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- Your medical records might’ve just been stolen in this scary security breach
- Amazon to stream WNBA games on Prime Video in tech giant’s latest deal with a pro sports league
- Leak suggests Samsung’s Galaxy S22 might get an unexpected new feature
- Amplitude acquires Seattle-based customer data analytics startup Iteratively
- It looks like the Russians have embarrassed Colonial Pipeline into hiring more IT talent
- Xplore reveals its plans to open satellite manufacturing facility in Seattle area
- Amazon is suing to stop illegal text scams from using its name
- Google Chrome is about to get a great new feature for sharing links
- IXL Learning lays off 16 employees in Seattle after acquiring Rosetta Stone
- How this tech engineer is using his son’s rare disease as inspiration to disrupt drug development
| Your medical records might’ve just been stolen in this scary security breach Posted: 12 May 2021 04:39 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Andy Meek  The DarkSide Russian ransomware gang that found itself thrust into the spotlight in recent days over its hack of Colonial Pipeline, a major US fuel pipeline operator, apparently considers its affiliated hackers as marginally less evil than competitors — due to DarkSide's refusal to hack entities like hospitals. That doesn't mean other ransomware attackers, however, are quite as principled. In fact, the health care industry represents a pretty juicy target for such cybersecurity villains, thanks to at least two highly attractive traits associated with health care enterprises: The records they store on patients are highly sensitive (i.e., potentially very valuable), and health care systems cannot tolerate any network downtime whatsoever. Bingo — that represents a target that would presumably be more than willing to pay up following a ransomware attack. Today’s Top DealDeal alert: Amazon shoppers are swarming to get this 2K camera drone that folds up as small as a smartphone!Price: $64.99
Recent victims of such attacks include San Antonio-based CaptureRx, which provides drug-related administrative services and which recently disclosed that attackers gained access to files that CaptureRx receives from healthcare providers. Ultimately, at least five different health systems reportedly ended up having some of their data stolen as a result of this one incident. "On February 19, 2021, the investigation determined that certain files were accessed and acquired on February 6, 2021 without authorization," CaptureRx's disclosure about this incident explains. "CaptureRx then immediately began a thorough review of the full contents of the files to determine whether sensitive information was present at the time of the incident. On or around March 19, 2021, CaptureRx completed this review to confirm the full scope of affected individuals and associated covered entities to which the information related. Between March 30, 2021 and April 7, 2021 CaptureRx began the process of notifying healthcare providers of this incident." According to ZDNet, health providers including UPMC Cole and UPMC Wellsboro in Pennsylvania; Lourdes Hospital and Faxton St. Luke's Healthcare in New York; Gifford Health Care in Randolph, Vermont and several Thrifty Drug Stores got caught up in this breach thanks to what happened at CaptureRx, by either health information of customers and patients being exposed or stolen. The HIPAA Journal has reported additional detail, such as that at least 17,655 patients at Faxton St. Luke's Healthcare, 6,777 patients at Gifford Health Care, and 7,400 at UPMC Cole and UPMC Wellsboro had their information accessed as part of this cyberattack. As part of its investigation, CaptureRx says it's determined that "at the time of the incident, the relevant files (accessed) contained first name, last name, date of birth, and prescription information. "…As part of CaptureRx's ongoing commitment to the security of information, all policies and procedures are being reviewed and enhanced and additional workforce training is being conducted to reduce the likelihood of a similar future event." Today’s Top DealThe crazy wireless camera that lets your smartphone see anywhere is under $29 – Amazon’s lowest price ever!Price: $28.85 That doesn’t mean other ransomware attackers, however, are quite as principled. In fact, the health care industry represents a pretty juicy target for such cybersecurity villains, thanks to at least two highly attractive traits associated with health care enterprises: The records they store on patients are highly sensitive (i.e., potentially very valuable), and health care systems cannot tolerate any network downtime whatsoever. Bingo — that represents a target that would presumably be more than willing to pay up following a ransomware attack. Recent victims of such attacks include San Antonio-based CaptureRx, which provides drug-related administrative services and which recently disclosed that attackers gained access to files that CaptureRx receives from healthcare providers. Ultimately, at least five different health systems reportedly ended up having some of their data stolen as a result of this one incident. “On February 19, 2021, the investigation determined that certain files were accessed and acquired on February 6, 2021 without authorization,” CaptureRx’s disclosure about this incident explains. “CaptureRx then immediately began a thorough review of the full contents of the files to determine whether sensitive information was present at the time of the incident. On or around March 19, 2021, CaptureRx completed this review to confirm the full scope of affected individuals and associated covered entities to which the information related. Between March 30, 2021 and April 7, 2021 CaptureRx began the process of notifying healthcare providers of this incident.” According to ZDNet, health providers including UPMC Cole and UPMC Wellsboro in Pennsylvania; Lourdes Hospital and Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare in New York; Gifford Health Care in Randolph, Vermont and several Thrifty Drug Stores got caught up in this breach thanks to what happened at CaptureRx, by either health information of customers and patients being exposed or stolen. The HIPAA Journal has reported additional detail, such as that at least 17,655 patients at Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare, 6,777 patients at Gifford Health Care, and 7,400 at UPMC Cole and UPMC Wellsboro had their information accessed as part of this cyberattack. As part of its investigation, CaptureRx says it’s determined that “at the time of the incident, the relevant files (accessed) contained first name, last name, date of birth, and prescription information. “…As part of CaptureRx’s ongoing commitment to the security of information, all policies and procedures are being reviewed and enhanced and additional workforce training is being conducted to reduce the likelihood of a similar future event.”hack, Ransomware The post Your medical records might've just been stolen in this scary security breach appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy             |
