The Brooklyn Times - bklyntimes.comВ России впервые выявлен подвариант коронавируса “кракен” svoboda.org/a/v-rossii-vpe…
What to know about XBB.1.5.
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A masked shopper in downtown Chicago last month.Credit…Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times
A highly contagious version of the Omicron variant — known officially as XBB.1.5 or by its subvariant nickname, Kraken — is quickly spreading in the U.S.
The young subvariant was first detected in New York State in the fall. It currently makes up about 28 percent of cases in the U.S. and about 72 percent of cases in the Northeast, according to the C.D.C. It’s a highly mutated version of the virus that appears able to better evade immune defenses and invade cells, with some experts calling it the most transmissible variant yet. Scientists say it remains rare in much of the world, but they expect it to spread quickly and globally.
To understand more, I spoke to my colleague Carl Zimmer, a science reporter who covers the coronavirus.
What should we know about XBB.1.5?
It looks like XBB.1.5 is a cut above the other Omicron subvariants in terms of getting around our defenses, and it’s also a very transmissible virus. We won’t know the full XBB.1.5 story until it’s over, but right now it’s definitely looking like it could potentially become dominant in the United States, maybe even the world.
Is it more deadly than other variants?
Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of data on its effects. From what I’ve heard from experts, it doesn’t look like it’s any more severe, which is good. But it takes time for a variant to become common enough that it infects people in large numbers, and then for some of those people to end up in the hospital, and then to analyze all those numbers. It’s really surging here in the northeastern U.S., but we don’t have great medical information systems to get quick answers on that.
Where did XBB.1.5 come from?
XBB.1.5 descends from something called XBB. And XBB is a very unusual form of Covid. It may have emerged in the spring or summer last year, possibly in India.
What’s unusual about XBB is that it was the product of two different forms of Omicron that both infected someone. As they were replicating inside that person, their genes were mixed together, and then we got a new hybrid. And this hybrid is very good at evading defenses from vaccines and infections.
So it caused a big surge in Singapore in the fall, but it didn’t really become that common elsewhere because it was competing with so many other subvariants. But as it multiplied, it started gaining more mutations. So XBB gave rise to XBB.1, and then XBB.1 mutated again into XBB.1.5. And it looks like XBB.1.5 gained a really crucial mutation that helps it grab tightly onto cells, which makes it more transmissible on top of doing a better job of escaping antibodies. So it looks really concerning. And in places like the northeastern U.S., it’s the fastest-growing variant out there.
How worried should we be?
It depends on how you were before. If you weren’t worried before, you should have been. And you should remain worried. A year ago, the first Omicron subvariant surged to dominance. Since then we have seen an explosion of new forms of Omicron. And they continue to gain mutations that help them to spread. In December, we had really fast-spreading viruses out there, and now we have one that’s even faster. So it’s a good time to take it seriously.
What will this do to the course of the pandemic in the U.S.?
I’ve been talking to scientists who are watching this really closely, and nobody thinks that we’re looking at something like what we saw a year ago, when Omicron first slammed into the U.S. Back then, we had the record-breaking caseload and record-breaking hospitalizations. It won’t be that bad, but how bad it will be, it’s hard to say. There probably will be a surge. And we’re already dealing with a lot of Covid in the U.S., so it’s a bad time for an even faster-spreading virus to show up.
How will this affect the outbreak in China?
In China, which experienced a large surge of cases in late 2022, its prospects are hard to predict. One possibility is that once other subvariants sweep through China, it will be XBB.1.5’s turn to reinfect some people there.
How protective are the new boosters against XBB.1.5?
The preliminary studies are, thankfully, looking pretty good. If you’ve been boosted, it looks like it probably reduces your chances of getting infected, and it definitely is good for keeping you out of the hospital, especially if you’re older.
Unfortunately, our rates of boosting are not great. Even if you’ve had the two shots of the primary vaccination, you’re still quite vulnerable. The updated booster can really protect a lot of people.
What’s next in the virus’s evolution?
Forecasting evolution is harder than forecasting the weather. But what’s interesting is that scientists do have some glimpses into possible futures.
The mutations that have produced XBB.1.5 have actually made it easier for this virus to gain the ability to evade more antibodies. It’s become more evolvable, you could say. So an even more evasive form of XBB.1.5 could be showing up soon.
Scientists are able to track the evolution of this virus in a way that they were never able to do in previous years with things like influenza or measles. But they still aren’t seeing things exactly in real time. So it’s possible that the next new variant is already here. It’s possible that someone walking around Rhode Island or Connecticut has already incubated the next big thing.
