Category Archives: Yahoo

(Bloomberg) -- Days before Christmas in 2015, Juniper Networks Inc. alerted users that it had been breached. In a brief statement, the company said it had discovered unauthorized code in one of its network security products, allowing hackers to decipher encrypted communications and gain high-level access to customers computer systems.

Further details were scant, but Juniper made clear the implications were serious: It urged users to download a software update with the highest priority.

More than five years later, the breach of Junipers network remains an enduring mystery in computer security, an attack on Americas software supply chain that potentially exposed highly sensitive customers including telecommunications companies and U.S. military agencies to years of spying before the company issued a patch.

Those intruders havent yet been publicly identified, and if there were any victims other than Juniper, they havent surfaced to date. But one crucial detail about the incident has long been known uncovered by independent researchers days after Junipers alert in 2015 and continues to raise questions about the methods U.S. intelligence agencies use to monitor foreign adversaries.

The Juniper product that was targeted, a popular firewall device called NetScreen, included an algorithm written by the National Security Agency. Security researchers have suggested that the algorithm contained an intentional flaw otherwise known as a backdoor that American spies could have used to eavesdrop on the communications of Junipers overseas customers. NSA declined to address allegations about the algorithm.

Junipers breach remains important and the subject of continued questions from Congress because it highlights the perils of governments inserting backdoors in technology products.

As government agencies and misguided politicians continue to push for backdoors into our personal devices, policymakers and the American people need a full understanding of how backdoors will be exploited by our adversaries, Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, said in a statement to Bloomberg. He demanded answers in the last year from Juniper and from the NSA about the incident, in letters signed by 10 or more members of Congress.

Story continues

Against that backdrop, a Bloomberg News investigation has filled in significant new details, including why Sunnyvale, California-based Juniper, a top maker of computer networking equipment, used the NSA algorithm in the first place, and who was behind the attack.

Juniper installed the NSA code an algorithm with the unwieldy name Dual Elliptic Curve Deterministic Random Bit Generator in NetScreen devices beginning in 2008 even though the companys engineers knew there was a vulnerability that some experts considered a backdoor, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and three Juniper employees who were involved with or briefed about the decision.

The reason was that the Department of Defense, a major customer and NSAs parent agency, insisted on its inclusion despite the availability of other, more trusted alternatives, according to the official and the three employees. The algorithm had just become a federal standard at NSAs behest, alongside three similar ones that werent mired in controversy, and the Pentagon tied some future contracts for Juniper specifically to the use of Dual Elliptic Curve, the employees said. The request prompted concern among some Juniper engineers, but ultimately the code was added to appease a large customer, the employees said. The Department of Defense declined to discuss its relationship with Juniper.

Members of a hacking group linked to the Chinese government called APT 5 hijacked the NSA algorithm in 2012, according to two people involved with Junipers investigation and an internal document detailing its findings that Bloomberg reviewed. The hackers altered the algorithm so they could decipher encrypted data flowing through the virtual private network connections created by NetScreen devices. They returned in 2014 and added a separate backdoor that allowed them to directly access NetScreen products, according to the people and the document.

While previous reports have attributed the attacks to the Chinese government, Bloomberg for the first time has identified the hacking group and its tactics. In the past year, APT 5 is suspected of engineering intrusions into dozens of companies and government agencies, according to cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc., which added that the hackers have long sought to identify or introduce vulnerabilities into encryption products to enable breaches of their ultimate targets: defense and technology companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

After detecting the 2012 and 2014 breaches of its network, Juniper failed to understand their significance or recognize that they were related, according to the two people involved with Junipers investigation and the internal document. At the time, the company found that hackers had accessed its e-mail system and stolen data from infected computers, but investigators mistakenly believed the intrusions were separate and limited to theft of corporate intellectual property, according to the people and the document.

Juniper declined to answer specific questions from Bloomberg. The company provided a statement that reiterated its comments from 2015 about the operating system for its Netscreen products, which is called ScreenOS.

Several years ago, during an internal code review, Juniper Networks discovered unauthorized code in ScreenOS that could allow a knowledgeable attacker to gain administrative access to NetScreen devices and to decrypt VPN connections, the company said. Once we identified these vulnerabilities, we launched an internal and coordinated external investigation and worked to develop and issue patched releases for the impacted devices. We also immediately and successfully reached out to affected customers, strongly recommending that they update their systems and apply the patched releases with the highest priority.

In a July 2020 response to Wyden and other members of Congress, Juniper provided few new details of the case but blamed the intrusions on a sophisticated nation-state hacking unit. NSA told Wydens staff in 2018 that there was a lessons learned report, but the agency now asserts that it cannot locate this document, according to a Wyden aide. Reuters previously reported NSAs claim that the document had been lost.

I am extremely disappointed that the NSA refused to answer my questions about their reported role in the Juniper affair, Wyden said in his statement.

The NSA declined to comment to Bloomberg. Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, China firmly opposes and combats all forms of cyberattacks and opposes arbitrary labeling and malicious attacks on China in the absence of conclusive evidence.

The U.S. government and related agencies have carried out large-scale, organized and indiscriminate cyber theft, surveillance and attacks on foreign governments, companies and individuals, according to the ministry. The U.S. should stop being the thief who calls out to catch the thief.

Bloombergs findings add new details to a long-running and contentious debate over the use of backdoors secret digital pathways that bypass security measures and allow high-level access to computer networks.

Some of the governments prior efforts to install backdoors in U.S. products are well known, including an ill-fated effort to equip American-designed telecommunications equipment with NSAs Clipper chip in the early 1990s. Two decades later, leaked documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed some of the agency's secret techniques for penetrating encryption, lending credence to allegations that NSA installed a backdoor in the Dual Elliptic Curve algorithm, according to multiple news articles based on the files.

