Taxpayers in the US don't have to use facial recognition or any kind of biometric data to access their accounts online if they don't want to. The IRS has announced that users can opt for a live, virtual interview to authenticate their identity instead of registering for an ID.me account. This move comes a few weeks after the agency said it will back away from using facial recognition following pressure from both sides of the political aisle. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about the privacy and security implications of using ID.me facial recognition and how it will make the IRS a prime target of cyberattacks. 

To sign up for an ID.me account, taxpayers will have to send the service a copy of their government ID, a utility bill and a video selfie of themselves. Those who don't mind using facial recognition to be able to file taxes online can still use it for verification if they want. The agency's announcement said it put a new safeguard in place to ensure images the taxpayers provide are deleted going forward. The existing biometric data provided by users who previously created an online account has also been collected and will be "permanently deleted over the course of the next few weeks," the IRS said. 

It's unclear how the IRS plans to make sure that it can conduct verification interviews in a timely manner for everyone who doesn't want to use facial recognition. As The New York Times notes, the agency is dealing with staff shortages and lack of funding, and it currently has a backlog of around 24 million tax returns. The agency called the virtual interview option a "short-term solution" for this year's filing season. It said it's now working with partners to "achieve security standards and scale required of Login.Gov," so it can roll out the sign in service already being used by government websites after the 2022 filing deadline. 

Russia is responsible for the cyberattacks that took down the websites for Ukraine's government agencies and major banks back in January, according to The White House. Anne Neuberger, the administration's deputy national security adviser, said the government has "technical information that links the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate or GRU" to the hacks. Neuberger added that "GRU infrastructure was seen transmitting high volumes of communication to Ukraine based IP addresses and domains."

According to AP and Reuters, Britain has also publicly attributed the incident to Russia, saying that the country's GRU military intelligence agency is almost certainly involved. While the attacks managed to take down the targeted Ukrainian websites, Neuberger said they had "limited impact," thanks to the the country's officials that quickly secured and restored them. 

Ukraine's defense and foreign ministries were among the affected websites, and a message in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish left by the attackers on the latter translated to: "Ukrainians! All your personal data has been uploaded to the public network. All data on the computer is destroyed, it is impossible to restore them." The message also referenced the "historical land" and showed crossed-out versions of the Ukraine map and flag. 

The Ukrainian Information Ministry said back then that there were early indications Russia carried out the attacks. In addition, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy also suggested that references to Ukrainian ultra-nationalist groups were merely an attempt by the Russians to mask their footprint. 

Neuberger said the White House is publicly calling out Kremlin, because "[t]he global community must be prepared to shine a light on malicious cyber activity and hold actors accountable for any and all disruptive or destructive cyber activity." Although the attacks had "limited impact," the White House believes Russia could carry out more disruptive activities in the future followed by an invasion of Ukraine. President Biden has announced on Friday that the US has obtained intelligence showing that Russia's Vladimir Putin has made the decision to invade Ukraine in the coming days. 

Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Todd Young (R-IN), along with Rep. Susan DelBene (D-WA) introduced a bill today that would create a $20 million pilot program with the Department of Labor to incentivize states and cities to test out portable benefits. The idea that benefits like health insurance and paid vacation should be universal, rather than tied to your job, has gained steam in recent years. Such social insurance programs, normally backed by Democrats, have sparked interest from some Republicans motivated by the rapidly changing workforce and economic climate following the pandemic.

“More Americans than ever are engaging in part-time, contract or other alternative work arrangements. As the workforce changes, it is increasingly important that we provide workers with an ability to access more flexible benefits that can be carried to multiple jobs across a day, a year, and even a career,” said Sen. Warner in a statement.

Under the bill, the Department of Labor would create a $20 million grant fund to incentivize states, cities and nonprofits to experiment with portable benefits for independent workers. It’s not the first time Warner and DelBene have introduced such legislation. The duo has been regularly pushing to pass portable benefits bills since 2017 — none of which have gotten very far. One of their measures, to provide states with emergency unemployment benefits for gig workers, was folded into the CARES Act.

