Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill’s newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for our newsletter by clicking HERE. 

Welcome! Follow our cyber reporter, Maggie Miller (@magmill95), and tech team, Chris Mills Rodrigo (@chrisismills) and Rebecca Klar (@rebeccaklar_), for more coverage.

President BidenJoe BidenFauci says school should be open ‘full blast’ five days a week in the fall Overnight Defense: Military sexual assault reform bill has votes to pass in Senate l First active duty service member arrested over Jan. 6 riot l Israeli troops attack Gaza Strip Immigration experts say GOP senators questioned DHS secretary with misleading chart MORE on Thursday said that while the Russian government was not behind the recent ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline, the cyber criminals involved were based in Russia, and his administration would take steps to disrupt the group. Colonial Pipeline, which restarted operations Wednesday, reportedly chose to pay the ransom to gain access to its networks. In non-pipeline news, Amazon said it will soon hire 75,000 additional employees in the U.S. and Canada. 

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RUSSIA (KIND OF) DIDN’T DO: President Biden on Thursday confirmed that the cyber criminals involved in launching a ransomware attack that disrupted operations at Colonial Pipeline last week are likely based in Russia, though he said officials do not believe that the Russian government was involved. 

“We do not believe the Russian government was involved in this attack, but we do have strong reason to believe that the criminals who did the attack are living in Russia, that’s where it came from,” Biden said, citing findings from the FBI. 

“We have been in direct communication with Moscow about the imperative for responsible countries to take decisive action against ransomware networks,” he noted. “We are also going to pursue a measure to disrupt their ability to operate.”

Asked directly if he was confident Russian President Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich PutinHillicon Valley: Colonial pipeline is back online, but concerns remain | Uber, Lyft struggle with driver supply | Apple cuts controversial hire Menendez calls on Biden to support Armenia amid rising tensions with Azerbaijan Biden says Colonial Pipeline hackers based in Russia, but not government-backed MORE was not involved, Biden emphasized that the FBI did not believe Putin was involved.

Biden’s comments came the day after Colonial Pipeline announced that it would resume operations after several days of being shut down due to an attack using what the FBI identified as the “DarkSide” ransomware variant.

Read more about Biden’s remarks here. 

As part of his remarks, Biden urged Americans not to panic about fuel shortages, and warned against hoarding gasoline as the Colonial Pipeline ramped back up to full operation.

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Read more here. 

The comments came the day after Biden signed an executive order taking a range of actions to increase federal cybersecurity. 

ICYMI, read more about the order here. 

 

COLONIAL PAID UP: Colonial Pipeline paid almost $5 million in ransom to hackers last Friday despite reports that said the company had no intention of paying, Bloomberg news reported.

Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the company paid in untraceable cryptocurrency within hours of the attack. After the hackers received the payment, they provided the operator with a decrypting tool to restore its computer network.

However, one of the people said the tool was so slow that the company continued to use its own backups to help restore its system.

Colonial declined to comment to The Hill.

President Biden declined to comment when asked by a reporter on Thursday whether he was briefed on the company’s decision to pay the ransom.

Read more about the payment here. 

 

PELOSI WEIGHS IN: Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiOvernight Defense: Military sexual assault reform bill has votes to pass in Senate l First active duty service member arrested over Jan. 6 riot l Israeli troops attack Gaza Strip Hillicon Valley: Colonial pipeline is back online, but concerns remain | Uber, Lyft struggle with driver supply | Apple cuts controversial hire Ocasio-Cortez on Taylor Greene: ‘These are the kinds of people that I threw out of bars all the time’ MORE (D-Calif.) warned Thursday that private firms should reject hackers’ demands for ransoms, just hours after reports emerged that a major energy company had paid almost $5 million to help restore service following a crippling ransomware attack.

Pelosi emphasized that she had no window into the internal management deliberations of the Colonial Pipeline Company, a private firm that runs a massive, 5,500-mile network of petroleum pipelines from the Gulf Coast to the major population centers on the East Coast.

But when asked if firms should pay out such ransoms, she didn’t hesitate.

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“No,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. “The point is that we don’t want people to think that there’s money in it for them to threaten the security of a critical infrastructure in our country.”

Read more about her comments here. 

