On the 14th of May, 2021, the Irish public healthcare system was hacked using the Conti ransomware that had embedded itself into the system two months prior. It made its entry after an employee opened a Microsoft Excel file containing the ransomware from a phishing email. Despite the infected computer’s antimalware programme detecting it on the 31st of March, the ransomware spread easily because of a human error—the antimalware programme was set to monitor, not eliminate, threats. Nobody caught on to it until it was too late. Read full article here
Science
An Eerie Poisonous Fog
If you’re visiting a farm, keep an eye out for an ominous-looking bronze fog. Nitrogen tetroxide, a red-orange gas, is made by certain bacteria during fermentation when oxygen is lacking in the crop. The lack of oxygen causes the bacteria to use the nitrate within the crops, which then produces nitrogen tetroxide. Inhalation of the gas is known to cause permanent lung damage or kill people and livestock. To prevent this, farmers have started performing nitrate tests after four weeks of fermentation. Read full article here
Merv
November 30, 2022
