(NEW YORK) — The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in a new warning they anticipate ransomware attacks could increase as the new school year begins.
“The FBI, CISA, and the MS-ISAC anticipate attacks may increase as the 2022/2023 school year begins and criminal ransomware groups perceive opportunities for successful attacks,” the joint bulletin released Tuesday said.
CISA is the cyber arm of the Department of Homeland Security.
The warning is timely — one of the nation’s largest school districts, the Los Angeles Unified School Department, fell victim to a ransomware attack over the weekend.
Law enforcement warns that smaller school districts are the most vulnerable because they have the least amount of resources to prevent an attack.
“School districts with limited cybersecurity capabilities and constrained resources are often the most vulnerable; however, the opportunistic targeting often seen with cyber criminals can still put school districts with robust cybersecurity programs at risk. K-12 institutions may be seen as particularly lucrative targets due to the amount of sensitive student data accessible through school systems or their managed service providers,” the bulletin says.
Specifically, the FBI and CISA said they are seeing activity against schools from one particular group called the Vice Society “disproportionately targeting the education sector with ransomware attacks.”
The tradecraft of Vice Society actors, officials said, has been identified “through FBI investigations as recently as September 2022.”
The LAUSD superintendent said on Monday the group is associated with the LAUSD ransomware attack.
(NEW YORK) — With new COVID variant-specific booster shots set to roll out in the coming week, vaccine scientists argue that more research is needed to understand how a person’s early immune response — either through vaccination or infection itself — may impact future protection against a constantly evolving virus.
The body learns its best defensive moves during its first encounter with a virus, according to experts. However, once a virus evolves, the immune system is slower to respond.
That is a phenomenon called “original antigenic sin,” or “immune imprinting.”
Scientists say that despite nearly three years of living amid a pandemic there are unanswered questions. For example: What’s the best way to maximize protection through vaccination? What vaccine formula would deliver the broadest immune coverage? How often should people receive booster shots?
The answers would help public health authorities decide future vaccination strategies such as the vaccine’s formula and when doses are administered.
What is original antigenic sin or immunological imprinting?
“There’s a theory that our immunological response to the first exposure to a virus may sort of imprint your immune system,” said John Brownstein, an ABC News contributor and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital.
The human immune system’s best playbook is against an invader it already knows, experts say. But the COVID virus has continued to shape-shift, evolving into new variants that are still recognizable, but slightly different from predecessors.
“In other words, the first antigens that you’re exposed to [are] the ones your immune system is most trained to recognize and respond to more strongly the next time,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the center for virology and vaccine research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
What does this all mean in terms of COVID vaccines and boosters?
Some experts say they are concerned that frequent boosting with the original version of the vaccine may have inadvertently exacerbated immune imprinting. At this point in the pandemic, some adults have received four or more doses of the same vaccine.
Although still theoretical, some scientists worry about a potential backfire, with frequent boosting handcuffing the body’s natural immune system and leaving it exposed to radically different variants that might emerge in the future.
“Where this matters is if you keep giving booster doses with [original] strain, and continue to lock people into that original response. It makes it harder for them to respond then to essentially a completely different virus,” says Dr. Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Philadelphia.
Other scientists disagree, arguing the immune system is adaptable and dynamic. Boosters, they argue, will not freeze the immune system in place.
Meanwhile, updated boosters are slated to roll out this week. These boosters are specifically designed against new omicron sub variants BA.4 and BA.5.
“When we have an omicron-specific booster, it doesn’t make sense not to use that,” said Dr. Anna Durbin, director, center for immunization research Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “The omicron spike protein is very, very different from the spike protein in the current vaccine.”
But even when facing new variants, studies show the original booster continued to reduce the risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Those fully vaccinated with at least the primary series were five times less likely to die from COVID in the summer of 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I think the worry is that if the virus keeps mutating, maybe the [original] vaccine is not going to continue to do well against that, but I suspect that we’re still going to do very well against severe disease and hospitalization,” said Dr. Paul Goepfert, professor of medicine in the UAB Division of Infectious Diseases.
