Photo: Science Photo Library RF
1 Massive Internet Outage Not A Cyberattack
An outage that affected thousands of websites – including Amazon, Costco, Delta and McDonald’s – was not the result of a cyberattack. That's the word from Internet security services company Akamai Technologies. It tweeted a software update caused a problem with website availability. As Akamai explained, the outage was caused by a "software configuration update triggered a bug in the DNS system." The issue lasted about an hour and the update was stopped. That resulted in things returning to normal. If it seems like we seen a lot of outages recently, you’re right. This is actually the third major incident in the last two months. And while yesterday’s incident didn’t last long, these recent incidents still have experts pointing out concerns about the small number of core infrastructure providers.
2 Biden Signs Bill Boosting U.S. Crime Victims Fund
President Biden has signed a bill boosting the federal crime victims fund. The White House says it has lost billions of dollars over the past five years. Biden called it a "day of hope and healing" for victims of serious crimes. He said it's not enough to lock-up perpetrators and argued crime victims need ongoing support. The crime victims fund is nearly 40 years old. "This bill is going to allow us to make sure that all the fines and penalties that are from federal cases go to the victims, the Crime Victims Fund, to rebuild this fund, because it's badly needed," Biden offered. "This is going to enable us to provide more help and support to victims...all across America." The fund comes from federal criminal monetary penalties that are overseen by the Justice Department. It aims to help victims of a variety of crimes, including domestic violence, sexual assault, drunk driving and child abuse.
3 White House Accuses China Of Stonewalling COVID Probe
The White House is accusing China of stonewalling the World Health Organization’s investigation into the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that China is not living up to international expectations on transparency. How so? The Chinese government is rejecting the second phase of the W-H-O's investigation into the origins of COVID-19. Apparently, the deal-breaker for Beijing is the inclusion of a virus leaking from a lab in Wuhan as a possible source. During a press conference, Zeng Yixin the deputy head of China's National Health Commission said he was surprised to see the lab leak theory listed as a research objective.Zeng also appeared to be taking a shot at U.S. State Department claims that workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell sick just before the first documented cases of coronavirus infection.