Chinese Factories, Blood Clots, Ransomware
March 15, 2021
Yesterday’s Newsletter / March 15, 2021
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At least 39 reported killed in Myanmar as Chinese factories burn
Summary: Military government-aligned security forces reportedly killed at least 22 people after protestors set Chinese-financed factories ablaze on Sunday, and another 16 protestors were reportedly killed in other parts of the country on the same day.
Context: Tensions continue to escalate in Myanmar in the wake of a coup conducted by the military against the country’s democratically elected government in February, after a representative of the former civilian government—who is currently in hiding alongside most other not-locked-up, not-killed-by-the-military senior members of that government—announced that citizens can legally fight to defend themselves against military government security forces, and that their government-in-exile was symbolically passing a law to that effect.
—Nikkei Asia
AstraZeneca finds no evidence of increased blood clot risk from vaccine
Summary: Even as it struggles with production and political issues, the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is now trying to prove that its COVID vaccine doesn’t cause a variety of pulmonary issues, including blood clots, after health authorities in several countries noted clots in trial subjects who received the shot.
Context: Evidence provided by AZ and several regulatory bodies have indicated that while some people in the trial groups did develop blood clots, they did so at levels lower than would be expected in a similarly sized, non-test-subject population; in other words, people get clots all the time, and some people who were in this trial got clots, but those clots almost certainly had nothing to do with the vaccine—that said extreme care on the part of regional health officials, and perhaps some element of political retribution by EU leaders in particular have conspired to elevate this possibility so that many countries are now putting a hold on their distribution and regulatory approval of AZ vaccines.
Also: Ireland suspends AstraZeneca vaccine amid blood clot reports, AstraZeneca’s EU vaccine woes deepen, No evidence to show AstraZeneca vaccine causes clots says UK regulator
—Reuters, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, ITV
Exchange servers first compromised by Chinese hackers hit with ransomware
Summary: Email servers recently hacked by a group thought to be connected to the Chinese government are now being broken into and held for ransom by hackers believed to be piggybacking on that original exploit.
Context: Microsoft has released a patch for their vulnerable Exchange email server software that was seemingly used by a Chinese hacker group to break into perhaps hundreds of thousands of mostly small- and medium-sized businesses and organizations—but the patch has not been installed by all customers, and some servers cannot be patched for various reasons, which leaves such Exchange-users vulnerable to ransomware software, and thus, having their emails held hostage by hackers demanding money for their release.
—Ars Technica
Visual
33%
Percentage of Americans who own a smart speaker, according to research conducted by Edison Research and Triton Digital for their Infinite Dial 2021 report.
While still far from a majority, this represents a fairly staggering increase over 2020’s 11% figure. That increase is thought to be partially the consequence of pandemic-instigated lifestyle changes, as 49% of US respondents who work from home own a smart speaker.
—Radio Info
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Yesterday’s Newsletter is published by analytic journalist and host of the Let’s Know Things podcast, Colin Wright.