More recently, in October, the Department of Justice under then-President Trump published a joint statement with counterparts in the U.K. and Australia saying modern encryption poses significant challenges to public safety and urging technology companies to implement reasonable, technically feasible solutions to allow authorities backdoor access when required.

The governments classified policies around the practice are shrouded in such secrecy that critics worry about potential abuses.

Junipers case is a perfect example of the danger of government backdoors, said Jennifer Stisa Granick, surveillance and cybersecurity counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "There is no such thing as a backdoor that only the U.S. government can exploit.

NetScreen was an innovative company that Juniper acquired for $4 billion in 2004. Its products combined a firewall, which controls who can access computers on a network, and VPNs, which encrypt users data as it travels over the internet.

Customers included major banks and nine of the 10 top global telecommunications companies, according to a Juniper investor presentation. The Defense Department was a major customer, too, and enjoyed direct access to high-ranking Juniper employees.

At least once a year, Pentagon officials traveled to Junipers headquarters to meet with a small group of NetScreens senior engineering managers to review planned product upgrades and ensure they would meet federal security standards, according to the former senior U.S. intelligence official and the three Juniper employees who either attended or were briefed about the meetings.

By 2008, the Department of Defense had presented Juniper with a tricky proposition: If the company wanted NetScreen to qualify for certain future contracts with the military and intelligence agencies, it would need to add the Dual Elliptic Curve algorithm to NetScreens ScreenOS software, the four people said.

The NSA algorithm, which was purported to improve security for encrypted communications, had been approved as a standard for government systems despite red flags. In 2007, Microsoft Corp. researchers had published a technical paper warning that it contained a likely backdoor. The researchers homed in on something called the Q value, a large number in the algorithm used to help create encryption keys. At the time, NSA had a specific value it recommended. According to the researchers, whoever picked the value could calculate the secret contents of those keys and ultimately decrypt communications.

Nonetheless, the National Institute of Standards and Technology a Department of Commerce agency that sets security requirements for federal computer systems made the algorithm part of a federal cryptographic standard in 2008 at NSAs direction, one of four that could be selected. Federal agencies and government contractors are required to follow NIST guidance, and the private sector often follows those standards.

Juniper was aware of concerns about a possible backdoor and also criticism that the algorithm was notoriously slow, according to the three employees present for or briefed about the meetings with the Pentagon. But because NIST had validated the algorithm, Juniper went forward with the proposal to satisfy a big customer, they said.

After Snowdens disclosures in 2013 renewed concerns about the NSA algorithm, Juniper said in a security advisory that NetScreen products had two safeguards designed to prevent any exploitation of the vulnerability. However, after the companys breach disclosure in 2015, independent researchers discovered that one of them failed, and the other was rendered ineffective by the hackers tampering.

Juniper wasnt the only organization that used the algorithm.

OpenSSL, whose open-source encryption software is used by millions of websites, also incorporated it. A sponsor of the project requested its inclusion to meet NIST standards, Steve Marquess, a project manager, wrote in 2013. We didnt make [Dual Elliptic Curve] a default anywhere and I didnt think anyone would be stupid enough to actually use it in a real-world context," he wrote. Marquess didnt identify the sponsor. He didnt respond to a request for comment.

Microsoft Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and other companies included it in their products as well, according to a database maintained by NIST. Dual Elliptic Curve often came in a package of encryption software that contained all four federally approved algorithms that were part of the same standard, and companies could decide whether or how to make them available to their customers.

Microsoft and Cisco made other algorithms the default choices. Cisco, in a blog post, acknowledged using third-party software that included Dual Elliptic Curve but said the algorithm was not in use in any Cisco products. A company representative declined further comment. Microsoft declined to comment.

Industry pioneer RSA Security received $10 million from the NSA in a deal that set Dual Elliptic Curve as the default in a package of encryption software that it licensed to other technology companies, Reuters reported in 2013. RSA and its owner, Symphony Technology Group, didnt respond to messages from Bloomberg.

Junipers investigations of its breaches in 2012 and 2014 underestimated the hacking threats facing the company, mistakenly concluding that those incidents were attempts to steal trade secrets that had little effect, according to the two people involved in Junipers investigation and the internal document. The company reported the incidents to the FBI and the Defense Department but downplayed their significance to those agencies, based on its understanding of the intrusions at the time, the people said.

Juniper had missed an important clue.

In its 2012 probe, Juniper learned that the hackers had stolen a file containing NetScreens ScreenOS source code from an engineers computer. The company didnt realize that the hackers returned a short time later, accessed a server where new versions of ScreenOS were prepared before being made available to customers and altered the code, according to the two people involved in the 2015 investigation and the document. The hackers' tweak involved changing the Q value that the NSA algorithm used the very same vulnerability that Microsoft researchers had identified years earlier. The hack allowed them to potentially bypass customers' encryption and eavesdrop on their communications.

Juniper said in its December 2015 statement that it discovered the tampering during an internal code review. The company hired FireEyes Mandiant division, a leader in digital forensics, to help investigate, according to the people and the document. The investigation concluded APT 5 was behind the attacks, the people said.

A spokesperson for Mandiant declined to comment.

Juniper revealed few specifics, but independent researchers filled in many details about what happened, identifying the illicit change to the Q value and the insertion of an unauthorized master password, disguised as debugging code. The hackers could use the password to gain access to NetScreen products.

Years later, Russian hackers were discovered using a similar method, inserting a backdoor in software updates from Austin, Texas-based SolarWinds Corp., an attack a Microsoft executive described as the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen. The attackers ultimately infiltrated nine U.S. agencies and at least 100 companies using the backdoor and other methods.

