Look back: National news brief March 22 – 31

March 22: Atlanta Cyberattack

• Atlanta was hit with a ransomware attack that hacked the city’s computer system, affecting governments, hospitals, and residents by blocking access to important data.
• The data would be inaccessible forever until a ransom price is paid. The attackers, identified as the SamSam hacking group, demanded a ransom of $51,000 in Bitcoin.
• People couldn’t pay their bills and appointments were canceled. The Municipal Court of Atlanta announced that all court dates scheduled for the day would be rearranged.
• As of today, the problem still hasn’t been resolved.
• For ways to prevent being attacked by ransomware, read “4 Ways to Protect Against the Very Real Threat of Ransomware” by Wired Magazine.
• What to do when your computer is infected? Read this Tom’s guide article.

March 24: March for Our Lives

• Organized by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas students and shooting survivors Emma González and Cameron Kasky, the highly anticipated gun-control rally, March for Our Lives, took place in Washington D.C. last Saturday.  The march drew hundreds of thousands and, according to Associated Press, the biggest youth protest in U.S history since the Vietnam War.
• The rally took place in hundreds of cities nationwide, including Atlanta. Speakers included civil rights veteran Rep. John Lewis and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
• Atlanta Police estimated 30,000 people attended the rally.
• The march had more than 800 sister rallies across the nation and around the world. Protesters from cities such as Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Hong Kong, Madrid, Tokyo, Rome stood in solidarity with Parkland students.
• Re-watch speeches and videos from this CBS News live blog.
• See photos from the marches across the nation and around the globe in this New York Times post.
• Fourth-year advertising student Arundhati Prasad attended the Atlanta rally, and said, “I had heard about the march in the news and I felt like it’s an important thing that I should witness and be a part of. It was really nice to see so many people come out and participate. The solidarity was evident. I definitely feel like students and families in Atlanta are concerned about the events that have led up to the march for our lives movement. There were a lot of young people urging others to vote and make a difference.”

March 27: Apple’s new iPad

• Apple announced the release of their new 9.7 inch iPad with new built-in A10 chip processor, retina display and 8MP HD camera. It’s compatible with Apple Pencil, a tool which SCAD students would find useful for its precision for drawing and sensitivity to screen movement. The iPad starts at $329 (32 GB) for the general public and $309 for college students. Apple pencil is priced at $99 for the general public and $89 for college students.

March 28: Veteran Affairs Secretary is out from the Trump administration

• President Trump fired secretary David J. Shulkin from the Veteran Affairs Department and replaced him with his White House physician Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, a naval rear admiral. Jackson will run the federal government’s second largest department.
• Shulkin is the 32nd person to be dismissed from the Trump Administration. See a list of former officers compiled by the Washington Post here.

March 29: Facebook announces new privacy settings

• The social media platform announced new privacy settings amidst heavy criticisms after its scandal with British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, which resulted in the #deletefacebook hashtag and people deleting Facebook
• SCAD students active online should pay attention to how their information is harvested and used by advertisers on Facebook.
• Privacy settings can be accessed under one page now, as opposed to the previous 20 different pages.
• You can now download your data. You can also see how many third-party apps and companies have collected your data.
• Users can also choose to stop providing information to third-party apps, though you have to select each company manually. Data that have already been collected, however, is irretrievable.

March 31: The Border Wall is on its way

• The Trump administration announced phase one of the border wall.
• The project will start in April. One of its objectives is to extend the 654 miles of existing structures to 1,000 miles, separating the United States and Mexico.
• The effort was made possible when Congress granted $1.6 billion towards the project last week.
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Deputy Commissioner Ronald Vitelli said the new project will be, “a comprehensive solution that provides the wall lighting, enforcement cameras, and other related technology, and all-weather roads to impede and deny illegal cross-border activity,” according to politico.com.