Archives for April 2021

UK spy chief says West faces ‘moment of reckoning’ on tech

LONDON (AP) — Western countries risk losing control of technologies that are key to internet security and economic prosperity to nations like China and Russia if they don’t act to deal with the threat, one of the U.K.’s top spy chiefs warned Friday.

“Significant technology leadership is moving east” and causing a conflict of interests and values, Jeremy Fleming, director of government electronic surveillance agency GCHQ, said in a speech.

Singling out China as a particular threat, he said the country’s “size and technological weight means that it has the potential to control the global operating system.”

China is an early adopter of emerging technologies but it also has a “competing vision for the future of cyberspace,” and it’s playing an influential role in the debate around international rules and standards, he said.

He raised the possibility of countries with “illiberal values” like China building them into technical standards that the world ends up relying on, and using their state power to control and dominate technology markets, turning them into arenas of geopolitical competition.

Russian hacking and other nefarious online activity, meanwhile, poses the most acute threat to the U.K. but, like a smartphone app vulnerability, could be avoided.

China’s Foreign Ministry blasted the remarks, saying they were “totally groundless and unreasonable.”

“Western countries, such as the U.K. and U.S., are actually the true empires of hacking and tapping,” ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a briefing in Beijing.

Left unchecked, foreign adversaries could threaten the design and freedom of the internet, Fleming said. He citied as examples the security for emerging technologies like “smart city” sensors used to manage services more efficiently or digital currencies, saying they could be hardwired for data collection or other intrusive capabilities that go against open and democratic societies.

Britain and other Western countries face “a moment of reckoning,” Fleming said.

“The rules are changing in ways not always controlled by government,” Fleming said in his speech at Imperial College London. “And without action it is increasingly clear that the key technologies on which we will rely for our future prosperity and security won’t be shaped and controlled by the West.

Britain should not take its status as a cyber power for granted, and it should work on developing “sovereign technologies” such as high-speed quantum computing and cryptographic technology to protect sensitive information, Fleming said.

___

For all of AP’s tech coverage, visit https://apnews.com/apf-technology

___

Follow Kelvin Chan at https://www.twitter.com/chanman

US to resume J&J COVID vaccinations despite rare clot risk

U.S. health officials lifted an 11-day pause on COVID-19 vaccinations using Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot on Friday, after scientific advisers decided its benefits outweigh a rare risk of blood clot.

The government uncovered 15 vaccine recipients who developed a highly unusual kind of blood clot out of nearly 8 million people given the J&J shot. All were women, most under age 50. Three died, and seven remain hospitalized.

But ultimately, federal health officials decided that J&J’s one-and-done vaccine is critical to fight the pandemic — and that the small clot risk could be handled with warnings to help younger women decide if they should use that shot or an alternative.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the J&J vaccine has important advantages for some people who were anxiously awaiting its return. And the Food and Drug Administration updated online vaccine information leaflets for would-be recipients and health workers, so that shots could resume as early as Saturday.

“This is not a decision the agencies reached lightly,” FDA Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock told reporters late Friday.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky added that the pause should increase confidence in vaccine safety, showing “that we are taking every one of those needles in a haystack that we find seriously.”

The U.S. decision — similar to how European regulators are rolling out J&J’s shot — comes after advisers to the CDC debated in a daylong meeting just how serious the risk really is. Panelists voted 10-4 to resume vaccinations without outright age restrictions, but made clear that the shots must come with clear warnings about the clots.

“I think we have a responsibility to be certain that they know this,” said Dr. Sarah Long of Drexel University College of Medicine, who voted against the proposal because she felt it did not go far enough in warning younger women.

The committee members all agreed the J&J vaccine “should be put back into circulation,” panel chairman Dr. Jose Romero, Arkansas’ health secretary, said in an interview after the vote. “The difference was how you convey the risk … It does not absolve us from making sure that people who receive this vaccine, if they are in the risk group, that we inform them of that.”

European regulators earlier this week made a similar decision, deciding the clot risk was small enough to allow the rollout of J&J’s shot. But how Americans ultimately handle J&J’s vaccine will influence other countries that don’t have as much access to other vaccination options.

Dr. Paul Stoffels, J&J’s chief scientific officer, pledged that the company would work with U.S. and global authorities “to ensure this very rare event can be identified early and treated effectively.”

At issue is a weird kind of blood clot that forms in unusual places, such as veins that drain blood from the brain, and in patients with abnormally low levels of the platelets that form clots. Symptoms of the unusual clots, dubbed “thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome,” include severe headaches a week or two after the J&J vaccination — not right away — as well as abdominal pain and nausea.

The government initially spotted six cases of the rare clots, with nine more cases coming to light in the last week or so. But even the first handful of reports raised alarm because European regulators already had uncovered similar rare clots among recipients of another COVID-19 vaccine, from AstraZeneca. The AstraZeneca and J&J shots, while not identical, are made with the same technology.

European scientists found clues that an abnormal platelet-harming immune response to AstraZeneca’s vaccine might be to blame — and if so, then doctors should avoid the most common clot treatment, a blood thinner called heparin.

That added to U.S. authorities’ urgency in pausing J&J vaccinations so they could tell doctors how to diagnose and treat these rare clots. Six patients were treated with heparin before anyone realized that might harm instead of help.

Dr. Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University closely watched Friday’s deliberations and said people should be made aware of the clotting risk but that it shouldn’t overshadow the benefits of COVID-19 protection.

“We need to treat people as adults, tell them what the information is and give them these choices,” said Goodman, a former vaccine specialist at the FDA.

