World

The hackers leaking stolen Australian health records to the dark web on Thursday appeared to end their extortion attempt by dumping a final batch of data online and declaring:”Case closed.”

In November the hackers demanded health insurer Medibank pay US$9.7 million to keep the records off the internet — or one dollar for each of the company’s impacted customers, which included Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Medibank refused to pay at the urging of the federal government, which at the height of the crisis considered making it illegal for hacked companies to hand over ransoms.

On Thursday morning the hackers said they had posted the last of the data online, deliberately coinciding with International Computer Security Day.

“Happy Cyber Security Day,” they wrote. 

“Added folder full. Case closed.” 

The first batches of stolen data started appearing on a dark web forum on November 9, in curated posts highlighting medical records about drug addiction, pregnancy terminations and sexually transmitted infections. 

Medibank on Thursday said the latest post was “incomplete and hard to understand” — an indication the hackers may have lost interest after a ransom was taken off the table.  

“While our investigation continues there are currently no signs that financial or banking data has been taken,” Medibank said in a statement.  

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said in November the hackers were believed to be a group of “loosely affiliated cyber criminals” who were based in Russia. 

Cybersecurity analysts have suggested they could be linked to Russian hacker group REvil. 

Australian government ministers have variously dubbed the hackers “scumbags”, “scummy criminals”, and “rolled gold mongrels”.

Former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried apologized Wednesday for a “lot of mistakes” in the abrupt collapse of the cryptocurrency firm and said he did not knowingly behave fraudulently.

“I didn’t ever try to commit fraud on anyone,” Bankman-Fried told the Dealbook conference hosted by CNBC and The New York Times.

“I’m deeply sorry about what happened,” Bankman-Fried said. “Clearly I made a lot of mistakes or things I would be able to give anything to be able to do over again.”

Bankman-Fried, appearing by video from the Bahamas and donning his trademark t-shirt, said he was “shocked” by many of the details that have surfaced amid the cryptocurrency platform’s collapse, depicting the problems as stemming from lax oversight and corporate controls rather than an intent to defraud. 

On November 11, Bankman-Fried resigned as FTX filed for bankruptcy protection while facing a large financing shortfall and a deluge of withdrawals from panicked customers. The firm at its peak had been worth some $32 billion.

At the time, FTX had taken some $10 billion in customer funds without authorization, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Much attention has focused on the relationship between FTX and Alameda Research, an affiliated trading firm. 

Bankman-Fried acknowledged an “embarrassing” lack of attention to conflicts of interest between the two firms, but insisted that he was not abreast of the details on Alameda and did not run Alameda.

– Thought no ‘existential’ risk –

Among the revelations, the digital currency news site CoinDesk reported on November 2 that Alameda’s balance sheet was heavily built on FTT — a token created by FTX and not based on an asset with independent value. 

The value of FTT plunged in early November as both Alameda and FTX cratered and has not recovered.

Bankman-Fried said that he was also surprised at the scale of Alameda’s positions on FTX that were troubled and which ultimately stressed the firm.

“I didn’t think it was existential for FTX,” Bankman-Fried said of Alameda’s financial stress, adding that he thought the problem would “end up having some small impact on FTX, but not a significant one, not one that hurt customers at all.”

Bankman-Fried said he didn’t knowingly “comingle” funds between the two firms.

FTX’s newly installed CEO John J. Ray has lambasted his predecessors in a November 17 filing in bankruptcy court.

“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here,” Ray said in the filing. 

“From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented,” he said.

Bankman-Fried on Wednesday said he was not aware that he was the subject of a criminal probe, adding that he rejected his lawyer’s advice to stay silent now.

“I have a duty to explain what happened,” he said. “And I think I have a duty … if there is anything I can do to try and help customers out here.”

Bankman-Fried suggested US investors in FTX could recover their losses, but did not explain how this might happen.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron fired a volley at his American hosts on the first day of a rare state visit to Washington, telling lawmakers Wednesday that US industrial subsidies are “super aggressive” against French competitors.

“This is super aggressive for our business people,” an AFP reporter heard Macron tell members of Congress and business leaders, who had invited him to lunch ahead of the main part of the state visit on Thursday, when the French leader will spend most of the day with President Joe Biden.

Macron was referring to Biden’s signature policy called the Inflation Reduction Act, which is set to pour billions of dollars into environmentally friendly industries — with strong backing for US-based manufacturers.

The White House touts the IRA legislation as a groundbreaking effort to reignite US manufacturing and promote renewable technologies, but European Union governments are crying foul, threatening to launch a trade war by subsidizing their own green economy sector.

Macron’s blunt assessment, saying he just wanted “to be respected as a good friend,” tore some of the veneer off a carefully choreographed state visit intended to celebrate historic US-French ties — and also tackle the trickier parts of the US-EU transatlantic alliance.

“I don’t want to become a market to sell American products because I have exactly the same products as you,” said Macron, stressing that France had its own middle class in need of employment.

“And the consequence of the IRA is that you will perhaps fix your issue but you will increase my problem. I’m sorry to be so straightforward,” he said.

The White House responded by insisting that the state visit is about the two presidents’ “warm relationship.”

US advances in the clean energy economy will help Europeans too, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. The IRA “presents significant opportunities for European firms as well as benefits to EU energy security. This is not a zero sum game.”

