More than 12 government-backed hacker groups are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic as cover for digital reconnaissance and espionage, a new report by Google's Threat Analysis Group finds.

An excerpt from reporting by Lily Hay Newman at Wired:

On Wednesday, Google's Threat Analysis Group published findings about two of the state-sponsored campaigns it's been tracking. One "notable" effort, according to the researchers, targeted US government employees through their personal email accounts with phishing messages posing as coronavirus-related updates from fast food chains. TAG says that some of the emails included coupons or free meal offers framed as pandemic specials, and others promoted malicious links as portals to order food online. If victims clicked the links, they were taken to phishing pages aimed at collecting their Google login credentials. TAG says that Gmail automatically marked the vast majority of these emails as spam and blocked the malicious links.

"Hackers frequently look at crises as an opportunity, and COVID-19 is no different," TAG director Shane Huntley wrote in a blog post about the findings. "Across Google products, we’re seeing bad actors use COVID-related themes to create urgency so that people respond to phishing attacks and scams.… TAG has specifically identified over a dozen government-backed attacker groups using COVID-19 themes as lure for phishing and malware attempts—trying to get their targets to click malicious links and download files."

TAG says it isn't aware of any accounts that were compromised as a result of the fast food campaign, and Google notified all the targeted users with its standard "government-backed attacker" warning.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/22/state-sponsored-hackers-are-us.html

"Beth" is Kiss's biggest hit ever and, interestingly, was co-written and sung by the band's drummer Peter Criss. It's arguably one of the most iconic power ballads of the 1970s. (Full song below.) But what was the song really about? Director Brian Billow shows that there's always two sides to every story. And if there isn't, you can just make one up. "Beth" the film stars Lilli Birdsell as Beth and Steven Olson as Peter.

(via Dangerous Minds)

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/22/here-is-the-real-fake-story.html

A large majority of people surveyed say they are concerned that restrictions on social distancing will be lifted too soon. Even before cities and states issued stay at home orders, people were avoiding restaurants and other crowded places, according to Matthew Iglesias of Vox. There's no reason to think that "reopening" the economy is certainly going to make people think it's OK to mingle in crowds again.

This week, governors in states like Florida and Georgia are moving to reopen bowling alleys, nail salons, and dine-in restaurants in an effort to get economic life moving again. And an organized campaign by conservative economic interests is underway to lift restrictions faster in more places.

This will be an experiment, of course, but the best available evidence casts doubt on the idea that enough customers will return to make it possible for small businesses to stay viable without additional government assistance.

For example, we know customers began abandoning America’s restaurants before they were ordered closed, that the handful of states that have avoided broad lockdown orders are still feeling economic pain, and that huge swaths of the economy that have not been shut down are nonetheless experiencing a precipitous decline in sales.

It's also hard to imagine that a lot of people who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic are going to get them back if the economy is "reopened." And it's unlikely people are going to get on planes, take vacations, stay in hotels, or buy cars and other expensive items. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/22/why-reopening-the-economy.html

Amid the news that hydroxychloroquine is actually more dangerous than beneficial, this video might come in handy when the lawsuits start rolling in.pic.twitter.com/nC4Ve1NBNQ

 Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) April 21, 2020

Hydroxychloroquine, a word that spilled like honey from the lips of her lovers at Fox News, is no longer welcome at the channel. Shunned like a Roger Ailes victim who complained about being assaulted, the chemical has been forgotten by its formerly infatuated swains, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham.

Maybe the rift began after those studies came out showing hydroxychloroquine didn't work against coronavirus and in fact caused higher death rates then coronavirus patients who did not take the drug.

We'll never know, because Fox News doesn't want to talk about it.

"Will anyone who breathlessly pitched hydroxychloroquine as a miracle drug show a modicum of regret or even self-awareness over this? Doubtful," tweeted Sam Stein of The Daily Beast. "More likely is they’ll ignore the study entirely."

