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Friday saw the largest global ransomware attack in internet history, and the world did not handle it well. We’re only beginning to calculate the damage inflicted by the WannaCry program — in both dollars and lives lost from hospital downtime — but at the same time, we’re also calculating blame. There’s a long list of parties responsible, including the criminals, the NSA, and the victims themselves — but the most controversial has been Microsoft itself. The attack exploited a Windows networking protocol to spread within networks, and while Microsoft released a patch nearly two months ago, it’s become painfully clear that patch didn’t reach all users. Microsoft was following the best practices for security and still left hundreds of thousands of computers vulnerable, with dire consequences. Was it good enough? For some, the answer is an obvious no. Writing in The New York Times over the weekend, sociologist Zeynep Tufecki placed the blame squarely on Microsoft for its decision to stop supporting older Windows versions. “Companies like Microsoft should discard the idea that they can abandon people using older software,” Tufecki wrote. “Industry norms are lousy to horrible, and it is reasonable to expect a company with a dominant market position, that made so much money selling software that runs critical infrastructure, to do more.” ZDNet was even harsher. “The real problem here is that for decades the IT industry as a whole has been selling rubbish products,” a post argued. “It's become fabulously wealthy by making products that are broken to begin with, and often, directly or indirectly, charging customers to fix them.” he core of the issue is Microsoft’s tiered support system. The vulnerability targeted last week doesn’t exist in systems released since Windows 8 (which introduced SMBv3), so the main targets were Windows 7 and Windows XP. Windows 7 users are still receiving patches, but XP has been unsupported since April 2014. Users can still pay for updates through Microsoft’s Custom Support service, but the company isn’t deploying patches publicly, even though the system is still widely used in Africa and Asia. The company published an emergency XP patch over the weekend to protect against the ransomware, but it was too late for NHS and countless other victims. That may sound technical, but the upshot is simple: there are still millions of computers using Windows XP, and without custom support, they’re all vulnerable — not just to this latest ransomware, but to dozens of other vulnerabilities unearthed in the last three years. They’re easy prey for botnets, spyware, and dozens of other criminal schemes, a persistent problem for anyone trying to secure the web. Microsoft’s best defense is that XP is very, very old. Released in 2001, XP stopped appearing on most new computers in 2008, and large clients like the NHS had ample warning to switch over before the sunset in 2014. Windows 10 was free, making it as easy as possible for users to switch over. Most of the networks hit on Friday had good reasons for not upgrading — often complex embedded systems that could barely survive a patch, let alone a new operating system — but as long as software has bugs, systems like that will be vulnerable. The broader problem is software upgrades outrunning their hardware, and it’s a problem that’s much bigger than Microsoft. A computer sold in 2007 likely isn’t equipped to run Windows 10 and millions of those old machines are still in use, which is why XP has remained neck and neck with Windows 8.1 in market share, despite Microsoft’s best efforts to dislodge it. SOFTWARE UPGRADES ARE OUTRUNNING THEIR HARDWARE Android is already facing a similar problem at higher velocity. Google puts out a new version of the operating system roughly every 10 months, but hardware makers can’t keep up, leading to a now-infamous fragmentation problem. Only 7 percent of Android users are on the latest version, and more than one in 10 are using an unsupported version from more than four releases ago. Part of the blame goes to carriers and OEMs for not updating software — but part of it has to do with the hardware itself. A two-year-old phone often doesn’t have the processor power to keep up with the latest features, which too often means falling behind on security updates. That became particularly urgent in 2015, when a particularly bad string of bugs in Android’s Webview system required rebuilding the process from the ground up, leaving anything older than KitKat effectively unprotected. The underlying problem is a weakness in the patching process itself. Some bugs are more patchable than others, and often a quick patch will only paper over a more profound weakness in how a system is built. The result is a profound tension between robust patching and building systems that are secure in the first place. A major bug like Stagefright or Heartbleed can be exploited dozens of different ways, making it nearly impossible to block all of them at once. You can protect against one exploit, but it’s only a matter of time before someone finds another one — and they may not tell you when they do. From a coder’s perspective, the best fix is to tear the whole system down and build it back stronger, letting everyone know to stop doing things the old way as soon as possible. That kind of ground-up rebuilding is what Google did after its Webview problems, and it’s what Microsoft did with SMBv3. If you have the newest hardware, it’s unquestionably the best protection — but if you’re stuck on Windows XP or Android Jelly Bean, it can look an awful lot like you’re being hung out to dry. Still, it can be hard to tell exactly who’s at fault. Was it Microsoft’s fault for ceasing support? Or the NSA’s fault for finding the bug in the first place? Was it a kind of software entropy, revealing bugs and shredding programs as fast as we can code them? When the problem is a larger disconnect between software upgrades and hardware release cycles, it’s often too big for any single actor to fix -- a prospect that’s even scarier than ransomware.