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In early March 2020, we sent the first edition of the Coronavirus Briefing newsletter, the parent of this newsletter, the Virus Briefing.
Nearly three years later, as the acute phase of the pandemic fades in the U.S., and as more of us are trying to pick up the pieces and move on, we’re winding down this newsletter. We may appear in your inbox again if the pandemic takes a drastic turn, but at the end of this month, we will pause the Virus Briefing.
Personally, it’s bittersweet. For years, I’ve waited for the day when we would happily put this newsletter to rest. In the early days, I thought that moment would come when we reached herd immunity, when we had an effective vaccine or when treatments would render the virus powerless. But over time, I think we realized that we would never experience that total release and that the virus would most likely be with us long term. While we’re certainly in a better place than when this newsletter was created, I had hoped for more closure as it came to an end.
Without a doubt, what I will miss most about this experience are the conversations with you. Over the last three years, many of you have generously opened up your lives, sharing details with us about how the virus was affecting you and your families. Thank you for trusting us with your words.
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If you’d like to share your thoughts, you can fill out this form here. We may use your response in the final versions of our newsletter.
We recently asked readers about the lingering aftereffects of the pandemic.
I am less affected by the virus than my mother is. Ever since the news first came out about a novel virus, she has holed up in her house with boxes of gloves, masks and tests and an endless stream of CNN talking heads. When my wife and I visited, we sat on couches covered in sheets and my mother sat in another room to avoid any risks of exposure. Once we were all vaccinated, her mind eased and she removed the sheets from the couches and we could hug again. Fast-forward to late summer 2022 and my mother became infected. She had some scary side effects that luckily disappeared over a few weeks. While I believed that by finally getting the virus she would be more free from the clutches of living a hermit lifestyle, it made it worse. She barely leaves the house now except to take the trash out and complete her weekly trip to do errands. As her son, I want her to move on. I miss everything about how we were prepandemic.
— Paul M., Riva, Md.
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Подвариант штамма коронавируса “омикрон”, который получил название “кракен” впервые обнаружен в России. Об этом сообщила пресс-служба Роспотребнадзора. Случай заражения зафиксирован в Пензенской области.
Ранее во Всемирной организации здравоохранения назвали “кракен” наиболее заразным вариантом COVID-19 среди всех существующих. Однако, течение заболевания оценивается экспертами как лёгкое.
Как уточнили в ведомстве, на данный момент в России установлена широкая линейка разновидностей штамма “омикрон”, но доминирующей остается линия ВА.5. Осенью прошлого года в России были также выявлены единичные случаи заражения штаммом “дельта”, который доминировал во второй половине 2021 года и стал причиной смерти нескольких сотен тысяч человек. Других штаммов за последние месяцы Роспотребнадзор не выявил.
Вариант XBB.1.5 “кракен” впервые был зафиксирован в октябре в США. Кроме того, он активно распространяется на территории Великобритании и в других европейских странах.
За последние сутки в России выявлен 4201 новый случай заражения коронавирусной инфекцией, умерли 48 пациентов.
Всего в России (включая аннексированный Крым) за время пандемии зарегистрировано около 22 миллионов случаев заражения COVID-19. Умерли, по официальным данным, 394 214 заболевших.
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Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov attends an annual meeting of the Defence Ministry Board in Moscow, Russia, December 21, 2022. Sputnik/Sergei Fadeichev/Pool via REUTERS
Jan 11 (Reuters) – Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu appointed Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov on Wednesday to oversee the military campaign in Ukraine, in the latest shake-up of Moscow’s military leadership.
Gerasimov, like Shoigu, has faced sharp criticism from Russia’s hawkish military bloggers for multiple setbacks on the battlefield and Moscow’s failure to secure victory in a campaign the Kremlin had expected to take just a short time.
In a statement, the defence ministry said Shoigu had appointed Gerasimov as commander of the combined forces group for the “special military operation” in Ukraine. It is the most senior position among Russia’s battlefield generals.
Only last October, Russia had put Sergey Surovikin, nicknamed “General Armageddon” by the Russian media for his reputed ruthlessness, in overall charge of Ukraine operations following a series of counter-offensives by Ukrainian forces that turned the tide of the conflict.
Surovikin will now stay on as a deputy of Gerasimov, the defence ministry said.
The changes are designed to increase the effectiveness of military operations in Ukraine, it said, more than 10 months into a campaign in which tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides as well as Ukrainian civilians have been killed.
“The increase in the level of leadership of the special military operation is connected with the expansion in the scale of tasks … the need to organise closer contact between different branches of the armed forces and improve the quality … and effectiveness of the management of Russian forces,” the ministry statement said.