 

IN OTHER NEWS…

RIDESHARE WOES: Demand for ridesharing services is beginning to pick back up as Americans get vaccinated against coronavirus, but many eager riders are running into the same problem: a lack of drivers.

Both Uber and Lyft have acknowledged the mismatch between demand for rides and supply of drivers, which is resulting in longer waits and higher fares for consumers.

Uber has announced that it is investing $250 million into bringing back past, and recruiting new, drivers.

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A spokesperson for Lyft told The Hill that the company is “working to meet demand, including providing incentives to drivers, who are busier and earning more than they were even before the pandemic.”

Despite those economic incentives and verbal commitments to protect workers from COVID-19, many drivers remain hesitant to start giving rides again.

Multiple workers who stopped driving during the pandemic told The Hill in interviews that going back is not worth it for them without bigger changes to how the companies operate.

Read more.

 

FOR HIRE: Amazon announced Thursday that it is looking to hire 75,000 more employees across the U.S. and Canada.

The e-commerce giant also said it will offer a $100 bonus to new hires who show proof of vaccination against COVID-19.

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“We look forward to hiring 75,000 associates across our fulfillment and transportation network,” said Alicia Boler Davis, vice president of global customer fulfillment at Amazon.

The new positions will have an average starting pay of $17 an hour, the company said in a blog post.

Read more about the hiring effort here. 

 

CUTTING TIES: Apple has cut ties with a controversial new hire after internal pushback from employees over comments the ads engineer made in his book, a spokesperson for the company confirmed to multiple outlets. 

Apple employees circulated a petition Wednesday demanding an investigation into the hiring of Antonio García Martínez despite his “overly racist and sexist remarks” about former colleagues in his 2016 book, “Chaos Monkeys.” 

García Martínez has left the company after a few weeks in the new job, an Apple spokesperson said in a statement to Bloomberg News. 

“At Apple, we have always strived to create an inclusive, welcoming workplace where everyone is respected and accepted,” an Apple spokesman told Bloomberg. “Behavior that demeans or discriminates against people for who they are has no place here.”

Read more here. 

 

INSTA UPDATES: Instagram users will now be able to list their preferred pronouns on their profiles, with the image-sharing app allowing for up to four pronouns to be displayed, it announced this week.

Users can change pronouns at any time and can also set it up so only followers can see theirs. If a user is under 18 years old, then pronouns will be hidden from nonfollowers as a default.

“We are giving people more tools to express themselves on Instagram,” a spokesperson for Facebook, which owns Instagram, told Mashable. “Sharing pronouns has been widely adopted by our community, and with this feature we hope to normalize the adoption further.”

Read more here. 

 

Lighter click: Thank you kindly CDC

An op-ed to chew on: Three essential elements needed for broadband access 

NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: 

Pentagon Surveilling Americans Without a Warrant, Senator Reveals (Motherboard / Joseph Cox)

Inside the nasty battle between Silicon Valley and the reporters who write about it. (Intelligencer / Benjamin Wallace)

Tech’s non-compete agreements hurt workers and anger some lawmakers (Protocol / Megan Rose Dickey)

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The chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee was reportedly caught off guard by a White House plan to sell millions of dollars worth of arms to Israel and is planning to ask the Biden administration to delay the sale. 

Rep. Gregory MeeksGregory Weldon MeeksAsian American lawmakers say State’s ‘assignment restrictions’ discriminate Colombia’s protests are threat, test for US Pressure increases for US to send vaccines to Latin America MORE (D-Calif.)  told colleagues during an emergency virtual meeting late Monday that he plans to send a letter to the White House requesting a delay, according to multiple reports, which would allow Congress to review the deal amid ongoing tensions between Israel and Hamas,. 

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President BidenJoe BidenBiden’s quiet diplomacy under pressure as Israel-Hamas fighting intensifies Overnight Defense: Administration approves 5M arms sale to Israel | Biden backs ceasefire in call with Netanyahu | Military sexual assault reform push reaches turning point CDC mask update sparks confusion, opposition MORE approved $735 million worth of precision-guided weapons to be sold to Israel, The Hill confirmed on Monday. Congress was officially notified of the sale on May 5. 

Democrats supportive of the Palestinians have slammed the Biden administration for supporting the Israelis, who they say have carried out unnecessary airstrikes on civilians in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military says the recent strikes are in retaliation for rocket attacks that have killed its citizens and are part of an ongoing fight with Hamas. 