In the last year, a group suspected to be APT 5 has targeted VPN devices made by San Jose, California-based Pulse Secure LLC in attacks on dozens of companies and government agencies, according to FireEye. Daniel Spicer, chief security officer at Ivanti Inc., Pulse Secures parent company, said in a statement that a highly sophisticated threat actor was behind the attacks but declined to discuss the attribution or motivation. The company found no evidence that its source code had been modified. A rigorous code review is just one of the steps we are taking to further bolster our security and protect our customers, he said.

Because of their central role in telecommunications systems, Juniper products have been a longtime target for intelligence agencies, according to a 2011 document leaked by Snowden. It revealed that GCHQ the British signals intelligence agency developed secret exploits against at least 13 different models of NetScreen firewalls, with the knowledge of the NSA. Other classified NSA memos support cybersecurity experts suspicions about Dual Elliptic Curve, indicating the NSA created a backdoor and pushed the algorithm on NIST and other standards bodies. One NSA memo, cited in news articles based on the documents, called the effort a challenge in finesse.

Based on Snowdens revelations, NIST revoked its support for the algorithm in 2014. In a statement, NIST said its decision was due to the implications suggested by the Snowden revelations. Use and implementation of an encryption technology is rooted in trust, and NIST no longer had full trust in the base assumptions made for the security of the NSA algorithm, the agency said.

While the Pentagon wouldn't discuss specific questions about its relationship with Juniper, it responded to Bloomberg News with a general statement about its cybersecurity. In light of increasingly frequent and complex cyber intrusion efforts by adversaries and non-state actors, the department is constantly applying mitigations, improving defenses, and closing vulnerabilities in our global information network, said spokesman Russell Goemaere.

Juniper warned in a December 2015 technical bulletin that there was no way for customers to know if their NetScreen VPN traffic was intercepted and decrypted. And while any use of the illicit master password would have left a small record, Juniper cautioned that a skilled hacker could delete it and effectively eliminate any reliable signature that that device had been compromised.

For all the twists and lingering questions, cybersecurity experts and civil liberties defenders say the Juniper incident shows the perils of inserting backdoors for spy agencies, the companies involved and their customers.

Time and again, weve seen the government lose control of vulnerabilities, said Jim Dempsey, a lecturer on cybersecurity at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. The bigger lesson from the whole Juniper ordeal is that the government cannot control its vulnerabilities. With Michael Riley and Christopher Cannon

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Here is the original post:

Juniper Breach Mystery Starts to Clear With New Details on Hackers and U.S. Role - Yahoo Finance

The U.S. saw the least number of new unemployment filings since March 2020 last week as employers sought out more workers to fill open positions during the recovery.

The Labor Department released its weekly jobless claims report on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here were the main metrics from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

Initial unemployment claims, week ended August 28: 340,000 vs. 345,000and a revised 354,000 during the prior week

Continuing claims, week ended August 21: 2.748 million vs. 2.808 million and a revised 2.908 million during the prior week

Initial unemployment claims returned to their downtrend after a modest uptick last week. Filings have fallen sharply relative to August last year, when new claims were coming in at nearly 900,000 a week. And as of the latest data, the four-week moving average for new claims which smooths out volatility in the weekly data dipped by nearly 12,000 to 355,000.

The trajectory toward improvement has come alongside broadening vaccinations and business reopenings in the U.S., but has still been partially hindered by lingering concerns over the virus. Some economists have also pointed to federal enhanced unemployment benefits as another factor keeping some workers on the sidelines and still claiming jobless insurance. These pandemic-era programs, however, will expire by Sept. 6 in the about two dozen states still offering them.

As of the week ended Aug. 14, about 12.2 million Americans were claiming benefits of all forms, including both regular state and enhanced federal unemployment benefits. That marked an increase of nearly 179,000 versus the previous period, though the overall trend over the past several months has been decreasing. Some 9.2 million Americans were claiming benefits via the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs, which will each end within a week.

A primary concern for the economy has remained labor supply shortages, with employers still struggling to find enough qualified workers to fill vacancies.

Story continues

Other economic data has pointed to a slowdown in the pace of rehiring, especially as the Delta variant's spread has kept some workers on the sidelines over concerns of infection. ADP's private payrolls report on Wednesday showed the U.S. economy added back just 374,000 jobs in August, falling far short of the 625,000 that had been expected.

"The jobs recovery hasn't stalled, but new hires are clearly crawling along in the slow lane after the strong gains seen in the first half of the year," Chris Rupkey, chief economist for FWDBONDS, wrote in an email on Wednesday. "The reports of labor shortages in many industries is real and is evidence that the Fed is closer to achieving its maximum employment goal."

Friday's "official" monthly jobs report from the Labor Department is also expected to reflect a slowdown in hiring, with consensus economists looking for 748,000 non-farm payroll additions after July's 943,000. During the survey week for the August jobs report in the middle of the month, new weekly jobless claims had reached a pandemic-era low of 349,000.

Emily McCormick is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @emily_mcck

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit

View post:

Jobless claims: Another 340,000 individuals filed new claims, reaching the lowest since March 2020 - Yahoo Finance

British metal legends Iron Maiden recorded their 17th studio album, Senjutsu, in early 2019, but many of its tracks Days of Future Past, Darkest Hour, The Writing on the Wall, and Hell on Earth, for instance certainly seem appropriate for 2021.

Strangely, we have one or two songs that do appear to be on the Zeitgeist here of what's going on, frontman Bruce Dickinson tells Yahoo Entertainment with a wry laugh. I think Steve [Harris, Iron Maidens primary songwriter] sometimes feels very kind of alienated by some of the things going on in what purports to be the modern world. So, the sentiment [of Hell on Earth] is very much: You know what? This kind of sucks, this place. So if I end up kicking the bucket and departing this planet, then maybe when I come back, it'll be another time, a parallel universe, and everything is going to be cool again.

