Tag Archive for: hack

Scathing federal report rips Microsoft for shoddy security, insincerity in response to Chinese hack, ET Telecom

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Boston: In a scathing indictment of Microsoft corporate security and transparency, a Biden administration-appointed review board issued a report Tuesday saying “a cascade of errors” by the tech giant let state-backed Chinese cyber operators break into email accounts of senior US officials including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The Cyber Safety Review Board, created in 2021 by executive order, describes shoddy cybersecurity practices, a lax corporate culture and a lack of sincerity about the company’s knowledge of the targeted breach, which affected multiple US agencies that deal with China. It concluded that “Microsoft’s security culture was inadequate and requires an overhaul” given the company’s ubiquity and critical role in the global technology ecosystem. Microsoft products “underpin essential services that support national security, the foundations of our economy, and public health and safety.”

The panel said the intrusion, discovered in June by the State Department and dating to May “was preventable and should never have occurred,” blaming its success on “a cascade of avoidable errors.” What’s more, the board said, Microsoft still doesn’t know how the hackers got in.

The panel made sweeping recommendations, including urging Microsoft to put on hold adding features to its cloud computing environment until “substantial security improvements have been made.”

It said Microsoft’s CEO and board should institute “rapid cultural change” including publicly sharing “a plan with specific timelines to make fundamental, security-focused reforms across the company and its full suite of products.”

In a statement, Microsoft said it appreciated the board’s investigation and would “continue to harden all our systems against attack and implement even more robust sensors and logs to help us detect and repel the cyber-armies of our adversaries.”

In all, the state-backed Chinese hackers broke into the Microsoft Exchange Online email of 22 organisations and more than 500 individuals around the world including the US ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns – accessing some cloud-based email boxes for at least six weeks and downloading some…

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United Hack Exposes The Problem With Health Care Monopolies

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In a bid to win reelection, the Biden administration keeps trying to sell the country on all the supposed benefits of Obamacare. Before continuing their sales campaign, they might want to check in with the doctors’ offices struggling to make payroll.

For over a month, the multitrillion-dollar health care sector has had to respond to a hack on a payment processor owned by UnitedHealthGroup, the nation’s largest insurer. Axios reported that hospitals, doctors, medical equipment suppliers, and pharmacies are collectively losing as much as $1 billion a day. The chaos is not only caused in no small part by the industry consolidation sparked by Obamacare, but it may make the problem even worse.

Too Big to Fail Redux?

Ignore for a moment the fact that Change Health Care, the UnitedHealth affiliate whose payment processing operations were attacked, reportedly paid $22 million to the ransomware group behind the hack — which will of course only encourage future efforts to target health care entities in cyberspace. The real issue comes via the size and breadth of the network being hacked.

Consider that Change processes 15 billion medical claims per year — the most by any organization in the country. In raw terms, that amounts to more than 41 million medical claims per day. When a company is processing what amounts to a medical claim for more than 1 in 10 Americans each and every day, that is bound to extend its reach far and wide in the health care system.

And so it has proved. Doctors and hospitals are struggling to manage cash flow without regular payments from insurers, as the system for processing payments remains clogged. Patients and pharmacists alike are struggling; pharmacists cannot process a patient’s insurance to determine the proper co-payment or co-insurance, and some patients are having to pay large sums out of pocket (that is, if they can afford to do so) and hope their insurance reimburses them eventually.

Encouraging More Consolidation

How did we get to this point? Why was the nation’s largest health insurer able to buy such a critically important payment processor? Good question.

For years, Obamacare has encouraged hospitals,…

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TikTok Shock As Viral Video Hack Freezes Screens—2 Ways To Fix It

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TikTok users are discovering a new and unwanted type of viral video craze over the Easter weekend: a hack that prevents them from scrolling backward or forwards, effectively freezing the app. Here’s what’s happening and how to fix it.

TikTok In The News, Again

TikTok has been in the news recently thanks to the proposed ban using the app for U.S. users unless owners ByteDance divest the U.S. operation. The highest earning app in the world, TikTok’s February revenue was $189 million. With an estimated 1.7 billion users in 2023, it is also one of the most popular largely thanks to the viral videos and crazes it has seen posted over the years.

But there is one viral trend on TikTok that certainly is not very popular among its users. The videos that are part of this craze appear to freeze the ability to scroll the screen in any direction, leaving users with no other option than to restart the app. However, it’s important to note that appearances can be deceiving, and not everything is as it seems at first glance.

MORE FROM FORBESThis Popular Google App Will Stop Working In 3 Days-How To Migrate Your DataBy Davey Winder

The TikTok Screen Freeze Hack

Users have been taking to the internet in droves (1, 2, 3) to complain that posts are appearing that lock their TikTok app down, preventing them from scrolling to the previous or next video. Many seem to think that the videos and images in question somehow freeze the app entirely, in effect bricking it for that session, or are even somehow breaking their phones. The truth, as always, is a lot less exciting albeit nonetheless annoying.

The videos, or rather images that look like videos, all contain some glib comment along the lines of “Sorry, I have to stop you from scrolling,” and, at first and second glance, this does appear to be the case.

If you try to swipe up or down, nothing happens; you’ll likely just get your attention drawn to the “I’ve stopped you scrolling” nonsense instead. What appears to be happening is that people have worked out that if you post an image and tag it with an unfeasibly large number of people,…

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The Most Ingenious Hack I’ve Ever Seen for Eliminating Coffee Table Clutter

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It doesn’t matter if you live in a sprawling Craftsman-style home or a smaller space (think: a 200-square-foot apartment!): People are always on the hunt for a way to hide clutter, especially when it comes to living room coffee tables, which can sometimes become a stowaway place for life’s miscellaneous items.

Sure, you could purchase a coffee table with storage space, but some homes don’t have room for a normal coffee table — let alone a transformable one. So it was a pleasant surprise to stumble upon product and interior designer Shiva Farrokhi’s tip for hiding clutter in her mid-century modern apartment (that doubles as a solution for what to do with the awkward gap behind sofas!).

Perhaps it’s because the Brooklyn apartment is only 825 square feet, or because their entire space is meticulously organized (look at the book storage above their office area!) — still, Farrokhi found a way to eliminate clutter in their breezy living room.

Decorative pillow in living room.Decorative pillow in living room.

Why You Should Add a Shelf Behind Your Sofa

“Add a shelf behind your couch to fit the controller, plants, books, etc. This simple shelf moves your couch a little bit forward but creates so much space for everything that can make your coffee table look cluttered,” she shared at the time of the home tour. “It also opens up the space behind the couch for things you use rarely and want to have out of sight like extra rugs, floor mattress or air mattress, yoga mat, and etc.”

White sectional in sunny living room.White sectional in sunny living room.

This tip is a great idea if you need to get rid of the coffee table in your living room, too. If you don’t have space for a coffee table, this hidden shelf will free up some valuable space and keep clutter at bay. Or, if you want to decorate it, it’s the perfect perch for sentimental items like photos.

If this organizing tip intrigues you, you’ll want to check out how Farrokhi designed the rest of their gorgeous home. Visit the full home tour to see more.

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