(FLORIDA) — The death of a 14-year-old Florida boy whose body was found last week has been ruled a homicide by local police.
Ryan Rogers of Palm Beach Gardens was found dead Nov. 16 around 9 a.m. local time near an Interstate 95 overpass by a passerby who spotted the boy’s bike lying in the grass.
“We now know that Ryan Rogers’ death was not an accident, but a deliberate act,” the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department said in a statement Wednesday.
ABC West Palm Beach affiliate WPBF reported that an autopsy on Saturday revealed Rogers’ death was not from a bicycle accident.
Statement regarding the investigation into Ryan Rogers’ death. Please call 561-799-4445 with any tips. pic.twitter.com/I9KGjfgudo
Palm Beach Gardens PD, Fire Rescue Foundation and Crime Stoppers are seeking evidence and witnesses, and offering a reward of $8,000 for any information on the case.
Police are urging potential witnesses, or anyone who has a dashcam in their car and was traveling near the Central Boulevard and Interstate 95 area from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Nov. 15, to contact them.
“No amount of information is too small,” police added.
(Nantucket, MA) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden spent the first part of their holiday hosting a virtual meeting with service members from around the world to wish them a happy Thanksgiving and thank them for their service.
From Coast Guard Station Brant Point in Nantucket, Massachusetts, the Bidens addressed members representing all six military branches — the Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Space Force.
After that, the president met outside with roughly two dozen members of the Coast Guard, shaking their hands and presenting them with challenge coins, which are historically collectible pieces.
The president said the “blessings of Thanksgiving are especially meaningful” this year after so many families and friends couldn’t gather last year because of surging COVID-19 cases.
“We also keep in our hearts those who we’ve lost,” the president said. “And those who have an empty seat at their kitchen table or their dining room table this year because of this virus, or another cruel twist of fate or accident, we pray for them.”
Thanksgiving in Nantucket is a decades-long tradition for the Biden family. The first lady also confirmed that they would be taking part once again in the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony Friday afternoon.
“We’re all going to be there,” she said. “We’re all going together.”
(NEW YORK) — Two New York City Police officers were shot but are expected to make a full recovery after a “gun battle” broke out in the Bronx on Wednesday evening.
Police say the perpetrator, who was not immediately identified, was also shot and had undergone surgery but is expected to survive.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said during a news conference Wednesday from St. Barnabas Hospital that the entire incident was captured on body camera footage. The two officers were responding to a call from a community member who was concerned about a man with a gun in the neighborhood.
“They’re walking up there, discussing tactically how they will approach, and they immediately encounter this individual who’s sitting on the front stoop of the building,” Shea said of the officers. “Within seconds, they are in a gun battle.”
A female police officer was struck twice in the right arm and a male police officer was shot in the right armpit area, according to Shea. The suspect, who Shea said had a record of previous arrests, was struck three times.
The firearm was reported stolen in Georgia last year, according to Shea. The body cam footage was not immediately released, but Shea said it indicates that the first shot was fired by the suspect and hit the female officer in the arm.
“What strikes you as you watch that video is the speed in which it happens,” Shea said. “And the no regard for human life.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio said the public can expect to learn more about the two officers in the days ahead. But he is thankful they are alive.
“I want to give thanks that these two, Thank God, are OK, and it looks like they’ll make a full recovery,” de Blasio told reporters.
“We also got to recognize there are too many guns out there, so another example of a gun from out of state comes into our city hurts a New Yorker,” the mayor added. “This is something we’ve got to deal with in a whole different way.”
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 775,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.1% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-Germany’s COVID-19 death toll tops 100,000 as cases surge
-Only 1 in 4 health workers in Africa are fully vaccinated: WHO
-Daily case average up 46% since October
-Deaths, hospitalizations predicted to increase in weeks to come
Here’s how the new is developing. All times Eastern.
Nov 25, 10:18 am
Arizona hospital enters ‘crisis care’ operating mode
The Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee, Arizona, is “operating in crisis care” due to the latest surge of COVID-19 cases in the state, local ABC affiliate KNXV-TV reported.