Russian pro-war commentators were not impressed.
“The sum does not change, just by changing the places of its parts,” wrote one prominent military blogger who posts on the Telegram messaging app under the name of Rybar.
He said Surovikin, a veteran of Russian campaigns in Chechnya and Syria, was being made the fall guy for a series of recent Russian military failures, including a Ukrainian attack on a Russian barracks in the town of Makiivka that killed at least 89 Russian soldiers, including conscripts, at New Year.
Military analyst Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said on Twitter that Gerasimov’s appointment reasserted the defence ministry’s position in the conduct of the war.
“I don’t think this is because Surovikin is viewed as a failure. (It is) certainly possible that this was driven by political reasons. As the unified commander in Ukraine, Surovikin was becoming very powerful and was likely bypassing Shoigu/Gerasimov when talking to Putin,” Lee said.
Political analyst Abbas Gallyamov noted on Telegram that the move followed the transfer of another top general, Alexander Lapin, to the role of land forces chief on Tuesday.
“All this moving of the same individuals from one chair to another, at the height of military hostilities, may say whatever you like but not that ‘everything is going according to plan'”, Gallyamov said.
Russian and Ukrainian forces were engaged in intense fighting on Wednesday over the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, a stepping stone in Moscow’s push to capture the entire Donbas region. The Russians appeared to have the upper hand.
Reporting by Reuters
Editing by Gareth Jones
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has replaced the commander leading his forces in Ukraine just three months after he handed him the job.
Gen. Valery Gerasimov will take over from Sergei Surovikin, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday on Telegram, a change that comes as Kyiv warns it is planning a major new offensive after months of battlefield setbacks for Moscow.
Surovikin became the first person to be handed sole charge of the campaign in October, and his tenure has been marked by the aerial bombardment of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, as well as Russia’s retreat from the crucial southern city of Kherson.
He previously led Russian forces in Syria and was accused of overseeing a brutal bombardment that destroyed much of the city of Aleppo.
The Defense Ministry said he would be one of Gerasimov’s three deputies, along with army Gen. Oleg Salyukov and Col. Gen. Alexey Kim, as part of a new “joint group of forces.”
It added that the “increase in the level of leadership” was “related to the amplified range of tasks” and the necessity of closer cooperation between branches of Russia’s armed forces.
Britain’s Defense Ministry called Gerasimov’s appointment “a significant development” in Putin’s approach to the war.
His deployment was “an indicator of the increasing seriousness of the situation Russia is facing, and a clear acknowledgement that the campaign is falling short of Russia’s strategic goals,” it said on Twitter.
Although the move effectively demoted Surovikin, nicknamed “General Armageddon” by the Russian media for his reputed ruthlessness, Gerasimov’s appointment had not come about because Surovikin is viewed as a failure, said Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a Philadelphia-based think tank.
The apparent demotion was possibly “driven by political reasons,” Lee added on Twitter.
The Kremlin’s forces meanwhile appeared close to a breakthrough in bitter fighting on the eastern front lines.
Battles continued to rage around Soledar, a devastated salt-mining town that has seen one of the fiercest and costliest recent ground battles of the nearly 11-month war.
Ukrainian officials said the country’s soldiers continued to hold out despite heavy fighting and a Russian mercenary group’s claim to have captured the town.
NBC News has not verified the claims of either side.
Taking the town would most likely be seen as a significant, if costly, victory for the Kremlin, which has suffered embarrassing defeats on the battlefield and signs of disquiet at home as the war approaches the one-year mark.
The area is in the Donetsk province, one of four that Putin illegally claimed to have annexed in September, and it is notable for its vast disused mine tunnels.
Although it has little intrinsic value, it lies at a strategic point around 6 miles north of the city of Bakhmut, which Russian forces are aiming to surround.
Taking Bakhmut would disrupt Ukrainian supply lines and open a route for Russian forces to press toward Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk province.
However, Michael Kofman, the director of Russia Studies at the CAN nonprofit research organization in Arlington, Virginia, said on Twitter that he did not think the outcome at Bakhmut was “that significant compared to what it costs Russia to achieve it.” He added that the costs could impinge on Russian military strategy.
However, he said, the battle could also “impact Ukraine’s offensive plans.”
As the war approaches its anniversary on Feb. 24, more attention is turning to who holds the upper hand in the conflict. Kyiv argues it cannot win without increased heavy artillery and tanks from its Western allies.
Meanwhile, Moscow maintains that its “special military operation” is going to plan despite numerous setbacks since the invasion.
The U.S. has said it would supply Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the front line; other countries have made similar pledges.
