McDonald’s latest company to be hit by a data breach
McDonald’s has become the latest company to be hit by a data breach after unauthorized activity on its network exposed the personal data of some customers in South Korea and Taiwan.
McDonald’s Corp. said Friday that it quickly identified and contained the incident and that a thorough investigation was done.
“While we were able to close off access quickly after identification, our investigation has determined that a small number of files were accessed, some of which contained personal data,” the burger chain said.
McDonald’s said its investigation determined that only South Korea and Taiwan had customer personal data accessed, and that they would be taking steps to notify regulators and also the customers who may be impacted. No customer payment information was exposed.
McDonald’s said it will look at the investigation’s findings, coupled with input from security resources, to identify ways to further enhance its existing security measures.
Businesses across various sectors are being targeted by cybercriminals, including some very high profile cases in recent weeks. On Wednesday, JBS SA, the world’s largest meat processing company, revealed that it had paid the equivalent of $11 million to hackers who broke into its computer system last month.
And Colonial Pipeline, which transports about half of thec fuel consumed on the East Coast, last month paid a ransom of 75 bitcoin - then valued at roughly $4.4 million - in hopes of getting its system back online. On Monday the Justice Department announced that it had recovered most of the ransom payment. (AP)
$28m to fly in space: An auction for a ride into space next month alongside Jeff Bezos and his brother ended with a winning $28 million bid Saturday.
The Amazon founder’s rocket company, Blue Origin, did not disclose the winner’s name following the live online auction. The identity will be revealed in a couple weeks — closer to the brief upand-down flight from West Texas on July 20, the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s moon landing.
It will be the first launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket with people on board, kicking off the company’s space tourism business. Fifteen previous test flights of the reusable rocket and capsule since 2015 — short hops lasting about 10 minutes — were all successful.
Saturday’s auction followed more than a month of online bidding that reached $4.8 million by Friday. More than 7,500 people from 159 countries registered to bid, according to Blue Origin. More than 20 bidders — the high rollers — took part in Saturday’s auction.
Bezos announced Monday that he and his younger brother, Mark, would be on board New Shepard’s first crew flight; the news quickly boosted bidding. The winning amount is being donated to Blue Origin’s Club for the Future, an educational effort to promote science and tech among young people. (AP)
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Ice shelf breaking up faster:
A critical Antarctic glacier is looking more vulnerable as satellite images show the ice shelf that blocks it from collapsing into the sea is breaking up much faster than before and spawning huge icebergs, a new study says.
The Pine Island Glacier’s ice shelf loss accelerated in 2017, causing scientists to worry that with climate change the glacier’s collapse could happen quicker than the many centuries predicted. The floating ice shelf acts like a cork in a bottle for the fastmelting glacier and prevents its much larger ice mass from flowing into the ocean.
That ice shelf has retreated by 12 miles (20 kilometers) between 2017 and 2020, according to a study in Friday’s Science Advances The crumbling shelf was caught on time-lapse video from a European satellite that takes pictures every six days.
“You can see stuff just tearing apart,” said study lead author Ian Joughin, a University of Washington glaciologist. “So it almost looks like the speed-up itself is weakening the glacier ... And so far we’ve lost maybe 20% of the main shelf.”
Between 2017 and 2020, there were three large breakup events, creating icebergs more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) long and 22 miles (36 kilometers) wide, which then split into lots of littler pieces, Joughin said. (AP)
Sinkhole swallows land: A large sinkhole that appeared in late May at a farm in central Mexico has grown larger than a football field, begun swallowing a house and trapped two dogs in its depths.
The government of the central state of Puebla said it had managed to pull the two dogs out of the sinkhole, after emotional requests from animal lovers to rescue them. They had been trapped for about four days on a ledge on the sheer sides of the hole dropping 50 feet (15 meters) to water.
Because the loose soil at the edges keeps collapsing into the water at the bottom of the pit, for days it was considered too dangerous to try to rescue the animals.
But a firefighter descended into the pit, in part by using a ladder to steady the soil on the edge. His colleagues were seen standing farther back using ropes and a pulley system to haul up cages carrying the two dogs.
The state government distributed photos of the dogs, named Spay and Spike, looking alert and in the care of veterinarians.
The dogs were apparently playing in the farm field surrounding the sinkhole when they fell in.
The sinkhole is now over 400 feet (125 meters) across in some places, and may be 150 deep (45 meters) at its deepest point. It is hard to tell, because water fills the crater. (AP)
stuff, but it’s overshadowed by the litigation,” said Larry Sterrs, chair of the Star of Hope Foundation. Completion of the museum is likely years away, he said.
Indiana’s estate, which is valued at upward of $80 million, had been entangled in a lawsuit brought by Morgan Art Foundation.
The lawsuit was filed the day before Indiana’s death on May 19, 2018, at age 89 on Vinalhaven Island, 15 miles (25 kilometers) off Rockland, Maine.
It accused the reclusive artist’s caretaker and an art publisher of taking advantage of Indiana and producing forgeries - accusations the pair denied. That led to more claims and counter claims.
Under the agreement, Morgan dropped its lawsuit against the estate and Indiana’s caretaker but not against the art publisher.
It also doesn’t resolve a case brought by Maine’s attorney general, who claims the estate paid excessive legal fees during litigation. That lawsuit contends $3.7 million paid to four law firms and about $400,000 collected by the estate’s personal representative were excessive.
Indiana created a lifetime of art but he’s best known for LOVE, spelled with two letters to a line and with a tilted “O.” (AP)