The timing of vaccines may also need to be taken into account, as the nation moves from original doses to updated boosters.
“It is true that the best boosts typically are the ones that are given infrequently, that immunologically, if you boost too much and too frequently, then you often have a lower immune response at the end,” said Barouch.
Does this affect the future of the pandemic?
“I don’t really think [immune imprinting] poses a threat,” said Durbin. “I don’t think it’s going to inhibit the ability of the immune system to recognize other variants or to induce immune responses to other variants, whether that’s through infection, or through vaccines.”
With the virus continuously evolving, experts note that continuous research is key to understanding how phenomena such as immune imprinting could affect the fight against COVID.
“I don’t see it as causing a problem but it’s an important line of research that needs to be investigated,” said Brownstein. “We don’t fully know whether this concept actually is harmful, or even a benefit for future, potential risks to infection.”
(NEW YORK) — Luxury car brand Porsche aims to go public in late September or early October in what could be one of the largest initial public offerings in Europe in decades, parent company Volkswagen announced late Monday.
The move arrives at a precarious economic moment in Europe, where a down year for markets owes to an energy shortage, sky-high inflation and growing concern over a possible recession.
If markets turn down even further, Volkswagen could nix the IPO plans. In its announcement, the Germany-based automaker acknowledged that the move is “subject to further capital market developments.”
But the move would help fund a massive electric vehicle, or EV, expansion underway at Volkswagen, auto analysts said. The Porsche IPO would generate a significant amount of capital for that transition, they added.
Here’s everything you need to know about the blockbuster IPO:
Why would Volkswagen take Porsche public?
The company has ambitious EV aspirations but they come at a price. Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess has vowed to overtake Tesla as the global leader in EV sales by 2025, and make EV sales more than a quarter of its revenue by 2026.
To that end, the company announced in December plans to spend $88.4 billion on EV investment over the next five years, which will make up more than half of the company’s spending over that period.
Volkswagen, however, needs to fund that investment. An IPO for Porsche is an appealing option for the company in part due to the brand’s strong profitability and in turn the potential for a high valuation, said Sam Abuelsamid a principle research analyst at Guidehouse Insight. Over the first six months of this year, Porsche’s operating profit grew nearly 25% compared to the first six months of 2021.
“Porsche for a long time has been one of the most profitable automakers in the world,” Abuelsamid said. “This is an opportunity for Volkswagen to sell off some of that stock and raise some important capital that they are going to need in the coming years to fund their electrification strategy.”
How big would the Porsche IPO be?
Investors anticipate a valuation for Porsche as high as $85 billion, according to reports.
But Volkswagen will only take in a fraction of the valuation as cash for capital investment in initiatives such as EV development, said Charles Coldicott, an auto analyst at the London-based equity research firm Redburn.
The company is putting 25% of the shares up for sale on the public market, and nearly half of the cash generated will be redistributed to shareholders in the form of a dividend, he added. The company would retain the rest.
“That would be a sizable amount of money,” Coldicott said, though he pointed out that Volkswagen already has tens of billions in cash available for capital investment. “The company is awash in cash,” he said. “But it doesn’t hurt to throw more cash at this problem.”
Why do this now?
As mentioned, Volkswagen needs to fund its EV aspirations. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine has placed even greater urgency on such plans, as Europe struggles with an energy crisis amid a sharp decline in the use of Russian oil and natural gas, said Abuelsamid.
“This would’ve happened regardless but I think there has been some acceleration of plans, especially in Europe,” Abuelsamid said.
However, Coldicott disagreed.
“I think it’s pretty unrelated,” he said, noting that Volkswagen announced a prospective Porsche IPO prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.
What happens next?