The hospital only had 13 beds available and was “really struggling,” according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
The state reported its 84,813th COVID-19 hospitalization on Tuesday, according to health department data. Arizona reported more than 4,000 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.
Nov 25, 8:40 am
Germany’s COVID-19 death toll tops 100,000 as cases surge
Germany has become the latest country to surpass 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to official figures released Thursday.
The Western European country recorded 351 fatalities from the disease in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 100,119, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s public health agency.
In Europe, Germany is the fifth country to reach that grim milestone, after Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy and France.
Germany, the largest economy in Europe, is among several countries on the continent that are grappling with a recent resurgence in COVID-19 cases. Last week, the German government imposed tougher restrictions to curb the new wave of infections, as hospital beds quickly fill up.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn warned citizens that their survival could hinge on their vaccination status.
“Some would say this is cynical but probably by the end of this winter, pretty much everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, recovered or dead,” Spahn told reporters in Berlin on Monday. “That’s the reality.”
Nov 25, 8:22 am
Only 1 in 4 health workers in Africa are fully vaccinated: WHO
Just 27% of health workers in Africa, the world’s second-largest continent, have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a preliminary analysis by the World Health Organization.
The WHO said an analysis of data reported from 25 African nations found that, since March, only 1.3 million health workers are fully vaccinated. Just six of those countries have fully vaccinated 90% of their health workers, while nine countries have less than 40%. Meanwhile, a recent WHO global study of 22 mostly high-income nations found that over 80% of their health workers are fully vaccinated.
“The majority of Africa’s health workers are still missing out on vaccines and remain dangerously exposed to severe COVID-19 infection,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, said in a statement Thursday. “Unless our doctors, nurses and other frontline workers get full protection we risk a blowback in the efforts to curb this disease. We must ensure our health facilities are safe working environments.”
Nov 24, 7:11 pm
New Hampshire to establish ‘surge centers’
Amid a record-setting COVID-19 surge, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed an executive order allowing hospitals to establish temporary acute care centers, or internal “surge centers,” in an effort to increase bed capacity.
“We are seeing record levels of cases; we’re seeing record levels of hospitalizations. This winter surge that we predicted is unfortunately now rearing its ugly head. We are definitely in the throes of it,” Sununu said during a press conference on Tuesday.
The state is also working to identify whether the National Guard can play a role in supporting hospitals.
“I think the next few weeks are going to be very telling. I think it’s going to be a fairly bumpy road. We just want everyone to be vaccinated. Be safe because the system right now is at an emergency point,” Sununu added.
The governor made clear that this executive order is not a state of emergency.
(NEW YORK) — Ahmaud Arbery’s mother said she is feeling especially thankful this Thanksgiving, after three men were found guilty of his murder.
“Today is Thanksgiving and I’m really, really thankful. My family and I are really, really thankful for the verdict we got yesterday,” Wanda Cooper-Jones told ABC News’ Whit Johnson in an interview Thursday on Good Morning America.
“We finally got justice for Ahmaud,” she added.
It’s been nearly two years since the 25-year-old Black man was gunned down while jogging in a mostly white southern Georgia neighborhood.
“We know that Ahmaud was targeted because he was a Black runner in a community that thought that his presence there was inappropriate,” Cooper-Jones’ attorney, Lee Merritt, said during the interview on GMA.
Merritt noted how prosecutors made a decision not to center their case on race but rather on the “criminal nature.”
“What I appreciated about the prosecution’s strategy was that they said Ahmaud Arbery was a citizen in the United States running on a free road, and that alone entitled him to life.” he said. “Not by virtue of any, you know, protected class that he belongs to. But we all enjoy these rights as citizens of the United States of America.”
On Wednesday, Travis McMichael, who fatally shot Arbery in February 2020, was convicted by a Glynn County jury on all nine charges, including malice murder and four counts of felony murder.