| Amazon to stream WNBA games on Prime Video in tech giant’s latest deal with a pro sports league Posted: 12 May 2021 03:39 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Kurt Schlosser  Seattle Storm star Sue Bird. (File Photo via Neil Enns / Seattle Storm) Add the WNBA to the list of professional sports leagues that Amazon wants to help showcase via its Prime Video streaming platform. Amazon and the WNBA reached a multi-year agreement giving Prime Video exclusive global streaming rights to 16 WNBA games per season. The deal will feature a streamed game each week during the regular season, as well as the inaugural Commissioner's Cup game on Aug.12. It marks the first time Prime Video has exclusive global streaming rights to a women's professional sports league and when coverage starts on May 29 for the game between the Atlanta Dream and New York Liberty, it will be the first time Amazon has exclusive international streaming rights to a professional basketball game. Amazon already has a deal with the NFL to stream "Thursday Night Football" and with Seattle Sounders FC to stream that team's MLS games. Prime Video is also home to Premier League soccer. Now Amazon will add the league that includes the four-time champion Seattle Storm — with games from that hometown team streaming on June 4, Aug. 20 and Sept. 2. "The WNBA is one of the premier professional sports leagues in the world and serves as an inspiration to millions of young and aspiring athletes everywhere," Marie Donoghue, vice president of Global Sports Video at Amazon, said in a statement. "I am delighted we are bringing these outstanding athletes and games to Prime Video." The WNBA on Prime Video will be available across compatible devices as part of a Prime membership. Here's the schedule of 2021 WNBA Games on Prime Video: Saturday, May 29 – Atlanta @ New York, 2 p.m. ET The post Amazon to stream WNBA games on Prime Video in tech giant's latest deal with a pro sports league appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy       |
| Leak suggests Samsung’s Galaxy S22 might get an unexpected new feature Posted: 12 May 2021 03:39 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Chris Smith  Samsung will reportedly launch three Android smartphones in early August. The Galaxy Z Fold 3, Flip 3, and S21 FE have all been featured in several leaks so far, which is typical for unreleased Samsung flagships. The two new foldables are the most exciting of the three, and the Fold 3 is likely to be the best new Samsung phone to buy in the second half of the year. Samsung is directly responsible for some of the recent leaks as well. That's because of some of the new trademarks that were recently discovered, hinting at an essential feature for future Galaxy handsets. Samsung has registered marketing terms that point to a device that will be more durable than before, and those trademarks are especially exciting for foldable phones. These devices are more fragile than conventional smartphones, so durability improvements are undoubtedly welcome upgrades for this year's foldable handsets. It's also thanks to these Samsung trademark applications that we might already know about a brand new Samsung feature that the Korean company might add to a variety of high-end devices in the not too distant future. It's unclear if the new foldables and the S21 FE will get it, but the Galaxy S22 could certainly fit the bill. Today’s Top DealThe crazy wireless camera that lets your smartphone see anywhere is under $29 – Amazon’s lowest price ever!Price: $28.85
The same blog that found recent Samsung trademark fillings pointing to build quality improvements for future Galaxy phones has discovered a Samsung application in Europe and the UK for "Activate Fan Mode." The trademark would apply to smartphones and tablets, according to the paperwork that LetsGoDigital discovered. There's no description for it, but the term Samsung chose is rather self-explanatory. "Activate Fan Mode" implies that Samsung will launch handsets and tablets featuring built-in fans to improve cooling during resource-intensive operations, such as gaming sessions or the use of apps that require extensive CPU and GPU usage. Legion Phone Duel 2 rear view: cooling fans can be seen in the middle section. Image source: Lenovo Smartphones with fans may seem unusual, but we've already seen a few examples of such devices. The RedMagic 6 Pro phones and the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 are two new gaming phones launched in the previous weeks. They come with one and two built-in fans, respectively. That's on top of other components meant to improve heat dissipation during extended gaming sessions. Android gaming phones have always seemed like marketing gimmicks, sporting crazy specs and features dedicated to mobile gaming. But the fact remains that any regular Android flagship, like the newest Galaxy S model, would run the same games just as fast as those gaming phones. All these devices are usually based on the latest Snapdragon processor. The S22, Redmagic 6 Pro, and the Legion Phone Duel 2 all have the same Snapdragon 888 chip inside. But Android games did bring a few new smartphone features to our attention, and those features later became mainstream. Android gaming phones were the first to feature high refresh rate screens (both 90Hz and 120Hz) and ridiculous amounts of RAM. Traditional smartphone makers later brought these features to regular flagships like the Galaxy S series. The cooling fan might just be the next gaming phone innovation that moves to more Android devices. Samsung's trademark seems to indicate the company might soon debut products with built-in fans that will give the user the ability to turn them on and off. If that's the case, then we'd assume only flagship smartphones and tablets would incorporate fans for improved cooling. These are the devices capable of offering users the most power and the devices that would benefit most from active cooling. That's why "Activate Fan Mode" already makes sense for the Galaxy S22 series. The upcoming Fold 3 is also the kind of Samsung flagship that could get a fan of its own, considering that the handset will run on the same Snapdragon 888 processor. There might be one other reason Samsung needs active cooling for future high-end devices. Samsung has been working on GPUs with AMD technology that might outperform Snapdragon graphics. That sort of performance will likely need better cooling. The Fold 3 might be the first Samsung phone with an AMD GPU. And if that's the case, other Samsung Android flagships should employ similar GPUs in the future. Today’s Top DealDeal alert: Amazon shoppers are swarming to get this 2K camera drone that folds up as small as a smartphone!Price: $64.99 Samsung is directly responsible for some of the recent leaks as well. That's because of some of the new trademarks that were recently discovered, hinting at an essential feature for future Galaxy handsets. Samsung has registered marketing terms that point to a device that will be more durable than before, and those trademarks are especially exciting for foldable phones. These devices are more fragile than conventional smartphones, so durability improvements are undoubtedly welcome upgrades for this year’s foldable handsets. It's also thanks to these Samsung trademark applications that we might already know about a brand new Samsung feature that the Korean company might add to a variety of high-end devices in the not too distant future. It's unclear if the new foldables and the S21 FE will get it, but the Galaxy S22 could certainly fit the bill. The same blog that found recent Samsung trademark fillings pointing to build quality improvements for future Galaxy phones has discovered a Samsung application in Europe and the UK for "Activate Fan Mode." The trademark would apply to smartphones and tablets, according to the paperwork that LetsGoDigital discovered. There's no description for it, but the term Samsung chose is rather self-explanatory. "Activate Fan Mode" implies that Samsung will launch handsets and tablets