Bird has launched a new in-app safety check feature meant to keep users under the influence from unlocking its scooter rentals at night. The new feature, called Safe Start, will ask riders attempting to unlock a Bird rental scooter between 10PM and 4AM local time to type in a keyword within the app. That will serve as verification that they're sober enough to be able to handle a micro-electric vehicle. Those the feature deems to be under the influence will be advised to take other forms of transportation, such as taxis and ride-hailing vehicles.

Scooter-related injuries have been on the rise these past few years due to the increasing number of companies renting the vehicles out. Back in 2018, Los Angeles had its first conviction for scooting under the influence after a Bird rider knocked a pedestrian to the ground and then tested for blood alcohol levels more than thrice the legal limit. According to a CNBC report from 2019, the University of San Diego Medical Center admitted 42 patients for e-scooter related injuries within that year. Forty-eight percent of the patients had blood alcohol levels above the legal limit, and 52 percent overall tested for illicit substances.

Rebecca Hahn, Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer at Bird, said in a statement:

"Late night, scooters and other micro-electric vehicles provide a valuable mobility resource for third-shift workers, bar and restaurant staff and many others. Safe Start is designed to help keep them and all members of the community safe on the streets by encouraging responsible riding and keeping scooters available for those who truly need them."

Safe Start is part of the company's safety initiatives, which also include a Skid Detection feature that looks out for irresponsible riding to warn users and even ban them if needed. The new feature is currently being tested in the US, but Bird says it will roll out everywhere the company operates throughout the summer.

A Delta pilot has sued the airline for $1 billion, accusing it of trade secrets theft over a communications app he developed a few years ago. According to Bloomberg, Captain Craig Alexander pitched the QrewLive app, which he reportedly developed with $100,000 of his own money, to the company as a way for crew to easily communicate in case of disrupted flights. However, Delta turned him down and then launched what he says is an identical tool a few years later.

Alexander apparently contacted Delta CEO Ed Bastian back in 2016 after a computer system meltdown put all flights on hold and cost the company over $150 million. He told the CEO that he had a solution for issues like that, which resulted to several meetings with executives who gave him verbal assurances that they were going to acquire his app. 

According to Alexander's complaint, Delta ended up telling him that his technology didn't fit its needs and ultimately launched its own Flight Family Communications app in 2018. He called the official Delta app a "carbon copy, knock-off of the role-based text messaging component of [his] proprietary QrewLive communications platform." As for how he decided to seek $1 billion in damages, he said it's "based solely upon operational cost savings to Delta, [which] conservatively exceeds $1 billion."

The plaintiff has been with the airline for 11 years and still currently works with the company. Delta spokesperson Morgan Durrant told Bloomberg in a statement: "While we take the allegations specified in Mr. Alexander's complaint seriously, they are not an accurate or fair description of Delta's development of its internal crew messaging platform."

Netflix may be a TV show, movie and game streaming platform in the near future. According to Bloomberg, the company has hired Mike Verdu, a former Oculus and EA exec, as vice president of game development. Verdu was the VP of augmented and virtual reality games and content at Facebook, where he worked with developers for the Oculus Rift, Quest and Go. From 2017 to 2018, he was also the head of EA Mobile and oversaw the studios that worked on Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, SimCity BuildIt, Plants vs. Zombies and Sims Free Play, among others.

The company will reportedly build out its gaming team in the coming months to be able to start offering games for streaming within the next year. Netflix isn't exactly inexperienced in the area and previously developed games based on its popular shows. However, it released those titles on mobile and consoles — Bloomberg says the company won't be making a separate platform for its upcoming video games and will instead make them available alongside its shows and movies under their own category. Also, the streaming giant reportedly has no plans to charge extra for game access, though it's unclear if the additional content will lead to a future price hike.

With competitors popping up left and right, Netflix has been looking for ways to grow and make sure it stays ahead, especially in saturated markets like the US. Adding video games to its repertoire seems to be the answer it came up with recently. The Information first reported that the company was seeking to hire an executive who'd oversee its expansion into video games back in May. Apparently, Netflix approached several veteran execs in the industry regarding the position. Back then, a company spokesperson told The Information:

"Our members value the variety and quality of our content. It's why we've continually expanded our offering— from series to documentaries, film, local language originals and reality TV. Members also enjoy engaging more directly with stories they love — through interactive shows like Bandersnatch and You v. Wild, or games based on Stranger Things, L Casa de Papel and To All the Boys. So we're excited to do more with interactive entertainment."

