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The largest beef supplier in the U.S. was hit by a ransomware attack over the weekend that disrupted operations in North America and Australia, with the White House announcing Tuesday that the company believes Russian-based hackers to be responsible. Meanwhile, a new report concluded that injury rates at Amazon were nearly double those at other warehouses over the past few years, and a Defense Department report concluded that drones made by a Chinese group were not as much of a threat as some officials have feared.
BRIEF REPRIEVE FOR THE COWS: One of the largest meat suppliers in the country was hit on Sunday by a cyberattack that impacted operations, with the attack coming just weeks after Colonial Pipeline was forced to temporarily shut down operations due to a similar attack.
Meat producing group JBS USA said in a statement released Sunday that it had been the “target of an organized cybersecurity attack” that had affected servers in North America and Australia.
JBS USA said it notified authorities of the attack, suspended all impacted systems and was working with an “Incident Response firm” to respond, stressing that its backup servers were not affected.
Read more about the attack here.
IT’S RUSSIA, AGAIN: The White House said Tuesday that a cyberattack on major meat producer JBS USA this week likely originated from Russia, saying it is engaging with Moscow to hold accountable the hackers believed to be responsible for the attack.
“JBS notified the administration that the ransom demand came from a criminal organization, likely based in Russia,” White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday aboard Air Force One.
“The White House is engaging directly with the Russian government on this matter, and delivering the message that responsible states do not harbor ransomware criminals,” she added.
Read more about the Biden administration response here.
INJURED AT AMAZON: Amazon reported serious injuries at nearly double the rate of other warehouses between 2017 and 2020, according to a report released Tuesday.
The Strategic Organizing Center (SOC), a coalition of labor unions, analyzed data released by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and found that there were 5.9 serious injuries per 100 Amazon workers over the course of 2020, compared to 3.3 serious injuries per 100 workers at other warehouses.
Serious injuries are those that require workers either taking time off or being moved onto lighter tasks.
“Amazon’s abysmal health and safety record is not an accident,” the report argues. “Rather, it is the predictable outcome of a company that prioritizes growth and profits over the health and safety of its employees.”
The company has been on a hiring spree in recent years and is now the second-largest private employer in the U.S., with nearly 1.3 million workers worldwide. In 2020, Amazon reported 24,505 serious injuries among its average annual workforce of 581,624.
The injuries at Amazon warehouses forced employees off work for an average of 46.3 days in 2020, longer than the industry standard.
The serious injuries per 100 workers ratio at Amazon warehouses grew from 6.5 in 2017 to 6.9 in 2018 and 7.8 in 2019, the peak year. By comparison, those ratios were 2.9, 3.1 and 3.1 per 100 workers the same years at non-Amazon warehouses, according to data shared with The Hill.
Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel told The Hill that the company has made investments into health and safety teams, but she did not dispute the veracity of the injury data shared by the SOC.
OPEN SEASON: Two drone models made by China’s largest manufacturer have been cleared for use by a Pentagon audit, according to a report summary obtained by The Hill.
An analysis of the two Da Jiang Innovations (DJI) drones built for government use found “no malicious code or intent” and are “recommended for use by government entities and forces working with US services,” the summary said.
The remainder of the report, dated May 6, remains classified. The report’s author, second chief warrant officer with the U.S. Army Special Operations Command Adam Prater, declined to publicly comment on the summary.
The Defense Department did not immediately respond to an inquiry from The Hill.
The report appears to analyze changes made to two drones used by the Interior Department.
The agency temporarily grounded its fleet of more than 500 DJI drones in January 2020 over cybersecurity concerns, with some exceptions for emergency use. The Interior Department in March made it easier for a drone mission to qualify as an emergency.
SEIZED DOMAIN: The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday announced that the U.S. has obtained court orders to seize control of two online domains used by suspected Russian hackers to send malicious emails to organizations posing as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The domains were seized following Microsoft’s announcement last week that what it assessed to be Russian hackers had accessed an email marketing program used by USAID to target hundreds of groups with malicious emails.