“The United States should not stand idly by while crimes against humanity are being committed with our backing,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), said of the arms deal. “It would be appalling for the Biden Administration to go through with $735 million in precision-guided weaponry to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu without any strings attached in the wake of escalating violence and attacks on civilians.” 

But other Democrats have said the U.S. has a responsibility to help Israel. 

“It’s unacceptable,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said of Hamas’s rocket attacks. “Israel being our biggest partner in the Middle East and the only true democracy, we’ve got to make sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday that it is not up to Biden’s administration to “provide motivation for any actions,” on the part of the Israelis. 

“We want to bring an end to the violence, we want to deescalate the situation on the ground,” she said. “The most effective way we feel we can do that is through quiet and intensive diplomacy. That is what our focus is on at this point in time.”

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Monday said Texas would cut off emergency federal unemployment benefits that provide $300 in weekly payments starting June 26.

“The Texas economy is booming and employers are hiring in communities throughout the state,” Abbott said, noting that the number of job openings in the state was on par with the number of people receiving benefits.

The announcement means Texas soon will join more than a dozen other GOP-led states in scaling back some level of federal emergency benefits, such as the $300 increase and a program making benefits available to gig economy workers and self-employed Americans.

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But unlike many of the early GOP states to announce benefit cutoffs, Texas has an unemployment rate that is higher than the 6.1 percent national average. At 6.9 percent, the Lone Star state has the 12th highest rate in the nation.

The emergency benefits, which were reinstated in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill signed into law by President BidenJoe BidenBiden’s quiet diplomacy under pressure as Israel-Hamas fighting intensifies Overnight Defense: Administration approves 5M arms sale to Israel | Biden backs ceasefire in call with Netanyahu | Military sexual assault reform push reaches turning point CDC mask update sparks confusion, opposition MORE, are set to last until the first week of September in participating states.

Republicans have argued that the jobless benefits are disincentivizing unemployed individuals from going back to work and fueling labor shortages. Democrats reject those arguments.

“These workers are not just losing $300 extra per week. Many are losing everything, and their incomes will be zero,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron WydenRonald (Ron) Lee WydenSenators shed masks after CDC lifts mandate Texas to cut off 0 weekly emergency unemployment benefit IRS to start monthly payments of child tax credit July 15 MORE (D-Ore.), who championed the additional benefits, said in a statement.

“Of course, Republicans are only cutting off economic relief to jobless workers—not businesses—showing this is all about politics and sticking it to struggling families,” he added.

Democrats say that reports of labor shortages are overblown, and point to a slew of studies from last summer that concluded additional benefits were not a significant factor in preventing people from taking jobs.

They also argue that employers should offer higher wages to attract more workers.

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Uber and Lyft, facing a deficit of drivers, have offered bonuses to lure workers back.

A federal judge on Friday issued a standing order in prosecutions against Capitol rioters that will allow media organizations to obtain prosecutors’ video evidence.

The ruling from District Court Judge Beryl Howell will implement a process for federal prosecutors to make public their video exhibits in cases stemming from the Jan. 6 riot. Under the new standing order, defendants in those cases will have the opportunity to object to the release of video exhibits if they think it will be prejudicial for a potential jury.

Judges will ultimately decide whether videos should be released on a case-by-case basis, but the order Friday will apply a uniform standard for allowing media organizations to obtain some potentially unseen footage from Jan. 6.

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Under the standing order, if judges approve of the release of video exhibits, media organizations will be able to access media files from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C., which is leading the prosecutions.

The order comes in response to a motion from 14 media organizations that asked Howell to streamline the process for public access to the footage.

“While we appreciate the extraordinary workload these prosecutions present to the hardworking Judges and staff of this Court, delayed access to these historic records shuts the public out of an important part of the administration of justice,” the news organizations wrote to the court.

The Justice Department has brought more than 400 prosecutions against those who participated in the events Jan. 6. None of the cases have yet gone to trial but judges have relied on video evidence in deciding pretrial motions like whether to allow defendants to be released on bail.

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The Sierra Club and two local environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, alleging that the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) has been derelict in handling mine cleanup in West Virginia.