Over the coming weeks, Volkswagen will likely move forward with a typical IPO “roadshow,” in which company representatives pitch investment banks on the viability of their public offering, Abuelsamid said. In turn, some investment banks will go to commercial and retail investors in an effort to raise money for Porsche ahead of its public filing.
Could Volkswagen still call off the IPO altogether?
Yes, the company has left itself wiggle room to call off the IPO. But it’s “almost certainly going to happen,” Abuelsamid said. Coldicott concurred, calling the IPO “highly likely.”
A plunge in markets could force Volkswagen to postpone it, however, the analysts said.
“You can never be certain if something happens in the next few weeks and the market takes another 10%, 20% or 30% dive,” Abuelsamid said. “They would not be getting the value from the Porsche brand that they think it’s worth.”
Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Over 54 million users play Roblox, a popular multiplayer online game, every day and nearly half of them are under the age of 13, according to the company. At first glance, it may seem cartoonish and harmless but one watchdog group is sounding the alarm about inappropriate content in the game.
Roblox is promoted as a game that “brings people together through play,” where kids can get creative and build their own worlds and games and share them with others virtually.
However, the nonprofit group Common Sense Media says it can be easy for kids to stumble onto content that is sexual, racist, homophobic or anti-Semitic in nature.
Bennett, 9, told ABC News’ Good Morning America he discovered such content unintentionally while playing on Roblox two years ago.
“I found this random game … and I heard a bad song and a bad picture,” the boy recalled.
Bennett’s father Bryan said he still remembers when his son spoke up and showed him what he had found.
“I’ll never forget how he kind of leaned over and handed me the iPad and he goes, ‘Dad, you know, something doesn’t look right,'” Bryan told GMA.
The graphic Bennett had found — one of a woman’s rear end in a thong — appeared even though his Roblox account had age restrictions in place.
“I enabled the account restrictions which, according to Roblox, meant that my son would not be able to play any games that weren’t specifically curated and deemed appropriate by Roblox,” Bryan said, adding that he found additional inappropriate content on Roblox after the first incident.
Roblox told ABC News that Bennett’s experience isn’t common and the company has improved its moderation systems since 2020 and that the company takes steps to prioritize children’s safety.
“These types of experiences are not reflective of the Roblox platform and are in clear violation of our Community Standards,” the corporation said in a statement. “The safety of our community, especially children, is our top priority. We have strong systems and protocols in place to ensure these types of experiences are swiftly removed within minutes whenever bad actors attempt to circumvent our rules and that the possibility children would ever come across this content remains extremely low. We’re continually working hard to ensure people of all ages have a positive and safe experience on our platform.”
Oftentimes, inappropriate content appearing on Roblox is uploaded by independent users and isn’t listed or promoted by Roblox, according to the company. Roblox said the inappropriate content is promoted in users’ profiles or on social media platforms like Discord or TikTok. Roblox moderators take down such games and rooms when they’re discovered but because the gaming platform is so expansive, they can’t keep up with the sheer amount of content getting created constantly.
“A lot of it does wind up getting pulled down when it’s found. But it can easily be re-uploaded within a matter of seconds,” Jeff Haynes, a senior editor of video games and websites at Common Sense Media, explained.
Common Sense Media rates Roblox as age appropriate for children 13 and over but it does note that the gaming platform has “continuing challenges with problematic content.” For younger children, the group said it’s “potentially OK” as long as “account restrictions are turned on and parents pay close attention to their kids’ activities.”
(NEW YORK) — With few trade partners and an empty armory, the Kremlin is being forced to turn to North Korea to stock up on vital supplies to fuel its ongoing war in Ukraine, according to a recently declassified U.S. intelligence report.
A U.S. official told ABC News that Russia’s Ministry of Defense was “in the process” of buying “millions of rockets and artillery shells” from the so-called Hermit Kingdom and that the purchases were an indication Moscow’s military “continues to suffer from severe supply shortages in Ukraine, due in part to export controls and sanctions.”