featuring built-in fans to improve cooling during resource-intensive operations, such as gaming sessions or the use of apps that require extensive CPU and GPU usage. Smartphones with fans may seem unusual, but we've already seen a few examples of such devices. The RedMagic 6 Pro phones and the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel 2 are two new gaming phones launched in the previous weeks. They come with one and two built-in fans, respectively. That's on top of other components meant to improve heat dissipation during extended gaming sessions. Android gaming phones have always seemed like marketing gimmicks, sporting crazy specs and features dedicated to mobile gaming. But the fact remains that any regular Android flagship, like the newest Galaxy S model, would run the same games just as fast as those gaming phones. All these devices are usually based on the latest Snapdragon processor. The S22, Redmagic 6 Pro, and the Legion Phone Duel 2 all have the same Snapdragon 888 chip inside. But Android games did bring a few new smartphone features to our attention, and those features later became mainstream. Android gaming phones were the first to feature high refresh rate screens (both 90Hz and 120Hz) and ridiculous amounts of RAM. Traditional smartphone makers later brought these features to regular flagships like the Galaxy S series. The cooling fan might just be the next gaming phone innovation that moves to more Android devices. Samsung's trademark seems to indicate the company might soon debut products with built-in fans that will give the user the ability to turn them on and off. If that's the case, then we'd assume only flagship smartphones and tablets would incorporate fans for improved cooling. These are the devices capable of offering users the most power and the devices that would benefit most from active cooling. That's why "Activate Fan Mode" already makes sense for the Galaxy S22 series. The upcoming Fold 3 is also the kind of Samsung flagship that could get a fan of its own, considering that the handset will run on the same Snapdragon 888 processor. There might be one other reason Samsung needs active cooling for future high-end devices. Samsung has been working on GPUs with AMD technology that might outperform Snapdragon graphics. That sort of performance will likely need better cooling. The Fold 3 might be the first Samsung phone with an AMD GPU. And if that’s the case, other Samsung Android flagships should employ similar GPUs in the future.Galaxy S22, Galaxy Z Fold 3, Samsung The post Leak suggests Samsung's Galaxy S22 might get an unexpected new feature appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy       |
| Amplitude acquires Seattle-based customer data analytics startup Iteratively Posted: 12 May 2021 02:41 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Taylor Soper  Iteratively CEO Patrick Thompson. Acquisition news: San Francisco product intelligence company Amplitude acquired Seattle startup Iteratively. Founded in 2019 by veterans of Atlassian and Microsoft, Iteratively sells software to data and product teams for customer analytics tracking. The idea is to help prevent data quality problems at the outset of entry and have standardized customer data in one place. Earlier this year Iteratively raised $5.4 million from Gradient Ventures, Google's AI-focused venture fund, as well as Fika Ventures and PSL Ventures. The company is led by CEO Patrick Thompson, who co-founded Iteratively with Ondrej Hrebicek. They previously worked together at Syncplicity, a file sharing startup co-founded by Hrebicek that was acquired by EMC in 2016. Iteratively will continue to operate as a unit within Amplitude, which has raised close to $200 million for its software that helps companies predict the impact of new product features. "In Amplitude we see an ally in the pursuit to solve the acute pain points around data quality," Thompson wrote in a blog post. Acquisition news: San Francisco product intelligence company Amplitude acquired Seattle startup Iteratively. Founded in 2019 by veterans of Atlassian and Microsoft, Iteratively sells software to data and product teams for customer analytics tracking. The idea is to help prevent data quality problems at the outset of entry and have standardized customer data in one place. Earlier this year Iteratively raised $5.4 million from Gradient Ventures, Google's AI-focused venture fund, as well as Fika Ventures and PSL Ventures. The company is led by CEO Patrick Thompson, who co-founded Iteratively with Ondrej Hrebicek. They previously worked together at Syncplicity, a file sharing startup co-founded by… Read MoreStartups, acquisition, iteratively The post Amplitude acquires Seattle-based customer data analytics startup Iteratively appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy       |
| It looks like the Russians have embarrassed Colonial Pipeline into hiring more IT talent Posted: 12 May 2021 02:41 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Andy Meek  The national average for gas prices in the US has just hit a record — topping $3 per gallon as of mid-day Wednesday, a level not seen since the fall of 2014. This comes as fuel shortages around the country are starting to worsen, as drivers race to fill up their tanks whether they need to or not following the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline over the weekend. As part of the attack, the Russian ransomware gang DarkSide stole about 100GB worth of data from the network of this major US fuel pipeline, then locked the network — which led Colonial Pipeline to also take its operational network offline, even though it was only the IT network that was reportedly hit by the ransomware attack. Taking the pipeline offline was a big deal, because Colonial's network encompasses some 5,550 miles of pipeline and carries 45% of the fuel consumed by the US East Coast. All of which is to say, this ransomware attack was pretty devastating, so much so that no only has the DarkSide gang of Russian hackers sort of apologized for it, but Colonial Pipeline is also trying to recruit a new cybersecurity manager, to prevent situations exactly like this one. Today’s Top DealAmazon shoppers are obsessed with these Wi-Fi smart plugs – get them for just $4.20 each!Price: $16.79
That's according to a job posting for the role, which seems to have been posted originally in the weeks leading up to the attack, but which looks to have been re-posted, as that job link includes Tuesday's date. As for what the new employee will be responsible for, the chosen cybersecurity manager will be asked to develop and maintain "an incident response plan and processes to address potential threats." The job application continues: "As the Manager, Cyber Security, you are accountable for managing a team of cyber security certified subject matter experts and specialists including but not limited to network security engineers, SCADA & field controls network engineers and a cyber security architect. As the Manager, you will lead the development of the enterprise strategy for cybersecurity; will oversee the development of standards and processes for cyber security; lead the recovery from security incidents; and guide forensics of incidents. You are someone who has an understanding of emerging security threats in order to design security policies and procedures to mitigate threats where possible." Meanwhile, we're continuing to learn intriguing new details about the gang of Russian hackers behind this incident, such as the fact DarkSide operates like a quasi-normal business, believe it or not. Danny Jenkins, CEO