The bill gives states and cities a lot of room to figure out what their portable benefits program will look like. This could include unemployment benefits, life and disability insurance, sick leave, worker training and health insurance.

A number of states such as California, Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey and Colorado have looked at implementing portable benefits programs of their own. But critics of portable benefits warn that such a system would mean that gig economy companies like Uber, Lyft, Doordash and others would be largely off the hook. Indeed, Uber and other gig companies have backed portable benefits legislation in their fight to continue to classify their workers as independent contractors.

Starting as early as January 2020, Russian state-sponsored hackers have repeatedly targeted American defense contractors, according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA). In an alert spotted by The Verge, the agency said on Wednesday that Russian-backed actors have spent the past two years targeting contractors with US security clearance. What's more, those activities allowed them to obtain sensitive information and export-controlled technologies, said CISA.

Those hackers cast a wide net, targeting companies with contracts involving weapons and missile development, as well as vehicle and aircraft design, among other sensitive areas of work for the Department of Defense. CISA makes no mention of those actors obtaining classified documents, but the agency notes they went after both large and small targets. Alongside the FBI and NSA, CISA anticipates Russian-backed hackers will continue to target defense contractors in the near future.

“The acquired information provides significant insight into US weapons platforms development and deployment timelines, vehicle specifications and plans for communications infrastructure and information technology,” said CISA. “By acquiring proprietary internal documents and email communications, adversaries may be able to adjust their own military plans and priorities, hasten technological development efforts, inform foreign policymakers of US intentions and target potential sources for recruitment.”

The advisory comes as tensions between the US and Russia continue to escalate over a potential invasion of Ukraine. In recent weeks, the country has faced multiple cyberattacks, with the most recent coming earlier this week. Ukraine’s defense ministry and two of its state-owned banks suffered denial-of-service attacks. The attacks weren’t directly attributed to Russian-backed actors, but the country blamed its neighbor last month for a campaign that hobbled dozens of government websites.

Amazon workers at a warehouse on Staten Island in New York will hold a union vote next month. Derrick Palmer of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), an independent group that's seeking to represent workers at JFK8, says the election will take place in person between March 25th and March 30th.

The workers refiled a union petition with the National Labor Relations Board in December after failing to obtain enough signatures in their previous attempt. This time around, the workers reached the union vote threshold, which is usually 30 percent of a workforce. More than 5,000 workers are employed at JFK8.

The NLRB has accused Amazon of threatening, surveilling and interrogating workers at JFK8 to dissuade them from unionizing. A union avoidance consultant reportedly called organizers "thugs" and said the union drive would fail.

Earlier this month, workers at another Staten Island warehouse called LDJ5 filed a petition with the NLRB to unionize with the help of the ALU.

Another union vote is taking place at a facility in Bessemer, Alabama. The NLRB ordered a second election at BHM1 after it determined Amazon interfered in the first vote, in which a majority of employees voted against unionization. Votes will be counted starting on March 28th. Last month, a union supporter at the warehouse accused Amazon of retaliating against him.

Engadget has contacted Amazon for comment.

San Francisco's wariness of Amazon might soon extend to the company's seemingly ubiquitous shipping network. Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton has introduced legislation that would impose an 18-month moratorium on new parcel delivery facilities in the city, whether from Amazon or others. Officials at the Board or the Planning Commission would use the pause to study the potential impact these locations have on the community, including health issues (like air pollution and traffic) and the overall public interest.

In a statement, the Teamsters and other unions backing the measure were concerned companies like Amazon would drag down pay, benefits and working conditions for the city. The proposed moratorium would help communities "set the standards" and decide if they want these facilities in the first place, Walton added.

The effort comes after San Francisco's Office of Economic and Workforce Development signed a January memorandum of understanding with Amazon to start negotiations for a Mission Creek delivery hub without informing or involving the community. These sorts of agreements are common, but Walton saw this as Amazon trying to enter the city without input from the very people its facility would affect.

