Chemical Firms Order 'Hundreds of New Computers' After Ransomware Attack

Chemical firms Hexion and Momentive have been hit by a huge Ransomware attack and forced to order hundreds of new computers. Motherboard saw an email from Momentive CEO Jack Boss that referred to a “global IT outage” and the need to deploy “swat teams.” As well as ordering new devices, Momentive has given some employees new email addresses, as theirs remain inaccessible. The attackers left a message demanding payment in Bitcoin.

Based on the ransom message, the ransomware that hit Hexion and Momentive appears to be LockerGoga, the same ransomware that forced an aluminum manufacturing giant Norsk Hydro to shut down its worldwide network this week…On the day of the attack, some of the companies’ Windows computers were hit with a blue screen error and their files encrypted, said the current employee, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to speak to the press. “Everything [went down]. Still no network connection, email, nothing.”

Mind Chaser's Collection of Big Tech Spying Articles

The folks at Mind Chasers put together a constantly-updating list of Big Tech companies that spy on you, with examples.

Below is a listing of articles documenting various spying incidents, capabilities, and vulnerabilities that you may not already know. Maybe it will help drive home that our society has a big problem and make you think twice before you order your next connected device that’s built to spy on you.

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We Finally Have a Super Mario Party Update

Nintendo finally released a Super Mario Party update. It’s not a major update but it fixes an annoyance some players had with Online Mariothon.

Fixed an issue with Online Mariothon in which ranking data was not displaying properly.

  1. Connect the Nintendo Switch console to the Internet.
  2. Return to the HOME Menu and launch the game.
  3. The update will be downloaded and installed automatically.
  4. Once the update is installed, the newest version number will be displayed on the title screen.

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Kickstarter Claps Back Against Unionization Attempts

On Tuesday, a bunch of Kickstarter employees went public with their efforts to unionize under the name Kickstarter United. But senior employees are fighting.

We believe this effort to unionize is the result of consistent issues with internal communications. We hope well-intentioned, good faith dialogue with executives and a specific list of issues from unsatisfied coworkers can get us to a better place. We want to give this a try before resorting to something as extreme as a union.

The statement is from an internal memo circulated among the company, and lists various reasons against the union.