His father, Gregory McMichael, was found not guilty of malice murder but was convicted on all other charges, including four counts of felony murder.
Their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, who recorded the incident on a cellphone, was found guilty on six charges, including three of the felony murder counts.
All three men face up to life in prison.
The 12-member jury, comprised of 11 white people and one Black person, announced the verdict after more than 11 hours of deliberations, spanning two days. Cooper-Jones, sitting in the courtroom, wept in relief.
“There’s just really no words to really explain all the emotions that I was going through at that time,” she said.
Although relieved, Cooper-Jones said she wasn’t that surprised by the verdict.
“I sat there every day, I heard the state present their evidence. I was very, very confident that they did a very good job of presenting their evidence,” she explained, “and I knew that if the jurors took that evidence, went back and deliberated over the evidence that was presented, that we would get justice for Ahmaud — and we did.”
When asked whether she had a message for the three defendants, Cooper-Jones replied: “I would simply tell them that their bad decisions have impacted two families — my family and again their family.”
“Not only did the McMichaels lose a son, they lost a grandfather and they will be impacted by his grandchild,” she said. “I lost a son, but they lost three generations there.”
ABC News’ Kelly McCarthy contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 775,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.1% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-Germany’s COVID-19 death toll tops 100,000 as cases surge
-Only 1 in 4 health workers in Africa are fully vaccinated: WHO
-Daily case average up 46% since October
-Deaths, hospitalizations predicted to increase in weeks to come
Here’s how the new is developing. All times Eastern.
Nov 25, 8:40 am
Germany’s COVID-19 death toll tops 100,000 as cases surge
Germany has become the latest country to surpass 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to official figures released Thursday.
The Western European country recorded 351 fatalities from the disease in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 100,119, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s public health agency.
In Europe, Germany is the fifth country to reach that grim milestone, after Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy and France.
Germany, the largest economy in Europe, is among several countries on the continent that are grappling with a recent resurgence in COVID-19 cases. Last week, the German government imposed tougher restrictions to curb the new wave of infections, as hospital beds quickly fill up.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn warned citizens that their survival could hinge on their vaccination status.
“Some would say this is cynical but probably by the end of this winter, pretty much everyone in Germany will be vaccinated, recovered or dead,” Spahn told reporters in Berlin on Monday. “That’s the reality.”
Nov 25, 8:22 am
Only 1 in 4 health workers in Africa are fully vaccinated: WHO
Just 27% of health workers in Africa, the world’s second-largest continent, have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a preliminary analysis by the World Health Organization.
The WHO said an analysis of data reported from 25 African nations found that, since March, only 1.3 million health workers are fully vaccinated. Just six of those countries have fully vaccinated 90% of their health workers, while nine countries have less than 40%. Meanwhile, a recent WHO global study of 22 mostly high-income nations found that over 80% of their health workers are fully vaccinated.
“The majority of Africa’s health workers are still missing out on vaccines and remain dangerously exposed to severe COVID-19 infection,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, said in a statement Thursday. “Unless our doctors, nurses and other frontline workers get full protection we risk a blowback in the efforts to curb this disease. We must ensure our health facilities are safe working environments.”
Nov 24, 7:11 pm
New Hampshire to establish ‘surge centers’
Amid a record-setting COVID-19 surge, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed an executive order allowing hospitals to establish temporary acute care centers, or internal “surge centers,” in an effort to increase bed capacity.
“We are seeing record levels of cases; we’re seeing record levels of hospitalizations. This winter surge that we predicted is unfortunately now rearing its ugly head. We are definitely in the throes of it,” Sununu said during a press conference on Tuesday.
The state is also working to identify whether the National Guard can play a role in supporting hospitals.
“I think the next few weeks are going to be very telling. I think it’s going to be a fairly bumpy road. We just want everyone to be vaccinated. Be safe because the system right now is at an emergency point,” Sununu added.
