The Colonial pipeline ransomware hackers had a secret weapon: self-promoting cybersecurity firms

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo has flown to the edge of space

Sponsored by Darktrace The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology A helping hand for hackers 05.24.21 Good morning! Today: how self-promoting cybersecurity firms end up helping ransomware criminals, and Virgin Galactic has completed the first of four crewed missions to the edge of space slated for this year. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. The Colonial pipeline ransomware hackers had a secret weapon: self-promoting cybersecurity firms   On January 11, antivirus company Bitdefender said it was “happy to announce” a startling breakthrough. It had found a flaw in the ransomware that a gang known as DarkSide was using to freeze computer networks of dozens of businesses in the US and Europe. Companies facing demands from DarkSide could download a free tool from Bitdefender and avoid paying millions of dollars in ransom to the hackers. But Bitdefender wasn’t the first to identify this flaw. Two other researchers, Fabian Wosar and Michael Gillespie, had noticed it the month before and had begun discreetly looking for victims to help. By publicizing its tool, Bitdefender alerted DarkSide to the lapse, which involved reusing the same digital keys to lock and unlock multiple victims. The next day, DarkSide declared that it had repaired the problem, and that “new companies have nothing to hope for.” “Special thanks to BitDefender for helping fix our issues,” DarkSide said. “This will make us even better.” DarkSide soon proved it wasn’t bluffing, unleashing a string of attacks. This month, it paralyzed the Colonial Pipeline Co., prompting a shutdown of the 5,500-mile pipeline that carries 45% of the fuel used on the East Coast—quickly followed by a rise in gasoline prices, panic buying of gas across the Southeast, and closures of thousands of gas stations. Absent Bitdefender’s announcement, it’s possible that the crisis might have been contained, and that Colonial might have quietly restored its system with Wosar and Gillespie’s decryption tool. Read the full story. —Renee Dudley and Daniel Golden Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo has flown to the edge of space The news: On Saturday, Virgin Galactic took two people to the very edge of suborbital space for the first time in more than two years, and its third time overall. The spacecraft, named VSS Unity, was carried into the air via a large cargo aircraft. At 11:26 am, Unity was released, and headed to a peak altitude of 89.2 kilometers. It then headed back to the surface and made a runway landing just 17 minutes later. Why it’s a big deal: This was Virgin Galactic’s first opportunity to test new safety measures and renovations made since its last flight to space in February 2019. It was also the first spaceflight launched from New Mexico (now the third US state to launch humans into space). Eventually Virgin Galactic plans to launch 400 flights from the site, called Spaceport America. A significant year ahead: In many ways, 2021 is a make-or-break year for Virgin Galactic, which has been beset by development delays and quite a few high-profile failures since its launch in 2004. This flight was the first of four planned crewed missions slated for this year, and they will all be crucial to the company proving it can fly quickly, consistently, and safely. Read the full story. —Neel V. Patel We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + How "Fun" turned into "All I Wanna Do" by Sheryl Crow, and other examples of poems that were turned into songs.    + How to build a bird kite. (NYT $)   + This cat badly needs to be given a minor role in a horror film. And do not be fooled by this cat's cuteness—she is a stone-cold killer.   + This woman's life has essentially been colonized by extremely electronic-sounding magpies.   + A frog family, just hanging out.    + Happy 80th birthday to Bob Dylan. (New Yorker $)   + If Duran Duran is more your thing, check out this interview (they're still rocking the eyeliner.)   + Tipping my hat to this man who has taken Krispy Kreme up on their offer of free donuts for vaccinated people… and is getting one every day. (Slate) Sponsor Message Defend against cyber-threats with AI Darktrace AI identifies malicious activity hiding in your digital ecosystem and acts autonomously to neutralize the threat.  Find out why McLaren relies on self-learning AI to detect and disrupt cyber-attacks at machine-speed. Learn more > The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 A great at-a-glance animated guide to how the world’s vaccine rollout is going In short, highly unevenly. (TR)   + Almost half of Americans have been vaccinated, but rates vary wildly by region. (NYT $)   + Covax is going to get 200 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. (NYT $)   + Japan is ramping up its vaccination program ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. (BBC)   + Covid-19 deaths and infections have dropped to their lowest rate in nearly a year in the US. (NYT $)   + Southeast Asia is battling a resurgence amid a lack of vaccines. (The Guardian)   + What we can learn from past pandemics about the future of this one. (STAT)  2 Belarus allegedly hijacked a plane to arrest a prominent dissident The regime wants to stop journalist Roman Protasevich, who has been using Telegram to circumvent media restrictions. (BBC)   3 Israelis and Palestinians are swapping stories on Clubhouse At times there were almost 160,000 listeners. (NPR)   + Pro-Palestine activists are targeting Facebook with 1-star app store reviews. (NBC)  4 Several researchers at a Wuhan virology lab got very sick last fall This could add weight to growing calls for a fuller probe of the lab leak theory. (WSJ $)   + Top researchers are calling for a real investigation into the origin of covid-19. (TR)  5 Does banning felons from dating apps actually make people safer? In the US, the collateral consequences of even a very minor conviction can last far longer than the court's sentence. (The Marshall Project)   + Dating apps are making it easier for vaccinated singles to find each other. (NPR)  6 The Bessemer Amazon unionization drive may hinge on one mailbox The union claims Amazon used it to interfere with the election. (Recode)   7 Netflix is seriously considering getting into gaming 🎮 That sounds easy. It isn't. (Quartz)   + The majority of women who game online hide their gender, due to harassment. (Axios)  8 Can robots really make the elderly feel less lonely? 🤖👵 Perhaps, but it feels like a slightly sad indictment of society that this is the solution we're coming up with. (New Yorker $)   9 Online fortune telling is booming among Hong Kongers 🔮 Pretty much everything seems to have gone online this past year. (NBC)   10 A gender reveal party caused an explosion people felt from 25 miles away These parties are inherently dumb anyway, but people keep insisting on taking them to another level of stupid. (Vice) Limited-time offer!  Get unlimited access to MIT Technology Review, plus 2 months FREE, when you subscribe today. It's time to make MIT Technology Review your go-to resource for thought-provoking insights, analysis and news about the world of technology. Subscribe now and save.   EmTech Next is happening soon! Register today. Quote of the Day “After the pandemic, it’s something a lot of people can relate to. They’re coming out to the sunlight blinking, all a little clumsy and awkward, trying to get back into the world.” —Zoe Getman-Pickering, a cicada researcher at George Washington University, tells Wired she has some empathy for the creatures as they emerge from their 17-year hibernation. Top image credit: DREW ANGERER | GETTY IMAGES Please send chatty magpies to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up today Re-envision the future of work Join us virtually | June 8-10, 2021 Register now   Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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