Fox News is past it. Can't we do the same and respect their privacy in this personal matter between former lovers? Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/22/fox-news-ends-its-love-affair.html

In 1977, Steve "Woz" Wozniak used a neat hack to bring color to the Apple II computer. According to IEEE Spectrum, the obscure trick, called NTSC artifact color, "allows digital systems without specialized graphics hardware to produce color images by exploiting quirks in how TVs decode analog video signals." That hack later was employed by the IBM PC, Radio Shack TRS-80, and other early home computers. But how did Woz learn about it? Turns out, videogame legend Al Alcorn, inventor of Pong, turned Woz onto the hack. From IEEE Spectrum:

Stephen Cass: Analog NTSC televisions generate color by looking at the phase of a signal relative to a reference frequency. So how did you come across this color test tool, and how did it work?

Al Alcorn: When I was 13, 14, my neighbor across the street had a television repair shop. I would go down there and at the same time, I had my father sign me up for an RCA correspondence course on radio and television repair. So, by the time I got to Berkeley, I was a journeyman TV repairman and actually paid my way through college through television. In one repair shop, there was a real cheap, sleazy color bar generator [for testing televisions]. And instead of doing color properly by synthesizing the phases and stuff like that, it simply used a crystal that was 3.58 megahertz [the carrier frequency for the color signal] minus 15.750 kilohertz, which was the horizontal scan frequency. So it slipped one phase, 360 degrees, every scan line.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/22/how-pongs-inventor-gave-woz.html

YouTuber 3Blue1Brown has started a video series called "lockdown math." In his latest episode he goes over the fundamentals of trigonometry in a way that is accessible and enjoyable. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/22/lockdown-math-trigonometry-fu.html

This image shows how a woman's silicone breast implant deflected a bullet fired at close range, likely stopping the slug from killing her. University of Toronto surgeon Giancarlo McEvenue and his colleagues report on this curiouse case in the SAGE medical journal. The shooter was never identified. From CNN:

"The bullet wound entry was on the left breast, but the rib fracture was on the right side. The bullet entered the skin on the left side first, and then ricocheted across her sternum into the right breast and broke her rib on the right side," he explained.

"The implant caused the change in the trajectory of the bullet," he said.

The woman suffered a gunshot wound, broken ribs and broken implants, but otherwise was remarkably unscathed.

"On the left hand side is the heart and lungs -- if the bullet would have gone into the chest, she would have had a much more serious, possibly life-threatening injury," McEvenue added.

Here is the full report in SAGE, including graphic images of the surgery: "Life-Saving Silicone Breast Implant After Firearm Injury: Case Report and Treatment Recommendations" Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/22/a-womans-breast-implants-def.html

Award-winning comic creators Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin launched Panel Syndicate in 2013 as a digital-only, name-your-price publishing outlet for their near-future Internet noir The Private Eye. They've released several comics through this imprint since then — from themselves, and from other creators — that all fit under the same DRM-free, pay-what-you-want f0rmat, with horizontally-oriented pages specifically designed to be read on a computer screen or tablet.

The Panel Syndicate format was always intended to upend comic publishing, in a way. So it wasn't that surprising when they announced a new book in the wake of the temporary coronavirus pause of the entire comic book industry. 

The new book, Friday, features art by Panel Syndicate founders Martin Martin and Muntsa Vicente, with a story by acclaimed comic crime writer Ed Brubaker, creator of Criminal, The Fade Out, and the Winter Soldier from Marvel Comics. Here's a brief synopsis:

Friday Fitzhugh spent her childhood solving crimes and digging up occult secrets with her best friend Lancelot Jones, the smartest boy in the world. But that was the past, now she's in college, starting a new life on her own. Except when Friday comes home for the holidays, she's immediately pulled back into Lance's orbit and finds that something very strange and dangerous is happening in their little New England town...

This is literally the Christmas vacation from Hell and neither of them may survive to see the New Year.

