“The Snake, The FBI, And Center 16: Why The Takedown Of A ‘Most Sophisticated Cyber-Espionage Tool’ Is Important”
“For more than a decade, a unique bit of malicious computer code was burrowed in the deepest corners of Internet servers in more than 50 countries, secretly gathering data and even records of what a person might be typing on a keyboard. Important information was extracted and covertly sent via a network of other infected computers, hiding its tracks from easy detection, back to the code’s creators.
Called various names — Snake, Uroburos, Venomous Bear — the malware was suspected in a damaging hack of Germany’s Foreign Ministry in 2017. NATO computers were reportedly compromised. The personal computer of a journalist who worked for a U.S. news organization and reported on the Russian government was reportedly targeted.
This week, authorities in the United States, Britain, Canada, and two other countries announced they had effectively unplugged the malware, disrupting a powerful surveillance tool that, they said, had been developed by Center 16, a cutting-edge cyber-unit of Russia’s main intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB).”
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-fsb-malware-snake-takedown/32407612.html
“The Americas Will Take Crown for Biggest Oil Growth as OPEC Shrinks”
“For the first time in at least two years, the Americas will be the world’s biggest driver of oil production growth, while OPEC cuts back.”
“For the first time in at least two years, the Americas will be the world’s biggest driver of oil production growth, while OPEC cuts back.
Western hemisphere producers will add more than 1.6 million barrels a day of new supply this year, shifting the balance of growth away from the cartel that has, until this year, led global production gains, according to the Energy Information Administration. And that growth won’t just come from US shale producers, who have long vied with OPEC for market share, but from fields across South America and even Canada that can’t be easily turned off when prices slide.
That new production will almost completely offset the output cuts OPEC — and even ally Russia — are undertaking from May as they seek to shore up global oil prices.”