Dickinson quips, Frankly it pisses me off! when asked about Iron Maiden being unable to tour during the past year and a half due to coronavirus concerns, saying, I've just done some theater shows, but it's not the same as a giant, fire-breathing monster in front of 20,000 people. He actually recently had a breakthrough case COVID-19, which forced him to postpone some of those theater shows, but he notes that because he was vaccinated, he was absolutely fine. My belief is and I stress, it's a belief that this proves that I would have been more sick if I've not taken the vaccine. I mean, I had both jabs. Everybody I know has had both jabs. And I'm quite happy about it. You know, none of us have started growing extra heads, suddenly wanting sidle up to 5G phones, or expressed a willingness to go down on Bill Gates. So, all of these things, I think it's largely a myth!

While Dickinson still feels its a personal choice whether to get vaccinated, he does honestly find it incredible that some people are still resistant [to vaccines] And I mean, the [anti-]mask thing I genuinely do not understand. But he doesnt think vaccine skeptics are politically motivated. I think they believe [conspiracy theories] because of their psychological makeup. They have a need to believe in these things. It's the same as people that are going to sit on top of a mountain every year and wait for the world to end. And the world doesn't end, but do they modify their beliefs? Actually, no. It strengthens them: Yep, we were right all along. It is definitely going to end, just not this year. The rest of the world is against us! And that's the way that some people think. It's their mentality, and you're probably not going to change that. But for the rest of us I would say, just get vaccinated. And if you do get sick, you won't get that sick. It'll just be like a mild case of the flu.

Story continues

Senjutsu is Iron Maiden's first album since 2015, the same year that Dickinson underwent seven weeks of treatment for a cancerous tumor on the back of his tongue. Fortunately, the tumor was discovered in its early stages, and Dickinson was declared cancer-free by May 2015. He says despite being a cancer survivor, he wasnt concerned that his compromised immunity would make him more susceptible to the coronavirus but he does recall that at the time of his cancer diagnosis, he encountered some medical skeptics that reminded him of the current anti-vax movement. When [doubters] found out that I was having chemo and radiotherapy, they went, Oh my God, you're not doing that! Um, what do you think I should do? Eat more cabbage? That's going to get rid of it? So, yeah, medical technology worked really well for me.

Dickinsons famously operatic voice sounds at the peak of its powers on Senjutsus epic tracks, some of which are well over 10 minutes long. While Dickinson chucklingly clarifies that he obviously would have preferred not to get tongue cancer, surprisingly, he says that the cancer not only didnt compromise his vocals, but it actually improved them in the long run.

SAINT PAUL, MN - AUGUST 26: Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden performs during the Legacy of the Beast tour at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. (Photo: Jeff Wheeler/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

I had a three-and-a-half-centimeter [tumor] basically a golf ball living down at the base of my tongue, right at the base, he explains. So, that was sitting there for I really don't know how long by the time it got big enough to notice. But I did a whole album [2015s The Book of Souls] with that sort of sitting there. And when it went away, I guess there's a lot more space for the sound come out! Not to put too fine a point on it, but there's no more obstruction in the way, you know? So yeah, with the high notes I was like, Wow! Whoosh! There's a lot more horsepower in some of the high notes, which is interesting.

In early May [2015], I started trying to sing and it sounded absolutely terrible. I sounded like some wounded beast, Dickinson recalls of the early days of his recovery. I was just like, Oh my God!So, I waited another two or three months. I was wandering around the kitchen, waiting until everybody had gone out, and just started to give the voice a bit of a workout. I went, OK, let's have a go at the top. Dickinson then tested a few operatic lines of one of Maidens most classic songs, Run to the Hills, and suddenly all was well. I went, Oh, ooh, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Oh my God. And then I just relaxed, because I'm not in a hurry now; I know it's all there. It's come back.

While Dickinsons voice thankfully wasnt damaged by his illness, he insists that he was never worried about possibly having to relearn how to sing or, even worse, that he might not be able to sing ever again. There's always a way you can turn things into being a positive, he says. I mean, even if the worst happened and it completely messed with my voice to the extent that it changed completely, you have to take that and go, Well, what am I? Am I just some squeaky toy that makes noises, and if I don't make those noises, then I can't be an artist anymore? Just take a look at some great singers who have very unconventional voices. I'm thinking of somebody like Leonard Cohen there's a man who, self-confessed, was like, I have like virtually no voice. But because you're such a great communicator, the content of what you do comes through your voice. You don't have to be an opera singer to do that.

So, there's ways and means, like the line in the line in Jurassic Park: Nature will always find a way.

Read more on Yahoo Entertainment:

Follow Lyndsey on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Amazon, Spotify.

Video produced by Anne Lilburn, edited by Jason Fitzpatrick

Read more:

Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson talks surviving cancer and COVID: 'Medical technology worked really well for me' - Yahoo Entertainment

As millions of students continue to return to school over the coming weeks, one state's governor is stepping up the call for vaccinations among his constituents.

"You have to get vaccinated," West Virginia Governor Jim Justice said during a regular COVID-19 briefing on Friday. "The more that are vaccinated, the less that will die. That is absolutely the way it is."

The latest CDC data available lists West Virginia as having fully vaccinated 39.6% of the population with 47% receiving at least one dose. The West Virginia Department of Health & Human Resources (HHS) website, however, lists West Virginia as having fully vaccinated 50.8% of the population with 62.5% receiving at least one dose. (The reason for the discrepancy is unclear.)

Nationwide, the vaccination rate is 61.2% for those ages 12 and up (compared to 58.5% in West Virginia, according to the state's HHS).