of ThreatLocker, told the IT and business security news site ThreatPost that DarkSide has "employees, costs, profits, and customer support." And the hackers themselves seem to be kind of like us: According to a fascinating, deep dive on DarkSide published by the cybersecurity company FireEye, "The number of publicly named victims on the Darkside blog has increased overall since August 2020, with the exception of a significant dip in the number of victims named during January 2021. It is plausible that the decline in January was due to threat actors using DarkSide taking a break during the holiday season." Of course, it might also have helped this whole situation if US regulators weren't seemingly asleep at the wheel. New reporting from Bloomberg, for example, reveals that the US Transportation Security Administration's Pipeline Security Branch — which protects the nation's pipelines — hasn't mandated any cybersecurity requirements since the entity was created after the 9/11 attacks. Today’s Top DealThe crazy wireless camera that lets your smartphone see anywhere is under $29 – Amazon’s lowest price ever!Price: $28.85 This comes as fuel shortages around the country are starting to worsen, as drivers race to fill up their tanks whether they need to or not following the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline over the weekend. As part of the attack, the Russian ransomware gang DarkSide stole about 100GB worth of data from the network of this major US fuel pipeline, then locked the network — which led Colonial Pipeline to also take its operational network offline, even though it was only the IT network that was reportedly hit by the ransomware attack. Taking the pipeline offline was a big deal, because Colonial’s network encompasses some 5,550 miles of pipeline and carries 45% of the fuel consumed by the US East Coast. All of which is to say, this ransomware attack was pretty devastating, so much so that no only has the DarkSide gang of Russian hackers sort of apologized for it, but Colonial Pipeline is also trying to recruit a new cybersecurity manager, to prevent situations exactly like this one. That’s according to a job posting for the role, which seems to have been posted originally in the weeks leading up to the attack, but which looks to have been re-posted, as that job link includes Tuesday’s date. As for what the new employee will be responsible for, the chosen cybersecurity manager will be asked to develop and maintain “an incident response plan and processes to address potential threats.” The job application continues: “As the Manager, Cyber Security, you are accountable for managing a team of cyber security certified subject matter experts and specialists including but not limited to network security engineers, SCADA & field controls network engineers and a cyber security architect. As the Manager, you will lead the development of the enterprise strategy for cybersecurity; will oversee the development of standards and processes for cyber security; lead the recovery from security incidents; and guide forensics of incidents. You are someone who has an understanding of emerging security threats in order to design security policies and procedures to mitigate threats where possible.” Meanwhile, we’re continuing to learn intriguing new details about the gang of Russian hackers behind this incident, such as the fact DarkSide operates like a quasi-normal business, believe it or not. Danny Jenkins, CEO of ThreatLocker, told the IT and business security news site ThreatPost that DarkSide has "employees, costs, profits, and customer support." And the hackers themselves seem to be kind of like us: According to a fascinating, deep dive on DarkSide published by the cybersecurity company FireEye, “The number of publicly named victims on the Darkside blog has increased overall since August 2020, with the exception of a significant dip in the number of victims named during January 2021. It is plausible that the decline in January was due to threat actors using DarkSide taking a break during the holiday season.” Of course, it might also have helped this whole situation if US regulators weren’t seemingly asleep at the wheel. New reporting from Bloomberg, for example, reveals that the US Transportation Security Administration's Pipeline Security Branch — which protects the nation’s pipelines — hasn’t mandated any cybersecurity requirements since the entity was created after the 9/11 attacks.colonial pipeline, hack, Ransomware The post It looks like the Russians have embarrassed Colonial Pipeline into hiring more IT talent appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy       |
| Xplore reveals its plans to open satellite manufacturing facility in Seattle area Posted: 12 May 2021 01:41 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Alan Boyle  Xplore's new satellite manufacturing facility is in the Redmond complex that once housed Planetary Resources. (Xplore Photo) Xplore, a Seattle-area startup that aims to build satellites for interplanetary missions, has a new address in Redmond, Wash. — in the same office complex that once housed the Planetary Resources asteroid-mining venture. "Xplore's 22,000-square-foot facility is tailor-made for satellite manufacturing," Lisa Rich, the company's founder and chief operating officer, said today in a news release. "It is large, expandable and can currently accommodate the research, development, production and operation of 20 spacecraft per year." And when Rich says the location is tailor-made for satellites, she's not just speaking figuratively: Several years ago, Planetary Resources built a pair of pathfinder Earth-observation satellites on the premises, representing a significant step toward creating a fleet of asteroid-scouting spacecraft. One of the Arkyd-6 satellites was launched on an orbital demonstration mission in 2018. Unfortunately, Planetary Resources ran out of money later that year, and its assets were purchased by ConsenSys, a blockchain venture. Xplore is due to move into the facility in June to start building ESPA-class XCraft satellites suitable for rideshare missions, as well as LightCraft spacecraft for deep-space missions. "We plan to build multiple Xcraft and LightCraft simultaneously," Rich said. "Our clean rooms, electronic fabrication areas, meeting spaces, offices, mission operations center and enormous high bay will be put to immediate use." Xplore says it's already working on projects for commercial customers as well as for NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Space Force and Air Force. Last year, for example, NOAA awarded Xplore $670,000 to study future options for a space-based solar weather observatory. Eventually, the company intends to become a one-stop shop for "space as a service" satellite operations, extending to the moon, Mars, Venus, asteroids and other deep-space destinations. Among Xplore's advisers are Alan Stern, principal investigator for NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt; Lou Friedman, co-founder of the Planetary Society; Keith Masback, former president and CEO of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation; and Rob Meyerson, operating partner at C5 Capital and former president of Blue Origin. ""Xplore's new facility further strengthens the Pacific Northwest as the national leader for satellite and spacecraft development," Meyerson said in today's news release. "I look forward to seeing the Xcraft and LightCraft in production." The company's new facility is within sight of the building where SpaceX had its first satellite facility in Redmond, and not far from SpaceX's