The official added that the intelligence community assessed it would likely become part of a pattern, with Russia seeking “to purchase additional North Korean military equipment going forward.” (Neither country has yet responded to the report.)
The Biden administration touted the development, first reported by The New York Times, as evidence that international sanctions — despite what experts have called some adverse ripple effects in the U.S. — were proving successful even as the White House resisted Kyiv’s calls to impose additional penalties against Russia by branding it a state sponsor of terrorism.
“Our sanctions, export controls and efforts to further isolate Russia from the global economy are having a significant impact,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. “We are choking off Russia’s military supply chains.”
While North Korea wouldn’t be providing Moscow with the most cutting-edge military technology, its Soviet-era stockpiles could fill a pressing niche by restocking Russian forces with artillery shells compatible with its weapon systems developed during the same timeframe — ammunition it is struggling to supply.
“The fact that they’re reaching out to North Korea is a sign that that they’re having some challenges on the sustainment front,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday.
Ryder added that the intelligence on the weapons sale was declassified so the international community and the American public could better “understand the situation that Russia finds itself as they again continue to wage their campaign in Ukraine.”
So far, American officials have released little information about what — if any — action they intend to take to hinder or penalize Russia’s purchases from North Korea.
The State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, Vedant Patel, said that the sale was a clear violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions that prohibit the procurement of arms from North Korea, but he declined to say whether the U.S. planned to raise the issue to the intergovernmental organization or take other steps.
“While all U.N. sanctions are a serious violation, I think particularly concerning here is that a permanent member of the Security Council is floating these measures,” Patel said, referring to Russia’s powerful status within the body.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby added the caveat that there was no indication that the purchase had been completed or that any arms from North Korea were currently being used on battlefields in Ukraine.
Pyongyang isn’t the only pariah Russia has sought to broker an arms deal with in recent weeks. Last month, Moscow acquired drones from Iran. A Department of Defense official told ABC News that while the Kremlin will likely seek to import several hundred more, the initial shipment performed poorly, experiencing “numerous failures.”
Weapons from North Korea and Iran might not significantly move the needle in Ukraine, but U.S. officials are watching carefully to see if a much more significant power comes to Russia’s aid: China.
Beijing and Moscow retain close trade and defense ties, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked concern that the two could forge a military alliance. (China officially remains neutral on the conflict.) The U.S. has warned of intense consequences for China should it sell Moscow military supplies, but so far, there’s no evidence it has violated export controls.
“In terms of what Russia may be asking of China or not, I don’t have any information to provide from the podium on that,” Pentagon spokesman Ryder said, “other than to say that, in an era of strategic competition, we’ll continue to keep a very close eye on Russia and China.”
Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Steve Bannon, former adviser to former President Donald Trump, is expected to surrender to prosecutors in New York on Thursday, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
The details of the charges are unclear, however, the sources confirmed to ABC News that the charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office stem from the federal prosecution of Bannon over “We Build the Wall,” an online fundraising campaign for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In the federal case, Bannon was accused of defrauding donors and using the money for personal expenses.
Trump pardoned Bannon on his final day in office but two codefendants who did not receive pardons pleaded guilty.
The pardon only applies to the federal case and does not preclude the state charges, the specifics of which were not immediately clear.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had no comment when reached by ABC News.
Bannon, via a spokesperson, issued a statement to ABC News Tuesday, saying, in part, “This is nothing more than a partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system.”
The Washington Post first reported the news.
Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief strategist before departing the White House in August 2017, was found guilty in July of defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Bannon was subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 panel for records and testimony in September 2021.
After the House of Representatives voted to hold him in contempt for defying the subpoena, the Justice Department in November charged him with two counts of criminal contempt of Congress.
(BALTIMORE) — Baltimore has become the latest major city to experience a water crisis involving contamination in the water supply.
City officials have been urging residents to boil tap water for at least one minute after E. coli was discovered in West Baltimore at one sampled location on Friday and another two locations on Saturday. More than 1,500 people were affected by the advisory, as well as several area schools.