A few days ago, Universal signed a deal with Amazon to give Prime Video exclusive streaming rights for its live-action releases. This time, Universal has struck a deal with Netflix, specifically for its animated films. The companies have signed a multi-year licensing agreement that gives the streaming service exclusive access to animated movies from Universal-owned Illumination, such as Minions: The Rise of Gru, which comes out in 2022. They've also expanded their partnership to include films from DreamWorks Animation, including the upcoming The Bad Guys and Puss In Boots: The Last Wish.

Similar to Universal's pact with Amazon, though, the Netflix deal is a bit complex. Yes, Netflix will have exclusive rights to animated films from Illumination and Dreamworks in the US, but only for a chunk of the 18-month period after the movies' theatrical run. Within the first four months, all Universal films will only be available for streaming on Peacock, the streaming service also owned by its parent company Comcast. Netflix will then have exclusive streaming rights for 10 months after that before the movies go back to Peacock for another four months. 

Once that 18-month period is done, Universal's animated films will also be available on Amazon Prime Video. Meanwhile, under their new deal, Netflix will license Universal's full animated and live-action slate four years after their release and will also secure streaming rights to select titles from the studio's library. While the deal can be a bit confusing, it all boils down to the fact that Netflix will continue having exclusive access to some of what could become the most-watched films on the platform. As Variety noted, Illumination's The Secret Life of Pets 2 is the most-watch Netflix movie in 2021 so far, according to a Forbes analysis. Last year, that distinction belonged to another film by Illumination: Despicable Me.

The Russia-linked ransomware group behind some of the biggest recent cyberattacks has disappeared from the internet. According to CNBC, Reuters and The Washington Post, the websites operated by the group REvil went down in the early hours of Tuesday. Dmitri Alperovitch, former chief technology officer of the cyber firm CrowdStrike, told The Post that the group's blog in the dark web is still reachable. However, its critical sites victims use to negotiate with the group and to receive decryption tools if they pay up are no longer available. Visitors to those websites now see a message that says "A server with the specified hostname could not be found."

REvil took responsibility for a recent string of ransomware attacks that affected around 800 to 1,500 businesses worldwide, including schools. It demanded $70 million to restore the data it stole and encrypted. Before that, experts linked the group to the ransomware attacks on IT management software giant Kaseya and beef supplier JBS, which chose to pay US$11 million to get its data back. 

It's unclear why REvil's websites aren't accessible anymore. As Reuters mentioned, ransomware gangs tend to vanish and rebrand in case they attract too much attention. President Biden recently revealed that he told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he expects his government to act on ransomware attacks coming from his country. When asked if the US would attack the servers Russian cybercriminals use to hijack American networks, Biden answered with a resounding "Yes."

Alperovitch told The Post that it doesn't look like REvil's servers were attacked, which means it's unlikely a an offensive cyber operation launched by US authorities. Kurtis Minder, the founder of threat intelligence firm GroupSense, told Reuters that if REvil's sites going down truly was the result of an offensive operation mounted by the US government, he hopes that "collateral damage was a consideration." Bad actors hold the key to the data they take ransom, and victims would have a tough time recovering theirs if that key gets destroyed or lost.

Over the past year, Twitter introduced some changes that made it easier to choose how to reply to tweets and to manage who can reply to your tweets. Now, it's adding a new feature that gives you a way to make sure your reply section is clean and friendly. The social network now lets you change who can reply to your tweets even after you've already sent it out. All you need to do is tap on the ellipsis button at the top right corner of your post and choose the option that says "Change who can reply."

In August last year, the company took its reply-limiting feature out of the experimental phase and gave all uses access to it. That rollout gave you the ability to choose who can reply to you — everyone, people you follow or people you mention — before you send out your tweet. This addition gives you even more control over the discussion going on in your replies section. 

The new feature is likely part of the platform's efforts to "increase the health of public conversation," which Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey previously said is his company's singular objective. As you can guess, the ability to choose who can reply to you has been controversial among some users, but it could also limit the toxic behavior you encounter on the platform.

A former NSA and White House official has been appointed to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at a time when ransomware and other kinds of cyberattacks are on the rise. The Senate has named Jen Easterly as the second person to head up the DHS agency, according to Politico. CISA provides cybersecurity tools and incident response services to government networks, and it also offers security advice to infrastructure operators and businesses. 