current Starlink satellite manufacturing complex as well as the Redmond headquarters for Amazon's Project Kuiper satellite project. LeoStella's satellite factory is in Tukwila, Wash., close to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Xplore, a Seattle-area startup that aims to build satellites for interplanetary missions, has a new address in Redmond, Wash. — in the same office complex that once housed the Planetary Resources asteroid-mining venture. "Xplore's 22,000-square-foot facility is tailor-made for satellite manufacturing," Lisa Rich, the company's founder and chief operating officer, said today in a news release. "It is large, expandable and can currently accommodate the research, development, production and operation of 20 spacecraft per year." And when Rich says the location is tailor-made for satellites, she's not just speaking figuratively: Several years ago, Planetary Resources built a pair of pathfinder… Read MoreSpace, Redmond, Satellite, Satellites, Xplore The post Xplore reveals its plans to open satellite manufacturing facility in Seattle area appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy       |
| Amazon is suing to stop illegal text scams from using its name Posted: 12 May 2021 01:41 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Jacob Siegal  As indispensable as our phones have become, they are also a conduit for some of the most pervasive and persistent scams humanity has ever encountered. About 90% of the phone calls I receive on a weekly basis are spam, as are an increasing percentage of my texts. You're probably in the same boat, and among the most common text scams is one you are probably all too familiar with: Amazon raffles. Hopefully you were never tricked into thinking that you actually won something from Amazon, but the texts keep coming whether or not you tap on the malicious links. As frustrated as you might be with the text spam bombardment you've been receiving, it turns out that Amazon is just as fed up. This week, the online retailer announced that it filed a federal lawsuit in the Western District of Washington against 50 unnamed individuals for the operation of an illegal advertising scheme. Today’s Top DealAmazon shoppers are obsessed with these Wi-Fi smart plugs – get them for just $4.20 each!Price: $16.79
Amazon describes how the text message advertising scheme works in a press release regarding the lawsuit: Bad actors in these schemes profit by creating fraudulent text message campaigns that drive traffic to advertisers and websites. These fake text messages are intentionally designed to trick unsuspecting consumers to click on a link by using Amazon's name and offering recipients "rewards" or other "gifts." Instead, victims are redirected to a website to take a survey, which also fraudulently uses Amazon's brand and promises a reward for participation. Once participants click for their reward, they are sent on to online marketers, advertisers and websites to buy products or services that have no relation to Amazon. The defendants profit from fees paid to them by affiliate marketing networks and advertisers for the fraudulently created traffic. Unsurprisingly, Amazon doesn't want its name attached to these schemes, and by filing suit, the company will be able to "expand its investigation and hold the bad actors accountable." In the legal complaint, Amazon refers to those "bad actors" as John Does 1-50, because they have yet to be identified, but as The Verge explains, this opens the door to possible Doe subpoenas, which would allow Amazon to track down the defendants. Whether or not Amazon will be able to trace these spammy text messages back to a source remains to be seen, but the company did so successfully back in 2018. Here are details from the press release: Amazon invests significant resources to protect customers and its brand, and has a history of identifying and shutting down similar operations. Amazon has already filed five lawsuits against fraudulent affiliate marketing schemes, won multiple injunctions in court to stop the illegal activities, and entered settlements with seven parties in which they agreed to stop their campaigns and pay in excess of $1.5 million in damages. We'll have to wait and see whether or not this new lawsuit is enough to put a damper on the fake Amazon texts. Today’s Top DealDeal alert: Amazon shoppers are swarming to get this 2K camera drone that folds up as small as a smartphone!Price: $64.99 Amazon describes how the text message advertising scheme works in a press release regarding the lawsuit: The post Amazon is suing to stop illegal text scams from using its name appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy       |
| Google Chrome is about to get a great new feature for sharing links Posted: 12 May 2021 01:41 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Chris Smith  Google Chrome faces well-deserved criticism about how it handles computer resources, which can significantly impact battery life on laptops. Google also plans to implement new user tracking technologies for Chrome, replacing third-party cookies with FLoC, which has received plenty of backlash in the past few months. These are good reasons to ditch Chrome and replace it with an alternative, but Chrome remains the top internet browser, a favorite tool for many people. That's because Google keeps coming up with neat new features for Chrome that might very well compensate for the more controversial ones. And Google is already working on a brand new change for Chrome that might make link management even easier than before. Today’s Top DealThe crazy wireless camera that lets your smartphone see anywhere is under $29 – Amazon’s lowest price ever!Price: $28.85
Whether you use Chrome for work or personal web surfing, the omnibox is where much of the action happens. That's where you type in search queries and website addresses and where you copy URLs for sharing with others. The omnibox also offers quick security information about websites and lets you perform additional actions, such as saving a website to bookmarks, entering reader mode, translating pages, and blocking cookies. The omnibox menu might vary depending on the website and the various options you've enabled in Chrome. Google plans on adding another useful button to the omnibox that already appears in the newest Chrome Canary (beta) releases. The "Plus" menu that Chrome Story found might be called Desktop Sharing Hub, 9to5Google explains. That's its current name if you're looking to enable it in the chrome://flags menu. New Share menu in Google Chrome beta. Press that "+" icon and a new menu shows up, revealing at least four "Share" actions for the user. You can copy the link at hand, generate a QR code, "Save page as…" and Cast it to Chromecast-connected devices. If you're signed into Chrome, then a "Send to your devices" option might also appear in the menu. The QR code button isn't new, as that's just one of those buttons you might see appear for some websites right now. But it's included in the "Plus" menu in the example above. Copying and sharing links is part of the daily internet browsing routines for many people. Having these tools placed in a simple menu that's immediately available makes plenty of sense, as is the Cast button, which is currently hidden in the hamburger menu on the side. It's unclear at this time whether additional buttons can be added to the menu. Extensions installed in Chrome might generate buttons of their own, assuming Google wants to allow such complex functionality for the new share menu. It's also unclear when the feature will roll out, but