Cases in the state are nearing pandemic highs and rising amid the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, which seems to be infecting unvaccinated Americans including children under 12 at higher rates as the new school year begins.

Nationally, we have seen that the overwhelming majority of people hospitalized with COVID are not vaccinated, Justice said. West Virginia is experiencing the exact same thing.

He added that unvaccinated individuals made up an overwhelming majority of the current COVID-related hospitalizations in the state. For example, at Thomas Health hospitals, unvaccinated individuals represent over 90% of the patients and 100% of those in the ICU.

Only children ages 12 and up are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. That still leaves millions of children vulnerable to the virus.

And while the mortality rate for COVID-19 in children is extremely low, thats not what physicians are most concerned about.

Its also about hospitalizations, children being pulled away from school because they get COVID, Dr. Mona Amin, a board-certified physician, said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). They get hospitalized, hospital bills, everything that comes with being hospitalized as a child that were trying to avoid. We know that were not able to completely avoid this. We know this with the flu. We know this with [Respiratory Syncytial Virus].

Story continues

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, more than 180,000 COVID-19 cases in children were reported during the week ending Aug. 19, and children represented about 22% of total new confirmed cases.

The Mountain State is currently experiencing 20 different outbreaks within schools across 13 counties. (Justice is still not in support of a statewide school mask mandate.)

Gov. Justice stated that he's ready to "move very quickly" to push vaccinations for children under 12, "if and when" the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends it.

"I'm totally committed to doing a back-to-school vaccination for those 12 and older," he said.

A CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published on Friday noted a COVID-19 Delta variant outbreak in an elementary school in Marin County, California in late May to early June, after an unvaccinated infected teacher continued teaching in person for two days before getting tested.

The teacher had reported becoming symptomatic on May 19 but only got a test on May 21. Between then, the CDC said "the teacher read aloud unmasked to the class despite school requirements to mask while indoors."

From there, 27 cases emerged including that of the teacher. 22 of the students who got COVID were ineligible for the vaccine because of their age. 81% of them reported symptoms, the most common being fever, cough, headache, and sore throat.

A third grade student wears a mask as she listens to instruction at Montara Avenue Elementary School on Aug. 16, 2021 in Los Angeles. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

As a way to encourage eligible students to get vaccinated, the West Virginia Department of Education launched its #IGotVaxxedWV campaign, which is now branded as #IGotVaxxed To Get Back, as a nod to the end goal of returning back to normal.

Part of the campaign includes schools competing for the largest percentage of vaccinated staff and students. A total of four elementary high schools, four middle schools, and four high schools will each receive $50,000 to use towards school activities.

"We've done all kinds of things ... everything we can possibly do to market, to be able to get people to the finish line and get them vaccinated," Justice said. "Everything points towards one thing, and that is you have to get vaccinated."

Adriana Belmonte contributed to this story.

Update: This post has been updated to note the discrepancy between CDC and West Virginia vaccination data.

Aarthi is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. She can be reached at aarthi@yahoofinance.com. Follow her on Twitter @aarthiswami.

Read more:

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit.

See the original post here:

West Virginia governor: 'You have to get vaccinated' - Yahoo Finance

From Crispy Chicken Sandwich tacos at Taco Bell to new fries at Wendys, theres no shortage of shiny new items to draw the attention of the fast food connoisseur. The chicken sandwich wars also continue, two years after Popeyes kicked off the craze. And with many restaurant chains raising their prices, the business of keeping fast food fresh and interesting is more important than ever.

But these enticing eats are created for more reasons than just driving up a companys bottom line. In fact, many of the most famous fast food items of all time did not rack up a considerable profit. But they did do something potentially more valuable.

These novelty items are about the social play, getting people talking about the brand, Danny Klein, Editorial Director at Food News Media, told Yahoo. Inspiring visits, creating a new news cycle to market something else thats happening. (They) need to come to market with something unique to put on social media and draw in customers. Yum Brands (owners of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC) are all about the cultural relevance play in their marketing, to get people talking.

Several of these fast food innovations have made such an impact that people still reminisce about them today. Here are a few of the foods still filed away in our brains as tasty memories.

McDonald's McRib draws plenty of attention when it drops on menus each year.

McRib (McDonalds)

The McRib has inspired cultish devotion since its release in 1981, and those who have not followed it since then may wonder why. Invented by McDonalds executive chef Ren Arend, the sandwich was a flop at first and was pulled from the menu in 1985. It reappeared periodically in the 90s before going on a farewell tour in 2005. Now it appears once a year, and like clockwork, people show up in droves to pack it into their faces.

Introduced in 2010, the Double Down was a viral hit for KFC.

Double Down (KFC)

Making its debut in 2010 as a limited edition item, KFCs Double Down was not for the health-conscious. Packing bacon and cheese between two slices of fried chicken in lieu of bread, the Double Down contains nearly a days worth of sodium content and 32 grams of fat. But that didnt stop 10 million people from ordering it in its first few months on the menu, according to KFC Spokesman Rick Maynard in an interview with CNN. However, Buckingham Research analyst Mitchell Speiser told CNN that the sandwich only accounted for 5% of sales that year, and that a new product has to be north of 10% to be considered a blockbuster. Much like the McRib, the Double Down has returned for limited engagements since, the most recent being in the Philippines this month.

Story continues

Burger King's chicken fries were discontinued in 2012 but brought back a few years later after thousands demanded its return.

BK Chicken Fries (Burger King)

Burger King also saw the potential to repackage the way chicken was served when it launched its BK Chicken Fries in 2005. They hung around until 2012 and were discontinued, which drummed up a huge reaction on social media begging for the fries return. Some even made dedicated Twitter accounts to broadcast their stance loud and clear. Burger King responded by bringing back the fries for good in 2014, telling Business Insider in an interview that the experience taught them to always put what the guest wants first. Since then, Chicken Fries have come in Buffalo, Jalapeno, and even Cheetos-flavored varieties.