The governor made clear that this executive order is not a state of emergency.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Nov 24, 12:13 pm
Daily case average up 46% since October
Hospital admissions in the U.S. are up by 15% over the last two weeks, according to federal data.
These states and Washington, D.C, have seen at least a 10% increase in hospital admissions over the last week: Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.
The U.S. daily case average has jumped by more than 46% since late October, according to federal data.
The Northeast and Midwest are seeing the greatest increase in cases and hospitalizations.
In Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, case averages are up 30%.
(NEW YORK) — As families gather across the country to celebrate Thanksgiving and give thanks, many are struggling to fill their kitchens with fresh food and groceries.
The U.S. has made virtually no progress toward solving this issue of food insecurity in the last two years, according to United States Department of Agriculture data. More than 10% of U.S. households (13.8 million) were food insecure at some time during 2020, unchanged from 2019, the government said.
This problem has particularly hit Black and brown communities hard.
During the pandemic, residents in Harlem, New York, leaned on local organizations like New York City’s The Brotherhood Sister Sol for resources, guidance and food. The group has taken matters of food insecurity into its own hands with a weekly grocery distribution that feeds more than 500 families in the neighborhood.
The organization says it’s on track to distribute more than 1 million meals by the end of 2021.
“Each and every week, families just express immense relief at the fact that BroSis continues to support them in these ways,” said Brittany Reyes, Sister Sol coordinator at BroSis.
The organization is handing out turkeys and holiday favorites this week but community members are dependent year-round on others for food. In New York alone, about 19% of New Yorkers live in poverty, according to the City of New York.
Khary Lazarre-White, BroSis co-founder and executive director, said, “This is a community that’s still desperately in need because of a lack of investment in communities like Harlem and the South Bronx.”
Food insecurity means that families have insufficient funds and resources to provide adequate food for their household throughout the year.
About four in 10 households with Hispanic/Latinx or Black parents reported food insecurity, according to a 2020 study from the Urban Institute, an economic and social policy think tank. That’s almost triple what households with white parents reported.
Food insecurity is a symptom of larger systemic issues like poverty, said Elaine Waxman, a senior fellow at Urban Institute. Low-income families are often forced to trade off different kinds of necessities and expenses, sometimes leaving food off the table.
Not having consistent access to healthy food or stable food sources can have long-term effects on one’s health and well-being, especially for children and adolescents who rely on food for their developmental growth, health experts say.
“It’s really important to frame food insecurity as a public health issue,” Waxman said.
People who are food insecure are more likely to have chronic diet-related diseases and are likely less able to manage it, according to research by the USDA. The study also showed that food insecurity is also often associated with cognitive delays and behavioral challenges in children and adolescents.
“We’re probably the wealthiest country in the history in recorded history, yet we have food insecurity [at a level] that is just incredibly alarming,” said Luis Guardia, the president of the Food Research and Action Center, a national nonprofit research organization working to eradicate poverty.
Several tools that Guardia calls the “country’s first line of defense against hunger” have been proven to reduce hunger. The federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program allows impoverished families to purchase food in authorized grocery stores. National school meal programs help feed children while they’re at school throughout the day — a system that proved to be critical during the pandemic when schools shut down.
Waxman and Guardia, however, said these programs still have their flaws and are in need of expansion. SNAP benefits are inadequate compared to local food prices in some locations and some Americans earn just above the income required to attain these benefits.
“What we need is the political will,” said Guardia. “There really shouldn’t be any excuse for anyone to go hungry in this country.” But the expansion of these programs throughout the pandemic helped keep the country on track during a period where it would have been expected it to implode, Waxman said.
“The problem is that we don’t lean into these problems long term,” Waxman said. “We have that short Band-Aid kind of approach. My concern is that while the overall unemployment rate is improving, it’s not that way for everyone and yet, we’re already pulling back all kinds of systems.”
She went on, “Will we learn lessons from the pandemic and know that we can actually make a significant difference?”
Food insecurity experts and the organizers at BroSis concede that grassroots food distribution efforts and pantries aren’t permanent solutions to the problem.