it's currently available on Chrome Canary v92, so you can experience it on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Chrome OS right away. Today’s Top DealAmazon shoppers are obsessed with these Wi-Fi smart plugs – get them for just $4.20 each!Price: $16.79 These are good reasons to ditch Chrome and replace it with an alternative, but Chrome remains the top internet browser, a favorite tool for many people. That's because Google keeps coming up with neat new features for Chrome that might very well compensate for the more controversial ones. And Google is already working on a brand new change for Chrome that might make link management even easier than before. Whether you use Chrome for work or personal web surfing, the omnibox is where much of the action happens. That's where you type in search queries and website addresses and where you copy URLs for sharing with others. The omnibox also offers quick security information about websites and lets you perform additional actions, such as saving a website to bookmarks, entering reader mode, translating pages, and blocking cookies. The omnibox menu might vary depending on the website and the various options you've enabled in Chrome. Google plans on adding another useful button to the omnibox that already appears in the newest Chrome Canary (beta) releases. The "Plus" menu that Chrome Story found might be called Desktop Sharing Hub, 9to5Google explains. That's its current name if you're looking to enable it in the chrome://flags menu. Press that "+" icon and a new menu shows up, revealing at least four "Share" actions for the user. You can copy the link at hand, generate a QR code, "Save page as…" and Cast it to Chromecast-connected devices. If you're signed into Chrome, then a "Send to your devices" option might also appear in the menu. The QR code button isn't new, as that's just one of those buttons you might see appear for some websites right now. But it's included in the "Plus" menu in the example above. Copying and sharing links is part of the daily internet browsing routines for many people. Having these tools placed in a simple menu that's immediately available makes plenty of sense, as is the Cast button, which is currently hidden in the hamburger menu on the side. It’s unclear at this time whether additional buttons can be added to the menu. Extensions installed in Chrome might generate buttons of their own, assuming Google wants to allow such complex functionality for the new share menu. It's also unclear when the feature will roll out, but it's currently available on Chrome Canary v92, so you can experience it on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Chrome OS right away.google, Google Chrome The post Google Chrome is about to get a great new feature for sharing links appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy       |
| IXL Learning lays off 16 employees in Seattle after acquiring Rosetta Stone Posted: 12 May 2021 12:39 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Taylor Soper  The news: San Mateo, Calif.-based edtech company IXL Learning will cut 16 jobs in Seattle following the company's acquisition of Rosetta Stone, according to a WARN notice filed with the state of Washington. "There were some personnel changes as we integrated Rosetta Stone into IXL, and we are evaluating how we can best incorporate the Seattle office into our future plans," IXL spokesperson Eric Bates said in a statement. Rosetta Stone, a 29-year-old company based in Arlington, Va., and known for its language learning software, had about 40 employees at its Seattle hub when the acquisition closed in March. The news: San Mateo, Calif.-based edtech company IXL Learning will cut 16 jobs in Seattle following the company's acquisition of Rosetta Stone, according to a WARN notice filed with the state of Washington. "There were some personnel changes as we integrated Rosetta Stone into IXL, and we are evaluating how we can best incorporate the Seattle office into our future plans," IXL spokesperson Eric Bates said in a statement. Rosetta Stone, a 29-year-old company based in Arlington, Va., and known for its language learning software, had about 40 employees at its Seattle hub when the acquisition closed in March.Tech The post IXL Learning lays off 16 employees in Seattle after acquiring Rosetta Stone appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy       |
| How this tech engineer is using his son’s rare disease as inspiration to disrupt drug development Posted: 12 May 2021 12:39 PM PDT dWeb.News Article from Lisa Stiffler  Sanath Kumar Ramesh with his wife Ramya and son Raghav. (Photo courtesy of the Ramesh family) Before their son was born, Sanath Kumar Ramesh and his wife Ramya had normal first-time-parent jitters. Ramesh, who works for Amazon as a software engineering manager, was so excited to welcome his little boy. He was ready for the challenges and rewards of parenthood. In August 2018, Raghav was born, and Ramesh's life began changing in ways he'd never expected. On this episode of GeekWire's Health Tech Podcast, we're reconnecting with Ramesh to hear more of his compelling, inspiring story. We previously reported on Ramesh and Raghav's doctors and their efforts to treat Raghav. In this podcast we go deeper into Ramesh's experience as both a father and a talented tech engineer working to help both his son and others struggling to save loved ones battling rare diseases. Listen to the episode below, subscribe to GeekWire's Health Tech podcast wherever you listen, and continue reading for an edited transcript. Ramesh: Everything was smooth through pregnancy and everything up until Raghav was born was perfectly smooth. When he was born, he was so tiny, so precious. I remember holding him in my hands and thinking that my life has changed. My life has changed not because something bad happened, but because I have a purpose now. And the purpose is this baby. And we were super happy for the first three or four hours after birth until a doctor came to us and said, "There is something wrong with Raghav." RELATED: Tech-savvy dad launches open-source platform to save children with rare diseases – including his sonShe didn't quite understand what was going on at that time. But she said, "There's something wrong with Raghav. He does not look like a typical child. We believe there is something that's fundamentally going wrong with him to a point where he could have a lifelong illness, that Raghav might actually have a neurological problem. I had no idea what a neurological problem meant. We thought it something that you give a pill and get it done with. We spent the next 21 days in the hospital trying to figure out what was wrong with him. But we still came back home without an answer. And after we came back home, we were hoping this was just the trauma of the birth, this was just something that was one off, and this would go away over time. Lisa Stiffler, GeekWire: As Ramesh was to learn, Raghav faced bigger struggles than he ever would have imagined. But rather than despair, Ramesh unleashed his problem-solving, engineering nature to tackle the problem — carving a path of hope for his family, and for many others confronting similar situations. Early photos of Raghav capture a bright-eyed, smiling little baby with long eyelashes and black hair. He's adorable. And during his first year, Sanath and Ramya tried so hard to help their son grow and develop like a typical child. But he just couldn't do the things that a normal baby could. He needed a feeding tube to eat. When he got his first teeth — an exciting developmental milestone — he bit his tongue