Taco Bell's Mexican Pizza was discontinued in 2020. Will public outcry result in this item coming back?

Mexican Pizza (Taco Bell)

After 32 years on the menu, Taco Bells Mexican Pizza was discontinued in 2020, causing an uproar on social media. More than 166,000 people signed a petition pleading with the company to bring it back. One fan even went as far as to create a fake Halloween ad advertising its return. The hashtag #mexicanpizza remains active on Twitter, with some going as far as to beg newly-appointed Chief Impact Officer Lil Nas X to bring it back. Fan devotion is no joke, yall.

The Big New Yorker (Pizza Hut)

This 16-inch pizza didnt sport any special features (unless you count its foldability), but fans went nuts over it. Introduced in 1999, Pizza Hut announced 70,000,000 pies sold in the first year it was available. Its since fallen off the menu, but there is a current Change.org petition collecting signatures and hoping to resurrect its cheesy glory. The Hut currently offers a Detroit-style pizza, but it just isnt the same.

What discontinued fast foods do you most wish would make their glorious comeback? Let us know in the comments.

Here is the original post:

From the McRib to Taco Bell's Mexican pizza: fast food innovations we still crave today - Yahoo Finance

Welcome to So Mini Ways, Yahoo Life's parenting series on the joys and challenges of childrearing.

She hosts Top Chef, travels around the country for Taste the Nation, has written three cookbooks and can frequently be found on Instagram whipping up dishes like dal and ratatouille. It's little surprise, then, that food also plays a significant role in Padma Lakshmi's life as a mom to 11-year-old daughter Krishna and serves as an inspiration for her new children's book, Tomatoes for Neela.

Illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal and on sale Aug. 31, Lakshmi's first children's book stems from her own efforts to teach Krishna about the importance of eating in-season produce; while testing recipes for her cookbooks, Lakshmi would involve her daughter in the process, from tracing tomatoes on paper to eventually adding spices. "I would tell her this story at bedtime, and that's how [the book] came about," she tells Yahoo Life.

The book teaches young readers about tomatoes when they grow, when they're best eaten, why they're so special but that's not the only takeaway.

"It's also, more importantly, an intergenerational story about an Asian family who writes down all of the recipes that are important to them," Lakshmi says. "The book tries to show young children how writing down recipes is literally saving pieces of our family history. And it can be a good tool to start conversations, about everybody in our food system: about farmworkers, about different generations in our own family who have something to teach us and also about preparing your own food."

Though she acknowledges that her own daughter whose father is Lakshmi's ex, Adam Dell is "pretty fair" and "Caucasian-presenting," the 50-year-old says it was important for her to have Asian representation in her book, noting her own struggles to find diverse characters.

Story continues

"It's better today than it was when I was a kid, but other than The Snowy Dayor a few exceptions, it's still harder to find books with different characters of different skin tones," she says. "We were very purposeful in showing that even within one family, there can be multiple shades of skin colors... that's important."

Padma Lakshmi opens up about her daughter, Krishna, and her new children's book, Tomatoes for Neela. (Photo: Getty; designed by Quinn Lemmers)

Though Krishna's true passion is music the tween plays piano and aspires to be a singer-songwriter having Lakshmi as a mother has ensured that she's a capable cook; indeed, she often makes cameos in her mother's at-home cooking tutorials.

"I hope to send her off to college with a cache of 12 or 15 recipes that she knows how to make for herself and her loved ones so that she can survive eating nutritiously," the Top Chef host shares. "But for her, cooking is just something that's fun and is part of life. It's not an obsession like it is for me."

Krishna's appearances on her mother's social media accounts are something of a new development. Throughout her daughter's life, Lakshmi has taken pains to keep her out of the public eye, and still refers to her by her nickname, "Littlehands."

"I just wanted her to have her privacy and there was so much interest in my pregnancy," Lakshmi says. "There was so much gossip around it and everything that I really just wanted us to have some semblance of privacy... And I hadn't really been online for very long when she was born. So I just wanted to be careful about that, to be honest. Unfortunately, there's so many paparazzi pictures of us on the streets of New York that it just became ridiculous [to keep trying to protect her identity]. "

These days, "it's a struggle between being authentic and real and true online, to also saving some space for myself that is private. So much of our lives are lived online now. so it's hard to know exactly where that line is, and sometimes that line moves from week to week. So I still try and not have her all over my Instagram, but honestly, being a mother is the most important, fulfilling and time-consuming job I have. So if I were to give you a true snapshot of my life it would have to include my time with my daughter, because that is what I spend most of my life doing. ... I want to experience life with her, whether it's going to Paris or going to the green market up the street; it's all the same. It's just part of life. There's no way I could kind of take her out of my life, and give you any kind of true, accurate portrait of what it's like to be me."

Though they were not a couple at the time of their daughter's birth and have since called time on a romantic reunion announced last year Lakshmi and Krishna's father, businessman Adam Dell, have come to create a successful co-parenting relationship. Ultimately, Lakshmi describes herself as a single mom.

"Krishna's father is very involved in her life, so he is a co-parent, but it's different if you're married and living with the child's other parent," she explains. "We don't live together; we're not together anymore. We are good friends and we have the same first priority, which is her."

Lakshmi also considers herself "very Americanized," but says that "when it comes to my parenting, I'm very Asian." She can be strict about schoolwork and, of course, food. Veggies and fruits are essential, and there's little indulgence for picky eaters. "I'm not into being a short order cook," she says, sharing that Krishna can make herself eggs or a veggie wrap if she objects to what's been served for dinner.