The 35 km-long Caragele field, in the central Romanian county of Buzau, has an estimated 25-27 billion cubic metres of gas, which could ensure the country's entire consumption for up to three years. BUCHAREST: Romanian state-owned gas producer Romgaz will start production in 2019 at a newly discovered gas field, its biggest find in three decades, the government said on Friday. The 35 km-long Caragele field, in the central Romanian county of Buzau, has an estimated 25-27 billion cubic metres of gas, which could ensure the country's entire consumption for up to three years. That estimate could rise with further exploration work and Romgaz has plans to drill six more wells this year, the government said. Production will require overall investment of 140 million euros ($153 million), with 40 million to be spent this year. A Bulgarian-Romanian gas pipeline partially funded with European Union funds and linking the two states to Austria would also be finalised in 2019, the government said, meaning Romania could become a net gas exporter. "The Caragele discovery is another step on Romania's road to ensuring energy independence and consolidating its status as a stability factor within the EU," Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu said. "It is also an important moment that contributes to meeting our objective of diversifying our energy supply sources." Romania has a diverse mix of energy-resources, including gas, coal, hydro, nuclear and renewables, and unlike many of its emerging European peers it imports only about a 10th of its gas needs from Russia. Gas production by Romgaz and Petrom, majority controlled by Austria's OMV, meets most of Romania's own needs. But while Romania has a strong energy mix, the energy ministry estimated last year the overall sector needs about 20 billion euros worth of investment in power, oil and gas production, mining and related infrastructure by 2030. It said Romania will retire 1,800 MW of gas-fired power plant capacity and 2,400 MW of coal-fired by 2030, while replacing and retrofitting other plant. ($1 = 0.9153 euros)

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If someone invites you to edit a file in Google Docs today, don’t open it — it may be spam from a phishing scheme that’s been spreading quickly this afternoon. As detailed on Reddit, the attack sends targets an emailed invitation from someone they may know, takes them to a real Google sign-in screen, then asks them to “continue to Google Docs.” But this grants permissions to a (malicious) third-party web app that’s simply been named “Google Docs,” which gives phishers access to your email and address book. The key difference between this and a very simple email phishing scheme is that this doesn’t just take you to a bogus Google page and collect your password — something you could detect by checking the page URL. It works within Google’s system, but takes advantage of the fact that you can create a non-Google web app with a misleading name. Here’s what the permissions screen looks like, for example: If you check the title for developer information, though, you’ll get something like this: Here’s the whole process, from start to finish: If you’ve clicked the link, your account may have already sent spam messages to the people in your address book. But you can revoke future access through Google’s “Connected Apps and Sites” page; where it will appear as “Google Docs.” We’re still not sure exactly how widespread the attack is, but journalists from several outlets — including The Verge — have received spam emails. In a statement issued this afternoon, Google says it’s taken measures to stop the spread of the attack and resolve the problem at its core: We have taken action to protect users against an email impersonating Google Docs, and have disabled offending accounts,” the company said in a statement. “We’ve removed the fake pages, pushed updates through Safe Browsing, and our abuse team is working to prevent this kind of spoofing from happening again. We encourage users to report phishing emails in Gmail. Update 4:00PM ET, 5/3: We’re seeing reports that Google has disabled the application, although we’re still not sure exactly how far it’s spread, or if the attack might continue through another application.

It's been a bit of a rough day if you enjoy using the internet. Google Docs experienced a widespread phishing attack, sending the internet into panic. Now WhatsApp has been down for more than an hour, and users of the po[CENSORED]r Facebook-owned messaging service have turned to Twitter to vent their frustrations and finish off the panic over the Google Docs attack. Unfortunately, it looks like WhatsApp gave up providing useful status reports on when its messaging service is down a few years ago. WhatsApp has more than 1 billion users, and it's widely used across the world for group chats and as a replacement for SMS in a number of countries. "WhatsApp is down" reports have been constant worldwide for the past hour, and a WhatsApp spokesperson revealed to Reuters the company is aware of the outage and is working to fix it.

