Short Takes – 10-14-23

Colonial Pipeline Denies Breach by RANSOMEDVC Ransomware Group. Hackread.com article. Pull quote: “Additionally, RANSOMEDVC publicly shared a file containing 5GB of data, claiming it belongs to Colonial Pipeline. Hackread.com has examined and analyzed this data. While it’s premature to draw definitive conclusions, the files and folders appear to contain a wealth of information, including diagrams, internal documents, leak detection policies, ICS and SCADA-related presentations, as well as photos of employees handling electronic equipment, among other things.” Disclosure includes dig at Dragos.

Jeffries suggests Dems won’t help nominate ‘extremist extraordinaire’ Jordan as Speaker. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: ““That’s why it’s so urgently necessary that the Republicans get their act together and elect the Speaker from within their own ranks, as it is the responsibility of the majority party to do so,” he [Minority Leader Jeffers] said Thursday, “or have traditional Republicans break with the extremists within the House Republican Conference and partner with Democrats on a bipartisan path forward.””

Nipah Virus Is Highly Fatal, and We Need to Minimize Its Pandemic Risk. NewsBreak.com article. Pull quote: “But the absence of approved vaccines or treatments, combined with our limited understanding of the virus, means each outbreak is a potential ticking time bomb. The virus could evolve, becoming more contagious with each iteration.” CDC link for Nipah virus.

Scientists Find Evidence for Large Unknown Objects in Distant Solar System. Futurism.com article. Pull quote: “That clued the astronomers in. Using New Horizons' trajectory, they were then able to narrow down a search area for potential unseen Kuiper Belt objects in hundreds of combined images of the night sky taken by Japan's Subaru Telescope.”