In the lawsuit, filed Monday in the Southern District of West Virginia, the Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy accused OSMRE of failing to satisfy requirements of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). The provision of the law in question requires a determination on whether surface mining programs in the state must be improved.

The same plaintiffs in 2020 filed a separate lawsuit over the issue, which led the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to notify the Interior Department that its current mine reclamation bonding program was insolvent, according to the Sierra Club.

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“Because  the  current  West  Virginia  Special  Reclamation  Fund  is  not  able  to  ensure  that  sufficient money will be available to complete land and water reclamation on all existing and future bond forfeiture sites, in accordance with the requirements of 30 C.F.R. § 800.11(e), and the Special Reclamation Fund Advisory Council refuses to meet in its responsibility to oversee such fund, the Defendant must determine that a state program amendment is necessary,” the lawsuit states.

The plaintiffs seek a declaration that OSMRE has violated the SMCRA and an injunction ordering it to comply.

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“It’s unfortunate that this lawsuit even needs to be filed. The response from OSMRE last year, following our suit compelling WVDEP to notify the federal agency of the dire financial situation of its reclamation programs, failed to meet the moment,” Peter Morgan, a senior attorney with the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program, said in a statement. “Hopefully, under the Biden administration, OSMRE will be up to the challenge of requiring adequate and reliable reclamation funding not just in West Virginia but around the country.”

The Hill has reached out to the Interior Department for comment.

Parler returned to the Apple App Store on Monday after getting kicked off more than four months ago in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

The social media app popular with conservatives will look different on Apple devices now that the company has pledged to remove certain content labeled as “hate” that will still be available on other versions of the platform.

Parler, which presents itself as a free speech alternative to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, faces a battle on two fronts as it navigates a return to mainstream app marketplaces.

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The platform risks losing its core set of conservative users as it toes the line with new content moderation policies, but those same policies have critics questioning whether the company will take a hard enough stance against hate speech.

“This current configuration is a half measure that really doesn’t get at the root of the problem,” said Carmen Scurato, senior policy counsel at Free Press Net. “Parler is this app that can be weaponized and manipulated.”

Apple agreed to allow Parler back on its App Store last month after a review of changes made to the platform. The Silicon Valley giant did not respond to inquiries Monday about what changes Parler made to comply with app store policies.

Interim Parler CEO Mark Meckler suggested Monday that some content on Parler would be restricted in the iOS app but still available through the web and Android app.

With its new version for iPhones and iPads, Parler will use an artificial intelligence moderation system to filter posts labeled as “hate.” Those posts won’t be visible for users on the iOS devices. The update was first reported by The Washington Post, and confirmed by Parler.

“Parler has and will always be a place where people can engage in the free exchange of ideas in the full spirit of the First Amendment,” Meckler said in a statement. “The entire Parler team has worked hard to address Apple’s concerns without compromising our core mission.”

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But Parler is still looking to boost its image as pro-free speech and touting the update as just one option for its users while highlighting that the desktop version will not be impacted.

“With respect to legal content—including ‘hate speech’—we believe the decision should be left to you, the individual user. So with the Web and Android versions of Parler, we place the tools in your hands, rather than deciding for you,” Parler’s chief policy officer, Amy Peikoff, said in a LinkedIn post. “If you would want to completely filter out this content anyway then our new iOS App might be perfect for you.”

The company was kicked off numerous app marketplaces after the violent insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Apple determined at the time that Parler had not done enough to moderate content on the platform by users who were encouraging what became a deadly riot. The app was also blocked from Google’s store and dropped from Amazon’s web hosting service.

Parler and conservative lawmakers have decried those removals, arguing they prove that Big Tech companies have an anti-conservative bias when it comes to content moderation, despite a lack of evidence to support those claims.

The platform has tried to thread the needle, telling lawmakers that it had alerted the FBI to some posts in the lead-up to Jan. 6.

But Parler may now find itself losing many of the users who made it popular in the first place. Competitors on the right are also seizing on the company’s decision to make changes for Apple.

“Parler bent the knee and Big Tech has them under their thumb,” CEO and founder of fringe social media platform Gab wrote in a blog post last month. He touted Gab’s own ban from the major app stores as a “badge of honor.”

Parler may be looking to assuage some of the concerns from users with Monday’s announcement of new leadership at the company.