Politico previously reported that CISA has been struggling to handle one cybercrisis after another and that the agency is understaffed and overworked. It had to face multiple intrusions in the middle of the pandemic as bad actors attacked the healthcare industry with ransomware, forcing them to pay up to prevent delays that could cost lives. CISA also had to respond to the massive SolarWinds hack that the government is blaming on Russia, as well as the ransomware attacks on Colonial Pipeline, software giant Kaseya and meat supplier JBS. 

Easterly doesn't only have to lead response efforts to ongoing cyberattacks, it now also falls upon her shoulders to make sure CISA gains the ability to counter new threats as they come up. Before being named as the new CISA head, Easterly spent years as the number 2 official in the NSA's counterterrorism division and was also the National Security Council's senior director for counterterrorism under former President Barack Obama.

The Security Service of Ukraine or SBU has discovered and raided a cryptocurrency mining farm that allegedly stole electricity from the country's power grid. But instead of findings computers, the agency found racks with thousands of PS4 Pros stacked vertically side-by-side. As reported by Kotaku, the Ukrainian authorities confiscated over 5,000 gaming-related devices — 3,800 of which were consoles — from a warehouse right next to (and formerly owned by) the Vinnytsiaoblenergo energy distribution company. 

It's the largest cryptofarm the SBU has discovered so far, and the agency believes it's being operated by people living in the cities of Kyiv and Vinnytsia. Apparently, the operators used special electricity meters to prevent authorities from discovering the theft, which amounted to as much as US$257,000. "At the same time," the SBU wrote in its announcement, "the illegal withdrawal of electricity could lead to more global consequences — entire neighborhoods of Vinnytsia could be left without electricity." 

Vinnytsiaoblenergo denied any involvement in a statement sent to the Kyiv Post: "The equipment used for cryptocurrency mining has never operated on premises owned by our enterprise." It also said that it didn't find any evidence of electric theft and that the SBU's findings "does not correspond to reality." While it's unclear at the moment whether the facility truly stole electricity or not, the SBU has published images of the PS4 Pros it found at the warehouse, which you can see below. As Kotaku notes, 3,800 consoles mean an investment of around US$1,500,000, assuming all of them are PS4 Pros.

SBU

On July 11th, Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, could fly to space aboard the SpaceShipTwo to assess the company's private astronaut experience. If you ask rival company Blue Origin, though, Branson won't really be reaching space when he does. In a couple of tweets, the Jeff Bezos-owned space corporation compared what its own New Shepard suborbital vehicle can do with SpaceShipTwo's capabilities. First in the list? The company says New Shepard was designed to fly above the Kármán line, whereas its competitor's vehicle was not. 

The Kármán line is the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space as set by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. It's defined as 100 kilometers or 62 miles above sea level, and according to Blue Origin, it's what "96 percent of the world's population" recognizes as the beginning of outer space. Blue Origin plans to offer customers 10 minutes of flight with an altitude that reaches the Kármán line. Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic's website says its flights will soar at "nearly" 300,000 feet (57 miles) in altitude. That doesn't quite reach the Kármán line, though that's still higher than what NASA and the US government defines as the beginning of space (50 miles above sea level).

Aside from comparing their vehicles' maximum altitudes, Blue Origin also made it a point to mention that the New Shepard has the largest windows in space. Also, the New Shepard is a rocket, but SpaceShipTwo, according to Blue Origin, is just a high-altitude plane. The company published the comparison after Virgin Galactic scheduled Branson's trip to space before Jeff Bezos' — the multi-billionaire and his brother will join Blue Origin's first suborbital tourist flight that's scheduled for a July 20th launch. 

Even people who don't own Samsung devices can now enjoy its ad-supported streaming service. According to Protocol, the tech giant launched TV Plus — something that used to be exclusively available on the the brand's TVs and mobile devices — for the web in May. 

It was likely a soft launch, as the publication called it, seeing as Samsung has yet to formally announce its web version and has yet to include it in any marketing material for the streaming service. While there was zero fanfare surrounding TV Plus' web expansion, a company rep confirmed to Protocol that Samsung did indeed roll out a web version of the service in the second quarter. 

Samsung launched TV Plus back in 2016, and it has since evolved into its current cable-like free ad-supported form. It's accessible in 23 countries, and in the US, it gives viewers access to 140 channels that include ABC News Live and Vice. Samsung Electronics SVP Sang Kim told Protocol that the company streams "billions of minutes every month," so it's clearly pretty popular with users. Its reach has been limited to Samsung customers up until now, though, and it remains to be seen whether the web version's availability can add a substantial number of new users to the service.