On January 11, 2023, two civilians had been killed and 8 hurt in Russian attacks on the territory of Ukraine.
The pertinent statement was made by Deputy Head of the Office environment of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Tymoshenko on Telegram, an Ukrinform correspondent experiences.
In accordance to the information from regional armed forces administrations, one particular person was killed and 5 wounded in the Kherson location, 1 killed in the Donetsk area, two injured in the Zaporizhzhia region and 1 hurt in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
A reminder that, on January 11, 2023, Russian troops opened fire on 9 locations of Ukraine. Casualties among the civilians had been noted.
Photo: illustrative, Kyrylo Tymoshenko’s Telegram channel
mk
The post Two killed, eight injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine over past day appeared first on Ukraine Intelligence.
Russia is building up its forces in Ukraine but Ukrainian forces are holding out in fierce fighting for the eastern town of Soledar, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said on Thursday.
She told a news briefing that the number of Russian military units in Ukraine had risen to 280 from 250 a week earlier as Moscow tried to gain the “strategic initiative”.
“Fighting is fierce in the Soledar direction,” Malyar said. “They (the Russians) are moving over their own corpses.”
“Russia is driving its own people to the slaughter by the thousands, but we are holding on,” she said.
Another senior military official, Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov, told the briefing that the military situation in Ukraine remained “difficult”, with the heaviest fighting on the eastern front.
Russian forces were trying to cut through Ukrainian lines and surround Ukrainian troops, he said.
Gromov also said the danger of an attack being launched from Belarus, a Russian ally to the north of Ukraine, would remain throughout this year.
Getty Images
A software engineer inspired by the movie “Office Space” has been accused of stealing funds and goods worth more than $300,000 from his company, court documents show.
Ermenildo Valdez Castro, 28, from King County in Washington, is facing two charges of theft and one charge of identity theft, according to court documents seen by Insider.
Castro is a former software engineer for the e-commerce site Zulily that’s based in Seattle, Washington. He joined the company in 2018 and was fired in June 2022.
Court documents stated he was directly involved in writing code for the customer checkout process. He allegedly created “three types of malicious code in the checkout process at Zulily.”
He is accused of stealing $302,278 by editing code to divert shipping fees to his personal Stripe account, stealing $261,885 in electronic payments and merchandise worth $40,842.
The company’s fraud team found that Castro changed the code about May last year. He purchased 1,294 items, valued at $41,096, at a discounted rate of $253 in total.
A document called “OfficeSpace project” was found on Castro’s work laptop, according to a report by the Seattle Police Department that was attached to the court documents. After being arrested on June 21, 2022, he told police he “named his scheme to steal from Zulily after the movie.”
In “Office Space”, Mike Judge’s 1999 black comedy starring Jennifer Aniston, workers introduced a computer virus into their company’s IT system to steal money in retaliation for cost-cutting and bad management.
Castro admitted to placing the orders that were delivered to his home. He said they were part of a testing process that Zulily knew about, but claimed that “there was a script that was to be run shortly thereafter that would essentially cancel the order and ensure the orders did not process.”
The police report also said that when Castro was asked why he hadn’t returned the items, he said his view was “f*** ’em” after being fired.
When Castro returned his work laptop, Zulily’s cybersecurity found the “OfficeSpace project” document, which included the coding he used for his scheme.
Castro is due to appear in King County Superior Court in Seattle on January 26.
He and Zulily didn’t respond to requests for comment from Insider.
For years, Emem Thomas’ body drew snarky remarks from slimmer classmates in southern Nigeria that shattered her confidence and natural affability.
As teasing and taunts marred her teenage years, she gave up on dreams like competing in a local beauty pageant.
Then she found a niche that values what Thomas now proudly describes as her “plus-sized” body type: the “Dragon Squad Limited”, a team of female bouncers.
“I love what I see dragons do in movies,” she said. “They are also a symbol of power and protection.”
Founded in 2018, Thomas only employs women of a certain weight and shape, creating a safe space for plus-size women to excel in a field that is traditionally male-dominated.
“My team is all about plus-size ladies,” she explained. “If you have the plus-size body then that is cool for me, before I now talk about your passion and other qualifications.”
The Dragon Squad’s 43 recruits have worked security at about 2,000 events including house parties, funerals, political rallies and club nights.
“People expect us to be in the kitchen or probably doing make-up and other feminine roles, but joining this squad has really enlightened me,” said 23-year-old bouncer Peace Vigorous, the youngest of the crew.
In addition to walkie-talkies, boots and dark glasses, the bouncers carry pepper spray.
The risk of being molested on the job is “always something we have in mind”, said Thomas.