Prominent conservative George Farmer will be taking over as CEO, and he used his first statement to paint Parler’s initial removal as Big Tech overreaching against conservatives.

“Parler began as a small, start-up company that differed from its Big Tech competitors in its commitment to the free market of ideas in the full spirit of the First Amendment,” Farmer said.

“For the past two months I have worked with an incredible team of people, under the leadership of Mark Meckler, to bring Parler back online and return to Apple’s App Store after we had been unfairly maligned by the media and its allies in Big Tech and Congress,” he added.

But Parler’s new approach to content moderation — and Apple’s silence on it — is opening the door to further questions from liberal critics who pushed for Parler’s removal even before the insurrection.

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“I’m not entirely sure what Apple thinks it’s solving for by this one measure,” Scurato said, noting that the content that is removed from the App Store version would still be available for users to find through a desktop browser.

“It seems that if the content is so easily accessible through other means, that it just doesn’t solve for the problem that we saw on Jan. 6,” Scurato said.

Change the Terms, a coalition that includes Free Press Net, wrote to Apple in November urging it to remove Parler over violations of App Store policies as Parler surged in popularity after the presidential election.

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Max Rizzuto, a research assistant at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, said the update announced on Monday is a “fairly large stride” in terms of content moderation but is a “confined effort.”

“What it does do is it keeps harmful content out of the hands of some people, which is certainly a step in the right direction,” he said.

But he also noted that moderating for harmful language “simplifies the issue” and doesn’t account for how it spreads even on “well moderated” platforms.

“There are harmful agendas on all sorts of platforms that they can find by being extremely deliberate and how they share their messaging,” Rizzuto said.

Dans la grande famille du monde de la télé-réalité, les bonnes nouvelles s’enchaînent ! Après l’annonce des grossesses de Jessica Thivenin et Carla Moreau, toutes les deux candidates emblématiques des Marseillais (W9), c’est au tour d’un ancien participant aux Princes de l’amour (W9) de révéler qu’il sera bientôt papa.

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C’est sur Instagram en mars que Benoît, prince atypique de la quatrième édition du programme de dating diffusé en 2017, a annoncé l’heureuse nouvelle. Sa compagne Noémie est enceinte de leur premier enfant ! Une photo du couple ainsi qu’une deuxième de la future maman dévoilant son baby bump avaient été publiées sur le réseau social. En légende de ces images, Benoît avait écrit quelques lignes.

Les amis, voil le pourquoi du comment de mon absence depuis quelques temps sur les rseaux sociaux, moi et ma chrie nous attendons un heureux vnement, nous sommes les plus heureux du monde, mais je stresse normment je vous le cache pas, mais nous sommes bien entour. Donnez la vie est vraiment quelque chose de merveilleux, nous attendons le mois d’octobre avec impatience (ou meme srement avant). Voil les amis, je ne vous oublie pas, depuis ces trois dernires annes, mais pour moi j’ai un nouveau rle jouer maintenant, le rle de futur papa avec la plus belle futur maman

Une publication partage par Beubeu (@beubeuoff) le 27 Mars 2019 4 :24 PDT

C’EST UNE FILLE !!!!

Une publication partage par Beubeu (@beubeuoff) le 26 Mai 2019 7 :13 PDT

“On ne trouve pas l’amour en claquant des doigts. Je rame autant que les autres, vous savez !“, confiait Heidi Klum au magazine Elle France en mai 2018. Cet amour, elle l’a retrouvé dans les bras de Tom Kaulitz, membre du groupe Tokio Hotel. 5 mois après un mariage secret, le couple s’unit une deuxième fois, en grande pompe, en Italie.

C’est à Capri que Heidi Klum et Tom Kaulitz se diront oui ! Le top model de 46 ans, son époux de 29 ans et leurs invités y ont été aperçus ce vendredi 2 août 2019. Tous se sont retrouvés au restaurant Riccio pour une réception pré-cérémonie de mariage. Heidi et Tom s’y sont rendus en bateau, accompagnés des quatre enfants du top model, Leni, Henry, Johan et Lou (respectivement âgés de 14, 13, 12 et 9 ans), nés d’une précédente relation avec l’homme d’affaires milliardaire Flavio Briatore et de son deuxième mariage avec Seal.