Investigators are identifying construction sites that potentially contributed to the contamination, Baltimore Director of Department of Public Works Jason Mitchell told reporters during a press conference Monday, Baltimore ABC affiliate WMAR-TV reported. The health department is flushing the system, as well as performing leak detection and live checks in the area, and increasing chlorination levels, Mitchell said.
Engineers are inspecting the distribution system, treatment systems, pumping facilities and other infrastructure, city officials told reporters during a news conference on Tuesday, WMAR reported.
The boil water notice will remain in effect until the source of the E. coli is determined and the problem has been fixed, the Maryland Department of the Environment said.
There is no evidence so far that the contamination spread to the east or southeast sections of the city, officials said Tuesday after the results came in from another round of tests that were sampled on Monday.
The health department takes 360 samples from 90 locations throughout the city each month to identify potential issues with water quality.
The city began distributing water to impacted communities once the contamination was announced. More than 1,700 gallons of water were handed out on Monday alone, and the distribution continued into Tuesday, officials said.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott told reporters Monday that the city is “taking this issue seriously.”
“We understand deeply the concerns of residents and we want to assure them that their health and well-being are our first priority,” Scott said.
Baltimore officials did not give a timeframe on when the water supply would be deemed safe.
Other major cities have been seeing water supplies contaminated in recent days.
In the East Village neighborhood of New York City, drinking water at the Jacob Riis Houses, a New York City Housing Authority Complex, was found to have dangerous levels of arsenic, ABC New York station WABC-TV reported.
Thousands of residents were forced to use water bottles and portable water stations throughout the holiday weekend after they were told not to drink or cook with the water from their taps, according to WABC.
The housing authority began testing the water weeks ago after receiving reports of cloudy water. Tests came back positive for arsenic on Friday, but there is no evidence that the arsenic levels are connected to the initial cloudy water reports, according to city officials.
The first positive samples came from two high-rise buildings, where the water goes into a tank on the roof after leaving the main line, said NYCHA Senior Vice President for Healthy Homes Daniel Greene. More samples have been taken from low-rise buildings as a precaution, Greene said.
The office of New York City Mayor Eric Adams advised residents to continue using bottled water until the test results for 100 additional locations come in. Residents are also being asked to help flush out the system in case the contamination is in the buildings’ pipes by turning faucets on and letting the water run for three hours, three floors at a time.
Jackson, Mississippi, is also facing another water crisis after river flooding compounded issues with water pressure at long-failing treatment systems.
Officials in Jackson announced last week that cooking and cleaning, firefighting, flushing toilets and bathing would be widely unavailable for the state capital’s 180,000 residents other than for critical outside aid.
The problems with the city’s water supplies persist more than a year after the city faced another water emergency when back-to-back winter storms wreaked havoc on the city’s water system.
By March 2021, thousands of residents had been without water for more than a week as members of the Mississippi National Guard trucked bottled water into the city.
Residents told ABC News they are fatigued over the “ongoing issue” that has been plaguing the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant for years.
“I think our concern as citizens is even after all of this, after they put all the money into the water plant, will we have qualified staff to continue to run the plant?” said resident Velma Warner.
(NEW YORK) — As children head back to the classroom for the academic year, new data shows that pediatric COVID-19 infection rates have increased for the second consecutive week.
Last week, more than 90,600 additional child COVID-19 cases were reported, an increase of 14% from two weeks prior, when just under 80,000 cases were reported, according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA).
The increase comes despite an overall plateauing of COVID-19 infections nationally.
Overall, totals remain significantly lower than during other parts of the pandemic. Since mid-May, data shows that new cases have plateaued, fluctuating between a high of about 68,000 to 112,000 cases.
However, many Americans who are taking at-home tests are not submitting their results, and thus, experts say daily case totals are likely significantly higher than the numbers that are officially reported.
