Monday, May 02, 2022
SUPERSONIC ONIKS MISSILES
Depot with Western arms destroyed – Moscow
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that it struck a supply of foreign weapons at a military airfield near the Black Sea port of Odessa in Ukraine.
Supersonic Oniks missiles destroyed a hangar with “weapons and ammunition received from the US and European states,” Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov told a daily press briefing. He added that a runway was destroyed as well.
The ministry also released a video of what it said was the missile launch. It wasn’t immediately clear when exactly it took place, but the Odessa region's governor, Maxim Marchenko, claimed on Saturday that a Russian “Bastion missile, launched from Crimea,” destroyed the runway at a newly constructed Odessa airport.
Konashenkov also told the briefing that seven Ukrainian military targets were hit by airstrikes, including two S-300 air defense missile batteries near the cities of Zaporozhye and Artemovsk.
Russia claimed last week that it destroyed a logistics hub in Odessa where a batch of foreign weapons was being stored. Ukraine, however, insisted that several Russian missiles struck residential buildings, killing civilians.
Both Russia and Ukraine have denied striking civilian targets and accused each other of war crimes.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force."
MONEY IS A MASS DELUSION...but the US government still levies taxes in dollars, which it spends on a very real-world military.
REvil ransomware returns: New malware sample confirms gang is back
The notorious REvil ransomware operation has returned amidst rising tensions between Russia and the USA, with new infrastructure and a modified encryptor allowing for more targeted attacks.
- May 01, 2022
- 02:06 PM
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Open source 'Package Analysis' tool finds malicious npm, PyPI packages
The Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), a Linux Foundation-backed initiative has released its first prototype version of the 'Package Analysis' tool that aims to catch and counter malicious attacks on open source registries. the open source tool released on GitHub was able to identify over 200 malicious npm and PyPI packages.
- May 01, 2022
- 11:42 AM
- 0
Russian hackers compromise embassy emails to target governments
Security analysts have uncovered a recent phishing campaign from Russian hackers known as APT29 (Cozy Bear or Nobelium) targeting diplomats and government entities.
- May 01, 2022
- 11:06 AM
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A YouTuber is promoting DDoS attacks on Russia — how legal is this?
A YouTube influencer with hundreds of thousands of subscribers is encouraging everyone to conduct cyber warfare against Russia. How risky is it and can you get in trouble?
- May 01, 2022
- 10:11 AM
- 5
Google fights doxxing with updated personal info removal policy
Google has expanded its policies to allow doxxing victims to remove more of their personally identifiable information (PII) from search engine results starting earlier this week.
- May 01, 2022
- 10:00 AM
- 2
Cyberspies breach networks via IP cameras to steal Exchange emails
A newly discovered and uncommonly stealthy Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) group is breaching corporate networks to steal Exchange (on-premise and online) emails from employees involved in corporate transactions such as mergers and acquisitions.
- May 02, 2022
- 01:28 PM
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Car rental giant Sixt facing disruptions due to a cyberattack
Car rental giant Sixt was hit by a weekend cyberattack causing business disruptions at customer care centers and select branch
- May 02, 2022
- 11:44 AM
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Tech Cryptocurrency NFTs
HEADLINE STORIES FROM The Verge
Crypto is winning, and Bitcoin diehards are furious about it
As cryptocurrency thrives, Bitcoiners seethe
"In last day of the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami Beach, comedian Donnell Rawlings starts his routine by noting there are a lot of white people in the audience and then asks if we were involved in storming the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. He’s just warming up. “I’m at a Bitcoin convention, and I don’t even know what the fuck a Bitcoin is,” Rawlings says. “I don’t know nothing about crypto, but I know some of the bangingest parties I’ve been to is some crypto parties.”
He goes on: “I know I’m fucked because they paid me in crypto, and I don’t even know how to cash out.” Crypto has to be popular because he can count the number of people sitting in his set, and he knows “I should not be getting the amount of money I am getting paid tonight.”
Rawlings has said “crypto” a lot, and it’s making the crowd restless. After a few more repetitions of the word “crypto,” several people in the crowd begin yelling “Bitcoin.” Crypto, after all, is the blanket term for all digital, blockchain-based assets. That includes everything from Ethereum, the popular blockchain used for decentralized apps and NFTs, to shitcoins, parlance for all non-Bitcoin tokens.
“Listen, we don’t want no crypto-Bitcoin beef up in here, all right?” Rawlings says. The crowd laughs. But I keep thinking about this after the conference is over. To mainstream Bitcoin, the libertarian and anti-state politics associated with it may get shaved off — much as Eternal September changed the culture of the web itself.
Welcome to Bitcoin 2022. Cryptocurrency is the most mainstream it’s ever been, but somehow at this conference, the tone is primarily aggrieved. . .
