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Virgin Galactic Shuttle’s First Rocket-powered Flight Reaches Edge of Space 

Virgin Galactic on Saturday made its first rocket-powered flight from New Mexico to the fringe of space in a manned shuttle, as the company forges toward offering tourist flights to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere.High above the desert in a cloudless sky, VSS Unity ignited its rocket to hurtle the ship and two pilots toward space. A live feed by NASASpaceFlight.com showed the ship accelerating upward and confirmed a landing later via radar.Virgin Galactic announced that the shuttle achieved a speed equal to three times the speed of sound and an altitude of just more than 89 kilometers (55 miles) above sea level before making its gliding return through the atmosphere.British billionaire and Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson said the flight and landing brought the roughly 15-year-old venture tantalizingly close to commercial flights for tourists. Virgin Galactic said those flights could begin next year.’They all worked'”Today was just an incredible step in the right direction,” Branson told The Associated Press shortly after the flight landing. “It tested a lot of new systems that the teams have been building and they all worked.”Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said at least two more undated test flights lie ahead — the next with four mission specialist passengers in the cabin. Pending trials also include a flight that will take Branson to the edge of space.”The flight today was elegant, beautiful,” Colglazier said. “We’re going to analyze all the data that we gather on these flights, but watching from the ground and speaking with our pilots, it was magnificent. So now it’s time for us to do this again.”Virgin Galactic said the flight provided an assessment of upgrades to a horizontal stabilizer, other flight controls and a suite of cabin cameras designed to provide live images of flight to people on the ground. The shuttle also carried a scientific payload in cooperation with NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program.Preparations for the latest flight included a maintenance review of the special carrier plane that flies the six-passenger spacecraft to a high altitude, where it is released so it can fire its rocket motor and make the final push to space.Several delaysThe first powered test of the rocket ship in New Mexico from Spaceport America was delayed repeatedly before Saturday’s launch. In December 2020, computer trouble caused by electromagnetic interference prevented the spaceship’s rocket from firing properly. Instead of soaring toward space, the ship and its two pilots were forced to make an immediate landing.While Virgin Galactic’s stock price ticked up this week with the announcement of the latest test being scheduled for Saturday, it wasn’t enough to overcome the losses seen since a peak in February. Some analysts have cautioned that it could be a while before the company sees profits as the exact start of commercial operations is still up in the air.Virgin Galactic is one of a few companies looking to cash in on customers with an interest in space.Elon Musk’s SpaceX will launch a billionaire and his sweepstakes winners in September. That should be followed in January 2022 by a flight by three businessmen to the International Space Station.Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched a new capsule in January as part of testing as it aims to get its program for tourists, scientists and professional astronauts off the ground. It’s planning for liftoff of its first crewed flight on July 20, the date of the Apollo 11 moon landing.Virgin Galactic has reached space twice before. The first time was from California in December 2018.New Mexico taxpayers have invested more than $200 million in the Spaceport America hangar and launch facility, near Truth or Consequences, after Branson and then-Governor Bill Richardson, a Democrat, pitched the plan for the facility, with Virgin Galactic as the anchor tenant.Richardson watched Saturday’s flight from the ground below and later thanked residents of local counties that committed early on to a sales tax increase to support the venture.
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Economy & business/Silicon Valley & Technology
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Ransomware Moves from ‘Economic Nuisance’ to National Security Threat

The recent cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline, the operator of the largest petroleum pipeline in the U.S., shows how internet criminals are increasingly targeting companies and organizations for ransom in what officials and experts term a growing national security threat.These hackers penetrate victims’ computer systems with a form of malware that encrypts the files, then they demand payments to release the data. In 2013, a ransomware attack typically targeted a person’s desktop or laptop, with users paying $100 to $150 in ransom to regain access to their files, according to Michael Daniel, president and CEO of Cyber Threat Alliance.“It was a fairly minimal affair,” said Daniel, who served as cybersecurity coordinator on the National Security Council under U.S. President Barack Obama, at the RSA Cybersecurity Conference this week.In recent years, ransomware has become a big criminal enterprise. Last year, victim organizations in North America and Europe paid an average of more than $312,000 in ransom, up from $115,000 in 2019, according to a recent report by the cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks. The highest ransom paid doubled to $10 million last year while the highest ransom demand grew to $30 million, according to Palo Alto Networks.“Those are some very significant amounts of money,” Daniel said. “And it’s not just individuals being targeted but things like school systems.”Last year, some of the largest school districts in the U.S., including Clark County Public Schools in Nevada, Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and Baltimore County Public Schools in Maryland, FILE – In this Sept. 12, 2019, photo, County Sheriff Janis Mangum stands in a control room at the county jail in Jefferson, Ga. A ransomware attack in March took down the office’s computer system.Colonial’s payment wasn’t the largest ransom paid by a single organization. Last year, Garmin, the maker of the popular fitness tracker, reportedly FILE – In this Aug. 22, 2019, file photo, signs on a bank of computers tell visitors that the machines are not working at the public library in Wilmer, Texas. Twenty-two local governments in Texas were hit by ransomeware in August 2019.Last month, the U.S. Justice Department created a task force to develop strategies to combat ransomware.“This is something we’re acutely focused on,” Monaco said.In a report to the Biden administration last month, an industry-backed task force called for a more aggressive response to ransomware.“It will take nothing less than our total collective effort to mitigate the ransomware scourge,” the task force wrote.In a typical ransomware attack, hackers lock a user’s or company’s data, offering keys to unlock the files in exchange for a ransom.But over the past year, hackers have adopted a new extortion tactic. Instead of simply encrypting a user’s files for extortion, cyber actors “exfiltrate” data, threatening to leak or destroy it unless a ransom is paid.Using dedicated leak sites, the hackers then release the data slowly in an effort “to increase pressure on the victim organization to pay the extortion, rather than posting all of the exfiltrated data at once.”In March, cybercriminals used this method when they encrypted a large Florida public school district’s servers and stole more than 1 terabyte of sensitive data, demanding $40 million in return.“If this data is published you will be subject to huge court and government fines,” the Conti cybercrime gang warned a Broward County Public Schools official.The district refused to pay.Cybersecurity experts have a term for this tactic: double extortion. The method gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic as cyber criminals used it to extort hospitals and other critical service providers.“They’re looking to increase the cost to the victim,” Meyers said at the RSA conference.Recent attacks show cyber criminals are upping their game. In October, hackers struck Finnish psychotherapy service Vastaamo, stealing the data of 400 employees and about 40,000 patients. The hackers not only demanded a ransom from Vastaamo but also smaller payments from individual patients.This was the first notable case of a disturbing new trend in ransomware attacks, according to researchers at Check Point.“It seems that even when riding the wave of success, threat groups are in constant quest for more innovative and more fruitful business models,” the researchers wrote.
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Science & Health
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Biden Announces US-South Korea Vaccine Partnership