Angélique en robe blanche, verre de vin à la main, Heidi Klum a échangé plusieurs baisers avec Tom Kaulitz au cours de ce trajet sur l’eau. Au restaurant, les mariés inséparables ont discuté avec les chanceux convives de cet heureux événement. Parmi eux, figurent les parents de Heidi, Erna et Günther, et le frère de Tom, Bill Kaulitz. Avant de jeter l’ancre à Capri, le chanteur avait organisé l’enterrement de vie de garçon du jeune marié.

Si Seal se désintéresse complètement de cette union, Heidi Klum, elle, est aux anges ! Elle partage de superbes photos et vidéos souvenirs de ce voyage en Méditerranée avec ses plus de 6 millions d’abonnés Instagram.

@paolinolemontreescapri

A post shared by Heidi Klum (@heidiklum) on Jul 31, 2019 at 1:25pm PDT

Beautiful view

A post shared by Heidi Klum (@heidiklum) on Aug 2, 2019 at 7:29am PDT

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Welcome to Hillicon Valley, The Hill’s newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. If you don’t already, be sure to sign up for our newsletter by clicking HERE. 

Welcome! Follow our cyber reporter, Maggie Miller (@magmill95), and tech team, Chris Mills Rodrigo (@chrisismills) and Rebecca Klar (@rebeccaklar_), for more coverage.

A worker at Amazon’s Bessemer, Ala. facility dropped a big allegation about security guards having access to a mailbox during the unionization election at a National Labor Relations Board hearing Friday. Meanwhile, Facebook lost a bid to block an Irish watchdog’s draft decision that could suspend the tech giant’s ability to transfer data from the U.S. to the EU, and bipartisan groups of House lawmakers rolled out two pieces of legislation to protect critical infrastructure against cyberattacks following the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline. 

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BIG ALLEGATION ALERT: Security guards at Amazon’s Bessemer, Ala., facility had keys to a mailbox that the company recommended workers use to vote in the unionization election earlier this year, a worker at the facility alleged during a National Labor Relations Board hearing Friday.

Kevin Jackson said during the sixth day of hearings over the union’s challenge to the results that he had seen two guards use keys to open one of the thirteen slots on the mailbox.

The allegation comes after the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, which would have represented the Amazon workers in the event of a union win, formally challenged the initial loss by a 2-1 margin last month.

The challenge included complaints about the mailbox.

Emails show Amazon pushed the United States Postal Service to install a mailbox in the Bessemer parking lot after its efforts to have an in-person election fell short.

The union argued the mailbox created the perception that Amazon was running the election rather than the NLRB, and created the impression that workers were being surveilled.

The allegation that employees connected with Amazon had access to the mailbox was not included in the complaint. It may also be difficult to corroborate, and had not been mentioned by earlier witnesses.

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Read more.

A BLOW TO FACEBOOK: Facebook lost a bid to block an Irish watchdog’s draft decision that could suspend the Silicon Valley giant’s ability to transfer data from the U.S. to the EU, according to a decision released by the Irish High Court Friday. 

The court rejected Facebook’s procedural complaints about the Irish Data Protection Commission’s preliminary decision from August to order the suspension of Facebook’s data flow between the U.S. and the EU.

Justice David Barniville wrote in the court’s decision released Friday that Facebook “must fail on those grounds of challenge and that it is, therefore, not entitled to any of the reliefs claimed in the proceedings.”

A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement “we look forward to defending our compliance to the IDPC, as their preliminary decision could be damaging not only to Facebook, but also to users and other businesses.”

Read more about the decision. 

LAWMAKERS TAKE ACTION: A bipartisan group of more than a dozen House lawmakers have reintroduced legislation to defend pipelines against cyberattacks, with the bill coming on the heels of the devastating ransomware attack that forced the shutdown of Colonial Pipeline.

The Pipeline Security Act would codify the responsibility of both the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) responsibility for securing pipelines against threats. The effort is being led by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.).

It would also require TSA to update pipeline security guidelines and conduct risk assessments, create a personnel strategy for staffing its Pipeline Security Section and improve congressional oversight of TSA’s pipeline efforts. 

Read more about the legislation here. 