Bored Ape Yacht Club creator’s metaverse mint rocks the Ethereum blockchain
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Millions were spent in gas fees
"Yuga Labs, the web3 company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, disrupted the entire Ethereum blockchain as a flood of users rushed to purchase NFTs representing virtual plots of land in its upcoming metaverse project, Otherside. A total of 55,000 Otherdeeds sold at a flat price of 305 ApeCoin, or around $5,800 at the time of purchase (via CoinTelegraph), raising about $320 million in what was considered the “largest NFT mint in history.”
Otherdeeds are minted in BAYC’s native ApeCoin, but still require Ethereum for gas fees. A gas fee is the cost associated with a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain. Fees typically increase as the network gets more congested because it becomes more work to process a transaction.
Such a large volume of transactions during the Otherdeed mint caused gas fees to soar. As noted by CoinTelegraph, Reddit user u/johnfintech pointed out that some buyers shelled out anywhere from 2.6 ETH ($6,500) to 5 ETH ($14,000) in gas fees alone — more than the cost of an Otherdeed NFT (and in some cases, more than twice the cost). By the time the virtual land deeds sold out, buyers paid a total of about $123 million just to execute their transactions on the Ethereum blockchain (via Bloomberg).
Yuga Labs issued an apology on Twitter shortly after the mint ended. “We’re sorry for turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while,” Yuga Labs said. “It seems abundantly clear that ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain in order to properly scale. We’d like to encourage the DAO [decentralized autonomous organization] to start thinking in this direction.” The ApeCoin DAO, the entity responsible for making decisions within the ApeCoin community, exists separately from Yuga Labs. The DAO’s decisions are carried out by the Ape Foundation’s Board, consisting of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Animoca co-founder Yat Siu, and others. . .
The disruption slowed transactions on Ethereum-linked services, like Uniswap, and caused the Ethereum transaction tracker, Etherscan, to crash. A number of users also reported losing thousands of dollars to gas fees in failed transactions. Yuga Labs promised to reimburse users for the gas fees associated with failed transactions, but it’s unclear what the refund process will look like. The Verge reached out to Yuga Labs with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
As outlined in a post days before the mint, Yuga Lab’s original goal was to avoid an “apocalyptic” gas war, or a sudden spike in gas fees due to high demand. It said it would ditch the popular Dutch auction style of minting, in which an NFT goes up for sale at a certain ceiling price and is then incrementally lowered over time. It employed an alternate method instead, selling NFTs at a flat price and opting to gradually allow more mints to occur over time:
[ ] The mess of a mint prompted some users to propose ways to improve the process in the future. Will Papper, the co-founder of Syndicate DAO, a platform that lets users create web3 investment clubs, suggested that Yuga Labs optimize its contracts to lower gas fees and adjust its mint mechanism.
In March, Yuga Labs raised $450 million in funding to build the Otherside, a decentralized metaverse with elements of gamification. While it’s supposed to encompass Yuga Lab’s NFT brands, such as the newly-acquired CryptoPunks and Meebits, the company has goals to extend support to NFTs from other entities. A lot is still unknown about the prospective Otherside, but that clearly hasn’t stopped its enthusiastic community from investing in the project."
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS AND HEALTH DANGERS RAISE ALARMS IN QUEEN CREEK: Dirty Pay-Dirt Deal
Intro: OOOOOOpss!! This bombshell got public fast --
Hours before the council meeting, the Arizona Commerce Authority issued a release that said construction of North America’s first ever cylindrical-type battery facility will start this summer with production commencing in 2024.
FIRST ALL THE HYPE AND USUAL HAPPY TALK: It all sounds so familiar“Global technology leaders like LG are choosing Arizona because of our world-class business environment, advanced workforce, unbeatable quality of life, and culture of innovation – one that’s delivering unparalleled opportunity for current and future generations,” Gov. Doug Ducey said.
In welcoming LG to Queen Creek, Mayor Gail Barney in the release said, “The announcement of LG Energy Solution is the culmination of years of strategic planning. It will bring thousands of local jobs to our highly skilled workforce – enhancing the quality of life our residents experience, additional infrastructure and major capital investment.
This isn’t just a win for Queen Creek, it will positively impact our region. Advanced manufacturing is a targeted sector and will be located adjacent to State Route 24. The area is planned for mixed use and will further the employment opportunities for Queen Creek, Pinal County, the greater East Valley and the state.”
Chris Camacho, president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, said the plant “solidifies the market’s position as a hub for battery technology and energy storage and is significant for Greater Phoenix as it continues to attract global leaders in emerging industries.”
(LG Energy Solution did not respond to the Tribune’s request for comment.)
Officials hail, residents condemn QC land deal
(The barren 650.5 are site at Ironwood and Germann roads sold last week at a state Land Department auction for $84.4 million to a South Korean energy company that cast the sole bid for the property. (Arizona Land Department)
“Put this back on the agenda,” said San Tan Valley resident Lisa Horne. “The plant will reek of chemicals.”
> Queen Creek resident Ellen Gross said some council members have disappointed her by not living up to the vision of the town to provide a high quality of life to residents.