Microsoft assessed that the hackers were the same group behind the SolarWinds incident, which allowed Russian government-backed hackers to compromise nine federal agencies and at least 100 private sector groups for most of a year.
Following the new incident, court orders were issued in the Eastern District of Virginia allowing the DOJ to seize command and control and malware distribution domains used as part of this effort in order to protect other organizations from being targeted and to identify the hackers.
Read more about the actions here.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Drivers are gradually returning to the Uber ride-hailing platform after the company struggled to meet demand this year as more Americans got vaccinated and started traveling again.
The company said the week of May 17 marked a new record for drivers returning to the platform since the start of the year, with 33,000 drivers joining the platform, Reuters reported Tuesday.
The platform reportedly said its active driver hours for the week increased 4.4 percent from the previous week, but declined to say how that number compared to pre-pandemic times.
“With the economy bouncing back, drivers are returning to Uber in force to take advantage of higher earnings opportunities from our driver stimulus while they are still available,” Carrol Chang, Uber’s head of U.S. and Canada driver operations, said in a statement to Reuters.
BRING IT ON: Amazon has cut its arbitration proceedings and is allowing customers and employees to file lawsuits in a move that received no official announcement.
The change is shown on Amazon’s website with the arbitration requirements being dropped and a line about how lawsuits can be brought in state or federal courts against the company being posted, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The arbitration process is used by many companies and is put in a customer’s contract. The process is similar to a court case but it is done privately, has no appeals, less evidence is presented and multiple customers are not allowed to team up on the same accusation.
FLEETING ADS: Twitter is testing ads on its temporary story feature Fleets, the company said Tuesday.
“Fleet ads are full-screen billboards for advertisers,” Twitter said in a blog post.
The ads will be the first full-screen, vertical ads on Twitter and are similar to the ads users see in stories on Instagram or Snapchat.
The update comes after Twitter launched Fleets globally in November, following updates from other social media platforms that launched 24-hour story features.
ICYMI: UNDER PRESSURE: Officials are calling for harsher measures against Russia following Microsoft’s assessment that hackers behind the devastating SolarWinds hack were continuing to launch cyberattacks against U.S. government agencies and other organizations.
President Biden just last month levied sweeping sanctions on Russia in retaliation for both the SolarWinds hack and election interference. But in the wake of the new hacking efforts, some officials are urging the Biden administration to get tougher.
“If Moscow is responsible, this brazen act of utilizing emails associated with the U.S. government demonstrates that Russia remains undeterred despite sanctions following the SolarWinds attack,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said in a statement Friday. “Those sanctions gave the administration flexibility to tighten the economic screws further if necessary — it now appears necessary.”
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) had similar thoughts.
“We have to step up our cyber defenses, and we must make clear to Russia — and any other adversaries — that they will face consequences for this and any other malicious cyber activity,” Warner said in a separate statement Friday.
ICYMI: ALTERING THE ALGORITHM: Instagram has changed its algorithm after a group of employees complained that pro-Palestinian content was being hidden from other users in the midst of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that culminated in an 11-day conflict in Gaza.
The Verge reports that Instagram will now surface original and reposted content at the same rate, as it had previously surfaced original content before reposted.
As BuzzFeed News reported last week, employees at Facebook, the parent company of Instagram, complained that content featuring Arabic or pro-Palestinian content was often flagged or received a label warning.
Lighter click: Pride Month Puppos!
An op-ed to chew on: To counter China, allied nations must cooperate on technology innovation
NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:
U.S. tech giants’ vise over Israel tightens despite ceasefire (Politico / Emily Birnbaum)
Ex-US ambassador, anti-corruption activists in Ukraine were targets of suspected Russian phishing (CyberScoop / Sean Lyngaas)
Uber and Lyft Experiment with Labor Practices Amid Driver Shortage (The Markup / Dara Kerr)