"I'm not always the most popular person in her life, but that's OK," the famed foodie, who will return for a holiday-themed season of Taste the Nation on Nov. 4. "I have a specific role to play, so I'm not looking to be liked at all times... I'm not her best friend. I'm a good friend whose primary role in her life is as her guardian and her caregiver and her parent. So I have to be the disciplinarian. I have to be the person making the rules and making sure the rules don't get broken. The onus is on me to explain why a lot of those rules are in place. At the end of the day, I'm the adult that's responsible for her. And so she may not always like me, but hopefully she'll thank me later."

Want lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Lifes newsletter.

Read this article:

Why Padma Lakshmi calls herself a single mom: 'It's different if you're married and living with the child's other parent' - Yahoo Life

In brief Clearview AIs controversial facial-recognition system has been trialed, at least, by police, government agencies, and universities around the world, according to newly leaked files.

Internal documents revealed by BuzzFeed News show that Clearview offered its technology to law enforcement agencies, governments, and academic institutions in 24 countries, including the UK, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia, on a try-before-you-buy basis.

The facial-recognition biz scraped billions of photos from public social media profiles, including Instagram and Facebook, and put them all into a massive database. Clearview's customers can submit pictures of people and the system will automatically try to locate those people in the database, using facial recognition, and return any details picked up from their personal pages if successful. Thus, the police can, for example, give the service a CCTV camera still of someone, and if it matches a face in the database, the system will report back their information, such as their name, social media handles, and so on.

Excerpt from:

Yahoo! India! shuts! down! news! operation! - The Register

The Supreme Courts decision last week to strike down the pandemic-era eviction moratorium may arrive too late for many struggling independent landlords, even as it appears to heighten the risk of eviction for tenants behind on their rent.

Thursdays decision by the U.S. high court found that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lacks authority under federal law to impose an eviction ban, which was set to expire on October 3. The court stressed that Congress, rather than the CDC, must specifically authorize an eviction policy.

"The federal eviction moratorium was a lifeline for millions of families, the last remaining federal protection keeping them safely and stably housed throughout the pandemic," Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition said in a statement to Yahoo.

"The tragic, consequential, and entirely avoidable outcome of this ruling will be millions of people losing their homes this fall and winter, just as the Delta variant ravages communities and lives," Yentel added.

At least half a dozen states, including New Jersey, California, New York and Washington, have policies in place to protect renters to help keep families in their homes.

You just can't flip a switch and evict people, said Paul Getty, CEO of First Guardian Group, a real estate investment and broker firm. The eviction process could take up months because of the backlog and the court systems, he explained.

You still need a legitimate case to do that. It's very problematic, Getty told Yahoo Finance.

However, the ruling doesnt mean renters in states without protections will be immediately removed from their homes an outcome that appears all but certain to prolong the pain for mom and pop landlords struggling with mounting costs, some of whom havent been paid by tenants in over a year.

While eviction filings are expected to ramp up, it is unclear how quickly already backlogged courts can process new filings, or how effective the remaining patchwork of state and local protections will be in keeping renters in place until they secure rent relief.

Story continues

Is the government going to now pay me $70,000 that they stole from me? I doubt it.James Bathgate, a landlord in California

Although ample federal relief is available, the Treasury Department said recently that barely 10% of the $47 billion allocated for tenant relief has actually been distributed, with states and localities struggling to dole out the money amid insufficient infrastructure and overwhelming demand.

Meanwhile, many struggling renters were hoping to receive emergency rental assistance from the government to pay back their rent and remain in their homes. However, applying for assistance has been challenging for tenants and landlords alike.

Organizations like the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have set up tools to help renters apply for assistance.

A recent survey of renters by the U.S. Census Bureau found an estimated 11.4 million were behind on rent as of early July. The pause on evictions provided a critical backstop in ensuring renters could stay in their homes until relief money was received.

To that end, the White House announced new steps to help renters and landlords hit by the pandemic. That includes help from the Treasury Department to reduce documentation requirements for hundreds of thousands of emergency rental assistance applicants.

The department has also warned state and local governments they could lose funding to jurisdictions doing a better job of providing relief payments to at-risk renters and landlords.

A "For Rent" sign is displayed in front of an apartment building in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., June 20, 2021. REUTERS/Will Dunham

Some landlords, however, slammed the lifting of the ban describing it as too late. Many independent property owners have been swamped by rising costs associated with taxes, insurance, utilities and upkeep, even as tenants have gotten government lifelines.

We're already been forced to sell our house so it doesn't help us, James Bathgate, a landlord in California, told Yahoo Finance in an interview.

I do feel sorry for the thousands of other mom and pop landlords, many of whom are retired and living on fixed incomes, just like us and rely on rental income for their retirement, Bathgate said. If they've been able to hold out, hopefully they can now survive.

Bathgate owned a rental home in a rural town in San Mateo County, in Northern California, where he says he is owed more than $50,000 in unpaid rent dating back to March of 2020. Yet according to Bathgate, a tenant refused his pleas to pay and demanded a jury trial because she knew at the time the county wasnt holding trials.

After months of trying to strike a deal with his renter, whom he says was employed during the pandemic, Bathgate made the decision to put his house up for sale, which he has owned since 1983.

We had to sell the property because I couldn't afford it every month, not getting any income from rent and being forced to take $3,000 a month expenses on the property, he explained.

Even once the jury trials started up again in July, Bathgate doesnt expect to recover the money he has lost. Is the government going to now pay me $70,000 that they stole from me? I doubt it, Bathgate said.

Although the court ruled in favor of Bathgate, his tenant has yet to make good on the debt. His case is fairly typical of the estimated 40% of small and medium-sized U.S. landlords that count on rental properties to fund income or retirement.