In a speech later at the French embassy, Macron insisted on the subsidies issue and said they could become a real sticking point in US relations with Europe.

While voicing support for the environmental goals of the IRA, Macron said, “These are choices that will split the West.”

Still, Macron said US-French ties remain solid, calling on both countries to heed “the bonds that history has forged between us, an alliance stronger than anything.” 

– Frenchman on the Moon? –

Earlier, Macron joined Vice President Kamala Harris at NASA headquarters in Washington to discuss cooperation in space — and to propose the first Frenchman on the Moon.

Macron highlighted the American lunar program Artemis, whose first uncrewed test mission launched in mid-November with participation of the European Space Agency (ESA), and said “we are very keen” to join.

“It’s very important for us, as long as you can propose a French leader to fly to the Moon quite rapidly,” he told Harris, in a nod to French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who also attended the NASA visit.

Macron’s busy schedule, which included a working lunch to discuss biodiversity and clean energy, and a visit to the historic Arlington National Cemetery, illustrated the ambitions set for the trip — the first formal state visit by a foreign leader to Washington since Biden took office nearly two years ago.

The core of the visit will be Thursday, including a White House military honor guard, Oval Office talks with Biden, a joint press conference and a banquet where Grammy-award-winning American musician Jon Batiste will perform.

The White House showed off the menu for the big dinner, which will start with butter poached Maine lobster, paired with caviar, “delicata squash raviolo” and tarragon sauce.

The main course features beef and triple cooked butter potatoes, before heading into the cheese course of award winning US brands, and finally orange chiffon cake, roasted pears with citrus sauce, and creme fraiche ice cream.

Washing all that down will be three different American wines.

– EU-US tensions –

Trade tensions, however, are only part of the uncomfortable flip side to the red carpet occasion.

Another gripe in Europe is the high cost of US liquid natural gas exports — which have surged to help compensate for canceled Russian deliveries.

There is also divergence on how to deal with the rise of superpower China. 

The question — with Washington pursuing a more hawkish tone and EU powers trying to find a middle ground — is unlikely to see much progress.

Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives voted Wednesday to prevent a potentially catastrophic freight rail strike, stepping in to break an impasse between workers and executives during a critical pre-holiday period.

The bill, passed with a solid bipartisan majority, effectively forces hold-out unions to accept a September deal on increased wages, which a majority of unions had already agreed to.

The bill must now go to the Senate, where leaders of both parties have suggested they will move quickly to head off a disruption of the US rail system right before Christmas.

Congress is empowered under a 1926 law to resolve disputes between railroads and labor unions, as part of its power to regulate commerce.

President Joe Biden praised the bipartisan vote to avert a shutdown that “would devastate our economy and families everywhere,” but said the measure must pass swiftly.

“Without more action, supply chain disruptions will begin,” Biden said on Twitter. “The Senate must urgently send a bill to my desk.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a press briefing that Biden expects the bill to reach him by next weekend.

The Biden administration had taken a hands-on approach to the long-running deadlock over a contract between organized labor and railroads, with cabinet secretaries in September participating in all-night negotiations alongside union leaders and rail executives.

After that marathon session, leaders from the two sides announced a tentative agreement.

Since that time, members of eight of the 12 rail unions approved the deal, while four voted it down.

The agreement includes a 24 percent pay increase for workers. But critics in organized labor have slammed a lack of guaranteed paid sick leave, an omission that has been seen as evidence of “unchecked corporate greed,” as one leading union put it.

In a win for organized labor, the House also backed a measure to add mandated paid sick time to the agreement, addressing the major sticking point identified by unions. 

The sick-leave measure passed on a tighter, mostly party-line vote, leaving its fate in the Senate more uncertain.

– Test for ‘Union Joe’ –

The failure of the agreement to win universal approval among the unions set the stage for a potential strike on December 9, putting the White House in an awkward spot.

Biden, who has been dubbed “Union Joe” for his strong affinity for organized labor, called on Monday for Congress to act.

His call was endorsed by numerous business groups and resonated with leading congressional Republicans, including Representative Sam Graves of Missouri, who called the prospect of a strike a “catastrophic economic disaster.”

The House voted 290-137 in favor of the resolution to enact the agreement, with 79 Republicans joining most Democrats in backing the measure.

Since Monday, at least two of the four unions that voted down the agreement have publicly criticized Biden’s stance.

The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWED), part of the Teamsters union, said it was “deeply disappointed” by the president’s action, while the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen also expressed disappointment as it encouraged the Biden administration “to stick to its pro-worker roots” and insist that guaranteed paid sick leave be included in the deal.

But both unions coalesced around a separate resolution championed by House Democrat Donald Payne Jr. to add seven days of paid sick leave to the agreement.

Payne, in proposing the measure, described it as “about fairness” in light of the sacrifices made by rail workers and other essential workers during the pandemic.

“Without paid sick time, railroad workers are forced to make a choice between their health, or the health of their families, and their paychecks,” Payne said.

But Graves said the existing agreement was “more than fair for rail workers.” 

Graves noted that Biden had hailed the September agreement, but “it’s now clear that the administration cannot close their own deal,” he said in urging colleagues to vote against the measure adding paid sick leave.

In the end, the resolution still passed on a largely party-line, 221-207, with all 218 Democrats present voting in support, along with three Republicans.