Ransomware is a type of malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid. What is it really like to negotiate with ransomware attackers? Why negotiate? What's the most moment in a ransomware negotiation?

Mark Lance is vice president of GuidePoint Security, who talks about the many aspects involved in negotiating after a ransomware attack.

Searches of innocent passengers at airport boarding gates continue nationwide as federal drug officers look for cash they can seize.

Atlanta News First Investigates documented the practice in the series In Plane Sight, showing how plainclothes officers confront passengers who’ve already successfully cleared inspections by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

In court records, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and federal prosecutors describe these stops as “cold consent encounters.” Multiple videos recorded by passengers show their consent was compelled by agents who told them they would otherwise miss their flights, or face a drug dog screening and a long wait for a search warrant.

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/08/14/new-video-shows-its-nearly-impossible-say-no-dea-searches-airport-gates/

Anytime Chekietha Grant sees a police cruiser, she immediately starts recording on her phone. It’s an impulse reaction after a 2022 encounter with law enforcement in Brookside, Alabama, that started with an alleged broken tag light, and ended with her in handcuffs and behind bars.

“Every time I go anywhere, I’m nervous,” Grant said. “If police get behind me, I instantly have to record.”

Police arrested her daughter, Alexis Thomas, too. The traffic stop cost them thousands of dollars in fees from municipal court, the tow truck company, and attorney fees.

Their experience mirrors hundreds of similar complaints from ticketed drivers in the small Alabama town, according to a class action lawsuit filed by the Institute of Justice, alleging the city deployed its police department not to protect the public, but to generate revenue.

According to the lawsuit, the city boosted its budget 640 percent through fines and forfeitures in two years. During that time, it purchased an armored vehicle residents called “The Tank,” and named the department’s K-9, “Cash.”