LAWMAKERS TAKE ACTION PART TWO: Rep. Elissa SlotkinElissa SlotkinHillicon Valley: Amazon worker alleges security had keys to mailbox used in union vote | Facebook loses bid to block Irish watchdog’s data flow decision | Lawmakers move to defend pipelines against cyber threats Lawmakers roll out legislation to defend pipelines against cyber threats Lawmakers introduce bill to protect critical infrastructure against cyberattacks MORE (D-Mich.) and other bipartisan House lawmakers on Friday introduced legislation designed to protect critical systems against cyberattacks, a week after a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline significantly disrupted the fuel supply for portions of the country.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Cyber Exercise Act would require CISA, which is the nation’s key cyber risk agency, to establish a National Cyber Exercise Program to test critical infrastructure readiness against cyberattacks.

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The legislation would also require CISA to help state and local governments, along with private industry, design and implement plans to evaluate the safety and security of critical infrastructure.

Read more about the bill here. 

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LUCK O’ THE IRISH: Ireland’s health care system was forced to shut down its IT systems Friday following what it described as a “significant” ransomware attack that disrupted operations.

“There has been a ransomware attack on our IT systems,” the Health Service Executive (HSE) wrote in a post on its website. “We have shut them all down as a precaution. This has caused some disruption to our services. But most healthcare appointments will go ahead as planned.”

According to HSE, the attack meant a delay in some hospital appointments, the cancellation of a portion of virtual appointments and a delay in COVID-19 test results. The Rotunda Maternity Hospital in Dublin canceled all appointments except emergencies, and the Cork University Hospital was forced to cancel all radiotherapy and most X-ray appointments Friday. 

Ambulance and emergency services were not disrupted and were continuing as normal as of Friday afternoon in Ireland, along with COVID-19 vaccine appointments. 

Read more about the attack here. 

TECH COMPANIES UNITE: A group of nearly 30 tech companies and other organizations filed a legal brief Friday to defend a program that gives work authorization to the spouses of high-skilled immigrants.

The Obama-era rule lets nearly 100,000 spouses of H1-B visa holders in the U.S. work. The rule, known as H-4 EAD, is currently being challenged in court by a group of American tech workers, Save Jobs USA, which says that visa holders and their spouses unfairly compete with American workers.

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The coalition of tech companies and organizations advocating for the program filed brief with the court on Friday.

In the amicus brief, the companies and organizations — including Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Twitter — say repealing the rule would “be utterly destructive for the families impacted” and hurt their businesses.

Read more.

 

Lighter click: Dakota Johnson’s influence…

An op-ed to chew on: Cybersecurity executive order is a game changer but not a panacea 

NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: 

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We Found Joe BidenJoe BidenVirginia GOP gubernatorial nominee acknowledges Biden was ‘legitimately’ elected BuzzFeed News finds Biden’s private Venmo account Kid reporter who interviewed Obama dies at 23 MORE‘s Secret Venmo. Here’s Why That’s A Privacy Nightmare For Everyone (BuzzFeed News / Ryan Mac, Katie Notopolous, Ryan Brooks and Logan McDonald)

Distancing from the vaccinated: Viral anti-vaccine infertility misinfo reaches new extremes (NBC News / April Glaser and Brandy Zadrozny)

SpaceX’s satellite internet service is a technological marvel — when it works (The Verge / Nilay Patel)

The Deadly Toll of Amazon’s Trucking Boom (The Information / Paris Martineau)

Employee Charges Amazon With Violating Labor Law at NYC Union Drive (Motherboard / Lauren Kaori Gurley)

Rising prices are putting increasing pressure on President BidenJoe Biden28 Senate Democrats sign statement urging Israel-Hamas ceasefire Franklin Graham says Trump comeback would ‘be a very tough thing to do’ Schools face new pressures to reopen for in-person learning MORE and the Federal Reserve to prevent inflation from derailing the recovery from the coronavirus recession.

A surge of consumer demand unleashed by government stimulus, improving vaccinations and fewer pandemic restrictions is putting a strain on global supply chains. Manufacturers and other hard-hit industries are struggling to get back up and running after a year of lockdown measures, causing supply shortages and raising costs.

All of those factors combined to push the consumer price index (CPI) up 0.8 percent in April and 4.2 percent over the past 12 months, the fastest annual rate since 2008, the Labor Department reported this past week. When stripping out the more volatile prices for food and energy, the index registered the biggest monthly increase since 1982.