COVID-19, climate change and cooperation in high-tech industries were the focus of a summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House Friday. While the leaders also discussed North Korea, prospects for a breakthrough on denuclearization appear dim. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Science & Health
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Cicadas Blanket Parts of US

Billions, perhaps even trillions, of cicadas are emerging from the soil over a six-week period in more than a dozen U.S. states. The Washington region, including Northern Virginia, is a hot spot for the plentiful but short-lived thumb-sized insect that some find fascinating and others unnerving.Entomologist Floyd Shockley searched a wooded area in Alexandria, Virginia, for the harmless insects, which slowly climb out of the ground every 17 years from under the deciduous trees on which they feed.An adult cicada climbs up a bush at a forested park in Alexandria, Virginia. Scientists say billions, perhaps even trillions of the insects, may emerge during the next several weeks. (Deborah Block/VOA)”There’s a couple of adults over here,” Shockley said as he gently picked up a black creature with translucent wings and prominent red eyes. Shockley is the collections manager at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington. Today, he is collecting specimens for research.More than 3,000 kinds of cicadas can be found worldwide. While many appear annually, some U.S. varieties spring from the ground either every 17 or 13 years. The cicadas currently blanketing the Washington area are known as Brood X (10).”It’s an amazing phenomenon,” Shockley said.Two-year-old Robert Cody in Alexandria can’t get enough of the cicadas, even when they fly and land on him. “The cicadas are my friends. They tickle my ears, and their eyes look like fire,” he said.Some people are wary of the bugs, like Jeremy Buchanan in Herndon, Virginia, who likes to take a run after work. “When I run by some trees, they sometimes drop on my head,” he said.”There’s no reason for people to be afraid of them,” explained Gene Kritsky, a cicada expert at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio. “They don’t bite or sting or spread diseases on crops.”Kritsky came up with the idea of a phone app and website called Cicada Safari that citizen scientists can use to post their cicada photos and the location where they were taken.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
A Brood X cicada tracker map on CicadaSafari.com shows locations in the US where the bugs are appearing after 17 years of being underground. (Courtesy Cicada Safari/Gene Kritsky, Mount St. Joseph University, Cincinnati, Ohio)Since the protein-rich cicadas aren’t poisonous, adventurous humans can eat them as well. A cookbook called Cicada-Licious includes recipes for cicada pizza, tacos and cookies.Brian Schwatken in Arlington, Virginia, fried some cicada nymphs with butter, garlic and onions. “They are tender, have kind of a nutty taste and are really good,” he said.The males court the females with a screaming high-pitched mating call that resembles the droning sound of a UFO in an old movie, Shockley said. A chorus of cicadas can be louder than the sounds near an airport when jets are landing, Kritsky added.The females don’t fall for just any male. He must win her over by showcasing his different tones and rhythms. If she’s interested in him, she clicks her wings, McKamey said.Adult cicadas die soon after mating and fertilize the soil.Brian Schwatken in Arlington, Virginia, fries cicadas with butter, garlic and onions. ‘They are tender and have a nutty taste,’ he said. (Courtesy Brian Schwatken)The females lay their eggs on small branches. After they hatch in about six weeks, tiny white nymphs fall from the trees and burrow into the soil, repeating the 17-year natural wonder all over again.Kritsky said it’s a “big mystery” how the cicadas time the 17-year cycle. Underground, they feed on the sap of deciduous tree roots, stopping during the winter and beginning again in the spring. It could be the insects detect the trees’ seasonal changes, Shockley said.
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