and lips. Raghav lacked the motor skills needed to control his movements. Month after month, Ramesh didn't know what was wrong with Raghav. When his son's first birthday came, the family was ready to set aside their difficulties and celebrate at a park in Bellevue, just east of Seattle. It was a beautiful, sunny Northwest summer afternoon. Ramesh: As I was getting ready to cut the cake, I got a call from Raghav's doctor and she said, "Oh, by the way, we found out what's wrong with Raghav. We found out his problem. He has this genetic condition due to a mutation in a gene called GPX4." And I was super happy in that instant. And I said to her, "Oh, this is awesome. OK, we'll come next week to get medications for him." And she said, "Hang on, there is no medication for this disease. And in fact, we believe Raghav might be the only kid alive with this condition. Because all the kids with this disease passed away a few weeks after birth." You know, here I am standing there getting ready to cut the cake, and someone is telling me that my son is lucky to be alive today. And that's the moment that transformed everything about about my life. I thought my life was transformed when my son was born. It was transformed again, on his first birthday. LS: It's excruciating to imagine hearing this news. To think of how you would process this new reality. Researchers estimate there are more than 6,000 different rare diseases, including the one that afflicts Raghav. An estimated 263 million people worldwide have unusual conditions, many of which are chronic or fatal, and most affect children. Given their rarities, almost none have treatments available. For Ramesh, this was a call to action. Ramesh: I'm a software engineer by training. And the one thing that is drilled into my head is that I have to solve problems. And at that point in my life I was getting really, really excited by really hard problems. And I thought the hardest problems to solve were debugging a piece of software. When I was presented with this problem, which is my son has a genetic disease, I thought of this as a problem I needed to solve. I started Googling about this disease and I couldn't even spell it at that point. I started Googling about this gene. And I first needed to know what a gene was in the first place. I knew there are things called genes, but I don't know why the hell they are in my body. And it took me a little bit of searching to realize that there is basically nothing about this disease in the literature. Sanath Kumar Ramesh with his son, Raghav. (Photo courtesy of the Ramesh family) LS: The condition that affects Raghav is extremely rare and it's a mouthful: Sedaghatian type Spondylometaphyseal Dysplasia. It's so rare, that it didn't yet have an acronym, so Ramesh gave it one: SSMD. The condition causes cardiac arrhythmia, and skeletal and central nervous system abnormalities. SSMD is the result of a genetic mutation that sends oxygen free-radicals and iron running amok inside of cells, killing them. One of Raghav's doctors at Seattle Children's Hospital, Dr. Russ Saneto, said that he knows of four other cases in the world: two kids in San Diego, one in Japan and another child in Belgium who died. But there were other researchers who worked on the gene, called GPX4, so Ramesh reached out to them. Ramesh: There was a lot of information about the gene, people were talking about it rom a cancer perspective, from an aging perspective. There was even a very recent, very new biological pathway that was invented on top of this gene that people were really excited about. So I quickly found all of latest publishers on this topic and started reaching out to them, and put together a very small team of researchers and technicians that could hopefully work with me. And then I also realized that given the severity of this disease, finding a new treatment is not going to be possible. Because during my search, I realized that building new therapies are 8 to 10 years of work, and cost billions of dollars that a biotech company would invest in. And I don't have the time and I don't have the money. LS: But Ramesh was smart and he was resourceful. And his son needed help now. So given that a breakthrough treatment wasn't right around the corner, he thought about what was, which is the local pharmacy. Ramesh wondered if there were existing medicines that could help Raghav. Something off the shelf, right now. Working with his son's doctors at Seattle Children's Hospital, they came up with 36 drugs that might be repurposed for Raghav's condition, and settled on a cocktail of four. Within a month of learning his son's diagnosis, Ramesh had come up with a treatment, which includes vitamin E and other antioxidants. And the doctors were able to successfully petition the FDA to let them use another drug that a pharmaceutical company was developing for a different disease. The approach appears to have helped, stabilizing Raghav's fragile health. But it's not a permanent solution. Ramesh: The more long term treatment for these conditions are using a technology called gene replacement therapy. The idea is very straightforward. My son has a mutation in this gene called GPX4. And a mutation is, in software terms, a bug. There are there are several characters that encode this gene, and one of his characters is misspelled. The gene replacement therapy idea is that you replace the faulty gene with a good one. Sounds straightforward, right? But unfortunately, it is not that straightforward. There are a lot of processes that you have to follow. It's pretty complex. And it costs $5 to 7 million to build a treatment for my son. And it still takes a lot more money to do a clinical trial to get the FDA approval and make the drug available for the larger population around the world. My son's condition has, at this point, only nine patients worldwide, so it's super, ultra rare. At this scale, we are not going to get a commercial approval from the FDA at all, which is fine, we'll just keep treating the patients under an experimental setting as much as we can. LS: Ramesh is not alone in searching for a therapy for a family member's rare disease. There are numerous foundations created on behalf of loved ones suffering from unusual ailments. The organizations raise what resources they can, and try to recruit experts to help them develop gene therapy treatments. It's expensive and in some ways the risks could not be higher — you're literally trying to improve or save the life of someone you hold dear. The stakes weighed on Ramesh. Ramesh: When I started with my son's gene therapy, I started thinking, well, I can do a lot of work, I can spend 24 hours nonstop working for 365 days. But what if I fail? What if the people that are with me fail? And so I started asking other patients and patient foundations about their experience building gene therapies, to learn about their successes, but more importantly, their failures. What I came to realize is a lot of patient foundations fail and struggle and make mistakes. They have to reset multiple times. They have raised multiple millions of dollars to get to a treatment. When that eventually happens, like 10 or 20 years from when they started, their kids are probably not going to be benefiting from it. Either they're too old to participate in trials, or they're too sick. And that is not a happy outcome for me. And so I really needed to hedge against this risk of me failing because of myself. LS: That led Ramesh to employ a very techie idea: open-source engineering. As he was building a team and searching for a cure for his son, Ramesh decided that he would