These same property owners, many who continue to work with renters to help them get rent relief, have been frustrated they cannot remove tenants who are unwilling to apply for rental assistance.

For those reasons, a few landlords are actually paying their tenants to leave. Some say they have no wish to keep renting to tenants who have repeatedly shown them that they cannot or will not pay.

[If] I'm going to evict somebody, but they're not going to be evicted until January next year. And it's gonna cost me 3,000 bucks to do that, First Guardians Getty said.

Would I not be better off just offering three or $4,000 to that tenant and directly bypass the attorney, the eviction process and get them the heck out, he added.

Dani Romero is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @daniromerotv

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit

Read the rest here:

Why the overturned eviction moratorium may be too little, too late for both renters, landlords - Yahoo Finance

The complete lockdown of Vietnam, a key apparel exporting country, due to spiking COVID-19 infections could be about to wreak havoc on shoppers.

"Vietnam is completely locked right now, it will be locked another either one week or two weeks, and hopefully, then it will be unlocked, and we will air it in and try to get it in as quickly as possible. But in categories like dresses, we have a lot on order and some of our bottoms are on order from Vietnam and were starting to break sizes and see problems there," Urban Outfitters CEO Richard Hayne warned analysts on an earnings call Tuesday evening.

Urban Outfitters shares plunged nearly 10% on Wednesday as investors grew concerned about the situation in Vietnam and disregarded a strong second quarter.

"Supply chain challenges may limit sales, pressure margins with bottlenecks widespread but most notably in Vietnam. This is leading Urban Outfitters to pre-commit to more inventory, given an inability to chase [sales], and is also leading to some missed sales," said Jefferies analyst Janine Stichter.

The Vietnamese government implemented a tighter lockdown on Monday as the Delta variant has taken hold, with people not allowed to leave their homes even for food, Reuters reports. New COVID cases in Vietnam have averaged 10,680 a day, per data from Johns Hopkins. In the past month alone, Vietnam has seen 268,094 new COVID cases a record high for the country. Deaths from the virus have tallied 8,644, also a record high.

Employees work at a shoe factory for export in Hanoi, Vietnam December 29, 2020. REUTERS/Kham

In turn, the country's textile industry has ground to a halt leaving U.S. importers such as Urban Outfitters to scramble to secure merchandise from other countries (see India).

Vietnams garment and textile industry earned $39 billion from exports in 2019 (pre-pandemic), according to data from the Vietnam General Statistics Office. Garment manufacturing makes up the majority of businesses in Vietnam at 70%, notes Vietnam Briefing.

Story continues

"It will impact everyone [in the apparel industry]," one retail expert told Yahoo Finance about the situation in Vietnam. Out of stocks in popular apparel sizes and colors for back-to-school and fall could be the most visible impact to shoppers until the lockdowns are lifted.

"We have a lot of product there and were trying to get it in. So we are just doing whatever we can to get it in whenever we can," added Urban Outfitters' Hayne.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit

The rest is here:

Why you may not be able to find your pants size at this apparel company - Yahoo Finance

MicroStrategy (MSTR) recently doubled down on bitcoin (BTC-US) by once more adding more of the cryptocurrency to its balance sheet. The analytics platform now owns the most bitcoin out of all publicly traded companies.

"Calling it a 'cloud services company' doesn't even feel fully accurate anymore," Daniel Roberts, editor in chief of Decrypt Media, told Yahoo Finance.

"Obviously some preexisting MicroStrategy shareholders from before Saylor went gaga for bitcoin probably don't love it, but when bitcoin goes up, he gets to show the returns and look like a winner," he added.

Investors who don't want to invest directly in bitcoin which is currently trading close to $50,000, can gain exposure to it via companies that hold the cryptocurrency on their balance sheets. Some of these are directly involved with crypto while others are involved in other businesses but keep bitcoin as an asset.

Microstrategy (MSTR)

The analytics platform company holds the top place for a publicly traded firm owning the most bitcoin (BTC-US), adding to its position time and again.

The company bought 3,907 bitcoins since the beginning of its fiscal third quarter on July 1. Microstrategy holds about 108,992 bitcoins, bought at an average of about $26,769 each, according to Bloomberg data.

Tesla (TSLA)

The electric vehicle giant invested in bitcoin earlier this year. Tesla's $1.5 billion initial investment in the cryptocurrency, revealed in an SEC filing on Feb. 8, sent prices higher. As of March 31 the company owned 42,902 bitcoins.

Galaxy Digital Holdings (BRPHF)

Michael Novogratzs investment company focuses on digital currencies. As of March 31, Galaxy Digital held around $761 million worth of bitcoin.

Voyager Digital (VYGVF)

The crypto trading app owns 12,260, according to bitcoinworldwide.com, with a current value of about $590 million. In January, Voyager Digital's CEO Steve Ehrlich predicted this year crypto would go mainstream.

Story continues

"We will see institutions, corporations, and public companies rush to hedge their cash reserves into bitcoin with more velocity," wrote Ehrlich in his 2021 predictions.

Square (SQ)

Square's founder and CEO Jack Dorsey is a longtime bitcoin bull. Earlier this year the digital payments company posted a white paper making the case for why bitcoin is key to a clean energy future. Square owns about 8,027 bitcoin with a current value of about $386 million.

Other companies that have bought bitcoin include Marathon Digital (MARA), Coinbase (COIN) and Mercado Libre (MELI), among others.

Ines is a markets reporter covering stocks from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Follow her on Twitter at @ines_ferre

Read the latest cryptocurrency and bitcoin news from Yahoo Finance

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit

Originally posted here:

Companies with the most bitcoin on their balance sheets - Yahoo Finance