Two-dose vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, which are made differently and haven’t been linked to clot risks, are the mainstay of the U.S. vaccination effort. But many states had been counting on the easier-to-store, one-dose option to also help protect hard-to-reach populations including people who are homeless or disabled.

The CDC’s advisers struggled to put the rare clot cases into perspective. COVID-19 itself can cause a different type of blood clots. So can everyday medications, such as birth control pills.

The side effect debate isn’t the only hurdle facing J&J. The FDA separately uncovered manufacturing violations at a Baltimore factory the company had hired to help brew the vaccine. No shots made by Emergent BioSciences have been used — J&J’s production so far has come from Europe. But it’s unclear how the idled factory will impact J&J’s pledge to provide 100 million U.S. vaccine doses by the end of May and 1 billion doses globally this year.

___

AP health writer Matthew Perrone contributed to this report.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Outages blamed on malware still plaguing budget airlines

A technology provider says a malware attack triggered a dayslong outage that has caused reservations systems to crash at about 20 low-cost airlines around the world.

The company, Radixx, said it noticed “unusual activity” around its reservations program on Tuesday. It did not describe the malware or say how it got into the program.

A spokeswoman for Radixx’s parent, Southlake, Texas-based Sabre Corp., said Friday that the company was beginning to restore service to airline customers. Kristin Hays said the company reported the incident to the FBI.

Radixx said its system operates separately from those used by some larger airlines that are Sabre customers. Radixx said customer information was not compromised.

The timing could hardly be worse for start-up Avelo Airlines, which can’t process reservations as it prepares for its first flight next week in California. On its home page, Avelo apologized to customers and encouraged them to browse flight listings even if they can’t book a trip.

South African budget airline FlySafair said it created a “mini booking platform” that let customers buy one-way tickets for flights through next Tuesday.

“We are not sure when we will be up again,” the airline said on its website.

Vietravel Airlines, a new carrier in Vietnam, said it was doing system maintenance but was still selling tickets at airport counters.

Outages at airline technology systems happen regularly, snarling flights and making it impossible for customers to make reservations. In the U.S. alone, congressional auditors counted about one outage a month from 2015 through 2017.

Experts say it’s partly because the systems often consist of layers of old and new technology that don’t always work perfectly together.

Lindsay Lohan’s dad accused of taking kickbacks from rehab

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The estranged father of actor Lindsay Lohan was arrested Friday on charges that he illegally took kickbacks for referring patients to a substance abuse treatment center.

Michael Lohan, 60, was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on five counts of patient brokering and one count of conspiracy to commit patient brokering, The Palm Beach Post reported.

Authorities said a Delray Beach-area drug treatment center called Pride Recovery paid more than $27,000 in kickbacks to either Lohan directly or to a business he was associated with, Lola Recovery Ventures of Palm Beach Gardens.

Under Florida law, it is illegal for a health care provider to pay a commission for the referral of patients. The practice has been linked to numerous instances of fraud in which rehab centers get reimbursed for performing costly and unnecessary tests on patients who have health insurance.

“Patient brokering corrupts our health care system because decisions are motivated by greed instead of a patient’s needs,” Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said in a statement Friday.

Aronberg said Lohan is the 117th person arrested in connection with a task force’s ongoing probe into patient brokering in the area.

Lohan’s attorney, Heidi Perlet, says her client denies Aronberg’s allegations.

“Michael Lohan has helped countless individuals suffering from addiction issues,” Perlet said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Michael should be applauded for his efforts in saving lives, not arrested for them. … Michael is looking forward to having his day in Court where the whole truth, not the narrative put forth by the State Attorney’s Office, comes out.”

Lohan has had several prior run-ins with the law, including allegations of domestic violence. He appeared on season 5 of “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew,” which aired on VH1 in 2011.

Racial equity meeting interrupted with racist slurs, images

A person interrupted a video conference meeting of a racial equity task force in Fairfield, Connecticut, with racist slurs, including some directed at Black members of the group, police said Friday.

They’re trying to identify the person who joined the Thursday evening meeting of the city’s Racial Equity and Justice Task Force shared their screen to show images of enslaved people in addition to making racist remarks.

It is being investigated as a potential hate crime, Fairfield Police Chief Robert Kalamaras said. He said he plans to consult with federal and state law enforcement agencies during the investigation.

“There is no place for this type of racist behavior and language in our community and we will do everything we can to identify the person who committed this disgusting act and hold them responsible,” Kalamaras said. “The members of this local task force are working to make our community a better and safer place for everyone, and it’s abhorrent to see their meeting disrupted in such a despicable way.”

The leaders of the task force said the person was somehow able to take control of the meeting, including the mute and sharing functions, for a time.

Task force co-chair Gina Ludlow, who is Black, said she and other members confronted the person, telling him he was not going to be successful in terrorizing the group or stopping their work.

“I told him the mistake he made was showing those images and thinking I would feel anything but proud of who I am,” she said. “Those images remind me that I am descended from people who endured and survived. And If they could survive that, I certainly can survive this call.”

The task force was formed last year by the town — which is predominantly white — to identify any racial inequalities and injustices in local government and recommend ways to address them. The meetings, which are held over Zoom, are open to the public.

Ludlow said the will discuss how to better protect the Zoom controls at future meetings.

She noted that this happened the same week that Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of killing George Floyd, calling it a tough week for everyone. This incident, like that one, she said shined a light on the continuing problem of racism.

“These things have been happening my whole entire life,” she said. “They happened to my parents. They happened to my grandparents. If you exist in this country in a body that looks like mine, this happens. The difference is, this was on video. It was recorded. It was public. It makes it a lot harder to turn a blind eye and say racism is not a thing.”

Archives for April 2021

Footer