bring along others who are on parallel journeys. He is now the founder and CEO of OpenTreatments Foundation, a nonprofit that recently launched an open-source platform called OpenTreatments. The platform is a playbook and collection of resources for foundations and people who are also on the quest for rare disease treatments. There are four rare diseases currently running as pilot projects on OpenTreatments, including the one afflicting Raghav. Ramesh and a team of volunteers built the platform through a collaboration named RareCamp. Ramesh: I ended up identifying a mechanism where I can help not only my son's gene therapy, but also help a lot of other families. And just being a software developer obsessed with scale, which is what we do at work, I wanted to not help one or two families, I wanted to be able to help hundreds of thousands of families. I feel like eventually we should be able to have millions of patients that are driving research. That's the North Star of OpenTreatments. That's how I stumbled upon thinking about building a software platform. OpenTreatments provides a clear roadmap to patient foundations to build the treatments. We connect them with the right people who are necessary to advance their programs. And we connect them with the right scientific infrastructure necessary for them to advance research activities. And hopefully, we should also be able to attract funding to help the patient foundations move forward. This is how OpenTreatments was born out of me hedging my own risk. LS: Work is underway to help Raghav. Ramesh has assembled a team of experts from universities around the world. They're studying the GPX4 gene and the biology of SSMD. They're pushing toward that ultimate goal of creating a gene therapy, but it could take three years or more to get there. In the meantime, Ramesh's wife keeps working to raise money for the effort. So far they've raised about $5 million dollars. They're also working with Raghav's doctors to get FDA permission to use a second experimental drug. Part of the idea of OpenTreatments is that each foundation does its own fundraising, and pursues the genetic and disease research for each unique, rare disease. Then when they get to the drug development phase, a team that's shared through OpenTreatments can help them navigate that process, which is less disease specific. That's where some of that scalability comes into play. And Ramesh's work on OpenTreatments and rare diseases made him think about the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries in a much bigger way. He is upset and frustrated by a system that ignores sick and suffering people if there's not enough money to be made treating them. That's one of the reasons that Bill Gates became involved with vaccines through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. There were so many diseases hammering lower-income countries, but pharmaceutical companies didn't have an incentive to treat them. There wasn't enough money to be made. Ramesh sees parallels in the world of rare diseases. He wants to untangle the knotted up web of drug development so that it can work more effectively. So that it won't leave the Raghavs behind. Ramesh: It's a web of things. And over time, it has evolved to add more layers of complexity into the web. And now it's like a hairball. Previously, it was a beautiful web and a simple web that had a purpose. Now you have to just keep looking back for a time when the web was simple and ask, "Why was this web created this way? And what added complexities into the web?" You have to untangle this mess of hairball and make it a beautiful web. How do you do that? There are many ways of doing it, and typically it's by governing the flow of money. If you govern the flow of money in the right direction, and if you push enough money into it, the web will sort of reconfigure into a new state. That's the sort of a theoretical way of thinking. The more practical way to say it is, we do not have a lot of therapies today in the market. That's because the regulators haven't approved a lot of therapies. The regulators haven't approved them because the biotech is not producing a lot of therapies. Biotech is not producing a lot because academia is not producing a lot of preclinical data. Academia is not producing because they're not incentivized to do it. And they're not incentivized, because [the National Institutes of Health] is not incentivizing it, going back to the regulators. We solve this is by putting a lot more people into building therapies. Imagine rather than having 10 patient foundations, or 100 patient foundations today driving research, if there were millions of people driving research, how big the output would be. At that scale of preclinical research and research output, how many therapies will be entering the market? Do we have enough VC funds to even fund this many companies? Do we have manufacturing capacities to actually satisfy this? Do we have regulatory frameworks? If you kind of walk it back, the starting point is actually getting more people to build more therapies, and everything else will fall in place. And that is what I'm trying to do by decentralizing drug development. LS: And the lever that Ramesh has to pull is OpenTreatments. Ramesh: With OpenTreatments, I'm able to support established foundations that have a scientific board. They have made some progress already, have raised some funds, they know what they're doing. I'm not able to help people that have just gotten the diagnosis that don't really know what they're doing at this point. It takes a lot of emotional transformations for you to be able to work on something like this for your own personal good. The transformation is primarily the acceptance of risk, is the acceptance that we will fail, will fail miserably, it might not be in time for our kids. It takes a lot of grit and determination to be able to do this. Some parents have that acceptance, and they get the acceptance right away. Some parents don't. I try to talk to as many people as I can. And for folks that have decided to start a foundation, I have collaborated with the Orphan Disease Center at the University of Pennsylvania. They are providing exceptional support for families to get started on this journey. Many of them are working with the ODC, they're jump-starting to get the foundation solid. In other cases, my story has provided hope to a lot of people. It's shown that there is something else that you can do besides struggling. So I continue to share my story precisely because of that, so other people can be more hopeful and feel less emotional, and be driven to action. Listen above or subscribe to GeekWire Health Tech in any podcast app. Before their son was born, Sanath Kumar Ramesh and his wife Ramya had normal first-time-parent jitters. Ramesh, who works for Amazon as a software engineering manager, was so excited to welcome his little boy. He was ready for the challenges and rewards of parenthood. In August 2018, Raghav was born, and Ramesh's life began changing in ways he'd never expected. On this episode of GeekWire's Health Tech Podcast, we're reconnecting with Ramesh to hear more of his compelling, inspiring story. We previously reported on Ramesh and Raghav's doctors and their efforts to treat Raghav. In this podcast we go deeper… Read MoreHealth Tech Podcast, OpenTreatments Foundation, Rare Diseases, RareCamp The post How this tech engineer is using his son's rare disease as inspiration to disrupt drug development appeared first on dWeb.News Daniel Webster dWeb Internet Cowboy       |
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