In interviews and his newsletter, Brubaker has described the story as "post-YA," which isn't really a genre, but makes sense — it's about that first winter home after the first semester of college, except in this case it's riffing on the child detective archetypes of Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown, and the Hardy Boys.  Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/22/friday-the-new-digital-first.html

Built in the late 1980s, Biosphere 2 is the human habitat in Oracle, Arizona that was meant to help scientists understand how humans might live in space. In 1991, eight people went inside for two years of experimental quarantine inside the vivarium. The premise, and much of what happened, would make for a great JG Ballard novel. Spaceship Earth, a new documentary about Biosphere 2 directed by Matt Wolf, promises to tell the real tale, warts and all. It premieres online May 8. From Neon, the indie studio releasing the film:

The [Biosphere 2] experiment was a worldwide phenomenon, chronicling daily existence in the face of life threatening ecological disaster and a growing criticism that it was nothing more than a cult. The bizarre story is both a cautionary tale and a hopeful lesson of how a small group of dreamers can potentially reimagine a new world.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/22/biosphere-2-a-new-documentary.html

On the web, security is always critical. But when a company feels its systems have been infiltrated by a hacker or outside force, usually the only recourse is for their IT security team to start the long process of pouring over data logs, building analysis tools and rooting around for unusual behavior.

Thankfully, Amazon Web Services is now helping with this laborious task with AWS Detective, a tool available to their users that uses machine learning to automate the entire search for security issues and potential breaches.

It’s just another area where the web’s leading cloud services provider is pushing the boundaries of cloud-based systems. If you’ve got IT aspirations or just want to understand how cloud computing really works, The All-Level AWS Cloud Professional Bootcamp can give you the background.

Across six courses with more than 30 hours of instruction, new users get a full explanation of AWS operations. Whether you have sights on a career in cloud IT or need to understand how to migrate, oversee and secure your company’s entire IT infrastructure in AWS, this package covers all the basics.

The AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification Guide for Beginners gets the fundamentals out of the way, exploring the controls, formatting, and features of the AWS platform. Then AWS Master Class: Databases in the Cloud with AWS RDS and AWS MasterClass: Networking & Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) delve into what it takes to construct these bedrock cloud domains for yourself. And since every company has an app these days, AWS Deployment for Node.js Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/this-training-bootcamp-in-amaz.html

Watch the clip embedded here, featuring a news report on a coronavirus patient broadcast by ABC News 7 in New York City. I apologize for the baity title, but cannot ruin this for you in any way. Not in the figurative sense, but in the quite literal sense. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/news-clip-about-coronavirus-pa.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/museum-issues-curatorial-chall.html

In a coronavirus briefing at the White House just now, impeached and manifestly unfit United States President Donald Trump wished North Korea's murderous dictator Kim Jong Un “good luck.”

In so doing, Trump expressed greater concern for Kim than he has at any point so far for the nearly 45,000 Americans who have died of COVID-19.

It's very curious, isn't it? President of the United States.

Said Trump today of the North Korean leader:

"I can only say this, I wish him well."

"I have a very good relationship with him."

.@BretBaier: "North Korea. What can you tell us about the status of Kim Jong-un?"

President Trump: "We don't know...I've had a very good relationship with him...I can only say this; I wish him well."

Full video here: https://t.co/5xqvbQIhJx pic.twitter.com/MivyWqW0JM

 CSPAN (@cspan) April 21, 2020

The president wishes Kim Jong Un good luck, following recent reports of a possible health crisis that reportedly placed him in “grave danger.”

Asked about Kim Jong Un's condition, Trump says "I've had a very good relationship with him" and claims America would be at war with North Korea is he wasn't elected. He ends by bashing CNN. pic.twitter.com/A14KZlz2r9

 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 21, 2020

The President says he wishes Kim Jong-un good luck pic.twitter.com/SEzUh4mzA9

 Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) April 21, 2020

Previously on Boing Boing:

North Korean leader claimed to be "in grave danger" after heart operation

Trump wishing murderous dictator Kim Jong Un well...says they get a long great

 Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) April 21, 2020

TRUMP: I just have to say to Kim Jong Un, I wish him very good luck ...

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/trump-wishes-kim-jong-un-good.html

Note: Not actually a great idea to let your cat inside the dishwasher, please don't try this at home.

“Places Oliver Shouldn't Be,” a delightful gallery of cat portraits by @lovethecapybara.