MORE: Chefs, organizations join together to fight food insecurity this Thanksgiving
“We have a tendency sometimes to assume the charitable food system will just sort of pick up all the pieces — and they’ve done a heroic job during the pandemic — but that’s supposed to be a workaround,” Waxman said. “It shouldn’t be a primary safety net for anyone.”
Added Lazarre-White: “The only entity that can respond to the level of inequality that produces food insecurity and hunger in our country is government. No private philanthropy can do that. Certainly no independent nonprofit can do that.”
For now, BroSis will continue to fill the gaps — showing up every Wednesday to feed the families who rely on them.
“So I think what we have to do is frame this work as justice work,” said Lazarre-White. “The issue of basic rights, of housing, of education and food — these are things that are human rights.”
(NEW YORK) — With coronavirus infection rates back on the rise, many Americans are wondering why the U.S. is, once again, experiencing surge in cases and hospitalizations, despite widespread vaccinations.
The U.S. is now reporting more than 94,000 new COVID-19 cases each day — up by 47% since late October. And 35 states — nearly all of them in the north or mountain region — have seen an uptick in daily cases of 10% or more in the last two weeks.
Just under 53,000 COVID-19 positive patients are currently receiving care in hospitals across the country — up by more than 7,000 patients from earlier this month.
Several states — including Michigan, Maine and New Hampshire — are experiencing record-breaking surges.
Experts say a confluence of factors is likely driving the country’s recent increases in infections, including the more than 100 million Americans who remain completely unvaccinated, cold weather and relaxed restrictions, the highly transmissible delta variant, and waning vaccine immunity.
Unvaccinated Americans continue to drive COVID-19 transmission
According to health officials, the vast majority of infections and severe hospitalizations continue to be among the unvaccinated.
This September, federal data showed that unvaccinated individuals have a 5.8 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19, and a 14 times greater risk of dying from it, as compared to those fully vaccinated.
“The thing we are concerned about is the people who are not vaccinated, because what they’re doing is they’re the major source of the dynamics of the infection in the community,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “The higher the level of dynamics of infection, the more everyone is at risk.”
Across the country, more than 101 million Americans remain completely unvaccinated — 81 million of whom are currently over the age of 5, and thus are eligible to be vaccinated.
The significant number of unvaccinated individuals — about 30.5% of the total population — leaves millions at-risk and completely unprotected against the virus.
Relaxed restrictions, increased travel, and colder weather pushing people indoors
With winter arriving, and the holiday season on the horizon, many Americans are spending more time indoors, as the weather gets colder. COVID-19, as well as other respiratory illnesses, has been shown to spread more in indoor settings, and when people are forced to be in close proximity to one another.
Millions of Americans are also once again traveling, taking to the air, the railways and the highways. A total of 53.4 million people are expected to travel for Thanksgiving, up 13% from 2020, according to estimates from AAA.
Although masking is required in all forms of public transportation, across the country, COVID-19 restrictions are sparse, with few jurisdictions now requiring face coverings or social distancing.
“We’re seeing cases trickle up, this is probably likely due to waning immunity, but also because of the colder temperatures people are gathering indoors and adhering less to social distancing and masking,” John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, told “World News Tonight.” “Unfortunately, that is a recipe for an increase in transmission this holiday season.”
Masking has been shown to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission, and is still recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in crowded outdoor settings and for activities with close contact with others who are not fully vaccinated.
Delta variant remains highly transmissible
In the U.S., federal data shows that the delta variant accounts for 99.9% of new coronavirus cases. According to the CDC, delta is far more transmissible than prior variants.
Many of the country’s northern states were not as hard hit by the delta surge over the summer. Those states are just now feeling the impacts of the delta variant. Comparatively, states like Florida, which bore the brunt of the summer delta surge, are reporting very low COVID-19 infection numbers.