More than 14.5 million children have tested positive for the virus since the onset of the pandemic, and since the beginning of 2022, approximately 6.65 million reported cases have been added. Children represent about a fifth of all reported cases on record.
Despite the uptick in infections, with COVID-19 vaccine mandates in schools still virtually nonexistent, millions of children remain completely unvaccinated.
Overall, about 43.1 million eligible children remain completely unvaccinated, according to federal data.
Most of the nearly 30 million children who have received at least one shot are older children. The vast majority of the youngest Americans under the age of 5 — or just 1 million out of the 19.5 million children in that age group — have yet to receive a COVID-19 shot, according to federal data.
AAP and CHA said there is an “urgent” need to collect more age-specific data to assess the severity of illness related to new variants, as well as potential longer-term effects.
“It is important to recognize there are immediate effects of the pandemic on children’s health, but importantly, we need to identify and address the long-lasting impacts on the physical, mental and social well-being of this generation of children and youth,” the organizations wrote.
(SAN DIEGO, Calif.) — A former naval contractor who was convicted of bribing Navy officers with millions of dollars worth of lavish cigars, prostitutes and cash allegedly cut off his ankle monitor on Sunday and is now on the run, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Leonard Francis, also known as “Fat Leonard,” was awaiting sentencing on Sept. 22 after being found guilty in 2015 of bribing officers with gifts and millions in cash, in exchange for information about the movements of naval ships. In one instance, according to the Justice Department, Francis was able to have a ship moved to a port he owned in Malaysia.
On Sunday, U.S. Marshals showed up at Francis’ home after being alerted that his GPS ankle monitor was being tampered with, according to a press release from the agency.
“Members of the San Diego Fugitive Task Force went to Francis’ residence, in an attempt to locate him,” the Marshals said. “After announcing themselves, task force officers made entry into the residence through an unlocked door. After a thorough check of the residence, officers were unable to locate Francis. Officers were able to locate the GPS ankle monitor that had been cut off.”
“His current whereabouts are unknown,” the agency added.
Since 2013, there have been more than 30 naval officers charged in connection with his case. A judge ruled that Francis had to forfeit the $35 million he was convicted of defrauding the U.S. government by when he overbilled government contracts and bribed naval officials.
“In his plea agreement, Francis conceded that over the course of the conspiracy, he and [his contracting company] gave public officials millions of dollars in things of value, including over $500,000 in cash; hundreds of thousands of dollars in the services of prostitutes and associated expenses; hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses, including airfare, often first or business class, luxurious hotel stays, incidentals and spa treatments; hundreds of thousands of dollars in lavish meals, top-shelf alcohol and wine and entertainment; and hundreds of thousands of dollars in luxury gifts, including designer handbags and leather goods, watches, fountain pens, fine wine, champagne, Scotch, designer furniture, consumer electronics, ornamental swords and hand-made ship models,” according to a Justice Department release.
(ROSE ISLAND, Bahamas) — An American was killed in a shark attack while snorkeling in the Bahamas on Tuesday, authorities said.
The victim, a Pennsylvanian woman in her 50s, was attacked by a bull shark off Rose Island shortly before 2 p.m. local time Tuesday, Bahamas authorities said.
The woman was in a popular snorkeling area with her family when the attack occurred, police said. Five to seven people were snorkeling at the time.
The victim, who has not been publicly identified by police, was on a cruise with family, authorities said.
Royal Caribbean said in a statement that the woman was a guest on a seven-night Harmony of the Seas cruise that sailed from Port Canaveral, Florida, on Sunday.
She was on an “independent shore excursion” in Nassau when attacked by a shark and succumbed to her injuries at a local hospital, the company said.
“Royal Caribbean is providing support and assistance to the guest’s loved ones during this difficult time,” the statement said.
In June 2019, an American tourist snorkeling off Rose Island was killed in a shark attack. The victim, 21-year-old Loyola-Marymount University student Jordan Lindsey, died after a school of sharks attacked her.
