Also on today’s menu:
Android and Windows At Risk
What To Do With Jack?
Fed’s Rate Hikes Dampen Economic Growth
Attorney General John M. Formella has announced that, due to a cyber attack on NCR, a company that provides payment processing services to restaurants across the country, consumers are temporarily unable to redeem gifts cards at certain restaurants in New Hampshire and across the country. Among them are T-Bones Great American Eatery and Cactus Jack’s. Tom Boucher, chief executive officer of Great NH Restaurants, which owns Cactus Jack’s and T-Bones, told the Laconia Daily Sun, “This has been going on for two-and-a-half weeks now. It’s not good.” Boucher said his company has $2 million in outstanding gift cards.
NCR Corporation, which owns the Aloha point-of-sale system, was attacked by ransomware at one of its data centers. Other New Hampshire restaurants that may be unable to accept valid gift cards include the Copper Door, CJ’s Great West Grill, the Beach Plum, 110 Grill, Giuseppe's Pizzeria & Ristorante, and the Galley Hatch.
Formelli said he doesn’t know when the affected restaurants will be capable of accepting gift cards again. “The full extent of the issue is unknown and may impact additional restaurants or establishments, or additional payment processing services,” he said. “NCR is currently working to address the issue. The Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau will continue to review and monitor the issue to determine whether any additional action by the Bureau is warranted.”
Android and Windows At Risk
Cybersecurity experts at CloudSEK’s threat intelligence research team have warned of new malware, which researchers have dubbed Daam, that targets Android phones and Windows PCs. The malware is particularly invasive on mobile phones, having the ability to record audio from an Android device without any action from the owner of the phone. It can read call logs and record all ongoing calls, stealing contacts from the device. The team said audio conversations on WhatsApp and similar products are not safe. If Android owners disclose sensitive information such as banking details during a call, it could be used against them.
The malware can be downloaded accidentally by visiting third-party sites, according to researchers, so it’s important for Android owners to make sure they only download apps from legitimate sources. It’s also helpful to check reviews before downloading anything, and to make sure the phone’s operating and security systems are up to date.
Separately, the security firm Sophos has identified a new piece of malware, dubbed Gootloader, that uses Google searches to infect people’s computers by getting them to visit an infected site. By answering a very specific question, the infected site will appear at the top of Google’s search results. One example revealed by Sophos shows a neonatal medical practice based in Canada asking a question about whether you need a party wall agreement to sell your house.
The sites have likely been targeted by the hackers because they have a good reputation in Google, and thus stand a good chance of ranking highly when dealing with an extremely specific question, even if it’s not related to the core business.
The Gootkit malware family has been around for five years or more, and is used to distribute code such as ransomware, which can encrypt the files on a Windows computer and only release them once a ransom is paid. Sophos estimates that the criminals behind Gootloader are maintaining a network of hacked websites belonging to legitimate businesses that have been hacked and injected with malicious code.
Elastic Security Labs’ spring 2023 Global Threat Report looked across Windows, Linux, and Mac, finding that Trojans were the most common type of malware, making up more than 75 percent of the total. Cryptominers and ransomware were the next two common categories. Of the malware found, roughly 54 percent of all instances were found on Linux endpoints, with about 39 percent happening on Windows systems. Just 6 percent of the malware detections were found on Macs.
What To Do With Jack?
Massachusetts federal court judge David Hennessy is considering whether Jack Teixeira, 21, the airman accused of leaking classified government files, would pose a threat to national security. Defense attorney Brendan Kelley denied that his client posed a serious flight risk, and said suggestions that foreign adversaries would seek to take advantage of Teixeira’s release are rooted in speculation. Judge Hennessy responded that he was not sure that the government’s concern “is entirely imaginative”, saying, “Information about the Russia-Ukraine war is extremely relevant, and perhaps valuable. It sounds like a legitimate concern.”
Teixeira has been in custody since his April 14 arrest. Prosecutors said the information technology specialist who served in the 102nd Intelligence Support Squadron in Massachusetts has a history of making violent threats and had been researching mass shootings. They say he kept a cache of weapons in his home and argued that he might attempt to flee or obstruct justice if he were to be released.
Kelley said Teixeira should be released with restrictions, allowing him stay in his home in the presence of either relatives, Air Force personnel, or attorneys. “He remains a 21-year-old kid living in the only community he has known his whole life,” Kelley said.
Fed’s Rate Hikes Dampen Economic Growth
Economic growth in the United States slowed markedly at the beginning of the year, to an annual rate of 1.1 percent from 2.6 percent in the previous quarter. Experts say we’re at a pivotal moment in seeing just how dramatically the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases will affect the economy. They are divided on whether the country is in for a recession.
The pandemic and resulting restrictions plunged the country into a brief recession in early 2020, but it quickly bounced back and, since then, U.S. employers have added hundreds of thousands of workers a month, and unemployment stands at 3.5 percent, near 50-year lows.
Sung Won Sohn, an economist at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, said we are now seeing a “rolling recession,” where parts of the economy, such as housing or manufacturing, take turns contracting. The government’s injection of $5 trillion into the economy helped to keep families and businesses afloat and provided an extra $2.3 trillion in savings accounts, helping families make ends meet, even as inflation surged to 40-year highs.
Those excess savings are running out, and Americans are reining in spending on goods such as cars, appliances, clothing, and furniture while continuing to spend on restaurants, flights, concerts, and ballgames. Hotels, museums, restaurants, and theaters have been rapidly hiring to keep up with demand. Those additional jobs are helping to offset layoffs in other parts of the economy, such as construction, manufacturing, and retail.
The economic outlook can change quickly if the economy sours and there is a more dramatic increase in joblessness. The Fed has stated that it wants to see more joblessness to bring down inflation, and another rate hike is possible.
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