“We’re seeing is pockets of surges across this country, the Midwest being one but also in the Northeast,” Brownstein said
The delta variant spreads more easily among vaccinated people than prior versions of the virus, though vaccinated people are still far less likely to spread the virus compared to unvaccinated people.
Vaccine immunity is waning
Although the vast majority of infections and severe hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated, breakthrough positive COVID-19 cases among the vaccinated do appear to be on the rise, due to waning immunity, according to health officials.
“There’s no doubt that immunity wanes. It wanes in everyone. It’s more dangerous in the elderly, but it’s across all age groups,” Fauci said earlier this month, citing data from Israel and the U.K., where more people were vaccinated sooner and began to first document waning immunity.
Experts stress that the vaccines remain highly effective against severe COVID-19 illness.
Boosters are now recommended for everyone 18 and older, at least six months after an initial Pfizer or Moderna vaccination, or two months after a Johnson & Johnson shot.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Charlotte 106, Orlando 99
Phoenix 120, Cleveland 115
L.A. Lakers 124, Indiana 116 (OT)
Brooklyn 123, Boston 104
Milwaukee 114, Detroit 93
Utah 110, Oklahoma City 104
Toronto 126, Memphis 113
Houston 118, Chicago 113
New Orleans 127, Washington 102
Atlanta 124, San Antonio 106
Minnesota 113, Miami 101
Sacramento 125, Portland 121
Golden State 116, Philadelphia 96
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Boston 5, Buffalo 1
Columbus 3, Winnipeg 0
Pittsburgh 4, Vancouver 1
Florida 2, Philadelphia 1 (OT)
Washington 6, Montreal 3
Detroit 4, St. Louis 2
SO Minnesota 3, New Jersey 2
N.Y. Rangers 4, N.Y. Islanders 1
Vegas 5, Nashville 2
Colorado 5, Anaheim 2
Seattle 2, Carolina 1
Toronto 6, Los Angeles 2
Edmonton 5, Arizona 3
San Jose 6, Ottawa 3
TOP 25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Baylor 75, Arizona St. 63
Texas 68, California Baptist 44
Memphis 69, Virginia Tech 61
Houston 78, Oregon 49
BYU 81, Texas Southern 64
UConn 115, Auburn 109
Michigan 65, Tarleton St. 54
Seton Hall 62, California 59
Florida 71, Ohio St. 68
Iowa St. 82, Xavier 70
(WASHINGTON) — Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI are urging vigilance to ward off ransomware attacks, asking companies to implement multi-factor authentication and employees not to click on suspicious emails.
“While we are not currently aware of a specific threat, we know that threat actors don’t take holidays,” said CISA Director Jen Easterly in a statement. “We will continue to provide timely and actionable information to help our industry and government partners stay secure and resilient during the holiday season. We urge all organizations to remain vigilant and report any cyber incidents to CISA or FBI.”
“Specifically, malicious cyber actors have often taken advantage of holidays and weekends to disrupt critical networks and systems belonging to organizations, businesses, and critical infrastructure,” the statement continues.
Colonial Pipeline, which is responsible for gas lines that run through the country, was targeted with a ransomware attack over Mother’s Day weekend. JBS meat supplier became a victim of a ransomware attack over Memorial Day weekend. Kaseya, an IT company that provides services to businesses, was hit with a ransomware attack over the Fourth of July weekend.
On Thursday, Gen. Paul Nakasone, commander of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, told ABC News’ Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas that he first believed ransomware was a criminal matter outside the NSA’s purview, but after the influx of ransomware attacks, he came to believe it was a matter of national security.
After the Colonial Pipeline attack, Nakasone pushed his agency to “lean in” to the ransomware problem.
“This is an issue that we need to put the command and the agency towards,” Nakasone said. “We need to surge on this issue. What do we need to do to make sure that we can assist in any way possible?”
The Department of Homeland Security said ransomware attacks have increased 300% from 2019 to 2020.
“Why is the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber command focused on this?” Nakasone said. “Because it’s a national security issue, and we’re going to put our best people forward to make sure that we address it.”
