JBS, the world’s largest meat producer, said the “vast majority” of plants in the U.S. and Australia were back online yesterday after an “organized cybersecurity attack” disrupted its operations over the weekend.

• The FBI on Wednesday attributed the attack to a Russia-linked ransomware group called REvil, or Sodinokibi.

The incident is the latest in a series of cyberattacks affecting U.S. government entities and companies in recent months.

📅 A brief timeline…

• December 2020: The first public reports surfaced regarding a major cyberattack where hackers broke into IT software company SolarWinds’ system as early as March 2020, adding malicious code to its software updates. Up to 18,000 of SolarWinds’ customers - including Fortune 500 companies and multiple U.S. government agencies - were exposed to the attack, which U.S. intelligence later confirmed was Russian in origin.
• May 7, 2021: Colonial Pipeline, which transports roughly 45% of the East Coast’s fuel supplies, suffered a ransomware cyberattack carried out by DarkSide, an Eastern European hacking group, forcing the pipeline to halt operations for more than six days and causing fuel shortages in several states.
• May 27, 2021: Microsoft issued a warning over a “sophisticated” ongoing cyberattack believed to be launched by Nobelium – Microsoft’s name for the Russia-linked hackers who carried out the SolarWinds attack.

⏭️ What’s Next?
The White House yesterday said President Biden will address the recent JBS ransomware attack and the increased threat of cyberattacks while meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this month in Geneva.

🚀🪐 NASA Heads to Venus

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA on Wednesday announced plans to launch two new scientific missions to Venus between 2028 and 2030 to study the planet’s atmosphere and geologic features, the first time the agency will launch a mission to the scorching hot world since 1989.

• DAVINCI+ will measure the composition of Venus’ atmosphere to understand how it formed and evolved, as well as determine whether the planet ever had an ocean.
• VERITAS will map Venus’ surface to determine the planet’s geologic history and understand why it developed so differently than Earth.

From the announcement: “The missions aim to understand how Venus became an inferno-like world when it has so many other characteristics similar to ours – and may have been the first habitable world in the solar system, complete with an ocean and Earth-like climate.”

More: NASA is providing both missions with $500M apiece.

Sharecare, a health and wellness company, recently released its Community Well-Being Index ranking the 50 states based on healthiness.

• Just so you know it’s legit: The rankings are based on over 450,000 surveys alongside the study of more than 600 elements of SDOH.*

See the full index.

From FB: “We tested hiding like counts to see if it might depressurize people’s experience... What we heard from people and experts was that not seeing like counts was beneficial for some and annoying to others, particularly because people use like counts to get a sense of what’s trending or popular, so we’re giving you the choice.”

Image: Facebook

After sixty-nine year old Harry Burleigh of Roseburg, OR, went missing earlier this month on a solo fishing/camping trip in the Cascades, more than 40 volunteers embarked on a weekslong search-and-rescue mission to find the senior.

• Ten days after Harry went missing, one of the rescue teams stumbled upon a makeshift shelter using a handful of tools from his tacklebox.

But Harry himself was nowhere to be found, still stranded somewhere alone in the wilderness… until more than two weeks later, when he turned up alive.

Keep reading.

🌊 Where’s The Reef…

Image: Andy Delisle/Arizona State University

When ocean water becomes too warm, corals expel the colorful algae that live in their tissue - a phenomenon known as “coral bleaching,” which often results in the death of the coral.

• Marine biologists have historically employed two methods of monitoring the effects of coral bleaching in reefs: 1) sending out divers to take detailed maps of small areas or 2) gathering satellite images to establish crude maps of larger areas.

To more effectively monitor the health of coral reefs in Hawaii, researchers from Arizona State University developed a new, airborne spectroscopic imaging system that can spot ailing reefs up to 70 feet underwater.

Image: Asner et al.

• The innovation allows marine biologists to achieve a wide-ranging and detailed understanding of the health of the Aloha State’s underwater ecosystems.

Read more.

What is the most common denomination of U.S. currency? (In terms of volume.)

A) $1 bill
B) $5 bill
C) $20 bill
D) $100 bill

(keep scrolling for the answer)

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D) $100 bill

Fifteen years ago, the number of $100 bills lagged behind $1 and $20 notes. However, the amount of $100 bills in circulation has more than tripled since 2005, according to data from the Federal Reserve.