Oliver has a very lucky human who loves him, and these are some very funny photos of a cat who enjoys being inside cozy little boxy places around the house, or maybe just nestled into a stack of frying pans or whatever.

“Saw a post earlier about someone's cat being in the dishwasher licking plates and got shut inside (the cat was ok) and decided to share all the places my cat Oliver goes.”

Love it. Check out the whole cute thread on IMGUR.

Places Oliver Shouldn't Be

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/look-at-all-the-places-this-ca.html

U.S. coronavirus deaths reached 45,000 on Tuesday, doubling in a little over a week. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases climbed to more than 800,000, according to a Reuters count of available public health data.

From the report:

The United States has by far the world’s largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, almost four times as many as Spain, the country with the second-highest number. Globally, cases topped 2.5 million on Tuesday, with North America accounting for one-third of all cases.

Deaths increased by more than 2,600 on Tuesday alone with a few states yet to report.

New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan each reported their highest single-day coronavirus-related death tolls on Tuesday - over 800 between the three states. New York state, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, reported 481 new deaths.

Coronavirus-related fatalities in the United States hit a peak of 2,806 on April 15, the deadliest single day of the epidemic.

U.S. cases were at 809,000, up 23,000.

New reported U.S. cases appear to be slowing this week, rising by less than 30,000 a day for the past three days. The United States had a record 35,392 cases on April 4.

Read more: U.S. coronavirus deaths top 45,000, doubling in little over a week: Reuters tally Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/us-coronavirus-deaths-reach-45.html

“We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time”  CDC director Robert Redfield

Winter is coming.

As a number of states rush forward to reopen their economies, Director Robert Redfield of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday a likely second wave of the novel coronavirus will be far more dire, because if it hits in the winter as predicted, it will coincide with onset of flu season.

“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” CDC Director Robert Redfield told the Washington Post today. “And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean.”

“We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time,” he warned.

Excerpt:

Having two simultaneous respiratory outbreaks would put unimaginable strain on the health-care system, he said. The first wave of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has already killed more than 42,000 people across the country. It has overwhelmed hospitals and revealed gaping shortages in test kits, ventilators and protective equipment for health-care workers.

In a wide-ranging interview, Redfield said federal and state officials need to use the coming months to prepare for what lies ahead. As stay-at-home orders are lifted, officials need to stress the continued importance of social distancing, he said. They also need to massively scale up their ability to identify the infected through testing and find everyone they interact with through contact tracing.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/a-second-wave-of-coronavirus-i.html

Coronavirus package injects $321 Billion more into SBA relief program

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/senate-unanimously-passes-50.html

“We immediately disabled the impacted portion of the website, addressed the issue, and relaunched the application portal.”

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/personal-data-for-8000-econom.html

"There are more important things than living,” said the Lieutenant Governor of the great state of Texas about Americans who are dying of COVID-19.

“There are more important things than living ... I don't want to die, nobody wants to die but man we've got to take some risks.”

TX Lt Gov Dan Patrick: "There are more important things than living ... I dont want to die, nobody wants to die but man we've got to take some risks" pic.twitter.com/dRTF8Moav4

 Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) April 21, 2020

Got it.

important to clarify that when he says "we've got to take some risks" he means you...you've got to take some risks

 Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) April 21, 2020

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/there-are-more-important-thi.html

Take inspiration from a historical pandemic and make yourself this incredible beaked pieced-and-quilted mask, reminiscent of the kind doctors supposedly wore during the 14th century to treat bubonic plague patients. Theirs were stuffed with aromatic herbs, thought to stave off the "bad air." Yours doesn't need mint, lavender or anything like that, just a combination of interesting fabrics. It also requires a fair amount of patience and sewing skills to complete. Full instructions are available through its creator, Sara of the Tumblr suntree a-ok:

No one needs to use 44 bits of fabric to make a mask. It is dumb and fun and absurd. The difficulty is the point.

She's also made a single-fabric version.

(RED)

images via suntree a-ok, used with permission Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/21/sew-this-awesome-quilted-bubon.html