The U.S. says it’s going to start treating ransomware investigations much more seriously, Bing censors Tank Man image search results, and El Salvador becomes the first country to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender.
It’s all the biz/tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Monday, June 7 and I’m your host Alex Coop.
Reuters is reporting that the U.S. Department of Justice is elevating investigations of ransomware attacks to a similar priority as terrorism in the wake of the Colonial Pipeline hack and mounting damage caused by cyberattacks. According to the publication, internal guidance sent on Thursday to U.S. attorney’s offices across the country suggested ransomware investigations should be coordinated by a new task force in Washington. When it comes to the Colonial Pipeline attack, the company decided to pay the hackers who invaded their systems nearly $5 million to regain access.
The internet went ballistic after it was discovered that Microsoft blocked images and videos around the world of “Tank Man,” the unidentified protester during China’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. According to multiple reports, the photos were taken down globally from Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, Friday. It’s worth noting that Friday was the 32nd anniversary of the event. A Microsoft spokesman told CNN that they were taken offline by mistake, attributing the removal to “human error.” The images reappeared around the world — outside of China — on Saturday.
And lastly, El Salvador is looking to introduce legislation that will make it the world’s first sovereign nation to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, alongside the U.S. dollar. In a video broadcast to Bitcoin 2021, a multiday conference in Miami being billed as the biggest bitcoin event in history, President Nayib Bukele announced El Salvador’s partnership with digital wallet company, Strike, to build the country’s modern financial infrastructure using bitcoin technology. I’m sure this is going to make the big banks there *really* happy.
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