“We always prep ourselves for that” and for “men looking down on us.”
On an early overcast morning, Thomas led bouncers through a sweaty fitness session on a parking lot.
The women have acquired skills, strength, and most importantly for Thomas, confidence.
“Most of them… were always shy. They couldn’t talk,” she said, noting that she too became introverted because of her weight.
Behaviour that draws attention such as standing in front of a crowd and giving orders can be particularly challenging for women used to avoiding the public eye.
“Face the crowd and be yourself,” Thomas tells them when they falter. “You are supposed to be seen and known.”
Thomas’s newfound confidence has transformed her social and family life in the city of Uyo, where the 37-year-old lives with her two children.
She no longer considers herself and introvert or shies away from events.
The Dragon Squad has also led her to advocate for the rights of girls and women.
Gender violence is rife in Nigeria, which has one of the world’s highest rates of sexual assault. Jihadist groups in the north are renown for kidnapping girls and women and trafficking them into sex work and forced labour.
For Thomas, change comes with “breaking the barrier” to show what women bring to all sectors of society.
She believes female bouncers “have a way of taking off danger” by listening to troublemakers and victims in a way that most men do not have patience for.
“I see no reason why women (should not be) given a chance.”
Read more:
Teenage girls in northern Nigeria ‘open their minds’ with robotics
Nigerian ride-hailing app aims to put women at ease
Disclosing personal data on platforms providing digital services is always risky. The Cybernews research team identified a publicly accessible database storing up to 855GB of sensitive user and business data that belongs to social marketplace trustanduse.com.
The leaked database was first found on June 21 and remained potentially accessible to threat actors for at least six months. We reached out to trustanduse.com, and the company fixed the issue.
Sensitive information exposed
Trustanduse.com is a platform for consumers to rate products, services, professionals, and stores, as well as get offers and discounts. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Athens.
The discovered database included sensitive data such as usernames, full personal names, Facebook IDs, phone numbers, and passwords hashed with the BCrypt algorithm, which is considered safe.
The researchers ensure that credential stuffing attacks, when perpetrators use stolen account credentials to gain unauthorized access to user accounts on other systems, are unlikely. However, threat actors could use the data for spam and spear-phishing campaigns, most often in the form of con emails that try to dupe the victim into parting with money or further valuable information.
During the investigation, researchers were able to view publicly accessible information with business-related data, such as information about products, services, and partnerships.
The information inside the database suggested that trustanduse.com had an active partnership with a Greek supermarket chain called Galaxias as it included its suppliers, information about promotions, receipts, and special access to its website for supermarket employees.
As the website did not have proper authentication implemented, researchers were able to view the documentation and sandbox environments of the Application Programming Interface (API), which the company most likely developed. The company does not reveal on its website that it developed this API.
Leaving such data publicly accessible can have a negative effect on businesses, as it exposes commercial secrets.
“The leaked information reveals companies they collaborate with, market strategies, and how the company operates. It also leaked access to their products, such as the API. All of this information can be used to gather insights on how they operate, what their partners are, links between their products, and their business strategies as a whole,” explained the research team.
The trustanduse.com site might not operate anymore, at least judging from the fact that it appears to have fallen silent on social media channels. However, the discovered database was actively updated, so the data could still be used for future projects, sold to third parties, or exploited by threat actors.
Uncovered effortless access to database
The research team discovered an Elasticsearch instance through the use of open-source intelligence methods (OSINT), which is the process of identifying, harvesting, processing, and analyzing information obtained by request from publicly available sources, such as social media platforms, deep web forums, and other online communities and platforms.
After the discovery in June, researchers repeatedly detected the same database on different internet protocol (IP) addresses in October and December 2022. The discovered database was not used in the production environment and was utilized for testing or backup reasons.
However, the findings raise serious concerns, as the database contained sensitive information, and crawling the platform revealed the lack of proper authentication to access the website.
‘Security question should not be overlooked’
Researchers warn that such leaks show the problems in the implementation of the DevSecOps (development, security, and operations) framework while developing digital platforms. The framework promotes a built-in security approach from the beginning of development.
Misconfigurations, as in the case of trustanduse.com, can be avoided by using monitoring tools to check if sensitive resources are not accessible from the internet.
If you want to know the recommendations provided by researchers to people with an account on trustanduse.com give a look at the post published by CyberNews.
Original post at https://cybernews.com/security/social-marketplace-exposes-half-million-users/
About the author: Paulina Okunytė
Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon
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(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Trustanduse)
The post Social marketplace Trustanduse exposes nearly half a million users appeared first on Security Affairs.
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