> Another Queen Creek resident, Linda Manning, said she did not read anything about the plant “prior to this. How did this plant get here?”
> Linda Doty of Queen Creek said, “Nobody here has seen the environmental impact statement...This is a dire situation...Where was all the input from the citizens?”
The environmental site assessment provided to the state Land Department states that Ninyo & Moore was retained to perform an environmental site assessment of the parcel.
“Based on the information compiled during the preparation of this report, this assessment has revealed no evidence of RECs, historical RECs (HRECs) or controlled RECs (CRECs) in connection with the site,” the report states.
REC is an acronym for “recognized environmental concern.”
MESA PD VIOLENT CRIME PROJECT DENSITY MAP 01Jan 2021 - 14 March 2022
On the other hand, the desire to obtain any data available without a warrant is resulting in some very twisted uses of third-party records. . .
>Maria Polletta posted this article in the Arizona Republic on October 21, 2016 - two months after the Mesa City Council approved contracts, addressing lingering issues that few people are aware of . . . Over the next three years, Mesa will spend nearly $200,000 to implement PredPol crime-predicting software with councilmembers little informed about it.
In August, a Mesa staff report asserted PredPol's hot-spot-generation tool would "support the city’s efforts to suppress, deter and reduce crime."
The department still is working to determine when it will begin using the software; how many officers it will train to use it; and what, if any, any tools or strategies it will use to measure PredPol's effectiveness, police spokesman Nik Rasheta said.
...Mesa Vice Mayor Dennis Kavanaugh, a longtime advocate of innovation and experimentation in public safety, called predictive policing "one of the best practices recommended for departments to consider," despite its potential limitations. . .
PredPol software will provide easy to use predictions for where and when property crime, drug crime, gun violence, gang activity and traffic incidents are most likely to occur based on historical data, current crimes and mathematical modeling.
The Police Department and Purchasing recommend awarding the contract to the sole source vendor, PredPol; year 1 at $60,400; and years 2 and 3 at $54,900 annually, based on estimated requirements.
The one-time setup fee of $5,500 and an annual subscription fee of $54,900 (for the first three years) are funded by the Asset Forfeiture (RICO) Funds.
Hot-spot strategy is cooling violence, police say
"Mesa Police Department officials told Mesa City Council’s public safety committee that an initiative to attack crime hot spots with a surge of officers for a limited period of time has helped the department lower violent crime in Mesa amid a national rise.
While overall crime in Mesa, including property crimes, is slightly up from last year, police said the city saw a 14% drop in violent incidents in the first quarter of 2022 compared with the same period in 2021.
They attributed the progress to a recently launched program that will target violent crime by drawing personnel from every division of the force together in a specific location every night for two weeks, once per quarter. . ."
Sometimes we can get compartmentalized, right, I’m doing my thing and Gang (Unit) does their thing.” Landato said. “It’s a good thing when you can kind of bring everybody out to play together, if you will. For me, that’s what I like to see.”
Patrol officers, gang and narcotics specialists, and “shirt and tie” detectives will work side-by-side to make seizures and arrests seen as most likely to prevent violent crime, such as drug dealing, illegal gun possession and outstanding warrants.
Chief Ken Cost told council in April that Mesa is one of the safest large cities in the U.S., but it still has its share of violent crime.
“People get in arguments and the guns come out, and gun play is a huge deal right now,” Cost said in April. At a community forum last year, Cost said, “we know that it’s the street level drug dealing that is turning into violent crimes.”
To try to head off a rise in violent crime last summer, Mesa PD rolled out a 15-week summer program. After analyzing violent crime between May and December of 2021 and seeing a decrease in violence, Mesa PD leadership asked district lieutenants to reinstitute a new version of the program in 2022, called the Violent Crime Program.
The first operation occurred earlier this year. . .
[ ] One example he gave was an arrest for drug possession by a patrol officer that eventually developed into a massive drug bust within two days. The patrol officer worked with detectives and narcotics agents to move up the food chain.
“One night you arrest somebody because they got drugs on them,” Landato said of focused violent crime operations, “and you get some information that leads you to over here. Next thing you know you’re doing a search warrant here and there’s drugs and, oh my gosh, this has led to information about over here.”
“Then the next thing you know you’re looking at something like this,” Landato said, showing off a picture of tables laden with 14 guns, almost 3,000 grams of fentanyl pills, 43 grams of heroin, 37 grams of meth, $10,000 in cash.
Sometimes we can get compartmentalized, right, I’m doing my thing and Gang (Unit) does their thing.” Landato said. “It’s a good thing when you can kind of bring everybody out to play together, if you will. For me, that’s what I like to see.”
Zelensky Calls for a European Army as He Slams EU Leaders’ Response
Jan 23, 2026 During the EU Summit yesterday, the EU leaders ...
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Flash News: Ukraine Intercepts Russian Kh-59 Cruise Missile Using US VAMPIRE Air Defense System Mounted on Boat. Ukrainian forces have made ...