There's no certainty the legislation will pass. It's also unclear how Walton and the Board would use any determination that Amazon and other delivery services' facilities would harm San Francisco residents.

We've asked Amazon for comment. The company has faced similar opposition in other parts of California, and backed out of plans for a second headquarters in New York City following criticism. Activists and politicians raised concerns about possible gentrification in New York, the city's $3 billion in proposed subsidies and Amazon's overall practices. Amazon has also been a staunch opponent of unionization, setting up a confrontation with increasingly pro-union workers and the politicians who support them.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration established the country’s first-ever Buy Clean Task Force. The organization will work with federal agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Transportation, to source low-carbon construction materials from American factories. In part, it will do so by producing recommendations on incentives and technical assistance the federal government can provide to domestic manufacturers to better report and reduce their emissions. It will also help the government identify materials it should use as part of federally funded projects, and establish pilot programs to purchase those materials.

“Focusing on industry is a really big deal,” according to David Hart, a professor of public policy at George Mason University in Virginia. He told The New York Times the federal government had previously “neglected” to address greenhouse gas emissions produced by the “difficult and important” industrial sector. Part of the issue was that there was no single agency tasked with pushing companies that produce steel, aluminum, concrete and other important building materials to reduce their impact on the environment.

To that point, the US industrial sector is responsible for approximately one-third of all domestic greenhouse gas emissions. As the single largest consumer in the world, with an annual budget of approximately $650 billion to spend on goods and services, the federal government has a lot of buying power it can use to incentivize industrial players to change how they go about producing those essential materials.

With its landmark climate change legislation stuck in political gridlock, the Biden administration has turned to executive action to try and meet the president’s ambitious goal to cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. For instance, it recently announced new measures to clean up and harden the US power grid by investing money in transmission line upgrades and smart grid improvements. Those efforts have put forward meaningful climate policy, but the scale of the climate crisis demands support from all parts of the federal government, not just the executive branch.

Ukraine is grappling with more cyberattacks as fears of an imminent Russian invasion reach their climax. Netblocks and Gizmodo report Ukraine's defense ministry and two state-owned banks, Oshchadbank and Privatbank, have suffered denial-of-service attacks flooding their sites with traffic. The country's armed forces website also appears to have suffered an attack. BuzzFeed's Christopher Miller described consequences for many Ukranians, including difficulties using some ATMs and other banking services.

The attacks weren't directly attributed to Russia, but they came a month after Ukraine blamed its neighbor for a campaign that played havoc with dozens of government websites. The perpetrators used purely destructive malware disguised as ransomware to inflict significant damage. Russia has previously been accused of relying on cyberwarfare to disrupt and influence political rivals like the European Union and the US, although it has repeatedly denied involvement.

The concern, as you might imagine, is that Russia might be using cyberattacks like these to cause havoc ahead of an invasion the US claimed could happen as soon as tomorrow (February 16th). In theory, it might be more difficult for Ukraine to mount an effective response. The January attacks came and went without military action, however, and these latest incidents wouldn't do much to thwart the Ukrainian military or its allies. If Russia is involved, the disruptions might represent pressure tactics to extract concessions, such as a promise not to join NATO.

Uber and Lyft drivers in New York City are about to get a boost in their paychecks. Last week NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced that the city would increase its minimum driver pay rate for both Uber and Lyft, the second such move since 2018. Both ride hail apps will have to pay their NYC drivers a minimum of $1.161 per mile and $0.529 per minute, which amounts to roughly a 5.3 percent raise.

It’s the first bit of good news for gig workers in one of the world’s most expensive cities in a while. NYC ride hail drivers have spent the past few years fighting for the right to unionize, which would allow them to bargain for better pay and workplace benefits. However, a union has yet to materialize despite numerous protests.

“Uber, Lyft, and Via drivers are part of the largest private sector workforces in the state. They are the anchor in many neighborhoods and are majority immigrants of color working to transition out of poverty," said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a group that represents ride hail and taxi drivers in the city, in a statement. "We all know the price of basic needs, like bread and milk, have gone up, and, for drivers, so have operating costs, like fuel and repairs. This 5.3 percent raise will help thousands of families find security and give many the chance to live under better conditions.”

