy clusters to the dark matter halos of individual galaxies. Since dark matter makes up most of the matter in the universe, it is the main driver of galaxy formation and clustering.

“Fortunately, if you don’t have that much spare change, you can access the data online. The Uchuu team has their raw data on skiesanduniverses.org, so you can explore their virtual universe all you want.”

Photo by Guillermo Ferla on Unsplash

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FTC Reveals its Study on Acquisitions From Big Tech

Andrew Orr ·

The Federal Trade Commission will change the way it scrutinizes acquisitions from Big Tech. On Friday it released the findings of its decade-long study on deals that weren’t reported.

The FTC reviewed 616 transactions valued at $1 million or more between 2010 and 2019 that were not reported to antitrust authorities by Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. 94 of the transactions actually exceeded the dollar size threshold that would require companies to report a deal. The deals may have qualified for other regulatory exemptions. 79% of transactions used deferred or contingent compensation to founders and key employees, and nearly 77% involved non-compete clauses. 36% of the transactions involved assuming some amount of debt or liabilities.