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While the ramped-up consumer spending is a sign of increased optimism, the Biden administration faces political risks as Americans find themselves dealing with inflation levels that the country hasn’t seen in more than a decade.

Deepening concern among Americans about inflation could derail not only Biden’s economic agenda but also the Democrats’ hopes of defending narrow congressional majorities in the 2022 midterm elections.

“Now people are spending again, and obviously April’s numbers show that they’re spending even more aggressively than forecasters, most of them, anticipated,” said George Selgin, an economic policy expert at the libertarian Cato Institute.

“There are some adverse supply shocks going on, some of which affected the April numbers, but the big story is the pent-up demand and purchasing power that people have finally started to dispose of,” he added.

Inflation had been widely expected to rise as the U.S. rebounded from the coronavirus recession following a plunge in consumer spending. But the unexpectedly sharp increases in prices have spurred more criticism from Republican lawmakers who have for months questioned the White House and Fed’s handle on inflation.

“There’s never been a time that I know of in history where you have had a significant increase in money supply where you don’t have inflation,” said Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) in an interview with The Hill.

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White House and Fed officials say that with the U.S. still down roughly 9 million jobs from the onset of the pandemic, the economy is in no danger of overheating. Instead, they argue that the country cannot afford to let up support and risk another sluggish recovery like the multiyear climb out of the 2007-09 recession.

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Biden and Democratic lawmakers are attempting to pass trillions in infrastructure spending after enacting a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill in March. Though GOP lawmakers are open to a deal on core aspects of infrastructure such as roads, bridges and waterways, they’ve dug in against Biden’s broader agenda and insist it will spur inflation even higher.

“You have to stop the reckless spending,” Scott said. “The federal government’s got to start living within its means.”

Adding to the concerns of inflation hawks is the Fed’s all but explicit refusal to raise interest rates before 2022 at the earliest.

Many economists have dismissed those concerns and share the Fed’s view that after a few months of high inflation readings, price increases will settle down as the economy settles into a more normal recovery pace.

“We’ve only seen really two months of strong price increases,” said Laura Rosner-Warburton, senior economist at research consultancy MacroPolicy Perspectives.

“It would be premature and kind of an overreaction to look at the [April CPI report] in particular and to be overly concerned,” she added.

Rosner-Warburton said April’s price jump was driven by three short-term factors: the statistical quirks of a sharp increase coming a year after a deep decline, temporary pandemic-related supply constraints and the release of pent-up demand.

“Last year, we had outright declines in prices, and this year, we’re not seeing those declines repeat. So on a year-over-year basis, comparing it looks like inflation is artificially higher because of the decline last year,” she said.

Increases in prices for shelter, airfares, recreation, motor vehicle insurance, and household goods and services — which all fell sharply last year — were also major drivers of April’s price increases.

While some prices rebounding toward normal levels pushed inflation higher, supply shortages for other products had an even greater effect. Roughly a third of the CPI surge last month came from a 10 percent increase in the price of used cars and trucks alone.

The normal flow of used cars into circulation has been slowed by semiconductor shortages delaying the manufacturing of new autos, Rosner-Warburton said, curtailing overall supply. Demand has also soared as rental car companies that liquidated their fleets during the onset of COVID-19 rush to catch up to Americans looking to hit the road now that more states are lifting coronavirus restrictions.

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“Eventually supply should rise to meet this demand, and demand will probably cool off as well as we have the fading effects of the fiscal stimulus. So this bottleneck should not be something persistent,” she said.

Even so, the uncertainty over how much higher inflation will go and for how long has serious potential implications for both Biden and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

The Fed is also trying to sell financial markets on its recently adopted shift in approach to inflation, which calls for allowing price increases to run above the central bank’s target long enough to compensate for decades of shortfalls.

Inflation has run below the Fed’s 2 percent annual target for more than a decade, hindering wage growth and the central bank’s ability to raise interest rates. To flip this trend, Powell and Fed officials say they will not raise interest rates until inflation is on track to compensate for shortfalls and the U.S. reaches maximum employment, something they don’t expect until 2022.

“All of these reasons make this a difficult time for the Fed to start raising interest rates, and that means we have to worry whether it will do so when it needs to do so aggressively enough to meet its targets,” Selgin said.