Dashcam video captured a small, single-engine plane dropping down from the sky, clipping power lines and leaving a fiery plume in its path before crashing into a highway near Seattle. (Guanting Li) The video shows a small, single-engine plane drop down from the sky, clipping power lines and leaving a fiery plume in its path before crashing into a highway near Seattle. The plane, a Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six that had taken off from a nearby airport, went down Tuesday afternoon at an intersection in Mukilteo, Wash. The crash along State Route 525 was no doubt terrifying. “I thought it was the end of our lives,” one witness told NBC affiliate KING. But police said there were no serious injuries, even though the plane “struck the light pole where it erupted a fuel cell,” Mukilteo Police Officer Myron Davis told KING. “It spilled fuel onto the roadway, onto a vehicle which ignited.” [Horrified motorists witness Taiwan airliner flip into river. At least 31 killed.] Mukilteo police later posted pictures on Twitter showing firefighters working near a mangled aircraft and at least one charred car. National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge Eliott Simpson told The Washington Post that the agency is investigating into the crash. Simpson said the pilot told authorities that he lost engine power upon takeoff from Paine Field (also known as Snohomish County Airport). The pilot tried to restart the engine midair, but it didn’t work, police told the Herald. The pilot also told authorities that he was flying toward Harbour Pointe Boulevard, searching for a place to set the plane down, when it snagged power lines and then wiped out a traffic signal, according to the newspaper. Fuel showered the vehicles below and caught fire. “We definitely felt the fireball as it went over the van,” Amanda Hayes, who said her vehicle was scraped by a wing of the plane, told KING. “I’m just thankful to be here.” Other motorists said the same thing. Juan Teran told the Herald he recalled thinking to himself: “Man, I think we are not going to make it.” “I didn’t know what to do,” another motorist, Steven Welch, told the newspaper. “I saw so much fire I just got out. I felt the heat go right by.” Khal Nouri, who was stopped at a red light with his family, told KING the plane zipped over them. “I thought it was the end of our lives,” he said, praising the pilot. “He didn’t want to hit a building obviously, he didn’t want to hit an area where people are, and he saw this street was empty. He did a fantastic job.” The Herald reported the pilot, from Oregon, was in Washington to get seats for a Falcon 50 flown by Emergency Airlift, an air ambulance service.

President Trump meets with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday. President Trump welcomed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the White House on Wednesday, putting a renewed focus on prospects for peace with Israel — a goal that has long eluded previous U.S. leaders. Abbas and a small entourage arrived outside the West Wing in a black limousine shortly before noon and were greeted by Trump. The Palestinian leader and his advisers are weighing efforts to restart peace negotiations with Israel with the aim of securing Palestinian borders, a capital and a state. “It is a great honor to have the president with us,” Trump said after taking Abbas into the Oval Office. “We are going to have lunch, we are going to have discussions.” Trump, who in February met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, has called a possible Palestinian-Israeli accord “the toughest deal in the world” but one he is determined to try to broker. Some analysts are skeptical, however, that Trump will ultimately succeed in an arena where his predecessors have fallen short. [Trump steps back from U.S. commitment to two-state Israeli-Palestinian solution] “Every president, when they come into office, thinks they can bring about an Israel-Palestinian deal,” said James Gelvin, professor of modern Middle Eastern history at the University of California at Los Angeles. “Everyone fails, and then they turn their attention to issues that are more pressing. This is probably going to be the same sort of thing.” Dennis A. Ross, counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former American envoy to the Middle East, said that although immediate results are unlikely, the meetings could set the table for later progress. “You can’t solve the conflict right now. The gaps between the Israelis and Palestinians are too wide. We are at the lowest ebb in Israeli-Palestinian perceptions of each other since I’ve been working on this,” Ross said. “But you can create a sense of possibility, you can break the stalemate, you can show that something is possible. And that’s what I think can happen here — you can show that a sense of possibility exists.” [Palestinians think Trump can make a deal] Abbas, 82, arrived in Washington as a weakened political figure. Unpo[CENSORED]r among his own people, there are questions to his legitimacy as leader of the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank. Its rival, the militant Hamas group, holds the Gaza Strip. Trump has spoken with Abbas by phone, but their White House meeting is their first face-to-face encounter. Among other challenges, the new Republican president is facing pressure from members of his party to demand that the Palestinian Authority end financial payments to the families of Palestinians who commit violence against Israelis. A group of Republican senators has introduced legislation to cut off American aid if that demand isn't met. [All 100 senators sign letter asking for equal treatment of Israel at the U.N.] “I think the thrust of the meeting will be on one hand prepared to work with making clear what they expect from him,” Ross said. Ross said the meeting is important to Abbas because it elevates him in the eyes of other Middle East leaders. “The administration is basically making him relevant, and they’re making him relevant at a time when all of the Sunni Arab leaders want to make sure the Trump administration won’t withdraw from the region,” Ross said. During Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu in February, administration officials pushed for restraint on the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank on land the Palestinians want for a future state. Those talks ended with no firm agreement. There are about 400,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank, which is known by its ancient names of Judea and Samaria by many Israelis. [Israel’s Netanyahu snubs German foreign minister for meeting activists critical of government] Trump, who campaigned for president as an unwavering ally of Israel, has sounded an optimistic note about ending the generations-old dispute between the Israelis and Palestinians. “I want to see peace with Israel and the Palestinians,” Trump said in an interview last week with the Reuters news agency. “There is no reason there’s not peace between Israel and the Palestinians — none whatsoever.” Abbas will also hold a separate meeting later Wednesday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, according to officials. During Netanyahu’s White House visit in February, Trump both flattered and pressured him when the two fielded questions from journalists. During that visit Trump also made headlines by saying he “could live with” either a separate Palestinian state or a single state as a peaceful outcome. “I want the one that both parties want,” Trump said.