The policy will go into effect on March 1, and impact an estimated 90,000 drivers in New York City, according to NY 1.

The NYC raise is the latest victory in a global effort to improve the livelihoods of gig economy drivers. Uber and Lyft are currently locked in a battle in Massachusetts and California over its classification of drivers as “independent contractors”, a label which frees both companies from paying drivers minimum wage, overtime, and other benefits. Last August a judge ruled that a California ballot measure that classified ride-hailing drivers as contractors was unconstitutional, a decision that Uber and Lyft are appealing.

Following weeks of occupation that have paralyzed the nation’s capital and other cities throughout the country, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today invoked Canada’s Emergencies Act to respond to the “Freedom Convoy” protests. The act grants the federal government additional temporary powers to deal with critical situations and has never been used since its creation in 1988. In a press conference Trudeau said he would use the Emergencies Act to reign in the protests through several methods — among which is an expansion of Canada’s money-laundering laws to cover crowdfunding platforms and cryptocurrency transactions.

Starting today, Canada will require that crowdfunding companies register with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) and report suspicious payments. The government has also empowered banks to freeze funds they believe are being directed to "Freedom Convoy".

“We’re not using the Emergencies Act to call in the military,” Trudeau said. His father, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, famously invoked the War Measures Act, the precursor to the Emergencies Act, to call in the Canadian Forces during the October Crisis in 1970.

The Guardiandescribed convoy members' "trucks and cars [...] laying on their horns and snarling traffic" at all hours. Protesters have also been forcing their way into businesses while maskless despite mandates to the contrary. Outside of protesting in Ottawa and other cities throughout the country, the protestors have blocked critical border crossings between the US and Canada. The decision to invoke the Emergency Act comes shortly after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested 11 people linked to the protest and seized their cache of guns and other weapons, according to the New York Times.

Funding for the protest has come from a variety of sources, including GoFundMe. Before the company suspended the Freedom Convoy’s campaign, it had raised more than $10 million CAD (approximately $7.88 million USD). GoFundMe refunded all donors after the company determined the campaign violated its terms of service. Since then, supporters of the Freedom Convoy have turned to other crowdfunding platforms, including GiveSendGo. On Sunday, the site was hacked and personal information of those who contributed to the campaign was leaked online. Analysis by extremism researcher Amarnath Amarasingam indicated that 56 percent of the donors who contributed to the campaign came from the US.

Once invoked, the Emergencies Act takes effect right away. However, the government must go to Parliament within seven days to obtain support for the action from both the House of Commons and Senate of Canada. If either body votes against the motion, the state of emergency is revoked. Trudeau’s ruling Liberal Party does not control the majority of seats in the House of Commons and will need to obtain the support of at least one of the country’s other federal parties to pass the motion. The Emergencies Act also cannot be extended indefinitely.

“I know people are frustrated. I hear it. You have the right to voice your frustration, even your anger at government policies,” Trudeau said. “But blocking streets and critical infrastructure, and depriving your neighbors of their freedom, is a totally different matter. It’s time to stop.”

In the more than two weeks since the “Freedom Convoy” descended on Ottawa, Canada’s capital city has been blocked by trucks and cars that have made life for residents difficult. Those involved in the movement claim to be protesting vaccine passports and mandates, but there’s those complaints have in many cases commingled with broadly anti-government sentiments.

James Bauder, the founder of Canada Unity, one of the organizations at the center of the protests, has said on Facebook that Justin Trudeau should be tried for treason. On its website, Canada Unity published a “memorandum of understanding” that demanded the Canadian government rescind all vaccine mandates or “RESIGN their lawful positions of authority immediately.” In a video he posted to social media, Bauder said it was his hope the MoU would persuade Canada's voting oversight agency to trigger an election — a power it constitutionally does not have. On February 8th, the group “withdrew” the document, stating at the time it did not want “any unintended interpretations to continue.”