SPACEX INTERNET SERVICE STARLINK ASKS FOR PEOPLE TO TRY IT OUT
SpaceX has announced that it is looking for beta testers for its Starlink low-earth orbit internet service. The company, owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, was launched in 2015, with the first prototype satellites launched in 2018. Since then, the company has launched a host of new satellites from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There are currently 540 Starlink satellites in orbit. Eventually, they will form part of a 12,000-strong constellation to beam internet connectivity back to the planet. Users visiting the Starlink website will now find that it invites them to “Get updates on Starlink news and service availability in your area” and input their email and area code.
Justice Department will reportedly propose limits to online platforms’ legal protections
The Justice Department will propose rolling back the legal protections online platforms have had since the ’90s, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, to make sites more vigilant about policing content. It follows President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting social media companies. The proposal could be announced on Wednesday, reported the Journal, citing a Trump administration official. The president’s order, which came in late May, called for a government review into Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which protects online companies from liability for content posted by users.
Kim Jong Un has quietly built a 7,000-man cyber army that gives North Korea an edge nuclear weapons don’t
North Korea has a cyber army of about 7,000, trained to find secrets, disrupt critical infrastructure, and steal money to circumvent sanctions. These cyberattacks are often difficult to pin on North Korea because they originate in countries like China and Russia, and a counterattack is almost impossible because of North Korea’s rudimentary internet. North Korea’s likely next targets are critical US infrastructure like power plants, dams, and electrical grids.
FCC calls hours-long T-Mobile service outage ‘unacceptable’
The head of the U.S. communications regulator said T-Mobile’s nationwide, hours-long outage Monday was “unacceptable” and that the Federal Communications Commission will investigate. T-Mobile, one of the country’s three largest cellphone service providers, said it had a “voice and text wireless issue” that began around noon ET Monday. The company said at 1 a.m. Tuesday that all problems had been resolved. The company blamed an internet-traffic issue that caused problems with its network for the outage.
How spies used LinkedIn to hack European defense companies
For LinkedIn users, receiving unsolicited messages from pushy job recruiters comes with the territory. It’s an annoyance for some, a welcome path toward a new gig for others. What the experience isn’t supposed to entail is the theft of sensitive data from the defense company that employs you. That’s what happened to employees at two European aerospace and defense firms from September to December 2019, according to research published Wednesday. The culprit was an as-yet-unidentified advanced persistent threat (APT) group — hackers that are usually associated with governments. Their methods were relentless, even clumsy at times.
IT giant Cognizant confirms data breach after ransomware attack
In a series of data breach notifications, IT services giant Cognizant has stated that unencrypted data was most likely accessed and stolen during an April Maze Ransomware attack. Cognizant is one of the largest IT managed services company in the world with close to 300,000 employees and over $15 billion in revenue. As a managed service provider (MSP), Cognizant remotely manages many of its clients to fix issues, install patches, and monitor their security. On April 17th, Cognizant began emailing their clients to warn them that they were under attack by the Maze Ransomware so that they could disconnect themselves from Cognizant and protect themselves from possibly being affected.
